Claiming Space and Contesting Gendered Refugeehood in Exile: Issues and Factors of Rohingya Refugee Women's Civic Engagement in Diaspora

This article examines the emerging political and social mobilisation of Rohingya women activists in connection with the forced displacement of nearly a million Rohingya from the Rakhine state of Myanmar in August 2017. In exile, a promising number of Rohingya women have become actively engaged in social and political domains that have been historically male-dominated. The findings reveal how the internationalisation and the considerable global attention to the Rohingya refugee crisis have provided the space to navigate traditional gender roles and created an opportunity for Rohingya women to become important civic actors in this relatively nascent diaspora. Varying levels of education, age, technical and linguistic skills, along with diverse opportunities offered by the host countries, impact the (in)ability of Rohingya refugee women to play their part in diaspora activism

Transmission of vibration through gloves: effects of material thickness

It might be assumed that increasing the thickness of a glove would reduce the vibration transmitted to the hand. Three material samples from an anti-vibration glove were stacked to produce three thicknesses: 6.4, 12.8 and 19.2 mm. The dynamic stiffnesses of all three thicknesses, the apparent mass at the palm and the finger and the transmission of vibration to the palm and finger were measured. At frequencies from 20 to 350 Hz, the material reduced vibration at the palm but increased vibration at the finger. Increased thickness reduced vibration at the palm but increased vibration at the finger. The measured transmissibilities could be predicted from the material dynamic stiffness and the apparent mass of the palm and finger. Reducing the dynamic stiffness of glove material may increase or decrease the transmission of vibration, depending on the material, the frequency of vibration and the location of measurement (palm or finger). Practitioner Summary: Transmission of vibration through gloves depends on the dynamic response of the hand and the dynamic stiffness of glove material, which depends on material thickness. Measuring the transmission of vibration through gloves to the palm of the hand gives a misleading indication of the transmission of vibration to the fingers

Transmission of vibration through glove materials: effects of contact force

This study investigated effects of applied force on the apparent mass of the hand, the dynamic stiffness of glove materials, and the transmission of vibration to the hand. For 10 subjects, three glove materials, and three contact forces, apparent masses and glove transmissibilities were measured at the palm and at a finger at frequencies in the range 5 to 300 Hz. The dynamic stiffnesses of the materials were also measured. With increasing force, the dynamic stiffnesses of the materials increased, the apparent mass at the palm increased at frequencies greater than the resonance, and the apparent mass at the finger increased at low frequencies. The effects of force on transmissibilities therefore differed between materials and depended on vibration frequency, but changes in apparent mass and dynamic stiffness had predictable effects on material transmissibility. Depending on the glove material, the transmission of vibration through a glove can be increased or decreased when increasing the applied force

Clinico-epidemiological study of safe and unsafe chronic suppurative otitis media

Introduction: Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media (CSOM) remains one of the most commonest chronic infectious diseases worldwide particularly in children and adolescents. India has been classified as the high prevalence country with national prevalence of 4%. Knowledge of differential regional prevalence of risk factors is required for adequate health education of masses and for customised preventive and control measures in respective areas. Aims: To study the clinical and socio-demographic profile of patients with CSOM. Methods: The study was carried out in the department of Otorhinolaryngology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, AMU, Aligarh from November, 2017 to December, 2019. Patients with CSOM attending the otorhinolaryngology OPD and those admitted in IPD were included in the study. Results: A total 200 cases of chronic suppurative otitis media including both safe (mucosal) and unsafe (squamous) type were studied. The mean age of participants was 22.8 ± 15.18 years. Of the total participants, 111 (55.5%, 95% CI 48.6 to 62.2) were males, 89 (44.5%, 95% CI 37.8 to 51.4) were females and the majority (60.5%, 95% CI 53.6 to 67) of them were from rural background. Around one-fourth of the patients were illiterate (23%, 95% CI 17.7 to 29.3) and the patients mostly belonged to lower side (lower middle, upper lower and lower) of the spectrum of Kuppuswamy socioeconomic classification. The distribution of age-group, gender and laterality (side of involvement) was similar (P>0.05) in both safe and unsafe type. Overall, 151(75.5%, 95% CI 69.9 to 80.9) patients were found to have conductive hearing loss, 30 (15%, 95% CI 10.7 to 20.6) with mixed and 19 (9.5%, 95% CI 6.2 to 14.4) did not have any hearing loss at presentation. The distribution of patients with regards to hearing loss was found to be similar in both safe and unsafe groups (P = 0.311). Conclusion: CSOM particularly afflicts younger age populations from rural background with poor socioeconomic status. Appropriate timely interventions in the form of health promotion, education about the risk factors and improvement in the living conditions will result in decrease in incidence and prevalence of the disease. Moreover, knowledge of symptoms and signs of the disease is likely to result in early seeking of healthcare and hence better treatment outcomes and prevention of complications

Improving UAV Communication in Cell Free MIMO Using a Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface

Communication with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in current terrestrial networks suffers from poor signal strength due to the down-tilt of the access points (APs) that are optimized to serve ground users ends (GUEs). To solve this, one could tilt the AP antenna upwards or allocate more power to serve the UAV. However, this negatively affects GUE downlink (DL) rates. In this paper, we propose to solve this challenge using a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) to enhance the UAV communication while preserving the 3GPP- prescribed downwards antenna tilt and potentially improving the DL performance of the GUE. We show that under conjugate beamforming (CB) precoding and proper power split between GUEs and the UAV at the APs, an RIS with phase-shifts configured to reflect radio signals towards the UAV can significantly improve the UAV DL throughput while simultaneously benefiting the GUEs. The presented numerical results show that the RIS- aided system can serve a UAV with a required data rate while improving the GUEs DL performance relative to that in a CF- MIMO system without a UAV and an RIS. We support this conclusion through simulations under a varying numbers of RIS reflecting elements, UAV heights, and power split factor

Sequential algorithm for life threatening cardiac pathologies detection based on mean signal strength and EMD functions

Abstract Background Ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF) are the most serious cardiac arrhythmias that require quick and accurate detection to save lives. Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) have been developed to recognize these severe cardiac arrhythmias using complex algorithms inside it and determine if an electric shock should in fact be delivered to reset the cardiac rhythm and restore spontaneous circulation. Improving AED safety and efficacy by devising new algorithms which can more accurately distinguish shockable from non-shockable rhythms is a requirement of the present-day because of their uses in public places. Method In this paper, we propose a sequential detection algorithm to separate these severe cardiac pathologies from other arrhythmias based on the mean absolute value of the signal, certain low-order intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) of the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) analysis of the signal and a heart rate determination technique. First, we propose a direct waveform quantification based approach to separate VT plus VF from other arrhythmias. The quantification of the electrocardiographic waveforms is made by calculating the mean absolute value of the signal, called the mean signal strength. Then we use the IMFs, which have higher degree of similarity with the VF in comparison to VT, to separate VF from VTVF signals. At the last stage, a simple rate determination technique is used to calculate the heart rate of VT signals and the amplitude of the VF signals is measured to separate the coarse VF from VF. After these three stages of sequential detection procedure, we recognize the two components of shockable rhythms separately. Results The efficacy of the proposed algorithm has been verified and compared with other existing algorithms, e.g., HILB 1, PSR 2, SPEC 3, TCI 4, Count 5, using the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database, Creighton University Ventricular Tachyarrhythmia Database and MIT-BIH Malignant Ventricular Arrhythmia Database. Four quality parameters (e.g., sensitivity, specificity, positive predictivity, and accuracy) were calculated to ascertain the quality of the proposed and other comparing algorithms. Comparative results have been presented on the identification of VTVF, VF and shockable rhythms (VF + VT above 180 bpm). Conclusions The results show significantly improved performance of the proposed EMD-based novel method as compared to other reported techniques in detecting the life threatening cardiac arrhythmias from a set of large databases.</p

A clinico epidemiological study of cut throat patients – An observational retrospective study at tertiary care hospital in Jharkhand, India

Background: Cut throat injury is an incised wound in the neck that may be superficial or deep and is usually caused by sharp objects. These wounds may be from homicide, suicide, or accidental. Aims and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess cut throat injury in terms of age, sex, site of injury, and triggering factors for suicidal cut throat injury. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study was carried out in the Department of ENT, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences. The study included 35 cut throat patients who were admitted and managed in the ENT department. Data were analyzed with detailed history as age, sex, cause, site of injury, sociodemographic pattern, and history of substance abuse, psychiatric problem, and duration of hospital stay. Results: Out of 35 patients, 32 were male and three were female. The majority of the patients 21 (60%) were young adults. Causes of cut throat were suicidal 77.14% followed by homicidal 20%. The majority of patients had Zone II injuries. In general, the patients belonged to the lower middle socioeconomic class. About 77.8% of patients with suicidal cases were found to be addicted to one more substance and 22.2% were having some psychiatric illness. The most common substance abuse was indigenous rice beer Hadia mahua. Conclusion: Young adults of the low socioeconomic class were most vulnerable to cut throat injury with a majority having zone II injury. Suicide was the most common cause with substance abuse proving to be a major provoking factor in addition to unemployment, illiteracy, and poverty

Comparative Biomechanical Evaluation of Unilateral and Bilateral Cages in Posterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion: Endplates Subsidence, Pedicle Screw Loosening and Implant Stability

Implant sinking, pedicle screw loosening, and instability are commonly observed complications in posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) surgeries, attributed to a range of mechanical, biomechanical, and environmental factors. To address these challenges, the utilization of unilateral cages positioned obliquely, along with bilateral posterior instrumentation, and employing a material with a comparable modulus to cortical bone, has shown promising efficacy. The present study employed image-based finite element analysis (FEA) to evaluate the influences on cage sinking, screw loosening, and construct stability. The outcomes revealed that obliquely positioned unilateral fusion cage constructs with posterior instrumentation yielded superior biomechanical outcomes, characterized by reduced range of motion and stress distortion at the cage-endplate and screw-bone junctions. Furthermore, these findings indicated a lower risk of fractures and diminished deformations in normal and traumatic events. Hence, the utilization of biocompatible cage materials and structural symmetry holds critical significance for achieving biomechanical success in PLIF surgery

Mechanisms for Anonymous Memories

This paper discusses requirements for anonymous memories, and proposes their implementation approaches with possible applications. The anonymous memory is a set of memory sections assigned to anonymous owners of memory sections, and enables the owners to maintain their sensitive information securely without disclosing their identities even to the manager of the memory system. Possible industrial applications include the remote maintenance, in which maintenance companies maintain machines located at remote factories without knowing owners of machines

Aquatic Rover for Water Quality Testing and Helping in Pisciculture

We know that nowadays water pollution is very much common in Bangladesh. Two of the major sources are waste from industries and rubbish dumping. These cause much harm to farmers in their marine agriculture since it largely hampers the quality of water and affects fishes. This is a very serious issue and needs to be solved. Our focus is primarily in rural areas. We aim to solve these problems by building an underwater rover which would help to test the quality of water and detect water pollution. This would be done by measuring the pH level and the degree of Temperature which will determine the acidity or alkalinity of the water, and the availability of salts underwater. By sensing this we would get different readings of pollution in different areas by driving the rover all over the water body. Thus we can know which areas are good for what type of marine farming and can create awareness for the problem which would help reduce pollution in the future. Keywords: Mapping; Synchronizing; pH; Temperature