A Study on the Carbonation Rate of Concrete Exposed in Different Climatic Conditions

Recently, the degradation of concrete has become a serious problem worldwide and one of the principle factors of degradation is the carbonation process. It is well established that environmental conditions affect the carbonation progress of concrete among the most important factors that can greatly affect the carbonation resistance of concrete are relative humidity (RH) and temperature. Carbonation has become a threat to concrete structures, especially in urban and industrial areas. Thus, it is necessary to have a proper design to maintain the structure's stability against degradation caused by carbonation. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the effects of different environmental and climatic conditions on the carbonation rate of concrete. The specimens were prepared using OPC and fly ash (FA). After 28 days of air curing, specimens were exposed to different climate conditions under sheltered and un-sheltered conditions. The carbonation tests were conducted at the ages of 6 and 12 months. It was found that the carbonation rates were significantly influenced by the climate and environmental conditions; the specimens exposed to a relatively dry environment and low annual precipitations have shown higher carbonation during one-year exposure. Moreover, in unsheltered conditions, the annual precipitation significantly affects the carbonation rate of concrete. Furthermore, it was observed that a 20% replacement of FA does not enhance the carbonation resistance of concrete.

Design and Development of an Automatic Prototype Smart Irrigation Model

In the current condition, it is difficult to increase plant development and reduce expenses in agricultural sectors; nevertheless, an advanced thought leads to the use of an automated model that introduces automation in the irrigation system, which can aid in improved water and human resources management. An automated model has been developed using sensors and microcontroller technology, to make the most efficient use of water supply for irrigation. A soil moisture content detector is inserted into the soil of the crops, and an ultrasonic sensor is placed above the soil of the crops to measure the water level after irrigation has begun. A C++ program with threshold values for the moisture sensor was used to start the system in the crop field depending on the soil moisture level, and an ultrasonic sensor was used to control the water in the crop field. The Arduino UNO board is a microcontroller inbuilt of Atmel in the mega AVR family (ATMega328) and the sensors were used to lead the model in turning ON/OFF. A microcontroller was included in this model to run the program by receiving sensor input signals and converting them to soil water content and water level values in the crop field. The microcontroller began by receiving input values, which resulted in an output instructing the relay to turn on the groundwater pump. An LCD screen has also been interfaced with the microcontroller to show the percentage of moisture in the soil, field water level, and pump condition. When the soil moisture level reaches 99 percent and the water level reaches 6 cm after 2.5 and 4 minutes, respectively, the pump is turned off. This model, according to the study, might save water, time, and reduce human effort.

Yield Performance of Heat Tolerant & Early Maturing Wheat Varieties in Chattogram Region

The experiment was conducted in two consecutive crop seasons (2015-16 and 2016-17) at Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Hathazari, Chattogram during Rabi season (November to March) with 3 duplicate laid out Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) to compare the rehearsal of high-placed outcome, early maturing and heat tolerant varieties under increasing temperature. BARI released early maturing wheat varieties were used for optimum sowing time and heat tolerance as an adaptive mechanism suffering from terminal heat stress. Six heat-tolerant early maturing wheat varieties were (BARI Gom 25, BARI Gom 26, BARI Gom 27, BARI Gom 28, BARI Gom 29, and BARI Gom 30). The highest crop output was gained from BARI Gom 30 (4.33 t/ha) followed by BARI Gom 26 (4.06 t/ha) in a couple of years. The lowest yield was found from BARI Gom 27 (2.66t/ha) followed by BARI Gom 29 (3.53 t/ha), BARI Gom 28 (3.36 t/ha), and BARI Gom 25 (3.13 t/ha) both years. Crop output of wheat and amount of spike showed significant difference and rest of the parameters were insignificant. The earliest maturing variety was BARI Gom 30 and produced a maximum crop yield than others. BARI Gom 30 showed a maximum benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 1.73 and BARI Gom 27exhibited the lowest benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 1.06. This result of the experiment showed that early high yielding variety and the best adaptive variety was BARI Gom 30 among the six varieties in Chattogram.

Detection and Implementation of Blood Group and Hb Level by Image Processing Techniques

In an emergency, an urgent blood transfusion from a person to the patient is required and blood group identification is the first process to do so. In addition, a hemoglobin test is often required to make decisions about blood transfusion as well as to check anemia. Hemoglobin testing is also required for complete blood count and monitoring a number of diseases. These blood tests are almost difficult in rural areas where lab facilities are not sufficient. Researchers proposed a number of methods to identify blood groups using computer vision techniques. However, no study was conducted to identify blood group and hemoglobin level in a work using image processing techniques and an android mobile application which shows high detection accuracy. In this paper, manual clinical experiments have been replaced by an android app using image processing techniques to detect blood groups and hemoglobin levels except users require using antigen before taking samples. The proposed technique is divided into two portions. The first portion is blood group detection, which is done by taking a blood sample and performing the grayscale conversion, binary conversion, segmentation, edge detection, and computation to make the decision. The second section describes how to determine hemoglobin levels by comparing a blood sample image to a hemoglobin color scale (HCS). Here, the Hemoglobin value is determined from their RGB values. It has been discovered that the proposed approaches are capable of detecting hemoglobin levels and blood groups in a cost-effective and error-free manner. As a result, the tests can be conducted in a remote area without adequate lab facilities and the proposed work can solve major steps in blood transfusion difficulties and anemia.

Household Waste Management in Formal Housing Developments in Afghanistan: A Case Study of Kabul City

This study investigated the management of household solid waste in Kabul city, a planned urban city in Kabul Province, Afghanistan. The study involved assessment of waste quantification and composition, handling, collection, and disposal as well as public concern and attitude towards waste management. A questionnaire survey was conducted from 270 households (10%) selected on the basis of stratified random sampling. Quantification/ composition was determined by manually sorting and weighing daily waste from sampled households using the standard method ASTM-D5231-92. The solid waste generated per capita was 0.557±0.138 kilograms per capita per day (kg/c/d) (SD=0.138) and (3.75±0.33 kilograms per household per day (kg/h/d) whereas the total waste generation from Kabul city was estimated at 9.5 tons/d with a major fraction of food waste (92.5%) followed by glass (1.8%), metal and yard waste (1.6% each), paper (1.4%) and plastic (1.1%) insight income families. Nearly one-third of the households had no storage and practiced open disposal in street sand empty plots. Waste collection by the municipal authority was unsystematic and random with daily collection from only 10% of the households mostly using donkey carts. Key issues of public concern were improper solid waste management, waste burning, pollution of water bodies, disposal in empty plots and streets, and open dumping. Public awareness about solid waste issues was high however only 15% showed a willingness to pay for waste management.

Design and Development of a Wireless Robotic System for Radiation Detection and Measurement

A wireless robotic system has been proposed for radiation measurement and monitoring around nuclear facilities. The purpose of the robot is to assist the radiation workers from getting unwanted radiation exposure. The system includes a ground vehicle, GM tube-based radiation counting unit, Raspberry Pi, Pi camera module, and web-based controlling and monitoring unit. With the developed robotic system, the robot is controlled from a server to be moved towards the desired location and measure the radiation level. Radiation level of natural back several radioactive point sources (Cs 137, Co 60, Mn 54) located at different places in the laboratory, has been measured and compared with a GM tube-based commercial survey meter Gamma Scout, w/ALERT model. Analyzing the measured data a deviation has been found varying from 0.29 to 2.18. The proposed system is suitable for radiation detection and measurement in absence of radiation workers in nuclear facilities.

Comparing Pure Stock Portfolio with Stock and Crypto-currency mixed Portfolio through LSTM to Compare & Analyze Investment Opportunities for Portfolio Performance Measurement

LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory) has revolutionized the approach to time series prediction many folds due to its appropriate capability to forecast through Non-Linear forecasting methods. It’s observed that RNN has the capability to similarly think through given enough training in accordance to desired functionality models. Due to the Gated Structure referring to storing relevant information and forgetting the irrelevant information’s LSTM made revolutionary accomplishments towards non-linear forecasting that is dependent on human-like behavior. In this research, we have focused on making a comparison between two different portfolio’s which will depend upon LSTM’s future forecasting capability in terms of predicting the best possible output which gets illustrated through Portfolio Optimization principles

Prevalence of Insects in Traditionally Stored Rice at Farmhouses in Bangladesh

A survey was conducted to investigate rice storage practices at the farmer’s level and the prevalence of insects’ status through a pretested questionnaire in Mymensingh and Jashore districts, Bangladesh. For seed purposes, large, medium, and small farmers store about 40, 10, and 5 kg, respectively in the Aman season for 7 months whereas in the Boro season large and medium farmers keep about 80 and 20 kg for 5 months. Average storage time was the highest (7 months) for Boro and Aman rice by large and small farmers, respectively for consumption. Eleven storage items namely, Dole, Motka, Tin, Plastic Drum, Gunny Bag, Bamboo Gola, Dhari, Bamboo Auri, Berh, Steel Drum, and Plastic Bag were found. About 57 and 74% of farmers stored rice, among them 47 and 58% used traditional Dole in Jashore and Mymensingh, respectively. Tin and Berh (1%) were the least used storage structures. About 11 and 17%; 3 and 4% of farmers used neem leaf and chemicals especially phostoxin in storage as an insect repellent in these areas, respectively. The use of Plastic Bags increased sharply due to lightweight, availability, and low price, whereas Bamboo Gola, Berh, Motka users decreased remarkably. Relative abundance of the insect species was: Rice Moth Sitotroga cerealla, Rice Weevil Sitophilus oryzae, Red Flour Beetle Tribolium castoreum, and Lesser Meal Worm Alphitobious diaperinus. Maximum insect infestation was found in stored paddy in Dole followed by Motka, and Plastic Bag; and the least amount was observed in Plastic Drum in both regions. Three fourth of the respondents took no measures to control insect pests in stored rice.

Toxic and Non-Toxic Gas Detection System for Septic Tank

In septic tanks, various types of toxic and non-toxic gases are found such as Carbon-di-Oxide (CO2), Carbon-mono-Oxide (CO), Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S), Methane (CH4), and so on. In this paper, a toxic gas detection system for a septic tank has been presented, where MQ-135, MQ-136, MQ-4, and MQ-7 sensors are employed for combined detection of CO2, H2S, CH4, and CO gases respectively. With the change of concentration of gases, the sensor resistance changes, and accordingly an analog voltage is produced across the sensor. The analog voltages from the sensors are fed to a microcontroller, which reads the values and converts the values into gas concentration in PPM (parts per million). The PPM values for all four gases are displayed on an LCD, where two levels are assigned as “Safe” and “Danger” based on the concentration of each gas. “Safe” status means the concentration of gas is not harmful and “Danger” status means the concentration of gas is harmful. A buzzer will give an alarm when the gas concentration status becomes “Danger”. Furthermore, a Bluetooth device is interfaced with the microcontroller for transferring the gas concentration data to a smartphone. For the Smartphone, application software has been developed to monitor the concentration of each toxic gas. The prototype system has been developed and tested which gives satisfactory results. It is supposed to be a helpful and cost-effective system for cleaners working in septic tanks.

Quantization and Assessment of the Gravitational Waves

General Relativity describes the movement of bodies in strong gravitational fields with the geometrical structure of the dynamical space-time continuum. Accelerating objects produce changes in the curvature which propagate outwards at the speed of light in a wave-like manner which transports energy as gravitational radiation and this phenomenon are known as gravitational waves.