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Cities worldwide are experiencing rapid urbanization and an increasing population, creating a pressing need for smart infrastructure to enhance citizen services. Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, faces similar technological and socio-economic challenges, making it crucial to transform it into a sustainable smart city. This research analyzes the opportunities and challenges of smart cities and Dhaka through SWOT and PESTEL analyses. The study employs a fuzzy rule-based inference system in a MATLAB simulation to calculate the smart city index based on parameters such as governance, transportation, waste management, utility management, healthcare, and industrial automation. The findings reveal that good governance has the highest impact on the smart city index, followed by transportation. The paper proposes a sustainable smart city transportation framework and management technique, outlining future research directions. The proposed framework is expected to impact socio-economic, technological, and environmental aspects positively.

Introduction: Medication noncompliance is a necessary but neglected factor for the negative cardiovascular outcome. Despite various studies on the issue, the factors behind noncompliance still need to be explored properly. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the magnitude and factors associated with noncompliance with antihypertensive Medication. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that was conducted on 200 hypertensive patients in Dhaka Medical College Hospital for six months. Patients were included by purposive sampling, aged 18-70 years, and the duration of diagnosis of at least three months. In addition, demographic data, hypertension diagnosis, antihypertensive drugs, factors related to noncompliance, knowledge of hypertension, perception, and family support were included in the questionnaire. Result: About 85% of the patients were non-compliant with treatment in their course of illness, and the main reason behind it was forgetfulness (48.2%). Other factors were inability to buy, side effects, busy schedule, intentionally, bored, and traveling. The highest prescribed drug was beta blockers (41%). Eighty percent of the patients knew that uncontrolled hypertension could lead to stroke, and 54% knew it could lead to heart disease. The majority (87.5%) of the participant went for follow-up only when they felt hypertensive. Regarding perception, 63% of patients felt hypertension is not a curable disease. Furthermore, though all patients were asked for follow-up by their physician, 94% missed their follow-up. Conclusion: Despite the availability of various types of effective antihypertensive drugs, many patients experience difficulty controlling hypertension due to noncompliance. Patient and family member education efficiently prevented many factors behind the disobedience. However, further studies with large sample sizes in multiple centers could explain this more precisely. TAJ 2022; 35: No-2: 103-110

Background: Acute poisoning is a common medical emergency in the pediatric unit. It is a common preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in children. Most of the poisoning in children less than five years of age is accidental. This study aimed to determine the associated factors and clinical profile of childhood poisoning. Material & Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out among 69 children aged six months to 12 years with a history of poisoning over six months. History, clinical examination, and details of the poisoning were obtained by using a structured questionnaire during admission. Analysis was done through standard statistical tests. Result: Among the 69 children of poisoning, 92.8% were accidental, and 7.2% were suicidal. Most cases (79.7%) were from the 6 - 59 months age group with male-female ratio 1.7:1. Most of the fathers (65.2%) and mothers (75.4%) had primary education, and 75.4% were poor. The most common cause of the poisoning was insecticide (60.9%), and the poison was stored at an available site (91.3%) in an unsealed container (47.8%). Accidental poisoning was more common in younger age group (10 years) in females (80%) patient with h/o familial disharmony (60%). Conclusion: Insecticides and kerosene were the common cause of poisoning. Most of the materials were stored in an unsafe place and stored in an attractive bottle. Poison should be stored in a safe home with a sealed container. Simple and active family preventive measures can reduce accidental poisoning. TAJ 2022; 35: No-2: 75-82

1. Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that involves multiple organ systems. Lipid profile is a panel of blood test that serves as an initial broad medical screening tool for abnormalities in lipid such as cholesterol and triacylglycerol. The result of this test can identify certain genetic diseases and can determine approximate risk for cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases and certain form of pancreatitis and other diseases. Premature cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity in lupus which may be directly associated with altered lipid metabolism in systemic lupus erythematosus patient. Objective: To find out the relation of serum lipid profile with systemic lupus erythematosus patients. Methodology: This cross sectional study was conducted in the Department of Biochemistry, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka from January 2017 to December 2017. In this study, fifty diagnosed patients of SLE (Group A) and fifty apparently healthy individuals (Group B) of both sexes were selected according to the selection criteria from Department of Medicine, Dhaka medical college hospital, Dhaka (Group A) and by personal contact (Group B). Baseline parameters (body mass index, blood pressure and fasting plasma glucose) of both groups were measured. Serum lipid profile was estimated by enzyme immune assay, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG) and high density cholesterol (HDL-c) was estimated by enzymatic method. Results: Among the parameters of lipid profile serum TC, TG and LDL-C were significantly higher (p

The emergence of a new strain during a pandemic, like the present COVID-19, is a serious concern to the healthcare system. The most effective strategy to control this pandemic is vaccination. Many studies suggest that vaccine efficacy against the new strain may reduce. Additionally, the new strain’s late arrival has a significant impact on the disease dynamics and vaccine coverage. Focusing on these issues, this study presents a two-strain epidemic model along with two vaccination provisions based on human behavior dynamics, in which the new strain appears with a time delay. Individuals can commit vaccination before and after being infected with strain 1 and both vaccinated and non-vaccinated individuals can be infected with strain 2. Our findings suggested that delaying the second strain increases the overall vaccination coverage and reduces the peak size of the infected individuals.

This study examines the perceived quality of public aquaculture extension services in a selected sub-district of Bangladesh. The SERVPERF scale data were collected from 230 randomly selected fish farmers who resided in the 15 villages under the selected sub-district. The research findings suggest that the aquaculture extension service performs satisfactorily in assurance, responsiveness and tangible dimensions and is relatively low in reliability and empathy. The logistic regression findings confirm that among the dimensions of the SERVPERF, reliability, assurance and empathy can significantly influence the client’s overall satisfaction with the aquaculture extension service. The factor analytic results show that among the 20 statements of SERVPERF, nine statements grouped into three factors can be a viable tool for measuring the quality of aquaculture extension service. This study recommends individualistic client care, the development of extension skills and the intention of the extension agents to provide need-based prompt service and to arrange extension programs considering the client’s convenience.

Background: Urethral stricture is a narrowing of the urethra which can either be congenital or acquired. In most cases, it is an acquired disorder. Congenital stricture is less common and even less commonly found in paediatric population. Case presentation: A 4-Month-old baby attended outpatient department with complaint of high fever and excessive crying that was more pronounced before and during urination along with whitish discharge mixed with urine. Urine R/M/E detected plenty pus cell. Left ureter appears grossly dilated, tortuous in USG. Constriction is noted in the distal part of urethra with proximal dilatation with bilateral vesico-ureteric reflux. Conclusion: As, no other cause i.e., iatrogenic, traumatic, inflammatory, post-infectious, was found out, there remain only one possibility for this baby having urethral stricture which is idiopathic or congenital cause. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol. 22 No. 01 January’23 Page : 239-241

During a pandemic event like the present COVID-19, self-quarantine, mask-wearing, hygiene maintenance, isolation, forced quarantine, and social distancing are the most effective nonpharmaceutical measures to control the epidemic when the vaccination and proper treatments are absent. In this study, we proposed an epidemiological model based on the SEIR dynamics along with the two interventions defined as self-quarantine and forced quarantine by human behavior dynamics. We consider a disease spreading through a population where some people can choose the self-quarantine option of paying some costs and be safer than the remaining ones. The remaining ones act normally and send to forced quarantine by the government if they get infected and symptomatic. The government pays the forced quarantine costs for individuals, and the government has a budget limit to treat the infected ones. Each intervention derived from the so-called behavior model has a dynamical equation that accounts for a proper balance between the costs for each case, the total budget, and the risk of infection. We show that the infection peak cannot be reduced if the authority does not enforce a proactive (quantified by a higher sensitivity parameter) intervention. While comparing the impact of both self- and forced quarantine provisions, our results demonstrate that the latter is more influential to reduce the disease prevalence and the social efficiency deficit (a gap between social optimum payoff and equilibrium payoff).

With the aim of evaluating the effect of Government Youth Development Training on the KSA of the incumbents, this research used structured interview schedule and accomplished face-to-face interview of 142 randomly selected trainees from four purposefully selected Youth Training Centers. A strong positive significant change of KSA occurred due to the training and major change happened in knowledge followed by skill and attitude. The regression analysis shows that the traits of the trainers, location of the training center, and regularity in class attendance had significant relationship with knowledge change of the incumbents, while the traits of the trainers, experience of other trainings, and location of the training centers were significant determinants of skill change. Continuous improvement of trainer’s traits as well as inclusion of more practical field works in training sessions, and frequent evaluation of each training program based on KSA( Knowledge Skill & Attitude) is crucial to improve the effect of government youth development training in the study area.

Classification of samples into one or more populations is one of the main objectives of gene expression data (GED) analysis. Many machine learning algorithms were employed in several studies to perform this task. However, these studies did not consider the outliers problem. GEDs are often contaminated by outliers due to several steps involve in the data generating process from hybridization of DNA samples to image analysis. Most of the algorithms produce higher false positives and lower accuracies in presence of outliers, particularly for lower number of replicates in the biological conditions. Therefore, in this paper, a comprehensive study has been carried out among five popular machine learning algorithms (SVM, RF, Naïve Bayes, k-NN and LDA) using both simulated and real gene expression datasets, in absence and presence of outliers. Three different rates of outliers (5%, 10% and 50%) and six performance indices (TPR, FPR, TNR, FNR, FDR and AUC) were considered to investigate the performance of five machine learning algorithms. Both simulated and real GED analysis results revealed that SVM produced comparatively better performance than the other four algorithms (RF, Naïve Bayes, k-NN and LDA) for both small-and-large sample sizes. J. bio-sci. 28: 69-80, 2020

With the rapid development of high-throughput DNA microarray technologies, researchers can measure expression profiles of thousands of genes simultaneously with low costs. These massive amounts of gene expression (GE) data often contain missing values or outliers due to various reasons of data generating process. Most of the statistical methods were developed based on complete dataset. As a result, for subsequent analysis using incomplete dataset, these methods strongly suffer and we cannot find our target. A numerous methods have been developed to impute missing values and they are available in the literature. Albeit, missing values imputation and outliers handling both are equally important for analyzing GE, most of the methods perform these tasks separately and produce misleading results. Therefore, in this paper, an attempt is made to develop a new hybrid approach which is robust against outliers and missing values, simultaneously. We demonstrate the performance of the proposed method in a comparison of popular missing value imputation method K-NN while performing feature selection using both simulated and real GE datasets. The Results obtain from simulated as well as real data studies show that the proposed method outperforms K-NN in presence of different percentages of missing values and outliers. On the other hand, in absence of outliers with missing values, the proposed method keeps equal performance with the other methods. J. bio-sci. 27: 31-41, 2019

In this research work, Homotopy perturbation method (HPM) is applied to find the approximate solution of the Van der Pol Differential equation (VDPDE), which is a well-known nonlinear ODE. Firstly, the approximate solution of Van Der Pol equation is developed using Dirichlet boundary conditions. Then a comparison between the present results and previously published results is presented and a good agreement is observed. Finally, HPM method is applied to find the approximate solution of VDPDE with Robin and Neumann boundary conditions.

Smart grid is a new highly integrated power grid which refers to the next generation power grid, with advanced features and two-way flow of electricity and communication. The smart grid is expected to provide real-time information and near instantaneous balance between supply side and demand side. It combines with the advanced information and communication technology such as Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi). Wi-Fi is a wireless network technology that allows smart meters and other electronic devices to communicate over a wireless medium. In this paper, we have introduced and modeled a new architecture for a community smart grid, where an information center is established as the controller of the community power grid. Based on this new approach, the potential impact of smart battery, smart metering and renewable energy sources have been studied. Then, we provided an optimal approach for power allocation in the new architecture, which can reduce the power taken from the regular utility even in situations of overloading, and reduce the line loss of power scheduling. Finally, we proposed a methodology to analyze the daily load profile for residential clients with renewable energy resources.

Progressive importance, swelling investment, and mounting national and global competition necessitate evaluation of the service quality of higher education. Quantifiable indicators such as student teacher ratio, student number, women participation, establishing new departments, and increase in the number of universities are no longer enough unless the student’s stand point is considered. This research probed the service quality of higher education in a public university in southern Bangladesh utilizing modified SERVQUAL gap model. The t-test results suggest that there is a significant service gap in all the selected service dimensions such as learning, teaching, recognition, assessment system, internet and library facilities, campus life, and non-academic administration. The results also mirror that little more than half (54.1%) students are satisfied with the service quality of the selected university and almost similar proportion (52.1 %) of the students have future interest in studying in the same university. Regression analysis reveals that learning and recognition are two important determinants of client’s overall satisfaction with the service of selected university. Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) advocates that the university should take immediate step in improving internet and library facilities, campus life, and non-academic administration. Factor analysis output confirms that slight modification of the proposed seven set model into six set factors can be employed by the management as off-the-rack service quality measurement tool. Key words: service quality, higher education, SERVQUAL, Bangladesh.

This paper presents localization of tumor at 13 different positions deep inside a dense human breast using only 4 meander line microstrip patch antennas of operating frequency 1.5 GHz for the detection of breast cancer. The reflection coefficients of the antennas demonstrates a very uniform pattern for localization of the tumors in CST Microwave Studio simulation environment. The result of this work can help to develop a portable medical device for breast cancer detection at home by analyzing the reflection coefficient data of the 4 antennas.

This article proposed a novel miniaturized design of coplanar wave guide (CPW) fed ultra wide band (UWB) tapered slot Vivaldi antenna for microwave imaging applications. Broken line exponential tapered profile and different types of slots have been incorporated in order to obtain the better performance and miniaturized antenna. All the important performance parameters of the proposed antenna such as return loss, BW, gain, directivity, VSWR, axial ratio, front to back ratio, accepted power, radiated power, surface current, radiation efficiency have been analyzed and enhanced up to the acceptable level. Finally, from the simulated validation, it is noticed that the proposed antenna would be a potential candidate for microwave imaging applications.

A slotted patch rectangular microstrip patch antenna (RMPA) has been designed and observed the effect of slotted patch in this paper. The slotted patch and photonic band gap (PBG) substrate increase the gain, bandwidth as well as efficiency of the proposed antenna which resonates at 2.4 GHz. In the proposed antenna, Glass (pyrex) (lossy) substrate is used having dielectric constant of 4.82 and tangent loss of 0.0054. All data of the characteristic parameters have been estimated by using computer simulation technology (CST) microwave studio (MWS) suite of version 2017. The bandwidth of the proposed antenna is of 174.3 MHz which covers entire ISM band (2 GHz – 2.49GHz). It possesses F/B ratio of 10.74 dB, return loss of −20.116 dB and efficiency of 68.79% at center operating frequency.

This paper presents a wearable planar printed meandering monopole textile antenna design having operating frequency of 2.4 – 2.45 GHz on 3 flexible substrate materials: Jeans, Leather and Cordura®. The printed elements have been designed by using a mender line technique to reduce the size of the antenna significantly than the proposed antennas of past literature. Antenna performance is analyzed for different bending conditions and Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) is evaluated when the antenna is in contact with human body using CST Microwave Studio. The compact design and miniature size of the antenna is suitable for easy integration in smart clothing for tracking, healthcare, security and other ISM applications.

Introduction: Acute pancreatitis with unknown etiology comprises about 10-30% of all cases of acute pancreatitis. Endoscopic ultrasound is an important tool for revealing etiologies of the unknown causes of acute pancreatitis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of endoscopic ultrasound in sorting out the cause of idiopathic acute pancreatitis. Materials & Methods: It was a cross-sectional study which was carried out in the department of gastroenterology of Sir Salimullah medical college & Mitford hospital from January 2013 to December 2017. A total of 109 patients suffering from acute idiopathic pancreatitis were enrolled in this study. Underlying etiologies could not be detected after thorough history, physical examinations, blood tests, ultrasonography, CT, and/or MRI. These patients underwent endoscopic ultrasound under proper sedation after taking informed consent. Results: Among the 109 patients, 67 were male and 42 were female (P=0.03). Number of patients below 40yrs of age were 67 and above 40 years of age were 42 (P=0.01). Moreover, 81 patients had their gall bladder in situ and 28 had previous history of cholecystectomy (P=0.001). Microlithiasis 20 (24.6%), common bile duct stone or sludge 20 (24.6%), ampullary neoplasm 20 (24.67%), early stage of chronic pancreatitis 12 (14.8%), biliary ascariasis 08 (9.8%), small pancreatic head tumor 02 (2.5%) and pancreatic divisum 02 (2.5%) were found out as the underlying etiologies of idiopathic acute pancreatitis patients who had intact gall bladder. In patients who underwent cholecystectomy; endoscopic ultrasound revealed chronic pancreatitis 04 (14.3%), common bile duct stone or sludge 20 (24.6%), biliary ascariasis 06 (21.4%) and ampullary neoplasm 01 (3.5%) as the hidden causes of idiopathic acute pancreatitis. Conclusion: Gastroenterologists face difficulties to diagnose the actual etiology of idiopathic acute pancreatitis. As endoscopic ultrasound shows high efficacy and accuracy to detect etiologies in such cases; it can be included as a first line investigation in idiopathic acute pancreatitis.

A high gain optically transparent microstrip patch antenna for K band (18 GHz–27 GHz) satellite communication has been proposed and investigated in this paper. In order to make sure the property of optical transparency of the antenna, optically transparent materials have been chosen for all the layers of the microstrip patch antenna. Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) film is opted for the radiating patch and ground plane where the substrate is made of pyrex glass (lossy) (Ɛ r = 4.82 and tanδ = 0.0054). The proposed transparent antenna operates at center frequency of 24.8 GHz ranging from 17.625 GHz to 30.523 GHz that covers the entire K band of satellite communication. The transparency property of the patch antenna is useful to minimize the shadowing effect of the solar antenna as well as helpful to guarantee the maximum uses of satellite surface area. The proposed antenna has high IEEE gain of 12.36 dB and directivity of 13.38 dBi including efficiency of 92.38%. It also possesses very wide bandwidth (12.898 GHz), high front to back ratio (16.699 dB) and very good VSWR (1.0566) at center operating frequency.

A wideband inset feed microstrip Yagi-Uda array antenna on photonic crystal substrate with high gain and front to back (F/B) ratio for 5 GHz Wi-Fi band has been proposed. At first, a microstrip Yagi-Uda array antenna has been designed on Rogers RT/Duroid 5880 (lossy) having dielectric constant of 2.2 and tangent loss of 0.0009. Later on, few numbers of cylindrical air gaps has been introduced in the substrate and the length and width of patch somewhat has been readjusted without changing overall size of the antenna. In that case the performance of the antenna is enhanced in terms of IEEE gain (9.816 dB), directivity (10.15 dBi), bandwidth (396.2 MHz), efficiency (96.71%) and F/B ratio (29.094 dB) though return loss somewhat decreases. So the proposed antenna possesses very high front to back ratio as well as high gain and wide bandwidth. A vivid comparison between the microstrip Yagi-Uda array antennas without air gaps and with air gaps have also been presented in this paper.

A design and performance analysis of a metamaterial (MTM) based rectangular microstrip patch antenna (RMPA) with four dual isosceles triangular defects on the metallic ground plane have been presented in this paper. At first, a conventional RMPA is designed by using Isola FR-408 (lossy) substrate material (e r = 3.75 and tan δ = 0.0013). After that, the RMPA with four dual isosceles triangular defected ground structure (DGS) has been designed and verified as metamaterial with the help of Nicolson Ross Weir (NRW) method. Professional CST software has been used to perform the simulation of the designed antennas. The bandwidth of the proposed metamaterial antenna is enhanced by 345.71% compared to our designed conventional RMPA (105 MHz for conventional RMPA and 468 MHz for metamaterial RMPA), return loss is reduced from −23.10 dB to −44.299 dB, gain is enhanced from 0.205 dB to 6.291 dB, directivity is increased from 5.179 dB to 9.314 dB and voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) is of 1.0123 which indicates very good VSWR.

Article 31 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) was amended for the first time and a new Article (31bis) was introduced by inserting Article 31bis after Article 31 as a solution to a problem arising from Paragraph 6 of Doha Declaration which was related to the Public Health and TRIPs. Article 31(f) of the previous TRIPs text deals with the patented invention without the authorization of the patentee under Compulsory Licensing by the member country which clearly states “(f) any such use shall be authorized predominantly for the supply of the domestic market of the Member authorizing such use, which creates challenges for developing countries, especially for the Least Developed Countries which have minimum or no manufacturing capacity. In this context, this paper seeks to analyze some issues and considerations that have been elucidated through answering four key questions: Q1. What constitutes ‘effective use’ of compulsory licensing? Q2. What ‘difficulties’ did the affected countries face? Q3. Does the amendment to TRIPS overcome these difficulties? Q4. How can it be made to enable more effective use of compulsory licensing either (a) through revision or (b) through its practical implementation. In addition, the coverage and scope of the term ‘effective use’ have been identified in this paper. Finally, difficulties faced by developing countries in ensuring ‘effective use’ of compulsory licensing have also been discussed.

Aims: Rural Development Scheme (RDS) under Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) is an innovative typology of microfinance, envisaged to answer the need of rural poor. This study was planned to reveal the socioeconomic impact of RDS microfinance on the women beneficiaries in a selected district of Bangladesh. Place and Duration of the Study: This study was conducted in the district of Barisal. Data were collected from July to August, 2014. Methodology: This study was mainly based on primary information, however the secondary information was also collected to compare the before and after situation of loan withdrawal. To achieve study objectives data was collected from 206 randomly selected, RDS beneficiary women who engaged with the program for at least one year. Descriptive statistics such as mean, median, mode, standard deviation, etc., were used to describe the selected characteristics of the Original Research Article Jahan and Rashid; AJAEES, 6(3): 136-148, 2015; Article no.AJAEES.2015.071 137 respondents. Z-statistics was employed to compare the before and after situation of loan withdrawal. This study also used OLS regression to see the contribution of selected factor on the improvement of women beneficiaries. Results: The values Z statistics confirmed that highest change was taken place in social capital development followed by yearly income from non-agricultural sources, ownership of sanitary toilet, and ownership of tube-well. In case of social capital highest improvement was found in participation in family-decision making followed by self confidence, and consciousness about self-economic development. OLS regression confirmed that among the eight selected variables three variables, namely the number of earning members per family, the total amount of loan received, and yearly expenditure together can explain 46.5% variation in income growth. Conclusion: This study analyzed both monetary and social impacts of RDS microfinance and arrived at a general conclusion that this program grossly has a remarkable impact on selected socioeconomic aspects of the women clients.

This work demonstrates the impact of human body on an 800 MHz inset fed rectangular microstrip patch antenna characteristics. The antenna was simulated over a human phantom model consisting human thigh muscle using CST Microwave Studio. The distance between the antenna and human thigh muscle was varied to analyze the changes in antenna performance for waveguide port feeding. The results exhibited significant changes in antenna characteristics, especially the shifting of center frequency to a lower value due to the human body. Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) was studied as well to illustrate how on-body communication or mobile phone antennas of GSM band might affect human body when mobile phones are kept in pants pocket.

Purpose: Globally, many extension professionals and policy-makers are advocating fee based services, in addressing the fund shortage and sustainable provision of agricultural advisory services. Hence, the article attempts to expose the farmers' willingness to pay (WTP) as agricultural extension in Bangladesh is experiencing chronic fund crisis.Methodology: This study used contingent valuation method (CVM) for investigating farmers' WTP. Logit and Tobit model was employed to assess the determinants of WTP and amount willing to pay (AWTP) respectively. Besides, different qualitative methods were employed to have a deeper understanding of the research problems.Findings: WTP was conditioned by providing quality extension services at farm and/or home of the farmers. The study also focused on farmers preferred mode of payment, criteria influencing payment decisions and the type of services for which they are willing to pay. Paid model can contribute to quality extension services, if started with a marke...

Exposure of the general public to low-level RF fields causes direct or indirect coupling of the fields in the human body. Due to this coupling, there is an induction of the fields inside the body tissue that causes currents in the tissue while the tissue absorbs RF power. In this work, the RF absorption by a biological tissue was measured by using an antenna trainer in a laboratory set up by varying distances and angles of RF radiation source. Using the detector current, the absorbed power by the tissue as well as the incident component of Electric field upon the receiving antenna was calculated with and without the tissue. From calculating rms value of the field, the voltage inside the tissue was estimated. Using the absorbed power and voltage inside the tissue, the impedance inside the tissue was calculated. Results indicated that the more impedance values inside the tissue incur more absorption of RF power. The more dominant effects for angles than the distances were obtained for absorbed power by the tissue.

In this work, the impact of human heart on an 800 MHz inset fed rectangular microstrip patch antenna characteristics were investigated using CST Microwave Studio. The antenna was simulated over a mimic human heart muscle and the distance between them was varied to analyze the changes in Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) upon antenna performance parameters (specifically, directivity & surface current) for discreet and waveguide port feeding. The results exhibited that the center frequency of the antenna was shifted to lower value and an increase in SAR values when the antenna was closer to heart for both the feeding techniques. However, the discrete port had more values of SAR than the waveguide port but for both cases SAR decreased with the increment of antenna distance from heart. SAR values for up to 4 mm distance in between the antenna and human heart did not satisfy IEEE and ICNIRP standards. For increasing surface current, the SAR values decreases due to less penetration of flux inside the tissue for both feeding techniques. Increasing directivity resulted decrement of SAR values due to the fact that more reflection of the wave from the tissue happened for more directivity. This work demonstrates how mobile phone antennas of GSM band affect human heart and how human heart affects antenna resonance frequency when mobile phones are kept in chest pocket.

Background: One of the main goals of RNA-seq data analysis is identification of biomarkers that are differentially expressed (DE) across two or more experimental conditions. RNA-seq uses next generation sequencing technology and it has many advantages over microarrays. Numerous statistical methods have already been developed for identification the biomarkers from RNA-seq data. Most of these methods were based on either Poisson distribution or negative binomial distribution. However, efficient biomarker identification from discrete RNA-seq data is hampered by existing methods when the datasets contain outliers or extreme observations. Specially, the performance of these methods becomes more severe when the data come from a small number of samples in the presence of outliers. Therefore, in this study, an attempt is made to propose an outlier detection and modification approach for RNA-seq data to overcome the aforesaid problems of traditional methods. We make our proposed method facilitate in RNA-seq data by transforming the read count data into continuous data. Methods: We use median control chart to detect and modify the outlying observation in a log-transformed RNA-seq dataset. To investigate the performance of the proposed method in absence and presence of outliers, we employ the five popular biomarker selection methods (edgeR, edgeR_robust, DEseq, DEseq2 and limma) both in simulated and real datasets. Results: The simulation results strongly suggest that the performance of the proposed method improved in the presence of outliers. The proposed method also detected an additional 18 outlying DE genes from a real mouse RNA-seq dataset that were not detected by traditional methods. Using the KEGG pathway and gene ontology analysis results we reveal that these genes may be biomarkers, which require validation in a wet lab. Conclusions: Our proposal is to apply the proposed method for biomarker identification from other RNA-seq data.

Vertically stacked pruned optical banyan networks with extra planes (in short, EP-VSOB networks) have lower switch count and optimal time complexity (O(log2 N)) for routing N input requests. However, blocking probability is relatively higher than that of a VSOB networks using regular banyan planes. In the EP-VSOB architecture, the number of pruned planes has always been considered as N , and a few extra planes (regular banyan) have been added with these pruned planes. In this paper we present the results of blocking analysis of a more generalized architecture in which the number of pruned planes can be 2x, where x ⩾ 0 in addition to the variable extra planes. This generalization helps us make a compromise between different constraints and performance metrics. Our simulation results show that for some given performance requirements (e.g. cost, speed or blocking probability) we can choose a network that has lower switch count compared to N -plane pruned crosstalk-free optical banyan networks. For example, to ensure blocking probability

In this paper, 15 different shaped (E, F, inverted F, G, H, I, L, inverted L, S, T, inverted T, U, inverted U, W and inverted W) conventional microstrip patch antennas along with a dumbbell (H) shaped Defected Ground Structure (DGS) in each are designed and simulated at 2.4 GHz operating frequency using CST Microwave Studio Suite. The efficiency of microstrip patch antennas are compared in terms of surface wave concept and the antenna with H shaped patch exhibiting total efficiency of −2.546 dB is found most efficient. The implementation of this work is highly anticipated to be employed for designing hybrid shaped patches for WLAN, wireless network (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth), nonstandard RF remote, ISM band applications.

In this paper, we address the issue of faster connection establishment in a large vertically stacked optical Banyan (VSOB) network. The best known global routing algorithm, which turns an N × N crosstalk-free VSOB network into a rearrangeably non-blocking one, has time complexity O ( N log N ). This is quite large compared to O ( N log N ) time complexity of a single plane banyan network, which is a self-routing network with very high blocking probability. For a large size of switching network this O ( N log N ) time complexity may result unacceptably long delay. Therefore, an optical network with very low blocking probability and O ( N log N ) time complexity will be useful. Previously proposed Plane Fixed Routing (PFR) algorithm has O (log N ) time complexity but results in higher than 2% blocking probability with zero-crosstalk constraint for a network as large as 4096 × 4096 at full load. In this paper, first we propose the pruning of VSOB networks that reduces the hardware cost by almost 30%. The networks can still use the PFR algorithm and results in the same blocking probability. However, we show that the blocking probability can be reduced dramatically while keeping the optimum time complexity O (log N ) by allowing only a small amount of crosstalk. Then, we propose a new kind of switching networks in which extra regular banyan planes have been added with the pruned VBOS (P-VSOB) networks. Necessary routing algorithms, namely, PFR_RS and PFR_LS show that this new switching network can reduce the blocking probability to very low value even with zero-crosstalk constraint while keeping the hardware cost 3almost the same as for P-VSOB networks. Both these algorithms also have time complexity O ( N log N ).

Vertical stacking of multiple optical banyan networks is a novel scheme for building banyan-based nonblocking optical switches. The resulting network, namely vertically stacked optical banyan (VSOB) network, preserves the properties of small depth and absolutely loss uniformity but loses the nice self-routing capability of banyan networks. To guarantee a high switching speed, routing in VSOB network needs special attentions so that paths can be established as fast as possible. The best known global routing algorithm for an N × N nonblocking VSOB network has the time complexity of O(Nlog N), which will introduce an unacceptable long delay in path establishment for a large size optical switch. In this paper, we propose two fast routing algorithms for the VSOB network based on the idea of inputs grouping. The two algorithms, namely plane fixed routing (PFR) algorithm and partially random routing (PRR) algorithm, have the time complexities of O(log N) and O$(\sqrt{N})$ respectively, and FR algorithm can actually turn a VSOB network into a self-routing one. Extensive simulation based on a network simulator indicates that for large VSOB networks our new algorithms can achieve a reasonably low blocking probability while guarantee a very high switching speed.

Banyan networks are attractive for constructing directional coupler (DC)-based optical switching networks for their small depth and self-routing capability. Crosstalk between optical signals passing through the same DC is an intrinsic drawback in DC-based optical networks. Vertical stacking of multiple copies of an optical banyan network is a novel scheme for building nonblocking (crosstalk-free) optical switching networks. The resulting network, namely vertically stacked optical banyan (VSOB) network, preserves all the properties of the banyan network, but increases the hardware cost significantly. Though much work has been done for determining the minimum number of stacked copies (planes) required for a nonblocking VSOB network, little is known on analyzing the blocking probabilities of VSOB networks that do not meet the nonblocking condition (i.e., with fewer stacked copies than required by the nonblocking condition). In this paper, we analyze the blocking probabilities of VSOB networks and develop their upper and lower bounds with respect to the number of planes in the networks. These bounds depict accurately the overall blocking behaviors of VSOB networks and agree with the conditions of strictly nonblocking and rearrangeably nonblocking VSOB networks respectively. Extensive simulation on a network simulator with both random routing and packing strategy has shown that the blocking probabilities of both strategies fall nicely within our bounds, and the blocking probability of packing strategy actually matches the lower bound. The proposed bounds are significant because they reveal the inherent relationships between blocking probability and network hardware cost in terms of the number of planes, and provide network developers a quantitative guidance to trade blocking probability for hardware cost. In particular, our bounds provide network designers an effective tool to estimate the minimum and maximum blocking probabilities of VSOB networks in which different routing strategies may be applied. An interesting conclusion drawn from our work that has practical applications is that the hardware cost of a VSOB network can be reduced dramatically if a predictable and almost negligible nonzero blocking probability is allowed.

Vertical stacking is a novel alternative for constructing nonblocking multistage interconnection networks (MINs). Rearrangeably nonblocking optical MINs are attractive since they have lower complexity than their strictly nonblocking counterparts. In this paper, we study the realization of crosstalk-free permutations in rearrangeably nonblocking, self-routing banyan-type optical MINs built on vertical stacking. An available scheme for realizing crosstalk-free permutation in this type of optical MINs requires to first decompose a permutation into multiple crosstalk-free partial permutations based on the Euler-Split technique, and then to realize them crosstalk-free in different planes (stacked copies) of the MIN simultaneously. The overall time complexity of this scheme to realize a crosstalk-free permutation in an N × N optical MIN is O(N log N) which is dominated by the complexity of crosstalk-free decomposition. In this paper, we propose a new scheme for realizing permutations in this class of vertically stacked optical MINs crosstalk-free. The basic idea of the new scheme is to classify permutations into permutation classes such that all permutations in one class share the same crosstalk-free decomposition pattern. By running the Euler-Split based crosstalk-free decomposition only once for a permutation class and applying the obtained crosstalk-free decomposition pattern to all permutations in the class, crosstalk-free decomposition of permutations can be realized in a more efficient way. We show that the number of permutations in a permutation class is huge (√N!)√N when log2N is even and (√2N!)√N/2 when log2N is odd), and thus the average time complexity of crosstalk-free decomposition of a permutation becomes O(N).

With the current technology, all-optical networks require nonblocking switch architectures for building optical cross-connects. The crossbar switch has been widely used for building an optical cross-connect due to its simple routing algorithm and short path setup time. It is known that the crossbar suffers from huge signal loss and crosstalk. The Clos network uses a crossbar as building block and reduces switch complexity, but it does not significantly reduce signal loss and crosstalk. Although the Spanke's network eliminates the crosstalk problem, it increases the number of switching elements required considerably (to 2N 2 - 2N). In this paper, we propose a new architecture for building nonblocking optical switching networks that has much lower signal loss and crosstalk than the crossbar without increasing switch complexity. Using this architecture we can build non-squared nonblocking networks that can be used as building block for the Clos network. The resulting Clos network will then have not only lower signal loss and crosstalk but also a lower switch complexity.

During the path establishment, states of switching elements in the switch network may need rearrangement. C.-T. Lea et. al [1] has first mentioned about the rearrangement behavior of the switching networks. He has analyzed the frequency of its occurrence using stochastic method. It is notable that rearrangement behavior of switching network includes rearrangement of connections and rearrangement of switching elements. Optimization of rearrangement cost of switching network can save both power and time, which in turn can increase the switching speed. This paper determines the rearrangement cost of strictly non-blocking Vertically Stacked Optical Banyan networks in terms of switching elements. We believe that our result will be helpful in designing, implementing and analyzing different algorithms of the networks.

In this Paper, we have derived the numerical integration formula for unequal data spacing. For doing so we use Newton’s Divided difference formula to evaluate general quadrature formula and then generate Trapezoidal and Simpson’s rules for the unequal data spacing with error terms. Finally we use numerical examples to compare the numerical results with analytical results and the well-known Monte- Carlo integration results and find excellent agreement.

Optical banyan networks can be made rearrangeably nonblocking using its multiple copies in unison. Such rearrangeably nonblocking networks are known as vertically stacked optical banyan (VSOB) networks. Centralized control routing algorithm for this rearrangeably nonblocking optical banyan networks has time complexity O ( N log2 N ). A distributed control routing algorithm with time complexity O (log2 N ) has been proposed recently in which authors have considered N completely connected processors to take routing decision which practically would be very difficult to implement for large N . In this paper we propose two distributed control routing algorithms where processors are loosely connected. In the first algorithm ) ( N O processors work in pipelined fashion, and take the routing decision in linear time. In the second algorithm N inputs synchronously hunt for a free route among ) ( N O copies of a banyan network using a look up table. This algorithm has time complexity ) ( N O . Also the processors do not need to be completely connected, which makes it more practical for implementation.

Due to its nice properties of small depth and absolute signal loss uniformity, vertical stacking of optical banyan (VSOB) networks becomes an attractive optical switch architecture. It is expected that a VSOB switch will have a good fault-tolerant capability, because it consists of multiple banyan networks. To verify our expectation, in this paper we study the overall blocking behavior of a VSOB switch by establishing an upper bound on its blocking probability in presence of link failures. The upper bound accurately depicts the overall blocking behavior of a VSOB switch for a reasonable small link failure rate, as verified by extensive simulation results. Although our upper bound demonstrates that VSOB switches have a good fault-tolerance property, it reveals a surprising overall blocking behavior of a faulty VSOB switch that, not as we usually expected, the blocking probability of the switch may not always increase monotonously with the increase of link failure rate. Our upper bound is significant, because it provides switch designers a quantitative tool to determine the effects of link failure on the blocking behavior and to estimate the maximum blocking probability of a VSOB switch, in which different routing algorithms can be applied with a guaranteed performance in terms of blocking probability and hardware cost.

Vertical stacking is a novel scheme in creating nonblocking multistage interconnection networks (MINs). Available results indicate that under the crosstalk-free constraint, the hardware cost is high for a strictly nonblocking optical MIN based on the scheme. Packing strategy is a commonly used routing strategy for reducing network hardware. In this paper, we look into the nonblocking conditions for crosstalk-free optical MINs under packing strategy. It is shown that packing strategy is very efficient in reducing the hardware cost of a nonblocking optical MIN under the crosstalk-free constraint. The results in the paper will be useful in designing optical MINs.