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We made the first and successful attempt to detect SARS-CoV-2 genetic material in the vicinity wastewaters of an isolation centre i.e. Shaheed Bhulu Stadium, situated at Noakhali, Southeastern Bangladesh. Owing to the fact that isolation centre, in general, always contained a constant number of 200 COVID-19 patients, the prime objective of the study was to check if several drains carrying RNA of coronavirus are actually getting diluted or accumulated along with the sewage network. Our finding suggested that while the temporal variation of the genetic load decreased in small drains over the span of 50 days, the main sewer exhibited accumulation of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Other interesting finding displays that probably distance of sampling location in meters is not likely to have a significant impact on the detected gene concentration, although the quantity of the RNA extracted in the downstream of the drain was higher. These findings are of immense value from the perspective of wastewater surveillance of COVID-19, as they largely imply that we do not need to monitor every wastewater system, and probably major drains monitoring may illustrate the city health. Perhaps, we are reporting the accumulation of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material along with the sewer network i.e. from primary to tertiary drains. The study sought further data collection in this line to simulate conditions prevailed in most of the developing countries and to shed further light on decay/accumulation processes of the genetic load of the SARS-COV-2., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Traffic conflicts are heavily correlated with traffic collisions and may provide insightful information on the failure mechanism and factors that contribute more towards a collision. Although proactive traffic management systems have been supported heavily in the research community, and autonomous vehicles (AVs) are soon to become a reality, analyses are concentrated on very specific environments using aggregated data. This study aims at investigating -for the first time- rear-end conflict frequency in an urban network level using vehicle-to-vehicle interactions and at correlating frequency with the corresponding network traffic state. The Time-To-Collision (TTC) and Deceleration Rate to Avoid Crash (DRAC) metrics are utilized to estimate conflict frequency on the current network situation, as well as on scenarios including AV characteristics. Three critical conflict points are defined, according to TTC and DRAC thresholds. After extracting conflicts, data are fitted into Zero-inflated and also traditional Negative Binomial models, as well as quasi-Poisson models, while controlling for endogeneity, in order to investigate contributory factors of conflict frequency. Results demonstrate that conflict counts are significantly higher in congested traffic and that high variations in speed increase conflicts. Nevertheless, a comparison with simulated AV traffic and the use of more surrogate safety indicators could provide more insight into the relationship between traffic state and traffic conflicts in the near future., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Safe drinking water is scarce in southwest coastal Bangladesh because of unavailability of fresh water. Given the high salinity of both groundwater and surface water in this area, harvested rainwater and rain-fed pond water became the main sources of drinking water. Both the government and non-government organizations have recently introduced pipe water supply in the rural coastal areas to ensure safe drinking water. We assessed the bacteriological quality of water at different points along the piped water distribution system (i.e., the source, treatment plant, household taps, street hydrants, and household storage containers) of Mongla municipality under Mongla Upazila in Bagerhat district. Water samples were collected at 2-month interval from May 2014 to March 2015. Median E. coli and total coliform counts at source, treatment plant, household taps, street hydrants, and household storage containers were respectively 225, 4, 7, 7, and 15 cfu/100 ml and 42,000, 545, 5000, 6150, and 18,800 cfu/100 ml. Concentrations of both of the indicator bacteria reduced after treatment, although it did not satisfy the WHO drinking water standards. However, re-contamination in distribution systems and household storage containers indicate improper maintenance of distribution system and lack of personal hygiene.

This paper examines whether attitudes towards electric vehicles (ATEVs), subjective norms (SNs) and perceived behavioural control (PBC) have significant associations with consumer purchase intention (PI) and the purchase behaviour of environmentally friendly vehicles (EFVs). The results from the survey questionnaires are analysed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings of this paper indicate that ATEV, SN and PBC significantly influence PI. This finding also indicates that environmental consequence and individual preferences do not influence the PI of the respondents. We found that Malaysian car owners are largely unaware of the greenhouse effects on the environment or attach to it little importance, which is reflected in their PI towards EFVs. The outcomes of this study could help policymakers design programmes to influence attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and purchase behaviour to prevent further air pollution and reduce CO2 emissions from the transportation sector.