An Analytical Hierarchy Process Approach for Prioritization of Objectives and Parameters for an Integrated Urban Water Management

Shama Parween,Rajan Chandra Sinha 대한토목학회 2024 KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering Vol.28 No.4

For sustainable development of urban areas, it is essential to address urban water management integrated with the urban water systems and spatial planning of the cities and the subsequent uncertainties. An integrated urban water management and planning model will help ensure water security, mitigate floods and droughts, reduce the negative environmental impact of urbanization and climate change, and bring coherence in the water supply management with the cities’ spatial planning and relevant policies. In the present research, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), a multi-criteria decision analysis, has been implemented to calculate the weightage of different parameters associated with urban water management and planning. AHP uses linguistic and quantitative variables based on experts' opinions for selecting and prioritizing the objectives and parameters for an integrated approach to urban water management and spatial planning under uncertainties. The local and global weights of objectives, parameters, key indicators, and sub-indicators were calculated after pairwise comparison by 32 experts from academia and industry in urban planning and civil and environmental engineering for the case of Ranchi, a city in eastern India. The study establishes the financial factors (36.97%) as one of the important attributes, followed by environmental factors (26.71%) for consideration in integrated urban water management. Further, Alternative D (45.256%) is framed by collaborating different objectives of IUWM, such as ensuring water security through alternative water sources, mitigating floods and droughts, and water supply planning considering land use, management policies, and climate change. The research findings can assist decision-makers in prioritizing the various objectives and parameters for integrated urban water management in cities with similar population sizes and organic growth.

SER Analysis of Multi-Way Relay Networks with M-QAM Modulation in the Presence of Imperfect Channel Estimation

Shama N. Islam,Salman Durrani,Parastoo Sadeghi 한국통신학회 2016 Journal of communications and networks Vol.18 No.5

Multi-way relay networks (MWRNs) allow multiple usersto exchange information with each other through a single relayterminal. MWRNs are often incorporated with capacity achiev-ing lattice codes to enable the benefits of high-rate signal constel-lations to be extracted. In this paper, we analytically character-ize the symbol error rate (SER) performance of a functional de-code and forward (FDF) MWRN in the presence of channel esti-mation errors. ConsideringM-ary quadrature amplitudemodula-tion (QAM) with square constellations as an important special caseof lattice codes, we obtain asymptotic expressions for the averageSER for a user in FDF MWRN. The accuracy of the analysis athigh signal-to-noise ratio is validated by comparison with the sim-ulation results. The analysis shows that when a user decodes otherusers with better channel conditions than itself, the decoding userexperiences better error performance. The analytical results al-low system designers to accurately assess the non-trivial impact ofchannel estimation errors and the users’ channel conditions on theSER performance of a FDF MWRN withM-QAM modulation.

Achievable Sum Rate Analysis of Relay Aided Overlay Device to Device Communication among Multiple Devices

Shama Naz Islam,M. A. Mahmud,Aman Oo 한국통신학회 2017 Journal of communications and networks Vol.19 No.4

In this paper, we consider device to device (D2D) communicationoverlaying cellular network where a group of D2Dusers exchange messages among themselves. We investigate thecase when the channel conditions of the direct links among theseD2D users are not strong enough to support direct communicationand hence, an intermediate relay node assists the communicationamong the D2D users. Here we consider capacity achieving latticecodes at the D2D users along with compute-and-forward protocolat the relay. Based on these, we derive the received signal to noiseratio (SNR) at the relay, as well as the D2D users and formulateupper bounds on the achievable sum rate. We also investigate theachievable sum rate when the devices communicate using the directlinks and compare with that of the relay aided D2D communication. We find that when the D2D users are closer to the relay, relayaided communication achieves better performance compared to directcommunication. However, for the same distances, the sum ratedegrades more for relay aided communication. It is also shown thatwhen the links between most of the D2D users and the relay havegood channel conditions compared to the direct links, relay aidedcommunication can achieve better sum rate performance than thedirect communication.

Uncertainty analyses of spent nuclear fuel decay heat calculations using SCALE modules

Shama, Ahmed,Rochman, Dimitri,Pudollek, Susanne,Caruso, Stefano,Pautz, Andreas Korean Nuclear Society 2021 Nuclear Engineering and Technology Vol.53 No.9

Decay heat residuals of spent nuclear fuel (SNF), i.e., the differences between calculations and measurements, were obtained previously for various spent fuel assemblies (SFA) using the Polaris module of the SCALE code system. In this paper, we compare decay heat residuals to their uncertainties, focusing on four PWRs and four BWRs. Uncertainties in nuclear data and model inputs are propagated stochastically through calculations using the SCALE/Sampler super-sequence. Total uncertainties could not explain the residuals of two SFAs measured at GE-Morris. The combined z-scores for all SFAs measured at the Clab facility could explain the resulting deviations. Nuclear-data-related uncertainties contribute more in the high burnup SFAs. Design and operational uncertainties tend to contribute more to the total uncertainties. Assembly burnup is a relevant variable as it correlates significantly with the SNF decay heat. Additionally, burnup uncertainty is a major contributor to decay heat uncertainty, and assumptions relating to these uncertainties are crucial. Propagation of nuclear data and design and operational uncertainties shows that the analyzed assemblies respond similarly with high correlation. The calculated decay heats are highly correlated in the PWRs and BWRs, whereas lower correlations were observed between decay heats of SFAs that differ in their burnups.

Facile synthesis of zero valent sulfur nanoparticles for catalytic detoxification of hexavalent chromium, cytotoxicity against microalgae and ultraviolet protection properties

Shama Sehar,Layla Jassim Hazeem,Iffat Naz,Abdul Rehman,Wuyang Sun,Saleh S. Alhewairini,Ali Salman Bin Thani,Mohammad Salim Akhter,Adnan Younis 한국화학공학회 2021 Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol.38 No.11

Industrial effluents that contain various toxic substances have polluted our water and soil and posed major health issues. Thus, their removal or conversion to non-toxic products is highly crucial and desirable. This work emphasizes the synthesis of sulfur nanoparticles through precipitation method using anionic and cationic surfactants for exploring its catalytic efficiency in the photocatalytic reduction of hexavalent chromium Cr (VI). As-synthesized sulfur nanoparticles (SNPs) were physically characterized by UV-Vis absorption, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements. The SNPs prepared using both surfactants have narrow size distribution with great homogeneity (50-80 nm). Moreover, excellent efficiency for Cr (VI) to Cr (III) reduction was recorded for SNPs. Besides, cytotoxicity analysis against microalgae Picochlorum sp. was analyzed and the SNPs showed no negative effect on algal growth and chlorophyll a concentration. Finally, the SNPs were found to provide excellent sunlight protection. Our results highlight that SNPs have great potential for the treatment of industrial wastewater with greater reproducibility. Moreover, they are equally effective against harmful sun rays and are suitable in different skin care products.

The Impact of Immigration Status on the Quality of Life Among Asian Indians in the United States of America

Shama Panjwani,Suneetha B Manyam,Priscilla Rose Prasath 한국상담학회 2021 Journal of Asia Pacific counseling Vol.11 No.2

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of various immigration statuses on the quality of life among Asian Indians in the United States. The 73 Asian Indians, born in India and residing in the U.S., who participated in the survey study, reported experiencing varied levels of quality of life depending on their immigration status. Mental health counselors working with immigrants, in particular, Asian Indian clients, will benefit from the findings that highlight the need for heightened awareness of immigration-related policies and its impact on their clients’ immigration statuses, mental health and overall acculturation process.

COVID-19 progression towards ARDS: a genome wide study reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Shama Mujawar,Gayatri Patil,Srushti Suthar,Tanuja Shendkar,Vaishnavi Gangadhar Korea Genome Organization 2023 Genomics & informatics Vol.21 No.2

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral infection produced by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus epidemic, which was declared a global pandemic in March 2020. The World Health Organization has recorded around 43.3 billion cases and 59.4 million casualties to date, posing a severe threat to global health. Severe COVID-19 indicates viral pneumonia caused by the SARS-CoV-2 infections, which can induce fatal consequences, including acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The purpose of this research is to better understand the COVID-19 and ARDS pathways, as well as to find targeted single nucleotide polymorphism. To accomplish this, we retrieved over 100 patients' samples from the Sequence Read Archive, National Center for Biotechnology Information. These sequences were processed through the Galaxy server next generation sequencing pipeline for variant analysis and then visualized in the Integrative Genomics Viewer, and performed statistical analysis using t-tests and Bonferroni correction, where six major genes were identified as DNAH7, CLUAP1, PPA2, PAPSS1, TLR4, and IFITM3. Furthermore, a complete understanding of the genomes of COVID-19-related ARDS will aid in the early identification and treatment of target proteins. Finally, the discovery of novel therapeutics based on discovered proteins can assist to slow the progression of ARDS and lower fatality rates.

Impact of optimal false data injection attacks on local energy trading in a residential microgrid

Shama N. Islam,M.A. Mahmud,A.M.T. Oo 한국통신학회 2018 ICT Express Vol.4 No.1

This paper illustrates the vulnerability of local energy trading to false data injection attacks in a smart residential microgrid and demonstrates the impact of such attacks on the financial benefits earned by the participants. In a local energy market, the attacker can overhear the energy generation and consumption patterns of legitimate participants and based on this, optimize its attack signal to achieve maximum benefits either as a buyer/seller, while balancing the supply–demand to remain undetected. For such a system, we have formulated an optimization problem at the attacker, to extract the maximum possible benefits from legitimate participants. The numerical results show that the false data injection from the attacker causes significant losses in the benefits of legitimate participants, up to a reduction of 94% in certain hours.

Superior dye degradation using SnO2-ZnO hybrid heterostructure catalysts

Shama Sehar,Iffat Naz,Irum Perveen,Safia Ahmed 한국화학공학회 2019 Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol.36 No.1

We investigated the efficiency of oxide based hierarchical heterostructure as adsorbent for the treatment of organic dyes, Methyl orange (MO) and Methylene Blue (MB), containing solution. Nanocrystals such as ZnO nanorods (at various temperatures of 30, 60 and 75 oC) and SnO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by electrodeposition method and hydrothermal approaches, respectively. SnO2-ZnO heterostructures were formed by spin coating SnO2 nanoparticles on ZnO nanorods matrix to form a heterostructured film. The surface morphologies and structural characterization of as-prepared heterostructures were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. While, absorption spectra of all samples were examined by UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activities of as-prepared samples for organic dyes degradation were tested under UV light as model reaction. The SnO2-ZnO heterostructured photocatalyst showed superior activities than individual ZnO and SnO2 nanocrystals. This heightened behavior was attributed to its better charge separation capability and the slow charge recombination originating due to difference in energy values of conduction band edges of SnO2 and ZnO. The SnO2-ZnO heterostructure demonstrated better stability and recyclability up to five times, which is highly desirable for potential industrial applications including dye degradation and wastewater treatment systems.

Life as a DACA Recipient: A Case Study Approach

Shama Panjwani 한국상담학회 2019 Journal of Asia Pacific counseling Vol.9 No.2

Migrating to the United States as a child, growing up as an undocumented immigrant, and transitioning into adulthood can affect one’s mental health. Although there are numerous discussions and proposals related to reform immigration, the Dream Act continues to be dismissed by Congress. Following is a qualitative case study that utilizes a semi-structured interview method with one South Asian participant. The case study will describe the experiences of a South Asian dreamer and how becoming a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) recipient has changed her life in a positive as well as in a stressful manner. The study will explore various themes related to mental health and wellbeing including: fears, biopsychosocial impact, personal identity, and resilience that were found as a result of using a semi-structured interview with one DACA recipient. The author will also highlight how the implications of advocacy can play a role in improving the mental health of individuals in this population.