National Textile University

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Collision Avoidance Systems (CAS) are the primary modules of modern human-centric and autonomous driving applications, such as forward and rear-end collision warnings. To enhance the performance of ADAS and CAS systems in foggy weather, an Efficient and Cost-Effective Vehicle Detection and Tracking with Driver Assistance (ECE-VDTDA) system is proposed. The proposed ECE-VDTDA system comprises vehicle detection, tracking, and driver assistance modules. An optimized SimYOLO-V5s_WIOU vehicle detection algorithm is proposed, based on the SimSPPF module, the baseline You Only Look Once (YOLO) algorithm (YOLO-V5s), and the Wise Intersection Over Union (WIOU) localization loss function. State-of-the-art Deep-SORT, Strong-SORT, and optimized Deep-SORT algorithms are utilized for vehicle tracking. The vehicle detection and tracking performance of the ECE-VDTDA system is rigorously evaluated on DAWN, foggy driving, foggy cityscapes, BDD100K, web-collected, and self-collected foggy weather datasets. Optimized SimYOLO-V5s_WIOU algorithm outperformed on the foggy driving dataset with a 17.45% increase in mAP50, and foggy cityscapes dataset with a 0.32%, 1.05%, 1.58%, 2%, 0.54% increase in the multiclass mAP50, mAP50-95, F1 score, precision, and recall scores, respectively, compared to the baseline YOLO-V5s. Furthermore, the SimYOLO-V5s_WIOU algorithm also outperformed the state-of-the-art methods and enables Deep-SORT, Strong-SORT, and optimized Deep-SORT vehicle tracking algorithms to track vehicles with high confidence. The driver assistance module of the ECE-VDTDA system helps prevent imminent road collisions in foggy weather by estimating distance, speed, and time-to-collision and by issuing timely collision warnings. The experimental results demonstrate the robustness and computational efficiency of the proposed ECE-VDTDA system.

Women’s entrepreneurship may improve social inclusion, according to the research. Moreover, it might encourage economic growth, foster innovation and creativity, and lessen poverty in society. Women’s entrepreneurship has the potential to increase per capita income and help achieve sustainable development goals. In Pakatan, participation of women in entrepreneurship activities is notably low, but it is hampered by a number of issues. Purposive sampling technique is used in this study. Semi- structured interviews and phenomenology are used in this qualitative study to examine the experience the barriers of 15 women and determine their interest in becoming entrepreneurs in rural area of Pakistan. Gioia Methodology is used for coding and themes which show that cultural norms (early marriage, honor) and strong family opposition are the main non-academic barriers, while government and infrastructural deficiencies (lack of transport, policy awareness) hinder young women's educational and professional aspirations in rural Pakistani communities.

The study of dynamic response of structural members is of great importance in aerospace design where the structural members such as wing spars should not resonate for ensuring the flight safety and structural integrity. Although a lot of research has been conducted on vibration of beams, a comprehensive comparison between metallic and composite cantilever beam and its application to aerospace-related cross-sections has so far not been done. The proposed study is focused on analytical formulations, Rayleigh-Ritz variational approach and finite element analysis (FEA) to systematically evaluate and compare modal characteristics of Aluminum and graphite-epoxy cantilever beam with three geometries T-shape, I-shape and rectangular shape. The closed-form Euler-Bernoulli beam equations and Rayleigh-Ritz approximations was implemented with the help of MATLAB and ANSYS mode-shape contours for the first three bending modes were used for visual validation of the numerical work. The results show very good consistency in the determination of the first bending mode among three implemented methods but for higher order modes variational method show the deviation of 12% in frequency magnitude as compared to analytical and FEA techniques. Among the three tested configurations (I-shape, Rectangular and T-shape), I-shape beam shows higher frequency because of its greater bending stiffness (I/A) as compared to other shapes. Material comparison further highlighted that composite beam shows higher frequency as compare to metallic because of its higher specific modulus (E⁄ρ). Overall, even some minor variations were observed among the results for three methods, but still all three approaches predicted the same trends for frequency, which proves that the applied methodology and MATLAB codes developed for current research work can be implemented as an application of frequency estimation for aerospace structural components.

The assessment of the dynamic mechanical performance of fiber-reinforced composites has gained importance in specific high-tech applications like aerospace and automobiles. However, three dimensional (3D) auxetic reinforcements offering viable performance have remained unexplored. Hence, this study investigates the energy absorption capabilities and high strain impact behaviors of 3D woven fabric-reinforced composites. Three different types of 3D woven reinforcements i.e., warp interlock (Wp), weft interlock (Wt), and bidirectional interlock (Bi) were developed from jute yarn, and their corresponding composites were fabricated using polycarbonate (PC) and polyvinyl butyral (PVB). Out-of-plane auxeticity was measured for reinforcements while composites were analyzed under dynamic tests. Wp exhibited the highest auxeticity with a value of −1.29, Bi showed the least auxeticity with a value of −0.31, while Wt entailed an intermediate value of −0.46 owing to variable interlacement patterns. The dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) results revealed that composite samples developed with PC resin showed a higher storage modulus with the least tan delta values less than 0.2, while PVB-based samples exhibited higher loss modulus with tan delta values of 0.6. Split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) results showed that, under 2 and 4 bar pressure tests, PVB-based composites exhibited the highest maximum load while PC-based composites exhibited the least. Warp interlock-based composites with higher auxeticity showed better energy absorption when compared with the bidirectional interlock reinforcement based (with lower auxeticity) composites that exhibited lower peak load and energy dissipation.

The impact of nano-silica (NS) fillers on the mechanical and aging characteristics of carbon fiber epoxy composites (CFECs) is examined in this work. Composite samples with 0–6 weight percent NS were exposed to UV light and moisture to hasten aging. According to Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA), the glass transition temperature (Tg) improved by 6.6%, reaching a peak of 48.57 °C, while the storage modulus (E′) increased by up to 27.5%, from 184 GPa in NS0-U to 234.5 GPa in NS4-U. At 2–4% filler loading, interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) decreased by 45% as a result of nanosilica addition. The NS4-U sample's Charpy impact strength was 60 kJ/m2, yet there was a noticeable overall drop in impact resistance as the filler content increased. Upon ageing, all properties showed degradation; however, NS4-A composites retained higher mechanical properties than the aged unfilled baseline, confirming the filler’s role in enhancing environmental resistance. These results highlight that optimal NS loading (4 wt%) can significantly reinforce CFECs while offering improved ageing durability.

Arsenic (As) stress severely impairs plant growth and physiology, resulting in diminished crop quality and yield. Nitric oxide (NO) has been found to alleviate heavy metal toxicity effectively. This study aims to examine how NO donor sodium nitroprusside (50 µM) in conjunction with different arsenic levels (10 µM and 25 µM) affect the growth of diploid and autotetraploid rice. When exposed to As (25 µM), diploid rice showed reductions in root length (29.71%), shoot length (33.40%), fresh root weight (83.62%), and fresh shoot weight (79.06%), whereas tetraploid rice showed reductions by 18.58%, 18.46%, 60.00%, and 54.19% of the control, respectively. Notably, tetraploid rice absorbed less As than diploid rice. NO application mitigated As toxicity, particularly at As (10 µM), while showing weaker effects at As (25 µM). Chlorophyll contents, i.e., a, b, and carotenoids, decreased significantly under As stress, whereas NO application elevated chlorophyll levels. Due to toxicity, the levels of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, POD, and CAT) were lower in diploids than in tetraploid, while H2O2 and MDA levels increased, with tetraploid increasing by 0.77-fold and 0.96-fold, and diploid by 1.71-fold and 1.36-fold, respectively. The NO effect was more pronounced in tetraploid rice, particularly in non-enzymatic (GSH), and oxidative stress indicators (H2O2 and MDA). Gene expression analysis confirmed differences between rice types, including OsSOD, OsPOD, OsCAT, and GSH (OsGSTU5) genes, as well as higher expression of As transporters (OsHAC1, OsLsi2, and OsABCC1) in diploid rice. Semi-thin sectioning, confocal laser scanning, and transmission electron microscopy observations highlighted distinct structural variations under arsenic stress. In brief, tetraploid rice exhibited greater As tolerance than diploid rice, with NO proving effective in regulating physiological and biochemical processes and mitigating As toxicity.

Although textile industry is the spine of Pakistan economy, it is also among the major waste-generating sectors producing nearly 267,000 Metric ton of textile waste annually. Most discussions are in the domain of technology and policy measures, but this study takes a completely different perspective: the study explores the role of managerial skills that can ultimately influence up scaling sustainable textile waste recycling. Using purposive sampling between November 2019 and September 2020, this qualitative study gathered detailed data from mid- and senior-level managers and frontline workers in key textile hubs. Twelve semi-structured interviews and two focus group discussions were conducted, transcribed, and systematically analyzed thematically within the NVivo 14 software. The key management skills are leadership, strategic planning and communication. Managers who incorporated sustainability in KPIs and encouraged collaboration across departments in companies were able to reduce landfill waste and increase material reuse by as much as 28% and 20% respectively, despite lacking significant infrastructure. On the other hand, a widespread skills gap with less than 12% of managers being formally trained in sustainability was the leading obstacle It concludes that managerial will and skill are more important than technology and provides a pragmatic framework for developing sustainability-literate leadership to enable a circular economy transition in Pakistan's textile sector.