The chemical reinforcement of sandy soils is usually carried out to improve their properties and meet specific engineering requirements. Nevertheless, conventional reinforcement agents are often expensive; the process is energy-intensive and causes serious environmental issues. Therefore, developing a cost-effective, room-temperature-based method that uses recyclable chemicals is necessary. In the current study, poly (styrene-co-methyl methacrylate) (PS-PMMA) is used as a stabilizer to reinforce sandy soil. The copolymer-reinforced sand samples were prepared using the one-step bulk polymerization method at room temperature. The mechanical strength of the copolymer-reinforced sand samples depends on the ratio of the PS-PMMA copolymer to the sand. The higher the copolymer-to-sand ratio, the higher the sample’s compressive strength. The sand (70 wt.%)-PS-PMMA (30 wt.%) sample exhibited the highest compressive strength of 1900 psi. The copolymer matrix enwraps the sand particles to form a stable structure with high compressive strengths.

Mobile banking has become very important in today’s life as technological advancements have led bank clients to use banking services. Clients’ attitudes toward mobile banking services are based on their expectations is the background of this research. So, the main objective is to observe the purposeful conduct in mind of clients to adopt mobile banking services. This study also examines the influence of six variables on financial services clients’ desire to utilize mobile banking services, including perceived benefits, perceived ease of use, trust, security, perceived privacy, and technology expertise. Consequently, the goal of this study is to find out the crucial and deciding factors that may influence clients’ willingness to use mobile banking features in Bangladesh as a developing country. The sample shaped for this research is 310 respondents from Bangladesh a developing country. For analytical purposes, SEM has been used to test hypotheses. The results show that in Bangladesh, factors like perceived value, security, and technological aptitude greatly determine whether a customer will utilize mobile banking. Financial institutions have proven to be successful in serving clients through mobile phones. Clients have made good use of mobile banking only to save money, cost, and labor. The research suggests that mobile banking operations must be timely and accurate, the transaction process must be short, interactivity, convenience of usage, and so on. The findings have important implications for bank regulatory authority, management, bankers, and executives who wish to increase mobile banking usage to secure their long-term profitability.

Local scour, a complex phenomenon in river flows around piers with movable beds, can damage bridge piers during high floods. Predicting scour depth accurately is vital for safety and economic reasons, especially for large bridges. This study using hydraulic flume laboratory experiments compared diamond, square, and elliptical pier models of different sizes under steady clear-water conditions considering different flow rates and discharge levels to identify the most efficient shape with less local scour. Local scour, a complex phenomenon in three-dimensional flow around piers in rivers with movable beds, can lead to detrimental effects on bridge piers due to high flood velocities. Accurate prediction of scour depth is crucial for economic and safety reasons, especially for large bridges with complex piers. Hydraulic engineers are keen on forecasting the equilibrium scour depth. To achieve this, laboratory testing compared diamond, square, and elliptical pier models under steady clear-water conditions to identify the most efficient pier shape with less local scour. This research provides valuable insights for optimizing pier design to enhance bridge stability and resilience against scour-induced risks. A variety of configurations, including different sizes and shapes of piers were experimented with in the flume using diamond, square, and elliptical shapes. The test results showed that the local scour depth around elliptical piers was around 29.16% less, and around diamond piers, it was approximately 16.05% less compared to the scour depth observed around square piers with the same dimensions. The researchers also observed distinct patterns of scouring around different pier shapes. Specifically, the square-shaped piers displayed the highest level of scouring depth, that is, 48 mm, followed by the diamond-shaped pier which experienced a scouring depth of 48 mm while the elliptical-shaped piers experienced the least amount of scouring depth, that is, 34 mm. The test results also demonstrated that pier size significantly influences scouring, with an increase in pier size from 3 × 3 cm2 to 5 × 5 cm2 leading to a rise in scour depth by 26.04%. Moreover, this study findings also elucidated that an increase in flow results in an increase of in scouring depth i.e., elevating the discharge from 0.0026 cumecs to 0.0029 cumecs led to a 28.13% increase in scouring depth for the identical pier size. These findings provide valuable insights into the hydraulic behavior of various pier shapes and can aid in the optimization of bridge design and hydraulic engineering practices. The investigations further revealed that local scouring is sensitive not only to pier dimensions but also to other critical parameters, including flow rate, time of exposure, and the size of a pier.

Bioactive materials are those that cause a number of interactions at the biomaterial-living tissue inter-face that result in the evolution of a mechanically strong association between them. For this reason, an implantable material’s bioactive behavior is highly advantageous. Silicate glasses are encouraged to be used as bioactive glasses due to their great biocompatibility and beneficial biological effects. The sol-gel method is the most effective for preparing silicate glasses because it increases the material’s bioactivity by creating pores. Glass densities are altered by the internal network connectivity between network formers and network modifiers. The increase in the composition of alkali or alkaline oxides reduces the number of bridging oxygens and increases the number of non-bridging oxygens by retaining the overall charge neutrality between the alkali or alkaline cation and oxygen anion. Higher drying temperatures increase pore densities, while the melt-quenching approach encourages the creation of higher density glasses. Band assignments for the BAG structure can be explained in detail using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopic investigations. Raman spectroscopy makes it simple to measure the concentration of the non-bridging oxygens in the silica matrix.

This paper investigates and studies the quality of life of primary school students, and the results show that the quality of life of primary school students in Chongchuan District of Nantong is generally at the upper middle level, and it shows a downward trend with age. There were significant differences between 8-year-old boys and girls in “teacher-student relationship”, “learning ability and attitude”, “self-concept relationship”, “peer relationship” and “homework attitude”, and girls were better than boys. There were significant differences between 10-year-old boys and girls in the scores of “teacher-student relationship” and “self-satisfaction relationship”, and girls were better than boys; There were significant differences between 11-year-old boys and girls in the two factors of “activity opportunity” and “athletic ability”, and boys were better than girls. There was no difference in the remaining ages by factor. Improving the quality of life of primary school students requires the active cooperation of schools, teachers and parents, as well as special attention to the differences between boys and girls aged 8, 10 and 11.