Browsing by Author "Rahman, Bushra"

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Design and Early-Stage Development of a Handwritten Prescription Interpretation App for Bangladeshi Citizens
(IUB, 2025-05) Rubyat, Afsana; Rahman, Bushra; Zaman, Mohammad Faiyaz Uz
In Bangladesh, handwritten prescriptions remain the conventional method of medical documentation, presenting significant challenges in accurately interpreting medication information. The diverse handwriting styles make these prescriptions difficult to read, potentially compromising patient health. This study introduces a novel solution for digitizing handwritten prescriptions using the User-Centered Design (UCD) methodology. The aim is to develop a mobile application tailored to the needs of Bangladeshi citizens, enhancing access to clear, reliable medication information, reducing errors, and promoting safer healthcare practices. The research objectives include conducting design requirements analysis, need-finding, and developing a high-fidelity prototype. A survey involving 155 participants was conducted to gather insights on the essential features and design requirements of the app. The findings revealed common difficulties faced by participants, such as the inability to read handwritten prescriptions accurately and challenges in understanding the names and dosage instructions of the medicines. Participants highlighted the need for features like daily medication reminders, medication names, automatic prescription scanning, voice and chat-based interactions with a Relational Agent, and user guidelines for prescription scanning. The insights gathered from the survey guided the creation of a low-fidelity paper-based prototype, which was then refined into a high-fidelity digital version of the app. The development process followed a human-centered approach, starting with need-finding analysis and design requirement collection, leading to the creation of both low-fidelity paper-based and high-fidelity digital prototypes. This high-fidelity prototype with an intuitive interface, named “PresCa”, incorporates crucial features such as prescription scanning, scanning guidelines, a report summary, a Relational Agent for assistance, prescription crosscheck by doctors, and the ability to configure medication reminders. These preferences directly informed the design choices and functional priorities of “PresCa”. By focusing on users’ needs, this app aims to empower patients with accurate medication information, reduce the risk of medication errors, and ultimately foster safer healthcare practices. This innovative solution not only addresses the challenges faced by healthcare professionals in Bangladesh but also provides a foundation for future research in healthcare digitization, promoting a more efficient and reliable system for managing prescriptions. The app achieved a mean System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 76.18. This research study illustrates methods for extracting medication information from handwritten prescriptions utilizing a straightforward, deep learning model called TrOCR: Transformer-Based Optical Character Recognition. This pre-trained model can detect complex handwritten language accurately by integrating the Optical Character Recogni- tion (OCR) technique with the Transformer architecture. Additionally, the integration of Machine Learning (ML) techniques in the app improves the accuracy and speed of prescription scanning, making it easier for users to access and understand their medica- tion instructions. The OCR performance of our trained model on the test set showed a Character Error Rate (CER) of 16% and a Word Error Rate (WER) of 36%. With the integration of the Levenshtein distance-based text correction technique, the CER and WER dropped significantly to 7% and 11%, indicating an improvement in the recogni- tion of medication information. Through these advancements, “PresCa” aims to make a significant impact on the healthcare sector in Bangladesh, facilitating better medication management and enhancing overall patient safety.
Effect of temperature and heavy metals on biofilm formation of Vibrio cholerae
(BRAC University, 2026) Rahman, Bushra; Naser, Iftekhar Bin
Vibrio cholerae, is a waterborne pathogen capable of persisting in aquatic environments through its ability to form biofilms, which allow survival, transmission, and increased resistance. Environmental temperature fluctuation and heavy metals play critical roles in influencing biofilm development. This review discusses current research showing that temperature and heavy metals are two of the most important abiotic factors influencing V. cholerae biofilm development, architecture, and importance to public health. Temperature is one of the key regulators that dictate the planktonic–biofilm transition. Generally low to moderate temperatures (15–25 °C) promote V. cholerae biofilm, and this correlates with an increase in intracellular c-di-GMP, activation of the regulatory network, activation of cold-adaptation pathways, and increased expression of adhesive proteins, e.g. MSHA pili and GbpA. These responses support V. cholerae attachment and survival in seawater during seasonal transitional periods. The exposure to heavy metals such as Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, Hg, and As imposes oxidative stress, destabilization of the cellular membrane, and inhibition of multiple enzymes. Vibrio cholerae can manage its level of toxicity by regulating it through a collection of metal responsive regulators. In addition, toxic metal stress frequently selects for enhanced EPS production, thicker biofilms, and co-selection of metal tolerance, biofilm proficiency, and potentially antimicrobial resistance. The review suggests that temperature acts as a primary regulatory factor, while metal toxicity would function solely as a selective pressure for regulating biofilm architecture. The survival strategy of bacteria may interact synergistically in cholera endemic estuaries where there are both seasonal temperature increases, along with increased industrial discharge, VBNC transitions, and outbreak timing. Notable knowledge gaps include limited experiments on temperature and heavy metals affecting V. cholerae biofilm formation and persistence in aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, it needs to resolve molecular cross-talk between metal stress signalling, quorum sensing, and temperature-controlled c-di-GMP pathways. Integrating metal monitoring for cholera, WASH interventions, and the need for implementation of One Health frameworks as methods for reducing the persistence of the environmental reservoir and the potential for outbreaks.
Phytochemical investigation of Citrullus lanatus (Watermelon) rind
(East West University, 12/13/2013) Rahman, Bushra
In our study effort was made to find out the constituents present in the rind of Citrullus lanatus. Caffiene isolation and catechin isolation process were followed to bring out the specific constituents. Different procedures like TLC, DPPH test and Phenolic assay were done to confirm that the compounds were isolated. The concentration of the isolated sample was also measured by the graph of standard curve
Re-use of Textile Effluent - An Experimental Study of Color Removal
(Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), Islamic University of Technology(IUT), 2022-05-30) Rahman, Bushra; Baten, Tasnim Ara
Textile wastewater treatment is a great concern worldwide. Due to its uneven water quality parameter, it is difficult to handle using tradition treatment methods. Besides, huge amount of water usage plays a vital role on depleting ground water level. Rainwater harvesting system does not show any significance contribution in this purpose. Thereby comes the necessity of reusing of effluent after proper treatment. In Bangladesh's textile industry, ensuring proper and effective wastewater treatment has become a difficult task. Adsorption is one of the most common and effective methods for dye removal. In this experimental work, the study shows how well Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC) as adsorbent with Lime or Ca(OH)2 as an aid works for removal of color, TDS (Total Dissolved Solid), turbidity and pH. Freundlich and Langmuir are two common models of adsorption to achieve the particular carbon dosage for maintaining any particular range of color. In this study, between Freundlich and Langmuir type of isotherm Freundlich shows a clear trend with determining parameters. After collecting the samples, jar test procedure was followed to achieve the optimum dosage. Jar test method is a laboratory process for estimating the dosage to achieve certain water quality goals. The optimum dosage of PAC was obtained 5-6 gm with adding 1.5 gm Ca(OH)2 and the equilibrium time was 12 hours for color removal. The removal efficiency obtained from the test was 99.3% for color, 99.87% for TDS and 97.8% for turbidity. The results suggest that the combined use of PAC and Ca(OH)2 can be useful as dye removal from textile wastewater. A feasibility study can help to check economic perspective of effectiveness of implementing this process in industry.
Study and Analysis of Protocols of Wireless Sensor Network
(Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Military Institute of Science and Technology, 2012-12) Mithila, Nasrin Hakim; Rahman, Bushra; Taher, Alif Bin; Alam, Dr. Md Shamsul
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consist of a large number of sensor nodes that are densely deployed in a region of interest to collect data about a target or event, and to provide a variety of sensing and monitoring applications. Efficient design and implementation of wireless sensor networks has become a hot area of research in recent years, due to the vast potential of sensor networks to enable applications that connect the physical world to the virtual world. There are many characteristics which differ wireless network from wired network and these distinctions introduce the need for many different protocols of WSN at different layers i.e. Physical layer, Data Link layer, Network layer, Transport layer, Application layer. Many research works have been done on the design of low power electronic devices in order to reduce energy consumption of the sensor nodes of Wireless network. MAC protocol of Data Link layer; LEACH, DSDV, AODV, DSR of Network Layer and the standard IEEE 802.15.4 contribute to this factor in various ways. The uses, drawbacks, performance analysis and also comparison between separate MAC protocols as well as comparison between DSDV, AODV and DSR protocols are discussed in detail throughout this paper.