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The number of objectives in many-objective optimization problems (MaOPs) is typically high and evolutionary algorithms face severe difficulties in solving such problems. In this paper, we propose a new scalable evolutionary algorithm, called evolutionary path control strategy (EPCS), for solving MaOPs. The central component of our algorithm is the use of a reference vector that helps simultaneously minimizing all the objectives of an MaOP. In doing so, EPCS employs a new fitness assignment strategy for survival selection. This strategy consists of two procedures and our algorithm applies them sequentially. It encourages a population of solutions to follow a certain path reaching toward the Pareto optimal front. The essence of our strategy is that it reduces the number of nondominated solutions to increase selection pressure in evolution. Furthermore, unlike previous work, EPCS is able to apply the classical Pareto-dominance relation with the new fitness assignment strategy. Our algorithm has been tested extensively on several scalable test problems, namely five DTLZ problems with 5 to 40 objectives and six WFG problems with 2 to 13 objectives. Furthermore, the algorithm has been tested on six CEC09 problems having 2 or 3 objectives. The experimental results show that EPCS is capable of finding better solutions compared to other existing algorithms for problems with an increasing number of objectives.

A large percentage of the world’s population is concentrated along the coastal zones. These environmentally sensitive areas are under intense pressure from natural processes such as erosion, accretion and natural disasters as well as anthropogenic processes such as urban growth, resource development and pollution. These threats have made the coastal zone a priority for coastline monitoring programs and sustainable coastal management. This research utilizes integrated techniques of remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) to monitor coastline changes from 1989 to 2010 at Hatiya Island, Bangladesh. In this study, satellite images from Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) were used to quantify the spatio-temporal changes that took place in the coastal zone of Hatiya Island during the specified period. The modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI) algorithm was applied to TM (1989 and 2010) and ETM (2000) images to discriminate the land–water interface and the on-screen digitizing approach was used over the MNDWI images of 1989, 2000 and 2010 for coastline extraction. Afterwards, the extent of changes in the coastline was estimated through overlaying the digitized maps of Hatiya Island of all three years. Coastline positions were highlighted to infer the erosion/accretion sectors along the coast, and the coastline changes were calculated. The results showed that erosion was severe in the northern and western parts of the island, whereas the southern and eastern parts of the island gained land through sedimentation. Over the study period (1989–2010), this offshore island witnessed the erosion of 6476 hectares. In contrast it experienced an accretion of 9916 hectares. These erosion and accretion processes played an active role in the changes of coastline during the study period.

Pityriasis versicolor is a chronic, superficial fungal infection affecting the superficial layer of a stratum corneum. Malassezia furfur is the major species involved in pityriasis versicolor. Currently many researchers reported increase in the incidence of other species as a causative agent of pityriasis versicolor. Isolation and identification of Malassezia species from suspected Pityriasis versicolor patients was conducted in the Department of Microbiology and immunology Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) from September 2013 to August 2014. Ninety two clinically diagnosed patients of Pityriasis versicolor were studied and samples from skin lesion were processed for direct microscopy and culture. Species of Malassezia were identified by cultural characteristics in Dixon's agar media by macro and microscopic observation of the colonies and by catalase test, urease test, esculin test and tween assimilation test. A totalof 92 cases 70(70.08%) were positive by direct microscopy and 50(54.34%) were positive by culture. Malassezia globosa was found in 38(76%) cases as the commonest etiological agent and Malassezia furfur was found in 10(20%) cases and Malassezia obtusa in 2 (4%) cases respectively.Bangladesh J Med Microbiol 2015; 9 (2): 17-19

not available Bangladesh J Med Microbiol 2016; 10 (2): 1-3

Poverty ignites the societal gap between men and women, while economic development narrows it down through its gender promotional activities. There is bidirectional relationship between economic development and empowerment of women. Women empowerment, being dependent on complex sociological and economic issues, needs to be measured in terms of specific parameters like ‘access to resources’, ‘decision making capability’ and ‘ability to take a stand’. This particular study develops an Index based on few sector-specific parameters to measure empowerment level of women engaged in Self Help Groups. Both ‘individual empowerment index’ and ‘group empowerment indices’ have been constructed, where ‘financial liberty’, ‘ability to take decisions’, ‘heath condition of the women' and ‘ability to stand up against the evils of the society’ have been considered as her empowerment parameters. The index was applied on 300 SHG Group members of rural West Bengal, which provided us an idea about the existing level of rural women empowerment in West Bengal.

Murshidabad is the second largest traditional silk producing district in West Bengal, which bears a golden legacy of producing superlative silk in India since seventeenth century. Kassimbazar was one of the major hubs of silk purchase for the British silk merchants. The industry went into great decline as the Industrial Revolution in the West set in. In the post Independence period attempts were made to revive this home-based artisanal industry in India to expand employment and income opportunities in the rural economy. However, during 2002-2012, there was an exodus of more than 23 thousand silk farmers and 10 thousand silk weavers from the industry. This paper delves into issues related with income determinants of the household silk industry in Murshidabad. The primary data analysis exposes that ‘language efficiency’, ‘number of family members’, ‘ownership of bicycle/motorbike and television’, ‘male labour force’ and ‘women autonomy’ are positively influencing the income of the silk producing households, while the significant factors which inversely influences the level of annual income of the silk producing households are ‘age of the household head’, ‘female workers’, ‘cost of production’, ‘male family members’, ‘morbidity of female’ and ‘expenditure autonomy of female in the family’. The government should adopt pro-active measures like subsidizing the cost of silk weavers, revamp the health insurance scheme of the silk manufacturing women and increase the language efficiency to enhance the silk manufacturers’ income earning capacity. The government should also raise the level of sanitation facility of the silk reelers and weavers and communication goods like bicycle, television to be provided.

This paper presents a compact slotted rectangular microstrip antenna with modified ground plane. Performance advancements with simple modifications of a reference antenna has been carried out in the entire work. The radiating patch and the ground surface has been loaded by two asymmetrical slots and two symmetrical slots respectively. This slight change in antenna shape makes the microstrip antenna more compact. In addition, the directivity, gain, and radiation efficiency have been enhanced significantly. The overall antenna size is 41.3 mm × 48.5 mm × 1.6 mm. The proposed antenna provides 19.8% of the compactness along with 2.9dB of gain enhancement, directivity boost of 2.5dB and radiation efficiency improvement of 25%, approximately. An acceptable relationship is observed between co and cross polarization from achieved patterns which imply the antenna structure as a qualified radiator in terms of polarization purity. A prototype is fabricated with proper characterization. The measured results have a good agreement with simulated results.

Bridges reported one of the earliest observations of gene duplication from the doubling of a chromosomal band in a mutant of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, which exhibited extreme reduction in eye size. Based on whole-genome analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana, there is compelling evidence that angiosperms underwent two whole-genome duplication events early during their evolutionary history. Recent studies have shown that these events were crucial for the creation of many important developmental and regulatory genes found in extant angiosperm genomes. Recent studies provide strong indications that even yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), with its compact genome, is in fact an ancient tetraploid. Gene duplication is providing new genetic material for mutation, drift and selection to act upon, the result of which is specialized or new gene functions. Without gene duplication, the plasticity of a genome or species in adapting to changing environments would be severely limited. The era of whole genome sequencing of model organisms suggests a number of duplication events take place while evolving modern species. Key words: Evolution, genome duplication, diversity.

Background: Reticulocyte count with immature reticulocyte fraction (IRF) used in the laboratories to evaluate the bone marrow erythropoietic activity and have great diagnostic and prognostic importance in the treatment of anemias and other pathological conditions. Objective: The aim of this study was to establish the normal reference range for reticulocyte count and its parameter. Methods: In this study reticulocyte profile were evaluated by automated analysis in 40 healthy control subjects by XT-2000i (Sysmex) hematology analyzer and compared with measurements obtained by manual methods. Manually reticulocytes were supravitally stained with new methylene blue. Results: This study found MRC was 0.81 ±0.46%. The FCMR was 0.97±0.17%, Ret abs was found .04±.02(10 6 / μl) and IRF was found 3.92±1.35%. Conclusion: The precision of the automated analyzer was found significantly higher than the manual methods. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjmed.v21i2.13616 Bangladesh J Medicine 2010; 21: 80-83

There is a great need to determine the susceptibility of individual Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains as rapidly as possible because emergence of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in developing countries. The study was conducted to evaluate the thin layer agar (TLA) media for rapid detection of resistance of M.tuberculosis to rifampicin (RMP) and isoniazid (INH) in clinical isolates and to determine the sensitivity and time to positivity compared to the proportion method. One hundred clinical isolates of M.tuberculosis were studied. For the TLA method, three compartment Petri plate containing 7H11 agar and 7H11 agar with RMP and INH. Results were compared to the proportion method for RMP and INH. The sensitivity for INH and RMP+INH was 85.7 % and 100%. The use of a TLA plate enables the rapid detection of resistance to the two prime anti-tuberculosis drugs RMP and INH in a median time of 9.60 days. TLA was a rapid method for the detection of resistance of M.tuberculosis in the two drugs studied. This faster method is simple to perform, providing an alternative method when more sophisticated techniques are not available in low-resource settings.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjmm.v7i1.19313 Bangladesh J Med Microbiol 2013; 07(01): 2-6

The Sundarbans mangrove forest is an important resource for the people of the Ganges Delta. It plays an important role in the local as well as global ecosystem by absorbing carbon dioxide and other pollutants from air and water, offering protection to millions of people in the Ganges Delta against cyclone and water surges, stabilizing the shore line, trapping sediment and nutrients, purifying water, and providing services for human beings, such as fuel wood, medicine, food, and construction materials. However, this mangrove ecosystem is under threat, mainly due to climate change and anthropogenic factors. Anthropogenic and climate change-induced degradation, such as over-exploitation of timber and pollution, sea level rise, coastal erosion, increasing salinity, effects of increasing number of cyclones and higher levels of storm surges function as recurrent threats to mangroves in the Sundarbans. In this situation, regular and detailed information on mangrove species composition, their spatial distribution and the changes taking place over time is very important for a thorough understanding of mangrove biodiversity, and this information can also lead to the adoption of management practices designed for the maximum sustainable yield of the Sundarbans forest resources. We employed a maximum likelihood classifier technique to classify images recorded by the Landsat satellite series and used post classification comparison techniques to detect changes at the species level. The image classification resulted in overall accuracies of 72%, 83%, 79% and 89% for the images of 1977, 1989, 2000 and 2015, respectively. We identified five major mangrove species and detected changes over the 38-year (1977–2015) study period. During this period, both Heritiera fomes and Excoecaria agallocha decreased by 9.9%, while Ceriops decandra, Sonneratia apelatala, and Xylocarpus mekongensis increased by 12.9%, 380.4% and 57.3%, respectively.

Metamodel based evolutionary algorithms have been used for solving expensive single and multi-objective optimization problems where evaluation of functions consume major portion of the running time. The system can be complex, high dimensional, multi-objective and black box function. In this paper, we have proposed a framework for solving expensive multi-objective optimization problems that uses high dimensional model representation (HDMR) as a basic model. The proposed method first explores the region of interest and then exploits them by narrowing the search space. It uses Kriging to interpolate subcomponents of HDMR and NSGA-II to solve the model space. It is compared with basic NSGA-II and multi-objective Kriging method on ZDT, DTLZ and CEC09 test problem suits. The results show that this framework is able to find a good distribution of solutions which are sufficiently converged to Pareto optimal fronts with limited number of solution evaluations.

Delivering accurate cyclone forecasts in time is of key importance when it comes to saving human lives and reducing economic loss. Difficulties arise because the geographical and climatological characteristics of the various cyclone formation basins are not similar, which entail that a single forecasting technique cannot yield reliable performance in all ocean basins. For this reason, global forecasting techniques need to be applied together with basin-specific techniques to increase the forecast accuracy. As cyclone track is governed by a range of factors variations in weather conditions, wind pressure, sea surface temperature, air temperature, ocean currents, and the earths rotational force-the coriolis force, it is a formidable task to combine these parameters and produce reliable and accurate forecasts. In recent years, the availability of suitable data has increased and more advanced forecasting techniques have been developed, in addition to old techniques having been modified. In particular, artificial neural network based techniques are now being considered at meteorological offices. This new technique uses freely available satellite images as input, can be run on standard PCs, and can produce forecasts with good accuracy. For these reasons, artificial neural network based techniques seem especially suited for developing countries which have limited capacity to forecast cyclones and where human casualties are the highest. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

Calprotectin is a calcium and zinc binding protein released from leucocytes, markedly elevated in organic bowel diseases (OBD). Faecal calprotectin (FC) is supposed to be a reliable biomarker to screen the suspected patients with OBD. This study was aimed to determine the role of FC level in screening the suspected OBD patients. It was carried out by measurement of FC using a commercially available ELISA kit among 50 patients with chronic diarrhoea for ? 6 weeks with or without other GIT symptoms who underwent colonoscopic evaluation (35 OBD patients and 15 disease control) and 12 healthy control. Significantly higher value (P

Background: The incidence of oral cancer varies globally and regionally and is closely linked with geographical, social, economical, biological, ethnic, dietary and environmental factors. In India, buccal mucosa (cheek) is the most common site for the lesion having 50% of all the oral cavity cancers and the incidence of oral cancers is about 10.6 % of all cancers. The aim of the study was to study the mucosal lesions with regard to mode of presentation, aetiopathology, histopathological aspects, various surgical modalities.Methods: The prospective observational and descriptive tertiary care institute based case study was undertaken at Medical College, Kolkata. A total of 30 patients were included in the study.Results: Maximum number of patients was in the 51-60 yr age group and the male: female sex ratio was 7:3. The maximum risk factors were found to be smoking and tobacco. 16.67% patients had premalignant lesions namely leucoplakia whereas 73.33% of the patients presented with oral ulcers as the chief complaint. Most of the patients presented in the late stage. Squamous cell carcinoma was the most common histological type. Out of 30 patients, 6 underwent wide local excision only and the rest underwent neck dissection. Mandibulectomy was done in 14 patients, Pectoralis major myocutaneous flap was the most common reconstructive procedure used (43.33%).Conclusions: Cancer of the oral cavity accounts for a high incidence in our country due to our social habits. In spite of easy accessibility to early lesion, the number of locally advanced lesion is very high. This can be prevented by creating health awareness.

Background: Construction of a gastrointestinal stoma is a frequently performed surgical procedure. Although formation of defunctioning loop ileostomy is usually a straightforward procedure, there is an appreciable complication rate. The purpose of the research was to study the complications, outcome associated with temporary ileostomy and to study the complications related to its closure.Methods: Institutional based observational study using prospective data collection large ileal perforations covering more than one third of the circumference, or gangrenous change or severe adhesions and old perforations with presence of peritoneal contamination were included in the study. 50 patients were included in the study. Clinical, intra-operative, biochemical parameters with stomal and peristomal complications and tissue histopathology were assessed in the study.Results: The commonest aetiology for which stoma was performed enteric perforation (44%) whereas perforation was the commonest aetiology for which stoma was performed (64%) apart from gangrene and other aetiologies. The commonest post-operative complication encountered was skin excoriation (64%). Most of the the complications encountered post operatively were statistically significant when correlated with aetiology and duration of presentation.Conclusions: Although being bothersome, loop ileostomy is still a live saving procedure. Complications of stoma could be managed conservatively with the application of proper user-friendly stoma appliances and it is of paramount importance that ileostomies are properly sited. Before closure of ileostomy it is essential to be careful of operative biopsy report showing non-specific inflammation. Preference of surgeons in the present day to perform ileostomy in emergency setting is increasing.

Poverty ignites the societal gap between men and women, while economic development narrows it down through its gender promotional activities. There is bidirectional relationship between economic development and empowerment of women. Women empowerment, being dependent on complex sociological and economic issues, needs to be measured in terms of specific parameters like ‘access to resources’, ‘decision making capability’ and ‘ability to take a stand’. This particular study develops an Index based on few sector-specific parameters to measure empowerment level of women engaged in Self Help Groups. Both ‘individual empowerment index’ and ‘group empowerment indices’ have been constructed, where‘financial liberty’, ‘ability to take decisions’, ‘heath condition of the women and ‘ability to stand up against the evils of the society’ have been considered as her empowerment parameters. The index was applied on 300 SHG Group members of rural West Bengal, which provided us an idea about the existing level of rural women empowerment in West Bengal.

Introduction: Tropical Cyclones (TCs) inflict considerable damage to life and property every year. A major problem is that residents often hesitate to follow evacuation orders when the early warnin ...

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) arise from interstitial cells of Cajal identified in 1893 by Santiago Ramon y Cajal and present with a myriad of symptoms including gastrointestinal bleeding, obstruction, and lump. However, cystic presentation of GIST is a rare presentation and few cases have been reported in literature till date. Our patient presented as a recurrent abdominal cyst with provisional diagnosis of the mesenteric cyst. On surgery, a huge cyst adhered to the mesentery was found adhered to a part of the jejunum which required resection and anastomosis. Postoperative biopsy revealed it to be a case of GIST with cystic degeneration due to hemorrhage and necrosis. The author tries to find out whether preoperatively any features are predictive of this rare diagnosis to enable R0resection for good prognosis.

Occurrence of sheath blight disease (Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn) in rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a regular feature in tropical South Asia and causes huge economic losses. Till now, no resistant cultivar has been developed against the pathogen and gene(s) conferring complete resistance for the disease are not reported in the available rice germplasm. This necessitates the screening of new rice germplasm against the pathogen to identify the resistance source. Ten newly developed Wild Abortive (WA) cytoplasmic male-sterile (CMS) lines, along with a susceptible cultivar (cv. Pant Dhan-4) were evaluated under green-house conditions in a randomized complete block design, with three replications. Screening was done using fungal mycelia disc (15 mm size diameter) and sclerotia (0.2 mg) to determine the potentiality of inoculum. Genotypes were assessed for total lesion length (cm) at 3, 6, 9 and 12 days after inoculation. The response in relative lesion length varied significantly depending upon sclerotia or mycelium discs used and genetic background. During initial period of disease development, non-significant variation was observed but later on the response of genotypes was clearly distinguishable when lesion size gradually increased. Disease severity index was comparatively higher for sclerotial inoculation than mycelial inoculation indicating sclerotia are more effective. The genotype UPRM 271-8-5EUI-3-2A showed the lowest severity in both the methods of inoculation. The highest severity was recorded for UPRM 78-4-1A (mycelial inoculation) and UPRM 271-8-5EUI-6-4A (sclerotial inoculation). Disease appearance was more uniform and higher in sclerotial inoculation when compared with mycelial inoculation. Screening of rice germplasm using uniform sized sclerotia and disease assessment at one week after inoculation were found to be the most effective for screening of rice cultivars.

Bangladesh has experienced several catastrophic Tropical Cyclones (TCs) during the last decades. Despite the efforts of disaster management organizations, as well as the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), there were lapses in the residents’ evacuation behavior. To examine the processes of TC forecasting and warning at BMD and to understand the reasons for residents’ reluctance to evacuate after a cyclone warning, we conducted an individual in-depth interview among the meteorologists at BMD, as well as a questionnaire survey among the residents living in the coastal areas. The results reveal that the forecasts produced by BMD are not reliable for longer than 12-h. Therefore, longer-term warnings have to be based on gross estimates of TC intensity and motion, which renders the disseminated warning messages unreliable. Our results indicate that residents in the coastal areas studied, do not follow the evacuation orders due to mistrust of the warning messages—which can deter from early evacuation; and insufficient number of shelters and poor transportation possibilities—which discourages late evacuation. Suggestions made by the residents highlight the necessity of improved warning messages in the future. These findings indicate the need for improved forecasting, and more reliable and more informative warning messages for ensuring a timely evacuation response from residents.

Sericulture is an important livelihood option in rural West Bengal providing employment to more than 1 lakh families in the rural and semi-urban areas. The productivity level of sericulture (land and leaf) is not low compared to that of the major silk producing states in the country, which opens further scope to research and analyse about its productivity. This paper has explored several dimensions of its growth pattern during the planning periods of West Bengal. A field level survey in the major silk producing district of West Bengal has exposed few factors like household size and male hired labourers which are positively raising the level of average employment in the sericulture farms, while education level acts as a significant reducing factor, along with mandays involved with the activities. It implies sericulture is still only a popular livelihood activity among the backward people. On the other hand, small holding capacity of the rural farmers and poor economic condition of the artisans have been identified as major impediments in the path of development of sericulture in West Bengal. The rural moneylenders/ traders (dadani mahajan) utilizes this advantage and extracts a major part of the pay-off intruding into the supply chain of the industry. In the textile policy, the objective of the government always centres on the issues like extension of sericulture through acreage and production, ignoring the issues like ‘economic-exploitation’ faced by the artisanal classes at each level of value addition in the supply chain. In the absence of institutional apathy and well-linked credit system in the remote rural areas coupled with financial illiteracy of the rural artisans, the objective of development of artisanal silk industry in West Bengal seems to be far away.

Bangladesh is subject to a variety of environmental stressors and is characterized by large imbalances in the distribution of natural resources due to poor environmental management or a lack thereof. In addition, current and future climate change impacts are likely to yield even more significant consequences. The effort to minimize the gap between policy and implementation is targeted at grass-root level and encompasses physical conservation aspects, increasing the optimum use of resources, and socio-cultural awareness building programs. Government plans and policies provide legal coverage to strengthen management and occasionally ratify international protocols for global linkages. Scientists and the government identify the environmental sectors, providing an extensive list of generalized issues. Between 1995 and 2010, a large number of local and international nongovernmental organizations worked with government agencies on the integration of government policies that directly addressed environmental management mainly. Although the overall intellectual infrastructure at the local level is reasonably good, the significant, but weak coordination between various government agencies has been identified as a priority. Nevertheless, local poverty, a lack of alternative development methods, the slow growth of quality education, and poor international/cross-cultural partnerships are major weak points. The case study focuses specifically on the availability of international funds and the weak role that developing nations play in the North-South dialogue forum.

Mangrove ecosystems are complex in nature. For monitoring the impact of climate variability in this ecosystem, a multidisciplinary approach is a prerequisite. Changes in temperature and rainfall pattern have been suggested as an influential factor responsible for the change in mangrove species composition and spatial distribution. The main aim of this study was to assess the relationship between temperature, rainfall pattern and dynamics of mangrove species in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh, over a 38 year time period from 1977 to 2015. To assess the relationship, a three stage analytical process was employed. Primarily, the trend of temperature and rainfall over the study period were identified using a linear trend model; then, the supervised maximum likelihood classifier technique was employed to classify images recorded by Landsat series and post-classification comparison techniques were used to detect changes at species level. The rate of change of different mangrove species was also estimated in the second stage. Finally, the relationship between temperature, rainfall and the dynamics of mangroves at species level was determined using a simple linear regression model. The results show a significant statistical relationship between temperature, rainfall and the dynamics of mangrove species. The trends of change for Heritiera fomes and Sonneratia apelatala show a strong relationship with temperature and rainfall, while Ceriops decandra shows a weak relationship. In contrast, Excoecaria agallocha and Xylocarpus mekongensis do not show any significant relationship with temperature and rainfall. On the basis of our results, it can be concluded that temperature and rainfall are important climatic factors influencing the dynamics of three major mangrove species viz. H. fomes, S. apelatala and C. decandra in the Sundarbans.

Indian Leather industry is recognized as the most promising foreign exchange earning sector since early ‘70s of the previous century. In terms of percentage share, leather export earnings accounted for 8% of the total foreign exchange earning sector, even in 1998-99, when the first environmental ban1 was imposed by its major export absorbing country, Germany. However, even after ten years (CLE, 2008-09) with annual earnings of 7 billion USD, the Industry has reached such a stupendous height of success, which made it the 6th largest foreign exchange earning country in the world. On one side, the export generating potential to boost the growth rate of the economy and on the other side the pollution intensive nature of the industry – has made this sector distinct. The Indian Leather Industry has been hit by several environmental bans and regulations since’90s. The ways of compliance adopted by Indian Leather sector has helped the industry in restructuring its technology and consequentially an apparent growth in exports sector has been experienced. The export earning of the Indian Leather and Leather Manufacture has almost quadrupled from 1987-88 to 2010-11. From 964.4million US$, the export earning reached to 3789million US$ during this period. This stupendous performance challenged many so called hypotheses which show a trade-off between environmental compliance and export competitiveness (Chakraborty, 2011). This paper will make an expository analysis on how that environmental compliance affected Indian Leather Industry.

Selection indices were constructed using seven traits in a set of 32 forage oat (Avena sativa L.) genotypes using Smith index. The experiment was conducted with three replications at Instructional Dairy Farm, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand. The efficiency of different indices was assessed in terms of expected genetic advance and relative efficiency of selection over grain yield per se. Efficiency of indices over direct selection for relative selection efficiency ranged from 16.92 to 514.28 percent. Selection on the basis of number of spikelets per panicle gave 43.16% higher efficiency for grain yield improvement. This trait was found important for all the indices that also had high heritability, high GCV and direct effect on grain yield per plant. Selection indices comprising of growth rate, number of spikelets per panicle and grain yield were most efficient indices for grain yield improvement with relative efficiency of selection as 374.53 percent and genetic advance of 24.12.

Highly fluorescent reticulocyte count a new routine parameter in the hematology analyzer can give the idea of the earliest morphologic change of bone marrow recovery before other test become positive after chemotherapy. A prospective study was carried out in the Department of Clinical Pathology in collaboration with Paediatric Haematology and Oncology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) during a period of one year starting from October 2009 to September 2010 to evaluate the bone marrow recovery in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) by automated reticulocyte analysis. Total fifty patients were enrolled in this study on remission induction phase. All patients were between 8 months to 15 years age range with a mean age of 5.5±3.2. At the end of the study highly fluroscent reticulocyte count recovery occurred earlier than the current practice of absolute neutrophil count (ANC) recovery.

The Right to Education Act came into effect on 1st April 2010 which ensures free and compulsory education to every child between the ages 6-14 years. “Free education” means that no child, other than a child who has been admitted by his or her parents to a school which is not supported by the appropriate Government, shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges. On the other hand, “Compulsory education” casts an obligation on the appropriate Government and local authorities to provide and ensure admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by all children in the 6-14 age groups. India is currently having 8.1 million eligible students who are either dropouts or have never gone to school. Therefore, bringing them back to school can be considered as one of the major challenges in implementing Right to Education (RTE).The target of RTE actually follows from a global set target, namely Millennium Development Goals, which states that every child must achieve primary education by 2015. The 1990 world conference on “Education for All” was held in Thailand, where few global goals were set, including achievement of universal primary education by 2000. Again in 2000, the World Education Forum in Senegal reaffirmed and extended the Thailand commitment. Universal Primary educations along with gender parity were reaffirmed again in the Millennium Summit at New York. However the world cannot reach its goal unless all the nations proceed forward. This clarifies the prioritization and relevance of the Right to Education Act in India.According to India’s “Education for All Middle Decade Assessment”, primary school enrolment has increased by 13.7% in between 2001-2005, which reaches close to universal enrolment in Grade I. Despite this success, 1 out of 4 children left school before reaching Grade V and almost half before reaching Grade VIII in 2005. Thus Drop-Out seems to be the major hurdles in the pace of achieving RTE.Jayachandran (2007) has shown that there is a common tendency to show inflated enrolment rates through official statistics mainly to project a successful trend, but that ultimately leads to magnifying dropout rates. Therefore we can say that the Official Statistics of Ministry of Human Development & Resources (1997-98) always project an exaggerated number. On the other hand NSS Data depends upon household sample survey, which believes to reflect the true trend. But calculation of dropout rate through 52-Round NSS data projects a much lower trend for dropout. Surprisingly in both the cases, West Bengal captures the second highest position in the dropout statistics. According to official statistics (MHRD, 97-98) the dropout rate in West Bengal is as high as 35.8% while calculation from NSS 52 Round data shows it is 11.5%.Uttar Dinajpur is the lowest ranking district in the state in achieving literacy rate and highest ranking state in dropout. The greatest challenge in achieving RTE in the district is to reduce its 34.75% dropout rate in primary education( Cohort Study, 2005) as well as enroll 13,477 out of school eligible children in the age group between 6 to 9 years (HHS2010 ) and 16,140 out of school children in the age group between 10 to 14 years (HHS, 2010).The major objective of this paper is to shed some light on the issues of dropout in primary education as a specific case study on the district of Uttar Dinajpur. There are some general perceptions regarding the causes of dropout while policy prescription requires some area specific target doctrine. The socio-economic factors often remain a non quantifiable entity and exercise of econometrics fails to capture the impact of those invisible issues. But unless those problems remains identified the target of RTE would remain a delusion. I intend within my limited scope of analysis to provide some insight in those issues.

Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) remains one of the most common and major complications after renal transplantation. Objective: The study was undertaken to get an insight regarding the bacterial pathogen which is responsible for UTI in post renal transplant patients and their risk factors association. Methods: This was an observational study, conducted in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) from December 2010 to December 2011. Twenty- one renal transplant recipients were evaluated for UTl after surgery up to six weeks. Microscopic examination and culture of urine were performed in every pre-transplant period, 3rd POD, 7th POD, within six weeks and as per patient's clinical condition. UTI was considered when bacterial count was

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the major causes of death from a single infectious agent worldwide. The early detection of new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis is an important goal in tuberculosis control program.Objective: 1n this study, thin layer agar (TLA) culture was compared with Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) culture for rapid detection of pulmonary tuberculosis. Methods: It was a cross sectional study conducted in National Tuberculosis Reference Labora­tory (NTRL) of National Institute of Disease of Chest and Hospital (NIDCH), Dhaka, from July 2010 to June 2011. A total of 100 sputum smear positive for acid fast bacilli (AFB) by Z-N staining, pulmonary tuberculosis patients were included in this study. Samples were processed by modified Petroff method and then cultured on thin layer 7H11(TL7H11) plates and L-J tubes. TL7H11 plates were observed microscopically for rnicrocolony growth once a week for 6 weeks, and L-J tubes were observed once a week for 8 weeks. Results: The recovery rates of mycobacteria on only TLA, only LJ and on both media were 90%, 97% and 88% respectively. Overall positivity was 99% in both L-J and TLA media. Mean time for detection of mycobacteria on TLA was 9.04±1.66 days compared to 21.78±6.19 days on L-J media. The rate of contamination was higher (6%) in L-J media than in TLA media (4%). Conclusion: The TL7H11 media can be used as an alternative to the Lowenstein-Jensen medium for early isolation of mycobacteria in resource constrained settings.

India has five million working children which is more than two percent of the total child population in the age group of 5-14 years. Despite existence of legal prohibitions, several socio-economic situations ranging from dearth of poverty, over–fertility, non-responsive education system to poor access in financial services adversely affect a section of children and keep them in work field. This work burden not only prevents the children from getting the basic education, it is also highly detrimental to their health and ultimately leads to intellectual and physical stunting of their growth. At this backdrop, this paper measures the magnitude of child rights to education enjoyed by the child labour across the states of West Bengal. The paper identifies various reasons behind non-inclusiveness of a great portion of child labour in main-stream of education through empirical analysis in two backward districts of West Bengal. An analysis of NCLP activities based on evaluation surveys helps to trace the gap of work and lack of convergence mechanism with activities of Sarba Shiksha Mission. We recommend few measures to revamp the whole process, so that relationship between child labour and inclusive education activities can be revamped. NCLP and Sarba Shiksha Mission should work hand in hand to fulfill this objective. Complete implementation of Right to Education can help to solve many of these issues involved with child labour, as the act itself has an inclusive approach.

Background/Aim: Gastro duodenal ulcer is a common disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. Several Indian medicinal plants have been traditionally and extensively used to prevent different diseases. In the present research studies, Bael fruit ( Aegle marmelos (AM), family: Rutaceae ) which are also called as Bilva in ancient Sanskrit was used as a herbal drug and its antioxidative role in aspirin- induced gastroduodenal ulceration in albino rat was evaluated using essential biochemical parameters. Patients and Methods: Mucosal thickness (MT), ulcer index (UI), different biochemical parameters, such as aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), reduced glutathione (GSH), and lipid peroxidation (LPO) were measured in all the groups, to study the possible involvement of antioxidants with gastroduodenal protection. Results: A significant decrease in MT, SOD and CAT activities and GSH level and a significant increase in UI, AST, ALT, and ALP activities and LPO level were observed in aspirin treated stomach and duodenum of albino rats. Conclusions: Pretreatment with AM fruit pulp extract for 14 consecutive days showed the reverse effects of aspirin suggesting gastro-duodenal protective and anti- ulcerogenic properties of AM through its antioxidant mechanism.

Neonatal septicemia is one of the major health problems throughout the world. Infections are frequent and important cause of morbidity and mortality in neonatal period. The objective of the present study was to find out the role of hematologic scoring system (HSS), C-reactive protein (CRP) and haptoglobin in the early diagnosis of neonatal septicemia. This is a descriptive consisted of 100 neonates admitted at neonatal ICU, BSMMU, who were clinically suspected sepsis. The hematological parameter, C-reactive protein and haptoglobin were measured in all cases. Blood culture was done as the gold standard for diagnosis of neonatal septicemia. There were 12 out of 100 neonates (12%) who had culture proven sepsis and they were predominantly preterm and very low birth weight. On evaluation of various hematological parameters total leukocyte count, total neutrophil count, immature to total neutrophil ratio (0.2), immature to mature neutrophil ratio (0.3), total immature count, platelet count were found to have optimal sensitivities and negative predictive values. Using these values hematologic scoring system (HSS) was formulated according to Rodwell et al. Score ≥4 was found sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 60%. C-reactive protein (CRP) had sensitivity of 75%, specificity of 74%. Haptoglobin was not found significant (p0.05) with sepsis and sensitivity was very low. But Combination of score ≥4 and CRP showed sensitivity of 75%, specificity 85%, positive predictive value (PPV) 41% and negative positive value (NPV) 96%. HSS and CRP are useful test to differentiate the septicemic from non septicemic neonates and also provide a effective guideline to make decisions regarding judicious use of antibiotic therapy. But haptoglobin level was not found useful for screening of sepsis.

Indian Leather Industry is recognized as one of the most promising foreign exchange earning sectors since early 1970s. The industry was hard hit by two consecutive foreign environment bans since 1989. Along with that, few domestic environmental regulations also resulted into closure down of a number of leather tanneries during this period. However, the government intervention and the successive compliance measures adopted by the firms ultimately helped the industry to gain momentum in its export sector. This paper analyzes the far reaching impact of these environmental regulations on export sector of Indian Leather Industry. Whether this boost in leather export marks a trade-off relation between environmental quality and volume of exports is a matter of debate, which is attempted in this paper. This paper, within the limitations of data availability regarding environmental statistics, has determined a positive relation between environmental quality and volume of leather exports and justified that instead of Pollution Haven Hypothesis, Indian Leather Industry rather confirms Porterɺs Hypothesis.

Employment generation is one of the major potentials of Sericulture and Silk Industry in India. The farm and non-farm activity of this sector creates sixty lakh mandays of employment every year mostly in rural sector. The industry helps to create egalitarian distribution of income as it transfers greater share of its wealth from high end urban customers to poor artisan classes. In West Bengal, more than one lakh families are occupied with sericulture activities where Karnataka is the state with the largest number of families involved with sericulture. Despite having high level family involvement, West Bengal produces smaller quantities of raw silk compared to Karnataka as well as Andhra Pradesh. This paper investigates the reason of this low production and finds out that low productivity of land is no way responsible for that. Different Employment Models constructed in this paper suggest that ‘area of mulberry cultivation’, ‘cocoon-market’ and ‘power-looms’ are powerful factors in changing the level of employment, while the primary survey exposes factors like ‘unitary household structure’, ‘income’ ‘years of education’ and ‘numbers of female in the household’ as the significant factors in accelerating average employment per family. The spillover effect of this employment generation is studied at the end. The study finds that as a poverty eradication measure, sericulture fails to expand in rural West Bengal vis-a-vis the other prominent states. But income inequality is undoubtedly diminished with the practice in sericulture.

This paper focuses interlinkage between ‘Value Education’ and ‘Sustainable Development’ in special reference to Higher Education Institutes of India. Sustainable Development, which accepts the responsibility of future generations, cannot be possible without morality being imbibed in human nature and that should be done in adolescence when he passes through several confusions and queries. This paper suggests few curricular and co-curricular modifications of Higher Education Institutes and explains within an era of consumerism, an urgent need of altruist approach is a dire necessity to save this earth from its forthcoming danger.

The burgeoning growth of the e-Learning technologies implies the fact that the future education system will largely depend upon the electronic devices and computer aided technologies. It has already been proved that the computer aided teaching techniques are much more effective for the children than the traditional teaching system in most of the cases. A large number of software has been designed to assist the teachers in the classroom to teach and evaluate the students. Although those software systems are good enough for a class with normal (neurotypical) children, those very often fail to address the special needs of the autistic children. Hence, the autistic children face various challenges in participating with neurotypicals in the same classroom. We have addressed this problem by designing and implementing an intelligent classroom software, named “A-Class”, which takes care of the diversity of tastes among the autistic children of a classroom and helps the teacher to teach in a class participated by both autistic and neurotypical children. In this paper we discuss the idea, design and implementation of A-Class based upon our five months of intervention with the autistic children at Autism Welfare Foundation (AWF) in Dhaka.

Background: Neonatal septicemia is one of the major health problems throughout the world. Infections are a frequent and important cause of morbidity and mortality in neonatal period. Objective: The objective of this study was the role of hematologic scoring system (HSS) in the early diagnosis of neonatal septicemia. Methods: This is a prospective study consisted of 100 neonates admitted at neonatal ICU, BSMMU, who were clinically suspected cases of septicemia. The neonatal hematological parameter was measured in all cases. Blood culture was done for the gold standard of proven sepsis. There were 12 out of 100 neonates (12%) who had culture proven sepsis. They were predominantly preterm and of very low birth weight. Results: On evaluation of various hematological parameters total leucocytes count, total neutrophil count, IT ratio (>0.2), IM ratio (> 0.3), total immature PMNs count, platelet count were found to have optimal sensitivities and negative predictive values. Using these values hematologic scoring system was formulated according to Rodwell et al. Score > 4 has a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 60%, with PPV 26% and NPV 100 %. Considering the high sensitivity, negative predictive value, this study implies that score > 4 were more reliable as a screening tool for sepsis than any of the individual hematological parameter. Conclusion: HSS are useful test to distinguish the infected from non infected infants. They also provide a effective guideline to make decisions regarding judicious use of antibiotic therapy. Keywords: Hematologic scoring system (HSS); Blood culture; Neonatal septicemia DOI: 10.3329/bsmmuj.v3i2.7053 BSMMU J 2010; 3(2): 62-67

Visual pattern recognition is a complex problem, and it has proven difficult to achieve satisfactorily instandard three-layer feed-forward artificial neural networks. For this reason, an increasing number ofresearchers are using networks whose architecture resembles the human visual system. These biologicallybasednetworks are bidirectionally connected, use receptive fields, and have a hierarchical structure, withthe input layer being the largest layer, and consecutive layers getting increasingly smaller. These networksare large and complex, and therefore run a risk of getting overfitted during learning, especially if smalltraining sets are used, and if the input patterns are noisy. Many data sets, such as, for example, handwrittencharacters, are intrinsically noisy. The problem of overfitting is aggravated by the tendency of error-drivenlearning in large networks to treat all variations in the noisy input as significant. However, there is one wayto balance off this tendency to overfit, and that is to use a mixture of learning algorithms. In this study, weran systematic tests on handwritten character recognition, where we compared generalization performanceusing a mixture of Hebbian learning and error-driven learning with generalization performance using pureerror-driven learning. Our results indicate that injecting even a small amount of Hebbian learning, 0.01 %,significantly improves the generalization performance of the network.