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Neutron radiography (NR) has been applied successfully to investigate different types of building materials, rock samples, sculptures, statues or monuments for since long. The utilization of neutron imaging for non-invasive investigations of cultural heritage objects is demonstrated on the example of ancient bricks found in Mahasthangarh and Sonargaon, two key archaeological sites in Bangladesh. The visualization of the internal structure of different brick samples, by means of Neutron Radiography (NR), has been experimented using the BTRR research reactor in Bangladesh - the only neutron imaging facility available in Bangladesh for R D purposes. Manufacturing building materials have become a very good option for business in developing countries like Bangladesh. Among the non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques, neutron radiography is the most common procedure to identify light and organic materials, homogeneity, any inclusion or voids or cracks etc. inside the structure. The radiographic images in a dry condition for individual samples have been investigated. The image analysis was performed using ImageJ software and texture features were extracted using gray level co-occurrence matrix implemented by MATLAB for acquiring qualitative and quantitative information from this inspection technique at a high level of accuracy. The results obtained by neutron imaging provide the statement that the brick sample from Mahasthangarh is more homogeneous inside.

As Gallium oxides have been using in optoelectronic devices due to its high potentiality and efficiency, therefore, the Gallium–Copper oxide crystal has been computationally designed and screened f...

This paper intends to present the current status of the education and training program of BAEC TRIGA Research Reactor (BTRR) as well as the prospect of Virtual Reactor Laboratory (VRL) as a tool to impart training and education. VRL has been proposed based on BTRR and its feasibility with regard to imparting training and education programs of research reactor has been assessed. As education and training are key utilizations of BTRR, this VRL will widen the scope of harnessing maximum benefits out of such utilizations. Since nuclear security is a paramount concern, aspects of cyber security has been considered in the proposed VRL. In order to maintain a high degree of privacy of the BTRR facility, different levels of cyber security have been embedded along with the VRL to control the unknown access to the system. VRL can provide an impetus in developing skilled workforce for Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP), other proposed nuclear power plants, nuclear installations and broaden the outlook of teachers, students and researchers in nuclear science and technology through distant learning method.

This research work conveys the computationally investigation of Hafnium (IV) oxide and its doped crystals by Si, Ge and Sn atom replacing on the oxygen atom in HfO2. As Hafnium (IV) oxide has been used in power-electronics devices of MOSFETs and electronics as RRAM due to wide band gap which makes a vast problems creating high resistance. Regarding this case, the Hafnium (IV) oxide has selected and inputs how the band gap has reduced after doping the large surface area of atoms, such as Si, Ge and Sn. The lattice parameters and bandgaps were calculated with the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE), Revised Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (RPBE), Perdew Wang (PW91), Wu-Cohen (WC), and Perdew-BurkeErnzerhof for solids (PBEsol) non-local functionals of the generalized gradient approximations (GAA). The Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) functional provided better result which is similar to the reference value of mother crystal, HfO2. This first principle method in view of density functional theory (DFT) focuses the structural geometry, electronic structure and optical properties employing conventional calculations pertaining to HfO2 executing the computational tools of the CASTAP code from material studio 8.0. The band gap was recorded by 4.340 eV, 2.033 eV, 1.686 eV and 3.210 eV for HfO2, Hf0.88Si0.12O2 Hf0.88Ge0.12O2 and Hf0.88Sn0.12O2 crystals through the Generalized Gradient Approximation (GGA) with Perdew Burke Ernzerhof (PBE). Secondly, it had also justified doing further investigations by GGA with RPBE, GGA with PW91, GGA with WC and GGA with PBESOL, the band gap for HfO2, Hf0.88Si0.12O2, Hf0.88Ge0.12O2 and Hf0.88Sn0.12O2 were at 4.427 eV, 2.093 eV, 1.744 eV, and 3.262 eV, respectively using GGA with WC, 4.333 eV, 2.032 eV, 1.675 eV and 3.172 eV, respectively using GGA with PW91, 4.252 eV, 2.002 eV, 1.632eV and 3.086 eV, respectively using GGA with WC 4.245 eV, 2.001 eV, 1.629 eV, and 3.076 eV, respectively using GGA with PBESOL. Moreover the DFT and PDOS were simulated for evaluating the nature of 6s2, 5p6, 4f14, 5d2 orbital for a Hf atom, 3s2, 2p6 orbital for Si atom, and 4s2, 3p6, 3d10 orbital for Ge atom, 4d10, 5s2, 5p2 for Sn atom and 2s and 2p orbital for O atom of Hf0.88Ge0.12O2 and Hf0.88Sn0.12O2 crystals. The optical properties, for instance, absorption, reflection, refractive index, conductivity, dielectric function, loss function, electrostatic potential map and aquatic toxicity were calculated.

Electronics band structures, the total density of state, the partial density of state and optical properties were investigated by DFT method for A2InAgCl6 (A= Cs, Na, K, and Rb). Moreover, the band gap of Na2InAgCl6, K2InAgCl6, Rb2InAgCl6 and Cs2InAgCl6 were calculated at 1.039 eV, 1.041 eV, 1.039 eV and 1.089 eV by GGA with PBE, 0.784 eV, 0.769 eV, 0.775 eV and 0.770 eV by LDA with CA-PZ and 1.310 eV, 1.152 eV, 1.180 eV and 1.169 eV by GGA with RPBE functionals. The density of states (DOS) and partial density of states (PDOS) were evaluated. Among of used functionals, GGA with RPBE functional has considered the appropriate and acceptable method for calculation of band gap where the 1.310 eV of band gap was reported for Cs2InAgCl6, which is close to experimental value at 1.370 eV. The crystal, Na2InAgCl6, has considered as the best perovskites cell among other four due to low band gap, and the main cause is revealed that it has attached the lightest Na atom to convey the low band gap as lower surface or atomic size atom.

In terms of Image-to-image translation, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) has achieved great success even when it is used in the unsupervised dataset. In this work, we aim to translate cartoon images to photo-realistic images using GAN. We apply several state-of-the-art models to perform this task; however, they fail to perform good quality translations. We observe that the shallow difference between these two domains causes this issue. Based on this idea, we propose a method based on CycleGAN model for image translation from cartoon domain to photo-realistic domain. To make our model efficient, we implemented Spectral Normalization which added stability in our model. We demonstrate our experimental results and show that our proposed model has achieved the lowest Frechet Inception Distance score and better results compared to another state-of-the-art technique, UNIT., Accepted as a short paper at ICTAI 2020

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis and it has been known as the main factor of lower limb disability. The aim of the study is evaluating the level of vitamin K and D status as well as determining cut-off point of these vitamins for predicting knee OA and also pain severity in these patients. In this analytical cross-sectional study, participation included knee OA patients and individuals without it who referred to Fasa Osteoarthritis Clinic, Iran. OA was diagnosed according to criteria based on Kellgren and Lawrence rating and the WOMAC score was used for pain evaluation. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 18 (P> 0.05). In our study, 150 knee OA patients and 300 individuals without it, were participated. The mean of vitamin K and D in OA patients was significantly lower than the group without it (P

This paper examines Malaysians’ readiness in meeting challenges in the new economy. The model is built based on the hierarchical model of awareness, involvement and contribution. The findings indicate that on average, Malaysians are still at the low level of readiness to assume the knowledge-based economy, despite government efforts to promote the new economy nationwide. Currently Malaysians are at the level of knowing what is going on, but not taking enough effort to participate and contribute to the development of the new economy. The findings support the hierarchical model, in which economic transformation towards the new economy undergoes phases of awareness, involvement and contribution.

Since independence in 1971, Bangladesh has undergone episodes of change and has recorded considerable economic achievements. In this study, a standard regression model is used to identify factors that significantly contribute to economic growth in Bangladesh. The factors under consideration are private and public investment, public and private consumption, export and import. All factors are found to have a significant positive relationship with GDP at 5 percent of significance level except for public investment. The result implies that privatisation process needs to be catered with greater attention for accelerating GDP growth. Import is found to be significant but with a negative relationship with GDP. The result indicates that with the increased in import, the GDP will decline further. As a matter of fact, more than 60 percent of the imported items are for consumption purposes which is not likely to contribute much to GDP growth. From the empirical estimation, it is suggested that prudence planning should be taken to enhance private investment, export, private and public consumption for a better living in the country.

Farming in Bangladesh is confronted with various types of uncertainties, which contribute to farmers’ income volatility over the years. As a result, cereal, mainly rice, which is a less riskier crop remained dominantly planted in the current farm plan. But the return generated from rice cultivation has not been able to improve the livelihood of the poor, as rice profitability is low compared to some profitable but risky crops like jute and vegetables. To investigate the behavioral pattern of the farmers towards risk, Dhaka division, largely known as central region of Bangladesh, is selected. The prevailing farm plan of Dhaka division is compared with the efficient one at the current level of expected return in order to check whether the current farm plan is risky or otherwise. Quadratic and MOTAD as well as linear programming techniques have been employed for the analysis. The result of the study reveals that the prevailing farm plan in Dhaka division is risky compared to the efficient plan. Since the current return level is low, the study has recommended that more jute and vegetables should be planted to achieve higher remuneration.

Cancer could be described as the uncontrolled and unrestricted growth of malignant cells in any place of the body. It is a multifactorial disease which either heredity or environmental factors (such as nutrition, physical inactivity, alcohol, obesity, exposure to sun, environmental pollutants, infections) chip in incidence of cancer. In recent years, several researchers have focused on obesity as a potent cancer risk factor. Scientificevidences have suggested that obesity has associated with increased risk for a plenty of different types of cancer. The evidences are the most consistent for endometrial cancer, breast cancer between the postmenopausal women, and renal cell cancer. More contradictoryresults have reported about the colorectal, prostate, and pancreatic cancer. Although numerous studies have done according to the obesity and cancer relation or joint, but the molecular mechanisms in which obesity could increase the risks of cancer, have been poorly understood.

This study attempts to construct optimal portfolios of Asian hedge funds (AHFs) by employing both the traditional mean - variance (MV) method and the polynomial goal programming (PGP) method. In addition, further issues such as the existence of optimal number of funds and the contribution of a specific fund characteristic to the performance of a portfolio of AHFs are also investigated. From the Eurekahedge database, a sample consisting of 95 AHFs was selected for this study, covering the period of 1st January 2000 - 31st May 2009. Results confirmed that (1) diversification benefits exist in AHFs, (2) optimal number of funds exist for a portfolio of AHFs, (3) many portfolios of AHFs with specific fund characteristics achieved high probabilities of being either the first or the second best-performing portfolios at various levels of standard deviations, and (4) the PGP method was shown to be more effective than the MV method as it enables different efficient frontiers to be constructed according to individual investors’ risk preferences.

The main objective of this study is to measure the impact of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia’s (AIM) microcredit schemes on hardcore poor household’s quality of life in Peninsular Malaysia. This study employed a cross-sectional design with stratified random sampling method to examine whether participation in AIM’s microcredit programs improves the hardcore poor households quality of life. A quality of life index using sixteen selected indicators was developed. The findings confirmed that older respondents live in better and bigger houses, use permanent housing materials, use environmentally safe cooking fuel, enjoy healthy toilet facilities, own refrigerators, washing machines and televisions more than the new respondents. The mean quality of life score between old and new respondents also differs significantly. Therefore, AIM should review and re-organize their credit programs and policies in order to increase the outreach and improve client’s ability to receive higher amount of loan.

In this paper, we study the performance persistence of 206 Asian long/short equity funds that are listed in the EurekaHedge database over two and a half year period, from January 2004 to June 2006. We employ two main methods used by Goetzmann and Ibbotson (1994) and Brown and Goetzmann (1995) for testing performance persistence. We also extend the two independent binomials known as 2x2 -contingency table, to a multinomial contingency table with 3 and 4 dimensional periods. Results obtained from the multinomial contingency table have shown greater level of predictability. All of our tests are carried out on quarterly raw returns with all related statistical results. However, our results show that there is substantial persistence in performance of Asian long/short funds in both tests. Results obtained from multinomial framework do bring further insight the pattern of persistence in performance of funds, which provide a certain predictability power on funds’ performance.

This study employs a cross-sectional design with stratified random sampling method to examine if the microcredit programme of the Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) improves the income of hardcore poor households. This study uses a quasi-experimental approach and selected control and treatment group members from AIM’s client’s base — new and old clients respectively. It is evident that the AIM’s microcredit programme increased the household’s income and reduced the poverty rate among their hardcore poor clients in Peninsular Malaysia. Findings of the study indicate the effectiveness of microcredit in eradicating poverty. This programme should, therefore, focus on diversifying their products and services in order to increase outreach and decrease inactive borrowers and dropouts.