Forest Biodiversity and Deforestation in Bangladesh: The Latest Update

Located in the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, Bangladesh is a tropical country in Southeast Asia and a transitional point for flora and fauna between the Indo-Himalayan and Indo-Chinese subregions. About 11% land area (1,429,000 hectares) of the country is covered with four major forest types: mixed-evergreen forests, deciduous forests, mangrove forests, and freshwater swamp forests. Though Bangladesh is a small and densely populated country, it is the home of 1952 species of invertebrates, 653 fish, 50 amphibians, 147 reptiles, 566 birds, and 127 mammalian species of which many of them are globally threatened. We have discussed the latest status of all the major vertebrate groups in this chapter. Thirty-one species of vertebrates have gone extinct from Bangladesh over the last century. Many of the species are facing continuous threat of extinction due to deforestation and degradation of habitat caused by various anthropogenic activities. In this chapter, we are going to discuss about the current management and conservation practices and issues related to the forests and wildlife of Bangladesh

Prevalence of Cigarette Smoking in Schizophrenic Patients Compared to Other Hospital Admitted Psychiatric Patients

Abstract This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of cigarette smoking and some of the related factors among schizophrenic and other hospitalized psychiatric patients. This was a cross-sectional study on 120 patients hospitalized in Shahid Beheshti hospital in Kerman in 2005. Patients were equally devided in two groups of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. Sampling was based on statistical census and data were collected using a questionnaire including 27 questions on demographic data, psychiatric disorder, smoking cigarettes and other substances, and Fagerstrom test. Data were analyzed by Chi-square and ANOVA tests using SPSS software. Prevalence and severity of cigarette smoking was 71.6% and 6.47% among schizophrenic and 51.6% and 6.40% among other psychiatric patients, respectively and the difference was not significant. History of withdrawal was 25.6% and 58.1% in the schizophrenia and other disorders respectively and the difference was significant (P < 0.05). Addiction to other substances was 51.6% in schizophrenic and 45% in the other patients and the most prevalent substances in both groups were opium and alcohol. The severity of smoking cigarettes was 6.9 along with other drug abuses and 5.1 in cases with just smoking based on Fagerstrom test and the difference was significant (P < 0.05). The prevalence of cigarette smoking in both schizophrenia and other psychiatric patients is higher than normal population, but there is no significant difference between these two groups. Schizophrenic patients need persistent supportive and supervising programs for cigarette smoking abuse treatment because of their cognitive, motivate and social problems

Latent Factor Analysis of Gaussian Distributions under Graphical Constraints

We explore the algebraic structure of the solution space of convex optimization problem Constrained Minimum Trace Factor Analysis (CMTFA), when the population covariance matrix $\Sigma_x$ has an additional latent graphical constraint, namely, a latent star topology. In particular, we have shown that CMTFA can have either a rank $1$ or a rank $n-1$ solution and nothing in between. The special case of a rank $1$ solution, corresponds to the case where just one latent variable captures all the dependencies among the observables, giving rise to a star topology. We found explicit conditions for both rank $1$ and rank $n- 1$ solutions for CMTFA solution of $\Sigma_x$. As a basic attempt towards building a more general Gaussian tree, we have found a necessary and a sufficient condition for multiple clusters, each having rank $1$ CMTFA solution, to satisfy a minimum probability to combine together to build a Gaussian tree. To support our analytical findings we have presented some numerical demonstrating the usefulness of the contributions of our work.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

A Comparative Analysis of K-Means and Fuzzy C-Means Clustering Algorithms Based on CT Liver Image

Image processing techniques are broadly used in different areas of medical imaging to detect different types of abnormalities. The clustering algorithm is used in image processing for image segmentation. Image processing technique can help to detect the tumor and also it helps to identify the affected parts of the organs. This paper describes two clustering algorithm K-Means and Fuzzy C-Means clustering to compare their performance based on CT liver image. The segmentation result of K-Means is compared to the segmentation result of Fuzzy C-Means clustering. Experiments were conducted to evaluate their performance based on some criteria such as computational time, energy, homogeneity, PSNR etc

Bibliometric Analysis of the E-Journal of Library Philosophy and Practice During the Period of 2014-2018

The present study is based on the Bibliometrics analysis of the articles published in Library Philosophy and Practice (E-Journal) for the period 2014–2018. During this period, a total of 1046 scholarly papers have been published by LIS researchers around the world. The study analyzes the documents based on various bibliometric aspects like year wise contribution of articles, year wise growth of publication, average publication per author, subject wise distribution of articles, the geographical distribution of articles, authorship pattern, author productivity, degree of collaboration, reference distribution pattern and length of reference distribution. In all with an average 209.2 articles were published each year and the highest numbers (421) of articles were published in 2018. From the 35 of the world contributed countries Nigeria is in top rank with 36.33% contributions. Two authorship is leading authorship trend, and also Multi-Authored has shown the unique number of contribution with the 0. 71 rates of the degree of collaboration

Compressive Behaviour of Concrete by Using Bagasse Ash From Sugar Mill

The materials which are useless and unwanted is called waste product and this waste product is a burden and harmful to the environment. Sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) is one kind of waste which can be termed as the residue left over from burning sugar cane bagasse. The utilization of this waste may be very economical and can also solve the environmental problem. Silica and alumina are the main element of SCBA which is used as a pozzolanic material. This recycling procedure of SCBA reduces environmental pollution and this is also considered the cost-effective material. In this paper, SCBA replaces the cement as a weight of 5%, 10% and 15% which is considered. After completing the compressive strength test, the result shows that the compressive strength increases when 5% cement is replaced by sugarcane bagasse ash and this is the correct replacement of cement

Wear of nanohybrid and microfilled composite resin in occlusal restoration of first permanent molar tooth

This study compared the wear of nanohybrid and microfilled composite restorative material in occlusal restoration of first permanent molar tooth. In total, 60 first permanent molar teeth having carious lesion without any clinical and radiological indication of pulpal involvement, removal of carious dental hard tissues was performed using round carbide bur and a class I cavity was prepared, rinsed with water and then dried with gentle air. These cavities were filled with either nanohybrid or microfilled composite resin by simple random sampling by lottery method. All teeth were subjected to clinical qualitative and quantitative wear test at baseline, 3, 6 and 9 months observation period. The quantitative wear was analyzed by profile meter. The results showed that the wear depth of microfilled was significant than the nanofilled composite resin. It can be concluded that quantitative wear of microfilled had greater wear than that of nanohybrid composite restorations

Wear of nanohybrid and microfilled composite resin in occlusal restoration of first permanent molar tooth

This study compared the wear of nanohybrid and microfilled composite restorative material in occlusal restoration of first permanent molar tooth. In total, 60 first permanent molar teeth having carious lesion without any clinical and radiological indication of pulpal involvement, removal of carious dental hard tissues was performed using round carbide bur and a class I cavity was prepared, rinsed with water and then dried with gentle air. These cavities were filled with either nanohybrid or microfilled composite resin by simple random sampling by lottery method. All teeth were subjected to clinical qualitative and quantitative wear test at baseline, 3, 6 and 9 months observation period. The quantitative wear was analyzed by profile meter. The results showed that the wear depth of microfilled was significant than the nanofilled composite resin. It can be concluded that quantitative wear of microfilled had greater wear than that of nanohybrid composite restorations