An Analysis of SAFTA in the Context of Bangladesh

One of the main economic reasons behind regional trade blocks is to allow their regional members to benefit from economic cooperation and comparative advantages. In 1980, Bangladesh had suggested a regional cooperative body of South Asian leaders, which then led to the establishment of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in 1985, the adoption of the SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA) in 1993, and the agreement on the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) in 2004. This paper focuses on a review of the progress made with SAFTA, what Bangladesh’s prospects are in SAFTA, and how SAFTA can be made more active. It provides the historical background about the various initiatives within South Asia, reviews the actual trade data, and reviews the main trade restrictions within SAFTA. It also provides a set of recommendations based on this analysis.Bangladesh, trade, SAFTA, regional trade blocks

Employment Generation and Poverty Alleviation through SME Cluster Development in Bangladesh

SME Cluster Development could be an emerging force of entrepreneurship development, employment generation and poverty alleviation for any least developed country like Bangladesh. SMEs located at different clusters of Bangladesh are contributing in generating employment and income for the workers and producing import substitute product simultaneously. Realizing the full potential of SME cluster development in Bangladesh, it is important for all stakeholders to sit together and find out a concrete solution for the identified challenges of SME clusters. Recommended action plan could be catalyst to enhance productivity, increase efficiency, quality, acceptability, market linkage of SME products of Bangladesh. The action plan is designed with Short term (up to 3 year), Mid-term (3-5 years) and Long term (5 and more) recommendations for fostering cluster development of SME in Bangladesh with a vision of employment generation and poverty alleviation. 

A 32-year-old male with pain and discomfort during biting

This article has no abstract. The first 100 words appear below: A 32-year-old male patient reported to the Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Military Dental Center, Dhaka with the complaints of mild to moderate pain and discomfort during eating in his upper left posterior region. His medical history was non-contributory. On extra oral examination, no abnormality was detected. On intraoral examination, clinically there was a dislodged restoration involving the upper left first molar tooth. On vitality test, the offending tooth showed no response to heat or cold. On percussion, ten-derness and dull percussion note were present. There was no mobility of the associated tooth

Nanohybrid and microfilled composite resin in Class II restoration of permanent molar teeth

The aim of this study was to compare the clinical performance of nanohybrid composite resin in Class II restorations placed with a one-step self-etch adhesive with that of microfilled composite resin of permanent posterior molar teeth. A total of 100 participants who received Class II restorations either with nanohybrid composite resin bonded with a single step self-etch adhesive or conventional microfilled composite bonded with a single step self-etch adhesive. All restorations were evaluated by using slightly modified USPHS criteria at baseline and after 3, 6 and 12 months. The results revealed that nanohybrid composite resin showed better clinical outcome than that of the conventional microfilled composite resin restorations in respect to retention and marginal adaptation at 12 months observation period. It can be concluded that nanohybrid is superior to conventional microfilled composite resin in respect to retention, and marginal adaptation of Class II restorations of permanent molar teeth

A 16-year-old boy with chronic discharging sinus on upper left lateral incisor tooth

This article has no abstract. The first 100 words appear below: A 16-year-old boy referred to our department with chronic discharging sinus during the course of root canal treatment on the upper left lateral incisor tooth from a private dental clinic. The patient had a history of trauma to the tooth 1 year back. On clinical examination, the coronal portion of the upper left lateral incisor tooth was found to have filled with temporary restorative material. The tooth was sensitive to palpation and percussion with the presence of a sinus tract. On vitality test, there was no response to heat and cold test

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

A 18-year-old male with radix entomolaris

This article has no abstract. The first 100 words appear below: A 18-year-old boy came with the complaints of mild pain during mastication on the lower right posterior tooth for two weeks. He gave the history of severe pain on offending tooth one month before, which subsided within a few days after taking medication from a local pharmacy. On clinical examination, a deep occlusal caries was present on the lower right first molar tooth. The tooth was tender to the vertical percussion but not associated with any swelling or discharge. The vitality test revealed that the tooth was non-vital.  &nbsp

A 22-year-old male with pain and tooth surface loss on multiple teeth

This article has no abstract. The first 100 words appear below: A 22-year-old male reported to the outpatient department with the complaints of occasional pain and tingling sensation on his maxillary left posterior teeth and mandibular anterior teeth for 3 to 4 months with slight mobility of mandibular anterior teeth. He had no significant medical history as well as no history of trauma and familial history of similar disease. He also stated that he went to Dhaka Dental College where he received clinical and radiological investigations and diagnosed as a case of external tooth resorption. In the Dhaka Dental College, upper left  1st and 2nd premolar, mandibular right central and lateral incisor teeth were extracted