The Networks of Social Infrastructure Linked with Jamaat–e-Islami in Bangladesh

This paper claims that Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami heavily invests in building social infrastructure in the country. Indeed, building social infrastructure by religion based political party like Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has a deep implication in terms of social and political sphere. Through the facilitation of various social services and welfare works, the party aspires to garner support of the people for its political legitimacy and accessibility in the society of Bangladesh. The social infrastructure provides a legitimate space in which the party tries to expand its popular base and change the secular characters of the country into Islamic state. In the first half of the paper, a short description of the party and discourse on building social infrastructure, resources etc. are delineated, and in the second half, the party linked organisations, institutions and programmes are given in detail. In this paper, primary sources such as government and organisational reports, and secondary sources have been used. Moreover, online newspapers and various websites of the concerning organisations and institutions have been accessed to prepare this paper. Keywords: Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh, Social infrastructure, Sharia Law, Fundamentalism, Islamism, Welfare work, Islami Bank Foundation, Ibn Sina Trust, Islamic State

Underdetermined Blind Separation of Nondisjoint Sources in the Time-Frequency Domain

International audienceThis paper considers the blind separation of non-stationary sources in the underdetermined case, when there are more sources than sensors. A general framework for this problem is to work on sources that are sparse in some signal representation domain. Recently, two methods have been proposed with respect to the time-frequency (TF) domain. The first uses quadratic time-frequency distributions (TFDs) and a clustering approach, and the second uses a linear TFD. Both of these methods assume that the sources are disjoint in the TF domain; i.e. there is at most one source present at a point in the TF domain. In this paper, we relax this assumption by allowing the sources to be TF-nondisjoint to a certain extent. In particular, the number of sources present at a point is strictly less than the number of sensors. The separation can still be achieved thanks to subspace projection that allows us to identify the sources present and to estimate their corresponding TFD values. In particular, we propose two subspace-based algorithms for TF-nondisjoint sources, one uses quadratic TFDs and the other a linear TFD. Another contribution of this paper is a new estimation procedure for the mixing matrix. Finally, then numerical performance of the proposed methods are provided highlighting their performance gain compared to existing ones

The Era of Massive Population III Stars: Cosmological Implications and Self-Termination

The birth and death of the first generation of stars have important implications for the thermal state and chemical properties of the intergalactic medium (IGM) in the early universe. Sometime after recombination, the neutral, chemically pristine gas was reionized by ultraviolet photons emitted from the first stars, but also enriched with heavy elements when these stars ended their lives as energetic supernovae. Using the results from previous high-resolution cosmological simulations of early structure formation that include radiative transfer, we show that a significant volume fraction of the IGM can be metal-polluted, as well as ionized, by massive Population III stars formed in small-mass (10^6-10^7 Msun) halos early on. If most of the early generation stars die as pair-instability supernovae with energies up to 10^{53} ergs, the volume-averaged mean metallicity will quickly reach Z ~ 10^{-4}Zsun by a redshift of 15-20, possibly causing a prompt transition to the formation of a stellar population that is dominated by low-mass stars. In this scenario, the early chemical enrichment history should closely trace the reionization history of the IGM, and the end of the Population III era is marked by the completion of reionization and pre-enrichment by z=15. We conclude that, while the pre-enrichment may partially account for the ``metallicity-floor'' in high-redshift Lyman-alpha clouds, it does not significantly affect the elemental abundance in the intracluster medium.Comment: Version accepted by ApJ. Minor revisions and a few citations adde

Momentum returns, market states, and market dynamics: Are Islamic stocks different?

Recent studies suggest that momentum returns are conditioned by market states and market dynamics. We ask if Islamic stocks behave differently from Non-Islamic stocks. Using data from the Malaysian stock market from 1991 to 2015, we find no significant difference in Islamic versus Non-Islamic stocks either in their level of momentum returns or in the behaviour of momentum returns in response to market states and market dynamics, irrespective of whether we use time-series or cross-sectional momentum returns. Interestingly, we find that the behaviour of momentum returns in Malaysia is broadly consistent with that in the US market in that momentum returns are higher following UP markets compared with momentum returns following DOWN markets. We also find that momentum returns are larger when the market continues in same state than when it transitions to a different state, consistent with results in the US market and that the absence of momentum returns following DOWN market states is due to market dynamics. Our results suggest that investors in Islamic stocks can execute momentum strategies without loss of efficacy compared with Non-Islamic stocks

Spray Deposition and Characterization of p-type Li doped NiO Thin Films

Undoped and lithium doped nickel oxide (Li doped NiO) thin films have been prepared onto glass substrates at 450 °C by chemical spray pyrolysis technique. The effect of lithium (Li) concentrations on the structural, optical, photoluminescence and electrical properties of the Li doped NiO films were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis- NIR spectrophotometer, Photoluminescence (PL) spectrophotometer, Hot probe and Hall effect measurement system. The PL results confirmed that the band gap reduces when the lithium concentration increases. The structural properties of undoped and Li doped NiO films showed polycrystalline cubic structure. The optical transmittance and band gap values of the films decreases, while the absorption values increases with the increase in Li concentration. Moreover, it has been observed that the resistivity of the above films decreases with the increase in Li concentration

DEVELOPMENT OF COSMETIC CREAM CONTAINING A PHARMACEUTICAL COCRYSTAL OF SALICYLIC AND PHENYLALANINE

Objective: The objective of this present work was to develop the chemical peeling cream containing the synthesized active ingredient pharmaceutical cocrystal of salicylic acid and phenylalanine. Methods: The salicylic acid and phenylalanine cocrystal (H2Sal·Phe) was synthesized by the solvent evaporation method and characterized by various techniques such as single-crystal X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The five formulas of cocrystal cream were prepared. All formulas were then examined and observed for appearance, spreadability, viscosity, pH, homogeneity, SPF test, microbial limit test and stability test. Results: The (H2Sal·Phe) consists of no zwitterion phenylalanine for the first time. X-ray crystal structure of cocrystal consists of double H2Sal and Phe molecules with stabilized by inter-, intra-molecular and π-π interactions. By using this cocrystal as an active ingredient for cosmetic development, the chemical peeling cream was produced along with the pharmaceutical examinations. The (H2Sal·Phe) formulations were prepared 0-1% and excipients included of jojoba oil, isopropyl myristate, castor oil, glyceryl monostearate cetostearyl alcohol, cyclomethicone (and) dimethicone crosspolymer, vitamin E, white bee's wax, glycerin, PEG 400, xanthan gum, Span 80 and Tween 60. We finally found that the F4 (1% H2Sal·Phe) was the best formulation with suitable physical properties of cream and chemical stable after storage. The results of cell viability show H2Sal·Phe is non-toxic with cell. Conclusion: The chemical peeling cream containing (H2Sal·Phe) has shown the promising results which are both safe and efficacious peeling agent. Cocrystal (H2Sal·Phe) cream can be used as an alternative choice in whitening skin

Cyclone Sidr and Its Aftermath: Everyday Life, Power and Marginality

This PhD research is about power struggle and marginality in peoples’ everyday life in the aftermath of the cyclone Sidr. This research explores how everyday vulnerabilities of a coastal community, which is ignored in the powerful knowledge framing, limit peoples’ ability to withstand a cyclone. It reiterates the idea that the conditionality, which makes an individual, a group or a community susceptible to a natural event, is a legacy of our engagement with the environment and, thus, scrutinise our knowledge on that particular event. From a theoretical interest in environment-society studies, my work strives to understand affected communities’ quotidian experiences of their livelihoods, after being affected by Cyclone Sidr, through rebuilding, relief support, access to natural resources in land, water and forest, alternative income opportunities, patron-client networks, and local power dynamics. The whole research is based on an ethnographic account in three proximate villages, Gabtola, Mazer Char and Sonatola Model Village, adjacent to the Sundarbans. This research examines the following research questions – i) How are communities’ everyday livelihoods, mediated through their broader societal, political and economic networks, informing their ability to cope with a cyclone event, and thus connected with cyclone knowledge?; ii) How are the complex interface of environmental change, livelihood options and power dynamics reciprocally linked with cyclone rhetoric?; and iii) Whose views are reflected in the development of cyclone knowledge and practice in Bangladesh? Being a native Bengali speaker, knowing local dialects, having previous work experience of academic research on disadvantaged and rural communities, power dynamics and development, I was in an advantageous position to carry out this highly sensitive work. This research contributes to the idea of vulnerability and resilience by portraying the importance of considering local power dynamics in shaping environment-society relationship. In addition, this research also enlightens on local development and economic aspects through unpacking issues in regard to relief and rehabilitation, fishing and forest use. These theoretical contributions, reciprocally, back up methodological underpinnings of it. More importantly, this research explores the interface of cyclone, power and livelihoods and echoes voices of marginal people with a view to them having their space in policies

On the Use of High-resolution Time-frequency Distribution Based on a Polynomial Compact Support Kernel for Fault Detection in a Two-level Inverter

Quadratic Time-Frequency Distributions (TFDs) become a standard tool in many fields producing nonstationary signatures. However, these representations suffer from two drawbacks: First, bad time-frequency localization of the signal's autoterms due to the unavoidable crossterms generated by the bilinear form of these distributions. This results on bad estimation of the Instantaneous Frequency (IF) laws and decreases, in our case, the ability to precisely decide the existence of a motor fault. Secondly, the TFD's parameterization is not always straightforward. This paper deals with faults' detection in two-level inverter feeding induction motors, in particular open-circuit Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) faults. For this purpose, we propose the use of a recent high-resolution TFD, referred as PCBD for Polynomial Cheriet-Belouchrani Distribution. The latter is adjusted using only a single integer that is automatically optimized using the Stankovic concentration measure, otherwise, no external windows are needed to perform the highest time-frequency resolution. The performance of the PCBD is compared to the best-known quadratic representations using a test bench. Experimental results show that the frequency components characterizing open-circuit faults are best detected using the PCBD thanks to its ability to suppress interferences while maintaining the signal's proper terms

Failing arsenic mitigation technology in rural Bangladesh: explaining stagnation in niche formation of the Sono filter

Arsenic contamination of shallow hand pump tube well drinking water in Bangladesh has created opportunities for radical innovations to emerge. One such innovation is the household Sono filter, designed to remove arsenic from water supplies. Applying a strategic niche management approach, and based on interviews, focus groups and a workshop, this article explains the Sono filter's failure to establish itself as a successful niche technology. Three explanatory factors are identified: lack of a strong social network (of technology producers, donors, users, and government actors) around it; diverging expectations regarding its potential to be a long-term solution; and lack of second-order learning amongst key actors. Beyond these three factors that help to explain the lack of successful niche formation, this paper clearly shows that the overwhelming dependency on fund-driven projects also deters successful niche formation in the context of the developing world

FIVE-LEVEL DTC WITH 12 SECTORS OF INDUCTION MOTOR DRIVE USING NEURAL NETWORKS CONTROLLER FOR LOW TORQUE RIPPLE

This paper presents an improved five-level DTC with 12 sectors of induction motor based on artificial neural networks controller. This neural controller was used to replace on the conventional comparator hysteresis of torque in order to reduce torque ripple, flux and stator current. The validity of the proposed control scheme is verified by simulation tests of an induction motor drive system. The stator current and stator flux, torque is determined and compared to the above techniques using Matlab/Simulink environment