Land-Based Marine Pollution: An Emerging Threat to Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a densely populated coastal country in South Asia. The country has enormous resources in the coastal and marine environment of the northern Bay of Bengal. After the final settlement with India, Bangladesh has had an independent ocean boundary since 2014, but the country has no national policy to protect the environment from marine pollution. The chapter explores the applications of protection and prevention of the marine environment in Bangladesh from land-based marine pollution (LMP) as land-based sources have become the emerging threat to the Bay of Bengal in respect of marine pollution. Several relevant national laws and policies have been analyzed to examine the problems of LMP control in Bangladesh. This chapter also identifies the sources and effects of land-based pollutants, including the analysis of national activities, action plans, and management strategies to discover the challenges and gaps of the present regime for LMP control in Bangladesh. Finally, the chapter suggested a comprehensive approach to establishing national legislation to control LMP in Bangladesh by implementing the national and regional strategy

Internet of Things Based Smart Vending Machine using Digital Payment System

The advent of the Internet envisions a cashless society by enabling financial transactions through digital payments. Significantly, the emergence of coronavirus (COVID-19) disrupted our traditional cash handling means and triggered an inflection point for switching towards contactless digital payments from physical cash payments. Furthermore, Internet of Things (IoT) technology escalates digital payments to the next level by enabling devices to render goods and services without requiring any human interaction. This research proposed an IoT-enabled cashless vending machine that incorporates both cloud computing and payment gateway for ordering and purchasing items through digital payment systems by using a mobile application. The system enables a pre-installed mobile application to scan the Quick Response (QR) code attached to the body of a vending machine, opens the portal of a web-based virtual machine through the code, allows user to choose and order items from the virtual vending, initiates and authorizes a digital payment through an IoT gateway installed inside the physical vending machine by establishing a connection between user's and vendor's financial entities, and finally, dispenses the ordered items by unlocking the shelves of the vending machine after the successful payment transaction. It operates in the Arduino platform with an ATmega 2560 Microcontroller and Esp8266 Wi-fi module as hardware components, mobile application software, and payment gateway API. The system performed an average response time of 14500 milliseconds to pick a product after running 150 consecutive API test calls. This result shows a satisfying time for enhancing customers' buying experiences with digital payment systems and a customizable and cost-effective IoT-based intelligent vending machine to introduce for mass production

Ocean governance in Bangladesh: Necessities to implement structure, policy guidelines, and actions for ocean and coastal management

After the permanent demarcation of Exclusive Economic Zone boundaries with Myanmar and India through the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Bangladesh has exclusive rights to exploit and to explore marine resources across 118,813 km(2) in the Bay of Bengal. To reap economic benefits from maritime space, the government of Bangladesh recently emphasized the development of a blue economy. Maritime economic activities, including shipping, trade, fishing, fishing industries, mineral extraction, exploitation of hydrocarbons, salt production, production of renewable energy, and marine and coastal tourism, are key elements of the maritime interests of policymakers. However, the safety of maritime activities also raises concerns that include shipping accidents, smuggling, and illegal fishing, which pose threats to maritime interests. Enhancing blue economic growth and protecting marine and coastal environments are essential to ensure maritime security. Therefore, in the framework of a comprehensive ocean governance approach, we suggest establishing a separate Ministry of Ocean Affairs with essential functions to formulate an integrated coastal and marine strategy, to address the policy guidelines, and to implement action plans for coastal management in Bangladesh. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Rapid dynamic speech imaging at 3 Tesla using combination of a custom vocal tract coil, variable density spirals and manifold regularization

Purpose: To improve dynamic speech imaging at 3 Tesla. Methods: A novel scheme combining a 16-channel vocal tract coil, variable density spirals (VDS), and manifold regularization was developed. Short readout duration spirals (1.3 ms long) were used to minimize sensitivity to off-resonance. The manifold model leveraged similarities between frames sharing similar vocal tract postures without explicit motion binning. Reconstruction was posed as a SENSE-based non-local soft weighted temporal regularization scheme. The self-navigating capability of VDS was leveraged to learn the structure of the manifold. Our approach was compared against low-rank and finite difference reconstruction constraints on two volunteers performing repetitive and arbitrary speaking tasks. Blinded image quality evaluation in the categories of alias artifacts, spatial blurring, and temporal blurring were performed by three experts in voice research. Results: We achieved a spatial resolution of 2.4mm2/pixel and a temporal resolution of 17.4 ms/frame for single slice imaging, and 52.2 ms/frame for concurrent 3-slice imaging. Implicit motion binning of the manifold scheme for both repetitive and fluent speaking tasks was demonstrated. The manifold scheme provided superior fidelity in modeling articulatory motion compared to low rank and temporal finite difference schemes. This was reflected by higher image quality scores in spatial and temporal blurring categories. Our technique exhibited faint alias artifacts, but offered a reduced interquartile range of scores compared to other methods in alias artifact category. Conclusion: Synergistic combination of a custom vocal-tract coil, variable density spirals and manifold regularization enables robust dynamic speech imaging at 3 Tesla.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figure

High-resolution three-dimensional hybrid MRI + low dose CT vocal tract modeling:A cadaveric pilot study

SummaryObjectivesMRI based vocal tract models have many applications in voice research and education. These models do not adequately capture bony structures (e.g. teeth, mandible), and spatial resolution is often relatively low in order to minimize scanning time. Most MRI sequences achieve 3D vocal tract coverage at gross resolutions of 2 mm3 within a scan time of <20 seconds. Computed tomography (CT) is well suited for vocal tract imaging, but is infrequently used due to the risk of ionizing radiation. In this cadaveric study, a single, extremely low-dose CT scan of the bony structures is blended with accelerated high-resolution (1 mm3) MRI scans of the soft tissues, creating a high-resolution hybrid CT-MRI vocal tract model.MethodsMinimum CT dosages were determined and a custom 16-channel airway receiver coil for accelerated high (1 mm3) resolution MRI was evaluated. A rigid body landmark based partial volume registration scheme was then applied to the images, creating a hybrid CT-MRI model that was segmented in Slicer.ResultsUltra-low dose CT produced images with sufficient quality to clearly visualize the bone, and exposed the cadaver to 0.06 mSv. This is comparable to atmospheric exposures during a round trip transatlantic flight. The custom 16-channel vocal tract coil produced acceptable image quality at 1 mm3 resolution when reconstructed from ∼6 fold undersampled data. High (1 mm3) resolution MR imaging of short (<10 seconds) sustained sounds was achieved. The feasibility of hybrid CT-MRI vocal tract modeling was successfully demonstrated using the rigid body landmark based partial volume registration scheme. Segmentations of CT and hybrid CT-MRI images provided more detailed 3D representations of the vocal tract than 2 mm3 MRI based segmentations.ConclusionsThe method described in this study indicates that high-resolution CT and MR image sets can be combined so that structures such as teeth and bone are accurately represented in vocal tract reconstructions. Such scans will aid learning and deepen understanding of anatomical features that relate to voice production, as well as furthering knowledge of the static and dynamic functioning of individual structures relating to voice production

Comparative study of <em>Salmonella</em> and <em>Vibrio</em> spp. distribution in the Karnafuly River estuary at Bangladesh with response to microbial pollution

1075-1080The present study carried out to examine the present status and contribution of Salmonella spp. and Vibrio spp. presence in soil and water along with water parameters at the Karnafuly River estuary during March-June 2015 from three stations to find out the microbial load. Water temperature ranges from 26.5 - 32ºC, salinity ranged between 0ppt to 5ppt; pH 6.5 – 8.5 and DO varies 1.20 – 2.91mg/L in water samples. Maximum Salmonella spp. were observed 5cells/gm. in soil at St-1 in May and maximum Vibrio spp. was 6 cells/ml in water sample of St-1 during May. Dissolve oxygen concentration found in most influential factor for occurrence of Salmonella where salinity found for Vibrio spp. at the estuary. Between the two species, Vibrio spp. contributed 67.23% where Salmonella contributed 32.77% response to microbial pollution

Decreasing the carbon footprint of an intensive rice-based cropping system using conservation agriculture on the Eastern Gangetic Plains

Emerging conservation agriculture (CA) technologies are being applied in rice-upland cropping systems and their potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions of the whole rice-based cropping systems could be significant in South Asia especially if they increase soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. A streamlined life cycle assessment was conducted in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (Bangladesh) to determine greenhouse gas emissions from successive crops of monsoon rice (Oryza sativa), mustard (Brassica juncea) and irrigated rice under CA practices in contrast with the conventional crop establishment practice while accounting for changes in SOC. The life cycle greenhouse gas tonne−1 rice equivalent yield was assessed for four cropping practices: a) traditional crop establishment practices with farmers’ practice of minimal residue return, or b) CT with return of increased residues; c) strip planting (for mustard)/transplanting on non-puddled soils (for rice) with farmers’ practice of minimal residue return or; d) strip planting/non-puddled transplanting with increased residue return. The global warming potential values for the 100-year timescale were used to calculate CO2eq emissions within the system boundary. The net life cycle greenhouse gas emissions after allowing for changes in SOC sequestration varied from 0.73 to 1.12 tonne CO2eq tonne−1 rice equivalent yield. In the annual cropping system, methane (CH4) released from on-farm stage of the life cycle assessment, particularly from the rice crops, represented the dominant contributor to life cycle greenhouse gas emissions. The greenhouse gas emitted by machinery usage during the on-farm stage (irrigated rice), CO2 emission from soil respiration (monsoon rice), and greenhouse gas related to manufacture of inputs (mustard) were secondary sources of emission, in that order of priority. The non-puddlled transplanting of soil with low and increased residue retention were the most effective greenhouse gas mitigation options when sequestered SOC was taken into account (they avoided 35% of the net life cycle footprints compared with current farmers’ practice) in footprints of component crops of the rice-upland cropping system. The CA approaches being developed for the Eastern Gangetic Plains involving strip planting or non-puddled transplanting of rice have potential to mitigate global warming potential of intensive rice-based triple cropping systems but the life cycle assessment approach needs to be applied to a more diverse range of rice-based cropping systems

Suggested legal framework for prevention of shipbreaking pollution at Chittagong Coast, Bangladesh with analysis of relevant international issues

752-758Bangladesh is the largest ship recycling country that has devastated impacts on the marine and coastal resources including human health due to hazardous heavy metals pollution. An analysis of heavy metals concentrations in seawater has done to find out the impacts of shipbreaking pollution at Chittagong coast. Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Al, Hg, As, Pb, Cd and Cr exceeds the limit at all stations (St-1, St-2, St-3) according to WHO guidelines and Bangladesh Water Quality Standards. Average concentrations (mg/L) of Fe, Al and Hg are respectively high in seawater, which signifies the shipbreaking pollution in this coast. Bangladesh has ratified with most of the international issues regarding shipbreaking activities but not implemented yet for control marine and coastal pollution. Suggested framework will help to implement international legislation in Bangladesh to control shipbreaking pollution

Land-based marine pollution control in Bangladesh: A Suggested framework with a critical analysis of national legal issues

1909-1917Present study critically reviewed the almost national legal regimes of the environmental protection in Bangladesh. A separate wing should be set up under the environment department for enforcing the regulation, law, and order concerning land-based marine pollution. The suggested framework will help to implement the comprehensive law for land-based marine pollution control in Bangladesh

Sustainable Marine Fisheries Resources of Bangladesh: A Strategic Response for Economic Security

757-765Bangladesh is posing a serious threat to the sustainability of marine fisheries. Lack of recent stock assessment program, the influence of climate change and pollution on the valuable nursery habitats such as mangroves and estuaries have considerable impacts on marine fisheries productivity. If overfishing continues at the current alarming trend, then time will come when important fishery will reach a point of no return jeopardizing the whole industry. Therefore, the present status of marine fisheries resources and its future potential need to be framed out to establish a comprehensive plan for sustainable conservation, management, and exploitation of these resources