Hybrid Plasmonic Waveguide Fed Broadband Nano-antenna for Nanophotonic Applications

In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid plasmonic waveguide fed broadband optical patch nano-antenna for nanophotonic applications. Through full wave electromagnetic simulation, we demonstrated our proposed antenna to radiate and receive signal at all optical communication windows (e.g. $\lambda$ = 850nm, 1310nm & 1550nm) with around 86% bandwidth within the operational domain. Moreover numerical results demonstrate that the proposed nano-antenna has directional radiation pattern with satisfactory gain over all three communication bands. Additionally, we evaluated the antenna performances with two different array arrangements (e.g. one dimensional and square array). The proposed broadband antenna can be used for prominent nanophotonic applications such as optical wireless communication in inter and intra-chip devices, optical sensing and optical energy harvesting etc.Comment: 4 Page, 7 figure

Countering ISIS Call for Hijra (Emigration): A Review through the Lens of Maqāṣid Ash-Sharīʿah

From Al-Qaeda to Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), and now the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the so-called Islamic State (IS), hijra (Arabic for emigration), has been exploited by these groups to justify their call ­for Muslims all over the world to emigrate to Dār al-Islām or abode of Islam. Historically and in the Islamic context, hijra refers to the earlier generation of Muslims who left Mecca for Abyssinia as well as Prophet Muhammad’s emigration to Medina. This paper focuses on the notion of hijra as interpreted by ISIS to draw Muslims to Iraq and Syria to strengthen its rank and file. It argues that the modern jihadists’ interpretation of hijra is a misrepresentation of the two earlier emigrations. More importantly, it fails to satisfy the Maqāṣid Ash-Sharīʿah or the objectives of Sharīʿah law. This paper will make a critical analysis of the concept of hijra from the perspective of Maqāṣid Ash-Sharīʿah, and offer an ideological rebuttal strategy to counter ISIS’s call for hijra.  It will also attempt to address the ideological flaws in the call which foreign terrorist fighters (or FTF) are unaware of

The Impact of Investment Decision Quality of Islamic Banks in Bangladesh: A Critical Review

The study investigates investment decision quality of Islamic banks in Bangladesh. Five financial ratios are selected for measuring investment performances of selected banks. Deposits and credits do not always ensure better profitability performance and operational efficiency and asset utilization. CAR and Tire_1 ratio do not differ significantly at Islamic banks in last five years. The researchers have found that there is a satisfactory improvement in bank’s credit quality in last five years despite of certain fluctuations. It is also worth mentioned that investment quality of Islamic banks is much better than that of conventional banks in Bangladesh. Key words:  Investment decision, LSRNPL , LSRTL, Bangladesh

[6]-Gingerol, from Zingiber officinale, potentiates GLP-1 mediated glucose-stimulated insulin secretion pathway in pancreatic β-cells and increases RAB8/RAB10-regulated membrane presentation of GLUT4 transporters in skeletal muscle to improve hyperglycemia in Leprdb/db type 2 diabetic mice

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Abstract Background [6]-Gingerol, a major component of Zingiber officinale, was previously reported to ameliorate hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetic mice. Endocrine signaling is involved in insulin secretion and is perturbed in db/db Type-2 diabetic mice. [6]-Gingerol was reported to restore the disrupted endocrine signaling in rodents. In this current study on Leprdb/db diabetic mice, we investigated the involvement of endocrine pathway in the insulin secretagogue activity of [6]-Gingerol and the mechanism(s) through which [6]-Gingerol ameliorates hyperglycemia. Methods Leprdb/db type 2 diabetic mice were orally administered a daily dose of [6]-Gingerol (200 mg/kg) for 28 days. We measured the plasma levels of different endocrine hormones in fasting and fed conditions. GLP-1 levels were modulated using pharmacological approaches, and cAMP/PKA pathway for insulin secretion was assessed by qRT-PCR and ELISA in isolated pancreatic islets. Total skeletal muscle and its membrane fractions were used to measure glycogen synthase 1 level and Glut4 expression and protein levels. Results 4-weeks treatment of [6]-Gingerol dramatically increased glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and improved glucose tolerance. Plasma GLP-1 was found to be significantly elevated in the treated mice. Pharmacological intervention of GLP-1 levels regulated the effect of [6]-Gingerol on insulin secretion. Mechanistically, [6]-Gingerol treatment upregulated and activated cAMP, PKA, and CREB in the pancreatic islets, which are critical components of GLP-1-mediated insulin secretion pathway. [6]-Gingerol upregulated both Rab27a GTPase and its effector protein Slp4-a expression in isolated islets, which regulates the exocytosis of insulin-containing dense-core granules. [6]-Gingerol treatment improved skeletal glycogen storage by increased glycogen synthase 1 activity. Additionally, GLUT4 transporters were highly abundant in the membrane of the skeletal myocytes, which could be explained by the increased expression of Rab8 and Rab10 GTPases that are responsible for GLUT4 vesicle fusion to the membrane. Conclusions Collectively, our study reports that GLP-1 mediates the insulinotropic activity of [6]-Gingerol, and [6]-Gingerol treatment facilitates glucose disposal in skeletal muscles through increased activity of glycogen synthase 1 and enhanced cell surface presentation of GLUT4 transporters

Effects and Consequences of Emphasizing Sectoral Recovery Rate and Sectoral Proportion in Loan Portfolio on Approving New Project Loans of Bangladesh Shilpa Bank

This study is designed for the identification of the effects and consequences of emphasizing the sectoral recovery rate and sectoral proportion in loan portfolio on approving new project loans of the Bangladesh Shilpa Bank (BSB). This study primarily focus on the role of sectoral recovery rate and the sectoral proportion of the loan portfolio, then conducts empirical studies considering the sacrifices of the profitability and growth opportunities, and leverage problem of the respective sectors. Empirical studies are conducted under two phases. The results of the empirical tests of Phase-I indicate the lack of reliability of the model under that phase in explaining the characteristics of the population. Empirical results of Phase-II have found significant results indicating the positive relationship of the sectoral recovery rate and sectoral proportion of loan portfolio in approving new projects. The empirical results have also found the evidence of approving project loans to high levered sectors. Keywords: Sectoral Recovery Rate, Sectoral Proportion in Loan Portfolio, Return on Investment, Debt to Asset Ratio

Credit Exposure and Lending Decision Quality of Private Commercial Banks in Bangladesh: An Empirical Analysis

The main focus of this paper is to examine empirically the level of credit exposure and lending decision quality of local private commercial banks in of Bangladesh during the period of 2007-2011. Five financial ratios are selected for measuring credit performances of selected banks. By applying one way ANOVA it is found that NPLTL. LSRTL and LSRNPL ratios differ significantly while CAR and Tire_1 ratio do not differ significantly between conventional banks and Islamic banks in last five years. The empirical study also found that there is a satisfactory improvement in banks’ credit quality in last five years despite of certain fluctuations. It is also worth mentioned that level of credit exposure and quality of Islamic banks is much better than that of conventional banks in Bangladesh in last. Keywords: Credit Exposure, Lending decision, Non-performing loan, Capital Adequacy rati

A Cloud Platform-as-a-Service for Multimedia Conferencing Service Provisioning

Multimedia Conferencing is the real-time exchange of media content (e.g. voice, video and text) between multiple participants. It is the basis of a wide range of conferencing applications such as massively multi-player online games and distance learning applications. For faster development as well as cost efficiency, developers of such conferencing applications can use conferencing services (e.g. dial-in audio conference) provided by third-parties. However, the third-party service providers face several challenges with respect to conferencing service provisioning (i.e. service development, deployment and management). One challenge is mastering complex low-level details of conferencing technologies, protocols and their interactions. Another challenge is resource elasticity. Number of conference participants varies during runtime. So resource utilization in an elastic manner is a critical factor to achieve cost efficiency. Cloud Computing can help tackle these challenges. It is a paradigm for swiftly provisioning a shared pool of configurable resources (e.g. services, applications, network and storage) on demand. It has three main service models: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Using a PaaS, service providers can provision conferencing services easily and offer them as SaaS. Nonetheless, cloud-based provisioning of conferencing services still remains a big challenge due to the shortcomings of existing PaaS. In this thesis, a PaaS architecture for conferencing service provisioning is proposed. It is based on a business model from the state of the art. It relies on conferencing IaaSs that, instead of VMs, offer conferencing substrates (e.g. dial-in signaling, video mixer and audio mixer). The conferencing PaaS enables composition of new conferences from substrates on the fly. Moreover, it provides conferencing service providers, who are experienced in programming, with high-level interfaces to abstract the internal complexities of conferencing. In order for PaaS to scale ongoing conferences elastically, an algorithm is also presented in this thesis. The conferencing PaaS is prototyped and performance measurements are made. The proposed algorithm’s performance is also evaluated

Portal biliopathy

Portal biliopathy (PB) is a rare disorder, which mostly presents as sub-clinically. It occurs most commonly due to idiopathic extrahepatic portal vein obstruction. We present three cases having features of portal biliopathy secondary to portal hypertension. Our first case did not have a prior history of chronic liver disease while next two patients had previous history of chronic liver disease resulting in portal hypertension. Cavernous transformation of the portal vein due to extrahepatic portal vein obstruction is not infrequent but biliary obstruction in association with this disorder is distinctly uncommon. Proper case management is very important as prolonged biliary duct obstruction can lead to the development of ascending cholangitis or later on secondary biliary cirrhosis