Physiological and psychosocial occupational exposures and intermediate health outcomes in the general population

In this large general working population-based thesis, we observed that pesticides is the most potent occupational exposure that may impair lung function and may increase the risk to develop respiratory symptoms and airway obstruction. Metals exposure may increase the prevalence of sickness absence among workers. Experiencing high job strain and high effort-reward imbalance in the workplace may increase blood pressure. Future studies should consider to include a detailed job history to detect the health effects of occupational exposures over the life course. In addition, future research should focus on the causal associations between occupational exposures and health effects through genetic and epigenetic analyses. The results of these future studies may point towards future preventive and therapeutic measures. Targeted preventive measures should be implemented to protect workers from exposure to pesticides and its components, metals, job strain, and effort-reward imbalance to ensure healthy working lives

Nature and Extent of Crime Victimization: A Study on Urban Area in Bangladesh

This study has mainly explored the current nature and extent of crime victimization in urban areas in Bangladesh. It was exploratory in nature. The samples were selected randomly using a clustered sampling technique from 14 particular areas and respondents who were selected as victimized person or their household heads in this study. A structured and standardized survey questionnaire were used for data collection techniques and using SPSS statistical tools for analyzing data. The findings of the study are that the total number of the respondents was 3,957, among them most of them are female about 53% within 31% of victimized people. Their age ranging from 20 to 40 years, they have completed the primary and secondary level of education, their income below 20,000 and most of them are married and housewife by their occupation among them 8.5% got repeatedly victimized. As per the study findings, theft constitutes the highest number for victimization, where 79% and other types offences including snatching, sexual harassment, domestic violence and also other property related crime, snatching of things or properties, cheating, forgery, or any kind of fraudulent activity, threatening, and damage to property, rape etc were also be found in urban area. Most importantly, Dhaka north city has a higher victimization rate than the other cities in Bangladesh. In this study, it has found that about 95% of the respondents became victimized while living within their current address and most of the victims shared that the incident took place at the town mostly and the places of occurrence were mostly closed to the residence of the victims. The average distance of the place of occurrences and residences was about 4.6 km, and the nearest police station from the place of occurrence was 3.3 km on an average. The study also showed that most of the crimes have occurred within the mid hour of day time to the first hour of the night time, which starts from noon and ends 9 at night, and it constitutes 50 % of the total crime. Finally, it is also revealed that from January to April and November to December of 2018 were more crime-prone than the other months

Performance Evaluation of Private Commercial Banks of Bangladesh: A Trend Analysis

The study revealed the trend analysis of the private commercial banks and given an overview of the performance of private commercial banks of Bangladesh. Nowadays, the banking sector is the “lifeblood” of all economic activity. The study is empirical. To get the proper understanding about the trend of different variables such as, investment loan & advancement, total asset, total liability, total equity, profit after tax, return on investment, return on asset, and return on equity from 2013 to 2017 the sample was extracted from the scheduled commercial banks. The result shows that the banking system of Bangladesh is not running at a normal pace. The index of the various variable of PCBs has progressed in some years, but again it has been delayed for the next time. The ROI and the ROA result show the best output in 2014 and the worst in 2017. On the other side, the best return on equity shows in 2014, but it is in the lowest position in 2015 because of a sudden increase in an equity position. The trend of profit after tax is like a wave. In 2014 and 2016 it is increased than the last year. On the other hand, in 2013, 2015 & 2017 it is decreased in comparison to the previous year. The data shows that the PAT is rotated within 15,000 to 20000 million taka. It is studied that, the growth and development, as well as the performance trend, is not rhythmic. PCBs should get the proper rhythm of their development, and for the development of the state

Underlying the Causes and Impact of Crime Victimization: A Study of Urban Area in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, like all other countries of the world Crime victimization has become a frightening, threatening and unsettling experience for many people. This study tries to trace the causes of different kinds of crime victimization and also tries to find out its impact on victims in relation to urban environment. Based on literature relate to victimization and collecting primary data from urban area’s victim, this study will enable researchers to explore the prevalence of crime in urban area and to identify the causes and impact of crime victimization on victims by analysing the demographic status of victim-offender, measuring the causal variables and several cost likely financial, physical etc. The subject of this study was composed of 3957 respondent’s selected from 12th city corporations including Dhaka city followed by probability sampling method for collecting information from the general peoples who have victimized. The study revealed that two-third of the offenders was unknown to the victim. The most common cause of victimization includes self-blaming (lack of awareness or carelessness) remained at the top reason, which constitutes 31 percent of the victim. This victimization has affected victims psychologically, physically and financially including several losses. The perceptions gathered through this study will helps to take important measures and strategies to ensure safe livelihood as well as increase the performance of the law enforcement agencies

Socio-Demographic Factors Associate with Fear of Crime in Bangladesh: A Study in Urban Area

Fear of crime is a concerning issue which led to a whole series of behavioral reactions which negatively affect the quality of life in the society. This study examines the public perceptions of the risks and fear of crime in Bangladesh in relation to urban environment. Drawing upon fear of crime literature and collecting primary data this study will enable researchers to explore the nature of the urban fear of crime in Bangladesh and will find association between socio demographic factor and fear of crime by identifying the possible vulnerable time and place of crime victimization; level of safety at the neighborhood and home and identifying factors affecting victim’s level of fear of crime. The subject of this study was composed of 3957 respondent’s selected from 12th city corporations followed by probability sampling method for collecting information from the general peoples who have victimized and have a fear of crime. The study found that fear of crime is found to be higher with the stranger; people seem to be feared while in the dark time after 6 pm. Many factors affect the fear of crime such as lengthy procedure of criminal justice system, news of crime at their locality, news of crossfire and poor neighborhood physical condition have impact on fear of crime. The perceptions gathered through this study will helps to take important measures and strategies to ensure safe livelihood as well as increase the performance of the law enforcement agencies

Numerical Analysis of a Highly Sensitive SOI MRR Refractive Index Sensor with Performance Enhancement using Graphene and Gold

This study proposes a simulation-based design for a Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) ring resonator with a Figure of Merit (FOM) of 56.15 and a high sensitivity of up to 730 nm/RIU. The Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) technique was used to assess and evaluate the design quantitatively. Our design demonstrates higher sensitivity compared to many recent studies conducted on SOI-based sensors. The device structure follows a conventional ring resonator arrangement with a single waveguide, incorporating a 2D graphene layer on top of the SiO2 wafer and a gold nano-disc positioned at the center of the ring. Our findings highlight the device's susceptibility to refractive index variations, making it a desirable choice for various sensing applications. We have investigated the sensor's capabilities for sensing different concentrations of milkmilk. Graphene and gold materials enhance the device's response to light and provide comparatively higher sensitivity. The suggested design can serve as a blueprint for device fabrication, considering the practicality of implementing an SOI-based device using standard techniques for silicon processing.Comment: 23 pages, 29 figures, Journal: Heliyon by Cell Press (Accepted

Enhancing GI Cancer Radiation Therapy: Advanced Organ Segmentation with ResECA-U-Net Model

This research introduces a pioneering solution to the challenges posed by gastrointestinal tract (GI) cancer in radiation therapy, focusing on the imperative task of precise organ segmentation for minimizing radiation-induced damage. GI imaging has historically used manual demarcation, which is laborious and uncomfortable for patients. We address this by introducing the ResECA-U-Net deep learning model, a novel combination of the U-Net and ResNet34 architectures. Furthermore, we further augment its functionality by incorporating the Efficient Channel Attention (ECA-Net) methodology. By utilizing data from the UW-Madison Carbone Cancer Center, we carefully investigate several image processing techniques designed to capture critical local characteristics. With its foundation in computer vision concepts, the ResECA-U-Net model is excellent at extracting fine details from GI images. Sophisticated metrics such as intersection over union (IoU) and the dice coefficient are used to evaluate performance. Our study's outcomes demonstrate the effectiveness of the suggested method, yielding an impressive 96.27% Dice coefficient and 91.48% IoU. These results highlight the significant contribution that our strategy has made to the advancement of cancer therapy. Beyond its scientific merits, this work has the potential to significantly enhance cancer patients' quality of life and provide better long-term outcomes. Our work is a significant step towards automating and optimizing the segmentation process, which can potentially change how GI cancer is treated completely. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2024-08-03-012 Full Text: PD