Substituting Wood with Nonwood Fibers in Papermaking: A Win-Win Solution for Bangladesh

Bangladesh is facing an acute shortage of fibrous raw materials for the production of pulp and paper. On the other hand, the demand for paper and paper products is increasing day by day. This study reviews the availability and suitability of nonwood raw materials for pulp production in Bangladesh. It shows that Bangladesh has a huge amount of unused jute fiber, which is highly suitable for papermaking in Bangladesh. Other agricultural wastes like rice straw, dhaincha, golpata fronds, cotton stalks, corn stalks, and kash are also available and may be used for some pulp production. Given the different properties of these different nonwood fibers, jute pulp can be used as a reinforcing agent with other nonwood pulps for the production of high quality paper in Bangladesh.Bangladesh, natural fibers, jute, paper making, pulp

Research Notes : Pakistan : Path-coefficient analysis of developmental and yield components in soybean

Abstract: Interrelationships among different characters were determined by simple correlations and path-coefficient analysis using 36 diverse and elite cultivars representing different geographical origin. The results revealed a highly significant positive association of the branches per plant and pods per plant with grain yield. The pods per plant also showed a high direct influence on grain yield. Thus, from this investigation, it is suggested that pods per plant and number of branches per plant are the primary yield components that should be given due emphasis in selecting high yielding genotypes in soybean

Deep Slap Fingerprint Segmentation for Juveniles and Adults

Many fingerprint recognition systems capture four fingerprints in one image. In such systems, the fingerprint processing pipeline must first segment each four-fingerprint slap into individual fingerprints. Note that most of the current fingerprint segmentation algorithms have been designed and evaluated using only adult fingerprint datasets. In this work, we have developed a human-annotated in-house dataset of 15790 slaps of which 9084 are adult samples and 6706 are samples drawn from children from ages 4 to 12. Subsequently, the dataset is used to evaluate the matching performance of the NFSEG, a slap fingerprint segmentation system developed by NIST, on slaps from adults and juvenile subjects. Our results reveal the lower performance of NFSEG on slaps from juvenile subjects. Finally, we utilized our novel dataset to develop the Mask-RCNN based Clarkson Fingerprint Segmentation (CFSEG). Our matching results using the Verifinger fingerprint matcher indicate that CFSEG outperforms NFSEG for both adults and juvenile slaps. The CFSEG model is publicly available at \url{https://github.com/keivanB/Clarkson_Finger_Segment

Understanding the Dynamics of Fluorescence Emission During Zeolite Detemplation Using Time Resolved Photoluminescence Spectroscopy

Time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy (TRPS) shows potential as a sensitive, non-destructive, high throughput, label-free laser-based spectroscopy technique capable of analysing low concentrations of organic species adsorbed on and within zeolite pores. Here we report the results from a study that uses TRPS to characterise photoluminescence (PL) arising from synthesised chabazite framework zeolites at three different stages of the detemplation process (from an uncalcined, partially calcined, and calcined zeolite). Temporal resolution was used to demonstrate the steric confinement effects of OSDA within a zeolite framework and therefore to establish a signature region for determining the presence of the template. Gated spectra comparisons between an uncalcined and a partially calcined zeolite demonstrated the presence of template alongside the proliferation of template-derived combustion products. An analysis of lifetime values demonstrated the ability for TRPS to track depletion of OSDA and establish a characteristic PL spectrum for a clean zeolite

Safe and just operating spaces for regional social-ecological systems

Humanity faces a major global challenge in achieving wellbeing for all, while simultaneously ensuring that the biophysical processes and ecosystem services that underpin wellbeing are exploited within scientifically informed boundaries of sustainability. We propose a framework for defining the safe and just operating space for humanity that integrates social wellbeing into the original planetary boundaries concept (Rockström et al., 2009a,b) for application at regional scales. We argue that such a framework can: (1) increase the policy impact of the boundaries concept as most governance takes place at the regional rather than planetary scale; (2) contribute to the understanding and dissemination of complexity thinking throughout governance and policy-making; (3) act as a powerful metaphor and communication tool for regional equity and sustainability. We demonstrate the approach in two rural Chinese localities where we define the safe and just operating space that lies between an environmental ceiling and a social foundation from analysis of time series drawn from monitored and palaeoecological data, and from social survey statistics respectively. Agricultural intensification has led to poverty reduction, though not eradicated it, but at the expense of environmental degradation. Currently, the environmental ceiling is exceeded for degraded water quality at both localities even though the least well-met social standards are for available piped water and sanitation. The conjunction of these social needs and environmental constraints around the issue of water access and quality illustrates the broader value of the safe and just operating space approach for sustainable development