Factors affecting the intention to become an entrepreneur: A study from Bangladeshi business graduates' perspective

The current stage of entrepreneurial culture in Bangladesh encourages rethinking about the content and approach of teaching in entrepreneurship education. Therefore, this study aimed at identifying the factors influencing Bangladeshi graduates’ intention toward becoming entrepreneurs. A sample of 387 business graduate students was selected randomly from both private and public universities located in Dhaka and Rajshahi. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLSSEM) has been employed to test the structural relationship among variables that influence respondent’s entrepreneurial intention. This study has found that entrepreneurial education will provide skills and knowledge that might help the students to change their typical mind-set from searching job to creating jobs. Hence, focusing on developing entrepreneurial mind through education will have importance for the development of entrepreneurial culture as well as for the sustainable socioeconomic development in Bangladesh. Keywords—Attitude, Subjective Norm, Entrepreneurial Education, Self-Efficacy, Intention, Banglades

Divergence Based Non-Negative Matrix Factorization for top-N Recommendations

Personalized top-N recommendation algorithms are among the most effective techniques providing customized suggestions in information retrieval applications. Most of the current methods construct personalized recommendations based on various loss functions such as pairwise ranking loss and point-wise recovery loss. In this paper, we propose a personalized top-N recommendation method based on non-negative matrix factorization with divergence as a point-wise ranking loss function. Our method finds the latent factors from the existing data to improve recommendation predictions. We formulate the learning problem with regularized divergence as a constrained non-convex minimization problem and develop a projected gradient descent optimization algorithm to solve the divergence problem. We evaluate our approach using six personal recommendation task related datasets by employing root mean squared error (RMSE) and hit rate (HR). Our experimental results demonstrate improved RMSE and HR for most of the datasets

Effects of organophosphate insecticide, sumithion on histopathology of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) in the natural pond condition

Sumithion is an organophosphorus insecticide, which is widely used in aquaculture ponds for eradication of aquatic insect (mainly tiger bug) prior to release of larvae. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of an organophosphorus pesticide, sumithion on histoarchitecture of liver and kidney in common carp (Cyprinus carpio) during the period from July to December 2016. It was carried out with four treatments, each with two replications. i.e., ponds with no sumithion (T0), with 0.025ppm sumithion (T1), 0.050 ppm sumithion (T2) and 0.100 ppm sumithion (T3). The water quality parameters, such as pH, dissolved oxygen, total alkalinity, free CO2, nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N), phosphate-phosphorus (PO4-P) were not affected by sub lethal doses of sumithion but the values were fluctuated significantly in most of the cases between the ponds throughout the study period. In case of histoarchitecture of liver and kidney, normal structure of liver and kidney cells were observed in the controlled and treated fish. Through the histological analysis of liver, small vacuole, enlarge lumen space of hepatopancreas and disrupted hepatopancreas were found in T1. Disrupted hepatopancreas, increasement intracellular space, regeneration of hepatic cell and hemorrhage were observed in T2. Moreover, enlarge lumen space of hepatopancreas, degenerated hepatic cell, disrupted hepatopancreas were observed in T3. After the histological analysis of kidney, degenerated renal corpuscle, enlargement of blood vessel, disrupted hematopoetic cell were observed in T1. Ruptured collecting duct, large vacuole, enlarge intracellular space were observed in T2. Furthermore, enlarge bowman’s space, degenerated hematopoetic cell hemorrhage and ruptured distal tubule disrupted, enlarge intracellular space and necrosis were observed in T3. The present investigation sufficiently emphasizes that sumithion has adverse effects on the major organs like liver and kidney. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 10(2): 66-75, December 202

Adaptive and Concurrent Garbage Collection for Virtual Machines

An important issue for concurrent garbage collection in virtual machines (VM) is to identify which garbage collector (GC) to use during the collection process. For instance, Java program execution times differ greatly based on the employed GC. It has not been possible to identify the optimal GC algorithms for a specific program before exhaustively profiling the execution times for all available GC algorithms. In this paper, we present an adaptive and concurrent garbage collection (ACGC) technique that can predict the optimal GC algorithm for a program without going through all the GC algorithms. We implement this technique in the Java virtual machine and test it using standard benchmark suites. ACGC learns the algorithms’ usage pattern from different training program features and generates a model for future programs. Feature generation and selection are two important steps of our technique, which creates different attributes to use in the learning step. Our experimental evaluation shows improvement in selecting the best GC. Additionally, our approach is helpful in finding better heap size settings for improved program execution

Tethered Cord Syndrome Causing Chronic Kidney Disease in a Child: A rare event

The fixing of the spinal cord, regardless of the underlying cause of the fixation, is called a tethered cord. Tethered cord syndrome is a group of diseases that develops as a result of the regression of the spinal cord due to congenital or acquired causes and is characterized by evaluative neurologic losses. In stretched tethered cord syndrome which is observed during childhood usually manifested by skin symptoms, motor losses, urologic symptoms, and evaluative spinal cord deformations such as scoliosis are more frequently observed while perinea and primal pain, urologic symptoms, and motor losses are more frequent in adults. Tethered cord complicating a neurogenic bladder in childhood is a rare disease. So, this case report is presented.                                   Keywords: Tethered cord; Child; Chronic Kidney Disease; Neurogenic Bladder

A longitudinal evaluation of dexamethasone and cortisol plasma concentrations in the dexamethasone suppression test before and during treatment with antidepressant drugs

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66095/1/j.1600-0447.1990.tb03073.x.pd

Spatial prediction of malaria prevalence in an endemic area of Bangladesh

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Malaria is a major public health burden in Southeastern Bangladesh, particularly in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region. Malaria is endemic in 13 districts of Bangladesh and the highest prevalence occurs in Khagrachari (15.47%).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A risk map was developed and geographic risk factors identified using a Bayesian approach. The Bayesian geostatistical model was developed from previously identified individual and environmental covariates (p < 0.2; age, different forest types, elevation and economic status) for malaria prevalence using WinBUGS 1.4. Spatial correlation was estimated within a Bayesian framework based on a geostatistical model. The infection status (positives and negatives) was modeled using a Bernoulli distribution. Maps of the posterior distributions of predicted prevalence were developed in geographic information system (GIS).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Predicted high prevalence areas were located along the north-eastern areas, and central part of the study area. Low to moderate prevalence areas were predicted in the southwestern, southeastern and central regions. Individual age and nearness to fragmented forest were associated with malaria prevalence after adjusting the spatial auto-correlation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A Bayesian analytical approach using multiple enabling technologies (geographic information systems, global positioning systems, and remote sensing) provide a strategy to characterize spatial heterogeneity in malaria risk at a fine scale. Even in the most hyper endemic region of Bangladesh there is substantial spatial heterogeneity in risk. Areas that are predicted to be at high risk, based on the environment but that have not been reached by surveys are identified.</p

Growth performance of silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) in cage stocked at different densities

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth performance of silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) in cage stocking at different densities. It was expected that silver carp could grow feeding on plankton without external feeding. In this experiment, silver carps in nine cages were stocked in three different stocking densities such as 20, 30 and 40 fishes/m3 designated as treatments T1, T2 and T3, which were located in the south west corner of the L-shaped pond in Field Laboratory Complex, Faculty of Fisheries, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh consisting of three treatments with three replications of each for a period of 90 days from 18th August to 17th November, 2015. Each cage size was 1m x 1m x1m (length x width x height) and silver carp was cultured in the cage with natural feed which filtered phytoplankton mainly. Twenty five genera of phytoplankton were identified in pond and the average phytoplankton production was around 8.44x105cells/liter. Water quality parameters such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH and transparency were recorded fortnightly. At the completion of the experiment, weight showed significant difference (p>0.05) among three treatments although length didn’t vary significantly. The highest length gain (18.61+0.369 cm) and the highest weight gain (62.52+2.249 g) were found in T1. The highest SGR% for silver carp was found in T1 and the highest total production was obtained in T3 (5.00+ 0.015 kg/m3). Individual growth performance of silver carp was satisfactory. Further studies are needed with different stocking densities and duration to verify the result

Age-Related Differences of Risk Profile and Angiographic Findings in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease

Background: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major health problem which imposes a significant burden on health caresystems because of high morbidity and mortality. Objectives: To compare the risk factors profile for coronary heartdisease in young and old subjects. Methods: Total 100 patients (50 subjects less than 40 years of age and 50 subjectsmore than 40 years of age) with acute coronary syndrome or stable angina who were undergoing coronary angiogram inthe Department of Cardiology, University Cardiac Center, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Dhaka, fromJuly 2006 to June 2008 were evaluated for the presence coronary artery disease risk factors e.g. hypertension, dyslipidemiaand smoking. Results: The mean age of the study population in younger group was (33.0 &plusmn; 6.4) years and in older group(52.0&plusmn;8.6). The male to female ratio in both groups was 4:1. Smokers were more in younger group (70.0% vs. 46.0%) (p =0.032). Hypertension was less in the younger group (38.0% vs. 58.0%) (p = 0.045). Presence of diabetes was higher in theolder age group (34.0% vs. 4.0%) (p = 0.001). Higher incidence of family history of coronary heart disease was in theyounger age group. The total cholesterol was higher in older group (182.9 &plusmn; 33.1) vs. (171.1 &plusmn; 24.8 mg/dl) (p = 0.047). 68%of patients of older group and 38% of younger group had stenosis in left anterior descending artery (p = 0.003). Theinvolvement of left circumflex and right coronary artery in older age group were higher (56% and 66% respectively) thanthose in younger group (36% and 40% respectively) (p = 0.045 and p = 0.009). Conclusion: Ischemic heart disease inyounger adults &lt; 40 years had different risk profile characteristics than older patients.Key words: Coronary heart disease; acute coronary syndrome; stable angina; risk factors.DOI: 10.3329/bsmmuj.v3i1.5508BSMMU J 2010; 3(1): 13-1

Estimation and prediction of doubling time for COVID-19 epidemic in Bangladesh: a study of first 14 month’s daily confirmed new cases and deaths

Background: The doubling time is a reliable indicator to estimate the rate at which the pandemic is spreading. We evaluated and predicted the doubling time for the daily COVID-19 cases and deaths in Bangladesh. Methods: Publicly available daily data on COVID-19 new cases from 8 March, 2020 to 14 February, 2021 and the daily deaths data from 18 March, 2020 to 14 February, 2021 were used to predict doubling time based on records from seven days prior. Then, short-term predictions for the next 14 days (1 to 14 February, 2021) were performed to validate the accuracy of our prediction. Finally, using the doubling time data up to 14 February, 2021, a two months (15 February- 15 April, 2021) prediction was made for both daily new COVID-19 cases and deaths. Results: The median doubling time for daily new COVID-19 cases and deaths were 90.51 and 86.02 days respectively in the entire period. The doubling period for cases was lowest in the second to third week of March, 2020 [ranged 2.33-8.43 days] and longest in the second week of March, 2021 [ranged 834-2187 days]. Our prediction suggests that the doubling time for daily confirmed new COVID-19 case will be 1310.33 days [95% CI: 854.33 - 1766.32] and deaths will be 683.04 days [556.05 - 810.03] on 15 April, 2021 in Bangladesh. Conclusion: Our prediction is based on current testing strategies. Any changes in daily number of tests or sudden changes of the dynamics of COVID-19 transmission would affect these predictions