Asleep at the wheel: the real interest rate experience in Australia

A re-thinking and clear understanding of the factors underlying a country's balance of trade position is needed as the global trade regime becomes more liberalized. The relationship between the overall trade balance and its determinants as propounded in the standard models may not necessarily be the same with the bilateral trade balances. This study has developed a model of bilateral trade balance that captures the effects of all factors influencing trade balance as suggested by elasticity, absorption, and monetary approaches and the popular Gravity Model with some extensions. Specifically, the present paper postulates that the relative factors determine the trading pattern, and hence the trade balance of a country in bilateral trade with partners while in the earlier models absolute factors determine the trade balance,. Using standard panel data techniques the model is empirically tested and the results show significant effects of all the relative factors on the bilateral trade balance of Bangladesh in trading with her partners. The robustness check of the model ensures the validity of the specification.Trade Balance, Panel Data

Managing the Arsenic Disaster in Water Supply: Risk Measurement, Costs of Illness and Policy Choices for Bangladesh

Arsenic poisoning is a major public health concern in Bangladesh. This study uses primary data to examine health impacts and costs associated with arsenic contamination of groundwater. The study estimates that some 7 to 12 million person-days per year are lost as a result of arsenic exposure. In addition, individuals who are sick spend between 207 (US$3.5) million to 369 (US$ 6.25) million taka per year for medical help. The total cost of illness as a result of exposure to arsenic is Tk 557 (US$9) to Tk 994 (US$ 17) million per annum or on average nearly 0.6 percent of the annual income of affected individuals. If it is possible to provide arsenic-free (within safe limit) alternative technologies to reverse the impact of arsenic, the social gains to Bangladesh are considerable. The study also finds that the threat of Melanosis--the black spot disease—and Keratosis—roughness in palms and soles— is high when there is cumulative exposure and that this threat is not the same for all wealth classes. Richer households take mitigation measures to reduce the threat on their health. Richer households also seem to be more successful in avoiding the incidence of conjunctivitis due to Arsenicosis. Women on the other hand are more likely to be affected by inflammation of the respiratory tracts--a sign of long-term exposure without recourse to medical help

Perception of distance learning in Bangladeshi tertiary education: prospects and obstacles in the Covid-19 era

Purpose: The key purpose of the study is to understand the university students' perception of a sudden distance learning platform from Bangladesh (a least developed countries' perspective). Research methodology: This particular study has employed a qualitative research method with the support of interview and observation methods. The study has selected 20 University students as a sample size based on purposive sampling. Results: The findings provide a vivid outline of the current situation of the universities- that the students have- over the influence of distance learning on education, technology, their university, course instructors, and themselves. Limitations: The data was qualitative in nature and the study only interviewed the university students but not the other stakeholders of that system; in addition, the study did not triangulate the data with more quantitative data. Contribution: The study makes an important contribution to the literature on the least developed countries' university education, which will benefit Higher Education institutions that are also struggling with the prospects and obstacles of distance learning during and in the post-Covid-19 crisis

Quality aspects of some exportable dried fishery products of Bangladesh

A study was conducted to evaluate the quality aspects of eight exportable dried fishery products of Bangladesh. The products were evaluated by examining organoleptic properties, water reconstitution behavior, microbiological and biochemical aspects. The water reconstitution rate was faster in ribbon fish and Bombay duck, and slower in other fishes and air bladder and shark fin products. Organoleptic and physical characteristics in respect of color, odor, texture, insect infestation and broken pieces of the products revealed that all of the products were either in excellent or acceptable condition. Total viable bacterial load ranged from 0.95 x 104 CFU/g to 1.8 x 104 CFU/g in dried products. Coliform bacteria was absent in all the dried fishery products. The results of moisture, crude protein, lipid and ash content of the products ranged from 16.20 to 23.51%, 58.37 to 82.86%, 0.17 to 14.44% and 0.58 to 9.23%, respectively. Non-protein nitrogen (NPN) contents were in the range of 0.104 to 2.372% and the pepsin digestibility values were of 88.41 to 94.23%. The results of the study suggested that the exportable dried products were of good quality and hygienically safe

Light field imaging technology for virtual reality content creation: A review

The light field (LF) imaging technique can capture 3D scene information in 4D by recording both 2D intensity and 2D direction of incoming light rays. Due to this capability, LF has shown a great interest in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) for enhanced immersion, improved depth perception and reconstruction of realistic 3D environments. This paper presents a comprehensive review of LF imaging technology and other approaches used for VR content creation. The applications of LF technology beyond VR and AR are also discussed. The challenges and limitations of other approaches for VR content creation are examined. State‐of‐the‐art research has focused on how VR experiences benefit from LF technology and identified the challenges to creating comfortable, immersive and realistic VR content such as (1) image size and resolution, (2) processing speed, (3) precise calibration and (4) depth reconstruction. Recommendations that can be considered for creating immersive VR content are provided to enhance user experience. These recommendations aim to contribute to developing more comfortable and realistic VR content, extending the potential applications of LF imaging technology in diverse fields

Study on clinical features and factors associated with thickness of chronic subdural hematoma in adult

Patients with chronic subdural hematoma encounter certain difficulties in diagnosis, especially in elderly, due to the characteristically non-specific symptoms and signs. Early diagnosis and proper operative treatment, on the other hand, results in complete recovery in most of the cases. In this study, the clinical features and factors of 31 patients with chronic subdural hematoma, associated with the thickness of chronic subdural hematoma were analyzed. The mean age was 62 ± 13.9 years. The maximum hematoma thickness in the axial CT scan was 25 mm. The thickness of hematoma obtained from axial plain CT had a positive relationship with the patient’s age where r=0.895 and p<0.001 signifies that the thickness of hematoma increased with the increasing age. But the hematoma thickness was not related to co-morbidity such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension and ischemic heart disease. The presentation of the patient with higher hematoma thickness with hemiparesis was statistically significant and with lower thickness with headache and vomiting