Market Efficiency, Time-Varying Volatility and Equity Returns in Bangladesh Stock Market

This paper empirically examines the issue of market efficiency and time-varying risk return relationship for Bangladesh, an emerging equity market in South Asia. The study utilizes a unique data set of daily stock prices and returns compiled by the authors which was not utilized in any previous study. The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) equity returns show positive skewness, excess kurtosis and deviation from normality. The returns display significant serial correlation, implying stock market inefficiency. The results also show a significant relationship between conditional volatility and the stock returns, but the risk-return parameter is negative and statistically significant. While this result is not consistent with the portfolio theory, it is possible theoretically in emerging markets as investors may not demand higher risk premia if they are better able to bear risk at times of particular volatility (Glosten, Jagannathan and Runkle, 1993). While circuit breaker overall did not have any impact on stock volatility, the imposition of the lock-in period has contributed to the price discovery mechanism by reverting an overall negative riskreturn time-varying relationship into a positive one. As a policy to improve the capital market efficiency, the timely disclosure and dissemination of information to the shareholders and investors on the performance of listed companies should be emphasized.

Socio-economic Impacts of International Migration in Bangladesh

Migration plays an important role of economic development for a country, especially for  Bangladesh. Migration has impacts on both social and economic aspects. This study uses data from 1991 to 2011 to analyze the socio-economic impacts of migration for Bangladesh. This study splits the analysis into two parts; in first part, empirical evaluation is made through using econometric tools, where unit roots test, cointegration test as well as Ganger Causality test has been run between two variables such as Growth Rate of Remittance (GRR) and Literacy Rate (LR). There is a cointegration between these variables. That means in the long run the growth of remittance have a positive impact in increasing literacy rate which may lead to socio-economic development of our country. But using Ganger Causality test we did not find any unidirectional causality between GRR and LR. In later part, we attempted to provide a descriptive analysis about the socio-economic impacts of migration by observing various research papers and field studies. Government policies and strategies are highlighted regarding migration to show the position of government in this issue. Finally recommendations are made to have fruitful migration pattern as well as most efficient use of migrant and their sent remittance.

Customer Satisfaction of Super Stores in Bangladesh- An Explorative Study

The numbers of Super stores are increasing in Bangladesh to satisfy the demand of customers. The present study has been undertaken in order to identify the influencing factors of customer satisfaction by employing sophisticated multivariate technique- Varimax Rotated Factor Analytical Technique. The study has collected and used only primary data and consulted available literature for designing the questionnaire. The study has identified factors influencing the customer satisfaction of superstores in Bangladesh: Product factors, Store service factor, and Customer facilities factor. The study has suggested entrepreneurs of Super stores to consider these factors while designing their policies for superstores. Keywords: Superstore, Customer Satisfaction, Factor Analysis, Product Factors

A highly conserved WDYPKCDRA epitope in the RNA directed RNA polymerase of human coronaviruses can be used as epitope-based universal vaccine design

BACKGROUND: Coronaviruses are the diverse group of RNA virus. From 1960, six strains of human coronaviruses have emerged that includes SARS-CoV and the recent infection by deadly MERS-CoV which is now going to cause another outbreak. Prevention of these viruses is urgent and a universal vaccine for all strain could be a promising solution in this circumstance. In this study we aimed to design an epitope based vaccine against all strain of human coronavirus. RESULTS: Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) approach was employed among spike (S), membrane (M), enveloped (E) and nucleocapsid (N) protein and replicase polyprotein 1ab to identify which one is highly conserve in all coronaviruses strains. Next, we use various in silico tools to predict consensus immunogenic and conserved peptide. We found that conserved region is present only in the RNA directed RNA polymerase protein. In this protein we identified one epitope WDYPKCDRA is highly immunogenic and 100% conserved among all available human coronavirus strains. CONCLUSIONS: Here we suggest in vivo study of our identified novel peptide antigen in RNA directed RNA polymerase protein for universal vaccine – which may be the way to prevent all human coronavirus disease

Eosinophilic Fasciitis: What Matters in Management in a Developing Country—A Case Report with Two and a Half-year Follow-up

Eosinophilic fasciitis is an uncommon disorder of unknown aetiology and poorly-understood pathogenesis. Since 1974, over 250 cases of eosinophilic fasciitis have been reported worldwide. The first case of eosinophilic fasciitis from Bangladesh is reported here. The challenges of diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up, including family and social support, are discussed

An internet of things framework for real-time aquatic environment monitoring using an Arduino and sensors

Aquaculture is the farming of aquatic organisms in natural, controlled marine and freshwater environments. The real-time monitoring of aquatic environmental parameters is very important in fish farming. Internet of things (IoT) can play a vital role in the real-time monitoring. This paper presents an IoT framework for the efficient monitoring and effective control of different aquatic environmental parameters related to the water. The proposed system is implemented as an embedded system using sensors and an Arduino. Different sensors including pH, temperature, and turbidity, ultrasonic are placed in cultivating pond water and each of them is connected to a common microcontroller board built on an Arduino Uno. The sensors read the data from the water and store it as a comma-separated values (CSV) file in an IoT cloud named ThingSpeak through the Arduino microcontroller. To validate the experiment, we collected data from 5 ponds of various sizes and environments. After experimental evaluation, it was observed among 5 ponds, only three ponds were perfect for fish farming, where these 3 ponds only satisfied the standard reference values of pH (6.5-8.5), temperature (16-24 °C), turbidity (below 10 ntu), conductivity (970-1825 μS/cm), and depth (1-4) meter. At the end of this paper, a complete hardware implementation of this proposed IoT framework for a real-time aquatic environment monitoring system is presented

A descriptive cross-sectional survey among the International Islamic University Malaysia’s student on e-waste generation and public health problem in Malaysia

Objective: The main aim of the survey was to assess the respondent’s opinion on the factors influencing the generation of e-waste and its impact on public health in Malaysia. Methods: The research project involved a cross-sectional survey of International Islamic University’s students conducted in 2017 at Kuantan campus in the Pahang state, Malaysia. Along with info on demographic individualities, data were collected on several factors (agreement with questionnaire items regarding) using a 4-point Likert scale, with 4 representing “agree”, “strongly agree”, “disagree” and “strongly disagree,” respectively. Results: A total of 296 students completed the questionnaire. The age group of 18-22 covers 46.96% of all respondents and 61.82% was females. In ethnicity of respondents, 86.82% Malay and 30.07% were from rural area and rest of them were urban area. The volume of e-waste is raised due to the excess supplies of electrical appliances (71%), update their devices (65%.), additional electrical devices (59%), keeping the unused electrical appliances (71%), wholesalers selling bad quality appliances (45%), mechanic should not add and drop of their devices (71%). Regrettably 83% of the respondents doesn’t have appropriate knowledge of e-waste. 51% students agreed and 38% strongly agreed that there is no noticeable campaign on e-waste for public awareness. According to the 93% students’ opinion, individuals, the suppliers, industries and even the institutions are not aware to reduce e-waste. But a little 20% think that government does provide facilities for electrical device disposal. In public health perspective, e-waste contains a lot of hazardous chemical (strongly agreed 77% and rest 23% agreed). Fortunately, the serious health hazards led by e-waste (86% strongly agreed and 14% agreed). E-waste leads to infertile land, cancer, lung diseases and so others strongly agreed 70% and agreed 22% respectively. Conclusion: Findings suggest to organize the awareness programme in institutional, organization and educational institutional level to reduce generation of e-waste and its risk

Medication wastage and its impact on environment: evidence from Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to investigate the critical factors that have impact on environment causes of unused medication. The current study is a descriptive cross-sectional audit involving with patients based on a structured questionnaire format with answer sets. The data is analyzed using partial least square method. The results revealed that excess supplied, expired medicine, changed treatment and side effects have a significant impact on unused medication. In addition, overall unused medication has a significant relationship with environmental effect. In contrast, although excess supplied and side effects have not significant impact on environmental effect, but expired medicine and changed treatment have a significant impact on environmental effect. This survey results suggested; there are few factors which increased the volume of leftover medicine and it has led to an enhanced international awareness of the potential detrimental effects on the environment. More exertion is necessary to raise awareness of people in general as an initial step in promoting behavioral change in connection to medication wastage

Standardization the effect of shape of aggregates with respect to compressive strength of concrete

It is proved that aggregate’s types have the severe effect on physicomechanical properties of concrete as aggregate covered almost 70 to 80 percent of the total volume of concrete. The effect of Flaky and Elongated aggregates on strength, durability, and workability of concrete has often been qualitatively expressed. The aim of this work is establishing the same quantitatively. M25 grade concrete for different ratios of weights of Elongated to normal aggregate, Flaky to normal aggregate and combined Flaky & Elongated aggregate to normal aggregate was tested for compressive strength at 28 days concrete. Three different types of aggregates were employed in the investigation, namely; normal aggregate, Elongated aggregate, and Flaky aggregate. Density and water absorption also kept constant to identify the effects on properties of concrete only for differences in shape. Thirty-six concrete cylinder was cast at 28 days. Varying dosages of Normal aggregate (60%, 65%, 70%, 75%,80% 85%), flaky aggregate (40%, 35%, 30%, 25%, 20%, 15%), elongated aggregate (40%, 35%, 30%, 25%, 20%, 15%), by mixture volume and length of 12inch (304.8 mm) & diameter of 6inch (152.4 mm) cylinder were used to test. Compaction was done by temping rod. Concrete cylinder was tested at the age of 28 days of curing. This study proposed of mixing three different types of aggregate in concrete. Compressive strength of concrete was measured by the effect of three different shapes of aggregates of varying dosages

Pattern of Pre-Hospital Treatment Received by Cases of Pesticide Poisoning

Background: Prehospital treatment following acute pesticide poisoning is not optimal and mortality following such poisoning is high in Bangladesh. Method: It was a prospective study in which pattern of pre-hospital treatment received and outcome of pesticide poisoned patient were studied at one adult medical unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital from October 2005 to June 2006. Results: The number of cases of pesticide poisoning were 60 (1.98%) of 3030 admitted patients. The mean age was 24.7±8.8 years. Most of them (40, 66.7%) were male. The incidence of poisoning was high among students (11, 18.3%) and housewives (10, 16.7%). The most common cause of poisoning was intentional (55, 91.7%). Familial disharmony was underlying cause in 27 (45%) patients. More than half of the patients (41, 68.3%) purchased the poison self. 25 (41.7%) patients got first contact with physician within 30 minutes of poisoning. In majority cases (45, 75%) first contact health care provider was government hospital. Only 22 (36.7%) patients received first aid before arrival to present hospital. Among them, 19 (31.7%) patients received induced vomiting by ingestion of tamarind water or lemon water or soap water or putting finger or other substances (cow dung, human excreta etc.) in mouth and 3 (15%) patients received home remedy like milk, raw egg etc. The overall mortality was 16.7%. Conclusion: Measures should be taken to increase the awareness among general population regarding the first aid following pesticide poisoning