Nutritional Evaluation and Utilisation of Oil Palm (Elaeis Guineensis) Frond as Feed for Ruminants

Use of plant residues as ruminant livestock feed has been suggested to reduce the feed-cost and recycle the biomass. Physical and chemical characteristics of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) frond (OPF) and utilisation of OPF by ruminant were studied in a series of experiments. The yield of different fractions (leaflets, petiole and midribs) and segments (basal, middle and top) of OPF from different aged palms were measured. Results showed that the yield of OPF from matured (221 years) palm was 13.4 kg, where basal, middle and top segments constituted 53%, 27% and 20%, respectively. The estimated annual yield of petiole, leaflets and midribs were 21.70, 5.51 and 1.59 (OM.t.ha-1) respectively. The whole OPF contained 418.6, 960.8, 65.3, 740.1, 529.5, 210.6, 218.5, 878.8 and 138.8 (g.kg-1) of dry matter (OM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fibre (NOF), acid detergent fibre (AOF), cellulose (CEL), hemicellulose (HC), total carbohydrates (TC) and non-fibre carbohydrates (NFC), respectively. Calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), sodium (Na), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg) contents of the OPF were 0.530, 0.108, 0.049, 0.697 and 0.18 g.100g-10M, respectively. Copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe) and sulphur (S) contents of the OPF were 2.71, 11.17, 44.66, 106.7 and 0.096 mg.kg-10M, respectively. The in sacco OM degradation value of the OPF at 48h incubation was 37.32g.100g-1. The in vivo digestibility of OM, OM, CP and AOF of OPF were 52%, 56%, 43% and 26%, respectively. Results of the rumen fermentation trials showed that OPF could support an efficient rumen function when used ~50% is included in the diet. Results of effects of different levels of urea and lor molasses on the preservation qualities of OPF and in sacco digestion characteristics showed that mixing molasses reduced the pH of the preserved OPF, while mixing urea increased the pH. The lowest pH (3.98) was observed in molasses (200 g.kg-1DM) mixed OPF and the highest pH (8.65) was in the urea (60 g.kg-1DM) mixed OPF. Mixing of 20, 40 and 60 g.kg-1DM urea with OPF increased the CP level of the preserved OPF by 25%, 38% and 96%, respectively. Mixing molasses and/or urea showed increased digestion characteristics. The pelleting of OPF increased DM, OM, CP, cell content and decreased the cell wall contents of the OPF. Ensiling and pelleting both reduced (P>0.05) slightly the fibrous components (CEl, HC, lignin and silica) of OPF. Moreover, pelleting and ensiling increased (P<0.05) the rapidly disappearing value, extent and rate of digestion of OPF. Determination of digestible nutrient intake of fresh, ensiled and pelleted OPF and its effects on body weight gain of goats were measured. Results indicated that the pelleting of OPF increased the nutrient intake, digestibility, digestible nutrient intake and reduced refusals. The pelleting of OPF mixed with 4% urea, 15% molasses and 2% fish meal increased the digestible DM and OM intake by 80% and 63%, respectively which resulted in an increased body weight gain of the goats. Based on these studies, it can be concluded that OPF is a potential alternative roughage that can be used as a basal ingredient in the diet of ruminants. Fresh, chopped or ensiled OPF can be used up to 50% in the diet and mixing of either urea or molasses can increase the portion of OPF. The results of this study suggest that pelleting is the best way to conserve and handle OPF where almost no refusal can be observed. Moreover, the use of the pellets is convenient and pre-treatments can be easily incorporated during pelleting. Finally, it is suggested that mixed complete pellet can be made by correcting for the nutrients lacking (protein and minerals) in OPF and the use of the mixed pellet would maximise the utilisation of OPF

Region-based Convolutional Neural Network and Implementation of the Network Through Zedboard Zynq

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)In autonomous driving, medical diagnosis, unmanned vehicles and many other new technologies, the neural network and computer vision has become extremely popular and influential. In particular, for classifying objects, convolutional neural networks (CNN) is very efficient and accurate. One version is the Region-based CNN (RCNN). This is our selected network design for a new implementation in an FPGA. This network identifies stop signs in an image. We successfully designed and trained an RCNN network in MATLAB and implemented it in the hardware to use in an embedded real-world application. The hardware implementation has been achieved with maximum FPGA utilization of 220 18k BRAMS, 92 DSP48Es, 8156 FFS, 11010 LUTs with an on-chip power consumption of 2.235 Watts. The execution speed in FPGA is 0.31 ms vs. the MATLAB execution of 153 ms (on the computer) and 46 ms (on GPU)

Financial development and energy consumption nexus in Malaysia: A multivariate time series analysis

Despite a bourgeoning literature on the existence of a long-run relationship between energy consumption and economic growth, the findings have failed to establish clearly the direction of causation. A growing economy needs more energy, which is exacerbated by growing population. Evidence suggests that financial development can reduce overall energy consumption by achieving energy efficiency. Economic growth and energy consumption in Malaysia have been rising in tandem over the past several years. The three public policy objectives of Malaysia are: economic progress, population growth and financial development. It is of interest to the policymakers to understand the dynamic interrelation among the stated objectives. The paper implements Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration to examine the existence of a long-run relationship among the series: energy consumption, population, aggregate production, and financial development for Malaysia; and tests for Granger causality within the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The results suggest that energy consumption is influenced by economic growth and financial development, both in the short and the long-run, but the population-energy relation holds only in the long run. The findings have important policy implications for balancing economic growth vis-à-vis energy consumption for Malaysia, as well as other emerging nations.Financial development; Energy consumption; ARDL; Economic growth

Microcredit - A More Credible Social than Economic Program in Bangladesh

Calculated under the framework of economic-profit counting, the productivity of microcredit in Bangladesh is found very low. In this survey about 48% of the borrowers had to compromise their normal wages for self-employed labor to be able to pay the high interest for the credit. Similarly its social productivity is also found marginal. However, about 90% of the borrowers felt comfortable with microcredit even at so high interest rate seemingly to avoid losing or compromising their social and political empowerment at the hands of the local moneylenders or relatives. Borrowers give high value to their socio-political empowerments and are ready to compromise normal wages for their self-employed labor. In the game of political economy of credit for the poor, microcredit is seen as a means of protecting and enhancing socio-political empowerments of the low income and distressed people in the society and is appraised as a credible social than economic institution.Grameen Bank, microcredit, microenterprise, subsistent, poverty alleviation, stereotype, empowerment

Customer satisfaction level of United Commercial Bank Limited

This internship report is submitted in a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Business Administration,2014.Cataloged from PDF version of Internship report.As part of my academic requirement and completion of my BBA program, I needed to complete a three month period of Internship program. I chose to do my Internship at United Commercial Bank Ltd. At UCB I was assigned to do my intern in two different sections as general banking, and in foreign division. In General Banking Division I took the opportunity to learn about as much as possible while I was working on the division. United Commercial Bank Limited is one of the prominent banks in Bangladesh. In these years of long journey the bank has achieved trust from people by providing its services. The main motto of the bank is to give best quality and swift service to customers. In these three months of internship period I learn from them how to motivate customers and give quick services. General banking division is a very important department of a bank. Relationships with customers develop from here. In this report I describe the different functions of these three division. Here I also did a research about customer satisfaction level of UCBL. The report also gives an idea of different products and offerings given by United Commercial Bank Limited.Md. Mahmudul IslamB. Business Administratio

Blue Biotechnology, Renewable Energy, Unconventional Resources and Products as Emerging Frontiers at Sea

Blue biotechnology, renewable energy and unconventional marine living resources are considered as emerging frontiers for enhancing ocean-based blue economy in Bangladesh. Blue biotechnology can help both fisheries and aquaculture industry by producing fish varieties that can become quicker, more beneficial, and greater with tastier flesh, by developing gene transfer technology to be used to develop the growth of fish or by using of monoclonal antibodies and DNA probes to new diagnostic strategies for pathogens. Transformation of marine bioresources (main, co-product and by-products) into food, medicine, animal feed and related bio-based items i.e. cosmetics, nutritional supplements, enzymes, agrichemicals etc could help in meet the Bangladesh future challenges for the 21st century. Given that majority of conventional living resources is facing over-exploitation, non-conventional marine living resources, specifically mollusk (squids, oyster, mussel), seaweeds, marine echinoderms, marine micro algae and others can be utilized as a source of new fishery products that could straightforwardly consumed as nutritionally balanced marine food. In terms of non-living resource, renewable energy comes from hydro power, solar, biogas and wind, however, tide and wave energy have good potential. Towards sustainable utilization of these sector-specific resources there are several challenges, such as little knowledge about their current status, limited focus by policy makers. To escape this situation, marine policy relatives must have to include the marine fisheries, mariculture, marine food, health, natural resources and industrial application. Research activities can create information to advise the policy and strategy, which thus stimulates future development by informing how the marine environment can be monitored and managed reasonably and realize its role in giving ecological facilities to the country as well as the world

Do Intrinsic Rewards Matter on Motivation? Evidence from Primary School Teachers of Bangladesh

Purpose- This study investigates the impact of intrinsic rewards (Recognition, Training and Development, Work Environment, Participation in Decision Making, and Workplace Flexibility) on primary school teachers’ motivation at the workplace. Design/Methodology- A survey was conducted using a 5 Likert scale questionnaire among the teachers of different primary schools across Bangladesh. A total of 200 data was gathered through random sampling. SPSS 22.0 is used for analyzing the data. The study employed multiple regression and ANOVA, correlation, reliability test, and descriptive statistics to draw the findings. Findings- The study revealed that intrinsic rewards have a significant effect on teachers’ motivation. All the studied variables (Recognition, Training and Development, Work Environment, Participation in Decision Making, and Workplace Flexibility) have found a statistically significant relationship with Motivation. Moreover, recognition and work environment showed the most robust relationships with teachers’ motivation. Practical Implications- Organizations can use this study's results to comprehend the effect of intrinsic or non-financial rewards on employee motivation. Thus, the research findings could help similar institutions design an appropriate reward package with adequate intrinsic rewards to motivate their employees and ensure better performance at work

Climate Change Impacts on a Tropical Fishery Ecosystem: Implications and Societal Responses

The present study aimed to map out the current threats and anticipated impacts of climate change on the most important hilsa shad (Tenualosa ilisha) fishery and the associated fishing communities based on fieldwork in six coastal fishing communities. To collect empirical data, individual interviews, focus group discussions, oral history, and key informant interviews were conducted. To supplement the empirical findings, time-series data of cyclones and sea-borne depressions in the Bay of Bengal were also analyzed. Analysis of secondary data regarding climate change-induced events and regional studies suggested that the biophysical conditions of the Bay of Bengal are likely to be aggravated in the future, potentially causing more frequent extreme events and affecting the livelihoods of coastal fishing communities in Bangladesh. The fisher respondents revealed that the main target hilsa shad fishery is particularly vulnerable to climate change in terms of alterations to migration patterns and breeding and growth performance. The fishers reported constant climate-related risks because they live in seafront locations, exposed to extreme events, and their occupation entails risky sea fishing. Fishers claimed that they often need return to the coast due to unsuitable weather conditions related to cyclones and frequent tropical depressions, which can cause financial losses or even causalities. Such events negatively affect fishers’ livelihoods, and wellbeing. To cope with the impacts of climate change the fishers have adopted various strategies at both sea fishing and household levels. However, these strategies only support the fishers in terms of immediate survival; they are not enough for long-term resilience. To improve the resilience of the hilsa fishers, the study argues for the implementation the Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines (SSF Guidelines), which call for longer-term development goals, including in the immediate relief phase, and rehabilitation, reconstruction, and recovery to reduce vulnerabilities to climate and anthropogenic risks

Bangla Reading of Grade Three Students: An Explanatory Study at Government Primary Schools in Bangladesh

Reading is a fundamental skill for overall academic success which positively affects life outcomes. Reading fluency is important for bridging the word recognition and comprehension. The main objective of this study is to measure the present status of Bangla reading fluency with understanding of grade III students at the Government Primary Schools (GPS) in Bangladesh. To meet these research objectives, we used explanatory sequential mixed methods design with multistage cluster sampling strategies. Through quantitative analysis, it is found that students scored on an average 2.34 (out of 4) in reading seen text and 1.29 (out of 3) in reading unseen text. In addition, students can read 48 words per minute with 80% comprehension. It is also found that the major causes of gaps in achieving reading skills are- students’ inability to identify the alphabet, break joint letters, make words and make sentences. To overcome this situation teachers can conduct a baseline survey at the beginning of the academic year and support students continuously to reach the mark. Besides, teachers can follow the teachers’ guide (TG) of NCTB in Bangla language teaching