English Language at Secondary Level in Bangladesh: (Dis)connections Between Policy and Practice of Oral Skills

The development of curriculum, textbooks and assessment is a continuous process for better teaching and learning outcomes. The National Curriculum & Textbook Board (NCTB) revised its secondary curriculum in 2012 for English education considering the 2010 National Education policy. The only textbook for the whole country for secondary level, English for Today has been developed accordingly in 2013 for grades 6 to 10, to help students attain competency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This qualitative study is based on semi-structured interviews and content analysis of pertinent policy documents. The semi-structured interview data includes a set of English curriculum policy implementation stakeholders including teacher trainers, school principals and English teachers. This paper aims to explore the reasons for the existing disconnections coherently through the analytical lens of the Constructive Alignment (CA) Model for curriculum design to achieve the intended learning outcomes for secondary English education in Bangladesh. The findings support the argument that if the coherence of secondary curriculum, classroom teaching and learning activities and assessment system is not aligned, the aspirations of the National Education Policy 2010 may not be achieved

Studies on the performance of organic and inorganic fertilizer on the growth and yield of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)

Experiments were conducted in the Botanical Garden of the Department of Biology of Kaduna State University to study the effects of Organic and Inorganic Fertilizer on the growth and yield of Cucumis sativus L. The seeds for the experiment were locally sourced. Four (4) days after transplanting, a rate of 2ton/ha, 4ton/ha, 6ton/ha poultry manure was applied. Similarly, a rate of 25g/ha, 50g/ha, 75g/ha of NPK was also applied and a control. Seeds of cucumber were planted by broadcasting on the seed bed the seedlings were transplanted after germination. The plants were subjected to irrigation by watering morning and evening. The results of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) indicated significance difference among the treatments with respect to the parameters studied (p < 0.05). Highest plant height of 33cm was recorded with 6ton/ha compared to the control which had 11.5cm. However, highest number of leaves was recorded with 4ton/ha and was followed by the 6ton/ha. The best stem girth of 1.8cm, was observed with 4ton/ha while the control had 0.88cm stem girth. Excellent vigour was produced by the 6ton/ha, while the lowest vigour was observed with the 2ton/ha. The best plant yields of was observed with 6ton/ha compared with the control which had the least performance. On the other hand, 25kg/ha of NPK had the highest plant height of 20.5cm while the lowest plant height of 13cm was observed with 75kg/ha, compared to the control which had 11.5cm. The 25kg/ha gave the highest number of leaves followed by the 50kg/ha and 75kg/ha which both had the lowest number of five (5) leaves. Similarly, 50kg/ha had the highest stem girth of 1.2cm while the lowest stem girth was observed with the control which had 0.7cm stem girth. The best vigour was recorded with the 25kg/ha compared to the control which had the least vigour. Also, highest plant yields was recorded with 25kg/ha and the lowest plant yield was observed in the control. The application of poultry manure in the propagation of Cucumis sativus remarkably influenced the growth and yield of Cucumber

Finite element time domain method with a unique coupled mesh system for electromagnatics and photonics

The finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is a popular technique, being used successfully to analyse the electromagnetic properties of many structures, including a range of optical or photonic devices. This method offers several major advantages such as, a minimum level of calculation is required for each of the cells into which the structure is divided, as well as data parallelism and explicit and easy implementation. However, due to the use of the Finite Difference grid, this method suffers from higher numerical dispersion and inaccurate discretisation due to staircasing at slanted and curve edges. The rectangular computational domain in 2D and cuboid computational domain in 3D sometimes makes the method very resource intensive especially for large simulations. Although the finite element (FE) approach is superior for the discretisation of both 2D and 3D structures, most of the FE-based time domain approaches reported so far suffer from limitations due to the implicit or iterative form or the mass matrix formulation, for example. Therefore, the speed of the simulation is much slower than the FDTD method. Time domain analysis of electromagnetic is a very resource intensive numerical technique. Due to the slow performance the FE based techniques are not as popular as the FDTD method. In this research work a new FE based time domain technique has been proposed for both 2D and 3D problems which is similar to the FDTD method explicit and data parallel in nature. The method proposed does not requires any matrix formulation or iteration. It uses minimum possible CPU cycles among any FE-based techniques. The method also utilises a unique meshing scheme to reduce the number of calculation to at least half for 2D and one fifth for 3D compared to any full mesh FE based technique. The method also shows very low numerical dispersion when used with equilateral elements in both 2D and 3D. Thus the proposed method effectively produces results with less numerical dispersion error with lower density mesh compared to the FDTD method. When the advantage in resolution is taken into consideration, calculation of each time-step using the proposed method is significantly faster than the FDTD method

Impact of chapila (Gudusia chapra Ham.) on growth of carps in polyculture

The impact of chapila (Gudusia chapra) on the growth of carps was determined through introducing the fish in polyculture. A net average production with and without chapila were obtained at 467.11 and 889.54 kg/ha respectively (PO.OS). The highest level of dietary overlap occurred between chapila and catla followed by chapila and rohu (P<O.OS). The present study revealed that chapila reduces the net production at 47.49% in carps polyculture

Esophagus cancer incidence among females in Golestan Province, Iran (2004)

The main aim of this study was to find and describe province-specific estimates of incidence in females by age groups for esophagus cancer. The data used in this study were collected in a cancer registry that was conducted by Health Deputy of Golestan province for a period of 1 year (2004). The age distribution was collected according to the following age strata: 0-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75-79, 80-84 and 85 above. Esophagus cancer data was identified and collected through the 18 Pathology Laboratory centers (where female populations referred to these centers) in Golestan province. A total of 348 primary cancer cases were captured. From these 32 cases was esophagus cancer. There were 26 squomous cell carcinoma (81.25%), 1 adenocarcinoma (3.12%). Esophagus cancer incidence among females in Golestan province was 7.62/100000. But esophagus cancer with the highest ASR: 127.91/100,000 was in age 75-79. The incidence of esophagus cancer in age over 75-79 has risen sharply and it was the lowest in age 30-34 (ASR: 1.68/100,000). For the present time it can be said that esophagus cancer in females appear to be one of the most prevalent and serious type of cancer (especially squomous cell carcinoma) in Golestan province and esophagus cancer is rising with ageing

Studies on the gonadosomatic index and fecundity of chapila (Gudusia chapra Ham.)

The study was conducted in pond to determine the fecundity and gonadosomatic index of chapila, Gudusia chapra. The male fish was found to attain sexual maturity at 7.7 cm and 7.41 g and that of the female at 9.3 cm and 14.65 g by standard-length and body-weight respectively. The investigated fishes were found to be male and female at the ratio of 1:3 and generally female was found to be larger than male. The fish was found to spawn for several months with two spawning peaks, one in April and another in August as indicated by the peaks of gonadosomatic index and ova diameter. Fecundity of the fish ranged from 25,220 to 154,528 with an average value of 72,383 and was found to increase with the increase in length and weight of the fish. The relationships between fecundity and standard-length, body-weight, gonad-length and gonad weight of the fish were found to be linear and significant

Exploring the decision-making power of Bangladeshi women of reproductive age: Results from a national survey

Empowerment is personal, multi-dimensional and latent phenomenon that is difficult to measure directly. Bangladesh is a developing country in South Asia and women population  of the country is almost equal to the male with the male dominant norms. It was aimed to look into the decision making authority and gender role of Bangladeshi women of reproductive age group. Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2014 data was used for the study. A total of 17,863 women of reproductive age were included in this study. The mean age of the respondents was 31 years. About 23.5% respondents had no education and only 11.6% completed primary education. It was found that 68.5% respondents were working and about 73.6% respondents had no NGO (non-governmental organization) membership. Respondents from richest background were more likely to take their own decisions. Urban residence and with higher educational attainment were more likely to take their own decisions. Working status and membership to NGO are significantly associated with decision making power of women. The study revealed that women from urban area, with NGO membership and employed were more empowered. Poor attainment of primary education, low employment, and few NGO memberships are seemed to be the hindrance in women empowerment in Bangladesh. Keywords: Women empowerment, Decision-making, Health seeking behavior, BDHS, Bangladesh

Health Problems and Health Care Seeking Behaviour of Rohingya Refugees

Background: Rohingya refugees are one of the most vulnerable group due to lack of health care system, personal hygiene, shelter, sanitation and violence. Aim: The present study aims to find out the health problems and health care seeking behavior of rohingya refugees, to identify the socio-demographic information for such exposure group in relation to age, sex, occupation, living areas, to explore the patient’s physical, emotional, perceptions, attitudes and environmental health problems and to bring out health care seeking behavior of refugees. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted. A total of 149 samples were selected conveniently for this study from the refugee camps. Data was collected by using mixed type of questionnaire. Descriptive statistic was used for data analysis which has depicted through tables, pie chart and bar chart. Results: The finding of the study showed that 45.6% participants had multiple problems, followed by 16.8% participants who had other specific problems like musculoskeletal pain, visual problems and peptic ulcer. Urinary tract infection was the leading individual health problem with 11.4% of the sample group having it. 10.7% participants had hypertension, 6% had respiratory tract infection, 3.4% had nutrition deficiency, 4.75% had diabetes mellitus and 1.3% had sanitation &amp; hygiene problems. Among the participants, 68.4% age ranged between 15-59 years. The study showed that, only 16.1% participants were satisfied with the quality of service they received while 37.6% participants said that they needed better services such as more laboratory test, radiological imaging, more medicine and more doctors. Conclusion: It is clear that refugees suffered from a variety of health problems, because their living condition and environmental situation were not similar like an independent nation. Further, basic amenities like medicines and other services were not available

Hepatitis B/C virus co-infection in Iran: A seroepidemiological study

Background/aims: As hepatitis B and C virus have the same transmission routes, dual infection may occur. The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of HCV in HBsAg-positive subjects. Methods: 139 HBsAg-positive subjects were enrolled in the study. Serum samples were tested using ELISA method for anti-HCV antibodies. Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were used to compare the proportions. Results: There were 68 (48.9%) males and 71 (51.1%) females. The mean age was 41.89±11.30 years. One case was excluded because of inadequate blood sampling. Anti-HCV antibody was positive in 17 (12.3%) of the 138 remaining subjects. Seropositivity of HCV was similar between female and male patients (p=0.69). Conclusion: The seroprevalence of co-infection with hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus in our study was higher than such reports from some countries (Italy), but was in line with worldwide prevalence (>10%)