Multifunctional Transition Metal Oxide Core Shell Magnetic Nanoparticles

Oxide core-shell nanoparticles (CSNPs) have attracted considerable interest for their multifunctional properties. Luminescent ZnO, ferroelectric BaTiO3, and inverse spinel iron oxide can be exploited to develop magneto-luminescent and multiferroic nanomaterials. The novel sonochemical method has been used to synthesize the nanomaterials. Atomic-scale spectroscopy establishes the core-shell nature and multifunctional properties of the nanomaterials. Magnetic hysteresis (coercivity, remnant, and saturation magnetization) and temperature dependent data indicate the key structural difference between the oxidized and reduced ZnO/iron oxide CSNPs. Variation in the coercive field and remnant and saturation magnetization further confirms the presence of different iron oxides in the shell region. Temperature and field dependent magnetization data establish the change in the near superparamagnetic behavior. Modeling of the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data and Rietveld refinement of the X-ray diffraction data provide the crystallographic, surface, and interface information. Photoluminescence data prove luminescence of the ZnO core. Transmission and scanning electron microscopy data confirm the multiferroic BaTiO3/iron oxide core-shell nanospheres important for magnetoelectric coupled devices

Carbon nanofiber modified with osmium based redox polymer for glucose sensing

Electrochemical detection of glucose was performed on carbon nanofibers containing an osmium based redox polymer and using glucose oxidase enzyme. Redox polymer assembled on the nanofibers provided a more stable support that preserved enzyme activity and promoted the electrical communication to the glassy carbon electrode. The morphologies, structures, and electrochemical behavior of the redox polymer modified nanofibers were characterized by scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectrometer and voltammetry. The glucose oxidase showed excellent communication with redox polymer as observed with the increased activity toward glucose. Both cyclic voltammetry and amperometry showed a linear response with glucose concentration. The linear range for glucose determination was from 1 to 12 mM with a relatively high sensitivity of 0.20±0.01 μA mM−1 for glucose oxidase in carbon nanofibers and 0.10±0.01 μA mM−1 without carbon nanofibers. The apparent Michaelis–Menten constant (Km) for glucose oxidase with carbon nanofibers was 0.99 mM. On the other hand, the Km value for the glucose oxidase without the nanofibers was 4.90 mM

Bankers’ perception of Green Banking: learning from the experience of Islamic banks in Bangladesh

Malaysia once replicated Bangladesh’s trail-blazer Grameen Bank to establish its Amanah Ikhtiar model of Islamic banking for the poor. Now, it may also learn some useful things from Bangladesh’s Islamic Green Banking. In this light, this study analysed the bankers’ perceptions of the green banking concept, its benefits, its complexities of execution, and its possible relationship with Islamic banking. This is an empirical study of 48 Islamic bankers from 21 branches of seven Islamic banks located in Dhaka, Bangladesh employing structured questionnaires. Data purification and analysis were carried out through a software SPSS version 1; and Henry Garrett’s ranking technique was used to gauge the most influential factors. The analysis revealed that respective bankers perceived green banking as an environmental banking that helped to protect the environment despite its high adoption cost. Also, green banking and Islamic banking were perceived to be compatible and interlinked as Islam supports resource savings, cleanliness, ethics and social responsibility all of which are also the mottos of Green Banking

Carbon nanofiber modified with osmium based redox polymer for glucose sensing

Electrochemical detection of glucose was performed on carbon nanofibers containing an osmium based redox polymer and using glucose oxidase enzyme. Redox polymer assembled on the nanofibers provided a more stable support that preserved enzyme activity and promoted the electrical communication to the glassy carbon electrode. The morphologies, structures, and electrochemical behavior of the redox polymer modified nanofibers were characterized by scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectrometer and voltammetry. The glucose oxidase showed excellent communication with redox polymer as observed with the increased activity toward glucose. Both cyclic voltammetry and amperometry showed a linear response with glucose concentration.  The linear range for glucose determination was from 1 to 12 mM with a relatively high sensitivity of 0.20±0.01 μA mM−1 for glucose oxidase in carbon nanofibers and 0.10±0.01 μA mM−1 without carbon nanofibers. The apparent Michaelis–Menten constant (Km) for glucose oxidase with carbon nanofibers was 0.99 mM. On the other hand, the Km value for the glucose oxidase without the nanofibers was 4.90 mM

RAZNOLIKOST IHTIOFAUNE JUŽNIH OBALNIH VODA BANGLADEŠA: POSTOJEĆE STANJE, PRIJETNJE I MOGUĆNOSTI OČUVANJA

Despite the enormous anthropogenic and environmental hazards affecting wild fisheries resources, southern coastal waters are still considered one of the aquatic biodiversity hotspots in Bangladesh. Therefore, the present study was conducted to make a complete account of fishes and to assess their condition and conservation status in the rivers spread across four southern coastal districts of Bangladesh. During the study period from January to December 2014, a total of 98 species of fish were recorded belonging to 81 genera, 48 families and 13 orders. Perciforms were recorded as the most diverse fish group in terms of both number and individuals of species observed. Of the 98 species, 26.53% were listed as Locally Threatened in Bangladesh, including 11.22% species listed as Vulnerable, 10.20% as Endangered and 5.10% as Critically Endangered. Four population indices viz, Shannon–Wiener index (H), Simpson’s dominance index (D), Simpson’s index of diversity (1-D) and Margalef’s index (d) were applied to demonstrate the species diversity, richness and evenness of fish in sampling areas and their overall values were 3.54-3.70, 0.04-0.05, 0.95-0.96 and 7.48-8.67, respectively. To sustain the prospect of fisheries biodiversity in the southern coastal areas of Bangladesh, management and conservation strategies like restocking economically important fish species, establishing and maintaining fish sanctuaries, banning indiscriminate fishing and destructive fishing gears, identification and protection of the breeding and nursery grounds should be taken into consideration with utmost priority.Unatoč visokoj ugroženosti brojnim antropogenim i ekološkim faktorima koji utječu na ribolovne resurse, južne priobalne vode se još uvijek smatraju jednom od vodenih vrućih točki biološke raznolikosti u Bangladešu. Ova je studija provedena da bi se utvrdila brojnost riba, ocijenilo njihovo stanje i status zaštite u rijekama koje se prostiru preko četiri južne priobalne oblasti Bangladeša. Tijekom istraživanja, u razdoblju od siječnja do prosinca 2014. godine, zabilježeno je ukupno 98 vrsta riba koje pripadaju 81 rodu, 48 porodica i 13 rodova. Najveću raznolikost u broju jedinki i broju vrsta utvrđena je kod skupine Perciformes. Od 98 vrsta, 26,53% su navedene kao lokalno ugrožene u Bangladešu, uključujući 11,22% vrsta koje su navedene kao ranjive, 10,20% kao ugrožena i 5,10% kao kritično ugrožene. Pri istraživanju četiri populacije utvrđeni su Shannon–Wiener indeks (H), Simpsonov indeks dominacije (D), Simpson indeks raznolikosti (1-D) i Margalefov indeks (d) kako bi se utvrdila raznolikost i bogatstvo vrsta u području istraživanja, čija je ukupna vrijednost iznosila 3,54-3,70, 0,04-0,05, 0,95-0,96 7,48-8,67. Za održanje perspektive ribarske bioraznolikosti u južnim priobalnim područjima Bangladeša, treba uzeti u obzir s najvećim prioritetom strategiju upravljanja i očuvanja kao i poribljavanja gospodarski važnih vrsta riba, uz uspostavljanje i održavanje ribljih skloništa, te zabranu nekritičnog ribolova i destruktivnih ribolovnih alata, identifikaciju i zaštitu područja mrijesta i rastilištu

Synthesis, Characterization, and Optimization of Magnetoelectric BaTiO3–Iron Oxide Core–Shell Nanoparticles

Improvement of magnetic, electronic, optical, and catalytic properties in cutting-edge technologies including drug delivery, energy storage, magnetic transistor, and spintronics requires novel nanomaterials. This article discusses the unique, clean, and homogeneous physiochemical synthesis of BaTiO3/iron oxide core–shell nanoparticles with interfaces between ferroelectric and ferromagnetic materials. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy displayed the distinguished disparity between the core and shell of the synthesized nanoparticles. Elemental mapping and line scan confirmed the formation of the core–shell structure. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy detected the surface iron oxide phase as maghemite. Rietveld analysis of the X-ray diffraction data labeled the crystallinity and phase purity. This study provides a promising platform for the desirable property development of the futuristic multifunctional nanodevices

MLMRS-Net: Electroencephalography (EEG) motion artifacts removal using a multi-layer multi-resolution spatially pooled 1D signal reconstruction network

Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals suffer substantially from motion artifacts when recorded in ambulatory settings utilizing wearable sensors. Because the diagnosis of many neurological diseases is heavily reliant on clean EEG data, it is critical to eliminate motion artifacts from motion-corrupted EEG signals using reliable and robust algorithms. Although a few deep learning-based models have been proposed for the removal of ocular, muscle, and cardiac artifacts from EEG data to the best of our knowledge, there is no attempt has been made in removing motion artifacts from motion-corrupted EEG signals: In this paper, a novel 1D convolutional neural network (CNN) called multi-layer multi-resolution spatially pooled (MLMRS) network for signal reconstruction is proposed for EEG motion artifact removal. The performance of the proposed model was compared with ten other 1D CNN models: FPN, LinkNet, UNet, UNet+, UNetPP, UNet3+, AttentionUNet, MultiResUNet, DenseInceptionUNet, and AttentionUNet++ in removing motion artifacts from motion-contaminated single-channel EEG signal. All the eleven deep CNN models are trained and tested using a single-channel benchmark EEG dataset containing 23 sets of motion-corrupted and reference ground truth EEG signals from PhysioNet. Leave-one-out cross-validation method was used in this work. The performance of the deep learning models is measured using three well-known performance matrices viz. mean absolute error (MAE)-based construction error, the difference in the signal-to-noise ratio (ΔSNR), and percentage reduction in motion artifacts (η). The proposed MLMRS-Net model has shown the best denoising performance, producing an average ΔSNR, η, and MAE values of 26.64 dB, 90.52%, and 0.056, respectively, for all 23 sets of EEG recordings. The results reported using the proposed model outperformed all the existing state-of-the-art techniques in terms of average η improvement.Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library. This work was made possible by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) NPRP12S-0227-190164 and International Research Collaboration Co-Fund (IRCC) Grant: IRCC-2021-001 and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) under Grant GUP-2021-019 and DIP-2020-004. The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.Scopu

Fishery

The aim of the present study was to establish the baseline data on fishery biology of Sillaginopsis panijus which is very endemic in the southern coastal waters of Bangladesh. Altogether 300 individuals of S. panijus were sampled from five catchment areas within the Ganges delta in which males represent 46% and females 54% of the total sampled population. The overall sex ratio in the populations agrees with the expected value of 1:1 in normal population. The values of allometric coefficient (b) of the LWRs indicated positive allometric growth (b > 3) in female and combined sexes, while male showed a negative allometric growth (b 0.900. The mean values of CFs for males were higher than those of females in all different length classes. The study would expedite future studies on population assessment and sustainable conservation of the fish species along the southern coastal region of Bangladesh

Systemic lupus erythematosus with acute ischemic optic neuropathy complicated with neuromyelitis optica: a case report

Abstract Background Neuromyelitis optica is a relapsing–remitting disease characterized by a recurrent attack of optic neuritis and transverse myelitis; sometimes associated with acute brainstem syndrome. Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune multisystem disorder in which ocular involvement such as acute ischemic optic neuropathy is a rare manifestation. However, neuromyelitis optica can be associated with systemic lupus erythematosus. Case presentation A 24-year-old Bangladeshi woman was admitted to the hospital with complaints of sudden, progressive, painless vision loss in both eyes, and progressive weakness in both lower limbs for 48 hours. She also gave a history of arthralgia, a photosensitive skin rash, intermittent fever, oral ulcerations, and alopecia for the last 2 months. On examination, the fundus was suggestive of bilateral acute ischemic neuropathy, and examinations of the lower limb revealed spastic paraparesis with sensory abnormality. Laboratory investigations revealed the presence of positive anti-aquaporin 4 antibody, strongly positive antinuclear antibody, and anti-ds DNA with the longitudinally extensive lesion on magnetic resonance imaging of the spinal cord. She was treated with methylprednisolone, hydroxychloroquine, and mycophenolate, and was discharged with improvement of her paraparesis. However, her vision did not improve substantially. Conclusion The importance of this report is to shed some light on the occurrence of two devastating complications that is, bilateral acute ischemic optic neuropathy in systemic lupus erythematosus complicated by neuromyelitis optica, as well as evidence of rare presentations for systemic lupus erythematosus and treatment modalities of ischemic optic neuropathy with systemic lupus erythematosus

Fiber Bragg Gratings based smart insole to measure plantar pressure and temperature

Various foot complications can be easily avoided by continuously monitoring plantar (foot sole) pressure and temperature at home. Systems which can simultaneously measure plantar pressure and temperature in real time are still scarce. In this work, the design, characterization, and implementation of a Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG) based smart insole capable of simultaneously measuring plantar pressure and temperature has been reported. The instrumented insole was tested and verified during static and gait exercises. The paper also provides a comparison of the developed optoelectronic-based solution with a commercially available and widely used plantar pressure measurement and analysis system, and a lab-made electronic sensor-based solution for simultaneously recording plantar pressure and temperature. It was shown that even though the commercial plantar pressure acquisition system is very robust and highly precise due to many sensing units on the insole, the developed insole with a much smaller number of sensors can simultaneously acquire both plantar temperature and pressure with reasonable precision while displaying both foot pressure and temperature maps, and gait cycle plots in real-time with a development cost more than eight times lower than the manufacturing cost of the commercial solution. Our proposed optoelectronic-based solution is lightweight, uncomplicated but robust, and electronically safer than the commercial system. While the proposed system is far from its optimized form, we expect that our developed prototype will instigate other researchers in this domain to further explore optoelectronic-based solutions in real-time plantar pressure and temperature monitoring. 2022 Elsevier B.V.This work was made possible by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) NPRP12S-0227-190164 and International Research Collaboration Co-Fund (IRCC) grant: IRCC-2021-001 and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia under Grant GUP-2021-019 and DPK-2021-001 . The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors. The open-access publication is supported by Qatar National Library (QNL).Scopu