Status of the demersal fishery resources of Bangladesh

The present study makes use of the fisheries survey data collected during the period 1984 - 87 by the multi-purpose research vessel RV Anusandhani in the waters of Bangladesh, Bay of Bengal. The data consists of twelve survey cruises directed at the shrimp resources (1985 - 87) and nineteen survey cruises directed at the demersal fish resources (1984 - 86). The biomasses for shrimp and demersal fish during the survey period were estimated, along with a detailed analysis of biomass distribution by depth zone and catch rates for important species of shrimp and demersal fish species. The demersal fish and shrimp biomass during the survey period was estimated as 176 160 t and 857 t, respectively. The levels of biomass when compared with 1973 estimates indicate a tremendous decline, by about 90% for shrimps and 30% for demersal fish. Population parameters for four species of shrimps (for both males and females) as well as for eight demersal fish species were also estimated. The parameter estimates were validated using available growth and mortality parameter values from the literature, and were in turn used to estimate the mean exploitation rate (E) of demersal fish and shrimp species comprising the trawl catch. Mean E values for shrimp species is at 0.61 and 0.57 for demersal fish species, indicating over-exploitation of demersal resources in the Bay of Bengal. Exploratory analysis using surplus production modeling of catch and effort data shows that the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) level for shrimp resources is around 3 500 t, corresponding to a maximum effort level of approximately 6 480 fishing days. Similar analysis for demersal fish catches gave poor correlations between catch rates and fishing effort.Fishery resources, Demersal fisherie, Fishery surveys, Biomass, Population density, Shrimp fisheries, Catch/effort, ISW, Bangladesh,

3D Object classification using a volumetric deep neural network: An efficient Octree Guided Auxiliary Learning approach

We consider the recent challenges of 3D shape analysis based on a volumetric CNN that requires a huge computational power. This high-cost approach forces to reduce the volume resolutions when applying 3D CNN on volumetric data. In this context, we propose a multiorientation volumetric deep neural network (MV-DNN) for 3D object classification with octree generating low-cost volumetric features. In comparison to conventional octree representations, we propose to limit the octree partition to a certain depth to reserve all leaf octants with sparsity features. This allows for improved learning of complex 3D features and increased prediction of object labels at both low and high resolutions. Our auxiliary learning approach predicts object classes based on the subvolume parts of a 3D object that improve the classification accuracy compared to other existing 3D volumetric CNN methods. In addition, the influence of views and depths of the 3D model on the classification performance is investigated through extensive experiments applied to the ModelNet40 database. Our deep learning framework runs significantly faster and consumes less memory than full voxel representations and demonstrate the effectiveness of our octree-based auxiliary learning approach for exploring high resolution 3D models. Experimental results reveal the superiority of our MV-DNN that achieves better classification accuracy compared to state-of-art methods on two public databases

Introduction of Routine Zinc Therapy for Children with Diarrhoea: Evaluation of Safety

On 8 May 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) recommended routine administration of zinc in the management of children, aged less than five years, with acute diarrhoea. In making the recommendation, WHO and UNICEF also suggested careful monitoring for adverse events associated with routine administration of zinc, particularly unusual or excess vomiting. The study assessed, in a phase IV trial, i.e. post-marketing surveillance of zinc, the occurrence of adverse events during the first hour after the administration of the first dose of zinc in children with acute or persistent diarrhoea. The study was conducted at the Dhaka Hospital of ICDDR,B and at an outpatient clinic operated by a local health NGO—Progoti Samaj Kallyan Protisthan (PSKP), Dhaka, Bangladesh. Eligible children, aged 3-59 months, were treated with 20 mg of zinc sulphate provided in a dispersible tablet formulation. The children were observed for 60 minutes following the initial treatment with zinc for adverse events, with particular attention given to vomiting or regurgitation. During the one-year observation period, 42,440 children (male 57% and female 43%) received zinc, and 20,246 (47.8%) of them were observed. Regurgitation and/or vomiting occurred in 4,392 (21.8%) of the children; 90.8% of these children had vomiting only once, 8.7% twice, and 0.5% more than twice. No children revisited the hospital for recurrent vomiting following their discharge. A significant proportion of infants and children may experience vomiting or regurgitation, usually once, following the administration of the first dose of zinc. This is a transient phenomenon that did not impact on continuation of treatment with zinc

Do green HRM practices really matters in shaping sustainable performance among ISO14001-certified Malaysian manufacturing firms: A mixed-method approach

Sustainable performance is vital for the manufacturing industry to address major environmental issues. In response to environmental problems firms are pressed to adopt green human resource management (GHRM) to improve sustainable performance (economic, environmental and social). The main purpose of this study was to examine the direct relationship between GHRM and sustainable performance (SP). The study employed an explanatory sequential mixed-method design, using both quantitative and qualitative data to address research objectives. The quantitative data of 227 respondents were collected through questionnaires, followed by nine semi-structured interviews with HRM managers from ISO14001-certified Malaysian manufacturing firms to complement quantitative results and provide better understanding of GHRM practices, in explaining SP. Quantitative data were analysed through structural equation modeling (SEM), using AMOS 22. Qualitative data were analysed through thematic analysis, using NVIVO 11. Quantitative findings revealed that GHRM practices were positively related to SP. Major themes of GHRM practices emerged in explaining SP based on economic, social and environmental dimensions. This study makes novel academic and practical contributions in the field of GHRM, organizational behavior and sustainable performance. It has some inherent limitations but also outlines recommendations and directions for future research.Keywords: Green human resource management, green selection, green training, green rewards, sustainable performance, explanatory sequential mixed-method, Malaysi

Certain generating funtion of generalized Apostol type Legendre-based polynomials

In this paper, we aim to introduce a generating function for generalized Apostol type Legendre-Based polynomials which extends some known results. We also deduce some properties of the generalized Apostol-Bernoulli polynomials, the generalized Apostol-Euler polynomials and the generalized Apostol-Genocchi polynomials of higher order. By making use of the generating function method and some functional equations mentioned in the paper, we conduct a further investigation in order to obtain some implicit summation formulae and general symmetry identities for the generalized Apostol type Legendre-Based polynomials

Some multivariable Gaussian hypergeometric extensions of the Preece theorem

Some generalisations of the Preece theorem involving the product of two Kummer's functions are obtained using Dixon's theorem and some well-known identities. Its special cases yield various new transformations and reduction formulae involving Pathan's quadruple hypergeometric function and Srivastava's quadruple hypergeometric function and triple hypergeometric function . Some known results of Preece, Pathan and Bailey are also obtained as special cases

Peach antioxidant and phenolic activities influenced by the application of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) at post-harvest

Early maturing peach (Prunus persica) cultivars can fetch good market value but face a lot of post-harvest problems that lead to the post-harvest losses. The 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) can provide new insights into plant ethylene responses and extend the shelf life and quality of fruits. Therefore, fruits of peach cultivar ‘Early Grand’ were dipped in various concentrations of 1-MCP (0, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 µg l–1), stored for 40 days at 8 ±2°C with 50% relative humidity and analyzed the fruits for physicochemical attributes at 10 days interval. The highest concentration of 1-MCP at 0.9 µg l–1 significantly improved the activity of antioxidants, catalase, free radical scavenging assay and total phenols. However, the peach fruits treated with 1MCP at 0.6 µgL–1 was effective in retaining the ascorbic acid, lowering the weight loss and fruit decay. Therefore, peach fruits can be treated with 1-MCP (0.6 µg l–1) solution for prolonging its shelf life up to 40 days under low temperature