Student support : bridging the gap between students and the university

Bangladesh introduced open and distance learning as a means of providing education for people in isolated and remote locations through the establishment of the Bangladesh Open University (BOU). The broad aim of the BOU is to provide flexible and needs-based education to those unable or not wishing to enter conventional educational institutions. The BOU is presently the only university in Bangladesh to provide mass education and also to provide continuing education and professional and technical education to support the existing educational system. The BOU has a mission that encompasses secondary and higher levels of education. BOU operates its programs through a centralised academic and administrative staff, and regional and local offices throughout Bangladesh that organise local tutorials and distribute information and materials. BOU has adult students in all parts of the country, and most of the students live in rural areas. They need support that is appropriate to their local circumstances. Using an interpretive approach, this research examines the support needs of students studying for the Secondary School Certificate and the Bachelor of Education, assesses the effectiveness of current support services and explores alternatives to the current system. The underlying assumption is that support needs to be appropriate to the country’s culture and circumstances, and useful and feasible from the perspectives of students, staff, administrators and senior university officials. To investigate the appropriate support for distance education students, this research was conducted in four sample regions. Two were selected from areas of sparse population where the terrain makes transport difficult and two from areas that are more densely populated and where transport is easier. A questionnaire survey and focus groups were conducted with students, focus groups with local staff and interviews with Regional Directors within the four sample regions. Interviews were also undertaken with central University senior staff to get their perspectives on current and future policies for student support

Performance of arsenic and iron removal plants in Bangladesh

Arsenic in groundwater above 0.05 mg/L was found in 61 out of the total of 64 districts, and 433 out of the total of the 496 thanas in Bangladesh. But this dimension of the arsenic occurrence problem in groundwater in Bangladesh is yet to be fully identified. Water in around 65% areas of Bangladesh contain iron in excess of 2 mg/L, and arsenic has been found to co-exist with iron in many situations. Thus arsenic can be removed by both co-precipitation and adsorption onto the precipitated Fe(OH)3 in iron removal plants. This study evaluates the performance of 60 arsenic and iron removal plants (AIRPs) presently operating in different geo-hydrological conditions of Bangladesh

Diagnosis of cervical lesion by colposcopy, VIA, pap smear tests, and their correlation with histopathology in a tertiary level laboratory in Chattogram, Bangladesh

Background: Cervical carcinoma is one of the most common causes of mortality among women. This mortality rate can be reduced by early detection of cervical neoplasm by different screening tests. The main objective of this study was to diagnose cervical diseases by colposcopy, by pap smears for cytological examination as well as correlate these findings as screening tests with histopathological diagnosis. Methods: In this cross-sectional observational study, total 143 cases were included. History was taken and clinical examination was done. Colposcopy and VIA test was done, pap smear sample was collected and reporting was made. Cytological findings were correlated with histopathology. Results: Mean age of the study cases was 41.2±11.5 years. VIA test was positive in 98 study cases (68.5%). On colposcopy, most of the cases show neoplastic proliferation (80 cases, 55.9%). Among them, most cases were diagnosed as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia-I (CIN-I). Sixty-three (63) cases (44.1%) were non-neoplastic. Most of the biopsies was diagnosed histopathologically as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia-I (CIN-I) (20 cases, 14.0%). Association of colposcopy findings with histopathological diagnosis was done which was significant. Sensitivity of diagnosis of cervical malignancy by colposcopy was 33.33% and specificity was 98.57%. Conclusions: The study provides good cyto-histopathology correlation in detecting different cervical lesions and malignancy with colposcopy. Although colposcopy sensitivity was low but it can be increased by adequate training and avoiding technical errors. Bethesda system is strongly recommended for adequacy of sampling to minimize inconsistency. Early and regular screening should be advised for reduction of mortality rates from cervical carcinoma

TECTONIC AND GEOTECHNICAL REVIEW OF BENGAL BASIN FOR SEISMIC RISK ASSESSMENT IN BANGLADESH

Four major geotectonic provinces of the basin are recognized: 1) the continental slope to the west of the Hinge Zone, 2) the stable shelf, 3) the deep central trough (Sylhet-Hatiya) and 4) the Chittagong-Tripura fold belt to the east. The ~300 km long Dauki Fault demarcates the elevated Shillong Plateau, part of the Indian Shield to the north and the deep basin to the south. The basin experienced three strong to major intraplate earthquakes: a) 1885 Bengal earthquake (rev. Mw 6.8) close to the Hinge Zone, b) 1918 Srimangal earthquake (rev. Mw 7.1) on the Sylhet (trough) fault and c) 1923 Mymensingh earthquake (rev. Mw 7.0) at the northern end of the Hinge Zone where it intersects the Dauki Fault. In addition, Bangladesh also experienced similar tectonic energy release from the Shillong Plateau earthquakes like Great Assam Earthquake (1897, rev. Mw 8.1) and moderately active Indo-Burma subduction zone in the east. Rational assessment for seismic threats is determined by: hypocenter locations, the intensity of local/regional seismicity, differential tectonic stress condition, the geometry of discontinuities, and states of highest energy release. Site effects are evaluated from geophysical and geotechnical investigations. A 3D site-specific seismic hazard characterization of the capital megacity Dhaka is made to assess the seismic risk. It is observed that lateral and vertical discontinuities are subjected to multiple segmentations that facilitate tectonic movements. 1918 Srimangal event of Mw 7.1 is the largest recorded intraplate earthquake. Generation of enough tectonic stress in Bengal basin is very unlikely which might cause megathrust induced earthquakes (Mw 8-9) in Banglades

AN ENGINEERING GEOLOGICAL ANATOMY OF THE PADMA RIVER BANK FAILURE AND EROSION, 2018: A CASE STUDY OF NARIA BANK SECTION, BANGLADESH

The Naria town of Bangladesh is developed on the right bank of the Padma River. The bank is an old natural levee of Meghna River. The Holocene-Recent geology of Naria is actively dominated by the fluvial processes of Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna River system where the deltaic sediments are characterized as unconsolidated fine sand and silt, covered by thin veneer of clayey silt and loam. The annual volume of water discharge and flow dynamics are dependent on the intensity of the rainfall, runoff and the length of dry winter. Excessive river bank erosion, channel avulsion, renewed submergence of floodplains, and formation of natural levees and channel-bars are due to natural geomorphological processes that impact the area by inevitable ground failures. The geological attributes of ground condition and drastic variations in water levels make the area extremely vulnerable to severe bank failures and erosion. A unique erosion phenomenon prevailing in this part of Bengal delta prompted this study. During Aug-Sept, 2018 a sudden complex attenuation of current, wave and vortex in the Padma water flow caused an extraordinary disaster and made more than 5000 people homeless overnight by devouring away houses including concrete buildings, factories and markets. It is observed that geologically the Padma River remained confined within a width of 5 miles striking NW-SE trend following the margins of older alluvium and Faridpur Trough. The river tends to a meandering pattern consisting of deep vertical trenches along the Naria curvature. The deep trenches form along right bank and render the ground increasingly more vulnerable to subaqueous slope failure due to presence of thick (~200 ft.) alternating cross-bedded silt and micaceous fine sand of very high dilatancy and low angle of friction. The present study identifies some application of technological advancement for developing real-time engineering geological mapping systems for monitoring and managing complex river bank erosion. Large scale 3D engineering geological map coupled with air-borne photogrammetric and radar inferrometry methods can be applied for real-time monitoring and prediction of differential settlements, subaqueous failures and ground movement. The point cloud maps developed using data from these systems can refine engineering geological maps for decision makers and improve the design of protective measure and sustainable engineering structures

Genome-wide analysis of anorexia nervosa and major psychiatric disorders and related traits reveals genetic overlap and identifies novel risk loci for anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a heritable eating disorder (50–60%) with an array of commonly comorbid psychiatric disorders and related traits. Although significant genetic correlations between AN and psychiatric disorders and related traits have been reported, their shared genetic architecture is largely understudied. We investigated the shared genetic architecture of AN and schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BIP), major depression (MD), mood instability (Mood), neuroticism (NEUR), and intelligence (INT). We applied the conditional false discovery rate (FDR) method to identify novel risk loci for AN, and conjunctional FDR to identify loci shared between AN and related phenotypes, to summarize statistics from relevant genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Individual GWAS samples varied from 72,517 to 420,879 participants. Using conditional FDR we identified 58 novel AN loci. Furthermore, we identified 38 unique loci shared between AN and major psychiatric disorders (SCZ, BIP, and MD) and 45 between AN and psychological traits (Mood, NEUR, and INT). In line with genetic correlations, the majority of shared loci showed concordant effect directions. Functional analyses revealed that the shared loci are involved in 65 unique pathways, several of which overlapped across analyses, including the “signal by MST1” pathway involved in Hippo signaling. In conclusion, we demonstrated genetic overlap between AN and major psychiatric disorders and related traits, and identified novel risk loci for AN by leveraging this overlap. Our results indicate that some shared characteristics between AN and related disorders and traits may have genetic underpinnings.publishedVersio

Shared genetic architecture between irritable bowel syndrome and psychiatric disorders reveals molecular pathways of the gut-brain axis

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) often co-occurs with psychiatric and gastrointestinal disorders. A recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified several genetic risk variants for IBS. However, most of the heritability remains unidentified, and the genetic overlap with psychiatric and somatic disorders is not quantified beyond genome-wide genetic correlations. Here, we characterize the genetic architecture of IBS, further, investigate its genetic overlap with psychiatric and gastrointestinal phenotypes, and identify novel genomic risk loci. Methods: Using GWAS summary statistics of IBS (53,400 cases and 433,201 controls), and psychiatric and gastrointestinal phenotypes, we performed bivariate casual mixture model analysis to characterize the genetic architecture and genetic overlap between these phenotypes. We leveraged identified genetic overlap to boost the discovery of genomic loci associated with IBS, and to identify specific shared loci associated with both IBS and psychiatric and gastrointestinal phenotypes, using the conditional/conjunctional false discovery rate (condFDR/conjFDR) framework. We used functional mapping and gene annotation (FUMA) for functional analyses. Results: IBS was highly polygenic with 12k trait-influencing variants. We found extensive polygenic overlap between IBS and psychiatric disorders and to a lesser extent with gastrointestinal diseases. We identified 132 independent IBS-associated loci (condFDR < 0.05) by conditioning on psychiatric disorders (n = 127) and gastrointestinal diseases (n = 24). Using conjFDR, 70 unique loci were shared between IBS and psychiatric disorders. Functional analyses of shared loci revealed enrichment for biological pathways of the nervous and immune systems. Genetic correlations and shared loci between psychiatric disorders and IBS subtypes were different. Conclusions: We found extensive polygenic overlap of IBS and psychiatric and gastrointestinal phenotypes beyond what was revealed with genetic correlations. Leveraging the overlap, we discovered genetic loci associated with IBS which implicate a wide range of biological pathways beyond the gut-brain axis. Genetic differences may underlie the clinical subtype of IBS. These results increase our understanding of the pathophysiology of IBS which may form the basis for the development of individualized interventions.publishedVersio

The Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child cohort study (MoBa) genotyping data resource: MoBaPsychGen pipeline v.1

BACKRGROUND: The Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) is a population-based pregnancy cohort, which includes approximately 114,500 children, 95,200 mothers, and 75,200 fathers. Genotyping of MoBa has been conducted through multiple research projects, spanning several years; using varying selection criteria, genotyping arrays, and genotyping centres. MoBa contains numerous interrelated families, which necessitated the implementation of a family-based quality control (QC) pipeline that verifies and accounts for diverse types of relatedness. METHODS: The MoBaPsychGen pipeline, comprising pre-imputation QC, phasing, imputation, and post-imputation QC, was developed based on current best-practice protocols and implemented to account for the complex structure of the MoBa genotype data. The pipeline includes QC on both single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and individual level. Phasing and imputation were performed using the publicly available Haplotype Reference Consortium release 1.1 panel as a reference. Information from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway and MoBa questionnaires were used to identify biological sex, year of birth, reported parent-offspring (PO) relationships, and multiple births (only available in the offspring generation). RESULTS: In total, 207,569 unique individuals (90% of the unique individuals included in the study) and 6,981,748 SNPs passed the MoBaPsychGen pipeline. The relatedness checks performed throughout the pipeline allowed identification of within-generation and across-generation first-degree, second-degree, and third-degree relatives. The individuals passing post-imputation QC comprised 64,471 families ranging in size from singletons to 84 unique individuals (singletons are included as families as other family members may not have been genotyped, imputed, or passed post-imputation QC). The relationships identified include 287 monozygotic twin pairs, 22,884 full siblings, 117,004 PO pairs, 23,299 second-degree relative pairs, and 10,828 third-degree relative pairs. DISCUSSION: MoBa contains a highly complex relatedness structure, with a variety of family structures including singletons, PO duos, full (mother, father, child) PO trios, nuclear families, blended families, and extended families. The availability of robustly quality-controlled genetic data for such a large cohort with a unique extended family structure will allow many novel research questions to be addressed. Furthermore, the MoBaPsychGen pipeline has potential utility in similar cohorts

INTEGRATING THE SUPPLY CHAIN FLOWS FOR BUSINESS EFFECTIVENESS

Every transaction, toward physical exchange of goods involves flows of information, material, money, manpower and capital equipment, wherein flows involving information, material and money are vital to maneuver. The exchange of goods necessitates physical flow, information flow and financial flow imbibing inbound logistics and outbound logistics to deliver right material, at right place in right time with right information. The financial flow involves the transaction made either in soft or hard format calls for documents for purchase, sales, shipping, inventory, billing etc. The outcome of every transaction involves exchange of funds. The real hidden potential among the various flows has not been tapped for many decades as the various flows remained unsynchronized. An attempt made to optimize flow singly resulted in vain hence for reaping maximum benefits, the combination of the three flows has to be integrated and optimized. This paper studies the conditions that have led the industry to acknowledge the relationship among these three flows, how their integration will improve efficiency all along the value chain, and the key challenges faced by the decision makers for achieving that integration. Finally, a case study of a hypothetical company Reliablecure, an Indian medical supplies company, has been illustrated for its successful ability to get the highly perishable surgical wound adhesives from its' manufacturing facility in Austria to surgeons across the US, just by seamless integration across the value chain