Bootstrap State Representation using Style Transfer for Better Generalization in Deep Reinforcement Learning

Deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) agents often overfit the training environment, leading to poor generalization performance. In this paper, we propose Thinker, a bootstrapping method to remove adversarial effects of confounding features from the observation in an unsupervised way, and thus, it improves RL agents' generalization. Thinker first clusters experience trajectories into several clusters. These trajectories are then bootstrapped by applying a style transfer generator, which translates the trajectories from one cluster's style to another while maintaining the content of the observations. The bootstrapped trajectories are then used for policy learning. Thinker has wide applicability among many RL settings. Experimental results reveal that Thinker leads to better generalization capability in the Procgen benchmark environments compared to base algorithms and several data augmentation techniques.Comment: Accepted at ECML-PKDD 202

Clinical profile and outcomes of childhood poisoning

The patterns of accidental poisoning in children usually differ from country to country and from one region to another within the same country. This retrospective study was performed from January 2012 to December 2014 to determine the trends of childhood poisoning in urban area of Bangladesh. A total of 32 cases were analyzed completely; intention of poisoning was classified as accidental, suicidal and homicidal. The commonest age range for accidental poisoning was 1-5 years (64.7%). Suicidal poisoning was prevalent among mid adolescence group. The overall male to female ratio was 1:1; in case of accidental poisoning male to female ratio among preschooler was 2.66:1. All the patients were from urban background and drug overdose was the commonest cause of poisoning. Accidental poisoning was found in 53% of patients, suicidal 41% and homicidal 6% cases. The mortality was 3%. This study showed that boys at pre-school age group were at greater risk for accidental poisoning. Drug over dosage was the most common poisoning in this study. Alarmingly, accidental introduction of per rectal analgesic was the most common cause of acute poisoning during infancy in this study

Coastal fisheries management issues and opportunities

Management of the industrial trawl fishery largely depends on the management of the artisanal fishing gears which restrict greatly the recruitment of the penaeid shrimps in the trawl fishery as adults. Trawlers harvest the spawners in peak spawning season, which greatly reduces in turn the chances of an enhanced stock in off-shore water. Since the exploitation of the penaeid shrimp stock is a multigear function, the cumulative affect were considered and in various ways it has been discussed that the same stock can provide a few times higher production if managed scientifically. Marine artisanal fisheries have so far been allowed to develop irrationally and as a result many of the fish and shrimp stocks have declined. One single stock of fish or shrimp is harvested by a number of fisheries at different stages of life cycle. Hence overfishing in one fishery has affected the others. Here the Push net fishery for tiger shrimp PL and the ESBN and Beach seine fisheries for juveniles have been identified as the destructive fishing methods. These fisheries restrict recruitment in the industrial fishery and hence results in over all lower catch rate and production. These fisheries need to be stopped. But since 55,000 full time fishermen are engaged in ESBN fishery, rehabilitation of them would be necessary before withdrawal. So main research and management thrust need to put on the artisanal fisheries sector. Since coastal shrimp culture industry is solely dependent on the push net fishery, rapid hatchery development is suggested. Meanwhile diversified technique for selective PL. Collection and reduction of induced mortality is proposed for research and extension. Further expansion of the coastal shrimp culture is not recommendable on the basis of natural seed supply. Trammel fishery has been proved to be bio-socio-economically most suitable fishing gear and if expansion & extension takes place vertically and horizontally it can be used as a major source of rehabilitation and also to enhance additional but sustainable production. Amendment of the rules under the Marine Fisheries Ordinance 1983 is required on the basis of present knowledge about the dynamics of the fisheries. DOF Marine Fisheries Survey & Management Unit need to be strengthened as to the manpower and facilities, to be able to independently handle the task of achieving information for management and advise the govt. of measures for rational management on a continued basis. Functions of different ministries, agencies and institutions in fisheries management and development have been reviewed and the need for strengthening of the marine sector have been identified including creation of a separate directorate for marine fisheries. To integrate and control all activities in the coastal areas, creation of Coastal Zone Management Authority has been proposed

Comparative Study of Areca Fiber Reinforced Polyester Composites and Plywood

In this study, the mechanical properties of the composites made of areca fibers as reinforcing agent with polyester matrix were evaluated. Both untreated and treated (mercerized) fibers were used to fabricate composites and the mechanical properties such as tensile strength (TS), tensile modulus (TM), flexural strength (FS), flexural modulus (FM) and impact strength (IS) of the composites were examined. Composites were manufactured by means of hand lay-up technique with varying fiber content (5 and 10%). Mechanical properties of plywood were also tested and compared with the composites. It was found that areca fiber composites showed significant improved mechanical properties than plywood. Among the composite materials 10% fiber loading presented higher mechanical properties than 5% fiber content and the treated fiber composites exhibited enhanced mechanical properties than the untreated fiber composites due to strong interfacial bonding between fiber and matrix. In addition, water uptake test was performed and specifies that areca composites absorbed very much lower amount of water than that of plywood. The morphology was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM)

Ever-increasing Caesarean section and its economic burden in Bangladesh

BackgroundCesarean Section (CS) delivery has been increasing rapidly worldwide and Bangladesh is no exception. In Bangladesh, the CS rate has increased from about 3% in 2000 to about 24% in 2014. This study examines trend in CS in Bangladesh over the last fifteen years and implications of this increasing CS rates on health care expenditures.MethodsBirth data from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) for the years 2000-2014 have been used for the trend analysis and 2010 Bangladesh Maternal Mortality Survey (BMMS) data were used for estimating health care expenditure associated with CS.ResultsAlthough the share of institutional deliveries increased four times over the years 2000 to 2014, the CS deliveries increased eightfold. In 2000, only 33% of institutional deliveries were conducted through CS and the rate increased to 63% in 2014. Average medical care expenditure for a CS delivery in Bangladesh was about BDT 22,085 (USD 276) in 2010 while the cost of a normal delivery was BDT 3,565 (USD 45). Health care expenditure due to CS deliveries accounted for about 66.5% of total expenditure on all deliveries in Bangladesh in 2010. About 10.3% of Total Health Expenditure (THE) in 2010 was due to delivery costs, while CS costs contribute to 6.9% of THE and rapid increase in CS deliveries will mean that delivering babies will represent even a higher proportion of THE in the future despite declining crude birth rate.ConclusionHigh CS delivery rate and the negative health outcomes associated with the procedure on mothers and child births incur huge economic burden on the families. This is creating inappropriate allocation of scarce resources in the poor economy like Bangladesh. Therefore it is important to control this unnecessary CS practices by the health providers by introducing litigation and special guidelines in the health policy

Determinants of caesarean section in Bangladesh: Cross-sectional analysis of Bangladesh demographic and health survey 2014 data

BACKGROUND:Caesarean section (CS) has been on the rise worldwide and Bangladesh is no exception. In Bangladesh, the CS rate, which includes both institutional and community-based deliveries, has increased from about 3% in 2000 to about 24% in 2014. This study examines the association of reported complications around delivery and socio-demographic, healthcare and spatial characteristics of mothers with CS, using data from the latest Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS). METHODS:The study is based on data from the 2014 BDHS. BDHS is a nationally representative survey which is conducted periodically and 2014 is the latest of the BDHS conducted. Data collected from 4,627 mothers who gave birth in health care institutions in three years preceding the survey were used in this study. RESULTS:Average age of the mothers was 24.6 years, while their average years of schooling were 3.2. Factors like mother being older, obese, residing in urban areas, first birth, maternal perception of large newborn size, husband being a professional, had higher number of antenatal care (ANC) visits, seeking ANC from private providers, and delivering in a private facility were statistically associated with higher rates of CS. CONCLUSIONS:Bangladesh health system urgently needs policy guideline with monitoring of clinical indications of CS deliveries to avoid unnecessary CS. Strict adherence to this guideline, along with enhance knowledge on the unsafe nature of the unnecessary CS can achieve increased institutional normal delivery in future; otherwise, an emergency procedure may end up being a lucrative practice