Supreme Court Update

Like many other mega cities of developing countries, noise pollution in Dhaka city of Bangladeshis a big concern. Here noise is produced from different sources like traffic, loudspeaker,people gathering etc. To mitigate the noise pollution in Dhaka city, the governmentof Bangladesh has recently passed a new ordinance and has modified the existing traffic controlrules. However, the condition did not improve as much as expected. Exposure to highlevel noise may cause severe stress on the auditory and nervous system of the city dwellers,particularly the children. The extreme effects e.g. deafness and mental breakdown are alsooccasionally reported. This paper reports the level of noise pollution in Dhaka city. For thispurpose noise levels have been measured at ten major locations of the city from 8 AM to 10PM during the working days. The data have been analyzed to calculate various noise parameterssuch as Leq, and Lnp. It is observed that at all the locations, the level of noise remains farabove the acceptable limit for all the time. Comparison of present results with the existingprevious results shows that noise level in the Dhaka city is increasing day by day. The papersuggests that urgent measures should be taken into consideration to control the level of noisepollution in the city and vulnerable institutions like kinder gardens, schools and hospitalsshould be located far away from the road side.QC 20120424</p

Négociations internationales: le vrai enjeu de Doha

Quand les règles sont claires, l’hémisphère Sud a toutes ses chances contre l’hémisphère Nord. On le voit bien dans la coupe du monde de rugby. C’est aussi le cas dans le cycle de négociations commerciales multilatérales de Doha. Malgré les pressions du Nord, certains pays du Sud y sont en position de négocier avec âpreté. Oui, les États-Unis vont devoir baisser le plafond de leurs subventions agricoles. Oui, l’Europe va devoir baisser le plafond de ses droits de douane agricoles. Oui, en échange, les pays émergents vont ouvrir leurs marchés plus largement. Même s’il reste à discuter de la taille exacte des concessions de chacun, il est entendu que chacun devra en faire

On the sensitivity of the HAWC observatory to gamma-ray bursts

We present the sensitivity of HAWC to Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). HAWC is a very high-energy gamma-ray observatory currently under construction in Mexico at an altitude of 4100 m. It will observe atmospheric air showers via the water Cherenkov method. HAWC will consist of 300 large water tanks instrumented with 4 photomultipliers each. HAWC has two data acquisition (DAQ) systems. The main DAQ system reads out coincident signals in the tanks and reconstructs the direction and energy of individual atmospheric showers. The scaler DAQ counts the hits in each photomultiplier tube (PMT) in the detector and searches for a statistical excess over the noise of all PMTs. We show that HAWC has a realistic opportunity to observe the high-energy power law components of GRBs that extend at least up to 30 GeV, as it has been observed by Fermi LAT. The two DAQ systems have an energy threshold that is low enough to observe events similar to GRB 090510 and GRB 090902b with the characteristics observed by Fermi LAT. HAWC will provide information about the high-energy spectra of GRBs which in turn could help to understanding about e-pair attenuation in GRB jets, extragalactic background light absorption, as well as establishing the highest energy to which GRBs accelerate particles

Erratum: Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Interpretation: By quantifying levels and trends in exposures to risk factors and the resulting disease burden, this assessment offers insight into where past policy and programme efforts might have been successful and highlights current priorities for public health action. Decreases in behavioural, environmental, and occupational risks have largely offset the effects of population growth and ageing, in relation to trends in absolute burden. Conversely, the combination of increasing metabolic risks and population ageing will probably continue to drive the increasing trends in non-communicable diseases at the global level, which presents both a public health challenge and opportunity. We see considerable spatiotemporal heterogeneity in levels of risk exposure and risk-attributable burden. Although levels of development underlie some of this heterogeneity, O/E ratios show risks for which countries are overperforming or underperforming relative to their level of development. As such, these ratios provide a benchmarking tool to help to focus local decision making. Our findings reinforce the importance of both risk exposure monitoring and epidemiological research to assess causal connections between risks and health outcomes, and they highlight the usefulness of the GBD study in synthesising data to draw comprehensive and robust conclusions that help to inform good policy and strategic health planning

On the impacts of noise pollution in Dhaka

Along with water and air pollution, noise pollution has become a hazard to the quality of life in Dhaka. The noise level in different locations of the metropolitan area exceeds specified standard limits by as much as 20dB. In the "so-called" silent zones, it does not fall below 55dB even in the morning hours. World Health Organization (WHO) identified many adverse effects of long exposure to moderate level noise or sudden exposure to excessive noise. It is reported that most of the dwellers of Dhaka are not aware of the ill effects of noise pollution. They even do not consider noise a pollutant, and take it as a part of routine life. In this context, a survey is conducted to explore the sources, effects, reactions and suggestions for controlling the excessive noise. It investigates the effectiveness of the current administrative measures to abate the problem of noise pollution. The survey indicates that noise results in reduced efficiency and affects individual social behavior. It also causes interference in speech communication and sleeplessness. It appears that, now-a-days, people are becoming more aware of the bad impacts of noise pollution and of the significance of noise pollution control. But still there is much work to be done to educate the people in this regard.QC 20120126</p

Assessment of noise pollution in Dhaka city

Like many other mega cities of developing countries, noise pollution in Dhaka city of Bangladeshis a big concern. Here noise is produced from different sources like traffic, loudspeaker,people gathering etc. To mitigate the noise pollution in Dhaka city, the governmentof Bangladesh has recently passed a new ordinance and has modified the existing traffic controlrules. However, the condition did not improve as much as expected. Exposure to highlevel noise may cause severe stress on the auditory and nervous system of the city dwellers,particularly the children. The extreme effects e.g. deafness and mental breakdown are alsooccasionally reported. This paper reports the level of noise pollution in Dhaka city. For thispurpose noise levels have been measured at ten major locations of the city from 8 AM to 10PM during the working days. The data have been analyzed to calculate various noise parameterssuch as Leq, and Lnp. It is observed that at all the locations, the level of noise remains farabove the acceptable limit for all the time. Comparison of present results with the existingprevious results shows that noise level in the Dhaka city is increasing day by day. The papersuggests that urgent measures should be taken into consideration to control the level of noisepollution in the city and vulnerable institutions like kinder gardens, schools and hospitalsshould be located far away from the road side.QC 20120424</p

An overview of the Ganges coastal zone: Climate, hydrology, land use and vulnerability

The Ganges coastal zone is the contiguous area covering southern Bangladesh and Sundarbans region of West Bengal, India. Agriculture in this zone is the main source of livelihood for the inhabitants; however, it is influenced by several climate, soil, and anthropogenic activities. This zone is covered by polders in Bangladesh and islands in West Bengal. Cropping system in this area is very low due to several constraints particularly high soil salinity and irrigation water scarcity. Researchers and NGOs from Australia, Bangladesh, and India have been working together since 2015 under a project entitled “Cropping system intensification in the salt-affected coastal zones of Bangladesh and West Bengal, India” to sustainably increase cropping intensity and productivity in this area. The project is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). This special issue is based on the research findings of various experiments on the climatic variability, cropping system options, management of fertilizer, irrigation water as well as social and economic issues conducted under the aegis of the project in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India