Innovative Work Environment, Internal Locus of Control and Intrinsic Job Satisfaction: Evidence from Bangladeshi Employees

Pecuniary reward and perquisites can satisfy employees extrinsically; however, employees become intrinsically satisfied if they are offered challenge and autonomy in their jobs.  Thus, jobs can be tailored to increase workers’ intrinsic job satisfaction. Moreover, if employees of an organization are given an innovative work environment, then it can satisfy them intrinsically as well. A workplace is innovative if it allows employees to take new initiatives, to change the existing systems, and to do jobs in a new way that is more efficient than the existing one. However, these phenomena are related to employees with a high internal locus of control, a personality trait desirable to employers in many jobs.  Given these theoretical backdrops, this paper studies the influence of innovative work environments on intrinsic job satisfaction of employees in Bangladeshi organizations. Data were collected from 304 employees working in Bangladeshi organizations to investigate these. The contribution of this paper is that the finding of this study can give deep insight and thus help them framing organizational policy and recruitment policy. Keywords: Intrinsic Satisfaction, Innovative Environment, Internal Locus of Control, Personality Trait JEL Classification: D23 DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-29-05 Publication date:October 31st 202

Comparison of weighted and unweighted methods of wealth indices for assessing SOCIO-ECONOMIC status

Due to some of the limitations of monetary measures, various non-monetary approaches for assessing household wealth have been developed as alternative tools for classifying household socio-economic status. Among them, wealth indices based on household durable assets are being used. The literature revealed that two basic methods of constructing wealth indices are employed: an unweighted method, where assets are weighted equally; and a weighted method, where specific weights are assigned to assets. In the case of using the weighted method, weighting can be assigned using various techniques. The overall objective of the study is to compare the wealth indices constructed by using weighted and unweighted methods for assessing the socio-economic status of households in rural Bangladesh. Firstly, the study attempts to construct wealth indices based on durable assets using the unweighted method and two techniques of the weighted method: weighted index using the inverse of proportion, and weighted index using principal component analysis (PCA). Following this, the study compares some distributional characteristics of these indices as well as monetary indicators. At the same time, the study evaluates and examines some attractive properties of these indices such as the extent of clumping and truncation, consistency with traditional monetary measures. Comparative analysis revealed that the unweighted asset index, as well as weighted asset index using PCA, can be treated as an efficient alternative to the monetary measures to evaluate the living standard of the households in the present study. However, due to some advantage\u27s asset index using PCA can be considered to be somewhat better than the unweighted index. But, as the unweighted asset index is not very different from the weighted asset index using PCA, it can also be used as an alternative to the monetary measures without the need to use weighting

On the Downlink Coverage Performance of RIS-Assisted THz Networks

This letter provides a stochastic geometry (SG)-based coverage probability (CP) analysis of an indoor terahertz (THz) downlink assisted by a single reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) panel. Specifically, multiple access points (AP) deployed on the ceiling of a hall (each equipped with multiple antennas) need to serve multiple user equipment (UE) nodes. Due to presence of blockages, a typical UE may either get served via a direct link, the RIS, or both links (the composite link). The locations of the APs and blockages are modelled as a Poisson point process (PPP) and SG framework is utilized to compute the CP, at a reference UE for all the three scenarios. Monte-Carlo simulation results validate our theoretical analysis.Comment: Extended Arxiv version of submitted paper to IEEE Communications Letter

Modulation of phenotypic traits under different rearing temperatures: Experimental evidence in male guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

Climate change particularly global warming unceasingly imposes a selective pressure in many organisms that results in phenotypic plasticity particularly by expressing different adaptive phenotypes to shifting environmental conditions. The present study was, therefore, conducted to explore the phenotypic responses of male guppy (Poecilia reticulata), a popular model fish, to an ambient (28±0.91°C), high (32±0.12°C) and low (22±0.17°C) rearing temperature. Almost equal sized juvenile males were collected from the wild and reared up to 30 days maintaining necessary conditions similar among treatments except the water temperature. The findings revealed that high-temperature reared fish had significantly lower number of courtships, reduced survival, decreased body size, deformed body shape, limited colour patterns and reduced sperm bundle number than the ambient- and low-temperature groups. On the other hand, low-treatment males performed significantly higher number of courtships than ambient-temperature group, while ambient-temperature reared males possessed significantly higher body size and iridescent colour area than low- temperature treatment. Interestingly, the findings also revealed some trade-offs between traits under thermal-induced stressed conditions (i.e. both high and low temperatures). These findings elicit further information about the thermal condition dependent expression of phenotypic traits of fishes which infer about how fish species will adapt in the predicted changing aquatic environments because of unprecedented climate change

Ethnomedicinal Value of Antidiabetic Plants in Bangladesh: A Comprehensive Review

The use of conventional drugs to treat metabolic disorders and the pathological consequences of diabetes further increases the complications because of the side effects, and is sometimes burdensome due to relatively higher costs and occasionally painful route of administration of these drugs. Therefore, shifting to herbal medicine may be more effective, economical, have fewer side effects and might have minimal toxicity. The present review amasses a list of ethnomedicinal plants of 143 species belonging to 61 families, from distinctive domestic survey literature, reported to have been used to treat diabetes by the ethnic and local people of Bangladesh. Leaves of the medicinal plants were found leading in terms of their use, followed by fruits, whole plants, roots, seeds, bark, stems, flowers, and rhizomes. This review provides starting information leading to the search for and use of indigenous botanical resources to discover bioactive compounds for novel hypoglycemic drug development

Effect of organic amendments on soil salinity and the growth of maize (Zea mays L.)

Soil salinity is a major concern in southwestern part of Bangladesh because almost 30% cultivable lands are currently lying under risk of salinity where 30-50% yields loss is happening. Organic amendments have found to be effective in the amelioration of saline soil by improving soil physical and chemical properties as well as crop selection is another criteria for sustaining viability of crops in saline soil. For ensuring sustainable saline soil management, a comparative pot study was carried out during kharif 1 season in 2015 to observe the effect of organic amendments (solid waste, vermicompost and cow dung) on soil salinity and its influence on the growth of maize. Composite soil was collected at a depth of 0-15 cm from Gozalmari village of Jalma Union in Batiaghata Upazila under Khulna district, Bangladesh that was saline (10.6 dS/m) in nature and the irrigation water sample was collected from beside Kazibacha river (4.28 dS/m) that was also moderately saline. The maize cultivar “Shuvra” was used for cultivation in the study. The experiment comprised of four treatments viz. T0: Control (No organic manure); T1: Solid waste (36g); T2: Vemicompost (72g); T3: Cow dung (33g). Five seeds were sown in each pot. Seeds were treated with Agrosan GN to protect them from seed and soil borne pathogens. Chemical fertilizers were not used in the experiment. Irrigation was done two times before harvesting: at 20 days after sowing (DAS) and at 40 DAS with river water and rain water was irrigated naturally during the season. Findings were that the organic amendments significantly influence the physico-chemical properties of the saline soil. All organic treated soils significantly reduce the soil EC (from 10.6 dS/m to 3.4 dS/m) and pH (from 7.63 to 7.38) compared to control soil (p?0.05). In case of survival parameters (e.g %gemination, rate of survival at 50 DAS) of maize, the treatments were found insignificant (p?0.05). But in terms of growth parameter (plant height and root length), significant differences were found between control and organic amendments treated soil (p?0.05). It may be concluded that organic amendments treated soils showed better results than that of control soil. If proper management can be implemented, this positive results will bring hope to the local poor farmers at least can introduce a new crop in fallow agricultural land during the kharif 1 season

Comparative study between breast conservative surgery and modified radical mastectomy in early stage of breast carcinoma in a tertiary care hospital

Background: Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in women globally, with two million new cases and more than half a million deaths each year. Surgery is the key component of treating breast cancer and there are two primary types of breast surgery available: breast conservative surgery and modified radical mastectomy. The aim of this study was to compare BCS and MRM in the treatment of early-stage breast carcinoma. Methods: This was a prospective observational study that involved 74 patients and was carried out in the Department of Surgery at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College & Hospital and Enam Medical College & Hospital with an 18-months minimum follow-up. The time frame for inclusion was from July 2018 through July 2020. There were two patient groups, 37 patients in Group A who underwent breast conservative surgery and Group B was made up of 37 individuals who had MRM for early-stage breast carcinoma. Results: With a mean age of 47.65 years in the BCS group and 48.19 years in the MRM group, the operative time for BCS was 1.04±0.25 hours, whereas 3.20±0.48 hours for MRM. Statistically significant higher amount of post-operative drainage volume in MRM group compared to BCS group (p value=0.000). With an excellent aesthetic outcome rate in BCS group (p value<0.0001) as well as better quality of life than MRM group. Conclusions: Breast conservative surgery and modified radical mastectomy are both oncologically safe treatments for early-stage breast cancer with multidisciplinary approach. BCS offers less trauma, infection and hospital stay; better aesthetic outcome and quality of life than MRM, making it more deserving of being promoted clinically in the treatment of early-stage breast cancer

Tyrosinase inhibition: conformational analysis based studies on molecular dynamics calculations of bipiperidine based inhibitors.

Two series of variably N-substituted biperidines were synthesized by condensing various acid chlorides, alkyl halides and anhydrides with 1,4-bipiperidine. The new compounds were tested as tyrosinase inhibitors and a structure-activity relationship (SAR) study was carried out. Potent inhibition was observed in the case of the 4'-methylbenzyl substitution on this atom (IC50 = 1.72 microM) with this compound being a lead for future drug design. Additionally, calculations of the important QSAR molecular descriptors were done on the biperidine analogues after their 2 ps molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using molecular mechanics force field (MMFF) approaches. Using MD simulations potential and total energies were calculated for the energy minimized models of bipiperidine and the most active analogs 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10

Geographical Modules of COVID-19 Pandemic in Bangladesh: Social Response and Action Taken

Objectives: This research attempts to figure out a comparative pattern of the social response from the peoples of Bangladesh as well as different communities and regarding actions taken by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. Else, this study also investigates the shortcomings of the different wing authorities of the Bangladesh Government to reach people of every corner of this country. Methods: In this research, different facts are analyzed from a statistical point of view. Authentic sources like reputed national and international newspapers, governmental release documents, release notes of WHO, etc. were considered for data collection to realize this country’s preparations against the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: From the statistical analysis, this study found that different government authorities partially failed to communicate the measures of the government to the wider public audience. This study has shown that having more tests could have prevented the spread of the virus in Bangladesh. The strong lockdown measures taken by the government were not enough as the population of this country is huge and it is really difficult to maintain social distance in a densely populated country like Bangladesh. Conclusions: The socio-economic condition and decision-makers’ shortcomings could have been overcome if the right plan and action had been taken at the right time. Until the vaccine is available it is recommended that people should keep social distance while going outside, using masks and protection should be mandatory. Furthermore, more health care professionals should be hired and trained to fight this virus.   Doi: 10.28991/SciMedJ-2021-03-SI-4 Full Text: PD