Prospects and retrospects of land use system through agroforestry practices in Meherpur district, Bangladesh

The study aims to explore the prospects and retrospects of land use system through agroforestry practices in Meherpur district, Bangladesh. It particularly focuses on some aspects of land uses of the study area like land use pattern, land ownership, choices of species for agroforestry, farmers’ perceptions towards agroforestry, status and prospects of agroforestry practices. This study was carried out by using mixed method followed by a semi-structure questionnaire. A total of 100 respondents were selected by using snowball purposive sampling method. The study revealed that agriculture was the major occupation (50%) of the selected respondents. Of the total land used by selected respondents, 21% land were used for agroforestry, 69% for agriculture and remaining 10% for homestead purposes. Most of the farmers (60%) were small landholders (1 to 5 acres) and 18% had lesser than 1 acre land. Among them 76% had their own land followed by 8% leased land and 16% both own and leased land. They preferred agroforestry in their homestead (92%), agricultural land (65%), water body (31%) and fallow land (18%). The farmers were practicing different types of agroforestry such as cropland, homestead and aquaculture with boundary plantation by mixing trees, agricultural crops and vegetables in their farmlands to receive diversified outcomes. A remarkable change in land use pattern was found after adopting agroforestry practices in this study area. Maximum respondents practiced agro-forestry in their homestead and croplands. Most of the land (67%) was used for agriculture cultivation while a very small amount of land was used as agroforestry in the study area.Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 7 (2): 1-6, December, 201

Estimation of loss due to post harvest diseases of potato in markets of different districts in Bangladesh

The storage diseases of potato at Mymensingh, Rajshahi and Dhaka town were surveyed to estimate the loss in potato due to storage diseases. In Mymensingh district, the survey revealed that 3.95, 0.91 and 0.69% of tubers were affected with soft rot, dry rot and scab, respectively. Among the cultivars, maximum loss within the three months namely July, August and September were found in cultivar Cardinal (5.55%), where losses were caused by soft rot (3.97%), dry rot (0.88%) and scab (0.70%). In Rajshahi district, the survey revealed that 3.73, 0.99 and 0.85% of tubers were affected with soft rot, dry rot and scab, respectively. Among the cultivars, maximum loss within the three months were found in Cardinal (5.55%) having soft rot (3.58%), dry rot (1.06%) and scab (0.96%). In Dhaka district, the survey revealed that 3.27, 0.96 and 0.81% of tubers were affected with soft rot and dry rot. Among the cultivars, maximum loss within the three months was found in Diamant (5.55%) due to soft rot (2.49%), dry rot (1.05%) and scab (0.97%). Loss estimated in potato was 5.84, 5.54 and 5.25%, respectively in the months of July, August and September at Mymensingh district. Similarly, in Rajshahi district, it was 5.85, 5.58 and 5.28%, respectively in the month of July, August and September. Again in Dhaka district, it was 5.58, 4.96 and 4.55%, respectively in the months of July, August and September. The study revealed the fact that potatoes were subjected to different diseases in the markets of Bangladesh.Key words: Potato, storage diseases, months, loss, Bangladesh

Flexural strength and ductility of reinforced normal- and high-strength concrete beams

A number of singly reinforced concrete beams made of normal- and high-strength concretes were tested under monotonically increasing loads to study their flexural behaviour and to compare the flexural ductility of normal- and high-strength concrete beams. The flexural strength results verified that British Standard BS 8110, after modification as per the recommendation of The Concrete Society Technical Report 49, is reasonably accurate for application to high-strength concrete beams. On the other hand, the flexural ductility results revealed that the major structural parameters determining the ductility of singly reinforced beams are: (1) for given materials, the tension steel ratio; and (2) in more general cases, the tension steel to balanced steel ratio and the concrete grade. Based on the available test results, a simple formula for predicting the ductility of normal-and high-strength concrete beams is developed. Lastly, in order to avoid brittle failure, it is proposed to set a maximum limit to the tension steel to balanced steel ratio, whose values at different concrete strengths are given in the paper.published_or_final_versio

Shear capacity of high-strength concrete beams with their point of inflection within the shear span

The shear strength of concrete does not increase in proportion with the concrete grade. Thus, when high-strength concrete is used in place of normal-strength concrete, the shear capacity of the structure could become critical. In the study presented, the effect of concrete strength on the shear capacity of concrete beams was investigated. As previous research on normal-strength concrete beams has shown that the presence of an inflection point within the shear span can significantly influence the shear capacity, particular effort was made to study this influence in the case of high-strength concrete beams. The results indicate that, as the concrete strength increases, the shear capacity of the beam also increases, but the shear capacity is proportional to the cube-root rather than the square-root of the concrete compressive strength. It is also revealed that the presence of an inflection point can increase the shear capacity by as much as 100%, regardless of whether normal-strength or high-strength concrete is used. Finally, the test results were analysed by comparing them with the predicted strength values calculated using the formulae given in the various codes and Aoyagi's equation.published_or_final_versio

Aerosol particle transport and deposition in a CT-based lung airway for helium-oxygen mixture

© 2018 Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society. All rights reserved. A precise understanding of the aerosol particle transport and deposition (TD) in the human lung is important to improve the efficiency of the targeted drug delivery, as the current drug delivery device can deliver only a small amount of the drug to the terminal airways. A wide range of available computational and experimental model has improved the understanding of particle TD in the human lung for air breathing. However, the helium-oxygen gas mixture breathing is less dense than the air breathing and the turbulent dispersion is less likely to develop at the upper airways, which eventually reduce the higher deposition at the upper airways. This study aims to investigate the effects of the helium-oxygen gas mixture at the upper airways of a realistic human lung. A realistic lung model is developed from the CT-Scan data for a healthy adult. A Low Reynolds Number (LRN) k-ω model is used to calculate the fluid motion and Lagrangian particle tracking scheme is used for particle transport. ANSYS Fluent solver (19.0) is used for the numerical simulation and MATLAB software is used for the advanced post-processing. The numerical results show that helium-oxygen gas mixture breathing reduces the aerosol deposition at the upper airways than the air breathing. The present simulation along with more case-specific investigation will improve the understanding of the particle TD for the helium-oxygen mixture

Biomedical and biophysical limits to mathematical modeling of pulmonary system mechanics: a scoping review on aerosol and drug delivery.

Undoubtedly, the construction of the biomechanical geometry systems with the help of computer tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has made a significant advancement in studying in vitro numerical models as accurately as possible. However, some simplifying assumptions in the computational studies of the respiratory system have caused errors and deviations from the in vivo actual state. The most important of these hypotheses is how to generate volume from the point cloud exported from CT or MRI images, not paying attention to the wall thickness and its effect in computational fluid dynamic method, statistical logic of aerosol trap in software; and most importantly, the viscoelastic effect of respiratory tract wall in living tissue pointed in the fluid-structure interaction method. So that applying the viscoelastic dynamic mesh effect in the form of the moving deforming mesh can be very effective in achieving more appropriate response quality. Also, changing the volume fraction of the pulmonary extracellular matrix constituents leads to changes in elastic modulus (storage modulus) and the viscous modulus (loss modulus) of lung tissue. Therefore, in the biomedical computational methods where the model wall is considered flexible, the viscoelastic properties of the texture must be considered correctly

Ultrafine particle transport and deposition in the upper airways of a CT-based realistic lung

© 2018 Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society. All rights reserved. The understanding of the toxic pollutant particles transport and deposition is important for dosimetry and respiratory health effects analysis. The studies over the last few decades for ultrafine particle transport and deposition improves the understanding of the drug-aerosol impacts in the extrathoracic airways. A limited number of studies has also considered upper airways and almost all of those studies used the non-realistic smooth surface for upper airway model. However, the smooth surface anatomical model is far from the realistic lung and it is important to consider realistic lung model for better prediction of ultrafine particle deposition. This study aims to simulate the ultrafine particle transport and deposition in the upper airways of a highly asymmetric CT-based model. The anatomically explicit digital airway model is generated from the high-resolution CT data of a healthy adult. Unstructured tetrahedral mesh throughout the geometry and fine inflation layer mesh near the wall is generated. Euler-Lagrange (E-L) approach and ANSYS Fluent solver (18.2) are used to investigate the ultrafine particle transport and deposition. A wide range of diameter (1 ≤ nm ≤ 1000) and different flow rates are considered for the ultrafine particle simulation. Pressure drop is calculated for right and left lobes which might be helpful for the therapeutic purpose of the asthma patient. The numerical study shows that the deposition efficiency in the right lung and the left lung is different for dissimilar flow rates, which could help the health risk assessment of the respiratory diseases and eventually could help the targeted drug delivery system

Genetic variability, correlation and path coefficients of yield and its components analysis in pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch Ex Poir)

Genetic variability, correlation and path coefficient were studied for yield and yield component traits in twenty one diverse genotypes of pumpkin. Highest genotypic coefficient of variation was recorded for fruit length (cm), single fruit weight (kg), Brix (%) and yield per plant (kg). Heritability estimates in broad sense were higher for almost all the characters. The characters namely, fruit length, single fruit weight, yield per plant and brix% had high genotypic coefficient of variation coupled with heritability gave high genetic advance expressed as percentage of mean ranged from 76.84 to 96.06 which indicated that these characters were less influenced by environment confirming additive gene action, and therefore, selection of these characters would be more effective for yield improvement of pumpkins. Total six traits likely fruit length, fruit diameter, flesh thickness, single fruit weight and number of fruits per plant were positively and significantly associated with yield per plant. Path coefficient analysis also revealed maximum contribution of single fruit weight (0.869) to yield and this was followed by the contribution of number of fruit per plant (0.527) at genotypic level.Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 7 (1): 8-13, June, 201

An economic analysis of Jara and Colombo lemon production in Bangladesh

The study was conducted in two districts namely Sylhet and Narsingdi to investigate the production technology of Jara and Colombolemon growers, estimate profitability and identify the constraints of Jara and Colombolemon. A total sample of 120 farmers taking 60 for Jara lemon from Sylhet and 60 for Colombolemon from Narsingdi was selected randomly for the study. Data were collected through face to face interview method by using structured questionnaire during April–May, 2016. Cost return analysis revealed that Jara and Colombolemon cultivation were profitable in the study areas. Jara lemon cultivation highest cost was estimated Tk. 413575/ha in (11–15)th year garden and lowest cost was Tk. 365777/ha in 2nd year garden. Gross return was highest in 5th year garden (Tk.1995750/ha) and lowest Tk. 975600/ha in (11–15)th year garden. The benefit cost ratio at 6.5% rate of interest was 2.85and IRR 78%. Colombo lemon cultivation highest cost was estimated Tk. 316505/ha in 4th year garden and lowest cost was Tk. 257543/ha in (11–15)th year garden. Gross return was highest Tk. 841522 in 5th year garden and lowest Tk. 413616/ha in (11–15)th year garden. The benefit cost ratio at 6.5% rate of interest was 1.81 and IRR 65%. Lack of improved production technology, poor quality saplings, insect/pest infestation, adulteration of fertilizer and insecticides and less number of export buyers were found major constraints both Jara andColombo lemon production

What\u27s in it for me? Perspectives from Community Participants in an Inter-professional Service Learning Program

Purpose: This study assessed Interdisciplinary Family Health (IFH) Program participants‘ perceived health outcomes associated with program participation at the University of Florida. Background: Service-learning has emerged as a dynamic way in which students derive practical skills to address the needs of their community. Research has probed student perspectives but has seldom explored community feedback. The Interdisciplinary Family Health Program (IFH) is a mandatory Interprofessional service learning experience designed to foster collaborative teamwork across first year health professions students at UF. Students are assigned in interprofessional teams of four to improve a local volunteer family’s health over the course of four visits in one academic year. Description of Research: Data from twenty-one semi-structured telephone interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed to assess participants’ perceived health outcomes using a grounded theory approach. Emergent themes were conceptualized via selective coding and peer-reviewing. Results: All program participants reported positive health outcomes within a social support construct. Responses fell into four social support domains within a greater framework of bridging student-participant generations: informational support, emotional support, companionship support, and tangible support. Trends in social support domains observed were associated with participant SES. Participants with lower SES levels reported greater needs for health information and access, whereas participants with higher SES levels desired building social relationships with students. Conclusions: Tailoring IPE training to address specific social support domains and SES associations is an opportunity for enhanced participant experiences and perceived health outcomes. Educational planning can utilize social support domain-SES association findings as a guide for students to attune their efforts at improving the overall health outcomes of their target population. Learning Objectives and Related Conference Objectives: Participants will be able to describe qualitative methods of evaluating perceived patient health outcomes in assessing the effectiveness of the Interdisciplinary Family Health Program (Conference Objective 1). Participants will be able to communicate research findings regarding social support domain-SES approaches for enhanced educational programming and perceived patient health outcomes (Conference Objective 3)