Microcalcifications Detection Using Image And Signal Processing Techniques For Early Detection Of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer has transformed into a severe health problem around the world. Early diagnosis is an important factor to survive this disease. The earliest detection signs of potential breast cancer that is distinguishable by current screening techniques are the presence of microcalcifications (MCs). MCs are small crystals of calcium apatite and their normal size ranges from 0.1mm to 0.5mm single crystals to groups up to a few centimeters in diameter. They are the first indication of breast cancer in more than 40% of all breast cancer cases, making their diagnosis critical. This dissertation proposes several segmentation techniques for detecting and isolating point microcalcifications: Otsu’s Method, Balanced Histogram Thresholding, Iterative Method, Maximum Entropy, Moment Preserving, and Genetic Algorithm. These methods were applied to medical images to detect microcalcifications. In this dissertation, results from the application of these techniques are presented and their efficiency for early detection of breast cancer is explained. This dissertation also explains theories and algorithms related to these techniques that can be used for breast cancer detection

Attachment Issues: Microbes, Minerals, and the Persistence of Soil Organic Matter

The remnants of microorganisms are now understood to account for the majority of organic matter in many mineral soils. Despite the significance of this microbial necromass for soil carbon storage, we know relatively little about how the traits of microorganisms interact with soil minerals to determine the stability of microbe derived carbon in soil. Soil minerals differ in their surface area and chemistry potentially influencing microbial attachment, biofilm formation, and the persistence of microbial necromass. To address this knowledge gap, we grew twelve bacterial species from four broad groups of varying cell wall morphology (Gram positive, Gram negative, filamentous actinobacteria, and capsule-forming bacteria) in 13C-enriched minimal media with soil minerals (sand, clay, goethite-coated sand, and goethite-coated clay). The decomposition of heat-killed and dried necromass-mineral preparations was then traced in a 28-day soil microcosm experiment. Over the incubation period 20–80% of the necromass carbon was respired depending upon both cell wall morphology and mineral chemistry. In general, the necromass carbon from Gram-positive bacteria persisted longer than that of Gram-negative bacteria. Goethite coating on clay tended to reduce decomposition, especially for Gram-positive bacterial necromass (as only ~30% of the C was respired). This may be a consequence of anionic teichoic acids in the cell wall of Gram-positive bacteria adhering to positively charged iron oxides coating the clay mineral surface. Necromass decomposition was greatest for Gram-negative bacteria grown in the presence of sand (50–80% of the necromass C was respired) suggesting that these cells have difficulty forming stable attachments to sand surfaces. Taken together this work suggests that interactions between the surface chemistry of microbial cells and soil minerals may provide new insights into how microbes and minerals interact to influence soil organic matter persistence

Determinants of Male Internal Migration in Bangladesh: Is Due to Services Matter?

Migration is a common process where people move rural to urban area for better livelihood. The aim of this study is exploring the factors of rural to urban migration in Bangladesh. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Sylhet City Corporation and 120 migrants were selected through two stage cluster sampling technique. Social survey method was used to collect the data from the respondents. Binary logistic regression was applied to determine the factors related to male migration due to services. The results show that level of education is positively associated with male migration due to services. The results also show that income, occupation before migration, family types also effects cause of migration due to services. Keywords: Rural-urban migration, Determinants, Migration status, Banglades

A Comparative Analysis between Food Affordability and Healthy Life Among The Rural and Urban People of Bangladesh

Good health depends on moderate and proper nutritional food. There is a noticeable difference in eating patterns between individuals living in rural and urban regions. The central aspect of this study is to make a comparative analysis of the health of rural and urban people with their eating habits. In February 2022, data were collected from 1,400 people in Bangladesh’s major cities through offline and online surveys and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25 and Microsoft Excel. Three types of correlation are brought out among the selected parameters, such as local people will be able to protect themselves from heart disease by consuming vegetables. The paper highlights the staple food of people of all ages in Bangladesh as well as their daily food intake time and quantity through a comprehensive survey. People will be able to adjust their health depending on the type and amount of food they consume, and they will also be able to know whether urban people are ahead of rural people and vice versa. This research can bring good health to the people by reviewing the food habits of the people of the village and the city

The Role of Microcredit Program on Women Empowerment: Empirical Evidence from Rural Bangladesh

The empowerment of women is the burning issues in developing countries. This study examined the impact of micro-credit on the empowerment of rural women in Bangladesh. A total of 120 respondents were selected as sample using stratified random sampling technique on Tuker bazar Union Parishad under Sylhet Sadar Upazilla in Sylhet district, Bangladesh and data was collected through face to face interview by using survey method. The women empowerment was measured by five dimensions .These dimension were (1) economic decision making, (2) household decision making,(3) freedom of  physical movement, (4) ownership of property,(5) political and social awareness. OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) regression was applied to understand the effects of microcredit program on each dimension of women empowerment and aggregate women empowerment. The results showed that microcredit program was positively associated with each dimension of women empowerment as well as aggregate measure of Empowerment. So, this study reveals that microcredit program improves the women empowerment in Bangladesh. Keywords: Microcredit, Empowerment, Effects, Rural Women, Bangladesh

Software Development Standard and Software Engineering Practice: A Case Study of Bangladesh

Improving software process to achieve high quality in a software development organization is the key factor to success. Bangladeshi software firms have not experienced much in this particular area in comparison to other countries. The ISO 9001 and CMM standard has become a basic part of software development. The main objectives of our study are: 1) To understand the software development process uses by the software developer firms in Bangladesh 2) To identify the development practices based on established quality standard and 3) To establish a standardized and coherent process for the development of software for a specific project. It is revealed from this research that software industries of Bangladesh are lacking in target set for software process and improvement, involvement of quality control activities, and standardize business expertise practice. This paper investigates the Bangladeshi software industry in the light of the above challenges.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 11 table

Potentiometric Biosensing of Ascorbic Acid, Uric Acid, and Cysteine in Microliter Volumes Using Miniaturized Nanoporous Gold Electrodes

Potentiometric redox sensing is a relatively inexpensive and passive approach to evaluate the overall redox state of complex biological and environmental solutions. The ability to make such measurements in ultra-small volumes using high surface area, nanoporous electrodes is of particular importance as such electrodes can improve the rates of electron transfer and reduce the effects of biofouling on the electrochemical signal. This work focuses on the fabrication of miniaturized nanoporous gold (NPG) electrodes with a high surface area and a small footprint for the potentiometric redox sensing of three biologically relevant redox molecules (ascorbic acid, uric acid, and cysteine) in microliter volumes. The NPG electrodes were inexpensively made by attaching a nanoporous gold leaf prepared by dealloying 12K gold in nitric acid to a modified glass capillary (1.5 mm id) and establishing an electrode connection with copper tape. The surface area of the electrodes was ~1.5 cm2, providing a roughness factor of ~16 relative to the geometric area of 0.09 cm2. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed the nanoporous framework. A linear dependence between the open-circuit potential (OCP) and the logarithm of concentration (e.g., Nernstian-like behavior) was obtained for all three redox molecules in 100 μL buffered solutions. As a first step towards understanding a real system, the response associated with changing the concentration of one redox species in the presence of the other two was examined. These results show that at NPG, the redox potential of a solution containing biologically relevant concentrations of ascorbic acid, uric acid, and cysteine is strongly influenced by ascorbic acid. Such information is important for the measurement of redox potentials in complex biological solutions

Library Services during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Bibliometric Analysis and knowledge Mapping

The increased usage of libraries during the Covid-19 pandemic has been well known to science communicators, but scientific communication has not evaluated the distributions of its published findings. Thus, this study intends to identify and map library services in international publishing, particularly the Scopus database during the pandemic. Sixty-four publications in the Scopus database were assessed using the bibliometric approach and fifty-seven documents are considered. To find documents from January 2020-June 2021, the author utilized keywords such as library services AND covid-19. Microsoft excels and VOSviewer software was used to analyze the result and visualize the knowledge map. The results showed that most of the papers are dealt with favorable and adoptive library services techniques, implementation of different users demands during the pandemic. The study found the most prolific authors. Rafiq, M., Batool, S. H., Ali, A. F., & Ullah, M. received a maximum of 20 citations from a single document and Michalak R., Ortiz-Díaz E.M., Pacheco-Mendoza J., Rysavy M.D.T., Saavedra-Alamillas C. published 2 documents each. The United States of America is ranked top to publish the scholarly publication on the Library Services during the COVID-19 related documents with 21 documents. India is in the 2nd rank with eight papers, followed by Pakistan, China, Nigeria, Peru, and South Korea. As a result, publications concerning this topic have a high likelihood of emerging. The most frequent terms used by authors are COVID-19(22.90%), library services (7.01%), academic libraries (5.61%). The shift towards advanced virtual and digital services offers more than just boosting librarians and library patrons; it serves as a move to keep the library relevant in a tech-centered society