Population ageing in Bangladesh and its implication on health care

In Bangladesh as in other regions of the world, the population ages 60 years and older is growing faster than the total population. Growth in the elderly population relative to other age groups challenges existing health services, family relationships and social security. With continued population ageing, the loss of cognitive function will potentially cause enormous social and economic burden on families, communities and, to the country. Using the census and secondary data, the paper investigates that increasing longevity and declining fertility are combining to convert the population age structure from young to old. This combination is resulting implications on the family health care and unmet need of health care services in the public sector. The support index shows that there will be fewer persons to support elderly population in future with implications in traditional family care. The care index shows the cost of burden for long term care associated with the shift in the population age structure. As a consequence Bangladeshi societies will confront population aging without traditional kin support

Market Efficiency, Time-Varying Volatility and Equity Returns in Bangladesh Stock Market

This paper empirically examines the issue of market efficiency and time- varying risk return relationship for Bangladesh, an emerging equity market in South Asia. The study utilizes a unique data set of daily stock prices and returns compiled by the authors which was not utilized in any previous study. The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) equity returns show positive skewness, excess kurtosis and deviation from normality. The returns display significant serial correlation, implying stock market inefficiency. The results also show a significant relationship between conditional volatility and the stock returns, but the risk- return parameter is negative and statistically significant. While this result is not consistent with the portfolio theory, it is possible theoretically in emerging markets as investors may not demand higher risk premia if they are better able to bear risk at times of particular volatility (Glosten, Jagannathan and Runkle, 1993). While circuit breaker overall did not have any impact on stock volatility, the imposition of the lock-in period has contributed to the price discovery mechanism by reverting an overall negative risk-return time-varying relationship into a positive one. As a policy to improve the capital market efficiency, the timely disclosure and dissemination of information to the shareholders and investors on the performance of listed companies should be emphasized.

International Diversification with American Depository Receipts (ADRs);

It is already well known that U.S. investors can achieve higher gains by investing directly in emerging markets (De Santis, 1997). Given the opportunity to invest directly in the shares of stocks in the developed (DCs) and emerging (EM) markets, it is interesting to know whether the U.S. investors can potentially gain any benefits by investing in ADRs. We test both index models, and SDF-based model.Our findings show that U.S. investors needed to invest in both ADRs and country portfolios in developed in the eighties, and in Latin American countries in early nineties. During the early and late nineties, we find substitutability between ADRs and country portfolios in DCs. As more and more ADRs are enlisted in the US market from developed countries over time, the ADRs become substitutes to country. Similarly, countries with higher number of ADRs irrespective of regions show the same pattern of substitutability between ADRs and country indices. However, such substitutability does not exist for countries with the highest number of ADRs by the end of sample period, 2001. On the other hand, U.S. investors can achieve the diversification benefits by investing ADRs along with U.S. market index in Asia. The significant marginal contribution of one-third of developed countries requires investment in ADRs and U.S. market in the developed countries. And investors do not need to hold both ADRs and country as it was the case in the eighties. On the other hand, investors need to hold both ADRs and country portfolios in most of the Asian countries to achieve diversification benefits at margin

Market Efficiency, Time-Varying Volatility and Equity Returns in Bangladesh Stock Market

This paper empirically examines the issue of market efficiency and time-varying risk return relationship for Bangladesh, an emerging equity market in South Asia. The study utilizes a unique data set of daily stock prices and returns compiled by the authors which was not utilized in any previous study. The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) equity returns show positive skewness, excess kurtosis and deviation from normality. The returns display significant serial correlation, implying stock market inefficiency. The results also show a significant relationship between conditional volatility and the stock returns, but the risk-return parameter is negative and statistically significant. While this result is not consistent with the portfolio theory, it is possible theoretically in emerging markets as investors may not demand higher risk premia if they are better able to bear risk at times of particular volatility (Glosten, Jagannathan and Runkle, 1993). While circuit breaker overall did not have any impact on stock volatility, the imposition of the lock-in period has contributed to the price discovery mechanism by reverting an overall negative riskreturn time-varying relationship into a positive one. As a policy to improve the capital market efficiency, the timely disclosure and dissemination of information to the shareholders and investors on the performance of listed companies should be emphasized.

Wireless Health Monitoring using Passive WiFi Sensing

This paper presents a two-dimensional phase extraction system using passive WiFi sensing to monitor three basic elderly care activities including breathing rate, essential tremor and falls. Specifically, a WiFi signal is acquired through two channels where the first channel is the reference one, whereas the other signal is acquired by a passive receiver after reflection from the human target. Using signal processing of cross-ambiguity function, various features in the signal are extracted. The entire implementations are performed using software defined radios having directional antennas. We report the accuracy of our system in different conditions and environments and show that breathing rate can be measured with an accuracy of 87% when there are no obstacles. We also show a 98% accuracy in detecting falls and 93% accuracy in classifying tremor. The results indicate that passive WiFi systems show great promise in replacing typical invasive health devices as standard tools for health care.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, conference pape

Beyond philanthropy : the Rockefeller Foundation's public health intervention in Thiruvithamkoor, 1929-1939

This paper examines the public health intervention of the Rockefeller Foundation, one of the major ‘philanthropic’ organisations in the world during the twentieth century, in the erstwhile princely state of Thiruvithamkoor, which currently constitutes a part of Kerala state in India. It discusses the specific historical context of the intervention, the methods of intervention and their outcomes. It is argued that the Foundation’s interests in Thiruvithamkoor went beyond its avowed objective of philanthropy. Thiruvithamkoor provided a fertile ground to the Foundation to be used as a ‘tropical observatory’s for research on diseases on which it had already been preoccupied. It is also pointed out that the activities of the Foundation became critical in the institutionalisation of public health in Thiruvithamkoor and in helping the region in controlling and finally eradicating some of the diseases at a later date. Key words: Rockefeller Foundation, public health, Thiruvithamkoor JEL Classification : I 1

Normal limit for serum alanine aminotransferase level and distribution of metabolic factors in old population of Kalaleh, Iran

Backgrounds: Normal or elevated values of serum alanine aminotransferase level (ALT) vary in different studies mostly related to characteristics of reference population including age, gender, body mass index, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and metabolic syndrome prevalence. Objectives: To measure upper normal limit (UNL) for serum ALT in an apparently healthy Iranian old population (which we had not sufficient data before this study), and its modulating factors. Patients and Methods: All inhabitants (> 50 years old) of Kalaleh, Golestan, Iran (N = 1986) were invited to the study. ALT measurements were performed for all subjects using the same laboratory method. Upper limit of normal (ULN) ALT was calculated based on its 95th percentile in normal weight subjects. Modulating factors of ALT were determined by multivariate analysis. Results: A total of 1309 subjects, with the mean age of 61.5 ± 7.5 years were included. UNL of ALT was 18.8 U/L and 21.4 U/L in women and men, respectively. Based on univariate analysis, waist circumference (r = 0.124, P = 0.01), body mass index (r = 0.118, P = 0.01), triglyceride (r = 0.143, P = 0.01), and having metabolic syndrome (OR = 2.04) modulate ALT levels in men. Also triglyceride (r = 0.119, P = 0.01) modulates ALT levels in women. Conclusions: The calculated level for UNL of ALT is considerably far lower than previous accepted value. Age, gender, ethnicity, and metabolic factors should be accounted in future studies to determine normal ALT level. © 2013, Kowsar Corp.; Published by Kowsar Corp

Hierarchical Design Based Intrusion Detection System For Wireless Ad hoc Network

In recent years, wireless ad hoc sensor network becomes popular both in civil and military jobs. However, security is one of the significant challenges for sensor network because of their deployment in open and unprotected environment. As cryptographic mechanism is not enough to protect sensor network from external attacks, intrusion detection system needs to be introduced. Though intrusion prevention mechanism is one of the major and efficient methods against attacks, but there might be some attacks for which prevention method is not known. Besides preventing the system from some known attacks, intrusion detection system gather necessary information related to attack technique and help in the development of intrusion prevention system. In addition to reviewing the present attacks available in wireless sensor network this paper examines the current efforts to intrusion detection system against wireless sensor network. In this paper we propose a hierarchical architectural design based intrusion detection system that fits the current demands and restrictions of wireless ad hoc sensor network. In this proposed intrusion detection system architecture we followed clustering mechanism to build a four level hierarchical network which enhances network scalability to large geographical area and use both anomaly and misuse detection techniques for intrusion detection. We introduce policy based detection mechanism as well as intrusion response together with GSM cell concept for intrusion detection architecture.Comment: 16 pages, International Journal of Network Security & Its Applications (IJNSA), Vol.2, No.3, July 2010. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1111.1933 by other author