Synthesis and Characterization of Poly(Hydroxamic Acid) and Poly(Amidoxime) Chelating Resins from Polymer Grafted Sago Starch

The graft copolymerization of methyl acrylate (MA) onto sago starch was performed by free radical initiating process in which ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) was used as an initiator. It was found that the optimum yield of grafting, grafting efficiency and rate of graft polymerization were all dependent upon the concentration of CAN, MA, sago starch (AGU) and mineral acid (H2S04) as well as reaction temperature and period. A new equation rate of polymerization was derived from the proposed reaction mechanism. A new kinetic model for graft fraction was proposed and the validity of the model was tested by the plot of l/(l-GF)ll2 as a function of sago starch concentration and reciprocal monomer (MA) concentration. The required straight line and ordinate intercept unity was obtained and the predicted kinetic model was satisfactory supported by the experimental results until a certain limit of monomer (MA) concentration. A chelating polymeric resin containing hydroxamic acid was synthesized from poly(methyl acrylate) (PMA) grafted sago starch. The binding capacity of the poly(hydroxamic acid) resin with copper is high and other metal ions also show significant binding capacity. This chelating resin has the advantage of faster rate of equilibrium and negligible affinity for alkali metal ions. The sorption capacities of metal ions were pH dependent and its selectivity towards these metal ions is in the following order: Cu2+ > Fe3+ > Cr3+ > Ni2+ > Co2+ > Zn2+ > Cd2+ > As3+> Pb2+. These paration of Cu2+ from Co2+ and Cd2+, and Fe3+ from Co2+ and Cd2+ were carried out by column technique

Quality of Health Care in Bangladesh: A Study on Selected Upazila Health Complexes

Quality of care is an overwhelming issue in the context of health services of developing countries including Bangladesh. Performance of health care professionals and institutions determines the quality of care provided by the health facilities which in turn depends on governance as well as factors like access, safety, equity, appropriateness, timeliness, acceptability, reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy of care providers, health improvement and continuity of care etc. Though the governance issues affect massively the quality of care, in this article, an attempt has been taken to explore the factors which affect quality of care in health sector of Bangladesh. This paper also identifies the problems threat towards providing quality of health care in Bangladesh. Finally, this study recommends some policy options to ensure quality care in health sector and thus a healthy nation. To conduct this research and achieve the above mentioned objectives, upazila health complexes, the part and parcel of the public health sector in Bangladesh, has been selected as a case. Keywords: Quality Health Care, Public Health Sector , Upazila Health Comple

Governance and Good Governance: A Theoretical Framework

“Good governance” as an issue of development is being widely used for improvements in socio-economic outcomes and for aid effectiveness and considered as the effective tool for overcoming multidimensional challenges existed in both developed as well as developing countries of the world and it has generated increasing attention and debate both at the national and international level over the past two decades. The concept of ‘good governance’ conveys the qualitative dimension of governance that indicates effective, efficient, participative, or democratic form of government which is responsible for transparent and accountable management of human, natural, economic and financial resources for equitable and sustainable development. Addition of the adjective ‘good’ to governance has given a sense of enhancement and almost become an obsession in the recent debates on international development and public administration in developing countries. Other than the nations, international organizations such as the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Union (EU) and other donor agencies, have given rigorous importance to the issue of governance – particularly for aid receiving countries. The purpose of this article is to develop a conceptual framework on governance and good governance. This article highlights the emergence of governance as a shifting paradigm from government along with the differences between government and governance. It also focuses the meaning of governance and good governance in general and particularly the views from World Bank and UNDP as a problem solving mechanisms. For ensuring effective performance of the institutions, different international organizations like World Bank and UNDP addressed good governance indicators which are also explore in this article. Keywords: Governance, Good Governance, Theoretical Framewor

FINANCIAL CONTROL AND VARIABLE AMORTIZATION UNDER UNCERTAINTY: AN APPLICATION TO TEXAS RICE FARMS

Agricultural Finance,

Vegetation cover and grasslands in the vicinity accelerate development of carabid beetle assemblages on restored landfill sites

There is increasing evidence that rare and scarce carabid species of conservation importance are frequent in brownfield sites such as restored landfill. However, this potential has largely been unexplored and was investigated here by examining carabid species composition, richness, and abundance in relation to habitat quality and landscape structure on landfill sites in comparison to paired reference sites of existing wildlife value. Sampling was conducted by collecting carabids in ten pitfall traps set along two 100 m transects on each of nine restored landfill and their paired reference sites in the East Midlands region of the UK. A total of 1014 individuals representing thirty seven carabid species were found during April to September in 2007 and 2008. On the landfill sites, generalist species were common, while no nationally rare or scarce species were found. Neither species richness nor diversity of carabid species was found to be different from that of the reference sites. Seeding during restoration was found to have a strong positive effect on richness and diversity, with seeded landfill sites tending to be similar to reference sites in terms of carabid species composition. Marked differences in diversity and richness were also attributed to variation in the amount of local vegetation cover, with presence of grassland in the surrounding landscape having a positive effect on carabid assemblages. We suggest that initial seeding may be an appropriate conservation strategy to improve beetle diversity and richness, coupled with management in terms of cutting to increase the potential of these sites for carabid conservation at the landscape scale

Declaration Effect of Cash & Stock Dividends on Share Price: An Empirical Study on Dhaka Stock Exchange

This study analyzes the impact of different types of dividend declaration, namely stock and cash dividends. Using event study method, MAAR and CAAR, this study found no evidence of abnormal returns on the declaration day for either of the types of dividends. However, significant negative returns are reported on days prior to the declaration day for stock dividend, indicating speculative nature of the investors. Furthermore, it provides positive returns during the post-announcement period as the investors realize the chance of potential gains. However, as far as cash dividend is concerned companies listed under DSE do not provide any significant abnormal returns during the 60 days event window.  For CAAR, no significant return is reported for cash dividend, while stock dividend provided a maximum 5.6% abnormal returns during the post announcement period

Influences of Central Units and Terminal Chains on the Banana-Shaped Liquid Crystals

Azo-functionalized materials are one of the appealing groups of the functionalized materials owing to their photoswitching behaviour and have been explored for various potential applications viz., optical data storage, sensor, display devices, nonlinear materials and molecular switches. Recently, azo-functionalized bent-core liquid crystals (BCLCs) have gained significant attention because they have dual properties of BCLCs and azobenzene, which enables to generate new multifaceted functional and smart materials. In this report, the recently synthesized azobenzene containing bent-core mesogens and its subclass, the so-called hockey stick and V-shaped molecules are summarized. The mesomorphic behaviour of reported BCLCs affected by the type of central core unit, the nature, number and position of the lateral substituents and the type and length of the terminal chain are discussed. The photoisomerization process of these photoresponsive BCLCs in solid, solution and mesophase, as well as the impact of light on the chemical and electrical properties of them, are discussed

Method validation on iron determination by spectrophotometric method in aqueous medium

This paper deals with the validation of a method for the determination of iron in spectrophotometric method in aqueous medium. The method is based on complex formation of iron with thioglycolic acid (TGA) in alkaline medium in presence of a masking agent to produce a red purple chelate that has an absorption maximum at 535 nm wavelength. Beer’s-Lambert’s law is obeyed and linear calibration curves were obtained for the concentration range of iron from 0.1 mg/L to 30 mg/L. The reaction is found to be spontaneous in alkaline medium. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for the developed method are 0.0108 and 0.0345 respectively. Effect of different parameters like molar ratio of iron to different reagents and interferences, effect of time and effect of temperature of this method of determination were studied. It is found that this method is moderately sensitive and has been successfully applied for the determination of iron (III) in different fields like ceramic materials, clay, sand, glass, stone, soil, water, and any inorganic iron containing compound or alloys. A comparison report is made for Chevron gas field waste material and Certified Reference Material (CRM) of iron, which was done by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) and Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer and found to be comparable