Financial development and economic growth: a cointegration and error-correction modeling approach for south Asian countries

This paper assesses long-run causal relationship between financial development and economic growth for South Asian countries - India, Pakistan and Bangladesh for the period 1976 -2008. Financial development emanates from financial systems that encourage financial stability and foster a framework for the implementation of successful economic polices. Financial Systems can be divided into ‘bank-based'' and ‘capital-market-based'' categories. Bank-based financial systems are the close involvement of their banks with industrial firms; banks are the most important source of finance for industry. Capital-market-based financial systems are characterized by highly developed capital markets and banks. Bank-based financial systems may be in a good position to implement successfully expansionary monetary policy and industrial strategy. Financial liberalisation and repression may show a positive association between financial development and economic growth. We conduct cointegrated vector autoregressive model to assess long-run relationship between financial development and economic growth. Empirical results imply a stable relationship between financial development and economic growth for these countries. Results of error correction models indicate Granger causality between financial development and economic growth running from financial development to economic growth.Financial Development, Economic Growth, Cointegrated Vector Autoregressive Model, South Asian Countries.

Carbon Emission and Economic Growth of SAARC Countries: A Vector Autoregressive (VAR) Analysis

This paper examines the causal relationship between carbon 2 CO emissions and economic growth in seven SAARC countries using time series data for the period from 1972-2012 We applied Vector Error Correction Modeling VECM approach We have also applied Augmented DickeyFuller ADF and Phillips-Perron P P test and Johansen s cointegration approach to check time series properties and cointegration relationship of the variables Results exhibit a cointegration relationship between environmental pollution and economic growth Results also show that the estimated coefficients of 2 CO emissions have positive and significant impacts on GDP in the long run These results will help the environmental authorities to understand the effects of economic growth on environment for degradation and manage the environmental problems using macroeconomic method

Relationship between education and GDP growth: a mutivariate causality analysis for Bangladesh

This paper uses the multivariate causality analysis to examine relationship between education and growth in Bangladesh using annual time series data from 1976 to 2003. Recent research works have preferred multivariate to the bivariate approach as the former is thought to be more general than the latter. Besides growth and education whose relationship we examined, two other variables included in our analysis are capital and labour. The empirical results show evidence of bidirectional causality between education and growth in Bangladesh.Granger causality GDP Education Bangladesh

An Energy Efficient MAC Protocol for QoS Provisioning in Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks

The explosive growth in the use of real-time applications on mobile devices has resulted in new challenges to the design of medium access control (MAC) protocols for ad hoc networks. In this paper, we propose an energy efficient cognitive radio (CR) MAC protocol for QoS provisioning called ECRQ-MAC, which integrate the spectrum sensing at physical (PHY) layer and the channel-timeslots allocation at MAC layer. We consider the problem of providing QoS guarantee to CR users as well as to maintain the most efficient use of scarce bandwidth resources. The ECRQ-MAC protocol exploits the advantage of both multiple channels and TDMA, and achieves aggressive power savings by allowing CR users that are not involved in communication to go into sleep mode. The proposed ECRQ-MAC protocol allows CR users to identify and use the unused frequency spectrum of licensed band in a way that constrains the level of interference to the primary users (PUs). Our scheme improves network throughput significantly, especially when the network is highly congested. The simulation results show that our proposed protocol successfully exploits multiple channels and significantly improves network performance by using the licensed spectrum opportunistically and protects QoS provisioning over cognitive radio ad hoc networks

Ocular manifestations among the professional computer workers attending the out patient department of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University : a cross sectional study

The computer vision syndrome has become a burning issue in this modern world with the advancement of the technology and its wide use. This study was planned to determine the prevalence of computer vision syndrome among professional computer workers as well as it’s associated risk factors. The cross-sectional study was conducted in the Departments of Community Ophthalmology and Ophthalmology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka from September 2017 to February 2020. The professionals using computer on an average 4 hours per day for a duration of at least 1 year attending out patient department for having treatment for their ocular problems were the study population. A total of 77 such subjects were consecutively included in the study. In this present study, the preva- lence of computer vision syndrome (CVS) was 46.8%. The present study demonstrated that middle class and upper-middle class professionals were more likely to be associated with CVS than the lower-middle class computer professionals with risk of developing CVS in former cohort was observed to be almost 3-fold (95% CI=1.1–7.5) higher than that in the latter cohort (p = 0.027). The duration of working on computer predisposes the development of CVS with mean duration of working was on an average 1.2 years higher in subjects with CVS than that in subjects without CVS. Subjects who maintained their level of personal computer(PC) at or above their eye level (while working on computer) were more prone to develop CVS with odds of developing the condition in them being 3.6(95% CI = 1.3-9.7) times higher than the subjects who maintained the level of PC below their eye level (p = 0.010). Glare display also emerged as significant predictor of CVS with odds having the condition being 9.8(95% CI = 1.1-88.6) times higher than that with PCs without glare display (p = 0.016). Seating posture at computer also have its impact on the development of CVS. Computer workers with inappro- priate seating posture are more often associated with the development CVS. The study concluded that over one-quarter of the computer professionals suffer from computer vision syndrome (CVS). The predominant symptoms of CVS are eye strain, irritation of eye, blurred vision and headache. The factors that contribute to the development of CVS are middle class and upper-middle class professionals, prolonged working exposure to computer, level of PC at or above the eye level of the workers, glare display on the screen and inappropriate seating posture. BSMMU J 2021; 14(3): 31-3

Effect of Different Nitrogen and Potassium Rates on Agronomic Characters of Aloe indica

A field study was conducted to investigate the growth of Aloe indica with different rates of nitrogen and potassium fertilizers at the Germplasm Centre, Department of Horticulture, Bangladesh Agricultural University.  Treatments consisted of 0, 200 and 300 kg nitrogen/ha and 0, 100 and 200 kg potassium/ha. The rates of nitrogen and potassium had significant effect on the leaf production of Aloe indica when compared to control. Leaf yield of Aloe indica was highest at application of nitrogen at rate 200 kg/ha and potassium at rate 100 kg/ha. Leaf protein content was 12.71% higher at 200 kg N/ha and 8.47% higher at 300 kg N/ha compared to control. Potassium application at rate of 100 and 200 kg/ha produced 4.86 % and 8.51% higher leaf protein content than the control, respectively. It is recommended to apply nitrogen at rate 200 kg/ha and potassium at rate 100 kg/ha for leaf production of Aloe indica.   Key words: Aloe indica, chemical fertilizers, leaf nitrogen, protein content, potassium conten

Quantifying recreational value and the functional relationship between travel cost and visiting national park

Abstract Estimation of recreational benefits is an important tool for both biodiversity conservation and ecotourism development in national parks and sanctuaries. The design of this work is to estimate the recreational value and to establish functional relationship between travel cost and visitation of Lawachara National Park (LNP) in Bangladesh. This study employed zonal approach of the travel cost method. The work is grounded on a sample of 422 visitors of the LNP. Results showed that the total value of environmental assets of the LNP is 55,694,173 Taka/Year. Moreover, our suggestion based on visitors' willingness to pay is that the park entrance fee of 25 Tk per person should be introduced that could generate revenue approximate 2.3 million Taka/ year, beneficial for the park management and conservation of biodiversity

Quantifying Recreational Value and the Functional Relationship Between Travel Cost and Visiting National Park

Abstract Estimation of recreational benefits is an important tool for both biodiversity conservation and ecotourism development in national parks and sanctuaries. The design of this work is to estimate the recreational value and to establish functional relationship between travel cost and visitation of Lawachara National Park (LNP) in Bangladesh. This study employed zonal approach of the travel cost method. The work is grounded on a sample of 422 visitors of the LNP. Results showed that the total value of environmental assets of the LNP is 55,694,173 Taka/Year. Moreover, our suggestion based on visitors' willingness to pay is that the park entrance fee of 25 Tk per person should be introduced that could generate revenue approximate 2.3 million Taka/ year, beneficial for the park management and conservation of biodiversity

Intestinal Toxicity to Ctla-4 Blockade Driven by Il-6 and Myeloid Infiltration

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has revolutionized cancer treatment, yet quality of life and continuation of therapy can be constrained by immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Limited understanding of irAE mechanisms hampers development of approaches to mitigate their damage. To address this, we examined whether mice gained sensitivity to anti-CTLA-4 (αCTLA-4)–mediated toxicity upon disruption of gut homeostatic immunity. We found αCTLA-4 drove increased inflammation and colonic tissue damage in mice with genetic predisposition to intestinal inflammation, acute gastrointestinal infection, transplantation with a dysbiotic fecal microbiome, or dextran sodium sulfate administration. We identified an immune signature of αCTLA-4–mediated irAEs, including colonic neutrophil accumulation and systemic interleukin-6 (IL-6) release. IL-6 blockade combined with antibiotic treatment reduced intestinal damage and improved αCTLA-4 therapeutic efficacy in inflammation-prone mice. Intestinal immune signatures were validated in biopsies from patients with ICB colitis. Our work provides new preclinical models of αCTLA-4 intestinal irAEs, mechanistic insights into irAE development, and potential approaches to enhance ICB efficacy while mitigating irAEs