• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제6권3호
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• pp.423-426
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• 1993

A total 930 outbreaks of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) were recorded in Bangladesh from 1988 to 1991. Number of FMD outbreaks was recorded highest in Rajshahi division (304) followed by Dhaka (272), Khulna (203) and Chittagong (151). During 1988 to 1991, FMD outbreaks reached in peak level in 1990 (540) followed by 1989 (209), 1988 (95) and 1991 (86). Outbreaks though occurred throughout the year were higher in premonsoon and winter seasons. Morbidity rate was found significantly higher (p<0.01) in cattle (35.5%) than buffaloes (23.3%) and sheep/goats (4.8%). Of the cattle, bull/bullock infected more (p<0.01) than cows and calves. Morbidity rate in different animals was observed significantly higher (p<0.01) in Rajshahi and Dhaka divisions than in Khulna and Chittagong. Mortality specially in calves was found at the rate of 50.9%. Loss in milk yield was found to be 66.6%. Disease period for a FMD affected cattle varied from 16 to 26 days (average 22.7 days). Loss of working days per working cattle ranged from 14 to 24 days (average 21.2 days) and the loss in draft energy per cattle was found to be 12.7 to 18.9 KW hour.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.136-142
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• 2018

The river water source of Saidabad Surface Water Treatment Plant at Dhaka, Bangladesh, is deteriorated too much to be treated by conventional treatment process due to excessive ammonia pollution. In order to improve the raw water quality before it enters into the main treatment chain, a pilot study was conducted for pre-treatment of the raw water. The objective is to investigate the rate of reduction of ammonia using the Meteor pilot, a biological pretreatment system, which is a laboratory scale Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor with a nominal volume of hundred liters, filled with 50 L of Meteor 660 media. The reduction of ammonia was quite significant on average 73%, while the reduction of COD was in a range from 20 to 60%. The Meteor pilot was able to treat and nitrify the raw water and produce an effluent that respects the guarantee of ammonia < $4.0mg\;NH_3-N/L$ when the raw water ammonia concentration was < $15mg\;NH_3-N/L$. The study identified operating parameters necessary to achieve the desired goal of adequate ammonia removal. The study results would benefit a range of systems across the country by providing guidance on the design and operation of a biological pre-treatment system for ammonia removal.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• 제10권2호
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• pp.23-31
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find out the impact of financial leverage on firm's profitability in the listed textile sector of Bangladesh. Research design, data and methodology: A sample of 22 DSE listed textile firms has been used to conduct the study. In this study, firm profitability is measured by Return on Equity (ROE) and both short term debt and long term debt are used as the as proxies of financial leverage. Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Fixed Effect (FE), and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) models have been used to test the relationship between financial leverage and profitability of firms. Result: This study finds a significant negative relationship between leverage and firm's profitability using the Pooled OLS method. The result is also consistent with the fixed effect and GMM method. This result implies that firm's profitability is negatively affected by the firm's capital structure. Conclusion: The study concludes that maximum textile firms use external debt as a source of finance as they don't have sufficient internally generated funds. This study recommends that firm should give more emphasize on generating fund internally to meet up their financing needs.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제5권2호
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• pp.53-61
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• 2018

Corporate governance has received massive attention in academic research nowadays due to several recent corporate failures. Inefficiency of corporate governance mechanisms have driven the minds of the researchers and the policy makers to look with more insights into this area. Board composition, as part of corporate governance mechanism, plays a significant role to achieve company's goals or objectives and ensure transparency and accountability. The objective of this study is to find out the efficiency of board composition through board size, independent directors and female directors on firm performance in the listed manufacturing firms of Bangladesh. In this study, a sample of 162 firm years are considered as the sample during the period of 2011 to 2016. This study finds that large board is the significant explanatory variable in improving firm performance. This study also shows that board independence and female directors have no significant association with firm performance which implies that instrument of corporate governance mechanism particularly board composition is very weak. This study recommends that code of corporate governance, specially the role of independent directors and female directors, should be reformed in the light of cultural and institutional context along with the effective enforcement.

• BMB Reports
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• 제35권4호
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• pp.414-419
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• 2002

The genotype characteristic of cultivars was investigated, along with varieties of both of the jute species, Corchorus olitorius and Corchorus capsularis, in the germplasm collection at the Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI). DNA fingerprinting was generated for 9 different varieties and 12 accessions of jute cultivars by using random amplified polymorphic DNA(RAPD). A total of 29 arbitrary oligonucleotide primers were screened. Seven primers gave polymorphism within the varieties, and 6 primers detected polymorphism within the accessions that were tested. A dendrogram was engendered from these data, and this gave a distinct clustering of the cultivated species of jute. Therefore, we generated RAPD markers, which are species-specific. These primers can distinguish between C. olitorius and C. capsularis. From the dendrogram that we generated between the various members of these two species, we found the existing genetic classification that agrees with our molecular marking data. A different dendrogram showed that jute accessions could be clustered into three groups. These data will be invaluable in the conservation and utilization of the genetic pool in the germplasm collection.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• 제9권4호
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• pp.277-284
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• 2009

The methanol extract of Dillenia indica was tested for antioxidant activity as determined by free radical scavenging of DPPH radical scavenging assay, reducing power, total antioxidant capacity measured by phosphomolybdenum method, total phenolic content and total flavonoids content determination assays. The extract showed significant activities in all antioxidant assays compared to the standard antioxidant in a dose dependent manner. In DPPH radical scavenging assay the $IC_{50}$ value of the extract was found to be 100.53${\mu}g/ml$ while ascorbic acid has the $IC_{50}$ value 58.92${\mu}g/ml$. Dillenia indica extract showed strong reducing power and total antioxidant capacity. Moreover, methanol extracts also possess high amount of phenolics and flavovonoids and expressed as gallic acid and rutin equivalent respectively. The remarkable activities exhibited in reactive oxygen species scavenging may attributed to the high amount of hydrophilic phenolics present in Dillenia indica.

• BMB Reports
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• 제36권6호
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• pp.565-571
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• 2003

The locomotor responses of human peripheral blood neutrophils and lymphocytes were measured by the change from spherical to polarized shapes in the presence of endotoxins (lipopolysaccharide, LPS) of enteric pathogens: S. dysenteriae type 1, V. cholerae Inaba 569B, S. typhimurium, and K. pneumoniae. We reported earlier that these endotoxins are chemotactic factors for the neutrophils since they stimulated cell polarization within a few minutes of incubation. Endotoxins had an inhibitory effect upon neutrophil phagocytosis of opsonized yeast and the cells engulfed fewer yeasts. Interestingly, endotoxins increased neutrophil adhesion to clean glass surfaces, but stimulated the cells to exhibit increased random locomotion (chemokinesis) through cellulose nitrate filters and show an enhanced ability to reduce nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) dye. Unlike neutrophils, lymphocytes direct from blood do not show polarized morphology towards chemotactic factors but the cells acquire locomotor capacity during 24-72 h culture with mitogens such as phytohemagglutinin (PHA), phorbol myristate acetate or concanavalin A. Stimulation of blood lymphocytes with endotoxins did not induce cell polarization in short-term but long-term culture resulted in an increase in the proportion of polarized cells that acquired locomotor morphologies. The majority of these cells were identified as esterase negative B-lymphocytes that migrated through filters. Despite the optimum time of incubation for each of these cell types being different, we found that lymphocytes respond to much lower concentrations of endotoxins than the neutrophils. These findings suggest that endotoxins of enteric pathogens modulate the functions of human blood neutrophils and lymphocytes.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.53-58
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• 2008

The plant Quisqualis indica (Compositae) has ehnopharmcological reputation of being used as a healing agent in Bangladesh. In this study, preliminary screenings were conducted to look at the antimicrobial susceptibility and cytotoxicity of the plant extract. The extractives of the plant were subjected to screening for inhibition of microbial growth by the disc diffusion method. The zones of inhibition demonstrated by the n-hexane, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform and aqueous soluble partitionates of the methanolic extract ranged from 8 - 15 mm, 8 - 18 mm, 12 - 20 mm and 10 - 16 mm, respectively at a concentration of 400 ${\mu}g$/disc. All the extractives were also subjected to brine shrimp lethality bioassay for primary cytotoxicity evaluation. Here, the carbon tetrachloride soluble materials demonstrated the highest cytotoxicity with $LC_{50}$ of 0.826 ${\mu}g$/ml, while n-hexane, chloroform and aqueous soluble partitionates of the methanolic extract revealed the $LC_{50}$ of 1.254, 3.866 and 5.366 ${\mu}g$/ml, respectively. This is the first report of the antimicrobial activity and cytotoxicity Q. indica.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제7권2호
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• pp.119-129
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• 2020

The main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) on firm performance in the pharmaceutical and chemical industry of Bangladesh. In this study, 21 listed pharmaceutical and chemical companies have been selected as sample for 2016 and 2017. This study used the intellectual capital disclosure index developed by Rahman, Sobhan, and Islam. Return on assets and return on equity have been used as the proxy variable of firm performance. In this study, content analysis is performed to assess the level of disclosure regarding intellectual capital and pooled cross-sectional analysis is used to assess the relationship between ICD and firm performance. The study has found a positive and significant relationship between ICD and firm performance. Besides, an in-depth analysis of this study shows that all the components of ICD namely internal capital disclosure, external capital disclosure, and human capital disclosure are also positively and significantly associated with firm performance. The study suggests the development of an intellectual capital disclosure framework by the regulatory authority for mandatory compliance. This will improve the quality and quantity of ICD in the annual reports. Besides, firms should more emphasize on ICD which will help to improve their performance.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.29-41
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• 2018

These days, corporate risk management has become a major concern in the corporate world. Companies in the global environment are exposed to diverse kinds of risks that are affecting the decisions of investors and other stakeholders. Therefore, companies are expected to not only identify and manage risks but also voluntarily report the same to the stakeholders. Increasingly, standard setters and regulators are requiring firms to disclose such information. On the contrary, there also exists a perception that risk reporting can create a negative impression among the stakeholders about the future of the company. In line with such growing dilemma for risk disclosures, the issue of corporate risk reporting (CRR) has been receiving immense emphasis from the accounting academicians. The main objective of this article is to conduct a comprehensive literature review on corporate risk disclosures. In order to fulfill this objective, at first, a summary of the relevant available literature is presented to identify the current regulations on risk reporting, existing trends of CRR research and theories applied in research. Then, through analysis, several research avenues are identified. It is expected that if these dimensions are explored by the future researchers, a better and broader understanding of the risk reporting practices can be achieved.