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Rucola is one of the important leafy vegetables of the ‘Brassicaceae’ family which is commonly consumed as raw salad. Seven rocula genotypes were evaluated during Rabi season 2021-2022 at the experimental farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU), Dhaka for genetic variability analysis and were compared with mustard genotype. The results showed that the genotypes were significantly variable for the studied traits. The phenotypic variances and phenotypic coefficient of variations were higher than genotypic variances and genotypic coefficient of variations suggesting the environmental effects on the phenotypic expression of those traits. The high heritability was observed for all the traits except the number of leaves per plant (51.24). Fresh yield per plant showed a significant positive genotypic correlation with number of leaves per plant (0.986) and number of siliquae per plant (0.845) while a significant phenotypic correlation with days to 50% flowering (0.466), plant height (0.473), number of leaves per plant (0.705), leaf length (0.547), days to maturity (0.405) and number of siliquae per plant (0.797). Moreover, seed yield per plant had significant positive correlation with thousand seed weight (0.971) while a non-significant positive correlation with leaf breadth (0.258), number of siliquae per plant (0.030), siliquae length (0.314) and pedicel length (0.168) at both genotypic and phenotypic levels. The results suggest that rucola can be cultivated in the agro-climatic condition of Bangladesh and needs for further genetic improvement of this health promoting crop. This is also the first scientific report of rucola cultivation in Bangladesh. Bangladesh J. Agri. 2022, 47(2): 53-63

Surface water is the world’s largest store of consumable water. It plays an important role in sustaining ecosystems and enabling human adaptation to various climate changes. Although surface freshwater is necessary for life, there is a startling lack of understanding in the current literature of the spatial and temporal dynamics of surface freshwater outflow and storage variations across a large country: India. Current studies have several limitations, such as the use of relatively short data series and inappropriate machine learning methods. This study develops an innovative machine learning approach. It uses a long data series to generate a correct understanding of the spatial and temporal dynamics of surface freshwater outflow and storage variations in a large geographical area. Using the JRC dataset, the authors mapped the change in intensity of surface water, performed an analysis of the thematic maps (Indian subcontinent) generated using ArcMap 10.8 from a period of June 2000 to June 2020. The research presented in this paper devised Google Earth Engine in Python API and remote sensing techniques to detect changes in the trends of surface water levels and quantify changing map trends. ArcMap is used for the viewing and editing of Raster images and to perform raster calculations. Values of the attributes are averaged over 13 rivers over the period of 20 years to find the correlation between the decrease in Surface water levels with the rainfall intensity and land surface temperature changes. The authors use the correlation between the parameters to obtain an average R-squared adjusted value of 0.402 with the dependence of surface water change to the independent variables of change in land surface temperature and rainfall intensity. The results of the study provide an improved understanding of the effects of the change in the land surface temperature and rainfall levels or the causes of the decline and changes in the surface waters of India. The innovative machine learning and data analysis approach developed in this study can be applied effectively to other regions of the world.

For small-scale electronic commerce supply chains, designing effective strategies to improve operational effectiveness, market share and long-term survival are essential aspects. However, researchers have given less attention in addressing these issues. This study proposes a dynamic cost-sharing contract for an e-tailer supply chain to address the issues of asymmetric information, long-term integration, and ineffective costs. We include consistency constraints to obtain stable incentives over time and eliminate the need for re-negotiation. The findings emphasise that the dynamic contract significantly reduces the overall supply chain costs. The consistency constraints guarantee high incentives, thus assuring the players remain in the total contract period and enable long-term integration.Other Information Published in: Annals of Operations Research License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10479-022-04662-y

OBJECTIVE: 1) To assess the prevalence of TB among patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) attending diabetic care centres in Bangladesh, and 2) to compare TB- and DM-related sociodemographic and other factors in diabetic patients who had TB and those who did not.METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted from 1 June 2019 to 31 March 2020 in 108 centres of the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh (BADAS), with a sample size of 3,649 patients with DM. Data were collected by face-to-face interview using semi-structured questionnaire from each patient/guardian. Other ethical issues were also maintained.RESULTS: Out of 3,649 patients with DM, 676 presumptive TB cases were identified and tested; from them, 85 patients were detected as TB cases. Another 39 patients were already diagnosed and on anti-TB medication. Prevalence of TB among patients with DM attending diabetic care centres was 3.4%. Prevalence was higher in female than male (4.0% vs 2.6%). Underweight (9.0%) patients and patients having diabetes for more than 10 years (7.1%) had a higher prevalence of TB.CONCLUSION: TB prevalence was over 3% among study population with DM. Periodic screening and active case finding among DM patients should be strengthened to reduce the risk of TB infection among DM patients.

The ES structure described by soft subsets or soft M-subsets does not yield a lattice structure due to its restriction on parameter sets, and so cannot be used in information theory. This study proposes a new ES structure on soft sets that addresses the deficiencies of the prior structure. Using mathematical concepts, we can construct and entirely new system of soft sets. As a result, the ES structure is derived from a finite collection of basic soft sets and offers complicated soft sets via its ES components, allowing for it to be operated by computers, as this is more acceptable to conventional mathematical viewpoints. We rewrote this using a soft J-subset and demonstrated that (ES, ∨˜ES, ∧˜ES) is a distributive lattice. This will play an important role in decision-making problems and contribute to a better understanding of human recognition processes. During the process of reaching a decision, several groups of parameters develop, and the ES structure in this article takes these parameters into consideration in order to handle the intricate issues that arise. In soft set theory, this research gives insight into the cognitive field.

Nephrotic syndrome (NS) represents a heterogenous group of glomerular disorders occurring mainly in children. Accumulated data suggest that patient with NS have an immunological basis. This cross-sectional comparative study was conducted in the Department of Paediatrics, Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH), Mymensingh during the period of March 2018 to October 2019 to determine the relationship of serum IgE level in frequent relapse and infrequent relapse nephrotic syndrome in children. Thirty cases of frequent relapse and 30 cases of infrequent relapse idiopathic nephrotic syndrome who were admitted in Department of Paediatrics, MMCH were included in this study by purposive sampling technique. After admission written informed consent from parents or guardians obtained. Serum IgE level was measured in all patients of idiopathic nephrotic syndrome during relapse and again four weeks after steroid therapy when patient was in remission. Serum total IgE levels were measured by ADVIA centaur CP immunoassay system. Most of the patient's age was within 2-6 years in both groups. Male children were predominant in both groups. Most of the patients came from rural area. Frequency of relapse per year was significantly higher and 24 hours urine output was significantly lower in frequent relapse nephrotic syndrome than that of infrequent relapse nephrotic syndrome. Significantly higher mean IgE was found in children with frequent relapse nephrotic syndrome (1439.8±388.5 IU/ml during relapse and 852.3±103.7 IU/ml at remission) than infrequent relapse nephrotic syndrome (1109.5±248.3 IU/ml during relapse and 776.6±108.5 IU/ml at remission) at both relapse and remission state. A linear, positive, significant correlation was found between rate of relapse and serum IgE level (Pearson correlation coefficient, r=0.674). Based on results it is concluded that serum IgE is high in relapsing nephrotic syndrome and it is persistently and significantly higher in frequent relapse nephrotic syndrome than infrequent relapse nephrotic syndrome.

Relapsing polychondritis is a rare autoimmune disorder of unknown etiology, which can affect multiple organs. It usually presents with involvement of elastic cartilage of ear and nose and involvement of other organs like kidney and central nervous system. Here, we report a case of 60-year-old man, who initially presented with fever, polyarthritis, erythema nodosum and painful swelling and redness of both external ears admitted in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka, Bangladesh on 13th December 2019. Two days after hospitalization, he developed sudden onset of proptosis with ophthalmoplegia. After evaluation, he was diagnosed as relapsing polychondritis with haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis and was treated with high dose prednisolone. His clinical condition and laboratory parameters significantly improved after treating with prednisolone during follow up.

A study was carried out at each of three flood affected reverine villages of three upazilas (small administrative unit) under Jamalpur district in Bangladesh during September, 2011 to May, 2012 to find out the contribution of the characteristics of the farmers to the use of coping strategies towards household food security practiced by the farmers during flood. Data were collected from randomly selected 336 respondents both the qualitative and quantitative techniques and analyzed with the help of SPSS. Out of 18 characteristics, 11 had positive, 2 had negative and 5 had no significant relation with coping strategies towards household food security during flood period. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that six variables namely participation in income generating activities (IGAs) (20.1 percent), knowledge on flood coping mechanisms (8.5 percent), cosmopoliteness (6.5 percent), utilization percentage of received credit (2.0 percent), water and sanitation condition (1.6 percent) and year round household food situation (0.8 percent) were the major contributing variables which combindly explained 39.5 percent of total variations. Path analysis revealed that knowledge on flood coping mechanisms had the highest positive direct effects (0.285) and participation in IGAs had highest positive indirect effects (0.169) on coping strategy practices. Considering the relative contribution on the coping strategy practices towards household food security during flood period, based on their direct effects, the six variables could be arranged as follows knowledge on flood coping mechanism > participation in income generating activities > cosmopoliteness > water and sanitation condition > year round household food situation > utilization of received credit.

In present years, TiNiSi-type intermetallic materials have been searched extensively because of excellent electronic, mechanical, thermodynamic and superconducting natures. In this consideration, we investigate the spin dependence electronic, optical, mechanical, thermodynamic and superconducting properties of the newly synthesized TiNiSi-type ThIrGe. In this paper, hydrostatic pressure was applied from 0 to 15 GPa as changes in physical and superconducting natures were seen. As far as our knowledge, this is the first time we report the influence of pressure on physical and superconducting parameters with/without pressure ThIrGe compounds. Structural analysis shows that the unit cell constants, a, b, c and volume, V went down with developing hydrostatic pressure. The analyzed spin-dependent band structure and density of states (DOS) imply metallic properties for both stressed and unstressed ThIrGe compounds. The spin-dependent TDOS and PDOS indicate that the ThIrGe compound has strong hybridization between Th, Ir, and Ge atoms. As Vickers hardness value lies in soft material range, we predicated ThIrGe compound has a low covalent bond. The ThIrGe compounds have ductile nature ensured by Pugh’s ratio and Poisson’s ratio values. In addition, Debye temperature and melting temperature increase with driving hydrostatic pressure. The reflectance and absorption spectra reach higher energies with increasing applied pressure. Since θD tends to increase with driving pressure, TC may increase with driving pressure.

Purpose: The recent development in logistics due to the dawn of Logistics 4.0 has made global logistics providers more dependent on intelligent technologies. In this era, these technologies assist in data collection and transmission of logistical data and pose many security and privacy threats in logistics management systems. The customer’s private information, which is shared among the logistics stakeholders for optimal operation, faces unauthorized access due to a lack of privacy. This, amongst others, is a critical problem that needs to be addressed with blockchain. Blockchain is a disruptive technology that is transforming different sectors, and it has the potential to provide a solution to the issues mentioned above, with its unique features such as immutability, transparency, and anonymity. Method: This study designed a blockchain-based logistics management architecture on a decentralized peer-2-peer network using Ethereum smart contracts. The proposed system deployed the Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) asymmetric encryption method to protect the logistics system from cyber-attacks and secure customers’ private information from unauthorized access. Findings: Furthermore, the security and privacy of the proposed system are evaluated based on the theorem. The proof shows that the system can provide security to the logistics system and privacy to customers’ private data. The performance evaluation is based on throughput and latency. It shows that the proposed system is better than the baseline system, and the comparatives analysis shows that the proposed system is more secure and efficient than the existing systems. Implication and Limitation: The proposed system offers a better solution to the security/privacy of the logistics management system and provides recommendations to key stakeholders involved in the logistics industry while adopting blockchain technology. Apart from the study’s methodological limitation, it is also limited by a lack of reference materials.

Abiotic stresses have a detrimental impact on plant growth and productivity and are a major threat to sustainable crop production in rapidly changing environments. Proline, an important amino acid, plays an important role in maintaining the metabolism and growth of plants under abiotic stress conditions. Many insights indicate a positive relationship between proline accumulation and tolerance of plants to various abiotic stresses. Because of its metal chelator properties, it acts as a molecular chaperone, an antioxidative defence molecule that scavenges reactive oxygen species (ROS), as well as having signalling behaviour to activate specific gene functions that are crucial for plant recovery from stresses. It also acts as an osmoprotectant, a potential source to acquire nitrogen as well as carbon, and plays a significant role in the flowering and development of plants. Overproduction of proline in plant cells contributes to maintaining cellular homeostasis, water uptake, osmotic adjustment and redox balance to restore the cell structures and mitigate oxidative damage. Many reports reveal that transgenic plants, particularly those overexpressing genes tailored for proline accumulation, exhibit better adaptation to abiotic stresses. Therefore, this review aims to provide a comprehensive update on proline biosynthesis and accumulation in plants and its putative regulatory roles in mediating plant defence against abiotic stresses. Additionally, the current and future directions in research concerning manipulation of proline to induce gene functions that appear promising in genetics and genomics approaches to improve plant adaptive responses under changing climate conditions are also highlighted.

A study was carried out at each of three flood affected reverine villages of three upazilas (small administrative unit) under Jamalpur district in Bangladesh during September, 2011 to May, 2012 to find out the constraints faced by farmers in practicing coping strategies towards household food security during flood. The qualitative information as obtained from the focus group discussion (FGD) and scored causal diagrams (SCDs) were used to supplement the quantitative data to add new information if necessary in descriptive manner. Priority of constraints are differ from one farmer to another due to cultivated land topography, involvement of family labour in cultivation processes, precautionary measures taken against flood, previous experience, prediction of flood damage etc. ‘Lack of appropriate agricultural rehabilitation program’, ‘improper and inadequate relief distributed by GO/NGO’, ‘high price of agricultural inputs’ and ‘lack of technical knowledge on flood’ were identified as major constraints being faced by farmers in practicing flood coping strategy towards household food security. Lack of flood resistance crop varieties, inadequate organizational (GO/NGO) relief in time, lack of credit, agricultural labour and quality seeds in time (after flood) were found major constraints by almost all categories of farmers for overcoming food crisis created by the whim of nature. Go and NGO can take necessary steps against this adverse situations.

A study was carried out at flood affected reverine villages of three upazilas (small administrative unit) under Jamalpur district in Bangladesh during September, 2011 to May, 2012 to explore the relationship, contribution and direct–indirect effect between personal attributes and their coping strategies towards household food security practiced by the farmers during flood. Data were collected from randomly selected respondents and analyzed through both the qualitative and quantitative techniques by using a statistical program. Out of 18 personal, economic, social and psychological characteristics of the farmers, the personal education, housing condition, annual income, annual expenditure, savings, organizational participation, participation in IGAs, cosmopoliteness, environmental awareness, knowledge on flood coping mechanisms and household food security had positive but both credit received and utilization of received credit had negative. In addition, age, family size, training received, risk orientation and involvement in safety net programs are insignificant with coping strategies towards household food security during flood period.

With the optimal operating cost and optimal carbon emission target of the chemical logistics companies, a low-carbon routing optimisation with a multi-energy type vehicle combined problem is proposed by considering the concept of the logistics companies’ low-carbon behaviour. An integrated decision-making of multi-energy type vehicles combined strategy and route optimisation based on customer demand is presented, and an improved genetic algorithm is designed. A case study is then applied based on the data collected from the case research. The effectiveness of the improved genetic algorithm is tested. The two joint objectives of operating cost and carbon emission are examined through the cost analysis of environmental energy vehicles and traditional energy vehicles in different combination scenarios. The case analysis shows that a rational multi-energy type vehicle combination with route optimisation has a significant correlation with the operating cost and carbon emissions, while the environmental vehicle purchasing cost reduction and subsidy policy affect the operating cost.