Cash waqf, derived from Waqf, an old and traditional way of charity or philanthropic works promulgated by Islamic law and the Islamic way of life, has attracted Islamic financial institutions, especially Islamic banks, to increase their deposits as well as to do philanthropy through banking systems. Bangladesh’s Islamic banks have maintained mudaraba cash waqf deposit accounts since 1997. There has yet to be found a study about the performance of Islamic banks in mobilizing cash waqf deposits. This chapter aims to look at the cash waqf deposit account maintenance in Islamic banks in Bangladesh and evaluate their performance in maintaining such cash waqf deposit accounts. Depositors and top executives from six major Islamic banks will be interviewed for the study. This study will also examine annual reports of the related Islamic banks and other waqf fund management-related reports. Besides, textual information will be collected and analyzed from secondary sources like earlier literature, laws, and principles. The study’s findings will show whether there is any gap in the performance of those banks in mobilizing cash waqf deposits and further popularizing cash waqf in the banking system to help contribute much more to the socioeconomic development of COVID-19-affected segments of Bangladesh.

Using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach, this study measures the profitability, marketability, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure efficiencies from 2012 to 2021 of listed banks in Bangladesh. The results show that Bangladeshi banks are, on average, inefficient in terms of all efficiencies, profitability (0.703), marketability (0.56), and CSR disclosure (CSRD) (0.903) over the sample period. Further, the study compared the three efficiencies between Islamic and conventional banks and found that conventional banks are more efficient than Islamic banks in terms of profitability and marketability at 5% and 8%, respectively, while, in terms of CSRD efficiency, Islamic banks are by 1% more efficient than conventional banks. Furthermore, ordinary least square (OLS) regression has been used to investigate the impact of financial constraints, political connections, and Shari'ah regulations on firm efficiencies. The results showed that financial constraints negatively impact the firms' all three efficiencies, while political connections and Shari'ah regulations negatively affect the banks' marketability efficiency. The findings advocate more compliance with corporate regulation and considerable contributions to CSR, leading to increased stakeholder loyalty and improved efficiency of banks. The findings provide insight for the banks' management to improve their efficiency level, investors and depositors to make proper judgments about their investment, and clients to compare among banks for better decision making. In addition, academicians and researchers have necessary insight from the DEA's noble use in Bangladesh's banking sector.

The study was conducted at Kamalganj Upazila of Moulvibazar district in Bangladesh during January to September 2015 to observe the diversity of plant species in the homestead area with their arrangement and to explore the relationships of plant diversity with the selected characteristics of the respondents. Face to face interview was performed with 135 respondents with the help of questionnaire. A total of 92 plant species, 45 vegetables species were recorded in the homestead of the study area. Out of different categories of plant species, 35 timber, 36 fruits and 21 medicinal and other plants were recorded. Most of fruit plants and medicinal and other plant species were found in front yard and backyard of homestead area. Timber trees were dominated at boundary side than any other side of homesteads. Diversity of fruit (0.79-0.99), timber (0.77-0.93) and medicinal plant species (0.77-0.96) were high in most of the unions. Mango Jackfruit, Papaya, Coconut were dominant fruit species. Acasia hybrid and Mehogony were dominant timber species. Coriander (Coriandrum sativum), Areca nut (Areca catechu), Tulsi (Ocimum americanum), Neem (Azadirachta indica), Bamboo (Bambusa sp), Pudina (Mentha spicata) and Bohera (Terminalia bellerica), were dominant medicinal and other plant species. There was a positive correlation between plant diversity with most of the selected characteristics of the respondents. Results conclude that plant diversity in homestead areas of Kamalganj upazila could be a good option for improving the livelihood of the respondents. SAARC J. Agric., 19(2): 285-299 (2021)

Background: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a potential pathogen responsible for producing various infectious diseases. Determination of the prevalence of S. aureus infections both in animals and humans and elucidation of their antibiotic resistance pattern is crucial. The objective of this study was to find out the prevalence of Staphylococcal diseases in animals and humans, and their resistance pattern to commonly used antibiotics. Methods: A total of 100 animal and 100 human clinical samples were analyzed by traditional method. The S. aureus was identified by their cultural characteristics, gram’s staining, and catalase and coagulase tests. Antibiotic resistance pattern of the isolates was determined by disc diffusion method using various types of antibiotics. Results: The prevalence of S. aureus in animals and humans were 54% and 40%, respectively. S. aureus isolates of animal origin were highly resistant against penicillin (64.81%) and oxytetracycline (42.59%), and the lowest resistance was against oxacillin (7.40 %). S. aureus isolates from human were also showed a higher percentage of resistance against penicillin (87.5%) then oxacillin, cloxacillin, amoxicillin (37.5% each), and lowest resistance was observed against fusidic acid (5%). Conclusion: The findings of this study will certainly help veterinary clinicians or physicians to select appropriate antibiotics like oxacillin and fusidic acid for the treatment of different types of staphylococcal infections.

An experiment was conducted at Khitrokashipur, Durgapur, Rajshahi during March to June 2018 to study the effect of organic amendment on soil quality and yield performance of dry direct seeded boro rice var. BRRI dhan28. The treatments were Trichocompost (TC), Vermicompost (VC), mustard oil cake (MOC), Trichocompost + mustard oil cake (TC+MOC), Vermicompost + mustard oil cake (VC + MOC), and no amendment control. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Trichocompost and Vermicompost were applied @ 3 t ha-1, while mustard oil cake was used @ 0.5 t ha-1. The results revealed that Trichocompost and vermicompost fertilization exerted significant influence on yield performance of BRRI dhan28 in boro season. The treatment trichocompost (T1) @ 5 t ha-1 produced the highest grain yield (5.95 t ha-1), while the mustard oil cake (T3) @ 0.5 t ha-1 the highest effective tillers hill-1 (15.33), though the highest straw yield (5.46 t ha-1) was produced in the treatment VC + MOC (T5). In case of soil properties, Trichocompost (T1) @ 3 t ha-1 and mustard oil cake (T3) @ 0.5 t ha-1 improved soil organic matter content, while Trichocompost (T1) @ 3 t ha-1 and Vermicompost (T2) @ 0.5 t ha-1 improved phosphorus and potassium content. Field capacity was greatly influenced by Trichocompost (T1) @ 3 t ha-1 and Vermicompost + mustard oil cake (T5). Soils with Trichocompost (T1) @ 3 tha-1 showed the highest bulk density. It was concluded that organic amendment greatly improved the yield performance of BRRI dhan28 and also soil physical and chemical properties under dry direct seeded boro rice cultivation system. Bangladesh Agron. J. 2020, 23(2): 103-109

Background: Acinetobacter species are typical nosocomial pathogens causinginfections and high mortality, almost exclusively in compromised hospitalizedpatients. Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter spp. blood infection in the neonatalintensive care unit patients create a great problem in hospital settings. The studywas done to detect prevalence of acinetobacter spp. as the causative agent ofneonatal sepsis with its antibiogram Materials and methods: A total of 100 clinically suspected neonatal sepsis caseswas enrolled in the study. Bacteriological profile and antibiotic sensitivity pattern ofacinetobacter spp. were done accordingly. Results: Among the 100 suspected neonatal sepsis cases, 28% were culture positiveand 72% were culture negative. Klebsiella species was the predominant isolatedbacteria which was 53.58% followed by Acinetobacter spp. (14.28%) E. coli(10.72%)Pseudomonas spp. (7.14%) S. aureus (7.14%) & Candida (7.14%). Acinetobacter spp.showed 100% resistant to ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, gentamycin, amikacin,ceftazidime, cefotaxime & cefepime, 75% resistant to meropenem & 50% sensitiveto levofloxacin. Conclusion: It is essential to conduct periodic bacteriological profile along withroutine antimicrobial sensitivity testing time to time for effective management ofneonatal sepsis. Chatt Maa Shi Hosp Med Coll J; Vol.19 (1); January 2020; Page 20-23

The review outcome represents the optimum catalytic conditions for the production of hydrogen using hydrotalcite derived catalysts. It covers dry and steam reforming of methane, steam reforming of methanol and ethanol to hydrogen. The review also revealed the specific properties of hydrotalcite derived catalysts for the reactions. Among catalyst investigated, Ni & Fe promoted Al-Mg containing hydrotalcite catalyst perform best (99%) for dry reforming of methane at 250°C. For steam methane reforming, Ni containing ca-aluminates hydrotalcite catalyst act as the best (99%) at 550°C. Cu-supported Zn-Al-containing catalyst performs the best (99.98%) for steam reforming of methanol at 300°C whereas Cu impregnated Mg-Al containing hydrotalcite is the best (99%) for steam reforming of ethanol at 200°C - 600°C. It's (HT) tunable and versatile textural and morphological properties showed excellent catalytic performances for different industrial processes and in sustainable hydrogen production.

Noise has always been a major disturbance for every living creature. Noise pollution is, thus, a threat to environmental pollution too. The noise created by a helicopter draws a great contribution to the noise pollution. Reducing the noise that creates from helicopter rotor blades, tail rotors, engine etc. is a one step closer to this crisis. Helicopter noise reduction is a topic of research into designing helicopters which can be operated more quietly. The major source of the noise come from the rotor blade vortex interaction. By attaching spoiler in the helicopter main rotor blades and tail rotors reduce the noise and silence the operation. The spoiler is made of supple, resilient, and durable non-ferrous material, such as rubber, a rubber like material, plastic, rubber-impregnated with thin steel mesh, canvas reinforced rubber, rubber composites, and other durable materials that do not prematurely fatigue. The spoiler attached at the trailing edges of blades have free edges exhibits a non-repeating pattern of feather-like projections that collectively break up the vortex formed by blade rotation by providing clean air for each successive blade. The blade efficiency is also increased by using spoiler. This paper addresses the use of spoiler and comparison of noise level of rotor blades with or without spoiler.

Green banking or sustainable banking is one of the issues of the concern of all stakeholders of the world. Following this concern, this study has investigated the status of green banking practices of the non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) and commercial banks of Bangladesh. Analyzing the contents of annual reports as well as websites of banks and NBFIs, the study finds that 44 out of 57 banks and 13 out of 33 NBFIs, to a varying degree, have exposures in direct or indirect green financing. But only 45 banks and 25 NBFIs conducted environmental risk rating. Most of the banks and NBFIs practice green banking only in a limited scale and volume and disclose green banking information in a semi structured manner in both the annual reports and corporate websites. However, except one, all the 56 scheduled banks and all the 33 non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) have their own green banking policy guidelines. They also have green office guide for conducting in-house green activities. The study finds that green banking disclosures in their annual reports exceed that in their websites. It is also found that both private commercial banks (PCBs), and foreign commercial banks (FCBs) have surpassed state-owned commercial banks (SCBs) and state-owned specialized development banks (SDBs) in terms of the green financing.

Body massage is a service-oriented business that offers amenities to tourists to satisfy their particular desires. It is one of the attractive segments in tourism industry in the modern world even in Islamic countries which provide facilities for Muslim travellers. The massage is given by using a specific technique on body by following a unique culture. It brings a kind of natural healing and care for some injuries. However, it is associated with feelings of pleasure, wellbeing and luxury with natural sensory experiences. The professional masseurs have demanded that they are confused about the basic features of the Shari’ah compliant massage as the concept has yet to be developed. There are also many unanswered questions from the customers and the operators. This paper aims to identify the functions of body massage and key factors to enrich the Islamic hospitality in the contemporary world. The qualitative approach has been chosen to answer the research question of this study and observation approach has been applied to find the data. This study has found that the professional massage can be opened to achieve the business objectives and the commercial values if it complies with the principles of Shari’ah. Traditional masseur services conflict with local decency and Islamic doctrines as they carry not only sensual enjoyment, but also sexual pleasure which leads to homosexuality. Thus, it becomes ethically ambiguous character. Finally, in the realistic perspective, this paper helps to find out the potential business improvement of Islamic hospitality services mainly in utilizing the functions of body massage.

This study was conducted at Kamalganj Upazila of Moulvibazar District in Bangladesh during January to September 2015 to explore the impact of homestead agroforestry on the socio economic condition of the respondents and to explore their relationships with the selected characteristics of the respondents. Face to face interview was performed with 135 respondents to collect the data with the help of questionnaire. Eight different characteristics of the farmers namely; educations, farm size, homestead size, annual income, annual expenditure, savings, knowledge on homestead agroforestry, socio-economic class of the respondents showed significant positive relationships with the numbers of diversified plant species, while negative relationship of diversified plant species was observed with age and family size. Agro forestry based practices plays a vital role to uplift the socio-economic classes of the respondents. For uses of agroforestry products, annual savings and expenditures the highest decisions comes from females 45% and 41% followed by male 38% and 39% respectively. In other cases also female participation is greater than male respondents. Results conclude that homestead agroforestry is a unique area for maintaining both plant diversity and productivity for farmers’ livelihood in the studied area.

Maize ( Zea mays L.) is an important food and feed crop in Bangladesh as well as in the world. But its cultivation is limited in the soils of Sylhet, Bangladesh. To study the physiological growth indices of maize genotypes an experiment was carried out at the experimental field of Sylhet Agricultural University (SAU), Bangladesh during December 2014 to May 2015. The maize genotypes as the experimental materials were ZM 0001, ZM 0002, ZM 0003, ZM 0004, ZM 0005, ZM 0006 ZM 0007 and BARI Maize 6. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Seeds were sown on 26 December 2014. Proper cultural management practices were followed as and when necessary during the growing period of the crop. Data were recorded on dry matter partitioning, different growth rate parameters and dry matter production of different plant parts at 30 days interval. The results indicated significant variations in almost all of the growth indices. Dry matter accumulation continued to increase from seedling to harvesting. The highest root dry matter was found in ZM 0007 (36.03 g) whereas the highest shoot and leaf dry matter was found in BARI Maize 6 (254.6 and 45.99 g, respectively) at harvest. The highest total dry matter (TDM) was produced in BARI Maize 6 at harvest (287.5 g) and AGR and CGR value was also highest in BARI Maize 6 (5.686 g day-1 and 45.48 g m-2 day-1) but at 60-90 days after germination (DAG). The highest RGR value was in ZM 0001 at seedling stage (114.1 mg g-1 day-1). A zigzag pattern graph was observed in all genotypes for RSR, RWR and SWR at different growth stages but a declining trend from seedling to harvesting was observed for LWR. Correlation between the growth rate parameters and kernel yield showed that shoot, leaf, total dry weight, AGR, CGR, RGR and SWR had significant positive correlation with yield.

For obtaining clean steel, it is important to remove nonmetallic inclusions from molten steel by agglomeration or dispersion of particles. Cold model experiments were carried out by using polymethymethacrylate (PMMA) particles of 2.8m in mean diameter and 3.0 mol/L KCl solution as solid and liquid phases, respectively, and compared with the calculated results of newly developed mathematical models. Three kinds of mixing practices were examined: mechanical stirring by an impeller, gas blowing, and ultrasonic irradiation. The PMMA agglomeration rate of impeller mixing explained by a turbulence agglomeration model was larger than that of gas blowing at the same energy input rate. By introducing a breakup model where the adhered particles on the bubbles were divided on the free liquid surface, the calculated results agreed well with the experiment. The ultrasonic irradiation promoted the dispersion of agglomerated particles, and the dispersion rate increased with the decreasing ultrasonic irradiation frequency and increasing electric power. However, as for impeller mixing, the dispersion proceeded at higher rotation speed and agglomeration occurred at lower speed. Based on the experimental results, mathematical models for ultrasonic irradiation and impeller mixing were developed, and the calculation of the temporal change in total number of particles agreed well with the experiment.

An attempt was made to determine the abundance and diversity of beneficial insect and spider species on Boro rice during the period of November 2013 to April 2014 and Aman rice during May to November 2014 at Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) farm in Sylhet district. A considerable number of beneficial insect and spider species namely ladybird beetle, carabid beetle, ground beetle, damselfly, mirid bug, ant, wasp, dipteran fly, lynx spider, wolf spider, jumping spider and long-jawed spider were found abundant at all growing stages in both rice fields. The relative abundance of insect and spider species in Boro rice ranked as ladybird beetle>damselfly>ant>wolf spider>jumping spider>ground beetle>wasp>tachinid fly>lynx spider>carabid beetle>mirid bug; whereas in Aman rice it was ranked as ladybird beetle>damselfly>long-jawed spider>dipteran fly>jumping spider>lynx spider>ant>wasp> carabid beetle. Araneae order showed the highest values while Coleoptera order showed the lowest values for Diversity index and evenness in both Boro and Aman rice. Richness index was found highest in Araneae order in Boro rice and lowest in Coleoptera order in Aman rice fields. The results clearly indicate that rice ecosystem could be utilized as a great reservoir of beneficial insect and mite species and thus rice ecosystem would foster natural biological control process in rice based agroecosystems all over Bangladesh especially in the Sylhet region.

Genotypes x environment interaction as well as stability of performance were determined for grain yield and yield contributes of 12 wheat genotypes under four salinity levels of environments (control, 8, 12, 16 dS/m). Significant genotype-environment interaction (linear) for days to heading, plant height, number of spikes per plant and grains per spikes, 1000-grain weight and grain yield per plant at 1% level of probability when tested against pooled deviation. Both the environment (linear) and genotype x environment (linear) components of variation for stability were also significant indicating that prediction of the genotypes on the environment appeared feasible for all the characters. The variance due to pooled deviation was significant for only days to heading. Considering all the three stability parameter, genotype G11 was found most stable among all the genotypes for grain weight of wheat. Among the genotypes G11, G22, G24, G33 and G40 were most desirable for yield per plant. The genotype G32 showed more responsiveness to changing environment and was suited only for highly favorable environments. Based on three stability parameters, G11, G22 and G37 were the most stable and desirable genotypes with reasonable good yield among the all.Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. March 2017, 3(1): 38-43

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