Concern Authority Research Articles

Wetlands of Dhaka City: Its Past and Present Scenario

Landscape of Dhaka city, one of the fastest growing mega cities in the world, is undergoing continuous changes and modifications due to unplanned hasty urbanization process. As the growth of urbanization taking place at an exceptionally rapid rate the city is unable to cope with changing situation due to internal resource constraints and management limitations. Dhaka city endowed with a large number of water-bodies both big and small, which includes river, khals, lakes, flood plain low-lying areas etc. However, pre and post-urban changes of water-bodies in the city were studied using topographic map of 1960 and a satellite image of 2008 (ALOS VNIR 2008) through GIS and remote sensing technique. It is found that in 1960 total areas of water-bodies and lowland were 2952.02 and 13527.58 hectares. But in 2008 total areas of water-bodies and lowland found 1990.71 and 6414.57 hectares. Categories (water-bodies and lowlands) of wetland areas were decreased harshly. Study shows that water-bodies and lowland areas were decreased 32.57% and 52.58% that means more than 49% of the wetland areas decreased over the period 1960 to 2008. The changes of low-lying areas in the south-western corner extending towards Mirpur, Muhammadpur and Pallabi-Cantonment areas and filled for the urban development. The part of Gulshan and Dhanmondi lakes has also been reduced; and some of the channels of Motijheel areas are not identifiable at present. The growth of urban infrastructures have been taking place in unplanned way; as a result it destroyed natural drainage systems, fill-up the water-bodies, causing water-loggings during rainy season in various part of the city. This study revealed that immediate necessary steps should take by concern authority to prevent from various disasters that might be occurred due to unwise and unplanned wetland changes.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jles.v7i0.20126 J. Life Earth Sci., Vol. 7: 83-90, 2012

Clinical teaching in Dermatology of Undergraduate Medical Students of Bangladesh

This cross-sectional study was conducted with the objective to explore the practice of clinical teaching in Dermatology of undergraduate medical students of Bangladesh to identify the constraints and suggestions to improve the clinical teaching. The study also looked into the clinical competencies achieved by the students from available facilities provided by the institutes. The study was conducted at Dhaka Medical College (DMC) and Sir Salimullah Medical College (SSMC) from July 2008 to June 2009. The students of 4th year and 5th year were the study population. Sample size was 273. After taking permission from concern authority data were collected through a self administered semi-structured questionnaire by convenient sampling. The study reflected that most of the clinical classes in Dermatology were taken by the junior teachers and mid level teachers. It was found that majority of clinical classes were held in the morning and afternoon, though a very few of the clinical classes are taken at night in Dermatology. The students viewed that the teachers follow the curriculum to conduct the clinical classes. The students agreed that they were benefited through those clinical classes and acquired how to examine the patients and to take history and other clinical skills. Majority of the respondents viewed that inadequate number of teachers and patients were one of the important barriers for clinical teaching in Dermatology. They suggested that the senior teachers should conduct clinical teaching with sufficient instructional materials and instruments. It was recorded that the clinical teaching in Dermatology should be integrated in the institutes. It was also proposed that sufficient number of relevant patients and adequate number of teachers should be ensured for imparting effective clinical teaching in Dermatology. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjme.v1i1.12854 Bangladesh Journal of Medical Education Vol.1(1) 2010 pp.16-24

Incorporating bioaccessibility in detailed quantitative human health risk assessments

Current English policy and practice allows, and in places encourages, site specific estimates of arsenic oral bioavailability to be used in detailed quantitative human health risk assessment. English land contamination legislation does not differentiate between natural and man made arsenic soil contamination. English planning guidance requires developers to demonstrate that new houses are fit for purpose, including ensuring that there are no unacceptable risks to human health from soil contaminants. Naturally occurring arsenic in soils at a new housing site in southwest England was demonstrated not to pose unacceptable risk to human health by site specific estimates of bioavailability and region specific estimates of soil to plant uptake factors. Independent lines of evidence were used to justify the arsenic exposure factors for oral bioavailability and soil to plant uptake. Using site specific assessment criteria based on tools and information that give a better estimate of the actual exposure avoided both unnecessary public concern and considerable local authority expenditure across the outcrop of such soils as part of their legal duties.

Technical, organizational and political dynamics of the International Space Station program

Abstract This paper analyzes the dynamics of cooperation of the International Space Station (ISS) program from its inception in 1981 to the final Framework Agreements for cooperation concluded in 1998. These dynamics include technical and organizational arrangements, and policy preferences. Dynamics related to technical arrangements deal with technological and scientific resources, the former governed through mechanisms for control of technology transfer, the latter regulated through intellectual property rights provisions. The dynamics linked to organizational arrangements concern authority patterns—characterized by national and international responses—and bilateral and multilaterial decision-making patterns. The dynamics of policy preferences encompass functional and symbolic dimensions. Functional issues are structured through legal and political regimes that govern the ISS program. The symbolic dimension, which includes prestige, legitimacy, influence and international accountability, frames the nature of the cooperation realized for the ISS program. ISS cooperation has evolved through three stages: (1) coordination, where collaboration is engendered through institutional (International Coordinating Working Group) and ad hoc cooperative relationships (groups of scientists and engineers sharing information); (2) augmentation, which equates with technological enhancements of a national project that involve primarily bilateral arrangements; (3) interdependence, which deals with cooperation in enabling and critical path technologies that are arranged both bilaterally and multilaterally.