Quality Assessment of Beef Using Computer Vision Technology

Md,Faizur Rahman,Abdullah Iqbal,Md,Abul Hashem,Akinbode A,Adedeji 한국축산식품학회 2020 한국축산식품학회지 Vol.40 No.6

Imaging technique or computer vision (CV) technology has received huge attention as a rapid and non-destructive technique throughout the world for measuring quality attributes of agricultural products including meat and meat products. This study was conducted to test the ability of CV technology to predict the quality attributes of beef. Images were captured from longissimus dorsi muscle in beef at 24 h post-mortem. Traits evaluated were color value (L*, a*, b*), pH, drip loss, cooking loss, dry matter, moisture, crude protein, fat, ash, thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS), peroxide value (POV), free fatty acid (FFA), total coliform count (TCC), total viable count (TVC) and total yeast-mould count (TYMC). Images were analyzed using the Matlab software (R2015a). Different reference values were determined by physicochemical, proximate, biochemical and microbiological test. All determination were done in triplicate and the mean value was reported. Data analysis was carried out using the programme Statgraphics Centurion XVI. Calibration and validation model were fitted using the software Unscrambler X version 9.7. A higher correlation found in a* (r=0.65) and moisture (r=0.56) with ‘a*’ value obtained from image analysis and the highest calibration and prediction accuracy was found in lightness (r²c=0.73, r²p=0.69) in beef. Results of this work show that CV technology may be a useful tool for predicting meat quality traits in the laboratory and meat processing industries.

Do Risk-Taking, Innovativeness, and Proactivity Affect Business Performance of SMEs? A Case Study in Bangladesh

Md,Atikur RAHAMAN,Kaniz Fatema LUNA,Zhao Lin PING,Mohammad Saiyedul ISLAM,Md. Mobarak KARIM 한국유통과학회 2021 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.8 No.5

In the current technology-driven era, Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been deemed as one of the leading and prominent drivers of sustainable economic progress in emerging and developing economies such as in the Bangladesh context. Hence, it is of significance to understand what might fuel accelerating performance of SME business as increased SME performance will bring about more sustainability and strong development of SME sector within the country, through which more employment is anticipated to be generated. Therefore, the current study examines the impact of three factors: risk-taking, innovativeness, and proactiveness on SME performance in Bangladesh. The study has gathered data from SME entities in Dhaka city of Bangladesh, by applying a non-probability sampling strategy. 250 SME owners were contacted to act as respondents and finally, 180 SME owners fully completed the survey questionnaire, indicating that the final sample size is n=180. SPSS is used as a purpose of testing the hypotheses by considering a 5% significance level as acceptance criteria of the hypothesis. Hierarchical regression analysis was run to understand the impact of control variables and independent variables on SME performance and found that age of business, risk-taking, innovativeness, and proactiveness have an important impact on SME performance in Bangladesh.

The Effect of Promotion and Job Training on Job Satisfaction of Employees: An Empirical Study of the SME Sector in Bangladesh

Md,Atikur RAHAMAN,Md,Sayed UDDIN 한국유통과학회 2022 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.9 No.2

SME sector’s success also depends on its employees’ job satisfaction as satisfied employees are likely to be more productive at the workplace and positively enhance SME business performance. Small and medium firms are the heart of the economy, and employees are the main and valuable asset for the SME firms. If SME business managers can increase employee satisfaction, then SMEs’ performance will also increase in the future. Hence, the current study aims to determine the job satisfaction of SME employees by analyzing the impact of job training (JT) and promotion (PRO) opportunities on employee job satisfaction. Purposive sampling is applied in the study, and 202 SME employees have participated as sample respondents. The final sample size is n = 202. SPSS 26.0 version is used to analyze the hypotheses. The study findings show that both job training (JT) and promotion (PRO) have a positive effect on SME employee job satisfaction. It does indicate that SME managers need to provide necessary training programs and timely promotion to their current working employees to keep them satisfied with their job. Promotion and effective job training will certainly enhance employees’ job satisfaction. The study has also offered a few strategic implications for SME business managers.

Relation to Demographic Factors

Md,Abu Issa GAZI,Hasanuzzaman TUSHAR,Razuan Ahmed SHUVRO,Sajun SAHA,Md,Atikur RAHAMAN 한국유통과학회 2021 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.8 No.6

The primary objective of this study is to observe the impact of demographic factors on the job satisfaction of workers of the sugar industry in Bangladesh. Current research determines whether the age, level of education, marital status, and years of experience play a role in the job satisfaction of respondents and whether job satisfaction level differs among respondents in terms of age, level of education, marital status, and years of experience. A total of 300 respondents who are permanent production workers have been selected from state-owned sugar mills in Bangladesh on a random basis. A pre-structured questionnaire and for the information required face-to-face interview was conducted by the researcher. In analyzing data different statistical tools like Chi-square tests, ANOVA, Correlation were applied and data processed by using SPSS. The results of the present study revealed that a higher percentage of the high age workers was more satisfied with their present job than that of low age but statistically not significant. Other factors such as education, experience, and marital status, do not affect overall work satisfaction. The findings of this study suggest that the government and the concerned authority should draft proper policies and special programs to improve the level of satisfaction of sugar industrial workers.

Kidney protective potential of lactoferrin: pharmacological insights and therapeutic advances

Md,Sarwar Zahan,Kazi Ahsan Ahmed,Akhi Moni,Alessandra Sinopoli,Hunjoo Ha,Md Jamal Uddin 대한생리학회-대한약리학회 2022 The Korean Journal of Physiology & Pharmacology Vol.26 No.1

Kidney disease is becoming a global public health issue. Acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) have serious adverse health outcomes. However, there is no effective therapy to treat these diseases. Lactoferrin (LF), a multi-functional glycoprotein, is protective against various pathophysiological conditions in various disease models. LF shows protective effects against AKI and CKD. LF reduces markers related to inflammation, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and kidney fibrosis, and induces autophagy and mitochondrial biogenesis in the kidney. Although there are no clinical trials of LF to treat kidney disease, several clinical trials and studies on LF-based drug development are ongoing. In this review, we discussed the possible kidney protective mechanisms of LF, as well as the pharmacological and therapeutic advances. The evidence suggests that LF may become a potent pharmacological agent to treat kidney diseases.

Regulation of cuticular wax biosynthesis in plants under abiotic stress

Md Shaheenuzzamn,Shandang Shi,Kamran Sohail,Hongqi Wu,Tianxiang Liu,Peipei An,Zhonghua Wang,Mirza Hasanuzzaman 한국식물생명공학회 2021 Plant biotechnology reports Vol.15 No.1

Cuticular waxes are the covering of the outer layer of the plant, consist of hydrocarbon appears like whitish flm or bloom in plant organs. They play a vital role like a safeguard from diferent stress condition in the plant. Since environmental factors are active regulators of cuticular wax biosynthesis, composition, quantity, and deposition, it is evident that cuticular wax is associated with plant stress responses. The diversity of cuticular wax compositions is a proof of the wealth of genes associated in plant wax production. Moreover, a number of wax genes were distinguished in plant/crops at abiotic stress conditions but, regulation of control of those wax genes has not been studied very well in major crop plants at abiotic conditions. A very few transcriptions factors were identifed to regulate the expression level of wax genes of cuticular wax biosynthesis at abiotic stress condition. However, further study is needed to identify more candidate transcriptional regulation factors to cuticular wax production in diferent crop plants in diverse abiotic environments. Therefore, regulation of cuticular wax production under diverse abiotic stresses and the role of transcription factors into the plant cuticular wax accumulation will be helpful to engineer crop plants and improve transgenic crops for stress tolerance. In this review, we focused on a new perspective on transcriptional factors to regulate functional genes of cuticular wax biosynthesis in plants at abiotic stresses.

The Impact of Foreign Remittances on Household Income and Poverty: Empirical Evidence from Bangladesh

Md,Rubel Islam 경희대학교 국제학연구원 2021 Asian Journal of International Studies (AJIS) Vol.26 No.1

The study explores the empirical impact of foreign remittances on Bangladesh s household income and poverty indicators using the most recent wave of nationally representative household income expenditure survey (HIES)-2016 dataset. The goal of this study is to fill a vacuum in the empirical evidence on overseas remittances in Bangladesh. Using a two-stage Heckman selection model to account for selection bias and endogeneity caused by prospective migrants self-selection, the study finds that remittances boost household income and reduce poverty regardless of the measures employed. I find that in Bangladesh, overseas migration and remittances generate many of the expected positive outcomes for migrant-sending households. The evidence of the study suggests that boosting migration and remittances requires enhancing the level of education and skill of expatriate aspirants along with easily accessible financing for the rural poor, particularly farming households so that more people from poorer sections can participate.

Assessment of the Stability of Fresh Beef Patties with the Addition of Clove Extract during Frozen Storage

Md,Ashrafuzzaman Zahid,Jin-kyu Seo,Rashida Parvin,Jonghyun Ko,Jun-Young Park,Han-Sul Yang 한국축산식품학회 2020 한국축산식품학회지 Vol.40 No.4

The study assessed the stability for fresh beef patties with the inclusion of clove extract (CE) as a natural antioxidant in comparison to butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and ascorbic acid (AA) at frozen storage. Four different patties were made dependent on the added antioxidants: control (added no antioxidants), added with 0.02% BHT, 0.05% AA, and 0.1% CE. Inclusion of BHT, AA, and CE resulted in a significant reduction of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and hue angle (h°) value and increase of redness (CIE a*) and chroma (C*) values (p<0.05). BHT, AA, and CE were observed effectively to retard lipid oxidation and increase color stability. BHT and AA revealed significantly (p<0.05) higher thiol content than the control and CE. However, the reduction percentage for thiol content in CE treated patties was lower than the control and AA-treated patties from first to last time of storage. Moreover, inclusion of AA and CE led to significantly (p<0.05) increased heme iron content when compared to BHT and the control. In conclusion, CE can replace the application of AA and BHT while improving lipid stability, heme iron content, and color stableness of fresh beef patties throughout frozen storage.

COVID-19, Remittance Inflows, and the Stock Market: Empirical Evidence from Bangladesh

Md,QAMRUZZAMAN,Salma KARIM,Ishrat JAHAN 한국유통과학회 2021 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.8 No.5

This study’s motivation is to investigate the association between the stock market, remittance, and the pandemic of COVID-19 for the period from March 3, 2020, to December 14, 2020. For evaluating the impact of COVID-19 and remittances on stock market behaviour during the pandemic, the study applies Autoregressive Distributed lagged (ARDL) for magnitudes estimation and directional association through the Toda-Yamamoto causality test. Study findings from ARDL estimation revealed that COVID-19 measured by detecting new cases negatively influences the stock market both in the long-term and short-term. Remittance positively influences the stock market behaviour, particularly in the long-term. Furthermore, the directional causality test disclosed unidirectional causal effects between COVID-19 and the stock market behaviour, which establishes all proxy measures for the equation’s stock market. The hypothesis results explain the causal relationship between remittance inflows and the stock market in Bangladesh. The study’s application will help policymakers rethink the policies for channelizing remittances for productive investment areas. Furthermore, the study’s findings will reinstate the widely perceived notions, which is the critical role of remittance in the economy even though the economy passes through a great pandemic.

Occluded Shape Matching for Image Database of Reduced Data Points

Md,Jahangir Alam,Hiromitsu Hama 한국과학기술원 인간친화 복지 로봇 시스템 연구센터 2003 International Journal of Assistive Robotics and Me Vol.4 No.4

  We present a new approach to typify object contours in a database by a reduced number of data points and to match object shapes in occluded conditions. For simplicity, contours are approximated by a set of quadratic Bezier curves and all control points are stored in the database. Initial contour segmentation procedure is carried out based on scale space parameters. The scale is chosen imposing the condition that a particular number of curvature zero-crossing points survive on the object contour for a longer period of its changes. Its value is neither too small nor too large so that the influence of noise effects and the loss of important features can be avoided. We introduce the distance matrix, which is constructed from curve to curve distance measurement between the test and database contours. The maximum alignment of distance matrix elements for their verification gives the total cost of similarity between the test and database contours. We present the experimental results to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method and demonstrate the successful performance on object contours containing noise and occlusion.