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This article examines the determinants of private investment in Bangladesh using the standard time series econometric analysis. The empirical results partially support the flexible accelerator hypothesis. It is partial in the sense that real interest rate is not statistically significant in determining private investment whereas national output is very much effective in the long run. Further, government expenditure is found to be a significant determinant of private investment, both in the long- and short run. Government expenditures crowd out private investment, however, the effect is minimal as the investment is not interest responsive. Thus, government expenditure can be used effectively to lift output in case of recession while monetary policy is not so effective in recession because reducing the interest rate investment cannot be increased.

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The macroscopic and microscopic diversity of potential food items available in the nests of plainfin midshipman Porichthys notatus were quantified and compared with items that were found in the stomach and intestine (digestive tract) of the guarding males. In this species, males occur as one of two possible reproductive morphs: guarder males that care for young and sneaker males that parasitize the courtship and care of guarder males. Although it was predicted that guarder males would have fewer feeding opportunities due to their confinement to the nest, they in fact had more food items in their digestive tracts than did sneaker males and females. Date in the breeding season (a proxy of care duration) and body condition were not correlated with the amount of food consumed by guarder males. The main type of food consumed was P. notatus embryos; 69% of all guarder males sampled had cannibalized offspring. By comparing the diet of both sexes and tactics, this study sheds light on some of the strategies designed to cope with the costs of providing parental care.

The colony structure of Oecophylla smaragdina within the compound of Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang Island, Malaysia was determined. The current study involved a total of twelve nests which were taken from two different locations. Each nest was dissected and the specimens were separated according to their caste. Results show that the colony structure of O. smaragdina consisted of a dealate queen, eggs, larvae of female alates, pupae of major and minor workers, pupae of female alates, major workers, minor workers, female alates and male alates. Our present study shows that O. smaragdina had a distinct caste system and the numbers of individuals in each caste reflect their respective functions which contributed to the success of their colony.

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveAdvances in imaging technologies have precipitated uncertainty and inconsistency in the management of neurologically intact patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) with non-traumatic sudden onset severe headache with a clinical suspicion of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). The objective of this systematic review was to evaluate diagnostic strategies in these patients.MethodsStudies assessing any decision rule or diagnostic test for evaluating neurologically intact adults with a severe headache, reaching maximum intensity within 1 hour, were eligible. Eighteen databases (including MEDLINE and Embase) were searched. Quality was assessed using QUADAS-2. Where appropriate, hierarchical bivariate meta-analysis was used to synthesise diagnostic accuracy results.ResultsThirty-seven studies were included. Eight studies assessing the Ottawa SAH clinical decision rule were pooled; sensitivity 99.5% (95% CI 90.8 to 100), specificity 24% (95% CI 15.5 to 34.4). Four studies assessing CT within 6 hours of headache onset were pooled; sensitivity 98.7% (95% CI 96.5 to 100), specificity 100% (95% CI 99.7 to 100). The sensitivity of CT beyond 6 hours was considerably lower (≤90%; 2 studies). Three studies assessing lumbar puncture (LP; spectrophotometric analysis) following negative CT were pooled; sensitivity 100% (95% CI 100 to 100), specificity 95% (95% CI 86.0 to 98.5).ConclusionThe Ottawa SAH Rule rules out further investigation in only a small proportion of patients. CT undertaken within 6 hours (with expertise of a neuroradiologist or radiologist who routinely interprets brain images) is highly accurate and likely to be sufficient to rule out SAH; CT beyond 6 hours is much less sensitive. The CT–LP pathway is highly sensitive for detecting SAH and some alternative diagnoses, although LP results in some false positive results.

SUMMARYIntegrating vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) and universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) could be a promising architecture for future machine-to-machine applications. This integration can help vehicles have steady Internet connection through the UMTS network and in communicating with other vehicles. However, dead spot areas and unsuccessful handoff processes caused by the high speed of vehicles can disrupt the implementation of this kind of architecture. In this paper, a new simplified gateway selection (SGS) scheme for multihop relay in a VANET-UMTS integration network is proposed. The proposed scheme extends the coverage or/and calming of the frequent handoff process and allows vehicles to continue to be connected to the UMTS infrastructure network. An integrated simulation environment that combines VanetMobiSim and NS2 is used to simulate and evaluate the proposed scheme. The simulation results show that the SGS scheme performed better when it was implemented with ad hoc on a demand distance vector routing and destination-sequenced distance vector routing protocols. Furthermore, the SGS scheme is compared with other cluster-based gateway selections used in the previous works. The results show that our SGS scheme outperforms other cluster-based gateway selections scheme in terms of selection delay, control packet overhead, packet delivery ratio, and overall throughput.