Messages

46

Common Forum / করোনাভাইরাস মোকাবিলায় ধনী দেশগুলোকে বিল গেটসের আহ্বান

« on: March 01, 2020, 02:34:51 PM »

করোনাভাইরাসের দ্রুত বিস্তার কমাতে ধনী দেশগুলোকে নিম্ন ও মধ্য আয়ের দেশগুলোর স্বাস্থ্যব্যবস্থা আরও শক্তিশালী করতে সহায়তার অনুরোধ করেছেন মানবহিতৈষী বিল গেটস। তাঁর মতে, করোনাভাইরাস শতাব্দীতে একবার আসা জীবাণুর মতো আচরণ শুরু করেছে।

নিউ ইংল্যান্ড জার্নাল অব মেডিসিনে এক সম্পাদকীয়তে মাইক্রোসফটের সাবেক চেয়ারম্যান লিখেছেন, ‘আফ্রিকা ও দক্ষিণ এশিয়ার দেশগুলোকে সাহায্য করার মাধ্যমে আমরা জীবন বাঁচাতে পারি এবং বিশ্বব্যাপী এর ছড়িয়ে পড়া ঠেকাতে পারি।’

চীনে প্রথম করোনাভাইরাসের প্রাদুর্ভাব দেখা দেওয়ার পর থেকে এখন পর্যন্ত ৪৬টি দেশে তা ছড়িয়ে পড়েছে। গেটস লিখছেন, মিডল ইস্ট রেসপিরেটরি সিনড্রোম (এমইআরএস) বা সেভার অ্যাকিউট রেসপিরেটরি সিনড্রোমের (সার্স) সৃষ্টিকারী ভাইরাসগুলোর চেয়ে একে থামানো আরও কঠিন। বিল অ্যান্ড মেলিন্ডা গেটস ফাউন্ডেশন করোনাভাইরাসের বিরুদ্ধে লড়তে ১০ কোটি মার্কিন ডলার দান করেছে।

গেটসের আহ্বানের সঙ্গে সুর মিলিয়েছে বিশ্ব স্বাস্থ্য সংস্থা (ডব্লিউএইচও)। গত শুক্রবার ডব্লিউএইচও বলছে, ভাইরাস ছড়িয়ে পড়ার ঝুঁকি অনেক বেশি।

বিশ্বজুড়ে করোনাভাইরাসের প্রাদুর্ভাবে সর্বোচ্চ সতর্কতা জারি করেছে ডব্লিউএইচও। সুইজারল্যান্ডের জেনেভায় এক সংবাদ সম্মেলনে ডব্লিউএইচওর প্রধান ড. টেড্রস অ্যাডহানম গেব্রেইয়েসুস এ ঘোষণা দেন।

সংবাদ সম্মেলনে টেড্রস অ্যাডহানম বলেন, বেশির ভাগ ক্ষেত্রেই এই ভাইরাস চিহ্নিত করা যাচ্ছে এখনো।

এ ভাইরাস ব্যাপক আকারে ছড়িয়ে পড়ার আগেই তা রুখতে সরকারগুলোকে প্রয়োজনীয় ব্যবস্থা নিতে হবে। এতে ভাইরাস ছড়িয়ে পড়া ঠেকানো যাবে এবং অন্য দেশ প্রস্তুতি নিতে সময় পাবে।

ডব্লিউএইচওর জরুরি কর্মসূচির প্রধান মাইক রায়ান বলেন, বিশ্বজুড়ে স্বাস্থ্যব্যবস্থা এখনো করোনাভাইরাস মোকাবিলায় পুরোপুরি প্রস্তুত নয়।

গেটস বলেছেন, নিরাপদ ও কার্যকর ভ্যাকসিন এবং ওষুধের বিকাশ ত্বরান্বিত করার জন্য রোগীদের নজরদারি ও উন্নত প্রযুক্তিতে বিশ্বকে বিনিয়োগ করতে হবে। করোনাভাইরাস প্রতিরোধে কারিগরি সমাধান ছাড়াও কূটনৈতিক প্রচেষ্টার কথাও বলেছেন মাইক্রোসফটের সহপ্রতিষ্ঠাতা।

47

Common Forum / Re: মুখোশে রোগ প্রতিরোধ

« on: March 01, 2020, 02:32:24 PM »

thanks.

48

Common Forum / Re: মোবাইলে আসছে হরর গেম ‘ডেড বাই ডে লাইট’

« on: March 01, 2020, 02:32:04 PM »

thanks.

49

Common Forum / Re: রক্তে ট্রাইগ্লিসারাইড কমানোর উপায়

« on: March 01, 2020, 02:31:47 PM »

thanks.

50

Common Forum / বাংলার বিকৃত ব্যবহার বন্ধ করুন

« on: March 01, 2020, 02:08:59 PM »

সম্প্রতি দেশে ফোন করেছিলাম বন্ধুকে জন্মদিনের শুভেচ্ছা জানাব বলে। অল্প সময়ের কথা বলা। ভালো করে খেয়াল করলাম, দুই মিনিটের কথায় সে দুবার বলল, ‘আরে ইয়ার, কল দিবার টাইম পাও না?’ সবশেষে বলল, ‘ঠিক হ্যায়, থ্যাংকস-বাই!’

ইতিহাস বলে বাঙালি বাংলা ভাষা লিখে আসছে প্রায় হাজার বছর ধরে। সংস্কৃত ব্যাকরণ রীতি পাঠ করেই বাংলা লিখিত ভাষার চর্চা শুরু হয়েছিল। উইলিয়াম কেরি বাংলা ভাষার যে সর্বসম্মত ব্যাকরণ লিখেছিলেন, তা মূলত সাধু ভাষার ব্যাকরণ। কিন্তু কথ্য বাংলা ভাষার কোনো নির্দিষ্ট একটি চেহারা নেই। হতেও পারে না।

বাংলাদেশের বিভিন্ন জেলার কথার ধরন বৈচিত্র্যময়। তেমনি তার বিবিধ উচ্চারণ রীতি। বাক্য গঠনের বিভিন্নতা ও শব্দে আঞ্চলিক বৈশিষ্ট্যের খুব বেশি প্রভাব দেখা যায়। এটা নতুন কিছু নয়।

ধর্ম-জাতি-জীবনাচারণের সুক্ষ্ম প্রভাব নিয়ে উত্তরাধিকার সূত্রে বাংলা ভাষার শরীর গঠন হয়েছে। ভাষা এমন এক বিষয়, যা রাজনৈতিক মানচিত্রের সীমারেখা মেনে চলে না। ভাষা আঞ্চলিক কথন-কাঠামোয় গড়ে ওঠার প্রভাব প্রবহমান ধারায় বয়ে যাওয়া একটি আদি ঐতিহ্য। তাই আদি কাল থেকেই অভিব্যক্ত বাংলাদেশ সব অঞ্চলের ভাষার বিচিত্র তারতম্য মিলেমিশে তৈরি করেছে বাংলা ভাষার অবয়ব। এভাবেই বাংলা ভাষার বহমানতা, সমৃদ্ধি, ব্যাপ্তি ও বিকাশ।

ভাষাকে যদি নদীর সঙ্গে তুলনা করা হয়, তাহলে মূল নদীটিকে বাদ দিয়ে তার জলরাশি তার শাখা-প্রশাখা নানা নদীর সঙ্গে মিলেমিশে বইতে থাকে। বাংলা ভাষার এই গতিশীলতাকে মাঝেমধ্যে প্রবল হয়ে উঠতে দেখেই সমাজে আশঙ্কার মেঘ জমে ওঠে। এ কথা তো সত্য, প্রচলিত মূলধারার বাংলা ভাষায় ইংরেজি ছাঁচ অনেক দিনের আমদানি। সেই সঙ্গে ভাষার অস্তিত্বসংকটে প্রসঙ্গটিও উঠে আসে। এ নিয়ে ‘গেল’ ‘গেল’ রব উঠেছে। তার কিছু নমুনা এখানে দিতে চাই।

আমেরিকায় জন্ম নেওয়া বা বেড়ে ওঠা ছেলেমেয়েদের বাংলা শুনলে মনে হবে কোথাও বোমা ফাটছে। যেমন,

তুমি কি গোসল করেছ?
আমি গোসলড ইয়েসটারডে।
তুমি কি স্কুলের হোমওয়ার্ক শেষ করেছ?
আমি করিইং তো,
তাড়াতাড়ি খাওয়া শেষ কর।
আই উইল শেষ ইট
চলো আজ মসজিদে ইফতার করব।
মা আমরা আল্লাহ পার্টি যাব?
এটা তুমি করেছ?
আমি যাইছি না। বা করছি না।

এসব তো গেল বাংলিশে কথোপকথন। বাংলা শেখানোর জন্য ব্যক্তিগত উদ্যোগে কিছু বাংলা স্কুল চালু হয়েছে। এরপর আছে এ দেশে যিনি যে এলাকা থেকে এসেছেন, তাঁর ছেলেমেয়েরা ইংরেজির সঙ্গে সেই এলাকার ভাষায় কথা বলে। সাম্প্রতিক কালের কিছু নিত্য ব্যবহার্য বাংলা ভাষা সবার মুখে মুখে যেমন—স্ট্যাটাস, ট্যাগানো, আপলোড, ছবি পোস্ট করা, ডিলিট, রিমুভ, কল মি, সরি, লাভ ইউ, হ্যাপি বার্থডে, হ্যাপি অ্যানিভার্সারি, শিট হোলি শিট, ইয়ার (বন্ধু), টিগ হ্যয়, মাস্তি, দোস্ত জিনিসটা সেরাম জোশ, চুপ যা না ইয়ার—এ রকমই অজস্র উদাহরণ দেওয়া যায়, যা কিনা হিন্দি ইংরেজি বাংলিশ হয়ে আমাদের ভাষায় মিশে গেছে।

এসব শব্দ টেবিল-চেয়ারের মতোই হিন্দি সিরিয়াল দেখে তাদের ভাষা অনায়াসে এখন বাংলা শব্দ ভান্ডারে ঢুকে পড়েছে। বাংলাদেশের সব টিভি সিরিয়ালে আঞ্চলিক ভাষার নামে সম্পূর্ণ মনগড়া বিকৃত বাংলার ব্যবহার বাংলা ভাষার সাম্প্রতিক চলনের যে ইঙ্গিত দেয়, তাতে সেদিন খুব দূরে নয়, যেদিন আসল বাংলা ভাষা হারিয়ে যাবে। গত দুদশকে লক্ষণীয় পরিবর্তন এসেছে নতুন প্রজন্মের বড় অংশের কথ্য বাংলায়, যে জগাখিচুড়ি ভাষা শুনলে বুঝে ওঠা যায় না, আসলে কোন ভাষায় কথোপকথন চলছে।

ভাষা গেল গেল রব আছে ঠিকই, তার জন্য যথেষ্ট দরদ আছে এমন কোন উদ্যোগ চোখে পড়ে না। যুগে যুগে সমাজ পরিবর্তনের ছাপ ভাষা ধারণ করবে, সেটিই স্বাভাবিক। তাই কবির ভাষায় বলতেই হয়, ‘তোমার ভাষা বোঝার আশা দিয়েছি জলাঞ্জলি’।

51

Common Forum / DU puts on hold evening courses

« on: February 27, 2020, 02:44:21 PM »

Dhaka University (DU) authorities have decided to postpone for the next five weeks the new enrolment in evening courses.

The decision was taken at a seven-hour special session meeting of DU Academic Council held at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bahabn of the university on Monday, reports UNB.

The session also formed an 18-member committee, headed by DU pro-vice-chancellor (academic) professor Nasreen Ahmad, to formulate guidelines for conducting evening courses at the university.

The committee members include Pro-VC (administration) Prof Muhammad Samad, treasurer Prof Kamal Uddin, deans of all 13 faculties, and two directors of Institute of Business Administration and Institute of Education and Research.

The committee was asked to submit the guidelines within these five weeks.

Talking to newsmen after the meeting, DU VC M Akhtaruzzaman said, “Around 60 academic council members expressed their opinion about evening courses. Some members tried to support the existing evening courses while some opposed those.”

“After getting guidelines from the committee, those will be placed before the academic council meeting maintaining due process. Then, it’ll be decided whether the evening courses will be re-opened or not depending on the need of the country and the university’s capacity,” the VC added.

52

Common Forum / University admission test now in cluster system, decides UGC

« on: February 27, 2020, 02:43:32 PM »

The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Wednesday backed away from proposed combined admission test in public universities and decided to hold tests in cluster system.

The decision was taken at a meeting of vice chancellors at the UGC office with its chairman Kazi Shahidullah in the chair.

The entry tests would be held separately for science and technology universities, engineering universities, agriculture universities and general universities, UGC chairman told newsmen at a briefing.

The universities will be divided into four clusters. Medical colleges hold cluster admission test and agricultural universities too adopted the system from last year.

Details of the cluster admission system would be finalised by second week of March, the briefing said.

Earlier, Dhaka University, Rajshahi University, Jahangirnagar University, Chittagong University and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) decided that they would not adopt the uniform admission test.

Currently, 36 public universities out of 46 run undergraduate level studies.

On 23 January, the UGC decided to introduce a uniform entry test in all public universities across the country from the academic year 2020-21, aiming to reduce the plight of the admission-seekers and their guardians.

53

Common Forum / Coronavirus death toll crosses 2,500

« on: February 24, 2020, 12:15:15 PM »

China's death toll from the new coronavirus rose to 2,592 on Monday, after the National Health Commission reported 150 more fatalities, all but one in the epicentre of Hubei province.

Monday's death toll was a jump on the 97 deaths reported Sunday.

The commission also confirmed a total of 409 new cases in China, with all but 11 in Hubei.

Multiple provinces have reported zero new infections for several days in a row, even as the situation continues to worsen within Hubei and outside of China.

Only one death was reported outside of Hubei on Monday, in Hainan province, where the official Xinhua news agency said a 55-year-old doctor had died.

The coronavirus has spread to more than 25 countries and is causing mounting alarm due to new pockets of outbreaks in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Italy reported a third death while cases spiked, and authorities suspended football games while the Venice Carnival was cut short.

Iran's confirmed death toll rose to eight, prompting travel bans from neighbouring countries.

China's numbers of daily new infections are well down from the outbreak's early height.

But the country's authorities have sowed confusion about the data by repeatedly changing their counting methods.

54

Common Forum / Jupiter not as dry as earlier thought

« on: February 24, 2020, 12:14:45 PM »

The largest planet in our solar system may not be as dry as earlier shown by a NASA probe, according to the first science results revealed by the US space agency's Juno mission on the amount of water in Jupiter's atmosphere.

At the equator, water makes up about 0.25 per cent of the molecules in Jupiter's atmosphere -- almost three times that of the Sun, said the study published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

These are also the first findings on the gas giant's abundance of water since NASA's 1995 Galileo mission suggested Jupiter might be extremely dry compared to the Sun.

The comparison is based not on liquid water but on the presence of its components, oxygen and hydrogen, present in the Sun.

"We found the water in the equator to be greater than what the Galileo probe measured," said Cheng Li, a Juno scientist at the University of California, Berkeley.

"Because the equatorial region is very unique at Jupiter, we need to compare these results with how much water is in other regions," Li said.

An accurate estimate of the total amount of water in Jupiter's atmosphere has been on the wish lists of planetary scientists for decades. The figure in the gas giant represents a critical missing piece to the puzzle of our solar system's formation.

Jupiter was likely the first planet to form, and it contains most of the gas and dust that was not incorporated into the Sun.

The leading theories about its formation rest on the amount of water the planet soaked up.

Water abundance also has important implications for the gas giant's meteorology (how wind currents flow on Jupiter) and internal structure.

While lightning -- a phenomenon typically fuelled by moisture -- detected on Jupiter by Voyager and other spacecraft implied the presence of water, an accurate estimate of the amount of water deep within Jupiter's atmosphere remained elusive.

Before the Galileo probe stopped transmitting 57 minutes into its Jovian descent in December 1995, it radioed out spectrometer measurements of the amount of water in the gas giant's atmosphere down to a depth of about 120 kilometres.

The scientists working on the data were dismayed to find ten times less water than expected.

A rotating, solar-powered spacecraft Juno was launched in 2011. Because of the Galileo probe experience, the mission seeks to obtain water abundance readings across large regions of the immense planet.

The Juno science team used data collected during Juno's first eight science flybys of Jupiter to generate the findings.

55

Common Forum / Science & Tech

« on: November 15, 2018, 09:15:12 AM »

A NASA spacecraft has made its first close approach to the sun, just 2 1/2 months after liftoff.

The Parker Solar Probe flew within 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) of the sun's surface Monday night. Its speed topped 213,000 mph (342,000 kph) relative to the sun, as it penetrated the outer solar atmosphere, or corona.

No spacecraft has ever gotten so close to our star.

NASA won't re-establish contact until Parker is far enough from the sun to avoid radio interference. NASA's Nicola Fox says scientists "can't wait to get the data." The observations could unlock some of the sun's mysteries.

Assuming it survives the harsh solar environment, the spacecraft will make 23 even closer approaches over the next seven years. The next is in April.

56

Common Forum / Youth

« on: November 15, 2018, 09:13:55 AM »

A five-day long workshop on nuclear technology was held at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) to discuss different issues about VVER-1000 and VVER 1200-based nuclear power plants, reports UNB.

The Institute of Nuclear Power Engineering (INPE) of BUET in association with National Research Nuclear University MEPhI of Russia organised the workshop at its auditorium on 5-9 November, said a press release of Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear agency, which remains engaged with the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Bangladesh.

Seventy students from different faculties of Buet took part in the intensive workshop covering topics like machinery and equipment of VVER-1000 and VVER 1200-based nuclear power plants, nuclear fuel cycle and thermohydraulic profiling of nuclear reactor cores.

Three professors from MEPhI -- Dmitrii Samokhin, V Fedoseev and Olga Momot --were the mentors at the workshop.

On the concluding day on 9 November, certificates were awarded among the participants. Shaikh Anowarul Fattah, director of INPE, MA Rashid Sarkar, its former director, AP Demin, director of Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Dhaka, and Mikhail S Bronnikov, Rosatom representative in Bangladesh, were present on the occasion.

Bangladesh is implementing its first-ever nuclear power plant at Rooppur of Pabna with the technological and financial assistance from Russia.

57

Common Forum / Science & Tech

« on: November 15, 2018, 09:12:48 AM »

Some 78 million miles (126 million kilometers) from Earth, alone on the immense and frigid Red Planet, a robot the size of a small 4x4 wakes up just after sunrise. And just as it has every day for the past six years, it awaits its instructions.

Around 9:30 Mars time, a message arrives from California, where it was sent 15 minutes earlier.

"Drive forward 10 meters, turn to an azimuth of 45 degrees, now turn on your autonomous capabilities and drive."

The Curiosity rover executes the commands, moving slowly to its designated position, at a maximum speed of 35 to 110 meters (yards) per hour.

Its batteries and other configurations limit its daily drive span to around 100 meters. The most Curiosity has rolled on Mars in a day is 220 meters.

Once it arrives, its 17 cameras take shots of its environs.

Its laser zaps rocks. Other tools on board drill into a particularly interesting rock to study small samples.

Around 5 pm Martian time, it will wait for one of NASA's three satellites orbiting the planet to pass overhead.

Curiosity will then send several hundred megabytes of scientific data via large ground antennae to its human masters on Earth.

A miniature lab
On the ground floor of building 34 at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, scientists pore over Curiosity's data every day at 1 pm, in a large windowless room full of scientific instruments and computers.

The scientists are looking for any indication of life on Mars.

Inside Curiosity lies a "marvel of miniaturization," says Charles Malespin, the deputy principal investigator for Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), a chemist's lab the size of a microwave oven.

"It's the most complicated instrument NASA has ever sent to another planet," said Malespin, who has devoted his professional life to the project since 2006.

SAM analyses samples of Martian soil by heating them in an oven that reaches 1,800 Fahrenheit (1,000 Celsius).

The hot rocks release gas, which is separated and analysed by instruments that offer a sample "fingerprint."

At Goddard, Maeva Millan, a French postdoctoral researcher, compares this chemical fingerprint to experiments carried out on known molecules.

When they look similar, she can say, "Ah, that's the right molecule."

It is thanks to SAM that researchers know there are complex organic molecules on Mars.

And SAM has helped scientists learn that the Martian surface -- geologically speaking -- is far younger than previously thought.

"If you're going to go to Mars, you don't want to bring stuff that's already there that you can use for resources," such as water, said Malespin.

"If you want to mine the soil and heat it up and release the water, you can bring a big oven with you and you have all the water you want."

The same goes for various materials that could be used to make rocket fuel, allowing the Red Planet to serve as a future service station for rockets.

No joystick
On the other side of the United States, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, about two dozen men and women make up the team that drives Curiosity.

"My favorite part of the day (is when) I get to sit down and start looking at the imagery from Mars and understand where the rover currently is," said Frank Hartman, who has driven both Curiosity and another, older rover, Opportunity.

"And my feeling is that sometimes I'm probably the first person on Earth looking at some of these pictures."

The Mars drivers' main job is to write the sequence of commands for the rover to follow the next sol, or "day" on Mars, which lasts 24 hours and nearly 40 minutes. There is no joystick, and no real-time communication with the robotic vehicle.

There is a delay whenever drivers realize something has gone wrong, whether it's Opportunity getting buried by a Martian dust storm earlier this year, or one of Curiosity's wheels getting pierced by a sharp rock.

Or the breakdown of Curiosity's drilling machine, which happened at the beginning of this year and took a few months to resolve.

"We haven't been to any of these places before," said Hartman.

"And so we always have to be aware of the fact that we know so little about what we're encountering."

As years pass, these scientist-drivers become attached to their robots. When Opportunity went silent after 14 years of tooling around on Mars, Hartman and his colleagues felt a sense of grief.

Opportunity "retired with honor," said Hartman.

Curiosity, which landed in 2012, has so far traveled just over 12 miles (19.75 km). It must wait another year before reaching its goal, Mount Sharp.

Then, a few months later, it will lose its Martian monopoly. Two rovers -- one American and one European -- are scheduled to land on the planet in 2020.

58

Common Forum / Science & Tech

« on: November 15, 2018, 09:11:46 AM »

At the sharp end of conflict in Syria, in a schoolchild's bag in Kenya, whether fighting deadly diseases or studying forestry, the smartphone has become ubiquitous in just over a decade.

This year, the number of users is expected to pass three billion, and AFP photographers have sampled how the phones have become a mainstay of lives around the world for people who cannot live without them.

Take Moris Atwine, 25. The Ugandan entrepreneur helped to develop a mobile app to aid in the diagnosis of malaria, a worldwide killer, without the need for a blood sample, and transmit the result in seconds.

Qiao Xi, 21, describes her smartphone as her "boyfriend". From an all-blue studio, the Beijing-based vlogger live-streams songs, dance moves and observations about her daily life to some 600,000 followers on the Huoshan channel.

From the frivolous to the deadly serious, Mohammed Hamroush is a member of the "White Helmets" group, which rushes to help the wounded in rebel-held parts of Syria.

Hamroush's smartphone helps the volunteer to track bombardments, get to where help is needed, and allows his worried wife to know he's safe.

Inna Salminen works in far calmer conditions, surveying the forests of Finland, but knows too that her smartphone can be a lifesaver if she gets lost in a remote area.

The 27-year-old conservation expert speaks for a whole generation when she describes only having a "hazy memory" of life before smartphones.

Aged 13, Imelda Mumbi has no such memory at all. The Kenyan schoolgirl uses her smartphone for fun, of course, but also to help her studies.

Imelda counts on Eneza, an interactive educational app which has about three million users worldwide, plugging her corner of Africa into a global network that has grown from nothing in a few short years.

59

Common Forum / LIFESTYLE

« on: November 15, 2018, 09:10:43 AM »

“Every time he talks to me, I feel like punching his face. The ‘idiot’ has made my life hell,” an executive of a renowned insurance company, Junaid (pseudonym) said while smoking at a tea stall in the capital’s Bangla Motor area.

Like Junaid, there are millions of people in the world who hate their bosses like anything.

Then again, there are millions who like their bosses tremendously. There is a wise saying, all team leaders are bosses, but all bosses are not team leaders.

Every working person experiences at least one boss in their life time, who is very moody, non-cooperative and always sulking around. It does not essentially mean that a boss cannot rebuke his/her subordinates.

Those who turned out to be bosses to many were, at any stage of their careers, subordinates to their bosses and used to think of themselves as the poor souls having to deal with their ‘idiot’ bosses on a daily basis.

And when they become bosses, they actually put their feet into the shoes they once hated the most.

Mutual respect is a big factor here. It is not very healthy to think of the person as an ‘idiot’ or the ‘irritating’ one who appointed you. Neither should a boss think of himself as the perfect one and be too stiff to accept constructive criticism.

There is a difference between being rude and being critical and it’s everyone’s duty not to forget that.

“Office culture has changed a lot. Employees of this generation can talk sassily with their boss, which we could never think of,” retired banker Mahfuzur Rahman, living in Eskaton area in the capital, told Prothom Alo.

“It was overtly hierarchical and formal in our time. Now I see my son working in a corporate office. Their work is ‘teamwork’ not designed in a hierarchical way. Though, my son keeps cursing his team leader,” Rahman laughed and continued, “You know what? There are no bad bosses, only difficult ones!”

There were times when subordinates were not allowed to question the decisions and actions of their bosses or employers. The picture has changed. Constructive criticism is appreciated now. Sense of collective betterment has arisen among all now, be it employers or employees.

The overall society culture drives the attitude in job sectors too. Joint or extended family has broken. Children from nuclear families get more attention and priority. Their tantrums are tamed easily. Friendly environment in the family instigates them to create the same at their workplace.

“We could not question our father, how could we question our bosses at our young age? Most of the time we could not let our boss know even if he was wrong. So yes, you can mention social transition in this regard,” Sadik Khan (pseudonym), currently a news editor of a renowned newspaper and once a junior journalist, explained the situation now and then.

Most likely, a good boss will never mind answering or clearing your doubts and teaching you something new. Which boss does not enjoy showing his smarts off?

Asked if as a boss he feels offended if a junior asks question over his decision, Sadik Khan said, “Never! The more questions, the more angles. Newspapers are all about dynamic angles. There is nothing to be offended about.”

Private firms have harder competition and therefore the workload is always high. Because of this, bosses have sometimes no option but to pressure the employees for higher productivity.

“A happy employee is an active employee. We the seniors should keep in mind that the workload must not hamper the private life of an employee. After all, people work hard for their and their families’ happiness,” Sharif Uddin, a shift-in-charge of a private firm told the correspondent.

However, it’s natural to feel uncomfortable to approach the seniors with questions, but there are things that one must do. If we never ask for the missing pay cheque, we may never get paid. If we never ask questions to our bosses, our career may remain stagnant.

A boss may assign an unbearable task to his employee and the employee may feel uneasy in their skin. But it ultimately benefits the employee by boosting his/her capability.

Ask questions for the right reason, the boss will understand. If he doesn’t, just remember two rules. Rule number one, the boss is always right. Rule number 2, if the boss is wrong at any stage, just recall the rule number one!

60

Common Forum / Unlocking value of genetic data

« on: August 16, 2018, 07:32:40 PM »

How much is your DNA worth? As millions of people pay for home tests to check on ancestry or health risks, genetic data is becoming an increasingly valuable resource for drug makers, triggering a race to create a DNA marketplace.

GlaxoSmithKline's decision to invest $300 million in 23andMe and forge an exclusive drug development deal with the Silicon Valley consumer genetics company crystallises the value locked up in genetic code.

The tie-up is the biggest yet involving home DNA testing, a market dominated by 23andMe and Ancestry.com, which charge under $100 for a saliva-based test, but can also gain voluntary consent from customers for their data to be used by third parties.

However a number of new start-ups are beginning to offer people the chance to own their genetic information and sell it to data-hungry drug researchers.

Firms like EncrypGen, Nebula Genomics, LunaDNA and Zenome are using blockchain - the technology behind Bitcoin - to secure sensitive DNA records and create a transaction ledger. The new players all have slightly different models, with most simply provide data platforms, where people are rewarded for providing data, although Nebula also plans to offer testing.

The idea of using genetic factors to hunt for better drugs has been around for more than 20 years - but it is only now becoming possible to gather a large enough sample to spot the rare variants responsible for many diseases.

The number of people who have had their DNA analysed with the main testing companies has taken off https://tmsnrt.rs/2M6KGyl since 2016 and now stands at around 17 million, according to entrepreneur and co-founder of science website DNAGeeks.com David Mittelman.

By 2021, he thinks the figure could be north of 100 million.

Testing Times

For drug makers like GSK, which announced its 23andMe deal last week, access to this data offers a way to accelerate drug development, since finding a drug target linked to a human genetic variant doubles the chance of producing a new medicine.

The interest in home DNA tests, which can reveal genetic variants that may influence the chances of developing diseases including Alzheimer's, is part of a wider drive by drug makers to tap into a range of anonymised patient data.

Roche, for example, has spent $4.3 billion this year buying out two specialists in cancer data, Foundation Medicine and Flatiron Health.

The trend raises has worries among campaigners about data security and privacy.

In a bid to alleviate concerns, Ancestry.com, 23andMe and other consumer genetic testing companies have now set out a "best practices" framework to ensure express consent, strong security and transparency on data use.

Caitlin Curtis, a research fellow at the University of Queensland, estimates 23andMe has made around $130 million from selling access to about a million genotypes, prior to the GSK deal, implying an average price of around $130.

Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe's CEO, believes her customers simply want to help find new treatments for intractable conditions like Parkinson's disease - the focus of the first drug research project with GSK - and her company has no current plans to give customers rebates if their data is sold on.

"People who have a disease or a family member with a condition are really interested in what they can do to help come up with a solution," she said in an interview.

A spokesman for Ancestry.com said his group did not have any current relationships with for-profit organisations, although it is working with some academic institutions. Ancestry.com did have a 2015 deal with US biotech company Calico, the financial terms of which were not disclosed, but this has now ended.

Newcomers

The ability of genetic testing companies to rake in cash twice rankles with some like geneticist George Church - the Harvard University scientist famous for wanting to resurrect the extinct Woolly mammoth - who is one of the founders of Nebula.

Nebula aims to eliminate the personal genetics companies as middlemen between data owners and data buyers, a notion shared by rivals like David Koepsell, chief executive of EncrypGen.

"We think people are going to get savvy about how their data is being sold and they are going to want a piece of that action," Koepsell said in an interview. "Our whole model is about creating a market. People can upload and set a price for their data, and then we will see what the market will bear."

People selling data on EncrypGen's system will receive DNA tokens, a cryptocurrency. Other players have different plans, with LunaDNA's community-owned database offering shares that will generate dividends as researchers pay to access data.

Peter Pitts, president of non-profit healthcare research group the US Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, agrees handing over DNA deserves financial recompense when the benefits flow to for-profit companies.

"People need to realise that they are actually paying for companies to monetize their most personal information and they are getting nothing for it," he said.

LunaDNA co-founder Dawn Barry, who used to work at leading gene sequencing company Illumina, said she didn't expect people to make "life-changing money" from selling DNA.

But she added: "People feel good about the transparency and control and respect that they get by being equitable partners in discovery research."

Size Matters

It won't be plain sailing for the new upstart companies.

One of the main attractions for GSK in doing a deal with 23andMe is the fact that the Google-backed Californian company has over 5 million customers, more than 80 percent of whom have consented to participate in research and share their data.

EncrypGen, by contrast, which launched its first storage product earlier this year, has just 1,000 profiled users, of whom around 100 have uploaded DNA data so far.

When it comes to using DNA to understand the links between genetics and disease, scale matters.

"To do the analyses that are required to understand this complex links between genetics and disease you need massive datasets," said researcher Curtis.

"It's hard to know how well these kinds of start-up platforms will scale up as research projects aim for millions of participants."