BRAC University Institutional Repository
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A digital platform for collecting, preserving, and sharing BRAC University’s scholarly, academic, and institutional outputs.
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Faculty members and students are invited to submit their research publications, theses, dissertations, and scholarly works to increase visibility, access, and long-term preservation.
Recent Submissions
The role of interleukins in obsessive-compulsive disorder: Pathophysiological insights and potential biomarkers
(BRAC University, 2026-04) Mahmud, Sami; Islam, Md. Rabiul; School of Pharmacy
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a long-term mental illness which is characterized by unwanted thoughts and repetitive compulsive behaviors that hampers our daily life. The previous analysis of OCD was focused on neurotransmitter dysregulation mainly within serotonergic and dopaminergic systems and results suggests that immune and inflammatory mechanisms are contributing to the disorder’s pathophysiology. The role of interleukins in OCD, tells about the primary involvement in neurobiological mechanisms and how they are becoming useful as biomarkers are mentioned in this literature review. Reports which are recently shows that changed levels of interleukins, including pro-inflammatory cytokines like IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-17, also anti-inflammatory cytokines like IL-10, probably affect neural signaling and immune responses in OCD patients. A neural pathway involved in the development of OCD behaviors and cytokines can affect neurotransmitter regulation, microglial activation, and synaptic communication within the cortico-striato thalamo cortical circuit. Inflammatory signaling is connected with damages in glutamatergic and dopaminergic neurotransmission and contributing to the hyperactivity of circuits and the mental rigidity seen in OCD. Reports which are recently shows that increasing of OCD is not only by neurotransmitter imbalance but also by neuroimmune interactions. Disease mechanisms and treatment resistance are interleukin-mediated inflammatory processes which provided important insights. The formulation of targeted therapeutic approach may changed cytokine profiles which likely serve as promising peripheral biomarkers for early detection and disease monitoring. Continued investigation of OCD enhanced understanding of its complex pathophysiology and facilitate new exploration.
Extractive text summarization technique using fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2019-07-01) Gani, Shahul; Uddin, Jia; Mobin, Md. Iftekharul; Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
Text summarization process has become one of the significant research areas for years owing to cope up with the astounding increase of virtual textual materials. Text summarization is the process to keep the relevant important information of the original text in a shorter version with the main ideas of the original text. There are two main classifications of text summarization process Extractive and Abstractive text summarization, Extractive smnmarization processes by using most important fragments of existing words, phrases or sentences from the original document, A sentence based mode) using Fuzzy C-Means clustering has been proposed in this research. Six best key features including a new feature 'Sentence Highlighter Feature' have been introduced for the sentence scoring. Performance of the proposed FCM mode) is evaluated by ROUGE, which has been gauged with the precision, recall and f-measure. The result shows that this FCM model extractive techniques with a less outline repetition and profundity of data.
A real time speech to text conversion technique for Bengali language
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2018-09-13) Nasib, Abdullah Umar; Kabir, Humayun; Ahmed, Ruhan; Uddin, Jia; Department of Computer Science and Engineering
This paper presents a model to convert natural Bengali language to text. The proposed model requires the usage of the open sourced framework Sphinx 4 which is written in Java and provides the required procedural coding tools to develop an acoustic model for a custom language like Bengali. Our main objective was to ensure that the system was adequately trained on a word by word basis from various speakers so that it could recognize new speakers fluently. We used a free digital audio workstation (DAW) called Audacity to manipulate the collected recording data via continuous frequency profiling techniques to reduce the Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR), vocal leveling, normalization and syllable splitting as well as merging which ensure an error free 1:1-word mapping of each utterance with its mirror transcription file text. To evaluate the performance of proposed model, we utilize an audio dataset of recorded speech data from 10 individual speakers consisting of both males and females using custom transcript files that we wrote. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model exhibits average 71.7% accuracy for our tested dataset.
Exploring teacher-student relationships and teacher questioning strategies in tertiary ESOL classes in Bangladesh
(BRAC University, 2026-05) Sabiha, Ummah; Sanjana, Lubaba; Department of English and Humanities
Teacher questioning as a means of fostering interaction in second language classrooms is common, but in Bangladeshi tertiary ESOL contexts, hesitation, limited response or non-response are common among students. This paper examines the emotional experiences that students undergo when teachers question them and the factors that affect their responses and how teachers view student reluctance. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with students and teachers employing a qualitative approach to gain a closer insight into classroom practices. The results show that students often feel anxiety, nervousness and fear of being evaluated negatively when responding to questions. These emotional responses normally result in stuttering, speech blockage and silence despite the students being knowledgeable of the answers. The study also identifies the main pedagogical factors that influence participation including the style of questioning, wait-time and teacher student relationships. It was discovered that open-ended questions and wait-time were more effective to elicit more confident answers, whereas supportive and non-judgmental attitudes of teachers lowered anxiety. Even though teachers recognized emotional barriers, they occasionally explained silence by language barriers. In general, the results indicate that silence is a situational reaction that depends on emotional and interactional influences and is not the result of inability. It is suggested that teachers ought to employ positive, open-ended questioning techniques and sufficient wait-time to minimize anxiety and promote active student learning.
Depression among medical students and the role of academic stress and coping strategies: A cross-sectional study in Bangladesh
(Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2026-02-01) Karim, Md Rizwanul; Akter, Shahnaz; Zannat, Taslima; Sajid, Tahmid; Afnan, Shahida; Zeba, Suhala Ashraf; Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Objectives: Depression is highly prevalent among medical students, especially in resource-constrained settings like Bangladesh, where academic stress serves as a prominent contributing factor. This study aims to explore the predictors of depression among medical students, with a specific focus on academic stress and coping mechanisms, while also evaluating the influence of behavioral and sociodemographic factors on depression in Bangladeshi medical students. Methods: This cross-sectional study, conducted from October to December 2022, involved 1,072 undergraduate medical students from six public medical colleges in Bangladesh, selected through simple random sampling. Depression was measured using the PHQ-9, while academic stress, anxiety, insomnia, self-esteem, coping strategies, and internet addiction were assessed using the ASS-40, GAD-7, ISI, RSES, SCSI, and IAT, respectively. Data were analyzed by SPSS and Jamovi software employing chi-square tests, Mann-Whitney U tests, and binary logistic regression. The predicted probabilities were presented as beta coefficients, including crude and adjusted odds ratios (AOR), 95 confidence intervals, and p-values. Results: Over half of the participants experienced moderate to severe depression. Key predictors of depression included academic stress, coping strategies, and various sociodemographic and behavioral factors. Inadequate study facilities (OR: 1.32, 95 CI: 1.21-1.44) and feelings of personal inadequacy (OR: 1.33, 95 CI: 1.23-1.43) significantly increased the likelihood of depression. Among coping strategies, passive problem-focused coping was associated with higher odds of depression (OR: 1.17, 95 CI: 1.08-1.26), whereas passive emotion-focused coping slightly reduced the risk (OR: 0.91, 95 CI: 0.85-0.98). Active emotional coping had a marginal effect (OR: 1.07, 95 CI: 1.00-1.15). Sociodemographic factors also played a significant role. Females were less likely to experience depression than males (OR: 0.35, 95 CI: 0.19-0.68), and urban residents had lower odds than rural counterparts (OR: 0.40, 95 CI: 0.19-0.86). Higher paternal education was protective (OR: 0.09, 95 CI: 0.04-0.21), while maternal education beyond the secondary level was linked to increased risk (OR: 4.07, 95 CI: 1.61-10.33). Among behavioral factors, insomnia significantly increased the odds of depression (OR: 1.38, 95 CI: 1.29-1.48), while moderate internet use showed a protective effect compared to no use (OR: 0.26, 95 CI: 0.13-0.52). Anxiety emerged as a strong predictor (OR: 1.78, 95 CI: 1.61-1.97). Economically, having a personal income reduced the risk of depression by 49 (OR: 0.51, 95 CI: 0.27-0.96). Conclusions: Depression among medical students is significantly associated with academic stress, ineffective coping strategies, insomnia, and anxiety, which may further intensify among high-risk groups such as males, rural residents, and those facing financial challenges. Effective interventions should focus on reducing stress, developing adaptive coping skills, ensuring equitable access to academic resources, and enhancing mental health screening and support services. © 2025 the author(s), published by De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston.