A wideband trapezoidal dielectric resonator antenna with circular polarization

A new design of a circularly-polarized (CP) trapezoidal dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) for wideband wireless application is presented. A single-layered feed is used to excite the trapezoidal shaped dielectric resonator to increase resonant frequency and axial ratio. Besides its structure simplicity, ease of fabrication and low-cost, the proposed antenna features good measured impedance bandwidth, 87.3% at 4.21 GHz to 10.72 GHz frequency bands. Moreover, the antenna also produces 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth of about 710 MHz from 5.17 GHz to 5.88 GHz. The overall size of DRA is 21 mm × 35 mm, which is suitable for mobile devices. Parametric study and measurement results are presented and discussed. Very good agreement is demonstrated between simulated and measured results

Bow-Tie Microstrip Antenna Design

In this paper, the bow-tie microstrip antennas have been designed with two different angles of 40° and 80°. An investigaton on the effect of the angle to the return loss and radiation patterns had been carried out. The impedance matching network with the niicrostrip transmission line feeding was used in this study. Simulation and measurement results for the return loss and radiation patterns were presented

Dichromacy: Color Vision Impairment and Consanguinity in Heterogenous Population of Pakistan

Background and Objectives: Dichromacy, an X-linked recessive disorder is identified worldwide, more in males than females. In European Caucasians, its incidence is 8% in males and 0.5% in females. In India, it is 8.73% in males and 1.69% in females, and in Iran, it is 8.18% in males and 0.43% in females. Population based epidemiological data about dichromacy in different ethnic groups in Pakistan is not available. The aim of this study was to find out the population prevalence of inherited red-green dichromacy in a heterogenous population of the district of Chiniot, Punjab, Pakistan, and to determine the impact of consanguinity and ethnicity. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, boys and girls of the higher secondary schools were examined in the three tehsils of district Chiniot. Pseudoisochromatic Ishihara Test has been employed for detection of dichromacy in the study population. The sample size was calculated statistically as 260, which was expanded to 705 and divided by population density of the three tehsils. Results: Screening of 359 males and 346 females revealed 19 (5.29%) dichromat males and only 2 (0.58%) females. The study population belonged to 23 castes / isonym groups. The consanguinity found in the district of Chiniot is 84.82% and in the dichromat families, it is 85.71%, of which 52.37% are first cousin. Interpretation & Conclusion: The study has shown that the incidence of dichromacy could be reduced through genetic counselin

A supplier selection strategy within the Malaysian telecommunications industry

The telecommunication industry in Malaysia has grown rapidly over the last 15 years, with effective supply chain management becoming increasing important within the sector. A multitude of providers and part owned Malaysian government companies, vendors and suppliers are involved in generating and creating value-adding products and services within this sector (across wireless, wireline, broadband business and consumer lines of business). This paper describes key challenges facing a major telecoms service provider in Malaysia with regards to drivers involved in the overall procurement and supplier selection with regards to components of performance management, decision-making, selection techniques, quality and cost management, procurement policy and procurement ethics. This paper further focuses on defining and detailing research currently being undertaken to develop a framework for identifying supplier selection drivers that are inherent within the sector and suggests a research approach to investigate and develop strategies for supplier selection for the telecommunications industry in Malaysia

Teacher professionalism and role perception in Bangladesh

This study made an attempt to explore professional role orientation of schoolteacher in Bangladesh in terms of their professional performance and motivation. This study shows that well-trained and motivated teachers are the key to any education system but because of the political/ electoral interest in the occupation the government policies toward primary education and teaching occupation in particular are targeted to establish state authority over the activities of teachers and their vocational life. Moreover, primary teachers in Bangladesh belong to trade-union type organization instead of ‘knowledge base’ organization of occupational group. Different political parties backed vocational associations and their distinctive ideologies has resulted lack of interest articulation of the practitioners. At the same time schoolteachers fail to have access into the process of management and delivery of their services and remain powerless. Moreover, mentality of schoolteachers is to attend respective vocational training program only due to system demands and also to get on to a higher pay scale. Their training does not match to the purpose of their occupational development and poor quality of training as well as poor academic competence resulted ineffective teaching in the classroom and de-professionalized teaching occupation in primary sub-sector in Bangladesh. As primary education is nationalized and free, and the state is the ultimate user of the vocational services of primary schoolteachers, thus the power, resources and prestige of primary teaching occupation depend largely on the policies of the Bangladesh state to which it is subject. So, the state has to decide whether it will act as regulator of primary teaching occupation or instruments of its professional advancement

Election, democratic legitimacy and regime stability: evidence from Bangladesh

Bangladesh witnessed her 10th General Election with some remarkable incidents such as major political opposition parties did not take part in the polls hence more than 50% candidates of which mostly from the ruling party were elected MPs uncontested; voters turnout was very low - about 22-26% (www.amadershomoy.com); due to a lack of contesting candidates in some constituencies there was no vote at all!); election ends with chaos; local media, international communities and donor agencies expressed their dissatisfaction about the credibility of the election outcomes and the way election was conducted; and others. However, the ruling Awami League called the election a free and fair one and expressed its satisfaction about the election outcomes. This paper deals with the following research questions: (a) What is the political culture in Bangladesh and how does political culture influence election in the country? (b) Why Bangladeshi regimes feel encouraged to allow ‘electoral engineering’ or fail to meet international standards while conducting elections? (c) What are the consequences when elections fail to meet the necessary level of credibility and how to overcome these problems? The paper is based on empirical data collected mainly from personal observation of the 10th national election in Bangladesh as well as information from the Election Commission’s website and print and electronic media reports about the 10th General Election and democracy in Bangladesh. Data from published secondary sources have also been consulted. This paper argues that Bangladesh democracy is again at the crossroads as the provision of Non-party Caretaker Government (NCG) has been scrapped by the current regime from the Constitution despite resistance from the main opposition block. In fact, the 10th general parliamentary election under party government raised critical questions about the credibility of election, legitimacy of the regime, and stability of the government. The paper further argues that democracy has been provided with little room for expected development by uncouth party politics or political culture in Bangladesh. Although an interim arrangement, called the Caretaker Government system, was introduced for transition from dictatorship into democracy in 1991 and was relatively successful in holding three free and fair elections; it suffered setback in conducting the 4th General Election owing to composition imbroglio and was replaced by a military-backed Caretaker Government. Therefore, this paper draws the conclusion that though electoral system in Bangladesh has been changed from the Caretaker Government system to election under party government system, little qualitative change has taken place in the country’s political system and electoral arena and culture to have credible election, followed by democratic legitimacy and regime stability

Election, political instability and fragile democracy in Bangladesh: Is proportional representation the remedy?

Being one of the most populous countries in the world, Bangladesh has been facing numerous challenges such as poverty, rampant corruption, decay in living conditions, slow economic growth, bad governance, insecurity and of course political conflicts and instability, which are supposed to be met in a democratic polity. After the fall of Ershad‘s military regime in 1990, democracy has been reinstated in the country. But the ―winnertakes-all political culture and mentality of the political elites has resulted in the boycott of parliament by the opposition parties followed by street agitations and general strikes on a regular basis. Thus many scholars argue that democracy in Bangladesh is not working as per the hope and aspiration of the people of Bangladesh. This paper examines the question of whether the Proportional Representation (PR) system can help in institutionalising and strengthening democratic practice in order to achieve political stability and sustained economic growth in Bangladesh. Our findings reveal that there is a need for political reforms, and particularly change from the existing ―Winner-Takes-All (WTA)‖ political system to the PR system in Bangladesh. This is because PR system paves the way for greater participation i.e. seats in the parliament are allocated among parties in proportion to votes they receive. Our data also shows that the PR system will not only grant legitimacy to the party with majority seats in the parliament to rule, but also build stakes for opposition parties to meaningfully participate in parliament by means of committee assignments in proportion to their representation i.e. the percentages of electoral votes and parliamentary seats. This paper further highlightes that the PR political system, which some scholars name it as a system with ‗justice as fairness principle‖, will also help to build a national consensus to resolve the issues of long-standing political contentious in Bangladesh such as appropriate electoral system, institutional framework of the electoral process, political neutrality of the Election Commission (EC), organise open, free and fair election, etc. These are some major political issues which are unresolved in the country for a long time and the PR system may bring a positive change in this respect by transforming traditional behavior of political elites thus making a difference in the quality of life of the citizenry in Bangladesh. The findings of this study also suggest that in order to adopt the PR system in a new democracy like Bangladesh there are also numerous challenges such as: commodification of election, commercialisation of nomination, the issue of geographical representation, instability of the government, etc

Election, democratic legitimacy and regime stability in Bangladesh: A case study of the 10th general election

Bangladesh witnessed her 10th General Election held on 05 January 2014 with some remarkable incidents such as major political opposition parties did not take part in the polls hence more than 50% candidates of which mostly from the ruling party were elected MPs uncontested; voters turnout was very low - about 22-26% (www.amadershomoy.com); due to a lack of contesting candidates in some constituencies there was no vote at all!); election ends with chaos; local media, international communities and donor agencies expressed their dissatisfaction about the credibility of the election outcomes and the way election was conducted; and others. However, the ruling Awami League called the election a free and fair one and expressed its satisfaction about the election outcomes. This paper deals with the following research questions: (a) What is the political culture in Bangladesh and how does political culture influence election in the country? (b) Why Bangladeshi regimes feel encouraged to allow ‘electoral engineering’ or fail to meet international standards while conducting elections? (c) What are the consequences when elections fail to meet the necessary level of credibility and how to overcome these problems? The paper is based on empirical data collected mainly from personal observation of the 10th national election in Bangladesh as well as information from the Election Commission’s website and print and electronic media reports about the 10th General Election and democracy in Bangladesh. Data from published secondary sources have also been consulted. This paper argues that Bangladesh democracy is again at the crossroads as the provision of Non-party Caretaker Government (NCG) has been scrapped by the current regime from the Constitution despite resistance from the main opposition block. In fact, the 10th general parliamentary election under party government raised critical questions about the credibility of election, legitimacy of the regime, and stability of the government. The paper further argues that democracy has been provided with little room for expected development by uncouth party politics or political culture in Bangladesh. Although an interim arrangement, called the Caretaker Government system, was introduced for transition from dictatorship into democracy in 1991 and was relatively successful in holding three free and fair elections; it suffered setback in conducting the 4th General Election owing to composition imbroglio and was replaced by a military-backed Caretaker Government. Therefore, this paper draws the conclusion that though electoral system in Bangladesh has been changed from the Caretaker Government system to election under party government system, little qualitative change has taken place in the country’s political system and electoral arena and culture to have credible election, followed by democratic legitimacy and regime stability

Gathering experience in trust-based interactions

As advances in mobile and embedded technologies coupled with progress in adhoc networking fuel the shift towards ubiquitous computing systems it is becoming increasingly clear that security is a major concern. While this is true of all computing paradigms, the characteristics of ubiquitous systems amplify this concern by promoting spontaneous interaction between diverse heterogeneous entities across administrative boundaries [5]. Entities cannot therefore rely on a specific control authority and will have no global view of the state of the system. To facilitate collaboration with unfamiliar counterparts therefore requires that an entity takes a proactive approach to self-protection. We conjecture that trust management is the best way to provide support for such self-protection measures