Maximizing the Development Impacts of Remittances in Bangladesh: A Gender Perspective

Remittances have been contributing to the economic development of rural Bangladesh as thousands of poor unskilled workers are remitting money from abroad over the years. Recent migration of female workers to the Middle East countries has added a new dimension in this area since the female migrant workers are vulnerable to wage discrimination and unfavorable working environment in those countries. This study examines the relationship between remittances and economic growth in Bangladesh over a horizon of 40 years (1976-2015), and analyzes the female worker’s migration data from 1991 to 2016 to see whether any wage disparity exists between male and female workers in the four Middle East countries: United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Lebanon, Jordan. The study finds that remittance inflow has positive impacts on economic growth of Bangladesh in the long-run while in the short run remittance does not cause Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rather GDP causes remittances. The study did not find any wage disparity between male and female migrant workers across all four countries. Among country specific results, female migrant workers in KSA seem to be in relatively better position followed by UAE, and then Jordan. Female migrant workers in Lebanon seem to get the lowest pay among the four countries. The study reveals that female workers remit more money than their male counterpart does across all four countries. Keywords: Remittances, economic growth, female migrant workers, wage disparity

Modeling wetland connectivity and vulnerability to wetland-corridor loss

Title from PDF of title page; abstract from research PDF (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on June 20, 2014).Wetland systems involve a complex range of important biological, chemical, and hydrologic interactions among individual wetlands which contribute to ecological health. Modification of the landscape due to anthropogenic development has a direct impact on the connectivity supporting these interactions as well as the ecology of a region. It is thus important for individuals and agencies involved in the management and protection of wetland systems to understand the baseline condition of wetlands, supported interactions, and how potential land use and infrastructure modifications may change the strength of underlying connectivity. This baseline connectivity should, therefore, be rigorously defined, accommodating considerations of different types of connectivity and measurement systems. To better understand these issues, a framework is proposed for representing and reasoning about the connectivity of aquatic resources. In particular, a corridor-based representation of connectivity and network-based optimization methods have been developed and implemented in a geographic information system to establish a baseline level of connectivity and to model the effect of potential landscape changes. The developed framework is applied to a wetland system in Missouri to demonstrate the tradeoff between proposed mitigation options and ease of ensuring sustained system connectivity. More broadly, this type of connectivity analysis can be used to inform many types of planning decisions such as those considering alternative courses of development, prioritization of wetland management/protection resources as well as those addressing policy or regulatory matters

哺乳類メチオニンアデノシルトランスフェラーゼ2AはリボゾームRNAプロセシングおよび翻訳因子のメチル化を促進しmTORC1非依存的に翻訳を誘導する

Tohoku University五十嵐和彦課

The Novel Two-Dimensional van der Waals Crystal InSe and its Magnetic Doping

This thesis focusses on the electronic properties of the novel two dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) crystal InSe. It examines the integration of InSe in graphene-based field effect transistors (FETs) and the incorporation of transition metals in InSe to create new magnetic materials. InSe is employed in graphene-based FETs as an electrically and optically active capping layer to “modulation-dope” and photosensitise an adjacent graphene layer. This leads to a “giant” quantum Hall (QH) plateau at a filling factor v = 2 in the magnetoresistance of graphene that persists over a wide range of magnetic fields. Furthermore, the optical excitation of the FETs changes the resistance of the graphene layer. The sign of the Hall voltage and of the v = 2 QH plateau persists over a wide range of temperatures of up to T ~ 200K and can be controlled by an appropriate combination of gate voltages and optical illumination. These phenomena involve the charge transfer at the InSe/graphene interface, offering opportunities for optoelectronics and quantum metrology. Also, we studied a new hybrid material system, which comprises InSe and ferromagnetic Fe-islands. We observed that unlike many traditional semiconductors, the electronic properties of pristine InSe are largely preserved after the incorporation of Fe. Also, this system exhibits ferromagnetic resonances and a large uniaxial magnetic anisotropy at room temperature, offering opportunities for the development of functional devices that integrate magnetic and semiconducting properties within the same material system

Sexual Harassment in Bangladesh: A Note on Legal Perspective

This paper offers a description of sexual harassment in Bangladesh. Here the existing laws related to the issue have been analyzed, and a comparative approach to molestation has also been discussed. Different surveys have indicated the increasing rate of sexual harassment in Bangladesh. Countries, such as India, and Pakistan are having specific laws and relevant provisions to mitigate such offenses. Despite having laws regarding such offenses, most countries are unable to fight the social ailment of sexual harassment. The secondary data finds that in 2017, 54.7% of women living in urban areas faced the violence of physical, psychological, financial, and social nature, and received unusual words from the stranger and sometimes also from the known person. Sexual Harassment is taking place in different places including workplaces, educational institutions, and online platforms. The existing legislation regarding such offenses may not be adequate in the current situation as the nature of such offenses has been changed. This paper provides recommendations for amending necessary provisions to mitigate such problems. It highlights different surveys on the issue and elucidates the provisions of sexual harassment. Data have been collected from newspaper articles, journal articles, websites, and case references. The comparative perspective of sexual harassment in different countries has also been discussed in this paper.

Osmolyte-induced water deficit stress mitigation during panicle initiation stage in transplanted rice (Oryza sativa L.)

A field experiment was conducted to observe the osmolyte-induced water deficit stress mitigation during the panicle initiation stage in transplanted rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. BRRI dhan72). At the panicle initiation stage, plants were simulated with four levels of water regimes viz., well-irrigated (D0), water deficit for 5 d (D1), 10 d (D2) and 15 d (D3). Plants were treated with or without 10 mM of proline (Pro) and trehalose (Tre) as foliar spray started at mid-vegetative stage and continued till the end of stress period. Results revealed that water deficit stress drastically reduced most of the plant morpho-physiological attributes while other yield contributing characters were also affected due to prolonged water deficit stress. However, exogenous application of osmolytes like Pro and Tre significantly increased all those morphological, physiological and yield contributing parameters. Foliar addition of osmolytes concomitantly decreased the number of non-effective tillers hill-1 and the number of unfilled grain panicle-1 under water stress condition. Although both the osmolytes performed well under multiple duration of drought stress, the application of 10 mM Pro markedly improved all growth and yield contributing parameters under D1 water deficit stress compared to other stress durations. Hence, it may be concluded that the use of osmolytes would be a prospective remedy against moderate water deficit stress in transplanted rice production

Bio-Rational Management of Maize Weevil, Sitophilus Zeamais in Maize (Zea Mays) Seeds

Bangladesh is a sub-tropical and humid country. That is why, the infestation of insects during storage is very common here. The maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), locally known as “Katta Poka”, is one of the most serious cosmopolitan pest of stored cereal grain, especially of maize (Zea mays L.), in tropical and subtropical regions including Bangladesh. Considering the issue, the study was conducted in the laboratory of Department of Entomology, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) following completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications to evaluate the efficacy of four locally available botanicals and chemicals. The botanicals used were: Neem (Azadirachta indica) leaf, Datura (Datura stramonium) leaf, Nishinda (Vitex negundo L) leaf and Garlic (Allium sativum L.) tablet powders at three different doses (3, 4 and 5gm)/100g of grain seed against maize weevil. The results revealed that all test materials at 5g doses exhibited higher mortality action against maize weevil while at 3g doses it gave the lowest percentage efficacy. Powdered leaves of neem and datura at 4 and 5gm were showed statistical significant (P<0.01) differences while powdered leaves of nishinda at the similar rates were observed with moderately effectiveness and powdered tablet of garlic gave the lowest mortality rate within 28 days of exposure in all tested doses. These findings suggest that botanical treatments exerted better mortality of maize weevil and reduced maize seed weight loss with higher germination capacity compared to the untreated control. It was also observed that the highest mortality percentage, lowest seed weight loss and highest germination capacity in the seeds which were treated with Sevin 85SP at the rate of 0.25g/100g maize seeds. Maize grains treated with botanicals, indicated that insect reproduction and development were impaired in all botanical pesticides. It is suggested that datura leaf, neem leaf powder can be used as good alternatives to chemical insecticides against S. zeamays due to their higher mortality, lower seed weight losses and higher germination capacity