The Food Riots that Never Were: The Moral and Political Economy of Food Security in Bangladesh

In 2008, the international media listed Bangladesh among the low-income countries that saw food riots during the global food price crisis. The most notable of these events took place in the pre-monsoon Dhaka heat on 13 April, when workers in the vital export-oriented garments sector took to the streets in a graphic flash of anger at low pay in a time of high staple food prices. Around that time, the government of Bangladesh set in motion efforts to stabilise food prices, to protect those hit hardest by the spike. These efforts were not simple matters: the crisis was global, not easily managed by a single country government. Meanwhile India, the main source of Bangladesh’s rice imports, closed its borders to protect its own citizens. Yet the Bangladesh authorities ultimately succeeded, and their policy choices and the institutional architecture that made them possible affirmed Bangladesh’s reputation for an effective and responsive food (if not nutrition) security policy. This research set out to find out whether these events were causally related: did these ‘food riots’ trigger or activate these responsive and effective food security policies in any sense

Dispersion Study of a Broadband Terahertz Focusing Reflecting Metasurface for 6G Wireless Communication

In 6G wireless communications, functional terahertz reflecting metasurfaces are expected to play increasingly important roles such as beamforming and beamsteering. This paper demonstrates the design of a functional and efficient beamforming metasurface in the burgeoning D-band (0.11-0.17~THz). In addition to achieving broadband operation (0.135-0.165~THz), this design is polarization-maintaining, diffraction limited, simple in design, exhibits 64.1\% broadband efficiency (1.9 dB insertion loss) and 20\% fractional bandwidth. Despite being formed by an array of highly dispersive resonators, the metasurface exhibits very low temporal dispersion, which avoids pulse reshaping and its consequent limitations on achievable data rate. The design and performance of the focusing reflector are presented followed by a group delay and group delay dispersion analysis revealing that a 2.83\% temporal broadening of the pulse is observed at the focus

MatriVasha: A Multipurpose Comprehensive Database for Bangla Handwritten Compound Characters

At present, recognition of the Bangla handwriting compound character has been an essential issue for many years. In recent years there have been application-based researches in machine learning, and deep learning, which is gained interest, and most notably is handwriting recognition because it has a tremendous application such as Bangla OCR. MatrriVasha, the project which can recognize Bangla, handwritten several compound characters. Currently, compound character recognition is an important topic due to its variant application, and helps to create old forms, and information digitization with reliability. But unfortunately, there is a lack of a comprehensive dataset that can categorize all types of Bangla compound characters. MatrriVasha is an attempt to align compound character, and it's challenging because each person has a unique style of writing shapes. After all, MatrriVasha has proposed a dataset that intends to recognize Bangla 120(one hundred twenty) compound characters that consist of 2552(two thousand five hundred fifty-two) isolated handwritten characters written unique writers which were collected from within Bangladesh. This dataset faced problems in terms of the district, age, and gender-based written related research because the samples were collected that includes a verity of the district, age group, and the equal number of males, and females. As of now, our proposed dataset is so far the most extensive dataset for Bangla compound characters. It is intended to frame the acknowledgment technique for handwritten Bangla compound character. In the future, this dataset will be made publicly available to help to widen the research.Comment: 19 fig, 2 tabl

Isolation and selection of Bradyrhizobium from the root nodules of indigo plants (Indigofera tinctoria L.)

This research was conducted from 2004 to 2005 to isolate and select Bradyrhizobium from the root nodules of indigo plants (Indigofera tinctoria L.). For isolation of Bradyrhizobium, root nodules were collected from indigo plants. Fourteen Bradyrhizobium isolates were identified depending on colony, morphological and biochemical characteristics. Out of fourteen isolates, six (HSTU-IR2, HSTU-IR3, HSTU-IR4, HSTU-IR9, HSTU-IR10 and HSTU-IR14) were found promising with respect to nodulation, shoots and roots weights and N fixation by the indigo plants grown inside the Leonard Bottle Jar Assembly (LBJA).Key words: Bradyrhizobium, isolation, selection, root nodules, indigo plants

Examining citizens’ trust in local government institutions: a focus on upazila parishads (sub-district councils) in Bangladesh

Against a backdrop of strikingly limited research on the subject, this article examines citizens’ trust in upazila parishads (UzPs) – a historically significant form of local government institution (LGI) in Bangladesh. A set of indicators has been developed that help to evaluate citizens’ trust in these LGIs. Alongside secondary literature and official document reviews, a mixed-method approach was adopted for empirical data collection combining quantitative (a questionnaire targeting a cross-section of service recipients) and qualitative ( key informant interviews with LGI service providers) methods. The results revealed a poor level of citizen trust in UzPs, as the majority of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with their performance. This low level of citizens’ trust was attributable to such reasons as delays in service delivery, dishonest and unfair practices, and disrespectful treatment by service providers. From a ‘supply-side’ perspective, service providers mentioned many constraints to good performance including the challenge of meeting growing demand with inadequate resources, frequent staff transfers, limited scope for training on modern technologies, and pressure and interference from influential elites

Population Biology of the Indian River Shad, Gudusia chapra (Clupeidae) in the Old Brahmaputra River, North-Eastern Bangladesh

Population biology including population structure, reproduction, length-weight relationship and condition factor of a commercially important clupeid freshwater fish, Gudusia chapra was studied in the Old Brahmaputra River, Bangladesh during January-December 2009. In the present study, a total of 2032 specimens (1091 male; 941 female) were collected. The overall sex ratio showed significant difference from the expected value 1:1 (male: female = 1:0.86, χ2 = 11.07, p<0.001). Length-frequency distribution showed a size predominance of females over males, where mean female size consistently exceeded that of males throughout the year. Female size at first sexual maturity was estimated as 8.3 cm in standard length (SL). Monthly gonadosomatic index (GSI) was higher during March-September with a peak in April, indicating this was the main spawning season. The allometric coefficient b of the length-weight relationship (LWR) indicated negative allometric growth in males and females, but the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed significant differences in slope and intercept between the sexes (p<0.001). Fulton’s condition factor by months and SLs varied in both sexes and was attributed to variations in GSI with maturity

Effect of Organic, Inorganic Fertilizers and Plant Spacing on the Growth and Yield of Cabbage

The impact of chemical farming and the negative consequences on the environment and human health in Bangladesh are on the rise. Organic farming is gaining attention and increasing globally because it is eco-friendly, safe and has benefits for human health. A field study was conducted at the horticulture farm of Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh, to evaluate the growth and yield performance of cabbage cv. Atlas—70 using organic and inorganic fertilizers in various plant spacing arrangements. Two factor experiments were conducted on plant spacings of 60 cm × 40 cm (S1), 60 cm × 50 cm (S2) and 60 cm × 60 cm (S3) and fertilizers vermicompost (T1), biogen (T2), integrated plant nutrient system (IPNS) Organic (⅔) + inorganic (⅓) (T3) and inorganic (T4). IPNS (T3) application increased the marketable yield (54.77 t·ha−1) of cabbage. The highest marketable yield (48.75 t·ha−1) was obtained with a plant spacing of 60 cm × 40 cm (S1). No significant variation was found in plant spacings S1 and S2. The treatment combination of S2T3 recorded the highest plant height (37.81 cm), plant spread (47.75 cm), cabbage head (21.80 cm), stem length (12.31 cm), thickness of the cabbage head (12.53 cm) and marketable yield (65.0 t·ha−1). The results suggest that IPNS (T3) combining organic and inorganic fertilizer applications with a 60 cm × 50 cm spacing (S2T3) increases the yield performance of cabbage

Exploring knowledge and practices regarding menstrual hygiene management among Bihari women in the Geneva Camp in Bangladesh

Background: Research into menstrual hygiene management (MHM) has been mainly based on menstruation-related knowledge and practices of women and girls in the mainstream Bangladeshi society; socially disadvantaged groups, such as the Bihari refugee women, have largely been ignored. Purpose: This study aims to assess knowledge and practices about MHM among Bihari women in the Mohammadpur Geneva Camp in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Methods: In 2017, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among Bihari women and girls by the trained interviewers using a structured questionnaire. The purposive sampling was applied to select 160 Bihari women aged between 15 and 49. Data were entered, cleaned, and analysed using SPSS software. Both univariate and bivariate analyses were undertaken to examine knowledge and MHM-related practices with a significance level of p<0.01. Results: Overall, most women (59.4%) had low knowledge about menstruation. More than one-quarter (27.0%) used disposable sanitary napkins. The Bihari women who did not use sanitary pads (73%) reported that they used old disposable clothes (59.83%), reusable cloths (25.64%), cotton (9.40%), or toilet tissue paper (4.27%). Around two-thirds of the women (68.0%) performed special baths and 36.9% followed socio-cultural taboos during menstruation. The bivariate analyses revealed that higher menstruation knowledge was associated with higher use of disposable sanitary napkins (low knowledge: 18.9%, high knowledge: 38.5%; p<0.01). Conclusions: The findings suggest that it is imperative for Bihari women to have adequate and appropriate menstruation knowledge so that they can maintain good menstrual hygiene practices. The findings highlight challenges experienced by the refugee women in maintaining MHM and can be used to improve women’s reproductive health and well-being and reduce the risk of reproductive tract infections (RTI) among socially disadvantaged women