Does Energy Consumption, Economic Growth, and Foreign Direct Investment Contribute to CO2 Emission? Evidence from Bangladesh

This work used the Johansen Cointegration Test and the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) cointegration methodology to assess the long-run cointegrating relationship and short-run dynamics in Bangladesh between energy consumption economic growth, foreign direct investment, urbanization, population growth, and carbon emissions. To assess the long-term association between these variables, we examined data from 1972 to 2014, and empirical estimation revealed that all factors are significant at the 1% level of significance in the case of Bangladesh. Thus, energy consumption, economic growth, foreign direct investment, urbanization, population growth, and carbon emissions  all have shown the predicted sign and are statistically significant, indicating that increased energy consumption, gross domestic product, and population increase all are responsible for increased carbon emissions in Bangladesh. Higher FDI inflows, on the other hand, cut per capita carbon emissions in Bangladesh. On the other hand, the empirical outcome has revealed that there is no substantial causal association between carbon emissions and urbanization. Keywords: CO2; FDI; GDP; population growth; energy consumption; VECM DOI: 10.7176/JESD/12-12-05 Publication date:June 30th 202

Effective Mechanical and Chemical Washing Process in Garment Industries

Garment washing is a significant part of garment industries and it is mainly applied on denim garments and any other casual garments. In the primary stage garment does not inherit customer’s desired properties but after washing it become most widely used due to its new appearance, softness, comfort, strength and low cost, which create customer’s absolute satisfaction. Garment washing process is provided with a lucrative and glassy outlook by chemical or wet washing process and mechanical or dry washing process. The most widely used dry washing processes for garment are scraping, spraying, whiskering, damages, spots, rubbing and tacking contrariwise wet washing processes for garment to develop new a look and effect are normal wash or rinse wash, pigment wash, caustic wash, silicon wash, enzyme wash, stone wash, stone enzyme wash, bleach wash and acid wash. This study gives an indication different types washing process and the change of physical and chemical properties due to application of wet and dry washing processes as an imparting desired effect on garments

Microscale geometrical model of fruit tissue for simulating cellular level changes during drying

Microstructural properties of the plant based food materials are the key factor for defining the lumped properties of the materials. Therefore, it is a very important issue to consider the microstructural changes during drying. This paper presents a microscale model to describe the actual phenomena in cellular level during drying of plant-based food materials. By means of an image analysis software program, the microscopic images of different apple tissues have been digitized. The structural parameters of the cell have been described as well as compared with statistical distribution of cell orientation, cell area and cell aspect ratio. For a generation of the initial topology of the cellular network, a Voronoi tessellation algorithm has been used. The model considers intercellular airspace network, cell size and shapes. Cell walls have been considered as closed thin wall structure, and tension is maintained due to turgor pressure. The cell walls of the adjacent cell have been modelled as linear elastic materials. This microstructural model can be used to attain better simulation of a multiscale modelling approach of transport phenomena and deformation of food material

Analysis of Marketing Efficiency, Value Addition and Spatial Co-Integration of Mozambique Tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) Fish in Some Selected Areas of Bangladesh

A study was undertaken to examine the value chain, value addition, marketing cost & margin, marketing efficiency and market integration of tilapia fish in selected areas of Bangladesh during the month of June-July 2013. The objectives of the study were to estimate costs and margins and to test market integration of tilapia fish. Primary and secondary data were used for this study. The higher marketing cost was incurred by paiker and the lowest by retailer. On the other hand, retailers earned the highest net marketing margins. Chain II was found the most efficient chain. Analysis of market integration shows that tilapia fish market in Bangladesh was well integrated. The findings of the study revealed that the marketing of tilapia was a profitable business and some recommendations were provided for the improvement of tilapia marketing in the country. Keywords: Value addition, marketing cost & margin, marketing efficiency and spatial co-integratio

Microscale geometrical model of fruit tissue for simulating \ud cellular level changes during drying

Microstructural properties of the plant based food materials are the key factor for defining the lumped properties of the materials. Therefore, it is a very important issue to consider the microstructural changes during drying. This paper presents a microscale model to describe the actual phenomena in cellular level during drying of plant-based food materials. By means of an image analysis software program, the microscopic images of different apple tissues have been digitized. The structural parameters of the cell have been described as well as compared with statistical distribution of cell orientation, cell area and cell aspect ratio. For a generation of the initial topology of the cellular network, a Voronoi tessellation algorithm has been used. The model considers intercellular airspace network, cell size and shapes. Cell walls have been considered as closed thin wall structure, and tension is maintained due to turgor pressure. The cell walls of the adjacent cell have been modelled as linear elastic materials. This microstructural model can be used to attain better simulation of a multiscale modelling approach of transport phenomena and deformation of food material

Public policies and tax evasion: evidence from SAARC countries

In compliance with the socioeconomic theory, the study has strived to investigate the impact of economic and non-economic public policies on tax evasion using panel data of 7 SAARC countries covering the period from 1998 to 2015. The study has applied the ordinary least square with fixed effect and random effect models to analyze the data assembled. The result of the study implies that the higher the degree of economic freedoms, the lower the tax evasion. More specifically, the government policies about property rights, monetary freedom, fiscal freedom and investment freedom have a negative influence on taxpayers' choices of tax evasion while financial freedom result shows a positive effect on tax evasion. Additionally, there is a negative impact of public sector governance and religiosity on tax evasion, which implies the higher the public sector governance and the higher the religious faith amid the people, the lower the degree of tax evasion. The findings of the study are supposed to offer the governments, tax authorities, and research scholars the valuable insights into public policies for reducing the tax evasion to a significant extent

Multiphase porous media modelling: A novel approach to predicting food processing performance

The development of a physics-based model of food processing is essential to improve the quality of processed food and optimise energy consumption. Food materials, particularly plant-based food materials, are complex in nature as they are porous and have hygroscopic properties. A multiphase porous media model for simultaneous heat and mass transfer can provide a realistic understanding of transport processes and thus can help to optimise energy consumption and improve food quality. Although the development of a multiphase porous media model for food processing is a challenging task because of its complexity, many researchers have attempted it. The primary aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of the multiphase models available in the literature for different methods of food processing, such as drying, frying, cooking, baking, heating and roasting. A critical review of the parameters that should be considered for multiphase modelling is presented which includes input parameters, material properties, simulation techniques and the hypotheses. A discussion on the general trends in outcomes, such as moisture saturation, temperature profile, pressure variation and evaporation patterns, is also presented. The paper concludes by considering key issues in the existing multiphase models and future directions for development of multiphase models

Investigation of bound and free water in plant-based food material using NMR T2 relaxometry

Plant-based food materials are porous and hygroscopic in nature; therefore, it contains three water environments, namely, intercellular, intracellular water and cell wall water. The intercellular water is known as capillary water or free water which is less constrained than intracellular water, considered as loosely bound water (LBW), and cell wall water, which is recognised as strongly bound (SBW). During food processing such as drying, frying, heating and cooking, optimisation of heat and mass transfer is crucial. The existing heat and mass transfer models for food processing are developed based on the concept that all of the water inside the food material is bulk water, which can act as free water that can be easily transported. This simplistic assumption has been made due to a lack of sufficient data to enable consideration of the proportion of free and bound water in plant-based food materials. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to investigate the proportion of different types of water such as free, LBW and SBW in 11 different plant-based food materials. The water proportion was investigated using 1H NMR T2 relaxometry. The experimental results uncovers that plant-based food materials contain about 80 to 92% LBW, 6 to 16% free water and only about 1 to 6% SBW. This investigation also confirms that among the five different fruits, kiwi contains the lowest percentage of LBW while Apple contains the highest percentage of LBW. Among the vegetables, eggplant comprises the largest amount of LBW while cucumber contains least amount of SBW. An attempt was made to establish a relationship between physical properties of fruits and vegetables and the proportion of the different types of water. Interestingly, it was found that SBW strongly depends on the proportion of solid in the sample tissue whereas FW depends on the porosity of the material

Application of microwave heating in food processing: Current trends, challenges and prospects

Successful food processing technologies ensure maximum nutrient retention and enhance shelf life while avoiding microbial degradation. Conventional food processing techniques are slow and prone to quality deterioration. Researchers are working on incorporating new food processing techniques to mitigate the shortcomings of conventional food processing and preservation techniques. One such alternative food processing technique is utilizing microwave (MW) heating, which offers many advantages over conventional heating. Moreover, the integration of MW with conventional thermal techniques has shown promising results in terms of energy throughput, uniform heating, reduced processing time as well as enhanced product quality. Despite the huge potential of MW heating technology, there are some challenges that prevail when dealing with MW heating. This chapter provides a comprehensive insight into MW technology while mentioning its novel and diverse application in food processing