Sustainable Rural Development through Union Digital Center: The Citizen Empowerment Perspective

Sustainable development depends on the empowerment of the vast portion of rural people. Bangladesh Government has taken initiatives to empower the disadvantaged people (i.e., elderly, poor and minority) through digitalization programs, e.g., union digital centers (UDCs). This study aimed to investigate the influential factors on the empowerment process by adopting the individual and collective empowerment dimensions. A total of 400 rural people were selected with a judgmental sampling process and provided a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed by using SPSS for descriptive analysis and CB-SEM using AMOS for effect assessment. Individual empowerment and collective empowerment have significant impacts on sustainable development. It is argued that for sustainable development and reaching development benefits to every house, rural people must be empowered. The findings will contribute to the body of knowledge theoretically and assume policymakers insights to focus on rural people's development with the nation. Future researchers can add other social factors. Keywords: Union Digital Center, Social Inclusion, Empowerment, Sustainable Development

Formulation and development of a topical combination cream for arthritis management

Purpose: To design and prepare a non-prescription cream for cost-effective, potent, rapid and longlasting relief from arthritic pain.Method: The cream was prepared by formulating the aqueous phase using glucosamine sulphate, potassium chloride and chondroitin sulphate sodium, and then pouring it into the oil phase under suitable conditions. The physicochemical and antimicrobial properties, in vitro and ex vivo drug release, and overall physical and chemical stability of the formulations were characterized.Results: Sodium metabisulfite (0.5 %) and butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) (0.01 %) showed a very strong synergistic effect on overall stability of the cream.Conclusion: This study confirms that the formulated cream is potentially suitable for the management of arthritis pain in patients. Keywords: Arthritis, Ex vivo drug release, Sodium metabisulfite, Butylated hydroxyanisole, Product stabilit

Feasibility Study of Integrated Desizing, Scouring and Bleaching of Cotton Woven Fabric with H2O2 and Investigation of Various Physical Properties with Traditionally Treated Fabric

Pre-treatment plays a significant role for the successful coloration of any kind of natural textile fiber like cotton, wool, flax, silk etc. This research work overview the influence of various types of traditional preparation techniques applied on cotton fiber before coloration such as desizing, scouring and bleaching. The traditional pre-treatment processes consume plenty of environmentally unfriendly chemicals those generate pollution in the effluents. In this research work an endeavour has been made to desize, scour and bleach grey cotton woven fabric simultaneously using caustic soda and hydrogen peroxide. The physical properties like whiteness, percent loss in fabric weight, tensile strength of the treated fabric have been compared with those of the fabric treated to conventional desizing, scouring and bleaching process. It is observed that the whiteness (ready for colouration) obtained by this process is quite satisfactory. Moreover, this process has some other merits such as ecological, economical, energy conserving and time saving aspect

Ageing Effects of Na-Alginate/PEO Spinning Solution on Electrospinnability and Morphology of Nanofibres

Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) loaded alginate nano-fibres were produced by electrospinning of the 4 % (w/w) of 70:30 Na-alginate/PEO spinning solution. In this research, the effects of solution viscosity and storage time of the spinning solution on fibre diameter and morphology were studied. Results show that the viscosity of the spinning solution was 2284 cP at the age of day 1, which was dropped slowly and reached at 2184 cP until day 5. However, the viscosity sharply decreased after 5 days of storing and the mean diameter of the fibres remain similar until 20 days though the uniformity of the fibre diameters decreased significantly. At day 40, the viscosity of the spinning solution dropped 48 cP which yields beads-onstring fibres. The solutions of 5 days and 10 days old produced smooth and uniform nanofibres having mean diameter of 133 nm and 132 nm, respectively. They also produced stable electrospinning fibre jet compared to other solutions. Overall, the results revel that the electrospinnability of Naalginate/PEO spinning solution remain suitable until 10 days of storing time

Measuring Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Each Attribute of a Product: A Review on Hedonic Pricing Model

The Hedonic pricing model requires that a good, per se does not provide utility; it is the characteristics of the good that gives rise to utility. The total amount of utility a consumer receives from the consumption of a good is subject to the total amount of the characteristics contained in a good purchased. The marginal monetary value of the good’s characteristics is the product of the marginal unit of the characteristics in the good and the marginal implicit prices of the characteristics. In fact, this model reflects actual choices made by consumers, and they can adopt it to estimate their willingness to pay for a good’s characteristics considering several possible interactions between the good’s characteristics–both internal and external. It can be used in product innovation, product packaging, and designing additive services, which gives a producer a competitive advantage in the market. On the other hand, this model may be counterproductive in an environment where information asymmetry exists as it captures only the willingness to pay for perceived differences of attributes and their direct consequences. Therefore, the effective analysis of this model highly depends on the correctness of model specification and different functional forms. Keywords: Hedonic pricing model, willingness to pay, revealed preference, equilibrium price, and regression analysi

ANTIOXIDANT, ANTIBACTERIAL POTENTIAL AND HPLC ANALYSIS OF Dioscorea alata BULB

  The purpose of the present study was to evaluate antioxidant, antibacterial potential and HPLC analysis of methanol extract of Dioscorea alata bulb. Antioxidant activity investigated by DPPH free radical scavenging assay, the IC50 value of plant extract was24.99µg/mL. Significant absorption of extract (1.317 of 1mg/mL) showed the ferric reducing activity. HPLC analysis indicated the presence of myricetin (471.53mg/100 g of dry extract) in the highest concentration. Extract showed significant zone of inhibition in antibacterial activity test. The presence of myricetin along with other detected polyphenols might contribute to antioxidant and antibacterial activities. Key words: Total Phenolic content, Myricetin, Scavenging activity, Disc diffusio

Development of Cost-Effective Menstrual Absorbent Pad with Eco-Friendly Antimicrobial Finish

Management of menstrual hygiene is a critical problem for Bangladeshi women and girls as the sanitary pads are expensive. Therefore, purchasing sanitary napkins for incredibly poor and middle-class families is very challenging. Many retail sanitary napkins are available on the local market, but most of them are costly. However, poor women’s are unable to purchase or use high-quality sanitary napkins. Thus, a maximum of nine sanitary napkin pad samples with very cheap raw materials (natural fibres) have been produced in this study. Newly manufactured products even undergo antimicrobial treatment with natural antimicrobial agents such as Tulshi and Aloe Vera accompanied by a simple production process, which ultimately makes the product cheaper and safer for the consumer during use. A maximum of nine samples were produced and compared with commercial samples for cost analysis. The primary objective of this research is to develop such a kind of sanitary napkin that will be cheaper as well as user-friendly in contrast to commercial samples. More interestingly, poor women are not used to wear underwear, because of which they are not interested in using pads as commercial sanitary napkins; panty or other underwear is required. For this reason, an adjustable waistband support is used in this experiment to easily attach the sanitary napkin without any gum. Since menstruation is directly linked to the human reproductive process, it is important for women and girls to manage menstruation appropriately. In addition, the material (especially sanitary napkin core forming materials) used in commercial sanitary napkins is synthetic and may lead to accelerated growth of bacteria and germs by long term use of the pad. The goal of this research was to construct an inexpensive sanitized pad that was treated with Aloe Vera and Tulshi extract. Tulshi and Aloe Vera modified non-woven fabrics incorporate antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). Therefore, as it can be used without undergarments, sanitary napkin is not only hygienic but also inexpensive and comfortable with effective protection against leakage. Findings demonstrate the newly developed prototype's substantial design and cost-effectiveness. &nbsp

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