Climate change projection and drought characterization in Bangladesh

One of the biggest threats of the climatic change is aberrant pattern or distribution of rainfall that results to drought. The main objective of this research was to develop a methodological framework to assess the impacts of climate change on seasonal drought characteristics with uncertainty. Bangladesh, one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change was considered as the study area for implementation of the framework. An ensemble of general circulation models (GCMs) of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) were used for downscaling and projection of rainfall and temperature under different Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) scenarios. Two state of art data mining approaches known as Random Forest (RF) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) were used for the development of downscaling models and Quantile Mapping (QM) approach was used to remove biases in GCMs. The observed and future projected rainfall data were used to characterize the seasonal droughts using Severity-Area-Frequency (SAF) curves developed for different climatic and major crop growing seasons. The results revealed superior performance of SVM in downscaling rainfall and temperature in tropical climate in terms of all standard statistics. Downscaling of CMIP5 GCMs projections revealed a change in annual average rainfall in Bangladesh in the range of -8.6% in the northeast to +11.9% in the northwest, which indicates that spatial distribution of rainfall of Bangladesh will be more homogeneous in future. The maximum and minimum temperatures of Bangladesh were projected to increase in the range of 0.8 to 4.3ºC and 1.0 to 4.8ºC, respectively under different RCPs. Future projection of droughts revealed that affected areas will increase for higher severity and higher return period droughts. Overall, the country will be more affected by higher return period Kharif (May- October) and monsoon droughts, and lower return period pre-monsoon and postmonsoon droughts due to climate change

Government E-Service Delivery in Rural Bangladesh: A Public-Private Partnership Approach

This paper reviews and analyzes government e-service delivery through Union Digital Centers (UDCs), being identified as telecenters. With the emergence of e-governance, e-services delivery has become expedited across different countries in the world including Bangladesh to foster socio-economic development. However, the concept of ‘digital divide’ or ‘digital gap’ limits the ultimate success of e-delivery services by increasing the gap between rich and poor. In connection to the digital gap, literature evidence that telecenters have largely failed to reach targeted hardcore poor. This research has used a survey technique to collect data from 383 respondents located at 14 different UDCs and seven divisions. The findings of the paper contemplate a positive response in terms of availability, cost, convenience, and delivery of services. Nevertheless, strengthening the approach of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) remains a necessity to reach the success goal in e-governance. This study would be particularly helpful for practitioners or government policy-making agencies to identify perceptions on e-services at root level. Keywords: telecenters, e-governance, e-service delivery, socio-economic development, public-private partnership, Bangladesh DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-2-1

Secondary stress responses of zebrafish to different pH: Evaluation in a seasonal manner

AbstractStress is one of the most critical factors in fish health. The response to stress in fish is characterized by the stimulation of the hypothalamus, which results in the activation of the neuroendocrine system and a subsequent cascade of metabolic and physiological changes. The present paper deals with the stress responses of water pH on certain biochemical indices and hematological parameters of zebrafish in a seasonal basis. Zebrafish were exposed to different pH e.g., 7.2, 5.0 and 10.0 and the secondary stress responses were observed. The result showed that exposure to pH 5.0 and 10.0 on zebrafish exerted stresses with reference to seasons. Higher values of blood glucose content observed in the month of summer than the month of winter and females showed higher values than males. Chronic effects of pH on the hematological parameters were also significant between these seasons. In conclusion, exposure to pH at sub-lethal concentrations induced biochemical and hematological alterations in zebrafish and offers a simple tool to evaluate the potential risk of polluted water (acid and base) to fish

Consumers' reverse exchange behavior and e-waste recycling to promote sustainable post-consumption behavior

Purpose. This study aims to have a holistic understanding of psychological determinants of consumers' e-waste recycling behavior to promote sustainable post-consumption behavior through end-of-life electronic products exchange (EEPE) program. Design/methodology/approach. The study integrated additional cognitive and noncognitive factors within the Theory of Planned Behavior. Data were collected from 334 participants who were purposively recruited from well-known online retailers in an emerging market, with the data analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings. The results provide some fresh insights, such as the significant positive influence of recycling habits, economic benefits and attitudes toward nudging on EEPE, with a distinct serial mediation link from recycling habits to EEPE behavior. Practical implications. This study highlights some relevant sustainable marketing strategies including the integration of nudging and habits as behavioral interventions for promoting e-waste recycling. Originality/value. The originality of this study relates to (1) testing the significance of nudging in promoting sustainable postconsumption behavior and (2) revealing a serial mediation effect of recycling habits on EEPE behavior via attitude toward e-waste recycling and EEPE intention

Historical trends and future projection of climate at Dhaka city of Bangladesh

Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh is considered as one of the most vulnerable cities of the world to climate change. A study has been carried out to assess the historical changes as well as future changes in the climate of Dhaka city in order to propose necessary mitigation and adaptation measures. Statistical downscaling model (SDSM) was used for the projection of future changes in daily rainfall and temperature and non-parametric trend analysis was used to assess the changes in rainfall, temperature and related extremes. The impacts of projected changes in climate on urban infrastructure and livelihood in Dhaka city was finally assessed to propose necessary adaptation measures. The study revealed that night time temperature in Dhaka city has increased significantly at a rate of 0.22ºC/decade in last fifty year, which is support to increase continually in the future. Different temperature related extreme events are also found to increase significantly in Dhaka. On the other hand, no significant change in rainfall or rainfall related extremes are observed. Therefore, it can be remarked that imminent impacts of climate change will be due to the increase in temperature and temperature related extremes. The public health and the water and energy supply are likely to be imminent affected sector in the city due to climate change

Selection of cemented carbide turning tools using EMF and optimization criteria

Tool life and quality of surface finish of the workpiece influence production rate and production cost. Cemented carbide tools have found wide application in the production arena of Bangladesh. In the absence of any testing facility in the country for the selection of cost-effective tools, poor quality carbide tools are frequently imported. A testing method and a selection criteria were developed for testing carbide tools of different shapes and sizes and for selecting the most cost-effective tool. For each tool cutting tests were performed to generate tool life data under different cutting conditions. Mild steel served as the work material. The relationship between tool life and cutting speed was developed using a curve-fitting software on a PC. From these relationships the values of the constants of the Taylor’s equation were determined. The cost equation was then derived for each tool for a given amount of work in a cutting speed range. Finally, the most cost-effective tool was selected on the basis of the relative location of the cost curves of the tools tested

The different impact of utilitarian and hedonic attributes on web-based retail shopping behaviour through the lens of extended technology acceptance model

Purpose. Acknowledging previous scholarly focus on functional attributes in understanding technology acceptance behaviour, the current study aims to offer a novel perspective by integrating eight different dimensions of utilitarian and hedonic attributes to examine their influence in delivering a holistic web-based retail shopping experience. Design/methodology/approach. The research model was tested and validated through data collected from 370 online shoppers across both hedonic and utilitarian product ranges. Hypotheses were tested using covariance-based structural equation modelling with multi-group analysis to examine the moderation effect. Findings. The findings strongly support the model confirming eight new utilitarian and hedonic dimensions that influence web-based retail shopping behaviour. The findings also confirm that hedonic attributes remain important even for utilitarian product purchasing. Practical implications. The key managerial implication is the demonstrated need to balance utilitarian and hedonic attributes in web-based retail platforms, where previously, there has been an overemphasis on functional features. Web-based retailers should consider the optimal blend of utilitarian (e.g. information quality) and hedonic (e.g. aesthetic) attributes in the design of a retail shopping site, irrespective of the product category. Originality/value. This study integrates multiple dimensions of utilitarian and hedonic attributes into a single model and highlights the interplay of these attributes, thus extending the technology acceptance model. This paper also advances scholarship through its identification of attribute impact across different product categories

Mechanical characterizing and drying simulation of plant-based food materials: The fractional model approach

Food processing industry is one of the largest manufacturing sectors in Australia. Drying is one of the major processes in food industry that reduces food waste by increasing shelf-life. However, drying is highly energy-intensive lengthy process and results in significant quality deterioration. To retain the fresh like quality and reduce the energy consumption, a comprehensive understanding of transport process during drying is essential. To overcome the limitations of current mathematical models, this study introduced new fractional differential models for mechanical characterising and drying simulation of food materials. These models can be applied in many areas outside food drying

Development of an OADM to reduce the incoherent crosstalk in WDM system

Performance of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system mostly depends on the components used in it. Optical add-drop multiplexer (OADM) is one of the most important and widely used components in WDM system used to add or drop the signals. Various types of crosstalk occurred due to the imperfections of OADM affect the WDM system performance. It is important to develop the low crosstalk or crosstalk free OADM to enhance the system performance. In this paper, we have developed an efficient OADM with low incoherent crosstalk based on coupler using isolators and Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG). We have also derived the analytical expressions for bit error rate (BER), relative intensity noise (RIN) and power penalty. It is also observed from the results that the proposed OADM has shown the better performance with lower BER and lower power penalty than the existing models while the performance of the WDM system can increase significantly

Social Media Marketing and the Impact on Sales : A case study of Prisma

In this age of social media, most marketers have been using social media marketing to improve their brand visibility and develop strong customer relationships. The reason behind using social media marketing by retailers includes low costs, strong interactivity, and the increasing number of subscribers that lead to increased sales. This research study evaluates social media marketing and its impact on sales focusing on a renowned Finnish retail chain supermarket named Prisma. This study tries to identify the most significant factors impacting the use of social media marketing on sales in the Prisma retail chain. To research objectives, primary data has been collected using an exploratory survey in which the sample consists of 50 respondent’s employees of Prisma supermarkets with experience in implementing social media marketing on their business sales. In this study, six important independent variables have been identified such as brand awareness, customer engagement, content sharing, customers’ feedback, communication, and customer relationship, and measured their impact on sales of Prisma. To realize the relationship between independent variables and dependent variables Pearson’s correlation analysis has been applied using SPSS software. Moreover, descriptive statistical analysis, descriptive frequency analysis, and multiple regression analysis have been used here to realize the impact of independent variables on Prisma's dependent variable (sales performance). The research results depict that brand awareness and customer engagement, communication, and customer relationship significantly affect the sales of the retail chain whereas content sharing and customer feedback have not significantly affected the sales of Prisma however, there is a moderate correlation with the sales. Overall, customer relationships, brand awareness, communication, and engagement have proved the most significant factors of social media marketing impacting sales of Prisma