WATER MANAGEMENT IN BANGLADESH AGRICULTURE: OPTIMAL USE AND INVESTMENT POLICIES FOR ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE

In Bangladesh, climatic change is likely to impact significantly upon surface and groundwater availability, as well as in other countries. The population of Bangladesh is projected to be double the current 2010 level by 2050. Demand for water will rise with the increasing demand for rice. This paper considers the optimal demand management of irrigation water with stochastic supply under climate change for a 3-year planning horizon. It also identifies the utilization of irrigation water from surface water sources to maximize the expected net social return from rice production. This is done by considering decision on dam release for rice production with reference to climate change. A stochastic dynamic programming model is developed for analyzing the levels and timing of the allocation of surface water for irrigation. The objective is to find the optimal dam release for irrigation which results in the maximum expected present value of the stream of annual net social return from rice production for the 3 years from 2012 to 2014. Net social return in a year consists of the value of rice consumed, measured by consumers’ willingness to pay for rice, less the total cost of rice production. The paper also identifies the need for irrigation infrastructure and determines the optimal investment policies for the adaptation to climate change in Bangladesh agriculture.climate change, dam release, dynamic programming, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Readers reading practices of EFL Yemeni students: recommendations for the 21st century

This paper investigates the reading practices of forty-five second year EFL Yemeni undergraduate students using the Four Resources Model of multiliteracy practices. The Four Resources Model of multiliteracy practices organizes reading practices into four key practices: code breaking, text participating, text uses and text analysing levels. Quantitative and qualitative methods, designed based on the Four Resources Model constructs, were used to collect data from a sample of students studying English as a Foreign Language at a university in Yemen. Quantitative data was collected through a questionnaire, while qualitative data was gathered using semi-structured interviews guided by the research objectives. The findings reveal that Yemeni students were medium users of the code breaker and text user practices whereas the meaning making and text analysis practices were reported to be used in low usage. On the whole, these early findings suggest that the reading practices and reading abilities of the Yemeni students are still limited even at the tertiary level and have not developed fully with regard to reading in English. This paper reports in detail, the use of the Four Resources Model as a tool to determine reading efficacy while examining the aforementioned findings. Discussion is put forward on the implications for teaching of reading and its approaches in a Yemeni context, especially in view of the students‟ reading needs at the tertiary level in Yemen

Qualified audit reports of local authorities in the northern states of Malaysia

The reliability of information presented in the financial reports of local authorities is of utmost importance to enable the public to measure their performance in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in using public resources. The task to provide such an assurance lies with the Auditor General, who has been entrusted to enforce the auditing compliance regulations. A certificate in the form of “unqualified,” “qualified,” “adverse,” or “disclaimer” accompanied by a report on the financial affairs of the local authorities concerned will be issued after the Auditor General completes the audit of the local authorities’ financial statements. Our study on 14 local authorities comprising municipal and district councils in the Malaysian States of Perlis, Kedah and Penang found that the Qualified Certificate is the common type of audit certificate issued to the local authorities concerned during the period 1997-2001(inclusive of both years). Discrepancies in “Fixed Assets Register” ranked first among the audit incidents that led towards non-compliance to the audit procedures. This was followed by discrepancies in “Other Receivables” and “Cash Flow Statements” which ranked second and third positions respectively. Our finding also shows that size does not grant any advantage to the bigger local authority in reducing the number of audit incidents

New Prosthetics Offer Hope in Sudan

Unfortunately for amputees in developing countries, poverty and disability go hand-in-hand. Limb loss can make it extremely difficult for victims to provide for themselves and their families. From this reality came the inspiration for Sudanpro, an inexpensive and durable prosthetic developed by the author, an orthotist and prosthetist working with Project Hope Sudan

Factors Influencing Consumers' Acceptance of Mobile Marketing Services

The research of mobile marketing services is still at the early stage and the reason to explain the acceptance as well as the understanding of the actual usage level of mobile marketing services still remains unclear. To investigate this issue, this study has examined the acceptance of mobile marketing services by measuring the consumer's intention and actual usage of mobile marketing services. Grounded by the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour (DTPB), this study proposes a framework by decomposing attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control and perceived risk. A total of 334 full-time university students from four public universities in the Northern Region, Malaysia have participated in this study. Data for all the study variables have been collected through self-administered survey questionnaires. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is the main statistical technique used in this study. The study has shown that the level of the actual usage is at the lower level. The study also reveals that all the main beliefs (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control and perceived risk) are found to have significant effect on consumer‟s intention to use mobile marketing services. With regard to antecedents‟ effect on the main beliefs, there are only four factors which are found insignificant namely perceived ease of use, personal innovativeness, media and technology facilitating condition. Whereas, another ten antecedent factors significantly influence the main beliefs. Overall, the results indicate that the model provides a good understanding of the factors that influence intention to use and the actual usage of mobile marketing services. As predicted, decomposition of the main beliefs provides more specific factors that influence the behaviour. Based on the findings, the theoretical and practical implications of the study as well as limitations and suggestions for future studies are also discussed

Pembersih bilah kipas siling

Kebanyakan rumah pada kebiasaannya mempunyai kipas siling tidak kira samada rumah moden atau tradisional. Kipas siling merupakan sejenis kipas yang digantung pada bahagian atas rumah untuk mengitar udara melalui bilah-bilah kipas berputar (Norfarahanim Mohd@Ramli, 2007). Ia berfungsi untuk menyerakkan udara di sekeliling kawasan secara lebih menyeluruh namun ia tidak mengubah suhu bilik secara langsung. Lazimnya, bilah akan berputar pada arah lawan jam untuk menolak udara sejuk turun ke bawah. Apabila menghampiri lantai, angin yang terhasil akan terserak ke semua arah dan udara panas akan naik ke atas secara semulajadi untuk menggantikan udara sejuk yang telah ditolak kebawah