Effect of Satellite Television on the Culture of Bangladesh: The Viewers Perception

Satellite television started its journey in Bangladesh in 1992 and become a demanding business in the field of recreation. Before that state regulated Bangladesh Television (BTV) was the only dominant medium of entertainment for an extended twenty-eight years (1964-1992). Bangladesh Television (BTV) ended its monopoly power with the penetration of Satellite TV in 1992.  But unfortunately due to these foreign satellite channels gradually people of Bangladesh are losing their Bengali norms and customs and getting used to the foreign lifestyles which are detrimental to the social norms and values of Bangladesh. This study has been conducted to understand the influence of satellite television on the culture of Bangladesh. Keywords: Satellite television, Bangladesh Television (BTV), culture, Bangladesh

Corporate Governance of Mutual Fund In Bangladesh

The mutual fund industry in Bangladesh was thrown open to the private sector in 1999. Since then the AMCs with mutual funds has grown in excess of Tk. 3500 crore with over 80% of the fund being managed by private sector AMCs. To protect the interest of the investors, SEC prescribed a structure to be followed by the financial institutions and mutual funds alike. The structure depends upon independent directors and statutory auditors. In order to safeguard investors’ money in the current unstable situation of Bangladesh stock market, corporate governance guidelines have been institutionalized. This paper attempts to critically review the requirements of mutual fund regulations in Bangladesh and their implementation by the various AMCs. Keywords: Mutual Fund, Asset Management Company, Corporate Governance, Merchant Bank

Synthesis of polysulfide adsorbent from waste cooking palm oil for the removal of iron (ⅲ)

Elemental sulfur and waste cooking palm oil (WCO) are abundant industrial by-products from the petrochemical and food processing industries, respectively. WCO has been successfully used as a crosslinker to prepare a high-sulfur-content polymer through inverse vulcanization for the removal of ferric ions (Fe3+) in wastewater. In the current work, WCO has been characterized using GC-MS, FTIR, and TGA to assess the feasibility to be used as a crosslinker in inverse vulcanization. The produced polysulfides were analyzed based on the different reaction parameters including sulfur to WCO crosslinking ratio, temperature, time, and the application of NaCl by FTIR, TGA, XRD, SEM-EDX, and BET. The adsorption process was studied by varying pH, initial Fe3+ concentration, and dosage with suitable isothermal and kinetic studies. The required functional bonds and unsaturation of WCO were confirmed by FTIR and GC-MS, and the stability at higher temperatures was confirmed using TGA. Polysulfides were synthesized under stirring (500 rpm) of WCO with elemental sulfur at three different temperatures (195℃, 190℃, and 185℃) with three crosslinking ratios (70, 60, and 50 wt% sulfur). Two different sets of reaction time; 45 min and 60 min have been used for polysulfide synthesis. The physicochemical properties of the produced polysulfides were determined and the thermal stability was analyzed. The FTIR spectra including the breakdown of C=C and formation of C–S bond confirmed the change of functional groups between WCO and produced polymer. The effect of saturated and unsaturated triglycerides of WCO is clearly visible in SEM micrographs. The polysulfide with a 70 wt % sulfur feed ratio showed better surface area . TGA and DTG showed that better thermal properties and stable polysulfides can be obtained from higher amount of sulfur content. Other optimal conditions for inverse vulcanization were recorded as well, such as 60 min of reaction time and 195℃. The surface was modified using NaCl as porogen to increase surface area. The BET results confirmed the increase of the surface area of the porous polysulfides prepared using NaCl. Removal performance was evaluated by studying the effects of parameters including porosity, pH of the solution, initial Fe3+ concentration, and amount of polysulfide dosages. The highest removal was recorded for porous polysulfides. Acidic pH (pH=3) was favorable for Fe3+ removal. The optimum dosage was 20 mg/100 mL. The removal isotherm has been studied and fitted best for Freundlich isotherm. The kinetic study of the removal process has been fit well in linear pseudo second order kinetic model. It is concluded that inverse vulcanized polysulfides can be successfully used to reduce Fe3+ in wastewater and mitigate the environmental threats of excess WCO

PALS/PRISM Software Design Description (SDD): Ver. 0.51

This Software Design Description (SDD) provides detailed information on the architecture and coding for the PRISM C++ library (version 0.51). The PRISM C++ library supports consistent information sharing and in- teractions between distributed components of networked embedded systems, e.g. avionics. It is designed to reduce the complexity of the networked sys- tem by employing synchronous semantics provided by the architectural pat- tern called a Physically-Asynchronous Logically-Synchronous (PALS) system.unpublishednot peer reviewe

Development of distributed generation infrastructure for microgrid connectivity to operational power systems

Distributed Generation (DG) from alternate sources and smart grid technologies represent good solutions for the increase in energy demands. Employment of these DG assets requires solutions for the new technical challenges that are accompanied by the integration and interconnection into operational power systems. A DG infrastructure comprised of alternate energy sources in addition to conventional sources, is developed as a test bed. The test bed is operated by synchronizing, wind, photovoltaic, fuel cell, micro generator and energy storage assets, in addition to standard AC generators. Connectivity of these DG assets is tested for viability and for their operational characteristics. The control and communication layers for dynamic operations are developed to improve the connectivity of alternates to the power system. A real time application for the operation of alternate sources in microgrids is developed. Multi agent approach is utilized to improve stability and sequences of actions for black start are implemented. Experiments for control and stability issues related to dynamic operation under load conditions have been conducted and verified

The study of housing preferences of the Seletar community in Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Johor Johor Bahru, in the state of Johor, is located at the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia and considered to be one of the most rapidly developing cities in Asia. The land resources of Johor Bahru is financially attractive to both local or foreign investors because of its emergent economic corridor, that is being led by the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA). The impacts of rapid development in this economic corridor has affected some of its Indigenous community groups, especially the Orang Seletar community. The Orang Seletar people, sea nomads of the Tebrau Strait shores, have been particularly exposed to cultural decay due to the surrounding rapid urbanization. This paper aims to consider the Orang Seletar’s culture and housing typology preferences to inform options for their future housing design consideration and to ensure their cultural sustainability. The first objective of the research is to examine culture and daily activities that were and continue to be practiced by the Orang Seletar, who used to live in houseboats and thus integral to their sea nomadic lifestyle. The second objective is to investigate the typology of the housing settlement patterns of the Orang Seletar community, and the third objective is to assess the housing settlement preferences of the Orang Seletar community. This research uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches, where content analysis of literature is utilised to achieve the first objective. Field observation and survey questionnaires techniques were used to achieve the second objective, and a structured interview was carried out to achieve the third objective. Three types of houses were identified in eight selected villages studied including: single storey landed brick houses that are built on the land by government; houses on stilts that are made of timber; and, lastly, raft houses that float on sea and reverine water. Based on this comparative study, it is concluded that the Orang Seletar people preferred to continue to live on raft houses

Mobile Money in Bangladesh

This paper briefly looks at the use of mobile money in a selected non-urban area of Bangladesh. The use of mobile technology for monetary transactions is gaining prominence in Bangladesh. Some mobile phone operators along with designated banks have started to offer mobile banking services, and the Bangladesh Post Office has also joined this trend. A survey was conducted using a questionnaire containing open and close-ended questions regarding selected aspects of mobile banking. The survey results have shown that the residents of the study site use mobile money for a variety of transactions related to the personal and professional lives. However the results cannot be generalized to the whole of the nation since the survey was carried out at one study site. There is a scope to replicate the survey in other parts of the country to obtain a more complete picture of the mobile banking scenario in the country. Keywords: Mobile Money, Mobile Banking, Currency, Banglades

Vulnerability Prevention Model for Web Browser using Interceptor Approach

The poster was submitted as part of the UNIMAS R&D Expo 2015. The project won Bronze Medal from the Expo for the ICT Cluster category

Contemporary Art Authentication With Large-Scale Classification

Art authentication is the process of identifying the artist who created a piece of artwork and is manifested through events of provenance, such as art gallery exhibitions and financial transactions. Art authentication has visual influence via the uniqueness of the artist’s style in contrast to the style of another artist. The significance of this contrast is proportional to the number of artists involved and the degree of uniqueness of an artist’s collection. This visual uniqueness of style can be captured in a mathematical model produced by a machine learning (ML) algorithm on painting images. Art authentication is not always possible as provenance can be obscured or lost through anonymity, forgery, gifting, or theft of artwork. This paper presents an image-only art authentication attribute marker of contemporary art paintings for a very large number of artists. The experiments in this paper demonstrate that it is possible to use ML-generated models to authenticate contemporary art from 2368 to 100 artists with an accuracy of 48.97% to 91.23%, respectively. This is the largest effort for image-only art authentication to date, with respect to the number of artists involved and the accuracy of authentication

Constraints to SMEs: A Rotated Factor Analysis Approach

Although there is little doubt that SMEs plays a vital role in development of an underdeveloped economy yet this sector is facing multifarious problems relating to raw materials, power, land, marketing, transport, technical facilities and finance etc. Due to these constraints, it is getting more difficult for them to contribute to a nation’s GDP as expected. This paper attempts to find out the major constraints faced by the SMEs in Bangladesh selected from five sub-sectors using varimax normalization method based on primary questionnaire survey and rank the factor constraints according to their level of severity. It identified seven major factors comprising of 12 variables working as impediments to SME growth and development, amongst which high lending rate, government regulatory constraint, small domestic market size, collateral requirement for financing and lack of technically skilled workers are on the top.&nbsp