Analysis of a U.S. Fashion Brand\u27s Outsourcing from Bangladesh: Problems and Proposed Solution

This research focused on exploring the role of apparel outsourcing from Bangladesh for the U.S. and the ways to reduce the effect of inefficiency factors to make this outsourcing long-term sustainable. In this research, a sequential mixed case study was conducted. Gary Teng and Jaramillo\u27s (2005) supplier evaluation model was used to evaluate the outsourcing performance of Bangladeshi and Vietnamese suppliers for a U.S. fashion brand (i.e., Phillips Van-Heusen (PVH). The supplier evaluation model has 20 factors under five clusters (i.e., delivery, flexibility, cost, quality & reliability). On the other part of the research, in-depth interviews were taken from three buyers in the Bangladeshi local office of PVH and three Bangladeshi suppliers from three different companies. The supplier evaluation scores revealed that the Bangladeshi supplier had a very competitive position compared to its competitor (Vietnamese supplier). Bangladesh scored 0.410 while Vietnam scored 0.307 out of 1.0. In terms of the five clusters, Bangladesh (0.106) has a great advantage in the cost cluster over Vietnam (0.281). Bangladesh (0.204) is also more advanced in the quality cluster than Vietnam (0.192). For the remaining three clusters, Vietnam has marginal advancement than Bangladesh. Specifically, the Bangladeshi supplier performed higher than expected in the capacity, negotiability, continuous improvement, and certification factors. The Bangladeshi supplier just met the buyer\u27s expectations in information sharing, customization, customer service, feeling of trust, and country\u27s political situation factors. This research gives an overview of the apparel business practice in Bangladesh to the unexplored part of the U.S. fashion industry

Effect of foliar application of urea and planofix on the foliage yield of coriander

Note: The authorship was changed on 23.02.2016 FROM Abdur Rakib, M. Kamruzzaman1*, Soyema Khatun1 and M. Moniruzzaman2  TO Abdur Rakib1*, M. Moniruzzaman2, M. Hasan3 and M.M. Rahman3. The authorship is changed due to request of the principal author to add two co-authors of his major professor and advisory committee member of postgraduate study and two co-authors are excluded from the authorship and acknowledged them for their contribution in the manuscript.______________________________________________________________Abstract:An experiment on coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) was conducted at the experimental field of Department of Horticulture, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU), Gazipur during November 2012 to April 2013 to find out the suitable foliar doses and application frequency of urea and planofix (NAA). The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatment consisted of six foliar dozes viz. T1 (Tap water as control), T2 (0.10 % urea), T3 (0.25 % urea), T4 (0.40 % urea), T5 (5 ppm planofix) and T6 (10 ppm planofix) and three application frequencies viz. F1 [20 days after sowing (20 DAS)], F2 (30 DAS) and F3 (20 and 30 DAS). Maximum foliage yield (6.94 t/ha) was recorded in 10 ppm planofix coupled with its twice application at 20 and 30 DAS which was closely followed the foliage yield (6.33 t/ha) by 5 ppm planofix with the same application frequency. The foliage yield was increased with the increase in urea concentration. The highest foliage yield (5.37 t/ha) was also recorded from twice application of urea and planofix at 20 and 30 DAS, respectively. Planofix 10 ppm with its twice application at 20 and 30 DAS gave the highest benefit-cost of ration 2.51.Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 5 (1): 40-44, June, 201

Morphological responses of three contrasting Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) genotypes under different levels of salinity stress in the coastal region of Bangladesh

Soil salinity, a global environmental issue, inhibits plant development and production. Soybean is an economically important legume crop whose yield and quality are highly affected by excessive levels of salt in the root zone. A factorial experiment was conducted in a net house from October 2019 to January 2020 to evaluate the performance of three distinct soybean genotypes under varying levels of salinity stress. The experiment followed a completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. Three soybean cultivars, namely BINA Soybean 1, BINA Soybean 2, and BINA Soybean 4 were used in this experiment. The soil salinity treatments were 0 mM NaCl, 50 mM NaCl, 100 mM NaCl, 150 mM NaCl, and 200 mM NaCl. The electrical conductivity (EC) of the soil sample was 0.91dS/m. Six seeds were sown 3 cm deep in each pot. A total of 45 pots were used in this experiment. The performance of each variety was evaluated based on its germination percentage, time of germination, no. of branches/plant, no. of leaves/plant, no. of flowers/plant, plant height (cm), no. of pods/plant, pod length (cm), seeds/pod, and root length (cm). Based on the results obtained from this research trial, it can be inferred that the BINA Soybean 2 variety along with 0 mM NaCl, 50 mM NaCl, and 100 mM NaCl treatments exhibited superior performance in all parameters compared to the other varieties. This study provides clear evidence that the soybean, particularly the BINA Soybean 2 variety, holds significant promise as a crop suitable for coastal regions. Furthermore, it suggests that the cultivation of soybeans in such areas could potentially enhance agricultural productivity, particularly in the presence of mild saline conditions. Nevertheless, it exhibits limited growth potential in environments with elevated salinity levels

Thin-shell wormholes from charged black holes in generalized dilaton-axion gravity

This paper discusses a new type of thin-shell wormhole constructed by applying the cut-and-paste technique to two copies of a charged black hole in generalized dilaton-axion gravity, which was inspired by low-energy string theory. After analyzing various aspects of this thin-shell wormhole, we discuss its stability to linearized spherically symmetric perturbations.Comment: Minor changes, 6 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Gen. Rel. Gra

Water level forecasting using spatiotemporal attention-based long short-term memory network

Bangladesh is in the floodplains of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna River delta, crisscrossed by an intricate web of rivers. Although the country is highly prone to flooding, the use of state-of-the-art deep learning models in predicting river water levels to aid flood forecasting is underexplored. Deep learning and attention-based models have shown high potential for accurately forecasting floods over space and time. The present study aims to develop a long short-term memory (LSTM) network and its attention-based architectures to predict flood water levels in the rivers of Bangladesh. The models developed in this study incorporated gauge-based water level data over 7 days for flood prediction at Dhaka and Sylhet stations. This study developed five models: artificial neural network (ANN), LSTM, spatial attention LSTM (SALSTM), temporal attention LSTM (TALSTM), and spatiotemporal attention LSTM (STALSTM). The multiple imputation by chained equations (MICE) method was applied to address missing data in the time series analysis. The results showed that the use of both spatial and temporal attention together increases the predictive performance of the LSTM model, which outperforms other attention-based LSTM models. The STALSTM-based flood forecasting system, developed in this study, could inform flood management plans to accurately predict floods in Bangladesh and elsewhere

Radial stability analysis of the continuous pressure gravastar

Radial stability of the continuous pressure gravastar is studied using the conventional Chandrasekhar method. The equation of state for the static gravastar solutions is derived and Einstein equations for small perturbations around the equilibrium are solved as an eigenvalue problem for radial pulsations. Within the model there exist a set of parameters leading to a stable fundamental mode, thus proving radial stability of the continuous pressure gravastar. It is also shown that the central energy density possesses an extremum in rho_c(R) curve which represents a splitting point between stable and unstable gravastar configurations. As such the rho_c(R) curve for the gravastar mimics the famous M(R) curve for a polytrope. Together with the former axial stability calculations this work completes the stability problem of the continuous pressure gravastar.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, References corrected, minor changes wrt v1, matches published versio

Utilizing a Text-mining Approach to Investigate Consumers’ Perception of Secondhand Fashion Consumption: Mass-market vs. Luxury market

The dissertation aimed to investigate (i) the difference in consumer perception between the mass-market and luxury market of secondhand fashion services, (ii) determine the types of value and strategies that can be adopted into mass-market SHF from luxury SHF business platforms, (iii) investigate the word-of-mouth communication of mass-market SHF consumers, and (iv) investigate the consumer perception of the ‘quality’ and ‘fashionability’ of the mass-market SHF product. Two studies were designed to address the research questions due to the nature of available data. The data were collected from third-party consumer review sites where consumers can review their perception of secondhand fashion services and third-party video review sites where a consumer can review their secondhand fashion products. Machine learning algorithms were used to analyze the service-related dataset with the formulation of a research framework based on the ‘source of value’ theory. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the product-related dataset with the formulation of a research framework based on intrinsic and extrinsic quality theory. Among the source of values, in the mass market, consumers perceived the ‘Ownership/possession transfer/delivery’ and ‘interaction between consumer to platform’ the most negatively. On the other hand, the consumer perceived the ‘product’ and ‘Ownership/possession transfer/delivery’ the most positively. From the findings, it was discussed how mass-market Secondhand fashion platforms can adopt value strategies from the luxury-market Secondhand fashion platforms. The findings also revealed how these three ‘source of value’ areas were influencing consumers to provide a word-of-mouth recommendation to fellow consumers in the online space. Consumer perceived the ‘quality’ and ‘fashionability’ of the product mostly through ‘brand image’/’originality & authenticity’ and ‘design’ of the product