English Language Competency and Outsourced Call Centers in Bangladesh

This paper attempts to investigate whether or not the English competency of Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) is hindering the growth and development of outsourced call centers in Bangladesh. It also looks into the problems being faced by call centers in hiring English competent CSRs. A limited appraisal of the English communication training of the CSRs offered by Call Centre Training Institutes is also within the purview of the paper. With this purpose 33 supervisors of different call centers, who are in charge of monitoring the CSRs, have been interviewed with a questionnaire comprised of both close and open ended questions. The result shows there is scarcity of skilled English communicators which is one of the major barriers in the growth and development of the call centers. However, factors like product knowledge, intercultural communication skills, service personality are also crucial as they are integral for successful transaction and addressing them will pave the way for the progress of the industry. The result also implicitly indicates that mainstream education system in Bangladesh is still unable to produce competent English communicators. The findings of the study reveal that the current shortage of skilled manpower can further become more acute when call center industry grows in line with the expectation of the government. It is also revealed that the call center training institutes are incapable of delivering the kind of training required for the aspirant CSRs. This study pinpoints the necessity of future research in several directions to ensure a balance between the demand and supply of native like fluent English communicators for call center Industry in Bangladesh

Uncovering discursive framings of the Bangladesh shipbreaking industry

Shipbreaking in the Chittagong region of Bangladesh supplies metal to meet the needs of the nation’s construction sector. The shipbreaking industry has received international attention for environmental contamination and workers’ insecurity. However, these issues have been framed without considering the actors that produce them and their associated motives. This paper illuminates the conflicting discourses regarding the industry between two divergent groups of actors. On the one hand, national and international NGOs collaborate to enforce a discourse focused on negative localized impacts. On the other hand, yard owners, yard workers, and local community members forge a counter discourse, focused on positive localized impacts and raising doubts about the origin of the environmental pollutants and occupational standards setting. National and international actors have so far missed the conflicting perspective of workers, yard owners, locals and NGOs. We contend that these divergent discourses involve scalar politics, with one discursive frame focused on localized impacts in order to leverage global resources, while the other situates local communities in the global world system; this confounding of scale leads to ineffective policy formulation. This shipbreaking case study provides a valuable lesson on the importance of listening to and including stakeholders at multiple scales when seeking policies to address localized impacts of a globalized industry

Development of palm biomass briquettes with polyethylene plastic waste addition

High global energy demand scenario has driven towards transformation from sole dependence on fossil fuels to utilization of inexhaustible renewable energy sources such as hydro, biomass, solar and wind. Renewable energy sources are abundant in Malaysia, especially palm biomass residues that are produced during the oil extraction process of fresh fruit bunch. Therefore, it is inevitable to harness these bioenergy sources, in order to prevent waste accumulation at adjacent to palm mills. Briquetting of palm biomass such as empty fruit bunch (EFB) with polyethylene (PE) plastics waste addition is expected not only could maximize the utilization of energy resources, but also could become as a potential solution for residue and municipal plastics waste disposal. In the present study, the physical and combustion properties of palm biomass briquettes that contain novel mixture of pulverized EFB and PE plastics waste were investigated experimentally. The briquettes were produced with different mixing ratio of EFB and PE plastics (weight ratios of 95:5, 90:10 and 85:15), under various heating temperatures (130-190°C) and at constant compaction pressure of 7 MPa. Based on the results, it can be said that heating temperature plays a significant role in affecting physical properties such as relaxed density and compressive strength. The values of relaxed density and compressive strength are within the range of 1100 to 1300 kg/m3 and 0.8 to 1.2 MPa, respectively. Meanwhile, mixing ratio does affect relaxed density and gross calorific value. All values of gross calorific (17900 to 21000 kJ/kg) and moisture content (7% to 9%) are found to fulfill the requirement for commercialization as stated by DIN51731 (gross calorific value>17500 kJ/kg and moisture content<10%). Even though the values of ash content (3% to 4%) exceed the limitation as stated by the standard (<0.7%), it is still considered very competitive if compared to the commonly used local briquette that contains mesocarp fibre and shell (5.8%). Finally, it can be concluded that the best quality of briquette can be achieved when highest composition of PE plastics (weight percentage of 15%) is used and the briquetting process is performed at the highest temperature (190℃)

PHYTOCHEMICAL STUDY OF THE ARIAL PARTS OF <i>Cleome rutidosperma</i> DC PLANT

Two new compounds were identified as 2-ethyl-cyclohex-2-ene-6-hydroxy-methylene-1-carboxylic acid and 3b-hydroxy-lup-20(29)-en-28-oic acid, respectively, from the petroleum ether extracts of Cleome rutidosperma plant. These two constituents is the first time occurrence in this plant. The structures of the two different type of compounds are elucidated with the help of UV, IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, COSY, DEPT 90, DEPT 135 and mass spectral data.   Keywords: Cleome rutidosperm DC; isolation; spectral analysi

Diagnostic accuracy of computed tomography scan in renal cell carcinoma

Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is becoming more common over the world. At the same time, numerous European and North American countries have achieved lower death rates. Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted from July 2013 to June 2014 in the department of radiology and imaging of Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Clinically suspected 50 cases of renal cell carcinoma were included in this study. The study taken ethical clearance from the department and consent from the respondents. Statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) software used for the analysis. Results: The mean age of the patients was 50.08±13.04 years. Male to female ratio was 2.1. More than half of the cases had hypodense lesion while 28% patients had calcification in the lesion. Mild enhancement was found in 56% cases and 50% were heterogenous in nature. Both nodal involvement and metastasis were limited. Computed tomography (CT) scan had 97.73% sensitivity and 100% specificity in diagnosis RCC. The diagnostic accuracy, positive predicative value and negative predicative values were 98%, 100% and 85.7 respectively. Conclusions: CT scan is a useful diagnostic modality in diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma

Recovery of herbicide-resistant Azuki bean [Vigna angularis (Wild.), Ohwi & Ohashi] plants via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation

Transgenic azuki bean [Vigna angularis (Willd.) Ohwi & Ohashi] plants expressing the hygromycin phosphotransferase (hpt), green fluorescent protein (sgfp) and phosphinothricin acetyltransferase (bar) genes were obtained by Agrobacterium- tumefacients - mediated transformation. A total of 210 epicotyl explants were inoculated with A. tumefaciens strain EHA105, harboring the binary plasmid pZHBG on MS co-cultivation medium supplemented with 100 mM acetosyringone and 10 mg/l of BA. Following selection on MS medium with 15 mg/l of hygromycin, the regenerated adventitious shoots that formed on the induced calli were further screened for sgfp expression before transferred to rooting medium. 31 transgenic plants were obtained with transformation frequency of 14%. The presence of transgenes in transformed azuki bean plants was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and southern blot analysis. Transcription of the bar and hpt genes was assessed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis. sgfp- positive transgenic plants exhibited functional expression of the bar gene as determined by assaying for resistance to bialaphos applied directly to leaves. This result demonstrates the feasibility of introducing potentially useful agronomic traits into azuki bean through genetic engineering. Key Words: Agrobacterium tumefaciens, bar gene, bialaphos, transgenic, Vigna angulazris. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol.4(1) 2005: 61-6

OPTIMIZATION OF PARAMETERS OF COTTON FABRIC WHITENESS

In this project work, the performance of peroxide bleaching commercial bluing agent, and different fluorescent brightening on the degree of whiteness of cotton fabric was investigated and compared. Here all the experiments were done on cotton fabric; both for woven knit structures in exhausted method. Maximum whiteness is found by applying optical brightening agent of Synowhite 4KB brand of 1.2% on the weight of materials at 80oC for 40 minutes treatment of cotton fabric along with salt of 5gm/L after bleaching. Furthermore, the influence of surface characteristics of the substrate on whiteness index was observed. CIE whiteness Index was measured by spectrophotometer at the standard illuminant D65

OPTIMIZATION OF PARAMETERS OF COTTON FABRIC WHITENESS

In this project work, the performance of peroxide bleaching commercial bluing agent, and different fluorescent brightening on the degree of whiteness of cotton fabric was investigated and compared. Here all the experiments were done on cotton fabric; both for woven knit structures in exhausted method. Maximum whiteness is found by applying optical brightening agent of Synowhite 4KB brand of 1.2% on the weight of materials at 80oC for 40 minutes treatment of cotton fabric along with salt of 5gm/L after bleaching. Furthermore, the influence of surface characteristics of the substrate on whiteness index was observed. CIE whiteness Index was measured by spectrophotometer at the standard illuminant D65

Aerosol particle transport and deposition in upper and lower airways of infant, child and adult human lungs

Understanding transportation and deposition (TD) of aerosol particles in the human respiratory system can help clinical treatment of lung diseases using medicines. The lung airway diameters and the breathing capacity of human lungs normally increase with age until the age of 30. Many studies have analyzed the particle TD in the human lung airways. However, the knowledge of the nanoparticle TD in airways of infants and children with varying inhalation flow rates is still limited in the literature. This study investigates nanoparticle (5 nm ≤ dp ≤ 500 nm) TD in the lungs of infants, children, and adults. The inhalation air flow rates corresponding to three ages are considered as Qin = 3.22 L/min (infant), 8.09 L/min (Child), and Qin = 14 L/min (adult). It is found that less particles are deposited in upper lung airways (G0–G3) than in lower airways (G12–G15) in the lungs of all the three age groups. The results suggest that the particle deposition efficiency in lung airways increases with the decrease of particle size due to the Brownian diffusion mechanism. About 3% of 500 nm particles are deposited in airways G12–G15 for the three age groups. As the particle size is decreased to 5 nm, the deposition rate in G12–G15 is increased to over 95%. The present findings can help medical therapy by individually simulating the distribution of drug-aerosol for the patient-specific lung