Usage of Academic Libraries: The Role of Service Quality, Resources, and User Characteristics

published or submitted for publicatio

Supervised Machine Learning for Signals Having RRC Shaped Pulses

Classification performances of the supervised machine learning techniques such as support vector machines, neural networks and logistic regression are compared for modulation recognition purposes. The simple and robust features are used to distinguish continuous-phase FSK from QAM-PSK signals. Signals having root-raised-cosine shaped pulses are simulated in extreme noisy conditions having joint impurities of block fading, lack of symbol and sampling synchronization, carrier offset, and additive white Gaussian noise. The features are based on sample mean and sample variance of the imaginary part of the product of two consecutive complex signal values.Comment: 5 page

Bangladesh in the 21st Century: the harvard conference recommendations

This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Journal of Bangladesh Studies, Editor: Dr. Syed Saad Andaleeb.On June 13-14, 2008, an international conference was organized by Bangladesh Development Initiative, Democracy and Development in Bangladesh Forum, and the Ash Institute of Democratic Governance at Harvard University’s Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS) to address the theme: Bangladesh in the 21st Century. The purpose of the conference was to bring together scholars, practitioners, students, and well-wishers as a community to contemplate the opportunities and challenges facing Bangladesh. The response was overwhelming. About ninety papers were submitted from four continents covering topics as diverse as foreign policy and infrastructure to health care, education, politics, and even shrimp culture. From the submitted papers, about sixty were ultimately chosen for presentation. In addition there were two panel discussions on foreign policy and the accomplishments of “BRAC at 35.” The conference sessions were embellished by luncheon and dinner speakers who, in their own rights, added further dimension and richness to the already star-studded list of participants. A cultural program was also organized by the Boston community that struck a deep chord with the theme of the conference. Highlights of the conference and key recommendations are summarized here for various stakeholders: the political leadership and its administrative wing to contemplate, adapt and adopt; for researchers and scholars to embellish and build upon; and the general reader to be informed of the policy options.Publishe

Causes of Construction Project Failures in Pakistan

Construction Project failure are global problem and Pakistan Construction projects also suffer from this phenomenon. The purpose of this research is to identify the major causes those are critical factors in the performance of a project. The literature review on the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) emphasized that measurement of project success or failure is dependable on three key factors; Time, Cost & Scope. We have investigated various causes behind this triple constraint that are real forces a construction projects encounter during its lifecycle. The 33 major causes identified through literature review and Interviews with the industry specialist of Pakistan were transformed into a questionnaire. The survey was conducted with the industry professionals directly managing construction projects in the demography of Pakistan. The data help us in the identification of top ten causes of construction project failure in Pakistan: (1) Incompetent Contractor, (2) Delay in Procurement of long lead items, (3) Delay in Payments to Contractors, (4) Inaccurate Cost Estimates, (5) Inaccurate Project Schedule & Incompetent Project Team, (6) Lack of Project Planning, (7) Incompetent Project Manager, (8) Delay in providing site access to contractors, (9) Lack of cash flows & (10) Delay in design phase. Keywords: Causes, Construction Project Failures, Pakistan, Project Management

Effects of equity and debt financing on SME performance in Malaysia

This study is to examine and verify the existence of relationship between the source of capital via equity and debt financing, and the performance of small and medium enterprise (hereafter SME) in Malaysia.The study is run based on of postal survey using cluster sampling method. It comprises of 177 samples of Malaysian SMEs involving in manufacturing and agriculture sectors. Subsequently, two research hypotheses are developed and analysed.It is found that equity financing has significant positive relationship on the business performance, while debt financing is insignificant.The study suggests that SMEs in Malaysia to employ equity financing as a source of business capital, for its potential (capability) in affecting the performance of business

Drivers of Microfinance in India: An Exploratory Study

Abstract: The evolutionary concept of microfinance came into being in 20 t

Essays on microfinance: financial and social impacts in rural Bangladesh

Rural credit programs in developing countries are designed to help the poorest of the poor by providing collateral-free loans at a low cost. In order to properly measure the efficacy of these programs, one needs to examine not only the pecuniary benefits of the programs but also the non-pecuniary benefits. The micro-loans are mandated for income-generating purpose such as investing in a micro-enterprise. To elaborate, one way that credit programs can benefit the poor is by providing them opportunities to increase their income. Another way that these programs benefit is by empowering women. The credit programs tend to target poor women, thereby providing them with income-generating opportunities that they otherwise lack. A woman's potential contribution to the household income may increase her intra-household bargaining power and empower her. This may have far-reaching consequences in terms of household investment in children's health and education, as well as a woman's wellbeing. In the following thesis, I present two papers that investigate the two different effects of credit programs. The first chapter examines the effect of borrowing from credit and non-credit programs on self-employment profits. The second chapter examines the effect of men's and women's self-employment profits on woman's intra-household bargaining power and how it differs with the gender of the primary borrower. The self-employment activities that are considered were primarily funded by the credit programs or by non-credit sources such as commercial banks and moneylenders

Date-Palm Fiber as a Reinforcement Filler in Polymer Composites

Natural fibers offer a great advantage of being used as a reinforcement in polymer matrix composites because of the many advantages natural fibers offer over conventional reinforcement fillers. Date palm fiber is one of the most available natural fibrous materials in the Middle Eastern region to be exploited as a fiber reinforcement in polymers. In the present work, the fibers extracted from the date palm tree trunk, branches, and leaves were used for the reinforcement of the polypropylene matrix. Electron microscopic images show excellent bonding between the fiber and matrix as no fiber pullout is observed. The thermal (heat deflection temperature) and mechanical properties (Izod impact, tensile and flexural modulus) of the composites increased with an increase in the fiber loading from 20% to 60%, which in turn resulted in excellent mechanical properties in the final product. The work has immense significance in using date palm as an easily available natural resource for a useful product