Impact of garment industries on road safety in metropolitan Dhaka

There are about 4,000 garment industries in Bangladesh, most of them are clustered in and around the capital city. Together they account for 75 percent of the country's export earnings and employ around 1.8 million people which is almost one half of the total industrial workforce of the country. Though it is the most important economy sector of Bangladesh, unplanned and haphazardly built garment factories are also inducing many social, housing and most importantly urban transportation problems which are a great cause of concern. This study investigates the impact of garment industries on transportation, in particular road safety issues of garment workers. Data is collected to identify the locational problems of garment factories, spatial distribution of worker residences, and their travel pattern as well as to assess their walking and road crossing problems. Finally, recommendations are put forward to tackle transport problems arising from these unplanned establishments of export oriented garments industries in Dhaka Metropolitan City

Some aspects of reproductive biology of two sciaenids, Otolithes cuvieri Trewavas and Johnius elongatus Mohan: maturation, spawning, sex ratio and fecundity

The gonads of Otolithes cuvieri and Johnius elongatus are described in seven maturity stages. O. Cuvieri spawns once a year from April to September as evidence by ova diameter frequency distribution and GSI values. 50% maturity is attained at 210mm TL in males and 200mm TL in females. Fecundity ranged from 2387 to 104379 with a mean value of 33502. Log-Log relationship between fecundity and total lenght, body weight and ovary weight were determined. An overall sex ratio of 1.54:1.00 was unequal in favour of males. Johnius elongatus spawns twice a year from January-February to Aprile-May and from August to October as evidence by ova diameter frequency distribution and GSI values. 50% maturity is attained at 140-143mm TL in both sexes. Fecundity ranged from 4238 to 167669 with a mean value of 42818. Log-Log relationship between fecundity and total lenght, body weign and ovary weight were determined. An overall sex ratio of 1.00:1.20 was unequal in favour of females

Sex ratio of the sole Euryglossa orientalis (Bl. & Schn.) (family: Soleidae) from the Karachi coast

This paper present a study on sex ratio and reveals segregation or aggregation of males and females in accordance with environmental conditions, the differential behaviour of sexes, and due to fishing

Eco-friendly dyeing of wool and pashmina fabric using Quercus robur L. (fruit cups) dye and Salix alba L. (wood extract) mordant

Study was conducted to investigate the dyeing potential of Quercus robur L. (fruit cups) dye and Salix alba L. (wood extract) mordant on wool and pashmina fabrics. The experiment was conducted keeping in view the environmental safety by using unutilized plant materials and excluding the usage of chemical agents. The dyeing was carried out individually including and excluding mordant adopting different mordanting methods. The parameters like percent absorption, colour coordinates, colour strength (K/S), relative colour strength and colour fastness with regard to washing, light and rubbing were investigated. The results revealed higher percent absorption of mordanted samples than unmordanted samples. Colour coordinates (L*a*b*, Chroma, hue and ?E) of dyed wool and pashmina fabric exhibited satisfactory results. The colour strength (K/S) and relative colour strength of pashmina fabric recorded higher than wool fabric. The fastness properties to washing, light and rubbing showed satisfactory grades including and excluding natural mordant. However, the grades of mordanted samples were found better than unmordanted samples. The dye and mordant in isolation and in combination showed beautiful colours and shades on selected fabrics with satisfactory retention properties, hence can be utilized commercially for coloration of wool and pashmina fabrics

Farmers Guidebook on Carp Production

A comprehensive guideline for smallholder farmers on commercial carp fish farming and dyke cropping

Using a surrogate safety approach to prioritize hazardous segments in a rural highway in a developing country

Road safety is a global concern particularly in developing countries where some road sections are disproportionately more vulnerable in terms of the frequency and severity of crashes. Other than using historical crash data based reactive approaches, those sections need to be identified proactively, so that mitigation measures can be applied. Moreover, those approaches are sometimes questioned mainly due to data reliability issues in developing countries. The study reported here is aimed at highlighting the applicability of traffic conflict techniques as surrogate safety measures to identify those sections of a rural highway in a developing country, which are most likely at risk. An adapted framework is demonstrated to identify traffic conflicts using combined surrogate indicators acknowledging the limited resources and facilities in developing countries. A new model is put forwarded using a count data modelling approach. Both fixed and random parameters model derivatives have been explored as an alternative methodological approach to relate the factors affecting the number and probability of conflicts. The partial effects of individual independent variables were estimated to gain a better insight of their impact. The results show that the model can predict high risk segments in terms of probability of conflicts as well as safety risk, as well as prioritize road sections according to the likelihood of their safety level. The model provides a less expensive alternative to the collection of historical crash data in order to identify hazardous road locations or black spots on two-lane highways in developing countries

Eclipse simulation file and Petrel grid

Data of Carbon-di-oxide simulation plan after abandonment of Titas gas field. Grid file is prepared using Petrel software and the whole simulation is run in Schlumberger Eclipse software

Optimization of tensile behavior of banana pseudo-stem (Musa acuminate) fiber reinforced epoxy composites using response surface methodology

Banana pseudo-stem fibers used as a reinforcing material in synthetic matrix polymers have offered various advantages as they are environmentally friendly, have relatively low density and are abundantly available. The main factors that influence the mechanical behavior of natural composites are fiber length, fiber content, and chemical treatment. This study optimized the blending parameters of banana pseudo-stem epoxy composites through response surface methodology (RSM) based on Box–Benhken design. The predicted tensile strength value for these composites as a function of an independent variable was obtained from the ANOVA statistical approach. The analysis of the results showed that fiber length, fiber content and sodium hydroxide variables significantly in 2 factors interaction (2FI) model terms. This model was used to determine the maximum tensile stress and it was closely agreement with experimental finding with the value of R2 = 0.9973. The optimum conditions for tensile strength were identified as fiber length 3.25 mm, sodium hydroxide content 5.45 (wt%), and fiber loading 29.86 (wt%). The maximum tensile strength of optimum banana pseudo-stem epoxy composite was increased by 22% over the epoxy-resin system