Development of Sustainable Tourism Destinations and Poverty Alleviation of Bangladesh

Tourism sector has been considered as the crucial sectors of many different countries of the world. And sustainable tourism brings enormous scope as a rapid growing economic sector on the basis of foreign exchange earnings and generation of employment opportunity and thereby elevating poverty from the country. The central aim of this study is to investigate the role of sustainable tourism in alleviating poverty from developing countries, especially the northern part of Bangladesh. For this purpose, the different tourism sites have been selected that are situated in Rajshahi region like Padma Garden, Varendra Museum and Shaheed Kamruzzaman Zoo. Rajshahi, the major tourist destination region in Bangladesh which is very beautiful and flourished that has a great chance to contribute country’s infrastructure and economic development. This study conducts a survey on 200 respondents in three different places of Rajshahi through the structured questionnaires, observation, interview and literature review. An exploratory research method was employed because the nature of the study was descriptive due to the fact that most of the respondents were illiterate or semi illiterate. Besides IBM SPSS Statistics 20 is being used to analyze the data. Through the factor analysis and other measurements tools this study expatiates the social, cultural, economic, environmental and other factors which touching the sustainability of Rajshahi and also provide recommendations about the required steps that needs to be taken into account to palliate and to manage the drawbacks of tourism to make Rajshahi as a sustainable tourism destination. Besides it reveals the relationship between tourism development and poverty alleviation in Bangladesh. The study also suggested few ways by which existing tourism can be promoted and well developed in Bangladesh thereby ensuring sustainable tourism development (STD) and economic growth

Effect of industry changes on quality and sustainability in the luxury apparel value chains : the case of cashmere industry in India : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering, School of Food and Advanced Technology, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Listed in 2022 Dean's List of Exceptional ThesesFigures are re-used with permission.Cashmere is an extremely fine and expensive natural fibre used to make a variety of luxury apparel products. The Kashmir region of India has been the traditional hub for manufacturing cashmere products for centuries and a source of livelihood to many artisan communities. However, changes in the cashmere industry such as the advent of mechanisation, use of blended fibres, exposure to wider markets and lack of quality standards is leading to social, economic, environmental, and quality issues in the craft industry. The aim of this interdisciplinary research was to determine and analyse the effect of these industry changes through the lenses of quality and sustainability. This study was carried out as an ethnographic case study in the context of an industry making transition to the global consumer age. To this end, a single case study was conducted in Kashmir, India using qualitative methodological approaches. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, observations and from secondary sources such as retailer websites and documents. A thematic analysis-based approach was adopted in this research. Findings indicate that there are three distinct cashmere value chains functioning simultaneously in India: a traditional chain, a modern chain and a Geographical Indication-based chain. Among other implications of the industry changes, the two major aspects observed were the marginalization of cashmere artisanal communities and the lack of recognition of distinct product labelling options. This has economic, social and environmental ramifications and leads to quality issues. Therefore, for multiple cashmere value chains which produce a range of products, a product labelling mechanism distinguishing the place of fibre origin, type of the fibre used, and practices adopted during the manufacture is developed. Also, the adoption of Geographical Indications (GI) as a quality and sustainable development tool is considered, and a conceptual model (QASHMIR) is developed to model the sustainable development of the cashmere industry in India. A policy mechanism to implement and monitor the proposed model using the sustainability indicator system is suggested. Through this, a contribution to the body of knowledge surrounding luxury apparel value chains is made for academics, policy makers and industry practitioners

Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome in Young Diabetics

Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome is a condition characterized by imbalance in autonomic reactivity leading to exaggerated heart rate and other symptoms of orthostatic intolerance. In adolescents, it is characterized either by a continuous increase in heart rate of ≥40 bpm as compared to basal heart rate or sustained basal rate of ≥130 bpm.         The objective of the research was to compare the characteristics of adolescent diabetics with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome with the controls.         Methods. Seventy adolescents diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus who were treated at the department of Endocrinology, Government Medical College and Shri Maharaja Hari Singh hospital, Srinagar, J&K, India were selected for the study. Lying to standing test was performed. Heart rate was recorded at the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 10th minutes. Based on the results of lying to standing test, there were selected 25 diabetic adolescents with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. Their characteristics were compared with age- and sex-matched adolescents using unpaired T test. P< 0.05 was considered significant.         Results.  We observed a significantly lower body mass index (p=0.027), as well as a significantly higher fasting blood glucose level (p<0.0001) in diabetics with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.         Conclusion. It may be concluded that lower body mass index and higher fasting blood glucose level may lead to the development of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome in adolescents.

Measuring Impact of Demographic and Environmental Factors on Small Business Performance: A case study of D.I.Khan KPK (Pakistan)

Small businesses play a vital role in economic development as they can provide the economy withefficiency, innovation, competition and job growth. Environment and Entrepreneurs are responsible forsuccesses of the businesses. To know Impact of environment and various characteristics of entrepreneur onsmall business data was collected from 60 respondents randomly selected on structured questionnaire inD.I.Khan. Regression analysis showed positive significant of investment, entrepreneurial experience,business profile and culture with R2=0.638 and F= 11.222. Provision of opportunities to develop skill forbusiness promotion is suggested by researcher

ATM & Biometric Solutions: A Case Study

The paper highlights security features for biometric systems along with application specific to a bank in Pakistan. Further, a comprehensive view of retinal scanning and application within the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm is discussed. Of the various forms of scanning techniques, fingerprint, iris, and facial have been selected as a security measure. However, the application of retinal scans for security within ATMs in Pakistan is novel. Retinal scans face many issues such as external pressures that can make the implementation of retinal scans difficult, proper technological advancements for implementing of retinal scans, costing and whether it will serve as a barrier and whether the overall concept of implementing retinal scans is a workable idea or not. The sample taken was of 80 close ended questionnaires filled along with 4 focus group discussions. The questions related to technology, economics and situational awareness concepts. The concept of automated houses and the use of objects with artificial intelligence were of special interest. It is shown that  external factors especially cost and technological limitations prohibit widespread adoption of biometric based retinal scans and implications for overall privacy and security that is present

Energy efficiency perspectives of femtocells in internet of things : recent advances and challenges

Energy efficiency is a growing concern in every aspect of the technology. Apart from maintaining profitability, energy efficiency means a decrease in the overall environmental effects, which is a serious concern in today's world. Using a femtocell in Internet of Things (IoT) can boost energy efficiency. To illustrate, femtocells can be used in smart homes, which is a subpart of the smart grid, as a communication mechanism in order to manage energy efficiency. Moreover, femtocells can be used in many IoT applications in order to provide communication. However, it is important to evaluate the energy efficiency of femtocells. This paper investigates recent advances and challenges in the energy efficiency of the femtocell in IoT. First, we introduce the idea of femtocells in the context of IoT and their role in IoT applications. Next, we describe prominent performance metrics in order to understand how the energy efficiency is evaluated. Then, we elucidate how energy can be modeled in terms of femtocell and provide some models from the literature. Since femtocells are used in heterogeneous networks to manage energy efficiency, we also express some energy efficiency schemes for deployment. The factors that affect the energy usage of a femtocell base station are discussed and then the power consumption of user equipment under femtocell coverage is mentioned. Finally, we highlight prominent open research issues and challenges. © 2013 IEEE

Application of nonlinear autoregressive neural networks with exogenous inputs (NARX) in seismic fragility analysis of buildings

Rapidly growing societal needs in urban areas are increasing the demand for tall buildings with complex structural systems. Many of these urban areas are located in zones characterized by high seismic activity. Quantifying the seismic resilience of these buildings require comprehensive fragility and risk assessment that integrates iterative nonlinear dynamic analyses to properly account for uncertainties. Under these circumstances, traditional finite element (FE) analysis may become impractical due to the high computational cost associated with fragility analysis. Soft-computing methods can be applied in the domain of nonlinear dynamic analysis to reduce the computational cost of seismic fragility analysis. Taking advantage of the computational efficiency of artificial neural networks, this study presents a framework that employs nonlinear autoregressive neural networks with exogenous input (NARX) in fragility analysis of multi-story buildings. The presented framework uses structural health monitoring data to calibrate a nonlinear FE structural model. The FE model is employed to generate the training dataset for NARX neural networks with acceleration and displacement time histories as input and output for the neural network, respectively. The trained NARX networks are then used to perform incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) for a suite of ground motions. Fragility analysis is next conducted based on the results of IDA obtained from the trained NARX network. The aforementioned framework is illustrated on a twelve-story reinforced concrete building located at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater campus. Results show that NARX networks have the potential to significantly improve the computational efficiency of fragility and reliability analysis of structures in seismically active regions

The Relationship Between Religiosity And Innovation With The Moderating Effect of Organisation Culture and Employee Attitude In United Arab Emirates (UAE)

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of religiosity on innovation and the moderating effects of organisational culture and employee attitude between religiosity and innovation. This study introduces new variables in relation to organisational culture and the attitude of employee as suggested by several scholars, thus making this study unique. In this regard, this study attempts to fill the gap with the analysis of organisational culture and employee attitude in the midst of religiosity and innovation. The business environment in UAE consists of more than 180 nationalities from all cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds. The study also considers that most of the studies regarding organisational performance and innovation have been conducted in a western context, and the culture and values in the UAE are Islamic and Arabic. Through purposive and proportionate quota sampling, 612 samples from various individuals and companies within the construction and engineering sector across UAE were collected. To collect quantitative data, a questionnaire was created adapting questionnaires from past studies in the area, which was piloted and tested through SmartPLS (SEM) for validity and reliability before being sent out for full data collection. Five hundred and fifty-seven samples were fit for use with no missing values. The study further contributes theoretically to the diffusion of innovation theory, showing that religiosity, organisation culture and employee attitude impact innovation which coincide with the theoretical framework. It further contributes through policy implications. Overall, after testing the hypotheses the study summarised that all the variables have impact on each other, and religiosity has a positive impact on innovation. Keywords: Innovation, religiosity, employee attitude, organisational culture, managemen

FREQUENCY OF NEONATAL SEPSIS AMONG NEONATES PRESENTING WITH SEIZURES

BACKGROUND:  Neonatal seizures may be the first and sometimes the only clinical symptom of neonatal central nervous system disease. Neonatal seizures may indicate an underlying treatable cause. Therefore, the identification of neonatal seizures is important in the management of high-risk newborns.  OBJECTIVE:  To determine the frequency of neonatal sepsis among neonates presenting with seizures.  Settings: Department of child health, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar.  Duration: 6 months 13/10/2018 to 13/4/2019.  Study Design: Descriptive (cross sectional) study.  MATERIAL AND METHODS:  In this study a total of 195 patients were observed. All neonates were subjected to detailed clinical examination like general physical, neurological examination and detail systemic examination and complete set of baseline investigations. From all neonates, 5cc of venous blood was obtained under strict aseptic technique and was sent to hospital laboratory for measuring the TLC, Absolute neutrophil count, CRP and platelet count to confirm the presence or absence of neonatal sepsis.   RESULTS:  In this study mean age was 10 days with standard deviation ±8.36. Fifty eight percent neonates were male while 42% neonates were female. More over the 42% neonates had neonatal sepsis while 58% neonates didn’t had neonatal sepsis.  CONCLUSION:  Our study concludes that the frequency of neonatal sepsis was 42% among neonates presenting with seizures.