Delinking of Local and International Prices: Exploring Competition in the Bangladesh Rice Market

We take a broader perspective on the issue of recent price increases in the domestic rice market in Bangladesh. The query that follows is that: what exactly is the nature of competition at different stages of the domestic rice market of Bangladesh? This can be addressed only if we examine the agents, their strategies and incentives at different stages of the rice market value chain. The structure of rice markets in Bangladesh is generally considered to be competitive. But it is entirely possible that market operates quite competitively within one stage, whereas competition is much restricted within another stage. Instead of analyzing competition in the entire market as a single entity, it would be appropriate to analyze competition in each and every stage of the market. Therefore, this study focuses on particular aspects of market competitiveness by explaining incentives and behaviors of different agents in the market, particularly those of large firms operating in the middle of the rice market supply chain. We have examined pricing decisions and bargaining by agents at different stages of the market. We have also studied scope for collusive behavior among large firms in setting prices. In addition, we examined the relationships between the international prices of rice and the domestic wholesale prices

Microinsurance: The Choice among Delivery and Regulatory Mechanisms

We analyse the choice of the appropriate delivery mechanism(s) relevant to various types of microinsurance products in a developmental context like that prevailing in Bangladesh. By examining various delivery mechanisms under different institutional contexts, we analyse the conditions under which they operate best. Then we develop a few criteria that are likely to offer cost efficiency as well as customer acceptance, and judge between different schemes in light of these criteria, and dwell on the interface between the choice of the delivery model and the regulatory stance. Finally, we put forward a set of regulatory and supervisory directives that respect both product and process innovations and uphold the goals of cost efficiency, financial viability and client inclusivity

Using Social Media to Reduce Language Barrier among Foreign Students in Pakistan

Social networking is rapidly changing the communication environment of contemporary social media. Social media's growth has had a profound effect on students' academic lives. Institutions and researchers are actively playing with social networking technologies with the expectation of stimulating strategic thinking, collaboration, and knowledge rising. Today's higher education establishments have adopted social media to communicate for students with teachers, fellow students, and other higher authorities. This necessitated the investigation and analysis of the impact of social media on students' academic lives in this report. The study argued for a qualitative approach to assessing these effects. Thirty international students enrolled at Karachi's university were randomly chosen and questioned over four weeks. Following an examination of the phenomena that motivated the study and transcription of the participants' comments, the results suggest that students in higher education often use social networking and that participants believe that social media plays a major role in their academic success. Social networking applications can augment classroom content and have a beneficial effect on conversations, community service, and authoring. However, since these media are inherently accessible, it is critical to closely understand the advantages, consequences, and pitfalls of transparency, as well as the critical nature of ongoing contact with students in order to discuss their concerns and resolve any problems that arise as a result of social media use. The analysis concludes that as an international student studying in Pakistan, social media contributes to academic creativity

improving the mechanical performance of cement composites by carbon nanotubes addition

Abstract: The addition of high performance nano materials like carbon fibers, carbon nanotubes, graphene etc. in the cement and concrete is gaining attention for achieving multifunctional composite materials with enhanced mechanical, physical and electrical properties. The nano-metric size range and the exceptionally high mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes possess very great potential for their utilization in cementitious composites for obtaining remarkable properties. Billions of ton of concrete is used every year in construction industry and its quantity may be reduced to a large extent only by improving the mechanical and durability properties. One way of achieving the enhanced mechanical properties of cement composite is the utilization of thoroughly dispersed carbon nanotubes in the composite matrix. In the present research, small fractions of multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) i.e. 0.05 and 0.10 wt.% of cement have been incorporated into the cement concrete and their influence on the mechanical properties of the resulting composites have been studied. It is a well-known fact that the uniform dispersion of the MWCNTs in the composite matrix holds the key for the performance improvement. Therefore, special attention was paid to this aspect and uniform dispersion of MWCNTs was achieved through the use of high energy sonication in the presence of modified acrylic based polymer (acting as a surfactant). The concrete specimens were tested in splitting tensile, flexure and compressive strength after 3, 7, 28 and 56 days of immersed water curing. It was observed that the addition of 0.05wt.% MWCNTs increased the splitting tensile strength by 20.58%, flexural strength by 26.29% and compressive strength by 15.60% as compared to the control mix at 28 days of curing. The strength enhancements for the concrete mixes containing MWCNTs may be regarded to the phenomenon of bridging, pinning and branching of the cracks at nano/micro level due to the presence of MWCNTs. Beside strength enhancements, it was also observed that the MWCNTs had tremendously enhanced the fracture energy and breaking strains of the concrete mixes as observed in three-point bending tests. The research concludes that very low amounts of MWCNTs incorporated in the cement concrete mixes improve their mechanical strengths and fracture behavior remarkably but the thorough dispersion of MWCNTs in the matrix have to be insured

Exploiting on-chip memory concurrency in 3d manycore architectures

The objective of this thesis is to optimize the uncore of 3D many-core architectures. More specifically, we note that technology trends point to large increases in memory-level concurrency. This in turn affects the design of the multi-core interconnect and organization of the memory hierarchy. The work addresses the need for re-optimization in the presence of this increase in concurrency of the memory system. First, we observe that 2D network latency and inefficient parallelism management in the current 3D designs are the main bottlenecks to fully exploit the potentials of 3D. To that end, we propose an extremely low-latency, low-power, high-radix router and present its various versions for different network typologies and configurations. We also explore optimizations and techniques to reduce the traffic in the network. Second, we propose a reorganization of the memory hierarchy and use simple address space translations to regulate locality, bandwidth and energy trade-offs in highly concurrent 3D memory systems. Third, we analyze the rise in temperature of 3D memories and propose variable-rate per-bank refresh management that exploits variability in temperature to reduce 3D DRAM's refresh power and extend its operating range to higher temperatures.Ph.D

TRIBAL AREAS OF NWEP (PAKISTAN): LAND AND PEOPLE

There are two types of tribal territories attached with the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), one Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and second, Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA). FATA territories are under the direct administrative control of the Federal Government, which is governed throuh the office of the Governor, being the representative of the President in the province. The PATA territories are under the admiistrative control of the provincial government, administered through the Deput Com missioners (now, District Co-ordination Officers)

Centralized Buffer Router with Elastic Links and Bubble Flow Control

While router buffers have been used as performance multipliers, they are also major consumers of area and power in on-chip networks. In this paper, we propose centralized elastic bubble router - a router micro-architecture based on the use of centralized buffers (CB) with elastic buffered (EB) links. At low loads, the CB is power gated, bypassed, and optimized to produce single cycle operation. A novel extension to bubble flow control enables routing deadlock and message dependent deadlock to be avoided with the same mechanism having constant buffer size per router independent of the number of message types. This solution enables end-to-end latency reduction via high radix switches with low overall buffer requirements. Comparisons made with other low latency routers across different topologies show consistent performance improvement, for example 26% improvement in no load latency of a 2D Mesh and 4X improvement in saturation throughput in a 2D-Generalized Hypercube

Social Business Models for Empowering the Biogas Technology

Biogas is a type of renewable energy which provides clean energy, reduces environmental pollution and greenhouse gas caused by the biological wastes, creates job opportunity for skilled and unskilled persons, and offers new income sources for investors. However, mostly practiced small-scale or family-size biogas plant becomes unsuccessful due to the lack of financial attractiveness. Therefore, it is essential to design a proper financial mode of operation to sustain this technology. The policy makers, investors, and researchers should develop a viable financial mechanism to attract the investors by offering loan with flexible conditions, restructure the subsidies skim, and liberalize the gas grid management and involvement of the end users in biogas project. The engagement of social business concept can stimulate the sustainability of the biogas technology and make it financially gorgeous. This study proposed a number of social business plans and described microeconomic evaluation systems to calculate their commercial viability to improve the survival of biogas technology

Clay bricks prepared with sugarcane bagasse and rice husk ash – A sustainable solution

This study aims to characterize the clay bricks produced by the addition of the two agricultural waste materials i.e. sugarcane bagasse and rice husk ash. Disposing off these waste materials is a very challenging task and is a hazard to environment. The sugarcane bagasse and rice husk ash were collected locally from the cities of Peshawar and Wazirabad, respectively. These were mixed with the clay for brick manufacturing in three different proportions i.e. 5, 10 and 15% by weight of clay. Mechanical i.e. compressive strength and modulus of rupture and durability properties i.e. water absorption; freeze-thaw and sulphate resistance of these bricks were evaluated. Test results indicated that the sulphate attack resistance and efflorescence of clay bricks incorporating sugarcane bagasse and rice husk ash have been increased significantly. However, no significant effect on mechanical properties was observed. Furthermore, the additions of wastes have reduced the unit weight of bricks which decrease the overall weight of the structure leading to economical construction. Therefore, it can be concluded that the addition of waste materials in brick manufacturing can minimize the environmental burden leading towards more economical and sustainable construction

Liposomal Bupivacaine Infiltration Versus Bupivacaine Hydrochloride for the Management of Unilateral Total Knee Arthroplasty in Geriatric Patients at a 287-Bed Community Hospital

Introduction: Geriatric patients receiving total knee arthroplasty (TKA) are found to have similar postoperative complications, functional scores, and perioperative mortality, as compared to younger patients. Conversely, geriatric patients often have longer lengths of stay. Periarticular injection (PAI) of liposomal bupivacaine (LB) as part of the multimodal pain management strategy is thought to improve recovery, however, mixed comparative efficacy data exists for its use in TKA.2-5. Methods: A retrospective, chart review was conducted at a 287-bed community teaching hospital. Orthopedic surgical patients who received an infiltration with liposomal bupivacaine versus bupivacaine HCl for unilateral TKA were compared. Patients identified in the electronic medical record by Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) 470—major joint replacement or reattachment of lower extremity without major complication or comorbidity codes were utilized. Patients who meet the following criteria were included: age 65 and older who underwent a TKA between 8/1/2018 to 7/31/2019 were discharged to home. Patients who have contraindications or hypersensitivity to bupivacaine formulations or a history of opioid dependence were excluded. The primary outcome is to identify whether patients who received an infiltration with liposomal bupivacaine had a lower total opioid consumption during their hospital stay. Results: A total of 114 patients who had a DRG 470 code and were above the age of 65 years were studied. There was no statistically significant difference in mean total opioid consumption (oral morphine equivalents) between the bupivacaine HCl (n = 25) and liposomal groups (n = 85) respectively, 93.76 versus 83.72 mg; P =.569. In addition, patients in both groups had similar lengths of hospital stay, 2.5 versus 3 days; P =.529 and mean pain scores until discharge 3.7 versus 4.34 on VAS; P =.305. Conclusion: The results of this drug utilization evaluation do not support a strong clinical advantage with local infiltration of liposomal bupivacaine over bupivacaine HCl in geriatric patients undergoing primary TKA surgery at this institution. There was not a statistically significant difference in mean total opioid consumption between the 2 groups. Additionally, the use of non-opioid analgesics, mean pain scores, and hospital lengths of stay were similar in both groups