Female Expatriate: The Motivations Behind Expatriate Acceptance, Challenges and Organizational supports (A Case Study of Finnish-Tech Company)

This study aims to investigate the factors that influence female employees' expatriation experiences, including motives, barriers, and support systems. As a link between corporate headquarters and international subsidiaries, expatriates are essential to the worldwide operations of multinational corporations (MNCs). Recognizing the motivations for expatriation is essential for both individuals and companies, as it impacts the satisfaction and achievements of the expatriate journey. According to research, expats are frequently driven by a combination of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. Prospects for career advancement, personal development, and a desire for new experiences are the main reasons people choose to relocate abroad

Economic Factors behind Social Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has pool of entrepreneurs whereas there are also new establishments; new employment opportunities and so are the income sources. For the better measurement of entrepreneurship characteristics, the growth and different indicators impact on entrepreneurship needs to be identified. Thus this paper tries to find out the key economic indicators of entrepreneurship in the context of Bangladesh. The research is based on secondary research; has used entrepreneurship as a dependent variable proxied by self-employment and seven independent variables—per capita income, unemployment rate, labor force, industrial structure change, capital, human capital and literacy rate. Two regression models have been used encompassing the stated variable data from year 2008 to 2018. In the first regression analysis it has been tried to identify whether the model can be constructed with the overall economic variables with the self employment. At second regression model it has been tried to find out whether there is the explain ability of the variables result in the regression analysis and what is the degree and pattern of the relationship. The research shows that literacy rate and human capital have aligned with the self employment. But all the other variables are not matched with the self employment and could not provide the support for self employment to thrive. And the linear regression analysis shows that per capita income, labor force and literacy rate play the most important role in case of nourishing self employment. Unemployment rate is found as contradictory with the findings in the context of Bangladesh

The Impact of View and Accessibility Amenities on High-Rise Residential Properties in the City of Dhaka: A Hedonic Pricing Model

The value of residential properties apparently depends on a number of variables such as the size of the property, number of rooms, types of construction materials used, etc. However, the external attributes, for instance, value of view and accessibility amenities associated with housing, also play important roles when determining the price of real estate. This paper examines how view and accessibility amenities impact the value of high-rise residential properties in the densely inhabited city of Dhaka. The hedonic pricing method is used here to measure these external benefits. This study explores whether view and accessibility amenities are calculated into property prices. It also investigates all the main variables in order to explain the benefits of view and accessibility amenities in hedonic pricing studies. Four residential areas (Dhanmondi, Gulshan, Mirpur, and Uttara) have been selected for the study. The data on consumer's preferred areas for purchasing flats is collected by Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh. Sales data for all of the one hundred and seventy-five (175) apartments were collected from four case study zones (approx. 40 apartments per zone) through property sale advertisements published on real estate websites. Apartment characteristics, view amenities and location variables were used as independent variables. Validity of data (location verification) was verified by using geo-browsers such as Google Map, Google Earth and Street-view. Walking distance was used to measure the travel distance as traffic is unpredictable in the city due to heavy congestion. Findings revealed that view and accessibility amenities are usually an appreciated environmental attribute and property prices also reflect their benefits. Price of apartments increases due to the proximity of park, green areas, water bodies or open spaces. Similarly, there is a positive relationship between apartment price and accessibility to location variables such as reputed school, market and central business district. However, the data analysis shows that there are negligible impacts of those amenities on property price in the newly developed area, Uttara. The findings can be effortlessly utilized by developers as well as clients to determine the value of property before any investment

DEVELOPMENT OF ALGINATE NANOSPHERES AS A PROTEIN DELIVERY DEVICE FOR CARTILAGE TISSUE ENGINEERING

Delivery of bioactive proteins is a valuable strategy in cartilage tissue engineering (CTE) because of their ability to regulate the gene expression and extracellular matrix (ECM) production of engineered cartilage. This, however, has been challenged by the nature of bioactive proteins including their instability, poor tissue penetration ability, short half-life and a relatively high price. Development of nanospheres as a protein delivery device should solve these issues by promoting the temporal and spatial presentation of such bioactive proteins in a defined target for the enhanced half-life time and effectiveness. Among various polymer-based micro/nanospheres, alginate micro/nanospheres have been widely used as a protein delivery device because of their mild and easy protein encapsulation process, inert nature, non-toxicity and biocompatibility. However, one of the major limitations of using alginate as a protein delivery device is its high initial burst release due to its high porosity and instability if exposed in a higher pH release media. To address these issues, this study aimed to develop the protein loaded alginate nanospheres as a delivery device with a reduced initial burst release. The hypothesis was, “Increasing the alginate concentration, cross-linking time or drying time reduces the initial burst release independently of associated changes to the size and number of nanospheres.” Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) was used as a model protein in this study to evaluate the performance of alginate nanospheres as a protein delivery device, while protein loaded alginate nanospheres were prepared via a combination of water-in-oil emulsification and external gelation method. The process parameters tested to reduce the initial burst release include, alginate concentration, cross-linking time and drying time. The effects of these process parameters on the nanosphere size and distribution pattern, relative number of microspheres, initial burst release, protein release kinetics and encapsulation efficiency (EE%) were investigated. Also, if the change in size and relative number of nanospheres by varying these process parameters affected the initial burst release was investigated. It has been illustrated that by properly increasing the alginate concentration, cross-linking time and drying time it was possible to reduce initial burst release by 13%, and among various process parameters only the alginate concentration showed a significant effect on the initial burst release, when considered alone. Also, it was confirmed that during determination of the effect of various process parameters the relative number of nanospheres significantly affected the initial burst release. Taken together, this study demonstrates that regulating various process parameters is a mean to reduce initial burst release of alginate nanospheres, urging more studies on alginate nanospheres for their potential application in CTE

Enhancing the Modelling of Travel Demand Using an Activity-Based Approach

RÉSUMÉ Cette thèse vise à enrichir le processus actuel de la modélisation de la demande de transport dans la Grande Région de Montréal (GRM) en utilisant une approche basée sur le modèle d’activités TASHA (Travel Activity Scheduler for Household Agents). TASHA a été développé en se basant sur des données provenant des déplacements de l'enquête Transportation Tomorrow Survey (TTS) de 1996 pour la Grande Région de Toronto (GRT). Cette recherche vise à appliquer le modèle TASHA dans le contexte montréalais en utilisant l’enquête de déplacements Origine-Destination (O-D) de 2003 et les données du recensement canadien de 2001. TASHA simule, pour un jour typique de la semaine, les horaires quotidiens d'activités (individuelle et combiné) de l’ensemble des personnes dans la région. Cette étude vise à évaluer la transférabilité du modèle TASHA à une autre région métropolitaine en comparant les caractéristiques des activités observées et simulées par TASHA (fréquence d'activité, heure de début, durée et distance) pour cinq activités différentes (travail, étude, magasinage, retour à domicile et autres). Ces comparaisons sont effectuées à trois niveaux d'agrégation : niveau macro pour l’ensemble de la population, niveau méso par segments de population et niveau micro à l’échelle individuelle.----------ABSTRACT This thesis aims to enhance the current modelling approach of travel demand of the Greater Montreal Area (GMA) using an activity-based approach, TASHA (Travel Activity Scheduler for Household Agents). It is also an effort to contribute to the validation and enhancement in the activity-based modelling framework by demonstrating a validation procedure of activity-based models and proposing some improvements. TASHA has been developed based on trip diary data from the 1996 Transportation Tomorrow Survey (TTS) for the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Canada. This research applies TASHA in the context of the Island of Montreal, Canada, using the 2003 Origin-Destination (O-D) travel survey and the 2001 Canadian Census. TASHA simulates daily schedules of activities (individual and joint) for all individuals in this region. This research assesses the spatial transferability, as a validation test, of the TASHA model by comparing model simulated to observed activity attributes (activity frequency, start time, duration, and distance) for different activities. The validation has been performed at three different levels, macro-level (aggregation of the entire population), meso-level (aggregation by population segments by age group and gender, and by home location), and micro-level (individuals)

From Theory to Practice: The Need for Language Labs in Pakistan

This paper addresses the need of language labs in Pakistani educational institutions to teach English as a communicative language in context to which the students’ capabilities and skills are marred by their limitations in communicative English language. The study is an effort to reconcile the local educational priorities with global imperatives by educating Pakistani students to become cosmopolitan individuals from the linguistic status perspective of English as a global language. The study is offered as a contribution to fill the gap in ELT studies by incorporating modern technology in Pakistani educational institutions. The main research questions focus on the need to establish language labs, their impact in improving the attractiveness of educational institutes for students and on the redesigning the current English syllabus between theory and practice on the basis of 3 to 1 ratio respectively as in the teaching of science and computer science subjects. The research tools employed are questionnaire for the students and the semi-structured interview for teachers to explore their views located in different departments of three private sector universities in urban Lahore. The findings of the research suggest that language labs in educational institutes are desperately needed to integrate the four component of English language and to improve the attractiveness of educational institutes by making English language teachers and learners active participants in the process of teaching and learning. The division of the English syllabus into theory and practice has the potential to improve English language learners’ communication skills to cope with the demands of ever-changing world. Farhana Yasmin is a Senior Lecturer, Department of English Language & Literature in Lahore Garrison University, Lahore, Pakistan

Effects of Environmental-Friendly Cutting Fluids on Surface Roughness and Tool Wear in Laser-Assisted High Speed Milling of Aluminium Alloy and 316 Stainless Steel

Laser-assisted high speed milling is a subtractive machining method that employs laser to thermally soften material’s surface in order to enhance machinability at high material removal rate with improved surface finish and tool life. Its counterpart includes an ultrasonic-assisted milling where ultrasonic source is connected to the cutting tool. It has demonstrated effective in terms of acquiring good surface topography and high surface finish. However, the application of the latter is limited at low speed and low feed rate, thus not widely applicable for high volume production. In this study, an ultrasonic-induced droplet delivery method and minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) are proposed. To minimize environmental and food insecurity of edible oils, a water-soluble sago starch cutting fluid is newly prepared. Thus, the primary objective of this study is to experimentally investigate the effects of ultrasonic-induced droplet vegetable-based cutting fluid and MQL water-soluble sago starch cutting fluid on surface roughness of alloys and tool’s flank wear using response surface methodology (RSM), and predict the machining characteristics by extreme learning machine (ELM). The entire experimentation is conducted based on a laser-assisted high speed milling of aluminuim alloy and 316 stainless steel. The experimental setup consists of a mini milling machine, a cutting fluid delivery mechanism, and a laser machine. In this study, the feed rate, cutting speed, laser power and flow rate of droplet are considered as the major input process parameters. In order to observe the comparison, the experiments with same machining parameters are carried out with conventional methods. Ultrasonic-induced droplet cutting fluid shows favourable reduction in surface roughness and flank wear by 14.74% and 6.57%, respectively. Whilst water-soluble sago starch cutting fluid demonstrates the reduction in surface roughness and flank wear by 48.23% and 38.43%, respectively. Based on RSM, the system errors between the results of measured values using verification experiments and predicted values of the regression model for surface roughness and flank wear are found out to be within only 4%. Furthermore, using the ELM, the obtained data is modeled to predict surface roughness and flank wear and showed good agreement between observations and predictions for both proposed methods

Reaching Happiness beyond Emancipation: A Study on the Human-Centric Role of Linde in A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen’s drama A Doll’s House portrays the late 19th century Norway where protagonist Nora and her eventual manifestation of Feminism are almost all the time at the centre of critical attention. But Mrs. Kristina Linde is also a character of magnanimous stature with her enthusiastic sense of belonging and heart-felt services to family and society. In this manner, the human-centric role provides Linde with satisfaction that amounts to happiness, taking her ways ahead of emancipation in a world where women’s emancipation from sufferings is still an unresolved issue. Notably, Linde’s human-centric role gains authenticity as a true means of women’s emancipation by reflecting higher knowledge which is essential for any human affair to be true and real. Thus, this paper aims at exploring how Mrs. Kristina Linde in A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, being in her family and society and playing vital roles accordingly, derives happiness proving the truth that all women can be human-centric in family and society, and can have happiness going far ahead of emancipation changing the global scenario of women’s misery. The methodology of thematic analysis was followed in this research. The research may contribute in propounding human-centric family and social life as the proper means of women’s emancipation

An account of Natural material based Non Volatile Memory Device

The development in electronic sector has brought a remarkable change in the life style of mankind. At the same time this technological advancement results adverse effect on environment due to the use of toxic and non degradable materials in various electronic devices. With the emergence of environmental problems, the green, reprogrammable, biodegradable, sustainable and environmental-friendly electronic devices have become one of the best solutions for protecting our environment from hazardous materials without compromising the growth of the electronic industry. Natural material has emerged as the promising candidate for the next generation electronic devices due to its easy processing, transparency, flexibility, abundant resources, sustainability, recyclability, and simple extraction. This review targets the characteristics, advancements, role, limitations, and prospects of using natural materials as the functional layer of a resistive switching memory device with a primary focus on the switching/memory properties. Among the available memory devices, resistive random access memory (RRAM), write once read many (WORM) unipolar memory etc. devices have a huge potential to become the non-volatile memory of the next generation owing to their simple structure, high scalability, and low power consumption. The motivation behind this work is to promote the use of natural materials in electronic devices and attract researchers towards a green solution of hazardous problems associated with the electronic devices.Comment: 32 pages, 8 figures, 2 table