Modeling Departure Time Choice of Car Commuters in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Dhaka, one of the fastest-growing megacities in the world, faces severe traffic congestion leading to a loss of 3.2 million business hours per day. While peak-spreading policies hold the promise to reduce the traffic congestion levels, the absence of comprehensive data sources makes it extremely challenging to develop econometric models of departure time choices for Dhaka. This motivates this paper, which develops advanced discrete choice models of departure time choice of car commuters using secondary data sources and quantifies how level-of-service attributes (e.g., travel time), socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., type of job, income, etc.), and situational constraints (e.g., schedule delay) affect their choices. The trip diary data of commuters making home-to-work and work-to-home trips by personal car/ride-hailing services (957 and 934 respectively) have been used in this regard. Given the discrepancy between the stated travel times and those extracted using the Google Directions API, a sub-model is developed first to derive more reliable estimates of travel time throughout the day. A mixed multinomial logit model and a simple multinomial logit model are developed for outbound and return trip, respectively, to capture the heterogeneity associated with different departure time choice of car commuters. Estimation results indicate that the choices are significantly affected by travel time, schedule delay, and socio-demographic factors. The influence of type of job on preferred departure time (PDT) has been estimated using two different distributions of PDT for office employees and self-employed people (Johnson’s SB distribution and truncated normal respectively). The proposed framework could be useful in other developing countries with similar data issues

Colorectal Cancer: A Review of Carcinogenesis, Global Epidemiology, Current Challenges, Risk Factors, Preventive and Treatment Strategies

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most deadly cancer. Global incidence and mortality are likely to be increased in the coming decades. Although the deaths associated with CRC are very high in high-income countries, the incidence and fatalities related to CRC are growing in developing countries too. CRC detected early is entirely curable by surgery and subsequent medications. However, the recurrence rate is high, and cancer drug resistance increases the treatment failure rate. Access to early diagnosis and treatment of CRC for survival is somewhat possible in developed countries. However, these facilities are rarely available in developing countries. Highlighting the current status of CRC, its development, risk factors, and management is crucial in creating public awareness. Therefore, in this review, we have comprehensively discussed the current global epidemiology, drug resistance, challenges, risk factors, and preventive and treatment strategies of CRC. Additionally, there is a brief discussion on the CRC development pathways and recommendations for preventing and treating CRC. View Full-Tex

Andrographis paniculata

As aboriginal sources of medications, medicinal plants are used from the ancient times. Andrographis paniculata is one of the highly used potential medicinal plants in the world. This plant is traditionally used for the treatment of common cold, diarrhoea, fever due to several infective cause, jaundice, as a health tonic for the liver and cardiovascular health, and as an antioxidant. It is also used to improve sexual dysfunctions and serve as a contraceptive. All parts of this plant are used to extract the active phytochemicals, but the compositions of phytoconstituents widely differ from one part to another and with place, season, and time of harvest. Our extensive data mining of the phytoconstituents revealed more than 55 ent-labdane diterpenoids, 30 flavonoids, 8 quinic acids, 4 xanthones, and 5 rare noriridoids. In this review, we selected only those compounds that pharmacology has already reported. Finally we focused on around 46 compounds for further discussion. We also discussed ethnobotany of this plant briefly. Recommendations addressing extraction process, tissue culture, and adventitious rooting techniques and propagation under abiotic stress conditions for improvement of phytoconstituents are discussed concisely in this paper. Further study areas on pharmacology are also proposed where needed

Profit efficiency and influencing factors for the inefficiency of maize production in Bangladesh

This study examines the profit efficiency and the responsible factors for inefficiency in 350 hybrid maize growers in selected areas of Bangladesh by using the profit frontier function and inefficiency effects model. A multistage stratified random sampling procedure was used for data collection. This study proves that maize production is profitable. The average net return is 32392 BDT/acre and the benefit-cost ratio was more than 2. Farmers use more organic manure, but less chemical fertilizer than recommended doses. The outcomes also disclosed a profit efficiency score of 0.71, which indicates a 29% profit inefficiency. The average net benefit was 32392.40 BDT/acre and profit-loss 16975.99 BDT/acre. This implies that the enhancement of allocative, technical, and scale efficiencies can reach a potential profit of 49368.39 BDT/acre. This study found that age, educational level, extension experience, and non-farm income were the main factors for profit inefficiency. This study suggests that farming efficiency can be increased remarkably by enhancing the educational status and proper extension services. Furthermore, the necessary steps for promoting an effective system of soil management with good irrigation facilities and increasing agricultural training will improve efficiency

Does children's independent mobility matter? Insights into escorting practices in a developing country

Understanding children's mobility behaviour and parents escorting practices are important to developing a children-friendly society. But only a few studies concerning children’s mobility behaviour have focused on developing countries. In this study, we attempted to develop an econometric model to understand escorting practices in a developing country. A multinomial logit (MNL) model is developed using travel diary data of 398 elementary school-going children, inhabiting in Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) area of Bangladesh. We have considered different combinations of environmental (both school and neighbourhood environment), socio-cultural, household, and personal factors to explain children’s independent mobility behaviour for both school and discretionary trip purposes. The findings suggested that children’s individual (e.g. education level) and parents’ sociodemographic (e.g. income, access to cars, mother’s education level) facilities available at school, and built-environmental factors (e.g. commercial density, road density, land use mix and proximity to open spaces) are significantly associated with parent’s choice for chauffeuring their children in CCC area. Results will be useful to planners and policy makers for formulating effective measures to promote children’s independent mobility and will be a guideline for urban planners to include children’s mobility demand for the neighbourhood as well as city design

Catastrophic risk perceptions and the analysis of risk attitudes of Maize farming in Bangladesh

Risk perceptions and attitudes play a crucial role in agriculture. However, few researches on risk management have been conducted in developing countries. Therefore, keeping view on this knowledge gap, this research made an attempt to measure farmers' perceptions of catastrophic risks, their risk attitude and to assess the influence of farm and farm household features by using probit model, Equally Likely Certainty Equivalent approach and risk matrix. The data were collected through a stratified random sampling method where 350 maize farmers were interviewed from four different agro-ecological districts in Bangladesh. The results showed that most farmers had a risk averse attitude, and floods, heavy rains, pests, and diseases posed potential threats to maize production in the study area. Age, educational status, income, and land ownership were the key determinants for risk attitude while social and farm features play an insignificant role for the farmer's risk perceptions. The vibrant interpretations may further improve understanding of the risk management decisions and will help policymaker to better anticipate which farmer will adopt government support tool in the presence of traditional risk management tools. Also, the extension authority can improve their programs to guide the farmer in a better way to improve the risk management situation

Economic Viability and Socio-Environmental Impacts of Solar Home Systems for Off-Grid Rural Electrification in Bangladesh

This study conducted a questionnaire-led survey to explore the financial feasibility and socio-environmental impacts of stand-alone solar home systems (SHS) through stratified random sampling. Based on the above consideration, fifteen cases of studies of various watt peak (Wp) capacities have been investigated to evaluate the economic viability of solar home systems. The results revealed that most of the cases have positive net present value (NPV) and low payback periods, with an internal rate of return (IRR) value ranging from 16% to 131%, which signifies a high rate of investment exchange. Solar home systems are economically profitable for micro-enterprises and households with low-income generation activities as opposed to the households using it only for lighting. The study found that solar home systems with a capacity above 30 Wp are the most economically viable option, which can also avoid 6.15 to 7.34 tonnes of CO2 emissions during the 20 years of life-cycle, while providing different applications including lighting, recreation, information, health, and economic benefits