Mission drift in microfinance institutions of OIC countries: The influence of institutional and macro risk indicators on the mutual exclusion of double bottom lines

With commercialization and transformation taking place in the microfinance industry, the original mission of poverty alleviation may drift toward profit maximization. This thesis thus attempts to investigate the concern of mission drift in the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and how they are influenced by various institutional and macro risk indicators. This quantitative research approach used a panel dataset of 5 years’ observation (2011-2015) of 57 MFIs of the OIC member countries. The ordinary least squares techniques with robust estimation to the general form of the cross sectional and temporal dependency was utilized. The evidence of this study should dispel the widely held apprehension of “mission drift”, rather it reveals that outreach to the lowest strata of poor can actually bolster the financial viability of MFIs. However, positive evidence of mission drift was identified for the regulated and matured MFIs. The results also indicate that non-bank financial institutions and non-governmental organizations have outperformed in social outreach than their counterparts. The findings show that network affiliation has a significant positive impact on the microfinance social mission. Furthermore, the study reveals mixed findings regarding the influence of institutional and macro risk indicators. Maturity, network affiliation and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate show greater influence than others on the relationship between the financial and social performances. The study supports the implication of the trade-off paradigm and the sustainability–driven scaling up approach. Hence, this research concludes that seeking financial sustainability does not necessarily harm the social mission, however, MFIs must find an equilibrium point of balancing their double bottom lines and continue the mission of poverty alleviation in microfinance operations

Forest Soil C: Stock and Stability under Global Change

Both plant biomass and soil C are potential to C sequestration by offsetting atmospheric CO2. In forest, aboveground and root biomass are the major sources of soil C. Estimation of biomass is challenging due to methodological uncertainty at different spatial scale. The role of root-mycorrhizal symbiosis on long-term C storage in soil is yet to be established. Microbial biomass and community structure are crucial for C regulating processes in soil, and the genomic approach is promising for insights of soil microbial processes in relation to C stock and stability. The dynamics of dissolved organic C (DOC) in soil is extremely complex as many biotic and abiotic factors are involved in the release and flux of DOC in soil solution. Typically, the stability of soil organic C refers to recalcitrant, humified substances and physically protected materials, having the residence time of decadal to millennium scale; however, recent studies showed that microbial inaccessibility and physical protection are the dominant mechanisms. Priming is a potential process of decomposing old C and may have an antagonistic impact on soil C stock, particularly stable C in deep soil. Coupling the C pools with the stability processes is necessary for assessment of forest C balance

The rural Bangladeshi courtyard

In rural settlements of the predominant floodplains of Bangladeshi, an intrinsic component is the extended family homestead. The layout of the homestead is defined by the courtyard, formed by the arrangement of dwelling units and ancillary building around an open space. Specific building typologies prevail, in terms of design, construction and building materials. Some typical types of courtyard can be observed, but there are also variations to these types. The courtyard has important physical and functional characteristics derived from the climatic requirements and living patterns. Nonetheless, particularly in this predominantly Muslim society, the cultural aspect of respecting women’s privacy is an important factor behind the development of this archetype. However, other communities living in the floodplains also have courtyards, suggesting that it is also a regional archetype. The archetypal courtyard is subject to transformation or elimination due to social, economic and environmental changes. If this trend becomes widespread, it would signal the loss of an important and long-lasting regional expression that has resulted from blending of culture, climate and nature

Exploring the Determinants of Aspects of Rotational Grazing in the U.S. Great Plains

Pasture and rangeland make up about 45 percent of the agricultural land in the U.S. Great Plains and one of the most common form of mismanagement of this pasture is overgrazing. Which results in many detrimental effects on environment. Many practitioners endorsed Rotational grazing (RG) as an improved grazing management practice over season-long continuous grazing. The overall goal of the current study is to assess the certain aspects of using RG in the U.S. Great Plains. Using mail survey data of the of 874 beef cattle producers of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas, the study found that neighborhood practice, government agencies, education, and slope of a land significantly affect nonadopters perceived benefits of RG practices. The results of the study further reveal that adopters with a higher proportion of grassland, less liability ratio, a lower share of leased land, and located relatively less steep sloped land generally perceive higher benefits from RG practices. The results of the study also indicate that the RG adopters who received cost share generally have higher proportion of grassland, higher ranch income ratio, fewer adoption years, put higher importance to the university extensions as information source, operate an increased proportion of land with LCC I and II, and located further north to the study region. The results from ordered logistic regression model further indicate that producers are more willing to adopt RG practices in the future with different subsidy amounts those who had more farming experiences, had less grassland acreage, and more liability ratio, emphasize the importance of university extensions, neighboring farms adopted the practices in their region. Furthermore, those who perceive lower initial investment and maintenance costs, and located further west/arid region of the study region are more likely to accept subsidy amount to adopt the practices. Our findings suggest that perceived benefits of RG could vary for producers with different ranch characteristics and regional factors and non-adopters with the aforementioned characteristics may be a suitable target group for public fund investment. Therefore, ranch characteristics, regional factors, non-adopters’ characteristics should be considered in future research and outreach programs formulate the incentive levels required to successfully promote the adoption of RG practices in the U.S. Great Plains

An analysis of Factors Contributing to the Increase of Tobacco Consumption in Bangladesh despite Restrictive Anti-Smoking Policies

This paper examines an emerging issue rising up in a developing economy like Bangladesh “Indirect Marketing of Tobacco Productsâ€. This indirect marketing activity is currently moving under the radar of various government monitoring cells. As a result, there is an increase in the number of both underage and legal smokers in the country. The health risks due to the consumptions of the tobacco related products are now one of the widely discussed topics. Worldwide tobacco products are highly discouraged by both medical experts and governments. Governments in both developed and developing countries heavily regulated “Above the Line Marketing Activities†(ATL) utilized by the tobacco companies. Therefore, tobacco companies now employ “Below the Line Marketing Activities†to promote their products. Such activities include point of sale merchandizing, retailer advocacy and various discounting mechanisms. Tobacco companies in Bangladesh also employ such activities to advertise their brand portfolio. Although from a legal point of view, these marketing efforts are only employed to encourage the consumers to switch brands. However, the ripple effect of such marketing activities, growth of cigarette selling outlets (side effects of socio-economic condition of Bangladesh) and inefficiency in rigorous implementation of tobacco laws are encouraging underage/matured population of the country to become occasional smokers, who later on develop habitual smoking despite the restrictive anti-smoking laws. In this research, primary analysis is done through set questionnaires in the Sample Retail Universe (556 retailers randomly chosen from various parts of Bangladesh) along with “Retail Audit†data used to obtain the industry trend analysis. A strong positive correlation can be observed between the industry growth and the different parameters used in the study such as effects of Below the Line Marketing Activity, growth of cigarette selling retail universe and weak implementation anti-smoking policies by the government. The research gives us an insight into the true picture of tobacco industry’s surge with respect to the tobacco consumer behavior and the remedies needed to close the gap

A study of architectural heritage management by the informal community bodies in traditional neighborhoods of old Dhaka

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

A Study of the Relationship of Communication Technology Configurations in Virtual Research Environments and Effectiveness of Collaborative Research

Virtual Research Environments (VRE) are electronic meeting places for interaction among scientists created by combining software tools and computer networking. Virtual teams are enjoying increased importance in the conduct of scientific research because of the rising cost of traditional scientific scholarly communication, the growing importance of shared academic research by geographically dispersed scientific teams, and changes in the corporate research structures. New facilities provided by the Internet technology enhanced this situation. Currently, our knowledge about VRE-based scientific communication and what makes it effective is relatively immature in terms of understanding technology (interface, architecture, and software evaluation), system management (software systems, visualization, scalability), knowledge bases, expert systems, and coordination. Moreover, we do not have a comprehensive classification scheme for virtual research environments primarily from a technological viewpoint. This study provided an analysis of VRE from a technological standpoint and developed a conceptual model that identified factors facilitating collaboration effectiveness with a primary focus on technology. VRE portals were at the core of the investigation as they are the entry points for VRE related information and resource access. First, the study developed a methodological framework for characterizing VREs, applied that framework to examine and classify existing VRE systems, and developed a new classification. Then, the study established a relationship between the technological profiles of various types of VREs and their productivity. Study results show that the technological arrangements of the VRE neither depend upon scientific discipline nor the existing functional typology. The study did not identify a significant presence of communication and collaboration technologies within the VRE systems. However, results indicated that there were a correlation between communication and collaboration technologies and VRE effectiveness

Stopping power and range calculations of protons in human tissues

في هذا البحث، حسبنا قدرة التوقف ومدى البروتونات في الأنسجة البشرية  البيولوجية  الصلبة واللينة  (الدم والدماغ والعظام القشرية الهيكلية والجلد) لكل من الأطفال والبالغين في طاقات تتراوح من 1  Me  إلى 350 MeV. قمنا بجمع البيانات من تقرير 46 ICRU وحساب قدرة التوقف باستخدام صيغة Bethe. وقد استخدمنا طريقة التكامل البسيط (تقريب التباطؤ المستمر) لحساب المدى للبروتونات عند الهدف. بعد ذلك، تمت مقارنة قدرة التوقف وقيمة المدى للبروتونات في أنسجة الإنسان بالبرنامج المسمى SRIM. علاوة على ذلك تم عرض نتائج قدرة التوقف مقابل الطاقة والمدى مقابل الطاقة بشكل بياني. تم  ايجاد علاقة  بين النتائج المكتسبة و SRIM وتتغير بشكل خطي تقريبًا مع طاقة تصل إلى 250 MeVIn this research, the stopping power and range of protons in biological human soft and hard tissues (blood, brain, skeleton-cortical bone, and skin) of both child and adult are calculated at the energies ranging from 1MeV to 350 MeV. The data is collected from ICRU Report 46 and calculated the stopping power employing the Bethe formula. Moreover, the simple integration (continuous slowing down approximation) method is employed for calculating protons range at the target. Then, the stopping power and range of protons value in human tissues have been compared with the program called SRIM. Moreover, the results of the stopping power vs energy and the range vs energy have been presented graphically. Proper agreement is found between the gained and the SRIM results and varies almost linearly with energy up to 250 MeV

A Typology of Virtual Research Environments

Virtual Research Environments (VREs) are online spaces that support communication and collaboration among scientists. Hundreds of VREs have been constructed using various configurations of research tools and information and communication technologies (ICTs) to serve many disciplines and interdisciplinary inquiry. This study characterizes a large sample of VREs in terms of the research and ICT resources they incorporate and derives a typology of VREs based on their particular ICT configurations. The four types are correlated with previous VRE typologies and disciplinary domains. Results indicate that there are correspondences, but that types of ICT configurations also exhibit complex relationships with function and discipline