Software Reliability Models

The problem considered here is the building of Non-homogeneous Poisson Process (NHPP) model. Currently existing popular NHPP process models like Goel-Okumoto (G-O) and Yamada et al models suffer from the drawback that the probability density function of the inter-failure times is an improper density function. This is because the event no failure in (0, oo] is allowed in these models. In real life situations we cannot draw sample(s) from such a population and also none of the moments of inter-failure times exist. Therefore, these models are unsuitable for modelling real software error data. On the other hand if the density function of the inter-failure times is made proper by multiplying with a constant, then we cannot assume finite number of expected faults in the system which is the basic assumption in building the software reliability models. Taking these factors into consideration, we have introduced an extra parameter, say c, in both the G -0 and Yamada et al models in order to get a new model. We find that a specific value of this new parameter gives rise to a proper density for inter-failure times. The G -0 and Yamada et al models are special cases of these models corresponding to c = 0. This raises the question - “Can we do better than existing G -0 and Yamada et al models when 0 \u3c c \u3c 1 ?”. The answer is ‘yes’. With this objective, the behavior of the software failure counting process { N ( t ) , t \u3e 0} has been studied. Several measures, such as the number of failures by some prespecified time, the number of errors remaining in the system at a future time, distribution of remaining number of faults in the system and reliability during a mission have been proposed in this research. Maximum likelihood estimation method was used to estimate the parameters. Sufficient conditions for the existence of roots of the ML equations were derived. Some of the important statistical aspects of G -0 and Yamada et al models, like conditions for the existence and uniqueness of the ML equations, were not worked out so far in the literature. We have derived these conditions and proved uniqueness of the roots for these models. Finally four different sets of actual failure time data were analyzed. i

Socio-Economic Problems of Child Labor in Rajshahi City Corporation of Bangladesh: A Reality and Challenges

Social norms and economic realities mean that child labor is widely accepted and common in Bangladesh. Many families rely on the income generated by their children for survival, so child labor is often highly valued. Additionally, employers often prefer to employ children because they are cheaper and considered to be more compliant and obedient than adults. When children are forced to work, they are often denied their rights to education, leisure and play. They are also exposed to situations that make them vulnerable to trafficking, abuse, violence and exploitation. Millions of children are reported not to attend school, however estimated vary. Among children aged 5-18, about five million, are economically active. "Child labor" is a narrower concept than "working children". Many child laborers miss out on their right to education and fall a victim to hazardous work because they do not have the time to go to school or to study. The present study data show that duration of working hours and hazardous working environment are negatively correlated with school attendance, smooth livelihood and physical and mental development of the children. In this study, total numbers of 560 child laborers were interviewed by the author during June 15 to July 14 in 2010 from Rajshahi City Corporation in Bangladesh. Rajshahi City Corporation has 30 words. To data collect well-organized questionnaire prepared and using interview schedule and face-to-face interviewed from the respondents. Simple random sampling techniques were used.  Various socio-economic and demographics variables were considered at the time of data collection. But in this paper socio-economic variables are used. In addition, secondary data also used from various child labor's relevant books, articles, documents, and officials through Internet browsing. Keywords: Socio-economic problems, Child labor, Rajshahi City Corporation, Banglades

Effectiveness of Education on Health: A Cross-Cultural Comparison between Muslim and Horizon Communities in Rajshahi Metropolitan City of Bangladesh

Education and health are the two very important elements of human capital. Educational knowledge enhances human being to get proper healthcare facilities all over the world. In Bangladesh education and health are the two main fundamental rights of every citizen, which is ensured by the constitution. The present study, the author tried to find out effectiveness of education on health. The purpose of the study was to examine and compare how education influences on health outcome between Muslim and Horizon communities. In this study, total number of 275 (150 for Muslim and 125 for Horizon) respondents were interviewed by the author during April to July, 2012 in the Rajshahi Metropolitan City of Bangladesh. The simple random sampling technique was applied when sample size selected. Various statistical techniques were used during analyzed data, such as mean, median, standard deviation, variance and Pearson correlation with SPSS software in version 15.The present study showed that education was greatly influence over health outcomes. The author found that Muslim community dominated the minor community (Horizon) in the various sphere of life. Most of the respondents studied up to primary level which was 45.09%. 76.73% respondents seemed that proper educational knowledge positively enhanced to get healthy life style. 51.64% respondents seemed that communal destitution is existed to get educational attainment and take healthcare facilities. 68.73% respondents argued that they were concern about families planning methods. 66.18% respondents showed their opinion that educational knowledge made conscious about primary diseases, how and where to take diagnosis and treatment of their suffering diseases. 89.45% respondents expressed their fillings that educational knowledge enhances to get better healthcare facilities. Keywords: Education, Health, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Muslim, Horizon, Bangladesh.

Socio-Economic Obstacles of Women Empowerment in Rural Bangladesh: A Study on Puthia Upazila of Rajshahi District

Women empowerment is the burning question not only Bangladesh but also all over the world. Precondition of proper social and economic development women empowerment is very much needed. But women are neglected in various sectors in Bangladesh. Only training and educational program can be empowered women properly. It is badly needed women empowerment to sound development. Women empowerment makes sure the development process. The present study mainly deals with the obstacles of women empowerment of Puthia Upazila under the district of Rajshahi. It reveals the real obstacles of women empowerment in the following indicators like; Family restriction, Socio-religious restriction and Socio-economic condition of the women in the study area. After collecting the data, the researcher found that 24% women are having restriction from their family to go to school, 30.40%women are getting victimized by early marriage, 53.60% guardians of the women are illiterate and 20% guardians do not have knowledge about importance of empowerment of women in the study area. The maximum respondents possess land between 01and 02 acres while a few numbers of the respondent (12.00%) possess 06 and above acres of land and 38.40% respondents have surplus income. On the other hand, 61.60% respondents do not have surplus income in the study area. Keywords: Socio-economic obstacles, Women empowerment, Rajshahi district, Bangladesh

Trees, Shrubs and Grasses for Saltlands: an Annotated Bibliography

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

How do fuel use and emissions respond to price changes?

Transport fuel use responds negatively to price increases (in both the short and the long run), and positively to population and income increases, according to this report, which describes the differing effects across the various transport modes. In the short run, car fuel use declines about 1.5 per cent with a 10 per cent increase in the petrol price. This rises to about a 4 per cent decline when long-run demand and technology adjustments are made. As the average age of the car fleet is about 10 years, the long run stretches to 15 years and beyond. It is possible that the long-run responsiveness to radically higher fuel prices could even be greater, given threshold effects on consumer choices and technological development. International studies have suggested a response to significantly higher fuel prices of up to —0.7, combining demand and supply side (technology) changes (see References). Truck fuel use is more price-inelastic over the long term than car fuel use. Freight costs comprise 5 to 10 per cent of final goods costs and even at current (June 2008) freight rates, fuel use accounts for only about 30 per cent of freight rates. There is also a very low elasticity of substitution between long distance road and intercapital rail. Trucking fuel use (and activity) also increases more strongly with economic and income growth than does car fuel use. Bulk rail fuel use (most of rail freight) has a growth trend driven largely by commodity export increases and is thereby closely linked to world economic growth. It has a very low response to changes in its fuel costs, as these are built into export prices very rapidly. Aviation fuel use, like road freight and light commercial vehicle use, is considerably faster growing than car fuel use, as aviation travel responds strongly to rising incomes and economic growth. Nevertheless, for domestic aviation fuel use, a 10 per cent increase in aviation turbine fuel prices could be expected to result in a 2 per cent decline in passenger travel. International aviation fuel use is more fuel price elastic, reflecting the more ‘discretionary’ character of some tourism, business and family reunion travel; a 10 per cent increase in aviation turbine fuel could potentially result in a 6 per cent decline in passenger numbers

Development and validation of heat transfer model to predict indoor air temperatures in roofpond buildings

Roofponds mimic the ways in which nature tempers and controls the global climate; they utilize higher heat capacity of water to passively control the temperature of the interior space. From a thermal standpoint, roofponds are strong performers, providing high solar savings fractions, interior temperature stability, enhanced thermal comfort and very low operational power requirements. Moreover, due to convective heat transfer within the water bags, heat gains or losses are quickly distributed throughout the roofpond to create a very homogeneous distribution of heat throughout the floor area covered by the system. Research by Harold Hay and John Yellott (Hay & Yellott, 1968) studied the feasibility of the roofpond system and tried to develop a heat transfer model for roofponds with insulation. During the late 1960s, several of their publications discussed the heating and cooling potential produced by various roofpond strategies. Throughout the 70\u27s and 80\u27s, a number of heat transfer models were developed to simulate different roofpond systems. Researchers at Trinity University tried to simplify the complexity of the simulation model without compromising the accuracy of its prediction. However, only a couple of them considered the whole building\u27s heat transfer mechanisms. This research intends to develop a model to predict the hourly indoor air temperatures in a single-zone building featuring a roofpond. Like most of the passive design strategies, roofponds are difficult to model as they have; too many independent variables, mostly climatic parameters that influence the performance of the roofpond. However, the indoor air temperature of such a passive building (without mechanical conditioning systems) is highly influenced by the change in the daily outdoor air temperature profile as well as the incoming solar radiation. A transfer-function unsteady state model can predict the indoor air temperature of a roofpond building quite accurately. Such model can be greatly handy to design professionals for quick evaluation of such system during the early schematic design phase. The study herewith presented uses data collected from a roofpond test cell located at the NEAT Laboratory of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and implements unsteady-state thermal heat transfer principles to predict average interior temperatures. The three distinct phases of the project are: first, to predict indoor air temperatures using transfer-function heat transfer equations; second, to statistically fine-tune the model by finding the correlation between the predicted and the measured temperature; and third, to validate the model using a different data set. A thermal network model of the roofpond using the transfer-function method with a time step of one hour is used to calculate the indoor air temperature. Measured data of 14 days is used to develop the unsteady state heat-transfer model that can predict the average indoor air temperature. The predicted temperature then is regressed against the measured temperature to find the correlation. The cyclic patterns observed in residuals indicate the daily change in the outdoor temperature profile and imply that time-series model with Fourier series is apt for de-trending the pattern. The model is then empirically modified to increase accuracy. Auto Correlation Factor (ACF) and Partial Auto Correlation Factor (PACF) tests suggested that either Auto Regressive (AR) or Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model would neutralize residuals. The empirically developed AR / ARIMA model is then added with the physical model to predict the interior air temperature. The AR(2) model which yielded the best fit model, was tested against data from another summer month for validation. The proposed validated hybrid model is capable of addressing the change in configuration of the roofpond building and can accurately predict the indoor air temperature

Consumer’s Perception on General Banking Activities of Commercial Banks: A Study in the Banking Context of Bangladesh

To cope up with the competitive and highly regulated banking sector, every bank is trying to put their focus on satisfying its customers. As a result consumers’ need is required to be found out. This research focuses on the issues to find out consumers’ perception on general banking activities of a commercial bank. The paper provides an understanding of different factors that affect consumer perception on general activities of a bank. Here 3 factors are generated with the help of factor analysis. This sort of research is also helpful to find out consumer’s perception in different industries and organizations. Keyword: Factor analysis, General banking activities, Commercial bank

Formal Education and Socio-Economic Condition of Rural People in Bangladesh: A Comparative Study between Literate and Illiterate People on Raninagar Upazilla of Naogaon District

Abstract: The study focuses only the socio-economical condition of the people who take the formal education from any institution. This paper is to explore the difference between literate and illiterate people, their socio-economic condition and their life style in society. The study represent that literate people earn more compared to the illiterate people. Social acceptance of literate respondents was found significant compared to the illiterate respondents in the study area. Formal education developed the people of social relationship, interaction of individuals, groups, institutions and organization of society. Formal education has a positive effect on health .Most of the literate people having good health but illiterate people not having good health. Illiterate people suffer from various diseases. So, it may be declared that the formal education has a positive effect on the society. In this study it is clear that the literate families were found comparatively developed than illiterate families. So, it can be boldly pronounced that there are significant effects of formal education in every sphere of human life and on society. Keywords: Formal Education, Socio-economic Condition, Comparative Study, Literate and Illiterate People, Bangladesh