Workers’ Migration and Remittances in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has sent more than 6.7 million workers to over 140 countries during a period of more than three decades since the mid-1970s. Most of these workers temporarily migrate to work in Middle East and Southeast Asia. This mass movement of temporary migrant workers has, to some extent, eased unemployment pressures on the over-burdened labor market in this highly populated country. More importantly, the remittance transfers received from these migrant workers have reached a phenomenal level of over 10 billion US dollar in 2009, approximately 12 percent of GDP in Bangladesh. This paper analyzes the trends and various other aspects of workers’ migration and remittances in Bangladesh. It further discusses the micro and macroeconomic impacts of remittances. While most remittance transfers have been used by migrant-sending households for consumption, there is evidence to show that these transfers have helped reduce poverty in Bangladesh. The analysis presented in this paper further indicates that these remittances may have significant effects on other macroeconomic variables as well.

Lessons Learned and Next Steps in Energy Efficiency Measurement and Attribution: Energy Savings, Net to Gross, Non-Energy Benefits, and Persistence of Energy Efficiency Behavior

This white paper examines four topics addressing evaluation, measurement, and attribution of direct and indirect effects to energy efficiency and behavioral programs: Estimates of program savings (gross); Net savings derivation through free ridership / net to gross analyses; Indirect non-energy benefits / impacts (e.g., comfort, convenience, emissions, jobs); and, Persistence of savings

Examining the Value of Collaboration Systems in Collocated Teams: A Longitudinal Analysis

This study examines user perceptions regarding the value of collaboration systems from a longitudinal perspective. Resource management support, coordination support, and evaluation support are highlighted as key aspects based on which the users form cognitions about collaboration system value. Based on technology acceptance model and expectation disconfirmation theory, we propose a model that examines the evolution of user cognitions from pre-usage to post-adoption stage. The results show that the basis on which users form their cognitions about collaboration systems change over time. At the pre-usage stage, coordination support was found to be the most important determinant of value. At the post- adoption stage, evaluation support assumed more importance. Further, at the post-adoption stage the impact of confirmation on usefulness perceptions is partially mediated by user perceptions regarding evaluation support, providing interesting insights on the cognition revision process. The study offers implications for research and practice

An Exploratory Study of Information Systems Usage Profiles from a Longitudinal Perspective

Past research on Information Systems (IS) usage has mainly focused on the presence of usage and time of usage from a cross-sectional perspective, which provides limited understanding about what usage profiles exist and how these profiles change over time. We address this gap by leveraging a data set that captures IS usage profiles from IS usage log data over 18 months. Through cluster analysis based on two dimensions (number of IS features used and the depth of such usage), we found that the longitudinal profiles represent five distinct trajectories: minimalists, centrists, maximizers, decliners, expanders. Expanders start with a low usage profile and expand the usage over time, while all other four groups started the usage at a medium or high usage level and then made different adjustments over time. Moving forward it will be interesting to evaluate cognitive and behavioral differences across these profiles

Progression from ocular hypertension to visual field loss in the English hospital eye service

Background There are more than one million National Health Service visits in England and Wales each year for patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension (OHT). With the ageing population and an increase in optometric testing, the economic burden of glaucoma-related visits is predicted to increase. We examined the conversion rates of OHT to primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in England and assessed factors associated with risk of conversion. Methods Electronic medical records of 45 309 patients from five regionally different glaucoma clinics in England were retrospectively examined. Conversion to POAG from OHT was defined by deterioration in visual field (two consecutive tests classified as stage 1 or worse as per the glaucoma staging system 2). Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine factors (age, sex, treatment status and baseline intraocular pressure (IOP)) associated with conversion. Results The cumulative risk of conversion to POAG was 17.5% (95% CI 15.4% to 19.6%) at 5 years. Older age (HR 1.35 per decade, 95% CI 1.22 to 1.50, p<0.001) was associated with a higher risk of conversion. IOP-lowering therapy (HR 0.45, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.57, p<0.001) was associated with a lower risk of conversion. Predicted 5-year conversion rates for treated and untreated groups were 14.0% and 26.9%, respectively. Conclusion Less than one-fifth of OHT patients managed in glaucoma clinics in the UK converted to POAG over a 5-year period, suggesting many patients may require less intensive follow-up. Our study provides real-world evidence for the efficacy of current management (including IOP-lowering treatment) at reducing risk of conversion

Gubernatorial Reputation and Vertical Tax Externalities: All Smoke, No Fire?

This paper investigates whether reputation-building strategies guide U.S. governors’ responses to changes in federal cigarette taxes (i.e. vertical tax interactions). Using 1975-2000 state cigarette tax data, we find that reputation-building strategies affect the nature of vertical tax externalities. Lame duck governors exhibit a more negative response to changes in the federal cigarette tax. Thus, by reducing the state tax base and by causing a decline in the state tax, an increase in the federal tax rate reduces state tax revenues in states headed by lame ducks

A Cross-Sectional Study Exploring the Physical Activity Levels of Afghans and Other South Asian Youth in the UK

Introduction: Participating in regular physical activity (PA) has numerous benefits, such as reducing obesity, chronic degenerative conditions, and depression. Despite many health-related benefits, physical inactivity is increasing in young people worldwide, especially in ethnic minority groups, such as British South Asians (BSAs). The aim of this study was to explore the PA levels of BSAs, specifically focusing on youth from Afghan, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Indian groups. Methods: A total of 191 (Afghans N = 44; Bangladeshi N = 39; Indian N = 56, Pakistani N = 52) youth from the West Midlands (UK) participated in this study (mean age 15.4 ± 0.5). The International Physical Activity Questionnaire—Short Form was used to measure PA levels. Data were modelled using a Bayesian approach to determine differences in PA levels. Results: The results indicated that 88.5% Afghans, 80% Bangladeshi, 78.6% Indians and 63% Pakistani reported engaging in <30 min of PA per day. Additionally, boys were more active than girls across all ethnic groups. Discussion: This study highlighted an alarmingly low proportion of young people from each BSA ethnic group meeting the PA guidelines. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore and compare PA levels of the young British Afghan population, thus contributing novel findings to the area of BSA PA. Conclusion: Overall, the vast majority of BSA young people failed to meet the recommended PA guidelines of 60 min per day. Future research could utilise objective methods, such as Global Positioning System, pedometers and accelerometery to track and monitor PA levels, and could adopt an ecological approach to explore determinants of PA within each ethnic and gender group

Mass transfer efficiency of a tall and low plate free area liquid pulsed sieve-plate extraction column

Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge Chakwal group of industries for funding the project. Ms. Madiha, Ms. Zona, Mr. Sohaib, Mr. Abdullah, Mr. Mudassar, and Mr. Salahuddin also deserve our acknowledgements for their assistance in different ways.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Knowledge and awareness of pregnant women about ultrasounsd scanning and prenatal diagnosis

Objective: Antenatal screening and ultrasound scan has become an integral part of the antenatal care in the present time. The aim of this study is to accurately describe the background knowledge and awareness of pregnant women about ultrasound scan and prenatal diagnosis.Methods: It is a clinic based cross sectional study. Four hundred women, attending the antenatal clinics, were asked to fill in a pre tested structured questionnaire. Different variables of interest were collected. Statistical Program for the social sciences (SPSS) was used for the data management.Results: Over 93.5% of the women were aware that ultrasound examination is an important investigation. They believed that it should be performed at least twice during pregnancy but were not sure about the timing of the test. Most of them felt that it was to check the growth of the baby and 97% of women considered ultrasound to be safe. However, only 26% of women had any knowledge about Down\u27s syndrome or its screening.Conclusion: Pregnant women in our set-up are aware of importance of ultrasound examination during pregnancy. However, there is a need to improve public awareness of problems like Down\u27s syndrome

Website Intelligence: Conceptual Development and Empirical Assessment

As web sites proliferate, offering more of the same, why does a customer choose one web site over the others? Among other factors, website intelligence offers a viable answer to this question. However, past studies fall short of providing a comprehensive conceptualization or effective metric of website intelligence, limiting our ability to enhance the intelligent aspects of web sites. Integrating prior research findings, we propose website intelligence as a second order construct consisting of three sub-dimensions of content, presentation, and interaction, and develop new measures for these dimensions. Further, we theorize the website intelligence construct as a mediator of the system quality and information quality effects on user perceptions of usefulness and ease of use, and test the proposed model using PLS on data collected from an experiment. The newly developed measure exhibits strong psychometric properties. The results largely support the proposed mediating role of website intelligence