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Purpose: Corporate corruption reporting (CCR) is an emerging issue of the corporation for measuring transparency, integrity and accountability to the stakeholders and society. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of CCR and financial management responsibility regarding the issue of corruption control. Design/methodology/approach: To explore the influences of corruption disclosure, this study considers the keywords-based content analysis of the listed financial firms of the Dhaka Stock Exchange in Bangladesh for 2012–2016. The research considers stakeholders and theoretical legitimacy lens for discussing corporate corruption disclosure. This study identified 143 self-driven keywords by classifying, analyzing and selecting the appropriate large set of keywords from the prior literature. This study examines 247 firm-year observations of all financial firms in Bangladesh using secondary data sources. Findings: The results of the hierarchical regression analysis report that financial firms following Sharia principles have a negative and significant association with CCR, while Big4 has a positive and significant influence. Moreover, the interaction effect of Big4 on the relationship between Sharia principles and CCR is negative and insignificant. The findings reported that Islamic financial firms disclose less corruption information than conventional financial firms in Bangladesh. Practical implications: This study findings are expected to significantly impact corporate management and policymakers of developing and highly corrupted economies to enhance corporate accountability, transparency and reputation. The regulatory body can consider the findings to promulgate anti-corruption reporting rules and regulations. Originality/value: The authors believe the theoretical lens used to support the method and findings of this paper are unique and novel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrial development of a country plays a vital role in its overall progress and is closely tied to its capacity of electricity generation. However, the scarcity of natural resources and increasing costs of fuel in global markets pose significant challenges for developing countries like Bangladesh in managing the rising expenses of electricity generation. Consequently, the government of Bangladesh is exploring alternative energy resources such as solar, wind, hydroelectricity, biomass, and biogas to supplement fossil fuels and optimize electricity generation cost. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current status of natural resources, including gas, coal, and oil, which are conventionally used for electricity generation in Bangladesh. It highlights concerns about dwindling resource availability and their impact on the country's energy landscape. Through numerical analysis, it demonstrates the detrimental effects of relying heavily on gas‐based power plants, leading to electricity supply instability. To address the ongoing energy crisis, the paper proposes the adoption of renewable energy sources as a viable solution. Additionally, it also acknowledges the challenges associated with implementing large‐scale renewable projects in distinct areas of the country, such as limited infrastructure, technical constraints, and the need for significant investment. Overcoming these barriers is crucial for achieving widespread utilization of renewable resources. This paper concludes by offering recommendations to overcome these challenges and maximize the contributions of renewable energy in meeting future energy demands. The suggestions include developing robust infrastructure, implementing policy reforms to attract investment, emphasizing research and development, and promoting community engagement in renewable energy initiatives. It also highlights the potential of renewable energy resources in shaping a more secure and sustainable energy future for Bangladesh, emphasizing the importance of electricity generation for socio‐economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Female labor migration for livelihood is becoming a common phenomenon in migrant-sending countries. Although female workers migrate with a temporary contract for a better livelihood, they are experienced with various exploitations and difficulties while working abroad. Therefore, many female migrants returned to the country from the Middle East, and they faced enormous challenges in reintegration. Thus, this paper critically reviews the role of migration-related NGOs in the reintegration of returned female migrants in Bangladesh. It also explores the critical limitations of the NGO's approach to this reintegration. The paper is qualitative research that includes primary and secondary data. Primary data were collected through face-to-face in-depth interviews with 27 participants. The paper also employs secondary data from articles, books, and reports of migration-focused NGOs. Based on the findings from data, the paper argues that the migration-focused NGOs in Bangladesh positively impact the reintegration of Bangladeshi returned female migrants by providing economic assistance, social, psychological, and legal support to returned women, entrepreneurship training, social mobilization strategies, and grassroots-level activities. The data also show that the migration-focused NGOs in Bangladesh face challenges in the reintegration of many returned women due to the NGOs' aid dependency, a lack of comprehensive actions, shortage of funds, required resources, lack of coordination, socioeconomic structure, stigma, and religious issues. Finally, the paper includes some policy suggestions that would be helpful for the NGO's approach to reintegrating returned women migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban river restoration efforts are growing worldwide. Along with restoring and conserving rivers, riverside land is slated for public recreation, property development, and infrastructure for adaptation to climate change. Riverine landscapes, embedded in larger watershed ecosystems and claimed by multiple communities, are sites of contested planning in contemporary cities. In this paper, we advance the scholarship on contestation over control and access of urban rivers and floodplains by analyzing the role of river restorative legislation and water-centered planning in managing Turag, an urban river in Bangladesh. While river degradation in urbanizing regions is often ascribed to lack of regulatory controls and enforcement, we argue that restorative legislation and interventions facilitate Turag River's ecocide by processes of territorialization. Territorialization refers to the co-constitutive dynamics of river restorative legislations and interventions as well as planned infrastructure and land use changes, which erase and displace river-based communities with reciprocal relations to the river. Riverine livelihoods and lifemaking, among fishing and farming communities in the case of Turag, are erased from planning and restoration practices, and are consequently expelled from the expanding city. Drawing on qualitative and counter-cartographic investigation of one severely polluted urban river in Dhaka, Bangladesh, we show how territorialization materializes through five co-constitutive dynamics involving environmental legislation, encroachment reporting, river demarcation, encroachment evictions, and wetland to land conversions. We draw out critical implications of how river restoration can be just and advance a riverine urbanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIn August 2017, over 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh to escape the Myanmar Army’s persecution and are now living in camps. Among them, about 200,000 are adolescent girls. This paper examines the impact of forced displacement, gender, age, and camp environment in shaping Rohingya adolescent girls’ realities in camps. It combines intersectional and phenomenological perspectives to understand the girls’ camp-life experiences from their viewpoints. The paper argues that Rohingya adolescent girls’ life in camps offers them a complex set of experiences of loss, unsafeness, uncertainty, and acceptance, representing their deepening vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper empirically studies the implications of attractive government jobs for labour market. Exploiting an age ceiling policy that sets the age limit for eligibility for public employment at age 30, the study finds that the likelihood of private sector employment is about five percentage points higher for ineligible than eligible at the cutoff age of 30, mainly driven by females, particularly after doubling the public service salaries. The increase in employment after expiring the eligibility for government jobs is explained by increasing labour force participation rather than declining unemployment. During the eligibility period, candidates repeatedly try for government jobs and delay the pursuit of other opportunities, incurring substantial monetary expenses, time costs, and opportunity costs of time. At the same time, there is some evidence that public sector exam preparation gives rise to brain gain. While several papers studied this phenomenon theoretically, this study contributes by providing empirical evidence. The data for this study was drawn from population censuses and labour force surveys for the period 1991–2017 and a primary survey conducted online for this study in Bangladesh, and labour force surveys of India for 2011–2012, 2017–2018, and 2019–2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines which institutions, ideas, and interests have shaped the position of Bangladesh in creating the norms of the United Nations (UN)'s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Bangladesh's contribution to the SDGs norms creation process is examined in two distinct stages: drafting a position paper (June 2012–June 2013) and participating in UN Open Working Group (OWG) negotiations (March 2013–July 2014). Findings reveal how a small cohort of policy entrepreneurs played a key role in both stages. They gave prominence to ideas such as poverty alleviation, global inequality, and migrants' rights in structuring the SDGs agenda. In the final round of OWG negotiations, Bangladeshi delegates calculated that active participation in the norms creation process would best serve the interests of the Global South by challenging the Global North which wanted to impose its interests. This paper offers an important insight into the norms literature by showing convergence and divergence of interests and agendas of global and local actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this research was to identify misinformation and other related online falsehoods i.e. dis-malinformation, fake news, rumor spreading in social media in Bangladesh associated with their threat and impact on human lives. Using a qualitative approach, the author randomly selected around 26 cases that happened in Bangladesh over the last 15 years. Both primary and secondary information resources (online and print newspapers, news archives, websites, blogs, TV channels, various social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, etc.; a series of conversations with journalists) were considered to collect the cases that were spreading as misinformation. The cases were then categorized into various aspects such as political, health, religious, social, crime, and entertainment. A number of research papers were browsed in Google, ResearchGate, and Google Scholar, and the newspaper was also scanned to find out the associated effects of each case on our society. Findings showed in Bangladesh, the adverse ramifications of such misinformation were in religious and political aspects resulting social insecurity to loss of life also. Moreover, health misinformation has led people to decline health measures and practice unproven treatments which would be a great threat to public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate why multi-tier apparel suppliers integrate social sustainability practices into their supply chains and what barriers these suppliers encounter while embedding social sustainability practices. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs a qualitative research design, drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with 46 owners and managers from 33 multi-tier apparel suppliers in Bangladesh, an important outsourcing hub for the global apparel industry. To corroborate research findings, the views of owners and managers were triangulated by further interviewing 11 key representatives of institutional actors such as third-party auditors, a donor agency, industry associations, regulatory agencies and a non-governmental organisation (NGO). Findings: The authors' findings suggest a range of divergent institutional drivers and barriers – coercive, mimetic and normative – that determine the implementation of multi-tier suppliers' social sustainability practices. The key reported drivers were buyers' requirements, external stakeholders' expectations, top management commitment and competition. Conversely, cost and resource concerns and gaps in the regulatory framework were identified as key social sustainability implementation barriers. In particular, owners and managers of second-tier and third-tier supplier firms experienced more internal barriers such as cost and resource concerns than external barriers such as gaps in values, learning and commitment (i.e. compromise for mutual benefit and non-disclosure of non-compliance) that impeded effective social sustainability implementation. Research limitations/implications: Social sustainability in supply chain management has received significant attention from academics, business practitioners, governments, NGOs and supranational organisations. However, limited attention has been paid to investigating the drivers and barriers for social sustainability implementation from a developing country's multi-tier supplier perspective. The authors' research has addressed this knowledge gap. Practical implications: The evidence from the authors' study provides robust support for key assumptions of institutional theory and has useful implications for both managers and policy-makers. Originality/value: The authors' study contributes to the embryonic research stream of socially sustainable multi-tier supply chain management by connecting it to the application of institutional theory in a challenging institutional context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been marked differences between many urban youths and the older generation in practising Islam in Bangladesh. In the contemporary expression of Islam, many urban youths in Bangladesh adopt an approach where they are inclined to explain various Islamic discourses in a modernistic way through adopting an Islamic code of life. Simultaneously negating the traditional idea of the incompatibility of Islam with modernity is also an essential phenomenon in this discourse. 'Self-conscious sense of collective identity' and the concept of belonging to a global Islamic community is motivating many of these contemporary urban youths in Bangladesh to search for the 'pure' form of Islamic practices. These new manifestations eventually affect their urban social sphere while they either reject many traditional Islamic norms or adopt 'more authentic' Islamic norms. Thus, this qualitative paper argues that the expression of Islam among many urban youths has to be seen as an adaptive strategy in an ongoing struggle to make sense of Islamic life in a more complex, modern and Westernised world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Grounded in the transformational leadership theory, conservation of resource theory and job demands-resources model, this paper aims to examine the effect of transformational leadership on psychological empowerment and employee engagement of faculty members in Bangladesh and Thailand. This study also integrates Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory to justify whether transformational leadership could affect psychological empowerment of faculty members in these two countries differently. Design/methodology/approach: Survey data were collected from a total of 457 faculty members from two universities in Bangladesh (n = 243) and two universities in Thailand (n = 241). This study used partial least squares structural equation modeling for analyzing the proposed model. Findings: The evidence shows that faculty members who worked for department heads and who exhibited transformational leadership demonstrated high level of psychological empowerment and employee engagement. Psychological empowerment also mediates the effect of transformational leadership on employee engagement. Moreover, the degree to which transformational leadership positively affects psychological empowerment is stronger for faculty members in a higher power distance culture (Thailand) than for those faculty members in a lower power distance culture (Bangladesh). Practical implications: Because human capital plays a crucial role in determining the potential of universities to achieve superior performance, universities should provide leadership training to help department heads understand the key elements of transformational leadership and apply them in their management practices to promote empowerment and engagement of their faculty members. Originality/value: The finding provides new evidence that broadens the knowledge from existing research about the cross-cultural effectiveness of transformational leadership, which has not been explored in the area of psychological empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of the community of inquiry framework on enhancing English as a foreign language proficiency in a blended learning context in Bangladesh. The primary aims are to examine how integrating teaching, social, and cognitive presences improves EFL speaking skills and to identify teachers' perspectives and recommendations on implementing blended learning and community of inquiry. Semi-structured interviews were conducted using a qualitative case study approach with ten teachers from a private university after a two-day professional development workshop and a subsequent four-week application of CoI principles in their classes. The findings reveal a positive influence on students' speaking skills, notably boosting motivation, confidence, and peer collaboration. However, challenges like better teacher training in technology and pedagogy and insufficient institutional support for online resources were identified. Despite these obstacles, the study emphasizes how the community of inquiry can revolutionize Bangladeshi education by promoting the idea that English should be viewed as a communication tool outside of the classroom. The paper concludes with recommendations for effective community of inquiry and blended learning implementation, stressing the importance of comprehensive training and institutional backing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The eye is an important sensing organ of the human body, as it reacts to light and allows vision for humans. Many Bangladeshi people become nearsighted when it comes to the awareness of vision loss due to eye disease. Many Bangladeshis people are more concerned about losing their money than getting nearsighted or blind, due to a combination of poverty and illiteracy. With this view, this paper proposes an osteopathic expert system that can deal with an image of the eye and recognize the disease. Here, we have focused on the three most common eye diseases in Bangladesh, namely cataract, chalazion, and squint. We have modeled six convolutional neural networks (CNN's), namely VGG16, VGG19, MobileNet, Xception, InceptionV3, and DenseNet121 to recognize the diseases. We have reached the best configuration of each of these CNN models after adequate investigation. After performing satisfactory experimentation, we have found that the MobileNet model gives the best performance based on accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. At last, we have compared our findings with the recently reported relevant works to show their efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising trend of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) in the banking sector of Bangladesh epitomises a common phenomena of loan default that mostly arises from unwillingness to repay tendency of the borrowers who usually fit into the defined higher class of the society. An appropriate governance and control framework can effectively control this growing trend of NPLs, supplemented by the loan default culture. In view of this setting, this paper looks for the impact of audit committee independence, director ownership, external audit quality, CEO power, and bank size to control NPLs. After identifying two endogenous variables in a system of linear equations, this paper employs the system generalized method of moment (GMM) approach of regression analysis. This paper finds the significance of audit committee independence, director ownership, and external audit quality in controlling NPLs. However, this paper finds no significant impact of CEO power on lowering NPLs. Bank Size, measured in relative sense, has non-linear impact on NPLs. This paper recommends that the existing governance guidelines and BASEL-II accords fail to boost up the asset quality that controls NPLs and ensures capital adequacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use qualitative research data to explore the phenomenon of the boundaryless work-life interface during the COVID-19 pandemic as perceived by working parents. We define a boundaryless work-life interface as the weak or virtually absent boundary between work and life domains. We look closer at the relations between space, time, emotions, roles and the boundaryless work-life interface among working parents. The first two subsections introduce the linkages between the boundaryless work-life interface, focusing primarily on time and space in what we call 'collapsed role boundaries'. The second subsection examines the issues related to mental and emotional tensions the perceived boundarylesness has caused during the pandemic. The paper's final subsection provides a summary with interpretations and conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Presenteeism refers to attending work while ill and not being able to work to full capacity. Applying the social cognitive theory (SCT), this paper examines the relationships among presenteeism, job satisfaction (JS), and employee turnover intentions (ETIs), and the mediational influence of JS on the relationship between presenteeism and ETIs. Design/methodology/approach: A web-based survey, including a pilot test, was administered to collect data targeting a sample of 200 full-time Bangladeshi employees. With a two-step method of the structural equation modelling technique, this paper examines four hypotheses among the variables of presenteeism, JS and ETIs. Findings: Significant negative relationships were identified between presenteeism and JS, as well as between JS and ETIs. Further investigations showed a significant positive relationship between presenteeism and ETIs. Notably, presenteeism on ETIs was found to be fully mediated by JS. Practical implications: The study results suggest that presenteeism can be detrimental to both JS and ETIs among Bangladeshi employees; however, a reduction in rates of presenteeism can be achieved if employees' JS is valued and increased. Both the theoretical and managerial implications, including future research opportunities, are discussed. Originality/value: Following the SCT, this paper extends the knowledge of presenteeism in a non-Western context. It is also a first reported empirical study among Bangladeshi employees demonstrating the influence of presenteeism and its detrimental effects on employees' motivational behaviour. This study makes a unique contribution to the presenteeism literature by examining JS and ETIs from the perspective of SCT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the links between climate-induced migration and urban challenges have been documented, there remains a paucity of research, policy, and action on different challenges of urban poverty compared with rural poverty in Bangladesh. However, the urban poor have continued to be overlooked in development and climate contexts. This paper reviews the underlying factors of climate-induced population migration and its connection with multi-pluralistic challenges for urban poor individuals in Bangladesh. It also explains multiple responses to urban hazards and revisits urban policies related to resilience and sustainability. A desk review of different existing resources, such as academic papers, organizational research reports, newspapers clippings, and documentaries, was conducted to achieve the overall purpose for this paper. Both theoretical and empirical evidence were identified and mainstreamed by categorizing them into specific domains to reinvestigate the groundbreaking factors associated with climate migration and thereby demonstrate the bridge between policies and practices related to urban challenges. Marx's conflict theory was applied to reiterate existing inequalities associated with urban problems and hazards and then contextualized to weigh and analyze newly generated urban disparities experienced at the individual to national level. Rising sea levels, natural hazards, sudden onset disasters were identified as the drivers of climate-induced migration that forcefully displace people from their homeland to nearby cities. Limited access to public healthcare services; huge population density; inadequate food, water, and sanitation overcrowding; lack of housing; limited coping mechanisms; and little adaptive capacity with climatic conditions seriously worsen the existing problems for urban poor in Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to propose an Islamic model of human behavioral analysis that can explain the determinants such as Islamic moral values, internal factors (e.g. self-efficacy or reasons for and against), external factors (e.g. perceived social support or others from external sources) and empathy (EMP) (humane attitude) to predict niyyah (worshipful intention) toward actual behavior (a'mal) in question. Design/methodology/approach: With this end in mind, this research uses the theory of Islamic entrepreneurship and behavioral reasoning theory as their theoretical foundations. To validate the model, the study uses empirical data on investors' intention toward sukuk (Islamic bonds or Shari'ah-compliant bonds) purchase in the context of Bangladesh, where very recently the sukuk were introduced by the Central Bank. Findings: Findings of the study indicate that Islamic values and internal factors have the highest effects on external factors and EMP, respectively. Internal factors and Islamic values have moderate and almost similar impacts on EMP. Besides, external factors and EMP have somewhat equally moderate effects on niyyah. Islamic moral values and internal factors have the least influence on internal factors and niyyah, respectively. The external factor is also found to be insignificant to influence EMP. The findings also indicate that EMP, internal control factors and external control factors have mediating effects on niyyah toward sukuk purchase. Research limitations/implications: These results imply that the present research model successfully predicts and explains the determinants of Islamic worshipful intention toward the actual purchase of sukuk. Practical implications: Sukuk has been an important Islamic financial instrument that has been growing much rapidly in recent times. So, this paper will help to comprehend that pattern empirically. Social implications: Islamic finance has emerged as a dominant financial tool nowadays. This paper contributes to advance that initiative one step further in terms of social and economic development. Originality/value: This is a conceptual paper written in the area of Islamic Finance. This model has been validated by collating primary data collected from the selected respondents residing in Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major source of disease burden worldwide, with an estimated 296 million individuals living with infections worldwide. Although vaccine programs exist to control infections, certain sub-populations around the world continue to have very high prevalence of HBV infection. Methods: A systematic search of studies of HBV published after 2010 was conducted for India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. Each paper was independently screened for risk of bias and inclusion. Data were extracted from included studies before being analysed to estimate pooled prevalence, and to conduct sub-group analyses. Random-effects models were used for estimating summary prevalence due to a high level of heterogeneity between studies, and funnel plots were combined with Egger's test to assess publication bias. Meta-regression was conducted to investigate sources of between-study heterogeneity. Results: The pooled prevalence of HBV across all studies was 3% (95% CI 0.02, 0.05). For countries with multiple studies, the pooled prevalence in India was 3% (95% CI 0.02, 0.04), in Pakistan 6% (95% CI 0.03, 0.09), in Bangladesh 5% (95% CI of 0.02, 0.12), and in Nepal 1% (95% CI 0.00, 0.08). There was some evidence of publication bias, and a high level of heterogeneity across studies. Risk of bias analysis found most studies to be of fair or moderate quality. Conclusions: The prevalence of HBV among countries in the sub-continent was higher than the global average, but was not as high as some other regions. Countries with greater numbers of displaced persons had higher prevalence of HBV, with a wide range of prevalence between subpopulations likely reflecting differential uptake, and implementation, of vaccination programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, fifth-generation (5G) mobile connectivity has been launched in Bangladesh on a trial-run basis. 5G is a super-speed mobile network that is much faster than the existing fourth-generation (4G) technology. It is excruciatingly hard to deploy a fully functioning 5G in any country regardless of its available resources and technological advancements because of some apparent technological complexity and limitations. In addition, when deploying this technology in developing countries such as Bangladesh, the costs come into play. To cope with the world's advancement in science and technology, Bangladesh is planning to implement 5G covering the whole country. In this paper, we present the major challenges in implementing a wide area 5G network in Bangladesh and find some possible solutions. This research work has also tried to get a clear picture of the service quality of the existing 4G cellular communication by analyzing some of the mobile operators' download speeds over 24 hours. In addition, this paper presents the current comparison of Internet facilities in Bangladesh with those of other countries across the globe. To the best of our knowledge, there is no publicly available study that has focused on the deployment of the 5G network in Bangladesh after assessing the current state of the cellular network. Therefore, this study could serve as a guiding resource, providing valuable information for decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many developing countries, children are viewed as a source of old-age insurance. They help parents to smooth consumption by sending remittances when the parents are old and have relatively low income. The paper presents a model where asset accumulation and children are substitutes. Using a family planning programme as an instrument for fertility it shows that households exposed to the programme have (0.86) lower fertility and $994 worth of more assets than those who were not exposed to the programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of A+Arch Design International Journal of Architecture & Design is the property of A+Arch Design International Journal of Architecture & Design and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper situates the massacre of Dalit refugees of Marichjhapi Island (1978-79) in West Bengal, India through a multidisciplinary reading of Amitav Ghosh's novel The Hungry Tide (2004) along with local history, vernacular literature, reports and experiential narratives. The refugees from East Pakistan/Bangladesh who settled on the island of Marichjhapi at Sundarbans (currently one of the most ecologically endangered places on Earth) were forcefully evicted by the government citing ecological issues. Utilizing a framework that incorporates both ecocriticism and postcolonial theory, this paper reads the vulnerable humans and non-humans, especially the island's unique ecosystem and fauna as victims of anthropocentrism and biopolitics, propelled by ecological and political factors acting together. Taking up from Ghosh's own interventions on ecological thought and the Sundarbans, the paper further delves into the concept of "the disaster unconscious" in postcolonial literature as suggested by Pallavi Rastogi through a close reading of The Hungry Tide. It describes the co-constitution of precarious lives (both human and non-human) and fragile environments during disaster as what Blanchot would call "outside of temporality" marking the 'necroeconomy' of the nation-state, as conceptualized by Achille Mbembe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic mobility has been predominantly investigated as a resource for career development and progression of individuals or as a contributor to national economic growth and advancement (brain-drain/gain). Yet, despite its significance, the temporal dimensions of academic immobility/mobility remain undertheorized in academic mobility studies. By temporal, I am going beyond clock-time to include any phenomenon tied to making meaning and related to time-related changes. Drawing on Shahjahan et al.'s (2022) notion of shomoyscapes, this paper focuses on Bangladeshi faculty's experiences as an example of how a temporal lens can help illuminate the interrelationships between academic immobility/mobility and temporality to enliven scholarly understandings of such a migration process. It showcases three Bangladeshi scholars' narratives to highlight different temporal rationales, constraints, and agencies of migration among aspiring, returnee, and/or immigrant mobile scholars' experiences, which are often studied separately in academic mobility studies. It argues that a temporal lens showcases how mobility begins and continues temporally in people's lives before and/or after spatial movements (i.e., physical movements from one space to another). Such time work was interconnected with relational entanglements, constituting complex temporal landscapes (i.e., shomoyscapes) encompassing future, present, and past. It concludes with implications of a temporal lens for future academic mobility studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remittances are one of the major driving forces of economic growth in Bangladesh. The paper's main objective is to empirically investigate the effect of COVID-19 on the remittance inflow to Bangladesh using a gravity model framework. We have employed monthly data of remittance inflow to Bangladesh from January 2018 to September 2022 with its top twelve partners, namely the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Libya, the United Kingdom, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan. Using the gravity equation, we tapped the COVID-19 dummy as the critical variable of our interest, along with COVID transmission, mortality, and vaccination data at home and abroad. Using Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (PPML), fixed-effect (FE), and random-effect (RE) estimations, we find that during the COVID-19 pandemic, remittance inflow to Bangladesh increased significantly after controlling for other Gravity variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to propose and examine a research model where work engagement mediates the impacts of high-involvement work practices (HIWPs) on bank employees' turnover intentions. Specifically, the paper assesses: (a) the effects of empowerment, information sharing, rewards and training on work engagement and turnover intention, (b) work engagement as a mediator of the effects of these HIWPs on turnover intention (c) and functional competence as a moderator of the effects of these HIWPs on work engagement. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey was employed to gather data from 343 employees working in commercial banks in Bangladesh. The authors applied partial least squares structural equation modeling to assess the aforesaid linkages. Findings: Empowerment and information sharing increase bank employees' work engagement, while training and rewards reduce their proclivity to leave. Work engagement partly mediates the relationships of empowerment and information sharing to turnover intention. Functional competence moderates the relationship between three HIWPs (empowerment, information sharing and rewards) on work engagement. Originality/value: The paper examines the association between HIWPs and turnover intention, which has been subjected to little empirical inquiry among bank employees during a crisis (e.g. Covid-19 pandemic). The paper provides new insights into the underlying mechanism linking HIWPs and turnover intention and highlights the moderating effect of functional competence. Additionally, the study offers new knowledge on the impact of the pandemic on bank employees' HIWPs. Finally, this paper used data gathered from bank employees in Bangladesh, which is an underrepresented Asian country in the extant service research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Second-order system-dynamics engineering (SOSDE) involves constructing and running enterprise manufacturing simulation models with new proposals for operational processes, byproducts, supply chain and/or downstream marketing designs. This paper aims to describe sustainability the principal lessons from enacting SOSDE research for achieving goals in large manufacturing firms. Design/methodology/approach: This study is a case research commentary in the agricultural industry that contributes abductively derives six principal lessons from SOSDE research on introducing sustainability-focused manufacturing and product innovations. Operational processes in large-scale poultry processing plants in an emerging market represent the specific industry and firm domain of this case study. Alternative SOSDE simulation models of decisions, materials flow and outcomes with versus without operational innovations were constructed following one-to-one interviews with experienced farm managers and entrepreneurs. Findings: The principles demonstrate how large farms in a developing nation (i.e. Bangladesh) go about adopting radically innovative manufacturing, supply chain and marketing operations to improve traditional operations. This study confirms and expands on the general observation that SOSDE can help achieve sustainability and environmental, social and governance goals, contribute new value outcomes by converting unused production wastes into valuable byproducts and introduce design efficiencies in production, supply chain and marketing processes. SOSDE complements, while being a revolutionary departure from, "six sigma management programs" that focus on achieving exceptional and near mistake-free manufacturing operations. Both represent distinct philosophies and sets of actions that sometimes can conflict with one another. Embracing both successfully in the same enterprise is a goal that may appear unreachable, seemingly impossible to achieve and yet represents a manufacturing/marketing epitome that is observable in exceptional enterprises. Research limitations/implications: This paper may generate controversy as well as advance interest in applying SOSDE in introductions of improved manufacturing, supply chain and marketing operations aiming to accomplish radical improvements in sustainability goals. Practical implications: This commentary describes how using SOSDE and running alternative production simulations with versus without including superior, radically new, process innovations enable the firm to find and eliminate glitches in system changes and reduce the fear associating with breakdowns and financial losses due to inadequate knowledge of operating new industrial procedures and outcomes. Social implications: Introductions of superior radically new innovations in industrial manufacturing and marketing via SOSDE frequently include manufacturing firms embracing new environment sustainability objectives and additional marketable byproducts from the firm's main productions lines. This commentary offers details on how this process is enacted in poultry manufacturing in an economically emerging nation. Originality/value: Running simulations in SOSDE research offers a low-cost, fast and in-depth method to test "what-if" impacts of enhanced and radical innovations into product/service manufacturing operations – benefits supporting the recommendation to apply systems dynamics in business and industrial marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the design and implementation of a health monitoring system using the Internet of Things (IoT). In present days, with the expansion of innovations, specialists are always looking for innovative electronic devices for easier identification of irregularities within the body. IoT-enabled technologies enable the possibility of developing novel and noninvasive clinical support systems. This paper presents a health care monitoring system. In particular, COVID-19 patients, high blood pressure patients, diabetic patients, etc., in a rural area in a developing country, such as Bangladesh, do not have instant access to health or emergency clinics for testing. Buying individual instruments or continuous visitation to hospitals is also expensive for the regular population. The system we developed will measure a patient's body temperature, heartbeat, and oxygen saturation (SpO2) levels in the blood and send the data to a mobile application using Bluetooth. The mobile application was created via the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) inventor app and will receive the data from the device over Bluetooth. The physical, logical, and application layers are the three layers that make up the system. The logical layer processes the data collected by the sensors in the physical layer. Media access management and intersensor communications are handled by the logical layer. Depending on the logical layer's processed data, the application layer makes decisions. The main objective is to increase affordability for regular people. Besides sustainability in the context of finance, patients will have easy access to personal healthcare. This paper presents an IoT-based system that will simplify the utilization of an otherwise complicated medical device at a minimum cost while sitting at home. A 95 percent confidence interval with a 5 percent maximum relative error is applied to all measurements related to determining the patient's health parameters. The use of these devices as support tools by the general public in a certain situation could have a big impact on their own lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of the online teaching-learning of the Computer Science and Engineering program's female students at the Central Women's University in Bangladesh due to the COVID-19 epidemic. A survey was directed to comprehend the students' perspectives on online engineering education. The performances of the same students under the same course instructor of various courses as well as of different students under the same course instructor of the same courses before the pandemic and during the pandemic were investigated. After that, this paper analyzed students' experiences of the evaluation method before and during the outbreak, and then found out the transformation of the students' concerns regarding online engineering education. The research was based on the student surveys and observations, and their academic performances. All indicators exhibited that the procedure that was implemented had a positive impact on students' achievement. Students' involvement, particularly in the core courses that are essential to fulfilling their degrees, had improved. Furthermore, students gained more precise and constructive knowledge from the course teachers during the pandemic, as such the impact on the students' learning due to the online teaching of Computer Science and Engineering students were positive than before the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weather and climate‐related human mobility (climate mobilities) including displacement are often viewed as security concerns. The recent coronavirus (COVID‐19) pandemic adds yet another layer of complexity which calls for unpacking these connections. This paper explores how existing patterns of migration and displacement that are driven by climate change impacts are compounded by the ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic. First, the paper outlines the links between extreme weather events and human mobility to then explore how the impacts from COVID‐19 interact, cascade and compound pre‐existing vulnerabilities of people on the move. Examining the ways in which climate change is potentially driving or shifting patterns of climate mobility allows a shared understanding of this complex issue to be gained. This paper contextualises the compounding impacts with a geographical focus on Bangladesh, a well‐known climate hotspot. The paper contributes to the debates on impacts and human responses to climate change and concludes with a set of policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of scientific publications along with sectoral value addition on economic growth in Bangladesh over the period 2000-2020. The Johansen co-integration test is applied to investigate the long-run relationship among the variables. Granger causality test examines short-run relationship among the variables. The FMOLS model is also applied to confirm robustness check in this study. The empirical findings show that a strong long-run co-integration relationship exists among economic growth, scientific publications, and other explanatory variables in this study. The Granger causality test reveals bidirectional causality running from agriculture value added to services value added. Whereas, unidirectional causality exists among the variables of scientific publications to GDP per capita, scientific publications to manufacturing value added, services value added to scientific publications, GDP per capita to industry value added, services value added to GDP per capita, manufacturing value added to industry value added, services value added to manufacturing value added in the short run. The impulse response function implies that shock applies on scientific publications affects economic growth negatively. So, the policy makers of Bangladesh should emphasise on scientific publications by increasing investment on RnD to reach the status of middle-income country through sustainable sectoral development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While youth are routinely lauded as "change-makers," they are often underserved and unsupported in refugee responses. As the Rohingya face protracted displacement in Bangladesh, what is the state of youth inclusion in the response? Do youth and adolescents feel supported, or are they ignored and left behind? To answer these questions, the paper uses: Literature on youth participation and inclusion in humanitarian programming; Key informant interviews with practitioners from national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN agencies; Focus group discussions and key informant interviews with refugee individuals and groups across nine camps for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. It finds that: Refugee Rohingya youth and adolescents remain firmly on the margins of humanitarian programming, and are largely excluded from decision-making processes; Approximately 96 percent of surveyed youth between 18 and 24 years of age report being unemployed; For surveyed women aged 18–24 years, unemployment rates bordered on 99 percent; and Stress and anxiety are omnipresent amongst the community: an overwhelming majority of respondents reported experiencing disturbing thoughts and resorting to negative coping mechanisms. The paper ends with a series of recommendations to the Strategic Executive Group (SEG) and the Inter-Sector Coordination Group (ISCG), to donors, the international community, and the government of Bangladesh. 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the possible predatory journals in Library and Information Science research in India, including the affiliation status of the authors publishing in those predatory journals, frequency of returning authors, and country-wise distribution of authors. The paper used Beall's list to find out the predatory journals in LIS published from India. Publication trends, affiliations of authors, and the status of the 22 LIS journals under the study were critically analyzed. The result shows that the predatory journals were diminishing slowly; in 2016, there were eight active journals, while in 2021, it was reduced to four journals. Similarly, the publication trends show that the highest number of articles (398) was published in the year 2015, and it was only 66 articles in 2020. It is revealed that academics hailing from state universities (42.88%) are the highest contributors to the predatory journals, followed by professionals from government colleges (16.76%). The results indicate that predatory publishing was rampant in the early years but declined gradually. Researchers from India have published the most articles, totaling 1760 (93%), followed by those from Nigeria (64, 3.3%), Bangladesh (10), and Saudi Arabia (eight articles). It is also revealed that 21.66% (n = 438) are returning authors who have published more than one article in the sample journals. The paper discusses the role of the government and especially the University Grants Commission (UGC) in curbing the menace of predatory publishing. The authors also discuss the possible role of library professionals in stopping the plague of predatory publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the effectiveness of materials designed and distributed among course instructors to teach an intermediate writing course in an online platform during the pandemic. The study is examined in the context of a private university in Bangladesh, where the students enrolled are bi-lingual learners. The paper reviews literature in fields of technology-enhanced language learning (TELL), activity theory and scaffolding to understand the extent to which the teaching materials are effective. In addition, by analysing semi-structured interview responses from course instructors, the paper highlights numerous strengths, weaknesses and suggestions regarding the materials disbursed among the faculty members. The research findings suggest that the given materials were useful and helped to promote understanding of course content, but improvements can be made to assist student learning. Increased emphasis on learner autonomy can facilitate the learning process for students and motivate them to become independent learners. Based on the findings, the writer includes suggestions that might be beneficial for institutions beyond borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the generations in Bangladesh power system are based on fossil fuels which is 99% of its total generation. Following other countries, Bangladesh is also planning to adopt renewable energy system (RES). It has a plan to incorporate 55 MW wind turbine generator (WT) and 100 MW solar photovoltaic generator (PV) in Western grid of its power system. Though RES is green energy but from stability aspect it needs to be studied as RES has limitations in generating reactive power and maintaining inertia. So, voltage stability and rotor angle stability should be given more attention. However, if any stability problem arises, flexible alternating current transmission system (FACTS) devices can be adopted. With a tuned power oscillation damper, FACTS can reduce the expected rotor angle and voltage stability problem which are associated with RES. This paper examines the stability of the Western grid with the incorporation of hybrid energy of both wind and solar power and shows the positive effect of FACTS devices like thyristor controlled series compensator and static synchronous compensator with respective tuned controller. In present paper, the combination of WT and PV is also examined which shows only incorporation of WT reduces both the steady and dynamic stability more than the only adoption of PV. Inclusion of both WT and PV, reduce the both types of stability more than their individual inclusion. This paper shows that FACTS can improve the stability with individual or both kinds of RES penetration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing insights from Resilience Theory, this paper critically analyzes the survival and coping strategies of Nasula in the face and wake of adversity in Binwell Sinyangwe's A Cowrie of Hope. The aim is to affirm that human beings have the potential to rise above the vicissitudes of life through resilience, the obstacles notwithstanding. The paper demonstrates the strength, innovativeness and agency of Nasula in her struggle to fulfil her strong desire to send her daughter, Sula, to high school. The paper posits that hope and determination inspired by resilience equip Nasula to rise above all the traumatic circumstances that confront her to write her daughter's future through education. Her determined and resilient response to her adversity informs the metaphoric title of this paper, 'Nasula the Iroko', and Iroko in Igbo worldview stands as a metaphor for strength, mobility and resilience. All these qualities are enshrined in Nasula. The paper concludes that Nasula's resilience is an inspirational model that may strengthen the innate resilient capacities of the readers, both men and women, to rise above adversity, especially women in whose minds the patriarchal definition of the woman as a weaker vessel has been engraved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research paper is to examine the role of travel agencies in the advancement of tourism in Bangladesh. Travel agents are currently assuming a significant role in facilitating this relationship. The aforementioned entities engage in the production of various package tours, distribution of these packaged products, and promotion of tourism in Bangladesh to potential tourist clientele. However, the travel agents in Bangladesh are limited in their ability to fulfil their job to its fullest degree. This is mostly due to the small size of their organizations, insufficient money, a shortage of skilled professionals, a lack of government policy support, and several other restraints that they encounter. It is imperative to address these issues and promptly implement appropriate measures to enhance the performance of travel agencies and facilitate the desired growth of the tourism sector in Bangladesh.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Bangladesh is applauded for its achievement in various health and social outcomes though criticized for its failure in properly dealing with governance issues. The purpose of this paper is intends to see how the health outcomes (in case of life expectancy, under-five mortality and adolescent fertility) are impacted by health expenditure (both public and private), per capita income in presence of overall governance and female education. This paper assumes that rapid progress in female education reflects the Bangladeshis' social responsiveness to change. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses autoregressive distributed lag technique to estimate the models with data ranges from 1990 to 2016 under two different scenarios. Findings: This study has found that all the explanatory variables exert significant impact on health outcomes. Furthermore, public health expenditure is augmented with a composite governance issue, and this enhances robustness as well as statistical significance of the models. These suggest that the governance issues play a very crucial role to achieve the expected health outcomes. Female secondary enrolment ratio appears with improved coefficients in terms of sign and magnitude for all the health indicators. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the existing literature showing econometric evidence that highlights the importance of governance and female education in improving health outcomes of Bangladesh apart from health expenditure and per capita gross domestic product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though remittance inflow in Bangladesh is a significant earning source for recipient individuals and one of the vital factors to the development model, its environmental impacts have been ignored in the empirical investigation. To fill this research gap, this article aims to elucidate the asymmetric effectiveness of remittance inflow on environmental degradation in Bangladesh by addressing foreign aid as an additional multiplier in a carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions model, a first for this country. This paper, in doing so, utilizes the newly advanced nonlinear autoregressive distributive lag (NARDL) approach. Data examined are yearly observations throughout 1980–2016, and empirically, the results of the NARDL bound test confirm a long-run cointegrated causality between remittance and CO2 emissions via approving the theoretical linkage. The asymmetric findings interpret that the intensity of CO2 emissions raises in the long run relative to the positive shock in remittance, while the elasticity of CO2 emissions is significant and negative due to the negative shock in remittance. The estimation also reveals the presence of a long-run asymmetric association between the variables. In addition, foreign aid is favorable to ameliorate the quality of the environment over a long period. Focusing on the findings, this paper recommends that the government should concentrate on environment favorable projects and also take measures of tax incentives to remittance investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refugees often face structural inequities, a disproportionate share of environmental challenges, and receive inadequate risk information. In most cases, the host country, United Nations, and other humanitarian organizations provide critical weather and climate information and disaster risk management support. This is equally true for the Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh, who fled their home country Myanmar as a response to political violence. To provide critical humanitarian services to the Rohingya population, the in‐country United Nations agencies formed the Inter‐Sector Coordination Group (ISCG). This paper investigates the effectiveness of the ISCG's strategies for communicating monsoon risks in the Rohingya context. Particularly, it measures ISCG communication effectiveness by both the increased formalization of ISCG communication and the number of Rohingya refugees affected during the monsoon seasons in the years 2021–2022. The paper highlights the importance of the ISCG's existence in this humanitarian context as an effective coordinating institution. The ISCG provides impoartant environmental risk information to partner organizations that benefit the Rohingya's overall physical well‐being. Even though the geographical focus of this paper is on the Rohingya populations in Cox's Bazar, the discussions and findings have important policy implications in other parts of the world facing similar social, environmental, political, and humanitarian challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engaging in 'reflexive practice' throughout the research process (Benson and O'Reilly, 2022) and a 'reflexivity of discomfort' (Hamdan, 2009) through an intersectional lens, this article presents a reflective account of accessing and conducting observations and interviews at a South Asian women's organisation, in North England, to explore Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslim (PBM) lone motherhood. It critically explores how researchers' own subjectivities and intersecting identities – in this case, my intersecting identities and positionalities as a young British Pakistani Muslim women, researcher and volunteer – impact interactions in different circumstances with different groups of participants and the importance of having continuous critical self-awareness. Moving beyond simplistic insider–outsider debates, the paper contributes towards further developing reflexivity debates taking an 'intersectional reflexivity' approach. It argues for thinking about the research process and engagements in the field as socially constructed, changing, adapting and negotiated overtime and to utilise intersectionality to unpick broader categories. Finally, it encourages researchers to adopt reflexivity in their research practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural differences represent significant trade barriers between transitional economies and their trading partners, which has been overlooked in recent studies. This paper investigates the effect of cultural distance (CD) on bilateral trade from Bangladesh. We conceptualize a research model by employing the extended gravity model as a theoretical base, where we amplify the theory by proposing that linguistic distance (LD) as a part of cultural distance has a profound effect on bilateral trade based on bilateral trade data from 1995 to 2019 and Hofstede's culture indices between Bangladesh and 157 trading partner countries. Using a pseudo‐poisson maximum likelihood model, we find that cultural distance has a significant and negative impact on Bangladesh's trade, with a significance level of 1%. Our empirical results indicate that one unit increase in cultural distance decreases trade by 40.84% and cultural distance has a greater impact on Bangladesh's exports than on its imports. Findings also reveal that the effect is substantial with high‐income nations than with low‐income nations, and for manufacturing products than primary products trade. Further, this study suggests that in addition to cultural distance (CD), linguistic distance (LD) from trading partners has a tantamount effect on bilateral trade, which is significant at 1%. Theoretically, this study suggests that linguistic distance (LD) should be added on gravity model for analyzing effects of cultural distance on bilateral and multilateral trade. Practically, this study contributes by providing valuable insights to policymakers to pay attention to cultural differences, especially during these economic transition periods to increase bilateral trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of university teachers regarding plagiarism in Bangladesh. An online questionnaire consisted of 20 knowledge questions, 23 attitude items, and 18 practice questions was created using Google Forms. The link to the questionnaire was sent via email to university teachers. The total correct answers for knowledge and practice questions, and the total attitude score were converted to percentile scores and categorized accordingly as poor (< mean – 1 SD), average (mean ± 1 SD), and good (> mean + 1 SD). Bivariate analyses were conducted to compare the total knowledge, attitude and practice scores based on demographic and academic variables. Multiple linear regressions were used to identify the association between knowledge, attitude and practice scores, and other covariates. The findings revealed an average level of knowledge, attitude and practice regarding plagiarism among the majority of university teachers. The knowledge, attitude and practice scores were significantly higher for teachers who attended academic writing workshops compared to those who did not attend such events. Demographic and academic variables did not impact knowledge and attitude scores. However, the number of papers published in the last two years and their indexing in Web of Science (WoS) or Scopus significantly impacted attitude and knowledge scores. The multiple regression analyses showed that the practice score was significantly associated with age, highest education, and knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accidents due to defective railway lines and derailments are common disasters that are observed frequently in Southeast Asian countries. It is imperative to run proper diagnosis over the detection of such faults to prevent such accidents. However, manual detection of such faults periodically can be both time-consuming and costly. In this paper, we have proposed a Deep Learning (DL)-based algorithm for automatic fault detection in railway tracks, which we termed an Ensembled Convolutional Autoencoder ResNet-based Recurrent Neural Network (ECARRNet). We compared its output with existing DL techniques in the form of several pre-trained DL models to investigate railway tracks and determine whether they are defective or not while considering commonly prevalent faults such as—defects in rails and fasteners. Moreover, we manually collected the images from different railway tracks situated in Bangladesh and made our dataset. After comparing our proposed model with the existing models, we found that our proposed architecture has produced the highest accuracy among all the previously existing state-of-the-art (SOTA) architecture, with an accuracy of 93.28% on the full dataset. Additionally, we split our dataset into two parts having two different types of faults, which are fasteners and rails. We ran the models on those two separate datasets, obtaining accuracies of 98.59% and 92.06% on rail and fastener, respectively. Model explainability techniques like Grad-CAM and LIME were used to validate the result of the models, where our proposed model ECARRNet was seen to correctly classify and detect the regions of faulty railways effectively compared to the previously existing transfer learning models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Haors in Bangladesh are saucer-shaped, low-lying land depressions that form deep basins; they remain submerged for approximately half of the year, typically from June onwards. This fragile ecosystem spans over 2.0 million hectares in the northeastern region of the country, accounting for roughly 14% of the total areas, where approximately 19.4 million people reside. Factors including floods, flash floods, and low winter temperatures constrain agricultural productivity in the haor areas. It is a great challenge to change the haor areas from less productive to more productive land. This is a comprehensive analysis of the biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics of haors which also highlights the constraints and opportunities in agricultural production. It explores strategies for significantly increasing crop, livestock, and fish production within the haor ecosystem, in alignment with government policies. Some of the proposed agricultural development strategies for the haor areas include the development of short-duration, cold-tolerant crop varieties, such as Boro rice, utilizing relatively flood-free elevated lands and homesteads for vegetable production and promoting agricultural mechanization, livestock rearing, fisheries, and agribusiness development. The recommendations presented in this paper focus on enhancing crop yields, increasing cropping intensity, and boosting livestock and fish production; ultimately, they contribute to food security, poverty reduction, and improved livelihoods for the inhabitants of the haor areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]