International Journal of Quality Engineering and Technology
Cryogenic piping system is a delicate product. If it is not designed properly, i.e., without cons... more Cryogenic piping system is a delicate product. If it is not designed properly, i.e., without considering region specific weather condition, vapourisation will occur at undesirable rate while cryogenic fluid flows through the pipeline. In this work, optimum design for a cryogenic piping system has been explored. To identify existing design limitations as well as customer priorities, quality function deployment has been employed. Data have been collected from local customers and experts through questionnaire-based survey. Double-concentric-pipes type construction with inner pipe diameter of 21.34-33.40 mm and outer pipe diameter of 88.90-193.68 mm has been considered. Four potential insulating mediums; multilayer insulation, vacuum, polyethylene foam, and perlite have been investigated. Multilayer insulation thickness and vacuum pressure have been varied from 6-30 mm and 10−5−5 mbar respectively. Results reveal that use of multilayer insulation accompanied by vacuum pressure of 10−4 mbar ensures optimum performance with optimum insulation thickness of 20 mm.
BACKGROUND: In Bangladesh, workers typically spend at least eight hours a day at garment factorie... more BACKGROUND: In Bangladesh, workers typically spend at least eight hours a day at garment factories in sitting and/or standing position. Prolonged sitting on ergonomically unfit furniture causes back, neck, and shoulder pain, which reduces the working efficiency and leading to low productivity. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to design ergonomically correct furniture for Bangladeshi garment workers considering multivariate analysis on the anthropometric data. METHODS: Twelve anthropometric measures and five furniture dimensions were measured. The sample comprised of 600 volunteer workers from different garment industry. The furniture dimensions were compared with the relevant anthropometric characteristics and found a high level of mismatch (e.g. seat height (male 18%, female 94.25%), seat depth (male 96%, female 63.50%), seat width (male 9.50%, female 36.25%), sewing table height (male 56.50%, female 50%), and desk height for inspection, cutting and ironing table (male 100%, fem...
Nowadays the online business of Bangladesh has become very popular to customers due to its salien... more Nowadays the online business of Bangladesh has become very popular to customers due to its salient features on the global market. To achieve a higher level of customer satisfaction, e-service quality must be improved. Although, some studies have focused on the identification of the equality factors in case of developed countries, modeling the interrelationship among factors is not done yet for the online business of developing countries like Bangladesh. This study proposes a structured framework based on the Delphi and grey DEMATEL approach to identify such factors and model the causal relationship among them. A total of 9 equality factors were identified through literature review and by conducting a survey of different online shoppers. Then, grey DEMATEL approach was anticipated to examine their interrelationship and to prioritizatize them. The results showed the cause and effect factors and their prominence. Among all factors, "reliance" got high priority which was followed by "responsiveness".
The construction sector is the biggest and most unsafe venture compared to other sectors of the w... more The construction sector is the biggest and most unsafe venture compared to other sectors of the world. The workers in this sector are more prone to accidental injuries. There are different types of agents and lacking for this type of injuries. The objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence of accidental injuries among building construction workers in Bangladesh. The agents and lacking behind these injuries also investigated. A survey on 390 building construction workers was conducted through a structured questionnaire. The survey data was built to find out the prevalence of accidental injuries among the construction workers. The Statistical Packages for the Social Science (SPSS) version 25 was used to analysis the data. The result indicates that overall 63.80% of the participants’ sufferred from at least one-body part injuries during their work time. Most of them (24.70%) injured due to falling from the height. The workplace safety facilities (41.70%) were identifie...
Sawmill workers in Bangladesh are increasingly at risk of emerging work-related musculoskeletal d... more Sawmill workers in Bangladesh are increasingly at risk of emerging work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs). Their jobs involve awkward manual handling tasks such as lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling. These are identified as risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders. The aims of this study are to find out the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and assessing the postural risk level among sawmills workers. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 254 workers from 60 sawmills at the southern part of Bangladesh. The overall 70.1% of sawmills workers were suffering musculoskeletal disorders in at least one body part for the last one year. The average Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) score of four main tasks (Pushing, Pulling, Lifting, and Carrying the timber) was 9.25, which is high risk for MSDs symptoms. The main reasons behind these MSDs are lack of knowledge about workplace safety, working postures and the settings of the workplace. We have recommended to th...
In this work, the possibility of contamination of environment by radioactive elements due to a st... more In this work, the possibility of contamination of environment by radioactive elements due to a steam-line break accident has been investigated for a VVER-1200 type nuclear power plant. Personal Computer Transient Analyzer (PCTRAN) has been used to generate the response data of the plant safety systems numerically for an accidental condition like such. A break of 1000 cm2 in the A-loop of the steam line has been considered. A break of the size is considered a “Large Break”, which is believed to be responsible for multiple serious accidents in the past. Also, it has also been assumed that off-site AC power supply is unavailable. Simulations were run for time duration of 300 seconds since most of the safety features of the plant should respond within 50 seconds from the initiation of the accident. Results show that SCRAM is initiated within 22.5 seconds from the emergence of the break, which limited the peak core thermal power to around 105% of the nominal value. The peak temperatures ...
In this article I am concerned with the nature of the ideological warfare that characterizes cont... more In this article I am concerned with the nature of the ideological warfare that characterizes contemporary popular music in Bangladesh: how effectively music videos (along with their lyrical contents) are contributing to the meaning-making process of popular music to produce the urban poor. I argue that, with the ongoing prevalence of ‘urban folk’ music in Dhaka city—which has been championed by a group of subaltern musicians—a culture-clash has eventually formed between the two groups of musicians and producers; two different schools of music that roughly represent two different classes. Through an analysis of specific urban folk lyrics, music videos and other related music experiences, this article considers the ideological warfare and culture-clash apparent in the production of urban poor by the music industry; a culture-clash brought about through the differing intentions of the classes involved.
Although extra pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) has long been known as a major public health concern... more Although extra pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) has long been known as a major public health concern globally, the complex healthcare-seeking pathways of EPTB patients are not widely studied. This study aims to explore the pattern of healthcare-seeking pathways of rural and urban EPTB patients registered with the BRAC TB control programme. BRAC is a Bangladesh-based non-governmental organization dedicated to alleviating poverty through empowering the poor. Data were collected through 60 in-depth interviews with rural and urban EPTB patients in Bangladesh. The findings reveal that the rural EPTB patients encountered a substantial diagnostic delay as compared to the urban patients. However, the difference between the average number of healthcare providers consulted by the rural verses the urban EPTB patients was not significant. This study also shows that the healthcare-seeking journey of rural and urban EPTB patients usually starts either at pharmacies or private facilities. Through exp...
Dhaka is among the most crowded cities on earth, where nearly half of its population lives in slu... more Dhaka is among the most crowded cities on earth, where nearly half of its population lives in slums, squatter-settlements and urban fringes. Since the mid 1980s, a new hybrid of popular music, sometimes called “urban folk”, has been prevalent in this city by dint of its consumption among the urban poor. These informal city-dwellers, by their power of mass consumption and with the advent of audio-cassettes and cheap music-listening technologies, have radically re-shaped the music industry. This cultural encroachment has transcended the boundary of the audio-cassette industry and reaches into the television media creating new representational patterns and cultural politics. It creates a “high-brow” and “low-brow” division inside the realm of popular music where the urban folk, a relatively awkward type of music for the taste of the educated class, in many ways outperforms the prevailing tradition of sophisticated pop in a city whose cultural taste is designed by the empowered elites and middle-classes. While contextualizing this phenomenon in the traditions of Bengali folk and popular musics and in the experiences of post-liberation and post-famine urban migration in Bangladesh, this research explores how urban folk music has been performing the cultural identity of the urban poor. Based upon a prolonged observation in different slums, streets and shrines of Dhaka, I argue that the hybrid nature of urban folk music makes it one of the best sites from which to observe the cultural formation of the urban poor. And the newly formed self of the urban poor – this research examines through ethnographic and textual analysis – is a silent and pervasive existence in Dhaka city which has been undergoing a series of conflicting portrayals through the production, consumption and reproduction of urban folk music in different media locations.
ABSTRACT This article explores how a particular kind of popular music of Dhaka city called ‘urban... more ABSTRACT This article explores how a particular kind of popular music of Dhaka city called ‘urban folk’ and the cultural identity of the rural migrants have been producing each other in an ongoing process of cultural communication. Following a discussion on the historical background of urban migration and its depiction in the prevailing pop music culture, this article uses the concepts of ‘cultural hybridity’ by Homi K. Bhabha and ‘political society’ by Partha Chatterjee to argue how the fluid structure of this hybrid form of music and its unconventional mobility between the folk and the pop have been in close association with the urban poor's formation of political society in contemporary Dhaka.
Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture, 2013
ABSTRACT Urban folk is an emerging trend in popular music in Bangladesh, which has become prevale... more ABSTRACT Urban folk is an emerging trend in popular music in Bangladesh, which has become prevalent in audio media quite recently with, among others, the emergence of a new generation of artists and musicians. The present article explores the relationship between popular music and the experience of migration by looking at the lyrical contents of a number of urban folk songs and is particularly interested in the metaphoric reconstruction at work within urban folk music that acts to signify the formation of new cultural identity for rural migrants in Dhaka city.
International Journal of Quality Engineering and Technology
Cryogenic piping system is a delicate product. If it is not designed properly, i.e., without cons... more Cryogenic piping system is a delicate product. If it is not designed properly, i.e., without considering region specific weather condition, vapourisation will occur at undesirable rate while cryogenic fluid flows through the pipeline. In this work, optimum design for a cryogenic piping system has been explored. To identify existing design limitations as well as customer priorities, quality function deployment has been employed. Data have been collected from local customers and experts through questionnaire-based survey. Double-concentric-pipes type construction with inner pipe diameter of 21.34-33.40 mm and outer pipe diameter of 88.90-193.68 mm has been considered. Four potential insulating mediums; multilayer insulation, vacuum, polyethylene foam, and perlite have been investigated. Multilayer insulation thickness and vacuum pressure have been varied from 6-30 mm and 10−5−5 mbar respectively. Results reveal that use of multilayer insulation accompanied by vacuum pressure of 10−4 mbar ensures optimum performance with optimum insulation thickness of 20 mm.
BACKGROUND: In Bangladesh, workers typically spend at least eight hours a day at garment factorie... more BACKGROUND: In Bangladesh, workers typically spend at least eight hours a day at garment factories in sitting and/or standing position. Prolonged sitting on ergonomically unfit furniture causes back, neck, and shoulder pain, which reduces the working efficiency and leading to low productivity. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to design ergonomically correct furniture for Bangladeshi garment workers considering multivariate analysis on the anthropometric data. METHODS: Twelve anthropometric measures and five furniture dimensions were measured. The sample comprised of 600 volunteer workers from different garment industry. The furniture dimensions were compared with the relevant anthropometric characteristics and found a high level of mismatch (e.g. seat height (male 18%, female 94.25%), seat depth (male 96%, female 63.50%), seat width (male 9.50%, female 36.25%), sewing table height (male 56.50%, female 50%), and desk height for inspection, cutting and ironing table (male 100%, fem...
Nowadays the online business of Bangladesh has become very popular to customers due to its salien... more Nowadays the online business of Bangladesh has become very popular to customers due to its salient features on the global market. To achieve a higher level of customer satisfaction, e-service quality must be improved. Although, some studies have focused on the identification of the equality factors in case of developed countries, modeling the interrelationship among factors is not done yet for the online business of developing countries like Bangladesh. This study proposes a structured framework based on the Delphi and grey DEMATEL approach to identify such factors and model the causal relationship among them. A total of 9 equality factors were identified through literature review and by conducting a survey of different online shoppers. Then, grey DEMATEL approach was anticipated to examine their interrelationship and to prioritizatize them. The results showed the cause and effect factors and their prominence. Among all factors, "reliance" got high priority which was followed by "responsiveness".
The construction sector is the biggest and most unsafe venture compared to other sectors of the w... more The construction sector is the biggest and most unsafe venture compared to other sectors of the world. The workers in this sector are more prone to accidental injuries. There are different types of agents and lacking for this type of injuries. The objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence of accidental injuries among building construction workers in Bangladesh. The agents and lacking behind these injuries also investigated. A survey on 390 building construction workers was conducted through a structured questionnaire. The survey data was built to find out the prevalence of accidental injuries among the construction workers. The Statistical Packages for the Social Science (SPSS) version 25 was used to analysis the data. The result indicates that overall 63.80% of the participants’ sufferred from at least one-body part injuries during their work time. Most of them (24.70%) injured due to falling from the height. The workplace safety facilities (41.70%) were identifie...
Sawmill workers in Bangladesh are increasingly at risk of emerging work-related musculoskeletal d... more Sawmill workers in Bangladesh are increasingly at risk of emerging work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs). Their jobs involve awkward manual handling tasks such as lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling. These are identified as risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders. The aims of this study are to find out the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and assessing the postural risk level among sawmills workers. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 254 workers from 60 sawmills at the southern part of Bangladesh. The overall 70.1% of sawmills workers were suffering musculoskeletal disorders in at least one body part for the last one year. The average Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) score of four main tasks (Pushing, Pulling, Lifting, and Carrying the timber) was 9.25, which is high risk for MSDs symptoms. The main reasons behind these MSDs are lack of knowledge about workplace safety, working postures and the settings of the workplace. We have recommended to th...
In this work, the possibility of contamination of environment by radioactive elements due to a st... more In this work, the possibility of contamination of environment by radioactive elements due to a steam-line break accident has been investigated for a VVER-1200 type nuclear power plant. Personal Computer Transient Analyzer (PCTRAN) has been used to generate the response data of the plant safety systems numerically for an accidental condition like such. A break of 1000 cm2 in the A-loop of the steam line has been considered. A break of the size is considered a “Large Break”, which is believed to be responsible for multiple serious accidents in the past. Also, it has also been assumed that off-site AC power supply is unavailable. Simulations were run for time duration of 300 seconds since most of the safety features of the plant should respond within 50 seconds from the initiation of the accident. Results show that SCRAM is initiated within 22.5 seconds from the emergence of the break, which limited the peak core thermal power to around 105% of the nominal value. The peak temperatures ...
In this article I am concerned with the nature of the ideological warfare that characterizes cont... more In this article I am concerned with the nature of the ideological warfare that characterizes contemporary popular music in Bangladesh: how effectively music videos (along with their lyrical contents) are contributing to the meaning-making process of popular music to produce the urban poor. I argue that, with the ongoing prevalence of ‘urban folk’ music in Dhaka city—which has been championed by a group of subaltern musicians—a culture-clash has eventually formed between the two groups of musicians and producers; two different schools of music that roughly represent two different classes. Through an analysis of specific urban folk lyrics, music videos and other related music experiences, this article considers the ideological warfare and culture-clash apparent in the production of urban poor by the music industry; a culture-clash brought about through the differing intentions of the classes involved.
Although extra pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) has long been known as a major public health concern... more Although extra pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) has long been known as a major public health concern globally, the complex healthcare-seeking pathways of EPTB patients are not widely studied. This study aims to explore the pattern of healthcare-seeking pathways of rural and urban EPTB patients registered with the BRAC TB control programme. BRAC is a Bangladesh-based non-governmental organization dedicated to alleviating poverty through empowering the poor. Data were collected through 60 in-depth interviews with rural and urban EPTB patients in Bangladesh. The findings reveal that the rural EPTB patients encountered a substantial diagnostic delay as compared to the urban patients. However, the difference between the average number of healthcare providers consulted by the rural verses the urban EPTB patients was not significant. This study also shows that the healthcare-seeking journey of rural and urban EPTB patients usually starts either at pharmacies or private facilities. Through exp...
Dhaka is among the most crowded cities on earth, where nearly half of its population lives in slu... more Dhaka is among the most crowded cities on earth, where nearly half of its population lives in slums, squatter-settlements and urban fringes. Since the mid 1980s, a new hybrid of popular music, sometimes called “urban folk”, has been prevalent in this city by dint of its consumption among the urban poor. These informal city-dwellers, by their power of mass consumption and with the advent of audio-cassettes and cheap music-listening technologies, have radically re-shaped the music industry. This cultural encroachment has transcended the boundary of the audio-cassette industry and reaches into the television media creating new representational patterns and cultural politics. It creates a “high-brow” and “low-brow” division inside the realm of popular music where the urban folk, a relatively awkward type of music for the taste of the educated class, in many ways outperforms the prevailing tradition of sophisticated pop in a city whose cultural taste is designed by the empowered elites and middle-classes. While contextualizing this phenomenon in the traditions of Bengali folk and popular musics and in the experiences of post-liberation and post-famine urban migration in Bangladesh, this research explores how urban folk music has been performing the cultural identity of the urban poor. Based upon a prolonged observation in different slums, streets and shrines of Dhaka, I argue that the hybrid nature of urban folk music makes it one of the best sites from which to observe the cultural formation of the urban poor. And the newly formed self of the urban poor – this research examines through ethnographic and textual analysis – is a silent and pervasive existence in Dhaka city which has been undergoing a series of conflicting portrayals through the production, consumption and reproduction of urban folk music in different media locations.
ABSTRACT This article explores how a particular kind of popular music of Dhaka city called ‘urban... more ABSTRACT This article explores how a particular kind of popular music of Dhaka city called ‘urban folk’ and the cultural identity of the rural migrants have been producing each other in an ongoing process of cultural communication. Following a discussion on the historical background of urban migration and its depiction in the prevailing pop music culture, this article uses the concepts of ‘cultural hybridity’ by Homi K. Bhabha and ‘political society’ by Partha Chatterjee to argue how the fluid structure of this hybrid form of music and its unconventional mobility between the folk and the pop have been in close association with the urban poor's formation of political society in contemporary Dhaka.
Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture, 2013
ABSTRACT Urban folk is an emerging trend in popular music in Bangladesh, which has become prevale... more ABSTRACT Urban folk is an emerging trend in popular music in Bangladesh, which has become prevalent in audio media quite recently with, among others, the emergence of a new generation of artists and musicians. The present article explores the relationship between popular music and the experience of migration by looking at the lyrical contents of a number of urban folk songs and is particularly interested in the metaphoric reconstruction at work within urban folk music that acts to signify the formation of new cultural identity for rural migrants in Dhaka city.
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Papers by Sumon Rahman