Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2020, Geography

Bangladesh, one of the five fastest-growing economies of the world achieved remarkable economic growth over the last two decades and now considered as the next Asian tiger despite so many obstacles like frequent natural disasters, corruption, and political unrest. Although it achieves strong economic growth, all the economic sectors are not performing well. Again, the growth is not evenly happened throughout the country and all the regions are not performing at the same pace. Regional inequality is a hindrance to social justice and equity and the persistence of regional disparities impedes the ability of a country to promote economic growth and social integration. This research was aimed to study the influential sectors and determinant factors that drive the economy of Bangladesh towards such growth. The study identified the important sectors and prominent determinant factors using regression and correlation analysis, and spatial regression techniques. The study has explored the regional variation and spatial pattern in these sectors and factors using the 64 administrative districts as the spatial unit of analysis. Regional variation has been assessed using the mapping technique while the spatial pattern has been identified using spatial autocorrelation technique: Global Moran's I, General G Statistics, and LISA. The study has clearly delineated the lagging regions in terms of the performance of these sectors and factors. Those regions should be prioritized in any future economic development plan. In addition, the ever-increasing trend of income inequality should be addressed. Otherwise, a large section of the population cannot be benefited from this economic growth due to unequal growth of income.

Committee: Bhuiyan Alam (Committee Chair); Sujata Shetty (Committee Member); Dwight Haase (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2020, International and Comparative Politics

How does relative deprivation cause people to condone political violence? This thesis investigates this question by utilizing survey data conducted in Bangladesh. Scarcity of public resources, lethal political confrontation and poor resource allocation make Bangladesh a fertile ground for violence. Although the survey suggests a relationship exists between relative deprivation and the public attitude toward condoning political violence, the regression analysis reveals that the relationship is imprecise. Small sample size, lack of technical capacity, and limited applicability of the foundational theory may have caused this imprecise outcome. The study concludes by providing recommendations for future research to undertake a mixed method for this sensitive topic.

Committee: Carlos E. Costa Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Laura M. Luehrmann Ph.D. (Committee Member); Pramod Kantha Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Comparative; Political Science

BA, Oberlin College, 2020, Environmental Studies

The Himalaya-Hindu Kush mountain range and the Tibetan Plateau birth ten of Asia's most prominent rivers providing irrigation, energy, and drinking water to over two billion people across several countries today. Therefore, transboundary water sharing is a constant source of conflict for several South Asian countries that rely on rivers to support their primarily agrarian economies.In recent years, climate change has drastically increased global temperatures. As a result, the Indian subcontinent has been plagued with extreme riverine flood and drought events.Climate change-related events like riverine floods and drought, exacerbate the politicization of conflict between nations that share natural resources like water. This politicization is visible in the media coverage of conflict, and the way water-sharing issues are linked with other transboundary conflicts, especially those pertaining to national security. This paper explores the relationship between climate change and water-sharing conflicts in three South Asian nations: India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the national media coverage of transboundary river systems, Indus and Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna, this honors thesis explores how climate change affects the politicization of water-sharing conflicts between these three nations.

Committee: Swapna Pathak (Committee Member); Md. Rumi Shammin (Committee Member); Laurie Hovell McMillin (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Studies; Mass Media

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2019, Apparel, Textiles, and Merchandising (Education)

Apparel manufacturing has been one of the most globalized business sectors. Facing free competitions after the expulsion of the decades-long quota system in 2005, it became imperative for apparel exporters in developing countries to implement efficient supply chain management (SCM) to establish competitive advantages. In this study, 4 dimensions of SCM practices applicable to the apparel sector (i.e., strategic supplier partnership, customer relationship, information sharing, and process integration) were identified and operationalized, and their relationships with key areas of competitive advantage (i.e., cost, quality, delivery, and flexibility) were empirically tested. Data were collected from apparel manufacturers in Bangladesh via an online survey. A total of 117 responses from the management level respondents were analyzed. Findings included that (a) strategic supplier partnership and process integration were moderately related to quality competitive advantage, (b) information sharing was significantly related to delivery competitive advantage, and (c) information sharing was significantly related to flexibility competitive advantage. Valuable suggestions for local and international industry leaders and policymakers are provided from the results. As the first attempt to define the dimensions of SCM practices in the apparel industry and investigate their relationships with competitive advantage, this study shapes the pathway for future research. 

Committee: Haesun Park-Poaps PhD (Advisor); Ann Paulins PhD (Committee Member); Habermann Marco PhD (Other) Subjects: Textile Research

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2019, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

Can environmental youth leaders affect meaningful positive change in the global fight to reign in climate change? While the academic literature contains a vast array of youth leadership materials, there is a gap in the research of the effect environmental youth leadership programs have at the community level, and specifically how these effects can contribute to environmental sustainability of that community, region, or country. This mixed methods qualitative study narrows this gap by employing grounded theory and narrative analysis to determine how five Bangladeshi environmental youth leaders understand their role in influencing their school and communities' efforts to adapt to and reduce their contribution to climate change. The purposes of this study are to: (a) describe and understand the experiences of five Bangladeshi environmental youth leaders as they engaged in participatory social engagement as Participant Action Researchers (PARs) during their environmental youth leadership roles (b) understand the conditions necessary for these five environmental youth leaders to experience success in their leadership positions; (c) define environmental youth leadership and environmental youth leaders in this Bangladeshi context; (d) explore environmental youth leadership as an educative process that can facilitate widespread environmental literacy and engagement in Bangladesh, and throughout the world and; (e) contribute a new grounded theory analysis to environmental youth leadership theory. The findings of this study reveal that certain conditions need to be present for these five environmental youth leaders in Bangladesh to experience success in their roles. These conditions include the ability to `convince' others, the presence of other youth to support them, and the experience of individual transformation in worldview and character brought about by the development of an environmental consciousness and pro-environmental behavior. These findings might be valuabl (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jimmy Karlan PhD (Committee Chair); Joy Akerman PhD (Committee Member); Michael Mueller PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Studies; Climate Change; Education; Environmental Education; Environmental Studies; Native Studies; Science Education; Secondary Education

MA, Kent State University, 2018, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Geography

Lightning is one of the most widespread and deadly hazards in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has among the highest death rates of any country. The main objective of this study is to analyze the people's perception to investigate the potential misconceptions and myths on lightning. This paper addresses present safety knowledge and awareness among people, the spatial variation of lightning strikes from 1998 to 2013 and spatial variation of lightning deaths from 2011 to 2015 in Bangladesh. People's perception on lightning has been analyzed using field surveys and the spatial variation of lightning strikes and deaths has been analyzed using Geographic Information System (GIS). The results of this paper revealed that there are some misconceptions, myths, and misunderstanding among the different demographic group of people in Bangladesh. Analysis of annual spatial variation of lightning density suggests that the northern and northeastern part of Bangladesh have the highest lightning flash rate density. Pre-monsoon season experiences the highest rate of flash density among all seasons. Analysis of spatial variation of lightning deaths suggests that Chapai-Nawabganj district of Bangladesh is in the top of the lightning death rates per million people per district over years 2011 to 2015. It was found that the main reasons behind this large number of deaths are lack of lightning safety knowledge and awareness, lack of shelters, and lack of lightning safety precaution training. To improve this situation and minimize the loss of lives and property, a comprehensive plan and policy should be developed.

Committee: Thomas Schmidlin (Advisor); Scott Sheridan (Committee Member); Jacqueline Curtis (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2017, International and Comparative Politics

"What contributes to the differences in women's economic empowerment?" To investigate this problem, a large N statistical analysis set up this comparative case study of Bangladesh and India that evaluates the relationship between women's access to employment in the formal labor market and women's access to ownership of accounts in banks and other financial institutions. The large N statistical analysis results illustrate a global pattern that the percentage of women working in the formal labor market is associated with a greater percentage of women having accounts in banks or other financial institutions. Neither Bangladesh nor India fit this pattern, and statistics from these two countries are very different, so the purpose of this comparison is to show why this is the case. Institutional and socio-cultural factors, including differences in each country's banking systems and how each country has developed over the years, explain the variances between Bangladesh and India.

Committee: December Green Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Pramod Kantha Ph.D. (Committee Member); Zdravka Todorova Ph.D. (Committee Member); Laura Luehrmann Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Comparative; Economics; Political Science; Regional Studies; South Asian Studies; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, Geodetic Science and Surveying

As the largest low-lying river delta in the world, located at the confluence of the mighty Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna rivers, and as one of the most densely populated countries with more than 163 million people, Bangladesh already faces tremendous vulnerability. Accelerated sea-level rise, along with tectonic, sediment load and groundwater extraction induced land uplift/subsidence, have exacerbated Bangladesh's coastal vulnerability. Climate change has further intensified these risks with increasing temperatures, greater rainfall volatility, and increased incidence of intensified cyclones and cyclone-induced storm surges, in addition to its seasonal transboundary monsoonal flooding, tides, large seasonal river discharges along with the associated sediment transport causing load/compaction of the coastal regions. As a result, Bangladesh coastal region has become the most dynamic region with the highest erosion and accretion rate in the world. For decades, the shape of the shoreline has changed greatly affecting millions of people living in the region. Our objective is to quantify the long-term or multi-decadal, seasonal shoreline changes for coastal Bangladesh to assess the impacts of the complex geophysical and climatic processes. In this study, the shoreline from 1970's to the year 2017 are extracted from a four-decade time-series of Landsat imagery. An automated shoreline extraction method based on Google Earth Engine (GEE) Application Programming Interface (API) is developed and applied to quantify Bangladesh coastal shoreline changes. This method involves Normalized Difference Water Index/Modified Normalized Water Index (NDWI/MNDWI) and the Otsu Threshold Method to enhance the accuracy of the digital imagery processing. The extracted Landsat imagery shorelines in three example regions are validated by comparing with independent DigitalGlobe and with CNES/Airbus higher resolution imagery at several m using Google Earth (GE). We concluded that the extracted Land (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Che-Kwan Shum (Advisor); Michael Thomas Durand (Committee Member); Alan John Saalfeld (Committee Member) Subjects: Earth; Geophysical

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2017, Apparel, Textiles, and Merchandising (Education)

Since the 1960s, the United States (U.S.) has become one of the largest apparel importers in the world. Bangladesh plays a significant role as an outsourcing destination in the U.S. apparel industry by supplying a large quantity of low to medium price point products. From the Multi-Fiber Arrangement (MFA) era, Bangladesh is emerging as a great destination for global fashion brands. The purpose of this research is to examine apparel outsourcing from Bangladesh. This inquiry is guided by the following research questions: 1) How is Philips-Van Heusen (PVH)'s outsourcing performance from Bangladesh compared with Vietnam? 2) How do U.S. Fashion product buyers in PVH view their outsourcing from Bangladesh? 3) How do Bangladeshi fashion product suppliers of PVH view their exporting to the U.S.? and 4) How can this fashion supply chain be improved to make the future U.S.-Bangladesh fashion business sustainable? This research used a sequential mixed methods case study approach on a leading U.S. apparel manufacturing company. By using a supplier evaluation model, it is seen that Bangladesh is in a competitive position compared to Vietnam, the second largest apparel exporter to U.S. The model has five clusters of supplier performance areas and 20 factors under those clusters. For the cost cluster, the lower the cluster score, the better the performance. Out of the five clusters, Bangladesh (0.106) has a greater advantage in the cost cluster than Vietnam (0.281). Bangladesh (0.204) is also more advanced in the quality cluster than Vietnam (0.192). Bangladeshi suppliers performed better than expected in the capacity, negotiability, continuous improvement, and certification factors. In the second phase of the research, interviews were taken from buyers and their suppliers. Buyers have some concerns in the factor areas of geographic location, trade restrictions, country's political situation, warranty policies, and currency exchange situations. Suppliers are not fully efficient in (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mijeong Noh (Committee Chair) Subjects: Textile Research

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1981, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Agriculture

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2016, Cross-Cultural, International Education

This study investigated the quality education components of the technology integrated classrooms in Bangladeshi secondary education, and secondly, the roles played by the school leaders to integrate technology which might support those quality components. Sixteen school leaders were interviewed to determine the quality components and leaders' roles. Only teachers and head teachers were considered as school leaders for this study. One-on-one in-depth interviews made up the major primary data collection. These interviews were taken to address research questions regarding the quality education components Multimedia Classrooms (MMCs) have in secondary education of Bangladesh, the leadership roles played by head teachers in integrating technology in secondary education MMCs that might support quality education, and the leadership roles played by the non-head teachers in integrating technology in secondary education MMCs. Although qualitative methodology is employed, a mix of qualitative (maximum variation) and quantitative (snowball) sampling is used to select these sixteen participants or cases. This is a case study guided by the instructional leadership model of Weber (Hoy & Miskel, 2004). The findings have two parts. The first part identified some quality education components of MMCs in secondary education. These components help students' learn easily and enhance teachers' teaching ability by utilizing educational technology in the MMC. Major national policies and some international declarations and conventions like the national Information Communication Technology (ICT) policy (2009), the National Education Policy (2010), EFA (Education for All), and MDG (Millennium Development Goal) influence these quality components. The second part of the findings addressed school leaders' roles in integrating technology which might promote desired quality components. Thirty-one subthemes of leadership roles were categorized in five broad areas: defining institutional visions, ma (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Bruce Collet Dr. (Advisor); Hyeyoung Bang Dr. (Committee Member); Bonnie L. Mitchell Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

PHD, Kent State University, 2015, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Geography

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in terms of natural hazards due to its location and population density. Fishing communities of the coastal areas of Bangladesh are an especially vulnerable group of people due to natural disasters as well as socio-economic factors. Fishing communities of Kutubdia Island were considered in this study due to the risks driven by environmental change, natural hazards and disasters, and risks associated with fishing as an occupation. Death/disappearing of fishers at sea during fishing activities because of extreme weather events and lack of safety equipment are frequent in Bangladeshi coastal villages. Yet, no such study was available that estimated the number of fishers died or went missing at sea and the consequences of the victims' families. The objective of this study is to examine the vulnerability associated with the livelihoods of fishing communities of Kutubdia Island, Bangladesh. A pilot study was conducted in May and June 2012, to develop questionnaire for surveys and became familiar with the environment, culture, and local people for conducting the surveys. From May to July 2013, questionnaire surveys were conducted by interviewing 300 households of fishing communities using national voter lists provided by the local government officials. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was conducted with ordinary fishers and lessors separately. Land cover change detection and assessment of landuse patterns was considered in this study because most of the families involved in fishing are also involved in crop cultivation and salt farming in that region. Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing techniques were used to detect land cover changes from 1972 to 2013, and the 2012 landuse patterns were estimated by using spatial video collected by contour Global Positioning System (GPS). Results of the surveys indicated the number of deaths/disappearing of fishers was 109. There were families that lost more than one (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Thomas Schmidlin Ph.D. (Advisor); James Tyner Ph.D. (Committee Member); Scott Sheridan Ph.D. (Committee Member); Javed Khan Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Studies; Geographic Information Science; Geography; Sustainability

MS, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Engineering : Environmental Engineering

The widespread arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh has been recognized as posing a serious health problem to millions of people in the region. Understanding of the complex lateral and vertical variability in its countrywide distribution is an important step towards better spatial estimation and also improved understanding of the controlling physical processes. A geostatistical characterization of arsenic followed by classical and indicator variogram analysis was performed in an attempt to study the partitioning of variability across scales and thereby identify the dominant physical process controls on arsenic. The results suggest that 'large-scale' (greater than tens of km approx.) geological and physical features control a significant fraction of the spatial variability in shallow wells (55%) as well as in the deeper wells (88%). The indicator variogram analysis also suggested the possibility of deeper aquifers acting as potential safe water sources in the country. The usefulness of countrywide spatial contamination maps is brought into question. The residual, small-scale variability appears to be unrelated to the widespread application of groundwater towards irrigation in the country. Experiments on the sampling pattern of wells in the arsenic datasets revealed that the variability in the arsenic distribution is proportional to the degree of spatial clustering of sampled tube wells. The result suggests that the nugget value in the variograms is not governed by purely random variability and instead, is controlled by distinct 'small-scale' processes. It is proposed that the prevalence of higher arsenic concentrations of arsenic in shallow wells is because of these 'small-scale' processes (less than tens of km approx.) exerting a greater degree of control at shallower depths in the sediments. A possibility of the right-skewedness of arsenic distribution leading to completely random variations in the arsenic concentrations yielding an increased number o (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Shafiqul Islam (Advisor) Subjects: Engineering, Environmental

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, History of Art

This study identifies and classifies the Buddha images of the Pala period (ca. eighth-twelfth centuries) of eastern India and Bangladesh. Specifically, the study examines the number of hands—whether a single pair or multiple pairs—hand gestures, and hand-held attributes of the Buddha images, and analyzes these elements in relation to the essential teachings of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. It is well known that in Buddhist art deities and personages are represented with a variety of distinguishing characteristics. These include facial and anatomical features, attire and ornamentation, skin color, and various types of attendants. These features individualize the beings, contribute to their meaning and symbolism, and make them recognizable to the Buddhist practitioner. Among these distinguishing features, hand gestures and hand-held attributes comprise the most important “keys” to decoding the communicative content of Buddhist imagery. The study's findings suggest that hands, gestures, and hand-held attributes, are not only iconographic features that identify figures, but, indeed, are vital means through which notions of Buddhahood, the ultimate goal of Mahayana Buddhism, are visually communicated. The Pala-period artistic remains provide the richest and most historically well-documented corpus of Mahayana Buddhist art from India, and is, therefore, ideal for this study. About 963 Buddha images among the known Pala artistic corpus serve as the primary documents for the study. A detailed analysis of these images reveals patterns among Buddha figures that are two-armed versus those that have four or more hands, and among Buddhas that make hand gestures versus those that both make hand gestures and hold attributes. The patterns that emerged from the analysis of the Buddha images suggest that the number of hands, hand gestures, and hand-held attributes of a Buddha articulate aspects of Buddha nature. Specifically, they identify the multiple bodies in which Buddhahoo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Susan Huntington (Advisor) Subjects:

BA, Oberlin College, 1993, Economics

I will look at the factors that effect jute prices. This is important for several reasons. Since sudden changes in the price of jute are unanticipated by the individual farmer, they are adversely affected if they produce the same amount of jute each year but suddenly receive lower prices for it. Jute prices are also important factor in Bangladesh's development. If overall production remains stable, but prices suddenly drop, revenue fluctuates. In trying to aid the jute industry, there have been two arguments frequently repeated in Bangladesh. One is that, jute growers need to bring sudden supply shocks to a minimum. The other is that jute growers need to concentrate on developing new markets for jute, so that Polypropylene and other substitutes do not keep eroding the market. The analysis in this paper may help to isolate the more important factors effecting price variations and, therefore, point to which factors need to be concentrated on to reduce price fluctuations in the jute industry.

Committee: James Zinser (Advisor); Steven Sheppard (Advisor) Subjects: Agricultural Economics; Agriculture; Economics

Bachelor of Arts, Miami University, 2006, College of Arts and Sciences - Political Science

This paper examines six genocides that have occurred since the implementation of the "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide" in 1951. After studying intervention in each case, a pattern was discerned, separating the genocides that occurred in the Cold War era from the ones that occurred in the post-Cold War era. During the Cold War cases, a capable and interested neighbor intervened to stop genocide in Uganda, Bangladesh, and Cambodia. Each of the three neighbors (Tanzania, India, and Vietnam) acted in self-defense after being attacked by the leadership of the genocidal state. In the three cases studied in the post Cold War era, no international actor intervened to stop genocide in Rwanda, while genocides in East Timor and Bosnia were addressed by the United Nations and intervention followed with varied results. In conclusion, interventions conducted by an interested and attacked neighbor are the most timely, effective responses to genocide. Interventions undertaken by the international community have yielded mixed results, lacking coordination, interest, and political will.

Committee: Laura Neack (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts in English, Cleveland State University, 2009, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

CHANUS RETURN: THE RECLAMATION OF BENGALI IDENTITYMAMTA ROY ABSTRACT Immigrant identity and acculturation has been a topic of significant debate in the twentieth century. Coming to the host nation, and getting integrated into the mainstream culture is a process which holds different meanings for different immigrants. On the one hand they leave the security of the homeland for an insecure future, on the other hand, the non-acceptance and discrimination of the host nation makes their integration a difficult process. Above all, they too want to live in the comfort zone of their homeland identity thus making integration impossibility. Going home syndrome and a deep rooted love for the motherland Bangladesh is an integral part of Chanu's immigrant identity. He comes to Great Britain with the dreams of achieving considerable success, primarily as a civil servant, (tied to his colonial identity), and after that going back to Bangladesh. He is unable to fulfill this dream because of his own inadequacies, and hence accepts the job of a council clerk. Inability to get a promotion in his job makes him question the possible discrimination at work. The more he stays on in Britain the more certain he is of his return. His inability to adapt to the host culture, gradual marginalization and an inherent love for his homeland makes him take the ultimate step of going back. He redeems the promise he made to himself and in a way redeems himself.

Committee: Jennifer Jeffers PhD (Committee Chair); Adam Sonstegard PhD (Committee Member); Gary Dyer PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: English literature