Banking and Insurance Services Liberalization and Development in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Malaysia: A Comparative Analysis

This paper draws from three country case studies of the liberalization and development of the banking and insurance service sectors in Bangladesh, Nepal and Malaysia undertaken as part of an ARTNeT regional study on trade in services led by the author.Service Trade, Bangladesh,Nepal, Malaysia

Services Trade in Developing Asia: A Case Study of the Banking and Insurance Sector in Bangladesh

This study assesses the strengths and weaknesses of reforms in the banking and insurance industries. Banking sector performance is analysed using various indicators as well as Principle Component Analysis techniques. A comparative case study of three banks with different ownership structures is presented. The study concludes with important conclusions and policy implications for future reforms based on the findings.Service Trade, Bangladesh

Services Trade in Developing Asia:A Case Study of the Banking and Insurance Sector in Nepal

This study reviews the development of the banking and insurance sectors in Nepal and the effect of reforms and commitments linked to these sectors since the 1980s, when financial sector liberalization in Nepal began with deregulation of the interest rate structure and opening of the banking sector to foreign investors.Service Trade, Nepal

Trade and investment linkages and coordination in Nepal: Impact on productivity and exports and business perceptions

This research paper intends to analyse: (a) the impacts of ASEAN trade liberalization on the macroeconomy variables – gross domestic product (GDP), Terms of Trade (ToT), balance of trade, inflation and real wage – and agricultural industries (output, exports and imports) in the ASEAN 6 countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Viet Nam); and (b) the impact of trade liberalization on income distribution in Indonesia. A multi-country and multi-commodity computable general equilibrium (CGE) GTAP model has been used as the main tool of analysis.Trade and Investment, Nepal, Impact on productivity

VACTERL (vertebral anomalies, anal atresia or imperforate anus, cardiac anomalies, tracheoesophageal fistula, renal and limb defect) spectrum presenting with portal hypertension: a case report

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.Abstract Introduction We report for the first time a unique case of VACTERL (vertebral anomalies, anal atresia or imperforate anus, cardiac anomalies, tracheoesophageal fistula, renal and limb defect) spectrum associated with portal hypertension. The occurrence of both VACTERL spectrum and extrahepatic portal hypertension in a patient has not been reported in the literature. We examined whether or not there was any association between extrahepatic portal hypertension and VACTERL spectrum. Case Presentation A two-and-half-year-old Caucasian girl with VACTERL spectrum presented with hematemesis and abdominal distension. She had caput medusae, ascites, splenomegaly, gastric and esophageal varices. Her liver function tests were within normal limits. Magnetic resonance imaging of the liver with contrast showed a thready portal vein with collateral vessels involving both right and left portal veins without intrahepatic duct dilation. Conclusion A thready portal vein, with features of extrahepatic portal hypertension, is a rare non- VACTERL-type defect in patients with VACTERL spectrum. Understandably, clinicians should give low priority to looking for portal hypertension in VACTERL spectrum patients presenting with gastrointestinal bleeding. However before routinely looking for a thready portal vein and/or extrahepatic portal hypertension in asymptomatic VACTERL spectrum patients, we need further evidence to support this rare association.Published versio

Development versus Legacy: The Relative Role of Development and Historical Legacies in Achieving Gender Equality

Economic development is often held to be beneficial for gender equality. However, there is good reason to believe that long lasting institutions like religion, legal traditions, and family practices, also matter. This paper provides an empirical assessment of the relative importance of development and historical determinants of gender equality at the cross-national level. To capture this long-term relationship, a new index of gender equality that stretches back to 1960 is introduced. Besides data on legal and religious traditions of countries, we also employ lesser known data on family systems in the analysis of the index. We find that variables on the long lasting institutions of countries can be as important as economic development in determining gender equality outcomes. Thus, our study highlights the importance of considering the contextual and historical conditions of a country when analysing the determinants of gender equality gaps

From the memory spaces of the city to ımage: a project-based learning approach in visual art education

Öz. Son yıllarda görsel sanatlar eğitiminde, öğrenimi okul duvarlarının ötesine taşıyan, gerçek dünya deneyimlerine bağlı, öğrencilerin kültürel, politik ve sosyal konularla anlamlı ilişkiler kurmalarını sağlayacak öğretim yöntemlerine yönelim söz konusudur. Bu yönelimler arasında, sınıf içinde öğretmen tarafından ortaya konulan soruların doğru olarak cevaplandırılmasından çok, problemin bizzat öğrenci tarafından bulunduğu ve çözüldüğü, sosyo-kültürel yaşam içerisinde ihmal edilen durumların ön plana çıkartıldığı uygulamalar kendini göstermeye başlamıştır. Bu araştırmada, kentin bellek mekânları bağlamında proje tabanlı öğrenme yöntemiyle tasarlanan bir öğretim etkinliğinin görsel sanatlar öğretmeni adaylarının kente ve kimliğe ilişkin farkındalıklarının geliştirilmesine odaklanılmıştır. Araştırma eylem araştırması olarak desenlenmiştir. Araştırmanın katılımcıları Anadolu Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Resim-iş Öğretmenliği Bölümü’nde öğrenim gören Özel Öğretim Yöntemleri II” dersini takip eden toplam 40 öğrencidir. Araştırma verileri, 5 (beş) haftalık uygulama sürecinde, öğrenciler ile yapılan yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmeler, yansıtıcı günlükler ve öğrenenlerin uygulama sürecinin sonunda oluşturdukları sanat ürünleri ve bu ürünler üzerine yazmış oldukları yazılar yoluyla toplanmıştır. Elde edilen veriler içerik analizi yoluyla çözümlenmiştir. Araştırmada kente ilişkin algıların çözümlenmesiyle başlayıp, mekânda sanatsal kurguya uzanan bu öğrenme sürecinin her aşamasında öğretmen adayları insan- çevre ve kent odaklı düşünmeye yöneltilmiştir. Öğretmen adayları, proje tabanlı öğrenme yaklaşımının, gerçek dünyayı deneyimleme ve kent belleğine ait olanı korumaya dönük farkındalıklarını arttığını belirtmişlerdir. Yapmış oldukları çalışmalarda eserin sadece biçimsel estetiğe hitap eden yönlerini düşünmemişler onun toplumla ve mekânla ilişkisine hatta geçmişle bağlantısına odaklanmışlardır. Abstract. In recent years, in visual arts education, there has been a tendency towards teaching methods that expand learning beyond the school’s walls, based on real world experiences, and that enable the students to develop meaningful relationships with cultural, political, and social issues. Among these trends, the practices in which the problems are found and solved by the students themselves rather than trying to find the right answers to the questions posed by the teacher in the classroom, where the circumstances that are usually neglected in socio-cultural life have been revealed. This research focuses on improving the prospective visual arts teachers’ urban awareness and identity via a teaching activity designed through Project based learning methods. The research has been designed as an action research. Participants of the research were 40 students enrolled in Anadolu University, Faculty of Education, Department of Art Teaching, and took “Special Teaching Methods II” course. The research data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with the students, reflective daily reports, and the artworks the students created at the end of this process, and their reports written on these works during the 5 (five)-week implementation process. Content analysis method was used to analyze the data obtained from the research implementation process. In this research, the prospective teachers were encouraged to have a human-environment- and city-oriented mindset at each stage of this learning process, which began with analysis of urban perceptions and extended towards the artistic fiction in that space. The prospective teachers stated that the project-based learning approach has made a great contribution to their awareness for experiencing the real world and preserving what belongs to urban memory. The prospective teachers not only focused on the aspects that address to morphological aesthetics of their artworks, they also focused on their connection with the society and space, and even with the past