Sustainable Development and Livelihoods of Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh: The Effects of COVID-19

Bangladesh is one of the top refugee-hosting countries of the world and adversely affected by the COVID-19. This paper aims to identify how the COVID-19 pandemic affects the Rohingya refugee and expose the vulnerability that challenges SDGs. The study follows a system approach grounded on a sustainable development model and uses secondary sources of data. The study found that fragmented and random policies in refugee crisis management during the COVID-19 reveals the policy lacks structural fragility due to inadequate policy and programs. Besides, the limited number of health care, food, education, washing facilities, housing, and the utilization of inferior materials in camps put pressure on the refugee health, education, and well-being during COVID-19. It also reduces the monetary funds, which affects humanitarian support, and limits the aid to SDGs in refugee camps due to restrictive policies. Moreover, refugees' inability to include an inclusive social security system is far from existing social inequality. This paper calls for robust policies and programs with adequate funding for structural logistics and effective service delivery in refugee management for their future well-being and promoting SDGs in refugee camps.

Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy in Fragile States

This chapter charts monetary and exchange rate policy aspects of countries’ descent into, and exit from, economic fragility and draws out some key normative policy lessons for fragile countries and their external partners. Choices around exchange rate regime and the conduct of monetary policy in fragile states will rarely be fundamental drivers of deep structural fragility, even though they may present as proximate causes. Nor are they likely to be decisive in driving the recovery from extreme fragility. However, monetary and exchange rate policy choices can and do play an important role in affecting movements into fragility as well as shaping potential exit paths. Moreover, choices in these domains affect the likely distribution of rents, including those generated by policy distortions themselves. In doing so, they alter the balance of power and can decisively shift the points of influence for policy, including by outside agents.

Quality of Pinus sp. pellets with kraft lignin and starch addition

Pellets are widely used for power generation because they use renewable raw material with easy storage, transport and high energy density. However, the structural fragility, disintegrating during handling, transport and storage, is one of the main problems of pellets, but the addition of binders/additives can minimize this fragility. The objective of this study was to evaluate the properties of wood pellets with the addition of starch (corn and wheat) and kraft lignin in different proportions. Pellets were produced with the addition of starch (wheat and corn) and kraft lignin in the proportions of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5% in relation to the mass of wood particles of Pinus sp., with 12% moisture (dry basis), classified in 3 and 1 mm sieves and compacted in a pelleting press in the laboratory, according to European standard EN 14961-2. Physical and mechanical properties of the pellets were evaluated and their densitometric profiles obtained from the Faxitron LX-60 X-ray equipment. Corn starch and kraft lignin additives at 4% improved pellet properties (density, fines and hardness), reducing their losses during handling, storage and transport.

Seismic Fragility Relationships for Structures

Structural fragility assessment is a fundamental component of modern performance-based earthquake design and assessment processes. Major advances in fragility functions development and implementation have occurred over the past three decades.

Member and structural fragility of reinforced concrete structure under fire

Purpose Despite recognizing the significance of risk-based frameworks in fire safety engineering, the usual approach in structural fire design is largely member/component level, wherein effect of uncertainties influencing the fire resistance of structures are not explicitly considered. In this context, a probabilistic framework is presented to investigate the vulnerability of a reinforced concrete (RC) members and structure under fire loading scenario. Design/methodology/approach The RC structures exposed to fire are modeled in a finite element (FE) platform incorporating material and geometric nonlinearity, in which the transient thermo-mechanical analysis is carried out by suitably incorporating the temperature variation of thermal and mechanical properties of both concrete and steel rebar. The stochasticity in the system is considered in structural resistance, thermal and fire model parameters, and the subsequent fragility curves are developed considering threshold limit state of deflection. Findings The fire resistance of RC structure is reported to be significantly lower in comparison to the RC members, thereby illustrating the current prescriptive design approaches based on studies of structural member behavior to be crucial from a safety and reliability point of view. Practical implications The framework developed for the vulnerability assessment of RC structures under fire hazard through FE analysis can be effectively used to estimate the structural fire resistance for other similar structure to enhance safety and reliability of structures under such extreme threats. Originality/value The paper proposes a novel methodology for vulnerability assessment of three-dimensional RC structures under fire hazard through FE analysis and provides comparison of the structural fragility with fragility developed for structural members. Moreover, the research emphasizes to assume 3D behavior of the structure rather than the approximate 2D behavior.

Resistance Assessment of Service-Proven Aging Bridges Incorporating Deterioration-Load Dependency

The historical vehicles passed through an existing bridge can be regarded as proof-loading tests for the bridge, and, as a result, are evident of the bridge’s performance. Such service history information has been utilized to update the estimate of bridge resistance in previous studies with the help of a Bayesian method, where the resistance deterioration process was assumed to be independent of the vehicle load process. This assumption is, however, untenable in many cases where the deterioration stochastic process is statistically correlated with the load process (e.g., a greater load intensity may affect/accelerate the deterioration of structural resistance and the accumulation of structural fragility). With this regard, this paper investigates the effect of correlation between the resistance deterioration and load processes on updating the resistance of aging bridges with prior service load information. The copula function is employed to model the joint distribution of the correlated deterioration and load processes, with which the correlation is measured by the Kendall’s tau. A new method is developed in this paper to assess the updated bridge resistance taking into consideration the deterioration-load dependency in an explicit form. The applicability of the proposed method is illustrated using an existing RC beam bridge. The sensitivity analysis is conducted to examine how the deterioration-load dependency affects the updated resistance of service-proven aging bridges.

The Danger of a “Geyser Disease” Effect: Structural Fragility of the Tourism-Led Recovery in Iceland

The fall of the Icelandic economy in 2008 highlighted the destructive effects of unbridled markets. Yet, in recent years Iceland’s annual growth rates have been significantly higher than those of the overwhelming majority of advanced capitalist countries. The aim of this article is to delve into the fragile foundations that the current Icelandic economic boom rests on. We argue that the impressive appreciation of the Icelandic króna, triggered by the rapid expansion of tourism, has made the rapid absorption of unemployment compatible with price stability during the recovery period. By restricting sources of international competitiveness, however, this tourism-led recovery strategy will render the current level of unemployment and real wages inconsistent with internal and external equilibrium in the long run. JEL classification: E24, F31, J24, O33, B51

Kazakh central bank cuts lending rate as sector mends

Subject Kazakhstan's banking sector. Significance The National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) lowered its policy rate to 9.25% on April 16, the third cut since the start of 2018. The bank approved the cut despite a fall in the Russian ruble's value, which pushed Kazakhstan's tenge down to a three-month low in a chain reaction. The central bank had earlier predicted that improved macroeconomic conditions would open the way to an expansion in lending by commercial banks. Impacts Further banking sector consolidation is likely, bringing the number of banks from 32 to below 30. Despite a sizeable reduction in non-performing loans, banks face high risks from low-quality loans not classified as such. The transfer of problem loans to special-purpose vehicles is masking banks' structural fragility. The depressed purchasing power of households will keep private borrowing in check.