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The bioavailability of trace metals in soils poses a major threat to the environment, especially with massive mineral fertilizers added to increase plant yield. A plot experiment was conducted for the effectiveness evaluation of compost and vermicompost, recycled from agro-industrial wastes, in immobilizing chromium, cadmium, and lead added to calcareous soil (artificially contaminated). Moreover, immobilization efficiency was compared to the natural occurrence of these metals in the soil without metal addition (uncontaminated soil). In both soils, amendments and mineral fertilizers were applied at three different levels alone and combined to each other. The experimental design was arranged in factorial complete randomized blocks using contamination, organic and mineral fertilizer levels, and their combination as categorical factors. The distribution of metal fractions and their bioavailability in soils and bioaccumulation in wheat grains were evaluated. Soil alkalinity, the contents of soil organic carbon and nitrogen, available phosphorus, and soil micronutrients were significantly improved under vermicompost and compost compared to mineral fertilizer and control. Vermicompost was more effective than compost in reducing metals bioavailability in contaminated soils by increasing the immobilized organic fractions, but it regressed when combined with mineral fertilizers. The bioavailability of the naturally occurring metal levels in uncontaminated soil did not change significantly compared to contaminated soil. Likewise, wheat yield, plant biomass, and nutrient enrichment in wheat grains improved due to enhanced soil nutrient availability. These composted agro-industrial residues, by-products from food industries, can be classified as environmentally-friendly soil amendments for their great potential to enrich soil nutrients, reduce mineral fertilizer addition, enhance plant growth, and stabilize Cr, Cd, and Pb in contaminated calcareous soils under wheat plants.

The brewing industry is a major part of the agri-food sector, but its fermentation processes contribute significantly to global CO2 emissions, exacerbating the greenhouse gas crisis. Achieving net-zero emissions requires innovative solutions, and this study explored one such solution by using microalgae to capture CO2 from a brewery while simultaneously generating valuable bioproducts. Two microalgae species, Tetradesmus obliquus and Limnospira maxima, were cultivated in a 1000 L raceway and a 400 L tubular photobioreactor, both powered by the brewery’s CO2 waste gas. The specific growth rates reached 0.3 in the raceway and 0.4–0.5 in the photobioreactor for both species. Notably, L. maxima showed higher productivity, achieving up to 0.80 g L−1 day−1 in the photobioreactor and 0.5 g L−1 day−1 in the raceway. Operating across 300 brewing days per year, a single module (1400 L) of this system could reduce a brewery’s CO2 emissions by 29%. These low-maintenance systems are modular, allowing for easy scaling and operation. The harvested biomass was nutritionally valuable; L. maxima contained up to 55% protein and 3% phycocyanin, while T. obliquus was rich in carbohydrates (36%) and lipids (12%), levels suitable for feeds and fertilizers. A cost-benefit analysis suggests that coupling CO2 removal with bioproduct generation supports a sustainable circular economy while offering financial returns.

This report deals with converting the agriculture waste (rice straw) to environmental cleaner materials (biochar) using airless pyrolysis followed by eco-friendly activation. The biochar (p-Biochar) obtained after pyrolysis step (poorly active material) was activated using wet attrition method to give m-Biochar (highly active materials). The both p-Biochar and m-Biochar were characterized in detail and utilized for MB and CV dye removal from aqueous solution. Various parameters affecting the adsorption process such as dye concentration, adsorbent dose, contact time, temperature, NaCl dose and pH were investigated. The adsorption isotherm was well fitted using Langmuir isotherm, and the maximum adsorption capacity is 90.91 and 44.64 mg/g, for MB and CV dyes, respectively. The contact time data obtained showed that the two dyes were poorly adsorbed over p-Biochar. The equilibrium was reached quickly in 15 min for MB dye and 20 min for CV dye using the m-Biochar, and removal percent was 94.45 and 92.70% for MB and CV dyes, respectively. Moreover, the kinetic isotherm presented very well fitted by pseudo-second-order model. In addition, the adsorption percent increases with further increasing the pH value. Finally, we observed that m-Biochar highly adsorbs the MB dye compared with the CV dye over all experimental conditions.

Aim/Purpose: The main aim of this study is to identify the factors that influence the continuance intention of use of innovative systems by non-academic employees of a private university and associated academic institutions in Bangladesh. Background: The targeted academic institutions have introduced many new online services aimed at improving students’ access to information and services, including a new online library, ERP or online forum, and the jobs-tracking system (JTS). This research is focused only on the JTS for two reasons. First, it is one of the most crucial systems for the Daffodil Family, as it enables efficient working across many institutes spread across the country and abroad. Second, it is employed in a wide variety of organisational institutes, not just the university. This study aims to discover negative factors that lead to a decrease in users’ intentions to continue using the system. The ultimate goal is to improve the motivation among administrative staff to use technology-related innovation by reducing or eliminating the problems. Methodology: G* power analysis was employed to determine the expected sample size. A questionnaire survey was conducted of 211 users of a new job tracking system from a private university in Bangladesh, to collect data for testing the suggested research model. The data was analysed using the structural equation technique, which is a powerful multivariate analysis mechanism. Contribution: This research contributes to the body of literature and helps better understand users’ continuance intention in the post-implementation phase of the JTS. It complements the micro-level examinations of continuance intention of using IT, by building on our understanding of the phenomenon at the individual level. Specifically, this study examines the role of technostress where organisations invest in IT to make their users more comfortable with innovative and new technologies like the JTS. Findings: This research develops a theoretical advancement of the expectation-confirmation theory, with implications for IT managers and senior management dealing with IT-related behaviour. All proposed hypotheses were supported. Specifically, the predictors of exhaustion – work overload, work–life balance, and role ambiguity – are significant. The core factors for satisfaction, perceived usefulness, and confirmation, are also found to be significant. Finally, satisfaction and exhaustion significantly influence continuance intention, in both positive and negative ways. Recommendations for Practitioners: This study gives an idea about some of the difficulties that people face when implementing new and innovative IT, particularly in academia in Bangladesh. It offers insights into strategies the management may want to follow when implementing new technology like the JTS. This study suggests strategies to increase satisfaction and reduce technostress among new users to enhance organisational support for change. Recommendation for Researchers: Methodologically, the study provides researchers about the technique that reduces the threat of the common method bias. First, it created a psychological separation between criterion and predictor variables. Second, the threat of common method variance was actively controlled by modelling a latent method factor and by using marker variables that researchers can use in their work. This study complements the micro-level examinations of continuance intention of using IT by building on our understanding of the phenomenon at the individual level. Researchers can extend this model by integrating other theories. Impact on Society: The findings of the study indicate that work overload, work–life conflict, and role ambiguity create tiredness, leading to lower user satisfaction with the system. Perceived usefulness and confirmation have an increasingly similar effect on users’ satisfaction with the system and their subsequent continuance intention. These findings tell university administrators what measures they should take to improve continuance intention of using innovative technology. Future Research: Future studies could conceptualise a five-factor personality model from the personal perspective of users. This model can also be extended by including the dimensions of absorptive capacity, i.e., the dynamic capabilities of users. Absorptive capacity of understanding, assimilating, and applying might influence the user’s perception of usefulness and confirmation of using JTS.

SocialMedia Marketing (SMM) has become a mainstream promotional scheme. Almost every business promotes itself through social media, and an educational institution is no different. The users’ responses to social media posts are crucial to a successful promotional campaign. An adverse reaction leaves a long-term negative impact on the audience, and the conversion rate falls. This is why selecting the content to share on social media is one of the most effective decisions behind the success of a campaign. This paper proposes a Data-Driven Promotional Management System (DPMS) for universities to guide the selection of appropriate content to promote on social media, which is more likely to obtain positive user reactions. The main objective of DPMS is to make effective decisions for Social Media Marketing (SMM). The novel DPMS uses a well-engineered and optimized BiLSTM network, classifying users’ sentiments about different university divisions, with a stunning accuracy of 98.66%. The average precision, recall, specificity, and F1-score of the DPMS are 98.12%, 98.24%, 99.39%, and 98.18%, respectively. This innovative Promotional Management System (PMS) increases the positive impression by 68.75%, reduces the adverse reaction by 31.25%, and increases the conversion rate by 18%. In a nutshell, the proposed DPMS is the first promotional management system for universities. It demonstrates significant potential for improving the brand value of universities and for increasing the intake rate.

PurposeTo identify the financial stress and associate factors of tertiary level student.Design/methodology/approachTo identify the financial stress and associate factors, a structured questionnaire was developed to collect data from 571 students of different universities of Bangladesh through Google form. Chi square and Cramer's V were applied to find the associated factors with financial stress of students, whereas ordinal regression was performed to evaluate the influence of the associated factors on financial stress.FindingsGender, living status, borrowing loan factors have positive association with financial stress. Tuition fee dues have significant positive association with financial stress. A student who has tuition fee dues feels 1.48 times more stress compared to student who does not have dues. Females were found less likely to be financially stressed (AOR = 1.536) than male students. Students who borrowed loans were more likely to have financial stress than non-borrowed loan groups of students.Practical implicationsResults indicate that financial stress has a strong impact on participation in different academic and personal activities of a student. Therefore, parents, university administration and student counselor should consider the factor to assess stress of a student.Originality/valueThis study identified factors responsible for financial stress of Bangladeshi students of tertiary level.

The main factors influencing biochar properties are feedstock biomass and pyrolysis operational conditions. A solar parabolic dish collector was proposed as a new green approach to the pyrolysis process. The technique of this reactor was designed to produce biochar from sesame feedstock (SF) by concentrating solar radiation. This research aims to compare the main physical and chemical properties of biochar produced by the solar reactor to those of the conventional reactor (muffle furnace, SB-3). Biochar produced by the parabolic dish collector was a heterogeneous brown color. Depending on color intensity, biochar was divided into the biochar formed around the inner sidewalls of the internal chamber (SB-1) and the biochar formed in the upper part of the internal chamber (SB-2). Generally, the physiochemical properties of the SB-2 biochar were similar to the SB-3 biochar, while SB-1 biochar was similar to SF. This was because the temperature distribution was not uniform in the solar reactor. The proposed solar parabolic dish collector needs some modifications to upgrade the biochar production to be close to that produced by the electric instrument. SB-2 is preferred as a soil amendment depending on its pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC), elemental composition, ion molar ratio (H/C, O/C, and (O+N)/C), and acidic functional groups.

COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically transformed the global education system to a great extent. In a short period, e-learning has been adopted globally as an al-ternative teaching-learning medium. However, this sudden transition raises many concerns about e-learning acceptability. To make a clear inference, this study investigated the acceptance of e-learning (perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use) among university-level students using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The empirical analysis was performed on a sample of 694 university students in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 crisis. Findings revealed that students' overall e-learning acceptability was not adequate (32.8%), a significant number of students (46.8%) were not satisfied with e-learning experience and that majority (70.2%) of students preferred face-to-face education systems for their future study. The study also highlighted the underlying factors that negatively affect students' e-learning acceptance such as lack of technological skills, less familiarity with e-learning, lack of simplicity, low productivity, inefficiency, and so on. The overall findings of this study are intended to assist stakeholders to understand the gaps that need to be addressed immediately to increase students ’e-learning acceptability in the future.

Despite quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) gaining international popularity in the early 21st century for its nutritional benefits, there remains a critical need to optimize its cultivation practices in arid regions. Current research often overlooks the combined effects of supplemental irrigation and foliar treatments on quinoa’s yield and water efficiency, particularly under challenging environmental conditions like those in Borg El-Arab, Egypt. Field studies were conducted in Borg El-Arab, Alexandria, Egypt, during the winter seasons of 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 to determine the influence of supplemental irrigation (rainfed, 2000, and 4000 m3/hectare, respectively) and foliar spraying of sodium silicate (control, 200, and 400 ppm) on yield, yield components, seed quality, and water usage efficiency in quinoa cv. Chibaya grown in arid lands. Three replications were used in a split-plot design. The main plots were designated for irrigation, while the subplots were designated for foliar spraying. The results indicate that applying irrigation at a rate of 4000 m3/hectare significantly increased leaf dry weight per plant by 23.5%, stem dry weight per plant by 18.7%, total dry weight per 25 plants by 21.4%, leaf area per plant by 19.2%, and straw yield by 26.8% compared to the control treatment. There were no significant differences between irrigation with the rate of 4000 m3 or 2000 m3/hectare on biological yield kg/hectare, N (%), P (mg/100 g), and protein (%). The utilization of sodium silicate had no significance on all studied features except for straw yield kg ha−1 at the rate of 200 or 400 ppm. The results regarding the RAPD1 primer revealed that the 2000+0 silicon treatment was the only treatment that resemble the control with no up- or downregulated fragment. Moreover, 20 upregulated fragments were observed in all treatments, while 19 DNA fragments were downregulated. Furthermore, the results obtained regarding the RAPD2 primer revealed that 53 fragments were upregulated and 19 downregulated. Additionally, the RAPD3 primer demonstrated that 40 DNA fragments were upregulated, whereas 18 downregulated DNA fragments were detected. It may be inferred that the application of irrigation at a rate of 4000 m3 ha−1 might serve as a supplemental irrigation method. Spraying sodium silicate at a 400 mg L−1 concentration could alleviate the dry climate on the Egyptian shore.

Wheat is one of the most important cereal crops in Egypt and all over the world. Its productivity is adversely affected by drought due to deficient irrigation to provide nutrients required for plant growth. In a field experiment, silicon foliar applications at concentrations of 0, 200, and 400 mg L−1 were performed at different irrigation rates ranging from 1000 to 4000 m3 ha−1 to assess water irrigation productivity and wheat crop yield in a calcareous soil under arid climate conditions. Increased irrigation rates led to a significant increase in soil nutrient dynamics, as well as in the number and weight of grains per spike, leaf area index, grain yield, straw yield, and biological yield, with the exception of the weight of 1000 grains. Spraying with sodium silicate had a significant impact on grain yield and harvest index but did not significantly impact the other traits. Furthermore, the interaction between irrigation and silicate application rates showed significance only for grain yield, the number of spikes/m2, and the harvest index. Applying three times irrigation could produce the highest nutrient retention, wheat yield, and water irrigation productivity. No significance was observed between 3000 m3 ha−1 and 4000 m3 ha−1 irrigation, indicating a saving of 25% of applied irrigation water. It can be concluded that applying irrigation at 3000 m3 ha−1 could be a supplemental irrigation strategy. High wheat grain yield can be achieved under deficit irrigation (3000 m3 ha−1) on the northwestern coast of Egypt with an arid climate by spraying crops with sodium silicate at a rate of 400 mg L−1.