The effect of terrorism on continuing education: evidence from Pakistan

Education has wide-ranging benefits to both the individual and wider society. This article investigates the consequences of terrorist incidents on whether households can further their children’s schooling. Using both the Global Terrorism Database and Pakistan’s Social and Living Standards Measurement, we find that persistent exposure to terrorism significantly reduces the likelihood that parents will continue their children’s education. The result suggests, that for every million people, an increase in terrorist incidents causes 26,501 fewer children to continue their education at the primary school education level. We also examine the results by various demographic segments and types of terrorism attacks

Asymmetric/Axisymmetric buckling of circular/annular plates under radial load using first-order shear deformation theory

This paper proposes a mathematical method for the asymmetric buckling analysis of homogeneous and isotropic circular/annular plates under radial load based on the first-order shear deformation theory and nonlinear von Kármán relations. The buckling load is presented for different combinations of the free, clamped, and simply supported boundary conditions at the plate outer edges and different aspect ratios. The equilibrium equations which are five coupled nonlinear partial differential equations are extracted using the principle of virtual work and they are solved analytically using the perturbation technique. The stability equations which are a system of coupled linear partial differential equations with variable coefficients are obtained by employing the adjacent equilibrium criterion. The differential quadrature method is utilized to find the buckling load which is the eigenvalue of the stability equations. Also, the buckling load is examined using the classical plate theory as well. The sensitivity analysis investigates the effect of geometrical parameters on the buckling load. The results are compared with the obtained results from the classical plate theory, finite elements, and the results were reported in the other references

Investigating asymmetry in tourism and growth relationship in the Pacific Island countries: any lessons for policy makers?

The global economy has been devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which began in the first quarter of 2020. The unprecedented damages in terms of loss of lives, livelihoods, and interruptions in international travel have caused deep contractions in small islands and developing countries, which are known for their dependency on tourism. This paper empirically examines the relationship between tourism and economic growth in the selected Pacific Island Countries (PICs). Adopting a panel nonlinear autoregression distributed lagged (NARDL) approach, we account for potential nonlinearities in the relationship and empirically determine the asymmetric response of per capita GDP to positive and negative tourism shocks. Our analysis depicts that tourism and per capita GDP have a significant asymmetric relationship. The estimates show that a decrease in tourism earnings has a larger negative impact on economic growth when compared to the positive outcome of the same size rise in tourism earnings. The negative impact of tourism is also found to be more pronounced in the long run. The results are robust to different tourism indicators and sub-sample periods. ICT and the financial market as control variables have a significant positive effect on economic growth. The study findings have some policy implications for PICs

Covid-19 based Global fear index, economic fundamentals and stock return nexus: analysis of Asia - Pacific stock markets

In this paper, we examine the effect of Covid-19 on stock returns of nine major Asia-Pacific countries, namely, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. We use the newly developed Covid-19 based global fear index to empirically estimate its effect on stock returns for the period 2 February up to 29 November 2020. The empirical analysis shows evidence of a cointegrating relationship between the global fear index and stock returns for nine countries. The findings reveal that the global fear index has a negative and significant effect on stock returns both in the long run and short run. We also find that accounting for economic fundamentals (the exchange rate and oil price) during the crisis period also influences the stock returns significantly. Shareholders need to consider the extent of uncertainty related to pandemics before making investment decisions in stock markets and possibly in other financial markets

Experimental studies on a closed cycle demonstration OTEC plant working on small temperature difference

Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) technology utilizes the temperature difference between the warm surface water and deep cold water of the ocean to operate a heat engine to generate electricity. An experimental study was carried out on a newly designed closed cycle demonstration OTEC plant with the help of temperature and pressure readings before and after each component. An increase in the warm water temperature increases the heat transfer between the warm water and the working fluid, thus increasing the working fluid temperature, pressure, and enthalpy before the turbine. The performance is better at larger flowrates of the working fluid and the warm water. It is found that the thermal efficiency and the power output of the system both increase with increasing operating temperature difference (difference between warm and cold water inlet temperature). Increasing turbine inlet temperatures also increase the efficiency and the work done by the turbine. The efficiency and the power output increase with increasing ratio of warm water to cold water flowrates. A maximum efficiency of about 1.5 % was achieved in the system. The findings from this work can contribute to the development of OTEC technologies

TV or web: consumer attitude and dilemma of advertisers in India

Marketers are increasingly showing interest in TV and Web for delivering advertising messages to the prospective consumers. They are in a state of dilemma about the better advertising medium between the two. Although both TV and Internet are widely used as a medium for information sharing, the success of advertising is a big challenge because it requires infrastructure and a positive attitude of consumers towards the advertising medium. Using a structured questionnaire and convenience random sampling this paper reports that the Indian consumer has a positive attitude towards Web & TV advertising with a slight preference of Web over TV for advertising