The Ambiguity in International Law and Its Effect on Drone Warfare and Cyber Security

Drone warfare and artificial intelligence have considerably shaped cybersecurity and international law over the years. The rapid growth of technology has slowly forced entry into the international and domestic affairs of states. How countries conduct surveillance and practice defence does not look the way it did many years ago. One must observe how the rule of law is affected by technological advancement at the international level where many complexities are seen to rise to the surface. Balancing domestic and international law comes into question when drones and artificial intelligence become key components in state affairs that transcend geographical borders. This literature review will be concerned with, and will conduct an analysis of the effect international law has on drone warfare and the use of artificial intelligence in the international arena. More precisely, the idea of boundaries will be explored in full detail as the concept of sovereignty gets questioned in light of drone use in international affairs. The core of the research will revolve around the question of, how does international law affect drone warfare and use of artificial intelligence? The strength of international law is put to the test as technological developments have made way in international circumstances

Biliary stones: an atypical cause of abdominal pain in paediatric age group

OBJECTIVE: To identify Paediatric patients with biliary stone disease presenting to a tertiary care hospital in order to determine the etiology, presentation and management. METHODS: Retrospective study of all cases of ultrasonographically proven biliary stones under the age of 15 years from January 1988 to December 2008. Data included their risk factors, complications, management and outcome. RESULTS: Total 32 patients were identified with biliary stones, treated in the hospital. Mean age at presentation was 8.25 +/- 3.33 years. Sixteen patients underwent cholecystectomy. CONCLUSION: Paediatric cholelithiasis is an atypical and under-diagnosed cause of abdominal pain in childhood. True prevalence of the disease may be higher than reported. Appropriate surgical intervention is required in patients with symptomatic and complicated biliary lithiasis

The Effect of Macroeconomic Uncertainty on Consumption Expenditure in Case of Pakistan

Government expenditure on consumption is the core issue in the macroeconomic theory. The determination of national economic growth and the improvement of economic production also play an important role in economic and technological progress. However, a high degree of macroeconomic uncertainty directly inhibits economic growth. This study empirically estimates the macroeconomic determinants of government spending in Pakistani economy. In this study, ARCH, GRACH model was used to calculate the volatility of different macroeconomic variables. Taking the period from 1975 to 2014 in Pakistan as an example, the ARDL model was used to examine the relationship between the volatility of macroeconomic variables and government spending. The research shows that the macroeconomic uncertainty caused by the fluctuation of macroeconomic variables has a significant impact on the government's consumption expenditure. Empirical results from the study show that Pakistan experienced more volatility in the macroeconomic variables, leading to more volatile government spending and private investment

The Master Synaptic Regulator: Activity Regulated Cytoskeleton Associated Protein, Arc, in Normal Aging and Diseases with Cognitive Impairment

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease with complex underlying pathogenic mechanisms. Epidemiological studies have forecasted that in the next 3 decades, the number of AD cases will rise to epidemic proportions with enormous medical, emotional and financial burdens impacting individuals affected and society. Among many risk factors for AD, advancing age is clearly essential and necessary. Revelation of molecular changes in synaptic activities leading to the prodromal, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) stage may help illuminate the course of pathogenic progression and its cause-effect relationship with various targets thereby enabling target-driven disease-modifying therapeutic agents for AD. Activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated (Arc) protein is a prominent regulator of synaptic plasticity and homeostasis that localizes exclusively in postsynaptic regions of the excitatory systems in the brain. Arc is involved in AMPA receptor endocytosis in LTD and late phase LTP consolidation at the dendritic fields. NMDA receptor activation increases Arc expression to facilitate synaptic activities and promote remodeling of dendritic spines. AD pathologies can be found in brains of cognitively normal elderly individuals. Together with the fact that synaptic activity is altered during aging and markedly deteriorated in AD, we therefore hypothesize that altered basal and activity-driven Arc expression contribute to deleterious synaptic changes at old age and in AD. The altered Arc contributes to synaptopathy in AD through its interactions at the postsynaptic density and dendritic spine. However, the mechanisms responsible for Arc alteration during normal aging and in AD are currently not clear. In these studies, we systemically investigate changes in Arc protein levels under basal and stimulation conditions in hippocampal formation (HF) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) from wild-type (WT) and 3x transgenic (Tg) AD mice at varying ages. The results derived from WT and 3xTg AD mice show Arc protein levels increase along with advancing age and in AD under non-stimulated basal condition. More importantly, Arc expression is increased in response to NMDAR and insulin receptor stimulation and these stimulation-elicited Arc increases are dramatically attenuated in AD. We present evidence to show Arc is regulated by phosphorylation on the serine and tyrosine residues and this post-translational modification process is driven by receptor stimulation. Arc is also sensitive to oxidative damage as indicated by elevation of nitrated Arc levels in aged WT and 3 x Tg AD mice. We reveal that Arc is associated with PSD-95/NMDAR and filamin A (FLNA) signaling pathways. Further, we identify protein kinase C (PKC) and Src in the PSD-95/NMDAR complexes as well as JAK2 and PAK1 in the FLNA signaling cascade as the kinases that phosphorylate Arc following activation of the NMDARs and insulin receptor, respectively. Most importantly, we observed a reduced association of Arc with NMDARs accompanied by increased Arc linkage to FLNA during normal aging and in AD. The relevancy of the findings in mouse AD models is affirmed by examining the postmortem human HF from age-, gender- and postmortem interval-matched sets of cognitively normal controls, subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) with or without AD pathology (MCI-AD and MCI-SNAP, respectively) and AD cases. Arc protein levels are higher in MCI-SNAP and AD under the non-stimulated conditions. Similar to the observation made in mouse brain, Arc expression is increased by exposure to NMDA/glycine (NMDAR), PNU282987 (α7 nicotinic receptor), insulin (IR) and BDNF (TrkB) in human HF slices from non-demented controls. The receptor stimulation induced Arc expression is universally and markedly reduced in MCI-AD and AD as well as in MCI-SNAP although with lesser extent. Oxidative damage to Arc is evidenced in MCI-AD and AD but not in MCI-SNAP. Arc is predominantly associated with PSD-95/NMDARs in control and MCI-SNAP cases but linked to FLNA in MCI-AD and AD. In summary, the data presented indicate for the first time that phosphorylation of Arc mediated by kinases in its associated NMDAR and FLNA is a regulatory mechanism for Arc under physiological conditions. More importantly, defected activity-driven Arc expression is observed prevalently in diseases with cognitive impairment. The reduced activity-induced Arc expression can occur with or without elevated Arc protein levels and the altered connections with PSD-95/NMDAR and FLNA signaling complexes. The data derived from this study indicate that reduced activity-driven Arc expression and altered Arc connections occur early in the course of synaptopathy and are integral parts of AD pathologies. Our data suggest that restoring activity-driven Arc expression may rescue synaptic dysfunction and thereby improve cognitive function in diseases with cognitive impairments such as Alzheimer’s disease

Solving Poverty through Management: Experience in Pakistan

There has been a consensus in the development literature that the poor have received insufficient credit from the formal financial sector. This is because the department rated the poor as a dangerous borrower because of the lack of appropriate collateral. This provides, therefore, the rationale for promoting the policy position of the microfinance sector to strengthen access to credit for the poor. Microcredit is expected to reduce poverty by increasing household income. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this debate. It is achieved by investigating the impact of microcredit on poverty in Pakistan. This paper uses the 1985-2015 time series data to assess the relationship between the human development index as a representative of poverty and its socioeconomic characteristics and microfinance visits. The error correction model is used to estimate the relationship between microcredit and household demographic variables and family poverty. Data analysis shows that there is a positive correlation between the human development index and small business credit, which is conducive to all previous expectations Thus, this evidence provides support for the "positive impact" of the debate and provides some guidance on how policy reform should focus on strengthening the performance of the Pakistani microfinance sector. In addition, the evidence for this study provides some guidance on policy reforms to improve Pakistan's microfinance performance

New Onset Refractory Status Epilepticus as an Unusual Presentation of a Suspected Organophosphate Poisoning

New onset refractory status epilepticus (NORSE) is a new entity in medical literature. It has different infectious and noninfectious etiologies showing a devastating impact onto the clinical outcome of patients. Therapy with anaesthetic and antiepileptic agents often fails to improve the condition, unless the primary cause is rectified. Here is presented the case of a young female with a history of depression who after a recent bereavement came to the Emergency Department of Aga Khan University Hospital with complaints of drowsiness that lasted for few hours. Though she had no history of organophosphate poisoning, her physical examination and further investigations were suggestive of the diagnosis. During her hospital stay, she developed refractory status epilepticus. Her seizures did not respond to standard antiepileptic and intravenous anesthetic agents and subsided only after intravenous infusion of atropine for a few days. Organophosphate poisoning is a very common presentation in the developing world and the associated status epilepticus poses a devastating problem for emergency physicians. In patients with suspected organophosphate poisoning with favoring clinical exam findings, the continuation of atropine intravenous infusion can be a safe option to abate seizures

Solving Poverty through Management: Experience in Pakistan

There has been a consensus in the development literature that the poor have received insufficient credit from the formal financial sector. This is because the department rated the poor as a dangerous borrower because of the lack of appropriate collateral. This provides, therefore, the rationale for promoting the policy position of the microfinance sector to strengthen access to credit for the poor. Microcredit is expected to reduce poverty by increasing household income. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this debate. It is achieved by investigating the impact of microcredit on poverty in Pakistan. This paper uses the 1985-2015 time series data to assess the relationship between the human development index as a representative of poverty and its socioeconomic characteristics and microfinance visits. The error correction model is used to estimate the relationship between microcredit and household demographic variables and family poverty. Data analysis shows that there is a positive correlation between the human development index and small business credit, which is conducive to all previous expectations Thus, this evidence provides support for the "positive impact" of the debate and provides some guidance on how policy reform should focus on strengthening the performance of the Pakistani microfinance sector. In addition, the evidence for this study provides some guidance on policy reforms to improve Pakistan's microfinance performance

Perceived Barriers Towards Adoption Of Internet Banking Among Non-Metropolitan Internet Users Of Pakistan

Internet banking is a vital component of E-banking flourished rapidly in developed countries unlike developing countries. This paper provides recommendations for the banks offering internet services after examining the barriers in adoption of internet banking perceived by the active internet users living in non-metropolitan areas of Pakistan. Various, significantly perceived barriers identified by previous studies are presented after an extensive literature review in order to form a basis for developing questionnaire and comparing the findings. Data were collected from 520 customers of the banks offering internet services. The respondent’s selection criteria was being active internet user and living in non-metropolitan area of Pakistan. Findings show that the loss of personal service and one to one relationship with bankers, low perceived value of internet banking as compared to traditional banking and lack of knowledge, information are perceived to be the most significant barriers in adoption of internet banking among respondents. Unlike other studies lack of security, risk of hacking, fear of incomplete transactions and high financial risks are perceived to be moderately significant barriers. The study recommends that the banks should identify the information needs of the customers and establish the effective information channels to communicate the benefits and uses of internet banking services and develop long term relationship