Competitiveness and Comparative Advantage of Pakistan in Leather and Leather Products Trade: Analysis and Trends

Livestock sector is considered the second key sector of agriculture through its share of more than half to value added and 11.8% to GDP and main source of raw material for leather industry of the country. This local availability of raw materials and low wage cost gives the country a competitive edge in the world market. This study is an effort to examine Pakistan's competitiveness of leather and leather products with a set of Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) and Revealed Competitive Advantage index with respect to international trade. The study has utilized Balassa index, Vollrath index and Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage index for empirical analysis in Pakistan during the time span from 2003 to 2014. The findings of the study illustrate that Pakistan has a high degree of comparative advantage in this sector during period under analysis which indicates the potential of leather sector exports for foreign exchange earnings. The results of the study also show that the position of Leather sector lies in the “Competitive position product group” and “Threatened product group”. There is need to strengthen comparative and competitive advantage in Leather sector by policy support and facilitating role by all stakeholders to attain the growth in livestock and agriculture sector and improve the income of related stakeholders

Competitiveness, Diversification and Pakistan's Export Performance of Leather and Leather Products; A Constant Market Share Analysis

The present study focuses on measuring the competitiveness, diversifications and export performance of Pakistan`s selected leather and leather products in the global economy from 2003-2014. The study employs Constant Market Share Analysis to measure the competitiveness and suggests some policy measures that might be helpful to enhance the export volume which leads to a considerable increase in the foreign exchange that is indispensible for achieving desired economy. The findings of the study of the product group (4202) illustrate that average total effect, structural effect, specific competitive effect were positive, whereas average competitive effect, commodity effect, general competitive effect and market effect were negative from 2003-08. Furthermore, the results indicate that the average total effect, structural effect, commodity effect, competitive effect and specific competitive effect were positive, while market effect and general competitive effect were negative from 2009-14. Moreover, the analysis of the product group (4203) highlights that average total effect, structural effect, competitive effect, specific competitive effect, commodity effect were positive, whereas average general competitive effect and market effect were negative from 2003-08. In addition, the findings  indicate that the average total effect, structural effect, competitive effect and specific competitive effect were positive, while average commodity effect,  market effect,  general competitive effect were negative from 2009-14. The findings of the analysis illustrate that Pakistan has the potential to enhance its exports to the world, but some diversifications are required to be competitive in the world market

Triphasic computed tomography (CT) scan in focal tumoral liver lesions

OBJECTIVE: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of triphasic spiral CT in differentiating benign from malignant focal tumoral liver lesions. METHODS: The study was conducted in Department of Radiology of Aga Khan University Hospital and Sind Institute of Urology and Transplantation, Karachi from Feb 2006 to Feb 2007. By convenient sampling, 45 patients found to have focal tumoral liver lesions were recruited for one year period and their triphasic CT scans findings were evaluated and later correlated with histopathology. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy of triphasic CT scan were calculated. RESULTS: Among 45 patients, 136 liver lesions (11 benign and 125 malignant) were detected with the help of different enhancement patterns. Out of these, 37(82.2%) patients had malignant while 8 (17.8%) had benign lesions. On later histopathological examination, 35 (77.8%) of the total 45 cases had malignant lesions while 10 (22.2%) were diagnosed as benign lesions. Based on these results, it could be assessed that triphasic CT Scan has a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 80%, positive predictive value of 94.5%, negative predictive value of 100% and diagnostic accuracy of 95.5% in differentiating benign from malignant liver lesions. CONCLUSION: Triphasic CT Scan is a good non-invasive tool in characterizing and differentiating benign from malignant liver lesions

Simultaneous Determination of Dimethomorph and Chlorothalonil in Pesticide Formulation: HPLC Method Development and Validation

The identification and accurate quantification of pesticides is important to verify the recommendedconcentration of active content of each pesticide in formulated products to avoid adverse effects on human life due toover dosage. In this study, method of quantitative determination of Dimethomorph and Chlorothalonil in pesticideformulation was developed and validated by using ICH guidelines. Chromatographic separations with good resolutionwere performed on Beckman C-18 column (5 µm x 150 mm x 4.6 mm), using 80:20, v/v – (CH3CN:H2O) as mobilephase in isocratic mode at 230 nm. The retention time for Dimethomorph and Chlorothalonil at flow rate 1.2 mL/minwas 6.21 and 9.63 minutes, respectively. Calibration curves of both studied fungicides (Chlorothalonil andDimethomorph) were linear showing coefficient of determination greater than 0.996. %RSD value of inter-dayprecision was found to be less than 3 for both pesticides and for intra-day precision these values were less than 2. Interlaboratory comparison (ILC) method was applied to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed method and Z-score valueswere found to be less than 2. The proposed method is therefore efficient, accurate, and cost-effective and can suitablybe used for simultaneous quantitative determination of Dimethomorph and Chlorothalonil in pesticide formulatedproducts

Invariant Image-Based Currency Denomination Recognition Using Local Entropy and Range Filters

We perform image-based denomination recognition of the Pakistani currency notes. There are a total of seven different denominations in the current series of Pakistani notes. Apart from color and texture, these notes differ from one another mainly due to their aspect ratios. Our aim is to exploit this single feature to attain an image-based recognition that is invariant to the most common image variations found in currency notes images. Among others, the most notable image variations are caused by the difference in positions and in-plane orientations of the currency notes in images. While most of the proposed methods for currency denomination recognition only focus on attaining higher recognition rates, our aim is more complex, i.e., attaining a high recognition rate in the presence of image variations. Since, the aspect ratio of a currency note is invariant to such differences, an image-based recognition of currency notes based on aspect ratio is more likely to be translation- and rotation-invariant. Therefore, we adapt a two step procedure that first extracts a currency note from the homogeneous image background via local entropy and range filters. Then, the aspect ratio of the extracted currency note is calculated to determine its denomination. To validate our proposed method, we gathered a new dataset with the largest and most diverse collection of Pakistani currency notes, where each image contains either a single or multiple notes at arbitrary positions and orientations. We attain an overall average recognition rate of 99% which is very encouraging for our method, which relies on a single feature and is suited for real-time applications. Consequently, the method may be extended to other international and historical currencies, which makes it suitable for business and digital humanities application

Hepatoprotective effect of desi and kabuli cultivars of Cicer arietinum L (chick peas) against carbon tetrachloride-induced toxicity in rats

Purpose: To determine the hepatoprotective potential of ethanol extracts of desi and kabuli cultivars of Cicer arietinum L. (chick peas). Methods: Hepatotoxicity was induced in rats using oral administration of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). The rats were then orally administered different doses of the ethanol extracts of desi and kabuli cultivars of Cicer arietinum L. for 21 days. Oxidative stress parameters and hepatoprotective profiles were determined in serum samples using standard procedures. The effect of the treatments on liver histology was also determined. Results: Administration of extracts of desi and kabuli cultivars of Cicer arietinum L. to CCl4 treated rats at a dose of 300 mg/kg resulted in a significant (p ≤ 0.05) decrease in oxidative stress parameters, whereas catalase activity significantly increased (p ≤ 0.05); on the other hand, ALT and AST levels were decreased significantly (p ≤ 0.05), when compared to the control group. Conclusion: High doses of Cicer arietinum L (desi and kabuli cultivars) seem to have hepatoprotective and antioxidant effects on CCl4-induced toxicity in rats. This finding underscores the therapeutic importance of Cicer arietinum L. as a plant with hepatoprotective properties. Keywords: Cicer arietinum, Phenolics, Hepatotoxicity, Chick peas, Catalas

Pathology-Based Tumour Registry Analysis of Cases of Female Genital Tract Malignancies

Objective: To study the frequency and distribution of Female genital tract (FGT) malignancies through data recouped from the tumour registry of Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi Pakistan. Study Design: Retrospective longitudinal study. Place and Duration of Study: Histopathology Department, Armed Force Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi Pakistan, from 2009-2018 Methodology: A total of 1586 cases of malignant tumours of FGT were retrieved from the AFIP tumour registry, and data were analyzed in terms of the age of the patients' site of the tumour. It was also compared with regional and international data. Results: Thirty-seven thousand seven hundred ninety-three malignant cases were reported at AFIP from 2009-2018, out of which 1586(4.19%) were of the female genital tract. Ovarian malignancies were most frequent among FGT tumours,637(40.1%), followed by uterine tumours 519(32.6%). Carcinoma of the cervix was found in 237 cases (15%). Vulva and vaginal cases were seen in only 7.7% patients. The FGTs ranked fourth among the top ten commonest tumours in females. Conclusion: The most common malignancy of the female genital tract was ovarian cancer. Endometrial carcinoma was the second most frequent gynaecological malignancy, followed by cervical carcinoma. Ovarian malignancies were in fourth position among the top ten commonest female tumours in the current analysis as well, as in the previous analysis from AFIP