Do positive and negative variations in stock indexes lead to depreciation in local currencies? A beyond symmetrical evidence from ASEAN-5 region

Preliminary studies overlooked the importance of the financial crisis in the asymmetric transmission of financial market shocks to FX market returns. Moreover, existing studies also concentrated on the response of aggregate equity market returns to the forex market returns rather than the vice versa asymmetric effect for the ASEAN-5 region. We utilised the panel based ARDL and NARDL framework using pooled mean group method for conducting this study. There are 415 observations spanning the pre-crisis period of January 2001 to December 2007. Furthermore, 595 and 1135 observations are taken into consideration when post-recessionary, and overall sampling periods of January 2010 to December 2019 and January 2001 to December 2019 are considered, correspondingly. Overall, the findings indicated that in the short run, only negative equity market returns caused depreciation in the local currencies of ASEAN-5 member countries during the pre-crisis period, whereas only positive shocks during the post-crisis regime appreciated the local currencies of ASEAN-5 member countries. Furthermore, only longer-term negative financial market shocks contribute to post-crisis local currency deflation in the ASEAN-5 member nations. This demonstrates that investors and exporters must consider the importance of the particulate crisis period when formulating forward currency arrangements

Nanoparticles Synergistic Effect with Various Substrate Pretreatment and their Comparison on Biogas Production from Algae Waste

Algae waste is one of the potential substrates for biogas and biohydrogen production and can comprehend multiple benefits of waste treatment and resource utilization. In view of the key bottlenecks such as low substrate degradation rate and poor productivity of algae waste production process, this study analyzes the combined effect of two metallic and metallic oxide nanoparticles with different substrate pretreatment methods (autoclave, ultrasonic, and microwave methods) to investigate the effect of anaerobic digestion of green algae (Enteromorpha). The results showed that out of the three pretreatment methods, microwave pretreatment and nanoparticles' synergistic effect significantly increases biogas production. The microbial community composition at the phylum level was analyzed. It was observed that the Firmicutes were most abundant across all samples. The relative abundance of Firmicutes for control, Ni NPs + MW, Co NPs + MW, and Fe3O4 NPs + MW groups were 51.78, 70.37, 75.77, and 83.93%,      respectively. The second most abundant was of Bacteroidetes that also contributes to hydrogen production. This relatively high abundance of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes promises its potential applications in a hydrogen production facility. Copyright © 2021 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).

Impact of node inter-domain movement on MANETs performance

Packet delivery ratio (PDR) percentage is one of the important network performance indicators in MANETs. In general, the PDR value degrades as speed of the node increases and coupled with high mobility or constant movement. As more nodes move at high speed, more broken path or link breakage occur and thus, more packets will be dropped. Interestingly, PDR rate has also been used to detect packet drop or black hole attack in the network. Thus, the packet drop activity may due to either the broken path process itself or deliberate drop by malicious nodes. Validating the packet drop action itself is imperative in reducing the false positive rate during the attack detection. This paper studies the movements of nodes in the networks that have caused high packet drop percentage. In particular, we investigate the inter-domain movement since it has substantial effect on the packet drop percentage. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that studies such relationship. The results on the overall network show that the high number of inter-domain movement may not necessarily contribute significantly to the packet drop percentage. However, when focus is on the inter-domain movement of the critical nodes, we yield consistent results. The proposed monitoring approach is also energy efficient as it reduces the need to monitor other large number of nodes insignificant movements

Iron Deficiency Anaemia In Reproductive Age Women Attending Obstetrics And Gynecology Outpatient Of University Health Centre In Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia

Background: Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional disorder in the world. The aim of this questionnaire based survey study was to determine the prevalence of iron deficiency anemia in reproductive age women, and their relation to variables such as age, marital status, education with those attending obstetrics and gynecology outpatient of King Faisal University Health Centre in Al-Ahsa in eastern region of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.Materials and Methods: This study was conducted for the period of 6 month staring from September 2012 to February 2013. The questionnaire had three sections on personal information: their educational indicators, gynecological clinical history, and hematological indices.Results: The average age was 25.97±7.17 years. According to the  gynecological clinical history of the respondents, 15 (48.4%) respondents were pregnant while 16 (51.6%) were not pregnant. There was significant effect of pregnancy status on Hb level. Majority of the anemic respondents 15/17 were married. Moreover 14/17 anemic women were experiencing severe menstrual bleeding, 11/17 respondents were pregnant. 54.8% of respondents were hemoglobin deficient while 77.4% were found to have low Hct. In 87.1 % of the respondents, transferrin saturation was found to be abnormal.Conclusion: In this study iron deficiency anemia is quite prevalent in the university community especially among pregnant women. The fetus’s and newborn infant’s iron status depends on the iron status of the pregnant woman and therefore, iron deficiency in the mother-to-be means that growing fetus probably will be iron deficient as well. Thus iron deficiency anemia during pregnancy in well-educated set up needs more attention by the concerned authorities.Keywords: Iron deficiency Anemia (IDA), Hemoglobin, Female, Reproductive Age

A detailed machinability assessment of DC53 steel for die and mold industry through wire electric discharge machining

Recently, DC53 die steel was introduced to the die and mold industry because of its excellent characteristics i.e., very good machinability and better engineering properties. DC53 demonstrates a strong capability to retain a near-net shape profile of the die, which is a very challenging process with materials. To produce complex and accurate die features, the use of the wire electric discharge machining (WEDM) process takes the lead in the manufacturing industry. However, the challenge is to understand the physical science of the process to improve surface features and service properties. In this study, a detailed yet systematic evaluation of process parameters investigation is made on the influence of a wire feed, pulse on duration, open voltage, and servo voltage on the productivity (material removal rate) and material quality (surface roughness, recast layer thickness, kerf width) against the requirements of mechanical-tooling industry. Based on parametric exploration, wire feed was found the most influential parameter on kerf width: KW (45.64%), pulse on time on surface roughness: SR (84.83%), open voltage on material removal rate: MRR (49.07%) and recast layer thickness: RLT (52.06%). Also, the optimized process parameters resulted in 1.710 µm SR, 10.367 mm3/min MRR, 0.327 mm KW, and 10.443 µm RLT. Moreover, the evolution of surface features and process complexities are thoroughly discussed based on the involved physical science. The recast layer, often considered as a process limitation, was explored with the aim of minimizing the layers’ depth, as well as the recast layer and heat-affected zone. The research provides regression models based on thorough investigation to support machinists for achieving required features

Utilisation of an operative difficulty grading scale for laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background A reliable system for grading operative difficulty of laparoscopic cholecystectomy would standardise description of findings and reporting of outcomes. The aim of this study was to validate a difficulty grading system (Nassar scale), testing its applicability and consistency in two large prospective datasets. Methods Patient and disease-related variables and 30-day outcomes were identified in two prospective cholecystectomy databases: the multi-centre prospective cohort of 8820 patients from the recent CholeS Study and the single-surgeon series containing 4089 patients. Operative data and patient outcomes were correlated with Nassar operative difficultly scale, using Kendall’s tau for dichotomous variables, or Jonckheere–Terpstra tests for continuous variables. A ROC curve analysis was performed, to quantify the predictive accuracy of the scale for each outcome, with continuous outcomes dichotomised, prior to analysis. Results A higher operative difficulty grade was consistently associated with worse outcomes for the patients in both the reference and CholeS cohorts. The median length of stay increased from 0 to 4 days, and the 30-day complication rate from 7.6 to 24.4% as the difficulty grade increased from 1 to 4/5 (both p < 0.001). In the CholeS cohort, a higher difficulty grade was found to be most strongly associated with conversion to open and 30-day mortality (AUROC = 0.903, 0.822, respectively). On multivariable analysis, the Nassar operative difficultly scale was found to be a significant independent predictor of operative duration, conversion to open surgery, 30-day complications and 30-day reintervention (all p < 0.001). Conclusion We have shown that an operative difficulty scale can standardise the description of operative findings by multiple grades of surgeons to facilitate audit, training assessment and research. It provides a tool for reporting operative findings, disease severity and technical difficulty and can be utilised in future research to reliably compare outcomes according to case mix and intra-operative difficulty

Noninvasive Diagnosis of Visceral Leishmaniasis:Development and Evaluation of Two Urine-Based Immunoassays for Detection of Leishmania donovani Infection in India

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), one of the most prevalent parasitic diseasesin the developing world causes serious health concerns. Post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) is a skin disease which occurs after treatment as a sequel to VL. Parasitological diagnosis involves invasive tissue aspiration which is tedious and painful. Commercially available immunochromatographic rapid diagnostic test such as rK39-RDT is used for field diagnosis of VL, detects antibodiesin serum samples. Urine sample is however, much easier in collection,storage and handling than serum and would be a better alternative where collection of tissue aspirate or blood is impractical. In this study, we have developed and evaluated the performance of two urine-based diagnostic assays, ELISA and dipstick test, and compared the results with serologicalrK39-RDT. Our study shows the capability of urinebased tests in detecting anti-Leishmania antibodies effectively for both VL and PKDL diagnosis. The ability of dipstick test to demonstrate negative results after six months in 90% of the VL cases after treatment could be useful as a test of clinical cure. Urine-based tests can therefore replace the need for invasive practices and ensure better diagnosi