Phillips Curve or Locus Critique: Time Series Evidence from Pakistan

Some economic problems facing by any economy are addressed such that minimum levels of these are acceptable. Inflation and unemployment are among such macroeconomic issues of which certain minimum level of both are accepted by economists. Nature of relationship between unemployment and inflation is important in economic literature. This study was performed to find this nature for a developing country. Time series data on both variables was analyzed for Pakistan from 1974 to 2010. ADF test was applied for detection of non-stationary. Problem of non-stationary was detected when variables were at level, which was eliminated by taking variables at first difference. Johansen co-integration confirmed one cointegration vector, which suggested the presence of long run relation between variables. VECM was used to find short and long run estimates. A short run relation was witnessed when unemployment worked as dependent variable and inflation as explanatory variable. This model was in equilibrium and thirty five percent disequilibria were adjusted annually as ECT value suggested. Inflation had a significant positive association with unemployment in study period. This study supported the Locus critique as opposed to Phillips curve hypothesis. Policy makers should pay special attention to this relationship between inflation and unemployment when they are going to design macroeconomic policies for Pakistan’s economy

Assessment of Knowledge and Utilization of Maternal and Neonatal Health services in Public Hospitals of district Dera Ghazi Khan

Abstract: Background: Poor utilization of healthcare services during pregnancy, child delivery, and postpartum is a significant cause of maternal and child mortality. Antenatal and postnatal care is the most effective intervention for maternal and infant mortality and morbidity, especially in areas where women's general health is poor. Objectives: This study was conducted to find out the mother's knowledge about maternal and neonatal services to determine the utilization of maternal and neonatal services in public hospitals of District Dera Ghazi Khan. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a public hospital in Dera Ghazi Khan. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data about the knowledge and utilization of antenatal care services among pregnant women. Results:The findings of the present study showed that 58.4% of respondents have good knowledge of antenatal care, while 41.6% showed poor ability. Among total respondents, 46.32% showed positive utilization of ANC services, while 53.68% showed poor utilization. A statistically significant difference has been found between respondents' income and ANC knowledge (p=0.02). A statistically significant difference was found between respondents' education and ANC knowledge (p=0.01). Among respondents who have their first pregnancy, 45(72.58%) have good ANC service utilization (p=0.002). Among respondents who were satisfied with the ANC services, 81(89.01%) were utilizing early ANC, whereas 10 (10.98%) were utilizing late ANC services (p=0.01). Conclusion:  Overall findings of this research have shown that respondents' knowledge and utilization of ANC were not satisfactory. For more improvement, there is a need to educate women and provide them with adequate facilities to utilize maternal and neonatal care services.  

Techno-economic feasibility of combine harvester (class denominator

ABSTRACT Techno-economic feasibility of using combine harvester (Class Denominator) was carried out by determining harvesting losses, timeliness of harvesting, field capacity, fuel consumption, noise and dust pollution, frequency of repair/maintenance and operating cost of the machine. The results indicated that combine had an average harvesting losses of about 1.25% of wheat yield. Grain breakage losses (5.7%) were bit higher. The machine was able to harvest 2.5 to 3.0 acres in an hour. The fuel consumption of the combine was found to be 15 L of diesel per acre. As the machine was not equipped with a proper cab, dust and noise pollution posed threat to the operator's health. The machine needed only two to three persons for its operation and costs about Rs 860/acre to the user. The combine is an efficient, economical, labor and time saving machine but its initial cost is quite high. To promote this high cost technology, it is suggested that the District Governments of present set up should make arrangements at Tehsil Council level to provide combine to the farmers on rental basis

Resistance mechanisms and population structure of highly drug resistant Klebsiella in Pakistan during the introduction of the carbapenemase NDM-1.

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a major threat to public health with the emergence of isolates resistant to most, if not all, useful antibiotics. We present an in-depth analysis of 178 extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing K. pneumoniae collected from patients resident in a region of Pakistan, during the period 2010-2012, when the now globally-distributed carbapenemase bla-NDM-1 was being acquired by Klebsiella. We observed two dominant lineages, but neither the overall resistance profile nor virulence-associated factors, explain their evolutionary success. Phenotypic analysis of resistance shows few differences between the acquisition of resistance genes and the phenotypic resistance profile, including beta-lactam antibiotics that were used to treat ESBL-positive strains. Resistance against these drugs could be explained by inhibitor-resistant beta-lactamase enzymes, carbapenemases or ampC type beta-lactamases, at least one of which was detected in most, but not all relevant strains analysed. Complete genomes for six selected strains are reported, these provide detailed insights into the mobile elements present in these isolates during the initial spread of NDM-1. The unexplained success of some lineages within this pool of highly resistant strains, and the discontinuity between phenotypic resistance and genotype at the macro level, indicate that intrinsic mechanisms contribute to competitive advantage and/or resistance

Phylogenetic Analysis of Klebsiella pneumoniae from Hospitalized Children, Pakistan.

Klebsiella pneumoniae shows increasing emergence of multidrug-resistant lineages, including strains resistant to all available antimicrobial drugs. We conducted whole-genome sequencing of 178 highly drug-resistant isolates from a tertiary hospital in Lahore, Pakistan. Phylogenetic analyses to place these isolates into global context demonstrate the expansion of multiple independent lineages, including K. quasipneumoniae.This work was supported by National Health and Medical Research Council program grants (0606788 to R.A.S. and T. L.; 1092262 to R.A.S., G.D., and T.L.); the Wellcome Trust (206194); and the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan and The Children’s Hospital & The Institute of Child Health, Lahore, Pakistan. H.E. was supported by a scholarship from Higher Education Commission Pakistan under the International Research Support Initiative Program

اقبال اور فختے کا تصور ِ خودی : Iqbal and Fichte's concept of self

This article delves deep into the philosophical groundings of the two influential thinkers, Allama Muhammad Iqbal, a renowned poet-philosopher of the East, and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, one of the major thinkers in German idealism, discussing their respective understandings of the human Self. The examination of Iqbal's and Fichte's philosophical frameworks reveals intriguing and interesting affinities and divergences in their conceptualization of selfhood, consciousness, and the role of the individual in shaping reality. It offers unique perspectives on the nature of the Self, its relationship with the external world, and its potential for self-realization. The article employs a comparative and analytical approach to highlight shared themes and disparities, shedding light on various ontological, epistemological and axiological contexts that influenced these thinkers. Through a comprehensive analysis of primary texts and critical scholarships, this article contributes to a vast and deeper understanding of the complexities inherent in the concept of the human Self as expounded by Iqbal and Fichte, stimulating cross-cultural dialogue within the broader philosophical discourse

Electricity-theft detection for smart grid security using smart meter data: A deep-CNN based approach

Electricity theft has a considerable negative effect on energy suppliers and power infrastructure, leading to non-technical losses and business losses. Power quality deteriorates and overall profitability falls as a result of energy theft. By fusing information and energy flow, smart grids may assist solve the issue of power theft. The examination of smart grid data aids in the detection of power theft. However, the earlier techniques were not very good in detecting energy theft. In this work, we suggested an electricity theft detection approach using smart meter consumption data in order to handle the aforementioned issues and assist and assess energy supply businesses to lower the obstacles of limited energy, unexpected power usage, and bad power management. In specifically, the Deep CNN model effectively completes two tasks: it differentiates between energy that is not periodic and that is, while keeping the general features of data on power consumption. The trial’s results show that the deep CNN model outperforms prior ones and has the best level of accuracy for detecting energy theft

Adaptive sliding mode control of buck converter feeding resistive and constant power load in DC microgrid

Power converters are essential parts of microgrids (MGs), but they cause several problems. One of the most serious concerns with a DC microgrid (DCMG) is the constant power load (CPL), which has an incremental negative impedance (INI). INI has a negative dampening effect on the power efficiency of a power system. Sliding-mode control (SMC) has a hard attitude against external disturbances when compared to traditional control approaches like lead–lag, linear quadratic regulator, and PID. This paper suggests an adaptive sliding-mode control (ASMC) for a buck converter to supply a resistive and a CPL in a DCMG. The proposed controller provides large-signal stability during steady-state operation and maintains output voltage when the source voltage or CPL is changed. Moreover, the suggested controller significantly reduced the chattering effect, which is a major drawback of conventional SMC. An application of DCMG is presented to reveal the efficiency of the suggested ASMC method under both source voltage variation and constant power load variation

ADLAuth: Passive Authentication Based on Activity of Daily Living Using Heterogeneous Sensing in Smart Cities

The Internet of Things is a rapidly growing paradigm for smart cities that provides a way of communication, identification, and sensing capabilities among physically distributed devices. With the evolution of the Internet of Things (IoTs), user dependence on smart systems and services, such as smart appliances, smartphone, security, and healthcare applications, has been increased. This demands secure authentication mechanisms to preserve the users’ privacy when interacting with smart devices. This paper proposes a heterogeneous framework “ADLAuth” for passive and implicit authentication of the user using either a smartphone’s built-in sensor or wearable sensors by analyzing the physical activity patterns of the users. Multiclass machine learning algorithms are applied to users’ identity verification. Analyses are performed on three different datasets of heterogeneous sensors for a diverse number of activities. A series of experiments have been performed to test the effectiveness of the proposed framework. The results demonstrate the better performance of the proposed scheme compared to existing work for user authentication