Beyond traditional financial asset classes: The demand for infrastructure in a multi-period asset allocation framework

This paper employs a multi-asset allocation framework to analyse the short-term and long-term desirability of listed infrastructure investments in an investor\u27s portfolio. We employ 14 infrastructure indices encompassing six regions and eight sectors. The asset menu of the investor comprises traditional financial asset classes (stocks, bonds and bills) and infrastructure. We calculate the welfare losses due to ignoring the demand for infrastructure for various levels of risk aversion. In addition, we calculate the portfolio weights across various levels of risk aversion. Our results show that infrastructure is a desirable addition to the portfolio of traditional financial asset classes for both short-run and long-run investors

Pre Processing of Twitter's Data for Opinion Mining in Political Context

AbstractIn the wake of political activism among youth in particular and the whole population in general, everyone is not only eager to share their political orientation but equally curious regarding the voice of the masses. As a known notion, the perfect orifice to this emerging need of political activism can be found on social media platforms, from where the numerous aspects of public opinion can be captured easily. These sites have begun to have a large impact on how people think and act. It is a known phenomenon that public opinion is the largest indicator of success and failure of political parties and is a direct reflection of the party's reign. Where increased sharing of public feedback has increased awareness and promoted accountability, it has also created chaos and confusion for many. Using Twitter, the most popular micro blogging platform, this paper aims to give a method to ease and smooth the task of opinion mining with the help of linguistic analysis and opinion classifiers, which will together determine positive, negative and neutral sentiments for the political parties of Pakistan. A method is provided which pre-processes the raw data of twitter and comparison of two classification techniques to classify this data. That will aspire to capture a snapshot of current political scenario to promote the spirit of accountability, self-analysis and improvement in among Pakistani politicians. Moreover, with this we aim to give general public an important consolidated voice in the realm of politics

Effect of climate change on horticultural crops

The effect of global warming is now visible in many parts of the world. Abnormality in climate patterns, induced by accelerated warming, has started to affect a catchment-specific hydrologic cycle. Higher temperatures lead to a high rate of evaporation and dry conditions in some areas of the world. Severe weather events are now more common. Scientists believe that rapid warming in the last several decades is mostly due to human-induced changes in the atmosphere, on top of some natural variations. Impacts of climate change are complex as they can be both direct and indirect, the biggest casualty being natural resources such as agriculture. Agriculture is a carefully manipulated ecological system, the productivity of which could increase because higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could allow a higher rate of photosynthesis. However, many interacting factors are at work. At higher levels of warming, estimated monetary impacts generally become negative, and studies, allowing for disastrous possibilities, can reach high negative outcomes. Moreover, the perennial plants (mostly fruit plants) are at more risk than annuals or seasonals

Phosphorus Fertilizer Response to Onion (Allium cepa L.) Yield in Punjab, Pakistan

Background: Onion (Allium cepa L.) is one of the most essential plants in food with high nutritional value. However, application of right dose of phosphorous (P) is one of the constraints to the profitable onion yields in soils deficient in P.Methods: A systematic study to confirm the best dose of P was conducted for six years in the P deficient soil in farmers’ fields. Based on the findings obtained from 2008-09 to 2010-11, the research was undertaken to determine the effect of different phosphorus levels on the yield of onion in the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with a total of 114 replicates  in 2011-12 to 2012-13. Four treatments (160, 210, 260 and 310 kg P2O5 ha-1) were tested with N and K at 100 kg ha-1.Results: From the results of this investigation, the variance analysis showed the substantial P impact. The maximum marketable bulb yield (19.03 t ha-1) was obtained from the fertilizer combination NPK @ 100-310-100 kg ha-1 and was shown to be statistically higher than all other treatments.Conclusion: Nonetheless, the nutshell of the overall economic study is that poor farmers (Land holders >12 acres) may have options to select the NPK fertilizer combination @ 100:210:100 kg ha-1 and the average farmer may have options to select the NPK fertilizer combination @ 100:260:100 kg ha-1. But rich farmers (Land holders >25 acres) who can spend more money on fertilizers and are interested in the higher gross margin should follow the combination of NPK fertilizers @ 100:310:100 kg ha-1 to profitably increase their gross margin and maintain soil fertility for onion cultivation in Punjab, Pakistan.   Keywords: Onion; NPK; Plant nutrition; Phosphorus; Pungency

Institutional Performance and Progress at Rawalpindi Medical College & Its Allied Hospitals 2014-16- A SWOT Analysis

Background: A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses,opportunities and threats) analysis of institutionalperformance and progress at Rawalpindi MedicalCollege and its Allied Hospitals during period of2014-16 was conducted.Methods: This cross sectional study using mixedquantitative and qualitative approach was conductedat Rawalpindi in December 2016 at RawalpindiMedical College and Rawalpindi Medical College(RMC) and its three Allied Hospitals Data wascollected through observation of all availableadministrative records and also through 30 in depthinterviews and 4 Focus group discussions withsenior administrative staff members, senior facultystaff members, Post Graduate Trainees of variousspecialties, nurses and paramedics, inpatients andundergraduates of RMC were carried out.Results: The salient features of progress at RMC &Allied hospitals were provision of new advanceddiagnostic and therapeutic equipment, induction ofnew personnel, initiation of new specialties,commencement of various programs for faculty, postgraduate training and academic and extracurricularprograms for undergraduates of RMC. Renovation ofvarious buildings at RMC & Allied hospitals alsotook place while Research capacity was enhancedswiftly. Weaknesses in various areas were alsoidentified in addition to all potential opportunitiesand threats.Conclusion: The performance and progress atRMC and Allied hospital during period 2014-16remained significant with few weaknesses too, byovercoming which, it can further strive forunparalleled quality in medical education

The impact of economic policy uncertainty on sustainability (ESG) performance: the role of the firm life cycle

Purpose: This study investigates the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on corporate sustainability [environmental, social and governance (ESG)] performance and aims to explore whether uncertainty-induced sustainability performance is influenced by the firm\u27s life cycle (LC). Design/methodology/approach: The study uses data from European non-financial firms listed during the period from 2002 to 2022 to extend the nascent literature regarding EPU and sustainability performance while applying a dynamic panel data regression analysis (Generalized Method of Moments - GMM System) on 11,462 firm-year observations of 1,869 European firms. Findings: The authors find overwhelming evidence that policy uncertainty affects the sustainability performance of European firms. The firms restrict their environmental and governance-related activities and address immediate issues to survive during periods of high EPU. Conversely, the firms increase their social engagements to decrease uncertainty-induced information asymmetry. The authors\u27 results show that the intensity and type of sustainability performance are also influenced by the firm\u27s LC. The results imply that board gender diversity (BGD) increases while power concentration with the chief executive officer (CEO) decreases sustainability performance. Practical implications: These findings have important implications for policymakers, potential investors, firm management and other stakeholders given the firms\u27 access to resources and preferences to encounter uncertainty vary across different LC stages. Originality/value: To the best of the authors\u27 knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the role of the firm\u27s LC in the relationship between policy uncertainty and sustainability performance in the European context