Impact of trade openness on output growth for Pakistan: an empirical investigation

In this paper we analyze the impact of trade liberalization policy on GDP growth of Pakistan for the period ranging from 1972 to 2002. We found that there is long run negative relationship between trade growth and GDP growth. When we separate the total trade volume in export and import we find insignificant positive relationship between GDP and export and import. Both the models showed positive and significant relationship between GDP and investment.Trade Openness; Liberalization

Trade Openness and Growth: An Analysis of Transmission Mechanism in Pakistan

This paper investigates the linkages between trade policy openness and economic growth for Pakistan for the period 1973 to 2008. The paper tests the hypothesis that trade policy does not affect economic growth directly rather it affects through some growth determining economic variables, which then effect economic growth. For this purpose a simultaneous system of equations is estimated through the Three Stage Least Squares. The results suggest a positive impact of trade policy openness on Black Market Premium, Domestic Investment and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and negative impact on Macro Policy Index. However, Black Market Premium and FDI show negative and Domestic Investment shows positive impact on economic growth.Openness, Growth, Transmission Mechanism, Pakistan

Carbon nanotube decorated magnetic microspheres as an affinity matrix for biomolecules

Carbon nanotube (CNT) decorated magnetic microspheres were fabricated to develop a multimodal platform that utilizes non-covalent molecular interactions of CNTs to magnetically separate biomolecules. Hybrid CNT-microspheres prepared by a feasible method reported herein had a well-defined structure as characterized by Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Binding interactions of resulting magnetic CNT-microspheres with DNA oligonucleotides were studied to demonstrate that single stranded DNA (ssDNA) in a solution can be effectively recovered by magnetic CNT-microspheres through strong physical wrapping of DNA around CNTs' walls. The magnetic character of these CNT-microspheres combined with their capability to bind other molecules including DNA allows their use as an affinity matrix that can be utilized in affinity separation of biomolecules, and also as a platform to monitor non-covalent binding interactions of CNTs with other biomolecules. As a proof of concept, we report on the use of these CNT-microspheres in in vitro selection of ssDNA aptamers against carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), a cancer biomarker, by Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX). ssDNA aptamer candidates that have strong affinity towards CEA were successfully separated magnetically from a pool of ssDNA (1014 molecules). Our results demonstrate that CNT-microspheres can serve as strong tools for affinity separation methodologies and can be utilized for various affinity pairs in solution

Diagnostic Accuracy of Clinical Examination in Cervical Spine Injuries in Awake and Alert Blunt Trauma Patients

Study design: Observational, case series.Purpose: To determine the sensitivity and specificity of clinical judgment as compared to the use of X-ray images in detecting cervical spine injuries in trauma patients presenting in the emergency department of Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi.Overview of literature: Cross-table cervical spine views are important in patients with signs and symptoms relating to cervical spine, but asymptomatic patients constitute a different subgroup. Accuracy of clinical examination in these patients has not been subjected to scrutiny.Methods: All patients with blunt trauma who presented to the emergency department and underwent cross-table X-rays as part of their trauma workup were included. The X-rays were read by a radiologist not aware of the history of the patients. We recorded demographic data along with mechanism of injury, associated neck signs or symptoms whether present or not, cervical spine range of motion, associated injuries and X-ray findings. The history and examination were carried out by the on-call neurosurgery team member. The sensitivity and specificity along with negative and positive predictive value of the clinical examination were calculated. Data were analyzed using SPSS ver. 16.0.Results: Of 50 patients with positive signs and symptoms, 4 (8%) had positive X-rays while only 1 out of 324 (0.3%) with no associated signs and symptoms had positive X-ray findings.Conclusions: The clinical examination is 80% sensitive and 73.98% specific in detecting true cervical spine injuries as compared to C-spine X-rays in alert and awake patients with blunt trauma

E. coli-quantum dot bioconjugates as whole-cell fluorescent reporters for probing cellular damage

A quantum dot (QD) conjugated whole-cell E. coli biosensor (E. coli–QD bioconjugates) was developed as a new molecular tool for probing cellular damage. The E. coli–QD bioconjugates were viable and exhibited fluorescence emission at 585 nm. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis of E. coli–QD bioconjugates revealed that the QDs were immobilized on the cell-surfaces and the fluorescence emission from QDs present on cell-surfaces was visualized by confocal microscopic examination. The E. coli–QD bioconjugates were employed as whole-cell fluorescent reporters that were designed to function as fluorescence switches that turn-off when cellular damage occurs. In this study, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were utilized as a model nanomaterial to probe cellular damage. Fluorescence spectra were recorded after the exposure of E. coli–QD bioconjugates with CNTs. We observed a strong correlation between fluorescence emission spectra, SEM and confocal microscopic analysis demonstrating that CNTs induced a dose and exposure time-dependent cellular toxicity. This toxicity mainly occurred by the physical interaction and cellular trafficking mechanisms that led to the collapse of the cellular structure and thus loss of fluorescence. The responses of E. coli–QD bioconjugates against CNTs were also visualized by simply exposing the cells to UV light and therefore rapid toxicity analysis and screening can be made. Our study demonstrated an easy and simple method to determine an important mechanistic perspective for the biological toxicity of chemicals or nanomaterials (NMs)

Biosensors for cardiac biomarkers detection: a review

The cardiovascular disease (CVD) is considered as a major threat to global health. Therefore, there is a growing demand for a range of portable, rapid and low cost biosensing devices for the detection of CVD. Biosensors can play an important role in the early diagnosis of CVD without having to rely on hospital visits where expensive and time-consuming laboratory tests are recommended. Over the last decade, many biosensors have been developed to detect a wide range of cardiac marker to reduce the costs for healthcare. One of the major challenges is to find a way of predicting the risk that an individual can suffer from CVD. There has been considerable interest in finding diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers that can be detected in blood and predict CVD risk. Of these, C-reactive protein (CRP) is the best known biomarker followed by cardiac troponin I or T (cTnI/T), myoglobin, lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A(2), interlukin-6 (IL-6), interlukin-1 (IL-1), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), myeloperoxidase (MPO) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) has been used to predict cardiovascular events. This review provides an overview of the available biosensor platforms for the detection of various CVD markers and considerations of future prospects for the technology are addressed

Sustainable Supply Chain Finance Process in Delivering Financing for SMEs: The Case of Indonesia

Abstract— SMEs play an important role in economic development in every country. However, the growths of SMEs are hampered because of their difficulties in accessing external capital. In this context, the application of the concept of sustainable supply chain in the operation strategy of SMEs seems to be a very important function. This supply chain also covers all three aspects of sustainable development: business, environmental, and social. This study aims at investigating the experience of supply chain management in evaluating the worthiness of SMEs to improve operation. Qualitative method is adopted in this research because this method is appropriate to investigate the experience. Data will be collected by conducting in-depth interview to SC managers in Central Java. Data obtained from interview then analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to describe and explain the experience of SC managers in evaluating and delivering financing for SMEs. This research found that there are three major themes emerging from the analysis.  Those themes are 1) financing evaluation process, obstacles to accessing Islamic financing faced by SMEs, and decision making