Comparison of Heart Rate and QTc Interval in Patients of Cirrhosis of Liver with Non Cirrhotic Controls

Objective:To determine the heart rate and QTc interval in cirrhotic patients by taking non cirrhotic as control. Methodology:The present cross-sectional study was conducted at the department of general Medicine in Civil Hospital Karachi from May 2015 to October 2015. All the cirrhotic patients were taken age study group and an equal number of non-cirrhotic patients other reasons without any cardiac disease was taken as control Group. All patients underwent the testing ECG. Values for HR and QTc were computed from lead II. Data was entered in the self-made proforma. Results:A total of 174 subjects were enrolled in this study; 87 cirrhotic patients 87 non-cirrhotic patients. Average heart rate was statistically higher in cirrhosis patients (i.e. 83.45 beats /min) than non-cirrhotic patients (i.e 74.23 beats/min), p-value 0.0005. Average QTc value was significantly high in study group (0.434) than control group (0.407), p-value 0.003. Conclusion:Heart rate and QTc were frequently prolonged in cirrhotic patients as compared to non-cirrhotic controls. Key Words:Cirrhosis, Heart rate, prolonged QTc interval

Determinants of Services Sector Growth in Pakistan

Services sector is one of the important sectors of the economy. It contributes more than half of the GDP and has substantial share in country’s exports and employment. In this study we evaluated the factors affecting services sector output growth using annual data from 1975 to 2014 and ARDL method of estimation. Pakistan’s break up in two wings in December, 1971 and availability of data on most of the variables after 1975 determined the choice of sample period. Results show foreign trade, government expenditures, market size and population growth are the relevant determinants of services sector output growth in long run. In short run, services sector growth is affected by foreign trade and personal remittances. Diagnostic tests show absence of serial correlation and parameter stability. Based on estimated results, it is recommended that relevant authorities should implement policies that increase services sector output growth if they intend to augment overall economic growth of the country

Theoretical and Experimental Analysis for the Removal of Dye from Aqueous Solution by Using Charcoal from Pomegranate Seeds

This study initiates an experimental and theoretical investigation to evaluate the selective and competitive adsorption of two dyes, sulforhodamine B and Brilliant Green, on coal from pomegranate seeds. For this purpose, the effects of numerous parameters like initial dye concentration, initial pH, adsorbent dose and solution temperature were examined and studied in batch mode. The experimental results indicate that the adsorption is fast and fits better with the quasi-second order kinetic model than the quasi-first order kinetics. Adsorption data were studied using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The obtained results showed that the Freundlich model provided a better correlation of the experimental data. The geometries of sulforodamine B and Brilliant Green were optimized using Gaussian 09W software through the density functional theory (DFT) at the theoretical level B3LYP / LanL2DZ, and the calculations (link length and connection angle) were well matched with experimental data at both levels

Factors affecting the services sector growth in Pakistan: A time varying parametric approach

Abstract. This empirical study followed time varying parametric approach (Kalman Filter) to find out relevant determinants of Pakistan’s services sector’s growth. To our best of knowledge, no author has made such study that could collect a number of variables from existing empirical literature and capture the impact of structural changes on relevant determinants of services sector growth in Pakistan while employing Kalman Filtering approach. Current study bridges this gap. Annual data was taken from World Development Indicators (2014) during period 1976-2014. Main findings of the study are that rolling regression estimates of explanatory variables justify the use of Kalman filtering approach. The state space Results show that foreign direct investment and gross national expenditures are positive and significant determinants of services sector growth while inflation, domestic credit to private sector, gross fixed capital formation, and remittances received and trade openness have negative impact on services sector growth. One step ahead graph inflation, domestic credit to private sector, foreign direct investment, gross national expenditures, gross fixed capital formation, remittances received and trade openness indicate that model estimated was stable as critical bounds(dotted line) in graph 2 are not crossed by central line. Based on empirical findings, it is recommended the concerned authorities to augment gross national expenditures and foreign direct investment to achieve long run services sector growth for better economic growth in country.Keywords. Services sector, Kalman filter, Rolling regression, Inflation, Foreign direct investment.JEL. F21, F40, N57, O13

What determines the growth of services sector in Pakistan? A comparison of ARDL bound testing and time varying parametric estimation with general to specific approach

Abstract. This empirical study followed time varying parametric approach (Kalman Filter) and auto regression distributed lag (ARDL) with general to specific approach to find out relevant macroeconomic determinants of Pakistan’s services sector’s growth. To our best of knowledge, no author has made such study that employed these estimation techniques to find out determinants of services sector growth in Pakistan while employing general to specific approach. Current study bridges this gap. Annual data was taken from World Development Indicators (2014) during period 1976-2014. Main findings of the study are that rolling regression estimates of explanatory variables justify the use of Kalman filtering approach. Results show that inflation has negative effect on services sector output growth in case of TVP approach. This result does match with ARDL results.  Net foreign direct investment has positive and significant effect on services sector output growth in both techniques of estimation. Gross national expenditures with positive effect are the relevant significant determinants of services sector output growth at five percent significance level in case of TVP approach while relationship was insignificant in case of ARDL estimation. Impact of remittances received on services sector growth is negative in case of time varying parametric approach. This result is different from ARDL results where relationship is positive and significant at five percent level of significance. All the one step ahead state vectors confirmed the stability of models in case of time varying parametric approach. Cumulative sum of recursive residuals (CUSUM) and cumulative sum of recursive residuals square (CUSUMQ) also confirmed the stability of results of auto regression distributed lag. Based on these empirical findings, we conclude that government should focus on service sector growth augmenting factors while formulating any policy relevant to the concerned sector. Keywords. Services sector, Kalman filter, Rolling regression.JEL. C22, O11, O40

Multimedia Traffic Engineering in Next Generation Networks

Due to high speed Internet and Multimedia applications, future wireless communication are expected to support multimedia traffic such as voice, video and text with a variety of Quality of Service (QoS) requirements and make efficient use of radio resources. Such kind of traffic requires high level of QoS guarantees. Traffic management is a process of regulating the traffic over network. Since, multimedia traffic is more sensitive, therefore it requires special measures while transmission, especially in wireless networks. There are different queuing disciplines which are used to police the traffic, the Priority Queue and RIO (RED with In/Out) are queuing disciplines, PQ is used to prioritize the traffic, and the later is used to drop the lower priority packets at the time of congestion. Proposed solution is the integration of Priority Queue with RIO, which will serve as a classifier to prioritize the traffic and then it will also serve as a scheduler by dropping lower priority traffic when the congestion state occur. Simulation results show that by applying proposed Traffic Management Strategy (PriRIO), it assigns stable bandwidth to the Multimedia Traffic Flow and enhances its throughput. It also shows that Packet Losses for Multimedia Traffic are very minor, that is, equivalent to none. Further, delay values for Multimedia traffic also remain below the Best Effort traffic flows. Thus, on the basis of these simulation results and analysis, PriRIO outperforms significantly, as compare to other Traffic Management Strategies

Foreign Direct Investment and Trade Components in Context of Pakistan

Objective of this paper was to evaluate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on trade components (exports and imports) of Pakistan using annual data from 1975 to 2013. Engle and Granger two step cointegration method was used for conducting the analysis. This method was adopted because all the variables of interest were non stationary in level and stationary at first difference. Results provide evidence of long run cointegrating relationship as well as short run relationship between FDI and trade components. A rise in FDI causes both exports and imports to increase. Based on these empirical findings, we strongly recommend Government of Pakistan to focus on the strategy of investment liberalization as well as trade openness

Hydrogeochemical Assessment of Groundwater of Taluka Chachro, Thar Parker, district, Sindh, Pakistan

The study was conducted to evaluate the hydrogeochemistry of groundwater. Twenty-six groundwater samples were analysed for the groundwater quality of Chachro Taluka. The EC and TDS contents in most of the water samples were above WHO (2011) recommended limits. Almost all water samples collected from dugwells located in the study area have elevated concentrations of Na and Cl exceeding the WHO guidelines. Results of Ca, and Mg show that 92% and 96% of groundwater samples were within the prescribed limit respectively. Whereas, HCO3, SO4, and NO3 contnets of 88%, 77%, and 69% respectively are also above the guidelines. Statistical results revealed a dominating trend among the cations of Na+>Ca+2>Mg+2>K+ and anions occur in the order of abundance, as Cl->HCO3->SO4 ->NO3, respectively. The water quality index (WQI) shows that 15% groundwater samples belong to poor category, and 35% water samples were found belonging to very poor category.While, remaining 50% wells were found unsuitable for drinking purpos

A comparison of AC and HVDC options for the connection of offshore wind generation in Great Britain

This paper presents a comparison of two forms of cable connection of a distant offshore wind farm to a transmission system: AC and HVDC. The requirements of relevant industry standards in Great Britain (GB) that drive a connection design and, hence, its cost are highlighted along with an analysis of the ways in which AC cable connections might be made to comply while facilitating export of active power. Dynamic studies investigating responses to grid-side short circuit faults show that, in the particular scenarios studied, an AC connection of a wind farm in the place of a large synchronous generator is marginally detrimental while an HVDC connection is beneficial. A comparison of costs shows that the cross-over distance at which HVDC is cheaper than AC for wind farms of different sizes occurs at longer distances than have hitherto commonly been assumed, and AC connections benefit from reactive compensation not only at the point of common coupling and wind farm end but also at the connection mid-point