Household’s willingness to pay for safe drinking water: A case study of Abbottabad district

This study is based on survey data and used both the contingent valuation method and averting behaviour approach to capture HH's willingness to pay for services and quality in the drinking water sector. In case of the HH’s WTP for improved water services, the study estimates that there is statistically significant effect of location that in urban areas, HHs has more WTP for improved water services. The study also finds that sources of water have a significant effect on WTP i.e. the HH who have own source are willing to pay in the higher range (Rs 51–100) further tap water has significant effect on WTP for the first two quartiles. As expected, education level ignificantly affects WTP for safe drinking water.contingent valuation, averting behaviour, household survey, willingness to pay, Pakistan

National Finance Commission Awards in Pakistan : A Historical Perspective

This study explores the evolution of fiscal resource distribution in Pakistan. Pakistan is a federation comprising four provinces, federallyadministered areas, and the Islamabad Capital Territory. Being a central type of government, most of the revenues are collected by the centre and then redistributed vertically between the federal and the provincial governments, and horizontally among the provinces. Provinces then also redistribute revenues among lower tiers of the government, through a revenue-sharing formula. A thorough look at the history indicates that this process has been complex and has a far-reaching impact. A less systematic approach has been adopted to decentralise the financial matters. Over time, the divisible pool has expanded due to heavy reliance on indirect taxes as well as improvement in the collection. Population is the sole distribution criteria, adopted in all NFC awards from the divisible pool. This has raised friction among the provinces, necessitating inclusion of other potential variables evolved from international best practices. In addition to that, absence of technical experts and permanency of the NFC is another impediment. The NFC is supposed to provide the framework for amicable distribution of resources between the federal and the provincial governments for the joint goal of development and prosperity.NFC, Pakistan, fiscal federalism, Rule and Discretion, political economy, Population, Subventions, Doing the Business of Government

National Finance Commission Awards in Pakistan: A Historical Perspective

This study explores the evolution of fiscal resource distribution in Pakistan. Pakistan is a federation comprising four provinces, federally-administered areas, and the Islamabad Capital Territory. Being a central type of government, most of the revenues are collected by the centre and then redistributed vertically between the federal and the provincial governments, and horizontally among the provinces. Provinces then also redistribute revenues among lower tiers of the government, through a revenue-sharing formula. A thorough look at the history indicates that this process has been complex and has a far-reaching impact. A less systematic approach has been adopted to decentralise the financial matters. Over time, the divisible pool has expanded due to heavy reliance on indirect taxes as well as improvement in the collection. Population is the sole distribution criteria, adopted in all NFC awards from the divisible pool. This has raised friction among the provinces, necessitating inclusion of other potential variables evolved from international best practices. In addition to that, absence of technical experts and permanency of the NFC is another impediment. The NFC is supposed to provide the framework for amicable distribution of resources between the federal and the provincial governments for the joint goal of development and prosperity.NFC, Pakistan, Fiscal Federalism, Rule and Discretion, Political Economy, Population, Subventions, Doing the Business of Government

National Finance Commission Awards in Pakistan: A Historical Perspective

This study explores the evolution of fiscal resource distribution in Pakistan. Pakistan is a federation comprising four provinces, federallyadministered areas, and the Islamabad Capital Territory. Being a central type of government, most of the revenues are collected by the centre and then redistributed vertically between the federal and the provincial governments, and horizontally among the provinces. Provinces then also redistribute revenues among lower tiers of the government, through a revenue-sharing formula. A thorough look at the history indicates that this process has been complex and has a far-reaching impact. A less systematic approach has been adopted to decentralise the financial matters. Over time, the divisible pool has expanded due to heavy reliance on indirect taxes as well as improvement in the collection. Population is the sole distribution criteria, adopted in all NFC awards from the divisible pool. This has raised friction among the provinces, necessitating inclusion of other potential variables evolved from international best practices. In addition to that, absence of technical experts and permanency of the NFC is another impediment. The NFC is supposed to provide the framework for amicable distribution of resources between the federal and the provincial governments for the joint goal of development and prosperity.NFC; Pakistan; Fiscal Federalism; Rule and Discretion; Political Economy; Population; Subventions; Doing the Business of Government

Constraint-based Query Distribution Framework for an Integrated Global Schema

Distributed heterogeneous data sources need to be queried uniformly using global schema. Query on global schema is reformulated so that it can be executed on local data sources. Constraints in global schema and mappings are used for source selection, query optimization,and querying partitioned and replicated data sources. The provided system is all XML-based which poses query in XML form, transforms, and integrates local results in an XML document. Contributions include the use of constraints in our existing global schema which help in source selection and query optimization, and a global query distribution framework for querying distributed heterogeneous data sources.Comment: The Proceedings of the 13th INMIC 2009), Dec. 14-15, 2009, Islamabad, Pakistan. Pages 1 - 6 Print ISBN: 978-1-4244-4872-2 INSPEC Accession Number: 11072575 Date of Current Version : 15 January 201

Household’s Willingness to Pay for Safe Drinking Water: A Case Study of Abbottabad District

Drinking water is the basic need of human life. Safe drinking water is an essential component of primary health care and have vital role in poverty alleviation. There is positive correlation between increased national income and the proportion of population with access to improved water supply. An increase of 0.3 percent investment in household access to safe drinking water generates one percent increase in GDP. Whereas, provision of safe drinking water supply is an effective health intervention reduces the mortality caused by water-borne diseases by an average 70 percent. Inadequate drinking water not only resulted in more sickness and deaths, but also augments health costs, lower worker productivity and school enrolment [World Bank (1994)]. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimate 1.8 million people in developing countries die every year from diarrhea and cholera, Out of these 90 percent are children under the age of five years. While 88 percent of diarrhoeal diseases are attributed to unsafe water supply, inadequate sanitation and hygiene [WHO (2004)]. The situation is not very different in Pakistan; the access to safe drinking water is estimated to be available to 23.5 percent of population in rural areas and 30 percent in urban areas. While every year 0.2 million children die due to diarrhoeal diseases [Rosemann (2005)]

Door to Needle Time in Acute Myocardial Infarction Patients

To determine the current door-to-needle time for the administration of fibrinolytics for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in emergency room.Methods: In this cross sectional study patients presenting with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) were included. Time interval from patient’s presentation to administration of streptokinase to the patient, was calculated . The total door-to-needle time was calculated and patient demographics and presentation, physician’s experience, clinical symptomology and reasons for delays in thrombolytic administration were analysed.Results: Sixty six patients, presented with AMI, were given streptokinase. Out of these, 6% received streptokinase within 15 minutes of arrival in emergency, 22.7%received streptokinase in 30 minutes, 33.33% received thrombolytic agent in 45 minutes, 27.27% received thrombolytic therapy in 60 minutes, and 10.7% received thrombolytic therapy in 90 minutes. The mean door to needle time calculated was 44.8 minutes. Patients receiving reperfusion therapy within 30 minutes were 28.7%.Conclusion: A significant number of patients were not thrombolysed within 30 minutes of presentation.The non-availability of senior doctors, difficulty in interpreting ECGs, atypical presentations and ER system delays, prolonged the door-to-needle time in this stud

Synthesis, Characterization and Antimicrobial Properties of Silver Nanocomposites

Nanoparticles and polymers in their respective fields have contributed greatly in the form of science and hence in daily life application products. But due to lack in emerging technologies for developing silver nanocomposites with polymers and other materials, the nanoparticle-based products have conquered little less attention. Hereby, an effort is made to put a light on already developed functional materials containing silver nanoparticles and also to look forward their scope in daily life applications. A little more insight into antimicrobial properties of such materials will also be elaborated. Finally, the optimal amounts of silver that cannot be health hazardous to living being especially human and overall environmental impacts of Nanocomposites are presented

Prostate cancer metastasis to cervical node chain-an unusual clinic-pathological finding

Prostate carcinoma is one of the most common cancers in males all around the world. Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is amongst the leading carcinoma (HNSCC) in men especially in the sub-continent. There are around 150 lymph nodes on either side in the neck and cervical lymph nodes are a common site for head and neck malignancies to metastasize however carcinoma of prostate may in rare cases metastasize to cervical chain, therefore warranting a neck dissection. In case of unknown primary of head and neck extensive work up is required to find the primary site. Our case provided a similar picture with a single enlarged node which on biopsy to our surprise revealed adenocarcinoma of prostate