Causality between Macroeconomic Indicators and Stock Market: An Econometric Analysis

We attempt to examine the causality between economic growth and stock market performance of Pakistan for the years 1992M01-2012M12. For this purpose, the test devised by Granger (1988) has been employed. The results reveal a bi-directional causality between economic growth and stock market performance of Pakistan proxied by Karachi Stock Exchange capitalization (KSECAP). Once this bidirectional causality is established, a system of simultaneous equations has been specified and estimated by 2SLS to find the impact of economic growth and selected macroeconomic indicators on the stock market of Pakistan. The estimated results lead to the conclusion that economic growth affects the stock market of Pakistan and vice versa. The implications of the study are of paramount importance, especially for the emerging economies. Hence, bearing in mind the role of macroeconomic indicators in the performance of stock market a better policy can be formulated to enhance the growth of capital markets that in turn will increase the economic growth of emerging economies such as Pakistan and vice versa

Performance Analysis of a Novel Photovoltaic Thermal PVT Double Pass Solar Air Heater with Cylindrical PCM Capsules using CFD

Photovoltaic Thermal Double Pass Solar Air Heater (PVT-DPSAH) with Phase Change Material (PCM) capsules in the bottom channel is a promising design for enhancing the system performance. The PVT-DPSAH comprises a glass cover, absorber plate photovoltaic (PV), PCM capsules, and back plate. The current study uses COMSOL Multiphysics software to perform a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis of a novel PVT-DPSAH with vertical cylindrical PCM capsules in the second channel. To solve the differential equations in the 3D computational domain, the Finite Element Method (FEM) is employed. This study uses the high Reynolds (Re) number and κ-ε turbulent flow model with enhanced wall functions. The impact of varying solar irradiance levels (500-800 W/m2 ) on the performance of PVT-DPSAH, with mass flow rate (ṁ) ranging from 0.011 kg/s to 0.065 kg/s, is investigated. The optimum mass flow rate was found to be 0.037 kg/s at solar irradiances ranging from 500 W/m2 to 800 W/m2 , with average thermal efficiencies, electrical efficiencies, and fluid output temperatures of 60.7% to 63.4%, 11.25% to 11.02% and 42.96 ºC to 49.54 ºC, respectively. PVT collector's maximum combined efficiency was 84.12% at solar irradiance of 800 W/m2 with the mass flow rate, ṁ of 0.065 kg/s. This study identified RT-47 paraffin-waxPCM as the best option for the PVT-DPSAH based on the PCM's thermal distribution and melting temperature

Preparation, morphology and sonication time dependence of silver nanoparticles in amphiphilic block copolymers of PEO with polystyrene or PMMA

Composite materials comprising arrays of silver nanoparticles in amphiphilic copolymers have been prepared by sonochemically enhanced borohydride reduction of precursor silver nitrate (AgNO3). The precursor was incorporated into the cores of polymeric micelles formed from block copolymers of polystyrene (PS) or poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) with poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO). The copolymers were synthesised with varying hydrophobic block lengths from a PEO macroinitiator by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). UV/visible spectroscopy was used to confirm the formation of elemental silver and the effect of sonication time on the appearance of the silver nanoparticles was determined. The growth was faster than when gold nanoparticles are formed in comparable block copolymers. Nanoparticles formed in copolymers with PMMA blocks were more stable to agglomeration than when polystyrene was used. Electron microscopy revealed the morphology of the nanocomposites which confirmed that both block copolymers are vehicles for the formation of well-defined films containing nanoparticulate silver. However, AgNP formation shows some significant differences from previous reports of gold NP containing materials formed under similar conditions

Global, regional, and national sex differences in the global burden of tuberculosis by HIV status, 1990–2019: results from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background Tuberculosis is a major contributor to the global burden of disease, causing more than a million deaths annually. Given an emphasis on equity in access to diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis in global health targets, evaluations of differences in tuberculosis burden by sex are crucial. We aimed to assess the levels and trends of the global burden of tuberculosis, with an emphasis on investigating differences in sex by HIV status for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019. Methods We used a Bayesian hierarchical Cause of Death Ensemble model (CODEm) platform to analyse 21 505 site-years of vital registration data, 705 site-years of verbal autopsy data, 825 site-years of sample-based vital registration data, and 680 site-years of mortality surveillance data to estimate mortality due to tuberculosis among HIV-negative individuals. We used a population attributable fraction approach to estimate mortality related to HIV and tuberculosis coinfection. A compartmental meta-regression tool (DisMod-MR 2.1) was then used to synthesise all available data sources, including prevalence surveys, annual case notifications, population-based tuberculin surveys, and tuberculosis cause-specific mortality, to produce estimates of incidence, prevalence, and mortality that were internally consistent. We further estimated the fraction of tuberculosis mortality that is attributable to independent effects of risk factors, including smoking, alcohol use, and diabetes, for HIV-negative individuals. For individuals with HIV and tuberculosis coinfection, we assessed mortality attributable to HIV risk factors including unsafe sex, intimate partner violence (only estimated among females), and injection drug use. We present 95% uncertainty intervals for all estimates. Findings Globally, in 2019, among HIV-negative individuals, there were 1.18 million (95% uncertainty interval 1.08-1.29) deaths due to tuberculosis and 8.50 million (7.45-9.73) incident cases of tuberculosis. Among HIV-positive individuals, there were 217 000 (153 000-279 000) deaths due to tuberculosis and 1.15 million (1.01-1.32) incident cases in 2019. More deaths and incident cases occurred in males than in females among HIV-negative individuals globally in 2019, with 342 000 (234 000-425 000) more deaths and 1.01 million (0.82-1.23) more incident cases in males than in females. Among HIV-positive individuals, 6250 (1820-11 400) more deaths and 81 100 (63 300-100 000) more incident cases occurred among females than among males in 2019. Age-standardised mortality rates among HIV-negative males were more than two times greater in 105 countries and age-standardised incidence rates were more than 1.5 times greater in 74 countries than among HIV-negative females in 2019. The fraction of global tuberculosis deaths among HIV-negative individuals attributable to alcohol use, smoking, and diabetes was 4.27 (3.69-5.02), 6.17 (5.48-7.02), and 1.17 (1.07-1.28) times higher, respectively, among males than among females in 2019. Among individuals with HIV and tuberculosis coinfection, the fraction of mortality attributable to injection drug use was 2.23 (2.03-2.44) times greater among males than females, whereas the fraction due to unsafe sex was 1.06 (1.05-1.08) times greater among females than males. Interpretation As countries refine national tuberculosis programmes and strategies to end the tuberculosis epidemic, the excess burden experienced by males is important. Interventions are needed to actively communicate, especially to men, the importance of early diagnosis and treatment. These interventions should occur in parallel with efforts to minimise excess HIV burden among women in the highest HIV burden countries that are contributing to excess HIV and tuberculosis coinfection burden for females. Placing a focus on tuberculosis burden among HIV-negative males and HIV and tuberculosis coinfection among females might help to diminish the overall burden of tuberculosis. This strategy will be crucial in reaching both equity and burden targets outlined by global health milestone

A Unique Case of Appendiceal Diverticulum presenting with positive faecal immunochemical test

Appendiceal diverticulum is a rare condition that usually presents with symptoms similar to acute appendicitis. While imaging can be used to aid the diagnosis of this condition, it is usually confirmed postoperatively on the basis of histology. Because of an increased risk of appendiceal neoplasms, the usual management is prophylactic appendicectomy. We report the case of a 70 years old lady with no symptoms referred from her GP surgery for a positive FIT (faecal immunochemical test) as part of the bowel screening programme. Colonoscopy showed a mass at the appendiceal orifice with normal histology. She underwent an appendicectomy with a small cuff of caecal resection. The lesion was approximately 8cm at its maximum dimension and showed appendiceal diverticulum. Appendiceal diverticulum is an important differential diagnosis to consider in patients with atypical history of acute appendicitis or positive FIT with no other symptoms

A unique case of appendiceal diverticulum presenting with positive faecal immunochemical test

Appendiceal diverticulum is a rare condition that usually presents with symptoms similar to acute appendicitis. Although imaging can be used to aid the diagnosis of this condition, it is usually confirmed postoperatively on the basis of histology. Because of an increased risk of appendiceal neoplasms, the usual management is prophylactic appendicectomy. We report the case of a 70-year-old lady with no symptoms referred from her GP surgery for a positive faecal immunochemical test as part of the bowel screening programme. Colonoscopy showed a mass at the appendiceal orifice with normal histology. She underwent an appendicectomy with a small cuff of caecal resection. The lesion was ~8 cm at its maximum dimension and showed appendiceal diverticulum. Appendiceal diverticulum is an important differential diagnosis to consider in patients with atypical history of acute appendicitis or positive faecal immunochemical test with no other symptoms

A 24GHz, 18dBm, Broadband, Three Stacked Power Amplifier in 28nm FDSOI

A three stacked power amplifier implemented in 28nm fully depleted silicon-on-insulator complementary metal oxide semi-conductor technology (FDSOI CMOS) is presented. It has a differential architecture with on-chip input and output transformer baluns. The PA achieves a saturated output power level of 17.9dBm with a peak power added efficiency of 7% and an output referred gain compression point of 16.2dBm. It occupies a silicon area of 0.4 mm 2 , uses a supply voltage of 3V, and has a 3.3GHz 1-dB bandwidth at 24GHz

Wideband Reconfigurable Capacitive shunt-feedback LNA in 65nm CMOS

A differential LNA using capacitive shunt feedback is demonstrated in 65nm CMOS. The capacitive shunt feedback structure gives a wideband input matching, S11 ;49 dBm, respectively for low band and -18.2dBm and >;44dBm for high band

Two Tunable Frequency Duplexer Architectures for Cellular Transceivers

In this paper two architectures for tunable duplexersare presented. The tuning is accomplished through variablecapacitance and resistance. The architectures are based on athree element series-parallel resonator, with one pass and onestop frequency. Both architectures rely on filtering as well ascancellation for good Tx to Rx isolation while maintaining lowinsertion loss. The first architecture, the Filtered TransformerBalanced (FTB) isolator, has single ended transmit and antennaports and a differential receive port. The second architecture,the Cross Coupled Filtering (CCF) isolator, is fully differential.For a resonator Q of 50, the impedance ratio of the resonator atpass and stop frequencies is 18.5dB for 3GPP band-I. In the FTBisolator this results in 1.65dB Tx and 2.14dB Rx insertion loss,and 53 dB isolation for a 20 MHz channel bandwidth. In the CCFisolator this results in 1.9dB Tx and 1.9dB Rx insertion loss, and59dB isolation for a 20 MHz channel bandwidth. These figuresare obtained with a 20% resistive mismatch, showing feasibility ofgood performance in an environment with changing impedance.As the operating frequencies of cellular systems increase, thesestructures will become fully integratable due to the reduced sizesof inductors and transformers