REVIEW OF USE OF NANO MATERIAL IN MODIFYING THE PROPERTIES OF CONCRETE

Modern technologies have affected all fields of human activities. Traditionally nanotechnologies deal with material having a dimension in the range of one billionth of a meter or 100 Nano meter in size. It has been widely used in natural sciences and biomedical sciences in the fields like microbiology, medicine, electronic, chemical, and materials sciences. The application of nontechnology and Nano material in Civil Engineering is still under active research in the areas of Concrete Technology, Construction management, water purification systems, Properties of Concrete at early ages and use of modern polymers in producing High Performance Concrete (HPC). The use of Nano material to produce relatively sustainable concrete represents a promising area of research in Nano material. In this paper the State of the Art of application of Nanotechnologies to Civil Engineering and its future prospects with special reference to sustainability in construction

IDENTIFICATION OF ACTIVE AND PASSIVE REGIMES OF FISCAL AND MONETARY POLICIES IN PAKISTAN

Fiscal and monetary policies are two important macroeconomic policies which work by adopting different policy regimes to achieve the desired objectives. The present study is an endeavor to identify active and passive policy regimes and attempts to reveal the relatively more dominant policy in case of Pakistan. The study by utilizing time series annual data from 1972 to 2022 uses monetary and fiscal policy reaction functions to reveal the overall active or passive behaviors of fiscal and monetary policies. The study further uses recursive estimation technique and empirically estimates the fiscal and monetary policy reaction functions to identify the year-to-year policy regimes adopted by authorities in Pakistan. Money market rate in taken as proxy for monetary while budget deficit as a percent of GDP is taken for fiscal policy. Output gap, inflation rate, debt as a percentage of GDP, and nominal exchange rate are the study variables. The study finds that both policies interact 40 times out of which monetary policy remained active for 29 and passive for 11 times. Similarly, fiscal policy remained active for 30 and passive for 10 times. Both policies remained pro-cyclical for 19 and counter- cyclical for 21 times. Using the max-min and min-max criteria of pay- off matrix, it is found that monetary policy is Pakistan is more dominant policy as compared to fiscal policy. To ensure the increasing effectiveness of both policies, it is recommended that the authorities should adopt the optimal policy mix by working in coordination while formulating the policies

Portability, compatibility and reuse of MAC protocols across different IoT radio platforms

To cope with the diversity of Internet of Things (loT) requirements, a large number of Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols have been proposed in scientific literature, many of which are designed for specific application domains. However, for most of these MAC protocols, no multi-platform software implementation is available. In fact, the path from conceptual MAC protocol proposed in theoretical papers, towards an actual working implementation is rife with pitfalls. (i) A first problem is the timing bugs, frequently encountered in MAC implementations. (ii) Furthermore, once implemented, many MAC protocols are strongly optimized for specific hardware, thereby limiting the potential of software reuse or modifications. (iii) Finally, in real-life conditions, the performance of the MAC protocol varies strongly depending on the actual underlying radio chip. As a result, the same MAC protocol implementation acts differently per platform, resulting in unpredictable/asymmetrical behavior when multiple platforms are combined in the same network. This paper describes in detail the challenges related to multi-platform MAC development, and experimentally quantifies how the above issues impact the MAC protocol performance when running MAC protocols on multiple radio chips. Finally, an overall methodology is proposed to avoid the previously mentioned cross-platform compatibility issues. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Poverty, inflation and economic growth: empirical evidence from Pakistan

This study aims to investigate the role of economic growth and inflation in explaining the prevalence of poverty in Pakistan. ARDL bound testing approach to co-integration confirms the existence of long run relationship among the variables of poverty, economic growth, inflation, investment and trade openness over the period of 1972-2008. Empirical results show that economic growth and investment have negative and inflation has positive impact on poverty. The effect of trade openness on poverty is insignificant in this study. The short run analysis reveals that economic growth has negative and inflation has positive impact on poverty whereas the role of investment and trade openness in poverty reduction in short run is not significant.Poverty, Inflation, Economic Grovvth, Pakistan, Macroeconomic Policy, Welfare, Trade Openness

The impact of Covid-19 on E-business practices and consumer buying behavior in a developing country

Online trade has shown a sharp increase since the outbreak of pandemic Coronavirus. The COVID-19 has affected almost all financial and business activities around the world, even in Pakistan. It has changed the way consumers used to shop before the pandemic outbreak. Many companies until recently have developed and created their online stores and making up the most of their sales using internet channel. Consumer have no other choice but shop from home. In this research study, we discuss the impact of COVID-19 on e-business practices and consumer behavior in Pakistan. The theory of acceptance model has been applied where consumer behavior, e-business, and COVID-19, and posted as a key construct of the proposed research model. Structural Equation Modelling approach has been used to examine the interrelationship of variables of research. We applied two-step recommended Structural Equation Modelling approach, first, validate the constructs by using Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and then conducted Structural Equation Modelling path analysis and report the results, which indicated that in the present scenario COVID-19 has significantly impacted both e-businesses and consumer buying behavior in the context of Pakistan. This research briefly highlights the e-commerce trends and discusses the rapidly growing scope for online businesses and makes several future research suggestions, especially in the context of cultural and other barriers such as digital payment adoption in developing economies. This study limitation is the study sample and context-specific to Pakistan

Ethnomedicinal uses of the Ferns of Shishikoh Valley, District Chitral, Pakistan

The indigenous communities of Shishikoh valley are often using various ferns taxa regularly. The current research work was intended for documenting the ethnomedicinal knowledge of ferns. A total of 18 taxa were recorded that belonged to 9 genera and 6 families being used in the treatment of different ailments. Pteridaceae was the leading family with 6 taxa (33.33%), followed by Aspleniaceae with 4 taxa (22.22%), Athyriaceae and Equisetaceae each with 3 taxa (16.67%) followed by Dryopteridaceae and Marsileaceae each with 1 taxon (5.56%). The reported ferns taxa were used as anthelminthic, anti-rheumatic, astringent and wound healing agents and in the treatment of different ailments such as asthma, bronchitis, diarrhea, dysentery, gonorrhea, hepatitis, infertility, influenza, kidney disorders, measles, oral ulcer, oral thrush, pneumonia, pyelonephritis, pharyngitis, scorpion bite, sinusitis, tonsillitis and tuberculosis. Ethnomedicinal knowledge is a valuable source for the innovation of different allopathic, homeopathic and herbal drugs that are used for the treatment of different ailments. The fern species may be used commercially for medicinal purposes through sustainable way. Their proper cultivation and awareness about medicinal values among local community leads to discover new drugs

Outcome of Topical Epidural Methylprednisolone Versus Control in Lumbar Disc Surgery Patients

Objective:  The use of topical intraoperative methylprednisolone in lumbar disc surgery leads to significant improvement in pain relief and early resumption of daily life activities. The study determined the outcome of topical epidural methylprednisolone. Materials & Methods:  60 patients included with diagnosed cases of the herniated lumbar disc with ASA Grade 2 and below. Group A was for patients who had to receive topical methylprednisolone while group B was the control group where no topical methylprednisolone had been used. The outcome was measured from OLBI and VAS scores. Results:  In Group A, the mean hospital stay was 2 days, mean OLBI score was 35%, mean VAS score was 3, mean time to resumption of ADL was 7 days, mean dose of paracetamol (per day) was 3 mg, mean dose of Ketorolac (per day) was 90 mg. Whereas Group B, mean hospital stay was 3 days, mean OLBI score was 45%, mean VAS score was 5, mean time to resumption of ADL was 10 days, mean dose of paracetamol (per day) was 4 mg, mean dose of Ketorolac (per day) was 100 mg. In Group A, 91% of patients had a favorable outcome and 9% of patients had an unfavorable outcome. Whereas in Group B, 83% of patients had a favorable outcome and 15%of patients had an unfavorable outcome. There existed insignificant results in outcomes concerning diabetic/non-diabetic, and hypertension/non-hypertension. Conclusion:  The use of topical intraoperative methylprednisolone in lumbar disc surgery leads to significant improvement in pain relief and early resumption of daily life activities as compared to without the use of topical methylprednisolone. Keywords:  Outcome, Epidural Methylprednisolone, Lumbar Disc Surgery, OLBI (Oldenburg Burnout Inventory), ADL (Activities Of Daily Life)

The Efficacy of Surgery for Supra-Tentorial Gliomas in Preventing Seizures

Objectives:  The study examined the surgical outcome of supratentorial gliomas in terms of improvement in seizures in patients who presented to a tertiary care institution. Material and Methods:  A descriptive case series was conducted in Neurosurgery Department at Northwest General Hospital & Research, Peshawar. Patients (n = 95) with supratentorial gliomas with seizures between 18 – 70 years were included. Supratentorial gliomas were diagnosed by neuroimaging as MRI brain with contrast, diffusion-weighted, Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The patient was observed for seizures postoperatively. Data was stratified for age and gender. Results:  The majority of patients (36.8%) were in 41 – 50 years. 55.78% of patients were males whereas 44.21% of patients were females. 42 (44.21%) involved the frontal lobe, 16 (16.84%) involved the parietal lobe, 26 (27.36%) involved the temporal lobe, and 11 (11.57%) patients involved the occipital lobe. According to Engel’s classification, 53 patients were in class I, 16 in class II, 10 in class III, and 5 in class IV. 84 (88.42%) experienced post-op seizure reduction. An insignificant association was found with the seizure improvement (yes/no) with different age groups and gender. Conclusion:  The frontal lobe was the most prevalent location for supratentorial gliomas. After surgery, a large proportion of patients improved in terms of seizure management. Keywords:  Seizures, Supratentorial gliomas

Familial Kartageners Syndrome: A Case Report

In recurrent lower respiratory tract infections the cause may be either general impairment of immune mechanism, abnormalities of mucus or abnormalities of cilia.We report a case where the patient was having recurrent lower and upper respiratory tract infections and had situs Inversus totalis. Kartagener’s syndrome is an inherited disorder transmitted in autosomal recessive manner with variable penetrance. There is no specific treatment for this condition but failure to recognize the condition early in life may subject the patient to unnecessary repeated admissions and investigations and inappropriate treatment