Shocks, Financial Soundness and Currency Crisis in Emerging Market Economies

A currency crisis is identified as a significant decline in a currency's exchange rate within a short time. Every time the crisis emerges, it severely affects the economic stability and well-being of larger populations, not only for the affected country but across the world. A currency crisis is mainly initiated by weak macroeconomic conditions and speculative attacks that depreciate the domestic exchange rate. Moreover, an economy's exchange rate is sensitive to a country's external and internal economic conditions; therefore, its stability is of significant concern for monetary authorities. They are compelled to switch exchange rate regimes to stabilize the currency's value. Several economies have suffered from a currency crisis. However, its negative consequences are more frequent and prolonged for emerging market economies. This research analyzes the nature and mechanism of currency crises in the backdrop of shocks, financial instability, foreign liabilities, and capital controls. Annual data for the period of 2000 to 2017 for a panel of 43 emerging economies is used for analysis. It is found that countries with high liabilities are more likely to experience depreciation in currencies. In this context, an overvalued exchange rate creates speculative pressure and sudden currency depreciation. The shocks to productivity and risk premium of a country also amplify the chances of depreciation. In emerging economies, capital controls do not significantly reduce the chances of a currency crisis. However, the financial soundness is likely to keep the currency value stable. Effects of global shocks on the exchange rate depreciation are mixed subject to the fact that a country is a major importer or exporter of oil. The findings of this study are consistent with existing literature on emerging economies and currency crisis models. Given these empirical results, it is recommended that authorities focus on managing the size of foreign liabilities, export growth, and productivity levels. Monetary authorities should manage policy rates only to attract investors and must not overvalue the exchange rates and abandon the managed float to avoid speculative pressure

Prevalence and Antibiotic Sensitivity Testing of Bacteria Isolated from Open Wounds of Hospitalized Patients

Background: Substantial infectivity of open wounds by microorganisms not only precipitates in terms of complexity, morbidity and mortality because of encouraging other fatal comorbidities but also becomes challenging to handle by medical practitioners.Methods: To ascertain the bioburden associated particularly with bacteria in open wounds, this research work was conducted at the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics department of Women University, Multan in association with Pathology Department of Nishtar Hospital and College, Multan from January to June 2018. 65 different wound samples were collected from different wards and analyzed by standard procedures for bacterial isolation and characterization, employing biochemical tests including catalase, oxidase, coagulase, motility, triple-sugar iron (TSI), citrate and indole tests. The isolated bacterial strains were also evaluated for sensitivity or resistance against twelve different antibiotics.Results: All the 65 samples were found to be positive for bacterial presence. Gram-positive cocci constituted 63% of the isolates and gram-negative rods comprised 37%. Biochemical tests revealed that the predominant pathogen was Staphylococcus aureus (63.1%) followed by Proteus spp., (15.4%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (12.3%) and Escherichia coli (9.2%), respectively. Antibiotic sensitivity testing disclosed that the most effective antibiotics against these isolates were Tigecycline and Polymyxin B while the least effective antibiotics were Ceftazidime and Ampicillin.Conclusion: These findings can prove beneficial in understanding the prevalence of various bacteria in wound infections. In addition, they indicate the need to develop and implement antibiotic stewardship programs so as to combat drug resistance among pathogens.Keywords: Gram-positive cocci; Drug resistance; Staphylococcus aureus   

Optimization of Production Xylanase from Marine Bacterium Bacillus safensis P20 on Sugarcane Baggase by Submerged Fermentation

Endo-1, 4-β-xylanase commonly called xylanase is an industrially important enzyme which degrades of lignocellulosic materials to sugar, alcohol and other useful product. The use of commercially xylan is too expensive for use at industrial scale production. For commercial applications, xylanases should ideally be produced from simple and inexpensive substrates. Indonesia has abundantly agro-residues such as sugar cane bagasse which is attractive to be used as carbon sources for the production of enzyme.  In this study, optimization of fermentation condition extracellular xylanasefrom marine bacterium, Bacillus safensisP20 has been conducted by using sugarcane bagasse as carbon source under sub merged fermentation (SMF). Maximum xylanase production was obtained at sugar cane bagasse concentration 1.5%, pH medium 7, and temperature fermentation 20oC, lactose as a carbone source and urea as a nitrogen source with activity 4.06 U/mL for 96 hours

Bottle feeding, increased overjet and Class 2 primary canine relationship: is there any association?

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between bottle feeding and prevalence rates of increased overjet and Class 2 primary canine relationship. The sample consisted of 911 children (461 boys, 450 girls) aged 3 (13.9%), 4 (40.8%), 5 (34%) and 6 (11.3%) years, with complete primary dentition. Information about nutritive and nonnutritive (pacifier and/or digit) sucking habits was collected through questionnaires. Three calibrated dentists (&#954;: 0.9-1.0 and Rs &gt; 0.90) performed the clinical assessments. The children were divided into four groups: G1 - not bottle-fed; G2 - exclusively bottle-fed; G3 - breast- and bottle-fed, bottle feeding ceased before 3 years of age; and G4 - breast- and bottle-fed, bottle feeding ceased between 3 and 4 years of age. Associations between nutritive and nonnutritive sucking behaviors and the malocclusions studied were analyzed by multiple binary logistic regression (&#945;= 0.05). The frequencies of increased overjet were: 25.3% (G1), 38.8% (G2), 39.2% (G3) and 47.8% (G4). The percentages of Class 2 canine relationship were: 27.9% (G1), 48.8% (G2), 43.4% (G3) and 43% (G4). No significant effect of bottle feeding was found. The chances of diagnosing increased overjet (O.R. = 4.42, p < 0.001) and Class 2 canine relationship (O.R. = 4.02, p < 0.001) were greater for children with pacifier and/or digit-sucking habits, compared to those without a history of nonnutritive sucking behavior. It may be suggested that bottle feeding alone is not directly associated with higher prevalence rates of increased overjet and Class 2 canine relationship in the primary dentition

Estimation of Genetic Divergence in 40 Elite Cotton Germplasm

Background: Identification and development of superior cotton genotypes and their further improvement has been one of the primitive aims of plant breeding programmers. Therefore, necessity of analyzing the agro-morphological and yield attributes of advanced lines of cotton is doubtless.Methods: Mean performance and correlation between ten different morphological, yield and fiber related attributes of forty cotton genotypes from all over the Pakistan under National Coordinated Varietal Trial were studied at Central Cotton Research Institute of Multan. Selected traits included several sympodial and monopodial branches, plant height, number of bolls per plant, staple length, seed cotton yield, boll weight, fiber strength, percentage ginning out turn and micronaire value.Results: Statistical analysis of variance disclosed highly significant (p<0.01) differences among all cotton genotypes for majority of the characteristics. Basic descriptive statistical analysis of selected agronomic traits revealed the presence of substantial genetic variation among 40 genotypes of cotton for 10 selected traits. The correlation coefficient was determined both at p<0.05 and p<0.01 levels and the observations demonstrated that some of the characteristics exhibited positive correlation, while others displayed negative correlation with each other. Micronaire showed highly significant positive association with percentage ginning out turn (0.3412) and boll weight (0.2421 g) as well as highly significant negative association with fiber strength (-0.5973).Conclusion: Convincingly, mean performances and correlation of different traits with one another can be utilized in cotton breeding programs in future to improve the yield of cotton seed and to select fiber related attributes with desired characteristics.Keywords: Gossypium hirsutum; Morphological agronomic traits; Statistical analysi

A multidisciplinary approach to triage patients with breast disease during the COVID-19 pandemic: Experience from a tertiary care center in the developing world

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has created a need to prioritize care because of limitation of resources. Owing to the heterogeneity and high prevalence of breast cancers, the need to prioritize care in this vulnerable population is essential. While various medical societies have published recommendations to manage breast disease during the COVID-19 pandemic, most are focused on the Western world and do not necessarily address the challenges of a resource-limited setting.Aim: In this article, we describe our institutional approach for prioritizing care for patients presenting with breast disease.Methods and results: The breast disease management guidelines were developed and approved with the expertise of the Multidisciplinary Breast Program Leadership Committee (BPLC) of the Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan. These guidelines were inspired, adapted, and modified keeping in view the needs of our resource-limited healthcare system. These recommendations are also congruent with the ethical guidelines developed by the Center of Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC) at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT), Karachi. Our institutional recommendations outline a framework to triage patients based on the urgency of care, scheduling conflicts, and tumor board recommendations, optimizing healthcare workers\u27 schedules, operating room reallocation, and protocols. We also describe the Virtual Blended Clinics , a resource-friendly means of conducting virtual clinics and a comprehensive plan for transitioning back into the post-COVID routine.Conclusion: Our institutional experience may be considered as a guide during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for triaging care in a resource-limited setting; however, these are not meant to be universally applicable, and individual cases must be tailored based on physicians\u27 clinical judgment to provide the best quality care

Usage of iron foliar spray in enhancing the growth and yield of the flax plant (Linum usitatissimum L)

The ideal growth and development of linseed plants depend on receiving the necessary nutrients during the growing season when they are grown. Flax's yield and oil content increase using a foliar spray containing micronutrients. This study aimed to determine how foliar iron (Fe) treatment affected flax yield and its constituents. The experiment was set up at the adoptive research farm Sargodha in a randomized block design and three replicates. At the capsule filling stages and bud initiation of the flax crop, foliar sprays with varying concentrations of Fe (5.5%, 4.5%, 3.5%, 2.5%, 1.5%) and without Fe (control) were administered. Sulphate of iron (Fe) was used as the source of Fe. All treatments resulted in notable enhancements in agronomic characteristics such as grain oil contents, harvest index, biological yield, number of capsule formations, technical stem length, plant height, as well as physiological parameters including fluorescence yield (Ft), quantum yield (YII), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), electron transport rate (ETR), and chlorophyll contents. The results of this study suggested that the application of 3.5% to flax during the bud initiation and capsule filling stages increases the seed yield, yield attributes, and oil contents. In conclusion, foliar spray of Fe could enhance the yield of linseed crops