PAKISTAN’S TRADE POLICIES, NON-TARIFF MEASURES AND CONCERNS OF STAKEHOLDERS

Pakistan can increase its exports by 12 billion dollars till 2024 if integration with international market is improved, and strong linkages are developed among value chains (ITC, 2020). But this potential development is facing impediments due to transparency issues, imposition of non-tariff measures, ambiguous regulations at home and lack of information among both importers and exporters. This paper is dedicated to the discussion of Pakistan’s trade policies, tariff structure, rules governing non-tariff measures, and discussion about the concerns of business community and other stakeholders on NTMs. Application of NTMs in Pakistan, and their shortcomings are also discussed in detail. Then based on these discussions some recommendations are forwarded. Study shows that most of the hurdles faced by traders are home borne. If regulations are made easier at home and mutual recognition of standards is acquired with partner countries, then across the border trade can become much easier

Prognostic model to predict postoperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery based on a national prospective observational cohort study.

Background: Acute illness, existing co-morbidities and surgical stress response can all contribute to postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery. The aim of this study was prospectively to develop a pragmatic prognostic model to stratify patients according to risk of developing AKI after major gastrointestinal surgery. Methods: This prospective multicentre cohort study included consecutive adults undergoing elective or emergency gastrointestinal resection, liver resection or stoma reversal in 2-week blocks over a continuous 3-month period. The primary outcome was the rate of AKI within 7 days of surgery. Bootstrap stability was used to select clinically plausible risk factors into the model. Internal model validation was carried out by bootstrap validation. Results: A total of 4544 patients were included across 173 centres in the UK and Ireland. The overall rate of AKI was 14·2 per cent (646 of 4544) and the 30-day mortality rate was 1·8 per cent (84 of 4544). Stage 1 AKI was significantly associated with 30-day mortality (unadjusted odds ratio 7·61, 95 per cent c.i. 4·49 to 12·90; P < 0·001), with increasing odds of death with each AKI stage. Six variables were selected for inclusion in the prognostic model: age, sex, ASA grade, preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate, planned open surgery and preoperative use of either an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker. Internal validation demonstrated good model discrimination (c-statistic 0·65). Discussion: Following major gastrointestinal surgery, AKI occurred in one in seven patients. This preoperative prognostic model identified patients at high risk of postoperative AKI. Validation in an independent data set is required to ensure generalizability

Influence of non-linear thermal radiation on 2D unsteady flow of a Williamson fluid with heat source/sink

The present article reports a new mathematical formulation for a time dependent flow of a non-Newtonian Williamson fluid model by taking into account the impacts of infinite shear rate viscosity. By incorporating the constitutive relation of Williamson fluid model the basic conservation equations are obtained for two dimensional boundary layer flow. In addition, the heat transfer characteristics for flow filed over a stretching surface has been explored within the sight of thermal radiation and heat sink or source. The Rosseland approximation is being employed for non-linear thermal radiation impacts in the presence of convective heat transfer mode. The current work aims at revealing the solution of equations describing the flow of Williamson fluid by mean of employing the dimensionless approach. Therefore, the leading nonlinear momentum and energy equations are rendered into a set of simultaneously ordinary differential equations via non-dimensional variables with associated physical boundary conditions. Numerical treatment of these reduced conservation equations has been conducted by utilizing the Runge-Kutta Fehlberg integration scheme. We have examined the influence of various physical variables, like, the unsteadiness parameter, Weissenberg number, viscosity ratio parameter, Biot number, radiation parameter, temperature ratio parameter, Prandtl number and heat source/sink parameter on momentum and thermal boundary layers, which is illustrated by means of graphs and tables. The results suggest that the impact of larger viscosity ratio parameter lead to higher fluid velocity while the converse is true for the temperature field. It is noted that the greater unsteadiness parameter results in a significant enhancement in the friction factor. In addition, an increase in thermal radiation as well as temperature ratio parameters improves the heat transfer performance in fluid flow. The work of previous researchers is correlated with the findings of this paper in some special cases in the absence of Weissenberg number and viscosity ratio parameter for different values of unsteadiness parameter. A reasonably accurate predictions are achieved in this comparison. Keywords: Unsteady Williamson fluid, Non-linear radiation, Heat sink/source, Convective boundary conditions, Numerical approac

Numerical simulation for heat transfer performance in unsteady flow of Williamson fluid driven by a wedge-geometry

The main concern of this communication is to investigate the two-layer flow of a non-Newtonian rheological fluid past a wedge-shaped geometry. One remarkable aspect of this article is the mathematical formulation for two-dimensional flow of Williamson fluid by incorporating the effect of infinite shear rate viscosity. The impacts of heat transfer mechanism on time-dependent flow field are further studied. At first, we employ the suitable non-dimensional variables to transmute the time-dependent governing flow equations into a system of non-linear ordinary differential equations. The converted conservation equations are numerically integrated subject to physically suitable boundary conditions with the aid of Runge-Kutta Fehlberg integration procedure. The effects of involved pertinent parameters, such as, moving wedge parameter, wedge angle parameter, local Weissenberg number, unsteadiness parameter and Prandtl number on the non-dimensional velocity and temperature distributions have been evaluated. In addition, the numerical values of the local skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number are compared and presented through tables. The outcomes of this study indicate that the rate of heat transfer increases with the growth of both wedge angle parameter and unsteadiness parameter. Moreover, a substantial rise in the fluid velocity is observed with enhancement in the viscosity ratio parameter while an opposite trend is true for the non-dimensional temperature field. A comparison is presented between the current study and already published works and results found to be in outstanding agreement. Finally, the main findings of this article are highlighted in the last section. Keywords: Williamson fluid model, Time-dependent flow, Heat transfer, Wedge-shaped geometry, Runge-Kutta metho

A transcriptomic study reveals salt stress alleviation in cotton plants upon salt tolerant PGPR inoculation

Soil salinity is a major constraint for reducing crop productivity worldwide. To combat this situation, the current project was aimed to examine the effect of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) inoculation on the growth of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum, var. Jin668) plants during salt stress and to identify salt stress-responsive genes in cotton plants. For this purpose, two bacteria, Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus pumilus were selected among the 20 strains isolated from the cotton rhizosphere under the salt stress (200 mM NaCl) and identified by 16 S rRNA sequencing. B. subtilis and B. pumilus were applied to Jin668 plants under salt stress which enhanced resistance to salt stress (leaf and root growth) compared to only salt-treated plants and control plants. Transcriptomic analysis revealed 556 differentially expressed genes (481 up-regulated and 75 down-regulated) in the B. subtilis + Salt versus Salt treatments and 943 (536 up-regulated and 407 down-regulated) genes in the B. pumilus + Salt versus Salt treatments. KEGG analysis of B. pumilus + Salt versus Salt and B. pumilus + Salt versus Salt revealed the pathways plant-pathogen interaction and plant hormone signal transduction were expressed in both treatments, while ascorbate and aldarate metabolism pathways and glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism pathways were uniquely expressed in the B. pumilus + Salt versus Salt comparison, and the pentose and glucuronate interconversions pathway was uniquely expressed in the B. pumilus + Salt treatment versus Salt comparison. These data showed that B. subtilis and B. pumilus significantly enhance salt stress tolerance in cotton plants during salt stress conditions

Proton pump inhibitors and other disease-based factors in the recurrence of adverse cardiovascular events following percutaneous coronary angiography: A long-term cohort

Background: Dual aspirin-clopidogrel antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) has been shown to decrease the risk of adverse cardiac events after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are used in these patients to decrease the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding and several studies have reported potential interaction and conflicting clinical outcomes with their use. We aim to assess the effect of different PPIs and other factors on the recurrence of cardiovascular (CV) events in patients following PCI.Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort on patients who underwent PCI in the last 5years and were discharged with or without PPIs. Strict inclusion criteria were adopted, outcome measures were defined, and patient follow up up to 2years was collected.Results: Out of 740 patients, 453 (61.2%) had received PPIs and 287 (38.8%) were discharged without PPIs. Ninety-five (12.8%) patients were readmitted due to adverse CV events. Statistically, there was no significant difference in the recurrence of CV events with the use of different PPIs (p=0.384) and PPI use had an overall protective effect (p=0.009, HR 0.58 (CI 0.39-0.88). Patients with history of diabetes mellitus (p=0.048) had an increased risk of adverse CV events.CONCLUSION: We conclude that pharmacokinetic interaction between PPIs and antiplatelet therapy is not associated with adverse CV events. A comprehensive, multicenter, open-label trial including all PPI subclasses and patient and disease-based factors is warranted for a fair evaluation