Energy Demand in Pakistan: A Disaggregate Analysis

This study examines the demand for energy at disaggregate level (gas, electricity and coal) for Pakistan over the period 1972-2007. Over main results suggest that electricity and coal consumption responds positively to changes in real income per capita and negatively to changes in domestic price level. The gas consumption responds negatively to real income and price changes in the short-run, however, in the long-run real income exerts positive effect on gas consumption, while domestic price remains insignificant. Furthermore, in the short-run the average elasticities of price and real income for gas consumption (in absolute terms) are greater than that of electricity and coal consumption. The differences in elasticities of each component of energy have significant policy implications for income and revenue generation.Energy Demand, Disaggregate Analysis, Cointegration

Energy Demand in Pakistan: A Disaggregate Analysis

Energy is considered to be the life line of an economy, the most vital instrument of socioeconomic development and has been recognised as one of the most important strategic commodities [Sahir and Qureshi (2007)]. Energy is not only essential for the economy but its supply is uncertain [Zaleski (2001)]. Energy is a strategic source that influenced the outcomes of wars, fueled and strangled economic development and polluted as well as clean up the environment. In the era of globalisation, a rapidly increasing demand for energy and dependency of countries on energy indicate that energy will be one of the biggest problems in the world in the next century. This requires for alternative and renewable sources of energy. Traditional growth theories focus much on the labour and capital as major factor of production and ignore the importance of energy in the growth process [Stern and Cleveland (2004)]. The neo-classical production theories stresses that economic growth increases with the increases in labour, capital and technology. Today energy is indispensable factor and plays an important role in the consumption as well as production process.1 Research suggests that energy plays an important role as compared to other variables included in the production and consumption function for countries which are at intermediate stages of economic development [IEA (2005)]. When we examine disaggregating components of energy demand, it is seen that electricity is the highest quality energy component and its share in energy consumption increases rapidly. Natural gas, petroleum and coal follow electricity respectively

Corrosion mechanisms of 304L NAG in boiling 9M HNO3 containing Cr (VI) ions

In this research, the mechanisms of end-grain corrosion of 304L NAG tubes in boiling 9M HNO3-containing Cr (VI) ions are reported to sustainably manage the corrosion of nuclear fuel reprocessing plant components. Specific heat treatments were applied to as-received specimens to produce phosphorus and/or sulphur intergranular segregation. End-grain corrosion on heat-treated specimens and the effect of a Cr (VI) concentration on a 304L NAG tube (as-received) were investigated. It has been reported that an increase in Cr (VI) ions leads to the acceleration of end-grain corrosion due to high electrochemical potential. After systematic heat treatments on the 304L NAG specimens, it is concluded that the primary causes of heat-induced end-grain corrosion are phosphorus or sulphur segregation to the grain boundaries. The key findings of this research are highly significant in terms of understanding the corrosion mechanisms and controlling the end-grain corrosion of NAG steel in boiling HNO3 environments. This research will help to sustainably reduce power plant maintenance costs and will have a significant impact on the delivery of long-term, clean, secure, and tenable energy

Can extended anticoagulation prophylaxis after discharge prevent thromboembolism?

A meta-analysis confirmed the benefit of thromboprophylaxis with a direct oral anticoagulant for high-risk nonsurgical patients after hospital discharge.Muhammad Nadeem Anwar, MD; Usman Ahmad Khan, MD; Laura Elizabeth Morris, MD, MSPH (Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia). Deputy editor: Anne Mounsey, MD (Department of Family, Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)Includes bibliographical reference

Optimal Control Analysis of Ebola Disease with Control Strategies of Quarantine and Vaccination

The 2014 Ebola epidemic is the largest in history, affecting multiple countries in West Africa. Some isolated cases were also observed in other regions of the world

Deployment of social nets in multilayer model to identify key individuals using majority voting

Social web and social media are evidenced to be a rich source of user-generated social content. Social media includes multiple numbers of social dimensions represented by different social networks. The identification of important player in these real-world social networks has been in high emphasis due to its effectiveness in multiple disciplines, especially in law enforcement areas working on dark networks. Many algorithms have been proposed to identify key players according to the objective of interest using suitable network centrality measures. This paper proposes a new perspective of dealing with key player identification by redefining it as a problem of “Key Individual Identification,” across multiple social dimensions. Research deals with each social dimension as a layer in the multiple-layer social network model. The proposed technique extracts a number of features from each network based on social network analysis. The features are assembled to formulate a global feature set representing the behaviors of individuals in all networks individually. The technique then attempts to find key individuals using hybrid classifiers. The results from all classifiers are formulated, and the final decision of an individual to be part of the individual key set is based on majority voting. This novel technique gives good results on a number of known networks

Key individual identification using dimensional relevance in the stratum of networks

Different aspects of social networks have increasingly been under investigation from last decades. The social network studies range in various viewpoints from the structural and node measures to the information diffusion processes. The key node identification has been one of the limelight topics of social network analysis (SNA) specifically in a discipline like politics, criminology, marketing and etc. This research uses multiple networks constructed from the different social sites and real-life relationships to cover the multi-dimensional aspects of human relations. In the multi-relationship system, the different dimensions may differ in terms of relevance and weight. One of the most intriguing aspects of key node identification in the multi-dimensional system can be the consideration of dimensions relevance. This research covers the methodology to optimise the weights of dimensions using a number of centrality measures from each network layer covering multiple different objectives of interest. The study formulates the novel weighted feature set pertaining to layer relevance calculated based on layer relative importance through particle swarm optimization techniques. The framework applied ensemble-based approach on the weighted feature set along with node characteristics to predict key nodes in a network. The results are validated against ground truth data and accuracy achieved is promising

Detecting change from social networks using temporal analysis of email data

Social network analysis is one of the most recent areas of research which is being used to analyze behavior of a society, person and even to detect malicious activities. The information of time is very important while evaluating a social network and temporal information based analysis is being used in research to have better insight. Theories like similarity proximity, transitive closure and reciprocity are some well-known studies in this regard. Social networks are the representation of social relationships. It is quite natural to have a change in these relations with the passage of time. A longitudinal method is required to observe such changes. This research contributes to explore suitable parameters or features that can reflect the relationships between individual in network. Any foremost change in the values of these parameters can capture the change in network. In this paper we present a framework for extraction of parameters which can be used for temporal analysis of social networks. The proposed feature vector is based on the changes which are highlighted in a network on two consecutive time stamps using the differences in betweenness centrality, clustering coefficient and valued edges. This idea can further be used for detection of any specific change happening in a network. © Springer International Publishing AG 2018

Association of Etiological and Pathological Features of Brain Abscess with Outcome

To study the etiological andpathological factors of brain abscess and to relatewith the final outcome.Methods: In this observational study patients withbrain abscess were observed in detail with theclinical profile, etiology, microbiology and theirfinal outcome after one year.Chi-square test wasapplied to associate etiological and pathologicalfactors with management outcome.Results: The majority of patients were in their 2ndand 3rd decade of life with two third proportioncomprising of males. The most frequent etiologicalfactor was chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM)( 55%),followed by head injury (12% ) and congenitalheart disease (10%). Microbiological data revealed16% streptococci, 10% staph. aureus, 7% staph.epidermidis and 5% proteus as major pathogens inthe study patients. Head injury and CSOM werefound associated with death and morbidity in thisstudy.Conclusion: Brain abscess has multi dimensionalcauses. CSOM and head injury were foundassociated with death and severe morbidity ashemiparesis and fits. CT findings andmicrobiological data were not associated withoutcome