Agricultural Growth in China and Sub-Saharan African Countries

Agriculture remains a dominant sector in the economies of most African and several Asian countries. However, the poor performance of agriculture in Africa stands in sharp contrast to the robust agricultural growth in many Asian countries.2 In this regard, the experience of China is perhaps as impressive as it is relevant to many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. A general observation is that the productivity of land and labour has to rise through intensive agriculture, given the limited area of arable land (in China and Africa) and the high rates of growth of population (as in Africa). In many African countries, labour productivity has fallen and land productivity has not increased significantly. In China, productivities of both land and labour have increased significantly since at least the early 1980s. Agricultural output can increase in three ways: (i) get more from the same quantities of inputs through better utilisation of the existing capacity; (ii) use increased quantities of inputs; and (iii) use new techniques to raise the productivity of each input or raise the total product curve. All of these may require changes in tenurial arrangements, levels of investment in infrastructure and support services, and policies that affect the prices of outputs and inputs. A close examination of factors underlying the contrasting experiences in China and African countries reveals important differences in the institutional and policy environments affecting the individual behaviour with regard to the adoption and use of new (profitable) technologies to raise the land and labour productivities.

Economics of Property Crime Rate in Punjab

This study intends to ascertain the impact of socio-economic, demographic and deterrent variables and the effect of technical criminal know-how and past criminal experience on property crime rate. The property crime equation comprises of the following independent variables: population density, unemployment rate, literacy rate, police strength and number of police proclaimed offenders in a society. The property crime equation has been estimated by using a time-series data set for Punjab from 1978 to 2012. We have applied Johansen cointegration approach to test the long run relationship among the variables. Empirical findings suggest that police strength has a deterrent effect while past criminal experience enhances property crime rate in Punjab. The study finds population density has a significant positive relationship while education has a significant negative relationship with property crime rate. Further we also find a negative relationship between unemployment and property crime which is supported by the concept of ‘consensus of doubt’ in the discipline of crime and economics. JEL Classification: D

Study Fertility Levels on Women Infected by Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Aim: This study attempts to measure the total amounts of LH, FSH, prolactin, testosterone, and fasting Blood Glucose (F.B.G) in diabetic Women. The specimen is divided into two classes; the first class consisted of forty women who have diabetes type 2 with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The second class is twenty (control) Material and method: The results in this work showed a successive increase (LH, Prolactin, Testosterone, and fasting Blood Glucose (F.B.G)) at (P <0.005) in women who have diabetes type 2 with polycystic ovary syndrome when compared to the control class, while the outcomes indicated a decrease in the level of (FSH Hormone) at (P <0.005) when compared healthy group. Statistics and Result: Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 affects the levels of the LH Hormone (8.1±3.9), Prolactin (11.3±5.1), Testosterone Hormone (230±118.2), fasting Blood Glucose (222.1± 12.10), and the level of (FSH Hormone 5.6±1.3) in women. Hence, high blood sugar in women leads to infertility for them. Infertility affects a significant portion of women with type 2 diabetes and polycystic ovaries, which is why this issue has to be studied. One of the most crucial answers to this issue is to follow the advice given by the doctor and try to treat lowering blood sugar and reach the normal limit because high sugar affects the ovaries and thus causes infertility. &nbsp

Marital Adjustment And Life Satisfaction Among Early And Late Marriages

The current research focused on exploring the relationship of marital adjustment and life satisfaction among early and late marriages. Main objective of the study was to find out the effect of age on marital adjustment and life satisfaction among early and late marriages. The Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) Urdu (Spanier, 1976) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985) were used to measure the phenomenon of marital adjustment and life satisfaction. The sample was comprised of (N=160) early and late married, men and women. Early married (n=80) and late married (n=80) selected from different cities of Punjab, Pakistan. Pearson Product Moment Correlation and t-test were used for statistical analysis. Results indicate a significant positive correlation (r= .33, significant at p .01) in marital adjustment and life satisfaction. On the other hand there is a significant difference (significant at p .001) between late marriages and early marriages on marital adjustment. The results also indicate that there is a significant difference (significant at p .001) between late marriages and early marriages on life satisfaction. Key Words: Marital adjustment, life satisfaction, early married, late marrie

Sustainable Urban Drainage Master Plan for Al Khor Municipality

It is of upmost importance that the type of hydrological basin of the region should be established before developing its drainage strategy. Unlike exhoric basin which is characterised by well-defined pattern of streams and rivers ultimately discharging into the sea, Qatar's topography exhibits mix of arheic, and predominantly endorheic basin features i.e., rainwater drains to inland depressions to form temporary water bodies. Keeping drainage basin type in view, Al Khor drainage master is developed which function sustainably with the nature with aim to utilize drainage water to achieve Qatar National Vision 2030 and Qatar Water Strategy goals

Performance enhancement of multivariable model reference optimal adaptive motor speed controller using error-dependent hyperbolic gain functions

The main contribution of this paper is to formulate a robust-adaptive and stable state-space speed control strategy for DC motors. The linear-quadratic-integral (LQI) controller is utilized as the baseline controller for optimal speed-regulation, accurate reference-tracking and elimination of steady-state fluctuations in the motor’s response. To reject the influence of modelling errors, the LQI controller is augmented with a Lyapunov-based model reference adaptation system (MRAS) that adaptively modulates the controller gains while maintaining the asymptotic stability of the controller. To further enhance the system’s robustness against parametric uncertainties, the adaptation gains of MRAS online gain-adjustment law are dynamically adjusted, after every sampling interval, using smooth hyperbolic functions of motor’s speed-error. This modification significantly improves the system’s response-speed and damping against oscillations, while ensuring its stability under all operating conditions. It dynamically re-configures the control-input trajectory to enhance the system’s immunity against the detrimental effects of random faults occurring in practical motorized systems such as bounded impulsive-disturbances, modelling errors, and abrupt load–torque variations. The efficacy of the proposed control strategy is validated by conducting credible hardware-in-the-loop experiments on QNET 2.0 DC Motor Board. The experimental results successfully validate the superior tracking accuracy and disturbance-rejection capability of the proposed control strategy as compared to other controller variants benchmarked in this article

Formulation and stability of topical water in oil emulsion containing corn silk extract

Purpose: To formulate the water in oil (W/O) emulsion of corn silk (CS) extract and to evaluate its stability at various storage conditions.Methods: Ethanol CS extract was prepared using maceration (cold) technique. A 4 % CS emulsion was prepared using varying concentrations of liquid paraffin, ABIL EM90 and water. The formulations were kept at 25 oC for 28 days and to screen out the less stable formulations. The remaining formulations were further stressed at 40 oC to choose the most stable formulation. The optimized formulation was evaluated for physical characteristics including phase separation, rheology and mean droplet size. The physical stability of the formulation was evaluated by monitoring these parameters over a period of 12 weeks at 8, 25, 40 and 40 oC, and 75 % RH.Results: The chosen formulation showed good resistance to phase separation on centrifugation under all storage conditions. Rheological behavior followed non-Newtonian pseudoplastic pattern at various storage conditions. Mean droplet size of freshly prepared formulation was 2.98 ± 1.32 μm and did not show significant (p < 0.05) changes at normal storage conditions (8 and 25 oC).Conclusion: The findings indicate that the developed CS extract W/O emulsion is stable and therefore may be suitable for topical use on skin as an antioxidant preparation.Keywords: Corn silk, Emulsion, Nonionic surfactant, Rheology, Flow index, Droplet size, Non-Newtonian pseudoplasti

The role of instrumental guanxi in the relation between entrepreneurs’ social competence and firms’ financial performance: A comparative study

Even though many studies have examined the role of instrumental guanxi in the formation and development of entrepreneurship, how instrumental guanxi and social competence support entrepreneurs in enhancing firm financial performance (FFP) has not been investigated. Thus, this study investigates the relationship between entrepreneurs’ social competence and FFP in the textile industry of China and Pakistan to examine how instrumental guanxi mediates the said relationship. In Studies 1 and 2, 251 Chinese and 270 Pakistani entrepreneurs, respectively, were randomly selected. The partial least square structural equation modelling approach was employed to evaluate the data. In Study 1, social perception, impression management, and expressiveness have a positive and significant impact on FFP. Moreover, instrumental guanxi partially mediates the impact of all dimensions of social competence except social perception. In Study 2, impression management, persuasiveness, and expressiveness have a positive and significant impact on FFP, and instrumental guanxi partially mediates the impact of social adaptability on FFP. Given the competitive advantage theory, both groups of entrepreneurs can mutually support and enhance their social competence as well as FFP