Impact of education on poverty reduction

Poverty is a stumbling block in the way of achieving economic development. Cognizant of the essence of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and ‘Education for All’ program, education is promulgated as the primary weapon against poverty prevalence. Hence it is important to seek out the effect of different levels of education upon poverty in Pakistan. This study evaluates the effect of different levels of education, experience and gender of the employed individuals (employers, self-employed, wage earners and unpaid family workers) as the determinants of poverty. The data for this task comes from the Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) for the years 1998-99 and 2001-02. A logistic regression model is estimated based on this data, with the probability of an individual being poor as the dependent variable and a set of educational levels, experience and gender as explanatory variables. It is found that experience and educational achievement is negatively related with the poverty incidence in both years. Also as we go for the higher levels of education the chances of a person being non-poor increases. Moreover, being a male person provides an advantage in retaining a position above poverty level.Poverty, Education, Pakistan

Measuring Business Cycle and Inflation Forecast: The Case of Pakistan

The output gap and inflation forecast are important factors to analyze current state of the economy and stance of monetary policy. In this study we have measured business cycle through estimating output gap using different methods namely the Linear Time Trend (LTT) method, Quadratic Time Trend (QTT) method, Hodrick-Prescott (HP filter), Band Pass Baxter-King Filter (BP), Double Exponential Smoothing Method (DES), Structural Vector Autoregressive (SVAR) method and Production Function (PF) method. For the analysis we have used annual data over the period 1960 to 2014 for Pakistan. Moreover, the inflation is forecasted with univariate and multivariate models. The results suggest that Quadratic Time Trend (QTT) method and Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) captures the history of Pakistan economy well. Whereas, output gap estimated through SVAR generate better inflation forecast compared to other methods. Keywords: output gap, inflation forecast, univariate, multivariate, business cycle JEL CLASSIFICATION: C22, C53, E3

Interconnection network architectures based on integrated orbital angular momentum emitters

Novel architectures for two-layer interconnection networks based on concentric OAM emitters are presented. A scalability analysis is done in terms of devices characteristics, power budget and optical signal to noise ratio by exploiting experimentally measured parameters. The analysis shows that by exploiting optical amplifications, the proposed interconnection networks can support a number of ports higher than 100. The OAM crosstalk induced-penalty, evaluated through an experimental characterization, do not significantly affect the interconnection network performance

Impact of education on poverty reduction

Poverty is a stumbling block in the way of achieving economic development. Cognizant of the essence of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and ‘Education for All’ program, education is promulgated as the primary weapon against poverty prevalence. Hence it is important to seek out the effect of different levels of education upon poverty in Pakistan. This study evaluates the effect of different levels of education, experience and gender of the employed individuals (employers, self-employed, wage earners and unpaid family workers) as the determinants of poverty. The data for this task comes from the Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) for the years 1998-99 and 2001-02. A logistic regression model is estimated based on this data, with the probability of an individual being poor as the dependent variable and a set of educational levels, experience and gender as explanatory variables. It is found that experience and educational achievement is negatively related with the poverty incidence in both years. Also as we go for the higher levels of education the chances of a person being non-poor increases. Moreover, being a male person provides an advantage in retaining a position above poverty level

Sociological Study of Parents Orientation towards Selection of School for their Children Education

Education plays a vital role in shaping socio-economic progress of a country. Value of education in a nation signifies the value of its human resource advancement. Cost on Education is considered as an investment as a human resource improvement. Education structure or private institute structure in Pakistan mushroomed very quickly. Currently the basic requirement is to plan a sociological study of parent’s orientation towards selection of schools for their children’s education in District Faisalabad and also known as the 3rdbiggest (Manchester) city of Pakistan. This study was conducted in rural areas of District Faisalabad. The respondents of the study were parents of the schools children at elementary level. Two rural union councils (UC-70 and UC-73) were selected randomly from Tehsil Faisalabad. Four villages two from each UC i.e. Madonna & Naiwala from UC-70 and Sammy de Jhok & Bhokhe de Jhok from UC-73 were selected randomly.Thirty (30) parents for each village were selected to making a total of 60 respondents.Multistage sampling technique was used for data collection. Thirty (30) parents for each village were selected to making a total of 60 respondents. The coded data was analyzed through statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). Frequency and Percentage was used for data analysis. Interviewing, schedule was prepared in the light of research objectives for data collection. Then a well-structured interview schedule about sociological study of parent’s orientation towards selection of schools for their children’s education was designed for this purpose. A majority of the respondents i.e. (65 %) said that good social environment of schools is the major reason for the selection of Private schools. While (35.0) %,had selected Private schools due to the better quality of education, better basic facilities light, water, toilet, status symbol. It is suggested that basic and health facilities, new system of education should be introduced in Govt, schools

Improving Shape Retrieval by Integrating AIR and Modified Mutual k

In computer vision, image retrieval remained a significant problem and recent resurgent of image retrieval also relies on other postprocessing methods to improve the accuracy instead of solely relying on good feature representation. Our method addressed the shape retrieval of binary images. This paper proposes a new integration scheme to best utilize feature representation along with contextual information. For feature representation we used articulation invariant representation; dynamic programming is then utilized for better shape matching followed by manifold learning based postprocessing modified mutual kNN graph to further improve the similarity score. We conducted extensive experiments on widely used MPEG-7 database of shape images by so-called bulls-eye score with and without normalization of modified mutual kNN graph which clearly indicates the importance of normalization. Finally, our method demonstrated better results compared to other methods. We also computed the computational time with another graph transduction method which clearly shows that our method is computationally very fast. Furthermore, to show consistency of postprocessing method, we also performed experiments on challenging ORL and YALE face datasets and improved baseline results

Serviceability Analysis of Pedestrian Overhead Bridges and Underpasses

A grade-separated crossing allows a bicycle/pedestrian to continue over or under a barrier without conflict with a vehicle. However, the serviceability of these facilities is compromised in underdeveloped countries, including Pakistan. This research examines the effectiveness of pedestrian bridges and underpasses in terms of their usage by pedestrians. A total of 80,017 pedestrian crossings were observed at four sites (3 overhead bridges and one underpass) for four weeks (one week per site) using manual and video photography. The data about age, gender, and serviceability of each pedestrian was collected and analyzed using the chi-square test, t-test, and descriptive analysis. The study site selection was based on different characteristics, i.e., the number of lanes, type of median barriers, and type of facility (bridge/underpass). The analysis shows that most of the pedestrians (71.83%) did not use the crossing facilities, resulting in the poor serviceability of these structures. A comparison between bridges and underpasses also reveals that underpass usage (62.5%) is statistically more significant than bridge usage (11.62%). There is an effect of age (p<0.001) and gender (p<0.001) on the serviceability of these facilities as well, with pedestrians aged more than 25 years old and females using the facilities more than their counterparts. The study also provides implications for the effect of barriers and the height of facilities on the serviceability of these facilities. The number of lanes and the presence of a median barrier, as well as the height of the facility (number of steps), are the primary factors influencing the serviceability of grade-separated pedestrian crossings. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2023-09-04-09 Full Text: PD

Multiplane Orbital Angular Momentum and Wavelength Switch based on Integrated Tunable Vortex Emitters

A multiplane switch architecture exploiting OAM and wavelength domains is characterized in terms of BER, scheduling/reconfiguration latency, and power consumption. Doubling the exploited OAM modes reduces the latency by 42% and the power by 17%

Effect of exogenous application of nicotinic acid on morpho-physiological characteristics of Hordeum vulgare L. under water stress

Abiotic stresses, such as high temperature and drought conditions, greatly influence the development of plants and the quality and quantity of products. Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) crop production is largely impacted by drought, affecting growth, yield, and ultimately the productivity of the crop in hot arid/semi-arid conditions. The current pot experiment was directed to observe the outcome of nicotinic acid (NA) treatments on barley’s physiological, biochemical, and production attributes at two capacity levels, i.e., 100% normal range and withholding water stress. Randomized complete block design (RCBD) was used during the experimentation with the two-factor factorial arrangement. NA was applied exogenously by two different methods, i.e., foliar and soil application (fertigation). NA solution contained various application levels, such as T1 = control, foliar applications (T2 = 0.7368 gL−1, T3 = 1.477 gL−1, T4 = 2.2159 gL−1), and soil applications (T5 = 0.4924 gL−1, T6 = 0.9848 gL−1, and T7 = 1.4773 gL−1). Results depicted that, overall, foliar treatments showed better effects than control and soil treatments. Plant growth was preeminent under T4 treatment, such as plant height (71.07 cm), relative water content (84.0%), leaf water potential (39.73-MPa), leaf area index (36.53 cm2), biological yield (15.10 kgha−1), grain yield (14.40 kgha−1), harvest index (57.70%), catalase (1.54 mmolg−1FW−1), peroxidase (1.90 g−1FWmin−1), and superoxide dismutase (52.60 µgFW−1) were superior under T4 treatment. Soil plant analysis development (54.13 µgcm−2) value was also higher under T4 treatment and lowest under T7 treatment. In conclusion, NA-treated plants were more successful in maintaining growth attributes than non-treated plants; therefore, the NA foliar treatment at the rate of 2.2159 gL−1 is suggested to find economical crop yield under drought conditions. The present study would contribute significantly to improving the drought tolerance potential of barley through exogenous NA supply in water deficit areas

Assessment of Patient Satisfaction with the Pre-Operative Anesthetic Evaluation; an Observational Study

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to determine patient satisfaction with the pre-operative anaesthetist visit. METHODOLOGY A cross-sectional study was conducted from March to September 2023. All consecutive elective patients operated under anaesthesia during the study period were interviewed 24 hours after the operation. Data were collected by the Leiden peri-operative patient satisfaction questionnaire (LPPSq) within 24 hours postoperatively. SPSS 26 version was used for data analysis. The chi-square test was used to compare pre-operative visits and patient satisfaction. RESULTS 230 elective patients were operated upon under anaesthesia during the study period. Among all sections, the Fear and concern factor has the highest Cronbach alpha, 0.942. almost half of the patients aged 26-35 (42.2%) were female (56.3%), Class I in ASA physical status (50.2%), and living in a rural area (64.9%). For occupation, the majority of respondents were unemployed (89.2%). In addition, more than half of the respondents received general anaesthesia (60.6%). The most frequent procedure type was the gynaecology procedure (38%). Regarding an anaesthetist's visit, most respondents received a pre-operative anaesthetist visit (89.6%) and an anaesthetist approach (73.6%). However, the majority didn't receive adequate information, didn’t have a chance to choose the type of anaesthesia, and didn’t have an opportunity to ask a question, with percentages of 68%, 90%, and 95.2%, respectively. A significant and strong association existed between patient satisfaction and pre-operative anaesthetist visits (P<0.000). CONCLUSION Patient satisfaction with the pre-operative anaesthetic evaluation was the same compared with the Royal College of Anaesthetists standards. There is an association between pre-operative anaesthetist visits and patient satisfaction. Pre-operative anaesthetic evaluation should be emphasized.