Economic Growth and Development in South Asia, with and without Regional Cooperation

Economic Development, Economic Growth, South Asia

Exchange rate misalignment and economic growth: recent evidence in Malaysia

The present study aims at investigating the growth effects of real exchange rate misalignments in Malaysia over the period 1991:1-2009:4. The RER misalignment is built through the estimation of the NATREX equilibrium model. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration framework, the results indicate the presence of positive and significant relationship between the RER misalignment and economic growth. This finding obtained is consistent with the notion that the RER misalignment through the distortion in relative price has systematic influence on the pattern of economic development

Conditions of Teaching and Research in Economics: Some Preliminary Findings

This paper reports onthe preliminary findings of a study initiated two years ago, at the initiative of the P.LD.E. to review the problems of teaching and research in economics and related subjects (ERS)! during the last two decades. The need for such a study has been felt for some time not only because of the common perception of declining standards in higher education generally and, economics, in particular, but also from the perceived competition economics has faced from other disciplines, especially business studies and computer science as a passport to the job market. After having enjoyed a relatively robust period of growth in the 1960s largely through the assistance of foreign donors such as the Ford Foundation, ERS in Pakistan have suffered in their development not only from the comparative paucity of resources allocated to them, but also as a result of an adverse change in the perceptions about the primacy of their usefulness for policy purposes. The demand for economics has also suffered some decline as a result of the diminished importance of the public sector and of planned development during the last two decades. While special branches of economics, such as finance, project evaluation, transport and energy economics have shown increased demand, mainly in the private sector or donor-related institutions, the demand for general economic analysts is not as strong as in the past and does not provide many gainful opportunities for professional advancement. Due to the continued disadvantage in terms of salaries and other rewards, the academic profession, remains unattractive

A Simplified Approach to Optimally Controlled Quantum Dynamics

A new formalism for the optimal control of quantum mechanical physical observables is presented. This approach is based on an analogous classical control technique reported previously[J. Botina, H. Rabitz and N. Rahman, J. chem. Phys. Vol. 102, pag. 226 (1995)]. Quantum Lagrange multiplier functions are used to preserve a chosen subset of the observable dynamics of interest. As a result, a corresponding small set of Lagrange multipliers needs to be calculated and they are only a function of time. This is a considerable simplification over traditional quantum optimal control theory[S. shi and H. Rabitz, comp. Phys. Comm. Vol. 63, pag. 71 (1991)]. The success of the new approach is based on taking advantage of the multiplicity of solutions to virtually any problem of quantum control to meet a physical objective. A family of such simplified formulations is introduced and numerically tested. Results are presented for these algorithms and compared with previous reported work on a model problem for selective unimolecular reaction induced by an external optical electric field.Comment: Revtex, 29 pages (incl. figures

Magnetic properties of polyvinyl alcohol and doxorubicine loaded iron oxide nanoparticles for anticancer drug delivery applications

The current study emphasizes the synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) and impact of hydrophilic polymer polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) coating concentration as well as anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) loading on saturation magnetization for target drug delivery applications. Iron oxide nanoparticles particles were synthesized by a reformed version of the co-precipitation method. The coating of polyvinyl alcohol along with doxorubicin loading was carried out by the physical immobilization method. X-ray diffraction confirmed the magnetite (Fe3O4) structure of particles that remained unchanged before and after polyvinyl alcohol coating and drug loading. Microstructure and morphological analysis was carried out by transmission electron microscopy revealing the formation of nanoparticles with an average size of 10 nm with slight variation after coating and drug loading. Transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive, and Fourier transform infrared spectra further confirmed the conjugation of polymer and doxorubicin with iron oxide nanoparticles. The room temperature superparamagnetic behavior of polymer-coated and drug-loaded magnetite nanoparticles were studied by vibrating sample magnetometer. The variation in saturation magnetization after coating evaluated that a sufficient amount of polyvinyl alcohol would be 3 wt. % regarding the externally controlled movement of IONPs in blood under the influence of applied magnetic field for in-vivo target drug delivery

A PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF CLINICAL PROFILE OF STROKE IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

ABSTRACTObjective: The objective of the work was to study the clinical profile of stroke in a tertiary care hospital.Methods: A prospective observational study on stroke was carried out for a period of 6-month (May 2015 to October 2015). A total of 241 inpatientsfrom Shri Preethi Hospital were incorporated in the study. The data were collected and evaluated by reviewing case files and patient interview.Result and Conclusion: Out of 241 patients, an incidence of ischemic stroke was found to be higher. The occurrence of stroke steeply rises with agewith male predominance. The burden of stroke tends to be more in rural, illiterate, and low socioeconomic status population. The study reveals riskfactors such as sedentary lifestyle, previous and family history of stroke, underlying disease like hypertension, diabetes. The circadian pattern in onsetshowed a significant peak in morning (6 am-12 pm) for Ischemic and afternoon (12 pm-6 pm) for hemorrhagic stroke. Topographic distribution ofcerebral infract and hemorrhage was found to be in parietal lobe and periventricular white matter, respectively. Mostly prescribed medication forischemic and hemorrhagic patients was antihypertensive and mannitol, respectively. The contraindication for thrombolytic therapy was found to below economic status and average delay in time of presentation to hospital. The study highlights the need for aggressive management of traditionalrisk factors, need for extensive work up in patient to find etiologies and need for more active interventions in community for the prevention of stroke.Keywords: Ischemic, Hemorrhagic, Circadian pattern, Antihypertensive

Anion Hydrogen Bonding from a ‘Revealed’ Urea Ligand

Hydrogen bonding from a urea group to hydrogen bond acceptor anions can adopt either R_2^1 (6) or R_2^2 (8) motifs depending on the proximity of hydrogen bond acceptor atoms. However, for the sterically bulky and weaker hydrogen bond acceptor triflate anion, hydrogen bond acceptor polymorphism is observe