Determinants of Household Poverty: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aim at halving the percentage of world population in 1990 with income less than US $ 1 a day and halving the share of people who suffer from hunger by 2015. Being a developing nation, poverty reduction should be our foremost obligation. An appreciable decline has occurred recently, headcount decreased from 34.46 percent in 2000-01 to 23.94 in 2004-05 [Pakistan (2006-07)]. However, seeing only the statistics and the trends in poverty we can just observe that what happened to poverty in different periods and also the decomposition of poverty in different years gives us a more appropriate picture of the incidence of poverty. This knowledge is useful because it informs us whether poverty is increasing or decreasing overtime. However, this information does not provide us the details of the causes of poverty. For instance, is poverty high due to low education attainment or large family size or due to any other reason? Here is a need of research about the determinants of poverty that are positively or negatively linked with the poverty status. This is the area where research can be most useful because firstly we have to understand the main determinants of poverty before designing the most efficient policy to reduce poverty in the country

Analysing Econometric Bias and Non-linearity in Returns to Education of Pakistan

This study estimates the returns to education while controlling endogeneity and sample selection biases in Pakistan, over a time period using Ordinary Least Square (OLS), simultaneous approach using both Heckman Sample Selection and Instrumental Variable, and Fixed Effect techniques. Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) data for 2004-05 and 2011-12 time periods have been used in this study. The returns to education have been found downward biased in OLS estimates for both time periods. The unbiased real returns to education have increased on average for wage workers over time period. Landholding and Non-earned income have been used as exclusion restrictions to control for sample selection bias in the Heckman Sample Selection technique. The endogeneity bias has been controlled for with the help of parental education as instrument in Instrumental Variable technique. Both techniques have also been used collectively or simultaneously to get more efficient estimate in simultaneous approach. Household Fixed Effect technique has also been used with the assumption that ability and family characteristics largely remain same within family or household. The increase in the unbiased and real returns to education shows that profitability still exists in investing in education whereas experience via skill enhancement reinforces this rise in wage. Sadly, the historic gender and regional discriminations persist or aggravate in wage market. Married persons are getting more in returns relative to the unmarried individuals. Having negative implications for income inequality, Convexity in education-earning relationship in Pakistan has been confirmed by Indicator Function technique for both time periods. Low education prompt low-earning workers who would be unable to bear the schooling cost of their children. This seriously inhibits earning potential making income inequality worse. JEL Classification: I26, I24, J24 Keywords: Returns to Education, Human Capita

Impact of Health on Labour Productivity: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

Health status has been given wide spread weight age across many Sustainable Development Goals. This study would reinforce its significance by quantifying the impact of health status on workers’ productivity in Pakistan. The current study attempts to examine the role of health status on workers’ productivity by employing Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach by Pesaran and Shin (1999) and Pesaran et al. (2001) using data from 1980 to 2010 for Pakistan. It has been found that 1% improvement in health status would result in around 13.39% rise in worker productivity. The coefficient of education is positively related to worker productivity at 1% level of significance and indicates that worker productivity will increase by 0.18% due 1% increase in education. Inflation has negative relationship with worker productivity whereas the association between worker productivity and Foreign Direct Investment, being proxy of technology transfer, is positive but statistically insignificant which shows that technology transfer has no effect on productivity in case of Pakistan. Education and experience have often been observed as determinants of worker productivity in empirical analysis of Pakistan. However, this study is a first endeavor to quantify the impact of health status upon worker’s productivity for Pakistan

Risk assessment across life cycle phases for small and medium software

Risk is labelled as an undesirable event that is encountered by every project irrespective of industry. Most software projects fail to meet the planned targets, i.e., scope, time, cost and quality. Software projects faced a wide range of risks and all risks cannot be dealt with the same priority. Risk can be prioritized by the probability of its occurrence and its impact. Therefore, risk assessment is required to highlight and prioritize serious risks. However, a very few researches targeted risk assessment faced by small and medium software projects. This research performs a risk assessment and highlighted serious risks faced by professionals working on small and medium software projects by documenting probability and impact. The chances of success of software projects can be increased by performing a proper risk assessment. The risks are identified by exploring and reviewing the existing literature. The identified risks are grouped by life cycle phases. This research utilizes a questionnaire-based approach to record the response of 163 software professionals working in Pakistan software industry. SPSS is used for data management and for performing statistical analysis. Probability and impact of each risk are measured to highlight the potential risks. The results concluded that the severity level of the majority of risks faced by small and medium software projects in Pakistan software industry is significant and high. The success of every project matters a lot for the progress of the organizations working on a small and medium level. Therefore, this research guide professionals and organizations to consider and prioritize the risk faced while working on small and medium software projects to increase the chances of the project's success

Antibacterial activity of the venom of Heterometrus xanthopus

Heterometrus xanthopus (Scorpion) is one of the most venomous and ancient arthropods. Its venom contains anti-microbial peptides like hadrurin, scorpine, Pandinin 1, and Pandinin 2 that are able to effectively kill multidrug-resistant pathogens. The present study was conducted to evaluate the anti-bacterial activity of H. xanthopus venom. Six Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains were tested against 1/100, 1/10, and 1/1 fractions of distilled water diluted and crude venom. 1/100 and 1/10 dilutions were not successful in any of the six bacterial strains studied while the 1/1 dilution was effective on Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, Salmonella typhimurium ATCC 14028, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 with highest zone of inhibition were obtained on B. subtilis. Crude venom was effective against Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 14506, B. subtilis, S. typhimurium, and P. aeruginosa. The most effective results were observed on B. subtilis

Bladder Hernia; A Case Report

Inguinal bladder hernia is a rare condition usually diagnosed per-operatively. Patients may present with inguinal swelling, dysuria, hematuria,or urinary urgency. Obesity, advancing age and poor musculature are risk factors. We hereby present a case of inguinal bladder hernia in a 47-year-old obese male presented to outpatient department with history of inguino-scrotal, partially reducible swelling, lower urinary tract symptoms, off and on haematuria and dysuria. Scrotal ultrasound showed clear fluid present in the scrotum which was communicating with bladder. This was confirmed by cystography showing “dog ear”sign. Hernia containing bladder was reduced and hernioplasty was performed

Comparison of Radiation Dose in CT Examinations At PIMS with European Commission Reference Doses

OBJECTIVE - The purpose of this study was to assess the radiation dose levels from common computed tomography (CT) examinations performed in Radiology Department of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), and evaluate these according to diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) proposed by European Commission (EC) guidelines, and thus contributing towards the establishment of local and national DRLs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to explore radiation doses from CT examinations in Pakistan. STUDY DESIGN - This was a quantitative study conducted at PIMS, Islamabad, spanning a duration of eight weeks. Scan parameters and dose profile data of 1506 adults undergoing examinations of head, neck, chest and abdomen-pelvis regions, comprising of single- and multi-phase, contrast-enhanced and unenhanced studies. Dose indicators utilized by EC guidelines for DRLs include volume CT dose index (CTDIvol) and Dose Length Product (DLP) for single slice and complete examination radiation doses, respectively. METHOD - Values of CTDIvol, DLP and scan lengths were extracted from the CT operators console. Other control variables included gender, contrast enhancement and phasicity of study. IBM SPSS package was used to obtain descriptive statistics such as mean and quartiles. RESULTS - DRLs calculated as 75th percentile of CTDIvol, DLP for various anatomical regions are by and far comparable to European DRLs. CONCLUSION – This study describes institutional diagnostic reference levels for common CT exams in Islamabad and provides benchmark values for future reference. Our DRL values are mostly comparable to European and international DRLs. Similar, albeit large scale, surveys are recommended for establishment of local and national DRLs, eventually contributing towards development of regional DRLs. KEYWORDS: CTDIvol, DLP, Diagnostic Reference Levels, Computed Tomography, Radiation Monitoring, Scan lengt

Confronting our mistakes: A comprehensive evaluation of radiographic errors in digital chest radiography among adult population in a public sector hospital

Objective: To find out the various types of radiographic errors in digital chest radiography and their effect on image quality leading to image rejection. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Radiology department of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for a period of One month, September 2019. The study included 1560 digital Chest X-Rays, reaching the Picture Archive and Communication System (PACS), fulfilling the inclusion criteria. All these X-rays were analyzed by two radiology residents for the presence of radiographic errors in them. The various radiographic errors were then classified as: Positioning error, poor collimation, Artifacts, improper exposure, motion blur and mislabeling. The frequency of each radiographic error was measured along with their implication on image quality resulting in three major image categories: ACCEPT, JUST ACCEPTABLE and REJECT. The SPSS was adopted for inferential statistical analysis. Results: The study included 1013 (64.9%) male patients and 547 (35.1%) female patients. The mean age came out to be 36 +/- 15 years. Out of 1560 X-rays, 964 (61.8 %) had radiographic errors in them while 596 (38.2%) were completely devoid of radiographic errors. Positioning error (44.5 percent) was the most frequently encountered error followed by poor collimation (29.8%), artifacts (14.9%), Improper exposure (8%), motion blur (2.2%) and mislabeling (0.5%). The rejection rate came out to be 16.5 %. The major cause of image rejection was anatomy cutoff, especially the cut-off of cardio phrenic (CP) angle. Conclusion: Positioning errors represent the commonest cause of image rejection in chest radiography. The main identified pitfall was lack of radiographer’s education and training in performing an examination and indicates a need to improve their performance. Key words: Digital Radiography, Chest X ray, Radiographic error, Image reject &nbsp

Frequency Diversity Array for DOA Estimation

The localization of targets has been presented in this article. DOA (Direction of Arrival) is an important parameter to be determined by radar. The MLE (Maximum Likelihood Estimator) has been widely used to accurately and efficiently estimate the DOAs of multiple targets. The targets at different ranges result in a variation in amplitude of the received signals, so an MLE estimator has to operate at all ranges. For accurate results of DOA, the complex amplitudes of multiple targets should not be much different and also the prior information of Doppler and number of targets is required. In this paper, an approach is proposed which uses the classical 2D algorithm to estimate range, Doppler and number of targets and then FDA (Frequency Diversity Array) is used to focus power in a particular range. As a result, the MLE can get data from a particular range cell where all targets have almost same amplitude and thus MLE can accurately estimate the DOAs of multiple targets. Simulations and results have confirmed the effectiveness of proposed approach