Swine Flu: Prevention to Pandemic

Swine flu, also known as swine influenza, pig influenza, hog flu and pig flu, is a respiratory disease caused by viruses (influenza viruses) that infect the respiratory tract of pigs, resulting in nasal secretions, a barking cough, decreased appetite, and listless behaviour. Swine flu produces most of the same symptoms in pigs as human flu produces in people. Mostly people who are closely associated with pigs (for example, pork processors and farmers) acquire the infection and similarly pigs get infected occasionally human flu infection. The cross-species infections (swine virus to man; human flu virus to pigs) have always been confined to local areas and have not spread across borders in either pigs or humans. Unfortunately, this cross-species situation with influenza viruses has had the potential to change and cause epidemics and pandemics. Most recent pandemic has been reported in 2009,  where "swine flu" strain, first seen in Mexico, was termed as H1N1 as it was mainly infecting people and exhibited two main surface antigens, H1 (hemagglutinin type 1) and N1 (neuraminidase type1). This unique eight RNA strands from novel H1N1 flu have one strand derived from human flu strains, two from avian (bird) strains, and five from swine strains. Since then it has been infecting people here and there.&nbsp

Foreign interference in U.S. politics: An examination of “fake news” content on social media

Fake news has become a powerful and disruptive force in the social media environment, with serious consequences for democracy. As a result, news organizations and tech companies have taken measures to reduce or eliminate the propagation and dissemination of fake news. The current study analyzes data gathered from Facebook and Twitter from two major events that occurred in U.S. politics: the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the 2019/2020 impeachment inquiry and trial of Donald Trump. Qualitative content analysis revealed that the majority of posts and tweets examined in this study could be classified as fake news, and that they were decidedly pro-Trump in angle. Through the lens of agenda setting theory, it was observed that the major issues covered in both time periods under study favoured Trump and his policies, while they denigrated the Democratic party and its members. Multiple themes emerged that shed new light on the tactics employed by hostile foreign actors to micro-target and influence social media users

The Long Term Impact of Health on Economic Growth in Pakistan

The paper investigates the impacts of different health indicators on economic growth in Pakistan. Cointegration and Error Correction techniques have been applied on the time series data of Pakistan for the period of 1972-2006. We find that per capita GDP is positively influenced by health indicators in the long run and health indicators cause per capita GDP. However, in short run the health indicators fail to put significant impact on per capita GDP. It reveals that health indicators have a long run impact on economic growth. It also suggests that impact of health is only a long run phenomenon and in the short run there is no significant relationship exists between health variables and economic growth. The major policy implication of the study is that if we desire high levels of per capita income, we can achieve it by increasing and improving stock of health human capital, especially when current stocks are at lower end. Moreover, study also points out a rather diminutive role of public health expenditure in determining the per capita GDP.Health Human Capital; Economic Growth; Cointegration, Error Correction

Phenolic composition and antioxidant activity of sweetpotatoes [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam]

The influence of numerous factors on sweetpotato phenolic content and antioxidant activity was determined. Simplified, robust, and rapid methodologies were developed to quantify total phenolics and individual phenolic acids in sweetpotatoes. Quantification of total phenolic content using Folin-Denis reagent provided more reliable results than Folin-Ciocalteu reagent. Individual phenolic acids were quantified by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and the best separation was achieved using a 5-µm, 4.6 × 250 mm column with a mobile phase of 1% (v/v) formic acid aqueous solution: acetonitrile: 2-propanol (70:22:8), pH 2.5. Methanol and ethanol provided higher phenolic extraction efficiency than acetone. In general, chlorogenic and 3,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid were the most prominent phenolics acids in sweetpotato root and leaf tissues. Immature roots and leaves at the initial stages of growth had the highest concentration of phenolics and antioxidant activity. In a comparison of plant parts, sweetpotato leaves had a significantly higher phenolic content and antioxidant activity than roots. Thermal processing of sweetpotato storage roots resulted in a significant loss of phenolic content and antioxidant activity. The outer skin tissue (raw or processed) contained the highest amounts of phenolic acids but also exhibited higher losses than cortex or pith tissue. After a 4 week exposure to 5 °C, the rate of increase in phenolic content and antioxidant activity in non-cured sweepotatoes was significantly higher than in cured roots. An ambient temperature exposure following low temperature storage accentuated the increase in phenolics and antioxidant activity. Minimally processed sweetpotatoes held at 5 °C accumulated more phenolic compounds and had a higher antioxidant activity than sweetpotatoes held at 0 °C. The increase in total phenolic content and antioxidant activity after 8 days was higher than 4 days. No fresh-cut tissue browning was observed after 8 days and the products were considered to be marketable. Sweetpotato genotypes differ in their phenolic content and antioxidant activity. A purple-fleshed breeding line was found to have higher total phenolic content and antioxidant activity than orange-fleshed and white-fleshed cultivars

Assessing farmer’s Pesticide Safety Knowledge in cotton growing area of Punjab, Pakistan

A pesticide safety knowledge test was developed to assess farmer’s knowledge related to pesticide safety. Yes-No (true-false) type 25 item, test, was constructed and used in a sample of 162 pesticide applicator in two districts of southern Punjab Pakistan. The overall mean score was 17.2(72%). More educated and adult respondents performed better than younger and illiterate. Similarly large land holder scored higher than small landholders, indicating their more access to information and extension. Overall ten Items received less than 50% correct response. The result shows that farmers have reasonably good knowledge but it still has to see, to what extent that knowledge is being used practically. It could possibly be the future research topic.Health cost, Environmental cost, Pesticide knowledge, pesticide safety

The Impact of Tax Policies on Economic Growth: Evidence from South-Asian Economies.

The public policy instruments, such as tax rate changes, have different implications in exogenous (neoclassical) and endogenous growth theories. The neoclassical theory predicts that changes in a country’s tax structure should have only transitory impact on its long-run economic growth while endogenous growth theory argues that such changes may have an effect impact on the growth. This study tests whether tax policies conducted by Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka have transitory or permanent effect on their economic growth. The study finds transitory and negative effect of tax rate on the growth only for short-term but has no effect in the long-term. The tax rates in all these countries are low as compared to developed countries. Due to low tax rates these countries heavily depend on bond financing and foreign debt. In view of the findings of this study most important policy implication of the study is that to finance the budget and most of their revenue requirements should be financed with tax increases and if necessary bond financing should be contingent providing a guard against transitory shocks to the budget. JEL classification: H10, E62, O40 Keywords: Neoclassical Growth; Endogenous Growth; Fiscal Policy; Tax Smoothin

Endodermal Sinus Tumor in a 14-Year-Old Girl

A case report on a 14-year-old girl with a large pelvic and abdominal mass is presented. Initial evaluation suggested the mass to be of ovarian origin, and the diagnosis of endodermal sinus tumor was confirmed by the pathological specimen. Alpha fetoprotein (AFP) levels on admission were 12,700 mg/dL. but AFP decreased immediately in the postoperative period and has continued to decline toward normal levels over the past four months of combination chemotherapy. After completion of chemotherapy, AFP levels will continue to be monitored and a second-look procedure may be in order

Improving Qubit Routing by Using Entanglement Mediated Remote Gates

Near-term quantum computers often have connectivity constraints, i.e. restrictions, on which pairs of qubits in the device can interact. Optimally mapping a quantum circuit to a hardware topology under these constraints is a difficult task. While numerous approaches have been proposed to optimize qubit routing, the resulting gate count and depth overheads of the compiled circuits remain high due to the short-range coupling of qubits in near-term devices. Resource states, such as Bell or Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) pairs, can be used to mediate operations that facilitate long-range interactions between qubits. In this work, we studied some of the practical trade-offs involved in using resource states for qubit routing. We developed a method that leverages an existing state-of-the-art compiler to optimize the routing of circuits with both standard gates and EPR mediated remote controlled-NOT gates. This was then used to compile different benchmark circuits for a square grid topology, where a fraction of the qubits are used to store EPR pairs. We demonstrate that EPR-mediated operations can substantially reduce the total number of gates and depths of compiled circuits when used with an appropriate optimizing compiler. This advantage scales differently for different types of circuits, but nonetheless grows with the size of the architecture. Our results highlight the relevance of developing efficient compilation tools that can integrate EPR-mediated operations

The Long Term Impact of Health on Economic Growth in Pakistan

Human capital plays pivotal role for sustainable economic Growth. As different growth theories suggest the role of human capital as a significant for growth process. The concept of human capital in economic literature defined broadly by including education, health, training, migration, and other investments that enhance an individual’s productivity. However, the growth economists that have incorporated human capital in the growth studies, paid greater attention on analysing the impact of education on economic growth, while ignoring the role of health human capital. It is only in very recent times that studies have started looking at health and tried to estimate the relationship between health status and economic growth. There exists a two-way relationship between improved health and economic growth. Health and other forms of human and physical capital increases the per capita GDP by increasing productivity of existing resources coupled with resource accumulation and technical change. Furthermore, some part of this increased income is spent on investment in human capital, which results in further per capita growth. According to Fogel (1994), approximately one third of GDP of Britain between 1790 and 1980 is the outcome of improvements in health especially improvement in nutrition, public health, and medical care facilities and these improved health facilities should be considered as labour enhancing technical change