Trade Liberalization, Financial Sector Reforms and Growth

This paper empirically investigates the impact of trade and financial liberalization on economic growth in Pakistan using annual observations over the period 1961-2005. The analysis is based on the bound testing approach of cointegration advanced by Pesaran et al (2001). The empirical findings suggest that both trade and financial policies play an important role in enhancing growth in Pakistan in the long-run. However, the short-run response of real deposit rate and trade policy variable is very low, suggesting further acceleration of reform process. The feedback coefficient suggests a very slow rate of adjustment towards long-run equilibrium. The estimated short-run dynamics are stable as indicated by CUSUMQ test.Financial Sector Reforms; Trade Liberalization; Growth; Pakistan

Parametric Study of Aerodynamic Performance of an Airfoil with Active Circulation Control Using Leading Edge Embedded Cross-Flow Fan

A concept of a cross-flow fan (CFF) embedded near the leading edge of an airfoil to actively control the boundary layer for lift and thrust enhancement has been proposed. The design places a cross-flow fan near the leading edge of an airfoil and flow is drawn in from the pressure side of the airfoil, energized and expelled out to the suction side near the leading edge. This CFF system simulates the active boundary layer control by blowing commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code ANSYS Fluent is employed to perform 2-D calculations based on various parameters of the CFF and compared the data with an experimental baseline case found in literature. The effect of number of blades, pressure side slat opening, suction side slat angle, hub-to-shroud ratio and blade pitch angle have on aerodynamic parameters have been investigated. Regression models are established using the acquired data to find combination of parameters for achieving higher circulation control. Unsteady sliding mesh method is used to carry out the numerical simulation. The fan geometry is developed and housed in a NACA 651-212 airfoil. The of the CFD work show that the jet leaving the fan replaces the boundary layer of the upstream flow with a flow of very high velocity. This high velocity flow causes a higher pressure difference between the suction and the pressure side generating higher lift in the process. The drag of the airfoil is overcame and a net thrust is observed by CFF blowing phenomenon

Intuitionistic fuzzy bi-implicator and properties of Lukasiewicz intuitionistic fuzzy bi-implicator

This paper presents axiomatic as well as constructive definitions of intuitionistic fuzzy bi-implicators based on intuitionistic fuzzy t-norms and their intuitionistic fuzzy residual implicators. The inter-relationship among different proposed classes is presented along with a detailed study of the properties of one of these intuitionistic fuzzy bi-implicators called the intuitionistic fuzzy beta-bi-operator constructed using Lukasiewicz intuitionistic fuzzy t-norm and its R-implicator

Transcription elongation factor NusA is a general antagonist of Rho-dependent termination in Escherichia coli

NusA is an essential protein that binds to RNA polymerase and also to the nascent RNA and influences transcription by inducing pausing and facilitating the process of transcription termination/antitermination. Its participation in Rho-dependent transcription termination has been perceived, but the molecular nature of this involvement is not known. We hypothesized that, because both Rho and NusA are RNA-binding proteins and have the potential to target the same RNA, the latter is likely to influence the global pattern of the Rho-dependent termination. Analyses of the nascent RNA binding properties and consequent effects on the Rho-dependent termination functions of specific NusA-RNA binding domain mutants revealed an existence of Rho-NusA direct competition for the overlapping nut (NusA-binding site) and rut (Rho-binding site) sites on the RNA. This leads to delayed entry of Rho at the rut site that inhibits the latter's RNA release process. High density tiling microarray profiles of these NusA mutants revealed that a significant number of genes, together with transcripts from intergenic regions, are up-regulated. Interestingly, the majority of these genes were also up-regulated when the Rho function was compromised. These results provide strong evidence for the existence of NusA-binding sites in different operons that are also the targets of Rho-dependent terminations. Our data strongly argue in favor of a direct competition between NusA and Rho for the access of specific sites on the nascent transcripts in different parts of the genome. We propose that this competition enables NusA to function as a global antagonist of the Rho function, which is unlike its role as a facilitator of hairpin-dependent termination

A weighted companion of Ostrowski's inequality using three step weighted kernel

There are numerous works suggesting linking SSM models to information systems (IS) models for information systems development. In these works links between SSM and IS models are established at the conceptual level i.e. they provide ways to utilise SSM models to identify or to derive IS models. However, most of them have not provided a method for representing the links explicitly in the combined model. Consequently, the links become subtle and untraceable, looking at the combined model only at the representation level. This paper proposes an approach based on meta modelling to achieve a uniform and formalised representation of models that combine SSM and IS models. The approach allows one to represent not only SSM and IS modelling concepts but also relationships between the concepts in a meta model using the conceptual modelling language Telos. Telos supports meta models to be flexibly specified and extended to meet specific modelling requirements of a particular project. An exemplary application is presented to demonstrate the operationalisation of the proposed approach and to illustrate the uniform representation of combined models. The example also shows benefits of the formalised representation in terms of computer support for managing and retrieving a combined model's meta data

An Adaptive Software Fault Tolerant Framework for Ubiquitous Vehicular Technologies

Probability for the occurrence of faults increases manifolds when program Lines of Code (LoC) exceeds a few thousand in ubiquitous applications. Faults mitigation in ubiquitous applications, such as those of autonomous Vehicular Technologies (VTs), has not been effective even with the use of formal methods. Faults in such applications require exhaustive testing for a timely fix, that seems infeasible computationally. This emphasizes the imperative role of Software Fault Tolerance (SFT) for autonomous applications. Several SFT techniques have been proposed but failures revealed in VT applications imply that existing SFT techniques need to be fine-tuned. In this paper, current replication-based SFT techniques have been analyzed and classified with respect to their diversity, adjudication, and adaptivity. Essential parameters (such as Reliability, Time, Variance, etc) for adjudication, diversity, and adaptiveness were recorded. The identified parameters were mapped to different techniques (such as AFTRC, SCOP, VFT, etc) for observing their shortcomings. Consequently, a generic framework named ”Diverse Parallel Adjudication for Software Fault Tolerance (DPA-SFT)” has been proposed. DPA-SFT addresses the shortcomings of existing SFT techniques for VTs with the added value of parallel and diverse adjudication. A prototype implementation of the proposed framework has been developed for assessing the viability of DPA-SFT over modules of VT. An empirical comparison of the proposed framework was performed with prevalent techniques (AFTRC, SCOP, VFT, etc). A thorough evaluation suggests that DPA-SFT performs better than contemporary SFT techniques in VTs due to its parallel and diverse adjudication

Differently Abled Staff Welcomed by Library Recruiters

The article focuses on the benefits of reading therapy for improving health and well being for people living with disability. Topics discussed include providing knowledge or skills to provide services or resources to people living with a disability; encouraging library employers to form job advertisement with diversity and disability in mind; and encouraging employment of the same

Incidence of epizootic ulcerative syndrome (EUS) in freshwater fishes in the endemic area of Punjab, Pakistan

Incidence of Epizootic Ulcerative Syndrome (EUS) has been recorded for the first time in freshwater fishes in the endemic area of Punjab, Pakistan. Survey of private fish farms, hatchery and natural water bodies was conducted in a radius of 14 Km from around river Ravi near Lahore (Punjab Province) Pakistan. Out Of 1628 fishes belonging to 18 genera, 517 fishes of 10 genera were found affected with EUS. The incidence of EUS in culturable fishes was higher in Cirrhina mrigala (15.4%) moderate in Catla cat/a (13.3%) and lower in Labeo rohita (5.0%). Exotic fish, Chinese carp Ctenoparyngodon idella and Hypophthalmicthys molitrix were not affected with EUS. In non-culturable fishes the incidence of EUS was highest in Channa punctatus (72.8%) moderate in by C. straitus (65.45%) and comparatively lower Puntius ticto (43.7%). A slow growing temperature sensitive Saprolegnia spp. was isolated from all of EUS infected fish species. Aeromonas spp. and Pseudomonas spp. were isolated from the diseased fishes. Ectoparasites viz. Lernaea, Argulus and Triclwdina spp. were also isolated from the skin and gills of infected fish species. The disease was more severe in water having low alkalinity (70 mg/1), hardness (75 mg/1) and low temperature of 10-12 °C

Water stress causes differential effects on germination indices, total soluble sugar and proline content in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes

Different cultivars differ inherently in their response to drought and those cultivars best adapted to growth in arid and semiarid conditions form the most uniform and vigorous stands when grown under water deficits. The seeds of five wheat cultivars (GA-2002, Chakwal-97, Uqab-2000, Chakwal-50 and Wafaq-2001) were subjected to five different levels of osmotic stress; 0 bars (distilled water, control), -2, -4, -6 and -8 bars to assess the effect of osmotic stress on germination percentage, mean germination time, coleoptile length, proline and sugar amounts. The investigations were performed as factorial experiments under complete randomized design (CRD). Germination percentage, mean germination time and coleoptile length were shown to decrease with increasing osmotic stress, whereas a progressive increase in proline and sugar content were observed with increasing osmotic stress. The response of five cultivars examined under various levels of osmotic stress differed dramatically. Chakwal-50 and GA-2002 were amongst best performers, showing high germination rate, longest coleoptile length, highest proline values and sugar contents when compared with other cultivars under stress conditions. These were proven to be the most tolerant cultivars. Performance of  Wafaq-2001 and Uqab-2000 were poor when compared to the other cultivars under limited water stress conditions.Key words: Wheat, Triticum aestivum, water stress, osmotic stress, proline, sugar, seedling, germination