Financial Development and Textile Sector Competitiveness: A Case Study of Pakistan

Kletzer and Bardhan (1987) argue that countries with a relatively well-developed financial sector have a comparative advantage in industries that rely on external finance. Beck (2002), and Fanelli and Medhora (2002) find that well-developed financial sector translates into a comparative advantage in the production of manufactured goods. There has been no attempt so far to explore the relationship between the financial development and international trade competitiveness in the case of Pakistan. We construct Balassa’s Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index for textile sector of Pakistan. Using ratio of credit extended to the textile sector to the total non-government credit of the banking system (TCS) as proxy for external finance we estimate long run relationship, and ECM, between RCA index and TCS while controlling for other determinants of the international trade competitiveness of textile sector of Pakistan. In line with the findings of Beck (2002), and Fanelli and Medhora (2002), our results suggest that recourse to external finance has a strong positive impact on the country’s textile sector competitiveness both in the short and the long run even when we control for traditional determinants of competitiveness.Financial Development, Competitiveness

Concealment and Discovery: The Role of Information Security in Biomedical Data Re-Use

This paper analyses the role of information security (IS) in shaping the dissemination and re-use of biomedical data, as well as the embedding of such data in the material, social and regulatory landscapes of research. We consider the data management practices adopted by two UK-based data linkage infrastructures: the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage, a Welsh databank that facilitates appropriate re-use of health data derived from research and routine medical practice in the region; and the Medical and Environmental Data Mash-up Infrastructure, a project bringing together researchers from the University of Exeter, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Met Office and Public Health England to link and analyse complex meteorological, environmental and epidemiological data. Through an in-depth analysis of how data are sourced, processed and analysed in these two cases, we show that IS takes two distinct forms: epistemic IS, focused on protecting the reliability and reusability of data as they move across platforms and research contexts; and infrastructural IS, concerned with protecting data from external attacks, mishandling and use disruption. These two dimensions are intertwined and mutually constitutive, and yet are often perceived by researchers as being in tension with each other. We discuss how such tensions emerge when the two dimensions of IS are operationalised in ways that put them at cross purpose with each other, thus exemplifying the vulnerability of data management strategies to broader governance and technological regimes. We also show that whenever biomedical researchers manage to overcome the conflict, the interplay between epistemic and infrastructural IS prompts critical questions concerning data sources, formats, metadata and potential uses, resulting in an improved understanding of the wider context of research and the development of relevant resources. This informs and significantly improves the re-usability of biomedical data, while encouraging exploratory analyses of secondary data sources

MULTISPECIES REVENUE FUNCTION ESTIMATION FOR NORTH PACIFIC GROUNDFISH FISHERIES

Multiproduct, multispecies revenue functions are estimated for the midwater and bottom-trawl pollock fisheries off Alaska. There are strong year and seasonal effects on coefficient estimates, and the technology is joint in outputs for each major operation type. The model is a step toward prediction of fishery regulatory effects.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Comparison of Costs of Home and Facility-based Basic Obstetric Care in Rural Bangladesh

This study compared the costs of providing antenatal, delivery and postnatal care in the home and in a basic obstetric facility in rural Bangladesh. The average costs were estimated by interviewing midwives and from institutional records. The main determinants of cost in each setting were also assessed. The cost of basic obstetric care in the home and in a facility was very similar, although care in the home was cheaper. Deliveries in the home took more time but this was offset by the capital costs associated with facility-based care. As use-rates increase, deliveries in a facility will become cheaper. Antenatal and postnatal care was much cheaper to provide in the facility than in the home. Facility-based delivery care is likely to be a cheaper and more feasible method for the care provider as demand rises. In settings where skilled attendance rates are very low, home-based care will be cheaper

Loss of TRAIL-receptors is a recurrent feature in pancreatic cancer and determines the prognosis of patients with no nodal metastasis after surgery.

Agonistic antibodies targeting TRAIL-receptors 1 and 2 (TRAIL-R1 and TRAIL-R2) are being developed as a novel therapeutic approach in cancer therapy including pancreatic cancer. However, the cellular distribution of these receptors in primary pancreatic cancer samples has not been sufficiently investigated and no study has yet addressed the issue of their prognostic significance in this tumor entity. Applying tissue microarray (TMA) analysis, we performed an immunohistochemical assessment of TRAIL-receptors in surgical samples from 84 consecutive patients affected by pancreatic adenocarcinoma and in 26 additional selected specimens from patients with no lymph nodes metastasis at the time of surgery. The prognostic significance of membrane staining and staining intensity for TRAIL-receptors was evaluated. The fraction of pancreatic cancer samples with positive membrane staining for TRAIL-R1 and TRAIL-R2 was lower than that of cells from surrounding non-tumor tissues (TRAIL-R1: p<0.001, TRAIL-R2: p = 0.006). In addition, subgroup analyses showed that loss of membrane staining for TRAIL-R2 was associated with poorer prognosis in patients without nodal metastases (multivariate Cox regression analysis, Hazard Ratio: 0.44 [95% confidence interval: 0.22-0.87]; p = 0.019). In contrast, analysis of decoy receptors TRAIL-R3 and -R4 in tumor samples showed an exclusively cytoplasmatic staining pattern and no prognostic relevance. This is a first report on the prognostic significance of TRAIL-receptors expression in pancreatic cancer showing that TRAIL-R2 might represent a prognostic marker for patients with early stage disease. In addition, our data suggest that loss of membrane-bound TRAIL-receptors could represent a molecular mechanism for therapeutic failure upon administration of TRAIL-receptors-targeting antibodies in pancreatic cancer. This hypothesis should be evaluated in future clinical trials

Safe, accurate, and precise sulfur isotope analyses of arsenides, sulfarsenides, and arsenic and mercury sulfides by conversion to barium sulfate before EA/IRMS

The stable isotope ratios of sulfur (δ(34)S relative to Vienna Cañon Diablo Troilite) in sulfates and sulfides determined by elemental analysis and isotope ratio mass spectrometry (EA/IRMS) have been proven to be a remarkable tool for studies of the (bio)geochemical sulfur cycles in modern and ancient environments. However, the use of EA/IRMS to measure δ(34)S in arsenides and sulfarsenides may not be straightforward. This difficulty can lead to potential health and environmental hazards in the workplace and analytical problems such as instrument contamination, memory effects, and a non-matrix-matched standardization of δ(34)S measurements with suitable reference materials. To overcome these practical and analytical challenges, we developed a procedure for sulfur isotope analysis of arsenides, which can also be safely used for EA/IRMS analysis of arsenic sulfides (i.e., realgar, orpiment, arsenopyrite, and arsenian pyrite), and mercury sulfides (cinnabar). The sulfur dioxide produced from off-line EA combustion was trapped in an aqueous barium chloride solution in a leak-free system and precipitated as barium sulfate after quantitative oxidation of hydrogen sulfite by hydrogen peroxide. The derived barium sulfate was analyzed by conventional EA/IRMS, which bracketed the δ(34)S values of the samples with three international sulfate reference materials. The protocol (BaSO(4)-EA/IRMS) was validated by analyses of reference materials and laboratory standards of sulfate and sulfides and achieved accuracy and precision comparable with those of direct EA/IRMS. The δ(34)S values determined by BaSO(4)-EA/IRMS in sulfides (arsenopyrite, arsenic, and mercury sulfides) samples from different origins were comparable to those obtained by EA/IRMS, and no sulfur isotope fractionations were introduced during sample preparation. We report the first sulfur isotope data of arsenides obtained by BaSO(4)-EA/IRMS. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00216-021-03854-y

On Track or Not? Projecting the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index

This publication arises from research partially funded by the John Fell Oxford University Press (OUP) Research Fund, as well as ESRC-DFID ES/N01457X/1, DfID project 300706 and Sida Project 11141. The authors are grateful to all funders for their support. Suppa gratefully acknowledges funding of the European Research Council (ERC-2014-StG-637768, EQUALIZE project), the CERCA Programme (Generalitat de Catalunya), and of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities Juan de la Cierva Research Grant Programs (IJCI-2017-33950).In this paper we compute projections of global multidimensional poverty. We use recently published estimates of changes over time in multidimensional poverty for 75 countries, which are based on time-consistent indicators. We consider and evaluate different approaches to model the trajectories of countries' achieved and future poverty reduction. Our preferred model respects theoretical bounds, is supported by empirical evidence, and ensures consistency of our main measure with its sub-indices. We apply this approach to examine whether countries will halve their poverty between 2015 and 2030 if observed trends continue. Our results suggest that if observed trends continue, 47 countries will have halved their poverty by 2030-irrespective of the underlying model. As the current COVID-19 pandemic may severely disrupt progress in poverty reduction, we also assess its potential impact using simulation techniques and evaluate the resulting setback. Our analyses suggest a setback to multidimensional poverty reduction of about 3-10 years

Linguistic phenomena of lexical and grammatical deletion in the English language

Реченица је изван сваког контекста апстрактна. Смештена у одређени контекст, постаје конкретнa и добија одређено значење. Стога, с правом можемо рећи да структурална историја језика („лингвистичка историја“) је прилично независна од друштвене историје. Прича о језику се мора пажљиво разликовати од приче о променама у језику. Нормативна граматичка традиција се развила и писци о језику су постaли изузетно рестриктивни у погледу тога шта је дозвољено као „добар енглески језик“. Током осамнаестог века, ортографи, граматичари и лексикографи почели су да виде своју улогу у стварању језика, како би урадили нешто поводом његове „перплексности“, „конфузије“, „бескрајне разноликости“, које су се јављале у енглеском језику. Каснији осамнаести век је дочекао рођење прескриптивне граматичке традиције која још увек прогони наше образовне системе, Лас (Lass, 1999: 7). Скраћивања различитих врста су била присутна чак и у старом и средњовековном енглеском језику. Прва писана верзија скраћених облика лексичког и граматичког материјала се први пут појавила у драмским текстовима касног шеснаестог и раног седамнаестог века, међу делима Шекспира и Месинџера (Shakespeare, Massinger). Елиптичне реченице или елипсе представљају посебну форму скраћивања лексичког и граматичког материјала, где се реченица потпуно разуме. Идеја да се реченица разуме и без својих саставних делова дуго времена се чинила атрактивном за проучавање. У савременом друштву у коме је превише речи виђено као непотребно у говору, чини се да елипсе с правом могу заузети важно место кроз изучавања како језичких, тако и друштвених промена једног периода.A sentence is out of any context an abstract one. It becomes a concrete one when placed in a certain context and gains its meaning. Therefore, it can be rightfully said that structural language history (“linguistic history”) is quite independent from a social one. The story on language must be carefully distinguished from the story on language changes. Normative grammar tradition has been developed and writers on language have become extremely restrictive regarding of what is allowed as “good English”. During the eighteenth century, orthography, grammarians and lexicographers started to see their role in a language creation, so as to do something regarding its “perplexity”, “confusion”, endless variety”, appearing in the English language. A later XVIII century met with the birth of prescriptive grammar tradition, still chasing our educational systems (Lass, 1999: 7). Shortening and deletion of different types had been present even in the Old and Middle Age English. The first written version of shorten forms of lexical and grammar material appeared in drama texts of late XVI and early XVII century, among the works of art of Shakespeare and Massinger. Elliptical sentences or ellipsis represent a special form of shortening of lexical and grammar material, where a sentence is fully understood. The idea of understanding a sentence without its consistent parts has seemed attractive for its studying. In the contemporary society, where excessiveness in words has been seen as unnecessary one in a speech, it seems that ellipsis can rightfully take their place through both studying of language, but also social changes of a period

Education: A guide for services

The purpose of this guide is to support services and organisations to embed local education and training to enable accurate and consistent use of PCOC’s assessment and response framework and participation in the PCOC outcome and benchmarking program. This guide provides information on the full range of PCOC resources and tools available to support services and organisations to develop an education plan and to ensure all staff receive adequate PCOC education