Whether Fiscal Stance or Monetary Policy is Effective for Economic Growth in Case of South Asian Countries?

The relative significance of fiscal and monetary policy has been one of the most unsettled issues in economics. Relevant literature shows that the study of the effectiveness of monetary and fiscal policy is equivalent to the study of the relative efficacy of Keynesian economics and monetarism. This study investigates the relative effectiveness of both types of policies in the context of modern panel data analysis in case of South Asian Countries during the period from 1990 to 2007 to test the Monetarist and Keynesian claims, and to find out that whether the policy instruments have a significant relationship with economic growth. Im, Pesaran, and Shin and Levin, Lin, and Chu tests have been used to investigate the order of integration. For long run and short run relationship we utilis ed the advance Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model ARDL a co-integration (panel) test and ECM (Error Correction Method) respectively.Fiscal Policy, Monetary Policy, Panel Co-integration

High-Level Concepts for Affective Understanding of Images

This paper aims to bridge the affective gap between image content and the emotional response of the viewer it elicits by using High-Level Concepts (HLCs). In contrast to previous work that relied solely on low-level features or used convolutional neural network (CNN) as a black-box, we use HLCs generated by pretrained CNNs in an explicit way to investigate the relations/associations between these HLCs and a (small) set of Ekman's emotional classes. As a proof-of-concept, we first propose a linear admixture model for modeling these relations, and the resulting computational framework allows us to determine the associations between each emotion class and certain HLCs (objects and places). This linear model is further extended to a nonlinear model using support vector regression (SVR) that aims to predict the viewer's emotional response using both low-level image features and HLCs extracted from images. These class-specific regressors are then assembled into a regressor ensemble that provide a flexible and effective predictor for predicting viewer's emotional responses from images. Experimental results have demonstrated that our results are comparable to existing methods, with a clear view of the association between HLCs and emotional classes that is ostensibly missing in most existing work

EFFECTS OF VIDEO-PODCASTS ON LISTENING COMPREHENSION OF SAUDI EFL LEARNERS

The current use of podcasts, as a new channel to input knowledge, has effectively been promoting listening comprehension which consequently has increased the acquisition of target language. The objective of the present study is to investigate the effects of video-podcasts integration on listening comprehension. The twelve-week quantitative study employed a quasi-experimental pre-test post-test design. Samples included in both the control and experimental groups were 120 English major male undergraduates from a University in Saudi Arabia. The Findings of ANCOVA analysis showed that the video-podcast group significantly outperformed the control group on the post-test. The findings imply that video-podcasts are useful resource for enhancing EFL learners’ listening comprehension

SAUDI EFL LEARNERS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS INTEGRATION OF VIDEO-PODCASTS IN LISTENING COMPREHENSION

The use of podcasts is growing in the instructions of listening comprehension. However, the success of computer technology generally depends on learners positive attitudes towards it. The present study explored attitudes of Saudi EFL undergraduates toward the use of video-podcasts integration in listening comprehension. Moreover, the study also examined students’ attitude from the perspective of the number of video-podcasts they received in their instructions. Samples included 90 English major male undergraduates divided into three groups. The three groups received five (5), ten (10) and 15 video-podcasts in their listening classes before they answered an attitude questionnaire. ANOVA results revealed that the students had positive attitudes towards the use of video-podcasts in listening. However, no significant difference was found between the attitudes of the three experimental groups who received varied number of video-podcasts in their instructions.   Article visualizations

A Comparative Study of the Commercially Available Fungicides to Control Sheath Blight of Rice in Lahore

A comparative study of commercially available fungicides (Cordate, Precurecombi, Curon, Bendict, Nativo, Valedamycin and Tilt) was made to find out the best fungicide against sheath blight fungi (Rhizoctoniasolani). Experimental field was divided into nine treatment units (T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8 and T9) and each unit was treated with each fungicide and data was collected on the basis of different agronomic traits such as number of tillers per hill, number of grains per spike, 1000 grain weight, disease incidence and yield of crop. As a result fungicides Nativo and Tilt were proved to be best control for sheath blight of rice. Keywords: Sheat blight of rice, Rhizoctonia solani, Rice, Chemical control

Estimation of Technical Efficiency of Open Shed Broiler Farmers in Punjab, Pakistan: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis

This study was conducted to estimate the level of technical efficiency of open shed broiler farmers in Punjab, Pakistan. Data was randomly collected from 60 broiler farmers using multistage sampling technique during January-February, 2014. Stochastic frontier Cobb-Douglas production function was used for analysis of data. Maximum likelihood estimation technique was employed for estimation. The analysis revealed that the mean technical efficiency of open shed broiler farmers was 0.880 ranging from 0.440 to 0.985.  This means that if the average broiler farmer in the sample was to achieve the technical efficiency level of its most efficient counterpart than the average farmer could realize 10.50 per cent cost savings. In other words, with the same available resources and technology, an average broiler farmer could increase broiler production by 10.50 per cent. Similarly the most technically inefficient broiler farmer could reveal cost savings of 54.50 per cent. Results further showed that number of day old chicks, feed and labor positively and significantly affected broiler production while the effect of vaccination was negative and that of capacity of shed was positive but statistically insignificant. Results of technical inefficiency effect model revealed that with the increase in age, education and membership with association, technical efficiency of broiler farmers increased. Based upon these findings it is suggested that government and extension workers should educate open shed broiler farmers to use high quality day old chicks and feed for highest possible output and cost savings. Education programs for awareness among broiler farmers to use vaccinated day old chicks and quality resources for enhancing broiler production in the country is also a good policy option. Keywords:Open Shed Broiler Farmers, Technical Efficiency, Stochastic Frontier, Cobb-Douglas Production Function, MLE, Punjab, Pakista