Factors Affecting Cotton Production in Pakistan:Empirical Evidence from Multan District

This paper attempts to examine the factors affecting cotton production in Multan region using primary source of data. A sample of 60 small farmers, 25 medium and 15 large farmers was randomly selected from two Tehsils namely Multan and Shujabad of district Multan. The Cobb-Douglas Production Function is employed to assess the effects of various inputs like cultivation, seed and sowing, irrigation, fertilizer, plant protection, inter-culturing / hoeing and labour cost on cotton yield. The results depicted that seed, fertilizer and irrigation were found scarce commodity for all category of farmers in district Multan. The Cobb-Douglas Production Function results revealed that the coefficients for cultivation (0.113) and seed (0.103) were found statistically significant at 1 percent level. The Cost-Benefit Ratio for the large farmers was found higher (1.41) than that of small (1.22) and medium (1.24) farmers. There is a dire need to ensure the availability of these scarce inputs by both public and private sectors as these inputs were major requirement of the cotton crop.Cotton; Cobb- Douglas Production Function; Cost Benefit Ratio; Marginal Value Product; Allocate Efficiency of Critical Inputs; Multan District; Pakistan

A Literature Review on Emotion Recognition Using Various Methods

Emotion Recognition is an important area of work to improve the interaction between human and machine. Complexity of emotion makes the acquisition task more difficult. Quondam works are proposed to capture emotion through unimodal mechanism such as only facial expressions or only vocal input. More recently, inception to the idea of multimodal emotion recognition has increased the accuracy rate of the detection of the machine. Moreover, deep learning technique with neural network extended the success ratio of machine in respect of emotion recognition. Recent works with deep learning technique has been performed with different kinds of input of human behavior such as audio-visual inputs, facial expressions, body gestures, EEG signal and related brainwaves. Still many aspects in this area to work on to improve and make a robust system will detect and classify emotions more accurately. In this paper, we tried to explore the relevant significant works, their techniques, and the effectiveness of the methods and the scope of the improvement of the results

Jihad Against Violence: A One-Act Play

Jihad Against Violence, a collaboration between two Pakistani American women, is a dramatic and poetic depiction of the struggle (emotional, physical, and psychological) against violence of any kind toward women in Pakistani culture

2-(4-Acetamido­benzene­sulfonamido)­benzoic acid

In the title compound, C15H14N2O5S, two similar mol­ecules comprise the asymmetric unit, which are linked by strong inter­molecular C—H⋯π inter­actions. Both mol­ecules are bent, with dihedral angles of 71.94 (16) and 74.62 (15)° between the benzene rings. An intra­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond occurs in each mol­ecule. In the crystal, inter­molecular N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules into a three-dimensional network

Financial Sustainability of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) of Bangladesh

Microfinance is a form of banking service providing financial support to unemployed or vulnerable groups. The microfinance models emphasise on alleviation of poverty and women empowerment by improving financial access and services. However, the positive impacts of microfinance institutions on the welfare of the poor are sustainable only if the institutions achieve a good financial performance. The aim of this study is to identify factors affecting financial sustainability of MFIs in Bangladesh. The study followed an econometric research approach using an unbalanced panel data set of 145 observations from 29 MFIs over the period 2008-2012 in Bangladesh. Among the 29 MFIs only 4 MFIs have found less than 100% FSS. The study found that capital assets ratio, operating expense and write-off ratio affect the financial sustainability of MFIs in Bangladesh. However, MFI size, Age of MFI, borrower per staff members, ratio of savings to total assets, debt equity ratio, outstanding loan to total assets and percentage of female borrowers had no significant impact on financial sustainability of MFIs in Bangladesh during the study period. Keywords: Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), financial sustainability, Bangladesh

2-(4-Acetamido­benzene­sulfonamido)-3-methyl­butanoic acid

In the title compound, C13H18N2O5S, the benzene ring and the acetamide group are almost coplanar [dihedral angle = 5.6 (3)°], and the amine group projects almost vertically from this plane [C—C—S—N = −84.5 (7)°]. A short intra­molecular C—H⋯O contact occurs. In the crystal, O—H⋯O, N—H⋯O and N—H⋯(O,O) hydrogen bonds lead to a three-dimensional network. One of the methyl groups of the isopropyl residue is disordered over two orientations in a 0.747 (16):0.253 (16) ratio

N-{4-[(3,4-Dimethyl­phen­yl)(eth­yl)sulfamo­yl]phen­yl}-N-ethyl­acetamide

When viewed down the central S⋯N axis of the title compound, C20H26N2O3S, it is apparent that the mol­ecule adopts a gauche conformation with all O atoms lying to one side of the central benzene ring; the carbonyl O atom is directed away from the central ring and the N-bound ethyl groups lie to one side of the mol­ecule. Supra­molecular helical chains aligned along the b axis and sustained by C—H⋯O contacts feature in the crystal packing. These are consolidated in the three-dimensional structure by C—H⋯π inter­actions

4-Chloro-N-cyclo­hexyl­benzene­sulfonamide

The title compound, C12H16ClNO2S, adopts an L-shaped conformation, with the central C—S—N—C torsion angle being −78.0 (2)°. The cyclo­hexyl ring adopts a chair conformation. In the crystal, adjacent mol­ecules are connected by pairs of N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds around an inversion centre, forming cyclic dimers [graph set R 2 2(8)]