Exploring the Determinants of Financial Development (Using Panel Data on Developed and Developing Countries)

This research paper investigates the determinants of financial development. Credit to private sector is used as proxy of financial development in this study.  Panel data from 1990 to 2012 on 27 developed and 30 developing countries has been used. The main interest of the research paper is to explore how different variables or indicators affect the credit to private sector as percentage of GDP (CPS)[1]. The Hausman test is used to check weather fixed effect model is more appropriate or random effect model. Hausman test is in favor of Fixed Effect Model. The role of different important variables which effect the financial development have been found by using fixed effect model. It is concluded from empirical results that all exogenous variables except NFDI and RL have significant effect on financial development. Keywords: Credit to Private Sector, Financial Development, Panel Data Analysis, Fixed Effect Model, Hausman Test. [1]We use credit to private sector as percent of GDP (CPS) as proxy of financial development

THE IMPACT OF NEGATIVE TIES ON TURNOVER INTENTION

Knowledge based industries where human capital is very important are increasingly concerned about retaining human talent. We use a social network perspective to determine the effect of negative ties on an employee’s turnover intentions. Interpersonal dislike ties and conflicting ties are hypothesized to be positively related to turnover intentions, keeping job fit and sacrifice as control variables. Collecting sociometric and conventional data from 100 employees in an organization related to security and information of Pakistani individuals, OLS regression reveled that an employee’s number of dislike ties has a positive and significant impact of employee’s turnover intentions. Whereas an employee’s number of conflicting ties does not significantly impact turnover intentions

Diagnostic efficiency of multidetector computed tomography in the evaluation of clinically equivocal cases of acute appendicitis with surgical correlation

Acute appendicitis is one of the most frequent causes of lower abdominal pain and requires immediate surgical intervention. The diagnosis often poses a lot of challenge even to experienced surgeon. Those patients with equivocal symptoms may require different imaging modalities like radiography, contrast examination and ultrasound with limited utility. Multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) used in suspected acute appendicitis has, however, resulted in improved diagnostic accuracy and also reduction of negative surgeries. Objective We intend to determine the diagnostic efficiency of MDCT in clinically equivocal cases of acute appendicitis correlating it with surgical/histopathological findings. Materials and methods A group of 116 patients was included in this study. Spiral MDCT was performed in all these cases after administration of oral and intravenous contrast. All these patients underwent surgery and the CT findings were correlated with histopathology. Out of these 116 patients, 60 patients were male and 56 female. The age range was from three to seventy years and mean age was 28+1 years. Results The results proved that MDCT had a sensitivity of 97.5%, specificity of 97.0%, and accuracy of 97.4% for the diagnosis of appendicitis with one false positive and two false negative cases. The study showed 100% accuracy in diagnosing acute appendicitis in children. In 33 patients, an alternate cause was identified with CT. The alternate diagnosis made on CT findings was consistent with the final diagnosis in 27 (81.8%) of 33 patients in whom there was no evidence of acute appendicitis. The clinical diagnosis disagreed with the CT diagnosis in six patients (18.18%). Conclusion Our study verifies that MDCT plays an important role in evaluation and consequent management of equivocal cases of acute appendicitis. MDCT is also able to diagnose appendicitis or detect alternative diagnosis in pediatric population

Trade Shocks and Labour Adjustment: Evidence from Pakistan’s Manufacturing Industries

The present study is an attempt to explore the impact of trade liberalisation on employment and wages of production and non-production workers in large scale manufacturing industries of Pakistan. We use a sample of 18 industrial establishments with a time series data covering a period 1970-71 to 2005-06. In order to account for endogeniety problem, this study uses the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM). The study comes up with the findings that trade liberalisation has significantly negative impact on employment of both production and non-production workers. On the other hand, trade liberalisation has a significantly positive impact on wages of production workers, but it has no significant impact on wages of non-production workers. The negative impact of trade is attributed to the high protection given to most of the inefficient industries in the post liberalisation period. On the other hand, reduction in non-production worker employment is not unexpected as in case of developing country like Pakistan, trade liberalisation is supposed to displace capital intensive industries that employ most of the non-production (skilled) workers. Keywords: Production Worker, Non-production Workers, Trade, Employment, Wage

Pharmacoenvironmentology – a component of pharmacovigilance

According to WHO, Pharmacovigilance activities are done to monitor detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of any obnoxious adverse reactions to drugs at therapeutic concentration on animal and human beings. However, there is also a growing focus among scientists and environmentalists about the impact of drugs on environment and surroundings. The existing term 'Ecopharmacology' is too broad and not even defined in a clear manner. The term 'Pharmacoenvironmentology' seeks to deal with the environmental impact of drugs given to humans and animals at therapeutic doses

Pediatric Posterior Fossa Brain Tumor Surgical Outcome

Objective:  The study analyzed the complications and satisfactory surgical outcomes of posterior fossa brain tumor surgery in Lahore Medical City Lahore. Materials and Methods:  A prospective study was conducted and included 40 children who were diagnosed with posterior fossa brain tumors by history, physical examination, and later radiologically were admitted and operated on at the Pediatric Neurosurgery Department in Lahore medical City Lahore between the period of March 2021 and March 2022. Results:  There were 26 (65%) male and 14 (35% females) individuals among the 40 patients. The average age was 12.5 years. This study found that great surgical outcomes were observed in 10 instances (25 percent), good outcomes in 20 cases (50%), and bad outcomes in 10 cases (25%). The most frequent clinical manifestations were headache (38%), vomiting (30%), ataxia (10%), blurred vision (10%), and cranial nerve palsy (12.5%). The best prognosis is shown in children with Pilocytic astrocytoma, followed by ependymoma, while the poorest outcome is seen in children with medulloblastoma. Conclusion:  Pediatric neurosurgeons continue to face particular difficulty in the surgical treatment of posterior fossa brain tumors. Our study compares the outcomes, complications, and surgical outcomes to prior clinical investigations

STUDY ON PREVALENCE OF ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS IN PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM TUBERCULOSIS IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Objective: To study the prevalence of ADRs associated with the use of anti-tubercular drugs in patients with tuberculosis in a tertiary care hospital.Methods: A prospective observational and active surveillance study was conducted in the department of pulmonology and DOTS Centre in Owaisi Hospital and Research Centre over a period of 6 mo after the study was approved by IRB. The patients who gave informed consent were included in the study and their information was analysed after being recorded in a data collection form.Results: Descriptive statistical analysis was carried out to generate results, the continuous measurement being presented as mean standard deviation (min-max) and categorical measurement presented in number (%). The results showed the prevalence of ADRs to be 69%. The prevalence of ADRs was more in females (55%) than in males (45%) and 75.9% of them reporting more than 1 ADR. ADR's affecting the skin and appendages were high (23.56%) while ADR's affecting gastrointestinal system (19.28%), the hepatic system (4.28%), the musculoskeletal system (15.7%), Central and peripheral nervous system (7.85%), Vision (0.7%) were comparatively less.Conclusion: The study highlighted the importance of developing strategies to ameliorate ADRs both to improve the quality of patient care and to control TB safely.Â

THE IMPACT OF NEGATIVE TIES ON TURNOVER INTENTION

Knowledge based industries where human capital is very important are increasingly concerned about retaining human talent. We use a social network perspective to determine the effect of negative ties on an employee’s turnover intentions. Interpersonal dislike ties and conflicting ties are hypothesized to be positively related to turnover intentions, keeping job fit and sacrifice as control variables. Collecting sociometric and conventional data from 100 employees in an organization related to security and information of Pakistani individuals, OLS regression reveled that an employee’s number of dislike ties has a positive and significant impact of employee’s turnover intentions. Whereas an employee’s number of conflicting ties does not significantly impact turnover intentions

The Impact of Foreign Aid on Income Inequality: Evidence from Developing Countries. Application of the FMOLS Approach

The present study aims to evaluate the impact of foreign assistance on income inequality of selected developing economies. Panel co-integration technique is applied for the purpose of estimation. After confirming the pre-conditions for cointegration, we have applied the Fully Modified-OLS method to estimate the association between foreign aid and income inequality. Controlling for other variables, we find a positive and significant association between foreign aid and inequality. The empirical results are robust concerning the sub-samples of developing economies selected according to the income classification of the World Bank. The empirical results are also robust concerning the alternative measure of income inequality

Regeneration of Plantlets from various Explants of Tetraploid watermelon

Micropropagation of tetraploid watermelon is important to cope with high cost of seed. Seeds of tetraploid watermelon were grown in vitro to raise seedlings. Hypocotyl and cotyledonary explants and media supplemented with plant growth regulators (BAP and NAA) was explored for callus induction and organogenesis. Data was collected for callus, shoot and root induction. Maximum callus induction was observed at BAP 5 mgL-1 (76.66%) from cotyledon and (73.33%) from hypocotyls explant. The callus induced from different explants was sub-cultured on the shoot regeneration medium. Higher shoot induction (96.66%) was observed  from cotyledon and hypocotyl explant (76.66%) on MS + 1.0 mgL-1 BAP + 0.2 mgL-1 NAA with maximum number (6.3) of shoot per explant and average shoot length 4.5 cm. Among different types (NAA and IAA) and concentrations (0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.7, 1.0 mgL-1) of auxins investigated for root induction, maximum frequency of rooting was observed in 0.1 mgL-1 NAA while no root formation was observed at higher levels of auxin (1.0 mgL-1). Similarly in case of number of roots per shoot maximum root (4.3) was obtained on MS medium supplemented with 0.1 mgL-1 NAA. Key Words: Regeneration, Explant, Tetraploid, Water Mello