Trump’s False ‘Realism’

Comment from IBPP Editor: One key challenge implicit in this article compromises interactions among formal political science definitions of realism and psychological constructions of realism, materialism, objectivism/subjectivism, empiricism, and idealism. Authors\u27 Abstract: Foreign policy pivoted upon realist principles has have remained a vital instrument to pursue, achieve, secure and sustain the policy objectives of a state. America being the liberal hegemonic state maintained ‘liberal hegemony’ since the end of the Second World War. Realists intended to adopt a realist foreign policy; however, ideologies like ‘American Exceptionalism’ dominated over the former. President Donald Trump opted for protectionism with the objective of strengthening U.S. indigenous economy – a realist approach. Nevertheless, Trump’s foreign dealings in relation to America’s allies are causing damage to the established balance of power and the hard-earned trust of allies. This article intends to discover Trump’s policies against the dictates of realism and how U.S. President can restore American hegemony under the premises of realism while employing deterrence, containment and offshore balancing as alternatives

How Pakistan\u27s media spreads the message about reproductive and sexual health

Abstract, issue, and pagination are not provided by the author/publishe

Behaviour Profiling using Wearable Sensors for Pervasive Healthcare

In recent years, sensor technology has advanced in terms of hardware sophistication and miniaturisation. This has led to the incorporation of unobtrusive, low-power sensors into networks centred on human participants, called Body Sensor Networks. Amongst the most important applications of these networks is their use in healthcare and healthy living. The technology has the possibility of decreasing burden on the healthcare systems by providing care at home, enabling early detection of symptoms, monitoring recovery remotely, and avoiding serious chronic illnesses by promoting healthy living through objective feedback. In this thesis, machine learning and data mining techniques are developed to estimate medically relevant parameters from a participant‘s activity and behaviour parameters, derived from simple, body-worn sensors. The first abstraction from raw sensor data is the recognition and analysis of activity. Machine learning analysis is applied to a study of activity profiling to detect impaired limb and torso mobility. One of the advances in this thesis to activity recognition research is in the application of machine learning to the analysis of 'transitional activities': transient activity that occurs as people change their activity. A framework is proposed for the detection and analysis of transitional activities. To demonstrate the utility of transition analysis, we apply the algorithms to a study of participants undergoing and recovering from surgery. We demonstrate that it is possible to see meaningful changes in the transitional activity as the participants recover. Assuming long-term monitoring, we expect a large historical database of activity to quickly accumulate. We develop algorithms to mine temporal associations to activity patterns. This gives an outline of the user‘s routine. Methods for visual and quantitative analysis of routine using this summary data structure are proposed and validated. The activity and routine mining methodologies developed for specialised sensors are adapted to a smartphone application, enabling large-scale use. Validation of the algorithms is performed using datasets collected in laboratory settings, and free living scenarios. Finally, future research directions and potential improvements to the techniques developed in this thesis are outlined

EMPIRICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF SOFTWARE QUALITY

The research topic focuses on the characterization of software quality considering the main software elements such as people, process and product. Many attributes (size, language, testing techniques etc.) probably could have an effect on the quality of software. In this thesis we aim to understand the impact of attributes of three P’s (people, product, process) on the quality of software by empirical means. Software quality can be interpreted in many ways, such as customer satisfaction, stability and defects etc. In this thesis we adopt ‘defect density’ as a quality measure. Therefore the research focus on the empirical evidences of the impact of attributes of the three P’s on the software defect density. For this reason empirical research methods (systematic literature reviews, case studies, and interviews) are utilized to collect empirical evidence. Each of this research method helps to extract the empirical evidences of the object under study and for data analysis statistical methods are used. Considering the product attributes, we have studied the size, language, development mode, age, complexity, module structure, module dependency, and module quality and their impact on project quality. Considering the process attributes, we have studied the process maturity and structure, and their impact on the project quality. Considering the people attributes, we have studied the experience and capability, and their impact on the project quality. Moreover, in the process category, we have studied the impact of one testing approach called ‘exploratory testing’ and its impact on the quality of software. Exploratory testing is a widely used software-testing practice and means simultaneous learning, test design, and test execution. We have analyzed the exploratory testing weaknesses, and proposed a hybrid testing approach in an attempt to improve the quality. Concerning the product attributes, we found that there exist a significant difference of quality between open and close source projects, java and C projects, and large and small projects. Very small and defect free modules have impact on the software quality. Different complexity metrics have different impact on the software quality considering the size. Product complexity as defined in Table 53 has partial impact on the software quality. However software age and module dependencies are not factor to characterize the software quality. Concerning the people attributes, we found that platform experience, application experience and language and tool experience have significant impact on the software quality. Regarding the capability we found that programmer capability has partial impact on the software quality where as analyst capability has no impact on the software quality. Concerning process attributes we found that there is no difference of quality between the project developed under CMMI and those that are not developed under CMMI. Regarding the CMMI levels there is difference of software quality particularly between CMMI level 1 and CMMI level 3. Comparing different process types we found that hybrid projects are of better quality than waterfall projects. Process maturity defined by (SEI-CMM) has partial impact on the software quality. Concerning exploratory testing, we found that exploratory testing weaknesses induce the testing technical debt therefore a process is defined in conjunction with the scripted testing in an attempt to reduce the associated technical debt of exploratory testing. The findings are useful for both researchers and practitioners to evaluate their project

Dengue fever presenting as quadriparesis due to hypokalaemia: a rare presentation

Dengue is one of the leading causes of arthropod borne viral haemorrhagic fever. Majority of the times, it clinically manifests as fever, arthralgia and rash; however, we present a case of a young man who presented with progressively increasing weakness of all four limbs. Initial investigations showed low potassium, hence he was managed as hypokalaemic periodic paralysis. With initial history of fever and low platelets, dengue was suspected. Dengue antibody was checked which came out to be positive. Potassium was replaced which led to improvement in power of his limbs. He was discharged in a stable condition with a diagnosis of dengue with hypokalaemic quadriparesis

Socio-economic analysis of the interventions aimed at improving water and sanitation condition of rural community

Present research has been aimed to assess the socio-economic analysis of the water and sanitation interventions made by the government in rural areas of District Abbottabad, KPK, Pakistan. A cross-sectional study design was employed to collect data from the relevant actors with the help of interviews, questionnaires and focus group discussions. Respondents were satisfied with the cost of the water delivery at home and the quality of water was also appreciable. Majority of the people described the strengthened pardha system (Privacy), as major advantage of the interventions. In terms of economic benefits by the interventions it was quiet good. But still top down approach is used for implementation of water supplies schemes and sanitation interventions by the government which is not satisfactory indicator for maximizing the benefits. Keywords: Water and sanitation, Rural, Interventions, , socio-economi

Edible Oil Deficit and Its Impact on Food Expenditure in Pakistan

This study is an attempt to analyze the impact of Edible Oil Deficit on Food Expenditure in Pakistan for the period 1971-2008. Edible oil deficit is one of the major concerns for the policy makers in Pakistan. Despite of having agriculture based economy; Pakistan is unable to fulfil her domestic demand of edible oil by local production. This situation forces the government to import edible oil and oil seeds from other countries. This import not only increases our balance of payment deficit but also it negatively affects the ability to finance the external debt repayments. Autoregressive Distributed Lag model has been used to analyse the long run relationship amongst the variables. Other important determinants of food expenditure along with edible oil deficit were also used to check for their collective long run impact. It was found that long run negative relationship exists between edible oil deficit and food expenditure and hence the result derives the policy implication that there is a need to boost up the efforts in the agriculture sector to steadily increase the local production of oil seeds in the country. The relationship between the per capita GDP and food expenditure is found to be positive and significant with elasticity of 0.261 suggesting that 1 percent increase in per capita GDP will cause food expenditure to increase by 0.26 percent. The relationship between food subsidy and food expenditure is found to be insignificant suggesting that due to improper targeting and consumer’s perception about quality and accessibility of subsidized food, Government’s food support programs are not effective.Edible Oil; Production; Imports; Trade Deficit; Balance of Payments; International Trade; Oilseed Crops; Agriculture; Pakistan; Edible oil deficit; demand function; food; inflation; food inflation; household expenditure.

Do Exchange Rates Fluctuations Influence Gold Price in G7 Countries? New Insights from a Nonparametric Causality-in-Quantiles Test

In the recent era, gold is considered an essential investment source, a source of hedging inflation, and a medium of monetary exchange. The gold and exchange rate nexus become prominent after events like sovereign debt crisis, subprime mortgage crisis, low-interest rate problem, and global financial market solvency. These events attract the attention of researchers and academician for investigating the dynamics of the relationship between gold and exchange rates, and the majority of the studies discusses the linear dynamics, but the non-linear dynamics are ignored. Therefore, the current research investigates the non-linear dynamics of gold price and exchange rate relationship in G7 countries using the new technique named the nonparametric causality approach. This study uses monthly data from the years 1995(January)-2017 (March). The empirical results show that exchange rate return causes gold prices in four out of G7, especially at the low tails. This study also gives valuable insights for monetary policymakers, gold exporter’s international portfolio managers, and hedge fund managers

Fungal osteomyelitis in a patient with chronic granulomatous disease: Case report and review of the literature

Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is the most common of the primary immunodeficiency in children. It is caused by single gene defect resulting in dysfunctional nicotinamide adenine dineucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase complex causing recurrent bacterial and fungal infections. Here we present the case of a 9 year old boy who was a known case of CGD since three years of age. He presented with recent history of fever, left sided pain in the scapular region and difficulty in breathing. Chest imaging revealed developing left upper lobe consolidation and erosion of the 3rd posterior rib. The child underwent video assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) and biopsy of the lesion. Histopathology revealed fungal hyphae which were confirmed to be Aspergillus nidulans on staining. He was successfully treated with voriconazole therapy. We will also review the literature on fungal osteomyelitis in CGD patients