Effectiveness of Monetary Policy in Economic Growth: An Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

The Taylor rule (1993) focuses only on two objectives: output and inflation. In practice, the central bank’s loss function (especially in developing countries) contains objectives other than these two, like the interest rates smoothing, exchange rate stabilisation, etc. In this study, the monetary policy reaction function has been estimated. We used the variables as: interest rate as monetary policy reaction function as a dependent variable and exchange rate, money supply and inflation as an independent variables of monetary policy objectives in Pakistan. The main hypothesis of the study is the relationship between the variables of monetary policy objectives in Pakistan using the data for the period 1991-2010 for Pakistan. The econometric framework used in the study is that of VECM.  The data was checked for stationarity and was found to be integrated of order one I (1) under the Augmented Dickey-fuller (ADF) test. We found that there is negative impact of exchange rate and positive impact of money supply and inflation on interest rate as monetary policy reaction function.Our results suggest a short-run positive relationship between the variables of monetary policy objectives in Pakistan. There is also found an effectiveness of the variables of monetary policy objectives in Pakistan in the long-run

Economic Impact of Mineral Resources: A Case Study of District Chitral, Pakistan

This study examines the economic impact of minerals resources in the District Chitral. In addition to this, different ways of mining were undertaken. For this purpose primary and secondary data are used. In primary data, questionnaires were developed and distributed among the targeted samples of the population and for secondary data various articles were used. The objective of the study was to see the impact of mineral resources and the life standard of people employed in the mining factories and mining zones. Excel sheet was used to analyze the primary data. In conclusion, mining plays a vital role in the development of nation by providing employments, improving the quality of life of the masses and enhancing the infrastructure by providing roads and making trade favorable  for the place. Keywords: Economic impact, Development, Mineral Resources, Chitral

On spectral radius and energy of complete multipartite graphs

Let K n1,n2,...,np denote the complete p-partite graph, p > 1, on n = n 1 + n 2 + · · · + n p vertices and let n 1 ≥ n 2 ≥ · · · ≥ n p > 0. We show that for a fixed value of n, both the spectral radius and the energy of complete p-partite graphs are minimal for complete split graph CS(n, p − 1) and are maximal for Turán graph T (n, p)

Estimating Willingness to Pay for Drinking Water Quality in Nowshera Pakistan: A Domestic Study for Public Health

This study discloses the behavior of household’s willingness to pay for improved water quality in Nowshera city. Simple regression model is used to reveal the preferences of household’s towards safe water. Study empirically concluded that awareness and income has significant impacts on household decision making for better water quality in order to reduce the health risk and vulnerability towards water born diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, cholera and diarrhea. Formal and informal education also has crucial effect on demand for purified water. Study further shows that those who have more income and high level of qualification are more willing to pay for clean and safe drinking water. Background of this research have concern towards low water quality, which causes the health hazards to human life which may increase their health cost and effect the decision of HH regarding willingness to pay. Primary data was collected from 200 households of Nowshera. Results showed that income is the one of main factor which has major effects on demand of enhanced water quality. More people were willing to pay to the government in order to get safe water while very less amount of HH were in favor of private pr respectable organizations.  Filter cost also indicated some relationship with WTP, those who have more filter cost was able to pay more because their cost was more than the filtration cost. Health expenditure exposed the positive relationship with demand for purified water, high health expenditure bearing HH were more able to pay to reduce their cost. Awareness and income were the key factor for estimating the willingness to pay for improved quality of water to get good and healthier life

Total cholesterol and triglycerides status in autistic spectrum disorder children: a case-control study on Bangladeshi children

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition marked by challenges in social interaction, communication, and repetitive behaviors. The association between lipid profiles, particularly total cholesterol and triglycerides, and ASD in children is a growing focus in pediatric health research. This study aimed to assess the total cholesterol and triglycerides status in autistic spectrum disorder children. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the department of physiology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka from March 2014 to January 2015 with 100 male children, half in a healthy control group (group A) and the other half diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (group B). Results: In this study, no significant correlation was found between the groups for age (p=0.94) or BMI (p=0.29). The mean (±SE) serum total cholesterol levels were 146±1.70 mg/dl in group A and 145.00±3.77 mg/dl in group B, showing no significant difference between the two groups (p=0.885). But, the mean (±SE) serum triglyceride levels were 86.14±3.28 mg/dl in group A and 107.74±7.91 mg/dl in group B, with significantly higher levels compared to group A (p<0.01). Conclusions: Although there is no significant difference in serum total cholesterol levels between healthy children and those with autistic spectrum disorder, there is a significant difference in serum triglyceride levels. Therefore, further studies are needed to provide a clearer understanding of the lipid profile comparison

Efficacy of mannan-oligosaccharide and live yeast feed additives on performance, rumen morphology, serum biochemical parameters and muscle morphometric characteristics in buffalo calves

The objective of the current study was to assess the effect of dietary supplementations of mannan-oligosaccharide, live yeast, and a combination of these two additives on growth performance, histo-morphology of the rumen, and muscle morphometric attributes in buffalo calves. A total of twenty buffalo calves (average weight of 25 kg) having 3 months of age were distributed according to a complete randomized design. All animals were individually stalled in the shed and were fed ad-libitum. Experimental animals were divided into four groups for 67 days: Control group(without the inclusion of dietary supplementation); MOS group (Mannan oligosaccharide 5 g/clave/day; Yeast group (Live yeast 2g/calve/day) and Mixed group (MOS + Live Yeast 2.5g + 1g )/calve/day. Experimental results revealed that combined supplementation of MOS and Yeast and MOS alone resulted in an increased number of short-chain fatty acids in the rumen as well as ruminal pH (P<0.05). Results showed a significant improvement in average daily gain and FCR of MOS and Mixed supplemented groups (P<0.05). Histomorphological evaluation of rumen mucosal epithelium showed a significant improvement in the mixed-supplemented group (P<0.05) as compared to the yeast-supplemented and control groups. Muscle quality parameters such as meat texture showed significant improvement in MOS and mix-supplemented groups. Histological examination of longissimus dorsi muscle cross-section showed a significantly higher(P<0.05) muscle fiber and muscle fascicle diameter in both MOS and mix-supplemented calves groups. In conclusion, the results of this experiment revealed that the dietary addition of MOS, Live yeast, and their combination have positive effects on growth performance, rumen histology indices, and muscle morphometric features in buffalo calves.Comment: Pages 13, 4 figure

Impact of data center placement on the power consumption of flexible-grid optical networks

The increasing trend of global IP traffic is mainly driven by high-definition video services and cloud computing and storage. Moreover, to maintain a high quality of service in content delivery networking, data are geographically replicated in data centers distributed within network topologies. Thus, data centers are an emerging scenario for research and development aimed at energy-efficient transmission and networking solutions. Previous research work has focused on intradata center energy efficiency while interdata center energy issues have not been extensively analyzed yet. We propose heuristics and meta-heuristics for optimal placement of data centers with minimum power consumption over a network topology relying on flex-grid spectral use. In order to minimize the network's power consumption, we have performed a detailed comparison of heuristic and meta-heuristic designs for different network scenarios based on real topologies. Moreover, our results show that meta-heuristic provides an optimum data center placement in a reasonable amount of time for a small- to medium-sized network

Formulation, characterization and wound-healing potential of emulgel and in-situ gel containing root extract of Saussurea lappa Clarke (Asteraceae)

Purpose: To investigate the wound-healing potential of herbal formulations (emulgels and in situ gels) containing Saussurea lappa root extract&nbsp; (SLRE) via excision wound induction in albino rats. Methods: Preliminary phytochemical analysis of the methanol extract of roots of Saussurea lappa (SLRE) was performed using standard&nbsp; procedures. In vitro anti-inflammatory assay of SLRE was conducted using heat-induced hemolysis method at a concentration of 100 μg/mL. Acute&nbsp; toxicity of SLRE was also evaluated in mice at a single dose of 1000 mg/kg for 24 h. Emulgels and in situ gels were prepared using different concentrations of SLRE and assessed for their organoleptic and physical properties. In vitro drug release studies of the prepared formulations were carried out by Franz diffusion cell and the data fitted into various pharmacokinetic models. Wound healing was assessed using excision wound induction (380 mm2) on dorsal surface of male albino rats. Each formulation (F4, F5, F6, G1, G2 and G3) and pyodine gel (standard) were applied topically (0.5 g) for 20 days. Wound contraction was measured every fourth day. Results: SLRE showed 42.8 % inhibition in heat-induced hemolysis on erythrocyte membrane model, compared to aspirin (positive control).&nbsp; Moreover, SLRE did not cause mortality in mice at the given doses. All the formulations were stable after one month stability check at 40 °C for emulgels and at 25 °C for in situ gels. All the formulations followed first order drug release pattern. In situ gel (G3) exhibited better wound healing (100 ± 0.0028) than emulgel (F6, 99 ± 0.004) containing 5 g extract and standard pyodine gel (91 ± 0.014, p &lt;0.05). Conclusion: The results indicate that in situ gel of SLRE exhibits significant wound healing in rats. Thus, the findings present a strategy for the formulation of gel products with better wound healing potentials. Keywords: Saussurea lappa, Wound healing, Emulgel, In situ gel, Herbal formulatio

(In)finiteness of Spherically Symmetric Static Perfect Fluids

This work is concerned with the finiteness problem for static, spherically symmetric perfect fluids in both Newtonian Gravity and General Relativity. We derive criteria on the barotropic equation of state guaranteeing that the corresponding perfect fluid solutions possess finite/infinite extent. In the Newtonian case, for the large class of monotonic equations of state, and in General Relativity we improve earlier results