Micro-econometric Analysis of Impact of Remittances on Household’s Welfare: Empirical Evidence from District Peshawar

The present study has been conducted in the year 2010 in district Peshawar to assess the impact of inflow of remittances on household’s welfare. The concept welfare was measured in terms of consumption expenditures of the household. A sample of 60 household was interviewed using snowball sampling combined with the convenient sampling technique. A regression model which was a mixture of direct elasticity and semi-elasticity was used to quantify the relationships. Apart from inflow of remittances (lnremt), three control variables (i.e. years of schooling of the household’s head – edu, age of household’s head – age & family size – fz) were employed to standardize the impact. Controlling for edu, age & edu, this paper conclude that inflow of remittances enhance household’s welfare. All control variables have theoretically correct positive signs. These results were statistically significant and results showed no major econometric problems that can influence statistical inference derived from the model. So it is highly recommended, in light of the present study, that govt. of Pakistan should take all possible steps to export labors abroad. It has dual positive impacts, one enhancing household’s prosperity (welfare) and other reducing unemployment at local level.

An Efficient Feature Selection Algorithm for Health Care Data Processing

The researcher used to study the tides depends on a qualitative approach that takes into account the review of past works and studies of various authors and researchers. The service sector is an explosive part of the economy in many countries. Its development is fraught with difficulties, including increased costs, wasteful aspects, poor quality, and the expansion of multifaceted nature. AI systems can be deployed in health programs they want to be qualified using statistics obtained from clinical activities, consisting of screening, diagnosis, corrective measures, etc. The advantage is due to proactive behavior and specialized medical services. Stimulates e-health and electronic monitoring at the forefront of research. AI systems can be deployed in health programs they want to be “qualified” using statistics obtained from clinical activities, consisting of screening, diagnosis, corrective measures, etc. On the other hand, among the various classes in a study in medical services, the use of data mining is usually used as an aid in clinical choice (42%) and for managerial purposes (32%). This segment examines the use of data mining in these territories, and the main points of these checks, performance holes, and key points are different

Seismic Performance Assessment of Deteriorating Reinforced Concrete Box Culvert

A culvert is a crucial component of highways whose proper operation is connected indirectly to the state's economy and the effectiveness and safety of road transportation. Therefore, it is crucial to assess the culvert structure's safety. In this work, a seismic assessment of undamaged and damaged reinforced concrete box culverts is performed. The deterioration in culvert slab thickness over time due to corrosion is considered. The structure was subjected to seismic loading along with standard static loading to observe the performance of a box culvert. The results show that the seismic response of culverts would be influenced by aging and deterioration of slab thickness from its original conditions. The finding of this study highlights the importance of considering the effect of corrosion on the slab thickness when assessing the seismic performance of culverts, as it can have a significant impact on the structure's safety

Use of Non Fossil Fuel Resources, Electricity, Economic Growth and Carbon Dioxide Emission in Pakistan

The ARDL (autoregressive distributed lag model) approach is used to study the effects of non fossil fuel resources, economic growth per capita, and use of electricity on carbon dioxide emanations in Pakistan from 1971 to 2014. The outcomes of OLS regression propose that use of non  fossil fuel resources play an essential function in curbing carbon dioxide emanations because sign of coefficients is negative and significant, on  the contrary the economic growth and electricity consumption increase carbon dioxide emanations in the environment.  The findings of ARDL propose that all variables have no effect on the carbon dioxide emanations in the long-run. Nevertheless, the Granger Causality test suggests there is bidirectional causality between carbon dioxide emanations and economic growth per capita.  Similarly, there is unidirectional causality between electricity utilization and carbon dioxide emissions. According to OLS regression findings, this study concluding that uses of non fossil fuel resources mitigate carbon dioxide emissions in Pakistan very effectively and therefore government give preference to use of non fossil fuel resources

Phytochemical analysis of selected medicinal plants

Four medicinal plants including Ranunculus arvensis, Equisetum ravens, Carathamus lanatus and Fagonia critica were used for the study. All the plants were biologically active and were used for different types of ailments. Keeping in view their importance, this work was carried out to investigate the quantitative determination of their crude phytochemicals, vitamins and protein contents. The quantitative determination of crude phytochemicals (alkaloids, total phenols, flavonoids and saponins) vitamins (riboflavin, vitamin C, niacin and pectin) and protein were determined in the aforementioned herbs. The phytochemicals including alkaloids, total phenols, flavonoids and saponins were determined quantitatively using literature methods. Vitamins were measured using a UV/ visible spectrophotometer (UV- 1601 Shamidzu) and the protein was determined by the Micro KJeldahl’s method (Horwitz et al., 2000). The studied plants showed variable amounts of phytochemicals, vitamins and protein contents. The study is very important, in that it intended to show the contents of the studied medicinal herbs and also provide a scientific data base line which is of particular importance for the local practioners as well as for the local people using these herbs for a variety of body disorders.Key word: Phytochemical analysis, medicinal plants, Pakistan

Lipid Profiles and Its Association with Pre-Eclampsia and Eclampsia in Nulliparous Pregnant Women

Objectives: To access the lipid profiles and its association with pre-eclampsia and eclampsia in nulliparous pregnant women. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 234 nulliparous pregnant women with gestation period of  > 20 weeks and aged 15-45 years, from March to October 2014, in Institute of Basic Medical Sciences (IBMS), Khyber Medical University (KMU), Peshawar, Pakistan with cooperation from gynecology and obstetrics departments of three tertiary-care hospitals of Peshawar & Khyber Medical College, Peshawar,  Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. Subjects were assigned to three groups i.e., group A, group B and group C. For performing biochemical assays and lipid profiling, through ELISA, blood samples were collected from already subjects both with the disease and the controls. Results: Both subjects having pre-eclampsia and eclampsia showed significant elevated levels (p < 0.001) for low density lipoproteins cholesterols (LDL-c), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), total cholesterol (TC)/HDL-c and LDL-c/HDL-c ratio. But TC of pre-eclampsia subjects were found significantly elevated (p < 0.001) in relation to controls. LDL-c/HDL-c and TC/HDL-c also revealed an elevated significant change (p < 0.001) both for pre-eclamptic and eclamptic subjects. On the other hand, only TG/HDL-c in pre-eclamptic patients was found significantly higher (p<0.004) when compared to control group.  Conclusion: Serum lipid levels were observed higher in pre-eclampsia and eclampsia patients hence an early assessment is necessary to prevent complications in such patients

Analysis of chemical constituents in medicinal plants of selected districts of Pakhtoonkhwa, Pakistan

Alkaloids, flavonoids and saponins were determined in the Teraxacam officinale, Cichorium intybus and Figonia tritica. Quantative determinations of crude alkaloids, flavonoids and saponins (g kg-1) and their percentages (%) were determined in C. intybus, T. officinale and F. critica collected from Kohat, Mardan, Nowshera and Peshawar regions. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) study of the alkaloids, flavonoids and saponins were carried out with different solvent systems and color of the spot and Rf value of each constituent was determined. Among the samples of C. intybus, relatively higher contents of alkaloids (14 g kg-1) were found in the sample collected from Mardan region, followed by the sample gathered from Nowshera which is equal to 13.8g kg-1. Higher contents of flavonoids were found in C. intybus collected from Kohat region which was 23.48 g kg-1. The other remaining samples of C. intybus ranged in the decreasing order of 19.7, 17.2 and 10.0 g kg-1 for the ones collected from Nowshera, Mardan and Peshawar, respectively. The overall saponin contents remained almost low as compared to the alkaloid and flavonoid contents.Key words: Alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, TLC study, medicinal plants

Heavy metals and inorganic constituents in medicinal plants of selected Districts of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, Pakistan

Heavy metals such as Cr, Fe, Zn, Mn, Ni, Pb, Cu and Cd, and inorganic ions like HCO3-, CO32-, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl-, Na+, SO42-, NO3-, Fe2+ and F- were investigated in medicinally important plants: Taraxacam officinale, Cichorium intybus and Figonia critica, applying atomic absorption spectrophotometer techniques. In the studied herbs, there were variable amounts of heavy metals and inorganic ions. The purpose of this study was to standardize heavy metals contamination in various indigenous medicinal plants and to create awareness among the public regarding its safe use at collection areas (containing high level of heavy metals) and their adverse health effects.Key words: Medicinal plants, inorganic constituents, heavy metals, atomic absorption spectrophotometer

COSMO-RS predictions, hydrogen bond basicity values and experimental evaluation of amino acid-based ionic liquids for lignocellulosic biomass dissolution

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. In this study, the bamboo dissolution capability of six amino acid-based ionic liquids (AAILs) with two different cations, i.e. 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium (Emim) and Tetrabutylphosphonium (P4444) and three anions derived from amino acids were investigated by Conductor-like screening model for real solvents (COSMO-RS) prediction and hydrogen bond basicity (β) of Kamlet–Taft parameters. COSMO-RS was used for calculating sigma profile, activity coefficients (γi) and aqueous base dissociation constant of corresponding acids of the anions (pKa) of AAILs. The trends in sigma profile, γi and pKa for AAILs were compared with β values and the effect of structure moiety of ionic liquids was also discussed. The trend of COSMO-RS prediction for anions was noted similar to the β values of AAILs with the exception of serinate anion. Similarly, the trend predicted by COSMO-RS and β values was also found same while changing the cations of AAILs. To investigate, the correlation of the above-mentioned properties with experimental dissolution ability, tetrabutylphosphonium aminoethanic acid ([P4444]Gly) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium aminoethanic acid ([Emim]Gly) ionic liquids were synthesized and evaluated. The trend predicted by COSMO-RS and the β values were not correlating with efficiency of AAILs for bamboo dissolution. Both AAILs were able to dissolve the bamboo. However, material of [P4444]Gly treated sample was evaluated through XRD analysis where change in crystallinity of cellulose was identified after dissolution and regeneration of bamboo. Scanning Electron microscopy also showed homogenous structure for regenerated materials