Effect of Environmental Disamenities on Property Value: A Hedonic Approach

Environment or natural environment can be defined as biological, chemical and physical surrounding upon which living organism depend for their basic survival and existence. Economy which is one of the major concerns of modern ages depends upon natural environment in three distinctive ways, first environment provides both renewable and non-renewable raw material which is used as an input for different production processes, second natural environment provides a function of natural depository for the waste generated by humans through production and consumption processes third it provides the function of natural beauty and environmental amenities. The production processes on one hand is beneficial for the economy in a way that goods and services can be produced by firms for profit motives which engages a large number of  people from different income groups be it an entrepreneur or a worker. This production processes on the other hand produces pollution as a by-product which has adverse effects on the environment. . These adverse effects can be seen in the form of environmental disamenities which are air pollution, water pollution, ozone depletion by toxic gases and most important of all global warming which is one of the major issues of modern time. This study is based on the hedonic property model with an assumption that environmental disamenities affect property price negatively. Hedonic model is used to analyse the effects of environmental disamenities on the property value of ground floor of houses in Peshawar Pakistan. The study indicates that if there is a presence of an environmental disamenties in an area it leads to adverse effects on the properties of the associated areas. The government authorities need to focus on such issues and design such developmental policies which are beneficial for the consumers living in such area which are affected by environmental disamenities. Keywords: Environment, Renewable, Non-renewable, Amenities. Disamenities, Hedonic, Peshawar

The Neural Representation of Concepts in Bilinguals: An Evaluation of Factors Influencing Cross-language Overlap Using fMRI-based Multivariate Pattern Analysis

161 p.The neurocognitive mechanisms that support the generalization of semantic representations across different languages remain to be determined. Current psycholinguistic models propose that semantic representations are likely to overlap across languages, although there is evidence also to the contrary. Neuroimaging studies observed that brain activity patterns associated with the meaning of words may be similar across languages. However, the factors that mediate cross-language generalization of semantic representations are not known. In a series of functional MRI research studies, we investigate how factors including state of visual awareness, depth of word processing and lexico-semantic characteristics of words influence cross-language generalization of semantic representations. Using multivariate pattern analysis, we found that fully conscious and deep processing of high concrete and high frequency words leads to above-chance cross-language generalization in putative areas of the semantic network. These results have ramifications for existing psycholinguistic models and theories of meaning representation.bcbl:basque center on cognition, brain & languag

Estimation of Export Supply Function for Citrus Fruit in Pakistan

There is strong evidence in the literature that export and economic growth have a positive relationship. In Pakistan, with an agrarian economy, earnings from primary agricultural exports are vital for the overall growth process. Fruits are the traditional export commodities, which contribute more than half of total export earnings from primary agricultural commodities. The persistent instability in world market prices for primary commodities has depressed the export earnings from these commodities over time. This poses great challenges to a country like Pakistan. The present study aims at examining changes in the volume of export of citrus fruit from Pakistan caused by such factors as changes in domestic and export prices, national product, foreign exchange rate, etc. The study uses time series data for the period 1975–2004 for citrus exports and related domestic price, export price, GDP, and foreign exchange rate, employing the co-integration and error correction techniques for analysis purposes.

Decoding the Meaning of Unconsciously Processed Words Using fMRI-based MVPA

Available online 21 February 2019Does the human brain elicit patterns of activity associated with the meaning of words in the absence of conscious awareness? Do such non-conscious semantic representations generalize across languages? This study aimed to address these questions using fMRI-based multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) in a masked word paradigm. Animal and non-animal words were visually presented in two different languages (i.e. Spanish and Basque). Words were presented very briefly and were masked. On each trial, participants identified the semantic category and provided a visibility rating of the word. A support vector machine (SVM) was used to decode word category from multivoxel patterns of BOLD responses in seven canonical semantic regions of a left-lateralized network that were prespecified based on a previous meta-analysis. We show that the semantic category of non-conscious words (i.e. associated with null visual experience and chance-level discrimination performance) can be significantly decoded from BOLD response patterns. For Spanish, such discriminative patterns of BOLD responses were consistently found in inferior parietal lobe, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus and posterior cingulate gyrus. While for Basque, these were found in ventromedial temporal lobe and posterior cingulate gyrus. All of the areas identified have previously been associated with semantic processing in studies involving animals-tools and animals-artifacts contrasts. In conscious trials, such patterns were found to be distributed over all seven regions of the semantic network in both Spanish and Basque. However, we found no evidence of across-language generalization. These results demonstrate that even in the absence of conscious awareness and lack of behavioural sensitivity to the words, putative semantic brain areas carry information related to the meanings of the words. The generalization of semantic representations across languages, however, may require deeper conscious semantic access.D.S. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), through the ’Severo Ochoa’ Programme for Centres/Units of Excellence in R&D (SEV-2015-490; grant number BES-2016-078130). The authors also thank Cesar Caballero Gaudes for his support with the imaging protocol and BCBL's lab staff for their help in fMRI acquisition

Aspects of capacity enhancement techniques in cellular networks

Frequency spectrum is the scarce resource. From mobile operator’s point of view, efficient utilization of the radio resources is needed while providing maximum coverage, and ensuring good quality of service with minimal infrastructure. In high capacity demanding areas, multilayer networks with multiband and multi radio access technologies are deployed, in order to meet the capacity requirements. In his doctoral thesis, Usman Sheikh has proposed a “Smart Traffic Handling” strategy, which is based on user’s required service type and location. Smart traffic handling scheme efficiently utilizes the different layers of the network, balances the load among them, and improves the system capacity. Power resources at base station are also limited. Usman Sheikh’s proposed “Power Control Scheme for High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) network” improves the cell edge user experience, while maintaining the fairness among the other users in a cell. With the help of a proposed power control scheme, a user far from the base station can also enjoy the better quality of service. Generally, mobile operators use macro cells with wide beam antennas for wider coverage in the cell, but future capacity demands cannot be achieved by using only them. “Higher Order Sectorization” is one possible way to increase the system capacity. Usman Sheikh proposed new network layouts called “Snowflake” and “Flower” tessellations, for 6-sector and 12-sector sites, respectively. These tessellations can be used as a basis for making a nominal network plan for sites with higher order sectorization. These tessellations would be helpful for simulation purposes. Through his work, he has also tried to highlight the importance of deploying “Adaptive MIMO Switching” in Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, the fourth generation of wireless networks. In future, the fifth generation of wireless networks is expected to offer thousand times more capacity compared to LTE. The novel concept of “Single Path Multiple Access (SPMA)” given by Usman Sheikh is a revolutionary idea, and gives a possibility to increase the system capacity by a giant margin. SPMA can be considered as a right step towards 5G technology. Usman Sheikh’s work is of high importance not only from mobile operator’s point of view; rather his contributions to the scientific community will also lead to better user (customer) experience. His work will definitely benefit the mankind in utilizing the limited resources in an optimum and efficient way

Design and analysis of a community size solar powered reverse osmosis desalination water system for Pakistan

Water crisis and global warming are two of the biggest challenge of the world. Around 1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to clean water whereas producing water by different purification methods required extensive amount of energy which is generated by burning fossil fuels impacting the environment. This thesis proposes a design of a solar powered reverse osmosis desalination system for a community in Pakistan, which would address the water issue problem for a community in Karachi Pakistan. The design and system sizing of the solar powered reverse osmosis system was done in HOMER Pro followed by techno-economic feasibility analysis of the complete system. The comprehensive dynamic modelling of the system was carried out using the bond graph modelling approach where multidisciplinary systems are modelled using a common bond graph language. 20sim simulation software was used for dynamic analysis of the system. Moreover, a detailed instrumentation system design and control system design was made. After finalization of instrumentation and control design a low-cost, open-source, internet-of-things (IOT) based SCADA system as design was made using field instrument devices and Node-Red. A comprehensive alert system was further integrated with the SCADA design to provide status and updates to the community. Local database was also generated and data was imported by Grafana data analytics tool for making data-driven decisions. A complete laboratory experimental setup was made to verify the SCADA based alert system. Lastly, conclusions are provided based on the research conducted in each section of this thesis, and areas for future research have been identified. This work will provide solution for clean drinking water for a community in Pakistan with robust supervisory control and data acquisition system

Biomarkers for impending risk of osteoporosis in premenopausal women

Objective: To compare \u27cytokines\u27 and \u27bone turnover markers\u27 in pre- and post-menopausal women and identify their relationship with bone mineral density (BMD) in both groups. Study Design: A cross-sectional study.Place and duration of study: Department of Biological & Biomedical Sciences, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan, from June 2017 to August 2019.Methodology: Groups comprised of healthy premenopausal and postmenopausal women from the general population belonging to different ethnic groups and socio-economic status. Serum cytokines and bone turnover markers were assessed by solid-phase immunoassays, BMD (gm /cm2)] measurement was performed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at the hip, lumbar spine, and proximal femur. Results were interpreted as a sum of T scores calculated by BMD of the above-mentioned sites.Results: Cytokines and bone turnover markers were significantly high in post-menopausal women (p\u3c0.001). A negative correlation (r = 0.32) of TNF α with BMD (total T scores) observed in premenopausal women was found to be significant, however, no significant association of BMD was detected in post-menopausal women.Conclusion: There is an increase in the production of cytokines and bone turnover markers after menopause. TNF-α follows this usual pattern of increase in post-menopausal women and can predict impending bone loss and osteopenia in premenopausal females. Therefore, estimation of this cytokine in pre-menopausal women can give a fair indication of a decline in BMD, bone health, and risk of future osteoporosis. Key Words: Bone mineral density, Cytokines, Bone turnover markers, Osteoporosis

A fatal case of gram negative bacterial sepsis associated with disseminated strongyloidiasis in an immunocompromised patient

We report a fatal case of disseminated strongyloidiasis in a patient with multiple myeloma receiving chemrotherapy. A fifty-seven years old man presented with severe diarrhoea and vomiting, fever, weight loss and dysphagia,due to mouth ulcers. Despite broad-spectrum intravenous antibiotics, albendazole (anti protozoal) and supportive treatment, the patient died of Gram-negative sepsis

A review of content-based video retrieval techniques for person identification

The rise of technology spurs the advancement in the surveillance field. Many commercial spaces reduced the patrol guard in favor of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) installation and even some countries already used surveillance drone which has greater mobility. In recent years, the CCTV Footage have also been used for crime investigation by law enforcement such as in Boston Bombing 2013 incident. However, this led us into producing huge unmanageable footage collection, the common issue of Big Data era. While there is more information to identify a potential suspect, the massive size of data needed to go over manually is a very laborious task. Therefore, some researchers proposed using Content-Based Video Retrieval (CBVR) method to enable to query a specific feature of an object or a human. Due to the limitations like visibility and quality of video footage, only certain features are selected for recognition based on Chicago Police Department guidelines. This paper presents the comprehensive reviews on CBVR techniques used for clothing, gender and ethnic recognition of the person of interest and how can it be applied in crime investigation. From the findings, the three recognition types can be combined to create a Content-Based Video Retrieval system for person identification