Is Economic Freedom a Moderator of the Relationship Between Bank Capital and Profitability?

The study uses the GMM and panel OLS framework on the data of the US banks over the period ‎from 2002 to 2019 to reveal the moderating role of economic freedom on the ‎relationship between bank capital and ‎profitability. The overall findings show that ‎economic freedom and bank capital positively influence ‎banks' profitability. The results reveal that economic freedom positively (negatively) moderates the relationship between risk-based (traditional) capital ratio. Furthermore, the results also find heterogeneity in the relationship across different market conditions (before and after crisis) and bank characteristics (well or undercapitalized, high and low liquid banks).  The results ‎remain robust for ‎alternative methodology and proxies. The heterogeneity of findings has ‎implications for ‎policymakers in banking for the improvement of the financial system

How do large commercial banks adjust capital ratios: empirical evidence from the US?

This research explores the balanced panel data to examine the level of capital adjustment for major insured commercial banks over the 2002-2018 period using a two-step GMM estimator. The findings show that the speed of adjustment of the large insured commercial banks is faster than that of non-financial companies. The results contribute to a slower average adjustment pace of a total capital ratio than the total risk-based capital and capital buffer ratios. The adjustment of capital is faster in the post-crisis period than during and before-crises era. The adequately capitalized banks adjust capital ratio faster than well-capitalized banks. In contrast, the under-capitalized banks adjust the total risk-based capital ratio and capital buffer ratio more quickly than that of others. The low liquid banks needed a higher time to restore equilibrium than high liquid banks. The results of this study have economic significance for policy implications and future regulations

Performance evaluation of multipath TCP : Mohammad Faisal. Advisor: Ash Mohammad Abbas M.Tech. Thesis Department of Computer Engineering, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. May 2014

En esta tesis, tratamos de responder a la siguiente pregunta de investigación: ¿Cómo realizar múltiples rutas-TCP, en comparación con el TCP tradicional? Para ello, se evaluó el desempeño de múltiples-TCP. Durante la evaluación del desempeño, que se centró en los siguientes parámetros: retardo, rendimiento, y la relación de la entrega de paquetes de extremo a extremo. Se evaluó el impacto de ancho de banda de enlace y número de buffers en la cola de los parámetros de rendimiento antes mencionados.Resumen de la tesis realizada por el autor.Facultad de Informátic

Health related quality of life assessment in patients with hepatitis: a case of Pakistan

The intention of this study is to dig out the demographic, medical, economic and psychosocial factors that affect the health related quality of life of the hepatitis B and C patient in district Sargodha. 120 patients of hepatitis B and C virus were interviewed. WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was followed for the construction of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) instrument. Age of the patient, disease severity, use of drug, pain, depression, financial hindrance and threat of death negatively affect the HRQOL of the hepatitis patient while, vaccination, income, education, sleep, opportunity of leisure and better living condition affect HRQOL positively.HRQOL, HBV, HCV, Pakistan

Complex Fractional-Order LQIR for Inverted-Pendulum-Type Robotic Mechanisms: Design and Experimental Validation

This article presents a systematic approach to formulate and experimentally validate a novel Complex Fractional Order (CFO) Linear Quadratic Integral Regulator (LQIR) design to enhance the robustness of inverted-pendulum-type robotic mechanisms against bounded exogenous disturbances. The CFO controllers, an enhanced variant of the conventional fractional-order controllers, are realised by assigning pre-calibrated complex numbers to the order of the integral and differential operators in the control law. This arrangement significantly improves the structural flexibility of the control law, and hence, subsequently strengthens its robustness against the parametric uncertainties and nonlinear disturbances encountered by the aforementioned under-actuated system. The proposed control procedure uses the ubiquitous LQIR as the baseline controller that is augmented with CFO differential and integral operators. The fractional complex orders in LQIR are calibrated offline by minimising an objective function that aims at attenuating the position-regulation error while economising the control activity. The effectiveness of the CFO-LQIR is benchmarked against its integer and fractional-order counterparts. The ability of each controller to mitigate the disturbances in inverted-pendulum-type robotic systems is rigorously tested by conducting real-time experiments on Quanser single-link rotary pendulum system. The experimental outcomes validate the superior disturbance rejection capability of the CFO-LQIR by yielding rapid transits and strong damping against disturbances while preserving the control input economy and closed-loop stability of the system

Impact of Financial Crisis on Textile Industry in Pakistan

The aim of study is to analyze the performance of Textile sector in Pakistan covering the pre–crisis period, post crisis period and period of crisis as well. For this purpose data were collected from overall textile sector from available sources for the period of five years. According to the most of the analysts, financial crisis 2008-09 is serious one after the world wide great depression of 1930’s. The analyses have been conducted on the basis of financial ratios (Profitability, liquidity and activity). The profitability ratios such as returns on assets were affected by financial crisis because returns on asset were decreased in crisis period as compared to cover pre and post crisis and same is the situation of return on equity that was also affected by financial crisis. The earnings per share are also reduced in financial crisis period because before and after crisis earning per share was positive but negative in crisis. The liquidity of this sector was also affected by financial crisis. Turnover of the assets also proved that assets were poorly managed by textile sector in financial crisis period. The results showed that the performance of textile sector had been better in pre-crisis and post-crisis while it was bad during crisis period

Energy Use for Economic Growth: Cointegration and Causality Analysis from the Agriculture Sector of Pakistan

Productivity is closely associated with direct and indirect use of energy as an input. The importance of energy can not be denied as one of the basic inputs to economic growth process. The consumption of energy has been among the critical indicators of the level of development of any country. It is observed that usually the developed countries use more energy per unit of economic output and far more energy per capita than developing countries. This reflects the adoption of increasingly more efficient technologies for energy production and utilisation as well as changes in the composition of economic activities. This, largely, needs a shift in energy use [Cheng and Lai (1997)]. When this shift in the composition of final energy use is taken into account energy use and the level of economic activity are found to be tightly coupled. The prospect of large reduction in the energy use intensity of economic activity seems limited. So, the accelerated demand results in the scarcity of energy and increasing cost have severe implications for economic growth. This ever increasing role of energy in the present day scenario underlines the need to increase the supply of energy and to find some new alternative energy sources and energy conservation technique

Use of N-acetylcysteine in children with fulminant hepatic failure caused by acute viral hepatitis

Objective: To determine the efficacy of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in children aged \u3e 1 month to 16 years admitted with Fulminant Hepatic Failure (FHF) secondary to Acute Viral Hepatitis (AVH) in a tertiary care center of a developing country. Study Design: Analytical study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Paediatrics, The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan, from January 2007 to December 2011. Methodology: Medical records of children (\u3e 1 month - 16 years) with FHF admitted with AVH of known etiology who received NAC were reviewed retrospectively. Liver function tests (mean ± SD) at baseline, 24 hours after NAC and before or at the time of discharge/death were recorded and compared via using repeated measures ANOVA (r-ANOVA). Efficacy of NAC is defined in improvement in biochemical markers, liver function test and discharge disposition (survived or died). Mortality associated risk factors were identified by using logistic regression analysis. P-value and 95% confidence interval were recorded. Results: Forty children (mean age was 80 ± 40 months) with FHF secondary to AVH received NAC. Majority were males (n=25; 63%). Vomiting (75%) and jaundice (65%) were the main presenting symptoms, one-third had hypoglycemic, while 40% had altered sensorium at the time of admission. There was significant statistical difference in liver enzymes and prothrombin time on admission comparing at discharge in children received NAC (p \u3c 0.001). Fifteen (38%) children died. Severe vomiting {Odds Ratio (OR) 0.22, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.05 - 0.8}, jaundice (OR 9.3, CI 1.1 - 82.6), inotropic support (OR 20.6, CI 3.5 - 118.3) and mechanical ventilation (OR 4.3, CI 1.1 - 16.6) at the time of admission are associated with risk factors for mortality in children with FHF secondary to AVH. Conclusion: NAC used in children with FHF secondary to AVH is associated with markedly improved liver function tests and recovery. FHF with complications is high risk for mortalit

Partial and hyper-melanic pigmentation in fishes collected from the marine waters of Iraq, Arabian Gulf

In the present study, report on incidences of partial and hyper-melanic pigmentation in 6 species belonging to the families, Lutjanidae, Nemipteridae, Platycephalidae and Sparidae based on 8 specimens collected in the marine waters of Iraq at the Arabian Gulf region. Severe case of hyper melanic pigmentation was noticed in Nemipterus randalli Russell, 1986 and Crenidens crenidens indicus (Forsskål, 1775), while an acute case of partial melanic pigmentation occurred in one specimen of Lutjanus lutjanus Bloch, 1790 and Argyrops spinifer (Forsskäl, 1775). Possible consequences of these colour aberrations on their ecology and on human eating insight were point out