DO OIL PRICE SHOCK, AND OTHER MACROECONOMIC VARIABLES AFFECT THE STOCK MARKET: A STUDY OF THE SAUDI STOCK MARKET

Purpose of the study: This work aims to find the type of relationship amongst the chosen variables, inflation (INF), short-term interest rate (SIR), money supply (M.S.) and crude oil price (COP) and oil price shocks represented by DUMMY respectively on the capital market of Saudi Arabia. It will also throw insight to policymaker to find factors which influence the capital market of Saudi Arabia and to take remedial measures to boost investment in the country. Research Methodology: The relationships amongst the Saudi security market, the oil price shock, and the selected macroeconomic variables as mentioned above are determined using the Johansen test of co-integration, the vector error correction model, and the Wald test. The research employs the time series data for a period of 2009to 2016, for the study. Findings: The results show a long-run equilibrium relationship between the Saudi stock market and the selected variables for the study. The study shows a positive association between the money supply and the stock market, but inflation, short-term interest rate, and crude oil price, the result indicates a negative relationship. Implications: The present study can have implications for the policymaker to take corrective measures for better performance of the stock market by controlling inflation and regulating the short-term interest rate.As the findings indicate that they have a negative relationship with TASI. This paper will also help the policymaker in identifying the real cause for the decline in the value of the stock price. A good performing stock market means better economic growth and overall economic development. To diversify the economy to have an alternative to the oil-driven economy to a more balanced economy by promoting other sectors like manufacturing and tourism. Novelty/Originality of this study: The literature review confirms that all work of oil price shock is related to its effect on the security market return. This work is different from the other study as it includes macroeconomic variables in the study, together with the oil price shocks. The study is unique from other studies as it is broader in approach, by including more variables than earlier studies which mostly included the oil price shocks and its impact on the stock market. There is no work done to investigate the joint effect of macroeconomic variables and oil price shocks on the Saudi stock market

Zero-day Network Intrusion Detection using Machine Learning Approach

Zero-day network attacks are a growing global cybersecurity concern. Hackers exploit vulnerabilities in network systems, making network traffic analysis crucial in detecting and mitigating unauthorized attacks. However, inadequate and ineffective network traffic analysis can lead to prolonged network compromises. To address this, machine learning-based zero-day network intrusion detection systems (ZDNIDS) rely on monitoring and collecting relevant information from network traffic data. The selection of pertinent features is essential for optimal ZDNIDS performance given the voluminous nature of network traffic data, characterized by attributes. Unfortunately, current machine learning models utilized in this field exhibit inefficiency in detecting zero-day network attacks, resulting in a high false alarm rate and overall performance degradation. To overcome these limitations, this paper introduces a novel approach combining the anomaly-based extended isolation forest algorithm with the BAT algorithm and Nevergrad. Furthermore, the proposed model was evaluated using 5G network traffic, showcasing its effectiveness in efficiently detecting both known and unknown attacks, thereby reducing false alarms when compared to existing systems. This advancement contributes to improved internet security

Effectiveness of monetary policy: Application of modified Peter and Clark (PC) algorithms under Graph-Theoretic Approach

It is common practice that central banks around the world must adopt an inflation targeting framework; based on the assumption that inflation could be reduced by increasing interest rates. On contrary, the theoretical literature and data-based evidences differ remarkably. The arduous attached in finding the true association and causation is the existence of multiple monetary transmission channels. Theoretical literature lists both monetary and non-monetary channels linking interest rate and inflation. However, most of the existing studies are focused on single equation model ignoring other parallel channels. This study is first of its kind where we have developed modified Peter and Clark (PC) algorithm of the Graph-Theoretic approach taking all the monetary and non-monetary channels to determine the causal nexus between monetary policy and inflation. The results show that, causality is running from interest rate towards inflation; suggesting a positive and significant long run relationship of interest rate with inflation in case of Pakistan. Furthermore, monetary policy have cost-side effects on inflation; however, the monetary policy becomes counterproductive whenever high interest rate is used to decrease cost push inflation. Therefore, there is need of serious rethinking about current monetary policy regime.JEL Codes - E4; E5; E42; E5

Memento: a prototype lifelog search engine for LSC’21

In this paper, we introduce a new lifelog retrieval system called Memento that leverages semantic representations of images and textual queries projected into a common latent space to facilitate effective retrieval. It bridges the semantic gap between complex visual scenes/events and user information needs expressed as textual and faceted queries. The system, developed for the 2021 Lifelog Search Challenge also has a minimalist user interface that includes primary search, temporal search, and visual data filtering components

The Performance Analysis of Saud Bahwan Group, Oman: An Empirical Study

The present study examines the financial performance Saud Bahawan group vis a vis its competitor and its role in the economic development of Oman. From the empirical work carried out it was established that the ROE has increased over the years from 1350 in 2010 to 14245 in 2014.However on the contrary the net assets to book value, earning per share have declined considerably over the years. The debt ratio has too increased from 0.18 to 0.28 which is a marginal increase and that's may have attributed to the decline in the EPS. The results showed that, there is no significance different between return on equity of Saud Bahawan and five other companies chosen for the study. If we just consider the difference of mean in Return on equity of all companies establishes the fact the firm profitability is comparatively better than that of its competitor. Thus the study reveals that the companies chosen for the study were no better than that of the Saud Bahawan group in all the parameters taken for the study. Keywords: financial performance, ROE, EPS & Debt ratio. JEL Classifications: G30, G32, G3

Morbidity pattern and health seeking behavior in elderly population of Raipur City, Chhattisgarh, India

Background: Epidemiological transition across globe is considered as the net result of the demographic transition. The shape of the population pyramid is gradually changing from a wide-based and narrow topped form to a barrel-shaped form in recent future (1). Aims & Objectives: 1. To determine morbidity pattern in elderly population, 2. To assess their health care seeking behavior. Material & Methods: Study design- A Community based cross sectional observational study. Study setting - Pt J.N.M. Medical College, Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Study Duration: July 2013 to June 2014. Sampling method: - Multi stage simple random sampling. Sample size: 640. Sample Size were calculated by using statistical formula, n= Z21-?/2 P(1-P)/d. Study tool: Pre-designed, Pre-tested Performa. Ethical consideration-Written document from institutional ethical Committee and Informed Consent from subject. Inclusion criteria: 1. All elderly persons in the age group of 60 years and above who were residing in the study area for at least one year, and willing to Participate in study without compulsion. Exclusion Criteria: 1. Those who were not willing to participate in study. Results & Conclusions: Prevalence of morbidity was 95.31%. Morbidity was positively associated with advancement of age and predominant in females (98.92%) and those belong to slum (98.43%) and lower (98.14%) socio-economic status while inversely associated with Physical activity. Out of total morbid population 70.49% had chronic illness. Most common system involvement was Gastro intestinal system (82.62%). Perception about illness was increased with advancement of age. Majority were seeking therapy from private registered practitioner (35.52%)

Prevalence and determinants of hypertension in elderly population of Raipur city, Chhattisgarh

Background: Demographic transition across globe leading towards greying of population. Worldwide, raised blood pressure is estimated to cause 12.8% of the total annual deaths. This account for 3.7% of total DALYs. Several community-based studies have served to emphasize that hypertension is rapidly emerging as a major public health problem. However, only a few of these studies included elderly people. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the prevalence and factors influencing hypertension among elderly population of Raipur city.  Methods: This community based cross-sectional study was carried out in capital of Chhattisgarh, including urban and slum area from July 2013 to June 2014. Multistage simple random sampling methods were used. Study population comprises of all elderly 60 years and above residing in the study area for at least one year. A total of 640 subjects were included in study.Results: The overall prevalence of hypertension in present study was 50%, prevalent among females (55.49%),shows a significant positive association with body mass index, physical activity and age up to old age group (75-84)yrs. Surprisingly inverse association was observed with alcohol (P <0.001) and smoking (P <0.05) status.Conclusion: Our findings emphasize the public health importance of hypertension in the elderly in Raipur city, and need to strengthen the national programme for hypertension. From a public health perspective, there is definite need for screening of elderly.

An Exploration into the Benefits of the CLIP model for Lifelog Retrieval

In this paper, we attempt to fine-tune the CLIP (Contrastive Language-Image Pre-Training) model on the Lifelog Question Answering dataset (LLQA) to investigate retrieval performance of the fine-tuned model over the zero-shot baseline model. We train the model adopting a weight space ensembling approach using a modified loss function to take into account the differences in our dataset (LLQA) when compared with the dataset the CLIP model was originally pretrained on. We further evaluate our fine-tuned model using visual as well as multimodal queries on multiple retrieval tasks, demonstrating improved performance over the zero-shot baseline model

Analysis of the impact of select macroeconomic variables on the Indian stock market: A heteroscedastic cointegration approach

The present study examines the impact of the macroeconomic variables on the stock prices in India. To fulfil the objective of the study monthly data of inflation, short-term interest rate, long-term interest rate, index of industrial production, exchange rate, money supply, and the stock indices of CNX Nifty and BSE SENSEX were collected from March 2005 to April 2013. Heteroscedastic cointegration approach was employed using a Johansen test of cointegration, OLS and GARCH (1, 1) model to find out the long-term relationship between the selected macroeconomic variables and the stock prices. It is evident from the study that there exist the long-term heteroscedastic relationships between the stock prices and the macroeconomic variables chosen for the study. Further, it is also evident from the study that while INF, MSE and the IIP are positively related to the stock prices, the SIR, LIR and the EXR are negatively related to the stock prices