Behaviour Profiling using Wearable Sensors for Pervasive Healthcare

In recent years, sensor technology has advanced in terms of hardware sophistication and miniaturisation. This has led to the incorporation of unobtrusive, low-power sensors into networks centred on human participants, called Body Sensor Networks. Amongst the most important applications of these networks is their use in healthcare and healthy living. The technology has the possibility of decreasing burden on the healthcare systems by providing care at home, enabling early detection of symptoms, monitoring recovery remotely, and avoiding serious chronic illnesses by promoting healthy living through objective feedback. In this thesis, machine learning and data mining techniques are developed to estimate medically relevant parameters from a participant‘s activity and behaviour parameters, derived from simple, body-worn sensors. The first abstraction from raw sensor data is the recognition and analysis of activity. Machine learning analysis is applied to a study of activity profiling to detect impaired limb and torso mobility. One of the advances in this thesis to activity recognition research is in the application of machine learning to the analysis of 'transitional activities': transient activity that occurs as people change their activity. A framework is proposed for the detection and analysis of transitional activities. To demonstrate the utility of transition analysis, we apply the algorithms to a study of participants undergoing and recovering from surgery. We demonstrate that it is possible to see meaningful changes in the transitional activity as the participants recover. Assuming long-term monitoring, we expect a large historical database of activity to quickly accumulate. We develop algorithms to mine temporal associations to activity patterns. This gives an outline of the user‘s routine. Methods for visual and quantitative analysis of routine using this summary data structure are proposed and validated. The activity and routine mining methodologies developed for specialised sensors are adapted to a smartphone application, enabling large-scale use. Validation of the algorithms is performed using datasets collected in laboratory settings, and free living scenarios. Finally, future research directions and potential improvements to the techniques developed in this thesis are outlined

Do Workers’ Remittances Boost Human Capital Development?

This study examines the influence of workers’ remittances along with the economic governance system on human capital development in 17 countries having low income, lower middle, upper middle and high income levels by using the annual panel between 1996 and 2013. Overall, results of fixed-effects model reveal that workers’ remittances have significantly positive impact on the human capital development. Results also reveal the positive and significant impact of all selected variables of economic governance system on human capital. It is concluded that the strong economic governance system strengthens the association between workers’ remittances and human capital during the aforementioned time period. JEL Classification: F24, J23 Keywords: Remittances, Economic Governance System, Human Capital Developmen

Do Exchange Rates Fluctuations Influence Gold Price in G7 Countries? New Insights from a Nonparametric Causality-in-Quantiles Test

In the recent era, gold is considered an essential investment source, a source of hedging inflation, and a medium of monetary exchange. The gold and exchange rate nexus become prominent after events like sovereign debt crisis, subprime mortgage crisis, low-interest rate problem, and global financial market solvency. These events attract the attention of researchers and academician for investigating the dynamics of the relationship between gold and exchange rates, and the majority of the studies discusses the linear dynamics, but the non-linear dynamics are ignored. Therefore, the current research investigates the non-linear dynamics of gold price and exchange rate relationship in G7 countries using the new technique named the nonparametric causality approach. This study uses monthly data from the years 1995(January)-2017 (March). The empirical results show that exchange rate return causes gold prices in four out of G7, especially at the low tails. This study also gives valuable insights for monetary policymakers, gold exporter’s international portfolio managers, and hedge fund managers

Measurement of Service Quality Perception and Customer Satisfaction in Islamic Banks of Pakistan: Evidence from Modified SERVQUAL Model

The aim of this study is to measure the relationship between the service quality and customer satisfaction among the customers of Pakistan Islamic bank customers. This study employed a modified SERVQUAL model by introducing a unique dimension of compliance in the context of service industry. Data were gathered from 450 walk-in customers of Islamic bank from the largest city of Pakistan. Results from regression analysis revealed that the multi-dimensional service quality scale is positively and significantly associated with the unidimensional scale of customer satisfaction. The results signify and validate the importance of service quality aspects in maintaining the customer satisfaction in Islamic bank of Pakistan. In addition, the compliance dimension of the SERVQUAL model proved its importance by showing the highest contributing factor in the overall model. This study has practical implications for the policy makers of Islamic banks to better understand the behavioral intentions of Islamic bank customers

Measurement of Service Quality Perception and Customer Satisfaction in Islamic Banks of Pakistan: Evidence from Modified SERVQUAL Model

The aim of this study is to measure the relationship between the service quality and customer satisfaction among the customers of Pakistan Islamic bank customers. This study employed a modified SERVQUAL model by introducing a unique dimension of compliance in the context of service industry. Data were gathered from 450 walk-in customers of Islamic bank from the largest city of Pakistan. Results from regression analysis revealed that the multi-dimensional service quality scale is positively and significantly associated with the unidimensional scale of customer satisfaction. The results signify and validate the importance of service quality aspects in maintaining the customer satisfaction in Islamic bank of Pakistan. In addition, the compliance dimension of the SERVQUAL model proved its importance by showing the highest contributing factor in the overall model. This study has practical implications for the policy makers of Islamic banks to better understand the behavioral intentions of Islamic bank customers

Factors affecting to select Islamic Credit Cards in Pakistan: The TRA Model

This study investigates the factors affecting intentions to select Islamic credit cards in Pakistan by employing the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) model. In general, bank customers generally aware of credit card facility, but the leading factors to select Islamic credit cards are particularly unexplored. Due to this fact, the study examined the effect of Subjective norm, Attitude and Perceived financial cost on the customers’ intention of Pakistani banks to select Islamic credit cards. The study uses a survey of 466 respondents. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and multiple regression were used to attain the study objectives. Findings from regression analysis suggest that subjective norms (SN) and attitudes (ATT) show positive and significant impact on intentions to select an Islamic credit card, while perceived financial cost (PFC) has a negative impact on intentions to select Islamic credit cards. On the other hand, subjective norms were found to be the most influential factor to predict the selection of an Islamic credit card. It is recommended that, Islamic bank should educate their customers about Islamic credit cards to compete with conventional credit cards and develop marketing strategies through social media and other marketing channels to change consumer’s attitude in favor of Islamic credit cards. The TRA model applicability extends into Islamic credit cards context while perceived financial cost is integrated on the intention to select Islamic credit cards. The present study also offers an insight view of one’s decision to select Islamic credit cards

Factors affecting to select Islamic Credit Cards in Pakistan: The TRA Model

This study investigates the factors affecting intentions to select Islamic credit cards in Pakistan by employing the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) model. In general, bank customers generally aware of credit card facility, but the leading factors to select Islamic credit cards are particularly unexplored. Due to this fact, the study examined the effect of Subjective norm, Attitude and Perceived financial cost on the customers’ intention of Pakistani banks to select Islamic credit cards. The study uses a survey of 466 respondents. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and multiple regression were used to attain the study objectives. Findings from regression analysis suggest that subjective norms (SN) and attitudes (ATT) show positive and significant impact on intentions to select an Islamic credit card, while perceived financial cost (PFC) has a negative impact on intentions to select Islamic credit cards. On the other hand, subjective norms were found to be the most influential factor to predict the selection of an Islamic credit card. It is recommended that, Islamic bank should educate their customers about Islamic credit cards to compete with conventional credit cards and develop marketing strategies through social media and other marketing channels to change consumer’s attitude in favor of Islamic credit cards. The TRA model applicability extends into Islamic credit cards context while perceived financial cost is integrated on the intention to select Islamic credit cards. The present study also offers an insight view of one’s decision to select Islamic credit cards

The Role of Fiscal Policy in Human Development: The Pakistan’s Perspective

Human development considered as the engine of the economic growth as it improves the economy’s strength and increases the standard of living of the people, increases the choices and maximises the welfare of the society that is the prime objective of any government. The development of the human capabilities is also necessary for the sustainable growth, as there are many channels through which human development foster the economic growth. It increases the labour productivity, labour demand, employment and output. On the other hand, human capital also attracts physical capital.1 Empirically, it is very difficult to have an exact measure of human development and social welfare. Several proxies used to measure human development, e.g. GNI per capita as a measure of standard of living, Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) criterion to measure the cost of living and to measure the welfare, average year of schooling, school enrolment rate and health expenditures as a percentage of GDP to capture this composite welfare and development indicator. A fair index of Human Development Index (HDI) was developed by United Nations Development Programme in 1990. This index based on the standard of living (natural logarithm of GDP PPP per capita), access to knowledge (adult literacy rate with two-third weighting and the remaining is the gross enrolment ratio) and a healthy life (life expectancy at birth). The value of index varies from 0 to 1, lower the HDI, lesser would be the human development and welfare in the country or vice versa

Energy Conservation Policies may affect Trade Performance in Pakistan: Confirmation of Feedback Hypothesis

This study investigates the relationship between energy consumption and trade performance in Pakistan by using the annual time series data from the period of 1973-2011. The cointegration results confirm the valid long run relationship between energy consumption and trade performance. Our results indicate that gross domestic product, exports and imports have positive impact on energy consumption. The findings of Generalized forecast error variance decomposition method under vector autoregressive (VAR) system suggest the bidirectional causal relationship of gross domestic product, exports and imports with energy consumption. This confirms the presence of feedback hypothesis in Pakistan. We note that energy conservation policies will reduce the trade performance which leads to decline in economic growth in Pakistan. The present study may guide policy makers in formulating a conclusive energy and trade policies for sustainable growth for long span of time