Steering Through Uncertainty: Commodity Price Shocks and Pakistan's Automobile Industry

Purpose - Recently, conflicts among countries have caused many economic shocks in the global economy. Commodity price shocks are one of the most essential shocks resulting from these conflicts. Industries like automobiles are always most vulnerable to these shocks. This paper examines the impact of commodity price shocks on the automobile industry of Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach - We used monthly data from July 2008 to June 2020 and employed the SVAR model for our analysis. Findings - The pattern of the response of the automobile industry to commodity price shocks showed that commodity price shocks' impact on Pakistan's automobile industry is dominant on the supply side. Energy, education, and housing price shocks cause an excess supply of automobiles, whereas transportation prices reduce supply. On the demand side, food, clothing, and footwear price shocks negatively affect demand. Originality/value - This study increases the knowledge of the impact of commodity price shocks on the automobile industry and is the first study that addresses this issue in Pakistan. It also provides policymakers guidelines and helps them make policies for the development of the automobile industry accordingly

Antifungal activity of different extracts of Ageratum conyzoides for the management of Fusarium solani

Ageratum conyzoides L. is potential allelopathic weed very useful for its antifungal and antimicrobial activity. Being environmentally safe and friendly, it has the potential to substitute synthetic fungicides. The current study, therefore, was designed to evaluate the in vitro efficacy of aqueous methanolic and n-hexane extracts of A. conyzoides against the pathogenic fungi, Fusarium solani Mart. (Sacc.), isolated from roots of egg plant (Solanum melongena). The target fungus was exposed to various concentrations (2, 4 and 6% w/v) of   aqueous, methanolic and n-hexane extracts of Inflorescence, leaf, stem and root. All the employed    concentrations of extracts of four plant parts significantly suppressed the growth of the target fungal   pathogen.  The n-hexane extracts of leaf and inflorescence caused highly significant reduction of 84% in growth of F. solani followed by stem and root extracts which caused which caused 80% and 72% reduction in growth, respectively. The same pattern in growth reduction was observed in methanolic and aqueous extracts. Among the four parts of the tested weed, different concentrations of the methanolic extract of leaf were found to be  highly effective in controlling target fungal species resulting in up to 78% reduction in fungal biomass over  control followed by inflorescence (74% reduction), stem (63% reduction) and root (59% reduction) at highest used concentration. In case of aqueous extracts, the maximum reduction was observed in leaf extract (72%) followed by inflorescence, stem and root, respectively.Key words: Ageratum conyzoides, aqueous extract, Fusarium solani, n-hexane extract, methanolic extract

Data Visualization Using Rational Trigonometric Spline

This paper describes the use of trigonometric spline to visualize the given planar data. The goal of this work is to determine the smoothest possible curve that passes through its data points while simultaneously satisfying the shape preserving features of the data. Positive, monotone, and constrained curve interpolating schemes, by using

A univariate rational quadratic trigonometric interpolating spline to visualize shaped data

This study was concerned with shape preserving interpolation of 2D data. A piecewise C1 univariate rational quadratic trigonometric spline including three positive parameters was devised to produce a shaped interpolant for given shaped data. Positive and monotone curve interpolation schemes were presented to sustain the respective shape features of data. Each scheme was tested for plentiful shaped data sets to substantiate the assertion made in their construction. Moreover, these schemes were compared with conventional shape preserving rational quadratic splines to demonstrate the usefulness of their construction

Determinants of Corporate Philanthropy: A Case of Karachi Stock Exchange

Corporate Philanthropy (CP) has become increasingly important as a means of filling gaps in the provision of social services using Public-Private partnerships. Very little research exists on determinants and motives of CP in Pakistan. This paper utilizes data from the 2001-2011 Annual Reports of 234 firms listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) to analyze the association of CP with different firm specific factors like firm size, firm visibility, labor intensity, firm’s financial position (measured as profitability, leverage, cash and equivalent balance, and dividend payout), and the impact of natural disasters on CP. Because this is the first study on this data set, we have employed exploratory data analysis techniques and carefully consider the impact of outliers and other non-standard features of the data. We have used Panel data analytic techniques as well as the Tobit model to analyze the associations between different firm specific factors and CP. We found that firm size, prior profitability, and natural disaster have significant positive impact on CP. We found no evidence that firms are using philanthropy for image creation. Furthermore, exploratory data analysis shows that there are some clusters of firms, which behave differently. Standard regression analysis techniques cannot deal with such cases that require more sophisticated treatment

Monotone Rational Trigonometric Interpolation

This study is concerned with the visualization of monotone data using a piece-wise C1 rational trigonometric interpolating scheme. Four positive shape parameters are incorporated in the structure of rational trigonometric spline. Conditions on two of these parameters are derived to attain the monotonicity of monotone data and other two are left-free. Figures are used widely to exhibit that the proposed scheme produces graphically smooth monotone curves

Testing for explosivity in US-Pak Exchange Rate via Sequential ADF Procedures

Global Financial Crises (GFC) of 2007-08 has disclosed the fact that economists and policymakers were unable to foresee bubble in housing prices in the US and other countries that consequently triggered the economic downturn. However, serious attempts have been made afterwards by researchers towards early identification of asset price bubbles, so that necessary policy measures could be taken to avoid any future mishap. Current study is conducted in similar vein to identify bubbles in nominal Dollar to Pakistani Rs exchange rate, from January 1982 to May 2020. Whether any identified bubble in nominal exchange rate is a rational bubble or otherwise generated by fundamentals, nominal exchange rate is adjusted for traded goods price differential and non-traded goods price differential in two countries as there is growing trend to take underlying fundamentals into account while studying asset prices to get accurate results on bubble detection (Bettendorf and Chen, 2013; Jiang et al., 2015 and Hu & Oxley, 2017). Further to explore whether nature of bubble changes with regime switching from managed floating to flexible floating in Pakistan is an addition of the study. Results of Generalized sup Augmented Dicky-Fuller (GSADF) test show that traded goods fundamental fully explain the movements in exchange rates even when non-traded goods are taken into account. Exchange rates were volatile both in managed floating and flexible floating regimes. However, volatility in only managed floating regime can be attributed to traded goods price difference. Various explosive episodes have been observed during flexible floating regime, which are either collapse or collapse and recovery phases

A prospective study of maternal outcome of labor and perinatal outcome in premature rupture of membranes

Background: Premature rupture of membranes refers to rupture of fetal membranes prior to the onset of labor. PROM is of two types viz. term PROM and preterm PROM. The incidence of PROM is at an average of 10%. In 70% of the cases, it occurs in pregnancies at term.  Preterm PROM- defined as PROM prior to 37 weeks of gestation- complicates 2% to 4% of all singleton and 7% to 20% of twin pregnancies. It is the leading identifiable cause of premature birth and accounts for approximately 18% to 20% of perinatal deaths. Methods: This study was conducted in the tertiary care teaching institute in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India. After taking an informed consent, a proforma was filled on subject history, examination and investigations. These subjects were followed until delivery and then neonates were also followed. Results: Incidence of PROM was 8.76% of which 54.7% were primigravida and 45.3% were multigravida. Most of the patients (70.4%) were term, only 29.6% were preterm with gestational age of <37 weeks. Incidence of PPH was 2.8%, puerperal pyrexia occurred in 9.8%. The incidence of RDS in neonates was 8.9% while the incidence of neonatal sepsis was 6.7%. There was 1.1% perinatal mortality. Conclusions: From this study it can be concluded that basic aim of obstetrician should be to identify the risk factors leading to PROM, to treat complications and implement strict aseptic precautions to prevent maternal and neonatal morbidity

Lavandula stoechas linn: Scrutiny of phytoconstituents, ethno medicinal and pharmacological ramification action.

Lavandula stoechas linn (Ustukhuddus) act as a recovery mediator from earliest period. Famous Unani physicians “Jalinus” and “Desquredus” located numerous therapeutic potentials of the plant. They encouraged the use of this drug, especially in cerebral disorders. Lavandula stoechas Linn belongs to “Labiatae” family. This is an evergreen plant generally grows upto 30-100 cm in height. The leaves are 1-4 cm long, greyish and to mentose. This plant is crimson to purple in color grows in end of spring and the early summer season. The essential oils were separated by hydro distillation and then analyzed using GC and GCMS. Various researches on its impact on nervous system had been explored by researchers which can also additionally attribute to its bioactive compounds like; glycosides, steroids, phenols etc. Many medical researchers had been proved that Ustukhuddus is drastically beneficial in numerous neurological problems inclusive of anxiety, convulsions, cerebral ischemia, depression. The current review article provides detailed knowledge on the medicinal importance and therapeutic value of Ustukhuddus. The data was collected using various data basis such as Google Scholar, Pub med, Sci Hub

Perceptions of Teachers Regarding Corporal Punishment and Its Effects on Students’ Achievement at Primary School Level

The main objective of the present study was to analyze the perceptions of teachers regarding corporal punishment and its effects on students‟ academic achievement at primary school level. For this purpose, teachers of all primary school of Multan division were taken as a population. Out of the whole population, 111 primary teachers were selected randomly by using the simple random sampling technique. For need assessment, a questionnaire was developed as a research tool. The tool was validated by pilot study and reliability analysis was done on SPSS by using the Cronbach alpha.The questionnaire comprised 17 restricted response items and two open ended questions. The items were analyzed based onfive-pointLikert-type scale. The open-ended questions were constructed to find out the positive and the negative effects of corporal punishment onstudents‟ achievement and behavior. The data gathered from teachers was entered on excel and then shifted to SPSS. For analysis of the data, statistical techniques like arithmetic mean, percentage, and t- test were used. Overall, it was found from the study that majority of the teachers was in favor that corporal punishment is useful for maintaining discipline. On the other hand, the use of corporal punishment was decreasing the attendance rate and increasing the dropout ratio of students from school.Corporal punishment was also negatively influencing the children‟ academic performance. Corporal punishment was developing aggressiveness in behavior of the students. It was also found from the study that “Maar nahi Pyar” is acceptable for primary school students. Overall, negative effects of corporal punishment on students were found