Energy Crisis and Productive Inefficiency: Micro-Evidence from Textile Sector of Faisalabad

Energy, being an essential component of every production process, plays a pivotal role in the growth process of a country. The production process has undergone a massive transition from labour intensive to energy intensive techniques [Stern and Cleveland (2004)]. Now, it is widely recognised that industrialisation is an energy-intensive process; hence, uninterrupted supply of energy is necessary to keep the production process in run. In addition, high percapita energy consumption is considered as an indicator of the level of economic development. This positive correlation between energy consumption and output growth (and development) led many countries, particularly developing ones, to design policies for subsidised energy provision with focus on supply-side in late eighties. At the same time, some European countries (i.e. Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden) formulated energy policy focusing on demand-side (energy conservation), and achieved smaller growth rates in energy consumption without any reduction in economic growth [Pintz (1986)]

Structural Design and Non-linear Modeling of a Highly Stable Multi-Rotor Hovercraft

This paper presents a new design for a Multi-rotor Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV). The design is based on the requirement of highly stable hover capability other than typical requirements of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), forward and sidewise motions etc. Initially a typical Tri-rotor hovercraft is selected for modeling and analysis. Then design modifications are done to improve the hover stability, with special emphasis on compensating air drag moments that exist at steady state hover. The modified structure is modeled and dynamic equations are derived for it. These equations are analyzed to verify that our structural modifications have the intended stability improvement effect during steady state hover. Keywords: Multi-rotor Crafts, T-Copter, Rotational Matrix, Pseudo Inertial Matrix, Coriolis Acceleration, Air drag moment, Swash Plat

Epidemiological Burden of Lower Limb Spasticity in Adults: A Systematic Review

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the burden of disease associated with lower limb spasticity (LLS) and its complications in adults. Methods: A systematic search of MEDLINE and EMBASE identified 9 studies published between November 2012 and July 2019 that assessed the epidemiological burden associated with LLS. Results: LLS was found to occur in one-third of adults after neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD), one quarter to one third with multiple sclerosis, one quarter to half with Parkinson’s disease and roughly half with stroke. LLS reduces mobility and diminishes the quality of life. LLS complications, especially injuries following falls are a common occurrence. Conclusion: Given the high prevalence among adults with common disorders, such as stroke; the evidence on the burden of LLS is somewhat finite. Further research is needed to explore the trends over time and across different geographical regions in the incidence and prevalence of LLS. The dearth of high-quality evidence for LLS suggests a lack of awareness of the problem and interest in it, and hence, the unmet need among patients and their carers

Organizational Intelligence and Employee Performance: The Mediating Role of Distributive Justice

Abstract: A well thriving education system, initiate and promotes innovation along research, is a key to the performance, productivity and sustainability in the august world class universities, colleges and schools. Globalization and digital revolution are creating new strategic competition and advancement as, a result innovative knowledge and learning’s are driving our economic system. Both public and private organizations are forced to adopt these innovative and technical reforms in order to survive in a competitive environment, which can be possible through spiraling education system by research and innovative techniques. This study intends to investigate the mediating effects of distributive justice on relationship between organizational intelligence and employee performance in education sector. Based on a sample of 113 employees and using structural equation modeling approach, the organizational intelligence is found to have positive effects on distributive justice. The findings of the study suggest that the effects of organizational intelligence on employee performance are fully mediated by distributive justice. This study provides a strapping foundation for all educational institutes to analyze whether they are implementing strategic management practices or not. Systematic and assertive implementation of these practices will not only uplift the quality and standards of educational institutions but also essential for better performance of every industry

Resilience of the Genus Agaricus to Climatic Variability in and around Ayubia National Park, Pakistan

The environment is being altered very quickly with the passage of time. No doubt human activities have a main role in the enhancement of certain environmental issues and these problems are affecting the natural biomes and the ecosystem world over. The biodiversity has to face these cascading problems and have to compete for their natural habitat. These environmental threats have pushed unique biodiversity at the edge of the extinction. The present study was focused to examine these issues for the members of genus Agaricus

Management of Lumbar Spinal Stenosis by Laminectomy Experience with 80 Patients

Objectives:  To study the clinical results and complications of patients with lumbar spinal stenosis managed surgically by single or two level laminectomy. Study design:  Retrospective study. Materials and methods:  This study was conducted in Neurosurgery Department of Lady Reading Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex Hospital, Peshawar from Jan, 2005 to December, 2007 with 06 months follow up. Total number of patients were 80. Data was collected with the help of performa containing name, age, sex of patients along-with signs symptoms, investigations, complications and follow up findings. Patients of both gender operated for the first time for lumbar spinal stenosis were included in the study Patients below 50 years, patients with spinal stenosis of more then 2 level, patients with spondylolisthesis and patients above 75 years were excluded from the study. Results:  Out of 80 patients 46 (57.5%) were male and 34 (42.5%) were female. 49 patients had single level laminectomy and 31 patients with two level laminectomies. 85% patients showed clinical improvement in pain and claudication, 6 patients had dural tear during surgery, one patient had CSF leak, 3 patients had superficial wound infection and 4 patients had urinary retention. Conclusion:  Laminectomy for lumbar spinal stenosis appears to be effective procedure in which better overall outcome and improvement in claudication, lower limbs pain and low backache can be achieved, improving health related quality of life

An Empirical Analysis of the Linder

This paper presents empirical evidence in support of the Linder theory of international trade for three of the South Asian countries, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. This finding implies that these countries trade more intensively with countries of other regions, which may have similar per capita income levels, as predicted by Linder in his hypothesis. The contribution of this research is threefold: first, there is new information on the Linder hypothesis by focusing on South Asian countries; second, this is one of very few analyses to capture both time-series and cross-section elements of the trade relationship by employing a panel data set; third, the empirical methodology used in this analysis corrects a major shortcoming in the existing literature by using a censored dependent variable in estimation.

Securing cloud service archives for function and data shipping in industrial environments

Cloud Computing paradigm needs a standard for portability, and automated deployment and management of cloud services, to eliminate vendor lock-in and minimization of management efforts respectively. Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications (TOSCA) language provides such standard by employing semantics for representation of components and business processes of a cloud application. Advancements in the fields of Cloud Computing and Internet of Things (IoT) has opened new research areas to support 4th industrial revolution (Industry 4.0), which in turn has resulted in the emergence of smart services. One application of smart services is predictive maintenance, which enables the anticipation of future devicesí states by implementing functions, for example, analytics algorithms, and collecting huge amounts of data from sensors. Considering performance demands and runtime constraints, either the data can be shipped to the function site, called data shipping or the functionality is provisioned closely to the data site, called function shipping. However, since this data can contain confidential information, it has to be assured that access to the data is strictly controlled. Although TOSCA already enables defining policies in general, a concrete data security policy approach is missing. Moreover, constituents of TOSCA are packaged in a self-contained and portable archive, called Cloud Service Archive (CSAR), which is also required to be secured and restricted to authorized personals only. Taking the above facts into account, the goal of this thesis is to refine and enhance the TOSCA standard to the field of smart services in production environments through the usage of policies, for example, being effectively able to define the security aspects. In this thesis, various available policy languages with frameworks supporting them are researched, and their applicability for the field of Industry 4.0 is analyzed. An approach is formulated with one language selected, to define policies for TOSCA compliant cloud applications. Furthermore, a prototype is developed to secure the content of CSAR using the proposed approach