Development and Conflict: The Economic Impacts of Civil War in Swat: Pakistan

Violent conflicts have economic causes and economic consequences. In addition to the lost lives, injuries and the overall scale of human suffering that conflicts create, they also destroy assets and institutions. The consequences, the intensities of conflicts and their linkages with human endeavours to protect people from critical threats are not only a major national, but also an international developmental challenge. The terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001 drastically changed the paradigm and the epicentres of conflicts to something much different from the 20th century. In the changed paradigm, terrorist planning and attacks are largely considered to be originating from Muslim countries, masterminded by internationally linked organisations like Al Qaeda. These organisations are considered to be the source and Western countries to be revenge targets, particularly the United States because of its foreign policy repercussions in Muslim countries. Considering this fact, this thesis examines global conflicts and their links with income, economic development and democracy from 2000-2009, the period which fundamentally transformed the nature of global intrastate conflicts. This study is expected to be the first attempt to cover the period and to have a specific focus on Muslim majority countries, using similar econometric techniques and variables to those applied to broad global analyses. This study then moves from global analysis to focus on the micro household effects of the recent violent civil conflict involving the Taliban in Swat, Pakistan. A visible gap in economics-based conflict-orientated research was identified, with no apparent studies of post-conflict livelihoods in Swat. This thesis seeks to fill the void, and investigates losses of key household assets and their impact on determining post-conflict livelihood choices in Swat. Using survey data from 275 randomly sampled households in five out of the seven affected tehsils of Swat district, several statistical and modelling techniques are used to assess how and to what extent the conflict, which became civil war, has affected household livelihoods in Swat. Specifically the following relationships were considered and examined: (i) assets and income portfolios of households, and the quantitative extent of damages to conflict-affected household assets; (ii) asset endowment and its impact in prioritising post-conflict livelihood strategies; and (iii) possible alternative livelihood opportunities resulting from positive post-conflict interventions in the regional economy, which effectively results in livelihood revival. It was found that households lost human, physical, natural, social, and financial assets, and the post-conflict environment constrained their income and employment opportunities. Their expenditures increased and as a coping strategy, many sold their assets. The limited and damaged asset endowments (physical, financial and natural) were identified as major constraints to pursuing known livelihood choices or adopting more rewarding ones, in the shattered infrastructural and physical economic environment of Swat. Finally, in finding appropriate revival options, and by using simulation modelling, this thesis suggests an integrated development framework to enhance the regional economy and household livelihoods. This revival of pre-war thriving sectors is expected to decrease economic incentives to join militant groups such as the Taliban

Second Order Thermal Corrections to Electron Wavefunction

Second order perturbative corrections to electron wavefunction are calculated here at generalized temperature, for the first time. This calculation is important to prove the renormalizeability of QED through order by order cancellation of singularities at higher order. This renormalized wavefunction could be used to calculate the particle processes in the extremely hot systems such as the very early universe and the stellar cores. We have to re-write the second order thermal correction to electron mass in a convenient way to be able to calculate the wavefunction renormalization constant. A procedure for integrations of hot loop momenta before the cold loop momenta integration is maintained throughout to be able to remove hot singularities in an appropriate way. Our results, not only includes the intermediate temperatures T m (where m is the electron mass), the limits of high temperature T>>m and low temperature T<<m are also retrievable. A comparison is also done with the existing results.Comment: 12 Pages and 1 figure; Submitted for publicatio

Optimal Antimicrobial Use under Countervailing Externalities

Over-or underprovision of antimicrobials under free-riding and resistance externalities can be economically important through their impacts on animal health, human health, and food security. This paper models antimicrobial use given disease dynamics with (i) free-riding incentives and (ii) antimicrobial resistance. Our results suggest a strong potential for overprovision of antimicrobials when ignoring resistance dynamics. Numerical simulation indicates an increase in the cost of disease management with increases in resistance levels. Policy implications are discussed in the context of animal health and disease-control subsidy programs in the developing world as well as unregulated sale of antimicrobials

Effect of terrorism on economic growth in Pakistan: an empirical analysis

The paper examines the impact of terrorism on economic growth in Pakistan. Channel variables, such as foreign direct investment (FDI), domestic investment, and government spending, through which terrorism influences economic growth, are identified. For empirical analysis, annual data for the period 1972–2014 are used, and a structural model is estimated using the generalised method of moments (GMM) estimation approach. The results reveal that (1) the impact of terrorism on FDI and domestic investment is significantly negative, whereas the impact on government spending is significantly positive and (2) the net effect of terrorism on economic growth is negative. One per cent increase in terrorism reduces FDI by 0.104 per cent, domestic investment by 0.039 per cent and economic growth by 0.002 per cent. To increase economic growth more resources must be allocated to improve law and order. To attract foreign investment, complementary domestic investment must be increase

Evaluation of Growth of Different Maize Varieties in Field under the Climatic Conditions of Peshawar

A field experiment on “Evaluation of maize varieties under the climatic condition of Peshawar” was conducted at Agricultural Research Institute Tarnab (ARI) during Kharif season 2012. The experiment was conducted in Randomized Complete block Design (RCB). emergence was non significant those plot sown with Iqbal taken maximum days to emergence of (7) days while plot sown with pop-2011 taken minimum days to emergence of (4) days . Higher emergence ­­­­­m­-²(8) was recorded for pop-08 and Jalal showed lowest (3) emergence ­­­­­m­-².   Jalal took (53) days to tasseling while Pir sabaq evaluation showed the lowest (46) days to tasseling among the different maize varieties. Analysis of the data indicated that days to silking were significantly affected by maize varieties. Minimum (52) days to silking were observed in pop-2011 while maximum (56) days to silking were observed in Sarhad white.Lowest plant height was observed in jalal (160 cm) while highest plant height was recorded  in pop-07 (184 cm). Different varieties have different plant height, lowest cob height was observed in jalal (48 cm) while highest cob height was recorded in pop-09 (66 cm). Minimum (76) days to physiological were observed in pop-2011 while maximum (81) days to physiological maturity were observed in Sarhad white. Minimum (90) days to harvest maturity were observed in pop-2011 while maximum (97) days to harvest maturity were observed in Sarhad white. maximum 1000 grain weight was recorded for pop-2011 (275 g) while minimum 1000 grain weight was recorded for Iqbal (227 g).Statistical analysis of the data revealed that the data for grain yield was significant those plot sown with Jalal have the minimum grain yield of (1500 kgha-1) while plot sown with pop-2011 have the maximum grain yield of (4666 kg ha-1). Keywords: Maize, Emergence, Days to Maturity, Grain yield, Harvest, Analysi

Multifocal necrotizing fasciitis following Hirshsprung’s disease surgery away from the surgical wound site

Necrotizing fasciitis (NF) is a life-threatening infection with rapidly progressive necrosis. Escherichia coli is rarely reported as causative agent of type 2 NF. NF typically arises in a single area usually secondary to penetrating injury. NF was only reported as a postoperative complication of Hirshsprung’s disease in one report, where the causative agent was Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We here present a case of synchronous multifocal NF in a 7-month Hirshsprung’s disease patient after abdominal Soave procedure. The patient presented with constipation and had a colosotomy undergone at the splenic flexure through a left transverse supraumbilical incision during neonatal period. At the age of 7 months and after preoperative preparation, abdominal Soave procedure was performed through a Pfannestiel incision. Few days following operation he had fever, tachycardia, and pain. Local examination showed red edematous areas at both flanks away from the wounds. Shortly afterwards skin became dark, tense, and started to slough. At this stage the clinical diagnosis of NF was raised and surgical debridement was done. Blood and tissue cultures were positive for E. coli. Five days later the patient had another debridement due to necrotic wound edges. Vacuum assisted closure therapy with Aquacel Ag dressings was fitted and changed every 48 h. Eighteen days later split thickness skin-graft was carried out. The patient was discharged home; 10 days later he is doing fine on follow-up.Keywords: complication of swave procedure, Hirshsprung’s disease, necrotizing fasciiti

Anterior abdominal wall ectopic testes: A report of two cases

Undescended testis (UDT) is a common anomaly of the male reproductive system  affecting about 2% to 4% of male infants more commonly preterms. If the testis remains in the line of normal descent, it is classified as an UDT. If it is not in the line of  normal descent, it is termed an ectopic testis. Common sites of ectopic testes are  perineal, transverse ectopia, pubopenile and femoral. To the best of our knowledge only two cases of anterior abdominal wall ectopic testis have been reported in the literature.  We present here two cases of anterior abdominal wall testis,  one of which was  associated with indirect inguinal hernia.Keywords: anomalies of the testis, ectopic testis, empty scrotu

Whether Alvarado scoring system is A Reliable Diagnostic Tool for Acute Appendicitis.

Objective: to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy (discrimination) and implementation performance of Alvarado score. Methodology: This cross sectional study was done in Surgerical unit of Bahawal Victoria  hospital Bahawalpur under supervision of consultant Surgeons of department. Study duration was 1 year from March 2018 to March 2019. For quantitative variables like age of patients Mean and SD was calculated, and frequency percentages were calculated for categorical data like gender. Negative appendectomy rate, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, sensitivity, specificity was calculated by using 2-2 contingency table. Results: Total 300patients enrolled in this study, both genders. Alvarado scoring at presentation, 15% (n=45) patients were categorized into Group I. 13% (n=39) patients were included in Group II. While, 72% (n=216) were enrolled in Group III. Diagnostic test was positive in 223 patients. While, acute appendicitis was confirmed histo-pathologically in 160 patients. Gangrenous appendicitis observed in 3 patients. Chronic appendicitis, perforated appendicitis, appendicular abscess, no specific pathology, gangrenous intestine and salpingo-oophoritis was observed as 31, 6, 9, 6,3 and 5 respectively. There were 174 patients true positive, 49 were false positive, 59 were false negative and 18 were true negative. Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value and negative predictive value were 74.68% 26.87%, 78.02% and 23.37% respectively. Conclusion: Alvarado scoring system is useful tool in diagnosis of appendicitis in pre-operative period which can be useful for surgeons at any level of health care. According to our study observations Alvarado scoring system has better sensitivity 74.68% but specificity 26.87% which shows that Alvarado scoring system is helpful in diagnosis of appendicitis but not much helpful in preventing negative laparotomies. Keywords: Right lower quadrant pain, Appendicitis scoring, Faecal peritonitis, Ultrasound abdomen, Perforated appendix. DOI: 10.7176/JMPB/55-15 Publication date:May 31st 201