Labour Market Dynamics in Pakistan: Evidence from the Longitudinal Data

The bulk of research on labour market conditions in Pakistan has concentrated on the economic activity rate, the number of employed persons, or the unemployment rate at a particular point in time. These stock measures of labour market situation are useful from a policy viewpoint as they give a broad indication of the dimension of the problem. For example, the recent labour force surveys show an increase in the level of open unemployment from 5.9 percent in 1997-98 to 7.8 percent in 1999-2000 [Pakistan (2001)]. There is also an emerging consensus that during the 1990s poverty has increased at the national as well as for rural and urban areas of the country [Qureshi and Arif (2001)]. Labour market is considered as the main route for establishing the link between macro policies, the resulting GDP growth and poverty alleviation [Rahman (2002)]. Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (IPRSP) and other development plans have suggested various targets of employment creation for poverty reduction. The stock measures of labour market conditions, such as unemployment rate, are considered to be inadequate from the viewpoint of developing appropriate policy responses. There is a need to gain further insights by examining the structure of labour market in terms of its dynamic components: these being the turnover of persons into and out of the labour force and turnover into and out of employment and unemployment pools

MHD Stagnation-Point Flow of a Nanofluid with Heat and Mass Transfer in the Presence of Thermal Radiation

The steady two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics stagnation point flow of a nanofluid with radiation effect is investigated. Using a similarity transformation, the governing partial differential equations are reduced to ordinary differential equations. The transformed equations are solved numerically for three types of nanoparticles, namely copper (Cu), alumina (Al2O3), and titania (TiO2) by using shooting method. The features of the flow with heat and mass transfer characteristics for different values of governing parameters are analyzed and discussed. Comparison with published results is presented and it found to be in good agreement. Key Words: Nanofluid, Heat and Mass Transfer, Thermal Radiation, Stagnation-Point Flo

Correlation of Atrial Fibrillation with Left Atrial Volume in Patients with Mitral Stenosis. a Single Centre Study From Pakistan

Background: Rheumatic heart disease has a strong association with mitral valve stenosis. Atrial fibrillation is one of the most common complications of this condition and is a poor prognostic factor. Early detection and prompt management of atrial fibrillation can help to improve the quality of life and increase the life expectancy of the patients. We carried out this study to investigate the significance of left atrial volumetric changes in mitral stenosis and its correlation with atrial fibrillation. Methodology: We audited the data of 60 patients of rheumatic heart disease who had mitral valve stenosis. The patients were randomized into atrial fibrillation (Group A) and normal sinus rhythm (Group B). We conducted this cross-sectional analytical study at Cardiology Department, Mayo Hospital, Lahore, from 1st February 2017 to 31st January 2018. We only included those patients who consented to be a part of this study and fulfilled our predefined inclusion criteria. Left atrial volume was measured by prolate ellipse method and biplane methods on echocardiography. The Data was analyzed on SPSS v20. Results: Sixty patients were included in the study. Among the subjects, thirty-six (60%) were males, and twenty-four (40%) were females. Atrial fibrillation was noted in 43.33% of the patients of mitral valve stenosis. There was a marked difference in the mean volume of the left atrium among the two groups. We observed that the mean area of the mitral valve for Group A patients was larger than that of patients in Group B. Our study showed an inverse correlation between left atrial volume and mitral valve area among Group A patients. Conclusion: Patients of mitral stenosis are at an increased risk of developing atrial fibrillation if the left atrial volume is increasing. All patients with mitral stenosis should have routine echocardiography & measurement of left atrial volumes, so that proper treatment can be started if the left atrial volume is increasing, to prevent atrial fibrillation

Labour Market Dynamics in Pakistan: Evidence from the Longitudinal Data

The bulk of research on labour market conditions in Pakistan has concentrated on the economic activity rate, the number of employed persons, or the unemployment rate at a particular point in time. These stock measures of labour market situation are useful from a policy viewpoint as they give a broad indication of the dimension of the problem. For example, the recent labour force surveys show an increase in the level of open unemployment from 5.9 percent in 1997-98 to 7.8 percent in 1999-2000 [Pakistan (2001)]. There is also an emerging consensus that during the 1990s poverty has increased at the national as well as for rural and urban areas of the country [Qureshi and Arif (2001)]. Labour market is considered as the main route for establishing the link between macro policies, the resulting GDP growth and poverty alleviation [Rahman (2002)]. Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (IPRSP) and other development plans have suggested various targets of employment creation for poverty reduction

COMPARATIVE EFFICACY OF DETOMIDINE AND DETOMIDINE - KETAMINE COCKTAIL IN QUAILS

Twenty adult healthy quails (Coturnix coturnix) were divided into two equal groups. One group was administered detomidine (2.4 mg/kg, I/M) and other group was administered detomidine-ketamine cocktail (1.2 mg/kg + 30 mg/kg, I/M). Detomidine slowly and smoothly induced a light sedation accompanied by superficial analgesia, hypoventilation, hypothermia and bradycardia in all birds. Detomidine-ketamine cocktail rapidly and smoothly induced a deep anaesthesia accompanied by deep analgesia, hypoventilation, hypothermia and bradycardia and complete loss of all reflexes in all birds. In both groups, recovery from sedation and anaesthesia was smooth and of short duration. From this study it was concluded that for minor and least painful procedures in quails detomidine can be used alone, while for major and painful surgical procedures detomidine-ketamine combination should be preferred

Numerical Analysis of Torsional Reinforcement of Concrete Beams in Unconventional by ANSYS Software

In this study, a finite element analysis is conducted to study the behaviour of RC beams with different configurations of transverse reinforcement under torsion. These configurations of stirrups are traditional closed stirrups, circular spiral stirrups, and inclined rectangular spiral stirrups. The numerical torsional load values are compared with the experimental torsional load values from previous research. The numerical analysis determined by the ANSYS software shows a reasonable agreement with the experimental torsional load values. The numerical results demonstrate that the use of continuous rectangular spiral stirrups improved the torsional response compared to using another type of beam stirrup. Thus, numerical results show that continuous spiral stirrups are effective at increasing torsional capacity. It is also noted that the behaviour of these beams with continuous spiral stirrups is better than the behaviour of the beams with traditional stirrups. The beams with helical reinforcement, which are TB2, TB3, and TB4 spiral reinforcements, greatly enhanced the toughness. The equivalent stresses are 13.709, 13.728, 14.72, and 15.894 MPa, while the equivalent elastic strains are 0.00421, 0.00377, 0.00347, and 0.00539 mm/mm for the beams TB2, TB3, and TB4, respectively. The beam TB4 had the highest stress and strain value, so its strength improved its ductility properties. As a result, the stirrups' configurations enabled the detection of beam failure mechanisms by improving torsional behaviour when compared to the beam's traditional stirrups. As a result, this research adds more knowledge to the literature on the most effective spiral stirrups for transverse reinforcement to improve the torsional behaviour of beams. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2023-09-01-04 Full Text: PD

On the performance of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) using FPGA

In this paper,  non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is designed and implemented for the fifth generation (5G) of multi-user wireless communication.  Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is considered for the implementation of this technique for two users. NOMA is applied in downlink phase of the base-station (BS) by applying power allocation mechanism for far and near users, in which one signal contains the superposition of two scaled signals depending on the distance of each user from the BS.  We assume an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel for each user in the presence of the interference due to the non-orthogonality between the two users’ signals. Therefore, successive-interference cancellation (SIC) is exploited to remove the undesired signal of the other user. The outage probability and the bit-error rate performance are presented over different signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). Furthermore, Monte-Carlo simulations via Matlab are utilized to verify the results obtained by FPGA, which show exact-close match

Effect of water to cement ratio and replacement percentage of recycled concrete aggregate on the concrete strength

Fine Recycled Concrete Aggregate (FRCA) is one of the construction waste can be recycled. It can be the aggregate to replace the natural aggregate in concrete since we know the physical properties of materials are hard and strong. Demand for sand in the concrete production has been increased which become the problems in the concrete industry. This work deals with the effect of concrete incorporating with FRCA as partial replacement of sand. The percentage of natural sand replaced by the FRCA was 0%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, 45% and 60%. Other than that, water cement ratio was manipulated variable started form 0.40, 0.45, 0.50, 0.55 and 0.60. In short, 20% replacement was the most suitable interaction of FRCA in the concrete occur that contribute to increasing in compressive strength. The porosity properties of FRCA been neutralized on that replacement percentage by the present of optimum filler effect generated form the very fine FRCA particle during the mixing process. Meanwhile, 0.50 water cement ratio was optimum condition for cement hydration process using FRCA as partial sand replacement

Detection and Antibiotic Susceptibility Pattern of Biofilm Producing Gram Positive and Gram Negative Bacteria Isolated From a Tertiary Care Hospital of Pakistan

Microorganisms adhere to non-living material or living tissue, and form biofilms made up of extracellular polymers/slime. Biofilm-associated microorganisms behave differently from free-floating bacteria with respect to growth rates and ability to resist antimicrobial treatments and therefore pose a public health problem. The objective of this study is to detect the prevalence of biofilm producers among Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria isolated from clinical specimens, and to study their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern. The study was carried out from October 2009 to March 2010, at the Department of Microbiology, Army Medical College/ National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Clinical specimens were received from various wards of a tertiary care hospital. These were dealt by standard microbiological procedures. Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria isolated were subjected to biofilm detection by congo red agar method (CRA). Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of those isolates, which showed positive results (slime production), was done according to the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion technique. A total of 150 isolates were tested for the production of biofilm/slime. Among them, 81 isolates showed positive results. From these 81, 51 were Gram positive and 30 were Gram negative. All the 81(54%) slime producers showed reduced susceptibility to majority of antibiotics. Bacterial biofilms are an important virulence factor associated with chronic nosocomial infection. Detection of biofilm forming organisms can help in appropriate antibiotic choice