Using audio and visual information for single channel speaker separation

This work proposes a method to exploit both audio and vi- sual speech information to extract a target speaker from a mix- ture of competing speakers. The work begins by taking an ef- fective audio-only method of speaker separation, namely the soft mask method, and modifying its operation to allow visual speech information to improve the separation process. The au- dio input is taken from a single channel and includes the mix- ture of speakers, where as a separate set of visual features are extracted from each speaker. This allows modification of the separation process to include not only the audio speech but also visual speech from each speaker in the mixture. Experimen- tal results are presented that compare the proposed audio-visual speaker separation with audio-only and visual-only methods us- ing both speech quality and speech intelligibility metrics

Public Provision of Education and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on education in Pakistan at the provincial (both rural and urban) level, using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-2005, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising provision of education in Pakistan, as well as the trend in coverage and public sector spending on education facilities in Pakistan. The study examines the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision in relation to the government education expenditure. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the education facilities. Overall, the expenditure on the education sector is progressive, both at the regional and the provincial levels. However, variation exists in the shares of different income groups benefit from the provision of educational facilities created by public expenditure.education, public expenditure, Public Policy, Gini Coefficient, Concentration Coefficient, Benefit Incidence Approach

Public Provision of Education and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on education in Pakistan at the provincial (both rural and urban) level, using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-2005, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising provision of education in Pakistan, as well as the trend in coverage and public sector spending on education facilities in Pakistan. The study examines the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision in relation to the government education expenditure. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the education facilities. Overall, the expenditure on the education sector is progressive, both at the regional and the provincial levels. However, variation exists in the shares of different income groups’ benefit from the provision of educational facilities created by public expenditure.Education, Public Expenditure, Public Policy, Gini Coefficient, Concentration Coefficient, Benefit Incidence Approach

Health Care Services and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on health in Pakistan at provincial, both rural and urban level; using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-05, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach (BIA) methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising health services as well as the trend in access to and public sector spending on health care facilities in Pakistan. The study explores the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision against the government health expenditures. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the health care facilities. The expenditures in health sectors are overall regressive in rural Pakistan as well as at provincial and regional levels. Mother and Child subhead is regressive in Punjab and General Hospitals and Clinics are regressive in all provinces. Only the Preventive Measures and health facilities sub-sector is progressive in Pakistan. Public health expenditures are pro-rich in Pakistan.health, Expenditure, Public Policy, Gini, Concentration Coefficient, Mother and Child, Preventive Measures, Hospital and Clinics

Health Care Services and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on health in Pakistan at provincial, both rural and urban level; using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard Living Measures Survey (PSLM), 2004-05, and by employing the three-step Benefit Incidence Approach (BIA) methodology. The paper reviews the national policies emphasising health services as well as the trend in access to and public sector spending on health care facilities in Pakistan. The study explores the inequalities in resource distribution and service provision against the government health expenditures. The rural areas of Pakistan are the more disadvantaged in the provision of the health care facilities. The expenditures in health sectors are overall regressive in rural Pakistan as well as at provincial and regional levels. Mother and Child subhead is regressive in Punjab and General Hospitals and Clinics are regressive in all provinces. Only the Preventive Measures and health facilities sub-sector is progressive in Pakistan. Public health expenditures are pro-rich in Pakistan.Health, Expenditure, Public Policy, Gini, Concentration Coefficient, Mother and Child, Preventive Measures, Hospital and Clinics

Delivering Access to Safe Drinking Water and Adequate Sanitation in Pakistan

Provision of safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and personal hygiene are vital for the sustainable environmental conditions and reducing the incidence of diarrhoea, malaria, trachoma, hepatitis A & B and morbidity levels. Not having access to water and sanitation is a courteous expression for a form of deprivation that threatens life, destroys opportunity and undermines human dignity. Thus, investing in the provision of safe water supply and adequate sanitation is not only a development oriented strategy in itself, it can also yield other socio-economic benefits in terms of improved health status, quality of labour force and reduced burden-of-disease. Water and Sanitation is the neglected sector in Pakistan. Most of the households in Pakistan do not have access to safe drinking water and lack toilets and adequate sanitation systems. These poor people, mostly living in rural areas or urban slums, are not only deprived of financial resources, but they also lack admittance to basic needs such as education, health, safe water supply and environmental sanitation facilities. As of 2005, approximately 38.5 million people lacked access to safe drinking water source and approximately 50.7 million people lacked access to improved sanitation in Pakistan. By year 2015, if this trend continues, 52.8 million people will be deprived of safe drinking water and 43.2 million people will have no access to adequate sanitation facilities in Pakistan. It is not to calculate what percentages of population have access to a particular service so far and how much numbers of beneficiaries will be added by year 2015; it is to investigate that even if we meet the national and/or regional targets in Pakistan, how much population will still be deprived of these most basic human needs.Drinking Water, Sanitation, Solid Waste, Waste Water, Public Policy, Public Expenditure, Hygiene

Less Water, More Holy: Tools for Sustainable Ablution

Prayer is an important part of life for many people, whether it takes the form of meditation or talking to God. Muslims pray five times a day, and before each prayer, they first clean themselves by performing ritual ablution (wudu). The eight-step purification process of wudu cleanses the body from head to toe. The Hadiths of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim tell us the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ needed just one mudd of water (650ml) to complete wudu, but most people consume many times that amount—four-to-seven liters is more common today. To visualize and better understand the nature of performing wudu with just one mudd of water, this thesis includes a two-part research investigation. A first part proposes eight individual artifacts—each one designed to analyze and illustrate the process of wudu, showing how little water is needed for each step of the process. Next, lessons extracted from this analytical phase inform a series of contemporary artifacts, designed to guide users toward a more reflective and sustainable wudu, modeled on and inspired by the teachings of the Prophet ﷺ

Attitude Towards Civil Service of Pakistan: A Perception Survey

Amid growing concerns on the popularity of the civil service among the students, the study reports the findings of a perception survey of enrolled university students. Contrary to common perceptions, the results suggest that the civil service still retains its allure among the potential entrants. Those who prefer the civil service as a career are more concerned with job security than those who prefer a job in the private sector. The Foreign Service of Pakistan appears to be the most favourite group whereas the Accounts Group is the least preferred. The District Management Group (DMG) seems to no longer enjoy a coveted position due perhaps to the implementation of the devolution plan which has stripped the group of its power and privileges.Students, Civil Service, Public Choice, Job Search, Employment Decision

Deepa Narayan (ed.). Measuring Empowerment: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives. Washington, D.C.: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank, 2005. Pages xx+475. Paperback. Price not given.

‘Empowerment’ has different meanings in different sociocultural and political contexts, and does not translate easily into all languages. Choosing indicators for measuring empowerment, therefore, depends on the social, economic, political, and cultural environment of the target population, and this multi-dimensional nature of empowerment complicates issues of measurement. This book brings forth the different indicators of empowerment in a cross-disciplinary perspective, underlining the challenge of evaluating empowerment and its contribution to development effectiveness and outcome

Philip Albert Theodor Kircher. Poverty Reduction Strategies. Gottingen Studies in Development Economics. Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang, 2002. xiv+275 pages. Paperback. Price not given.

Poverty is one of the most depressing global problems in the world today. Therefore, there is a growing consensus among development organisations that poverty alleviation should be the primary goal of cooperation between the rich and the poor countries. This consensus is due to the awareness that a widening international income gap threatens the well-being of people in the rich countries. In this volume, the author, Philip Kircher, offers a comprehensive study on the evolution, the content, the different national accentuations, and the problem of the international consensus on poverty alleviation, and provides a systematic analysis of today’s donor strategies for development cooperation for poverty reduction. The study focuses specifically on the strategic positions of the World Bank, the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom, the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany, and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), as well as the positions presented by the governments of these countries in regard to development