Maternal education, empowerment, economic status and child polio vaccination uptake in Pakistan: a population based cross sectional study

Objectives: To explore the association of maternal education and empowerment with childhood polio vaccination using nationally representative data of Pakistani mothers in a reproductive age group. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Secondary analysis of Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS), 2012–2013 data was performed. Participants: Of the 13 558 mothers included in the survey sample, 6982 mothers were able to provide information regarding polio vaccinations. Main outcome measures: Polio vaccination coverage among children aged up to 5 years was categorised as complete vaccination (all four oral polio vaccine (OPV) doses), incomplete vaccination, and no vaccination (zero OPV dose received). Mothers' empowerment status was assessed using standard ‘Measure DHS’ questions regarding their involvement in decision-making related to health, household possessions and visits among family and friends. Education was categorised as no education, primary, secondary and higher education. Results of multinomial regression analyses were reported as adjusted OR with 95% CI. We adjusted for age, wealth index, urban/rural residence, place of delivery, and antenatal and postnatal visits. Results: Only 56.4% (n=3936) of the children received complete polio vaccination. Women with no education had significantly higher odds of their child receiving no polio vaccination (OR 2.34, 95% CI 1.05 to 5.18; p<0.01) and incomplete vaccination (OR 1.40, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.87; p<0.01). Further, unempowered women also had significantly higher odds of not taking their child for any polio vaccination (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.17 to 2.12; p<0.01) and incomplete vaccination (OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.41; p=0.04). Conclusions: Illiteracy, socioeconomic status and empowerment of women remained significant factors linked to poorer uptake of routine polio vaccination

Scribe Marks at Fuselage Joints: Determination of Residual Stress and Effects of Fatigue Loading Using Nanoindentation and Snychrotron X-Ray Diffraction

Empirical understanding of fatigue crack growth from small defects is of tremendous importance and of significant concern for structural integrity of aerospace structures. In fatigue, a crack initiates from a stress concentration location and causes premature failure. In principle fatigue life for scribes and scratches is function of the stress concentration around the root which depends upon the depth and root radius of the scribe, the associated microstructure, the residual stress field, work hardening from plastic deformation during scribing and relaxation or redistribution of these residual stresses in fatigue. The scope of the present work is on determination of the residual stress field around scribe marks of different geometries and the effect of fatigue loading on the residual stress field. The determination of a local residual stress field in a small area of 100 μm x 100 μm around shallow scribes (<150 μm deep) is a very challenging engineering problem. Additionally, the large grain size of A1 2024-T351 (-20 μm), anisotropy between grains and texture makes further difficulties. The residual stress field associated with scribes of different geometries produced by different tools has been measured using synchrotron X-ray diffraction. It was found that some tools produce a severe tensile stress field and work hardening around the root of scribe as compared to the other tools which also produce a tensile residual stress field but without work hardening. Additionally, a method of extraction of residual stress has been developed using the nanoindentation load-displacement data. The method has been applied to extract residual stresses while taking into account the plastic deformation around scribe roots. The residual stress field of twenty nine scribes of different geometries produced from different tools has been determined from the nanoindentation method. Depending upon the tool and root radius, residual stresses were different in magnitude and were found in the range of +100MPa to +200MPa. The effect of fatigue loading on the relaxation of pre-existing residual stresses was studied. It was found that stress field around scribes is not affected by fatigue loading. It was concluded that fatigue life of these scribes should be examined with consideration of residual stresses. Any crack initiation and propagation model without consideration of residual stress fields may predict more conservative lives in fatigue

Secure digital voting system based on blockchain technology

Electronic voting or e-voting has been used in varying forms since 1970s with fundamental benefits over paper based systems such as increased efficiency and reduced errors. However, there remain challenges to achieve wide spread adoption of such systems especially with respect to improving their resilience against potential faults. Blockchain is a disruptive technology of current era and promises to improve the overall resilience of e-voting systems. This paper presents an effort to leverage benefits of blockchain such as cryptographic foundations and transparency to achieve an effective scheme for e-voting. The proposed scheme conforms to the fundamental requirements for e-voting schemes and achieves end-to-end verifiability. The paper presents details of the proposed e-voting scheme along with its implementation using Multichain platform. The paper presents in-depth evaluation of the scheme which successfully demonstrates its effectiveness to achieve an end-to-end verifiable e-voting scheme

Financial and Operating Working Capital: Unraveling Obscured Portion of Balance Sheet

ABSTRACT Purpose- The purpose of this study is to provide a new obscured aspect of financial working capital in working capital management, and investigate the association between financial and operating working capital with business performance. This paper also examines the interacting effect of net cash flow on this relationship. The current study introduces a modification in cash conversion cycle (CCC) by taking concealed trade advance payments. Design/methodology/approach- This study employs fixed effect regression model, covering a sample of Automobile sector companies, listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for the period of fourteen years from 2005 to 2018. Secondary data is collected from companies’ financial annual reports, PSX website, and Balance sheet analysis of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). The study is explanatory and deductive in nature. Financial working capital (FWC) and new measure of operating working capital (OWC) i.e. modified cash conversion cycle (mCCC) is introduced &amp; empirically tested with 252 firm-year observations. Findings- The regression results shows, a convex association between OWC &amp; FWC, with business performance, in dearth of internal cash. However, after taking interacting effect of internal availability of cash, only FWC relation has become concave. The result also shows that mCCC provides a more realistic view of OWC. Research limitations/implications- This study has considered, concealed trade prepayments only, further research could include other components in mCCC. Moreover micro, macro factors and status of the economy such as depression or boom may also affect the results of the research. The findings suggest that managers should separately deal operating &amp; financial working capital. Firms’ performance can be enhanced, if Finance Manager Take account internal cash of the firm. In case of deficiency (sufficiency) of it, he should work to decrease (increase) the investment amount in operating working capital (financial working capital). Overall, the results will be helpful to the financial experts and business practitioner in analyzing, and utilization of their resources. Originality/value- This study adds a new dimension in working capital by separating it into operating and financial working capital.&nbsp; The study also offers insights into the new knowledge of extension in CCC, role of concealed advance payments and internal cash flow, for class teachers and business practitioners. It will also describe the new avenues for further research in this field.&nbsp; &nbsp; Key Words:&nbsp; Financial working capital, Operating working capital, Trade advanced payments and modified cash conversion cycle (mCCC)

Constructing Hard Examples for Graph Isomorphism.

We describe a method for generating graphs that provide difficult examples for practical Graph Isomorphism testers. We first give the theoretical construction, showing that we can have a family of graphs without any non-trivial automorphisms which also have high Weisfeiler-Leman dimension. The construction is based on properties of random 3XOR-formulas. We describe how to convert such a formula into a graph which has the desired properties with high probability. We validate the method by experimental implementations. We construct random formulas and validate them with a SAT solver to filter through suitable ones, and then convert them into graphs. Experimental results demonstrate that the resulting graphs do provide hard examples that match the hardest known benchmarks for graph isomorphism

Social relationship based routing for delay tolerant Bluetooth-enabled PSN communications

PhDOpportunistic networking is a concept derived from the mobile ad hoc networking in which devices have no prior knowledge of routes to the intended destinations. Content dissemination in opportunistic networks thus is carried out in a store and forward fashion. Opportunistic routing poses distinct challenges compared to the traditional networks such as Internet and mobile ad hoc networks where nodes have prior knowledge of the routes to the intended destinations. Information dissemination in opportunistic networks requires dealing with intermittent connectivity, variable delays, short connection durations and dynamic topology. Addressing these challenges becomes a significant motivation for developing novel applications and protocols for information dissemination in opportunistic networks. This research looks at opportunistic networking, specifically at networks composed of mobile devices or, pocket switched networks. Mobile devices are now accepted as an integral part of society and are often equipped with Bluetooth capabilities that allow for opportunistic information sharing between devices. The ad hoc nature of opportunistic networks means nodes have no advance routing knowledge and this is key challenge. Human social relationships are based on certain patterns that can be exploited to make opportunistic routing decisions. Targeting nodes that evidence high popularity or high influence can enable more efficient content dissemination. Based on this observation, a novel impact based neighbourhood algorithm called Lobby Influence is presented. The algorithm is tested against two previously proposed algorithms and proves better in terms of message delivery and delay. Moreover, unlike other social based algorithms, which have a tendency to concentrate traffic through their identified routing nodes, the new algorithm provides a fairer load distribution, thus alleviating the tendency to saturate individual nodes

A Quantum Key Distribution Network Through Single Mode Optical Fiber

Quantum key distribution (QKD) has been developed within the last decade that is provably secure against arbitrary computing power, and even against quantum computer attacks. Now there is a strong need of research to exploit this technology in the existing communication networks. In this paper we have presented various experimental results pertaining to QKD like Raw key rate and Quantum bit error rate (QBER). We found these results over 25 km single mode optical fiber. The experimental setup implemented the enhanced version of BB84 QKD protocol. Based upon the results obtained, we have presented a network design which can be implemented for the realization of large scale QKD networks. Furthermore, several new ideas are presented and discussed to integrate the QKD technique in the classical communication networks.Comment: This paper has been submitted to the 2006 International Symposium on Collaborative Technologies and Systems (CTS 2006)May 14-17, 2006, Las Vegas, Nevada, US

China-India counterbalancing measures through international corridors and ports: the focus on Chabahar and Gwadar ports

Beijing and New Delhi, as new world emerging powers, despite border skirmishes, have not considered themselves arch-rivals. Still, the necessities of real politics have forced India to take counter-measures towards China's grand connectivity strategy in the framework of BRI and the Maritime Silk Road. This article assumes that China's grand connectivity strategy has not targeted India in particular, but unavoidably it has affected India's strategic interests in the Indian Ocean and Eurasia. In a qualitative and case study methodology, this research explains China's grand connectivity strategy and how it affects Indian strategic interests. It also elaborates on India's counter-measures vis-à-vis China policy. It concluded that the Chinese connectivity strategy has affected Indian strategic interests in the Indian Ocean and Eurasia. Therefore, Chabahar, Gwadar ports, and Malacca Strait are centers of gravity in these great connectivity rivalries

Trust Repair by Public Kindergartens: Mediating Role of Positive Emotions: A case of kindergartens in Anhui Province, China

The trust of the public for public organizations is greatly damaged because of the repeated occurrence of violations of trust events, which has an outcome in the form of serious trust deficit. This paper examines the post-trust of parents in kindergarten that extends apology with an internal or external attribution after a competence or integrity-based trust violation. We asked about 855 parents to respond to a scenario in which they read about violation of competence with apology internal or about violation of integrity with apology external. After reading a scenario based hypothetical situation they respond to a questionnaire. Each participant was presented with one of the scenarios. The results revealed a significant interaction whereby parent’s leads to post trust more successfully when kindergarten apologized with an internal attribution in matters of violation concerned matters of competence but apologized with an external attribution when the trust violation concerned matters of integrity. Positive emotions mediate the relationship between apology with internal attribution in matters of competence violation or apology with external attribution in matters of integrity violation and post trust. Keywords: Trust Repair, Trust Violation, Competence, Integrity, Apology, Attribution, Kindergarten, Emotions