Simulating The Impact of Emissions Control on Economic Productivity Using Particle Systems and Puff Dispersion Model

A simulation platform is developed for quantifying the change in productivity of an economy under passive and active emission control mechanisms. The program uses object-oriented programming to code a collection of objects resembling typical stakeholders in an economy. These objects include firms, markets, transportation hubs, and boids which are distributed over a 2D surface. Firms are connected using a modified Prim’s Minimum spanning tree algorithm, followed by implementation of an all-pair shortest path Floyd Warshall algorithm for navigation purposes. Firms use a non-linear production function for transformation of land, labor, and capital inputs to finished product. A GA-Vehicle Routing Problem with multiple pickups and drop-offs is implemented for efficient delivery of commodities across multiple nodes in the economy. Boids are autonomous agents which perform several functions in the economy including labor, consumption, renting, saving, and investing. Each boid is programmed with several microeconomic functions including intertemporal choice models, Hicksian and Marshallian demand function, and labor-leisure model. The simulation uses a Puff Dispersion model to simulate the advection and diffusion of emissions from point and mobile sources in the economy. A dose-response function is implemented to quantify depreciation of a Boid’s health upon contact with these emissions. The impact of emissions control on productivity and air quality is examined through a series of passive and active emission control scenarios. Passive control examines the impact of various shutdown times on economic productivity and rate of emissions exposure experienced by boids. The active control strategy examines the effects of acceptable levels of emissions exposure on economic productivity. The key findings on 7 different scenarios of passive and active emissions controls indicate that rate of productivity and consumption in an economy declines with increased scrutiny of emissions from point sources. In terms of exposure rates, the point sources may not be the primary source of average exposure rates, however they significantly impact the maximum exposure rate experienced by a boid. Tightening of emissions control also negatively impacts the transportation sector by reducing the asset utilization rate as well as reducing the total volume of goods transported across the economy

Location Optimization of a Coal Power Plant to Balance Coal Supply and Electric Transmission Costs Against Plant’s Emission Exposure

This research is focused on developing a location analysis methodology that can minimize the pollutant exposure to the public while ensuring that the combined costs of electric transmission losses and coal logistics are minimized. Coal power plants will provide a critical contribution towards meeting electricity demands for various nations in the foreseeable future. The site selection for a new coal power plant is extremely important from an investment point of view. The operational costs for running a coal power plant can be minimized by a combined emphasis on placing a coal power plant near coal mines as well as customers. However, this business strategy has produced a detrimental effect on the environment in various nations around the globe. In this new era of rapid urbanization, increased electric utility demand and environmental consciousness; the location analysis for a new coal power plant needs to include both the investment and environmental considerations. To provide a general background of the issue, a detailed literature review was conducted on the topics of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pollutant dispersion models, health effects due to exposure to pollutants, coal logistics, electric transmission technical losses, and location analysis models. Next, a methodology, based on dynamic programming, was formulated by combing the EPA’s pollutant dispersion models with the minimum spanning tree algorithm to calculate the combined costs of coal logistics and electric transmission losses for a given set of coal mines and customers present on a network. The subsequent simulation was developed based on the proposed methodology. The simulation successful ly proved that the selection of a site on a grid map provided the minimum of the combined cost of electric line losses and coal transportation, and no customers were exposed to pollutant concentration above the declared threshold for that pollutant. The resultant emission’s data were validated via comparing against the EPA Screen3 and Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI-LIS) models. The minimum spanning tree for electric transmission lines and coal transportation were validated using R-software

An Exploratory Study to Find the Early Trend and Pattern Recognition of COVID-19 Infection in India: A Severity Model-Based Prediction

Background: Recent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has inflicted the whole world critically. Although India has been listed amongst the top ten highly affected countries to date, one cannot rule out COVID-19 associated complications in the near future. Aim & Objective: We aim to build the COVID-19 severity model employing logistic function which determines the inflection point and help in the prediction of the future number of confirmed cases. Methods and Material: An empirical study was performed on the COVID-19 patient status in India. We performed the study commencing from 30 January 2020 to 12 July 2020 for the analysis. Exploratory data analysis (EDA) tools and techniques were applied to establish a correlation amongst the various features. The acute stage of the disease was mapped in order to build a robust model. We collected five different datasets to execute the study. Results: We found that men were more prone to get infected with the coronavirus disease as compared to women. On 165-days based analysis, we found a trending pattern of confirmed, recovered, deceased and active cases of COVID-19 in India. The as-developed growth model provided an inflection point of 72.0 days. It also predicted the number of confirmed cases as 17,80,000.0 in the future i.e. after 12th July. A growth rate of 32.0 percent was obtained. We achieved statistically significant correlations amongst growth rate and predicted COVID-19 confirmed cases. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the effective application of EDA and analytical modeling in building a mathematical severity model for COVID-19 in India

On an Empirical Definition of Money for Pakistan

In the realm of monetary economics, the question of the appropriate definition of money is both crucial and controversial. Various definitions of money offered by monetary economists differ widely. While narrowly defined money consists of currency and demand deposits only. other broader definitions of money include a host of other assets as well. The choice of the most appropriate monetary aggregate is an empirical issue and needs to be settled empirically. In the literature a number of methods are available for defining money empirically. To mention only two of them, Meltzer (1963) and Laidler (1966) consider that definition o f money the most appropriate which gives the most stable demand function for money while Chetty (1969), Moroney and Wilberatte (1976), Boughton (1981) and Husted and Rush (1984) infer their definition of money on the basis of the degree of substitutability between narrowly defined money and other financial assets. Although the two methods are closely linked, the latter has the advantage of providing a direct measure of the degree of substitutability between various financial assets and also allows for defining money as a sort of weighted average of these assets based on this substitutability rather than a simple-sum aggregation

HERBAL PLANTS - A BOON FOR HEPATOTOXICITY

Liver diseases have become one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality all over the world. From among, drug-induced liver injury is one ofthe most common causative factors that possess a major clinical and regulatory challenge. Herbal plants have been used traditionally by herbalistworldwide for the prevention and treatment of liver disease. Herbal medicines have recently attracted much attention as alternative medicines usefulfor treating or preventing lifestyle related disorders and relatively very little knowledge is available about their mode of action. There has been agrowing interest in the analysis of plant products which has stimulated intense research on their potential health benefits. Allopathic drugs causetoxicity to the liver by elevating the levels of various biomarkers present in the liver. At present, no single allopathic drug is available in the market forliver damage. Only Liv.52 and silymarin are herbal medicine for this purpose, so herbal drugs have a strong potential in the treatment of liver diseases.The herbal market, in the recent times, is growing day by day and is accepted at the global level. The present review focused on different herbal plantsthat have been tested for hepatotoxicity in different animal models.Keywords: Hepatoprotective activity, Liver, Hepatotoxicity, Serum enzymes, Silymarin, Liv.52, Herbal plants

Dementia survey among Attendees of a Dementia Awareness Event in Karachi, Pakistan

There is little information available about peoples\u27knowledgeregarding symptoms of dementia, dementia diagnosis, and care arrangementsfor dementia patients in Pakistan. Aims: We aimed to find out if patients with dementia and their caregivers were aware of diagnosis, the most common and most distressing symptoms, and care arrangement for these patients

Big data analytics capability and decision making performance in emerging market firms : The role of Contractual and Relational Governance Mechanisms

Peer reviewedPostprin

The Role of Financial institutions and the Economic Growth: A Literature Review

The coercion to uplift an economy in a right way to growth is more a mystery than a fact. Every country in the world is determined to be amongst the strong economies of the world. This draws a line of difference between developed and developing economies of the world. Developed countries have strong economies as compared to the developing countries. Economic growth is the major intent of every nation that contributes towards its development but there are certain hurdles such as over population, illiteracy and political instability that hold back their economic growth. Economic growth of every nation is dependent upon the role of financial institutions and the ultimate financial development. Policymakers and economists generally agree that financial development contributes towards financial institutions and markets, such as commercial and investment banks, bond and stock exchanges which in turn lead to economic growth.

Effect of utilization of antenatal services on pregnancy outcome in Aligarh - A Community based study

Background: Low birthweight has long been used as an important public health indicator. Low birthweight is not a proxy for any one dimension of either maternal or perinatal health outcomes rather this indicator is a good summary measure of a multifaceted public health problem that includes long-term maternal malnutrition, ill health, hard work and poor pregnancy health care. Methods: The present Community based prospective study was conducted in the field practice areas of the Urban and Rural Health Training Centers, Department of Community Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. Registered pregnant women who were in their first trimester and whose Expected Date of Delivery lie within our study period of one year were considered for study. Three home visits were made (two in antenatal period, one in post-natal period). Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Percentages, and Chi Square Test used.  Results: Prevalence of LBW was found to be 40%. Statistically significant association was found between antenatal visits, iron folic acid supplementation and birth weight of baby. Conclusion: More number of antenatal visits equate to better antenatal care of females.  It may result in better compliance with irofol supplementation and dietary intake and also early detection of any complications thus resulting in lower rates of LBW

The Response of Land Surface Temperature to the Changing Land-Use Land-Cover in a Mountainous Landscape under the Influence of Urbanization: Gilgit City as a case study in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region of Pakistan

With growing urbanization in mountainous landscapes, the built-up areas dominate other land use classesresulting in increased land surface temperature (LST). Gilgit city in northern Pakistan has witnessed tremendousurban growth in the recent past decades. It is anticipated that this growth will exponentially increase in the nearfuture because of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiatives, as this city happens to be thecommercial hub of the northern region of Pakistan. The objective of present study is to explore the influence ofland use and land cover variations on LST and to evaluate the relationship between LST with normalizeddifference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized difference water index (NDWI), and normalized difference built -up index (NDBI) values. This study is carried out on data from Google earth and three Landsat images (Landsat 5-TM, Landsat 7-ETM, and Landsat OLI_TIRS-8) during the period from 1992, 2004 and 2016. Land use/coverclasses are determined through supervised classification and LST maps are created using the Mono -windowalgorithm. The accuracy assessment of land use/cover classes is carried out comparing Google Earth digitizedvector for the periods of 2004 and 2016 with Landsat classified images. Further, NDVI, NDBI, and NDWI mapsare computed from images for years 1992, 2004, and 2016. The relationships of LST with NDVI, NDBI, andNDWI are computed using Linear Regression analysis. The results reveal that the variations in land use and landcover play a substantial role in LST variability. The maximum temperatures are connected with built -up areas andbarren land, ranging from 48.4°C, 50.7°C, 51.6°C, in 1992, 2004, and 2016, respectively. Inversely, minimumtemperatures are linked to forests and water bodies, ranging from 15.1°C, 16°C, 21.6°C, in 1992, 2004, and 2016respectively. This paper also results that NDBI correlates positively with high temperatures, whereas NDVI andNDWI associate negatively with lesser temperatures. The study will support to policymakers and urban planners tostrategize the initiatives for eco-friendly and climate-resilient urban development in fragile mountainouslandscapes