Socio-Economic Characterization of Communities in Integrated Watershed Development

Arid Agriculture University, Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics, Rawalpindi, PakistanCommunity/Rural/Urban Development,

Microstructural Evolution and Mechanical Properties of High Strength Magneisum Alloys Fabricated by Deformation Processing.

The goal of this research was to develop high strength Mg by thermo-mechanical processing. Several novel techniques were developed to impart large plastic strains on Mg alloys and Mg based composites. The main emphasis of this work was on investigating the effect of different processing schemes on grain-refinement and texture modification of processed material. The room-temperature and elevated-temperature mechanical behavior of processed-Mg was studied in detail. Biaxial corrugated pressing, also known as alternate biaxial reverse corrugation processing was applied to twin-roll cast AZ31 Mg and warm-extruded ZK60 Mg. Friction stir processing to partial depths was applied to thixomolded AM60 Mg and warm-extruded ZK60 Mg. A new process called ‘bending reverse-bending”, was developed and applied to hot rolled AZ31-H24 Mg. A Mg/Al laminated composite was developed by hot pressing and rolling. In processed condition, Mg alloys exhibit enhancement in room-temperature strength and ductility, as-well as elevated temperature formability. It was concluded that improvement in mechanical properties of processed-Mg is strongly influenced by grain size and precipitates; while ductility largely depends on resulting deformation textures.Ph.D.Materials Science and EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78920/1/bilalm_1.pd

Volatility of stock markets (An analysis of South Asian and G8 countries)

The objective of this study is to make an analysis of volatility of stock markets between South Asian Stock Markets and Stock Markets of Group of Eight Countries. For this purpose, three major South Asian countries Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka are selected while Group of Eight Countries include France, Russia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and USA. The stock indexes include KSE 100 (Pakistan), SENSEX (India), ASPI (Sri Lanka), CAC 40 (France), DAX (Germany), S &P / TSX Composite (Canada), FTSE MIB (Italy), RTS (Russia), Nikkei 225 (Japan), S & P 500 (USA) and FTSE 100 (UK). Data is collected from the period of January 1st 2005 to August 31st 2015. ARCH and GARCH model is used to analyze the volatility of South Asian Stock Markets and stock markets of Group of Eight Countries. The findings show that South Asian Stock Markets are less volatile while Stock Markets of Group of Eight Countries are high volatile. This study is helpful for investors and decision maker to handle the trend of stock market and provide a direction for investors to reduce the barrier factors which affect stock market efficiency.&nbsp

Relationship between Major developed equity markets and Major Frontier Equity Markets of World

The core aim of this study is to compute the long run relationship between frontier equity markets Pakistan (KSE 100 Index), Argentina (MERVAL BUENOS AIRES) stock Exchange, NSE.20 (Kenya), MSM 30 (MSI) Oman and equity markets of developed world (OMXS30) Sweden, SMI (Switzerland), SSE Composite Index (China) and STI index (Singapore) by taking weekly values from stock return prices for the period 1st week of January-2000 to last week of January/2014.  Descriptive statistic, Correlation, Augmented dickey fuller (ADF), Phillips Perron test, Johanson and Jelseluis test of co-integration, Granger causality test, Variance Decomposition Test and Impulse Response are used to find the relationship among frontier and developed markets. The results of this study reveal that frontier markets have no long run relationship with equity markets of developed world. Furthermore, this study is helpful for investors to enhance the returns by diversifying the unsystematic risk at given level of profit because results of this study confirm that markets are no co-integrated

Structure and Growth of Core–shell Nanoprecipitates in Al–Er–Sc–Zr–V–Si High-temperature Alloys

Lightweight Sc-containing aluminum alloys exhibit superior mechanical performance at high temperatures due to core–shell, L12-ordered trialuminide nanoprecipitates. In this study, the structure of these nanoprecipitates was studied, using different transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques, for an Al–Er– Sc–Zr–V–Si alloy that was subjected to a two-stage overaging heat treatment. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy of the spherical Al3(Sc, Zr, Er ,V) nanoprecipitates revealed a core–shell structure with an Sc- and Er-enriched core and a Zr-enriched shell, without a clear V outer shell. This structure is stable up to 72% of the absolute melting temperature of Al for extended periods of time. High-angle annular dark-field scanning TEM was used to image the {100} planes of the nanoprecipitates, demonstrating a homogeneous L12-ordered superlattice structure for the entire nanoprecipitates, despite the variations in the concentrations of solute atoms within the unit cells. A possible growth path and compositional trajectory for these nanoprecipitates was proposed using high-resolution TEM observations, where different rod-like structural defects were detected, which are considered to be precursors to the spherical L12-ordered nanoprecipitates. It is also hypothesized that the structural defects could consist of segregated Si; however, this was not possible to verify with HAADF-STEM because of the small differences in Al and Si atomic numbers. The results herein allow a better understanding of how the Al–Sc alloys’ core–shell nanoprecipitates form and evolve temporally, thereby providing a better physical picture for future atomistic structural mappings and simulations

Internal mammary artery flow in different racial groups of Pakistan

Objective: To find out any differences in free flow of internal mammary artery among different ethnic groups.Methods: This observational, cross-sectional study was conducted at the Civil Hospital, Karachi, from January 2013 to December 2015, and comprised patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting. The participants were divided into 5 groups, i.e. Sindhi, Muslim migrants from India, Punjabi, Pathan and Balochi patients. Free flow of internal mammary artery was measured immediately after harvesting within a syringe, and its flow was measured in 30 seconds. SPSS 18 was used for data analysis.Results: Of the 158 patients, 44(27.8%) were Sindhi, 33(20.9%) Punjabi, 8(5%) Baloch, 21(13.3%) Pathan and 52(32.9%) were migrants. The overall mean age was 52±8 years and the mean flow was 11.6±9.6ml per 30 seconds. The flow was 9.3±6 ml, 10±8ml, 13±11ml, 17±14ml and 15±13 ml in 30 seconds among migrants, Sindhi, Punjabi, Pathan and Baloch patients, respectively, with significant higher flow in Pathan patients compared to Sindhi and migrant patients (pConclusions: Internal mammary artery flow was higher in Pathan and Baloch patients and low in migrants and Sindhis

Comparative Economics Of Users and Nonusers Of Dharabi Dam Pakistan

Water is a limiting factor for sustainable agriculture in Barani(Arid). However, rainfall is the only source of water the spatial and temporal variation of which is very high. Therefore conservation and management of this source is vital for agriculture development and socio-economic uplift of the area. This study was, mainly, also devised to address land distribution problems and consequent farm productivity in the study area. The farmers were divided into two main categories irrigated and rainfed farmers. The performance of most of the indicators i.e. yield, gross margins, farm income, labour productivity, income distribution, cropping intensity and crop diversity was found better in irrigated as compared to rainfed. While marginal factor productivity, irrigation productivity and rate of institutional credit availability was higher in irrigated area. However, rainfed area was always least efficient with respect to all of the quantified indicators. The findings of the research are helpful for the farmers of the study area in decision making among different farm enterprises. Hence it can alleviate poverty and help to bring food security in the deprived regions

Comparative Economics Of Users and Nonusers Of Dharabi Dam Pakistan

Water is a limiting factor for sustainable agriculture in Barani(Arid). However, rainfall is the only source of water the spatial and temporal variation of which is very high. Therefore conservation and management of this source is vital for agriculture development and socio-economic uplift of the area. This study was, mainly, also devised to address land distribution problems and consequent farm productivity in the study area. The farmers were divided into two main categories irrigated and rainfed farmers. The performance of most of the indicators i.e. yield, gross margins, farm income, labour productivity, income distribution, cropping intensity and crop diversity was found better in irrigated as compared to rainfed. While marginal factor productivity, irrigation productivity and rate of institutional credit availability was higher in irrigated area. However, rainfed area was always least efficient with respect to all of the quantified indicators. The findings of the research are helpful for the farmers of the study area in decision making among different farm enterprises. Hence it can alleviate poverty and help to bring food security in the deprived regions

Renal involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus in Pakistan

Objective: To find the prevalence of lupus nephritis, delineate its clinical, immunological and therapeutic characteristics and compare them with the data worldwide.PATIENTS AND Methods: Between 1985 and 2001, 198 patients with SLE fulfilling the clinical and laboratory criteria of the American Rheumatism Association (ARA) admitted to the hospital were studied by means of a retrospective review of their records.Results: Renal involvement was found in 89 (45%) patients. Biopsy showed lupus nephritis in 42 patients; there were 9 male and 33 females. Mean age at initial presentation was 27 years and mean duration of follow-up was 2 .3 years. The histological types (WHO Classification) were mainly class. 4 (n = 27), class 3 (n = 7) and class 5 (n = 6). Immunoflourescence showed a predominantly granular pattern of IgG, IgA and C3. Renal manifestations included renal failure (50%), microscopic hematuria (67%), active urine sediment (22%), and proteinuria (74%). Proteinuria was nephrotic range in 45% patients. Treatment was with combinations of prednisolone and cyclophosphamide (n = 13), prednisolone and azathioprine (n = 27). 19 patients received high dose methyl prednisolone (1 gm/day for 3 days). There was no difference in mortality rate between prednisolone and cyclophosphamide and prednisolone and azathioprine treatment groups. The overall mortality rate was 17% (n = 7). Mortality was higher in WHO class 4 and 5 as compared to class 2 and 3 (p \u3c 0.001).CONCLUSION: The prevalence of lupus nephritis in our population is an intermediate between Caucasians and other Asians. Certain clinical characteristics in our patients with lupus nephritis are different as compared to various other studies. Because of limited resources for treatment in developing countries, we believe that patients with lupus nephritis should be treated with improved ancillary medical therapies and more effective immunosuppressive regimens

Superimposed Training based Estimation of Sparse MIMO Channels for Emerging Wireless Networks

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems constitute an important part of todays wireless communication standards and these systems are expected to take a fundamental role in both the access and backhaul sides of the emerging wireless cellular networks. Recently, reported measurement campaigns have established that various outdoor radio propagation environments exhibit sparsely structured channel impulse response (CIR). We propose a novel superimposed training (SiT) based up-link channels’ estimation technique for multipath sparse MIMO communication channels using a matching pursuit (MP) algorithm; the proposed technique is herein named as superimposed matching pursuit (SI-MP). Subsequently, we evaluate the performance of the proposed technique in terms of mean-square error (MSE) and bit-error-rate (BER), and provide its comparison with that of the notable first order statistics based superimposed least squares (SI-LS) estimation. It is established that the proposed SI-MP provides an improvement of about 2dB in the MSE at signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 12dB as compared to SI-LS, for channel sparsity level of 21.5%. For BER = 10^−2, the proposed SI-MP compared to SI-LS offers a gain of about 3dB in the SNR. Moreover, our results demonstrate that an increase in the channel sparsity further enhances the performance gai