A New Weighting Scheme in Weighted Markov Model for Predicting the Probability of Drought Episodes

Drought is a complex stochastic natural hazard caused by prolonged shortage of rainfall. Several environmental factors are involved in determining drought classes at the specific monitoring station. Therefore, efficient sequence processing techniques are required to explore and predict the periodic information about the various episodes of drought classes. In this study, we proposed a new weighting scheme to predict the probability of various drought classes under Weighted Markov Chain (WMC) model. We provide a standardized scheme of weights for ordinal sequences of drought classifications by normalizing squared weighted Cohen Kappa. Illustrations of the proposed scheme are given by including temporal ordinal data on drought classes determined by the standardized precipitation temperature index (SPTI). Experimental results show that the proposed weighting scheme for WMC model is sufficiently flexible to address actual changes in drought classifications by restructuring the transient behavior of a Markov chain. In summary, this paper proposes a new weighting scheme to improve the accuracy of the WMC, specifically in the field of hydrology

Adoption of Recommended Varieties: A Farm-level Analysis of Wheat Growers in Irrigated Punjab

This study uses farm level data to analyse the determinants of adoption of recommended wheat varieties in irrigated Punjab, Pakistan. A notable proportion of wheat acreage is sown to non-recommended wheat varieties in the province. These cultivars had either lost (overtime) or did not have resistance against yellow rust. Farm size, education, and size of wheat enterprise on the farm are the important determinants of adoption of recommended wheat varieties while tractor ownership and irrigation source play a positive but insignificant role in the adoption decisions. Age and tenure proved to be less of a constraint towards adoption of the recommended wheat varieties. The likelihood of the adoption of recommended wheat varieties varied among tehsils, with the highest probabilities of adoption in Melsi and Arifwala tehsils of cotton-wheat zones I and II respectively.

Adoption of Recommended Varieties: A Farm level Analysis of Wheat Growers in Irrigated Punjab

This study uses farm level data to analyse the determinants of adoption of recommended wheat varieties in irrigated Punjab, Pakistan. A notable proportion of wheat acreage is sown to non-recommended wheat varieties in the province. These cultivars had either lost (overtime) or did not have resistance against yellow rust. Farm size, education, and size of wheat enterprise on the farm are the important determinants of adoption of recommended wheat varieties while tractor ownership and irrigation source play a positive but insignificant role in the adoption decisions. Age and tenure proved to be less of a constraint towards adoption of the recommended wheat varieties. The likelihood of the adoption of recommended wheat varieties varied among tehsils, with the highest probabilities of adoption in Melsi and Arifwala tehsils of cotton-wheat zones I and II respectively.Adoption; wheat varieties; Punjab; Pakistan

Altmetrics attention score:what is behind the numbers?

Abstract. Today the digital means of communication are evolving rapidly, resulting in more improved and reliable ways of communication. Now the information can be shared or collected instantly, which means the impact through information collection and processing can be faster too. The digital means of research dissemination are enabling people to share their work instantly and gather the attention a lot quicker than the past. The faster means of communication also enabled the researchers to share their scholarly work instantly to extensive and broader addressees. The faster and instant means also empowered to quantify the impact of research works shared or disseminated digitally. Thus, to determining the impact generated by the disseminated academic work over the internet a contemporary or well suited and up to date or alternative approach was required to measure exact or nearly related impact of research outputs disseminated over the web. The requirements for measurement of the research impact over the web enabled platforms the initiate for the introduction and implementation alternative metrics was started in the last decade. Since its advent, the altmetrics has achieved various milestones regarding the measurement of research impact. The altmetrics is an alternative metric to complement the traditional citation-based approach provided another perspective for the researchers to see the visibility and the impression of research work mentioned or disseminated on web platforms. The altmetrics opened an impressive opportunity for the researchers to determine the impact of their work instantly, alongside the opportunities provided by the altmetrics there are limitations too, which hindered its progress to completely replace the traditional approaches to measure the research impact both qualitatively and quantitatively. In this thesis study the aim was established to evaluate the altmetrics as a substitutive platform for the quantification and measurement of research influence gathered over the internet. By utilizing literature review approach this study collected most relevant research articles and analysed the collected literature to answer the proposed questions in this thesis study. The results are collected to evaluate the altmetrics as an alternative research impact measuring platform and what does the altmetrics attention score tells us about a disseminated research work. The study found the major opportunities offered by the altmetrics and the limitations for the adaptability of altmetrics as a complete alternative approach. Conclusively, study found that the adoption of altmetrics will take time and the due to existing limitations. The alternative metrics approach or the altmetrics can balance the existing citation-based approaches but can’t completely replace them. The altmetric attention score and other indicators provided by altmetrics could be a good early indicator of the research outputs to determine the future impact of disseminated scholarly work

Effects of Father Absence on Childrens Academic Performance

Historically father has been viewed as presented in a variety of different images to describe the script that they have been fulfilling. They have variously been presented as, normal observer, breadwinner, sex role model, and nurturing. The death of parents is one of the most severe trauma that a child can suffer. The loss of parents causes so many problems that a deprived child faces, among those problems the important problem is the effects on academic performance of children. This research study explain how father absence affect the academic performance of children, for this purpose a sample of 45 subjects is selected from population of same socioeconomic status, with no cultural differences. All the subjects were the students of 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th grade. The subjects were selected from three types of families, intact father children, died father children and divorced father children and was kept in three groups as: present father group, died father group and divorced father group. The statistical analysis of the results by applying statistical treatment test with critical region =1.4, and significance level =0.10 show that intact father children show better academic performance than absent father children. The dyed father children and divorcees children show the same academic performance which reveals that father presence play a very significant role in the academic performance of children. The implication of the study will be discussed further.Keyword: Academic performance, father presence, and absent father

Economic Evaluation of Pesticide Use Externalities in the Cotton Zones of Punjab, Pakistan

The crop protection strategy in Pakistan is almost entirely based on pesticide use whereas development of integrated pest management (IPM) based technologies is in its initial phases of scrutiny as well as implementation. The inefficient use of chemicals has resulted in environmental pollution and sub-optimal returns to the society on the costly investments. This study estimates the social cost of pesticide use and suggests appropriate guidelines for regulating the safe use of pesticides. An overall economic evaluation of the externalities for the current pesticide use levels shows that external costs are quite higher than the currently paid price at the farm gate level. The environmental degradation and public health costs inflicted on the society due to the inefficient chemical use on cotton crop amounts to twelve thousand million rupees. The reduced reliance on crop protection through chemical methods seems inevitable for a sustainable and healthy crop production.economic evaluation; externalities; pesticide use; social cost; crop protection; Punjab; Pakistan

Participative Villager Empowerment for Socio-Economic Development

Development approaches that allows for greater participation of the rural poor and that are sustainable in nature have long been examined, tested and further researched. In Malaysia, such a project approach has been tested in four villages with a focus on empowering village communities with social and technical skills. A consultative stance is adopted by the development agents who encouraged the villagers to decide on their own courses of action. In the project villages, socio-economic activities ranging from educational to agricultural and livestock components were successful. The positive results indicated that the poor can be empowered to develop their own ideas through human resource development and participatory approach. Project activities initiated in this manner were found to more sustainable