Analysis of Financial Sector Reforms and Impacts: Reflections from Pakistan

The purpose of this paper is to examine all efforts made by the Government of Pakistan in order to uplift the efficiency of financial sector through financial restructuring institutions such as banks, as well as to recognize the impact of these reforms on various financial indicators. Results of this study suggested that financial sector performance was very much better after the completion of first generation reforms but many new reforms are still required for macroeconomic stability and economic growth of Pakistan. This was the first attempt made by researcher in which detailed discussion was provided about financial sector reforms and it will help out the policy makers while developing policies for future and it will enhance the knowledge of economists and all other beneficiaries as well. Moreover, discussion for further reforms and gap for future studies was also provided

Mass transfer efficiency of a tall and low plate free area liquid pulsed sieve-plate extraction column

Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge Chakwal group of industries for funding the project. Ms. Madiha, Ms. Zona, Mr. Sohaib, Mr. Abdullah, Mr. Mudassar, and Mr. Salahuddin also deserve our acknowledgements for their assistance in different ways.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Automated grading of chest x-ray images for viral pneumonia with convolutional neural networks ensemble and region of interest localization

Following its initial identification on December 31, 2019, COVID-19 quickly spread around the world as a pandemic claiming more than six million lives. An early diagnosis with appropriate intervention can help prevent deaths and serious illness as the distinguishing symptoms that set COVID-19 apart from pneumonia and influenza frequently don't show up until after the patient has already suffered significant damage. A chest X-ray (CXR), one of many imaging modalities that are useful for detection and one of the most used, offers a non-invasive method of detection. The CXR image analysis can also reveal additional disorders, such as pneumonia, which show up as anomalies in the lungs. Thus these CXRs can be used for automated grading aiding the doctors in making a better diagnosis. In order to classify a CXR image into the Negative for Pneumonia, Typical, Indeterminate, and Atypical, we used the publicly available CXR image competition dataset SIIM-FISABIO-RSNA COVID-19 from Kaggle. The suggested architecture employed an ensemble of EfficientNetv2-L for classification, which was trained via transfer learning from the initialised weights of ImageNet21K on various subsets of data (Code for the proposed methodology is available at: https://github.com/asadkhan1221/siim-covid19.git). To identify and localise opacities, an ensemble of YOLO was combined using Weighted Boxes Fusion (WBF). Significant generalisability gains were made possible by the suggested technique's addition of classification auxiliary heads to the CNN backbone. The suggested method improved further by utilising test time augmentation for both classifiers and localizers. The results for Mean Average Precision score show that the proposed deep learning model achieves 0.617 and 0.609 on public and private sets respectively and these are comparable to other techniques for the Kaggle dataset

Synthesis of Ag-Fe3O4 nanoparticles for degradation of methylene blue in aqueous medium

Fe3O4 known as magnetite is one of the oxides of iron which plays a major role in various fields of sciences. Fe3O4 was synthesized by precipitation method using NH3.H2O, FeCl2.4H2O and FeCl3.6H2O as precursor materials. For synthesis of 5% Ag-Fe3O4, the green synthetic method was used for immobilization of Ag nanoparticles on Fe3O4 using leaves extract of Calotropis gigantea plant. The synthesized Fe3O4 and 5% Ag-Fe3O4 were employed as catalyst in degradation of methylene blue. The photo catalytic activity of Fe3O4 was remarkably enhanced by doping of Fe3O4 with Ag nanoparticles. Advanced instrumental techniques including XRD, EDX, TGA and SEM were used for characterization of synthesized particles. The immobilization of Ag on Fe3O4 enhanced the photo degradation of methylene blue from 40 to 72% at 40 °C which confirms that 5% Ag-Fe3O4 is an active catalyst for treatment of dye contaminated water. Ag-Fe3O4 exhibited almost same catalytic activity in two successive cycles.   Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2020, 34(1), 123-134.  DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v34i1.1

Positive Predictive Value of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Intradural Spinal Tumors Taking Histopathology as Gold Standard

Objective: To observe the positive predictive value of MRI, taking histopathology as gold standard in detecting spinal intradural tumors.Materials and Methods: Total 180 cases were included through non-probability purposive sampling, at Ganga Ram Hospital, Radiology department, Lahore. The radiological diagnosis obtained through MRI, was observed. The cases fit in inclusion criteria were underwent surgery and their histopathological findings were observed. Comparison between the outcomes of MRI and histopathology were undertaken, keeping histopathology as gold  standard. Positive predictive value of MRI in the diagnosis of intradural spinal tumor was calculated andpresented in the form of percentages and frequency.Results: There were total 180 patients presenting in OPD with the mean age of 45.71 ± 13.57 years. There were 112 (62%) male. Male to female ratio was 1.6:1. There were 134 (74.4%) cases who were positive for malignant spinal intradural tumor on histopathology showing the PPV of MRI as 74.4%.Conclusion: Magnetic Resonance Imaging is very beneficial imaging tool for early diagnosis of spinal cord tumors

Current status and overview of farm mechanization in Pakistan – A review

Economic growth in Pakistani agricultural sector lags behind growth in industry and services, creating an ever widening rural-urban income fissure.  Agricultural mechanization plays a strategic role in improving agricultural production and productivity in developing countries. The average farm size in Pakistan is small (2.5 acres) and small and marginal land holdings (less than 2.0 ha) account for 85% of land holdings.  Mechanizing small and non-contiguous group of small farms is against ‘economies of scale’ for individual ownership of farm machinery. It was observed that there was a direct correlation between farm power availability and productivity during the past six decades. Being an agrarian country, mechanization can be called as back bone of Pakistan’s economy as it optimizes the use of biological, chemical and hydrological inputs.  So far, Pakistan has only experienced selective farm mechanization as this concept has remained limited to use of tractors only and at the country level, the temporal analysis shows that an increase in tractor population from 1975 -1984 was about 341% while it was 61% from 1984-1994.  At present there are about 0.94 million tractors in Pakistan, which alone provides 0.84 hp/acre.  Land preparation is the only operation that is nearly 100% mechanized in the country for almost all crops with 901 thousand chisel plough and 108 thousand Mould board ploughs.  The market of planting and spraying machinery has grown from 70 and 21 thousands in 2004 to 295 and 1438 thousands in 2014 respectively due to the inclination of the farming community towards mechanized sowing and spraying.  The thrasher’s market in Pakistan is estimated at 20,000-30,000 units annually by sales resulting in nearly 100% mechanized threshing operation for cereal crops. By increasing the available horse power per hectare and by the proper management of agricultural machinery the average crop yield can be enhanced

Islamic Culture and Western Civilization: The Prospects of Coexistence in the Thought of Alija Izetbegović

Alija Ali Izetbegović (1925-2003) is one of the outstanding Muslim thinkers in recent history who have re-conceptualized the Islamic worldview and ethos in the context of the contemporary world on the one hand and critically reflected upon the modern Western civilization, on the other. Izetbegović conceives Islam as a system representing a middle path between Christian spiritualism and materialism of modern civilization. However, like any profound philosophical system, his thought requires exposition and interpretation, which the present paper ventures to undertake. Specifically, the paper inquires whether and how far his vision of Islam facilitates coexistence between Muslims and the others, especially regarding the Muslims living in Western societies. The query is crucial because some writers have accused Izetbegović of being a fundamentalist who pursued an agenda of monolithic Islamic culture with little room for meaningful participation of non-Muslims. The paper concludes that contrary to such negative renderings of his thought, Izetbegović was a thinker with a vast intellectual spectrum and an open outlook. Some of his peculiar notions can be conducive to the coexistence between Muslims and other European communities as well as Islamic culture and Western civilization

Sugarcane: Diseases Due to Pests, Pest Management Strategies and Factors Influencing the Production of Sugarcane

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum, L.) is the second major crop of Pakistan. It is not merely a significant sugar crop but also a resource of inclement notes for different agro-based industries in Pakistan. Sugarcane yields have been rigorously abridged in various parts of Asia as attacked by enormous number of insect pests and diseases. Changes in cropping patterns including the cultivation of high yielding varieties and hybrids have added to the problem in some areas. Plant breeding has been successful to some extent in keeping up with new and evolving diseases and pests. Innovation in agronomic practices, advent of chemicals for control, and more recently genetic engineering tools have been providing new opportunities for reduction of crop losses due to biotic pressures. Insect control is even more important as many viral diseases are transmitted by insects