Becker & Mincerian Models of Human Capital for Pakistan: A Case Study of Islamabad

Education is considered a key factor for of Human Capital formation which strengthens the society through skills, knowledge and as a result of that innovations take place. The Gary Becker and Mincer developed “Human Capital Model” which was based on relationship of income with level of education and experience. The present study investigates the effect of higher education and level experience on income of teaching staff of public sector educational institutes in Islamabad-Pakistan. There were 120 respondents randomly selected. The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method was used to empirically examine the relationship among the variables. All coefficients of the variables found positively significant. The study concludes that increase in year of education and experience which ultimately increases income of the teaching staff. Therefore, the higher education plays a major role for enhancing income of teaching staffs of public sector educational institutes in Pakistan

Impact of Agricultural Credit on Production of Wheat Crop: A Case Study of District Faisalabad-Pakistan

Agriculture sector plays an important role in the economic development of Pakistan. Wheat is an important and most cultivated crop because it is an essential ingredient of food commodities. Credit plays a vital role in agricultural farming by indirectly participating in purchasing of agricultural inputs i.e. seed, fertilizer, irrigation, machinery and labor etc. Majority of the farmers are poor and they are not able to fulfill the cash requirement of farming, therefore credit has become their dire need. Due to credit farmers can timely purchase the agricultural inputs which resulting a bumper crop. The objective of this study is to depict the impact of credit on the production of wheat crop. Survey was conducted and random sampling technique was used to select the sample borrowers. The collected data was interpreted through “Cobb Douglas Production Function” by using statistical software (SPSS 16.0).The results showed that credit has positive and significant impact on wheat production. The values of R2 and F-statistics are found significant which represented that all selected variables are highly significant. The study not only shares the importance of credit to perform any agriculture activity but also helpful for economists and policy makers for designing agri financing policies

Exploring the Implications of Emotional Intelligence to Enhance Employees’ Performance

Emotional intelligence (EI) is an effective tool to increase organizational productivity. This study depicts the impact of EI on employees’ performance who are engaged with customer services by using four elements i.e. self awareness, self management, social awareness and relationship management. A sample of 120 respondents was selected from four paint manufacturing companies in Pakistan. The primary data was collected through the structured questionnaire and simple regression method was used to investigate the relationship between employee’s performance and emotional intelligence. The results illustrate that EI has positive impact on employee’s performance. It is suggested that the implication of EI be ensured as contemporary need of customer services in paint industries so that organization productivity may be enhanced with efficient employees’ performance.&nbsp

A short report on epidemiological investigation of dog bite cases in association with temperature rise as a part of climate change

Background: Rabies is a neglected disease that claims more than 5000 human’s deaths in Pakistan that account for 10% global load of rabies related deaths annually. Dogs are major carriers for this zoonotic ailment in the country. Global climatic changes, especially rise in temperature, is altering ecological niche of reservoir of infectious diseases. Pakistan is among those countries which are most effected by the temperature rise. This rise has a relation in increase in dog bites and subsequent rabies cases to develop.Methods: Passive data of dog bite cases is acquired from Institute of Public health and were examined for 12 consecutive months. Data analyzed by SPSS software for frequency distribution of dog bite cases in comparison with different months of the year.Results: Data analysis indicate a positive correlation between temperature rise and dog bites rates. This study found prevalence of 2.56% dog bite cases and seasonality in dog bites.Conclusion: These finding recommend further study to investigate other factors involved in increase of dog bite cases in high temperature months of years.  In order to develop understanding the reasons of subsequent rabies cases associated with dog bites. Bats are the most sensitive mammals to high temperature and they migrate and even dye due to hike in temperature, which later may become source of various zoonotic diseases including rabies. Carnivorous bats are believed to be primary reservoir for rabies worldwide but Pakistan do not have this bat specie (Desmodus rotundus). However, increase in dog bite and rabies cases with every year suggest to monitor Indian fruit bat (Pteropus giganteus) which are prevalent in Pakistan.  Ecological Niche Model (ENM) should be used for bats to determine their role in rabies ecology in Pakistan.Keywords: Rabies; Dog bites; Climate shift; Disease ecology; Pteropus giganteu

Incidence and risk factors of delirium in surgical intensive care unit

Background: To evaluate the incidence and modifiable risk factors of delirium in surgical intensive care unit (SICU) of tertiary care hospital in a low-income and middle-income country.Methods: We conducted a single cohort observational study in patients over 18 years of age who were admitted to the SICU for \u3e24 hours in Aga Khan University Hospital from January to December 2016. Patients who had pre-existing cognitive dysfunction were excluded. Intensive Care Delirium Screening Checklist was used to assess delirium. Incidence of delirium was computed, and univariate and multivariable analyses were performed to observe the relationship between outcome and associated factors.Results: The average patient age was 43.29±17.38 and body mass index was 26.25±3.57 kg/m2. Delirium was observed in 19 of 87 patients with an incidence rate of 21.8%. Multivariable analysis showed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pain score \u3e4 and hypernatremia were strong predictors of delirium. Midazolam (adjusted OR (aOR)=7.37; 95% CI 2.04 to 26.61) and propofol exposure (aOR=7.02; 95% CI 1.92 to 25.76) were the strongest independent predictors of delirium while analgesic exposures were not statistically significant to predict delirium in multivariable analysis.Conclusion: Delirium is a significant risk factor of poor outcome in SICU. There was an independent association between pain, sedation, COPD, hypernatremia and fever in developing delirium.Level of evidence: IV

Foreign Capital and Investment in Pakistan: A Cointegration and Causality Analysis

Present study is focused to examine the effects of foreign capital flows on domestic investment in Pakistan economy for the period of 1972-2013. Time series econometric techniques like unit root test, Johansen cointegration and Granger causality methods have been used for the data analysis. Long run cointegration relationship has been found between domestic investment and foreign capital flow variables. Unidirectional causality running from external debt stock, remittances and domestic saving to domestic investment has been found. The causality between external debt servicing and investment is bidirectional. Bidirectional causality is also observed between foreign direct investment and domestic investment but causality between investment and inflation is confirmed in neither direction. The results are statistically robust and the estimated model is stable. The study suggests some policy recommendations

Foreign Capital and Investment in Pakistan: A Cointegration and Causality Analysis

Present study is focused to examine the effects of foreign capital flows on domestic investment in Pakistan economy for the period of 1972-2013. Time series econometric techniques like unit root test, Johansen cointegration and Granger causality methods have been used for the data analysis. Long run cointegration relationship has been found between domestic investment and foreign capital flow variables. Unidirectional causality running from external debt stock, remittances and domestic saving to domestic investment has been found. The causality between external debt servicing and investment is bidirectional. Bidirectional causality is also observed between foreign direct investment and domestic investment but causality between investment and inflation is confirmed in neither direction. The results are statistically robust and the estimated model is stable. The study suggests some policy recommendations

Fine-grained sentiment analysis for measuring customer satisfaction using an extended set of fuzzy linguistic hedges

© 2020 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL. In recent years, the boom in social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter has brought people together for the sharing of opinions, sentiments, emotions, and experiences about products, events, politics, and other topics. In particular, sentiment-based applications are growing in popularity among individuals and businesses for the making of purchase decisions. Fuzzy-based sentiment analysis aims at classifying customer sentiment at a fine-grained level. This study deals with the development of a fuzzy-based sentiment analysis by extending fuzzy hedges and rule-sets for a more efficient classification of customer sentiment and satisfaction. Prior studies have used a limited number of linguistic hedges and polarity classes in their rule-sets, resulting in the degraded efficiency of their fuzzy-based sentiment analysis systems. The proposed analysis of the current study classifies customer reviews using fuzzy linguistic hedges and an extended rule-set with seven sentiment analysis classes, namely extremely positive, very positive, positive, neutral, negative, very negative, and extremely negative. Then, a fuzzy logic system is applied to measure customer satisfaction at a fine-grained level. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed analysis has an improved performance over the baseline works

Impact of social franchising on contraceptive use when complemented by vouchers: A quasi-experimental study in rural Pakistan

Background: Pakistan has had a low contraceptive prevalence rate for the last two decades; with preference for natural birth spacing methods and condoms. Family planning services offered by the public sector have never fulfilled the demand for contraception, particularly in rural areas. In the private sector, cost is a major constraint. In 2008, Marie Stopes Society - a local NGO started a social franchise programme along with a free voucher scheme to promote uptake of IUCDs amongst the poor. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of this approach, which is designed to increase modern long term contraceptive awareness and use in rural areas of Pakistan.Methodology: We used a quasi-experimental study design with controls, selecting one intervention district and one control district from the Sindh and Punjab provinces. In each district, we chose a total of four service providers. A baseline survey was carried out among 4,992 married women of reproductive age (MWRA) in February 2009. Eighteen months after the start of intervention, an independent endline survey was conducted among 4,003 women. We used multilevel logistic regression for analysis using Stata 11.Results: Social franchising used alongside free vouchers for long term contraceptive choices significantly increased the awareness of modern contraception. Awareness increased by 5% in the intervention district. Similarly, the ever use of modern contraceptive increased by 28.5%, and the overall contraceptive prevalence rate increased by 19.6%. A significant change (11.1%) was recorded in the uptake of IUCDs, which were being promoted with vouchers.Conclusion: Family planning franchise model promotes awareness and uptake of contraceptives. Moreover, supplemented with vouchers, it may enhance the use of IUCDs, which have a significant cost attached. Our research also supports a multi-pronged approach- generating demand through counselling, overcoming financial constraints by offering vouchers, training, accreditation and branding of the service providers, and ensuring uninterrupted contraceptive supplies

Engaging with community-based public and private mid-level providers for promoting the use of modern contraceptive methods in rural Pakistan: Results from two innovative birth spacing interventions

Background: Family planning (FP) interventions aimed at reducing population growth have negligible during the last two decades in Pakistan. Innovative FP interventions that help reduce the growing population burden are the need of the hour. Marie Stopes Society--Pakistan implemented an operational research project--\u27Evidence for Innovating to Save Lives\u27, to explore effective and viable intervention models that can promote healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy in rural and under-served communities of Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces of Pakistan.Methods: We conducted a quasi-experimental (pre- and post-intervention with control arm) study to assess the effectiveness of each of the two intervention models, (1) Suraj model (meaning \u27Sun\u27 in English), which uses social franchises (SF) along with a demand-side financing (DSF) approach using free vouchers, and (2) Community Midwife (CMW) model, in promoting the use of modern contraceptive methods compared to respective controls. Baseline and endline cross-sectional household surveys were conducted, 24 months apart, by recruiting 5566 and 6316 married women of reproductive age (MWRA) respectively. We used Stata version 8 to report the net effect of interventions on outcome indicators using difference-in-differences analysis. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to assess the net effect of the intervention on current contraceptive use, keeping time constant and adjusting for other variables in the model.Results: The Suraj model was effective in significantly increasing awareness about FP methods among MWRA by 14% percentage points, current contraceptive use by 5% percentage points and long term modern method--intrauterine device (IUD) use by 6% percentage points. The CMW model significantly increased contraceptive awareness by 28% percentage points, ever use of contraceptives by 7% percentage points and, IUD use by 3% percentage points. Additionally the Suraj intervention led to a 35% greater prevalence (prevalence ratio: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.22-1.50) of contraceptive use among MWRA.Conclusion: Suraj intervention highlights the importance of embedding subsidized FP services within the communities of the beneficiaries. The outcomes of the CMW intervention also improved the use of long-term contraceptives. These findings indicate the necessity of designing and implementing FP initiatives involving local mid-level providers to expand contraceptive coverage in under-served areas