Rearrangement groups of connected spaces

We develop a combinatorial framework that assists in finding natural infinite “geometric” presentations for a large subclass of rearrangement groups of fractals – defined by Belk and Forrest, namely rearrangement groups acting on F-type topological spaces. In this framework, for a given fractal set with its group of “rearrangements”, the group generators have a natural one-to-one correspondence with the standard basis of the fractal set, and the relations are all conjugacy relations. We use this framework to produce a presentation for Richard Thompson’s group F. This presentation has been mentioned before by Dehornoy, but a combinatorial method to find the length of an element in terms of the generating set of this presentation has been hitherto unknown. We provide algorithms that express an element of F in terms of our generating set and reduce a word representing the identity in F to the trivial word. We conjecture that this framework can be used to find infinite presentations for all groups in the subclass of rearrangement groups acting on F-type topological spaces."I have been supported in this PhD by a Commonwealth Scholarship (PKCS-2015-496), funded by the UK Government."--Fundin

Impact of Agriculture Sector Development on Economic Growth: Application of Robust Linear Least Squares Regression on Pakistan’s Data Set

The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between economic growth and  agricultural crops, i.e., maize, rice, sugarcane, and wheat production in the context of Pakistan by using the last 14 years time period from 2003-2016. The study used some other exogenous factors, i.e., agriculture exports and agriculture employment, which gives conclusive findings in a given country context. The study employed robust least squares regression apparatus that gives unbiased, efficient, and reliable estimates. The results show that agricultural crops, i.e., maize and wheat production substantially increases country’s economic growth, while agricultural exports does not supported due to some structural flaws in agriculture commodity market. The results confirm the positive association between agriculture employment and economic growth that helpful to reduce Pakistan’s internal migration issues. The study emphasized the need to support rice and sugarcane production through protective prices, economic policies, and financialization in the commodity markets.&nbsp

Factors contributing to microfinance addiction among Pakistani microfinance participants

This research is conducted in Bahawalpur, southern Punjab to discover the effect of Microfinance Addiction on Poverty Eradication. One thousand people, half men and half women, both members and non-members of Micro Credit Banks, will make up the sample. The goals of the study are captured in both an online survey and a traditional questionnaire developed with the help of experts. This method is effective in ensuring that all strata of the population are represented equally. Data is collected through cluster sampling. Micro-credit finance has assumed a significant part in changing and further developing the respondents' financial conditions. Data is tested through SPSS and Smart PLS and built up the connection between variables. All parties involved in the microfinance industry can benefit from the study's findings by making more informed decisions. The MFIs providing microfinance for the needy will also benefit from this since it will increase their productivity. The research suggests that the goal of microfinance may be reached more effectively if attention is directed on many sectors, such as agriculture and rural communities. Because of this, we may conclude that both Poverty Eradication and Micro-Finance Addiction are positively related to one another. The research found that the majority of people benefited from MFIs' micro-credit lending programmes. These micro loans helped them increase their economic standing and decrease their vulnerability to poverty. Micro-credit programmes may be improved upon in light of the study's results, which should be of benefit to regulators, policymakers, managers, micro-finance institutions, government authorities, all other stakeholders, and future academics

Impact of Agriculture Sector Development on Economic Growth: Application of Robust Linear Least Squares Regression on Pakistan’s Data Set

The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between economic growth and agricultural crops, i.e., maize, rice, sugarcane, and wheat production in the context of Pakistan by using the last 14 years time period from 2003-2016. The study used some other exogenous factors, i.e., agriculture exports and agriculture employment, which gives conclusive findings in a given country context. The study employed robust least squares regression apparatus that gives unbiased, efficient, and reliable estimates. The results show that agricultural crops, i.e., maize and wheat production substantially increases country’s economic growth, while agricultural exports does not supported due to some structural flaws in agriculture commodity market. The results confirm the positive association between agriculture employment and economic growth that helpful to reduce Pakistan’s internal migration issues. The study emphasized the need to support rice and sugarcane production through protective prices, economic policies, and financialization in the commodity markets

Community Attitude About the Effects of Corruption on Forest Governance--A Case of Malakand District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan

This research paper focused on finding links between poor forest governance and corruption. A sample size of 357 respondents was proportionally allocated to each union council and then randomly selected. Chi-square test was used to test the association between the variables. The result shows that forest governance had a significant association with the power elite get illegal management benefits from the forest (P=0.000). Moreover, the political influence on the distribution of benefits received from forest productivity was found significantly associated with forest governance, in addition, the association of the inter-connection of corruption mafia was found significant (P=0.000) with forest governance. Depoliticizing the forest department, establishing rule of law and implementation of the laws in its true spirit without any discrimination can improve forest governance

Probiotic properties of Lactobacillus helveticus and Lactobacillus plantarum isolated from traditional Pakistani yoghurt

Probiotic bacteria are of utmost importance owing to their extensive utilisation in dairy products and in the prevention of various intestinal diseases. The objective of this study was to assess the probiotic properties of bacteriocin-producing isolates of Lactobacillus helveticus and Lactobacillus plantarum isolated from traditional Pakistani yoghurt. In this study, ten bacteriocin-producing isolates were selected to screen for the probiotic property. The isolates showed resistance to acidic pH (6-6.5), bile salt (0.01-1%), and 1-7% NaCl salt and showed good growth at acidic pH and antibacterial activity against ten different foodborne pathogens. Interestingly, these isolates were proved to be effective against Actinobacter baumannii but least effective against Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. A few isolates were found to be resistant to some antibiotics like vancomycim, gentamycin, erythromycin, streptomycin, and clindamycin. Our results provide strong evidence in favour of traditional Pakistani yoghurts as a potential source of bacteriocin-producing bacteria with an added benefit of the probiotic property. Specifically, LBh5 was considered a good probiotic isolate as compared to other isolates used in the study. Further extensive research should be done on isolation and characterisation of probiotic isolates from local fermented foods, and then, these isolates should be used in the development of probiotic enriched food supplements in Pakistan

The development and validation of a scoring tool to predict the operative duration of elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background: The ability to accurately predict operative duration has the potential to optimise theatre efficiency and utilisation, thus reducing costs and increasing staff and patient satisfaction. With laparoscopic cholecystectomy being one of the most commonly performed procedures worldwide, a tool to predict operative duration could be extremely beneficial to healthcare organisations. Methods: Data collected from the CholeS study on patients undergoing cholecystectomy in UK and Irish hospitals between 04/2014 and 05/2014 were used to study operative duration. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was produced in order to identify significant independent predictors of long (> 90 min) operations. The resulting model was converted to a risk score, which was subsequently validated on second cohort of patients using ROC curves. Results: After exclusions, data were available for 7227 patients in the derivation (CholeS) cohort. The median operative duration was 60 min (interquartile range 45–85), with 17.7% of operations lasting longer than 90 min. Ten factors were found to be significant independent predictors of operative durations > 90 min, including ASA, age, previous surgical admissions, BMI, gallbladder wall thickness and CBD diameter. A risk score was then produced from these factors, and applied to a cohort of 2405 patients from a tertiary centre for external validation. This returned an area under the ROC curve of 0.708 (SE = 0.013, p  90 min increasing more than eightfold from 5.1 to 41.8% in the extremes of the score. Conclusion: The scoring tool produced in this study was found to be significantly predictive of long operative durations on validation in an external cohort. As such, the tool may have the potential to enable organisations to better organise theatre lists and deliver greater efficiencies in care

Transformation of Traditional Wastewater Treatment Methods into Advanced Oxidation Processes and the Role of Ozonation

Technology advancement improves the quality of life, however, it might also introduce new pollutants to the ecosystem, which needs to deal with for the goal of a sustainable ecosystem. Municipal and industrial wastewater has always been important in improving the quality of life while maintaining the sustainability of our planet simultaneously. The diversity of pollutants in wastewater requires more advanced and demanding treatment processes. The ozonation, as a crucial part of the advanced oxidation processes, is a superior oxidation method compared to traditional oxidation methods. After the recognition of ozone as GRAS (generally recognized as safe), its applications have diversified and is used currently for microbial inactivation, degradation of recalcitrant organic compounds, removal of a diverse range of micropollutants, solubilization and reduction of sludge, and removal of color and odor components in wastewaters treatment processes. However, some considerable challenges still exist towards its universal application, such as high ozone generation costs, diversity of pollutants, and formation of ozonation by-products, which still require further studies. The main theme of this review paper is the transformation of traditional oxidation methods into advanced oxidation processes and the role of ozonation in this regard, including its applications, by-products, and its comparison with the traditional oxidation methods and advanced oxidation processes