Volatility of Exchange Rate and Export Growth in Pakistan: The Structure and Interdependence in Regional Markets

The study empirically investigates the effect of exchange rate volatility on exports growth between Pakistan and leading trade partners. The countries are selected to determine the bilateral relationship between Pakistan and the other countries under various regional economic blocks such as SAARC, ASEAN, European, and Asia-Pacific regions. Cointegration and Error Correction techniques are used to establish the empirical relationship between exchange rate volatility and exports growth, using quarterly data from 1991:3 to 2004:2. The results indicate that the volatility of exchange rate has negative and significant effects both in the long run and short run with major trade partners, namely, UK and US. A similar pattern was observed in case of Australia, Bangladesh, and Singapore, where the volume of trade with Pakistan is comparatively consistent and less volatile. The relationship between exports growth and exchange rate volatility for India and Pakistan is observed only in the long-run perspective. However, of countries like New Zealand and Malaysia, no empirical relationship is observed between export growth and exchange rate volatility.Export, Exchange Rate, Pakistan

Effect of the Use of Black Seed Powder, Cinnamon, Yeast and their Mixtures on the Productive Performance of the Ross Broiler Chicken

        يهدف البحث الى تأثير إستعمال مسحوق الحبة السوداء والقرفة والخميرة ومخاليطها على الأداء الإنتاجي لفروج اللحم سلالة روز أذ وزعت 240 فرخة لحم ( سلالة روزRoss) بعمر يوم واحد عشوائيا على ثماني معاملات وبواقع مكررين /معاملة (15فرخة/مكرر) وبمعدل وزن حي 40غم ، وغذيت المعاملات على عليقة قياسية موحدة وأضيفت 0.05% خميرة Saccharomycecs cerevisiae للمعاملة الثانية و0.4 % لكل من مسحوقي القرفة وحبة السوداء للمعاملتين الثالثة والرابعة على التوالي وخليط مسحوق القرفة (0.2%) والخميرة (0.025%) للمعاملة الخامسة وخليط مسحوقي القرفة والحبة السوداء 0.2% لكل منهما للمعاملة السادسة وخليط الخميرة (0.025%) ومسحوق الحبة السوداء0.2% للمعاملة السابعة والخليط الثلاثي (0.2% لكل من مسحوقي القرفة والحبة السوداء و0.025% خميرة) للمعاملة الثامنة وتركت المعاملة الأولى بدون إضافة للمقارنة. تم حساب معدل الأوزان الأسبوعية ، والزيادة الوزنية الأسبوعية والكلية وحساب معدل إستهلاك العلف الأسبوعي والكلي وكذلك كفاءة التحويل الغذائي الأسبوعية والكلية للمعاملات .         وأظهرت النتائج وجود فروقات معنوية في معدلات الأوزان الأسبوعية والزيادة الوزنية الأسبوعية والكلية لصالح المعاملات (T3 ، T4 ، T6 ،T7 ،T8) مقارنته مع معاملة السيطرة (T1) ولم تكن معنوية مع المعاملتين الثانية والخامسة (T2 ، T5) والمعاملتين الأخيريتين لم تكن ذات فروق معنوية مع معاملة السيطرة في هاتين الصفتين ، وقد أظهرت النتائج  عدم وجود فروق معنوية في معدل إستهلاك العلف مابين معاملات الأضافة والسيطرة عدا المعاملة الثالثة التي تحتوي على 0.4% مسحوق القرفة فكانت ذات فروق معنوية قياسا بمعاملة السيطرة في معدل إستهلاك العلف ولم تكن معنوية مع بقية معاملات الأضافة ،وكذلك أظهرت النتائج وجود إنخفاض معنوي في كفاءة التحويل الغذائي لجميع معاملات الأضافة مقارنتا بمعاملة السيطرة (T1) وكانت أفضلية النتائج لصالح المعاملة الرابعة (إضافة مسحوق الحبة السوداء0.2%) أذ كانت معنوية مع معاملة الأولى (السيطرة) والثانية (إضافة الخميرة) . ولم تكن معنوية مع باقي معاملات الأضافة.        This research investigated the effect of the use of black seed powder, cinnamon, yeast and their mixtures on the productive performance of the Rose meat breeds, where they distributed 240of one day old 40gm/chick body weight (Ross strain) randomly on 8 treatments , each treatment included two replicate (15chicks/replicate) and fed on  standard diet with addition 0.05% yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to second treatment , 0.4%cinnamon powder to third treatment, 0.4% black seed powder to fourth treatment 0.2% Cinnamon powder mixture with 0.025% yeast for the fifth treatment, 0.2% for each cinnamon black seed powder mixture, for the sixth treatment, 0.025% yeast mixture with 0.2%black seed powder for the seventh treatment, the triple mixture of 0.025% yeast and0.2% for each cinnamon black seed powder for the eighth treatment, and the first treatment was left on the ordinary diet without addition as control.     Weekly weights with weekly and total weight gain, weekly and the total feed consumption rate,  weekly and the total dietary conversion efficiency were calculated.       The results showed significant differences in weekly weight rate weekly and total weights gain toward the treatments (T3, T4, T6, T7, T8) compared with the control treatment (T1) and were not significant with the second and fifth treatments (T2, T5) and the last two treatments were not related Significant differences with control treatment in these two characters, As well as the results showed no significant differences in feed consumption between the additional treatment and control factors, except for the third treatment containing 0.4% cinnamon powder. The cinnamon powder had significant differences compared to the control treatment in feed consumption rate and was not significant with the rest of the additive treatments. as well as the results showed that there was a significant decrease in the conversion efficiency of all additive treatments compared to control treatment (T1) and the best of the results toward the fourth treatment (adding black seed powder) was signed with the first treatment (control) and the second(yeast addition). and was not significant with the rest of the additive treatments

Utilization of Palm Kernel Cake in Muscovy Ducks

Four experiments were conducted on Muscovy ducks to evaluate their utilization, performance and nutrient digestibility when offered diets containing different levels of palm kernel cake (PKC). In the first experiment, two types of PKC (solvent and expeller extracted) were force-fed to male and female ducks 7 weeks of age and the nutrient digestibility, true metabolizable energy and true amino acid digestibility were determined. There was no significant (p>0.05) effect on the type of PKC used on crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), metabolizable energy (ME) and amino acid (AA) digestibility, except for those of dry matter (DM) and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) which was higher in solvent extracted compared to expeller extracted PKC. It was found that the ducks utilized about 47% of the gross energy in PKC. The average apparent metabolizable energy value of PKC for Muscovy ducks was obtained to be 1870 kcal/kg, which was rather higher than those reported in broiler chickens. The performance of male and female Muscovy ducks when fed diets containing 15% and 35% levels of PKC were investigated. The results indicated that inclusion of up to 15% of PKC in growing diet for ducks did not depress growth nor feed conversion ratio (FCR) at any significant degree. Given the low cost of PKC, such usage is likely to be economic, depending, to some extent, on cost of added oil. At this level no negative effect in faecal consistency nor carcass fatness were observed. As PKC level increased up to 35%, the ducks ate more feed and as a result had poorer FCR. The explanation for the poorer FCR could be related to the decline in the energy and protein digestibility when ducks were fed at higher PKC level as compared to the control diet. It could be suggested that addition of oil to PKC based diet may improve the palatability and thus the feed intake and the performance of the ducks. Differences in the feed efficiency and nutrient digestibility between Muscovy ducks and broiler chickens were found when PKC was included up to 25% in the diet. Feeding up to 25% level of PKC to ducks was not associated in any detrimental effects on the performance and FCR. However, FCR was depressed when PKC was added at 25% level to broiler grower diet. The ME value was found to be higher in ducks than in chickens. This indicates that the ME value for chickens cannot be applied to ducks. The digestibility of NDF was found to be higher for ducks than for chickens and this could be due to the higher hemicellulose digestibility for ducks than for chickens

Economic consumption model revisited: infaq model based on al-Shaybani's levels of al-Kasb

This study attempts to investigate the economic ideas of al-Imām MuÍammad Ibn al-×asan al-Shaybānī (1986), focusing on his levels of al-Kasb. The study uses al-Shaybānī’s levels of al-Kasb to develop a theoretical Infāq model that integrates the material, spiritual, moral, social and legal dimensions. Thus the Infāq model is broader than the concept of consumption in modern economics. It also has some advantages over the Islamic consumption models developed by contemporary Muslim economists. The model identifies some major implications in terms of basic needs fulfillment, social Infāq and distributive justice. The primary features of this model are its simplicity and comprehensiveness. It is easy to understand yet it embodies the individual, social, material, spiritual, moral and legal dimensions into the individual’s spending decision making and behavior. The model is more realistic in understanding human behavior. It is growth friendly and instills the spirit of cooperation and social responsibility at the individual and social levels. It is suggested that future research further fine tune with some rigourous analysis JEL Classification: A13, A31, B11, D01, D10 Key words: Al-Kasb, Consumption, Infāq, Model buildin

Mixed-Language Arabic- English Information Retrieval

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.This thesis attempts to address the problem of mixed querying in CLIR. It proposes mixed-language (language-aware) approaches in which mixed queries are used to retrieve most relevant documents, regardless of their languages. To achieve this goal, however, it is essential firstly to suppress the impact of most problems that are caused by the mixed-language feature in both queries and documents and which result in biasing the final ranked list. Therefore, a cross-lingual re-weighting model was developed. In this cross-lingual model, term frequency, document frequency and document length components in mixed queries are estimated and adjusted, regardless of languages, while at the same time the model considers the unique mixed-language features in queries and documents, such as co-occurring terms in two different languages. Furthermore, in mixed queries, non-technical terms (mostly those in non-English language) would likely overweight and skew the impact of those technical terms (mostly those in English) due to high document frequencies (and thus low weights) of the latter terms in their corresponding collection (mostly the English collection). Such phenomenon is caused by the dominance of the English language in scientific domains. Accordingly, this thesis also proposes reasonable re-weighted Inverse Document Frequency (IDF) so as to moderate the effect of overweighted terms in mixed queries

Development of Emotion Stress Relief Recommender Tool Using Machine Learning

In today's society, individuals face unprecedented levels of stress, with varying indicators and effects. Music has long been recognized for its calming effects on the brain and body, especially slow and calm classical music, which can lower heart rate, blood pressure, and stress hormone levels. However, the effectiveness of music in stress management may be reduced if the music does not match the listener's current emotional state. To overcome this problem, this research aims to develop an emotion-based stress reduction recommendation tool using machine learning. This research employs experimental methods. The research results show this tool will analyze the user's emotions and recommend music most likely to reduce stress. By tailoring music recommendations to an individual's emotional state, we hope to increase the overall effectiveness of music as a stress management tool. Implications of this research include the potential for creating intelligent music players that provide more personalized and effective stress reduction

Use of cefoxitin as indicator for detection of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Rapid and accurate identification of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus is essential in limiting the spread of this bacterium. The aim of study is the detection of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and determining their susceptibility to some antimicrobial agent. A total of fifty clinical Staphylococcus aureus, isolated from the nose of health work staff in surgery unit of Kalar general hospital and from ear of patients attended to the same hospital. The susceptibilities of isolates were determined by the disc diffusion method with oxacillin (1 ?g) and cefoxitin (30 ?g), and by the mannitol salt agar supplemented with cefoxitin (MSA-CFOX), susceptibilities of isolates to other antimicrobial agent were determined by standard disc diffusion method, Brain heart infusion (BHI) agar with vancomycin was used for detection of vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. out of fifty clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus 36/50(72%) considered to be MRSA according to MSA-CFOX growth and cefoxitin disc susceptibility results with critical diamete

Krapp and His Relations

Krapp Last Tape is one-act play written in 1958, translated by Samuel Beckett and his friend Pierre Leyris as La Dernier bande. The first production took place in London at the Royal Court Theatre in 1958.It was directed by Donald McWhinnie and Patrick Magee played the role of Krapp. Like other Beckettians, Krapp in a physical sense, is an outsider, cut from the world of social activity. He is alone in his den fumbling through the tapes made thirty years before for his human relations. Krapp’s Last tape recounts the inescapable reality of human suffering and the persistent efforts made by Man to circumvent his pain through living in his past. The main topic addressed in this paper is Krapp and his human relationships

The Determinants of Unemployment in Sudan: A Co-integration and Error Correction Model Analysis (1981-2011)

       The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of unemployment in Sudan using time series data over the period 1981 - 2011. Co integration and VECM techniques were applied to carry out the investigation. The overall econometric analysis showed that the variables under consideration have co integrating relationships implying that they have long-run relationships. The results of VECM estimation suggests that growth in GDP, the interaction between FDI and average years of schooling play a positive role in unemployment reduction in the long-run, while in the short-run this impact has been reversed. Inflation is found to have a positive impact on unemployment mitigation in the short run and, therefore, provides strong evidence to be added to the already existing large body of literature validating the existence of short-run Phillips Curve. On the other hand, the estimated results suggest that economic openness and oil production contribute negatively to unemployment reduction in the short as well as in the long run. Also the findings of the study confirmed the pivotal role for privatization policy in combating unemployment