Analysis of consumption behaviour concerning current income and lags consumption: Empirical evidence from Pakistan

As in other economies, consumption expenditure is the largest component of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Pakistan economy. The figure has been estimated around 80 percent of the GDP and demonstrates that historically, Pakistan’s economic growth is characterized as consumption-led growth. The present paper aims to explore the relationship between income and consumption using annual time series data for the period: 1975 to 2012 in Pakistan. For empirical investigation the linear regression model and the method of Least Squares is used as analytical techniques. Empirical results support the existence of a significant positive relationship between income and consumption. The finding suggests that long term committed planning is indispensable to enhance the productive capacity of the economy, employment opportunities and reduce poverty levels more effectively

Analysis of consumption behaviour concerning current income and lags consumption: Empirical evidence from Pakistan

As in other economies, consumption expenditure is the largest component of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Pakistan economy. The figure has been estimated around 80 percent of the GDP and demonstrates that historically, Pakistan’s economic growth is characterized as consumption-led growth. The present paper aims to explore the relationship between income and consumption using annual time series data for the period: 1975 to 2012 in Pakistan. For empirical investigation the linear regression model and the method of Least Squares is used as analytical techniques. Empirical results support the existence of a significant positive relationship between income and consumption. The finding suggests that long term committed planning is indispensable to enhance the productive capacity of the economy, employment opportunities and reduce poverty levels more effectively

Economic assessment of acquiring water for environmental flows in the Murray Basin

This article is an economic analysis of reallocating River Murray Basin water from agriculture to the environment with and without the possibility of interregional water trade. Acquiring environmental flows as an equal percentage of water allocations from all irrigation regions in the Basin is estimated to reduce returns to irrigation. When the same volume of water is taken from selected low-value regions only, the net revenue reduction is less. In all scenarios considered, net revenue gains from freeing trade are estimated to outweigh the negative revenue effects of reallocating water for environmental flows. The model accounts for how stochastic weather affects market water demand, supply and requirements for environmental flows. Net irrigation revenue is estimated to be $75 million less than the baseline level for a scenario involving reallocating a constant volume of water for the environment in both wet and dry years. For a more realistic scenario involving more water for the environment in wet and less in dry years, estimated net revenue loss is reduced by 48 per cent to$39 million. Finally, the external salinity-related costs of water trading are estimated at around $1 million per annum, a quite modest amount compared to the direct irrigation benefits of trade.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Taxes and Subsidies on Agricultural Producers as Elements of Intersectoral Transfer of Resources: Magnitude of the Transfer and Search for Policy Options

Public policies in many diverse fields have implications for the transfer of resources between sectors. Administered agricultural prices, taxes, subsidies, an overvalued currency and protection provided to producers are examples of some of the policies that have been used by many governments in mobilizing resources for development. From the vantage point of assessing the past performance and development prospects of the agricultural sector, it is useful to have an idea about the direction and extent of the resource transfer from this sector. The knowledge of the policy instruments used to bring about the transfer is also important. While the size of the transfer is a measure of the overall incentives being provided, the tools used for the transfer have unique implications for efficiency, equity and growth outcomes. The purpose of the paper is confined to: (i) an estimation of the magnitude of the transfer for the period 1972-73 to 1986-87; and (ii) identification, in broad terms, of the direction that the restructured public policies may take

Effectiveness of pack intervention in the health care profession community on patients satisfaction

Objectives: To explore the factors that measured the patient satisfaction Measurement Tool (PS-MT) after the implementation of the Practical Approach to Care Kit at Primary healthcare centers of Lahore, Pakistan with health professionals who had been trained in the protocol. Methodology: A cross-sectional study through semi-structured interviews were carried out with doctors and nurses working at Primary health care tiers / Basic Health Units (BHUs)/ Dispensaries in the metropolitan city where the protocol was implemented. The interviews took place in the research participant's workplace, between October 2019 and March 2020. Descriptive information was represented in the form of a frequency table and graph and paired t-test was applied on pre and post changing and facilities provided to patients on primary health centers. Results: 400 respondents with 60 years of age visited the hospital.  The majority 212 of the respondents were male patients and 208 patients belong to a rural area. After the intervention, a significant difference was found in hospital management at p-value 0.02 and information system at p-value 0.000 Conclusion: We founded significant change after the implementation of the Practical Approach to Care Kit at primary healthcare centers of Pakistan with health professionals who had been trained in the protocol

Assessment of Knowledge Retention Ability of Undergraduate Medical Students

BACKGROUND: Being a natural phenomenon, the knowledge learned by students is quickly forgotten. However, various factors are pertinent for one’s memory and knowledge retention ability. This ability is not investigated earlier among pass and fail students of a particular exam. OBJECTIVES: To determine and compare short term memory and Knowledge retention ability among pass and fail students of mid-term exam. METHODS: 103 first-year MBBS students were examined in 3 cycles after result of mid-term examination announced. These cycles consisted of 2 components related with short term memory (1st & 2nd cycles) & knowledge retention ability (3rd cycle) with one week duration apart. RESULTS: Class attendance of pass, fail and absentees groups demonstrated statistically significant (P fail > absentees and significant correlation with marks obtained. A comparison between short term memory & knowledge retention ability also demonstrated statistically significant (P<0.0005) difference. CONCLUSION: The quality of learning positively correlates with the class attendance. Short term memory and knowledge retention abilities are significantly better in pass students and statistically correlate with each other. Regular conduct of such tests is suggested to assess short term memory & knowledge retention ability so that appropriate methods to enhance these can be adopted

Multi-Objective Optimum Solutions for IoT-Based Feature Models of Software Product Line

A software product line is used for the development of a family of products utilizing the reusability of existing resources with low costs and time to market. Feature Model (FM) is used extensively to manage the common and variable features of a family of products, such as Internet of Things (IoT) applications. In the literature, the binary pattern for nested cardinality constraints (BPNCC) approach has been proposed to compute all possible combinations of development features for IoT applications without violating any relationship constraints. Relationship constraints are a predefined set of rules for the selection of features from an FM. Due to high probability of relationship constraints violations, obtaining optimum features combinations from large IoT-based FMs are a challenging task. Therefore, in order to obtain optimum solutions, in this paper, we have proposed multi-objective optimum-BPNCC that consists of three independent paths (first, second, and third). Furthermore, we applied heuristics on these paths and found that the first path is infeasible due to space and execution time complexity. The second path reduces the space complexity; however, time complexity increases due to the increasing group of features. Among these paths, the performance of the third path is best as it removes optional features that are not required for optimization. In experiments, we calculated the outcomes of all three paths that show the significant improvement of optimum solution without constraint violation occurrence. We theoretically prove that this paper is better than previously proposed optimization algorithms, such as a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm and an indicator-based evolutionary algorithm

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P &lt; 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely