Shabbir Ahmad - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Shabbir Ahmad
Quality and Reliability Engineering International
Control chart is a well-known tool for monitoring the performance of an ongoing process. The vari... more Control chart is a well-known tool for monitoring the performance of an ongoing process. The variability of a process is an important parameter that may deteriorate the process performance if it is not taken care on time. In this study, we have proposed some new auxiliary information-based exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) charts for improved monitoring of process variability. We employed auxiliary information in some useful forms including ratio, regression, power ratio, ratio exponential, ratio regression, power ratio regression, and ratio exponential regression estimators. The performance of the newly developed charts is evaluated and compared with some existing charts (viz., the NEWMA, the Improved R, the Synthetic R, and the classical R charts), using some useful measures such as average run length (ARL), extra quadratic loss, and relative ARL. The comparative analysis revealed that the proposed charts outperform their counterparts, especially when there is a strong relationship between the study and the auxiliary variables. Finally, an illustrative example is provided for the monitoring of air quality data. K E Y W O R D S auxiliary variables, average run length, control charts, dispersion parameter, EWMA chart, extra quadratic loss 1 | INTRODUCTION Statistical process monitoring is a powerful mechanism that is used to characterize a process and to further monitor its stability over time. A stable process contains only the natural variations, while an unstable process has an additional source of variation, known as unnatural variation. These two types of variations may be differentiated using an important process-monitoring tool called control chart. A control chart is a graphical display that traditionally uses three lines to monitor process behavior. The conventional charts used for detecting assignable causes are Shewhart, exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) and cumulative sum (CUSUM) control charts. Shewhart charts perform well for the detection of large shifts, while CUSUM and EWMA charts are good at detecting small and persistent shifts. Over the years, new control charting structures have been developed to enhance the performance of these conventional charts. The use of auxiliary information is popular, especially, when the information on the auxiliary variable is readily available and is highly correlated with the study variable (cf. Chaudhuri 1). The ratio and regression methods of estimation are common in practice to improve the efficiency of the estimators of population mean and variance. The auxiliary information based control charts are quite efficient at detecting process shifts. Ahmad et al. 2 proposed several Shewhart
A Schiff base, namely, 4-[(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene) amino] benzoic acid (L1), has been syn... more A Schiff base, namely, 4-[(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene) amino] benzoic acid (L1), has been synthesized by the condensation reaction. It has been characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , UV−vis spectroscopy, single-crystal Xray diffraction, and DFT/B3LYP calculations. Single-crystal X-ray crystallographic analysis revealed that L1 exists in the zwitterionic (N−H•••...O) form. The supramolecular interactions were investigated by Hirshfeld surface analysis. In addition, third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of L1 were also investigated. The nonlinear refractive index (n 2), nonlinear absorption coefficient (β), and the third-order NLO susceptibility (χ (3)) have been estimated at different concentrations and at different laser powers using close and openaperture Z-scan data. The values of the parameters were found to be varying almost linearly with concentration and power. The present study revealed the utility of the material for various optoelectronic devices such as optical switches, optical data storage devices, and optical sensors. The optical limiting study reveals that this material can also be exploited as an instrument protector from unwanted laser illumination. Furthermore, the NLO behavior of L1 has also been studied by B3LYP/ 6-311++G(d,p) results.
Electronics
Next-generation cloud radio access networks (C-RANs) are anticipated to provide multi-Gbps data r... more Next-generation cloud radio access networks (C-RANs) are anticipated to provide multi-Gbps data rate transmission and ultra-high bandwidth capacity, which is one of the key performance indicators for future mobile networks. The integral layout of fiber optics and radio network manages the capabilities of the C-RAN, but needs to be optimized in terms of cost, reliability and further scalibility. For C-RAN architectures, Radio over Fiber (RoF) transport-based fronthaul is a promising candidate but the associated issues of distortions due to nonlinear impairments (NLIs) from power amplifier, linear distortions (LDs) due to modulating lasers and high peak to average power ratio (PAPR) of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals need to be addressed. This work investigates these performance limiting factors and presents a DSP receiver-based solution to mitigate the effects of NLIs, LDs and high PAPR. Simulations are performed by applying a various range of transmission i...
International Journal of Nanomedicine
Background: Cyclosporine A (CsA) is an exceptional immunosuppressant used for the treatment of im... more Background: Cyclosporine A (CsA) is an exceptional immunosuppressant used for the treatment of immune disorders. Niosomal vesicles are promising drug carriers that are formed by self-association of nonionic surfactants and cholesterol in an aqueous phase. The objective of the study was to formulate combined nonionic surfactant based vesicles and to evaluate their in vitro characterization, release studies and in vivo studies. Materials and Methods: Five niosomal formulations (F 7 to F 11) were prepared using the thin film hydration method. The molar ratio of cholesterol and non-ionic surfactant taken was 1:1. In formulation F 10 , the combination of surfactants Span 20 and Brij 35 was used. The niosomes were characterized by zeta sizer and SEM for particle size analysis, in vitro drug release and stability studies. The pharmacokinetic studies were conducted on healthy albino rabbits. Results: The size of niosome was found in the range of 427.1 nm to 972.3 nm. SEM image of optimized formulations F 10 exhibit the spherical nature of niosomal vesicles. DSC thermograms of niosomal formulations exhibited a broadened endothermic peak. The stability study exhibited that all formulations are stable and negligible change of vesicle size and entrapment was observed with time. The percentage drug release was significantly higher as compared to CsA plain dispersion for all niosomal formulations at pH 1.2 and 7.4. The release kinetic behavior showed that all preparations were best described by zero order and can release active ingredient in a sustained manner. The pharmacokinetic data showed the test formulation (F10) possessed greater bioavailability as compared to the reference formulation (CsA aqueous dispersion). Conclusion: The formulation F 10 demonstrated a comparatively more delayed rate of release with enhanced dissolution as compared to a single surfactant scheme. The F 10 formulation can be a remarkable nanotechnology for prolonged delivery of CsA orally with improved dissolution profile and bioavailability.
International Journal of Civil Engineering
Journal of Alloys and Compounds
International Journal of Civil Engineering
DAE SOLID STATE PHYSICS SYMPOSIUM 2019
Croatian journal of food science and technology
The current research was planned to measure the comparative phytochemical and anti-oxidative pote... more The current research was planned to measure the comparative phytochemical and anti-oxidative potential of aqueous and methanolic extracts of two indigenously grown millet varieties of Pakistan. The locally available millet varieties, i.e. MB-87 and AF-POP flours were chemically characterized through the proximate and mineral analysis. The antioxidant extract was prepared in water and methanol. The extracts were screened for saponins, terpenoids, flavonoids and tannins; methanolic extract of MB-87 and AF-POP showed flavonoids in an average quantity (++), whilst aqueous extract had only trace (+) values. The phytochemical screening showed the presence of saponins only in the aqueous extract of both varieties. However, terpenoids and tannins were present in both methanolic and aqueous extracts. During antioxidant evaluation, millet methanolic extracts showed higher level of TPC and DPPH of MB-87 and AF-POP as 0.30±0.001 & 0.23±0.0012 mg GAE/g and 48±0.96 &46±1.09%, respectively. Howeve...
Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences
This study was designed to investigate the differences in food security status and its determinan... more This study was designed to investigate the differences in food security status and its determinants in the regions of the Punjab province (i.e. North, Central and South) of Pakistan. Primary data was collected from 576 rural households situated in six districts (two districts from each region) of the Punjab. Dietary intake assessment (DIA) method was used to examine food security status of the sample households. Results of the study show that food insecurity was highest in South Punjab where 53.6% of the households were found to be food insecure. While, 43.8% and 30.2% of the households were found food insecure in Central and North Punjab respectively. Results of logistic regression model revealed that determinants of food security vary significantly across regions but income of the households was found positively associated with food security status across all the regions while family structure was found negatively associated with food security status. Livestock asset, ownership of agricultural land and family size were found to be significant determinants of food security for Central and South Punjab.
Mathematics
Control charts are commonly used tools that deal with monitoring of process parameters in an effi... more Control charts are commonly used tools that deal with monitoring of process parameters in an efficient manner. Multivariate control charts are more practical and are of greater importance for timely detection of assignable causes in multiple quality characteristics. This study deals with multivariate memory control charts to address smaller shifts in process mean vector. By adopting a new homogeneous weighting scheme, we have designed an efficient structure for multivariate process monitoring. We have also investigated the effect of an estimated variance covariance matrix on the proposed chart by considering different numbers and sizes of subgroups. We have evaluated the performance of the newly proposed multivariate chart under different numbers of quality characteristics and varying sample sizes. The performance measures used in this study include average run length, standard deviation run length, extra quadratic loss, and relative average run length. The performance analysis reve...
Sociology and Anthropology
The family is the fundamental unit of society. It creates tribes, clans, communities, societies a... more The family is the fundamental unit of society. It creates tribes, clans, communities, societies and nations. Moreover, family is responsible for the wellbeing, personality development, and progress of the individual. Divorce, on the other hand, produces chaos in the family life and instead of achieving the above cited objective vitally damages the social life of the conjugal partners along with the children and the families of both partners. Divorce is not a desirable act in any religion of the world. Islam is the major religion of the world and dislike divorce that is why there is a considerable difference in the divorce rate in Islam as compared to the other religions of the world. Present study was conducted in Pakistan. Punjab province was selected randomly. Three districts were selected from the Punjab province by simple random sampling technique. A total of two hundred affected persons/informants (130 males and 70 females), and 100 unaffected informants/ persons (50 males and 50 females) (300 in total), were interviewed including. The informants were selected randomly, and no appointment was made prior to the visits. Informant Consensus Factor (ICF), The Fidelity Level (FL), Direct Matrix Ranking, and Preference Ranking (PR) were employed during the data analysis process. As far as the results of this research study are concerned we came to know 9.66 % respondents were of the view that financial problems, 14.83% blamed unemployment, 5.62% pointed out lack of trust, 6. 74% said higher education, 5.17% informed religious conflict, and 5.62 said misunderstanding were the major reasons of their respective divorces. The study concluded that divorce rate in Pakistan is increasing gradually which will be a devastating thing for the survival of family life.
Environment and Ecology Research
The scarcity of potable and drinking water has created great economic constraint upon the urban p... more The scarcity of potable and drinking water has created great economic constraint upon the urban public in South Asia. The demand has increased ten folds while the supply although being abundant in ground and surface water rich areas has dwindled. Sustainable approaches to managing water require integrated management while community engagement lacks due to the technology unawareness and being deficient of water policies. Community acceptance regarding water policies is based on the knowledge which is a by-product of information and active engagement. While identifying community engagement, we verified local population knowledge-base and awareness about sustainable and integrated water management. To gain full knowledge we developed a case study to learn it from the community across Pakistan. The research instrument was designed to measure knowledge about water and the related factor contributing to conservation. The study was based on interviews of twenty-five thousand households selected through stratified sampling method in five large cities of the Punjab namely, Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, and Faisalabad. We selected five thousand households in each of the urban areas. The study also measured psychological, health, environment, and water related activities. We also measured the impact of the monsoon season which impacts and recharges the ground water during the summer months. The responses were explanatory directing our attention towards strict water policy, urban water cycle issues, lack of proper solid waste disposal and absence of sewage treatment facilities. However, our finding of water knowledge was directly connected with the seniority in age, coupled with higher education and knowledge of health and water borne diseases. While the deficiency of knowledge and related actions towards policy formation were the direct result of not knowing modern languages of education, poverty, lack of access to information and gender biases. Lower water knowledge was a by-product of non-comprehension of the water filtration techniques, water harvesting of rainwater and knowledge of water scarcity and the procedures of protecting ground and surface water from the pollution of several types.
The Pakistan Development Review
The real interest parity (RIP) condition states that the interest rate differential between two e... more The real interest parity (RIP) condition states that the interest rate differential between two economies is equivalent to the differential between the forward exchange rate and the spot exchange rate. This study examines the integration of financial markets in the GCC countries by verifying the validity of RIP in their economies. Using univariate and different panel unit root tests, we find evidence supporting the RIP theory, which indicates that the financial markets in these countries are well integrated and that the adoption of a common currency would be relatively easy. JEL classification: F21; F36; C23 Keywords: Real Interest Parity, GCC Countries, Panel Unit Root Tests, Monetary Union
Applied Economics
This paper contributes to the productivity literature by demonstrating novel econometric methods ... more This paper contributes to the productivity literature by demonstrating novel econometric methods to estimate input-mix efficiency (IME) in a parametric framework. Input-mix efficiency is defined as the potential improvement in productivity with change in input mix. Any change in input-mix (e.g., land to labor ratio) will result in change in productivity. We minimize a nonlinear input-aggregator function (e.g., Constant Elasticity of Substitution) to derive an expression for input-mix efficiency. We estimate a Bayesian stochastic frontier for obtaining mix efficiency using US state-level agricultural data for the period 1960-2004. We note significant variation in input-mix efficiency across the states and regions, attributable to diverse topographic, geographic and infrastructure conditions. Furthermore, comparisons of allocative and mix efficiencies provide insightful policy implications. For example, the production incentives such as taxes and subsidies could help farmers in adjusting their input mix in response to changes in input prices, which can affect the US agricultural productivity significantly. We provide a simple way of estimating mix efficiency in an aggregate-input, aggregate-output framework. This framework can be extended by i) using flexible functional forms; ii) introducing various time-and region-varying input aggregators; and iii) defining more sophisticated weights for input aggregators.
Quality Technology & Quantitative Management
Electronics
Optical communication networks (OCNs) provide promising and cost-effective support for the ultra-... more Optical communication networks (OCNs) provide promising and cost-effective support for the ultra-fast broadband solutions, thus enabling them to address the ever growing demands of telecommunication industry such as high capacity and end users’ data rate. OCNs are used in both wired and wireless access networks as they offer many advantages over conventional copper wire transmission such as low power consumption, low cost, ultra-high bandwidth, and high transmission rates. Channel effects caused by light propagation through the fiber limits the performance, hence the data rate of the overall transmission. To achieve the maximum performance gain in terms of transmission rate through the OCN, an optical downlink system is investigated in this paper using feed forward equalizer (FFE) along with decision feedback equalizer (DFE). The simulation results show that the proposed technique plays a key role in dispersion mitigation in multi-channel optical transmission to uphold multi-Gb/s tr...
THE LAHORE JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
This study attempts to investigate the impact of changes in bank governance on bank performance i... more This study attempts to investigate the impact of changes in bank governance on bank performance in Pakistan. Governance changes entail the privatization and restructuring of state-owned banks, and the merger and acquisition of private and foreign banks. Using the concept of frontier efficiency, we adopt an empirical framework that allows us to study the impact of all governance reform variables in the same model. First, we estimate a stochastic cost frontier model using unbalanced panel data on commercial banks for the period 1991–2005. Second, we decompose banks’ total factor productivity (TFP) change into its different components, using the estimated frontier. In general, the results show an improvement in banks’ cost efficiency following changes in bank governance. We note that governance changes bring about an improvement in banks’ TFP vis-à-vis that of banks that did not undergo governance changes. We find a declining trend in TFP change (TFPC), which could be a consequence of ...
Quality and Reliability Engineering International
Control chart is a well-known tool for monitoring the performance of an ongoing process. The vari... more Control chart is a well-known tool for monitoring the performance of an ongoing process. The variability of a process is an important parameter that may deteriorate the process performance if it is not taken care on time. In this study, we have proposed some new auxiliary information-based exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) charts for improved monitoring of process variability. We employed auxiliary information in some useful forms including ratio, regression, power ratio, ratio exponential, ratio regression, power ratio regression, and ratio exponential regression estimators. The performance of the newly developed charts is evaluated and compared with some existing charts (viz., the NEWMA, the Improved R, the Synthetic R, and the classical R charts), using some useful measures such as average run length (ARL), extra quadratic loss, and relative ARL. The comparative analysis revealed that the proposed charts outperform their counterparts, especially when there is a strong relationship between the study and the auxiliary variables. Finally, an illustrative example is provided for the monitoring of air quality data. K E Y W O R D S auxiliary variables, average run length, control charts, dispersion parameter, EWMA chart, extra quadratic loss 1 | INTRODUCTION Statistical process monitoring is a powerful mechanism that is used to characterize a process and to further monitor its stability over time. A stable process contains only the natural variations, while an unstable process has an additional source of variation, known as unnatural variation. These two types of variations may be differentiated using an important process-monitoring tool called control chart. A control chart is a graphical display that traditionally uses three lines to monitor process behavior. The conventional charts used for detecting assignable causes are Shewhart, exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) and cumulative sum (CUSUM) control charts. Shewhart charts perform well for the detection of large shifts, while CUSUM and EWMA charts are good at detecting small and persistent shifts. Over the years, new control charting structures have been developed to enhance the performance of these conventional charts. The use of auxiliary information is popular, especially, when the information on the auxiliary variable is readily available and is highly correlated with the study variable (cf. Chaudhuri 1). The ratio and regression methods of estimation are common in practice to improve the efficiency of the estimators of population mean and variance. The auxiliary information based control charts are quite efficient at detecting process shifts. Ahmad et al. 2 proposed several Shewhart
A Schiff base, namely, 4-[(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene) amino] benzoic acid (L1), has been syn... more A Schiff base, namely, 4-[(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene) amino] benzoic acid (L1), has been synthesized by the condensation reaction. It has been characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , UV−vis spectroscopy, single-crystal Xray diffraction, and DFT/B3LYP calculations. Single-crystal X-ray crystallographic analysis revealed that L1 exists in the zwitterionic (N−H•••...O) form. The supramolecular interactions were investigated by Hirshfeld surface analysis. In addition, third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of L1 were also investigated. The nonlinear refractive index (n 2), nonlinear absorption coefficient (β), and the third-order NLO susceptibility (χ (3)) have been estimated at different concentrations and at different laser powers using close and openaperture Z-scan data. The values of the parameters were found to be varying almost linearly with concentration and power. The present study revealed the utility of the material for various optoelectronic devices such as optical switches, optical data storage devices, and optical sensors. The optical limiting study reveals that this material can also be exploited as an instrument protector from unwanted laser illumination. Furthermore, the NLO behavior of L1 has also been studied by B3LYP/ 6-311++G(d,p) results.
Electronics
Next-generation cloud radio access networks (C-RANs) are anticipated to provide multi-Gbps data r... more Next-generation cloud radio access networks (C-RANs) are anticipated to provide multi-Gbps data rate transmission and ultra-high bandwidth capacity, which is one of the key performance indicators for future mobile networks. The integral layout of fiber optics and radio network manages the capabilities of the C-RAN, but needs to be optimized in terms of cost, reliability and further scalibility. For C-RAN architectures, Radio over Fiber (RoF) transport-based fronthaul is a promising candidate but the associated issues of distortions due to nonlinear impairments (NLIs) from power amplifier, linear distortions (LDs) due to modulating lasers and high peak to average power ratio (PAPR) of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals need to be addressed. This work investigates these performance limiting factors and presents a DSP receiver-based solution to mitigate the effects of NLIs, LDs and high PAPR. Simulations are performed by applying a various range of transmission i...
International Journal of Nanomedicine
Background: Cyclosporine A (CsA) is an exceptional immunosuppressant used for the treatment of im... more Background: Cyclosporine A (CsA) is an exceptional immunosuppressant used for the treatment of immune disorders. Niosomal vesicles are promising drug carriers that are formed by self-association of nonionic surfactants and cholesterol in an aqueous phase. The objective of the study was to formulate combined nonionic surfactant based vesicles and to evaluate their in vitro characterization, release studies and in vivo studies. Materials and Methods: Five niosomal formulations (F 7 to F 11) were prepared using the thin film hydration method. The molar ratio of cholesterol and non-ionic surfactant taken was 1:1. In formulation F 10 , the combination of surfactants Span 20 and Brij 35 was used. The niosomes were characterized by zeta sizer and SEM for particle size analysis, in vitro drug release and stability studies. The pharmacokinetic studies were conducted on healthy albino rabbits. Results: The size of niosome was found in the range of 427.1 nm to 972.3 nm. SEM image of optimized formulations F 10 exhibit the spherical nature of niosomal vesicles. DSC thermograms of niosomal formulations exhibited a broadened endothermic peak. The stability study exhibited that all formulations are stable and negligible change of vesicle size and entrapment was observed with time. The percentage drug release was significantly higher as compared to CsA plain dispersion for all niosomal formulations at pH 1.2 and 7.4. The release kinetic behavior showed that all preparations were best described by zero order and can release active ingredient in a sustained manner. The pharmacokinetic data showed the test formulation (F10) possessed greater bioavailability as compared to the reference formulation (CsA aqueous dispersion). Conclusion: The formulation F 10 demonstrated a comparatively more delayed rate of release with enhanced dissolution as compared to a single surfactant scheme. The F 10 formulation can be a remarkable nanotechnology for prolonged delivery of CsA orally with improved dissolution profile and bioavailability.
International Journal of Civil Engineering
Journal of Alloys and Compounds
International Journal of Civil Engineering
DAE SOLID STATE PHYSICS SYMPOSIUM 2019
Croatian journal of food science and technology
The current research was planned to measure the comparative phytochemical and anti-oxidative pote... more The current research was planned to measure the comparative phytochemical and anti-oxidative potential of aqueous and methanolic extracts of two indigenously grown millet varieties of Pakistan. The locally available millet varieties, i.e. MB-87 and AF-POP flours were chemically characterized through the proximate and mineral analysis. The antioxidant extract was prepared in water and methanol. The extracts were screened for saponins, terpenoids, flavonoids and tannins; methanolic extract of MB-87 and AF-POP showed flavonoids in an average quantity (++), whilst aqueous extract had only trace (+) values. The phytochemical screening showed the presence of saponins only in the aqueous extract of both varieties. However, terpenoids and tannins were present in both methanolic and aqueous extracts. During antioxidant evaluation, millet methanolic extracts showed higher level of TPC and DPPH of MB-87 and AF-POP as 0.30±0.001 & 0.23±0.0012 mg GAE/g and 48±0.96 &46±1.09%, respectively. Howeve...
Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences
This study was designed to investigate the differences in food security status and its determinan... more This study was designed to investigate the differences in food security status and its determinants in the regions of the Punjab province (i.e. North, Central and South) of Pakistan. Primary data was collected from 576 rural households situated in six districts (two districts from each region) of the Punjab. Dietary intake assessment (DIA) method was used to examine food security status of the sample households. Results of the study show that food insecurity was highest in South Punjab where 53.6% of the households were found to be food insecure. While, 43.8% and 30.2% of the households were found food insecure in Central and North Punjab respectively. Results of logistic regression model revealed that determinants of food security vary significantly across regions but income of the households was found positively associated with food security status across all the regions while family structure was found negatively associated with food security status. Livestock asset, ownership of agricultural land and family size were found to be significant determinants of food security for Central and South Punjab.
Mathematics
Control charts are commonly used tools that deal with monitoring of process parameters in an effi... more Control charts are commonly used tools that deal with monitoring of process parameters in an efficient manner. Multivariate control charts are more practical and are of greater importance for timely detection of assignable causes in multiple quality characteristics. This study deals with multivariate memory control charts to address smaller shifts in process mean vector. By adopting a new homogeneous weighting scheme, we have designed an efficient structure for multivariate process monitoring. We have also investigated the effect of an estimated variance covariance matrix on the proposed chart by considering different numbers and sizes of subgroups. We have evaluated the performance of the newly proposed multivariate chart under different numbers of quality characteristics and varying sample sizes. The performance measures used in this study include average run length, standard deviation run length, extra quadratic loss, and relative average run length. The performance analysis reve...
Sociology and Anthropology
The family is the fundamental unit of society. It creates tribes, clans, communities, societies a... more The family is the fundamental unit of society. It creates tribes, clans, communities, societies and nations. Moreover, family is responsible for the wellbeing, personality development, and progress of the individual. Divorce, on the other hand, produces chaos in the family life and instead of achieving the above cited objective vitally damages the social life of the conjugal partners along with the children and the families of both partners. Divorce is not a desirable act in any religion of the world. Islam is the major religion of the world and dislike divorce that is why there is a considerable difference in the divorce rate in Islam as compared to the other religions of the world. Present study was conducted in Pakistan. Punjab province was selected randomly. Three districts were selected from the Punjab province by simple random sampling technique. A total of two hundred affected persons/informants (130 males and 70 females), and 100 unaffected informants/ persons (50 males and 50 females) (300 in total), were interviewed including. The informants were selected randomly, and no appointment was made prior to the visits. Informant Consensus Factor (ICF), The Fidelity Level (FL), Direct Matrix Ranking, and Preference Ranking (PR) were employed during the data analysis process. As far as the results of this research study are concerned we came to know 9.66 % respondents were of the view that financial problems, 14.83% blamed unemployment, 5.62% pointed out lack of trust, 6. 74% said higher education, 5.17% informed religious conflict, and 5.62 said misunderstanding were the major reasons of their respective divorces. The study concluded that divorce rate in Pakistan is increasing gradually which will be a devastating thing for the survival of family life.
Environment and Ecology Research
The scarcity of potable and drinking water has created great economic constraint upon the urban p... more The scarcity of potable and drinking water has created great economic constraint upon the urban public in South Asia. The demand has increased ten folds while the supply although being abundant in ground and surface water rich areas has dwindled. Sustainable approaches to managing water require integrated management while community engagement lacks due to the technology unawareness and being deficient of water policies. Community acceptance regarding water policies is based on the knowledge which is a by-product of information and active engagement. While identifying community engagement, we verified local population knowledge-base and awareness about sustainable and integrated water management. To gain full knowledge we developed a case study to learn it from the community across Pakistan. The research instrument was designed to measure knowledge about water and the related factor contributing to conservation. The study was based on interviews of twenty-five thousand households selected through stratified sampling method in five large cities of the Punjab namely, Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, and Faisalabad. We selected five thousand households in each of the urban areas. The study also measured psychological, health, environment, and water related activities. We also measured the impact of the monsoon season which impacts and recharges the ground water during the summer months. The responses were explanatory directing our attention towards strict water policy, urban water cycle issues, lack of proper solid waste disposal and absence of sewage treatment facilities. However, our finding of water knowledge was directly connected with the seniority in age, coupled with higher education and knowledge of health and water borne diseases. While the deficiency of knowledge and related actions towards policy formation were the direct result of not knowing modern languages of education, poverty, lack of access to information and gender biases. Lower water knowledge was a by-product of non-comprehension of the water filtration techniques, water harvesting of rainwater and knowledge of water scarcity and the procedures of protecting ground and surface water from the pollution of several types.
The Pakistan Development Review
The real interest parity (RIP) condition states that the interest rate differential between two e... more The real interest parity (RIP) condition states that the interest rate differential between two economies is equivalent to the differential between the forward exchange rate and the spot exchange rate. This study examines the integration of financial markets in the GCC countries by verifying the validity of RIP in their economies. Using univariate and different panel unit root tests, we find evidence supporting the RIP theory, which indicates that the financial markets in these countries are well integrated and that the adoption of a common currency would be relatively easy. JEL classification: F21; F36; C23 Keywords: Real Interest Parity, GCC Countries, Panel Unit Root Tests, Monetary Union
Applied Economics
This paper contributes to the productivity literature by demonstrating novel econometric methods ... more This paper contributes to the productivity literature by demonstrating novel econometric methods to estimate input-mix efficiency (IME) in a parametric framework. Input-mix efficiency is defined as the potential improvement in productivity with change in input mix. Any change in input-mix (e.g., land to labor ratio) will result in change in productivity. We minimize a nonlinear input-aggregator function (e.g., Constant Elasticity of Substitution) to derive an expression for input-mix efficiency. We estimate a Bayesian stochastic frontier for obtaining mix efficiency using US state-level agricultural data for the period 1960-2004. We note significant variation in input-mix efficiency across the states and regions, attributable to diverse topographic, geographic and infrastructure conditions. Furthermore, comparisons of allocative and mix efficiencies provide insightful policy implications. For example, the production incentives such as taxes and subsidies could help farmers in adjusting their input mix in response to changes in input prices, which can affect the US agricultural productivity significantly. We provide a simple way of estimating mix efficiency in an aggregate-input, aggregate-output framework. This framework can be extended by i) using flexible functional forms; ii) introducing various time-and region-varying input aggregators; and iii) defining more sophisticated weights for input aggregators.
Quality Technology & Quantitative Management
Electronics
Optical communication networks (OCNs) provide promising and cost-effective support for the ultra-... more Optical communication networks (OCNs) provide promising and cost-effective support for the ultra-fast broadband solutions, thus enabling them to address the ever growing demands of telecommunication industry such as high capacity and end users’ data rate. OCNs are used in both wired and wireless access networks as they offer many advantages over conventional copper wire transmission such as low power consumption, low cost, ultra-high bandwidth, and high transmission rates. Channel effects caused by light propagation through the fiber limits the performance, hence the data rate of the overall transmission. To achieve the maximum performance gain in terms of transmission rate through the OCN, an optical downlink system is investigated in this paper using feed forward equalizer (FFE) along with decision feedback equalizer (DFE). The simulation results show that the proposed technique plays a key role in dispersion mitigation in multi-channel optical transmission to uphold multi-Gb/s tr...
THE LAHORE JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
This study attempts to investigate the impact of changes in bank governance on bank performance i... more This study attempts to investigate the impact of changes in bank governance on bank performance in Pakistan. Governance changes entail the privatization and restructuring of state-owned banks, and the merger and acquisition of private and foreign banks. Using the concept of frontier efficiency, we adopt an empirical framework that allows us to study the impact of all governance reform variables in the same model. First, we estimate a stochastic cost frontier model using unbalanced panel data on commercial banks for the period 1991–2005. Second, we decompose banks’ total factor productivity (TFP) change into its different components, using the estimated frontier. In general, the results show an improvement in banks’ cost efficiency following changes in bank governance. We note that governance changes bring about an improvement in banks’ TFP vis-à-vis that of banks that did not undergo governance changes. We find a declining trend in TFP change (TFPC), which could be a consequence of ...