The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries, 2020
Pakistan is also seeing the profound effect of the outbreak of COVID-19, which demands an urgent ... more Pakistan is also seeing the profound effect of the outbreak of COVID-19, which demands an urgent investigation of literature and further scientific investigation for cure and prevention. This study has employed the systematic approach for searching the literature from the recently compiled database of researches namely COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19) and related diseases. The literature on Pakistan has shown the evidence of human-to-human and animal-to-human transmission of viruses, the presence of antibodies of MERS-CoV in camels, and careless attitude towards preventive measures of such respiratory diseases. There is a lot of gap in the literature regarding coronaviruses and their antibodies creating herd immunity for another coronavirus and COVID-19. In particular to Pakistan, and in general, for other developing countries, a weak health-care system coupled with the trembling economy has many implications of COVID-19 which should be carefully thought-out to combat the sp...
This study focuses on investigating the relationships between different socioeconomic and demogra... more This study focuses on investigating the relationships between different socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and households' debt decision and demand. We used six survey rounds of data from Pakistan household integrated expenditure survey (HIES) 2001 to 2014. HIES is a nationally representative data collected by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. Multilevel models were used to investigate the relationship in which the data on households was nested in primary sampling units (PSUs) and PSUs were nested in provinces. The decision of taking household debt varies 22% at PSU level and 18% at provincial level due to unobserved variables. We found that households having higher financial assets, higher income and larger household sizes tend to have a higher percentage of debt. The amount of debt also increases with education and age. In the case of demand for debt, the variation is 12% at the provincial level. Literature studying household debt decision in Pakistan often ignore the geographical differences (region/province specific studies). Considering socioeconomic characteristics habituating the usage of credit is of countless importance in guiding policy design and interventions that aim to improve financial inclusion.
Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 2016
Методом фотоэлектронной спектроскопии с угловым разрешением проведено сравнительное исследование ... more Методом фотоэлектронной спектроскопии с угловым разрешением проведено сравнительное исследование графена, полученного методом крекинга пропилена (С 3 Н 6) на поверхностях никеля с различной ориентацией: Ni(111) и Ni(100) Показано, что графен на Ni(111) является хорошо упорядоченным на большой площади поверхности, в то время как графен на поверхности Ni(100) имеет ярко выраженную доменную структуру. Установлено, что электронная структура обеих систем схожа, графен сильно связан с подложкой Ni. Показано, что интеркаляция монослоя Au для двух систем приводит к формированию электронной структуры, свойственной для квазисвободного графена. Работа выполнена в рамках НИР № 15.61.202.2015 и программы G-RISC. Исследования проводились на оборудовании Ресурсного центра " Физические методы исследования поверхности" Научного парка СПбГУ и на российско-немецком канале вывода синхронного излучения BESSY-II.
While allocating funds to education sector, governments do not pay much attention and reallocate ... more While allocating funds to education sector, governments do not pay much attention and reallocate funds towards different levels of education irrespective of keeping stage of development of economy of their country in mind which usually make education expensive or out of reach of common man. The correlation between percentage of government funds spent on education and literacy rate was checked and found weakly positive. Earlier researches show that the correlation is moderated by culture, poverty and gender gap.
We studied the effects of birth order and socioeconomic factors on educational attainment in Paki... more We studied the effects of birth order and socioeconomic factors on educational attainment in Pakistan. We examined this relationship by using PSLM/HIES 2018–19 which is nationally representative household survey data. We found striking evidence that being born first as a male child is positively and significantly associated with educational attainment. Whereas in our girls' sample we found that being born first is significantly and negatively associated with educational attainment, and this effect does not persist for second-born female children if the firstborn is a male child. Such a difference in our estimates led us to investigate further the cohort and rural–urban dimensions. We concluded that urban areas in Pakistan are primarily responsible for resource rationing in favor of male children for younger cohorts. Therefore, the study recommends the targeted policy intervention to remove such differentials based on gender when it comes to the educational attainment of a child.
Proceedings of The 3rd International Electronic Conference on Environmental Research and Public Health —Public Health Issues in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2021
The disease outbreaks have always had serious psychological repercussions on society. COVID-19 is... more The disease outbreaks have always had serious psychological repercussions on society. COVID-19 is also no different and has severely impacted the mental health of the populace in Pakistan. Pakistan has implemented various strategies to control the transmission of the disease. It includes lockdowns, self-isolation, and social distancing. This study aimed to investigate the psychological effects of COVID-19 in the context of lockdowns by capturing an immediate response in the first month. In this study, a cross-sectional survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 45 distinct districts across the country. The collected data was analyzed on Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) path model. The results revealed that trust and belief in the government have more contribution to the mental health of society during the lockdown. Father’s education has played a significant role in mitigating the fear of job loss. More satisfied people have better me...
Journal of infection in developing countries, 2021
COVID-19 spread rapidly and jeopardised the physicians with not only treatment but also with limi... more COVID-19 spread rapidly and jeopardised the physicians with not only treatment but also with limited resources and new working style. This study aimed to investigate the experience of physicians in Pakistan as frontline workers for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. The study employed a qualitative design and used Haas's adaptation of Colaizzi method for analysis. The respondents for the interview were selected based on purposive sampling and only those physicians were contacted who were treating COVID-19 patients in Lahore, Pakistan. The results of the study revealed many challenges faced by Pakistani physicians which included physical and psychological stress due to the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Moreover, infrastructural flaws have added in the vulnerabilities of the physicians. In developing countries, the fight is much harder for physicians as evidenced by their first-hand experience. The policymakers in developing countries especially in Pakistan can direct policies ...
In recent years, many developing countries, including Pakistan, have made efforts to increase fin... more In recent years, many developing countries, including Pakistan, have made efforts to increase financial inclusion so that their population can easily avail a range of services provided by financial institutions. Debt provision can play an important role in increasing financial inclusion. This study identified social and economic factors which affect entry of households into the debt market. This will also help to derive a borrower profile to target debt provision and financial inclusion. Older people have a higher likelihood of taking debt than younger ones while those who are employed in the agricultural sector have a higher likelihood of taking debt. Inheritance is important to explain life cycle of savings, but it does not affect entry of households into the debt market in Pakistan. This research will help to channel efforts by focusing on the factors affecting debt decisions and demand of debt of households in order to increase financial inclusion through debt.
Exchange rate behaviour does not follow very obvious and predicted pattern. Many attempts have be... more Exchange rate behaviour does not follow very obvious and predicted pattern. Many attempts have been made to predict its behaviour as much as possible. This research re-examines the Dornbusch’s model of exchange rate overshooting caused by price rigidities. Dornbusch’s assumption of full employment in economy has been violated in this research which creates the possibility of exchange rate undershooting. In response to positive monetary shock, interest rate decreases and exchange rate undershoots its long run equilibrium. This research explains the dynamics of antiintuitive exchange rate undershooting. Apart from theoretical formations of exchange rate undershooting, this research also analyses Pakistani data for exchange rate undershooting or overshooting in response to increase in money supply. Quarterly data of twenty three years for exchange rate, nominal interest rate, price, real output and money have been taken and vector autoregressive technique has been used. Evidence of exc...
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the world through its ability to cause widespread infection. The M... more The COVID-19 pandemic affected the world through its ability to cause widespread infection. The Middle East including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has also been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic like the rest of the world. This study aims to examine the relationships between meteorological factors and COVID-19 case counts in three cities of the KSA. The distribution of the COVID-19 case counts was observed for all three cities followed by cross-correlation analysis which was carried out to estimate the lag effects of meteorological factors on COVID-19 case counts. Moreover, the Poisson model and negative binomial (NB) model with their zero-inflated versions (i.e., ZIP and ZINB) were fitted to estimate city-specific impacts of weather variables on confirmed case counts, and the best model is evaluated by comparative analysis for each city. We found significant associations between meteorological factors and COVID-19 case counts in three cities of KSA. We also perceived that the ZINB model was the best fitted for COVID-19 case counts. In this case study, temperature, humidity, and wind speed were the factors that affected COVID-19 case counts. The results can be used to make policies to overcome this pandemic situation in the future such as deploying more resources through testing and tracking in such areas where we observe significantly higher wind speed or higher humidity. Moreover, the selected models can be used for predicting the probability of COVID-19 incidence across various regions.
The World Health Organization declares coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic, and The... more The World Health Organization declares coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic, and The World Economic Forum argues that the COVID-19-induced global lockdown is the biggest psychological experiment. This study is an attempt to empirically evaluate the possible adverse psychosocial effects caused by COVID-19-related lockdown, if any. To do so, a cross-sectional study is conducted based on a comprehensive online survey using snowball sampling to analyze the level of social and psychological impacts (i.e., stress, belief in stakeholders, fear of losing job, and life satisfaction) during the early stage of the outbreak in Pakistan. The questionnaire is filled out by the residents in Pakistan including working professionals and students (sample size is 428). We find that the development of stress due to COVID-19-induced lockdown is particularly because of mood swings. Additionally, a higher prevalence of stress in the children of highly educated mothers is evident (95% confiden...
Background Over 3 million people lost their lives across the globe due to the COVID-19 related pa... more Background Over 3 million people lost their lives across the globe due to the COVID-19 related pandemic. The unprecedented restrictions on mobility have imposed in the form of isolation, quarantines, and lockdowns to curb the profound effects of the pandemic and retain physical health. This study examined the relationship between various pain levels, demographic variables and patient satisfaction with COVID-19 during isolation. Methods The primary data in this study were collected from isolated patients during their isolation and treatment in a public hospital. We obtained information from patients with COVID-19 (N = 100) about their demographic characteristics, varying levels of pain, and satisfaction with the services provided during the isolation period. We computed the descriptive statistics to explain the profile of participants, ANOVA was used to find out the difference between various groups on patient satisfaction, and structural equation modeling was performed to examine th...
The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries, 2020
Pakistan is also seeing the profound effect of the outbreak of COVID-19, which demands an urgent ... more Pakistan is also seeing the profound effect of the outbreak of COVID-19, which demands an urgent investigation of literature and further scientific investigation for cure and prevention. This study has employed the systematic approach for searching the literature from the recently compiled database of researches namely COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19) and related diseases. The literature on Pakistan has shown the evidence of human-to-human and animal-to-human transmission of viruses, the presence of antibodies of MERS-CoV in camels, and careless attitude towards preventive measures of such respiratory diseases. There is a lot of gap in the literature regarding coronaviruses and their antibodies creating herd immunity for another coronavirus and COVID-19. In particular to Pakistan, and in general, for other developing countries, a weak health-care system coupled with the trembling economy has many implications of COVID-19 which should be carefully thought-out to combat the sp...
This study focuses on investigating the relationships between different socioeconomic and demogra... more This study focuses on investigating the relationships between different socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and households' debt decision and demand. We used six survey rounds of data from Pakistan household integrated expenditure survey (HIES) 2001 to 2014. HIES is a nationally representative data collected by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. Multilevel models were used to investigate the relationship in which the data on households was nested in primary sampling units (PSUs) and PSUs were nested in provinces. The decision of taking household debt varies 22% at PSU level and 18% at provincial level due to unobserved variables. We found that households having higher financial assets, higher income and larger household sizes tend to have a higher percentage of debt. The amount of debt also increases with education and age. In the case of demand for debt, the variation is 12% at the provincial level. Literature studying household debt decision in Pakistan often ignore the geographical differences (region/province specific studies). Considering socioeconomic characteristics habituating the usage of credit is of countless importance in guiding policy design and interventions that aim to improve financial inclusion.
Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 2016
Методом фотоэлектронной спектроскопии с угловым разрешением проведено сравнительное исследование ... more Методом фотоэлектронной спектроскопии с угловым разрешением проведено сравнительное исследование графена, полученного методом крекинга пропилена (С 3 Н 6) на поверхностях никеля с различной ориентацией: Ni(111) и Ni(100) Показано, что графен на Ni(111) является хорошо упорядоченным на большой площади поверхности, в то время как графен на поверхности Ni(100) имеет ярко выраженную доменную структуру. Установлено, что электронная структура обеих систем схожа, графен сильно связан с подложкой Ni. Показано, что интеркаляция монослоя Au для двух систем приводит к формированию электронной структуры, свойственной для квазисвободного графена. Работа выполнена в рамках НИР № 15.61.202.2015 и программы G-RISC. Исследования проводились на оборудовании Ресурсного центра " Физические методы исследования поверхности" Научного парка СПбГУ и на российско-немецком канале вывода синхронного излучения BESSY-II.
While allocating funds to education sector, governments do not pay much attention and reallocate ... more While allocating funds to education sector, governments do not pay much attention and reallocate funds towards different levels of education irrespective of keeping stage of development of economy of their country in mind which usually make education expensive or out of reach of common man. The correlation between percentage of government funds spent on education and literacy rate was checked and found weakly positive. Earlier researches show that the correlation is moderated by culture, poverty and gender gap.
We studied the effects of birth order and socioeconomic factors on educational attainment in Paki... more We studied the effects of birth order and socioeconomic factors on educational attainment in Pakistan. We examined this relationship by using PSLM/HIES 2018–19 which is nationally representative household survey data. We found striking evidence that being born first as a male child is positively and significantly associated with educational attainment. Whereas in our girls' sample we found that being born first is significantly and negatively associated with educational attainment, and this effect does not persist for second-born female children if the firstborn is a male child. Such a difference in our estimates led us to investigate further the cohort and rural–urban dimensions. We concluded that urban areas in Pakistan are primarily responsible for resource rationing in favor of male children for younger cohorts. Therefore, the study recommends the targeted policy intervention to remove such differentials based on gender when it comes to the educational attainment of a child.
Proceedings of The 3rd International Electronic Conference on Environmental Research and Public Health —Public Health Issues in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2021
The disease outbreaks have always had serious psychological repercussions on society. COVID-19 is... more The disease outbreaks have always had serious psychological repercussions on society. COVID-19 is also no different and has severely impacted the mental health of the populace in Pakistan. Pakistan has implemented various strategies to control the transmission of the disease. It includes lockdowns, self-isolation, and social distancing. This study aimed to investigate the psychological effects of COVID-19 in the context of lockdowns by capturing an immediate response in the first month. In this study, a cross-sectional survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 45 distinct districts across the country. The collected data was analyzed on Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) path model. The results revealed that trust and belief in the government have more contribution to the mental health of society during the lockdown. Father’s education has played a significant role in mitigating the fear of job loss. More satisfied people have better me...
Journal of infection in developing countries, 2021
COVID-19 spread rapidly and jeopardised the physicians with not only treatment but also with limi... more COVID-19 spread rapidly and jeopardised the physicians with not only treatment but also with limited resources and new working style. This study aimed to investigate the experience of physicians in Pakistan as frontline workers for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. The study employed a qualitative design and used Haas's adaptation of Colaizzi method for analysis. The respondents for the interview were selected based on purposive sampling and only those physicians were contacted who were treating COVID-19 patients in Lahore, Pakistan. The results of the study revealed many challenges faced by Pakistani physicians which included physical and psychological stress due to the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Moreover, infrastructural flaws have added in the vulnerabilities of the physicians. In developing countries, the fight is much harder for physicians as evidenced by their first-hand experience. The policymakers in developing countries especially in Pakistan can direct policies ...
In recent years, many developing countries, including Pakistan, have made efforts to increase fin... more In recent years, many developing countries, including Pakistan, have made efforts to increase financial inclusion so that their population can easily avail a range of services provided by financial institutions. Debt provision can play an important role in increasing financial inclusion. This study identified social and economic factors which affect entry of households into the debt market. This will also help to derive a borrower profile to target debt provision and financial inclusion. Older people have a higher likelihood of taking debt than younger ones while those who are employed in the agricultural sector have a higher likelihood of taking debt. Inheritance is important to explain life cycle of savings, but it does not affect entry of households into the debt market in Pakistan. This research will help to channel efforts by focusing on the factors affecting debt decisions and demand of debt of households in order to increase financial inclusion through debt.
Exchange rate behaviour does not follow very obvious and predicted pattern. Many attempts have be... more Exchange rate behaviour does not follow very obvious and predicted pattern. Many attempts have been made to predict its behaviour as much as possible. This research re-examines the Dornbusch’s model of exchange rate overshooting caused by price rigidities. Dornbusch’s assumption of full employment in economy has been violated in this research which creates the possibility of exchange rate undershooting. In response to positive monetary shock, interest rate decreases and exchange rate undershoots its long run equilibrium. This research explains the dynamics of antiintuitive exchange rate undershooting. Apart from theoretical formations of exchange rate undershooting, this research also analyses Pakistani data for exchange rate undershooting or overshooting in response to increase in money supply. Quarterly data of twenty three years for exchange rate, nominal interest rate, price, real output and money have been taken and vector autoregressive technique has been used. Evidence of exc...
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the world through its ability to cause widespread infection. The M... more The COVID-19 pandemic affected the world through its ability to cause widespread infection. The Middle East including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has also been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic like the rest of the world. This study aims to examine the relationships between meteorological factors and COVID-19 case counts in three cities of the KSA. The distribution of the COVID-19 case counts was observed for all three cities followed by cross-correlation analysis which was carried out to estimate the lag effects of meteorological factors on COVID-19 case counts. Moreover, the Poisson model and negative binomial (NB) model with their zero-inflated versions (i.e., ZIP and ZINB) were fitted to estimate city-specific impacts of weather variables on confirmed case counts, and the best model is evaluated by comparative analysis for each city. We found significant associations between meteorological factors and COVID-19 case counts in three cities of KSA. We also perceived that the ZINB model was the best fitted for COVID-19 case counts. In this case study, temperature, humidity, and wind speed were the factors that affected COVID-19 case counts. The results can be used to make policies to overcome this pandemic situation in the future such as deploying more resources through testing and tracking in such areas where we observe significantly higher wind speed or higher humidity. Moreover, the selected models can be used for predicting the probability of COVID-19 incidence across various regions.
The World Health Organization declares coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic, and The... more The World Health Organization declares coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic, and The World Economic Forum argues that the COVID-19-induced global lockdown is the biggest psychological experiment. This study is an attempt to empirically evaluate the possible adverse psychosocial effects caused by COVID-19-related lockdown, if any. To do so, a cross-sectional study is conducted based on a comprehensive online survey using snowball sampling to analyze the level of social and psychological impacts (i.e., stress, belief in stakeholders, fear of losing job, and life satisfaction) during the early stage of the outbreak in Pakistan. The questionnaire is filled out by the residents in Pakistan including working professionals and students (sample size is 428). We find that the development of stress due to COVID-19-induced lockdown is particularly because of mood swings. Additionally, a higher prevalence of stress in the children of highly educated mothers is evident (95% confiden...
Background Over 3 million people lost their lives across the globe due to the COVID-19 related pa... more Background Over 3 million people lost their lives across the globe due to the COVID-19 related pandemic. The unprecedented restrictions on mobility have imposed in the form of isolation, quarantines, and lockdowns to curb the profound effects of the pandemic and retain physical health. This study examined the relationship between various pain levels, demographic variables and patient satisfaction with COVID-19 during isolation. Methods The primary data in this study were collected from isolated patients during their isolation and treatment in a public hospital. We obtained information from patients with COVID-19 (N = 100) about their demographic characteristics, varying levels of pain, and satisfaction with the services provided during the isolation period. We computed the descriptive statistics to explain the profile of participants, ANOVA was used to find out the difference between various groups on patient satisfaction, and structural equation modeling was performed to examine th...
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