Natural resource management: A systematic literature review

Asif, Muhammad,Zaman, Khalid,Khan, Khan Burhan Techno-Press 2020 Advances in environmental research Vol.9 No.4

The earlier literature widely documented the role of natural resources in economic development and confined their findings either in support of resource blessing growth or resource curse hypothesis. The ample research on the stated theme has available in the relevant databases, supported with empirical data, while a few studies used a case study or mixed-method approach. The study identified plenty of room on a given topic by conducting a systematic literature review and synthesizing the literature in more meaningful inferences. After a thorough investigation of the literature review through systematic intervention, the study concludes that natural resource management is imperative for a country's sustained growth. Simultaneously, it is desirable to reduce resource conflicts, improve institutional performance, decrease corruption, and stabilize the political environment to get maximum natural resource management potential globally.

Momentum Strategies and Stock Returns: A Case of Saudi Stock Market

Muhammad Asif KHAN,Ramiz Ur REHMAN,Muhammad Ishfaq AHMAD,Majed Al HARTHI 한국유통과학회 2021 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.8 No.7

This paper investigates the presence of momentum profits in the Saudi stock market. The study applied a quantitative method by utilizing monthly closing prices of 194 listed firms on Tadawal (Saudi Stock Market). The data from January 2010 to February 2019 is taken from the Tadawal market database for analysis. The sample is further divided into two equal sub-samples based on the structural changes that occurred in the Saudi stock market. Moreover, the high- and low-value traded portfolios are also constructed to examine the presence of momentum profits. Sixteen investment strategies are formed for each sample. The results show a very strong presence of momentum profits in the Saudi stock market for the full sample as well as for the sub-samples. The momentum profits are observed for a longer investment horizon. The results confirm that the short or medium-term formation of portfolios produces negative momentum returns for high-value traded stocks. The low-value traded stocks portfolios give similar results to the full sample results in terms of momentum profits. The results suggest that an investor should keep an eye on the past performance of desired stocks for at least three-nine months in which they are willing to invest.

Impact of Marketing, Managerial and Human Resource Activities on the Performance of Small and Medium Enterprises

Muhammad Asif Khan,Professor Chen Pinglu KINFORMS 2022 Management Review Vol.17 No.1

This paper is to investigate the relationship between managerial activities, marketing activities, human resource activities, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) performance. In this study, the cross-sectional research design was used, and data was collected from 362 SMEs located in Pakistan by using a questionnaire and analyzed thorough statistical package for social analysis (SPSS). Correlation analysis was used to show the association between variables under investigation. Regression analysis was adopted to establish the relationship between managerial activities, marketing activities, human resource activities, and small and medium enterprise (SMEs) performance. The results demonstrated that all the variables are positively correlated with each other understudy. The results indicated that managerial activities, marketing activities, and human resource activities have a positive association with SME's performance. The results also demonstrated that marketing activities have the most active association with firm performance, among other variables.

A Review of Physics-based Models in Prognostics and Health Management of Laminated Composite Structures

Asif Khan,Muhammad Muzammil Azad,Muhammad Sohail,Heung Soo Kim 한국정밀공학회 2023 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.10 No.6

This article reports on the physics-based models for the diagnosis (detection, isolation, localization, and quantification of damages) and prognosis (prediction of the future evolution of damages) of laminated composites. The model-based and data-driven prognostic strategies are compared, followed by a summary of the most common failure modes and the failure mechanisms of laminated composite materials. Then, an overview is provided of the measurement-based empirical/phenomenological and finite element-based damage evolution models for composite materials. The techniques reviewed in the former are Paris’s law and its modified versions, stiffness degradation models, Bayesian framework (Particle filters, Bayesian inference, dynamic Bayesian networks), and minimum strain energy theory. The finite element-based models overviewed failure criteria (Hashin, Puck, stress failure criteria) and damage propagation criteria (B-K criterion, equivalent strain/displacement criterion, strain rate-dependent damage model, cohesive zone modeling, De-Cohesive Law). Due to their complex failure modes, there is no generalized global solution for the diagnostics and prognostics of composite materials. The article will serve as guidelines for the physics-based prognostics and health management (PHM) of composite materials.

Quantitative Analyses of Esophageal Cancer Research in Pakistan

Qureshi, Muhammad Asif,Khan, Saeed,Ujjan, Ikram Din,Iqbal, Asif,Khan, Ramsha,Khan, Bilal Ahmed Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2016 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.17 No.7

Background: Health-care research is a neglected discipline in Pakistan and research related to esophageal cancer (ranks 9th in Pakistani males and 5th in females) is no exception in this regard. Particularly, there are no data available to delineate the overall status of esophageal cancer epidemiological studies in Pakistan. This study describes the first ever effort to make a systematic quantification, in an attempt to provide a road-map to all stakeholders for designing appropriate epidemiological, diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Materials and Methods: International (PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge) and local (PakMedinet) scientific databases as well as Google search engine were searched using specified keywords to extract relevant publication. Well-defined inclusion criteria were implemented to select publications for final analyses. All data were recorded by at least 3 authors and consensus data were entered into and analyzed for descriptive statistics (such as frequencies, percentages and annual growth rates) using Microsoft Excel and SPSS software. Results: A total of 79 publications fulfilled the inclusion criteria including 20 publications for which full texts were not available. Of the 79 publications, 59 (74.6%) were original/research publications, 5 (6.3%) were case reports, 4 (5.1%) were research communications, 2 (2.5%) were review articles, 1 was (1.2%) correspondence and 8 (10.1%) were undefined categories. Only 13 (<20%) cities of Pakistan contributed towards the 79 publications. On average, only 1.9 relevant publications/year were published from 1976 (year of first publication) to the present. Alarmingly, a decline in the annual growth at -4.1% was recorded in the last six years. Conclusions: Esophageal cancer research is largely unfathomed in Pakistan. Urgent/dramatic steps are required by all concerned to address this common (and under reported) cancer of Pakistan.

Genotypes of Hepatitis C Virus in Relapsed and Non-respondent Patients and their Response to Anti-Viral Therapy in District Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, Pakistan

Akhtar, Noreen,Bilal, Muhammad,Rizwan, Muhammad,Khan, Muhammad Asif,Khan, Aurangzeb Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.3

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne infectious disease of liver, caused by a small enveloped, positive-single stranded RNA virus, called the hepatitis C virus (HCV). HCV belongs to the Flaviviridae family and has 6 genotypes and more than 100 subtypes. It is estimated that 185 million people are infected with HCV worldwide and 5% of these are in Pakistan. The study was designed to evaluate different genotypes of HCV circulating in District Mardan and to know about the behavior of these genotypes to different anti-viral regimes. In this study 3,800 patients were exposed to interferon alfa-2a plus Ribavirin treatment for 6-months and subjected to real-time PCR to check the viral response. Among these 3,677 (97%) patients showed no detectable HCV RNA while 123 (3%) patients (non-responders) remained positive for HCV RNA. Genotypes of their analyzed showed that most of them belonged to the 3a genotype. Non-responders (123) and relapsed (5) patients were subjected to PEG-interferon and Ribavirin therapy for next 6 months, which resulted into elimination of HCV RNA from 110 patients. The genotypes of the persisting resistant samples to anti-viral treatment were 3b, 2a, 1a and 1b. Furthermore, viral RNA from 6 patients remained un-typed while 4 patients showed mixed infections. HCV was found more resistant to antiviral therapy in females as compared to mals. The age group 36-45 in both females and males was found most affected by infection. In general 3a is the most prevalent genotype circulating in district Mardan and the best anti-viral therapy is PEG-interferon plus Ribavirin but it is common practice that due to the high cost patients receive interferon alfa-2a plus Ribavirin with consequent resistance in 3% patients given this treatment regime.

Refinement of Hermite Hadamard Type Inequalities for Convex Functions with Applications

Muhammad Bilal,Asif R. Khan 한국수학교육학회 2024 純粹 및 應用數學 Vol.31 No.1

In this study, we would like to state two refined results related to Hermite Hadamard type inequality for convex functions with two distinct techniques. Hence our obtained results would be better than the results already established for the class of convex functions. Applications to trapezoidal rule and special means are also discussed.

Outcomes of Primary Unilateral Cheiloplasty in Same-Day Surgical Settings

Khan, Mansoor,Ullah, Hidayat,Aziz, Asif,Tahir, Muhammad Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surge 2016 Archives of Plastic Surgery Vol.43 No.3

Background Financial, clinical, and psychological considerations have made same-day surgery an attractive option for a variety of procedures. This article aimed to analyse the postoperative results of same-day primary unilateral cleft nasolabial repair. Methods This study was performed from 2011 to 2014. Unilateral cleft lip patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were preoperatively classified as mild, moderate, and severe. All patients underwent same-day surgery and were discharged after satisfying the appropriate clinical criteria, receiving thorough counselling, and the establishment of a means of communication by phone. Postoperative outcomes were assessed and stratified according to preoperative severity and the type of repair. Results A total of 423 primary unilateral cleft lip patients were included. Fisher's anatomical subunit approximation technique was the most common procedure, followed by Noordhoff's technique. The postoperative outcome was good in 89.8% of cases, fair in 9.9% of cases, and poor in 0.2% of cases. The complication rate was 1.18% (n=5), and no instances of mortality were observed. The average hospital stay was 7.5 hours, leading to a cost reduction of 19% in comparison with patients who stayed overnight for observation. Conclusions Mild unilateral cleft lip was the most common deformity for which Fisher's anatomical subunit approximation technique was performed in most of the cases, with satisfactory postoperative outcomes. Refinements in the cleft rhinoplasty techniques over the course of the study improved the results regarding cleft nasal symmetry. Single-day primary unilateral cleft cheiloplasty was found to be a cost-effective procedure that did not pose an additional risk of complications.

Effect of Y2O3 doping on the electrical transport properties of Sr2MnNiFe12O22 Y-type hexaferrite

Muhammad Irfan,M.U. Islam,Irshad Ali,M. Asif Iqbal,Nazia Karamat,Hasan M. Khan 한국물리학회 2014 Current Applied Physics Vol.14 No.1

Y2O3 doped Y-type composite hexa-ferrites Sr2MnNiFe12O22 þ xY2O3 (x ¼ 0 wt%, 1 wt%, 2 wt%, 3 wt%, 4 wt%, 5 wt%) were synthesized successfully using sol-gel auto combustion technique. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals Y-type hexagonal structure with few traces of secondary phases. The decrease in grain size as a function of Yttrium content is attributed to the fact that Yttrium acts as a grain inhibitor. The DC resistivity was observed to increase with increasing Yttrium-contents due to the unavailability of Fe3þ ions at octahedral sites. Activation energy showed that the samples with high resistivity have high value of activation energy and vice versa. Permittivity decreases with the increase of frequency following MaxwellWagner Model. In addition, the doped samples exhibit very low dielectric constant and low loss tangent in frequency range 20 Hze1 MHz. The sample x ¼ 5 wt% exhibit the lowest value of dielectric constant. The variation in imaginary part of dielectric constant and loss tangent with frequency show normal dielectric behavior for all the samples. The frequency dependent ac conductivity increases with increase in frequency and decrease with Y2O3 doping. These characteristics may be suitable for their potential applications in electromagnetic attenuation materials and microwave devices. The conductivity mechanism so determined was hopping mechanism. The dc resistivity of the doped ferrites measured in our case is about 1010 U-cm that meets the requirement for fabrication of components by electroplating.

Choices of Femoral and Tibial Coordinate Systems and their impact on Total Knee Arthroplasty

Muhammad Sohail,Asif Khan,Heung Soo Kim 대한기계학회 2021 대한기계학회 춘추학술대회 Vol.2021 No.11

Success of Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) directly relates to the choice of coordinate system with respect to which the bone surface is prepared for implant. The coordinate system for knee joint varies with movement of leg. Assigning a perfect coordinate system to knee joint is still a big challenge. Nowadays, different methods are being used by various knee arthroplasty devices for obtaining natural motion of knee joint after TKA. The coordinate systems for Femur and Tibia are being assigned by following different procedures. The objective of this study is to follow different techniques, being used, to assign the femoral and tibial coordinate systems, and discuss their effect on the results of TKA.