Epidemiological patterns of suicide terrorism in the civilian Pakistani population

In this study, we assessed the epidemiological patterns of suicide terrorism in the civilian population of Pakistan. Information about suicide terrorism-related events, deaths and injuries was extracted from the South-Asian Terrorism Portal (SATP) for the period from 2002 to October 2009. Of 198 events, civilians were involved in 194 events. Civilians accounted for 74.1% (N?=?2017) of those who died and 93.8% (N?=?6129) of those who were injured. In nine districts, mortality rates were more than one death per 100,000 inhabitants per year. The yearly trend showed a shift of attack targets from foreigners and sectarian targets in 2002-2005 to security forces or general public in 2006-2009. Attacks on public installations (mosques) or political gatherings resulted in a significantly greater (P?≤?0.02) number of deaths (22 vs. 8) and injuries (59 vs. 24) per event compared with security installations. These results show that prevention might focus on political negotiation with armed groups and that appropriate measures should be taken to protect mosques and political gatherings.     

Conditioning manager alphas on economic information: another look at the persistence of performance

This article presents evidence on persistence in the relativeinvestment performance of large, institutional equity managers.Similar to existing evidence for mutual funds, we find persistentperformance concentrated in the managers with poor prior-periodperformance measures. A conditional approach, using time-varyingmeasures of risk and abnormal performance, is better able todetect this persistence and to predict the future performanceof the funds than are traditional methods.     

US domestic airline alliances: does the national welfare impact turn on strategic international gains?

The six largest U.S. airlines announced in the beginning of 1998 the formation of three domestic alliances, but the size and scope of these alliances spurred significant public interest concerns. GAO analysis suggests a rough equivalence between the domestic costs and benefits of alliances, yet the international competitive effects have not been considered. I argue that the national welfare merits of domestic airline alliances turn on positive international competitive effects. Empirical tests - run on comprehensive panel data covering the international airline markets among 21 nations over the 1983–1992 period - support domestic market concentration resulting in strategic international gains; hence, domestic airline alliances likely improve national welfare.     

Creating a competitive advantage in the global flight catering supply chain: a case study using SCOR model

Flight catering is a complex food service industry that caters to a wide range of airlines. Meals provided to passengers are a measure of in-flight service on an airplane. In the case of the airline industry, flight catering companies are responsible for preparing the meal that flight crews serve it at a voyaging altitude. This case study examines Emirates Kitchen Flight Catering (EKFC), a jointly owned entity of Dubai Civil Aviation (10%) and the Emirates Group (90%). Based on existing literature, international archival reports, company publications and participant observations of EKFC, the paper examines how EKFC reached the top of the catering supply chain by offering the best-in-class quality services and food to its passengers. The paper addresses the persistent growth of EKFC’s operations and investigates relevant strategies that reinforce EKFC’s fundamental competencies through the application of Supply Chain Operations Reference framework. Offering a combination of on-board excellence, quality, and fresh and delicious food while controlling costs across the supply chain is an important differentiator of EKFC’s flight catering business, thereby setting a benchmark for other businesses.     

Is the Taylor Rule Really Different from the McCallum Rule?

When base velocity is a stable function of the Federal funds rate (FFR), the money base–nominal GDP targeting rule (McCallum rule) can be reparameterized and presented in terms of FFR as the policy instrument. Comparison of this McCallum modified policy rule with the popular Taylor rule suggests that these two rules and the FFR are actually closely related. Model-based evaluations of the two rules' stabilization properties indicate that the modified McCallum rule is similar to the Taylor rule. The key to this result is the degree of interest rate smoothing applied to the policy rules. (JEL E3 , E52 , E58 )     

Initial results of Pakistan's first road traffic injury surveillance project

Our aim is to report the findings of the initial three years of road traffic injuries (RTI) surveillance at Karachi and to compare it with previously published RTI-related data from Pakistan and other low-and middle-income countries. Data were collected through the RTI surveillance programme at Karachi (RTIRP) from the five biggest emergency departments of the city, which receive almost all the major emergencies of the city for the period September 2006 till September 2009. A total of 99,272 victims were enlisted by the RTIRP during the study period. Annual incidence of RTI is calculated to be 184.3 per 100,000 populations and mortality is 5.7 per 100,000 populations. Eighty nine per cent of victims are male and 73% are between 15 and 44 years of age. Commonest road user to be affected is riders of two wheelers (45%). Only 7% of affected motorcyclists were found to be wearing helmets at the time of the accident. Trends of injuries remained uniform over the years. Most frequent injuries were external wounds, followed by orthopaedic injuries. On the basis of our surveillance system, we have presented the largest RTI-related data from a metropolitan city of Pakistan to date.     

Wage,productivity and unemployment: microeconomics theory and macroeconomics data

We confront microeconomics theory with macroeconomics data. Unemployment results from two main micro-level decisions of workers and firms. Most of the efficiency wage and bargaining theories predict that over the business cycle, unemployment falls below its natural rate when the worker’s real wage exceeds the reservation wage. However, these theories have weak empirical support. Firm’s decision predicts that when the worker’s real wage exceeds the marginal product of labour (MPL), unemployment increases above its natural rate. Accounting for this microeconomic decision helps explain almost all the fluctuations of US unemployment.     

加强学法指导提高教学质量——小学数学教学中怎样进行学法指导

世界上最有价值的知识是关于方法的知识,教给了方法就是交给了"点石成金"的指头,交给了捕猎物的猎枪,学生就可以用它去捕获猎物,索取知识的金山.