Stock Prices and Exchange Rates: Are they Related? Evidence from South Asian Countries

The issue of whether stock prices and exchange rates are related or not has received considerable attention after the East Asian crisis. During the crisis the countries affected saw turmoil in both currency and stock markets. If stock prices and exchange rates are related and the causation runs from exchange rates to stock prices, then the crisis in the stock markets can be prevented by controlling the exchange rates. Moreover, developing countries can exploit such a link to attract/stimulate foreign portfolio investment in their own countries. Similarly, if the causation runs from stock prices to exchange rates then authorities can focus on domestic economic policies to stabilise the stock market. If the two markets/prices are related then investors can use this information to predict the behaviour of one market using the information on other market.1 Most of the empirical literature that has examined the stock prices-exchange rate relationship has focused on examining this relationship for the developed countries with very little attention on the developing countries. The results of these studies are, however, inconclusive. Some studies have found a significant positive relationship between stock prices and exchange rates [for instance Smith (1992); Solnik (1987) and Aggarwal (1981)] while others have reported a significant negative relationship between the two [e.g., Soenen and Hennigar (1998)]. On the other hand, there are some studies that have found very weak or no association between stock prices and exchange rates [for instance, Franck and Young (1972); Bartov and Bodnor (1994)]. On the issue of causation, the evidence is also mixed. Some studies [for instance, Abdalla and Murinde (1997)] have found causation runs from exchange rates to stock prices while other reported a reverse causation [e.g., Ajayi and

Differential action mechanisms of an allelochemical L-DOPA in two susceptible plant species, cucumber and lettuce

Thesis (Ph. D. in Agricultural Science)--University of Tsukuba, (A), no. 6512, 2013.3.25Includes bibliographical references (leaves 54-61

Spectroscopy of the hidden-charm [qc][qˉcˉ][qc][\bar q \bar c] and [sc][sˉcˉ][sc][\bar s \bar c] tetraquarks

We calculate the spectrum of $q\bar q c \bar c$ and $s\bar s c \bar c$ tetraquarks, where $q$, $s$ and $c$ stand for light ($u,d$), strange and charm quarks, respectively, in a relativized diquark model, characterized by one-gluon-exchange (OGE) plus confining potential. In the diquark model, a $q\bar q c \bar c$ ($s\bar s c \bar c$) tetraquark configuration is made up of a heavy-light diquark, $q c$ ($sc$), and anti-diquark, $\bar q \bar c$ ($\bar s \bar c$). According to our results, 13 charmonium-like observed states can be accommodated in the tetraquark picture, both in the hidden-charm ($q\bar q c \bar c$) and hidden-charm hidden-strange ($s\bar s c \bar c$) sectors.Comment: Discussions extended, references adde

Assessing farmer’s Pesticide Safety Knowledge in cotton growing area of Punjab, Pakistan

A pesticide safety knowledge test was developed to assess farmer’s knowledge related to pesticide safety. Yes-No (true-false) type 25 item, test, was constructed and used in a sample of 162 pesticide applicator in two districts of southern Punjab Pakistan. The overall mean score was 17.2(72%). More educated and adult respondents performed better than younger and illiterate. Similarly large land holder scored higher than small landholders, indicating their more access to information and extension. Overall ten Items received less than 50% correct response. The result shows that farmers have reasonably good knowledge but it still has to see, to what extent that knowledge is being used practically. It could possibly be the future research topic.Health cost, Environmental cost, Pesticide knowledge, pesticide safety

Efficient energy management for the internet of things in smart cities

The drastic increase in urbanization over the past few years requires sustainable, efficient, and smart solutions for transportation, governance, environment, quality of life, and so on. The Internet of Things offers many sophisticated and ubiquitous applications for smart cities. The energy demand of IoT applications is increased, while IoT devices continue to grow in both numbers and requirements. Therefore, smart city solutions must have the ability to efficiently utilize energy and handle the associated challenges. Energy management is considered as a key paradigm for the realization of complex energy systems in smart cities. In this article, we present a brief overview of energy management and challenges in smart cities. We then provide a unifying framework for energy-efficient optimization and scheduling of IoT-based smart cities. We also discuss the energy harvesting in smart cities, which is a promising solution for extending the lifetime of low-power devices and its related challenges. We detail two case studies. The first one targets energy-efficient scheduling in smart homes, and the second covers wireless power transfer for IoT devices in smart cities. Simulation results for the case studies demonstrate the tremendous impact of energy-efficient scheduling optimization and wireless power transfer on the performance of IoT in smart cities

Heavy Quark Spin Symmetry Violating Hadronic Transitions of Higher Charmonia

In heavy quarkonia, hadronic transitions serve as an enlightened probe for the structure and help to establish the understanding of light quark coupling with a heavy degree of freedom. Moreover, in recent years, hadronic transitions revealed remarkable discoveries to identify the new conventional heavy quarkonia and extracting useful information about the so called "XYZ" exotic states. In this contribution, we present our predictions for heavy quark spin symmetry (HQSS) breaking hadronic transitions of higher $S$ and $D$ wave vector charmonia based on our recently proposed model (inspired by Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model) to create light meson(s) in heavy quarkonium transitions. We also suggest spectroscopic quantum numbers $(^{2S+1}L_J)$ for several observed charmoniumlike states. Our analysis indicates that the $Y(4360)$ is most likely to be a $3D$ dominant state.Comment: Proceedings of the talk presented at "XVII International Conference on Hadron Spectroscopy and Structure (Hadron2017)", 25-29 September 2017, Salamanca, Spai