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Muhammad Azhar Iqbal

Bio: Muhammad Azhar Iqbal is an academic researcher from Southwest Jiaotong University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Cloud computing & Load balancing (computing). The author has an hindex of 13, co-authored 63 publications receiving 734 citations. Previous affiliations of Muhammad Azhar Iqbal include Capital University & National University of Science and Technology.


Papers
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01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discussed various indicators of agricultural credit in Pakistan and presented results of estimated production function using institutional credit as one of the explanatory variables over the years, increased percentage of agricultural GDP has been disbursed as institutional credit during the study period disbursement of institutional credit per cropped hectare also depicted an increasing trend in nominal terms.
Abstract: Agricultural credit plays an important role in enhancing the agricultural productivity in developing countries like Pakistan The study discusses various indicators of agricultural credit in Pakistan and presents results of estimated production function using institutional credit as one of the explanatory variables Over the years, increased percentage of agricultural GDP has been disbursed as institutional credit During the study period disbursement of institutional credit per cropped hectare also depicted an increasing trend in nominal terms However, it declined in real terms from late 1980’s to early 1990s Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL)-- formerly known as Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP), provides the major share of institutional credit The share of production loans in total loan advanced has been increasing during 1980-81 to 1986-87 and after mid 1990’s It shows multiple shifts in credit policy from loans for fixed capital to advances for operational capital during the study period The OLS estimates of the production function revealed that institutional credit affects agricultural production positively Water availability at the farm gate, labor, and cropping intensity are the other important variables that affect agricultural output positively However, the shocks like floods, cotton leaf curl virus (CLCV), and drought have caused significant decline in agricultural output during certain years

124 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The primary objective of the 2017-18 PDHS is to provide up-to-date estimates of basic demographic and health indicators to assist policymakers and program managers at the federal and provincial government levels and at international organisations in evaluating and designing programs and strategies for improving the health of the country’s population.
Abstract: The 2017-18 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) was implemented by the National Institute of Population Studies (NIPS) under the aegis of the Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination. This PDHS is the fourth to be conducted in Pakistan and follows surveys in 1990-91 2006-07 and 2012-13. Data collection took place from 22 November 2017 to 30 April 2018. ICF provided technical assistance through The DHS Program which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and offers financial support and technical assistance for population and health surveys in countries worldwide. Support for the survey was also provided by the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). According to the Population Census of 2017 the total population of Pakistan is 207 million with a growth rate of 2.4% (Government of Pakistan 2017). The size of the population and the growth rate present serious challenges to governmental efforts to prevent food insecurity water scarcity rapid urbanisation inadequate housing and loss of economic opportunities. Such challenges necessitate regular assessment of their demographic impact through collection of reliable data in surveys such as the PDHS. The primary objective of the 2017-18 PDHS is to provide up-to-date estimates of basic demographic and health indicators. The PDHS provides a comprehensive overview of population maternal and child health issues in Pakistan. Specifically the 2017-18 PDHS collected information on: Key demographic indicators particularly fertility and under-5 mortality rates at the national level for urban and rural areas and within the country’s eight regions; Direct and indirect factors that determine levels and trends of fertility and child mortality; Contraceptive knowledge and practice; Maternal health and care including antenatal perinatal and postnatal care; Child feeding practices including breastfeeding and anthropometric measures to assess the nutritional status of children under age 5 and women age 15-49; Key aspects of family health including vaccination coverage and prevalence of diseases among infants and children under age 5; Knowledge and attitudes of women and men about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV/AIDS and potential exposure to risk; Womens empowerment and its relationship to reproductive health and family planning; Disability level; Extent of gender-based violence; Migration patterns. The information collected through the 2017-18 PDHS is intended to assist policymakers and program managers at the federal and provincial government levels in the private sector and at international organisations in evaluating and designing programs and strategies for improving the health of the country’s population. The data also provides information on indicators relevant to the Sustainable Development Goals.

104 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discussed various indicators of agricultural credit in Pakistan and presented results of estimated production function using institutional credit as one of the explanatory variables, which revealed that institutional credit affects agricultural production positively.
Abstract: Agricultural credit plays an important role in enhancing the agricultural productivity in developing countries like Pakistan. The study discusses various indicators of agricultural credit in Pakistan and presents results of estimated production function using institutional credit as one of the explanatory variables. Over the years, increased percentage of agricultural GDP has been disbursed as institutional credit. During the study period disbursement of institutional credit per cropped hectare also depicted an increasing trend in nominal terms. However, it declined in real terms from late 1980’s to early 1990s. Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL)-- formerly known as Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP), provides the major share of institutional credit. The share of production loans in total loan advanced has been increasing during 1980-81 to 1986-87 and after mid 1990’s. It shows multiple shifts in credit policy from loans for fixed capital to advances for operational capital during the study period. The OLS estimates of the production function revealed that institutional credit affects agricultural production positively. Water availability at the farm gate, labor, and cropping intensity are the other important variables that affect agricultural output positively. However, the shocks like floods, cotton leaf curl virus (CLCV), and drought have caused significant decline in agricultural output during certain years.

82 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The proposed Adaptive Thermal-Aware Routing algorithm is based on Multi-Ring Routing approach to find an alternative route in the case of increasing temperature and simulation results indicate that proposed protocol is more efficient in terms of temperature rise and throughput than existing approaches.
Abstract: The recent advancement in information technology and evolving of the (IoT) shifted the traditional medical approach to patient-oriented approach (e.g., Telemedicine/Telemonitoring). IoT permits several services including sensing, processing and communicating information with physical and bio-medical constraints. Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) handles the issues pertaining to the medical purposes in the form of sensor nodes and connected network. The WBAN takes human physiological data as an input to subsequently monitor the patient conditions that are transferred to other IoT components for analysis. Such monitoring and analysis demand a cohesive routing approach to ensure the safe and in-time transfer of data. The temperature rise of bio-medical sensor nodes makes the entire routing operation very crucial because the temperature of implanted nodes rises and ultimately damages body tissues. This needs dispersion in data transmission among different nodes by opting various available routes while avoiding temperature rise. In this paper, we present Adaptive Thermal-Aware Routing algorithm for WBAN. The ATAR is designed to overcome the temperature rise issue of implanted bio-medical sensors nodes. The new protocol is based on Multi-Ring Routing approach to find an alternative route in the case of increasing temperature. The simulation results indicate that proposed protocol is more efficient in terms of temperature rise and throughput than existing approaches.

72 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work provides a survey of available NC-aware routing protocols that make forwarding decisions based on the information of available coding opportunities across several routes within wireless ad hoc networks and concludes that NC- aware routing techniques have several advantages over traditional routing in terms of high throughput, high reliability, and lower delay in a wireless scenario.

63 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Barwise and Perry as discussed by the authors tackle the slippery subject of ''meaning, '' a subject that has long vexed linguists, language philosophers, and logicians, and they tackle it in this book.
Abstract: In this provocative book, Barwise and Perry tackle the slippery subject of \"meaning, \" a subject that has long vexed linguists, language philosophers, and logicians.

1,834 citations

01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: A new cross-layer communication protocol for WBANs: CICADA or Cascading Information retrieval by Controlling Access with Distributed slot Assignment, which offers low delay and good resilience to mobility.
Abstract: Wireless body area networks (WBANs) form a new and interesting area in the world of remote health monitoring. An important concern in such networks is the communication between the sensors. This communication needs to be energy efficient and highly reliable while keeping delays low. Mobility also has to be supported as the nodes are positioned on different parts of the body that move with regard to each other. In this paper, we present a new cross-layer communication protocol for WBANs: CICADA or Cascading Information retrieval by Controlling Access with Distributed slot Assignment. The protocol sets up a network tree in a distributed manner. This tree structure is subsequently used to guarantee collision free access to the medium and to route data towards the sink. The paper analyzes CICADA and shows simulation results. The protocol offers low delay and good resilience to mobility. The energy usage is low as the nodes can sleep in slots where they are not transmitting or receiving.

227 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
13 Apr 2020-Sensors
TL;DR: A novel platform for monitoring patient vital signs using smart contracts based on blockchain is proposed using hyperledger fabric, which is an enterprise-distributed ledger framework for developing blockchain-based applications and provides several benefits to the patients, such as an extensive, immutable history log, and global access to medical information from anywhere at any time.
Abstract: Over the past several years, many healthcare applications have been developed to enhancethe healthcare industry. Recent advancements in information technology and blockchain technologyhave revolutionized electronic healthcare research and industry. The innovation of miniaturizedhealthcare sensors for monitoring patient vital signs has improved and secured the human healthcaresystem. The increase in portable health devices has enhanced the quality of health-monitoringstatus both at an activity/fitness level for self-health tracking and at a medical level, providing moredata to clinicians with potential for earlier diagnosis and guidance of treatment. When sharingpersonal medical information, data security and comfort are essential requirements for interactionwith and collection of electronic medical records. However, it is hard for current systems to meetthese requirements because they have inconsistent security policies and access control structures.The new solutions should be directed towards improving data access, and should be managed bythe government in terms of privacy and security requirements to ensure the reliability of data formedical purposes. Blockchain paves the way for a revolution in the traditional pharmaceuticalindustry and benefits from unique features such as privacy and transparency of data. In this paper,we propose a novel platform for monitoring patient vital signs using smart contracts based onblockchain. The proposed system is designed and developed using hyperledger fabric, which isan enterprise-distributed ledger framework for developing blockchain-based applications. Thisapproach provides several benefits to the patients, such as an extensive, immutable history log, andglobal access to medical information from anywhere at any time. The Libelium e-Health toolkitis used to acquire physiological data. The performance of the designed and developed system isevaluated in terms of transaction per second, transaction latency, and resource utilization usinga standard benchmark tool known as Hyperledger Caliper. It is found that the proposed systemoutperforms the traditional health care system for monitoring patient data.

161 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
15 Aug 2020-Vaccine
TL;DR: One out of every two children in Sindh province have missed their routine vaccinations during the provincial COVID-19 lockdown, indicating the pool of un-immunized children is expanding during lockdown, leaving them susceptible to vaccine-preventable diseases.

143 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the relationship between agricultural GDP and the output of major crops, including wheat, rice, sugarcane, maize and cotton, in Pakistan over a period of 65 years from 1950 to 2015.
Abstract: Agriculture is considered the backbone of Pakistan's economy, which relies heavily on its major crops. There are vast gaps between the acquired and actual output of produce, which suffers due to a lack of appropriate technology, use of inputs at improper times, unavailability of water and land use and inadequate education about insect pest control, which not only negatively affects the produce but also significantly reduces the amount of produce. Farmers mainly use synthetic chemicals for the control of insect pests, but these are used unwisely. To emphasize the major shortfalls and actual performance of major field crops, this study investigated the relationship between agricultural GDP and the output of major crops, including wheat, rice, sugarcane, maize and cotton, in Pakistan over a period of 65 years from 1950 to 2015. Time series data were collected from the Economic Survey of Pakistan (various publications). Crop data were analysed using the ordinary least square method and the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test, and the results were interpreted using Johansen's co-integration test. Our study finds that the output of wheat, rice and cotton has a positive and significant relationship with the agricultural GDP of Pakistan, while the output of sugarcane has a negative and non-significant relationship with the agricultural GDP of Pakistan. Therefore, this study recommends that the government of Pakistan should launch new funding programmes for the development of the agricultural sector.

140 citations