Muhammad Imran Qureshi

Environment and air pollution: health services bequeath to grotesque menace

The objective of the study is to establish the link between air pollution, fossil fuel energy consumption, industrialization, alternative and nuclear energy, combustible renewable and wastes, urbanization, and resulting impact on health services in Malaysia. The study employed two-stage least square regression technique on the time series data from 1975 to 2012 to possibly minimize the problem of endogeniety in the health services model. The results in general show that air pollution and environmental indicators act as a strong contributor to influence Malaysian health services. Urbanization and nuclear energy consumption both significantly increases the life expectancy in Malaysia, while fertility rate decreases along with the increasing urbanization in a country. Fossil fuel energy consumption and industrialization both have an indirect relationship with the infant mortality rate, whereas, carbon dioxide emissions have a direct relationship with the sanitation facility in a country. The results conclude that balancing the air pollution, environment, and health services needs strong policy vistas on the end of the government officials.

The battle of health with environmental evils of Asian countries: promises to keep

The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between environmental indicators and health expenditures in the panel of five selected Asian countries, over the period of 2000–2013. The study used panel cointegration technique for evaluating the nexus between environment and health in the region. The results show that energy demand, forest area, and GDP per unit use of energy have a significant and positive impact on increasing health expenditures in the region. These results have been confirmed by single equation panel cointegration estimators, i.e., fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS), dynamic OLS (DOLS), and canonical cointegrating regression (CCR) estimators. In addition, the study used robust least squares regression to confirm the generalizability of the results in Asian context. All these estimators indicate that environmental indicators escalate the health expenditures per capita in a region; therefore, Asian countries should have to upsurge health expenditures for safeguard from environmental evils in a region.

Internationalization of higher education institutions: implementation of DMAIC cycle

In recent decades, the topic of internationalization has emerged as one of the defining issues of higher education globally. Different approaches are emerged for the internationalization process according to universities structures and strategic plans, however, universities are still facing the problems in identification of basic steps through which transformation of higher education to internationalization is possible. This study proposed a framework for higher education in Pakistan. In order to energize the whole process towards internationalization, three-step framework utilized for the internationalization of higher education in Pakistan. Study identifies the basic dimensions for the improvements of the services and structure, which leads to internationalization of higher education in Pakistan. Study proposed the use of define, measure, analysis, improve and control cycle for continuous improvements in higher education’s institutions in Pakistan.

Upper and Lower Bounds for the Stanley Depth of Certain Classes of Monomial Ideals and Their Residue Class Rings

We give an upper bound for the Stanley depth of the edge ideal of a complete k-partite hypergraph and as an application we give an upper bound for the Stanley depth of a monomial ideal in a polynomial ring S. We also give a lower and an upper bound for the cyclic module S/I associated to the complete k-partite hypergraph.

Dynamic linkages among energy consumption, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and agricultural production in Pakistan: sustainable agriculture key to policy success

This study examines the impact of energy demand, air pollution, fossil fuel energy and greenhouse gas emissions on agricultural production in Pakistan for the period 1980–2013. The study utilized the following variables for agricultural production, i.e., agriculture value added, cotton production, wheat production, rice production and sugarcane production in Pakistan. The study employed generalized method of moments estimator to evaluate different simultaneous equations in relation to environmental factors and agricultural production in a country. The results show that CO2 emissions have a positive and energy sources have a negative impact on agricultural value added. The fossil source of energy has a direct relationship with the cotton and sugarcane production, while CO2 emission has a positive relationship with wheat and sugarcane production. Greenhouse gas emissions badly affected the agricultural production including cotton production, wheat production and rice production. Finally, energy consumption exerts the positive impact on the production of cotton, wheat and rice in Pakistan.

Critical elements in implementations of just-in-time management: empirical study of cement industry in Pakistan.

In recent years, inventory management is continuous challenge for all organizations not only due to heavy cost associated with inventory holding, but also it has a great deal to do with the organizations production process. Cement industry is a growing sector of Pakistan’s economy which is now facing problems in capacity utilization of their plants. This study attempts to identify the key strategies for successful implementation of just-in-time (JIT) management philosophy on the cement industry of Pakistan. The study uses survey responses from four hundred operations’ managers of cement industry in order to know about the advantages and benefits that cement industry have experienced by Just in time (JIT) adoption. The results show that implementing the quality, product design, inventory management, supply chain and production plans embodied through the JIT philosophy which infect enhances cement industry competitiveness in Pakistan. JIT implementation increases performance by lower level of inventory, reduced operations & inventory costs was reduced eliminates wastage from the processes and reduced unnecessary production which is a big challenge for the manufacturer who are trying to maintain the continuous flow processes. JIT implementation is a vital manufacturing strategy that reaches capacity utilization and minimizes the rate of defect in continuous flow processes. The study emphasize the need for top management commitment in order to incorporate the necessary changes that need to take place in cement industry so that JIT implementation can take place in an effective manner.

Generalized Steffensen’s inequality by Lidstone interpolation and Montogomery’s identity

By using a Lidstone interpolation, Green’s function and Montogomery’s identity, we prove a new generalization of Steffensen’s inequality. Some related inequalities providing generalizations of certain results given in (J. Math. Inequal. 9(2):481–487, 2015) have also been obtained. Moreover, from these inequalities, we formulate linear functionals and describe their properties.

A Review of Green Supply Chain Management Practices in Asian Countries

This paper offers a systematic review of 22 research articles published on the green supply chain management practices in developing Asian countries between 2008 to 2017. With the increasing trend in the depletion of environmental resources, the green supply chain management practices are considered prudent. Their impact on firm’s performance has been well established. Review of articles revealed that interest in the topic of green supply chain management practices has grown significantly during the last decade, and will remain a fertile area for academic research in the years to come. Findings revealed that the green supply chain management practices lead to enhanced performance in four areas: economic, environmental, operational, and social.

Synchronization and Antisynchronization Between Two Non-Identical Chua Oscillators via Sliding Mode Control

This paper presents the synchronization and antisynchronization scheme between the Chua and modified Chua oscillators. Two cases are considered based on systems known and unknown parameters. In case of known parameters, synchronization and antisynchronization are achieved via sliding mode control, while in case of unknown parameters, adaptive integral sliding mode control is applied. To employ the adaptive integral sliding mode control, the error system is transformed into a special structure containing nominal part and some unknown terms. The unknown terms are computed adaptively. Then, the error system is stabilized using integral sliding mode control. The stabilizing controller for the error system is constructed, which consists of the nominal control plus some compensator control. To avoid the chattering phenomenon, smooth continuous compensator control is used instead of traditional discontinuous control. The compensator controller and the adapted law are derived in such a way that the time derivative of a Lyapunov function becomes strictly negative. Numerical results are shown to illustrate and validate the synchronization schemes presented in this paper.

An Algorithm: Optimal Homotopy Asymptotic Method for Solutions of Systems of Second-Order Boundary Value Problems

Optimal homotopy asymptotic method (OHAM) is proposed to solve linear and nonlinear systems of second-order boundary value problems. OHAM yields exact solutions in just single iteration depending upon the choice of selecting some part of or complete forcing function. Otherwise, it delivers numerical solutions in excellent agreement with exact solutions. Moreover, this procedure does not entail any discretization, linearization, or small perturbations and therefore reduces the computations a lot. Some examples are presented to establish the strength and applicability of this method. The results reveal that the method is very effective, straightforward, and simple to handle systems of boundary value problems.