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Co@Co3O4photocatalyst was prepared in situ to investigate its water splitting performance and mechanism in two photocatalytic systems.

Domestic violence exists in every country, irrespective of the culture, ethnicity, age, income, and education of the women. World Health Organization has estimated that approximately 35% of women worldwide had experienced sexual or physical violence. The present study has attempted to analyze the role of different socioeconomic indicators on the prevalence of domestic violence. In this regard, data of Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2017–2018 has been used and logit models have been estimated. It has been found that women married below the age of 18; living in rural areas; have more children; whose mothers experienced violence; feared their husbands; with little or no autonomy in decision-making; had a bank account; married outside of the family; and had not inherited any land or property were significantly more vulnerable victims of domestic violence. It has been found that women's education, education of her husband, and exposure to media by creating awareness may protect women from domestic violence. Furthermore, working women are more likely to face domestic violence, but women who have started working before marriage are significantly less vulnerable victims of domestic violence. However, the age of women herself, the age of husband, age of household head and wealth of household, living in the nucleus or joint family, receiving any support from Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) have no significant role in determining the domestic violence in Pakistan.

A kind of Co(OH)2-modified CuO nanoparticles (Co(OH)2/CuO) was found to be a robust catalyst for the water oxidation reaction (WOR) in sacrificial oxidant conditions without any photosensitizers since this conjunction possessed both catalytic sites and visible light absorption centers. Under the synergetic effect between Co(OH)2and CuO clusters, Co(OH)2/CuO afforded an excellent high oxygen output ratio (1955 μmol·h–1·g–1). According to electron spin resonance measurements and radical capture experiments, sulfate radicals were confirmed as the main active species. The results of DFT simulations demonstrated that Co(OH)2/CuO was a kind of metal–semiconductor complex, which was inclined to transfer charge carriers across the interface efficiently and unidirectionally. Based on the locations of the valence band and conduction band, the mechanism of the photocatalytic WOR was proposed. We hope that this contribution will offer useful guidance for developing efficient photoinduced charge-transfer water-oxidation catalysts without photosensitizers.

The synergistic catalysis of bimetallic catalysts is one of the important ways to improve the catalytic performance; therefore, the development of efficient bimetallic water oxidation catalysts (WOCs) has received extensive attention. This work proposed a bimetallic Fe3O4/CuO catalyst prepared in situ from the Cu–Fe Prussian blue analogues precursor, promoting Fe3O4-modified CuO as a highly efficient and stable bimetallic WOC. The Fe3O4/CuO exhibits superior and robust catalytic activity for the oxidation of water. Compared with the reported results, it has a higher O2evolution rate of about 4406 μmol·h–1·g–1and a maximum value for the yield of O2as 83.2%, mainly because of the synergetic effect between Fe3O4and CuO in the complicated water oxidation reaction (WOR) process. We hope this work will be useful for other researchers to design new transition metal bimetallic catalysts for WOR.

This research reports on the catalytic performance of Co-BTC in solvent-free cycloaddition of CO2and styrene oxide for the production of cyclic carbonate using tetrabutylammonium bromide as a co-catalyst. The results demonstrated that the conversion of styrene oxide and the selectivity of the product were both more than 95% under relatively mild reaction conditions (10 bar CO2, 110 °C). In addition, the Co-BTC catalyst maintained its unique morphology and excellent catalytic performance even after recycling it for three times. Co-BTC reported as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst in this work. The acid–base property of Co-BTC catalyst was investigated by NH3and CO2temperature-programmed desorption methods, and it was found that the acidic and alkaline nature of the Co-BTC catalyst did not changed apparently after the catalyst was recycled. So it was confirmed that the Co-BTC catalytic cycloaddition reaction was closely related to the Lewis acid–base distribution.

The photocatalytic water oxidation reaction (WOR) usually requires the use of a noble metal catalyst as well as a photosensitizer, therefore developing new types of non-noble metal and photosensitizer-free catalysts is of great significience for the photocatalytic WOR. In this paper, a facile paradigm for designing photosensitizer-free difunctional catalysts from old fashioned cubic MOFs as Prussian blue analogues (PBAs) is presented. The as-prepared Co(OH)2-modified CuO (Co(OH)2/CuO) nanoparticles displayed robust catalytic efficiency (3567 μmol h−1g−1) toward visible-light-driven water oxidation reaction (WOR). Intriguingly, insights into the WOR pathway indicated that the Co(OH)2/CuO nanoparticles could serve as both water oxidation catalysts and visible light absorption centers and they still showed photocatalytic performance under monochromatic light at 765 nm and maintained 64.2% oxygen evolution compared to the case with light cutting off at 420 nm. The Co(OH)2/CuO nanoparticles were shown to be quite stable in the reaction system viacharacterizing their properties before and after the reactions. While the synergetic effect between Co(OH)2and the CuO clusters was found to be key to the abnormal photocatalytic activity of this catalyst in the complicated WOR process. We hope that this contribution will serve as a useful template for other researchers to design new transition metal catalysts for WOR.

AbstractOver the years, most developing countries have failed to collect enough revenues to finance their budgets. As a result, they face the problem of twin deficits and are relying on public external and domestic debt to finance their developmental activities. NGOs and anti-globalisation movements have propagated the view that instead of reducing poverty public debt has increased the miseries of the poor. The current study examines the consequences of public debt for economic growth and poverty regarding selected South Asian countries, i.e., Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, for the period 1975–2010. It develops an empirical model that incorporates the role of public debt into growth equations and the model is extended to incorporate the effects of debt on poverty. The model is estimated by using standard panel data estimation methodologies. The results shows that although public debt has a negative impact on economic growth, neither public external debt nor external debt servicing has a significant relationship with income inequality, suggesting that public external debt is as good/bad for poor as it is for rich. However, domestic debt has a positive relationship with economic growth and a negative relationship with the GINI coefficient, indicating that domestic debt is pro-poor.

Inequality along with poverty has been a serious challenge for most of the developing countries. There have been several historical, political, social and economic dimensions of the inequalities. The present study provides a detailed analysis of various income dimensions of inequality at national and provincial level in Pakistan. This paper also provides a detailed analysis of the causes and consequences of these inequalities. The analysis shows that the gaps between haves and have-nots is widening. The distributional inequality has not been given much significance in Pakistan and the distributional policy measures like direct taxes have been weak. As a result, the direct tax to GDP ratio could not be increased over 10% in the country. The study finds that income inequalities have increased during 2001 to 2008. As in 2001-02, GINI coefficient was calculated as 0.27 and in 2007–08, it reached to 0.29. It has also been observed that inequality is highest in Sindh followed by Punjab, Khyber Paktunkawa (KPK) and Baluchistan provinces.

Visible-light photocatalysis is considered a good alternative for effluent degradation, resulting in eco-friendly biodegradable products. Semiconductors derived bimetallic nanocomposites have sufficient bandgap potential for efficient effluent treatment upon their exposure to the visible light. In this work, Ag2O was deposited over CuO to improve the light captivating properties of the as-synthesized bimetallic catalyst. The bimetallic catalyst was studied for the photodegradation of three different azo dyes, by introducing persulfate as a sacrificial donor, under visible as well as sunlight irradiation. Novel leaf-like Ag2O/CuO catalyst has efficiently degraded 100% Congo Red (CR), 99.9% Rhodamine-B (RhB), and 97% Methyl Orange (MO) dyes within 6 min, 15 min, and 20 min, respectively. Photodecomposition of all three dyes was studied at various pH solutions and the most efficient photodegradation was observed with a neutral pH solution. ESR and radical probe experiments were conducted to identify the active radical species and to reveal the reaction mechanism. SO4•−and HO•radicals were the influential radicals during the photodegradation reaction. Notably, Ag2O/CuO catalyst exhibited 100% photodegradation of Congo Red dye without the addition of persulfate within 8 min, a superior characteristic than the other known bimetallic catalysts. The developed catalyst is easily recyclable and offered just a 1–2% decrease in its photocatalytic performance, for all three dyes, even after 5 consecutive cycles. Thus, the reported catalyst can be a suitable alternative to expensive rare-earth derived bimetallic catalysts and has a potential application for the detoxification of various organic pollutants, at the field scale.

Savings play a very crucial role in the economic development of a country by financing investment needs. Household savings are the major and dominant component of national savings in Pakistan. The present study aims to analyse the impact of various socio-economic factors in determining the household savings in Pakistan by using the data of Household Integrated Income and Consumption Survey (HIICS) 2015–2016. It has been found that household’s savings tend to increase with income, living in nucleus family, house ownership, receiving remittances from abroad and being involved in agriculture; and saving tends to decrease with an increase in dependency ratio; and wealth has an insignificant role in determining savings in both urban and rural households. However, education and female labour force participation had a positive relationship with saving among urban households but the relationship is insignificant in rural households. Similarly, age of household head hurts saving in urban households and the relationship is insignificant in rural households.JEL Codes:E21, D91, C31