A total of 180 food borne isolates of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (oxacillin MICs 864 μg/ml) were used in the present study to investigate the effect of oxacillin on biofilm formation and its detachment process. Majority (98.3%) of these isolates were found to carry icaA gene. Out of 180 isolates 35.5% were identified as MRSA and 64.4% were methicillin sensitive S. aureus (MSSA). Biofilm studies by con-red agar and tube methods revealed that 57% of the MRSA isolates were biofilm producers. Polymerase chain reaction studies suggested that all of the biofilm positive MRSA isolates belong to SCCmec type IV and carry agr type II. This showed the strong association of SCCmec IV agr type II and biofilm formation in food borne MRSA. Conversely, only 13.7% of the MSSA isolates were biofilm positive and majority was found to carry agr type II. It has been noticed that oxacillin has regulatory effect on icaA expression and induce the icaA dependent polysaccharide intracellular adhesin (PIA) production and biofilm formation. This was confirmed by Real Time PCR studies of MRSA and MSSA isolates. Quantitative analysis showed that most of the MRSA isolates started biofilm formation after 24 h of incubation in the presence of sub-inhibitory concentration of oxacillin and achieved highest adhesion on glass slide after 48 h. The control in the absence of oxacillin showed slow conversion from planktonic to biofilm mode of growth (Table 1). Another novel feature of most of these biofilm producing isolates is the reduction in (Optical Density) OD, which is noticed after 48 h of incubation. Possibly, after 48 h oxacillin loses its toxicity or consumed the cells re-adapt to the planktonic state, possibly, by the activation of accessory gene regulator A (agrA) which has an important role in biofilm dispersal.

The objective of this paper is to estimate the Okun's coefficient, and to check the validity of Okun's law in some Asian countries whether it is valid or not, for this purpose we have used the time series annual data during the period 1980. Engle Granger (1987 co integration technique is employed to find out long run association between variables and error correction mechanism (ECM) is used for short run dynamic. After getting empirical evidences it can be said that Okun's law interpretation may not be applicable and also the principle of NAIRU does not hold its validity in some Asian developing countries. Our results have also supported to Noble Prize awarded Austrian economist Paul Krugman.

The key purpose behind the study is to use logistic regression model to predict stock performance. For this purpose different financial and accounting ratios were used as independent variables and stock performance (either "good" or "poor") as dependent variable. The result shows that financial and accounting ratios significantly predict the stock performance. Our study consists on the sample period of annual data from 2011-2015 and comprises of 109 listed non-financial firms of Pakistan's Stock Exchange (PSX). Our sample was shortlisted on the basis of available data of Market Capitalization. Our research examines sales growth, debt to equity ratio, book to price ratio, earning per share, return on equity and current ratio for the prediction of stock performance. The findings indicate that our prediction was 89.77 percent accurate for prediction good as well as bad performance of stock. Although we did not consider macroeconomic variable to forecast stock return performance but our six firm specific accounting and financial ratios were good enough to predict stock performance. This study shows that Logistic regression model can be used by investors, individual as well as institutions or fund managers to enhance their ability to predict "good or poor" stock. Contribution/ Originality This paper contributes by applying the logistic regression model of Altman (1968) and Ohlson (1980) using ML technique for the stock performance prediction of nonfinancial firms in Pakistan Stock Exchange. To increase prediction power of stock performance accounting and financial ratios as suggested by Fama and French models (1988 and 2017) were incorporated.

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The purpose behind this study is to explore the relationship between expected return and risk of portfolios. It is observed that standard CAPM is inappropriate, so we introduce higher moment in model. For this purpose, the study takes data of 60 listed companies of Karachi Stock Exchange 100 index. The data are inspected for the period of 1 st January 2007 to 31 st December 2013. From the empirical analysis, it is observed that the intercept term and higher moments coefficients (skewness and kurtosis) are highly significant and different from zero. When higher moment is introduced in the model, the adjusted R square is increased. The higher moment CAPM performs cooperatively perform well. Keywords Capital Assets Price Model, Higher Moment