Covid-19 has jolted and halted the whole world. Economies and stock markets have been hit hard however very little is known about the impact of the pandemic on Gig economy. So, this study is an attempt to understand the impact of Covid-19 on Gig economy. The Online Labor Index of Oxford University has been used as a measure of Gig Economy and daily record of new cases and deaths of Corona patients has been used as proxies for Covid-19. The world data for Gig economy ranges from July 1, 2019 to June 22, 2020 and the data regarding Covid-19 ranges from December 31, 2019 to June 22, 2020. This study uses GARCH and VAR model to understand the above mentioned relationship. The results of volatility clustering shows that the volatility of Gig economy increased with the news of Covid-19. Findings of VAR show that covid-19 has significant positive impact on new job openings in Gig economy. Granger causality test shows a bi-directional relationship between covid-19 and Gig economy i.e. Covid-19 cases affected online job openings and online job filling affected the spread of pandemic. The Findings suggest that policymakers should make policies to support Gig economy because it has the potential to keep the world going even in the toughest of times.

This study attempts to explore the bond between Pakistani exports, gross capital formation, energy use and carbon dioxide emission. It uses the data from Pakistan spanning over a longer time horizon of 40 years ranging from 1981 to 2020. The results of ARDL analysis show that Pakistani exports have inverse relationship with CO₂ emission in both short as well as long run and the carbon emission reverts to equilibrium at the speed of 54.9%. Increase in carbon emission also lowers export but the causal relationship is only from exports to carbon emission. Energy utilization results in higher carbon emission both in short as well as long run. Based on above findings this study suggests that Pakistan should increase its exports to improve the position of its balance of payment because higher exports do not harm environment in case of Pakistan.

This study analyzes the impact of Covid-19 on stock market liquidity of China and four worst hit countries by the pandemic. Using daily data for the stock market illiquidity spanning over July 1, 2019 to July 10, 2020 and the data for new cases and deaths over the period from December 31, 2019 to July 10, 2020, the results of our GARCH analysis show that liquidity in stock markets of all the sampled countries hit hard by the news of the Covid-19 outbreak. We find that for all sampled countries increase in illiquidity due to temporary shocks reverts to long term trend shortly, suggesting that the liquidity shocks due to the incidence of Covid-19 were short lived. The findings of our VAR analysis show an absence of any short-term relationship between Covid-19 new cases or deaths and illiquidity. Since the series are not integrated at same level, long-term relationship between Covid-19 and stock market illiquidity do not exist as well suggesting no evidence of the effect of Covid-19 on stock market liquidity.

Interaction of cells and the surrounding lumen drives the formation of tubular system that plays the transport and exchange functions within an organism. The physical and biological mechanisms of lumen expansion have been explored. However, how cells communicate and coordinate with the surrounding lumen, leading to continuous tube expansion to a defined geometry, is crucial but remains elusive. In this study, we utilized the ascidian notochord tube as a model to address the underlying mechanisms. We first quantitatively measured and calculated the geometric parameters and found that tube expansion experienced three distinct phases. During the growth processes, we identified and experimentally demonstrated that both Rho GTPase Cdc42 signaling-mediated cell cortex distribution and the stability of tight junctions (TJs) were essential for lumen opening and tube expansion. Based on these experimental data, a conservation-laws-based tube expansion theory was developed, considering critical cell communication pathways, including secretory activity through vesicles, asymmetric cortex tension driven anisotropic lumen geometry, as well as the TJs gate barrier function. Moreover, by estimating the critical tube expansion parameters from experimental observation, we successfully predicted tube growth kinetics under different conditions through the combination of computational and experimental approaches, highlighting the coupling between actomyosin-based active mechanics and hydraulic processes. Taken together, our findings identify the critical cellular regulatory factors that drive the biological tube expansion and maintain its stability.