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Objectives: Despite in techniques advancement to patient care for respiratory tracts are instrumented may complicate the IAP course up to 50% in patients with mechanical ventilation. It requires rapid diagnoses and treatment that is appropriate as per patient condition. Many studies revealed negative impact with delayed administration and antibiotic treatment in IAP patients may increase the hospital mortality and morbidity. The primary objective of the study was to estimate the incidence of IAP in the patient admitted in ICU of tertiary care hospitals in Rawalpindi Pakistan. Study Design: Observational cross sectional study. Setting: ICU units of various tertiary care hospitals in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Period: One year from Dec 2016-Dec 2017. Materials and Methods: A total 450 subjects were enlisted for the study; these patients were selected randomly. The exclusion criteria include all patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) or those on long-term antibiotic or steroid therapy and all the pregnant women whereas all the patients of both sexes, kept on ventilator for more than 48 h and above the age of 18 years were included in this study. Results: We enrolled a total of 450 patients for this study. The average age of all the participants was 61.51 + 12.8 with range 36-91. 230(51.1%) of the patients were male whereas 220(48.9%) were females. The Trauma-Pulm contusion was absent in all patients. In ICU 150 (33.3%) were diagnosed with COPD, 150(33.3%) with Asthma, 220(48.9%) with ARDS, 10 (2.2%) with head trauma and 310 (68.8%) with diabetes.200 (44.4%) smokers, 40(8.8%) were having lung cancer, 310(68.8%) were hypertensive and 20 (4.4%) were with Pneumothorax - requiring Chest Tube. Conclusion: We may conclude from our study that ICU associated Pneumonia is a serious issue, that developed with longer hospital stay, duration of mechanical ventilation and re-intubation. By reducing the mechanical ventilation duration, pneumonia can be controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sectors or industries characterized by limited or no use of technology to innovate are called lowtechnology (LT) sectors. They are usually dominated by small firms. Identifying a dearth of academic and practitioner work, this paper helps explain how institutions within a small-firm sector and interactions of these firms with institutions influence the occurrence or non-occurrence of LT innovation. Marble sector firms primarily located in north-west Pakistan have been selected for this purpose. Advocating the need for critical realism that has been an often ignored paradigm in management research, this paper offers a unique perspective on the paradigm's fundamental tenets which are events, objects, mechanisms and causal powers through an extensive and robust qualitative analysis using case study methodology. Findings reveal strong normative and cognitive institutions but weak regulative institutions with varying levels of consistencies or otherwise in terms of small firms' interactions with these institutions. Interestingly, cognitive institutions emerge as the main barrier to LT innovation which is a key contribution of this paper along with a hard to find critical realist perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An entrepreneur conceptualizes and rationalizes the creation of the new enterprise through the use of inductive analogical or metaphorical reasoning. Such reasoning sets the stage for commercialization of the enterprise and helps clarify its purpose and justification particularly in the face of adverse environmental contexts. After providing a review of literature on creation of a new enterprise, sensemaking and inductive reasoning, we use a narrative case study methodology to present the story of a small enterprise located in Peshawar Pakistan. Through the perspective of a female entrepreneur interpretations and details of her work, her struggles and her views about her enterprise are provided. By presenting this case we argue that inductive reasoning by the entrepreneur is shaped by three determinants. These include conceptualizing the opportunity through a narrative on the wider norms and values of the society and the entrepreneur's role within the society. Secondly, rationalizing the opportunity through a narration of personal life and events before and after the enterprise was created. Thirdly, using analogies or metaphors in the form of drivers influencing the new enterprise and how the entrepreneur has or is managing them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islamic banks are not allowed to charge interest; however, they use interest-based benchmarks as a pricing reference, due in part to the absence of stable and dependable alternatives. Though, benchmarking interest rate in Islamic banking does not violate the Shariah rulings. However, it is usually argued that benchmarking interest rate violates the basic philosophy of Islamic banking and finance. Moreover, it exposes Islamic banks to the problems of conventional banks, particularly the interest rate risk. The present study investigates the long term and short association among interest rate and financing of the overall Islamic banking industry of Pakistan via different modes. Findings of the study reveal invariably strong links between the Islamic and the conventional banking systems in Pakistan. These findings suggest that paradoxical as it may seem, the financing of Islamic banks operating within a dual banking system are vulnerable to interest rate risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on entrepreneurial sensemaking with an emphasis on cognitive mechanisms utilized by entrepreneurs during business opportunity development. More specifically the focus is to find out how an individual entrepreneur may assign meaning to important cues derived from innumerable unending events, interpret these cues and then take actions as per interpretations of these cues and events. These cues can be cognitively conceptualized as drivers and barriers through which the entrepreneur makes sense of his or her enterprise and the opportunities it may offer. Using a narrative case study approach this paper relies on inductive reasoning of a single female entrepreneur. A three-tiered and six-dimensional framework of entrepreneurial sensemaking has been presented. The cognitive mechanisms employed by the entrepreneur were presented in the form of cues, events and their interpretations by the entrepreneur resulting in a unique perspective on sensemaking. This paper is particularly useful because even though the use of sensemaking in entrepreneurship research has been well-recognized there is a general lack of empirical work on how an entrepreneur uses socially situated cognitive mechanisms to proceed further in terms of offering a better understanding of his or her new enterprise to others within any social or cultural setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of incubators, particularly those that are driven to achieving social objectives, this paper investigates core processes that support the development of social innovation. Social innovation, as this paper argues, is underpinned by a new form of social collaboration and engagement built upon strong forms of sharing knowledge and learning. Coupled with this is the element of social capital reinforced by entrepreneurship and leadership that promotes sustainability in the community. These factors drive innovative thinking and ways of engaging among stakeholders in order to create new forms of socio-economic impact. Such value-creating activity occurs in firms that operate within incubators involving a wide range of stakeholders who work through networks to co-create and meet social challenges. Through a case study of a social incubator and an incubatee, we demonstrate the core processes that irradiate the argument on social innovation. The contribution of this paper is threefold: First, social innovation is an emerging area of research, of which there is a dearth in terms of examining the processes empirically. We address the gap in this field by demonstrating the value of social collaboration and engagement using different innovation models. Second, we establish links between social innovation and incubation using the concept of social capital. This allows us to achieve our third contribution: exemplification of a dyadic value-based partnership and collaboration processes between an incubator and an incubatee, through activities driven by social innovation that aim to have social impact. The paper concludes with practice implications and suggests directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations and industries characterized by highly competitive environments need organizational factors that foster voice behavior amongst their employees. Two critical factors amongst these are leader openness to voice and availability of open communication opportunity. A lack of leader openness to voice and a lack of open communication opportunity may lead to low levels of affective commitment. This influences employees' cognitive decision to engage in defensive silence, which also results in low levels of affective commitment. However, less consideration has been given to empirically explore these mechanisms while providing sound theoretical underpinnings, and using robust quantitative techniques. This paper presents a mediated model of defensive silence using the competitive banking sector of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan as the context. The research aimed to understand how these organizational factors, being the predictors of defensive silence, influence the conscious decision process of employees and as a consequence lead to low levels of affective commitment. The data for the paper were gathered from a sample of 1236 bankers from 258 branches of 8 commercial banks within 12 districts of the province. Reliability of the data instrument was measured through Cronbach alpha using SPSS 24. However, convergent and discriminant validity were established through confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS 18. Moreover, structural equation modeling was used for mediation analysis along with structural path diagram and model fit indices. The results show that the hypothesized mediated models regarding the mediating role of defensive silence between organizational factors and affective commitment were supported, thus extending theory to new empirical context. The paper concludes with a discussion on implications of these findings and recommendations for future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce the trial and error in a real clinical scenario, the finite element analysis (FEA) can be effectively used to simulate various effective pad designs and a material selection to reduce and redistribute peak plantar pressure in a diabetic foot with neuropathy. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of pad design and material stiffness on the reduction in plantar pressure in a diabetic foot with neuropathy using FEA. Three-dimensional foot models with a customized insole (CMI) were created to study the peak contact pressure. Ethylene vinyl acetate, Nora® Lunalastike, and thermoplastic polyurethane were assigned to the top, middle, and base layers of the CMI, respectively. Two types of pads were proposed: a heel pad and a heel–forefoot pad. Four different materials with different stiffnesses were assigned as pad materials including a void pad. The FEA revealed that pads with soft materials reduced peak plantar pressure more effectively than stiffer pads. The use of a softer heel–forefoot pad reduced the peak plantar pressure at the midfoot and forefoot compared with other pads. The findings suggest that the material and design selection for the fabrication of CMIs with pads are important factors in reducing plantar pressure and may be useful in the management of a neuropathic diabetic foot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted at National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad. The experiment was performed on randomized complete block design (RCBD) consisting of eleven treatments (cultivars) replicated three times during 2015. The results showed that Tarocco attained maximum height (156.13 cm), followed by Mexican Lemon (146.80 cm). Similarly, maximum plant spread and leaf area were recorded in Mexican Lemon 124.07 cm and 11.35 cm², respectively. However, Hamlin showed the highest stem girth (9.90 cm) and number of branches (66.53). The internode length was the greatest in Kinnow cultivar (2.66 cm). In case of disease incidence maximum lesion on leaves were found in Kinnow (14.2) while in Cara Cara, Salustiana and Arnold Blood, lesser lesions were found. On the basis of results and overall performance Tarocco and Hamlin performed best in all aspects while Arnold Blood and Cara Cara revealed poor growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political history of Pakistan is strongly associated with the international political economy circumstances. Constrained due to the geographical location and her position in the regional political circumstances immediately after the independence, Pakistan opted for an alliance with the United States. The nature of Pakistan's linkages with United States proved to be extremely counterproductive for the process of democratisation and prospects of institution-building. Various US administrations exploited the US-Pakistan's asymmetrical relationships by taking advantage of Pakistani army's alliance in pursuit of their imperialist policies in the Middle East, Cold War with USSR in Afghanistan and recently the War on Terror. Since, the authoritarian regimes continued to rule Pakistan under the auspices of US administrations, Pakistan remained stranded between the status of a complete autocracy and competitive authoritarianism since its independence till date. Pakistan has been one of the major recipients of foreign aid from US and other multilateral aid and development agencies but this aid has primarily been used to consolidate Pakistani army. The continuous inflow of development aid has had a negative rather than positive impact on Pakistan's economy and political institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper narrates the history of authoritarianism in the post-independence Pakistan and its effect on the process and prospects of democratisation and the possibilities of institutionalisation of local government reforms. The political history of Pakistan after the independence and other associated contextual factors highly differentiate her contemporary political organisation from other comparable countries in South Asia. For instance, India and Pakistan emerged as independent states from the colonial rule on the same day and both states inherited the almost similar administrative setups from the British rule nonetheless, the subsequent development of democratic credentials and the establishment of local governments as a regular third tier of government in India unequivocally distinguishes her case from that of Pakistan's. Pakistan's six decades of chaotic history has seen frequent changes in government including three major military regimes. The politically centralising factors have led Pakistan to become a security state where the apex twin institution i.e. the civil-military bureaucracy takes the lead in running the government and state's affairs at all levels. In such a context, the process of democratisation has remained precarious at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to establish Liouville-type results for a three-dimensional incompressible, unsteady flow described by the Eyring–Powell fluid equations. The fluid is studied in a plane Ω p while it moves along the z-axis. Therefore the main functions to analyze are given by u (x , y , z , t) and v (x , y , z , t) , belonging to Ω p . The results are obtained for globally bounded initial data as well as their corresponding derivatives, and the variations in velocity along the z-axis belong to the space L 2 and B M O . Under such conditions, Liouville-type results are obtained and extended to L p ,   p > 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stakeholder management researchers have recently put a lot of effort into figuring out why organizations facing extensive pressure respond differently to social responsibilities. In particular, ethics researchers believe that senior management must drive corporate social responsibility since their attitudes toward such issues are so important. In line with this sentiment, our study develops a framework of management power, composed of CEOs' power and the organizations' power, and explores how managerial power heterogeneity affects the corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance of a firm. Using sample data from the largest emerging market—China—for the period 2010–2018, we submit that CEOs with structural power and shareholders with the highest concentration tend to show a lower commitment to CSR activities. On the other hand, we recognize that the ownership, expertise, and prestige power of CEOs', the supervision, monitoring, and political power of the board can improve a firms' CSR performance. These results are also validated by using a fixed effect model, two stage least square (2-SLS) regression, and the propensity score matching (PSM) technique. Our results imply that the implementation of social policies fundamentally results not only from powerful CEOs, but also from powerful boards and shareholders. Moreover, our study provides useful implications with regard to the social outcomes of power authorized by CEOs and the organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citrus is manually counted to estimate the yield. By using some innovative agricultural techniques yield and production can be increased. Numerous agricultural innovations have been introduced in recent years. Higher agricultural production, prediction, and reliable crop status information are more important than ever due to the expected growth of the human population. Agriculture has always been the foundation of human society. Current study was aimed to develop a reliable and meaningful information-gathering agricultural field based on image processing during 2020. Citrus yield can be increased in the initial stages by counting it with RGB and HSV-based images taken from an Android phone from various angles using machine learning techniques. Fertilizers such as potash, phosphorus, and nitrogen can then be utilized to boost yield. According to the findings, farmers can control and monitor citrus health production more efficiently and effectively by integrating machine learning with agriculture. The citrus calculation using the given technique compared with manually counted citrus, having difference of up to 5 to 10 citruses for a single plant per plot in a field. The proposed method produced excellent results under varying lighting conditions, leaf occlusion, and fruit overlap on photos taken at various distances from the orange trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ownership structure (Private or Public) has strong impact on firm's financial performance. Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL) was privatized in 2005. This research study investigates the impact of privatization on the company's financial performance and the performance of its stock. The variables "Net Profit Margin (NPM)", "Operating Profit Margin (OPM)", "Return on Assets (ROA)" and "Earnings per Share (EPS)" are used as proxies for financial performance. On the other hand, the variables "Average Share price (ASP)", "Volume of shares traded (Vol)", and "Number of Trades (NoT)" are used as proxies for performance of stock. The paired-samples t test for mean difference has been used for comparing the pre and post privatization performance. Results indicate negative but insignificant effect of privatization on return. On the other hand, the Average Share price, Volume of shares traded, and Number of Trades are positively and significantly affected. Analysis of the financial data shows decline in the net profit margin, operating profit margins, return on assets and earnings per share after the privatization; but the impact is insignificant for all the variables except the operating profit margin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically investigates the role of employees' perceptions of CSR in improving their green behavior in the hospitality industry. In addition, this study investigates the mediating role of employee well-being and the moderating role of hotels' environmental strategy in this relationship. Empirical analysis is performed in a cross-country setting using evidence from Pakistan and Italy. The study model is tested through PLS-SEM using survey data of 485 hotel employees. Findings from the overall sample and country-specific samples reveal that CSR is positively and significantly related to employee green behavior. Moreover, employee well-being serves as a significant mediator in the relationship between corporate social responsibility and employee green behavior, while hotels' environmental strategy significantly moderates this relationship in the overall and country-specific samples. These results suggest that paradoxically, though the selected countries have different tourism implementation levels, economic development, and cultures, the employees' perceptions of CSR and its effect on their green behavior do not vary significantly across both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Existing researches confirmed that β amyloid (Aβ) has a high affinity for the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR), associating closely to Alzheimer's disease. The majority of related studies focused on the experimental reports on the neuroprotective role of Aβ fragment (Aβx), however, with a lack of investigation into the most suitable binding region and mechanism of action between Aβ fragment and α7nAChR. In the study, we employed four Aβ1–42 fragments Aβx, Aβ1–16, Aβ10–16, Aβ12–28, and Aβ30–42, of which the first three were confirmed to play neuroprotective roles upon directly binding, to interact with α7nAChR. Methods: The protein–ligand docking server of CABS-DOCK was employed to obtain the α7nAChR-Aβx complexes. Only the top α7nAChR-Aβx complexes were used to perform all-atom GROMACS dynamics simulation in combination with Charmm36 force field, by which α7nAChR-Aβx interactions' dynamic behavior and specific locations of these different Aβx fragments were identified. MM-PBSA calculations were also done to estimate the binding free energies and the different contributions from the residues in the Aβx. Two distinct results for the first three and fourth Aβx fragments in binding site, strength, key residue, and orientation, account for why the fourth fails to play a neuroprotective role at the molecular level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Warburg Micro (WARBM) syndrome is a rare heterogeneous recessive genetic disorder characterized by ocular, neurological, and endocrine problems. To date, disease‐causing variants in four genes have been identified to cause this syndrome; of these, RAB3GAP1 variants are the most frequent. Very little is known about WARBM syndrome in rural populations. Objectives: This study aims to investigate the genetics underpinnings of WARBM syndrome in a Pashtun family with two patients from Pakistan. The patients presented with spastic diplegia, severe intellectual disability, microphthalmia, microcornea, congenital cataracts, optic atrophy, and hypogonadism. Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) analysis revealed pronounced cerebral atrophy including corpus callosum hypoplasia and polymicrogyria. Exome sequencing and subsequent filtering identified a novel homozygous missense variant NM_001172435: c.2891A>G, p.Gln964Arg in the RAB3GAP1 gene. The variant was validated, and its segregation confirmed, by Sanger sequencing. Results: Multiple prediction tools assess this variant to be damaging, and structural analysis of the protein shows that the mutant amino acid residue affects polar contact with the neighboring atoms. It is extremely rare and is absent in all the public databases. Taken together, these observations suggest that this variant underlies Micro syndrome in our family and is extremely important for management and family planning. Conclusions: Identification of this extremely rare variant extends the mutations spectrum of Micro syndrome. Screening more families, especially in underrepresented populations, will help unveil the mutation spectrum underlying this syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]