Artificial Intelligence Based Load Scheduling for Plugged in Electric Vehicles in Smart Grid

Plugged in Electric Vehicles (PHEV’s) are enormously eco friendly and highly appreciated transportation system in various developed countries. The PHEV’s integration into the conventional grid required significant modifications in order to control load shedding, reducing unit cost, even out peak demands in quest to make a grid reliable. Recent research studies are mainly focusing to counter these issues by employing multi objective optimization techniques. The objective of this method is to reduce demand; energy cost and enhances the presence of PHEV’s for charging and discharging by creating substantial scheduling vector. This research work has proposed split scheduling vector to charge and discharge an EV, to achieve the required results by minimizing peak to average demand ratio (PAR) and generate profit for the owners by decreasing the total energy cost

Adoption of IT Infrastructure to Enhance The Environmental Sustainability: Case Of Supply Chain Businesses

This paper investigates the effect of the adoption of IT Infrastructure on environmental sustainability. The purpose is to strike a balance between the adoption of IT as Supply Chain enabling tool and environmental sustainability. Many large organizations are directly responsible for creating an imbalance in nature through industrial contamination. However, with the development of Supply Chain, has brought about awareness of pollution hazards that have endangered environment. IT Infrastructure and its proper adoption can offer a viable solution ensuring environmental sustainability. This study focuses on how businesses can improve supply chain with the adoption of IT Infrastructure that will reduce carbon emission other sources of pollution. Qualitative research is conducted to study the impact and results are represented at the end of the research. In the research findings, it is concluded that Horizontal Collaborative network for Supply Chain is the key to sustainability and the role of IT infrastructure is the dominant factor for improving Supply Chain

College and Career Readiness through High School Experiential Learning in the United States

This study has explored the perceptions of recent high school graduates in the United States about their levels of preparedness for post-secondary life after they engaged in experiential learning while in high school.  A qualitative, phenomenological methodology was utilized whereby data were collected through a three-level interview protocol applied to a sample of participants (n = 10).  Four of the participants were attending a two-year community college, three were employed in their area of interest, and three were both employed and attending college. Using the analytical procedures of phenomenological reduction, constant comparison analysis was employed whereby ongoing data collection informed recursive data analysis.  As a result of a reductive coding procedure that included open coding, axial code grouping, major thematic identification, and finally, a major finding statement with four themes emerged that included experiential learning as a readiness factor, exposure to college and career experiences, college and career planning, skills and dispositions, and learning.  Implications and recommendations are offere

Taking an Active role in an International Project: A Report of a Collaborative Research with Teacher Trainees in UK, Norway and Pakistan

This report introduces an innovative research project about the dialogue among teacher trainees from UK, Norway and Pakistan, about a literary work, in a virtual environment. This project involved us, five English in Education academics from the three contexts, as researchers who gathered, analysed and reported on the international data collaboratively. We reflect on our experience as international researchers and the benefits we found in this type of association across borders for future teachers. This work has implications for teacher education and the methodologies used can be beneficial for future researchers and teacher educators

Influence of Teaching Style on Students’ Engagement, Curiosity and Exploration in the Classroom

Inside classroom teacher student interaction carries immense significance as it appears to contribute to student learning in different ways. The teachers’ interaction has a stronger association with students’ engagement and exploration in terms of learning in classroom through their coaching style. The present study therefore aims to explore perceived teaching style (autonomous-supportive and/or controlling) and its correlation with students’ engagement, curiosity and exploration in cross-sectional sample of School and University students (N= 402). Perceived parental autonomy support scale (adopted version for teachers), Students Engagement Instrument and Curiosity Exploration Inventory-II were administered. The result shows that students simultaneously perceived both teaching styles i.e., Autonomous-supportive and Controlling, in classroom however there was a significant difference between score of school students where they find their teachers to be more supportive and controlling as compared to university students. Furthermore, there is a moderate correlation between perceived autonomy support teaching style with students’ engagement as well as curiosity and exploration. The results offers an understanding of students’ belief and perceptions about their interaction with teachers that can help in building students’ curiosity and motivation to engage learn in the classroom

Local players giving a run for the share to a global giant: A case study of Pampers brand of Proctor and Gamble Pakistan

Pakistan is a densely populated country with a population of around 200 million people with an annual birth rate of 29.8 births/1000 people that approximates to around 13 million babies per year with a majority of births in tier three and four socio-economic classes (Geoba, 2017). Based on marvelous demand and consumption patterns, the market for diapers seemed ever-increasing. This instrumental single case based study addressed the concerns regarding competitiveness of Pampers with other diaper brands. It undertook eight interviews from industry experts till saturation point and availed thematic analysis technique to categorize themes pertinent with core issues. Pampers is an expensive brand, primarily due to its higher cost of importing and local value additions. Despite being a global giant in diaper industry and having first mover advantage in Pakistan, the company is continuously losing its value and volume share against much cheaper local players since 2013. The case addressed shortcomings of Pampers Pakistan that were needed to be addressed and strategic branding and marketing decisions that were likely to regain its market share. Their marketing strategists realized revisiting its procurement plans, pricing strategies and distribution strategies, and brand management on urgent basis in order to maintain its sustainable competitive advantage

Pedagogical Use of ICTs in Public Teachers’ Training Colleges of Karachi

The Government of Pakistan has launched the reforms to address the quality of teacher education in view of National Educational Policy (2009) and developed ten professional standards (NPSTP 2009) for initial preparation of teachers, this quantitative descriptive study was an attempt to investigate public teachers training colleges of Karachi, faculty proficiency in the pedagogical use of ICTs in context of "NPSTP Standard # 7" and to identify constraints which they face in this context. A representative sample of 68 teacher educators from ten public sector teachers training colleges were selected conveniently to participate in this study. A tailor-made, self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. The quantitative data was analysed employing the descriptive statistical technique. The study found low proficiency in the pedagogical use of ICTs among faculty members. Moreover, in-sufficient training, restricted access to ICTs, lack of collegial learning and less motivation among faculty were identified as main constrains which the faculty faced in the usage of ICT. Subsequent to finding, feasible recommendations were suggested for the effective and efficient use of ICTs as an instruction tool.

Students’ Response to Participating in an International Project on Readers’ Response to Lord of the Flies: Insights into Using Collaborative Teaching Techniques

This paper presents the findings of a study based on students’ response to participating in an international project. This international project was a collaboration between Pakistan, the UK and Norway. Collaborative teaching techniques of using literature circles within each class and google circles across the three contexts (online) were used. Twelve participating students from Pakistan were interviewed to explore their reactions to the international study. Students felt that they learnt new things from the use of these innovative methods, were able to learn from foreigners and felt a sense of connectivity to their groups. It is recommended that students from Pakistan be given such exposure to overcome their hesitation. It is recommended that further research be carried out in other contexts as well to determine if the use of such teaching pedagogies can benefit other teachers of literature

Desire for English in Youth: An Exploratory Study of Language Learners in Pakistan

English being the official language is a source of prestige and necessary for recognition in Pakistan. Research studies usually debate the positive and negative influence of English on students in developing countries. However, the concept of desire attached with acquiring English is a less explored area. The present study attempts to understand the desire of Pakistani students majoring in English, for understanding their meaning-making for selecting English as their major. Using qualitative method, the data were collected through interviews, focus groups and mind-maps of students. The study participants were undergraduate students in a public university in the capital city Islamabad. The data were recorded, transcribed and coded using constructivist grounded theory for obtaining themes. The findings revealed that the youth’s association with English language is not just for gaining prestige; rather, they share deeper affiliations with includes a desire for acquiring the native persona, attaining global solidarity and achieving communicative competence. The attached desire with English language and its literature can have positive effect on students’ motivation to excel in their studies; however, unrealistic desires can harm students. The findings of the study hence, add to improvement in English language instruction and understanding of desires among the students

WHEAT YIELD PREDICTION USING NEURAL NETWORK AND INTEGRATED SVM-NN WITH REGRESSION

The production of wheat plays an important role in Pakistan’s economy. Wheat yield forecasting is significant farming problem as it’s the most important crop of Pakistan. Prediction of the wheat yield has been determined by data mining techniques with different environmental factors. Data mining techniques have been developed for analysing and implementation on wheat yield dataset to predict the yield which is very helpful to produce wheat. In this study, Neural Network and a Novel Integrated approach of Neural Network, Support Vector Machine and Regression are used to analyze and estimates the wheat yield production. We have used these predictive techniques with area, yield, production, soil pH, temperature, air pressure, rainfall, water availability, humidity, pesticides and fertilizer parameter for wheat yield prediction