Socio-Material Conflicts and Suggested Agencies for Resolution. An Anthropological Perspective of Rural Pakistan

The current research was conducted to study different dimensions of social and material conflicts it s different features faces and also recommendations to enhance and strengthen the harmony and social management in the Village Khewaywali Tehsil Wazirabad of District Gujranwala The sample of 268 was drawn at the estimated population 876 households A mix of anthropological tools were used to both study qualitatively and quantitatively the issues of conflicts at typical Punjabi rural community One adult male member form every sampled household was interviewed after taking verbal communal consent The research encompassed the reason s of conflict within a caste and between different castes in the village The research proved to discover findings on both material and social conflicts in different castes of the village bisected by profession the research also explored various socio-cultural reasons creating different material and social conflicts and recommendations to overcome disputes in an effective and efficient manne

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VYGOTSKY'S CONCEPT OF ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT AND TRADITIONAL METHOD FOR TEACHING MATHEMATICS AT ELEMENTARY LEVEL

Earlier, only one study analyzed ZPD in graduate teacher training programmes ofAllama Iqbal Open University. In contrast, present study was a classroom experiment;the purpose was to investigate the comparative effectiveness of Vygotsky's Concept ofZone of Proximal Development and Traditional Method for teaching Mathematics atElementary Level. The design of the study was pertest-posttest control group designand the sample of 48 students equated on their prior ability in maths into 24-studentsexperimental and control group each. The measuring instrument of the research was aself-prepared achievement test of 40 multiple-choice items in the subject ofmathematics for 8th grade level. The treatment span was for six weeks, forty minuteseach day. After collecting data, it was analyzed through mean, standard deviation,coefficient of variability and t- test.Findings of the study show that the students who were taught mathematics throughVygotskyian method of Zone of Proximal Development complemented by scaffoldingdid better in mathematics achievement than the students taught through theconventional method.Hence, Vygotskian model of teaching was perhaps a better substitute of traditionalmode of teaching mathematics to elementary students

Rural Conflicts and Alliance Formation: A Cultural Strategy

Conflict is a form of competition between groups or individuals over incompatible goals scarce resources or power making sources to acquire them In Asia particularly in India and Pakistan socio-cultural conflicts exist not only in villages but also urban areas where most of the time dominating biradaries involved in such conflict to sustain their power within the society Present research is about grouping alliance formation and its relation with village conflicts in District Lodhran of Punjab- Pakistan Biradaries caste s are observed as the key determinant of such alliance formation Data of 153 respondents show that biradari plays a key role to develop influences leading to separate groups and factions Biradari with 66 67 percentile emerged as the major cause behind power group formation politics with 27 45 percent and religion with 5 88 percent The Biradari system is very strong in the area with people mostly living in joint family systems thus the groups formed are also influenced by the biradaries Main causes of rural conflicts were women issue land conflicts biradari concerns and hono

Exposing Indigenous Punjab to Modern Technology: An Anthropological Analysis

The current day development models proclaim and promise for self sufficiency and sustainability for the masses especially whenever there is a debate over rural development issue in the third world countries like Pakistan In fact the today s world is fast approaching the sustainable livelihood strategies which unfortunately failed to bring about the results assured Failure of Green Revolution has made the scholars professionals and development practitioners to repondoner the western development model particularly those promising agricultural development The western developmental approaches basically imbedded in the capitalistic ethos resulted for radical changes while increasing the rural dependence on the urban areas and even upon the international multinational corporations These new interventions erased the traditional self reliance of country side and thus became an indirect reason for rural urban migration The current paper is an attempt to throw light on the effects of modern technology upon the cultural life of people of a village Sacha Soda in the district Sheikhupura of the Punjab province The paper evaluates the indigenous people s views on Mechanized Agricultural Methods in terms of Economic Sustainability and Cultural Compatibilit

Optimization of supply chain management by simulation based RFID with XBEE Network

The aim of every Supply Chain Management (SCM) is to reduce the operational cost and maximize the benefits. These necessitate the use of advance technology to optimize the operational activities. Among the widely used technology in recent years is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). It is an advanced Auto-ID wireless network based configuration system used for identification and tracking of items movement data. Technically, basic requirements for deploying RFID network are to identify the number of readers needed, location of the readers and the efficient parameter setting for each reader. Among the problems associated with RFID technology are the multi-objective optimizations, which include tags coverage, economic efficiency, interference and load balance. In order to solve this problem, a simulation based “Multi-Colony Global Particle Swarm Optimization (MC-GPSO)” algorithm was developed. This algorithm computes the optimal results of objective functions in a scientific manner. However, RFID reader is an expensive and has limited data transmission range. It alone cannot transmit data to the main server. Thus, its communication range was enhanced by the integration of RFID with XBee (ZigBee) wireless mesh network devices. Furthermore, the identification data need to be monitored and transmitted to the business organizations, which are connected through the network. This has been achieved by the integration of RFID-XBee network with database connectivity through Internet of Things (IoT). This integrated system provides the visibility of items at real time identification and tracking activity at single control platform. This system also provides data sharing activity with business enterprises using IoT. The benefits of this system include reduction of shrinkage and data transfer time in global network. This system also increases the accuracy, productivity and improves delivery of service in supply chain to the optimum level. This would contribute towards a more sustainable and green supply chain management

The Role ofDemographic Variables in Consumer Purchase Decision. A study with reference to Cars in Perak state Malaysia

This project relates to the study of demographic variables associated with consumer purchase decisions of cars in Perak state. The study would be helpful to identify different consumer groups on the basis of demographic variables to optimize the car marketing business in the state. Demographics are used to describe a population in terms of its size, distribution and structure. It is used to fragment a population on the basis of age, gender, marital status, family size, family life cycle, income, occupation, education, religion, race, generation, nationality and social class. Marketers are keenly interested in the size and growth rate of the population in different cities, regions, nations, age distribution, educational levels, household patterns and regional characteristics and movements. Most of the marketers' strategic decision making heavily depend on the demographic variable of people in the region where they focus on marketing their products. Marketers can make better decisions only when they know why and how individuals make their better consumption decisions. They could predict how consumers are likely to react to various informational and environmental aspects and could shape their marketing strategies in such a way that they can achieve a great competitive advantage in the market

Evaluation of Ground Water Quality for Irrigation Purpose of the Areas of District Bahawalnagar, Pakistan

Water is life line for all living creation including human beings. Economy of Pakistan is agricultural based and it mainly dependent on canal supplies. Before the introduction of irrigation system the water table was sufficiently deep but due to lack of drainage facilities and improper management practices, adopting by the farmers, the water table came up resulting water logging & salinity problems. Indus basin abundant resources of ground water, the quality of which various from sweets to very saline in different tracts. However a thin layer of good quality is present almost everywhere, where exists an immense potential for the use of these water resources for agriculture, municipal and industrial use. Keeping in this view a detailed study was carried out to provide guidelines to farmers and researches for better crop production by adopting water management practices. Total 23600 water samples were collected from all the five tehsils of district Bahawalnagar during the year July 2003 to June 2010. These samples were analyzed and categorized according to suitability criteria of water quality evaluation. 38.64 percent water samples were found fit, 7.65 percent were marginally fit and 53.7 percent water samples were found unfit for irrigation purpose. Majority of water samples were found hazardous for irrigation purpose. Almost all the area has highly saline water, which is affected yield of various crops. Keywords: EC, SAR, RSC, Ground water, Bahawalnagar, Pakistan

Ranking of the Factors Causing Cost Overrun in Infrastructural Projects of UAE

Achieving completion of the projects within stipulated cost is the fundamental requirement of any client involved in construction projects. Especially when the projects are funded by government with the revenue generated from public where it supposed to produce more development with less investment. Unfortunately, many of the construction projects fail in meeting this basic criteria globally including UAE. Hence, this study drew attention to the factors responsible for cost overrun in construction of infrastructure projects in UAE. Data was collected through structured questionnaire survey from practitioners representing the client, consultant and contractors firms involved in infrastructure projects of UAE. Investigation involved 27 common factors categorized in three groups as design & planning related factors, management related factors and resource related factors. With the statistical analysis of 59 completed survey forms, it was revealed that lack of coordination at design phase, uncompleted design on the tender's time and frequent design changes are top 3 factors in design and planning group while in management group top 3 factors causing cost overrun are poor supervision and timely instruction from contractor, contractual claims (ex. extension of time with cost claims) and poor site management. Contractor's financial constraints, poor labour productivity and resource deficiency and shortage of technical personnel (skilled labour) are reported as major resource related factor causing cost overrun in infrastructural projects of UAE. The practitioner should work out for controlling these factors to complete the projects within the stipulated cost and avoid cost overrun

Inhibiting Factors of Cost Performance in UAE Construction Projects

UAE construction industry frequently faces poor cost performance which commonly known as cost overrun problem. This problem is resulted from several factors and it is important to identify these cost overrun factors in order to avoid and minimize it. Hence, this paper focused on determined the relevancy of factors affecting cost performance in construction projects of UAE. Through a review of past research works conducted globally, 27 factors of cost overrun were listed and used for developing a structured questionnaire. A survey was conducted with 33 practitioners from client, consultant and contractors organizations involved in handling construction projects in UAE. The respondents were requested to state their perception regarding the relevancy of each of the factors that was perceived in context with cost overrun issue using 5-points Likert scale. The responses were analysed using average index method and the results found that all the 27 factors are relevant with construction industry of UAE in causing cost overrun. These factors can be used for further investigation to uncover critical problems of cost overrun