The Relationship of Corporate Governance and Firm Performance

This survey based research administered 300 questionnaires to the middle and top level managers of 130 Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) listed firms. The questionnaire used in this study was designed to study the relationship between corporate governance structure and firm performance. The findings of this research shows that among corporate governance dimensions, “commitment to corporate governance” ,  “transparency and disclosure” and “Structure and function of Board” have the highest middle and lowest mean values respectively assigned by the sample studied. Further regression analysis showed that “commitment to corporate governance” ,  “transparency and disclosure” have significant positive relationship with firm performance. Finally study find that “Structure and function of Board” has positive with firm performance that is not statistically significant. Keyword: corporate governance, firm performance, commitment to corporate governance and transparency and disclosur

Self-Navigation Car using Reinforcement Learning

In this paper, a project is described which is a 2-D modelled version of a car that will learn how to drive itself. It will have to figure everything out on its own. In addition, to achieve that the simulator contains a car running simultaneously &can be controlled by different control algorithms - heuristic, reinforcement learning-based, etc. For each dynamic input, the Reinforcement- Learning modifies new patterns. Ultimately, Reinforcement Learning helps in maximizing the reward from every state. In this first Part, we will implement a Reinforcement-Learning model to build an AI for Self Driving Car. Project will be focusing on the brain of the car not any graphics. The car will detect obstacles and take basic actions. To make autonomous car or self-driving car a reality, some of the factors to be considered are human safety and quality of life

Fabrication of Lateral Polysilicon Gap of Less than 50nm Using Conventional Lithography

We report a thermal oxidation process for the fabrication of nanogaps of less than 50 nmin dimension.Nanogaps of this dimension are necessary to eliminate contributions from double-layer capacitance in the dielectric detection of protein or nucleic acid. The method combines conventional photolithography and pattern-size reduction techniques. The gaps are fabricated on polysiliconcoated silicon substrate with gold electrodes. The dimensions of the structure are determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). An electrical characterization of the structures by dielectric analyzer (DA) shows an improved conductivity as well as enhanced permittivity and capacity with the reduction of gap size, suggesting its potential applications in the detection of biomolecule with very low level of power supply. Two chrome Masks are used to complete the work: the first Mask is for the nanogap pattern and the second one is for the electrodes. An improved resolution of pattern size is obtained by controlling the oxidation time. The method expected to enable fabrication of nanogaps with a wide ranging designs and dimensions on different substrates. It is a simple and cost-effective method and does not require complicated nanolithography process for fabricating desired nanogaps in a reproducible fashion

Phytoconstituents evaluation and antimicrobial efficacy of the crude flavonoids and saponins rootbark extracts of Terminalia avicennioides and Ficus polita

Introduction: Plant is a friend to man in survival as it gives him food, shelter and medicine beyond the ages of human civilization. This paper evaluates the phytochemical constituents and the antimicrobial activities undertaken on Terminalia avicennioides and Ficus polita. Methods: Phytochemical screening was conducted on the root extracts according to the standard procedures. The hole-in-plate disc diffusion technique was used to determine the antimicrobial activities of the crude saponins and crude flavonoids against the tested microorganisms used in this study. Results: The results revealed the presence of alkaloids flavonoids, saponins, sterols, phlobatannins and terpenoids. The antimicrobial activities presented as diameter of inhibition zones showed high activity value of 34.70±0.57 mm against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa at a concentration of 100 mg/mL and by crude flavonoids portion of T. avicennioides while the least activity was shown by crude saponins portion of F. polita at a concentration of 25 mg/mL with value of 9.67±0.58 mm against Shigella dysenteriae. The crude flavonoids inhibited the growth of Candida albicans at all concentrations while resisitances were found towards the crude saponins portion of both plants. Hence, flavonoids extractives from the two plants appeared to be more effective than the saponins against the tested microorganisms. Conclusion: These findings justify their potential use as drug-plant against bacterial-related infections in African traditional medical system and also suggest a possible insight for the isolation of bioactive chemotherapeutic agents from T. avicennioide

Transparent conductive oxide films for high-performance dye-sensitized solar cells

In this paper, atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) thin films of various thicknesses and dopant levels is reported. The deposited coatings are used to fabricate dye-sensitized solar cells, which exhibited reproducible power conversion efficiencies in excess of 10%. No surface texturing of FTOs or any additional treatment of dye-covered films is applied. In comparison, the use of commercial FTOs showed a lower cell efficiency of 7.11%. Detailed analysis showed that the cell efficiencies do not simply depend on the resistivity of FTOs but instead rely on a combination of carrier concentration, thickness, and surface roughness properties

Lupus Panniculitis in Children: A Rare Finding

Lupus panniculitis (LP) is a rare condition that primarily affects adults and is even more uncommon in the pediatric population. This rarity, combined with variable clinical presentations and limited diagnostic approaches in children, often leads to its misdiagnosis or being overlooked. Recently, a case involving a six year's old boy demonstrated the importance of recognizing early skin manifestations and providing timely treatment. The child was presented with painful swelling in the right hand and erythematous plaques on the face and trunk. Although the autoimmune workup yielded weakly positive results, a skin biopsy was performed, which confirmed the diagnosis of LP. This case report serves to emphasize the significance of identifying early skin manifestations and the advancements in diagnostic methods that aid in accurate diagnosis

Lupus Panniculitis in Children: A Rare Finding

Lupus panniculitis (LP) is a rare condition that primarily affects adults and is even more uncommon in the pediatric population. This rarity, combined with variable clinical presentations and limited diagnostic approaches in children, often leads to its misdiagnosis or being overlooked. Recently, a case involving a six year's old boy demonstrated the importance of recognizing early skin manifestations and providing timely treatment. The child was presented with painful swelling in the right hand and erythematous plaques on the face and trunk. Although the autoimmune workup yielded weakly positive results, a skin biopsy was performed, which confirmed the diagnosis of LP. This case report serves to emphasize the significance of identifying early skin manifestations and the advancements in diagnostic methods that aid in accurate diagnosis

Delta-Function Potential with a Complex Coupling

We explore the Hamiltonian operator H=-d^2/dx^2 + z \delta(x) where x is real, \delta(x) is the Dirac delta function, and z is an arbitrary complex coupling constant. For a purely imaginary z, H has a (real) spectral singularity at E=-z^2/4. For \Re(z)<0, H has an eigenvalue at E=-z^2/4. For the case that \Re(z)>0, H has a real, positive, continuous spectrum that is free from spectral singularities. For this latter case, we construct an associated biorthonormal system and use it to perform a perturbative calculation of a positive-definite inner product that renders H self-adjoint. This allows us to address the intriguing question of the nonlocal aspects of the equivalent Hermitian Hamiltonian for the system. In particular, we compute the energy expectation values for various Gaussian wave packets to show that the non-Hermiticity effect diminishes rapidly outside an effective interaction region.Comment: Published version, 14 pages, 2 figure