Does Green Matter? A Study of Perception of Manufacturers and Consumers of a Developing Country about Green Supply Chains

Green Supply Chain Management (GrSCM) has received increased attention from both academia and industry in recent years in the industrial nations. It focuses on reducing the adverse impact of business processes on the environment. These business processes include product design, material sourcing and selection, manufacturing processes, product delivery and end-of-life management of the product. The research studying interactions between environment and businesses in Pakistan has been scarce. This study is conducted to set a platform for GrSCM research in Pakistan as it aims to investigate the perceptions of the manufacturers and consumers regarding their understanding about GrSCM and green products. A qualitative research design including indepth interviews from senior managers of three manufacturing firms and a focus group of customers has been conducted for this purpose. A list of critical factors of GrSCM has been developed based on survey of the literature. The comparison between the GrSCM literature, manufacturer perception about GrSCM and consumer perception about green products lead towards the conclusions regarding; how consumers perceive green products? Do they really demand such products? Do the manufacturers think there is a need for GrSCM? How do they think GrSCM can lead to competitiveness and better economic performance? Basic understanding regarding these issues leads to the future direction for research and practice in this area

A SEM Analysis of Work Preferences, Motivations and Earnings in Informal Market

The study aims at investigating the effects of earnings and improvement in human capital on the work satisfaction considering the mediating role of motivational factors for a unique sample of female workers involved in informal market in Punjab, Pakistan. The survival analysis based upon structural equation modeling has been used to draw empirical evidences. Consistent with the backward-bending labor supply curve, higher earnings appears to be a negative determinant of work satisfaction for female employed in informal sector. An important insight of such results is the cost (labor-leisure tradeoff) and work conditions, which are avoided with higher earnings of female workers in informal market.  Besides, results drawn from structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that female workers in informal market are penalized by health hazards (injuries), domestic responsibilities (opportunity cost) and restrictions to spend their earnings (lack of independence), which further adds miseries to their lives. Motivational factors such as rewards, education, advance payments and awareness (information regarding labor laws) can have positive associations with their earnings.  Conversely, as female workers draw themselves out of informal market, they acquires more education, which is the very reason that education has a negative relationship with work satisfaction of female workers derived from the informal market. All of the factors mentioned above call for the attention of policy makers to make substantial investment towards the development of human capital particularly in the informal sector

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: Autoimmune Presentations in A tertiary Care Hospital of Lahore

Objective: To determine the frequency of presenting features and complication in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia Methodology: This descriptive study was conducted at the Hematology department, King Edward Medical University and affiliated hospitals, from July to December 2017. For every patient, a through clinical and dermatological examination, abdominal ultrasound , bone marrow examination was done. Afresh 3 ml blood sample for CBC, immune profile, and serum testing was collected by a syringe using aseptic technique. A complete blood count was carried out using Automated Haematology Analyzer (Sysmex KX-21) and chemical examination was done on Beckman Coulter Beckman coulter. Reticulocyte count was done and direct antiglobulin test using coomb’s reagent was done. Every patient was evaluated for the creteia of SLE and was categorized accordingly. Results: Out of the 150 patients enrolled in the study, 122(81.3%) were male and 28(18.7%) patients were female. The mean age was 65.8 ± 1.33 years with the majority of patients falling in the group of 71- 80 years. Out of 150 patients, 40 (26.7%) had coombs positive. Most of the patients who had coombs positive were in stage 4. The patients who presented with complications such as paraneoplastic pemphigus were 1 out of 150 patients. Splenomegaly was found in 87.3 % of all CLL patients with 13.33% presented with massive splenomegaly .Angioedema was found in 2 out of 150 patients. No case of SLE, Sjogren s syndrome Churg strauss Syndrome, Vasculitis or Richters Trasnformation was found. Conclusion: Detection of complications in a significant number of CLL patients is related to disease progression and overall survival. The treatment modalities are different in different causes of anaemia and complications due to CLL. It will help the clinicians in modifying the treatment and decreasing the misery of patients due to  co morbidities

Role of Optimal Production Plan at the Focal Firm in Optimization of the Supply Chain

Supply chain management and optimization is a critical aspect of modern enterprises and an expanding area of research. Modeling and optimization are the traditional tools of supply chain management. The techniques have been used by many companies for planning, manufacturing, and other decision areas in supply chains. Current study is motivated by the fact that optimization studies in supply chain management have mostly considered network optimization. Supply chain management however, requires alignment between the supply chain partners at the tactical level. As a first step towards achieving this goal, current study presents a model that incorporates the activity level planning at the focal firm in a supply chain. This paper presents a new mixed integer programming model that incorporates optimization of production planning at the focal firm while optimizing the strategic alignment of the supply chain entities. The model represents a four step, multi-echelon supply chain including supplier, warehouse, manufacturer, and retailer. The manufacturer in this network represents the focal firm. This model is an attempt to integrate the production planning decisions in the network optimization decisions

A Proposed Decision Support System/Expert System for Guiding Fresh Students in Selecting a Faculty in Gomal University, Pakistan

This paper presents the design and development of a proposed rule based Decision Support System that will help students in selecting the best suitable faculty/major decision while taking admission in Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan. The basic idea of our approach is to design a model for testing and measuring the student capabilities like intelligence, understanding, comprehension, mathematical concepts plus his/her past academic record plus his/her intelligence level , and applying the module results to a rule-based decision support system to determine the compatibility of those capabilities with the available faculties/majors in Gomal University. The result is shown as a list of suggested faculties/majors with the student capabilities and abilities. Copyright © www.iiste.org Keywords: Expert System, Decision Support System, Rule-Based System and CLIPS

THE IMPACT OF PERSON-ORGANIZATION VALUE FIT ON EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES WITH THE MODERATING ROLE OF PERCEIVED ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT

The main objective of this study is to perceive the impact of person-organization value fit on employee attitudes including career satisfaction, job satisfaction and organizational commitment and to get information how perceived organizational support moderates their relationships. The data for the research was collected from 150 personnel from many organizations including government and private sector. Close ended questionnaire was adopted to get the information. Correlation and moderation regression analysis used to get the findings. The results showed that person-organization value fit positively effects the employee’s attitudes including satisfaction about career, job and commitment related to that particular organization. Perceived organizational support moderates their relationship positively. This paper provides help to HR department in developing the policies by which employee feel supportive and develop the culture that fits between organization and employees. The data was collected only from 150 employees that cannot be generalized. Perceived organizational support used as moderator; the other researcher may use LMX as moderator. Keywords: Organizational commitment; Job satisfaction; Career satisfaction; Perceived organizational support; Person-organization value fi

Complex Pyogenic Liver Abscess: Outcome of Open vs Laparoscopic Drainage

OBJECTIVES Our study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of laparoscopic drainage as a management of complex pyogenic liver abscesses in comparison to open surgical drainage. METHODOLOGY The comparative research design was used to compare the outcomes, complications, perioperative morbidity, mortality, and potential recurrence of 60 patients with a complex pyogenic liver abscess who were hospitalized at the General Surgery Department of Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar and treated either laparoscopically or openly from January 2019 to December 2020. 30 patients had open drainage management, while 30 patients received laparoscopic drainage management. For all patients, pus was examined for culture sensitivity. Patients with a small, solitary and unilocular pyogenic liver abscess that improved with antibiotic therapy and or/and percutaneous drainage were excluded. Each patient had a thorough clinical evaluation, lab tests, ultrasound, computed tomography, or magnetic resonance imaging of the pelvis and abdomen. RESULTS All patients underwent abdominal ultrasonography & sonographic diagnosis was made in 43(71.7%), followed by a computed tomography scan (CT) in 12(20%) & magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) diagnosis was made in 5(8.3%) patients respectively. Diabetes mellitus was present in 15(25%) patients, severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 10(16.7%) and severe anemia in 9(15%) patients. All individuals associated with co-morbidity were considered high-risk patients. CONCLUSION Laparoscopic drainage of liver abscess has a shorter surgical time, lower morbidity rate, and shorter hospital stay as compared to open surgical drainage