Reflection of Regulatory Announcement in Equity Market: Fresh Insight from Oil & Gas Sector of Pakistan

This study is based on the problem that how regulations made by oil and gas regulatory authority influences the companies in oil and gas sector of Pakistan. We identify 13 regulatory changes in oil and sector of Pakistan which broadly includes the announcement related to the formulation, functions and responsibilities of oil and gas authority, deregulation and changes in the prices of oil and gas products, interference of apex court into the oil and gas sector and privatization of oil refineries in emerging market of Pakistan. Well-liked event study methodology is used to uncover the impact of regulation announcement on equity prices in Pakistan. Beside this, we also capture the effect of regulation announcement on the firm performance by introducing the dummy variable in ordinary least framework. In line with the financial and econometric theory criteria, we use the sales growth, leverage, liquidity and tangibility as control variables. Study reveal that regulatory announcements have statistically significant aggregate effect on the oil and gas sector of Pakistan stock exchange. We recommend to the policy makers, managers and regulators that the stock prices of oil and gas companies are more sensitive toward the regulatory announcements related to interference of Supreme Court and regulations concerning to the formulation, functions and responsibilities of oil and gas regulatory authority in Pakistan

Den sentrale rollen og effekten av Human Resource Information System på HR transformasjon

Masteroppgave i personalledelse - Universitetet i Nordland, 201

Barriers to implement building information modeling in Malaysia's prefabricated pre-finished volumetric construction

Human beings exist in a world with modern technology and human beings are the ones who utilize such inventions to support mankind. Information technology has improved the efficiency of virtually every company in the world, especially the construction sector. Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC) are the innovative approaches that can help construction industry in many ways. But the question is how the collaboration of BIM and PPVC could be proving helpful for us? What are the potential barriers that need to be considered? It can be useful for construction industry in many aspects like can decrease labor need and cost by providing greater access to information, enabling timely and informed decision making, among other things. The urgent need for industry upgrading and the emergence of information technology provide a favourable opportunity for implementing BIM in prefabricated construction. Most of the previous research has been accomplished on BIM study on prefabricates such as IPS. The innovation of current research is being conducted on BIM in PPVC. The scope of this study is revolving around idea of concrete PPVC. The findings of this study can thus act as a practical reference for future research attempting to provide technological and managerial solutions to improve BIM implementation in Malaysia’s prefabricated construction

A multi-channel soft biometrics framework for seamless border crossings

As the number of passengers at border entry points such as airports and rail stations increases, so does the demand for seamless, secure, and fast biometric technologies for verification purposes. Although fingerprints are currently useful biometric technologies, they are intrusive and slow down the end-to-end verification process, increasing the chances of tampering. Emerging as an alternative technology, soft biometrics have proven successful for non-intrusive and rapid verification. Soft biometrics consists of a large set of features from three different modalities of the human body, including the face, body, and essential & auxiliary attachments. This paper proposes a multi-channel soft biometrics framework that leverages soft biometrics technology over traditional biometrics. The framework encapsulates four distinct components: ApparelNet, which verifies essential and auxiliary attachments; A-Net, which measures anthropometric soft biometrics; OneDetect, which predicts global soft biometrics; and RSFS, which develops a set of highly relevant and supportive soft biometrics for verification. The proposed framework addresses several critical limitations of existing biometrics technologies during the verification process at border entry points, such as intrusive behavior, response time, biometric tampering, and privacy issues. The proposed multi-channel soft biometrics framework has been evaluated using several benchmark datasets in the field, such as Front-view Gait (FVG), Pedestrian Attribute Recognition At Far Distance (PETA), and Multimedia and Vision (MMV) Pedestrian. Using heterogeneous datasets enables the testing of each framework component or channel against numerous constrained and unconstrained scenarios. The outcome of the envisioned multi-channel soft biometrics framework is presented based on distinct outcomes from each channel, but it remains focused on determining a single cumulative verification score for verification at border control. In addition, this multi-channel soft biometrics framework has extended applications in several fields, including crowd surveillance, the fashion industry, and e-learning

Estimation of Rainwater Harvesting Potential in an Educational Institute of Faisalabad, Pakistan

Pakistan is on verge of facing severe water scarcity issues by 2025. An exponential increase in population increases the water demand as most of the population in the country depends on groundwater. Over extraction of groundwater is causing depletion in the groundwater table at an alarming rate. Water conservation is becoming the need of time. Rainwater Harvesting is one the best methods that can be used to conserve water. This paper aims to determine the total volume of water that can be conserved from Rainfall on the Rooftop at the University of Faisalabad, Amin Campus located in an industrial city Faisalabad, Pakistan. For this purpose, water usage on the campus is estimated. The area of the campus rooftop is measured by conducting a topographic survey. Rainfall data from the year 1981-2021 is collected and average monthly rainfall is calculated. The soil Conservation Service Curve Number method is adopted to calculate the run-off. Results indicated that about 1300 cubic meters of water can be conserved per year which will cover about 20-25 percent of the total water demand of the campus if a Rainwater Harvesting System is installed at the campus.Keyword: Rainwater Harvesting, Water Conservation, Water Scarcit

Hypoxia Preconditioning Increases Survival and Decreases Expression of Toll-like Receptor 4 in Pulmonary Artery Endothelial Cells Exposed to Lipopolysaccharide

Pulmonary or systemic infections and hypoxemic respiratory failure are among the leading causes of admission to intensive care units, and these conditions frequently exist in sequence or in tandem. Inflammatory responses to infections are reproduced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) engaging Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Apoptosis is a hallmark of lung injury in sepsis. This study was conducted to determine whether preexposure to LPS or hypoxia modulated the survival of pulmonary artery endothelial cells (PAECs). We also investigated the role TLR4 receptor expression plays in apoptosis due to these conditions. Bovine PAECs were cultured in hypoxic or normoxic environments and treated with LPS. TLR4 antagonist TAK-242 was used to probe the role played by TLR4 receptors in cell survival. Cell apoptosis and survival were measured by caspase 3 activity and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) incorporation. TLR4 expression and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) production were also determined. LPS increased caspase 3 activity in a TAK-242-sensitive manner and decreased MTT incorporation. Apoptosis was decreased in PAECs preconditioned with hypoxia prior to LPS exposure. LPS increased TNF-α production, and hypoxic preconditioning blunted it. Hypoxic preconditioning reduced LPS-induced TLR4 messenger RNA and TLR4 protein. TAK-242 decreased to baseline the LPS-stimulated expression of TLR4 messenger RNA regardless of environmental conditions. In contrast, LPS followed by hypoxia substantially increased apoptosis and cell death. In conclusion, protection from LPS-stimulated PAEC apoptosis by hypoxic preconditioning is attributable in part to reduction in TLR4 expression. If these signaling pathways apply to septic patients, they may account for differing sensitivities of individuals to acute lung injury depending on oxygen tensions in PAECs in vivo

Efficacy of Entomopathogenic Fungi as Biological Control agent against insect pests of Gossypium hirsutum.

Isolates of Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisoplaie, Verticillium  lecanii and Paeciliomyces lilicuns from Punjab, Pakistan, were evaluated for their inhibitory and insecticidal efficacy against White fly, House fly, American bollworm, Army worm, Spotted worm, Gray weevil, Jassids, Aphids, Ant and moth. Four strains of B. bassiana, two strains of P. lilicuns and one strain of M. anisoplaie and V. lecanii were used. B.bassiana (Bb04) exhibited significant mortality percentage against moth, gray weevil, cotton seed bug white fly, American worm, spotted worm, army worm, house fly, ants, jassids and aphids. Among all the strains of entomopathogenic fungi used, B. bassiana strains Bb01 revealed least mortality percentage against the targeted insect pests. V. lecanii Vl01 strain showed the highest mortality rate against cotton seed bug while it showed least efficiency against spotted worm. M. anisopolie Ma01 showed the highest mortality percentage against moth and showed the minimum results against spotted worm. In case of tested strain of P. lilicuns strains Pl01 and Pl02 displayed the highest mortality percentage against gray weevil, cotton seed bug and showed the minimum results against spotted worm and moth. Key words: Entomopathogenic fungi, Pathogenicity, Cotton pests, White fly, American bollworm, Army worm, Gray weevi

Numerical evaluation of dry-stacked masonry walls against blast loading

This research intends to numerically study the out-of-plane behaviour of confined dry-stacked masonry (CDSM) walls against blast loading. CDSM is a mortar-less interlocking masonry system consisting of Interlocking Compressed Earth Block (ICEB) laid in stretcher bond with reinforced concrete (RC) confining elements. A nonlinear numerical model is developed using advanced finite element software ABAQUS to study the response of CDSM walls subjected to explosive loads of 8 kgs Trinitrotoluene (TNT). The blast load was detonated at 2m from the walls of confined masonry at a height of 1m above ground. The resulting damage distribution and displacement time history were compared for two walls with different reinforcement. This study helps to visualize the effect of diagonal reinforcement along with the performance of CDSM walls against blast loading using ABAQUS. The results shows less damage for diagonally reinforced wall