The Assessment of Information Literacy Instruction (ILI) in University Libraries of Pakistan

The purpose of this paper was to explore the current assessment practices of information literacy instruction (ILI) in the libraries of universities in Pakistan. The research method consisted of a quantitative approach using a structured questionnaire for empirical data collection, which was sent to the libraries of universities of Pakistan. The findings of the study show that university libraries evaluated their information literacy instruction programs to find out the gaps and deficiencies through student and teachers’ feedback. Student learning was also assessed through faculty feedback and oral feedback. The outcome of this study will help the Library and Information Sciences (LIS) schools, library associations, and universities comprehend the present status of information literacy instructions assessment in the libraries of Pakistani universities

Surfaces of general type via Q-Gorenstein smoothing

[No abstract in thesis

Design and Implementation of Lightweight Certificateless Secure Communication Scheme on Industrial NFV-Based IPv6 Virtual Networks

With the fast growth of the Industrial Internet of Everything (IIoE), computing and telecommunication industries all over the world are moving rapidly towards the IPv6 address architecture, which supports virtualization architectures such as Network Function Virtualization (NFV). NFV provides networking services like routing, security, storage, etc., through software-based virtual machines. As a result, NFV reduces equipment costs. Due to the increase in applications on Industrial Internet of Things (IoT)-based networks, security threats have also increased. The communication links between people and people or from one machine to another machine are insecure. Usually, critical data are exchanged over the IoE, so authentication and confidentiality are significant concerns. Asymmetric key cryptosystems increase computation and communication overheads. This paper proposes a lightweight and certificateless end-to-end secure communication scheme to provide security services against replay attacks, man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, and impersonation attacks with low computation and communication overheads. The system is implemented on Linux-based Lubuntu 20.04 virtual machines using Java programming connected to NFV-based large-scale hybrid IPv4-IPv6 virtual networks. Finally, we compare the performance of our proposed security scheme with existing schemes based on the computation and communication costs. In addition, we measure and analyze the performance of our proposed secure communication scheme over NFV-based virtualized networks with regard to several parameters like end-to-end delay and packet loss. The results of our comparison with existing security schemes show that our proposed security scheme reduces the computation cost by 38.87% and the communication cost by 26.08%

Examining Factors of Entrepreneurial Success: Culture, Gender, Education, Family, Self-Perception

Objective: To examine the potential and contribution of culture, gender, education, family background and self-perception as factors of success in entrepreneurial ventures in Punjab the largest (64%) population province of Pakistan. In the context of developing countries economic growth is attributed to small enterprises as they generate employment.  Mortality rate of small enterprises is exceedingly high; and a study by Khawaja (2006) on Pakistan SME has reported that only 19% start-ups survived before they reach the 5th year. Prior Work: However in another study by Vesper (1990), in non-Pakistani environment found that only 10% of ventures survive after three years of existence. Therefore it is important to study success as perceived by entrepreneurs and various contributing influences. About the definition of entrepreneurial success there is no consensus among researchers. Stefanovic et al 2010 enumerated previous experience, hard work, access to capital, personal capabilities, and leadership skills as factors affecting success experience and knowledge. Focus on role of education is not meant to deny the importance of other factors that contribute to entrepreneurial success, such as, the nature of the entrepreneur; his/her character traits.    McClelland (1961) had attributed achievement motivation as an entrepreneurial success factor. Cox and Jennings (1995) had identified innovativeness in decision making.  Hodgets and Kuratko (1992) have identified opportunity recognition as an important characteristic of entrepreneurs; Dafna (2008) has focused on leadership qualities as factors affecting success. Approach: However this study is an attempt to understand the role of selected influences that have been mentioned as having some contribution toward success of entrepreneurs; and these were:  1) education, 2) gender, 3) culture, 4) family, and 5) subjectively self - perceived reason of success. Therefore this study is more exploratory than theoretical. Two research questions were explored in this study. Result: Male and female entrepreneurs differed significantly with respect to years of formal education completed as well as with respect to the medium of instructions during formal schooling.   Male and female entrepreneurs differed about their reasons for success, especially about God-gifted qualities and hard work being main reasons for success. Successful entrepreneurs were found more likely to have taken college level SME/ entrepreneurship courses.  Other successful entrepreneurs were found educated informally and gained knowledge through own reading as well.   Other successful entrepreneurs reported that their family background of being in business, their father being in business, and maternal uncle being in business were the likely influences of family and friends. Less successful entrepreneurs were found blaming government failure in providing support to entrepreneurial activity. The successful did not blame the government. Successful entrepreneurs were found likely to be college educated Punjabis. Implication: the Punjabi factor is crucial in this study as Pakistan has a population of 180 million and the Punjabi community comprises of nearly 64% of the population. A knowledge into entrepreneurial success and motivation would help in policymaking oriented toward entrepreneurial development leading to economic development. The other implication would be less reliance to prepare job seekers who are professionals – hence working towards a paradigm shift in education policy. Value: The paper is one of the first to focus on detailed research related activity on the subject of entrepreneurial success factors. Therefore adds to mote comprehensive understanding of creating an Enterprising Entrepreneurship Ecosystem. Keywords: Entrepreneurial Success factors; education, gender, family, self-perception, cultur

Usage of Subscribed & Open Access Information Resources by LIS Research Scholars

Objectives of this study were to investigate the usage of subscribed and open access resources, preferences, level of awareness, reasons to utilize subscribed & open access information resources, and problems being faced while using the information resources by Library and Information Science (LIS) research scholars. Quantitative method followed by survey research design was used to conduct this study. Self-administered questionnaire validated by field experts was used to gather the data from the participants. The population of this study was postgraduate LIS research scholars from Punjab, who were enrolled in M. Phil. (2015-2017) and Ph. D. (2015-2018) programs. The survey was administrated personally. The data was gathered from 78 research scholars of Library and Information Science from the five LIS schools in Punjab. The data were analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Software. This study found that LIS participants preferred both resources like, subscribed and open access resources. The use of subscribed resources by Library and Information Science research scholars was preferred to open access resources for finding the articles and accessible anywhere of the world. There is a tendency among the researchers that due to lack of awareness, limited knowledge about existing research facilities, they do not fully utilize open access resources for their research and the database developed by the institution(s). A bunch of scholars does not aware of open access resources and due to this their utilization of this facility is quite low. Most of the libraries and the organization(s) do not have the facility and resources to have access to “subscribed electronic resources” due to heavy cost. Present study concludes that the LIS scholars prefer to use open access resources because of free availability on internet as compared to subscribed resources. Subscribed resources have a limited access only within the campus

Neutrosophic Cubic Subalgebras and Neutrosophic Cubic Closed Ideals of B-algebras

The objective of this paper is to introduced the concept of neutrosophic cubic set to subalgebras, ideals and closed ideals of B-algebra. Links among neutrosophic cubic subalgebra with neutrosophic cubic ideals and neutrosophic closed ideals of B-algebras as well as some related properties will be investigated. This study will cover homomorphic images and inverse homomorphic images of neutrosophic cubic subalgebras, ideals and some related properties. The Cartesian product of neutrosophic cubic subalgebras will also be investigated

Screen-Reading Habits and Use of e-Resources of Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences’ students: A study of Postgraduate Students

The purpose of the study is to investigate reading preferences, habits, and attitudes of postgraduate students in the digital age. The survey method was employed to collect the data from a convenience sample of 500 graduate students from five departments of Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences at the University of the Punjab, Lahore-Pakistan. The results indicate a student’s preference to the e-reading although with various hurdles e.g. awareness of access to resources, trainings, remote access to resources, limited time of computer lab’s availability and electricity failure. Understanding student’s screen reading habits would enable the educationist, policy makers, technologist, and libraries to responds the needs and hazards to effective use of electronic resources

Role of ADRI model in teaching and assessing novice programmers

In this research, an ADRI approach was introduced in the teaching and learning process of an introductory programming course. The result shows that the ADRI approach impacted positively on the students learning outcomes. The ADRI approach not only reduced the failure rate but also improved student’s retention in the course