Fertility transition in Pakistan: neglected dimensions and policy implications

This research addresses some of the neglected non-program dimensions related to stagnant fertility transition in Pakistan. Previous research identified a range of factors influencing fertility in Pakistan, particularly the effect of distortions in reported ages, fertility inhibiting variables, timing of first marriage and first birth, and birth intervals. The literature provides evidence that there is no systematic analysis of these dimensions particularly at the regional levels. This research addresses these dimensions by evaluating the fertility and reproductive health data in particular using the cross-sectional data from the 1990 and 2006 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey, and 2000-01 Pakistan Reproductive Health and Family Planning Survey.Based on the application of relevant demographic and statistical techniques, the study demonstrates evidence of clear discrepancies in age reporting among married females across the seven geographic regions. This had influence on the estimated marital fertility rates which tend to be significantly higher when the reporting effects were adjusted. The analysis of fertility inhibiting factors reveals that timing of marriage and contraceptive use are crucial determinants associated with fertility reduction in Pakistan. By far, the strongest factor driving increase at first marriage in Pakistan is the level of female education which tends to vary significantly across different geographic regions. The analysis of the duration between marriage and first conception shows rather unexpected complex hazard functions with two peaks suggesting the behaviour of two different groups of women: those adhering to the traditional pattern in which conception take place soon after marriage; and those who postpone conception after marriage. Punjab, Baluchistan and urban regions are ahead of the fertility transition at the national level, confirming the effect of longer birth intervals. Based on the analysis of the proximate determinants framework, it can be concluded that Pakistan has entered the early third phase of the fertility transition. Urban Punjab and Baluchistan have also showed convergence to the third phase of the fertility transition. Breastfeeding and amenorrhea have emerged as significant determinants of birth interval duration.The results of this study highlight various areas for programme intervention and policy development. There is a dire need for a policy to improve the levels of female literacy and education especially in poorly developed regions which are in the second phase of fertility transition. A cost-effective intervention would be using mass media, for example radio broadcasting as the medium to disseminate reproductive health and family planning information. Pakistan needs specific policy interventions aimed at empowering girls with education for delaying marriage and encouraging contraceptive use. In formal education programmes, the syllabus should include the introduction to contraception, sexual health education as well as information on sexually transmitted diseases

Management of Marine Fisheries Resources in Peninsular Malaysia

The inshore fisheries of Peninsular Malaysia are intensively exploited on the east coast and over-exploited on the west coast. Fishing effort and investment need to be reduced, particularly on the west coast. This is important in order to make harvest more economically efficient in terms of manpower and capital and to conserve the resources. Since 1981 Malaysia has adopted a Fisheries Licensing Policy addressed to (1) the elimination of the competition and ensuing conflict between the traditional fishermen and minitrawler fishermen in inshore waters; (2) the prevention of over-exploitation of the fishery resources in the inshore waters; and (3) the restructuring of the ownership pattern of fishing units in accord with the New Economic Policy. One of the main strategies employed is allocation of fishing grounds through zones, so that areas close to shore are reserved for the smaller vessels. Another main strategy is the regulation of fishing effort through a license limitation to control excess capacity taking into account of the socio-economic and political aspects

Dekonstruksi paradigmatik pengembangan zakat: analisis kritis pemikiran Yusuf al-Qaradawi

The construct of the argument for the development of zakat treasures in the thought of Yusuf al-Qaradawi can be divided into two general and special ones. The general argument is based on the theory of qiyas and maslahah, while the specific argument is based on the theory in the jurisprudence of zakat itself, that is with respect to the criteria of zakat property. From the six criteria he mentioned he then developed one of them is a productive (growing) property. On the basis of these criteria then many new types of treasures that can be covered into zakat property, such as the treasures obtained from company stock, honey, and profession. Of course the new treasures he mentioned just as an example only. In the future it can continue to grow in accordance with the development of Muslim life. The argument for the development of zakat property can be contradicted by three arguments: ambiguity in placing the doctrine of zakat between the teachings of mahdah worship and the teachings of muamalah /'adah (worldliness); tend to separate the study of zakat from the historical context in which the obligations of zakat in the time of the Prophet and the caliph after him are always related to the life of the state / government; and stressing that the zakat is different from the taxes is basically a result of its ambiguity in looking at zakat

The impact of total quality management on employees’ job satisfaction at Mahkota Medical Centre,Malacca / Siti Asma Abdul Jamal

The purpose of this research is to examine the perception of Total Quality Management (TQM) and its impact on job satisfaction within employees’ of Mahkota Medical Centre (MMC). My research is conduct to determine the relationship between Total Quality Management (TQM) and MMC’s employees’ job satisfaction. The five TQM components that the researcher chooses in this research are organizational trust, customer focus, rewards and recognition, teamwork, and organizational culture. I want to identify whether there is a relationship between TQM and level of employees’ job satisfaction at MMC. The researcher chooses to use descriptive research design as research method and the researcher use survey in order to collect the data. Data used in this research are primary data and so on secondary data such as journal and articles. The researcher also use structured questionnaire design to obtain the data in order to convenience the respondent to give feedback because most of them busy with their work. The sample size in this research is 50 respondents of MMC’s employees’ itself. From the result, researcher found that the most important of TQM component that affect employees’ job satisfaction is organizational culture, followed by organizational trust, rewards and recognition, teamwork and the less important is customer focus

PENGARUH LEVERAGE, PERTUMBUHAN PENJUALAN, DAN UKURAN PERUSAHAAN TERHADAP PROFITABILITAS

The purpose of this study was to determine (1) the effect of leverage on profitability, (2) the effect of sales growth on profitability, (3) the effect of company size on profitability. used in this study amounted to 4 companies. The results of this study indicate that leverage has a negative and significant effect on profitability in cigarette companies listed on the IDX during the 2016-2018 period, sales growth has a negative and significant effect on profitability in cigarette companies listed on the IDX during the 2016-2018 period. And also company size has a positive and significant effect on profitability in cigarette companies listed on the IDX during the 2016-2018 period. And each independent variable has a positive and significant effect on the dependent variable simultaneously, namely leverage, sales growth and company size which have a significant effect on profitability in cigarette companies listed on the IDX during the 2016-2018 period. So it can be concluded that each independent variable has a significant influence on the dependent variable either partially or simultaneously.  Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui (1) pengaruh leverage terhadap profitabilitas, (2) pengaruh pertumbuhan penjualan  terhadap profitabilitas, (3) pengaruh ukuran perusahaan terhadap profitabilitas . Sampel dalam penelitian ini adalah perusahaan perusahaan rokok yang listing di BEI dengan jumlah sampel yang akan digunakan dalam penelitian ini berjumlah 4 perusahaan. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa  leverage berpengaruh negatif dan signifikan terhadap profitabilitas pada perusahaan rokok yang terdaftar di BEI selama periode 2016-2018, pertumbuhan penjualan berpengaruh negatif dan signifikan terhadal profitabilitas pada perusahaan rokok yang terdaftar di BEI selama periode 2016-2018. Dan juga ukuran perusahaan memiliki pengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap profitabilitas pada perusahaan rokok yang terdaftar di BEI selama periode 2016-2018. Dan setiap variabel independen memiliki pengaruh yang positif dan signifikan terhadap variabel dependen secara simultan yaitu leverage, pertumbuhan penjualan dan ukuran perusahaan yang memiliki pengaruh signifikan terhadap profitabilitas pada perusahaan rokok yang terdaftar di BEI selama periode 2016-2018. Jadi dapat diambil kesimpulan bahwa setiap variabel independen memiliki pengaruh yang signifikan terhadap variabel dependen baik secara parsial maupun secara simultan

Enhancement of Ant Colony Optimization for Grid Job Scheduling and Load Balancing

Managing resources in grid computing system is complicated due to the distributed and heterogeneous nature of the resources. Stagnation in grid computing system may occur when all jobs are required or are assigned to the same resources which lead to the resources having high workload or the time taken to process a job is high. This research proposes an Enhanced Ant Colony Optimization (EACO) algorithm that caters dynamic scheduling and load balancing in the grid computing system. The proposed algorithm can overcome stagnation problem, minimize processing time, match jobs with suitable resources, and balance entire resources in grid environment. This research follows the experimental research methodology that consists of problem analysis, developing the proposed framework, constructing the simulation environment, conducting a set of experiments and evaluating the results. There are three new mechanisms in this proposed framework that are used to organize the work of an ant colony i.e. initial pheromone value mechanism, resource selection mechanism and pheromone update mechanism. The resource allocation problem is modeled as a graph that can be used by the ant to deliver its pheromone. This graph consists of four types of vertices which are job, requirement, resource and capacity that are used in constructing the grid job scheduling. The proposed EACO algorithm takes into consideration the capacity of resources and the characteristics of jobs in determining the best resource to process a job. EACO selects the resources based on the pheromone value on each resource which is recorded in a matrix form. The initial pheromone value of each resource for each job is calculated based on the estimated transmission time and execution time of a given job. Resources with high pheromone value are selected to process the submitted jobs. Global pheromone update is performed after the completion of processing the jobs in order to reduce the pheromone value of resources. A simulation environment was developed using Java programming to test the performance of the proposed EACO algorithm against existing grid resource management algorithms such as Antz algorithm, Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm, Space Shared algorithm and Time Shared algorithm, in terms of processing time and resource utilization. Experimental results show that EACO produced better grid resource management solution compared to other algorithms

A database system for promotional literature for publishers

The aim of this thesis is to design a database system which could easily be used by a publishing company to store data concerning the products it publishes and to enable such data to be used in the regular processes of the production of lists of books and periodicals of certain promotional requirements. In our approach we have used a relational model which is based on the mathematical theory of relations. This has certain advantages over systems designed using tree or plex structures for as the database grows it will avoid causing upheaval with the logical representation of data and application programs and provides a basis for a high level retrieval language. The query language is designed to answer quickly all enquiries to the database and is based on principles and techniques developed from menu construction. The requirements of the promotional information produced by a typical publishing house are analysed and a model set up which tests the theories we have developed. In addition, the security aspect of the database has been studied and checks incorporated into the systems to ensure the authority of the personnel using the system and to provide a permanent record of all legal and illegal entries for management information