Impact of Financial Leverage on Performance of Pharmaceutical Listed Companies in Pakistan

The aim of this research project to examine the impact of financial leverage (debt ratio) on financial performance (return on asset) of pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan. The study focus on pharmaceutical listed companies on Karachi stock exchange for the period of 2005-2014.In this research select the 100 % papulation to find out the impact of financial leverage on financial performance of pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan and pharmaceutical companies consist of 9 firms. Secondary data collected through companies Annual reports and financial statements. Descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation and Regression Analysis were used to find out the relationship and impact of financial leverage on financial performance of pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan. Debt ratio (DR) used as an independent variable and return on asset (ROA) used as an dependent variable along with current ratio (CR), size (SI) and asset turnover used as control variable. Results of study indicate that there is significant positively relationship between debt ratio and return on assets and regression show the debt ratio and return on assets have a significant positively impact on return on asset. Thus we can say firms used the external fund (debt) to increase their financial performance. Keywords: Financial leverage, financial performance, Debt ratio and return on assets

Performance Characterization of In-Memory Data Analytics on a Modern Cloud Server

In last decade, data analytics have rapidly progressed from traditional disk-based processing to modern in-memory processing. However, little effort has been devoted at enhancing performance at micro-architecture level. This paper characterizes the performance of in-memory data analytics using Apache Spark framework. We use a single node NUMA machine and identify the bottlenecks hampering the scalability of workloads. We also quantify the inefficiencies at micro-architecture level for various data analysis workloads. Through empirical evaluation, we show that spark workloads do not scale linearly beyond twelve threads, due to work time inflation and thread level load imbalance. Further, at the micro-architecture level, we observe memory bound latency to be the major cause of work time inflation.Comment: Accepted to The 5th IEEE International Conference on Big Data and Cloud Computing (BDCloud 2015

Memory and Parallelism Analysis Using a Platform-Independent Approach

Emerging computing architectures such as near-memory computing (NMC) promise improved performance for applications by reducing the data movement between CPU and memory. However, detecting such applications is not a trivial task. In this ongoing work, we extend the state-of-the-art platform-independent software analysis tool with NMC related metrics such as memory entropy, spatial locality, data-level, and basic-block-level parallelism. These metrics help to identify the applications more suitable for NMC architectures.Comment: 22nd ACM International Workshop on Software and Compilers for Embedded Systems (SCOPES '19), May 201

Longitudinally Extensive Transverse Myelitis and Neuromyelitis Optica spectrum Disorder: A Tertiary Care Centre Experience

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis and Causes of longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis METHODOLOGY: A Cross-Sectional, retrospective study was conducted at Neurology Department, Mayo Hospital, Lahore from 1st January 2015 to 31st December 2015. Patients were included from inpatient with history of weakness of lower limbs/all four limbs with or without visual disturbances. History and clinical examination was consistent with transverse myelitis. Neuroimaging (MRI brain, (orbit in case of optic neuritis) and spinal cord) was done followed by LP/CSF, Vasculitis screening

Comparison of efficacy of azithromycin plus levamisole versus azithromycin alone in the treatment of moderate to severe acne

Objective To compare the efficacy of azithromycin plus levamisole versus azithromycin alone in the treatment of moderate to severe acne. Patients and methods Ninety patients with moderate to severe acne were divided into two groups. Group A was given oral azithromycin 500mg/day, three days a week, plus oral levamisole 150mg/day, two days a week and group B was given oral azithromycin 500mg/day, three days a week. Patients were followed up at 4th and 8th week for efficacy and tolerability. Results Efficacy of treatment in Group A (given azithromycin plus levamisole) was seen in 36 (80%) patients while in Group B (oral azithromycin alone) efficacy was seen in 27 (60%) patients (p-value = 0.048). Conclusion Combination therapy with oral azithromycin plus levamisole is more efficacious as compared to oral azithromycin alone in the treatment of moderate to severe acne vulgaris. Key words Acne, azithromycin, levamisole. DOI: 10.7176/JMPB/58-05 Publication date: August 31st 201

Oil Price Volatility, Organization Capital, and Firm Performance

We examine the relationship between oil price volatility and firm performance, and the moderating role of organization capital on this relationship. Using U.S. firm-level data during the period of 1986-2017, our analysis reveals several key findings. Consistent with the real option theory, we find that oil price volatility negatively affects firm performance. However, this adverse effect of oil price volatility is reduced for firms with high levels of organization capital. Interestingly, this moderating effect of organization capital is more pronounced for firms with large cash holdings. Overall, our findings substantiate the idea that firms with high levels of organization capital can hedge oil price related volatilities effectively. Findings from several robustness tests support our key results