Recruitment Methods Used by Software Industry in Pakistan: Issues and Concerns

The research aims to examine the relationship between the organization size and the recruitment methods used. It also examines the differences in recruitment methods for filling the managerial and non managerial positions and exploring possible reasons for switching between these methods among IT organizations. We found that there is a significant relationship between the organization size and the frequency of recruitment. The smaller organizations tend to recruit more frequently as compared to larger organizations. The results also show that there is significant positive relationship between the size of organization and the choice of methods for recruitment of professionals. Most software houses find it difficult to recruit individuals with adequate professional training, skills and experience. Most professionals in the industry are fresh graduates with a sound theoretical base but with inadequate practical experience and skills. Software houses can help in developing these fresh graduates in more mature professionals by offering extensive internship programs

ACCREDITATION OF BUSINESS EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN: A STEP TOWARDS INTERNATIONALIZATION

To meet the challenges of the quality of higher education in Pakistan, National Business Education Accreditation Council (NBEAC) has introduced national level accreditation standards to assure prospective students, of the high standing of their program. The present research aims to compare the standards of NBEAC with international standards of EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) to assess whether NBEAC has the capacity to address education mobility across countries.  The finding of the research concluded that NBEAC standards are very well compatible with EQUIS standards. Thus, NBEAC accreditation  can  be  used  as  a  step  towards  international  accreditation  by  Pakistani institutions

Modeling of Kashmir Aftershock Decay Based on Static Coulomb Stress Changes and Laboratory-Derived Rate-and-State Dependent Friction Law

We model the spatial and temporal evolution of October 8, 2005 Kashmir earthquake\u2019s aftershock activity using the rate-and-state dependent friction model incorporating uncertainties in computed coseismic stress perturbations. We estimated the best possible value for frictional resistance \u2018\u2018Arn\u2019\u2019, background seismicity rate \u2018\u2018r\u2019\u2019 and coef\ufb01cient of stress variation \u2018\u2018CV\u2019\u2019 using maximum log-likelihood method. For the whole Kashmir earthquake sequence, we measure a frictional resistance Arn * 0.0185 MPa, r * 20 M3.7? events/year and CV = 0.94 \ub1 0.01. The spatial and temporal forecasted seismicity rate of modeled aftershocks \ufb01ts well with the spatial and temporal distribution of observed aftershocks that occurred in the regions with positive static stress changes as well as in the apparent stress shadow region. To quantify the effect of secondary aftershock triggering, we have re-run the estimations for 100 stochastically declustered catalogs showing that the effect of aftershock-induced secondary stress changes is obviously minor compared to the overall uncertainties, and that the stress variability related to uncertain slip model inversions and receiver mechanisms remains the major factor to provide a reasonable data \ufb01t

A decomposition analysis of capital structure: evidence from Pakistan’s manufacturing sector

This study investigates the determinants of the various components of debt—short- and long-term debt and their categories—in the case of nonfinancial listed firms in Pakistan for the period 2008–10. We make a significant distinction between these determinants depending on the components of debt issued: long-term or short-term forms of debt. Our results show that large firms are more likely to have access to long-term debt borrowing than small firms and that, due to supply constraints, small firms resort to short-term forms of debt. Firms with higher potential for growth prefer using less long-term debt as well as debt with fewer restrictive arrangements in order to become more financially flexible. Firms with sufficient fixed assets can generate external finance more easily and at lower cost by using these assets as collateral, which supports the tradeoff theory. Firms generating high levels of profit, however, may choose to finance their investments using internal resources rather than by raising debt finance, which conforms to the pecking order theory. Our results also confirm the presence of the inertia effect and industry-specific effects, and are robust to alternative estimation techniques

An Efficient and Intelligent Recommender System for Mobile Platform

Recommender Systems are valuable tools to deal with the problem of overloaded information faced by most of the users in case of making purchase decision to buy any item. Recommender systems are used to provide recommendations in many domains such as movies, books, digital equipment’s, etc. The massive collection of available books online presents a great challenge for users to select the relevant books that meet their preferences. Users usually read few pages or contents to decide whether to buy a certain book or not. Recommender systems provide different value addition factors such as similar user ratings, users past history, user profiles, etc. to facilitate the users in terms of providing relevant recommendations according to their preferences. Recommender systems are broadly categorized into content based approach and collaborative filtering approach. Content based or collaborative filtering approaches alone are not sufficient to provide most accurate and relevant recommendations under diverse scenarios. Therefore, hybrid approaches are also designed by combining the features of both the content based and collaborative filtering approaches to provide more relevant recommendations. This paper proposes an efficient hybrid recommendation scheme for mobile platform that includes the traits of content based and collaborative filtering approaches in addition of the context based approach that is included to provide the latest books recommendations to user.Objective and subjective evaluation measures are used to compute the performance of the proposed system. Experimental results are promising and signify the effectiveness of our proposed hybrid scheme in terms of most relevant and latest books recommendations

E2-MACH: Energy Efficient Multi-Attribute Based Clustering Scheme for Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks

Internet of things have emerged enough due to its applications in a wide range of fields such as governance, industry, healthcare, and smart environments (home, smart, cities, and so on). Internet of things–based networks connect smart devices ubiquitously. In such scenario, the role of wireless sensor networks becomes vital in order to enhance the ubiquity of the Internet of things devices with lower cost and easy deployment. The sensor nodes are limited in terms of energy storage, processing, and data storage capabilities, while their radio frequencies are very sensitive to noise and interference. These factors consequently threaten the energy consumption, lifetime, and throughput of network. One way to cope with energy consumption issue is energy harvesting techniques used in wireless sensor network–based Internet of things. However, some recent studies addressed the problems of clustering and routing in energy harvesting wireless sensor networks which either concentrate on energy efficiency or quality of service. There is a need of an adequate approach that can perform efficiently in terms of energy utilization as well as to ensure the quality of service. In this article, a novel protocol named energy-efficient multi-attribute-based clustering scheme (E2-MACH) is proposed which addresses the energy efficiency and communication reliability. It uses selection criteria of reliable cluster head based on a weighted function defined by multiple attributes such as link statistics, neighborhood density, current residual energy, and the rate of energy harvesting of nodes. The consideration of such parameters in cluster head selection helps to preserve the node’s energy and reduce its consumption by sending data over links possessing better signal-to-noise ratio and hence ensure minimum packet loss. The minimized packet loss ratio contributes toward enhanced network throughput, energy consumption, and lifetime with better service availability for Internet of things applications. A set of experiments using network simulator 2 revealed that our proposed approach outperforms the state-of-the-art low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy and other recent protocols in terms of first-node death, overall energy consumption, and network throughput

Post-vasectomy semen analysis: Optimizing laboratory procedures and test interpretation through a clinical audit and global survey of practices

Purpose: The success of vasectomy is determined by the outcome of a post-vasectomy semen analysis (PVSA). This article describes a step-by-step procedure to perform PVSA accurately, report data from patients who underwent post vasectomy semen analysis between 2015 and 2021 experience, along with results from an international online survey on clinical practice. Materials and Methods: We present a detailed step-by-step protocol for performing and interpretating PVSA testing, along with recommendations for proficiency testing, competency assessment for performing PVSA, and clinical and laboratory scenarios. Moreover, we conducted an analysis of 1,114 PVSA performed at the Cleveland Clinic’s Andrology Laboratory and an online survey to understand clinician responses to the PVSA results in various countries. Results: Results from our clinical experience showed that 92.1% of patients passed PVSA, with 7.9% being further tested. A total of 78 experts from 19 countries participated in the survey, and the majority reported to use time from vasectomy rather than the number of ejaculations as criterion to request PVSA. A high percentage of responders reported permitting unprotected intercourse only if PVSA samples show azoospermia while, in the presence of few non-motile sperm, the majority of responders suggested using alternative contraception, followed by another PVSA. In the presence of motile sperm, the majority of participants asked for further PVSA testing. Repeat vasectomy was mainly recommended if motile sperm were observed after multiple PVSA’s. A large percentage reported to recommend a second PVSA due to the possibility of legal actions. Conclusions: Our results highlighted varying clinical practices around the globe, with controversy over the significance of non-motile sperm in the PVSA sample. Our data suggest that less stringent AUA guidelines would help improve test compliance. A large longitudinal multi-center study would clarify various doubts related to timing and interpretation of PVSA and would also help us to understand, and perhaps predict, recanalization and the potential for future failure of a vasectomy.American Center for Reproductive Medicin

Importance of Knowledge Management and Factors that Influence and Encourage the Implementation of KM in SMEs

The purpose of this study is to investigate the importance of knowledge management and to identify the factors that influence and encourage the implementation of knowledge management in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Existing studies have mainly focused large organizations and no study has been carried out from the perspective of small companies systematically. Qualitative design has been used in this research study to identify knowledge management factors that influence the knowledge management implementation in small organizations. A case study has been used and data was collected through interviews from employees of kunjah online service provider. Properly utilizing these factors make a contribution towards organizational growth