Mining very long sequences with PLWAPLong algorithms

Sequential pattern mining is the process of finding inter-transaction frequent sequential patterns from a sequential database, where records consist of ordered sets of events (or items), by applying data mining techniques on such sequential databases. Discovering sequential patterns in web server logs is an example application of sequential mining, which is useful for predicting visiting patterns of web users for such purposes as targeted advertisements. Position Coded Pre-order Linked Web Access Pattern (PLWAP) mining algorithm is one of the existing efficient web sequential pattern mining algorithms, which stores the frequently stored sequences of the entire sequential database in a compressed tree form with position coded nodes. However, for very long sequences exceeding thirty two nodes, the number of bits an integer position code can hold, the PLWAP algorithm\u27s performance begins to degrade because it employs linked lists to store conjunctions of long position codes and the linked list traversals slow down the algorithm both during tree construction and mining. PLWAP algorithm also uses each and every node in the frequent 1-item event queue to test for that event inclusion in the suffix tree root set during mining. This is a very expensive operation since except for one node all other nodes that are its ancestors and descendents are not included in the root set. This thesis proposes two new algorithms, i.e. PLWAPLong1 and PLWAPLong2. Both of these new algorithms use a new position code numbering scheme where each node is assigned two numeric variables (startPosition, endPosition) instead of one. Using this scheme we can determine the ancestor node in O (1) operation by comparing the startPosition and endPosition of two nodes. PLWAPLong1 algorithm also proposes transforming the linked list based tree to an equivalent array representation and using binary search to find the immediate descendant in a suffix tree. PLWAPLong2 uses existing linked list based tree. Both PLWAPLong1 and PLWAPLong2 algorithms introduce a new technique called Last Descendant to eliminate the unwanted nodes from ancestor/descendent test when creating the suffix tree root set. Keywords: Data mining, Web Mining, Association Rule Mining, Long Sequences, PLWAP Minin

EVALUATION THROUGH E-GOVERNANCE IN EDUCATION

This study focuses on the importance of monitoring and evaluation in education through E-governance especially in low-budgeted educational institutions of Punjab, Pakistan. In this era of fast-paced world, monitoring and evaluation system for education needs to be revamped in terms of digitization for effective and efficient progression, results and follow-up (Sabbagh et al, 2012). There are some reference documents/frameworks available in Pakistan to evaluate and monitor schools, however, there is near to none collaboration among the public and private sector schools with respect to evaluation in education through e-governance.  So, there is a need to answer that how ready is the education sector for e-governance in terms of monitoring and evaluation. Moreover, how effective it will prove to be a support for the school leadership to make informed decisions. To answer these questions, this research is expedited with the help of Hertzberg’s Two Factor (Motivation and Hygiene factors) Theory of Motivation (1968). The idea of digitized monitoring and evaluation was piloted in a cluster of 20 private (Primary and Secondary) schools with the help of Android Phones. This Data base has already been designed to generate reports as per the required formats, levels, and forms. This research provides direction to future evaluators and emphasize on the significance of digitization in educational monitoring and evaluation. It certainly has major implications for educators, evaluators and for the policy makers to implement e-governance through digitized monitoring and evaluation. Moreover, this unique idea of digitized monitoring enabled us to create paper free environment, have standardized and central monitoring, unified reporting formats, data base record keeping (safe and secure), and, access of data for evaluators and School Management Team (SMT)

Financial and Operating Working Capital: Unraveling Obscured Portion of Balance Sheet

ABSTRACT Purpose- The purpose of this study is to provide a new obscured aspect of financial working capital in working capital management, and investigate the association between financial and operating working capital with business performance. This paper also examines the interacting effect of net cash flow on this relationship. The current study introduces a modification in cash conversion cycle (CCC) by taking concealed trade advance payments. Design/methodology/approach- This study employs fixed effect regression model, covering a sample of Automobile sector companies, listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for the period of fourteen years from 2005 to 2018. Secondary data is collected from companies’ financial annual reports, PSX website, and Balance sheet analysis of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). The study is explanatory and deductive in nature. Financial working capital (FWC) and new measure of operating working capital (OWC) i.e. modified cash conversion cycle (mCCC) is introduced & empirically tested with 252 firm-year observations. Findings- The regression results shows, a convex association between OWC & FWC, with business performance, in dearth of internal cash. However, after taking interacting effect of internal availability of cash, only FWC relation has become concave. The result also shows that mCCC provides a more realistic view of OWC. Research limitations/implications- This study has considered, concealed trade prepayments only, further research could include other components in mCCC. Moreover micro, macro factors and status of the economy such as depression or boom may also affect the results of the research. The findings suggest that managers should separately deal operating & financial working capital. Firms’ performance can be enhanced, if Finance Manager Take account internal cash of the firm. In case of deficiency (sufficiency) of it, he should work to decrease (increase) the investment amount in operating working capital (financial working capital). Overall, the results will be helpful to the financial experts and business practitioner in analyzing, and utilization of their resources. Originality/value- This study adds a new dimension in working capital by separating it into operating and financial working capital.  The study also offers insights into the new knowledge of extension in CCC, role of concealed advance payments and internal cash flow, for class teachers and business practitioners. It will also describe the new avenues for further research in this field.    Key Words:  Financial working capital, Operating working capital, Trade advanced payments and modified cash conversion cycle (mCCC)

Incorporating Stakeholder enfranchisement, Risks, Gains, and AI decisions in AI Governance Framework

The emergence of AI-enabled applications has drawn attention to the need for AI governance. This essay builds on organizational governance literature and proposes a framework for developing organizational governance structures. Following a call to incorporate all stakeholders in governance [1], the framework considers the interests of all organizational stakeholder groups. In addition, it delineates five types of AI-related organizational decisions, which have the potential to significantly impact stakeholder interests. Furthermore, the framework considers four distinct outcomes and byproducts of AI which may impact the distribution of stakeholder benefits and risks. These need to be specifically addressed by organizational AI governance structures. We contend that the details furnished by the framework pave the way for future research on AI governance, adaptation in an AI-driven organization, and AI-related legal framework development

PERSPECTIVE ON CODE SWITCHING IN CONTENT-BASED CLASSROOMS: GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS CONTEXT IN PAKISTAN

Teaching in Pakistan has always shown irregular policy decisions with reference to medium of instructions, and choice of language used by teachers and students. This has resulted in below average education quality in government schools.  Multitude of research has been done, both internationally and nationally, on use of language for teaching and learning. Using language repertoire of a learner has been found useful and effective for development and learning (Manan et al., 2017, Liebscher & Dailey, 2005). With recent trend towards code switching by declaring EMI as a challenge (p.47, National Education Policy Report, 2017), the paper aims at mapping teachers’ perspective on the policy. This is achieved through a questionnaire and series of interviews on code switching developed on patterns of Translanguage theory (García & Lin, 2017, García & Wei, 2014).  By considering translanguaging, the pedagogic counterpart of code switching, the research provides direction and suggests a solution to a national problem that is which language to use for teaching and communication in government schools for effective teaching and learning

Relationship between Intellectual Capital and Organizational Performance: A case Study of Public Sector Universities in Southern Punjab-Pakistan

During the last decade the growing interest in intellectual capital has been shifted from business organizations to higher educational institutions because major functions of higher educational institutions particularly Universities is to create and disseminate knowledge acquired through education and research. Now educational institutions are regarded as center of innovations and produce of innovative human capital. The main objective of this study is to analyze the concept of intellectual capital, its importance for higher educational institutions and its impact on their working environment and performance. For this purpose the author has selected two Universities, namely: Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan and Islamia University Multan and has taken a sample of 200 employees of these Universities: 150 academic and 50 non-academic. The data was collected through a structured questionnaire by conducting face-to-face interview. Three estimation methods were used to analyze the data. Five point likert scale was used to record the view of respondents about the importance of intellectual capital and its management by these two selected Universities. Regression method was used to measure the impact of intellectual capital (independent) variables on the performance (dependent variables) of these Universities. Scorecard and Ratio Analysis was used to compare the output level of intellectual capital and their relative performance. Our empirical results are robust and show that intellectual capital and organizational performance has had a significant correlation and Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan outperformed Islamia University of Bahawalpur in better output of intellectual capital, its management, and overall performance. The evidence shows that Bahauddin Zakriya University Multan has greater intellectual capital than Islamia University of Bahawalpur. As regard to the components of intellectual capital, human capital ranked first in its impact on performance while structural capital and rational capital has second and third rank. In other words, human capital has greater contribution in creation of intellectual capital and its influence on the performance of these two Universities, out study concludes. Keywords: Intellectual capital, Human capital, Structural capital, Relational capital, University, Research performance.

The Impact of Social Cash Transfers on Poverty in Pakistan-A Case Study of Benazir Income Support Programme

Governments around the world often make social cash transfers to their residents for varied purposes such as consumption smoothing, poverty reduction, improved take-up of education and health services, etc. In Pakistan, these transfers took a big stride with the initiation of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in 2008. Social cash transfers have multiple types of impacts e.g. on health, education, reproductive behavior, voting behavior etc. This study aims to investigate the existence of a relationship between social cash transfers and poverty. Specifically, the research question is: Is there any impact of BISP receipt on poverty in Pakistan? This research question is answered with the help of utilization of Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) 2015-16 (Government of Pakistan, 2017) which presents information on households’ consumption (used to measure poverty) as well as households’ cash transfer recipient status. Official poverty estimation methodology is used for defining the poverty status of a household. The relationship between cash transfers and poverty is studied through the nearest-neighbor matching method limiting ourselves to BISP. The findings show that there is no significant relationship between BISP cash transfer and poverty when full dataset is used and a negative but economically insignificant relationship when only people from the bottom consumption quintiles are considered. Based on these findings, way-forward in terms of future research and making necessary modifications in the programme design of BISP is suggested

The Impact of Social Cash Transfers on Poverty in Pakistan-A Case Study of Benazir Income Support Programme

Governments around the world often make social cash transfers to their residents for varied purposes such as consumption smoothing, poverty reduction, improved take-up of education and health services, etc. In Pakistan, these transfers took a big stride with the initiation of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in 2008. Social cash transfers have multiple types of impacts e.g. on health, education, reproductive behavior, voting behavior etc. This study aims to investigate the existence of a relationship between social cash transfers and poverty. Specifically, the research question is: Is there any impact of BISP receipt on poverty in Pakistan? This research question is answered with the help of utilization of Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) 2015-16 (Government of Pakistan, 2017) which presents information on households’ consumption (used to measure poverty) as well as households’ cash transfer recipient status. Official poverty estimation methodology is used for defining the poverty status of a household. The relationship between cash transfers and poverty is studied through the nearest-neighbor matching method limiting ourselves to BISP. The findings show that there is no significant relationship between BISP cash transfer and poverty when full dataset is used and a negative but economically insignificant relationship when only people from the bottom consumption quintiles are considered. Based on these findings, way-forward in terms of future research and making necessary modifications in the programme design of BISP is suggested

Dynamics of Banking Performance Indicators and Economic Growth: long-Run Financial Development Nexus in Pakistan

The purpose of this research is to understand the contributing role of banking industry in economic development process in long run as well as in short run dynamics empirically on the grounds of sound theoretical basis in Pakistan. This study explored the Neoclassical and endogenous mechanism between banking sector and economic growth by using the panel unit root tests, Panel co-integration tests, panel FMOLS and DOLS tests and panel VECM test for the period 2006 to 2016. Results indicate that Lending capability, Bank Investment and Innovation are identified as significant determinant. Further results indicate that there is an existence of positive bi-directional causality relationship between banking sector and economic growth. The long-run dynamics highlights the good policy measures of financial institutions and provides sound basis for positive economic growth and hence short run relationship indicates the consistency of economic policies in the economy. Finally the results conclude that policy makers should focus less on increasing the size of banking sector and more on improving its function as intermediary. The intense competition in banking sector may create problem in the sector itself. However, the rule of demand and supply may put the parameters into equilibrium for positive growth