Impact of HR Competencies on Employee’s Job Satisfaction

This study examines the role of human resource (HR) competencies on employee’s job satisfaction in telecom sector of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Less amount of literature is found regarding the impact of organization architect and trust management on employee’s job satisfaction. For this purpose, data was collected from employees of Pakistani telecom sector. It was concluded that organization architect and trust management have positive impact on employees job satisfaction. This study is limited to only one sector and only region of Rawalpindi and Islamabad was considered. This study may help the industrial practitioners in retaining their work force, and for enhancing commitment to their work and also, organization and trust management would lead the company to generate integrity, regard and support among workers. Keywords: HR competencies; Social exchange relationship; Employee job satisfaction; Telecom sector

Impact of Parents’ Income Level on Students’ Self-Concept at Secondary Level in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

It is a fact that there are different situations which directly or indirectly affect the students’ self-concept therefore; the present study was designed to investigate the impact of parents’ income level on 10 grade public schools students’ self-concept at secondary level in southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The objectives of this study were (a) to find out parents income level  in the six southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, (b) to find out the level of self-concept of students in the six southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , and (c) to determine whether the parents’ income level has any impact on the self-concept of students. The data were collected from a sample (N =400) of 10th grade students in the urban and rural secondary public schools. A partially adapted questionnaire was used for measuring the parents’ level of education and the students’ self-concept.  The data collected were analyzed through SPSS 20. Regression and β (coefficient of impact) were used as statistical techniques.  The findings of the study revealed that parents’ education had a consistent and positive impact on students’ self-concept. Keywords: parents’ income level, Students’ self-concept, academic competenc

Facebook Effect on Enhancement of English Learners’ Writing Approach at University Level in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Social Media plays a pivotal role in this modern technological era. Facebook is one of the most important tools of Social Media which is used by millions of users and most frequently visited web-site therefore, the present study was conducted to find out the effect of Facebook on enhancement of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ writing approach at university level. Main objectives of the study were to find out Facebook effect on EFL learners’ writing approach at university level in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The second one was that to compare Facebook based English learners with those learners who use traditional methods for writing skills development, and similarly, to compare the learning competencies/ abilities of both Facebook users and those users who use traditional methods for writing skills improvement. The study was guided by the following null hypothesis: Ho1.The first null hypothesis shows that there is no significant difference between the Mean Scores of experimental and control group on pre-test.Ho2: The second null hypothesis shows that there is no significant difference between the  Mean Scores of experimental and control groups on post-test 3: The third one is that there is no significant difference between the Mean scores of those students who use Facebook for writing skill and those who use traditional methods for writing skill development. In order to achieve the desired objectives the researcher randomly selected 20 students for this experimental study as a respondent, and then divided them according to their age, academic achievement and their intellectual level. An equivalent writing test, developed by the researcher was applied on the control and the experimental groups before the study started to ensure their equivalence; and was also used as a post-test. The result of this study showed that Facebook Keywords: (Using Facebook, University level EFL learners, Enhancement of Writing skills

Perceptions of Students Regarding Effectiveness of Online Digital and Traditional Libraries After Covid-19

The purpose of this study was to compare online digital and traditional libraries after covid-19 pandemic at undergraduate level. In this descriptive study, survey design was used. The data were collected from the respondents (undergraduate students) through a self-developed questionnaire of 6-Likert scale. As per John Curry\u27s (1984) Sample size rule of Thumb, (n= 250) out of (N= 4547), respondents were selected from university. Stratified and Sample random techniques were used. Validity and reliability of the instrument were insured. The key findings of this study indicated that online digital library was better than a traditional physical library. The respondents highlighted that online digital libraries facilitate learners to get updated knowledge while using the online digital library because the learners have access to use library. The results of the current study revealed that online digital library was free from space and time problems. According to the results of the current study, both digital and physical libraries were found to play a significant role in quality education whereas it was shown that undergraduate students of this modern era were found to take more interest in online digital library by using updated ICTs resources

Assessing decision of inpatient or outpatient care in community acquired pneumonia: APT care study

Objective: To estimate the proportion of community-acquired pneumonia patients with disagreement between Confusion, Uraemia, Respiratory rate, Blood pressure, age \u3e 65 years recommendation and physician\\\\u27s decision to hospitalise or not.Methods: This cross-sectional nation-wide, non-interventional, cross-sectional study was carried out across 10 cities of Pakistan from December 2011 to May 2012, and recruited consenting adult patients with confirmatory diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia on chest X-ray. Confusion, Uraemia, Respiratory rate, Blood pressure, age \u3e 65 years recommendation for each patient was determined at the time of analysis. This recommendation was compared with treatment decision made by the physician. Disagreement was considered when the physician\\\\u27s decision did not match with the recommendation. SPSS 18 was used for data analysis.Results: Of the 352 patients, 201(57.10%) were males. The overall mean age was 50.67±18.45 years. In 140(39.77%) patients there was disagreement between Confusion, Uraemia, Respiratory rate, Blood pressure, age \u3e 65 years recommendation and physician\\\\u27s decision regarding hospitalisation or outpatient care. Of the 352 cases 132(37.50%) were hospitalised despite the recommendation of outpatient treatment.Conclusion: In almost four out of every 10 patients there was disagreement between Confusion, Uraemia, Respiratory rate, Blood pressure, age \u3e 65 years recommendation and the physician\\\\u27s decision regarding hospitalisation of community-acquired pneumonia patients

Vibration Suppression in Flexible Structures using Hybrid Active and Semi-active Control

This thesis presents a new hybrid active and semi-active control method for vibration suppression in flexible structures. The method uses a combination of a semi-active device and an active control actuator situated elsewhere in the structure to suppress vibrations. The key novelty is to use the hybrid controller to enable the semi-active device to achieve a performance as close to a fully active device as possible. This is accomplished by ensuring that the active actuator can assist the semi-active device in the regions where energy is required. Also, the hybrid active and semi-active controller is designed to minimise the switching of the semi-active controller. The control framework used is the immersion and invariance control technique in combination with a sliding mode control. A two degree-of-freedom system with lightly damped resonances is used as an example system. Both numerical and experimental results are generated for this system and then compared as part of a validation study. The experimental system uses hardware-in-the-loop simulation to simulate the effect of both the degrees-of-freedom. The results show that the concept is viable both numerically and experimentally, and improved vibration suppression results can be obtained for the semi-active device that approaches the performance of an active device. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid controller, it is implemented to keep the contact force constant in the pantograph-catenary system of high-speed trains. A detailed derivation is given after which the simulation results are presented. Then a method to design a reduced order observer using an invariant manifold approach is proposed. The main advantage of this approach is that it enables a systematic design approach, and (unlike most nonlinear observer design methods), it can be generalised over a larger class of nonlinear systems. The method uses specific mapping functions in a way that minimises the error dynamics close to zero. Another important aspect is the robustness property which is due to the manifold attractivity: an important feature when an observer is used in a closed loop control system. The observer design is validated using both numerical simulations and hardware-in-the-loop testing. The proposed observer is then compared with a very well known nonlinear observer based on the off-line solution of the Riccati equation for systems with Lipschitz type nonlinearity. In all cases, the performance of the proposed observer is shown to be excellent

EFFECTS OF AEROBIC TRAINING ON TARGETED HEART RATE ZONE

Reduced targeted heart rate zone is an indication of fitness of an athlete andReduced targeted heart rate zone is an indication of fitness of an individualand the main purpose of the current study was to investigate the “effects ofaerobic training on targeted heart rate zone among college students”. Thestudy was experimental in nature. The population of the study comprised of allthose students (male) who were boarding in hostel with age range 18-22 yearsof Government Post Graduate College Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP),Pakistan. The sample of fifty (n-50) healthy, sedentary, and volunteer subjectsfor the study was determined through Physical Activity ReadinessQuestionnaire (PAR-Q). Resting heart rate of each subject was taken bydigital heart rate monitor as pre-test. Targeted heart rate zone was calculatedthrough the formula [(220-age-RHR) x percentage of intensity+ RHR]. Thesubjects were randomly divided into two equal groups each of 25 subjects. Theexperimental group underwent aerobic training at moderate intensity (50% to70% of the Maximum Heart Rate) for eight weeks while the control groupcarried on their routine life activities. There were four training sessions perweek and each session comprised of 30 minutes besides warm up and warmdown. After eight weeks aerobic training, the post-test of resting heart rate ofeach subject of both group was conducted as the procedure adopted for the prtest. The pre-test data and post-test date was analyzed with the help of SPSSversion 20 by applying the descriptive statistical sources mean, minimum,maximum and standard deviation to show the difference between pre-test andpos-test. The results of the study showed that there was descriptively decreasein targeted heart rate zone of subjects of the experimental group while controlgroup showed no improvement. In light of the findings of the study, it isconcluded that aerobic exercises play important role in the reduction oftargeted heart rate zone and this quality paves the way to show goodperformance in daily physical and sports activities

Impact of Performance Appraisal Politics on Work Outcome: Multidimensional Role of Intrinsic Motivation and Job Satisfaction

The current study focus on performance politics regarding appraisal in order to analyze the performance of employees, to interpret job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and employee’s turnover in the banking sector of Pakistan. At the same time, employees’ intrinsic motivation and satisfaction will were investigated as possible mediators. For this purpose, data was collected from the selected sample of various bank employees across different districts in KPK and Islamabad. Data was analyzed through exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling using SPSS & AMOS software. Results indicate that the relationship between performance appraisal politics (PALP) and employee’s commitment level is negative and significant, while performance appraisal politics is positively and significantly associated with turnover intentions. Interestingly, the relationship between job performance politics and job satisfaction was insignificant. In order to validate the meditational affect (Baron & Kenny, 1986) meditational technique was applied. Since the relationship between PAPL (Performance Appraisal Politics) and job satisfaction is found to be insignificant; hence, it is concluded that job satisfaction could not mediate the relationship between PAPL and turnover intention. In the proceeding step, the relationship between PAPL and turnover intention was checked with intrinsic motivation as a mediator. It was concluded that intrinsic motivation strongly mediated the relationship between PAPL and TRI. Based on the findings of the current study, future direction, managerial implication and limitations are also provided in the last section.&nbsp

Technology-assisted white cane: evaluation and future directions

Background Several technology-assisted aids are available to help blind and visually impaired people perform their daily activities. The current research uses the state-of-the-art technology to enhance the utility of traditional navigational aids to produce solutions that are more reliable. In this regard, a white cane is no exception, which is supplemented with the existing technologies to design Electronic Travel Aids (ETAs), Electronic Orientation Aids (EOAs), and Position Locator Devices (PLDs). Although several review articles uncover the strengths and limitations of research contributions that extend traditional navigational aids, we find no review article that covers research contributions on a technology-assisted white cane. The authors attempt to fill this literature gap by reviewing the most relevant research articles published during 2010–2017 with the common objective of enhancing the utility of white cane with the existing technology. Methods The authors have collected the relevant literature published during 2010–17 by searching and browsing all the major digital libraries and publishers’ websites. The inclusion/exclusion criteria were applied to select the research articles that are relevant to the topic of this review article, and all other irrelevant papers were excluded. Among the 577 (534 through database searching and 43 through other sources) initially screened papers, the authors collected 228 full-text articles, which after applying exclusion/inclusion criteria resulted in 36 papers that were included in the evaluation, comparison, and discussion. This also includes research articles of commercially available aids published before the specified range. Results The findings show that the research trend is shifting towards developing a technology-assisted white cane solution that is applicable in both indoor and outdoor environments to aid blind users in navigation. In this regard, exploiting smartphones to develop low-cost and user-friendly navigation solution is among the best research opportunities to explore. In addition, the authors contribute a theoretical evaluation framework to compare and evaluate the state-of-the-art solutions, identify research trends and future directions. Discussion Researchers have been in the quest to find out ways of enhancing the utility of white cane using existing technology. However, for a more reliable enhancement, the design should have user-centric characteristics. It should be portable, reliable, trust-worthy, lightweight, less costly, less power hungry, and require minimal training with special emphasis on its ergonomics and social acceptance. Smartphones, which are the ubiquitous and general-purpose portable devices, should be considered to exploit its capabilities in making technology-assisted white cane smarter and reliable