The Role of Mutual Funds and Non- Banking Financial Companies in Corporate Governance in Pakistan

This paper advances the argument that institutional investors, particularly mutual funds can play a vital role in enhancing corporate governance in emerging economies. Accordingly, regulatory framework need to be structured in a manner that would encourage the growth of the mutual fund industry and enable it to play a proactive role in corporate governance. The paper reviews and evaluates the regulation of mutual funds in Pakistan in the light of the above propositions. The Role of Mutual Funds and Non-Banking Financial Companies in Corporate Governance in Pakistan.Corporate governance, mutual fund, Non-Banking Financial Companies, Pakistan

Case Report: Recurrence of isolated transitional cell carcinoma in an orthotopic ileal neobladder: A case report

Recurrent tumors inside an orthotopic ileal neobladder are rare, and only few cases have been reported in the literature. Herein, we report a case of recurrent transitional cell carcinoma in an orthotopic ileal neobladder discovered one and a half years after the operation

Development of Novel Intracavitary Intensity Modulated Brachytherapy Applicators for Optimizing the Target Coverage in Gynecologic Malignancies, Monte Carlo Simulation Dosimetry

Gynecologic brachytherapy (GYN-BT) is essential for treating cervical and endometrial cancers, the most prevalent female reproductive cancers. This technique enables high radiation doses to a target with rapid dose fall-off to protect adjacent healthy organs. This dissertation aims to address some of the limitations of intracavitary GYN-BT using an intensity modulated brachytherapy (IMBT) technique and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. First, a novel non-invasive shielded vaginal cylinder (VC) applicator was designed to provide optimized radiation coverage for the target volume at vaginal apex, site of most recurrences without BT, for endometrial cancer BT. Physical limitations of current applicators and their resulting treatment plans, such as the cold spots in the dose distribution due to BT radiation source design and presence of air gaps/suture materials can cause significant loss of coverage in this region. The new IMBT VC was designed using GEANT4 Monte Carlo (MC) simulation, by embedding a detachable high-density metal inside a standard VC applicator to directionally modulate the radiation beam and help the optimized coverage at the region. Second, the effect of the VC heterogeneity on dose calculation for different commercial VCs was investigated. BrachyVision Acuros (BVA), a model-based dose calculation commercial treatment planning system capable of accounting for any inhomogeneity, was also benchmarked against MC simulations. Unlike BVA dose calculation, MC simulations showed the heterogeneity could reduce the target coverage and notably increase uncertainty when prescribing to the surface of the applicator. Third, a novel IMBT tandem applicator was designed for BT of cervical cancer. This non-invasive approach can provide coverage for non-symmetric targets which present a big challenge in clinical applications. The novel applicator utilizes high-density iridium wires that can easily move inside a tandem base. Therefore, dynamic directional modulation of the radiation beam is achievable in any desired direction, through active insertion/removal of iridium wires in a multichannel base. Finally, a benchmark study was implemented for another novel IMBT tandem applicator to help the ongoing clinical research. The applicator has been recently modeled in BVA TPS and has shown promising results for coverage of nonsymmetric targets in cervical cancer. Results indicated that the accuracy of the TPS in dose calculations depends notably on the phantom (and hence patient) size. In summary, non-invasive solutions for coverage of big/nonuniform targets in cervical and endometrial cancers were successfully introduced and implemented, through applications of IMBT. Manufacturing of the applicator prototypes and development of required software/hardware would be the next steps for the advancement of the research. In addition, BVA was thoroughly benchmarked for GYN-BT dose calculations. The results may further be available for correlation with known clinical outcome

The Design of a New Vaginal Applicator for Direction Modulated Brachytherapy (DMBT) Using GEANT4 Monte Carlo Simulation Code

Purpose: Anisotropy of the 192Ir source causes a lack of dose coverage at the apex in HDR vaginal cylinder brachytherapy (VC BT). In this study, we took advantage of the GEANT4 Monte Carlo (MC) simulation code to design a new DMBT vaginal applicator so that it maintains the dose coverage of the current vaginal cylinder at periphery everywhere while improving the apex coverage. In addition, since current treatment planning systems (TPS) considers the whole environment as water according to TG43 formalism, based on the capability of the MC in the calculation of dose in the material, the effect of inhomogeneity of the vaginal cylinder in the dose coverage was investigated. Methods: The new DMBT vaginal applicator was designed to be a 30 mm diameter, single lumen vaginal cylinder, made of polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) plastic. The central part of the applicator, which includes the lumen, was considered to be a detachable 8 mm diameter tandem rod. In order to provide directional modulation, a tungsten rod similar to the dimensions of the detachable tandem was added to the simulation. The applicator works in two steps. First, we get a typical dose distribution based on the planning system using the applicator with a detachable polyetheretherketone (PEEK) plastic tandem in place. Second, the detachable tandem is replaced 5 with a tungsten tandem to compensate for the lack of coverage at the apex utilizing a directional radiation beam generated. The same source dwell positioning is used for both steps, while the dwell time for the second step is a small fraction of the first step. Furthermore, in order to assess the effect of VC inhomogeneity, a separate simulation with the same dwell time and position based on TG43 model was performed and the results were compared. The MATLAB software was used for data analysis. Results: The analysis showed that the new applicator can address the lack of coverage at the apex due to anisotropy (~2 mm), while simultaneously preventing from overdosing the periphery. Also, the analysis of the data indicated that there is a reduction of dose at the surface of the cylinder (~7.3%) at the periphery, in comparison to TG43 model. Conclusion: This new DMBT concept design can be considered as a possible solution for the lack of apex coverage due to anisotropy as there is a subset of patients who experience recurrences after brachytherapy, frequently in the vaginal apex. Further, based on the VC heterogeneity analysis, the reduction of the dose at the surface of the cylinder indicates that prescribing the dose to VC surface involves additional level of uncertainty

Reconfiguration Strategies, Entrepreneurial Entry and Incubation of Nascent Industries: Three Essays

The first essay of my dissertation focuses on the incubation stage -- the period between introduction of a technological change and its first commercialization -- of an industry, which is an understudied phenomenon. It examines firms' technological investments in a nascent industry in anticipation of commercialization, and contributes novel insights to the classic industry evolution literature that conceptualizes industry formation from the first instance of product. Using the agricultural biotechnology industry as the empirical context, this essay documents not only the extent to which firms undertake technological investments in anticipation of entry, but also the heterogeneity in types of entrants and their modes of value capture. I thus shed light on the intertwined processes of economic value capture at the firm-level and ecosystem development at the industry-level that underpin incubation of nascent industries. The second essay examines the capability antecedents of a firm market entry into a nascent industry. A firm's technical capabilities and complementary assets, at time of entry, have been consistently noted as key determinants of the likelihood of entry. Drawing on the premise that firms make deliberate decisions regarding technological investments well before they enter nascent markets, I make a distinction between a firm's pre-entry and pre-investment capabilities and study the type of pre-investment capabilities that are related to the likelihood of firm entry. I suggest that a firm's pre-investment reconfiguration experiences are the critical capability: these experiences shape the firm's development of pre-entry technical capabilities and complementary assets, which in turn affect the likelihood of entry. I find empirical support for the mediating role of pre-entry capabilities to the relationship between pre-investment experiences and the likelihood of entry in the context of the population of firms that conducted R&D investments in agricultural biotechnology between 1980 and 2010. The third essay studies the reconfiguration strategies pursued by firms in anticipation of entry into a nascent industry. Whether entry to a nascent industry is undertaken by de novo startups, diversifying firms from related industries or industry incumbents from the obsolescing industry, a critical strategic action for firms is to achieve the required configuration of capabilities for operations in the new industry. The choice, timing, and sequence of these capability reconfiguration mechanisms may, however, differ across different types of firms. I provide theoretical propositions that link firm types to the underlying sources of heterogeneity and suggest how this heterogeneity leads to differential paths undertaken by de novo startups, diversifying firms and industry incumbents while reconfiguring themselves in anticipation of entry into a nascent industry. Implications of the model are discussed using three firm case studies from the agricultural biotechnology industry

Supply Portfolio Concentration in Outsourced Knowledge-Based Services

In the extant vertical integration literature, the question of how the firm's portfolio of outsourced work is managed across suppliers has been relatively understudied. We seek to advance this area of research by examining factors that influence how concentrated the firm's outsourcing is among its set of suppliers. Using data on the outsourcing of patent legal services, we find empirical evidence that outsourced knowledge-based service work is concentrated in the hands of fewer suppliers when: (1) it requires greater firm-specific knowledge; (2) there is a higher level of interrelatedness across outsourced projects; (3) the firm's reliance on outsourcing is high; (4) its outsourced projects are focused on a narrower (capability) domain; and (5) the technological dynamism of this domain is low. Our study suggests that examining portfolio-level phenomena in outsourcing is a useful complement to the predominant focus on transaction-level outcomes in prior research because it provides insights into how firms manage tradeoffs across their entire set of outsourced projects.

Courting Constitutionalism: The Politics of Judicial Review in Pakistan

This thesis presents a deeply contextualized account of law in postcolonial Pakistan and situates the judicial review jurisprudence of the superior courts, in particular their recent activism and populism, in the contexts of historical developments in constitutional politics, evolution of state structures and broader social transformations. It shows how in each epoch of the postcolonial state's history the superior courts positioned themselves within the state and vis a vis the demands that different segments of the society placed upon the state and its institutions. It brings forth evidence that the courts did not define their role in accordance with certain abstract theories of constitutionalism, rule of law and separation of powers that had been deeply imbricated in the postcolonial state's self-justifications. Rather, these courts re-fashioned their role in accordance with fundamental shifts in constitutional politics, state structure and state-society dialectics. In the process, these courts re-cast the theoretical conceptualizations of constitutionalism, rule of law, and separation of powers to better reflect their evolving role and jurisprudence. A deeper understanding of these phenomena - the evolution of judicial role in response to shifts in socio-political context, and the re-crafting of theoretical frameworks to justify it - will enable us to meaningfully scrutinize the courts' recent jurisprudence and evaluate the judiciary's future role in Pakistan's governance scheme. As such, it will be argued that the courts' role is deeply political in terms of defining the nature and relevant powers of state institutions and the imperatives for their actions. Perhaps the Pakistani situation is unique in this respect, but it might be worthwhile speculating if theory is often an articulation of such deeply contextualized public law jurisprudence elsewhere as well