WTO Regulations and the Audio-visual Sector—An Analytical Framework for Pakistan

Audio-visual services play a crucial and formative role in any society. These services are closely linked to the preservation of cultural identity and social values, and play a major role in shaping public opinion, safeguarding democratic system and developing creative potential. Due to these reasons, governments of both developed and developing countries not only provide direct and indirect incentives to their domestic industries but also strictly regulate the content of audio-visual media. During the Uruguay Round of WTO (World Trade Organisation) negotiations, audio-visual service sector witnessed limited liberalisation. Even major players such as the EU, Australia and Canada did not make any commitments to liberalise trade in these services. This was primarily to protect the domestic industries from foreign competition, promote their growth and to protect the cultural heritage of the nations from foreign influence. Many countries have repeatedly raised concerns about the capability of the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) framework to take into account the democratic, cultural and social aspects. Others have explained that audio-visual sector is largely covered by domestic regulations and normal trade rules are not applicable to these services.

Job Satisfaction for Employees: Evidence from Karachi Electric Supply Corporation

Research has been conducted in order to critically evaluate and examine the level of employees’ satisfaction as well as the factors of dissatisfaction among the employees of Karachi Electric supply Corporation (KESC). The purpose of this study is also to observe and analyze the factors which create job dissatisfaction especially among the hardworking managers, and to find out the reasons which make them realize that they don not have a clear career path along working with KESC. The primary data for this study was compiled through questionnaire filled in on a one-to-one basis by 60 respondents from a representative sample of employees of (KESC) in Karachi district in the last quarter of 2008. The results have shown that Working Environment, Total Compensation, Growth Opportunities and Training & Development are significant factor and these four are affecting Job Satisfaction and correlated with each others. The study was faced by certain limitations and those limitations included time constraints and resources constraints, which limited this research to only the Karachi Head office of the KESC organization. According to a number of literatures studied, lack of job satisfaction is a serious issue in various organizations and job dissatisfaction has become a major obstacle in employees’ productivity and company’s growth. There are numbers of factors which can create job dissatisfaction among employees but in this study the very critical factors are discussed upon which KESC management should really work on.KESC, Factors; Employees’ Job Satisfaction; Productivity; Growth; Compensation

The Importance of Lapis Lazuli Corridor for Afghanistan

Lapis lazuli corridor is one of the most important and new transit routes which Afghanistan connects to central Asia countries and other countries. Lapis Lazuli corridor has a historical background and was part of the Silk Road through which the lapis lazuli of Afghanistan (from Badakhshan) was exported over 2000 years ago to the Caucasus, Russia, the Balkans, Europe, and North Africa, especially to the eastern civilizations along the ancient Silk Road. The lapis lazuli trade route connects Afghanistan and South Asia countries with Europe by roads and rails. It is considered one of the shortest and most reliable transit routes for Afghanistan where it has named a landlocked country, in order to get connected to Europe. The importance of this route is that to emerge as an economic corridor for inclusive development by which Afghanistan will be connected to Europe, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey and then to Europe. It will connect Afghanistan through land and sea with developed and economic zones of central Asia and European countries, where it will provide more opportunities for Afghanistan to trade it’s all kind of products to other nations. In addition, it will be discussed the importance of this transit route for Afghanistan as a new economic policy of Afghanistan which conducted by Afghan government to connect this country with Central Asia countries and Europe. The main object of this essay covers the socio-cultural significances of the lapis lazuli route for Afghanistan and other nations which located on this way. Moreover, I will find out the cultural and social importance of lapis lazuli corridor in this essay to know its geographical location and its other important issues from articles and journals which discuss about the lapis lazuli corridor as a new economic way for Afghanistan

Regulation of angiogenic factors by pituitary tumor transforming gene (PTTG) in tumorigenesis.

Pituitary tumor transforming gene ( PTTG ), also known as securing, is a novel oncogene that is expressed at high levels in most of the tumors analyzed to date. Overexpression of PTTG in mouse fibroblast(NIH 3T3) cells increases cell proliferation, induces cellular transformation and promotes tumor formation in nude mice. PTTG is a multi-domain and multifunction protein. Some functions of PTTG include inhibition of pre-mature sister chromatid separation, activation of transcription of c-myc oncogene, cell cycle regulation, and DNA repair. In some cancers such as thyroid, pituitary, esophageal, and colorectal tumors, high PTTG expression correlates with metastasis and poor prognosis. The PTTG gene encodes a protein of 203 amino acids and is consists of six exons and four introns. The PTTG promoter is specifically activated in tumors and is highly regulated by Spl and NF-Y nuclear factors. However, the precise mechanism by which PTTG mediates its tumorigenic function remains unclear. To this end, we determined the effect of PTTG on tumor metastasis and angiogenesis by determining its effect on secretion and expression of various angiogenic and metastatic factors including bFGF, VEGF, IL-8 and MMP-2. Using RT/PCR, ELISA and zymography we showed a significant increase in expression and secretion of bFGF, VEGF, IL-8 and MMP-2 in HEK293 cells on transfection of PTTG cDNA. Down regulation of PTTG expression by siRNA and a genetically deleted HCTI 1\u276 (PTTG -/-) cell line showed significantly decrease in expression of MMP-2, which led to decreased invasion and migration of HCT116 (PTTG-/-) cells as compared to the HCT116 wild type. Taken together, our results confirm that PTTG is a potent tumorigenic gene that exerts its tumorigenic functions by increasing secretion and expression of VEGF, bFGF, IL-8 and MMP-2 and MTl-MMP. In addition expression of other angiogenic and adhesion molecules including beta-1, beta-3, alpha-5 and alpha-V integrins was also modulated by PTTG in HEK293 cells

Civics and Citizenship Education in Schools in Afghanistan

This thesis focuses on the status of civics and citizenship education in schools in Afghanistan. My purpose for this study was (a) to understand what is taught about civics education in classrooms, (b) what concepts of civics education are addressed in the national curriculum and the text books, and (c) what role civics education plays in Afghan schools to produce productive citizens. My assumption is that schools have direct impact on civics understanding of the students and how they use their civics knowledge in everyday life. Civics education raises students’ political, governance, and social awareness and informs them about their rights and responsibilities as citizens. At this time of transition of Afghanistan from isolation to connection with the rest of the countries of the world, it is very important to understand how students build up their social and political views and how they perform their civil responsibilities. During my field work, I visited two female schools and one male school in Herat city. My research method was mostly qualitative; phenomenology, case study, and document review approaches. My findings are mostly based on school and classroom observations and my interviews with school teachers, students, and few of the administrative members. I also looked at the signs, symbols, and norms that represent civics education in schools.The little that I might have achieved through this research is aimed to strengthening Afghanistan schools in producing more productive citizens

Decarbonizing the Aligarh Muslim University Campus: An Experiential Analysis of Initiatives, their Impact and Lessons Learned

The climate crisis is the biggest existential threat to humanity in present times. Realizing this the United Nations have taken several important measures to address this challenge and prevent the rise in temperature of the earth. Increased concentration of carbon Dioxide in the environment is the major contributor to the global warming. Energy produced through the fossil fuels is a great factor behind this increase in CO2. The use of energy sources which do not produce CO2 are to be adopted and promoted aggressively.Universities have to play a crucial role in achieving this shared goal of humanity of saving the environment. The universities have to adopt sustainable development plans in their campuses, implement green energy sources and promote a culture of energy efficiency and conservation. In addition, the universities have to address the research questions in this area and train the manpower also. The Aligarh Muslim University, a leading university of India has been contributing towards these goals. This paper describes the initiatives of the university in adopting green sources of energy, energy efficiency and conservation. The future plans based on the experiential learning are also explained. Keyword: Green Energy, Energy Efficiency, Solar Energy, Energy Conservation, AM

WTO Regulations and the Audio-visual Sector— An Analytical Framework for Pakistan

Audio-visual services play a crucial and formative role in any society. These services are closely linked to the preservation of cultural identity and social values, and play a major role in shaping public opinion, safeguarding democratic system and developing creative potential. Due to these reasons, governments of both developed and developing countries not only provide direct and indirect incentives to their domestic industries but also strictly regulate the content of audio-visual media. During the Uruguay Round of WTO (World Trade Organisation) negotiations, audio-visual service sector witnessed limited liberalisation. Even major players such as the EU, Australia and Canada did not make any commitments to liberalise trade in these services. This was primarily to protect the domestic industries from foreign competition, promote their growth and to protect the cultural heritage of the nations from foreign influence. Many countries have repeatedly raised concerns about the capability of the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) framework to take into account the democratic, cultural and social aspects. Others have explained that audio-visual sector is largely covered by domestic regulations and normal trade rules are not applicable to these services

The 'Bad Behavior Index': A Composite Measure of the Development Hindering Behavior of Individuals and Institutions

Composite indices have become a popular tool for providing a quantitative, simplified, and visualized representation of complex phenomena. An example of such is the Human Development Index (HDI) which ranks countries by their level of development. The primary limitation of the HDI is its narrow scope, which hinders its effectiveness at explaining why some nations are more developed than others. The discussion as to why some nations are more developed than others goes back as far as the 14th century, where Ibn Khaldun developed a theory which aims to explain why civilizations rise and fall. Some of the hypotheses which seek to answer this question point to the importance of economic freedoms, absence of corruption, high investment in human capital, and the importance of institutions etc. to development. One hypothesis which has not been properly studied regards the culpability of individual and institutional behavior. The purpose of this study is to introduce a composite measure of the development hindering behavior of individuals and institutions, i.e., the Bad Behavior Index (BBI). The methodology of this study is influenced by the Mazziotta & Pareto framework for composite indices. The index weights have been computed by integrating expert opinion with the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP). The findings of this study suggest that African countries engage in the highest level of bad behavior, which subsequently leads to their poor socio-economic development, whereas Northern countries engage in the least level of bad behavior. The study also finds that the most important drivers for socio-economic development are low levels of corruption, high levels of knowledge creation, strict application of the rule of law, high levels of social cohesion, and high levels of political stability