“Risk Management: A comparative study of regulations and practices in one conventional and one Islamic bank in Pakistan”

Masteroppgave i økonomistyring - Nord universitet 201

A survey on top security threats in cloud computing

Cloud computing enables the sharing of resources such as storage, network, applications and software through internet. Cloud users can lease multiple resources according to their requirements, and pay only for the services they use. However, despite all cloud benefits there are many security concerns related to hardware, virtualization, network, data and service providers that act as a significant barrier in the adoption of cloud in the IT industry. In this paper, we survey the top security concerns related to cloud computing. For each of these security threats we describe, i) how it can be used to exploit cloud components and its effect on cloud entities such as providers and users, and ii) the security solutions that must be taken to prevent these threats. These solutions include the security techniques from existing literature as well as the best security practices that must be followed by cloud administrators

Losartan associated anaphylaxis and angioneurotic oedema

A case of anaphylaxis and angioedema induced by angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB), losartan is reported. A 37 years old hypertensive female presented to the Emergency Department with swelling over the face especially the lips, urticarial rash all over the body, and dyspnoea within an hour of losartan administration. She did not have any previous history of drug allergies. The patient was managed with epinephrine. Although angioneurotic oedema and anaphylaxis are well documented adverse effects of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, very few cases of these adverse reactions with ARBs have been reported in medical literature

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Gender Representations in the Content of 5th Grade English Language Textbook

This study investigates gender representation in an English language textbook taught to the students of Grade-5 in public and private schools in Punjab (Pakistan) by applying Fairclough’s three-dimensional model. For this purpose, content and critical discourse analyses approaches were applied to check eight-factor gender discrimination in the said textbook. As a result, it was observed that the said textbook was highly gender biased which represented males more than females. It also appeared that the said textbook had been designed to maintain male dominance in implicit as well as explicit ways. Such state of affairs may lead to gender discrimination in practical lives. Therefore, the study suggests that both genders should be represented in an equalized proportion. This can be achieved by increasing the number of female authors and sensitizing the teachers about gender discrimination and asking them to highlight gender biased issues in education

Relationship between Employment and GDP in Pakistan: Sector Wise Estimation of Output Elasticities

This paper examines the impact of employment level on GDP in Pakistan with the help of causality and cointegration analysis. Moreover, it provides the estimates of sector wise output elasticities with respect to employment. The period of analysis spanned over the years 1994-2019. Both variables were used in the form of natural-log. The econometric analysis revealed a positive and statistically significant long-run relationship between macroeconomic variables, that is, employment and GDP. Log-log model was used to estimate output elasticities of employment. Granger’s causality test was used to determine causality. For cointegration analysis, bound test of ARDL was used. The estimated output elasticity of employment in Pakistan is 2.5. Furthermore, the causality test results indicated that there is a unidirectional causal relationship between employment level and total output (GDP)

Dynamic collaboration and secure access of services in multi-cloud environments

The cloud computing services have gained popularity in both public and enterprise domains and they process a large amount of user data with varying privacy levels. The increasing demand for cloud services including storage and computation requires new functional elements and provisioning schemes to meet user requirements. Multi-clouds can optimise the user requirements by allowing them to choose best services from a large number of services offered by various cloud providers as they are massively scalable, can be dynamically configured, and delivered on demand with large-scale infrastructure resources. A major concern related to multi-cloud adoption is the lack of models for them and their associated security issues which become more unpredictable in a multi-cloud environment. Moreover, in order to trust the services in a foreign cloud users depend on their assurances given by the cloud provider but cloud providers give very limited evidence or accountability to users which offers them the ability to hide some behaviour of the service. In this thesis, we propose a model for multi-cloud collaboration that can securely establish dynamic collaboration between heterogeneous clouds using the cloud on-demand model in a secure way. Initially, threat modelling for cloud services has been done that leads to the identification of various threats to service interfaces along with the possible attackers and the mechanisms to exploit those threats. Based on these threats the cloud provider can apply suitable mechanisms to protect services and user data from these threats. In the next phase, we present a lightweight and novel authentication mechanism which provides a single sign-on (SSO) to users for authentication at runtime between multi-clouds before granting them service access and it is formally verified. Next, we provide a service scheduling mechanism to select the best services from multiple cloud providers that closely match user quality of service requirements (QoS). The scheduling mechanism achieves high accuracy by providing distance correlation weighting mechanism among a large number of services QoS parameters. In the next stage, novel service level agreement (SLA) management mechanisms are proposed to ensure secure service execution in the foreign cloud. The usage of SLA mechanisms ensures that user QoS parameters including the functional (CPU, RAM, memory etc.) and non-functional requirements (bandwidth, latency, availability, reliability etc.) of users for a particular service are negotiated before secure collaboration between multi-clouds is setup. The multi-cloud handling user requests will be responsible to enforce mechanisms that fulfil the QoS requirements agreed in the SLA. While the monitoring phase in SLA involves monitoring the service execution in the foreign cloud to check its compliance with the SLA and report it back to the user. Finally, we present the use cases of applying the proposed model in scenarios such as Internet of Things (IoT) and E-Healthcare in multi-clouds. Moreover, the designed protocols are empirically implemented on two different clouds including OpenStack and Amazon AWS. Experiments indicate that the proposed model is scalable, authentication protocols result only in a limited overhead compared to standard authentication protocols, service scheduling achieves high efficiency and any SLA violations by a cloud provider can be recorded and reported back to the user.My research for first 3 years of PhD was funded by the College of Engineering and Technology

Effects of Magnesium Sulfate Therapy on GCS Scores in Patients with Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

Objective:  Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the number one cause of death under 44 years of age; in spite of this fact, there is no standard available pharmacological agent for the treatment of brain injury. We evaluated the effectiveness of magnesium sulfate treatment for the management and outcome of TBI. Material and Methods:  The prospective cases (n = 60) of TBI were included with non-probability consecutive sampling. They received standard protocol treatment for TBI and magnesium sulfate as an add on therapy. GCS was noted on two occasions, at the time of admission and on the 3rd day. T-test was used to compare the results and for identification of significance/insignificance results. Results:  Mean age of the patients was 37.12 ± 13.25 years. Majority were male (68.3%), while females were 31.7%. Mean duration of an elapsed post traumatic brain injury was 5.06 ± 2.32 hours. Mean GCS before magnesium sulfate treatment (on admission) was 5.46 ± 1.521; mean Glasgow coma (GCS) after magnesium sulfate treatment (on 3rd day) was 8.03 ± 2.56. There existed a significant difference between the GCS scores at the time of admission and on 3rd day (p value < 0.0001). Mean GCS was 7.69 ± 2.55 in age < 30 years and it was 8.29 ± 2.57 in age > 30 years, but this difference was not statistically significant.  Conclusion:  A significant improvement was found in the GCS after magnesium sulfate therapy in patients with TBI

Non-covalent Interactions and Their Effects on Chemical Reactivity

Non-covalent interactions play significant role across a variety of scientific fields including molecular self-assembly and supramolecular chemistry. Over the past few decades, different types of non-covalent interactions have been investigated through experimental and computational means. Yet, many aspects of these interactions are still rather unexplored. Additionally, studies involving application of close spatial interactions to influence chemical reactivity are rare. This research not only explores certain physical aspects of non-covalent interactions but also investigates their effects on chemical reactivity of some important organic functional groups. For instance, we expand the current understandings of conventional (amide NH···F) and non-conventional OH···p hydrogen bonding interactions. An inverse correlation was observed between the strength of amide NH···F hydrogen bond and electronic density of aromatic rings in 1,8-disubstituted naphthalenes, wherein the 1H–19F coupling constants are among the largest observed so far. Crystallographic analysis of a few substituted analogues based on fused 9,10-dihydroanthracene-bicycloheptane scaffold revealed a stepwise switch of a HO···p interaction to a strong non-conventional OH···p hydrogen bond by increasing the electronic density on the aromatic ring. Additionally, we were able to isolate and crystallize an indefinitely stable ring unsubstituted aliphatic para quinone methide (p-QM) which portrayed chemical transformations contrary to the traditional QM chemistry. For example, it resisted all attempts at aromatization by reduction (both catalytic and hydride based) whereas nucleophilic addition resulted in an unanticipated rearrangement of the molecular framework to yield an overall hydrogenation reaction placing each hydrogen nine heavy atoms apart. Protonation with a strong acid resulted in a crystallizable cation stabilized by a combination of partial aromatization of the QM moiety and cation-p interactions. Most importantly, the p-QM fragment facilitated an unprecedented photochemical oxygen insertion with the earth abundant dioxygen gas into the proximate aromatic ring while remaining intact itself. Mechanistic investigation, both experimental and computational, points to the criticality of the QM fragment to this important, yet unexplored metal free oxygen insertion into a pure organic scaffold. Finally, we present the first ever X-ray crystal structure of a symmetrical organic fluoronium cation, thereby providing an ultimate existential proof of the last missing piece of the halonium ion family

Ideology in English Textbooks: A Case Study of Matric Level Books in Punjab

In many nations debates over the content and format of school textbooks are sites of educational and political conflict. The research argues that school textbook knowledge is socially constructed and textbook contents are manufactured by powerful groups according to their ideological vision. The research covers four dimensions firstly the selection of material and their thematic sequence in the textbooks present Islam not simply as a belief system but a political ideology that must be accepted by all citizens.Secondly; the textbooks offer a biased treatment of non-Muslim citizens in Pakistan, thirdly; the vocabulary in the textbooks underscores Islamic teaching as Hajj, Zakat ,prayers, and little is mentioned about critical thinking, civic participation, or democratic values of freedom of speech, equality, and respect for cultural and religious diversity

A Study of and Violence against Women in Feudal Society with Special Reference to “My Feudal Lord’’ by “Tehmina Durrani”

This study aims to explore the sexual harassment and violence against women in a feudal society in the novel “My Feudal Lord” by “Tehmina Durrani”. It spotlights how women live under social restrained destiny; where they suffer letdown, thwarting, dismay and mocking. Physical violence is usually accompanied by psychological abuse and in many cases by sexual assault. Wife beating is a century old phenomenon; which transcends all natural, ethnic and class boundaries. We can see the same condition in Durrani’s “My Feudal Lord”, where women are not only ill-treated by their husbands but also by the feudals of their areas. All these problems and incidents are dangerous for women’s identity. The paper deals with major aspects of hegemonic masculinity, sexual harassment and violence against women. This report will study the threats to female identity in the light of Kristeva’s feministic views (1980, 1983, 1986, 2008). Keywords: Sexual harassment, Feudal lord, Violence against women, Women identit