Growth Prospects and Customer Expectations in Islamic Banking

Islamic Banking has gained enormous popularity in Pakistan in a short span of time and still has a huge potential to grow in the market. Many Conventional Banks having Islamic Banking windows and a few full-fledged Islamic banks are striving hard to remain alive in the stiff competition for market share, resulting in more banking choices for the customers. Still there is lot to be achieved and the whole banking system has to get rid of the curse in the form of Riba, which has strongly been denounced and prohibited in the Holy Quran. Islamic Banks at the moment hold merely 9.4% of the whole banking Market which is far below than desired. In this study, an attempt will be made to analyze the growth trends in the Islamic banking and its implications for the society and the economy in particular. Customers’ perceptions & expectations and certain myths regarding Islamic banking will also be captured during the study. This will not only help us in understanding the potential and opportunities available in the industry but also give an idea that what the customers want and expect from Islamic banking. Moreover, the study will also add to the latest pool of knowledge on the subject. There seems a dearth of updated quality research on the matter and this will serve as an important reference and latest work on Islamic Banking in Pakistan

Transatrial access for left atrial pressure (LAP) monitoring line placement in arterial switch operation (ASO) in neonates

Left Atrial pressure monitoring is a useful and accurate method to guide Left ventricle filling in the patients who undergo Arterial switch operation for transposition of great arteries. We have used a different technique in three TGA patients for LA pressure monitoring line placement. After cleaning and draping,right internal jugular vein (rt IJV) located through 22G venous cannula, guide wire was put in followed by sliding the 22Gx8cm vygon arterial catheter over the guide wire into the right atrium that was directed transatrially into LA by the operating surgeon during atrial septum repair. The catheter was secured by silk on the neck and dressed with transparent dressing and was kept for a period of 48-72hrs. LA pressure monitoring is helpful in anticipating LV dysfunction in ASO

Usability and acceptability of a mobile app for behavior change and to improve immunization coverage among children in Pakistan: A mixed-methods study

Background: Pakistan\u27s immunization uptake rates are still significantly lower than anticipated despite several initiatives. Lack of awareness, forgetting about vaccination schedule, and vaccine misconception/misinformation are a few of the major drivers that mitigate the rates of immunization. The current COVID-19 pandemic emphasizes the importance of immunization. The significant reductions in regular childhood vaccination during pandemic have increased the risk of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Concerns among parents over possibly exposing their children to COVID-19 during child visits may have contributed to the reported declines. Innovative and cost-effective mHealth interventions must be implemented in order to address the problem of inadequate immunization rates. In addition, it is also critical to understand the end user needs in order to reflect on the highly relevant essence of the customized healthcare experience.Objective: The aim of this study was to learn about caregivers\u27 attitudes toward the usability and acceptability of behavior-change smartphone applications (mobile phones) for improving immunization coverage in Pakistan.Methods: A mixed-method design was employed for this study. The study was conducted at Aga Khan University, Hospital. Parents visiting the Community Health Center for 6-week vaccination of their children were recruited. The study was conducted in two stages. Stage 1 consisted of qualitative interviews that grasped the parent\u27s attitudes and challenges to immunization, as well as their acceptability and accessibility of the smartphone-based behavior-change application to increase vaccine uptake. Stage 1 was followed by stage 2, in which data were collected through a questionnaire designed by using data from qualitative interviews.Results: The majority of participants agreed that immunization serves an important role in protecting their child from illnesses that cause morbidity and mortality. Almost all of them emphasized the importance of using a pre-appointment method at vaccination center in order to reduce the waiting time. Furthermore, participants were also interested in AI-based behavior modification applications related to immunization. They also wanted to have applications in their native language for better understanding and communication of related information. In our study, approximately 95.2 percent of participants agreed to accept SMS immunization updates, which was also reasonably high. Lastly, the majority of them identified forgetfulness as a significant contributor to regular immunization.Conclusion: To enhance the uptake of childhood vaccines, overall vaccination rates, and overcome barriers related to vaccination coverage, cost-effective and user-friendly mHealth AI-based smart phone applications are required to raise awareness regarding the continuation of vaccination service and the importance of timely vaccination. Parents\u27 experiences and attitudes must be considered while designing and evaluating the efficacy of mHealth-based interventions

InDEx – Industrial Data Excellence

InDEx, the Industrial Data Excellence program, was created to investigate what industrial data can be collected, shared, and utilized for new intelligent services in high-performing, reliable and secure ways, and how to accomplish that in practice in the Finnish manufacturing industry.InDEx produced several insights into data in an industrial environment, collecting data, sharing data in the value chain and in the factory environment, and utilizing and manipulating data with artificial intelligence. Data has an important role in the future in an industrial context, but data sources and utilization mechanisms are more diverse than in cases related to consumer data. Experiences in the InDEx cases showed that there is great potential in data utili zation.Currently, successful business cases built on data sharing are either company-internal or utilize an existing value chain. The data market has not yet matured, and third-party offerings based on public and private data sources are rare. In this program, we tried out a framework that aimed to securely and in a controlled manner share data between organizations. We also worked to improve the contractual framework needed to support new business based on shared data, and we conducted a study of applicable business models. Based on this, we searched for new data-based opportunities within the project consortium. The vision of data as a tradeable good or of sharing with external partners is still to come true, but we believe that we have taken steps in the right direction.The program started in fall 2019 and ended in April 2022. The program faced restrictions caused by COVID-19, which had an effect on the intensity of the work during 2020 and 2021, and the program was extended by one year. Because of meeting restrictions, InDEx collaboration was realized through online meetings. We learned to work and collaborate using digital tools and environments. Despite the mentioned hindrances, and thanks to Business Finland’s flexibility, the extension time made it possible for most of the planned goals to be achieved.This report gives insights in the outcomes of the companies’ work within the InDEx program. DIMECC InDEx is the first finalized program by the members of the Finnish Advanced Manufacturing Network (FAMN, www.famn.fi).</p

Does the suitability of national culture matters in the adoption of six sigma?

The concept and methodology of Six Sigma was developed by the American companies within the local culture of America. Therefore it is grounded on the standards, ethics and behaviours represented by America. The present study proposes that implementing Six Sigma in other countries with different cultures, norms and behaviours may have adjustment problems, as the required culture, values and behaviours for Six Sigma do not match with the local cultures of countries. A conceptual model is proposed which would utilize the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to determine the effect of national culture at each phase of Six Sigma process

A study on work design and country values

The performance of an organization is dependent on the work design or in other words, the job design. It includes the elements of work included in the job as well as the work environment. With the creation of multinational companies operating in different countries, the cultural element has been added to the organization entity. The question has been whether work design of an MNC, which was originated in the country of origin of the MNC, can also be exported to other countries resulting in the same efficiency of work. This study through literature review looks into major work designs developed in various countries and regions of the world to answer the above given question i.e. whether culture is the moderating factor between job design and the performance

The relationship between organizational conduct and national culture

This paper puts forwards different existing theories on classifying cultures of different countries. The first theory it introduces is of Hofstede’s cultural aspects, then the Hall’s Method of classifying culture into low and high context, and lastly the model of cultural differences by Trompenaars. Following that is the discussion on the interaction between organizational behaviour and the national culture. The focus would be the influence of culture on employee motivation, communication, organizational changes and conflict resolution

Enhancing Power Generation Forecasting in Smart Grids Using Hybrid Autoencoder Long Short-Term Memory Machine Learning Model

This study explores the implementation of advanced machine learning techniques to enhance the integration of renewable energy into smart grids, focusing specifically on predicting solar power generation for the upcoming year. Three distinct machine learning models are employed: the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (Bi-LSTM) and a hybrid model that combines Autoencoder and Long Short-Term Memory (AE-LSTM). Using real-time solar power production data spanning a year, these models are trained and evaluated using mean absolute error (MAE) and mean squared error (MSE) as performance metrics. Results highlight the superior accuracy of the hybrid AE-LSTM model compared to the LSTM model as well as Bi-LSTM model, attributed to its capability to capture intricate temporal patterns and correlations within the data. This research underscores the significant potential of machine learning techniques, particularly the hybrid AE-LSTM approach, in facilitating the seamless integration of renewable energy resources into smart grids, contributing to more efficient and environmentally conscious power systems. Furthermore, a comprehensive analysis reveals the hybrid AE-LSTM model&#x2019;s capacity to produce superior predictions due to its additional training, solidifying its advantage over models solely reliant on the other model&#x2019;s architecture. In summary, this study demonstrates the effectiveness of advanced machine learning methodologies in revolutionizing renewable energy integration, with the hybrid AE-LSTM model standing out as a promising avenue for enhanced prediction accuracy

Single Stage Active Power Factor Correction Circuit for Street LED Light with Battery Backup

This paper introduces and uses a single-phase, high-power LED driver with a battery backup. The buck&ndash;boost converter and reverse converter are both combined to achieve optimal performance. In the first part of the integrated circuit, the buck&ndash;boost converter is simply used to adjust the power when operating in the non-continuous operating mode. The reverse converter provides free voltage to the LEDs when released as a remote DC&ndash;DC converter. The battery backup cycle directly charges the battery at the same power as the LED driver required and provides charging power when there is no electricity. This paper demonstrates the functionality of the entire system and proves that it is an effective solution for new lighting applications

Impact of geo-political risk on stocks, oil, and gold returns during GFC, COVID-19, and Russian – Ukraine War

AbstractThe study uses wavelet power spectrum and wavelet coherence transformation methodologies to examine how geopolitical risk affected the returns on stocks, oil, and gold during the GFC, COVID-19, and Russia-Ukraine war-three disruptive events that affected the world’s financial markets. For better diversification benefits during the turbulent times, we further investigate the degree of co-movement in frequency and time domains. We observe that GPR has high variations during Russia-Ukraine war period compared to COVID-19 period and is shown to have least variation during the GFC period. WTI crude oil and DJGI indexes are observed to have high variations during GFC, and COVID-19 periods followed by Russia-Ukraine war. We further observe that GOLD offers better diversification opportunity as well as leading movement against WTI and DJGI during disruptive events in financial markets. The results provide new understanding of how geopolitical risk affects financial assets for international investors, fund managers, and regulators, which would further aid to find risky and safer haven possibilities during the turmoil periods