Intracranial Hemorrhage Due to Secondary Hypertension from Intracranial Large Vessel Occlusion

Simultaneous hemorrhagic and ischemic strokes have been previously reported in the literature. Typically, these occur in patients secondary to dialysis, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura.1,2,3 However, this is the unique case of a 62-year-old Asian female who presented with a hemorrhagic stroke suspected to be secondary to refractory hypertension from intracranial large vessel atherosclerotic flow limiting stenosis, with rapid subsequent large vessel occlusion and ischemic stroke. Questions arise such as ideal blood pressure parameters for dual management, timeliness of computed tomography angiography imaging in the emergency department for detection of large vessel occlusion during intracranial hemorrhage, and subsequent selection of treatment plan in the dual-lesion patient population

Impact Of Capital Structure On Performance Empirical Evidence From Sugar Sector Of Pakistan

This paper examined the impact of firm’s capital structure components and leverage on firm’s performance. Data of 10 firms of food sector is taken. All the firms are listed on Karachi stock exchange. Data duration of this paper consists of five years from 2007-2011. Variables used in this paper are assets turnover ratio, return on assets, current liabilities to total assets, long tern debts to total assets and debt to equity ratio. Results are derived by applying multiple regression models. The results of this model show that there is a significant positive impact of long term debts on firm’s performance and significant negative impact of short term debts on firm’s performance. There is a negative relationship of firm’s leverage on firm’s performance. As firm’s leverage increases its performance decreases. There is a negative relationship between them.  Results show that firms using high amount of short term debts are facing negative trend in performance. So, results indicate that firms must try to use long term debts to meet their daily needs. Keywords: Short term debts, long term debts, debt to equity and performance

A Comparison of Technical Efficiency of Performance of Different Banks Before and After Merger: A Study of Pakistan Banking Industry

Mergers and acquisitions are the part and parcel of every field, especially in banking industry. This research is focused on the performance of mergers in the last decade. As evident from recent past the banking industry in Pakistan has to cop with many mergers. Mergers are not opted only for the sake of synergy and economic benefits but there are certain other reasons. In Pakistan the other stimulant is the State Bank of Pakistan’s capital requirement, which is being raised with the passage of time. This study has analyzed the performance of 6 mergers (Prime and ABN AMRO, ABN AMRO and Royal Bank of Scotland, RBS and Faysal Bank, Saudi Pak Commercial Bank and Silk Bank, Union Bank and Standard Chartered Bank and Cres and Samba Bank), occurred in the last decade in Pakistan banking industry. Regression analysis is used to analyze the contribution level of different variables in the bank profitability. The results for net assets, net advances, branches and labor productivity were found to be extensive and quite significant. In the second phase the Data Envelopment Analysis of all the banks were done and it is found that all the banks involved in merger have got their performance improved by some extent. The two stage analysis was used for the analysis of the bank performance i.e. first for efficiency and the later for effectiveness of the bank. The first stage results were found to be impressive for most of the banks but in second stage (effectiveness) the results were quite different. A complete comparison of the individual variables has been done in order to pin point the deficiency of individual banks. Main four resulting banks have shown significant improvement in all the independent variables except the Faysal Bank whose labor productivity has shown rapid downward trend. Overall, the mergers and acquisitions, especially in Pakistani environment, are found to be a win-win situation. Key words: Data envelopment analysis (DEA), Mergers and Acquisition (M&A

Yearlong association of Apis dorsata and Apis florea with flowering plants: planted forest vs. agricultural landscape

The yearlong association of two native honey bee species (Apis dorsata and A. florea) with 49 plant species was recorded in a planted forest and adjacent agricultural landscape at Multan, Pakistan. The study resulted in 588 interactions of A. dorsata with 40 plant species and 454 interactions of A. florea on 38 plant species. The most visited plants species by A. dorsata included Helianthus annuus, Citrus reticulata, Trifolium alexandrinum, Moringa oleifera and Calotropis procera, while the most visited plant species by A. florea included C. procera, Mangifera indica, T. alexandrinum, Coriandrum sativum and H. annuus. The peak abundance of bees and floral resources (i.e. number of plant species in flowering and abundance of floral units) was recorded during early March to late May followed by a gradual decline until December. Monthly abundance of both bee species was positively related to the floral resources, negatively related to relative humidity while it was not significantly related to temperature. The current study may serve as a baseline to track the degradation in ecosystem service of cross pollination and making new conservation strategies at local scale while future research should focus on tempo-spatial variations in foraging preferences, floral constancy and effect of foraging competition on crop pollination in different ecological regions of Pakistan

Microfinancing, governance, and performance: a South Asian perspective

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the relationship between microfinance institutions (MFIs) governance and performance. Design/methodology/approach – Using a sample of 215 MFIs from six South Asian countries over the period from 2005 to 2009, the authors examine the effect of chief executive officer (CEO) duality, board size, female CEO, urban market coverage, bank regulation and lending type on financial and social performance of MFIs. Findings – The findings provide evidence that, on the one hand, empowered CEO, large board size and individual lending improve the MFI financial performance and, on another hand, bank regulation and serving in the urban market have a significant association with MFIs’social performance. In an additional analysis, the authors also test this relationship before, during and after the financial crisis of 2007. During crisis period, MFIs’ individual lending reduces the operational cost and bank regulation increases the average loan size in South Asian MFIs. Originality/value– Those studies that are presented in the literature review conclude their result on the bases of global, European, East African and specific to some countries sample. There is no study presented in the whole literature on South Asian sample, in which all countries really face the problem of poverty.Objetivo - Este documento tiene como objetivo investigar la relación entre la gobernanza y el desempeño de las instituciones de microfinanzas (IMF). Diseño / metodología / enfoque - Utilizando una muestra de 215 IMF de seis países del sur de Asia durante el período de 2005 a 2009, los autores examinan el efecto de la dualidad del director ejecutivo (CEO), el tamaño de la junta, la directora ejecutiva femenina, la cobertura del mercado urbano, la regulación bancaria y el tipo de préstamos sobre las finanzas. y desempeño social de las IMF. Recomendaciones - Los hallazgos proporcionan evidencia de que, por un lado, el CEO empoderado, el tamaño grande del directorio y los préstamos individuales mejoran el desempeño financiero de las IMF y, por otro lado, la regulación bancaria y el servicio en el mercado urbano tienen una asociación significativa con el desempeño social de las IMF. En un análisis adicional, los autores también prueban esta relación antes, durante y después de la crisis financiera de 2007. Durante el período de crisis, los préstamos individuales de las IMF reducen el costo operativo y la regulación bancaria aumenta el tamaño promedio de los préstamos en las IMF del sur de Asia. Originalidad / valor - Los estudios que se presentan en la revisión de la literatura concluyen su resultado sobre las bases de muestra global, europea, del este de África y específica de algunos países. No hay ningún estudio presentado en toda la literatura sobre la muestra del sur de Asia, en el que todos los países realmente enfrentan el problema de la pobreza

Phytochemical analysis, antimicrobial, antioxidant and enzyme inhibitory activities of ethanolic extract of Centaurea solstitialis L. and its different fractions

396-403Resistance to conventional antimicrobial regimes is one of the issues of concern in healthcare and it drives the need for development of new antimicrobial agents. Medicinal plants, as rich source of biochemical and bioactive compounds, serve as potential source for new drugs. Here, we evaluated the ethanolic extract of Centaurea solstitialis L. and its different fractions (n-hexane, choloroform and n-butanol soluble fraction) for antimicrobial, antioxidant and enzymes inhibitory activities. Antibacterial activity against two Gram-positive and three Gram-negative bacteria species were determined by using agar well diffusion and 96-wells microplate methods. Similarly, antifungal activity against two fungal strains was also evaluated by agar well diffusion method. Antioxidant activity analyzed by measuring the scavenging activity of DPPH radicals and acetylcholinesterase, butrylcholinesterase and chymotrypsin inhibitory activity was determined at 10 µg/mL and 1.0 mg/mL concentrations. Results revealed that the ethanolic extract of C. solstitialis and its different fractions possesses significant (P<0.05) antibacterial activity and effective against fungi Aspergillus niger and Macrophomina phaseolina. Significant (P<0.05) DPPH scavenging activity (88.52±0.23%) among all fractions was noted. n-Butanol fraction showed significant acetyl-cholinesterase (78.55±0.76%) and butrylcholinesterase inhibitory activity (78.1±0.41%) with IC50 values of 54.6±0.39 µg/mL and 211.9±0.15 µg/mL, respectively. Maximum chymotrypsin inhibition activity was shown by crude ethanolic extract (87.76±1.17) with IC50 value of 38.23±0.75 µg/mL. It is concluded that C. solstitialis extract and its fractions possess significant antimicrobial, antioxidant and enzyme inhibitory activity

Screening of Arabidopsis mutants for functional genomic studies

Eight photosynthetic Arabidopsis mutants were screened for co-segregation of a photosynthetic phenotype with the T-DNA insertion. These mutants were selected from 80 photosynthetic mutants with genetic background of Columbia-0. Two different screening approaches were used to study the T-DNA insertion in the genome of mutant Arabidopsis lines. The sulphonamide sulfadiazine was found to be an effective selective agent and a single copy of sulfonamide resistant gene was found to be completely resistant to the optimal concentration i.e., 5mg mL-1. The maximum number of Arabidopsis mutant plants had confirmed insertions. Some of the plants did not show any amplification with gene specific primer combination, and it was assumed that either they were wild type plants or they had random T-DNA insertion and the insertion was not found in the gene under study but it could be found in any where in the genome. Some mutant plants were morphologically different from the wild type plants e.g., ALP105. These plants grew as small in size and dark green in color. After PCR screening with gene specific and T-DNA border primers all such mutant plants were confirmed as heterozygous T-DNA insertion plants