Modern Art of Pakistan: Lahore Art Circle 1947-1957

This dissertation focuses on the modern art of Pakistan from 1947-57, more specifically, the role of six important artists who founded the Lahore Art Circle (LAC) in 1952. The group played a pivotal role in the formulation of modernism in Pakistan after its establishment as an Islamic Republic. Framed within postcolonial theories and criticism, this study will address the role of modern art in developing new artistic sensibilities in the nation of Pakistan. In order to understand the context of LAC’s framing of “modernism” and “nationalism” in terms of specific historic and hybrid nexus,my research will provide an investigation of works of only the founding members of the Lahore Art Circle including: Shakir Ali (1924-1975), Sheikh Safdar Ali (1924-1983),Moyene Najmi (1926-1997), Ali Imam (1924-2000), Ahmed Parvez (1926-1979) and Anwar Jalal Shemza (1928-1985). In analyzing the works of individual artists and the role of LAC during the first decade of the establishment of Pakistan as a nation-state, this study provides a framework to understand the specific condition of modernism in Pakistan that was dictated by these artists’ careers and works. Thus, this research investigates how the framing of modernism for these artists took on highly personal, international, incipiently national and distinctly local forms in the early years of the Pakistan after the Partition of 1947. Lastly, it will also examine how the individual LAC artists situated themselves in the discourse between constructing a newly established Pakistani identity within the larger paradigms of international modernism

End- of- Life Care: Beneficence Undermines Patient’s Autonomy

End-of-life care is a decision-making process in which health care providers, patients, and their families play a crucial role in easing the suffering of the patients and their families. Usually, end-of-life decision-making takes place in a critical situation of the patient; therefore, health care providers, particularly, physicians and nurses play a major role in making a decision for the patient’s life with regards to updated knowledge and practice. In this view, health care providers face many challenges in end-of-life decision-making due to controversy among equally unfavorable solutions; particularly between two ethical principles i.e., patient autonomy and beneficence. Health care providers often overweigh beneficence over autonomy regarding less suffering for the patient and his/her family. This approach of health care providers raises a question for undermining patients' autonomy and violating the basic ethical right of a patient. To overcome these kinds of ethical challenges, it is imperative to equip health care providers with updated knowledge of advance directives for patients. In addition, patients and their families should be well informed from the beginning to the end stage of the patient stay in the hospital. Besides, each hospital should have an ethical expert committee including nurses to analyze the entire situation and to make the decision in the best interest of the patient and his/her family

Perspective Chapter: The Barriers in Inclusive Set-Up for Students with Visual Impairment at Higher Education Level - Pakistan Scenario

Higher education is contemplated for visually impaired students as a high standard of education towards apex professions in life. Students with visual impairment experience numerous barriers related to their social and educational life. This chapter intends to the barriers at the higher education level that visually impaired students experience in Pakistan. It also includes a brief introduction to the basic concept of inclusive education and the importance of higher education for visually impaired students. This chapter also identifies the needs and the difficulties, which visually impaired students face at the higher education level. Furthermore, the chapter reflects the status of inclusive education at the higher education level in Pakistan. The commitment of Pakistan to inclusive education has been described in this chapter. The solution to overcome the barriers has also been mentioned in this chapter. The chapter contains the future of inclusive education in Pakistan at the higher education level. The chapter recommends accessible infrastructure, training and orientation sessions for teachers, development of resource centres at all higher education institutes in Pakistan, provision of free assistive devices to visually impaired students and project-based initiative by the higher education commission of Pakistan

The Impact of CCC and WC on The Profitability of KMI-30 INDEX

This research purpose is to investigate the impact of WC and CCC on prosperity of the companies, listed in KMI-30 Index. For this research data was gathered from firm’s annual reports. Data of 30companies listed in KMI-30 Index was collected over the period of 2010 till 2014. Data was collected to check significance of ROE, Tobins’Q, and ROA. To analyze these variables regression analysis was used to measure the impact on dependent variable through independent variables. The study concluded that cash conversion cycle and debt to assets ratio were most significant variable on the dependent variables i.e. ROA, Tobins’Q and ROE. It was recommended to the companies of listed in the KMI-30 to maintain the CCC at their minimum level or in lines with the industry norms, so they can avoid the liquidity problem along with the reduce the shortfall of cash requirement which were needed to smoothly run the operations of the companies

The Causality between Equity Market Development and Economic Growth: An Egg and Chicken Problem?

The motivation behind this study is to empirically examine the casual relationship between the equity market development and GDP growth in twenty six emerging market economies over the period of 1995 to 2012.To obtain the reliable results, different econometrical techniques were used; Correlation analysis to know the causality among the equity market development (Independent variables) and real GDP growth rate (dependent variable) and to solve the multicollinearity problem. To check the stationary properties and solve the endogeneity problem, unit root ADF - fisher chi-square test and panel Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach were employed. It was found that significant and positive supply leading hypothesis, uni-directional relationship between equity market development and real GDP growth. Beside the macro-economic variables FDI- foreign direct investment (inflows) and trade openness have significant positive while investment ratio, exchange rate and inflation showed negative and insignificant impact on economic growt

Risk Management Practices and Islamic Bankers’ Perception about Potential Risk in Islamic Countries

This paper investigates the extent to which the Islamic bankers (Risk managers & Chief Financial Officers, (CFOs) understand risk management practices and perception of Islamic bankers about identification of potential risks in Malaysia, UAE and Pakistan. The sample consists of forty eight risk managers and CFOs in three Islamic countries. The results indicate that Malaysia has more females (59%) working as risk managers and CFOs between the age of 31-40 years than UAE and Pakistan. Moreover, Malaysian risk managers and CFOs have better understanding of risk management practices as well as identification of potential risk. After Malaysia the UAE is better in risk management practices as compared to Pakistan. Similarly, Malaysian risk managers and CFOs can clearly identify the potential risk. After Malaysia the UAE risk managers and CFOs can also identify the potential risk. On the other hand, Pakistani risk managers and CFOs are comparatively weak in identification of potential risk. The findings of this paper will be beneficial for the bankers, investors, depositors and policy makers to implement efficient risk monitoring techniques and to ensure the availability of well trained employees

Operational parameters optimization for remediation of crude oil-polluted water in floating treatment wetlands using response surface methodology

The application of floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) is an innovative nature-based solution for the remediation of polluted water. The rational improvement of water treatment via FTWs is typically based on multifactorial experiments which are labor-intensive and time-consuming. Here, we used the response surface methodology (RSM) for the optimization of FTW’s operational parameters for the remediation of water polluted by crude oil. The central composite design (CCD) of RSM was used to generate the experimental layout for testing the effect of the variables hydrocarbon, nutrient, and surfactant concentrations, aeration, and retention time on the hydrocarbon removal in 50 different FTW test systems planted with the common reed, Phragmites australis. The results from these FTW were used to formulate a mathematical model in which the computational data strongly correlated with the experimental results. The operational parameters were further optimized via modeling prediction plus experimental validation in test FTW systems. In the FTW with optimized parameters, there was a 95% attenuation of the hydrocarbon concentration, which was very close to the 98% attenuation predicted by the model. The cost-effectiveness ratio showed a reduction of the treatment cost up to $0.048/liter of wastewater. The approach showed that RSM is a useful strategy for designing FTW experiments and optimizing operational parameters

Biological evaluation of potent antioxidant, lipoxygenase inhibitor and antibacterial: A comparative study

AbstractThree biologically active new Schiff bases, 2-[(3-hydroxybenzylidene)amino]phenol 5, 2-[(4-hydroxybenzylidene)amino]phenol 6 and 4-[(2-hydroxyphenylimino)methyl]benzene-1,3-diol 7, were synthesized by the reaction of 2-aminophenol 1 with three different hydroxyl-benzaldehydes 2–4. They were characterized by spectroscopic analysis (IR, 1H NMR, EI-MS) along with elemental analyses. The products were biological screened out for antioxidant, lipoxygenase inhibition, antibacterial and urease inhibition activities. The compounds 5 and 6 showed potent while 7 showed moderate antioxidant activity. Compound 6 showed potent whereas 5 and 7 showed significant lipoxygenase inhibition activity. All the target compounds showed excellent activities against Staphylococcus intermedius, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi bacteria. All the compounds showed non-significant activity against urease enzyme

Purification and characterization of 60 kD lipase linked with chaperonin from Pseudomonas aeruginosa BN-1

An extracellular lipase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa BN-1 was purified to 42.99 fold. N-terminal sequence of purified enzyme was AAKEVKFGDS identical to sequence of a chaperonin and enzyme may be linked to it. It has an estimated molecular weight of 60 kD, while temperature and pH optima were 37°C and 8.0,  respectively. The enzyme obtained has considerable thermostability retaining 70% of activity at 50°C for 1 h. The enzyme was stable at pH 9.5 for 1 h having 70% of the residual activity. Long acyl chains were preferred as substrate and highest hydrolytic activity was observed against C-16 and C-18 4-nitrophenyl esters. Mustard oil was found to be the preferred substrate as lipolytic activity was 2.75 fold higher when compared with the activity with olive oil as the substrate. The enzymatic activity declined in the presence of Al3+, Hg2+, Co2+ and Mn2+, while Ca2+ and Ba2+ ions enhanced the activity. Non ionic detergents, Tween 80 and sodium deoxycholate, increased the activity by 1.2 and 2.5 fold, respectively. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), 2-mercaptoethanol and 1,4-dithio-DL-threitol (DTT) had no effect on lipolytic activity. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF) inhibited the enzyme activity by 90 and 98%, respectively. The lipase showed stability in organic solvents.Key words: Pseudomonas aeruginosa BN-1, chaperonin, mustard oil, organic solvent, phenyl methyl sulfonylfluoride, sodium deoxycholate, Swiss Prot Accession # P 30718