Impact of Governance Transparency and Role of Shareholders on Succession Planning In Banking Sector of Pakistan

This article aims to explore the impact of governance transparency and the role of Shareholders on Succession Planning in Banking Sector of Pakistan. This is a causal comparative study and a survey was used to address the research goals. For this purpose, 240 questionnaires were distributed manually in the head offices and franchises of twelve different Banks of Rawalpindi; only 200 were returned back. Therefore the response rate was 70%. To interpret data, Reliability analysis was done for scale. Linear regression was used to check the association between variables. The reliability of the scale was 0.782, which is an ideal value of any scale. The results obtained from Regression analysis for H1were as follows: ANOVA= 0.000, R square=0.358, t sig value 0.000. The regression analysis for H1were as follows: R square=0.358 ANOVA= 0.000 and t sig value 0.002. Therefore, both of the hypothesis were accepted. This paper is not the representative of the whole population, because it only deals with one sector of twin cities. Future researchers should fill the gaps represented in this research article. There is only a little research done in this field, therefore, this research paper serves as a building block for future researches. Keywords: governance transparency, role of shareholders, succession planning, Banking Secto

Leadership Begins with a Creative Approach

This paper focuses on the creative side of a leader. This is a competitive world, and creativity and uniqueness has become vital for the survival of any organization. Human capital is considered as a most important competitive advantage for any organization, because employee performance is directly related to the overall organizational performance. Within that cluster of employees, the most important are the leaders. There are eleven different dimensions of leadership, which are related to creativity. This paper especially focuses on creative leadership of Pakistan. Creativity has a lot of benefits, but if it is turned towards negativity, it can affect the society adversely

Impact of Succession Planning on Employee Engagement in Telecommunication Sector in Rawalpindi, Pakistan

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of Succession Planning on Employee Engagement in Telecom Sector. The paper provides an overview of the Impact of Succession Planning on Employee Engagement in Telecom Sector, for those academics researching in this area, with specific attention given to the role of Talent management in current global environment. For this purpose proposed, 300 questionnaires were distributed manually in the head offices and franchises of five different Telecom companies of Rawalpindi/ Islamabad; only 250 were returned back. Results showed that there is a significant relationship between effective succession planning and employee engagement. The key findings emerging from this literature review focused on effective Succession Planning, which will help in developing effective leadership and the role of that leadership as the most important enabler of employee engagement to the job, organization and teams, specifically in telecom sector. Keywords: Succession Planning, Employee Engagement, Employee Job Engagement, Employee Organizational Engagement, Telecommunicatio

Review - The Long Game: Aliya Soomro\u27s Boxing Journey

The Long Game: Aliya Soomro\u27s Boxing Journey is a poignant and uplifting radio documentary that goes beyond the typical sports narrative. It offers an in-depth analysis of gender norms, societal obstacles, and human resilience, emphasizing the power of podcasting to promote distinct and marginalized voices

Evaluation of soluble TNF-like weak inducer of apoptosis (sTWEAK) levels to predict preeclampsia in early weeks of pregnancy

Introduction: Soluble tumor necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis (sTWEAK) is linked to endothelial dysfunction; a key factor in pre-eclamptic pathogenesis. This study aimed to compare sTWEAK levels during pregnancy to assess for its prognostic ability.Materials and Methods: Sixty three high risk pregnant women were followed up from 12 weeks of gestation till term. Serum levels of sTWEAK and platelet derived growth factor (PlGF), blood pressure, serum glucose, uric acid, urea/creatinine and liver function tests were measured. Subjects were stratified according to the ACOG criteria as women who developed PE, or PIH or remained normotensive at term. A negative control group of normotensive healthy pregnant women (n = 17) was also recruited for comparison.Results: Baseline sTWEAK levels were lower (4.03 ± 0.37 ng/dl) in HR cohort that developed PE and further reduced at term (1.93 ± 0.23 ng/dl) as compared to HR subjects who remained normotensive and negative control group (30.53 ± 0.79 ng/dl; p \u3c 0.01). Likewise PlGF levels were significantly lower (74.22 ± 10.11 pg/ml) in HR cohort that developed PE (p = 0.013). At term 39.68% (n = 22) HR subjects with low sTWEAK developed PIH and 34.92% (n = 24) developed PE. In terms of high risk characteristics observed in the HR group; 73% of the subjects were multiparous, whereas 26.98% reported to have developed PE in previous pregnancies.Conclusion: sTWEAK levels at early pregnancy weeks were found to be low in high risk females who developed PE at follow up versus normotensive pregnant women. Baseline TWEAK might serve as an independent variable for prediction of pre-eclampsia; however longitudinal studies with larger sample size are required to ascertain the causal relation

Determination of Quality of life in patients with chronic renal disease undergoing hemodialysis; a tertiary care experience

OBJECTIVE: Our objective is to determine the quality of life in chronic renal disease patients, to evaluate the pros and cons of dialysis in improving the QOL and to suggest an improved system of healthcare services provided to the patients.INTRODUCTION: Chronic kidney disease (CKD), also known as chronic renal disease, is a progressive loss in renal function over a period of months or years. In medicine, Dialysis is a process for removing waste and excess water from the blood, and is used primarily as an artificial replacement for lost kidney function in people with renal failure. Chronic renal disease has many complications which can decrease the Quality of Life.MATERIAL AND METHODS: A prospective case control study was conducted on 40 patients admitted to urology department of Mayo Hospital, Lahore for hemodylasis. Data was collected on a preformed questionnaire of WHO about quality of life. Some demographic variables like age, education and income of the patient were added to the standard WHOQoL questionnaire.RESULTS: WHOQoL questionnaire for both case and control groups had a significant p-value in four domains including overall quality of life (p=0.001), physical health (p=0.001), psychological health (p=0.001) and environmental health (p=0.001).CONCLUSION: CKD treatment and in particular dialysis can decrease the quality of life due to multiple effects. The major aspects of life affected in an individual undergoing dialysis are physical health, psychological health and environmental health.Â

Evaluation of kidney injury molecule-1 as a disease progression biomarker in diabetic nephropathy

Background & Objective: Kidney Injury Molecule-1 (KIM-1) is a peptide whose release into circulation is specific to tubular injury. This study aimed to estimate levels of kidney injury molecule-1 in diabetic patients with and without kidney disease. And evaluate the role of KIM-1 as an early screening marker of progressive kidney injury.Methods: This follow-up study included n=85 subjects from the diabetic clinic of Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center (JPMC) in collaboration with Aga Khan University from November 2016 till September 2017. They were divided as: i) Group A1 (n=30) participants with diabetes for \u3c5 years without microalbuminuria ii) Group A2 (n= 30) subjects with diabetes for 6-10 years with microalbuminuria; iii) Group B (n=25) subjects as healthy control group. All study participants were followed for 6 months and their blood glucose, urea, creatinine, electrolytes, albuminuria and serum KIM-1 were assayed.Results: High KIM-1 at baseline was present in group A2 patients as compared to controls and group A1 (p\u3c0.001). Higher levels were seen after six months in group A1 along with the presence of micro albuminuria (p\u3c0.001) suggesting kidney damage. Moderate positive association were seen for KIM1 with creatinine levels (r=0.530; p\u3c0.001), and HbA1c (r=0.576; p\u3c0.001) in all patients. While a strong positive association was seen for blood urea nitrogen as a marker for kidney function both at baseline (r= 0.728; p=0.000) and follow up (r=0.747; p=0.001). Multiple logistic regression controlling for age showed that KIM1 was independently associated with BUN (r=0.727; p\u3c0.001), creatinine (r=0.510; p\u3c0.001) and HbA1c (r=0.401; p=0.008) in all groups.Conclusion: Rising KIM-1 levels with progressive kidney damage with or without derangement of kidney function is reported in this study. This finding may pave a way towards identifying KIM1 as a prognostic marker for kidney injury

Ovarian collision tumour: a rare case of serous cystadenoma with granulosa cell tumor of ovary

A collision tumor is the coexistence of two distinct tumours without any histological intermixing in the same organ or tissue. Each component of collision tumors occurs coincidently and biologic behaviour depends on their own tumor characteristics. A 48 year aged P2L2 women with pain abdomen since 15 days, on abdominal examination-a cystic mass occupying left iliac fossa present, bimanual examination a cystic mass measuring 13x10x8 cm in size, felt separately from the uterus. Sonography of abdomen and pelvis revealed a large cyst in the right adnexa 11.5x10.5x9.5 cm extending upto umbilical region. The serum tumor markers were within the normal range. Patient complained of severe pain abdomen on next day. Emergency laparotomy was done. Left ovarian cyst measuring 13x12x7 cm in size with one loop of torsion seen. Left salphingo-ophorectomy done and specimen sent for frozen section. It reported as serous cystadenoma of left ovary. Then proceeded to total abdominal hysterectomy with right salphingo-oophorectomy. Histopathology reported Serous cystadenoma with focal Granulosa cell tumour- left ovary. Patient was followed up with serum inhibin and CECT abdomen. The demographic factors, presentations and diagnosis of collision tutors are as similar as with single ovarian tumours. It is important for gynaecologist, radiologist and pathologist to be aware of occurrence of collision tumours. Histopathogical diagnosis of such neoplasms becomes very important, to provide appropriate treatment based on the individual biological characteristics of each component of collision tumours

Secure multi-level Cluster based wireless sensor network

The demand of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is on the raise due to its potential applications. The data transmission occurs via a wireless link by the sensor node in network hence these nodes are vulnerable to several outside or inside attacks. A WSN may works in an unfriendly environment therefore it is a fundamental requirement of WSN to secure the sensing data. In this paper, we focus on highlighting the security issues in a multi-layer WSN architecture and provide a secure communication solution (combination of various state- of-art protocols) for it by considering the WSN constraints. We propose a multi-level protocol distribution method to enhance the security of the WSN under consideration via targeting and providing resilience to specific attacks at each level. The simulation and results show that by implementing our proposed method, the overall security of the network has been enhanced

Epidermal growth factor receptor rs17337023 polymorphism in hypertensive gestational diabetic women: A pilot study

Background: Women with gestational diabetes mellitus have an increased risk of developing gestational hypertension, which can increase fetal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. In the past decade, single nucleotide polymorphisms in several genes have been identified as risk factors for development of gestational hypertension. The epidermal growth factor receptor activates tyrosine kinase mediated blood vessels contractility; and inflammatory cascades. Abnormalities in these mechanism are known to contribute towards hypertension. It is thus plausible that polymorphisms in the epidermal growth factor receptor gene would be associated with the development of hypertension in women with gestational diabetes.Aim: To determine whether the epidermal growth factor receptor rs17337023 SNP is associated with the occurrence of hypertension in gestational diabetic women.Methods: This pilot case-control study was conducted at two tertiary care hospitals in Karachi, from January 2017-August 2018. Two hundred and two women at 28 week of gestation with gestational diabetes were recruited and classified into normotensive (n = 80) and hypertensive (n = 122) groups. Their blood samples were genotyped for epidermal growth factor receptor polymorphism rs17337023 using tetra-ARMS polymerase chain reaction. Descriptive analysis was applied on baseline data. Polymorphism data was analyzed for genotype and allele frequency determination using chi-squared statistics. In all cases, a P value of \u3c 0.05 was considered significant.Results: Subjects were age-matched and thus no difference was observed in relation to age of the study subjects (P \u3e0.05). Body fat percentage was significantly higher in hypertensive females as compared to normotensive subjects (35.138 ± 4.29 Case vs 25.01 ± 8.28 Control; P \u3c 0.05). Similarly, systolic and diastolic blood pressures among groups were significantly higher in hypertensive group than the normotensive group (P \u3c 0.05). Overall epidermal growth factor receptor rs17337023 polymorphism genotype frequency was similar in both groups, with the heterozygous AT genotype (56 in Case vs 48 in Control; P = 0. 079) showing predominance in both groups. Furthermore, the odds ratio for A allele was 1.282 (P = 0.219) and for T allele was 0.780 (P = 0.221) in this study.Conclusion: This pilot study indicates that polymorphisms in rs17337023 may not be involved in the pathophysiology of gestational hypertension in gestational diabetes via inflammatory cascade mechanism. Further large-scale studies should explore polymorphism in epidermal growth factor receptor and other genes in this regard