Convergence Model of Governance: A Case Study of the Local Government System of Pakistan

The future of devolution plan in Pakistan may be analysed in view of our Convergence model. This model views stability of the local Govt. system drawn on Devolution Plan 2001. It claims that as there would be more volatile and non-committed (floating) number of agents in the political market and governance system, there is more probability of divergence; i.e. the system will remain unstable. Contrary to that more is the systematic trend in political market and governance system more is the probability that the convergence in the system occurs and that in turn leads to stability of the over all system. In this ‘Convergence’ Model different types of agents have been highlighted on the basis of their political ffiliation and being in competition as ruling elite and/or their allies and non-ruling elite and/or their allies. The agents have interactive relationship horizontally and vertically with other agents i.e. either they are ally or otherwise. The composition of this structure of the agents and clients is based on the principle of bottom top pproach i.e. Union council’s members, Nazim and their political competitors, Tehsil council and Nazim, District Nazim and his allied district assembly members and their political competitors, Member provincial Assembly and their political rivals, Member National Assembly/Senator, and their political rival and the ruling political elites, Provincial Government and their political rivals, and Political elites ruling Federal Government and their political rivals.

Knowledge Management Practice at a Bulgarian Bank: A Case Study

This paper reports on knowledge management (KM) practices in the customer service and lending departments of one of Bulgaria's top retail banks and investigates how KM processes can be further improved. The Bank's KM activities have been studied using observations, interviews and informal discussions for data collection. Findings were compared and contrasted with existing literature in similar contexts. Although rudiments of knowledge sharing are evident from the KM activities in different departments of the bank, the limitations such as resistance to change of the implemented KM systems are impeding the effectiveness of the knowledge management process. More training and incentives are needed to increase knowledge creation and sharing. Moreover, a clearly articulated KM strategy along with success criteria and commitment and support from senior management is needed. There is a severe lack of knowledge management studies in Bulgarian context in general and Bulgarian banking sector in particular. The authors' findings will potentially help in improving knowledge sharing practice as well as provide a valuable insight into knowledge management related issues in the Bulgarian context. The findings from this research can be useful to companies from Eastern Europe and other regions in improving their knowledge sharing practice

Exploring the Context and Practices of Expert Simulation Modellers

Simulation modelling lacks a rich body of literature on practices of modellers in the real world. We study the context and some generic practices of expert simulation modellers to discover how the context of modellers may affect the practice of modelling and simulation. The results highlight that simulation modellers develop their models under a variety of contexts and their practices may be affected by their context. The problem area, the scope and the breadth of a problem, simulation software and the size and complexity of the model are some of the contextual factors which may affect a modeller’s practices such as model development, documentation, maintenance and evaluation. For example, model maintenance is required only for large scale models developed for long term use. Similarly, varying level of documentation may be required depending on the client requirements and project needs. Our study is a valuable addition to the research investigating simulation practice in the real world

Incompatibility of Laws and Natural Resources: A Case Study of Land Revenue Laws and Their Implications in Federal Areas of Pakistan

Better rule of law would generate economic growth, which would in turn build constituencies for democratic reforms [Root and May (2006)]. Consider prisoners dilemma, to Law and Economics Scholars, the inevitability of prisoner’s dilemmas arising to block potentially efficient exchanges explains the need for and consequently the adoption of contract law. When the law enforces contracts, it permits the participants in a potential prisoners’ dilemma the option of escaping the dominant strategy equilibrium of non-cooperation, which prevents the achievement of efficient exchanges, by permitting the parties to effectively pre-commit to future cooperative behavior. Mutual pre-commitments can produce the efficient cooperate-cooperate equilibrium. The existence of contract law then tends to foster efficient cooperative behaviour. Institutions are considered to provide the mechanisms by which individuals can resolve social dilemmas [Steins (1999)]. They are sets of rules that people have created in order to control/regulate the behavior of people using a natural resource. Several layers of institutions are important for institutional development and economic performance. These layers, from the slowest moving to the fastest moving are: human motivations and social institutions, political institutions, legal institutions and private institutions [Azfar (2006)]. Institutions perform their role to frame rules, procedure and enabling environment for implementation of rules. Rights of individuals are recognised and recognised through institutions as well

Association of long term sodium valproate monotherapy and vitamin D3 levels in epileptic children

Objective: To determine the association of long term sodium valproate monotherapy and vitamin D3 levels in epileptic children Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Pediatrics, Children Hospital, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad for six months from 15th February 2019 to 14th August 2019. A total of one hundred and thirty (n=130) children and adolescents of either gender between age 3-18 years who had a history of two seizures at least 24 hours apart in their life and were on sodium valproate monotherapy for more than one year were enrolled in this study through non-probability, consecutive sampling. Serum vitamin D3 (25-hydroxy vitamin D) levels were measured in all the patients at the time of enrolment into the study. All the demographic data and laboratory investigations were entered on the predesigned proforma and analyzed through SPSS version 17. Results: Vitamin D3 deficiency was found in 47 (36.2%) children which were significantly higher among patients with older age and longer duration of treatment (P<0.05) while gender and BMI of the patients did not show any significant difference (P>0.05). Conclusion: Significant percentage of epileptic children on sodium valproate monotherapy was found to have vitamin D3 deficiency. Therefore we recommend routine screening of vitamin D3 deficiency in all the epileptic children on long-term sodium valproate therapy followed by vitamin D supplementation in deficient patients. &nbsp

Issues of privacy and trust in e-commerce: Exploring customers’ perspective

Despite rapid growth in e-commerce, many of the privacy and trust issues concerns remain unaddressed. We report a qualitative study on customers’ concerns over privacy and trust in online purchasing. A number of issues such as data privacy, data security and safety, data disclosure and sharing by the seller with third parties have been explored with regular internet shoppers. The findings suggest that trusted/branded websites, secured websites, websites with clearly stated data protection/privacy policies makes people more comfortable in online shopping and decreases their data privacy concern. While unsecured websites, vague data protection/privacy policy, disclosure of data to the third parties; in turn discourage the users from releasing their personal data while shopping online

Energy analysis for replacing fossil fuel energy source of electricity wtih solar cells in the UK and Kurdistan, Iraq

Energy is a vital resource required for the operation of any business. Currently, the vast majority of businesses use electricity derived for non-renewable fossil fuels, which are expected to run out at its current rate of expenditure and causing substantial environmental damage threatening the future generations. In the UK if the current energy source used by small and medium enterprises (SME’s) could be replaced by solar energy then damage to the environment can be prevented and reduce costs as solar cells become more efficient. Solar cells involve harnessing the energy from the sun to generate electricity. In this study a methodology has been developed to compare a model micro-business in Manchester, UK and Kurdistan, Iraq. The comparison shows quantatively that even though Kurdistan, Iraq is abundant in oil and gas its climatic conditions favour the implementation of solar cells. Therefore, it is more feasible to replace the existing non-renewable fossil fuel sources with solar cells in Iraq due to greater solar radiation striking the earth’s surface. Our research suggests that solar cells can replace a reasonable amount of the energy requirements even in Manchester, UK and a much higher proportion in Kurdistan, Iraq. Using existing 20% efficient silicon solar cells we can replace 28% and 88% of the energy requirements of the micro business in UK and Kurdistan, Iraq respectively