E-BANKING: A CASE STUDY OF ASKARI COMMERCIAL BANK PAKISTAN

This paper has covered the operational issues related to e-banking as well as customer’s perception on usage of e-banking a case study of Askari Bank, Pakistan. 40 staff members and four customers are selected as sample for this study. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used to present the results. Descriptive statistics is applied to describe the demographic variables while for operational problems correlation was used. Finally cross case analysis present customers’ perception about e-banking practices. Analysis shows that customer is not ready to adopt new technology that why their satisfaction level with e-banking is low. Internet speed and government policies are not supportive for e-banking in Pakistan. Due to lack of trust on technology and low computer literacy rate, customer hesitates to adopt new technology. : In order to promote IT culture in Pakistan, government has to reduce the internet rate. to promote the benefits of e-banking on media so that more user get facilitated from e-banking services.E-banking, Internet, ATM, Online transaction, E-readiness, Technology Acceptance Models

DOES BRAND EXTENSION IMPACT PARENT BRAND: A CASE OF JOHNSON, UK

Purpose of study: The main purpose of this study is to check the impact of brand extensions on brand image. For this purpose Johnson is selected as parent brand for current research. The targeted brand extensions are Johnson shampoo, Johnson’s isotonic drinks, Johnson’s sports wear and Johnson’s suntan lotion. Research Methodology: sample was selected from Bradford, UK. Sample consists of graduate students including males as well as female. Total sample size is 60 and data was collected through self administered questionnaires. For each brand 15 respondents were selected. Convenient sampling was selected as sampling technique. Results: Results show that Johnson’s have high brand awareness and perceived quality. While there is negative correlation results for brand fit on brand image for those product extensions which are not in same brand category i.e. Johnson’s sportswear and Johnson’s isotonic drinks. Conclusion: It is concluded from study results that launching new product in same parent brand category have high chance of success while in different category is risk.Brand Extension, Brand Fit, Johnson, Product extensions, marketing.

Local Government Systems and Decentralization: Evidence from Pakistan’s Devolution Plan

The discourse of governance and development practitioners continues to embrace community participation and community empowerment as an elementary means of building local capacity for poverty reduction, development and change at the local level. This article is a review of the decentralization initiatives of local government systems after the announcement of the devolution plan in Pakistan. It evaluates the initiatives’ participatory methods to ascertain the extent to which they have improved the process of community development at the local level. This article also measures the impact of community empowerment on the sustainability of community-driven projects implemented under the decentralization initiative through community-based organizations known as Citizen Community Boards (CCBs). Document analysis and literature review methodologies were employed to gain further insight into the decentralization phenomenon in Pakistan. The results describe human development, improvements in community empowerment and the sustainability of local projects; however, the sense of community has yet to be translated into shared benefits for rural communities. The fundamental goal of decentralization seems to be elusive because only power was transferred to the local level, whereas there is little support for community capacity building and community access to resources and the elites still control the electoral process. It is argued that community development initiatives in Pakistan require continuous support from local governments to boost local rural economies. Likewise, community-local government participatory development strategies can lead to strong local ownership and empowerment in rural communities

Decentralization and Participatory Rural Development: A Literature Review

Most of the developing nations are still struggling for efficient use of their resources. In order to overcome physical and administrative constraints of the development, it is necessary to transfer the power from the central government to local authorities. Distribution of power from improves the management of resources and community participation which is considered key to sustainable development. Advocates of decentralization argue that decentralized government is source to improve community participation in rural development. Decentralized government is considered more responsive towards local needs and development of poor peoples. There are many obstacles to expand the citizen participation in rural areas. There are many approaches for participatory development but all have to face the same challenges. Current paper highlights the literature about Decentralization and participatory rural development. Concept and modalities of Decentralization, dimensions of participation, types of rural participation and obstacles to participation are also the part of this paper

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Dengue Fever Transmission Among Urban and Periurban Residents of Dhaka City, Bangladesh

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Dengue is one of the most important emerging viral diseases of major public health concern in Bangladesh.Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice on dengue fever transmission and prevention among the residents of Dhaka city, Bangladesh.Methods: A cross-sectional study was done among three hundred and forty three randomly selected residents of urban and periurban regions of Dhaka city in November in 2012 using a pretested and self administered questionnaire.  Data was analyzed by a Chi square test and p value less than 0.05 is considered as significant.Results: The study found that among the respondents 63.3% were female, 48% were married and 37.7% were of age group of 21-30 (mean=31.34, SD=11.758). Majority of the respondents had secondary/higher secondary (50.9%) and students represented 34.1% of the total respondents. It was found most of them had no history of having affected from dengue fever (97.7%) and 53.2% did not travel to the subtropical or tropical region. Television (61.2%) and radio (50.4) were most common source of information of dengue fever. Majority of the respondents had low level of knowledge on dengue (89.1%). It was found that 81% knew that mosquitoes generally lay their eggs on dirty water, 79.6% knew mosquitoes spread dengue from one person to another and 70.6% were aware that dengue can fever is flu like illness that affects infants, young, children and adults. The study revealed 50.1% had neutral attitude towards dengue fever, and there was significant association between age and practice (p=0.031); knowledge and practice (p<0.000) and also attitude and practice (p<0.000). Conclusion: There is a different level of knowledge regarding dengue fever among respondents in the study area. Public awareness is necessary to address the knowledge gap revealed by this study. Hence it is necessary to organize the public education program to prevent the people from the outbreak of dengue by increasing level of Knowledge so that they can attain positive attitude and adopt desired behavioral changes.Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Dengue Fever, Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, Dengue Shock Syndrome

Inferential sensing techniques in industrial applications

Climate change caused by pollution is considered as one of threats facing humankind. Industrial emission is one of the main sources of the air pollution. There has been many efforts to protect climate at the regional and international level by requiring industries to monitor, limit and report their emissions. Inferential sensing techniques have been gaining momentum recently as viable alternatives to hardware sensors (i.e. Continuous Emission Monitoring System) in various situations. Inferential sensing technique is a method to estimate certain quantities based on a set of conventional measurements. The core of inferential sensing is based on modeling and estimation techniques. In this work, dynamical neural networks are investigated to build inferential sensor for the emissions due to combustion operation in industrial boilers. The emission andpollutants formation in industrial boiler is a dynamical and nonlinear process. Neural networks are powerful tool for modeling highly complex nonlinear systems, especially when the physics of the system is not clearly known or di±cult to determine. A modular approach is used to develope the inferential sensor model. Different types of dynamical neural networks are combined according to system operation and emission behavior. Real data from a boiler plant is used to develop the model. Input variablesare grouped and Principal Component Analysis is used to reduce the total number of input variables to the proposed model. System delays are obtained by approximating the model by a linear model. Genetic algorithm, which is a heuristic optimization technique, is used to ¯nd the system delays of the linear model, which are used in dynamical neural network model. The dynamical neural network results are compared with the static neural network models. The dynamical neural networks provided better results in terms of complexity of network structure, generalization and prediction error

Investigating the Factors Influencing RFID Adoption Intentions of Retailers: Evidences from Lahore-Pakistan

Although there have been many articles emphasizing the common remunerations of the RFID implementation in the supply chain but the progression of instigating the equipment  for the administration tenacity is somewhat on the leisurelier side particularly in likes of Pakistan and other under developed realms. The perseverance of the investigation is to accomplish a scrutiny of the administrative issues which stimulus the RFID implementation intents. The investigation is to be conducted by the mean of a statistical study of the numbers congregated over an opinion poll through different retailers in the Lahore region. The inquiryis done with the assistance of SPSS and for this perseverance the questionnaire is alienated in agreement to some variables explicitly technology competence, social issuesand competitive pressure. The emphasis group for the study is the retail industry as it is supposed to be the most conspicuous field which can develop the maximum improvement from the RFID technology espousal.This research would benefit in enhanced understanding of the aspectsimpelling the RFID implementation aims on the administrative foundation

A STUDY TO EVALUATE USERS’ SATISFACTION OF BLACKBOARD LEARN

This study summarizes and reports first-time users’ satisfaction of a Blackboard Learn user interface that had been adopted as an online/blended teaching-learning management tool. Users’ satisfaction was measured in terms of the overall consistency, ease of use, universability, positive aspects, and problems/limitations of the Blackboard Learn user interface. Data were collected through a number of 5-point Likert scale type items using an online survey. The survey also gathered participants’ gender and major area of study to determine if there exists any significant difference in their satisfaction, among the possible groups in these measures. Results revealed that first-time Blackboard Learn users are most likely overall satisfied in using it without any significant difference among male vs. female; and engineering vs. non-engineering major users. Blackboard users are satisfied with a number of its advanced features, although they have reported some noticeable problems, limitations, and recommendations