Rethinking connectivity as interactivity: a case study of Pakistan

Connectivity in developing countries has traditionally been viewed in terms of investment in transport and communications. This papers makes an effort to go beyond this traditional view and conceptualizes connectivity as networks between people and places. We split the overall national reforms agenda for connectivity into three prongs: a) transportation and related services, b) ICT, and c) social capital. We try to see the state of each of these three in case of Pakistan and then propose reforms keeping in view the current political economy milieu.Connectivity; Economic Growth; Transport; Communications; Social Capital

Building Programmable Wireless Networks: An Architectural Survey

In recent times, there have been a lot of efforts for improving the ossified Internet architecture in a bid to sustain unstinted growth and innovation. A major reason for the perceived architectural ossification is the lack of ability to program the network as a system. This situation has resulted partly from historical decisions in the original Internet design which emphasized decentralized network operations through co-located data and control planes on each network device. The situation for wireless networks is no different resulting in a lot of complexity and a plethora of largely incompatible wireless technologies. The emergence of "programmable wireless networks", that allow greater flexibility, ease of management and configurability, is a step in the right direction to overcome the aforementioned shortcomings of the wireless networks. In this paper, we provide a broad overview of the architectures proposed in literature for building programmable wireless networks focusing primarily on three popular techniques, i.e., software defined networks, cognitive radio networks, and virtualized networks. This survey is a self-contained tutorial on these techniques and its applications. We also discuss the opportunities and challenges in building next-generation programmable wireless networks and identify open research issues and future research directions.Comment: 19 page

Clinical features and management of Merkel cell carcinoma

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive dermal tumour of neuroendocrine origin. MCC is a rare tumour and all information pertaining to its behaviour, therapy and prognosis is based on retrospective reports. The two potentially curative treatment modalities are surgery and radiotherapy. It is a rare, highly malignant primary skin tumour, originally called trabecular carcinoma of the skin. MCC poses a challenge to the clinician because of its rarity and poor prognosis. The optimal therapy is customised and tailored for each individual patient with the appropriate use of operative resection and radiation therapy. This review covers reports from several authors regarding the rationale of using postoperative radiotherapy to the primary tumour and regional lymphatics. Although MCC is classified as a type of neuroendocrine carcinoma, it is less likely to be controlled by systemic chemotherapy. Management of primary lesion with clinically localised disease is wide excision with margin of at least 2 cm whenever possible. MCC is a radiosensitive tumour, adjuvant radiotherapy has been advocated in order to control local as well as regional disease. Radiation induced toxicity should be considered and discussed with the patient. Adjuvant radiation to the nodal bed after complete lymphadenectomy in patients with metastatic disease is generally not recommended

Aggressive sales culture in banking practice

The objective of this study is to explore the effects of aggressive selling of Consumer Banking Products (CBP) on front-line sales staff working in the Commercial Banks and Financial Institutions in the context of urban Karachi, Pakistan. This study which will examine the connections that may exist between aggressive selling versus aggressive behaviour, unethical conduct, bullying practices, and psychopathy by salespersons was determined based on qualitative data acquired through in-depth interviewing of seven frontline bankers selling CBP. Research results indicate that aggressive selling unethical practices, bullying, and psychopathy were directly related. Aggressive selling and unethical practice were inversely associated with the presence of ethical and moral values in the financial institutions in Pakistan that formed part of this study. Management pressurises salespersons to sell aggressively by setting challenging sales targets by linking salespersons’ salaries and bonuses with the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) (Belás, 2012; Haron, Ismail, & Razak, 2011; Román, 2003). The findings indicate that the main reason behind this policy in Pakistani banking institutions is to maximise the Bank’s profit in a short period. Industry regulators and media critics have criticised the banks for adopting aggressive sales strategies that damage banks’ image, influences unethical behaviour in employees and damage customer confidence. The review of the literature relating to this study revealed that sufficient empirical evidence was lacking in this area, and that ample opportunity existed for further research. This exploratory research is applying a qualitative methodology by conducting in-depth interviewing. The author proposes initiatives to alleviate the harmful effects of aggressive selling on frontline sales staff adopting the conceptual frameworks of Agency Theory, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Grounded Theory

Development of an electronic appraisal system for right-of-way aquisition

The acquisition of Right-of-Way is one of the major tasks involved in most of the highway projects. It is a highly complicated process requiring multiple stages, various participants, and large amount of data and information. It is the duty of the state Departments of Transportation to ensure that the property owner is fully compensated for the loss of land and resulting damages incurred due to the acquisition of his/her land. This involves valuation of the property being acquired. Normally, an independent fee appraiser is hired by a state Department of Transportation to determine the compensation that has to be paid to the property owner. There is a substantial divergence in values of the appraised properties that are similar in nature by two different fee appraisers. A variety of factors are responsible for these inconsistencies. In spite of the recent technological advances made by the states, the problems still persist. The objective of this thesis is to develop an Electronic Appraisal System (EAS) that is capable of capturing the appraisal data, transmitting, storing, managing and analyzing the appraisal data, thereby improving the appraisal process and reducing the likelihood of inconsistent appraisal values. A prototype of the proposed EAS has been developed to demonstrate the applicability and features of the new system.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin