Effects of TV Commercials on Social and Cultural Norms: An Analysis of Viewer’s Perceptions

The present study aim is to highlight the role of advertisements on the audience and violation of social and cultural values. In citing people to purchase goods and services is the main role of advertising. To illustrate the violation of social and cultural values in TV advertisements and measure its impact on the audience, this study employs two different data sets. First, the data consisted of TV advertisements which have been released during the last five years. These ads were analyzed to see the actual instances and measure the extent of violations of social and cultural values in the ads. These ads lead to see the contents of violation of social and cultural norms in our society. The second data base is obtained through questionnaires. SPSS was used for systematic evaluation of the data. Keywords: Commercials, SPSS, questionnaires and audience

Determining the Social Responsibility Role of TV Advertising: Pakistani Viewer’s Insights

As media serves many important responsibilities for the society such as social economic, educational, religious, cultural etc. and many people think that media plays a vital role in making democracy work. In alluding to people to purchase items and endeavors is the essential piece of publicizing. To speak to the encroachment of social and social regards in TV advancements and measure its impact on the get-together of individuals, this examination uses two particular educational accumulations. In any case, the data included TV sees which have been released in the midst of the latest five years. These commercials were examined to see the genuine cases and measure the level of encroachment of social and social regards in the advancements. These promotions incite see the substance of encroachment of social and social gauges in our overall population. The second data base is gained through surveys. SPSS was used for systematic evaluation of the data

Digital Technologies for Learning at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU): Investigating Needs and Challenges

The present study investigated the need of digital technologies for the distance learners of AIOU (Allama Iqbal Open University), and the challenges in its implementation. Within mixed-method approach, an explanatory sequential design was employed to conduct this study. Quantitative data was collected through questionnaires from 963 students to find out the needs for digital technologies. Later 3 administrators and 1 library in-charge were interviewed to find out the challenges in its implementation. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. For qualitative data analysis, inductive analysis was done. Most of the students said that digital technologies were needed for increasing accessibility and flexibility of learning. The challenges for its implementation were in the requirement of diverse online learning resources, access, cost and lack of expertise. The paper recommended that there should be provision of portable devices to students with Wi-Fi, and guidance about its use. Annual need-assessment system was also suggested

Transparent, trustworthy and privacy-preserving supply chains

Over the years, supply chains have evolved from a few regional traders to globally complex chains of trade. Consequently, supply chain management systems have become heavily dependent on digitization for the purpose of data storage and traceability of goods. However, these traceability systems suffer from issues such as scattering of information across multiple silos and susceptibility of erroneous or modified data and thus are often unable to provide reliable information about a product. Due to propriety reasons, often end-to-end traceability is not available to the general consumer. The second issue is ensuring the credibility of the collated information about a product. The digital data may not be the true representation of the physical events which raises the issues of trusting the available information. If the source of digital data is not trustworthy, the provenance or traceability of a product becomes questionable. The third issue in supply chain management is a trade-off between the provenance information and protection of this data. The information is often associated with the identity of the contributing entity to ensure trust. However, the identity association makes it difficult to protect trade secrets such as shipments, pricing, and trade frequency of traders while simultaneously ensuring the provenance/traceability to the consumers. Our work aims to address above mentioned challenges related to traceability, trustworthiness and privacy. To support traceability and provenance, a consortium blockchain based framework, ProductChain, is proposed which provides an immutable audit trail of the supply chain events pertaining to the product and its origin. The framework also presents a sharded network model to meet the scalability needs of complex supply chains. Simulation results for our Proof of Concept (PoC) implementation show that query time for retrieving end-to-end traceability is of the order of a few milliseconds even when the information is collated from multiple regional blockchains. Next, to ensure the credibility of data from the supply chain entities, it is important to have an accountability mechanism which can penalise or reward the entities for their dishonest or honest contributions, respectively. We propose the TrustChain framework, which calculates a trust score for data contributing entities to the blockchain using multiple observations. These observations include feedback from interactions among supply chain entities, inputs from third party regulators and readings from IoT sensors. The integrated reputation system with blockchain, dynamically assigns trust and reputation scores to commodities and traders using smart contracts. A PoC implementation over Hyperledger Fabric shows that TrustChain incurs minimal overheads over a baseline. For protecting trade secrets while simultaneously ensuring traceability, PrivChain is proposed. PrivChain's framework allows traders to share computation or proofs in support of provenance and traceability claims rather than sharing the data itself. The framework also proposes an integrated incentive mechanism for traders providing such proofs. A PoC implementation on Hyperledger Fabric reveals a minimal overhead of using PrivChain as the data related computations are carried off-chain. Finally, we propose TradeChain which addresses the issue of preserving the privacy of identity related information with the blockchain data and gives greater access control to the data owners, i.e. traders. This framework decouples the identities of traders by managing two ledgers: one for managing decentralised identities and another for recording supply chain events. The information from both ledgers is then collated using access tokens provided by the data owners. In this way, they can dynamically control access to the blockchain data at a granular level. A PoC implementation is developed both on Hyperledger Indy and Fabric and we demonstrate minimal overheads for the different components of TradeChain

Predicting hydrophobicity of silica sol-gel coated dyed cotton fabric by artificial neural network and regression

Artificial neural network (ANN) and multiple linear regression (MLR) have been used to predict the hydrophobicity of silica sol-gel coated dyed cotton fabric using different nanoparticle concentrations, dye concentrations, dye types and cross linker types as predictors. A total of 32 samples have been dyed with reactive and direct dyes using two dye concentrations at HT dyeing machine. To develop nano roughness on dyed fabric, with an aim to create super hydrophobic dyed cotton, different concentrations of silica nanoparticles with a combination of silane hydrophobes (alkyltrialkoxysilanes), and silane cross-linkers, i.e. tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and teramethoxysilane (TMOS) are applied by sol-gel technique using dip-dry-cure process. The hydrophobicity is measured by AATCC spray rating technique. The coefficient of determination (R2) indicates that there is a strong correlation between the measured and the predicted values with a trivial mean absolute error; ANN is found to be more powerful predicting method than MLR. The most influencing variables revealed through correlation coefficient and P-values of regression model are silica nanoparticle and dye concentration. Empirical and statistical models have been proposed to predict dyed cotton fabric hydrophobicity without any prior trials, which reduces cost and time

Impediments of Bilateral Trade Relation Between India and Pakistan

India and Pakistan are two gigantic economies in the entire of South Asia however; their trade relations are quite meagre owing to plentiful and cosmic impediments across the border of India and Pakistan. Therefore, in addition to in this paper scholar accentuated the trade impediments between India and Pakistan. In this paper, researcher used the qualitative technique to analyze the data in order that findings could come more appropriate in the context of India-Pakistan trade relations. The present study findings demonstrate that normalisation of bilateral trade relations could be rectified the territorial and border disputes with idyllic manner across the border of India and Pakistan. Keywords: India, Pakistan, Trade Relations, Impediments

EFFICACY OF ORAL ZINC SULPHATE VERSUS TOPICAL APPLICATION OF SALICYLIC ACID (16.7%) & LACTIC ACID (16.7%) COMBINATION IN THE TREATMENT OF PLANTAR WARTS

Background; Warts are common epidermal growths caused by human papillomavirus that often cause significant discomfort and embarrassment. Current treatment options include topical therapies, cryotherapy, laser vaporization, and surgical excision. Objective: To compare the efficacy of oral zinc sulphate versus topical application of salicylic acid (16.7%) & lactic acid (16.7%) combination in the treatment of plantar warts. Material and Methods; Group A, having 78 patients, was given oral zinc sulphate (10 mg/kg/day) in 2 or 3 divided doses. In group B, 78 patients were advised to apply a combination of salicylic (16.7%) & lactic acid (16.7%) once at night daily. In group A, using oral zinc sulphate, the treatment was given for two months and follow up continued for next 1 month. In group B, the topical preparation was also continued for 2 months or till the complete removal of warts. Results; Of these 156 study cases, 94 (60.3 %) were male patients while 62 (39.7 %) were female patients. Mean age of our study cases was 34.42 ± 9.87 years. Monthly family income up to Rs. 30000 was noted in 68 (43.6%) while 88 (56.4%) had monthly family income more than Rs. 30000. Mean weight of our study cases was 61.96 ± 10.29 kilograms. Mean height of our study cases 161.24 ± 12.23 centimeters. Mean BMI of our study cases was 26.52± 1.87 kg/m2 and obesity was present in 31 (19.9%) of our study cases. Mean no. of lesions was noted to be 5.30 ± 2.45 lesions (with minimum no. of lesions was 4 and maximum no. of lesions was 10) and 131 (84%) had up to 5 lesions. Mean duration of disease was 4.69 ± 1.61 months and 112 (71.8 %) had disease duration up to 6 months. Efficacy was noted in 110 (70.5 %). Efficacy in group A was noted to be 83.3 % and in group B was 57.7 % (p= 0.001). Conclusion; Our study results support the use of oral Zinc Sulphate in the treatment of plantar warts as compared to the salicylic acid (16.7%) and lactic acid (16.7%) combination. Efficacy of Zinc Sulphate was significantly higher when compared with combination therapy and it was found to be safe and reliable mode of treatment having no side effects were observed in our study. Use of Zinc Sulphate can help to reduce chance of recurrence and disease morbidity. Being cost effective, it provides cheaper mode of treatment as compared with cryotherapy which is quite expensive which will provide economic relief to our large poor population. Early treatment can help patients to maintain routine daily lives and physical activities such as sports without any pain and side effects. Keywords; Plantar warts, Zinc Sulphate, Salicylic acid, lactic acid

Fears and barriers: Problems in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment in Pakistan

Background: Women in Pakistan lack appropriate awareness about diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer due to a range of multifaceted barriers. There is a dearth of literature examining the socio-cultural factors that inhibit women from breast cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment in Punjab, Pakistan. Addressing this gap, this qualitative study sought to identify and explore the barriers that hinder women from seeking timely screening and treatment.Methods: In this process 45 women (age = 18-50 years) with breast cancer were purposively sampled and interviewed from the Punjab Institute of Nuclear Medicine (PINUM) hospital, Faisalabad, Pakistan.Results: An inductive approach was used to analyze the data which resulted in the emergence of eight subthemes under the umbrella of three major themes that delineate individual, socio-cultural and structural barriers to seek screening and treatment of breast cancer in Punjab. Individual barriers included lack of awareness, hesitance in accepting social support, and spiritual healing. The identified socio-cultural factors included feminine sensitivity, stigmatization, and aversion to male doctors. Lack of financial resources and apathetic medical services were structural barriers that hinder screening and treatment.Conclusions: These barriers can be addressed through raising awareness and community mobilization about breast-self exam and treatment. The healthcare system should also pay attention to socio-psychological and cultural factors impeding women\u27s access to available health facilities

Impact of Corporate Governance Exerted by Board of Directors on Performance of Commercial Banks of Pakistan (Study Carried out on Prominent Commercial Banks of Rawalpindi)

The corporate governance mechanisms in Pakistan are in most instances thought to be less important to achieve good organizational performance. By enduring the good corporate governance exerted by BODs, organizations may increase the circumstances where management can convince the employees particularly and shareholders generally to obtain long term organizational gains. We used five point likert scale questionnaire to measure the corporate governance in banking sector of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. This empirical study suggests that the corporate governance by board of directors has widespread role in organizational performance. The results suggest that independence and accountability have significant effect on organizational performance. However, effect of independence is higher than accountability. Moreover, our study shows that transparency do not effect on organizational success significantly. Keywords: corporate governance, transparency, independence, accountability, board of directors and organizational performance