CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS NON-LOCAL PRODUCTS: A CASE OF PAKISTAN

This study investigated the attitudes of Pakistani consumers towards non local (imported) products. Country of Origin (COO) effect was the main thing to find out. A survey questionnaire was distributed among 200 respondents in the twin cities Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The questionnaire contained the measure of, quality of the products, social status, and unavailability of local substitutes; admiration for EDCs life style, consumers’ ethnocentrism and attitudes towards non local products. Nine hypotheses were designed and tested by Pearson correlation and simple regression analysis by using SPSS 15 version. Analysis of the data showed that consumers in the developing countries like Pakistan considered the imported products as of high value and they feel a pride when having the products of the developed countries. The moderating impact of admiration for EDCs life style and consumers’ ethnocentrism was also confirmed by this study. The research findings suggest for the MNCs to go for a joint venture with a local firm or set up a foreign subsidiary to control the effect of ethnocentricity which is extremely important to cope with. Local producers and marketers should focus on the quality of their products to compete with multinational corporations in their domestic markets and survive with a rising head. This research showed that if the imported products are of high quality, more reliable and of reasonable price then ethnocentrism can not become hostile to them

Implementasi Algoritma Sequential Search Untuk Pencarian Data Prestasi Akademik Dan Non Akademik Mahasiswa Program Studi Teknik Informatika

Prestasi merupakan salah satu komponen penilaian dalam akreditasi sebuah program studi. Untuk mengetahui apakah mahasiswa itu memiliki prestasi atau tidak dibuktikan dengan dokumen-dokumen yang sah, seperti sertifikat , penghargaan, dan bukti lainnya. Dalam melakukan pengumpulan data mahasiswa prestasi di iib darmajaya masih menggunakan link google form dan pengelolaan data prestasi mahasiswa masih berbentuk ms excel serta belum memiliki database yang dapat menyimpan data prestasi mahasiswa, sehingga pihak kampus harus ke bagian kemahasiswaan untuk mencari data prestasi mahasiswa. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengimplementasi algoritma sequential search dalam website pencarian data prestasi akademik dan non akademik mahasiswa program studi teknik informatika.pengujian dalam penelitian ini menggunakan black box testing dan hasil pengujian sesuai dan valid

Surgical Decompression of Carpel Tunnel Syndrome

Objective:  To study the out come of surgical treatment of carpel tunnel syndrome, and to evaluate symptomatic improvement. Material & Methods:  This study was conducted in the department of neurosurgery saidu teaching hospital, swat from January 2006 to December 2007.All the patients were randomly selected irrespective of their age and sex from neuro surgical out door clinic. Patients responded to conservative treatment were excluded from the study. The age range was from 20-70 years. A total of 83 patients were included in this study. 72 (8.6.74%) were females and 11 (13.25) males. Results:  83 patients with age ranging from 20-70 years, 72 (86.74%) females and 11 (13.25) males (6.5:1) were subjected to surgical decompression 30 (36.14%) patients had bilateral carpel tunnel syndrome. Excellent result were obtained in 71 (85.54%) patients, good in 9 (10.84%) while 3 (3.6%) patients had poor response. Conclusion:  Surgical decompression is more effective than conservative treatment

Biodegradation of Sugarcane Trash with Agro-Industrial and Farm Wastes for Value Added Organic Byproduct

Arable land degradation, agro-waste management coupled with irrational use of chemicals has led to concern about soil and environmental health. The sugarcane crop generates lot of vegetative biomass after harvesting, which is burnt in field creating environmental implications. A research trail was conducted at green house premises department of soil and environment SAU Tandojam. The waste byproducts of the sugarcane trash was blended with pressmud, poultry and goat manure to have decomposed nutrient rich product subjected to 130 days decomposition/composting. Results revealed that the pH had significant relationship with organic substrate decomposition used for the compost preparation blended with sugarcane trash. The organic carbon loss or mineralization showed great variability and had relationship with the substrate used and decomposition time for a finished product. The more organic carbon (31.80%) was recorded for Cspm and (31.80%) C was found for Cpm. Compost product was rich in carbon potassium values corresponding (4.6%) for Cspm and (2.7%) K for Cgm. It was concluded that sugarcane trash can best be blended with sugarcane press mud of agro-industrial waste. Further it could be recycled with agro-industrial waste for waste management, reduce pollution, chemical fertilizers and used as organic soil amendment

ETHNOBOTANICAL WEALTH OF JANDOOL VALLEY, DIR LOWER, KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA (KPK), PAKISTAN

The present study contributes to enlist the wealth of ethnobotanical important plants of Jandool valley, Dir lower, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan. A total of 67 plants species, belonging to 39 families of herbs (57 %), shrubs (6 %), trees (34 %) and mushrooms (3 %) were found to be used by the local inhabitants generally for medicinal, timber wood, fuel, food and fodder purposes. Majority of the plants identified were used for more than one purpose. The human and cattle pressure has resulted in loss of the indigenous ethnobotanical important plant species. Therefore reforestation followed by proper protection is a need of time

ETHNOBOTANICAL WEALTH OF JANDOOL VALLEY, DIR LOWER, KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA (KPK), PAKISTAN

The present study contributes to enlist the wealth of ethnobotanical important plants of Jandool valley, Dir lower, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan. A total of 67 plants species, belonging to 39 families of herbs (57 %), shrubs (6 %), trees (34 %) and mushrooms (3 %) were found to be used by the local inhabitants generally for medicinal, timber wood, fuel, food and fodder purposes. Majority of the plants identified were used for more than one purpose. The human and cattle pressure has resulted in loss of the indigenous ethnobotanical important plant species. Therefore reforestation followed by proper protection is a need of time

A Review on Preparation of ZnO Nanorods and Their Use in Ethanol Vapors Sensing

The devices of polycrystalline film have small sensitivity that can be overthrown by using high aspect ratio of 1D nanostructures, such as ZnO nanostructures. Sensors based on 1D nanostructures show very quick response time and high sensitivity for their high impact factor. The purpose of this article is to provide a comparison of different methods and the quality of the sensors thus produced. Currently, metal oxide 1D nanoarchitectures like ZnO have great attraction due to their applications in sensors. Metal oxide nanostructures have high aspect ratio, with small consumption of power and low weight, however, keeping excellent chemical and thermal dependability. Different techniques have been adopted to fabricate metal oxide one-dimensional nanostructures like hydrothermal, electro-spinning, sol-gel, ultrasonic irradiation, anodization, solid state chemical reaction, molten-salt, thermal evaporation, carbothermal reduction, aerosol, vapor-phase transport, chemical vapor deposition, RF sputtering, gas-phase-assisted nanocarving, molecular beam epitaxy, dry plasma etching, and UV lithography. The sensitivity depends upon the materials; synthesis technique and morphology of the sensor performance toward a particular gas have different range of success. This article estimates the efficiency of ZnO 1D nanoarchitectures, gas sensors. Finally, in this review, we had mentioned the future directions of investigations in this field

LUCRATIVENESS OF ISLAMIC VS CONVENTIONAL MUTUAL FUNDS IN PAKISTAN

The purpose of this study is to conduct a comparative riskadjusted performance, selectivity skills and market timing abilitiesanalysis of Islamic and Conventional mutual funds in Pakistan. Thestudy utilizes various risk-adjusted performance measures to evaluaterisk and return characteristics. The study also used techniqueproposed by (Treynor and Mazuy 1966) and (Henriksson and Merton1981) to appraise selectivity skills and timing abilities on the dataset ranging 2009-2013 of Islamic and Conventional mutual funds. Inthis study, four categories Aggressive Fixed Income, Asset Allocation,Equity and Balanced open end mutual funds are analysed. On thebasis of evidences found, only few mutual fund managers from Islamicand Conventional mutual funds hold better stock picking skills. Themutual fund managers of both Islamic and conventional mutual fundsare found to be a poor market timer in Pakistan. Islamic mutualfunds have earned better returns than conventional mutual funds.Therefore, risk adjusted performance of Islamic mutual funds is betterthan conventional mutual funds

The role of leaders' emotions management towards leadership effectiveness in non-government organizations

Non-government organizations are challenged with ineffective leadership due to leaders’ inappropriate management of emotions that lead towards unfavorable followers’ attitudes and behaviors. Therefore, this study is undertaken to examine the role of leaders’ emotions management towards leadership effectiveness. It aims to investigate the effect of leaders’ emotional labor strategies, emotional intelligence, and emotional consonance on followers’ attitudes (emotional engagement and positive emotional reactions) and behaviors (task performance and organizational citizenship behavior). It further scrutinizes the mediating effect of perceived transformational leadership and the moderating effect of perceived emotional sincerity. The target population was leaders and their direct followers in NGOs of Malaysia and Pakistan. Survey questionnaire method was employed, and data were collected from 374 and 383 dyads (leader-follower) respectively by using cluster sampling. PLS-SEM was used for statistical analysis. Findings revealed that leaders’ emotions management played a significant role in shaping followers’ attitudes and behaviors that lead towards leadership effectiveness in NGOs. Leaders’ emotional labor strategies, emotional intelligence, and emotional consonance were related to perceived transformational leadership as well as followers’ attitudes and behaviors. Furthermore, perceived transformational leadership significantly mediated the relationship of leaders’ emotional labor strategies, emotional intelligence, and emotional consonance with followers’ attitudes and behaviors in both countries. Moreover, perceived emotional sincerity moderated the relationship of leaders’ emotional labor strategies with followers’ attitudes and behaviors in both Pakistani and Malaysian NGOs. Few relationships were found to be insignificant in both countries due to contextual factors and particular research settings. Multi-group comparison was also carried out in the study which signified that few relationships were significantly different due to cultural differences. This study enriches the body of knowledge by integrating leaders’ emotions with followers’ attitudes and behaviors. It also provides guidelines to NGOs regarding the management of their leaders’ emotions effectively

Emotional Exhaustion as Stressor agent for Job Stress in Call Centers: Empirical evidence from perspective of Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention as Work Outcomes

The purpose of the study is to analyze job burnout component emotional exhaustion as a probable stressor agent that causes job stress and their impact on job satisfaction and turnover intention as work outcomes. The scales were adapted from that measure to analyze the effect of emotional exhaustion causing job stress, also highlights the evidence in support of the conceptual model. Data was collected by the survey that generated 220 respondents. The sample chosen for this research are employees working in telecommunication call centers of Lahore city region in Pakistan. SPSS regression analysis was employed for data analysis. The results showed that emotional exhaustion carried negative and significant relation with job satisfaction (β= -.354,p<.05) and significant positive relation with turnover intention (β= .290, p<.05) also significant relation between dependent variables followed by mediating effect of two dimensions of job stress analyzed by PROCESS procedure of bootstrapping technique contained no and full mediation between emotional exhaustion in relation with job satisfaction and turnover intention respectively. Outcome from the conducted study depicted that stress did not affected the level of satisfaction of employees as they are well trained and informed that job stress is the part of their work activities in call centers and the stress in organizations is needed to be dealt with