Corporate governance and firm performance: the role of transparency & disclosure in banking sector of Pakistan

Purpose: This purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between transparency and disclosure and firm performance. Highlighting the importance of corporate governance in banking sector, the paper has focused in depth over its role, level and its impact on performance in banking industry of Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach: The paper access this purpose by constructing transparency and disclosure index for the past five year 2007-2011, using proxies for three sub-categories which are board and management structure disclosure, ownership structure disclosure and financial transparency disclosure. The paper also investigated structural changes of T&D Index and its effect on bank financial performance over the sample of 30 banks operating in Pakistan. Findings: Empirical analysis results by using ordinary least square regression model, reveals that financial performance is positively related to the transparency and disclosure and their sub levels except ownership structure disclosure which has negative relation with both ROA and ROE. Furthermore the average T&D level in Pakistani banking sector is above average. Practical implications: The current research paper aims for important policy implementation to reduce information asymmetry and improve corporate governance and firm performance in banking sector of Pakistan

MinHop (MH) Transmission strategy to optimized performance of epidemic routing protocol

Delay tolerant network aims to provide the network architecture in environments where end-to-end path may never exist for long duration of time Furthermore dynamic topology changes limited buffer space and non stable connectivity make routing a challenging issue The research contribution regarding DTN routing protocols can be categorized in to single and multi copy strategies A single copy strategy makes less use of network resources but suffers from long delay and less delivery probability Multi copy schemes enjoy better delivery probability and minimum delivery delay at the cost of heavy use of network resource Moreover DTN nodes operate under short contact duration and limited transmission bandwidth Therefore it is not possible for a node to transmit all messages from its forwarding queue Hence the order at which the messages are forwarded becomes very vital In this paper we propose a forwarding queue mode named MinHop We prove through simulations that the proposed policy performs better then FIFO in terms of delivery probability overhead message drop and rela

Assessment Of Iba (Indole Butyric Acid) Levels And Planting Time For Rooting And Growth Of Alstonia Cuttings

An experiment to assess different levels of IBA (Indole Butyric Acid) and planting time on rooting and growth of Alstonia cuttings was conducted at Ornamental Horticulture Nursery, Department of Horticulture, The University of Agriculture Peshawar, Pakistan. The experiment was carried out using RCBD design with split plot arrangement. There were five levels of IBA 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% that were prepared by mixing IBA with talc powder. Cuttings were obtained from healthy, vigorous growing trees which were 15-20 cm long and 2-3 nodes. Leaves were removed from the cuttings and were treated with IBA than planted in plastic bags filled with mixture of sand, clay and FYM with the ratio of 1:1:1 on three different planting times 15th March, 30th March and 14th April. IBA level of 10% showed best results regarding leaf area plant-1(26.032 cm2), sprout length(18.096 cm), stem diameter (14.44 mm), number of roots plant-1 (15.613), root diameter (3.412 mm) while number of  leaves plant-1 (17.27), root length (14.24 cm) and survival percentage (70%) was best recorded when treated with IBA at level of 5%. However, sprouting percentage and days to bud sprouting were not significantly affected by different levels of IBA. It is observed from the study that there was no significant effect of planting time over any parameter however good results were observed in cuttings planted at 14th April regarding leaf area plant-1, sprout length, stem diameter, number of roots plant-1, number of leaves plant-1, root length, root diameter and survival percentage while sprouting percentage and days to bud sprouting were best when planted at 15th March. IBA at 10% level and 14th April as planting time resulted in overall best performance and hence recommended for treating and planting cuttings of Alstonia. Keywords: Alstonia, Growth attribute, Planting times, IBA

Threshold Based Best Custodian Routing Protocol for Delay Tolerant Network

Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) is a kind of network in which the source may not be able to establish the stable and uninterrupted path to destination due to network partitioning, dynamic topology change and frequent disconnections. In order to dealt disruption and disconnections a store, carry and forward paradigm is used in which node stores the incoming messages in its buffer, carries it while moving and forward when comes within the transmission range of other nodes. Message forwarding contributes and important role in increasing its delivery. For instance, probabilistic routing protocol forwards message to a node having high probability value to meet message destination. These protocols cannot handle a situation in which the node continually transmits messages even the probability difference is very small. In this paper, we have proposed a routing protocol known as Threshold Based best custodian Routing Protocol (TBbcRP) for delay tolerant network. We have proposed a threshold-based method to compute the quality value which is the ability of node to carry message. A self-learning mechanism has been used to remove the delivered messages from the network. Moreover, a buffer aware mechanism has been used that make sure availability of buffer space at receiver before message transmission. We have compared the performance of TBbcRP with Epidemic, PRoPHET and Delegated Forwarding. The proposed TBbcRP outperforms in terms of maximizing the delivery probability, reducing number of transmissions and message drop

Establishment of an efficient callus induction and plant regeneration system in Pakistani wheat ( Triticum aestivum ) cultivars

Four commercially grown wheat varieties of Pakistan, namely Inqilab-91, Chakwal-97, Tatara and Manthar were used for this investigation. For callus induction different concentrations of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyaceticacid (2,4-D) along with 0.1 mg/L of Kinetin were evaluated. For regeneration initially different concentrations of Indole-3-Acetic Acid (IAA) and 6-BenzylAminoPurine (BAP) were tested. Best hormone combinations were further subjected to Kinetin and 6-\u3b3-\u3b3-dimethylallylaminopurine (2iP). For Inqilab-91, Chakwal-97 and Manthar, 3 mg/L of 2,4-D was found optimum, which induced 83.25%, 77.75% and 95.20% of embryogenic calli, respectively. Maximum callus induction (97.18%) was observed in Tatara when 2 mg/L of 2,4-D was used. As regard to regeneration, Inqilab-91, Chakwal-97 and Manthar showed maximum regeneration on media containing 0.1 mg/L IAA, 0.4 mg/L Kinetin and 0.5 mg/L 2iP, regenerating 87.25%, 81.75% and 68.75% respectively. For Tatara maximum regeneration of 12.25% was obtained on 0.1 mg/L IAA and 2 mg/L of BAP. Presently optimized regeneration method holds promise for facilitating the deployment of agronomical important trait through genetic transformation for the improvement of this important food crop

Deep Transfer Learning Networks for Brain Tumor Detection: The Effect of MRI Patient Image Augmentation Methods

The exponential growth of deep learning networks has enabled us to handle difficult tasks, even in the complex field of medicine with small datasets. In the sphere of treatment, they are particularly significant. To identify brain tumors, this research examines how three deep learning networks are affected by conventional data augmentation methods, including MobileNetV2, VGG19, and DenseNet201. The findings showed that before and after utilizing approaches, picture augmentation schemes significantly affected the networks. The accuracy of MobileNetV2, which was originally 85.33%, was then enhanced to 96.88%. The accuracy of VGG19, which was 77.33%, was then enhanced to 95.31%, and DenseNet201, which was originally 82.66%, was then enhanced to 93.75%. The models' accuracy percentage engagement change is 13.53%, 23.25%, and 23.25%, respectively. Finally, the conclusion showed that applying data augmentation approaches improves performance, producing models far better than those trained from scratch

Roles of Stakeholders Towards Project Success: A Conceptual Study

Stakeholder plays significant roles in project success. They ensure clear communication of project goals, contribute to decision-making, and demonstrate commitment, increasing the likelihood of successful outcomes. They also act as advocates within their organizations, generating buy-in and support. The main purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss the roles of shareholders in a project success. The paper is conceptual in nature and uses a number literatures ranging from 2007 to 2023 from a good number of journals. After scrutinized the literature review, the paper concludes a number of findings. The findings implies that stakeholders in a project is crucial for its success and sustainability. They play a significant role in ensuring the performance of the project. Project managers need to acquire stakeholder management skills to address the communication requirements of stakeholders. This is important for the success of the project. The paper recommend that policymakers, practitioners and academia have to ensure the expectations and make a balance among the stakeholders

Establishment of an efficient callus induction and plant regeneration system in Pakistani wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivars

Four commercially grown wheat varieties of Pakistan, namely Inqilab-91, Chakwal-97, Tatara and Manthar were used for this investigation. For callus induction different concentrations of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyaceticacid (2,4-D) along with 0.1 mg/L of Kinetin were evaluated. For regeneration initially different concentrations of Indole-3-Acetic Acid (IAA) and 6-BenzylAminoPurine (BAP) were tested. Best hormone combinations were further subjected to Kinetin and 6-γ-γ-dimethylallylaminopurine (2iP). For Inqilab-91, Chakwal-97 and Manthar, 3 mg/L of 2,4-D was found optimum, which induced 83.25%, 77.75% and 95.20% of embryogenic calli, respectively. Maximum callus induction (97.18%) was observed in Tatara when 2 mg/L of 2,4-D was used. As regard to regeneration, Inqilab-91, Chakwal-97 and Manthar showed maximum regeneration on media containing 0.1 mg/L IAA, 0.4 mg/L Kinetin and 0.5 mg/L 2iP, regenerating 87.25%, 81.75% and 68.75% respectively. For Tatara maximum regeneration of 12.25% was obtained on 0.1 mg/L IAA and 2 mg/L of BAP. Presently optimized regeneration method holds promise for facilitating the deployment of agronomical important trait through genetic transformation for the improvement of this important food crop

Secure Electronic Payment: Proposed method for the growth of E-commerce in Bangladesh

The innovations in technologies are changing the social, cultural and economic relationships in a vast variety of ways. Information technology has become a necessary tool for today’s organizations and banking industry is not an exception. Electronic commerce is rapidly growing modern business process in all over the world, but in Bangladesh it is increasing comparatively slower rate. Though Bangladesh was comparatively a late introducer of e-banking but now almost all the banks are providing internet banking to their customers. But what is important is the lack of comprehensive study of the e-payment security covering organizational and customers’ point of view. Considering the importance of secure e-payment to grow up e-commerce in Bangladesh this study was taken up. It was revealed from the survey that the customers’ and service providers main concern was security. E-banking service providers should have to ensure that online banking is safe and secure for every user in all kind of transactions. The Authors also proposed a secure e-payment model in general and on debit card and credit card to bring customers confidence on e-payment and increase the volume of e-commerce in the context of Bangladesh