Effective Management and Its Impact on Growth of Small and Medium Sized Pakistani Firms

The study is held to observe the impact of Management including Management levels and decision making on the growth of small firms. Study area is Punjab (Pakistan). Small firms have no proper firm structure; they do not follow the formal rules to run the organization. In spite of this, these firms are growing rapidly. If these firms have effective management levels and rational decision making than the firms will grow rapidly. The results show a significant increase in growth by using rational decision making and having effective management levels. Statistical results show that if we spend 1% on independent variable, then it shows an 80% increase in dependent variable

A Method for Evaluating and Prioritizing Candidate Intersections for Transit Signal Priority Implementation

Transit agencies seeking to improve transit service delivery are increasingly considering the deployment of transit signal priority (TSP). However, the impact of TSP on transit service and on the general traffic stream is a function of many factors, including intersection geometry, signal timings, traffic demands, TSP strategies and parameters, transit vehicle headways, timing when transit vehicles arrive at the intersection, etc. Previous studies have shown that depending on these factors, the net impact of TSP in terms of vehicle or person delay can be positive or negative. Furthermore, due to financial constraints, transit agencies are often able to deploy TSP at only a portion of all of the candidate intersections. Consequently, there is a need to estimate the impact of TSP prior to implementation in order to assist in determining at which intersections TSP should be deployed. Currently, the impacts of TSP are often estimated using microscopic simulation models. However, the application of these models is resource intensive and requires specialized expertise that is often not available in-house to transit agencies. In this thesis, an analytical model was proposed for estimating the delay impacts of green extension and early green (red truncation) TSP strategies. The proposed model is validated with analytical model reported in the literature and microscopic simulation model. This is followed by model sensitivity analysis. A software module is developed using the proposed model. The usefulness of the model is illustrated through its application to estimate the TSP performance. Finally, a prioritization is conducted on sixteen intersections with different geometric and operational traffic strategies. The overall results indicate that the proposed model is suitable for both estimating the pre-deployment and post-deployment TSP performance. The proposed model is suitable for implementation within a spreadsheet and requires considerably less effort, and less technical expertise, to apply than a typical micro-simulation model and therefore is a more suitable tool for transit agencies to use for prioritising TSP deployment

Frequency of severity of disability in patients with grade iII lumbar neural foraminal stenosis on magnetic resonance imaging

Background Low back pain is a common condition and carries substantial socioeconomic implications. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the imaging modality of choice with lumbar neural foraminal stenosis being one of the most common causes of lower back pain syndromes. Studies have shown a lack of correlation between patients\u27 severity of disability and radiologically determined nerve root constriction. Therefore, the goal of this study will be to determine the frequency of severity of disability in patients with severe (i.e., grade III) lumbar neural foraminal stenosis on MRI to ascertain the impact of MRI diagnosis on clinical outcomes. Materials and methods Two hundred fifty patients of either gender with a history of backache referred for MRI were included by purposive sampling. Of these 250 patients, 27 patients had grade II lumbar neural foraminal stenosis, and 21 had grade I neural foraminal stenosis on MRI and were excluded. Thirty-two patients had a spinal infection (e.g., tuberculosis), and 24 patients had a history of trauma. Further, 31 patients were having follow-up scans for previously diagnosed lumbar neural foraminal stenosis. Hence, after excluding these cases, 115 patients were enrolled in this cross-sectional study with grade III lumbar neural foraminal stenosis on MRI. Results The mean age was 51 years (range: 20 to 82 years). Most of the patients (55.6%) were older than 50 years. The most common site of grade III lumbar neural foraminal stenosis was L4-L5 (56.5%). According to the Oswestry disability index, 47 patients (40.9%) had a severe disability, 32 (27.8%) had a moderate disability, 16 (13.9%) were diabled, 14 (12.2%) had a mild disability, and six (5.2%) were bedridden. Conclusions While MRI is the imaging modality of choice in degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis, clinical disabilities can be more extensive than what radiological findings may indicate in approximately 40% of the cases. Therefore, lumbar spinal stenosis should be a neuro-radiological diagnosis, and surgical decisions should be based on clinical scenarios in addition to MRI findings

The concept of the sustainable port – ports becoming enablers of sustainability in trans-ports and logistics

Global transportation is one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Portsplay an important role for the leap towards a more sustainable transport ecosystem. Overthe years, empowered by the Swedish innovation project I.Hamn, a concept for thesustainable port has been developed by the Swedish ports (see Appendix 1). This efforthas been financed by the Swedish Transport Administration’s industry programmeSustainable shipping managed by Lighthouse. The project is coordinated by the ResearchInstitutes of Sweden (RISE), and University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University ofTechnology are project partners.The result is a vision of the sustainable port, including a roadmap - developed togetherwith Lighthouse Focus group for Ports - supporting Swedish ports, in which the threepillars of sustainability have been addressed, i.e., economic, social, and environmentalsustainability.Globala transporter \ue4r en av de st\uf6rsta bidragsgivarna till utsl\ue4ppen av v\ue4xthusgaser. Hamnarna spelar en viktig roll f\uf6r spr\ue5nget mot ett mer h\ue5llbart transportekosystem. Genom insatser i innovationsprojektet I.Hamn har ett koncept f\uf6r den h\ue5llbara hamnen tagits fram av de svenska hamnarna (se Appendix 1). Satsningen har finansierats av Trafikverkets branschprogram H\ue5llbar sj\uf6fart som f\uf6rvaltas av Lighthouse. Projektet har koordinerats av Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) tillsammans med G\uf6teborgs universitet och Chalmers tekniska h\uf6gskola.\ua0Resultatet \ue4r en vision om den h\ue5llbara hamnen, inklusive en f\ue4rdplan - framtagen tillsammans med Lighthouse Fokusgrupp Hamnar - som st\uf6djer svenska hamnar, d\ue4r de tre pelarna f\uf6r h\ue5llbarhet har tagits upp, det vill s\ue4ga ekonomisk, social och milj\uf6m\ue4ssig h\ue5llbarhet

A comprehensive review on role of phytochemicals in human health

Phytochemicals are plant extracts that are widely used due to their ability to provide health benefits and their therapeutic activity against several disorders. They are also called phytonutrients as they are not really the part of our diet but have several positive effects on ourhealth. They are found to decrease the risk factor of cardiovascular disorders and coronary heart disorders. It has also been found that phytochemicals diminish the risk ratio of several types of cancers including breast, colon and skin cancers. This article revolves around taking carotenoids, chlorophyll and fibers as examples of phytonutrients to evaluate their beneficial role in several diseases. These phytochemicals have been found to be associated with antioxidant activity, retinol activity, cell signaling, improvement of glycemic control, protection against high blood pressure, facilitation in defecation and anti-cancerous activity

Swedish shippers’ strategies for coping with slow-steaming in deep sea container shipping

When container shipping lines experience over-capacity and high fuel costs, they typically respond by decreasing sailing speeds and, consequently, increasing transport time. Most of the literature on this phenomenon, often referred to as slow-steaming, takes the perspective of the shipping lines addressing technical, operational and financial effects, or a society perspective focusing on lower emissions and energy use. Few studies investigate the effects on the demand side of the market for container liner shipping. Hence, the aim of this study is to elaborate on the logistics consequences of slow-steaming, particularly the strategies that Swedish shippers purchasing deep sea container transport services employ to mitigate the effects of slow-steaming. Workshops and semi-structured interviews revealed that shippers felt they had little or no impact on sailing schedules and were more or less subject to container shipping lines’ decisions. The effects of slow-steaming were obviously most severe for firms with complex supply chains, where intermediate products are sent back and forth between production stages on different continents. The shippers developed a set of strategies to cope with the low punctuality of containerised shipping, and these were categorised in the domains of transfer-the-problem, transport, sourcing and distribution, logistics and manufacturing, and product design. All firms applied changes in the transport domain, although the lack of service segmentation limited the effects of the strategy. Most measures were applied by two firms, whereas only one firm changed the product design

Slow Steaming as Part of SECA Compliance Strategies among RoRo and RoPax Shipping Companies

Many geographically peripheral member states of the EU are critically dependent on short sea Roll-on/Roll-off (RoRo) and mixed freight&ndash passenger (RoPax) shipping services for intra-European trade. The implementation of the Sulfur Emission Control Area (SECA) regulation was expected to raise the operating cost for RoRo and RoPax shipping, and slow steaming was proposed as an immediate solution to save the increased cost. Previous research has investigated the issue of slow steaming and SECA using a quantitative approach. However, the reaction of the RoRo and RoPax shipping firms toward slow steaming as a mitigating factor in the face of expected additional SECA compliance costs using qualitative methodology has not been explored yet. In addition, the knowledge regarding the impact of slow steaming on the competitiveness of short sea RoRo and RoPax with respect to service quality is limited. This article has addressed these issues through the analysis of multiple cases focusing on RoRo and RoPax firms operating in the North and Baltic Seas. Overall, our findings suggest that the 0.1% SECA regulation of 2015 requiring the use of higher-priced MGO has not caused slow steaming in the RoRo and RoPax segments to a large extent. The increased bunker prices are partially transferred to the customers via increased Bunker Adjustment Factor and partly borne by the shipowners. We have found that out of 11 case firms in our study only one RoRo and one RoPax firm have reduced vessel speeds to compensate for the additional SECA compliance costs. We conclude that for RoPax and RoRo segment bunker prices, rigorous competition and, most important, different service quality requirements have significantly restricted the potential implementation of slow steaming. Document type: Articl