A life course approach to understand work–life choices of women entrepreneurs: evidence from Pakistan

This thesis attempted to provide a rich and robust understanding of how women’s work–life1 choices are influenced and shaped by the socio-cultural context of Pakistani society. It also illuminated the role of human agency in making work–life choices. Recently, women’s entrepreneurship has gained wide recognition in research in both developed and developing countries. However, critical analysis of the existing literature highlighted the failure of research in women’s entrepreneurship to recognise the context in which women’s entrepreneurship is embedded (deBruin et al., 2007; Blackburn and Kovalainen, 2009; Welter, 2010). Moreover, the majority of the research was conducted in Anglo-Saxon countries that may not appropriately reflect the true nature of women’s entrepreneurship in the context of developing countries (Gracia and Brush, 2012; Jamali, 2009). As a result there are emerging calls for more research stemming from developing countries (Brush et al., 2009; Jamali, 2009) based on a more explanatory mechanism by including subjective experiences, which may represent a unique set of factors that impinge on a woman’s work–life choices. It is precisely in this context that the present research concentrated on exploring women entrepreneurs’ experiences of managing work and family within the social structures of Pakistan. This study provided insight into how women talk about and experience work and family by including their subjective perspectives. Concisely, the research explored the various ways in which women’s choices of work–life are socially embedded (context specific)

Smooth and non-smooth traveling wave solutions of some generalized Camassa-Holm equations

In this paper we employ two recent analytical approaches to investigate the possible classes of traveling wave solutions of some members of a recently-derived integrable family of generalized Camassa-Holm (GCH) equations. A recent, novel application of phase-plane analysis is employed to analyze the singular traveling wave equations of three of the GCH NLPDEs, i.e. the possible non-smooth peakon and cuspon solutions. One of the considered GCH equations supports both solitary (peakon) and periodic (cuspon) cusp waves in different parameter regimes. The second equation does not support singular traveling waves and the last one supports four-segmented, non-smooth $M$-wave solutions. Moreover, smooth traveling waves of the three GCH equations are considered. Here, we use a recent technique to derive convergent multi-infinite series solutions for the homoclinic orbits of their traveling-wave equations, corresponding to pulse (kink or shock) solutions respectively of the original PDEs. We perform many numerical tests in different parameter regime to pinpoint real saddle equilibrium points of the corresponding GCH equations, as well as ensure simultaneous convergence and continuity of the multi-infinite series solutions for the homoclinic orbits anchored by these saddle points. Unlike the majority of unaccelerated convergent series, high accuracy is attained with relatively few terms. We also show the traveling wave nature of these pulse and front solutions to the GCH NLPDEs

Effects of Sfermion Mixing induced by RGE Running in the Minimal Flavor Violating CMSSM

Within the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (CMSSM) with Minimal Flavor Violation (MFV) for scalar quarks we study the effects of intergenerational squark mixing on $B$-physics observables, electroweak precision observables (EWPO) and the Higgs boson mass predictions. Squark mixing is generated through the Renormalization Group Equations (RGE) running from the GUT scale to the electroweak scale due to presence of non diagonal Yukawa matrices in the RGE's, e.g. due to the CKM matrix. We find that the $B$-Physics observables as well as the Higgs mass predictions do not receive sizable corrections. On the other hand, the EWPO such as the $W$ boson mass can receive corrections by far exceeding the current experimental precision. These contributions can place new upper bounds on the CMSSM parameter space. We extend our analysis to the CMSSM extended with a mechanism to explain neutrino masses (CMSSM-seesaw I), which induces flavor violation in the scalar lepton sector. Effects from slepton mixing on the analyzed observables are in general smaller than from squark mixing, but can reach the level of the current experimenal uncertainty for the EWPO

The Quark Flavor Violating Higgs Decay h→bˉs+bsˉh \rightarrow \bar b s + b \bar s in the MSSM

We study the quark flavor violating Higgs-boson decay $h \rightarrow \bar b s + b \bar s$ in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). The decay is analyzed first in a model independent, and in a second step in the minimal flavor violationg (MFV) Constrained MSSM. The experimental constraints from $B$-Physics observables (BPO) and electroweak precision observables (EWPO) are also calculated and imposed on the parameter space. It is shown that in some cases the EWPO restrict the flavor violating parameter space stronger than the BPO. In the model independent analysis values of ${\cal O}(10^{-4})$ can be found for ${\rm BR}(h \rightarrow \bar b s + b \bar s)$. In the MFV CMSSM such results can only be obtained in very restricted parts of the parameter space. The results show that it is not excluded to observe the decay $h \rightarrow \bar b s + b \bar s$ in the MSSM at future $e^+e^-$ colliders.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1501.02258; text overlap with arXiv:hep-ph/9909325 by other author

Fate of Electromagnetic Field on the Cracking of PSR J1614-2230 in Quadratic Regime

In this paper, we study the cracking of compact object PSR J1614-2230 in quadratic regime with electromagnetic field. For this purpose, we develop a general formalism to determine the cracking of charged compact objects. We apply the local density perturbations to the hydrostatic equilibrium equation as well as all the physical variables involve in the model. We plot the force distribution function against radius of the star with different values of model parameters both with and without charge. It is found that PSR J1614-2230 remains stable (no cracking) corresponding to different values of parameters when charge is zero, while it exhibit cracking (unstable) when charge is introduced. We conclude that stability region increases as amount of charge increases.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, version to appear in advances in high energy physic

Higgs masses and Electroweak Precision Observables in the Lepton-Flavor-Violating MSSM

We study the effects of Lepton Flavor Violation (LFV) in the scalar lepton sector of the MSSM on precision observables such as the W-boson mass and the effective weak leptonic mixing angle, and on the Higgs-boson mass predictions. The slepton mass matrices are parameterized in a model-independent way by a complete set of dimensionless parameters which we constrain through LFV decay processes and the precision observables. We find regions where both conditions are similarly constraining. The necessary prerequisites for the calculation have been added to FeynArts and FormCalc and are thus publicly available for further studies. The obtained results are available in FeynHiggs.Comment: LaTeX, 30 page

Higgs Boson Mass, Sparticle Spectrum and Little Hierarchy Problem in Extended MSSM

We investigate the impact of TeV-scale matter belonging to complete vectorlike multiplets of unified groups on the lightest Higgs boson in the MSSM. We find that consistent with perturbative unification and electroweak precision data the mass m_h can be as large as 160 GeV. These extended MSSM models can also render the little hierarchy problem less severe, but only for lower values of m_h < 125 GeV. We present estimates for the sparticle mass spectrum in these models.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figure

Study of polytropes with Generalized polytropic Equation of State

The aim of this paper is to discuss the theory of Newtonian and relativistic polytropes with generalized polytropic equation of state. For this purpose, we formulated the general framework to discuss the physical properties of polytrops with anisotropic inner fluid distribution under conformally flat condition in the presence of charge. We investigate the stability of these polytrops in the vicinity of generalized polytropic equation through Tolman-mass. It is concluded that one of the derived models is physically acceptable.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figure