MARKETING STRATEGIES TO EXTRINSICALLY MOTIVATE TAX PAYERS IN PAKISTAN

This study tries to explore the appropriate marketingstrategies that could motivate tax payers extrinsically resulting inwillingness towards tax compliance. The study is qualitative innature, based on highly unstructured and open ended interviews.The sample selected for the compilation of study included the business community holding valid National Income Tax Number (NTN), registered with the registration authorities.The qualitative data were processed in QSR Nvivo software that is developed for analyzing the qualitative information. Two codes were created resulting in nine codes including issues related to human resources, discrimination, threatening messages, prices of utilities, benefits, services, advertising, protection of copyrights and support for business. Based on the analysis of data, the study recommended marketing strategies thatcould result in motivating the tax payer extrinsically to enhance tax morale and facilitate tax compliance

Neuroimmunology diagnostics

Neuroimmunology has led to advanced diagnostics of previously cryptic disorders, using autoantibody testing against neurological targets. Neuropsychiatric syndromes and autoimmune encephalitis can now be routinely diagnosed using specialized antibody tests such as immunofluorescence and immunoblot assays in specialized laboratories. This helps in early and accurate diagnosis, leading to favorable patient prognosis. Here, we briefly review the diagnostics for Neuroimmunologic and related disorders including autoimmune encephalitis, demyelinating diseases, neuropathies, paraneoplastic syndromes, stiffperson syndrome, inflammatory myopathies as well as Alzheimer’s disease

RAZMIN by Qureshi Enterprises: Competing with the Secret Sauce of Competitors

The case is comprised of the entrepreneurial venture of Mr. Fahim Qureshi, who visualized the opportunity for growth and marketability for food, beverages and various FMCG products in Pakistan by organizing the scattered demand. He established QURESHI ENTERPRISE (QE) in 1997.  Mr. Qureshi believe that his deep knowledge of the consumer market, compounded with financial strength and other capabilities provides ample opportunities and further scope for expansion and with this in mind he created his brand “ Razmin”. The brand is for numerous culinary products, like corns, curry pastes and wide range of sauces. All these items are manufactured, packed and branded in Thailand

Evaluation of Anomalous Coronary Arteries on 64 Slice Multidetector Computerized Tomographic Angiography

Introduction: Anomalous Coronary arteries is a well-known congenital entity with variable effects. The majority of such patients are asymptomatic but some can have adverse effects like ischemia and arrhythmia. Its association with Sudden Cardiac Death in young is established. Objective: To determine the frequency of   ACA on MDCT in patients referred for coronary artery disease assessment and to determine the origin, course, and morphological variable of SCD of ACA on MDCT. Materials and Methods: The study was done in the Department of Cardiovascular Imaging at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology. A retrospective data of patients undergoing CTA for CAD between a  period of Jan 2009 and Dec 2017 were analyzed for the presence of  Anomalous Coronary Artery (ACA). All patients having anomalous origin from opposite coronary cusp and its course were included. The patients with myocardial bridging and coronary artery fistula were excluded. Results: Total patients analyzed with MDCT for CAD and graft assessment between Jan 2009 and December 2017 were 8028. Fifty-three patients were excluded because of poor image quality. Among these ACA were found in 166 (2.08%). Gender distributions were 126 (75.9%) males and 40 (24.09%) females, the mean age in years was 49.31 ± 13.23. The most common ACA was Right coronary artery 83 followed by Left Circumflex 44 (26.50%), Left Anterior Descending Artery 22 (13.25%), and Left Main Stem 17 (10.24%) respectively. Fifty-three (31.92%) patients had previously unknown ACA and were found to have ACA on MDCT and 82 (49.39%) patients were referred following ICA for the confirmation of ACA. The Inter-arterial course was predominant in RCA and Left Coronary Artery 97% and 77% respectively. A retro artic course was predominant (100%) in LCx. Seven patients had associated cyanotic heart disease with ACA. Two patients(one LAD and one RCA) had origin from the Main Pulmonary artery. Conclusion: MDCT is the imaging modality of choice for the evaluation of ACA. It can identify the origin of ACA from opposite coronary cusp and defines the malignant course of ACA for the potential risk of sudden cardiac death

Evaluating Causes of Delay in Construction Projects of Pakistan

A project takes extra time for completion is called delay. Schedule delay in construction industry is a global phenomenon. Schedule delay is the time overrun either beyond completion date specified in the contract, or beyond the date that the parties agreed upon for the delivery of the project. There are some hurdles causes project delay are called delay causes or factors. The study examines the fifty four delay causes in forty two first class construction firms of Pakistan. Study categorizes these fifty four delay causes in seven groups: (1) Owner related (2) Consultant related (3) Contractor related (4) Material related (5) Labor and equipment related (6) project related and (7) External related. Study use questionnaire for collection of feedback of different professionals. In total sixty questionnaires were sent to forty-two first class firms, out of which forty one responded with sixty nine percent of response rate. Severity index, frequency index, relative importance index and weighted median tools of descriptive statistics uses for analyzing data. From weighted median study conclude that owner related and external related delay groups have maximum impact over project schedule delay. Top five delay causes using severity index were (1) Poor site management and Supervision (2) improper project feasibility study (3) Delay in finance and payments by owner (4) Inadequate experience of consultant and Rework due to errors during construction (5) Difficulties in financing project by contractor, Unqualified workforce and effects of subsurface conditions. Using frequency index top five delay causes were 1) Delay in finance and payments by owner (2) Delay in getting work permit (3) Bureaucracy (4)  Slow decision making and Unrealistic inspection and testing methods proposed in contract (5) Slow permit by government. While according to RII top delay causes were (1) Delay in Finance and Payments by owner (2) poor site management and supervision (3) Delay in getting work permit from local govt authorities (4) Unqualified workforce (5) Slow decision making. Keywords: Construction delays, types of delays, Disputes, Statistical analysis

Bilateral retractile testis: A possible risk factor for male infertility

Healthy youth is an asset and strength for economic and social growth of any society. Developmental changes during puberty of youngsters need proper guidance to avoid future physical, physiological and psychological ailments. Bilateral Retractile Testis (BRT) is a health problem if remains unnoticed till adolescence can lead to tribulations. BRT may affect testicular parenchyma and spermatogenesis. Cremasteric muscles (muscles attached with testes) pull the testes up into groin so it randomly moves up and down and do not reside in its natural pouch always. It has been a controversial issue in male infertility as retraction may affect infertility. Objective: To estimate the prevalence of male infertility among patients with Bilateral Retractile Testis. Methodology: A total of 200 male patients were enrolled after the power calculation, with different reproductive health problems between the age of 18 - 40 years during the year 2016 at Reproductive health clinic Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center (JPMC), Karachi. 25 male patients were reported with infertility and BRT. The data was collected using self-developed questionnaire including outdoor patients’ physical check-up, manual testicular examination as size and shape were done. Patient height, weight, blood pressure, their lifestyle, and dressing regarding wearing tight jeans habits were asked. Semen analysis was carried out showing abnormality in sperm count, motility or morphology and entered and analysed in the SPSS version 10. Means and percentages were calculated. Result: Out of 200 male infertile patients, a total of 25 (12.5%) patients with a diagnosis of BRT were found in the sample with the mean age of 29 years. Moreover, it was identified that those having BRT also have low motility of the sperms. Based on the results it was concluded that BRT is a possible cause of male infertility in Pakistani population. Conclusion: BRT is a possible risk factor to affect sperm motility and low sperm motility can lead to male infertility. The study estimates the prevalence of 12.5% among our sampled men

MELD score: utility and comparison with King\u27s College criteria in non-acetaminophen acute liver failure.

Objective: To compare Model for End-stage Liver Disease Score (MELD Score, MS) and King’s College Hospital (KCH) criteria for finding correlation of mortality in non-acetaminophen induced acute liver failure (NAI-ALF). Study Design: An analytical cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from 2005 to 2007. Methodology: The study included patients with NAI-ALF. KCH criteria were labelled as good and bad prognosis groups. MELD score were calculated by using the MELD calculator. ROC was plotted and sensitivity analysis was done. ETA was used to see correlation between MELD and KCH. Results: Ninety-one patients with mean age of 32.5 + 16.3 years were studied; 49 were males (54%). Out of these, 57 patients died (63%); two leading causes of non-acetaminophen induced acute liver failure (NAI-ALF) were hepatitis hepatitis B virus (HBV) (n = 30, 33%) followed by hepatitis E virus in (n = 23, 25.3%). According to King\u27s College Hospital (KCH) criteria, 50 patients (88%) who died had bad prognosis and 24 patients (70.6%) who survived had good prognosis. The ROC determined MELD score of 32 was the best predictor of mortality with sensitivity and specificity of 79% and 71%, respectively and positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV) of 82% and 67% respectively. There was significant association between mortality and bad prognosis according to KCH criteria (p \u3c 0.001). Overall mean MELD score (MMS) was 35.35 + 8.64. MMS on admission was 38 + 7.32 in patients who died and 30.7 + 8.77 in those who survived (p = \u3c 0.001). MMS correlated equally with KCH criteria (ETA = 0.52). Conclusion: The admission MELD score has an excellent utility and correlates equally with KCH criteria for mortality in NAI- ALF

Model predictive control of consensus-based energy management system for DC microgrid

The increasing deployment and exploitation of distributed renewable energy source (DRES) units and battery energy storage systems (BESS) in DC microgrids lead to a promising research field currently. Individual DRES and BESS controllers can operate as grid-forming (GFM) or grid-feeding (GFE) units independently, depending on the microgrid operational requirements. In standalone mode, at least one controller should operate as a GFM unit. In grid-connected mode, all the controllers may operate as GFE units. This article proposes a consensus-based energy management system based upon Model Predictive Control (MPC) for DRES and BESS individual controllers to operate in both configurations (GFM or GFE). Energy management system determines the mode of power flow based on the amount of generated power, load power, solar irradiance, wind speed, rated power of every DG, and state of charge (SOC) of BESS. Based on selection of power flow mode, the role of DRES and BESS individual controllers to operate as GFM or GFE units, is decided. MPC hybrid cost function with auto-tuning weighing factors will enable DRES and BESS converters to switch between GFM and GFE. In this paper, a single hybrid cost function has been proposed for both GFM and GFE. The performance of the proposed energy management system has been validated on an EU low voltage benchmark DC microgrid by MATLAB/SIMULINK simulation and also compared with Proportional Integral (PI) & Sliding Mode Control (SMC) technique. It has been noted that as compared to PI & SMC, MPC technique exhibits settling time of less than 1µsec and 5% overshoot