In defense of private property: The role of private property rights and ethics in the market economy

This paper examines the role private property rights and ethics play in a market economy, and demonstrates that in order to have a free market, it is essential to have a legal system that defines private property rights. Such a legal system can only evolve on the free market itself; Chapter I examines the nature of property rights; Chapter II examines some historical examples of legal systems that have been based on private property rights; Chapter III explains the relationship between such a legal system and ethics. An attempt is made to justify such a system on the basis of ethics; Chapter IV explores the implications of the concept of private property; Chapter V examines the characteristics of a legal system which is based on the concept of private property; Finally, Chapter VI presents criticisms of some present ideas on property rights and legal practices. Moreover, some conclusions are presented

Projective modules of group rings over quadratic number fields

Let K be a quadratic number field, Ok its ring of integers, and G a cyclic group of order prime p. In this thesis, we study the kernel group D(O(_K)G) and obtain a number of results concerning its order and structure. For K imaginary, we also investigate the subset R(O(_k)G) of the locally free class group CI(O(_k)G) consisting of classes which occur as rings of integers of tame extensions of K with Galois group isomorphic to G. We calculate R(O(_k)G) under a variety of conditions and obtain, for an arbitrary tame extension L o( K with group G, invariants which determine the class of O(_L) in R(O(_k)G)

National Finance Commission Awards in Pakistan : A Historical Perspective

This study explores the evolution of fiscal resource distribution in Pakistan. Pakistan is a federation comprising four provinces, federallyadministered areas, and the Islamabad Capital Territory. Being a central type of government, most of the revenues are collected by the centre and then redistributed vertically between the federal and the provincial governments, and horizontally among the provinces. Provinces then also redistribute revenues among lower tiers of the government, through a revenue-sharing formula. A thorough look at the history indicates that this process has been complex and has a far-reaching impact. A less systematic approach has been adopted to decentralise the financial matters. Over time, the divisible pool has expanded due to heavy reliance on indirect taxes as well as improvement in the collection. Population is the sole distribution criteria, adopted in all NFC awards from the divisible pool. This has raised friction among the provinces, necessitating inclusion of other potential variables evolved from international best practices. In addition to that, absence of technical experts and permanency of the NFC is another impediment. The NFC is supposed to provide the framework for amicable distribution of resources between the federal and the provincial governments for the joint goal of development and prosperity.NFC, Pakistan, fiscal federalism, Rule and Discretion, political economy, Population, Subventions, Doing the Business of Government

National Finance Commission Awards in Pakistan: A Historical Perspective

This study explores the evolution of fiscal resource distribution in Pakistan. Pakistan is a federation comprising four provinces, federally-administered areas, and the Islamabad Capital Territory. Being a central type of government, most of the revenues are collected by the centre and then redistributed vertically between the federal and the provincial governments, and horizontally among the provinces. Provinces then also redistribute revenues among lower tiers of the government, through a revenue-sharing formula. A thorough look at the history indicates that this process has been complex and has a far-reaching impact. A less systematic approach has been adopted to decentralise the financial matters. Over time, the divisible pool has expanded due to heavy reliance on indirect taxes as well as improvement in the collection. Population is the sole distribution criteria, adopted in all NFC awards from the divisible pool. This has raised friction among the provinces, necessitating inclusion of other potential variables evolved from international best practices. In addition to that, absence of technical experts and permanency of the NFC is another impediment. The NFC is supposed to provide the framework for amicable distribution of resources between the federal and the provincial governments for the joint goal of development and prosperity.NFC, Pakistan, Fiscal Federalism, Rule and Discretion, Political Economy, Population, Subventions, Doing the Business of Government

Towards a mood sensitive integrated development environment to enhance the performance of programmers

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The aim of the research was to analyze the possibility of developing an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that could improve a programmer‘s performance by considering their current mood. Various experiments were conducted to study this idea. However, the impact of moods on programmer performance was initially examined in the literature. Based on this, a Cognitive Programming Task Model (CPTM) was developed showing that various cognitive functions and programming activities are interrelated. A second model derived from the literature, the Cognitive Mood Model (CMM), suggested that moods are also interrelated with various cognitive functions. Combining these two models indirectly suggests a relation between moods and programming tasks, which was presented as the Mood Programming Model (MPM). As direct empirical support was lacking for this relation, two experiments were conducted to study the effect mood could have on performance in a debug task. Validated mood-inducing movie clips were used to induce specific moods along two-mood dimensions: valence and arousal. The first study was conducted online. The results showed that arousal is a significant factor when considering programmer performance whereas valence was found to have no significant effect. The second study was a continuation study to validate the findings from the first study within lab conditions. The results were not able to confirm the findings of the first experiment. The reasons for these findings were explained accordingly. As mood was found to have an effect on a programmer‘s coding and debugging performance, this factor might be considered when developing a support system. The next step in the research was therefore to consider mood measuring in a non-interruptive way. The next two experiments were based around the hypothesis that ―moods can be measured from the keyboard and mouse interaction of the computer user‖. In the first experiment an application was installed on participants‘ computers to record their key presses and mouse clicks in a log file. Their self reported moods in intervals of 20 minutes were also stored in the same file over an average period of eight days. Correlations between participants‘ self reported moods and their keyboard and mouse use revealed that it might be possible to measure moods of the some of the participants. The second experiment took place in the lab, where participants were asked to perform programming like tasks while listening to ii mood inducing background music. Their moods were measured with a Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) meter whereas key presses and mouse clicks again were recorded in log files. The correlations between GSR measurements and keyboard and mouse interaction validated the findings of the experiment in the field that it might be possible to measure the mood of some users from their computer use. Analyzing participants‘ personality traits showed dutifulness and self discipline as indicators that a person‘s mood correlates with his/her interaction behaviour. Considering that mood has an effect on programmer performance and that it might be possible to measure mood in a non-intrusive manner, the last question to focus on was whether a computer-generated intervention could change a programmer‘s mood and consequently improve their performance. In the final experiment programmers had to dry run algorithms for 16 minutes with the expectation that a level of boredom would set in. After this the video clip instructed them to participate in some physical exercises. Participants continued tracing algorithms for 8 minutes after the intervention. Results showed that the mood change after the intervention coincided with a programmers improved ability to provide the correct output of the algorithms. Together these findings lay the foundation for developing an IDE that can measure the programmer mood in a non-intrusive way and make effective interventions to improve programmer performance

Functioning of Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Committees in Punjab: An Appraisal

The present study aims to assess the composition of VHSNCs; to assess the functioning of VHSNCs and find out the deviations, if any, from the prescribed framework of guidelines and, to understand awareness of VHSNC members about their roles. The proposed study is based on primary data collected with the help of structured questionnaire. The data was collected from one hundred Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Committees in Punjab. Four districts of the Punjab state were selected randomly from each direction i.e North, South, East and West. The districts selected were Gurdaspur, Mansa, Mohali and Firozpur from North, South, East and West direction respectively. The study reveals that sampled VHSNCs in Punjab have 12 members per VHSNC. One-fourth of the chairpersons of the VHSNCs in Punjab were illiterate Only 23 per cent of the VHSNCs claimed to have prepared the village health plan. Meetings were organized on monthly basis in only half of the expected meetings per VHSNC. Large number of members was not attending the meetings organised by VHSNCs in Punjab. Majority of the funds received by VHSNCs was utilized for sanitation and cleanliness of the village. Majority of members were not aware about the components and objectives of VHSNC. All members reported that the untied fund is always helpful in solving the issues and problems of the village and the amount of untied fund given to VHSNCs should be increased

Characterization of a novel intelligent information management architecture based on autonomous mobile agents

Information Systems have progressed from stand-alone platform-centric systems to network-centric intelligent systems with the rapid advancement in Information and Communication Technology.This is an evolutionary process embedded with new challenges and rewards for the users of new information systems.The migration of these systems towards network centric computing has made these systems susceptible to networking paradigm problems opening a whole new avenue of research to address the typical problems of these information systems.The user demand on information service systems is never predictable and is always changing, creating new challenges for the designers and managers of these systems.Autonomous mobile agents employed in a networked environment have shown a lot of potential to inject intelligence and to handle the heterogeneous user demands of such systems under constantly evolving conditions.This paper investigates the employment of faded information field architecture employing mobile agents to address the constantly evolving condition of an information service system.The proposed architecture was simulated with promising results in unison with predicted behavior

Implementing TQM practices in Pakistani Higher Education Institutions

Implementing TQM practices at the Higher Educational Institutions of Pakistan, especially at the business schools, is relatively a new concept and it is in its initial stages. The theoretical framework of this study is based upon the instrument that measures the extent of TQM implementation in Higher Education Institutions. Based upon literature review, the framework having 14 dimensions is used in this study. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) extracted 13 factors as the determinants of TQM Implementation in business schools of Pakistan such as Stakeholders’ Focus, Recognition and Reward, Measurement and Evaluation, Process Control and Improvement, Resources, Leadership, Empowerment are some of the main factors as each of these factors are explaining more than 5% of the variation in the dat