At the Crossroads: Exploring the Relationship Between Financial Decisions and Firm Performance of Distressed Firms in the Pakistan Stock Exchange

The primary aim of this study is to assess the influence of financial decisions on the financial performance of distressed firms in Pakistan. Specifically, the research delves into three pivotal financial decisions: dividends, capital structure, and investment choices. Utilising balance sheet analyses published by the State Bank of Pakistan, relevant data were gathered for companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. The sample for this investigation comprises 185 non-financial firms listed on the PSX over the past eight years (2010-2017), utilising panel data. Regression analysis using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) technique was employed to examine the relationships. The results reveal that the dividend policy significantly and positively impacts return on assets, while its effect on return on equity is found to be insignificant. The study also explores the impact of capital structure on the performance of distressed firms, indicating an insignificant and negative effect on return on assets. Additionally, a highly significant positive relationship is identified between taxes and both returns on assets. Concerning return on equity, a negative and highly significant association is observed between long-term debt and ROE. Furthermore, the investigation examines the effects of over- and under-investment on firm performance in distressed firms. The findings suggest that over-investment has a significant and positive impact on return, while under-investment demonstrates a significant and positive effect on return on assets and an insignificant positive impact on return on equity. This study contributes to the understanding of the impact of over and under-investment on firm performance, an aspect not previously explored in distressed firms

Impact of Online Trade and Covid-19 on Consumer Behaviour in Covid-19: Evidence from Bank Employees

This research documented the influence of Covid-19 and Online Trade on consumer behaviour in Pakistan. COVID-19 significantly impacts communal health and creates rapid variations in lifestyle, social isolation, and household segregation, with societal and economic effects. This specifies that the country's economic growth in the country has declined. Data is collected through a questionnaire using Google forms from bank employees in Pakistan. SPSS is employed to analyse the data. Results showed a significant and positive relation between online trade and consumer behaviour. It is also revealed that Covid-19 has a negative but significant impact on consumer behaviour. The outcome displays that China is a major producer, and substantial industrial numbers are closed

Development Of A User Friendly Liquid Level Measuring System.

The paper deals with the theory, design, fabrication and testing of a sensor and associated measuring system, which can be used for direct display of levels of conducting as well as non-conducting liquids

Gaussian mixture model based probabilistic modeling of images for medical image segmentation

In this paper, we propose a novel image segmentation algorithm that is based on the probability distributions of the object and background. It uses the variational level sets formulation with a novel region based term in addition to the edge-based term giving a complementary functional, that can potentially result in a robust segmentation of the images. The main theme of the method is that in most of the medical imaging scenarios, the objects are characterized by some typical characteristics such a color, texture, etc. Consequently, an image can be modeled as a Gaussian mixture of distributions corresponding to the object and background. During the procedure of curve evolution, a novel term is incorporated in the segmentation framework which is based on the maximization of the distance between the GMM corresponding to the object and background. The maximization of this distance using differential calculus potentially leads to the desired segmentation results. The proposed method has been used for segmenting images from three distinct imaging modalities i.e. magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), dermoscopy and chromoendoscopy. Experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed method giving better qualitative and quantitative results when compared with the current state-of-the-art. INDEX TERMS Gaussian Mixture Model, Level Sets, Active Contours, Biomedical Engineerin

Comparative Study of Conventional Electrocautery Versus Ultrasonic Dissector in Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

Background: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is very commonly performed for removal of gallstones. In routine, ultrasonic devices are used for laparoscopy involving the deeper operating fields, while electrosurgical devices are preferred for LC. However, nowadays both of these devices are used for LC. The objective of this study was to compare the surgical outcomes of ultrasonic dissector over conventional electrocautery in patients planned for LC. Material and Methods: This non-randomized clinical trial was conducted in general surgery unit, Jinnah hospital Lahore. The study duration was 15th January 2015 to 31st December 2016. In group A (n=100), patients were operated through three-port standard laparoscopic cholecystectomy and conventional electrosurgical cautery was used for dissection. While in group B (n=50), patients were operated through single incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) and Harmonic dissector was used for sealing of cystic artery and cystic duct. SPSS version 23 was used for data analysis. Complications between electrocautery and ultrasonic dissector were compared using chi-square test/Fischer exact test and operative time was compared using student’s t-test with p-value ≤ 0.05 considered as statistically significant.Results: Out of 150 patients planned for laparoscopic cholecystectomy, 33 (22%) were males and 117 (78%) females. The mean age was 40±6.45 years with an age range of 12-80 years. In group A, intraoperative gall bladder perforation was found in 5 patients whereas in group B, there was only one patient with perforation. A total of 4 cases were converted to open cholecystectomy in group A due to difficult dissection in Calot’s triangle as compared to 1 case in group B. In group A, 3 cases had postoperative bile leakage in the drain. In two patients it settled over a period of 3 days. About 03 cases had wound infection in group A and 1 in group B. Mean operative time in group A was 42.2±8.93 minutes versus 35.7±4.85 minutes in group B (p-value 0.001).Conclusion: In this study, the rate of post-operative complications was similar between the two groups, but operative time was significantly shorter in the group B. Harmonic dissector enabled easy dissection of tissues with good hemostasis and less trafficking of instrument, avoiding use of clips and sutures during minimal invasive surgery

Impact of mobility models on clustering based routing protocols in mobile WSNs

This paper presents comparison of different hierarchical (position and non-position based) protocols with respect to different mobility models. Previous work mainly focuses on static networks or at most a single mobility model. Using only one mobility model may not predict the behavior of routing protocol accurately. Simulation results show that mobility has large impact on the behavior of WSN routing protocols. Also, position based routing protocols performs better in terms of packet delivery compared to non position based routing protocols