Examining the Customer Equity of Retail Clothing Stores in a Bahawalpur Context: Nishat Linen & Sapphire

The Customer Equity framework was developed to answering the necessities and fulfil the lack of a model that could make marketing activities accountable and measurable for the firm by offering the missing link that connects marketing actions with the Customer spending actions. The purpose of this study is to apply the Customer Equity framework from the Customer perspective including the different Customer Equity drivers. For this purpose the primary data was collected by questionnaire from the customers of district of Bahawalpur. The data was tested for chi square test and frequency test. The results showed that there is significant relationship among all the variables. The results will be beneficial for managers and policy makers as well for allied industries. Keywords: Customer equity, Brand equity, Value equit

EFFECT OF ALKALINE IONS ON THE PHASE EVOLUTION, PHOTOLUMINESCENCE, AND AFTERGLOW PROPERTIES OF SrAl2O4: Eu2+, Dy3+ PHOSPHOR

A series of SrAl2O4: Eu2+, Dy3+ long-afterglow (LAG) phosphors with varying concentration of Li+, Na+ and K+, has been synthesized. The increased concentration of the three types of alkaline ions does not decrease the quantity of the total luminescent phases (SrAl2O4 plus Sr4Al14O25), but a different set of secondary phases has been evoluted for the K+-added series due to the failure of the incorporation of relatively large K+ (1.38 Å) to the Sr2+ (1.18 Å) site in the hosts, unlike the cases of smaller Li+ (0.76 Å) and Na+ (1.02 Å) ions. PL excitation, PL emission, and LAG luminescence, are decreased by all investigated alkaline ions, which would be due to the diminished incorporation of Eu2+ and Dy3+ activators into the luminescent hosts by the alkaline ions. For the cases of the Li+ and Na+-added series, the incorporated Li+ or Na+ to the luminescent hosts would also limit the activation of Eu2+ and charge trapping/detrapping of Dy3+ to yield the diminished PL properties and LAG luminescence. The type of defect complex formed by the addition of Li+ and Na+ ions has been deduced and compared with that formed when no alkaline ion is added

20-Gauge vs. 23-Gauge Vitrectomy, in Terms of Surgically Induced Astigmatism

OBJECTIVES To compare the post-operative (post-op) surgically induced mean astigmatism in patients undergoing 20-gauge- and 23-gauge vitrectomy. METHODOLOGY Sixty patients were enrolled. Relevant information was recorded in a Performa for each patient. Patients were randomly grouped into A (20-gauge) and B (23-gauge) groups. Astigmatism was recorded by a single technician using the same keratometer for all patients. A single surgeon operated on all patients. Post-operatively, all patients were re-examined after 1 week and 6 weeks, and their surgically induced astigmatism was recorded. RESULTSOf 60 patients, 58.6% were males, and 41.4% were females, with a mean age of 53.77 ± 9.63 years. The post-operative astigmatism difference between the two vitrectomy procedures was investigated. In the 20-gauge group, with 30 patients, the mean post-operative astigmatism difference was 2.21 D (±0.66 SD), with a standard error mean of 0.12. In the 23-gauge group, with 30 patients, the mean post-operative astigmatism difference was 0.74 D (±0.44 SD), with a standard error mean of 0.08. The degrees of freedom (df) were 58, and the standard error of the difference was 0.145. The t-value was calculated at 10.1504, and the p-value was found to be 0.001, indicating a significant difference. CONCLUSION The observation that the 20-gauge group displayed a notably higher mean difference in astigmatism than the 23-gauge group suggests a potential association between the choice of vitrectomy procedure and the extent of astigmatism alteration in post-operative outcomes

Hybridization of Cognitive Radar and Phased Array Radar Having Low Probability of Intercept Transmit Beamforming

A novel design of a cognitive radar (CR) hybridized with a phased array radar (PAR) having a low probability of intercept (LPI) transmit beam forming is proposed. PAR directed high gain property reveals its position to interceptors. Hence, the PAR high gain scanned beam patterns, over the entire surveillance region, are spoiled to get the series of low gain basis patterns. For unaffected array detection performance, these basis patterns are linearly combined to synthesize the high gain beam pattern in the desired direction using the set of weight. Genetic algorithm (GA) based evolutionary computing technique finds these weights offline and stores to memory. The emerging CR technology, having distinct properties (i.e., information feedback, memory, and processing at receiver and transmitter), is hybridized with PAR having LPI property. The proposed radar receiver estimates the interceptor range and the direction of arrival (DOA), using the extended Kalman filter (EKF) and the GA, respectively, and sends as feedback to transmitter. Selector block in transmitter gets appropriate weights from memory to synthesize the high gain beam pattern in accordance with the interceptor range and the direction. Simulations and the results validate the ability of the proposed radar

Max-gain relay selection scheme for wireless networks

© 2020 Karabuk University Next generation wireless systems are supposed to handle high amount of data with broader coverage and high quality of service (QoS). When a signal travels from a source to destination, the signal quality may suffer from the fading, which makes it difficult to receive correct messages. To handle the impact of fading, various diversity techniques are performed with Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO). Considering cooperative wireless networks, virtual MIMOs are being used, which also called cooperative diversity. In this paper, we propose a max-gain relay selection scheme (MGRS) for buffer-aided wireless cooperative networks. This scheme determines the best link using the maximum gain based on quality of link and available buffer size. The time slot is divided into two parts, one is used to choose the best link from the source to relay transmission (odd slot) and another time slot (even) is used based on the selection of the best link from the relay to destination. Markov chain model is use to measure buffer status and QoS parameters to evaluate the performance. The proposed scheme provides better QoS (12%) compared to the existing relay selection schemes with respect to throughput, end-to-end delay and outage probability

Diagnosis of Faulty Sensors in Antenna Array using Hybrid Differential Evolution based Compressed Sensing Technique

In this work, differential evolution based compressive sensing technique for detection of faulty sensors in linear arrays has been presented. This algorithm starts from taking the linear measurements of the power pattern generated by the array under test. The difference between the collected compressive measurements and measured healthy array field pattern is minimized using a hybrid differential evolution (DE). In the proposed method, the slow convergence of DE based compressed sensing technique is accelerated with the help of parallel coordinate decent algorithm (PCD). The combination of DE with PCD makes the  minimization faster and precise. Simulation results validate the performance to detect faulty sensors from a small number of measurements

Effect of Empagliflozin On Liver Enzymes of Patients In Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis In Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

OBJECTIVES To assess the effect of 10 mg and 25 mg once daily Empagliflozin on liver enzymes of patients of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). METHODOLOGY The study design was Quasi Experimental. Thirty three adult patients of  Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) who were already on 2000 mg of Metformin and 100 mg of Sitagliptin and were having suboptimal glycemic control (HBA1C > 7% <12%), had elevated Alanine Transaminase (ALT) levels and had ultrasonographic features consistent with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) were divided into three groups, one group receiving 10 mg Empagliglozin as add-on treatment (Group A), the second group receiving 25 mg of Empagliflozin (Group B) as an additional treatment, and the third group continued with previous medications without any additional treatment (Group C). HbA1C levels and ALT levels of all the three groups were taken at baseline and at 12 weeks. RESULTS Total patients and their mean ages in group A, B and C were 10, 12 and 11 and 52.40 ±4.24 years, 52.42 ± 5.27 years and 52.34 ± 4.37 years, respectively. There was a statistically significant (p > 0.05) decrease mean ALT levels in Group A pre-treatment and 12 weeks post-treatment. Similarly, there was a statistically significant (p > 0.05) decrease mean ALT levels in Group B pre-treatment and 12 weeks post-treatment.CONCLUSION Empagliflozin in both 10mg and 25 mg once daily doses cause statistically significant reduction in ALT levels in patients with NASH associated with T2D

Diagnosis of Faulty Elements in Array Antenna using Nature Inspired Cuckoo Search Algorithm

Detection and correction of faulty elements in a linear array have great importance in radar, sonar, mobile communications and satellite. Due to single element failure, the whole radiation pattern damage in terms of side lobes level and nulls. Once we have detect the position of defective element, then correction method is applied to achieve the desired pattern. In this work, we introduce a nature inspired meta-heuristic cuckoo search algorithm to diagnose the position of defective elements in a linear array. The nature inspired cuckoo search algorithm is new to the optimization family and is used first time for fault detection in an array antenna. Cuckoo search algorithm is a global search optimization technique. The cost function is used as a fitness function which defines an error between the degraded far field power pattern and the estimated one. The proposed technique is used effectively for the diagnosis of complete, as well as, for partial faulty elements position. Different simulation results are evaluated for 40 elements Taylor pattern to validate and check the performance of the proposed technique

Antifungal Activity of Honey Samples from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan) as affected by Botanical Origin

The present study evaluated the antifungal activity of honey samples collected from different locations at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK, Pakistan). Disc diffusion method was used to test the antifungal potential of twenty-one (branded, unbranded, and natural comb) honey samples from the different botanical origins at different concentrations (undiluted, 10%, 30%, and 50%, w/v) against Candida albicans and Rhodotorula species. Branded, unbranded, and natural comb honey samples generate different inhibition zones (4-13 mm, 5-15 mm, and 8-17 mm) against Rhodotorula species. Candida albicans showed resistance for all tested honey samples. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against Candida albicans and Rhodotorula species were 53.33%-88.12% and 1.76%-90.22% for branded, 61.3% – 93.8% and 9.90% – 95.5% for unbranded, and 67.1%-96.8% and 6.39%-98.8% for natural comb honey. In conclusion, natural comb honey from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa may have antifungal therapeutic potential and could be a useful source for generating functional food