Archives-April 2013

The relationship between stock market and various macroeconomic variables has always been divisive. Studies indicate that stock market is influenced by changes in macroeconomic variables. Some of which affect the stock market returns and index positively while others have an adverse impact on stock market returns and index. This article examines the impact of four macroeconomic variables i.e. GDP per capita, gross domestic savings, inflation and discount rate on KSE index of Pakistan. It covers a period of 20 years from 1991 to 2010. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) is used to test the multiple regression model. Analysis results indicate that GDP per capital and gross domestic savings have a significant and positive impact on KSE Index. On the other hand, discount rate and inflation (being measured through CPI) posses a significant but negative impact on KSE Index. Explanatory variables under study accounted for 98% variation in KSE Index. Therefore, it is suggested that government should take remedial measures to control inflation. Also it should work on maintaining appropriate discount rate. There should be a balance between excessive high and low discount rate. It will boost investments in stock market and consequently stock returns and index.

Vehicle traffic is experienced everyday by millions of people in day-to-day life. To overcome the problems there emerged a need for an effective traffic prediction system. An efficient prediction method reduces the traffic congestion and allows us for optimal usage of resources. In this paper we propose a traffic prediction system that uses a series of clustering and prediction techniques on the data set and has been used to predict the traffic flow over a road point. This is performed by finding the similarity value, we can quantify the influence of that Road points over others and this method will provide you a prior knowledge about traffic congestion so that user can plan to avoid vehicle traffic.

Design and simulation of planar inverted folded fractal antennas are designed to operate at wireless communication applications. The proposed models are having size reduction of 15-20% compared to the conventional antennas and operating with stable gain and good bandwidth. First model is resonating at 2.6 GHz and second model is at 2.8 GHz. This paper addresses the development of compact and efficient planar inverted fractal antenna with some methods for improving the bandwidth and reduction in volume. Ansoft HFSS electromagnetic simulation software has been used to simulate the performance of these fractal structured PIFA antennas.

The Glass ceiling practices in the corporate sector have been a subject of concern in the industry and in the policy-making quarters of the government. Present government legal framework does not have enough hold to curb on local glass ceiling practices effectively. There is a need to eliminate glass-ceiling practices in the corporate sector in order to keep female employees motivated. It will create congenial working environment and will lead to improvement in female employee’s attitude, commitment and ownership towards their work engagements in the organization. Women employees need to be recognized and given equal participation in each and every level of the organization. The objective of the study is to map environment of glass ceiling practices and to highlight female employees’ harassment, discrimination and carrier deterrence practices. The research work is done through survey using a questionnaire for information and data collection about the glass ceiling practices in the local industry. Information and data was collected using simple random sampling technique. The data was collected from Punjab. Questionnaire is based on 8 Glass Ceiling and Gender Discrimination constructs consisting of total 24 questionnaire statements.

Like in other developing nations, the hill rural- Terrie urban migration is increasingly becoming a common phenomenon mainly as a direct response to environmental degradation and rural poverty. In this regard, some socio-economic and demographic correlates play a pivotal role in the out-migration of masses from villages. A total of 200 households were survey to know the trend and major Pull and Push factors of community in the region. Under modernized perspectives, the drastic depletion in agriculture land and simultaneously the number of settlement sand population increases in the immigrant village. Thus raising the lower middle and middle class economy much pronounced, to fast out migration from rural hill to foot hill villages of Uttrakhand. The study has estimate the reason of the rural migration from hill area to terrain area of Uttrakhand after separation from Uttrapradesh. The results and people perceptions stated that high migration occurs for quality and sustaining social and economic services in the area. Thus the State and Central Government policy makers, planners and executive agencies has need of mitigate the serious problems and run a parallel programs for development of remote rural area of hill by community appraisals and Public Private Partnership.

Present medical science very much depends on the medical images and medical imaging technology like MRI, CT, US, etc. Doctors are using these medical images for the anatomical structure study and for the treatment planning. But generally medical images are complex and noisy. This paper discuss about the segmentation and pre-processing which reduce the complexity of medical image analysis and eliminate noise and unwanted region without any loss of important information in the image. Region growing segmentation is considered for the segmentation and compared the performance with pre-processing.

The behaviour of self-consolidating fibre reinforced high strength concrete (SCFRHSC) filled hollow structural steel (HSS) columns subjected to an axial load was investigated experimentally. A total of 45 specimens were tested. The main parameters varied in the tests are: (1) % of fibre (2) tube diameter or width to wall thickness ratio (D/t from 15 to 25) (3) L/d ratio from 2.97 to 7.04 The results from prediction were compared with the experimental data. Validation to the experimental results was made.

In the modern commercial era, companies and their managers are subjected to well publicized pressure to play an increasingly active role in society – so called “Corporate social responsibility”. It has been argued that an element in this development is simply enlightened self-interest in that social responsibility enhances corporate image and financial performance. To date the evidence to support this thesis derives from North America. Outside this continent evidence for any relationship is sparse. This study will initially attempt to define. The concept of corporate social responsibility and to examine its guiding principles. Subsequently, the available empirical research into the link between corporate social responsibility and economic performance will be evaluated this study examines different impacts of positive and negative CSR activities on financial performance of hotel, restaurant and airline companies, theoretically based on positivity and negativity effects. Findings suggest mixed results across different industries and will contribute to companies’ appropriate strategic decision-making for CSR activities by providing more precise information regarding the impacts of each directional CSR activity on financial performance.

In today's world is a world organization, human resources as the most valuable corporate resources, and activities-based approach and promote organizational goals and ideals of the organization plays a major role. If people want to have a role in this new challenge, namely the process unless you have no way to wisdom and intelligence role in the development of our society are full of ideas (Mosheim, 2006). If this capability is known as a lifesaving tool in the management has emerged as one of the most important issues has become a day that can guarantee the success of organizations Philosophy, states that the capacity of the land and its people, but what needs to be Ordain the range is the range (Scott and Shah, 1996) A number of researchers trying to understand the factors affecting, stressed the importance of climate and culture of empowerment as conditions have been successfully.

During past decades, the management scholars have took various surveys to find a satisfactory structure for organizations. They supposed that, through studying the relation between features of a structure and operation, they can come to the best type of the structure and, consequently, guarantee the higher levels of organizational operations. Experimental studies illustrated that what is useful in an organization, may be useless for another. Such findings led to the emergence of 'contingency theory'. This theory claims that the amount or the degree of the relations changes between two variables, taking structure and operation for instance, and other consisting elements of an organization such as technology and workplace. The traditional organization used to possess hierarchical structures; while nowadays, coming across a more dynamic context, organizations experience novel types of organizational structure. Commonly, by elimination of hierarchy in decision making, organizations are able to response rapidly to the fast contextual variations. We believe that, in coming years, the organizational structures will move toward dynamic models to let the organizations get out of the bureaucratic state and pace in adhocratic structures.