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Tackling sustainable development goals (SDGs) has become a key strategic marketing activity for multinational enterprises (MNEs) to build their reputation and ensure their brand value. However, SDGs can cause goal conflicts for MNEs, resulting in firms not being equally responsive to all stakeholders. Therefore, this study aimed to explore how ethical leadership, underpinned by a corporate purpose, enables MNEs to pursue SDGs in foreign markets. The researchers argued that ethical leadership based on a corporate purpose can provide strategic direction for MNEs, thus enabling them to focus on selected SDGs that can be integrated into their values-based marketing agendas. Further, the findings revealed that a corporate purpose can offer consistency and perseverance in the exertion of ethical leadership at the local market level; however, ethical leadership may require organizational members to disassociate from structural inconsistencies and goal conflicts in pursuit of aspired SDGs. Thus, the study makes a significant contribution to the literature on international marketing by adopting an ethical perspective to explain how MNEs can strategically position themselves in relation to SDGs in international markets. The findings suggest that ethical leadership can build a foundation for credible marketing communication while serving as a driver of values-based marketing programs.

Researchers have increasingly focused on the impact of energy poverty across various sectors of the economy. This paper aims to identify the determinants of household energy poverty in Central and Southern Punjab, Pakistan, utilizing the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey Data from 2017-18. The analysis employs descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression to assess the influence of various socioeconomic and demographic factors on multidimensional energy poverty. The survey results indicate a disparity between the two regions, with just over 50 percent of respondents reporting energy poverty. The education level of the household head, wealth status, and place of residence are critical factors influencing multidimensional energy poverty. The findings highlight the substantial influence of socioeconomic factors on household energy poverty and underscore the necessity for effective policies to address these challenges.

Marketing performance has become a foremost element that could be achieve through competitive advantage and this aspect required the emphasis of recent studies. Thus, the present article examines the impact of promotional strategies and customer relationship management (CRM) on the marketing performance of manufacturing sector in China. The study also examines the mediating role of competitive advantage (CA) among promotional strategies, CRM and marketing performance and also examines the moderating role of organizational commitment (OC) among CA and marketing performance. The article used the surveys to gather the primary data from the employees. The article also used smart-PLS to check the nexus between the understudy variables. The results revealed that the promotional strategies and CRM have a positive association with marketing performance. The outcomes also revealed that CA significantly mediates and OC significantly moderates among variables. The article guides the regulators in making regulations related to enhance the marketing performance using effective promotional strategies and CRM.

Researchers have increasingly focused on the impact of energy poverty across various sectors of the economy. This paper aims to identify the determinants of household energy poverty in Central and Southern Punjab, Pakistan, utilizing the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey Data from 2017-18. The analysis employs descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression to assess the influence of various socioeconomic and demographic factors on multidimensional energy poverty. The survey results indicate a disparity between the two regions, with just over 50 percent of respondents reporting energy poverty. The education level of the household head, wealth status, and place of residence are critical factors influencing multidimensional energy poverty. The findings highlight the substantial influence of socioeconomic factors on household energy poverty and underscore the necessity for effective policies to address these challenges.

Tourism is a big source of revenue for a country. Political Stability and good governance promote tourism growth of a country by providing a favorable environment for tourism. Present study is empirical evidence of Pakistan and Bangladesh to investigate the role of political stability and governance in tourism growth. Furthermore, along with the principal variable, the study also estimates the role of corruption in tourism growth. Panel times series data, from the year 1996 to 2021, was used for analysis of results. GMM estimation methodology has been employed which show that political stability and governance increase tourism growth in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The finding also shows that variables including in analysis are control of corruption, political economy is also a determinant of tourism. So, finding indicates that political economy along with significant economic growth is desirable for promoting tourism in Pakistan and Bangladesh. They study concludes that in order to promote tourism in Pakistan and Bangladesh. political stability, good governance, role of law, and regulatory quality are significant.

Saphenous vein graft (SVG) pseudoaneurysms are an infrequent, but life-threatening complication of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery if left untreated. Here, we discuss the case of a 77-year-old patient, with a prior history of CABG and transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), who was incidentally found on computed tomography angiography (CTA) to have a pseudoaneurysm of his SVG with an initial chief complaint of dizziness. Despite increasing reports of SVG pseudoaneurysm, there is no consensus on definitive treatment. Due to the high mortality risk of this patient with surgical intervention, a minimally invasive percutaneous coronary intervention was performed. The patient was effectively treated with two overlapping Viabahn-covered stents, which completely excluded the pseudoaneurysm. Follow-up imaging at two months showed two well-positioned overlapping self-expanding stents with total occlusion of the pseudoaneurysm.

While the body of research on grand challenges (GCs) has grown, our understanding of the role of corporate social innovation (CSI) in tackling exigent GCs, such as the COVID‐19 pandemic, is limited. Based on in‐depth analyses of four cases of CSI in the services sector during the COVID‐19 pandemic, this paper contributes to the GC literature by developing a 3Es framework of the CSI process (i.e., embeddedness, engagement, and enhancement) to illustrate the mechanisms through which exigent GCs can be effectively addressed by firms in the services sector. First, CSI embeddedness in intersectoral partnerships with international organizations based on deep‐rooted trust and collective commitment is found to be a fundamental mechanism for efficiently addressing the COVID‐19 crisis. Second, CSI engagement through the transformation of existing technology and/or the adaption of existing products/services is found to be an important mechanism for meeting pandemic‐induced social needs. Specifically, it is found that leading‐edge technologies such as digital platforms can be rapidly repurposed to enable loosely coupled systems that evolve as a new channel to bring together various stakeholders and thus address this urgent GC. Finally, CSI enhancement supported by managerial agility and participatory governance structure plays a crucial role in enabling CSI to function effectively in the context of exigent GCs.

BackgroundReal-world performance of COVID-19 diagnostic tests under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) must be assessed. We describe overall trends in the performance of serology tests in the context of real-world implementation.MethodsSix health systems estimated the odds of seropositivity and positive percent agreement (PPA) of serology test among people with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection by molecular test. In each dataset, we present the odds ratio and PPA, overall and by key clinical, demographic, and practice parameters.ResultsA total of 15,615 people were observed to have at least one serology test 14-90 days after a positive molecular test for SARS-CoV-2. We observed higher PPA in Hispanic (PPA range: 79-96%) compared to non-Hispanic (60-89%) patients; in those presenting with at least one COVID-19 related symptom (69-93%) as compared to no such symptoms (63-91%); and in inpatient (70-97%) and emergency department (93-99%) compared to outpatient (63-92%) settings across datasets. PPA was highest in those with diabetes (75-94%) and kidney disease (83-95%); and lowest in those with auto-immune conditions or who are immunocompromised (56-93%). The odds ratios (OR) for seropositivity were higher in Hispanics compared to non-Hispanics (OR range: 2.59-3.86), patients with diabetes (1.49-1.56), and obesity (1.63-2.23); and lower in those with immunocompromised or autoimmune conditions (0.25-0.70), as compared to those without those comorbidities. In a subset of three datasets with robust information on serology test name, seven tests were used, two of which were used in multiple settings and met the EUA requirement of PPA ≥87%. Tests performed similarly across datasets.ConclusionAlthough the EUA requirement was not consistently met, more investigation is needed to understand how serology and molecular tests are used, including indication and protocol fidelity. Improved data interoperability of test and clinical/demographic data are needed to enable rapid assessment

BackgroundAs diagnostic tests for COVID-19 were broadly deployed under Emergency Use Authorization, there emerged a need to understand the real-world utilization and performance of serological testing across the United States.MethodsSix health systems contributed electronic health records and/or claims data, jointly developed a master protocol, and used it to execute the analysis in parallel. We used descriptive statistics to examine demographic, clinical, and geographic characteristics of serology testing among patients with RNA positive for SARS-CoV-2.ResultsAcross datasets, we observed 930,669 individuals with positive RNA for SARS-CoV-2. Of these, 35,806 (4%) were serotested within 90 days; 15% of which occurred <14 days from the RNA positive test. The proportion of people with a history of cardiovascular disease, obesity, chronic lung, or kidney disease; or presenting with shortness of breath or pneumonia appeared higher among those serotested compared to those who were not. Even in a population of people with active infection, race/ethnicity data were largely missing (>30%) in some datasets-limiting our ability to examine differences in serological testing by race. In datasets where race/ethnicity information was available, we observed a greater distribution of White individuals among those serotested; however, the time between RNA and serology tests appeared shorter in Black compared to White individuals. Test manufacturer data was available in half of the datasets contributing to the analysis.ConclusionOur results inform the underlying context of serotesting during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and differences observed between claims and EHR data sources-a critical first step to understanding the real-world accuracy of serological tests. Incomplete reporting of race/ethnicity data and a limited ability to link test manufacturer data, lab results, and clinical data challenge the ability to assess the real-world performance of SARS-CoV-2 tests

Background Real-world performance of COVID-19 diagnostic tests under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) must be assessed. We describe overall trends in the performance of serology tests in the context of real-world implementation. Methods Six health systems estimated the odds of seropositivity and positive percent agreement (PPA) of serology test among people with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection by molecular test. In each dataset, we present the odds ratio and PPA, overall and by key clinical, demographic, and practice parameters. Results A total of 15,615 people were observed to have at least one serology test 14–90 days after a positive molecular test for SARS-CoV-2. We observed higher PPA in Hispanic (PPA range: 79–96%) compared to non-Hispanic (60–89%) patients; in those presenting with at least one COVID-19 related symptom (69–93%) as compared to no such symptoms (63–91%); and in inpatient (70–97%) and emergency department (93–99%) compared to outpatient (63–92%) settings across datasets. PPA was highest in those with diabetes (75–94%) and kidney disease (83–95%); and lowest in those with auto-immune conditions or who are immunocompromised (56–93%). The odds ratios (OR) for seropositivity were higher in Hispanics compared to non-Hispanics (OR range: 2.59–3.86), patients with diabetes (1.49–1.56), and obesity (1.63–2.23); and lower in those with immunocompromised or autoimmune conditions (0.25–0.70), as compared to those without those comorbidities. In a subset of three datasets with robust information on serology test name, seven tests were used, two of which were used in multiple settings and met the EUA requirement of PPA ≥87%. Tests performed similarly across datasets. Conclusion Although the EUA requirement was not consistently met, more investigation is needed to understand how serology and molecular tests are used, including indication and protocol fidelity. Improved data interoperability of test and clinical/demographic data are needed to enable rapid asse

Background As diagnostic tests for COVID-19 were broadly deployed under Emergency Use Authorization, there emerged a need to understand the real-world utilization and performance of serological testing across the United States. Methods Six health systems contributed electronic health records and/or claims data, jointly developed a master protocol, and used it to execute the analysis in parallel. We used descriptive statistics to examine demographic, clinical, and geographic characteristics of serology testing among patients with RNA positive for SARS-CoV-2. Results Across datasets, we observed 930,669 individuals with positive RNA for SARS-CoV-2. Of these, 35,806 (4%) were serotested within 90 days; 15% of which occurred <14 days from the RNA positive test. The proportion of people with a history of cardiovascular disease, obesity, chronic lung, or kidney disease; or presenting with shortness of breath or pneumonia appeared higher among those serotested compared to those who were not. Even in a population of people with active infection, race/ethnicity data were largely missing (>30%) in some datasets—limiting our ability to examine differences in serological testing by race. In datasets where race/ethnicity information was available, we observed a greater distribution of White individuals among those serotested; however, the time between RNA and serology tests appeared shorter in Black compared to White individuals. Test manufacturer data was available in half of the datasets contributing to the analysis. Conclusion Our results inform the underlying context of serotesting during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and differences observed between claims and EHR data sources–a critical first step to understanding the real-world accuracy of serological tests. Incomplete reporting of race/ethnicity data and a limited ability to link test manufacturer data, lab results, and clinical data challenge the ability to assess the real-world performance of SARS-CoV-2

While the body of research on grand challenges (GCs) has grown, our understanding of the role of corporate social innovation (CSI) in tackling exigent GCs, such as the COVID‐19 pandemic, is limited. Based on in‐depth analyses of four cases of CSI in the services sector during the COVID‐19 pandemic, this paper contributes to the GC literature by developing a 3Es framework of the CSI process (i.e., embeddedness, engagement, and enhancement) to illustrate the mechanisms through which exigent GCs can be effectively addressed by firms in the services sector. First, CSI embeddedness in intersectoral partnerships with international organizations based on deep‐rooted trust and collective commitment is found to be a fundamental mechanism for efficiently addressing the COVID‐19 crisis. Second, CSI engagement through the transformation of existing technology and/or the adaption of existing products/services is found to be an important mechanism for meeting pandemic‐induced social needs. Specifically, it is found that leading‐edge technologies such as digital platforms can be rapidly repurposed to enable loosely coupled systems that evolve as a new channel to bring together various stakeholders and thus address this urgent GC. Finally, CSI enhancement supported by managerial agility and participatory governance structure plays a crucial role in enabling CSI to function effectively in the context of exigent GCs.

This study examines the impact of entrepreneurial and branding orientations on the two facets of market driving activities (market and non-market focused) of B2B firms for international market performance. Using empirical data (n = 108) on European firms, this study finds that entrepreneurial orientation influences both facets of market driving activities. Further, these effects are stronger under a strong branding orientation. Market focused aspect of the driving activities fully mediates the effects of entrepreneurial orientation and market performance. Applying resource-based and market orientation theories, and contradicting studies that emphasise the adoption approach of market orientation for business success, our findings suggest that international performance of B2B firms is enhanced using a market driving approach. Unlike market-oriented firms, market-driving companies do not adopt, but instead educate their customers to accept their dominant logic, and by doing so they influence the market structure in their industry. The findings contribute to the non-market, market driving and ambidexterity literature. Managers can learn how entrepreneurial efforts can contribute towards exercising market driving strategies at a global level. They can also learn that strong branding orientation would strengthen the market driving behavior.

This study examines the impact of entrepreneurial and branding orientations on the two facets of market driving activities (market and non-market focused) of B2B firms for international market performance. Using empirical data (n = 108) on European firms, this study finds that entrepreneurial orientation influences both facets of market driving activities. Further, these effects are stronger under a strong branding orientation. Market focused aspect of the driving activities fully mediates the effects of entrepreneurial orientation and market performance. Applying resource-based and market orientation theories, and contradicting studies that emphasise the adoption approach of market orientation for business success, our findings suggest that international performance of B2B firms is enhanced using a market driving approach. Unlike market-oriented firms, market-driving companies do not adopt, but instead educate their customers to accept their dominant logic, and by doing so they influence the market structure in their industry. The findings contribute to the non-market, market driving and ambidexterity literature. Managers can learn how entrepreneurial efforts can contribute towards exercising market driving strategies at a global level. They can also learn that strong branding orientation would strengthen the market driving behavior.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common inflammatory skin condition and prior genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 71 associated loci. In the current study we conducted the largest AD GWAS to date (discovery N = 1,086,394, replication N = 3,604,027), combining previously reported cohorts with additional available data. We identified 81 loci (29 novel) in the European-only analysis (which all replicated in a separate European analysis) and 10 additional loci in the multi-ancestry analysis (3 novel). Eight variants from the multi-ancestry analysis replicated in at least one of the populations tested (European, Latino or African), while two may be specific to individuals of Japanese ancestry. AD loci showed enrichment for DNAse I hypersensitivity and eQTL associations in blood. At each locus we prioritised candidate genes by integrating multi-omic data. The implicated genes are predominantly in immune pathways of relevance to atopic inflammation and some offer drug repurposing opportunities.

In this chapter, we discuss the main themes of the book and give examples of how the rest of the chapters are related to these themes. We have identified two main aspects that are partly overlapping and are equally relevant for international firms’ work with ethical questions related to their business. One concerns how ethical behaviour related to sustainability can be applied as a main part of firms’ corporate strategy and how this may strengthen the international competitive position. This is particularly relevant when considering that it cannot be taken for granted that there is always a positive relationship and that actors may sometimes question an emphasis on ethical behaviour that goes beyond the accepted norms and regulations. The other main theme is related to international firms’ crucial role in supporting sustainability on an international level and contributing towards achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). Solving many of the challenges related to climate change, migration, poverty and inequality is likely to require the involvement of international firms. The book identifies several routes forward to achieve this.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common inflammatory skin condition and prior genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 71 associated loci. In the current study we conducted the largest AD GWAS to date (discovery N = 1,086,394, replication N = 3,604,027), combining previously reported cohorts with additional available data. We identified 81 loci (29 novel) in the European-only analysis (which all replicated in a separate European analysis) and 10 additional loci in the multi-ancestry analysis (3 novel). Eight variants from the multi-ancestry analysis replicated in at least one of the populations tested (European, Latino or African), while two may be specific to individuals of Japanese ancestry. AD loci showed enrichment for DNAse I hypersensitivity and eQTL associations in blood. At each locus we prioritised candidate genes by integrating multi-omic data. The implicated genes are predominantly in immune pathways of relevance to atopic inflammation and some offer drug repurposing opportunities.

For the first time in Pakistan, a sitting prime minister has been ousted through a ‘No-Confidence Motion (NCM)’ initiated by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) in April 2022. PDM, the coalition of 15 political parties, claimed the success of NCM as the win of democracy. The ousted PM and Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Mr. Imran Khan, alleged that the motion was a ‘regime change’ attempt backed by a foreign conspiracy initiated by internal and external elements. Pakistani journalists, who are already labelled as political partisans, took to the social media platform Twitter, and started spreading the ‘political discourse’ about the removal of Khan from the PM office. This research explores the predominant themes within the discourse produced through the Twitter handles of the selected journalists; Arshad Sharif, Hamid Mir and Mazhar Abbas. Secondly, to determine whether and to what extent the journalists have produced the ‘political discourse’ and or the ‘solidarity discourse’. We have employed thematic analysis as a theoretical and methodological tool to achieve the research objectives. The findings show a clear divide between the journalists and an explicit polarization within the discourse produced through their Twitter posts on the issue, and the solidarity discourse is virtually non-existent.

Women’s empowerment conduces economic growth and is crucial for empowering women. Economic freedom means that people can take economic actions independently. Yet, women remain disadvantaged in developing countries like Pakistan. The current study analyses how economic freedom fosters women’s empowerment in Pakistan. We employed time series data for 1990-2021. We employed an index of women’s empowerment (WEI) and the Women's Business and Law Index (WBLI) for economic freedom. WBLI is based on 8 distinct indicators that include diverse aspects of a woman’s life. After unit root testing, we used the ARDL approach followed by the Bound test. The long and short-run empirics have confirmed the association of women’s empowerment and economic freedom in Pakistan. There is a positive and statistically significant relationship between them. A significant ECT term with a negative sign further confirms the long-run association. Women’s mobility, women’s decision to work, rules and laws for equal pay, legal barriers to marriage for women, women’s decision to work after childbirth, restrictions for registering a business on women entrepreneurs, discrimination in the division of property and regulation for women’s pension are the factors that still impede the absolute economic freedom of women in the society.

Women’s empowerment conduces economic growth and is crucial for empowering women. Economic freedom means that people can take economic actions independently. Yet, women remain disadvantaged in developing countries like Pakistan. The current study analyses how economic freedom fosters women’s empowerment in Pakistan. We employed time series data for 1990-2021. We employed an index of women’s empowerment (WEI) and the Women's Business and Law Index (WBLI) for economic freedom. WBLI is based on 8 distinct indicators that include diverse aspects of a woman’s life. After unit root testing, we used the ARDL approach followed by the Bound test. The long and short-run empirics have confirmed the association of women’s empowerment and economic freedom in Pakistan. There is a positive and statistically significant relationship between them. A significant ECT term with a negative sign further confirms the long-run association. Women’s mobility, women’s decision to work, rules and laws for equal pay, legal barriers to marriage for women, women’s decision to work after childbirth, restrictions for registering a business on women entrepreneurs, discrimination in the division of property and regulation for women’s pension are the factors that still impede the absolute economic freedom of women in the society.

Wide band gap semiconductors have many applications in photo luminescence devices and optoelectronic devices. We have investigated the structural, magnetic and optical properties of pure ZnS and Sm doped ZnS using density functional theory and implemented first principle linearized augmented plane wave (LAPW) method. For exchange correlation potential energy, generalized gradient approximation (GGA), GGA+U (where U is Hubbard potential) and Trans and Blaha modiefied Becke-Johnson (TB-mBJ) approximations are used. ZnS is a wide band gap semiconductor material having experimental band gap ~ 3.54eV. In this study band gap of pure ZnS was calculated as 1.963eV, 2.124eV and 3.574eV by using GGA, GGA+U and TB-mBJ approximations. GGA+U approximation was used for spin polarized calculations of ZnS: Sm shows ferromagnetic (FM) behaviour of doped semiconductor with band gap is 2.75eV. Pure ZnS is isotropic material while after doping with Sm it becomes anisotropic material. Ultraviolet and visible radiations are absorbed in these materials hence they can have potential applications in optoelectronic devices.

Wide band gap semiconductors have many applications in photo luminescence devices and optoelectronic devices. We have investigated the structural, magnetic and optical properties of pure ZnS and Sm doped ZnS using density functional theory and implemented first principle linearized augmented plane wave (LAPW) method. For exchange correlation potential energy, generalized gradient approximation (GGA), GGA+U (where U is Hubbard potential) and Trans and Blaha modiefied Becke-Johnson (TB-mBJ) approximations are used. ZnS is a wide band gap semiconductor material having experimental band gap ~ 3.54eV. In this study band gap of pure ZnS was calculated as 1.963eV, 2.124eV and 3.574eV by using GGA, GGA+U and TB-mBJ approximations. GGA+U approximation was used for spin polarized calculations of ZnS: Sm shows ferromagnetic (FM) behaviour of doped semiconductor with band gap is 2.75eV. Pure ZnS is isotropic material while after doping with Sm it becomes anisotropic material. Ultraviolet and visible radiations are absorbed in these materials hence they can have potential applications in optoelectronic devices.

Wide band gap semiconductors have many applications in photo luminescence devices and optoelectronic devices. We have investigated the structural, magnetic and optical properties of pure ZnS and Sm doped ZnS using density functional theory and implemented first principle linearized augmented plane wave (LAPW) method. For exchange correlation potential energy, generalized gradient approximation (GGA), GGA+U (where U is Hubbard potential) and Trans and Blaha modiefied Becke-Johnson (TB-mBJ) approximations are used. ZnS is a wide band gap semiconductor material having experimental band gap ~ 3.54eV. In this study band gap of pure ZnS was calculated as 1.963eV, 2.124eV and 3.574eV by using GGA, GGA+U and TB-mBJ approximations. GGA+U approximation was used for spin polarized calculations of ZnS: Sm shows ferromagnetic (FM) behaviour of doped semiconductor with band gap is 2.75eV. Pure ZnS is isotropic material while after doping with Sm it becomes anisotropic material. Ultraviolet and visible radiations are absorbed in these materials hence they can have potential applications in optoelectronic devices.

The aim of this research is to inspect whether Corporate Governance (CG) attributes such as Audit Meeting Frequency, Ownership Concentration, Board Meeting Frequency, Foreign Ownership, Institutional Ownership, Board Gender Diversity, Audit Committee Size, Board Size, Audit Reputation and CEO Compensation affect firms’ performance in Pakistan. This research employed the pooled least square method to estimate the association among attributed of CG and firm performance measures (Return on Asset and Tobin’s Q) by selecting the Cement Sector and Energy sector companies listed in Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) during 2009–2022. A substantial result is that the energy sector’s CG system does not differ from the cement sector. Tobin’s Q is lesser than ROA, suggesting the same condition as companies in the cement sector. On average, firms in the energy sector are older than the firms in the cement sector. It contradicts the result of profitability proxies of the energy sector. Being older firms, the profitability proxies show lower returns as compared to cement sector firms. Pakistan needs a uniform CG code and the need for good CG practices for specific approaches of firms. This study enhances the literature in CG domain by investigating the impact of CG processes in Pakistani firm’s performance. In Pakistan, there are studies available on the topic but the comparison between the selected two industries with such a large data set are the unique elements of the current research. In prior studies, the time interval was also short, only five years. Further, the firm performance was measured by an accounting-based tool and did not include a market-based tool for performance, as well as variables for CG were also limited.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common inflammatory skin condition and prior genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 71 associated loci. In the current study we conducted the largest AD GWAS to date (discovery N = 1,086,394, replication N = 3,604,027), combining previously reported cohorts with additional available data. We identified 81 loci (29 novel) in the European-only analysis (which all replicated in a separate European analysis) and 10 additional loci in the multi-ancestry analysis (3 novel). Eight variants from the multi-ancestry analysis replicated in at least one of the populations tested (European, Latino or African), while two may be specific to individuals of Japanese ancestry. AD loci showed enrichment for DNAse I hypersensitivity and eQTL associations in blood. At each locus we prioritised candidate genes by integrating multi-omic data. The implicated genes are predominantly in immune pathways of relevance to atopic inflammation and some offer drug repurposing opportunities.

In this article the JEWELFISH Study Group members were missing in the Acknowledgements. The collaborator names are corrected in the supplementary material and the complete list is given below. In Table 1, footnote symbol ‘g’ was incorrectly written as ‘f’ in the entries Non-sitters—2 (14)g and Sitters-12 (86)g under column Onasemnogene abeparvovec of section Motor function, n (%)f. The original article has been corrected.

Due to the swift growth of patent applications each year, information and multimedia retrieval approaches that facilitate patent exploration and retrieval are of utmost importance. Different types of visualizations (e.g., graphs, technical drawings) and perspectives (e.g., side view, perspective) are used to visualize details of innovations in patents. The classification of these images enables a more efficient search and allows for further analysis. So far, datasets for image type classification miss some important visualization types for patents. Furthermore, related work does not make use of recent deep learning approaches including transformers. In this paper, we adopt state-of-the-art deep learning methods for the classification of visualization types and perspectives in patent images. We extend the CLEF-IP dataset for image type classification in patents to ten classes and provide manual ground truth annotations. In addition, we derive a set of hierarchical classes from a dataset that provides weakly-labeled data for image perspectives. Experimental results have demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed approaches. Source code, models, and dataset will be made publicly available., Comment: Accepted in International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries (TPDL) 2023 (They have the copyright to publish camera-ready version of this work)

The present study is conducted in Pakistan and will investigate the relationship between psychological well-being and marital conflicts among parents with Down syndrome children. The study was conducted in institutes of Islamabad, which include the Al-Farabi Institute and the National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine. The study was conducted in the speech and physiotherapy department of institutes and included those patients who were suffering from Down syndrome. Purposive sampling was used to acquire the data from 60 parents (30 mothers and 30 fathers) of Down syndrome children. Regression and correlation analysis was performed to determine the link between independent and dependent variables as well as the impact of psychological well-being (autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, personal growth, self-acceptance, and positive relations) on marital conflicts. The results show a positive and insignificant relationship between autonomy, positive relations, personal growth, self–acceptance, and marital conflicts but also reveal a negative and significant relationship between environmental mastery, purpose in life, and marital conflicts due to a poor environment. The research will help parents to lessen their stress and improve their environment. It will also guide the NGOs and civil society to encourage the parents and give them awareness about the coping strategies to deal with these situations.

This qualitative study explores whether sustainable innovation by multinational enterprises (MNEs) can lead to the transformation of existing regimes through the lens of innovation theory and doughnut economics. The study proposes a conceptual framework to evaluate the practices of businesses and the findings chart how sustainable innovation occurs within two multinational enterprises. Overall, the study provides practical insight into the dynamics of sustainable innovation, which aims to inform and inspire further progress in sustainable development by businesses and academia.

Large language models (LLMs) have been shown to be able to perform new tasks based on a few demonstrations or natural language instructions. While these capabilities have led to widespread adoption, most LLMs are developed by resource-rich organizations and are frequently kept from the public. As a step towards democratizing this powerful technology, we present BLOOM, a 176B-parameter open-access language model designed and built thanks to a collaboration of hundreds of researchers. BLOOM is a decoder-only Transformer language model that was trained on the ROOTS corpus, a dataset comprising hundreds of sources in 46 natural and 13 programming languages (59 in total). We find that BLOOM achieves competitive performance on a wide variety of benchmarks, with stronger results after undergoing multitask prompted finetuning. To facilitate future research and applications using LLMs, we publicly release our models and code under the Responsible AI License.

Purpose: Freedom of speech and freedom of the press is generally attributed to an independent society where the basic rights of citizens are ensured. Balochistan, the western and resources rich province of Pakistan with its huge geopolitical importance has been under a strong wave of terrorism for the last two decades. This menace of terrorism has severely affected citizens of the province including media workers. Design/Methodology/Approach: This research endeavor is an attempt to explore the impact of terrorism on the performance of media professionals in Balochistan. The study is based on the Hierarchy of Influence model which provides ground to explore the influence of terrorism. In this quantitative study, the researchers employing the systematic sampling technique have selected 50 media professionals out of 194 registered journalists of five press clubs; Quetta, Chaman, Noshki, Mastung, and Loralai. Findings: The survey findings show that terrorism has badly affected the quality of their reporting. The study also reveals that objective journalism is hard to follow in the province by journalists as they are always threatened not only by terrorists but also by the law enforcement agencies to mold the reports in their favor. Implications/Originality/Value The findings also indicate that terrorism has also affected journalists’ personal lives.

The present study is conducted in Pakistan and will investigate the relationship between psychological well-being and marital conflicts among parents with Down syndrome children. The study was conducted in institutes of Islamabad, which include the Al-Farabi Institute and the National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine. The study was conducted in the speech and physiotherapy department of institutes and included those patients who were suffering from Down syndrome. Purposive sampling was used to acquire the data from 60 parents (30 mothers and 30 fathers) of Down syndrome children. Regression and correlation analysis was performed to determine the link between independent and dependent variables as well as the impact of psychological well-being (autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, personal growth, self-acceptance, and positive relations) on marital conflicts. The results show a positive and insignificant relationship between autonomy, positive relations, personal growth, self–acceptance, and marital conflicts but also reveal a negative and significant relationship between environmental mastery, purpose in life, and marital conflicts due to a poor environment. The research will help parents to lessen their stress and improve their environment. It will also guide the NGOs and civil society to encourage the parents and give them awareness about the coping strategies to deal with these situations.

Purpose: Freedom of speech and freedom of the press is generally attributed to an independent society where the basic rights of citizens are ensured. Balochistan, the western and resources rich province of Pakistan with its huge geopolitical importance has been under a strong wave of terrorism for the last two decades. This menace of terrorism has severely affected citizens of the province including media workers. Design/Methodology/Approach: This research endeavor is an attempt to explore the impact of terrorism on the performance of media professionals in Balochistan. The study is based on the Hierarchy of Influence model which provides ground to explore the influence of terrorism. In this quantitative study, the researchers employing the systematic sampling technique have selected 50 media professionals out of 194 registered journalists of five press clubs; Quetta, Chaman, Noshki, Mastung, and Loralai. Findings: The survey findings show that terrorism has badly affected the quality of their reporting. The study also reveals that objective journalism is hard to follow in the province by journalists as they are always threatened not only by terrorists but also by the law enforcement agencies to mold the reports in their favor. Implications/Originality/Value The findings also indicate that terrorism has also affected journalists’ personal lives.

Purpose: Freedom of speech and freedom of the press is generally attributed to an independent society where the basic rights of citizens are ensured. Balochistan, the western and resources rich province of Pakistan with its huge geopolitical importance has been under a strong wave of terrorism for the last two decades. This menace of terrorism has severely affected citizens of the province including media workers. Design/Methodology/Approach: This research endeavor is an attempt to explore the impact of terrorism on the performance of media professionals in Balochistan. The study is based on the Hierarchy of Influence model which provides ground to explore the influence of terrorism. In this quantitative study, the researchers employing the systematic sampling technique have selected 50 media professionals out of 194 registered journalists of five press clubs; Quetta, Chaman, Noshki, Mastung, and Loralai. Findings: The survey findings show that terrorism has badly affected the quality of their reporting. The study also reveals that objective journalism is hard to follow in the province by journalists as they are always threatened not only by terrorists but also by the law enforcement agencies to mold the reports in their favor. Implications/Originality/Value The findings also indicate that terrorism has also affected journalists’ personal lives.

Natural capital is becoming an important topic for global biodiversity and sovereign risk of nations for their food supply chains which can be linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 12–15. In this paper we explored the literature to develop a conceptual framework to determine how primary industry co-operatives (such as in agriculture and aquaculture) can play a role in managing natural capital. The conceptual framework developed shows that members of co-operatives have roles to act within their organisation that utilise natural capital. Acting out these roles may see the co-operative become pro-active in governing its natural capital based on economic and social goals which are guided by the co-operative principles and values. Working with the financial services sector, co-operatives would be able to engage with their members to educate and share knowledge on strategies to manage and/or mitigate the risk of natural capital depletion. This can be managed through farm management techniques and financial instruments such as credit and insurance.

This qualitative study explores whether sustainable innovation by multinational enterprises (MNEs) can lead to the transformation of existing regimes through the lens of innovation theory and doughnut economics. The study proposes a conceptual framework to evaluate the practices of businesses and the findings chart how sustainable innovation occurs within two multinational enterprises. Overall, the study provides practical insight into the dynamics of sustainable innovation, which aims to inform and inspire further progress in sustainable development by businesses and academia.

Purpose Recent advancements in the field of organizational psychology have transformed the employees' perceptions related to the reactions of the employment relationship. The main aim of the study is to explore the consequences of psychological contracts among the nursing staff and how to provide better patient care and quality service in the health-care system as nurses play a pivotal role in the context of Pakistan. Significantly, this study attempts to bridge the research gap by exploring consequences of psychological contracts. Drawing on the social exchange theory, this study examined the psychological contracts of nurses and their reactions to the perceived violation. Design/methodology/approach This research adopted a qualitative method and was based on an exploratory approach. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews from 21 nurses working in public, private and charity hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan. The thematic content analysis is employed for the analysis of data by using NVivo software. Findings The study identified the relational and transactional elements related to the psychological contract of nurses who predominantly consisted of supervisor support, autonomy, tangible/intangible rewards and trust. The intrinsic motivation which relates to their devotion to work was found as an additional element to balance their psychological contract. This research also establishes that the psychological contract of nurses is being violated in their work settings. Practical implications By highlighting the importance of psychological contract breach, the findings demonstrate that health-care institutions should take measures to cope with psychological contract breach issues at the workplace. Originality/value This study contributes to the body of knowledge by exploring psychological contract breach. Substantially, there are rare studies conducted on psychological contract breach among nurses in developing country context (Pakistan). However

This paper is an attempt to explore whether and to what extent the Australian newspapers; The Age and The Australian, produced the “solidarity discourse” regarding Islam and Muslims during the time period January 01, 2016 to March 31, 2017. Edward Said’s Orientalism and many other research findings suggest that there is clear evidence of positive in-group (Us/the West/the Occident) and negative out-group (Them/the Islam and Muslims/the East/the Orient) discourse in the representation of Islam and Muslims by global media. However, Jeffery C. Alexander asserts that the media being “communicative institution” of a society plays an important role of “civil repair” by producing a “solidarity discourse”. His civil sphere theory proposes that the media as a “vital centre” highlight and generates common understanding of the solidarity which can resist “non-civil” polarization and radical actions in civil societies. The researcher has employed “Lexicalization” and “Ideological Square” approaches from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) paradigm proposed by van Dijk. The findings of this study show that The Age produced the “solidarity discourse” overwhelmingly by emphasizing on “understanding”, “cohesion”, and “we-ness”. On the contrary, the “solidarity discourse” is entirely absent in the editorials of The Australian.

Unmanned air vehicle communication (UAV) systems have recently emerged as a quick, low-cost, and adaptable solution to numerous challenges in the next-generation wireless network. In particular, UAV systems have shown to be very useful in wireless communication applications with sudden traffic demands, network recovery, aerial relays, and edge computing. Meanwhile, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has been able to maximize the number of served users with the highest traffic capacity for future aerial systems in the literature. However, the study of joint optimization of UAV altitude, user pairing, and power allocation for the problem of capacity maximization requires further investigation. Thus, a capacity optimization problem for the NOMA aerial system is evaluated in this paper, considering the combination of convex and heuristic optimization techniques. The proposed algorithm is evaluated by using multiple heuristic techniques and deployment scenarios. The results prove the efficiency of the proposed NOMA scheme in comparison to the benchmark technique of orthogonal multiple access (OMA). Moreover, a comparative analysis of heuristic techniques for capacity optimization is also presented.

Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK); Pakistan Science Foundation

Written by leading scholars, this new third edition provides readers with a comprehensive and authoritative examination of emerging markets across the globe. Fully updated in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and other recent macro drivers, the authors present analytical frameworks, tools and best practice insights to help readers develop a critical understanding of the growth economies presented within the book, alongside their common characteristics, evolution, and significance in the global economy. Making use of original cases encompassing countries including Brazil, China, Russia, Thailand, Turkey and Uzbekistan, the authors explore the unique challenges and opportunities for emerging markets throughout the world today, including the rising middle class, partnering, and negotiation techniques. This text is essential reading for international business students, researchers and practitioners focused on business in emerging markets.

Wind turbines installed in a wind farm are typically subject to increased turbulence because they are in the wake of upstream wind turbines that generate additional turbulence. Accurate prediction of turbulence in wind farms is critical as it is proportional to wind turbine fatigue loads, power losses and prediction of wind farm lifetime. IEC Standard 61400-1 suggests the use of the semi-empirical turbulence model called Frandsen model, which was originally proposed in 1999. Since the development of the Frandsen model, the size of wind turbines and wind farms has increased significantly. Therefore, this work aims to determine the accuracy of two versions of the Frandsen model: Standard and Modified, when applied to large offshore wind farms experiencing a combination of atmospheric stability conditions. This is done by comparing the estimated wind farm turbulence under specific atmospheric stability conditions with measurements from Westermost Rough and Horns Rev 2. It was found that the atmospheric stability distribution and the distance of the upstream wake inducing wind turbine at the offshore site plays a significant role in the accuracy of the estimated turbulence from the Frandsen models. The estimated turbulence intensity from the Standard and Modified Frandsen models was found to be under-predicted with respect to the measured turbulence for all atmospheric stability conditions at both wind farms. For wind directions with wake flow for upstream wind turbines more than 10 rotor diameters away, the Modified Frandsen model showed better prediction of turbulence intensity compared to the Standard Frandsen model. On the other hand, for wind directions with wake flow for upstream wind turbines less than 10 rotor diameters away, the Standard Frandsen model showed better turbulence intensity estimation compared to the Modified Frandsen model. Among all atmospheric stability conditions, the turbulence intensity estimate was closest to the measured data for unstable c, Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technology

Research conducted in some European countries and in the US has evidenced that there is a considerable difference in the media coverage of the National/Internal and Foreign/External Islam. Wherein, the latter is viewed and portrayed as a ‘greater threat’ to the mainstream society. This research endeavour is an effort to explore the predominant themes associated with the Foreign/External Islam in the editorials of the two selected Australian newspapers during January 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017. The researcher has employed Tuen A. van Dijk’s (1998) ideological square and lexicalization strategies from the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) paradigm to examine the editorials of The Age and The Australian. The research findings are evident that in the coverage of the Foreign Islam both the selected newspapers have associated ‘conflict’, ‘violence’ and ‘collectivism’ with Islam and Muslims, however The Australian highlighted ‘women underrepresentation’ also. While covering the National Islam, The Age highlighted the ‘victimization’ and ‘prejudice’ to Muslims in Australia and stressed on the need of ‘understanding’, ‘harmony’ and ‘cohesion’. However, in The Australian the National Islam also received the same treatment as did the Foreign Islam in terms of themes.

Video summarization aims at generating a compact yet representative visual summary that conveys the essence of the original video. The advantage of unsupervised approaches is that they do not require human annotations to learn the summarization capability and generalize to a wider range of domains. Previous work relies on the same type of deep features, typically based on a model pre-trained on ImageNet data. Therefore, we propose the incorporation of multiple feature sources with chunk and stride fusion to provide more information about the visual content. For a comprehensive evaluation on the two benchmarks TVSum and SumMe, we compare our method with four state-of-the-art approaches. Two of these approaches were implemented by ourselves to reproduce the reported results. Our evaluation shows that we obtain state-of-the-art results on both datasets, while also highlighting the shortcomings of previous work with regard to the evaluation methodology. Finally, we perform error analysis on videos for the two benchmark datasets to summarize and spot the factors that lead to misclassifications., Comment: Accepted for publication at the ACM International Conference on Multimedia Retrieval (ICMR) 2021

The assignment of importance scores to particular frames or (short) segments in a video is crucial for summarization, but also a difficult task. Previous work utilizes only one source of visual features. In this paper, we suggest a novel model architecture that combines three feature sets for visual content and motion to predict importance scores. The proposed architecture utilizes an attention mechanism before fusing motion features and features representing the (static) visual content, i.e., derived from an image classification model. Comprehensive experimental evaluations are reported for two well-known datasets, SumMe and TVSum. In this context, we identify methodological issues on how previous work used these benchmark datasets, and present a fair evaluation scheme with appropriate data splits that can be used in future work. When using static and motion features with parallel attention mechanism, we improve state-of-the-art results for SumMe, while being on par with the state of the art for the other dataset., Comment: Accepted in IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME) 2021 (They have copyright to publish camera ready version of this work)