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In order to obtain good grades, students involve themselves in hard work according to the best of their ability, yet an experiential learning project makes it even harder to attain the grades that the students are aiming for. Researches have shown that students are generally optimistic about their grades, yet no research has been found in Pakistan to gauge student optimism in grades with regard to experiential learning projects. This study is an attempt to gauge an empirical attempt to gauge students' optimism towards their grades in an experiential learning project. A sample of 106 students is obtained via purposive sampling technique enrolled in the same university and same course. After being involved in an experiential learning project, they were asked their expected marks which were compared later with their actually obtained marks. Pair sample t-test is applied to figure out whether the average of perceived marks is statistically different than the average of actually obtained marks. The average of expected marks exceeds by 2.14 which is statistically significant at 99.9% confidence interval.

This study is an effort to understand the impact of occupational stress which is classified into four constructs i.e. pressure at work, support at work, job satisfaction, and nature of job, on the personality of employees working in public as well as private sector universities. To conduct the study, a survey questionnaire was floated to six universities: two public sector and four private sector. These universities were selected on convenience bases and respondents from these universities were selected based on purposive sampling technique. The data was found reliable through cronbach alpha. In order to analyse data, correlation followed by multiple regression were applied as statistical tools. Analysis showed that all variables of occupational stress have significant impact over employees' personality and overall model is significant at 99.9% confidence interval.

This study has explored the dynamic performance of exports of knitted garments of Pakistan from 2001-2020. A comparative analysis of selected competitor countries in the export of knitted garment also analyzed. Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), Symmetric Revealed Comparative Advantage (SRCA) and Normalized Revealed Comparative Advantage (NRCA) techniques has been used to check the performance Pakistan and its selected competitors in the export of knitted garments. Study utilizes the observations provided by UN COMTRADE and ITC Trade map for the products covered by Harmonized System (HS), two-digit data under code HS-61 (Articles of apparel and clothing accessories, knitted or crocheted) commodities of the readymade garment sector has been analyzed. Study shows that Pakistan is having lowest NRCA as compare to China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Turkey and India but for the last 5 years, it is improving remarkably. Due to structural changes in the Chinese economy, NRCA of China is having downward trend whereas Bangladesh's NRCA improving significantly. Vietnam is also becoming a big competitor. Estimated results are evident that Pakistan is having lowest NRCA as compare to China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Turkey and India but for the last 5 years it is improving remarkably. Due to structural changes in the Chinese economy, NRCA of China is having downward trend whereas Bangladesh's NRCA improving significantly. Pakistan should now take advantage of its underlying comparative advantage in the export product of HS 61 as China and India are losing their underlying comparative advantage over the last few years, Bangladesh is taking full advantage of the situation and increasing its export of HS61 products significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ethnic diversity generally subsists in different countries which may have consequential effects on the various socioeconomic factors including international trade and environment. It is more arduous for nations when the high degree of ethnic diversity shatters trust amongst nations, obstructs trade contracts and may affect environment. Given this unique nexus, the present study explores the distinctive linkages among ethnic diversity, international trade, and environment for the case of Pakistan by utilizing time series data from 1970 to 2015 of Pakistan. This study applies nonlinear autoregressive distributed lags technique to observe negative and positive effects of ethnic diversity on environmental performance and international trade. This study found strong evidence of asymmetric co-integration among the concerned variables. GDP per capita is more consistent for trade and exports in both positive and negative shocks and responsible for CO2 emission to increase, whereas a negative shock to social exclusion may decrease CO2 emission via uniform consumption pattern. This study suggests that problems of diversity can be curtailed through the assurance of equal opportunity for society in order to make it cohesive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deterrence policy is a prevalent strategy in developing countries to collect tax revenues, but this approach is problematic due to inconsistent evidence. Tax morale is emerging as one of the most influential variables affecting the level of compliance in most countries. Given the extremely low tax to GDP ratio in Pakistan, the foundational intent of this study is to examine the impact of formal and informal institutions affecting the level of tax morale and to fill the space by considering tax morale as endogenous variable by acquiring the data from the World Values Survey for the wave of 2010-2014. Weighted ordered probit model is applied, the estimated results demonstrate that confidence in parliament, confidence in civil services, confidence in government, religiosity, marital status and person's age play significant roles in building higher tax morale in the country. It has also been observed that Pakistani women have higher level of tax morale as compared to men. Married people turn out to have higher tax morale as compared to singles and financial satisfaction has also significant positive impact for tax morale while the impact of education was not found significant. From policy perspectives, the improvement of institutional quality has dire need to improve the level of tax morale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey was conducted to study the preferred learning strategies; that is, surface learning or deep learning of undergraduate and graduate male and female students and the impact of the preferred strategy on their academic performance. Both learning strategies help university students to get good scores in their examinations to meet the demands of industry in workforce. Quantitative research method was used to determine the impact of learning strategy on academic achievements. The R-SPQ2F questionnaire was sent to 103 students through Google forms and hard copies through snowball sampling technique. The results show that rote learning and academic performance are inversely related to each other. In high achievers, deep learning is significant as compared to low achievers. Furthermore, comparative analysis of learning styles on males and females showed that both preferred deep learning strategy equally. Learning strategy is not related to education level of students because there is no difference among preferred learning strategies of graduate and undergraduate students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attempt of the research is to realize the key factors and examine the effect of corporate governance and capital structure on firms' financial performance belonging to petroleum sector which are registered on Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The study focuses on data gathered from five companies of petroleum sector keeping in view the present situation of Pakistan and current economic, political and legislative environment to evaluate and judge the challenges and risks affecting the firms' performance. Only a single source of data is used which is secondary. The sample employed in the current research is comprised of five firms listed in the PSX index under the petroleum sector. The sample size selected for the purpose of this research is consisting of nine years annual data of the variables starting from year 2007 to year 2015 used. Multiple Regression model is used as the statistical technique and SPSS statistics has been used for examination of hypotheses. The empirical results investigated that Short term debt ratio and Long term debt ratio has significantly negative correlation with ROA. The firms with lesser STD & LTD ratio lead to higher financial performance. Consequently, board size and no. of shareholders has insignificant relationship with ROA. Furthermore, the study investigated that ROE has insignificant either negative or positive relationship with all the independent variables namely Board size, No. of shareholders, Short-term debt ratio and Long-term debt ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attempt of the research is to realize the key factors and examine the effect of corporate governance and capital structure on firms' financial performance belonging to petroleum sector which are registered on Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The study focuses on data gathered from five companies of petroleum sector keeping in view the present situation of Pakistan and current economic, political and legislative environment to evaluate and judge the challenges and risks affecting the firms' performance. Only a single source of data is used which is secondary. The sample employed in the current research is comprised of five firms listed in the PSX index under the petroleum sector. The sample size selected for the purpose of this research is consisting of nine years annual data of the variables starting from year 2007 to year 2015 used. Multiple Regression model is used as the statistical technique and SPSS statistics has been used for examination of hypotheses. The empirical results investigated that Short term debt ratio and Long term debt ratio has significantly negative correlation with ROA. The firms with lesser STD & LTD ratio lead to higher financial performance. Consequently, board size and no. of shareholders has insignificant relationship with ROA. Furthermore, the study investigated that ROE has insignificant either negative or positive relationship with all the independent variables namely Board size, No. of shareholders, Short-term debt ratio and Long-term debt ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Export of textile sector of Pakistan is also dependent on the trade policy of importing countries, particularly European Union and USA, as these countries have been major importer of textile goods of Pakistan. This study is unique in the way that it contributes in existing literature by estimating factor productivity growth of textile sector in the perspective of pre quota and post quota elimination situation, as this has been ignored in past. We explored that textile sector of Pakistan did not get benefit of quota elimination and productivity remained almost stagnant over the period. We suggest penetrating textile export in unrestricted markets apart from European Union and USA and closure of sick units and outdated technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in most developing countries, incidence of cancer is also increasing in Pakistan. It is important that information on the frequency and epidemiology of malignant tumors be updated, as it is the basis of future health planning for the population at risk. This retrospective study was carried out to find the prevalence of various cancers in the population of Sargodha district (central Punjab, Pakistan) and to compare the regional and international studies, so as to plan and develop the oncology setup of Sargodha Medical College on a rationalized basis of disease prevalence. Data from July 2010 to June 2013 was retrieved from the department of statistics of the hospital and variables of interest were collected and analyzed using SPSS 10.0. It was observed that the most frequent cancer in our patients was breast cancer (n=172) while carcinoma of lungs was the most frequent carcinoma in male population (n=24). However our observations were a bit different from the international studies published on the subject, the probable reason being the availability of treatment facility and easier access in the nearby districts of Faisalabad and Lahore where many patients still go directly. More over the illiterate and poorer faction of the society does not come to the hospitals for management of the disease but rather go to the quakes and faith healers to relieve them of their sufferings. It is concluded that the department of clinical oncology should arrange cancer awareness programs for the general population to avoid delays in getting consultation, as at present they report to the hospital when the disease is quite advance and surgery is often not possible. Our study also revealed a somewhat different pattern of malignancies in our community raising a need for further studies to evaluate the reasons for this changed pattern in relation to various etiological factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) is a rapidly evolving virus affecting both vaccinated and unvaccinated poultry flocks and is responsible for significant economic losses globally; hence, it is imperative to obtain a deeper understanding of this pathogen. In this study, seven IBV strains were isolated from commercial and backyard poultry flocks during 2015-2018. We obtained full-length IBV genomes of two viruses using the Illumina sequencing method, while five additional viruses were genetically characterized through full-length spike (S1) gene sequencing. Phylogenetic and distance analysis based on complete S1 gene and full-length genome sequences revealed that one IBV isolate belonged to genotype GI-1 and six viruses were clustered within genotype GI-13. Deduced amino acid sequences of GI-13 strains exhibited 31.8-37.2 % divergence with the commonly used classic vaccine strains (M41) and 2.7-12.6 % with variant vaccine strains (4/91) in Pakistan. High evolutionary distances suggest that the IBV viruses circulating in Pakistan are under continuous evolutionary pressure. Moreover, ch/IBV/Pak/AW-2/2017 was found to have originated from an intra-genotypic recombination event between the variant group (GI-23 lineage as a major parent) and variant vaccine strain (4/91-like as a minor parent) and is the first example of recombination within genotype GI-13 in Pakistan. Together, these findings provide genetic and evolutionary insights into the currently circulating IBV genotypes in Pakistan, which could help to better understand the origin, spread and evolution of IBVs, and to ascertain the importance of disease monitoring as well as re-evaluation forof currently used vaccines and vaccination programmes.