Archives-December 

Pandey (1977) considered the exponential distribution which is generally used in life testing experiment. Epstein & Sobel (1953) and Bhattacharya & Srivastava (1974) considered the censoring procedure in life testing problem. Pandey and Malik (1994) considered the improved estimator for ?2 in exponential distribution. In this paper proposed an estimator for ?2 in case of exponential distribution and studied its properties under Linex loss function.

This study investigated the fatty acid and amino acid compositions of one of the under-exploited tropical African seeds- Artocarpus heterphyllus (Jackfruit) seed. The seed oil was found to be composed of five fatty acids-palmitic (14.66%), palmitoleic (6.60%), stearic (50.59%), oleic (7.68%), linoleic (20.40%). The oil was composed of more of saturated fatty acids with a total value of 65.25%. The seed oil was composed more of short chain fatty acids and less of unsaturated fatty acids and expressed in the saponification number (132.81) and iodine value (42.5).The result showed a reasonable value of linoleic acid (20.40% ) and deficiency in linolenic acid. Seventeen amino acids,excluding tryptophan, were determined in Artocarpus heterophyllus seed protein and with aspartic (7.23 g/100g protein ) and glutamic (8.64g/100g protein) acids as the predominant amino acids and methionine (0.81g/100g protein) as the most deficient amino acid. The total essential amino acid composition of Artocarpus heterophyllus seed (25.64g/100g protein) represents 45.73% of the total amino acid composition of the seed protein. The values of the essential amino acids were found to be lower than their respective FAO/WHO/UNU(1991) reference standard values. However, the total essential amino acid composition of Artocarpus heterophyllus seed, just like other common members of the family, for example Treculia africana, was very low.

With an aim to study the hydrodynamic characteristics of a cocurrent solid-liquid-gas phase fluidized bed, experiments were conducted using 3 different sizes of gypsum particles, water and air as three respective phases. The characteristics studied were pressure drop and solid, liquid, gas holdups, which were observed to be influenced by three factors namely particle size and superficial velocities of gas and liquid. The Response surface Methodology was applied to investigate the individual and combined effect of the three factors on hydrodynamics characteristics. An attempt has been made to develop quadratic models for pressure drop and phase holdups. The predicted values were compared with experimental values which gave a satisfactory fit with R2 values around and above 0.95, indicating that the values predicted by the models were in good agreement with the experimental values.

Working capital can be considered as source of existence for a financial body and management of working capital is regarded as one of the most essential part of business management. This study aims to find out the impact of working capital policies on profitability. Return on assets is used as a measure of profitability. Current assets to total assets ratio is used to compute the investment policy of working capital management and to determine financing policy of working capital management current liabilities to total assets ratio is used. Other variables that are used in this study are quick ratio, debt to equity ratio and size of the firms. Secondary data of 117 textile firms listed on Karachi stock exchange is taken for a period of six years i.e. 2005-2010 to calculate all these variables. Results of the regression analysis show that aggressiveness of working capital management policies is negatively associated with profitability. Moreover liquidity and size of the firm have positive relation profitability whereas debt to equity ratio is negatively correlated with profitability. Textile sector is one of the majors sectors of Pakistan. It needs due consideration regarding the management of assets and liabilities. So, the aim of this study is to provide some useful recommendations for the people responsible for the management of this sector. This study also establishes the basis for future research in this area of business.

Basel II initially published in June 2004, was intended to create an international standard for banking regulators to control how much capital bank need to put aside to guard against the types of financial and operational risks bank faces. Basel II attempted to accomplish this by setting up risk and capital management requirement designed to ensure that a bank has adequate capital for the risk the bank exposes itself to through its lending and investment practices. This paper helps in detailed study about the Basel II and also helps in to find out the relationship between capital adequacy, non performing assets and net profits of some selected private and public sector banks. This paper also explores the effect on Net profit due to change in Capital Adequacy ratio and non Performing Assets.

The Data Encryption Standard (DES), a symmetric-key cryptosystem, developed for United States government was intended for use by the general public. It has been officially accepted as a cryptographic standard in United States and other countries. The DES is also known as the Data Encryption Algorithm (DEA) by ANSI and DEA-1 by the ISO. It has been a worldwide standard for 30 years. Many hardware and software system have been designed with the DES. Although it is showing signs of old age, it has hold up remarkably well against years of cryptanalysis and it is still secure against all but possibly the most powerful adversaries. In this paper we begin by describing DES then describe and analyze attacks against DES.

Table of contents for the month of February 2017

The impact caused by microfinance on growth of the economy has always been a debatable issue. Ample researches have been conducted to determine whether it helps poor masses to get out of the poverty trap or it further deteriorates the financial position of the masses at individual level and the economy in aggregate. It is quite surprising that the results and findings of these researches vary. This study is aimed at excogitating whether microfinance actually proves to be a blessing or is an additional burden for the poor. It is a conceptual study based on meta-analysis. Existing literature based on studies conducted by researchers, analysts, scholars, institutions and policy makers around the world has been reviewed to determine the impact of microfinance and to conclude whether it is a burden or a blessing. Six different aspects through which the growth of the economy can be measured have been taken into consideration. These include women empowerment, SME/entrepreneurs, rural transportation, poverty alleviation, health and education. Findings indicate that overall microfinance proves to be a blessing for the users but it poses certain challenges that hamper its performance up to the desired optimal level. Policy makers in this regard should play a positive role in formulating a clear roadmap and designing strategies for microfinance.

Recent developments in the quantitative analysis of brain functional complex networks, based largely on graph theory, have been rapidly translated to studies of modeling. The brain functional complex network models have features of small-world topology --- such as short average path length, high clustering coefficient and modularity. In this article, we discuss the investigate methods about the modeling to brain functional network in diverse process and provide an accessible introduction to the basic principles of modeling. We also highlight some of the technical challenges and key questions to be addressed by future developments in this rapidly moving field.

The CENTURY 4.0 Model have many variables that can be simulated. One of them is microbial respiration. In soil carbon studies there are three principal parts: total organic carbon, CO2-C and CO2. They are used to quantify soil carbon storage, microbial biomass and microbial respiration respectively. Soil total carbon comes from photosynthesis, translocation, decomposition, mineralisation processes. Soil CO2-C gives basic mass of microbial communities while soil CO2 is indicator of microbial respiratory activities. They are complimentary and supplementary approaches to virtual soil health. They are strong indicators of life in the soil media. The CENTURY 4.0 Model has additional benefit of simulating microbial respiration. In this study measured and simulated soil microbial respiration was compared in a Hanslope Soil under different land management practices. The simulated results started with ages record of 59.6 g m-2 y-1 soil respiratory rate to as low as 0.001 g m-1 y-1 in other periods of perturbations and human civilisation that impinged on natural processes of soil regeneration.