| 1. |
- Ahmad, Naveed, et al.
(författare)
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Csr communication through social media : A litmus test for banking consumers’ loyalty
- 2021
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Ingår i: Sustainability (Switzerland). - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 13:4, s. 1-16
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Prior literature in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has largely focused on investigating its relationship with organizational-related outcomes, whereas the impact of CSR on consumer behavior is largely ignored in the recent literature. Further, most of the prior studies have investigated CSR with a philanthropic viewpoint, but its importance in achieving marketing-related outcomes is something that is to date, underexplored. Hence, the aim of the present study is to investigate the impact of CSR communication through social media on consumer loyalty with the mediating effect of consumers’ brand admiration in the banking sector of Pakistan. The banking sector was selected due to the reason that this sector is homogenized in nature and creating consumers’ loyalty due to this homogenized character of this sector is challenging. The data of the present study were collected from different banking consumers through an adapted questionnaire on a five-point Likert scale. A total of 448 fully filled questionnaires were received which included 289 male and 159 female banking consumers. The results of the present study revealed that CSR communications through social media have a positive impact on consumer loyalty, and consum-ers’ brand admiration partially mediates this relationship. The findings of the present study would help policymakers from banking institutions to use CSR strategy from the perspective of marketing which is undoubtedly very important for every organization in the current digital age.
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| 2. |
- Beal, Jacob, et al.
(författare)
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Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density
- 2020
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Ingår i: Communications Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2399-3642. ; 3:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data.
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| 3. |
- Sepanlou, Sadaf G., et al.
(författare)
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The global, regional, and national burden of cirrhosis by cause in 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017
- 2020
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Ingår i: The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology. - 2468-1253. ; 5:3, s. 245-266
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Cirrhosis and other chronic liver diseases (collectively referred to as cirrhosis in this paper) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality globally, although the burden and underlying causes differ across locations and demographic groups. We report on results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 on the burden of cirrhosis and its trends since 1990, by cause, sex, and age, for 195 countries and territories. Methods We used data from vital registrations, vital registration samples, and verbal autopsies to estimate mortality. We modelled prevalence of total, compensated, and decompensated cirrhosis on the basis of hospital and claims data. Disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) were calculated as the sum of years of life lost due to premature death and years lived with disability. Estimates are presented as numbers and age-standardised or age-specific rates per 100 000 population, with 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs). All estimates are presented for five causes of cirrhosis: hepatitis B, hepatitis C, alcohol-related liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and other causes. We compared mortality, prevalence, and DALY estimates with those expected according to the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) as a proxy for the development status of regions and countries. Findings In 2017, cirrhosis caused more than 1.32 million (95% UI 1.27-1.45) deaths (440000 [416 000-518 000; 33.3%] in females and 883 000 [838 000-967 000; 66.7%] in males) globally, compared with less than 899 000 (829 000-948 000) deaths in 1990. Deaths due to cirrhosis constituted 2.4% (2.3-2.6) of total deaths globally in 2017 compared with 1.9% (1.8-2.0) in 1990. Despite an increase in the number of deaths, the age-standardised death rate decreased from 21.0 (19.2-22.3) per 100 000 population in 1990 to 16.5 (15.8-18-1) per 100 000 population in 2017. Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest age-standardised death rate among GBD super-regions for all years of the study period (32.2 [25.8-38.6] deaths per 100 000 population in 2017), and the high-income super-region had the lowest (10.1 [9.8-10-5] deaths per 100 000 population in 2017). The age-standardised death rate decreased or remained constant from 1990 to 2017 in all GBD regions except eastern Europe and central Asia, where the age-standardised death rate increased, primarily due to increases in alcohol-related liver disease prevalence. At the national level, the age-standardised death rate of cirrhosis was lowest in Singapore in 2017 (3.7 [3.3-4.0] per 100 000 in 2017) and highest in Egypt in all years since 1990 (103.3 [64.4-133.4] per 100 000 in 2017). There were 10.6 million (10.3-10.9) prevalent cases of decompensated cirrhosis and 112 million (107-119) prevalent cases of compensated cirrhosis globally in 2017. There was a significant increase in age-standardised prevalence rate of decompensated cirrhosis between 1990 and 2017. Cirrhosis caused by NASH had a steady age-standardised death rate throughout the study period, whereas the other four causes showed declines in age-standardised death rate. The age-standardised prevalence of compensated and decompensated cirrhosis due to NASH increased more than for any other cause of cirrhosis (by 33.2% for compensated cirrhosis and 54.8% for decompensated cirrhosis) over the study period. From 1990 to 2017, the number of prevalent cases snore than doubled for compensated cirrhosis due to NASH and more than tripled for decompensated cirrhosis due to NASH. In 2017, age-standardised death and DALY rates were lower among countries and territories with higher SDI. Interpretation Cirrhosis imposes a substantial health burden on many countries and this burden has increased at the global level since 1990, partly due to population growth and ageing. Although the age-standardised death and DALY rates of cirrhosis decreased from 1990 to 2017, numbers of deaths and DALYs and the proportion of all global deaths due to cirrhosis increased. Despite the availability of effective interventions for the prevention and treatment of hepatitis B and C, they were still the main causes of cirrhosis burden worldwide, particularly in low-income countries. The impact of hepatitis B and C is expected to be attenuated and overtaken by that of NASH in the near future. Cost-effective interventions are required to continue the prevention and treatment of viral hepatitis, and to achieve early diagnosis and prevention of cirrhosis due to alcohol-related liver disease and NASH.
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| 4. |
- Ahmad, Muhammad Ovais, Associate Professor/Lektor, et al.
(författare)
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An Empirical Investigation on Business Analytics in Software and Systems Development Projects
- 2023
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Ingår i: Information Systems Frontiers. - : Springer. - 1387-3326 .- 1572-9419. ; 25:2, s. 917-927
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To create competitive advantages, companies are leaning towards business analytics (BA) to make data-driven decisions. Nevertheless, users acceptance and effective usage of BA is a key element for its success. Around the globe, organizations are increasingly adopting BA, however, a paucity of research on examining the drivers of BA adoption and its continuance is noticeable in the literature. This is evident in developing countries where a higher number of systems and software development projects are outsourced. This is the first study to examine BA continuance in the context of software and systems development projects from the perspective of Pakistani software professionals. The data was collected from 186 Pakistani software professionals working in software and systems development projects. The data were analyzed using partial least squares - structural equation modelling techniques. Our structural model explains 45% variance on BA continuance intention, 69% variance on technological compatibility, and 59% variance on perceived usefulness. Our results show that confirmation has a direct impact on BA continuance intention in software and systems projects. The study has both theoretical and practical implications for professionals in the field of business analytics.
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| 5. |
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Impact of substantive staging and communicative staging of sustainable servicescape on behavioral intentions of hotel customers through overall perceived image : A case of boutique hotels
- 2021
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Ingår i: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - : MDPI AG. - 1661-7827 .- 1660-4601. ; 18:17
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Customers have become very sensitive regarding the innovative evaluation of servicesDue to competition in the hospitality industry, it is a challenge for hotel marketers to understand customers’ behavior. There is scant research in the hotel industry of Pakistan and especially on boutique hotels. This research seeks to measure the relationship between substantive, communicative elements of the sustainable servicescape and behavioral intentions (word of mouth) in a boutique hotel setting. However, the mediating effect of the overall perceived image is examined between these constructs. Responses of boutique hotel visitors were collected from Lahore, Islamabad, Faisalabad, and Murree. Data were analyzed by using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results display that both substantive and communicative servicescape elements positively affect the perceived image of customers, which has a positive influence on behavioral intentions such as word of mouth (WOM)Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.
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| 6. |
- Khan, Asadullah, et al.
(författare)
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The Mediating Role of Benefit Management for Sustaining the Performance of Infrastructure Projects
- 2022
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Ingår i: Construction Economics and Building. - 2204-9029. ; 22:3, s. 124-143
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Benefit management is a valuable approach, promoted and supported by strategic management for maximizing organizational benefits. It has also been recognized as a means of improving project performance, though more research is needed to understand how it works. This research adds to the contemporary literature on public sector project management by studying the links between project governance, benefit management, and project performance from a developing country perspective. This study provides insights for project professionals who are working in government organizations for optimizing the benefits of investment. The study provides a reference to formulate strategies for managing and governing the performance of government-funded projects in developing countries like Pakistan. The research uses a positivist approach and quantitative design. The quantitative technique is employed to address all the aspects of the study. The structural equation modeling revealed that benefit management acted as a mediating factor in the relationship between project governance dimensions and public sector project performance. This study highlights the importance of incorporating a comprehensive benefit management approach to streamline the benefit management process by aligning projects with the organizational strategy for sustaining project performance. These findings stress the need for a comprehensive benefit management approach in improving the project performance of government-sponsored projects. The study attempts to improve the understanding of project professionals about the role and significance of benefit management, which will be helpful to get organizational support for the employees who are striving to improve the project performance in Pakistan.
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| 7. |
- Kristan, Matej, et al.
(författare)
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The Ninth Visual Object Tracking VOT2021 Challenge Results
- 2021
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Ingår i: 2021 IEEE/CVF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTER VISION WORKSHOPS (ICCVW 2021). - : IEEE COMPUTER SOC. - 9781665401913 ; , s. 2711-2738
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Visual Object Tracking challenge VOT2021 is the ninth annual tracker benchmarking activity organized by the VOT initiative. Results of 71 trackers are presented; many are state-of-the-art trackers published at major computer vision conferences or in journals in recent years. The VOT2021 challenge was composed of four sub-challenges focusing on different tracking domains: (i) VOT-ST2021 challenge focused on short-term tracking in RGB, (ii) VOT-RT2021 challenge focused on "real-time" short-term tracking in RGB, (iii) VOT-LT2021 focused on long-term tracking, namely coping with target disappearance and reappearance and (iv) VOT-RGBD2021 challenge focused on long-term tracking in RGB and depth imagery. The VOT-ST2021 dataset was refreshed, while VOT-RGBD2021 introduces a training dataset and sequestered dataset for winner identification. The source code for most of the trackers, the datasets, the evaluation kit and the results along with the source code for most trackers are publicly available at the challenge website(1).
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| 8. |
- Mahmood, Asif, et al.
(författare)
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Unleashing the barriers to CSR implementation in the sme sector of a developing economy : A thematic analysis approach
- 2021
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Ingår i: Sustainability (Switzerland). - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 13:22
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from the perspective of sustainability has been a part of the academic discussion in recent years. Different studies have also highlighted the inability of the SME sector to implement a CSR plan to achieve sustainability objectives. How-ever, why this sector is unable to adopt CSR is something that has not been properly attended by contemporary scholars. Against this backdrop, the current study aims to explore the major barriers that inhibit SMEs from implementing CSR and sustainability measures. The current study data were collected from the senior management of different SMEs in Pakistan and were analyzed using thematic analysis to extract different patterns of themes. The results unveil that the “lack of finances” is the most critical barrier for CSR, followed by the “lack of CSR knowledge.” The implications for theory and practice are also discussed in detail.
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| 9. |
- Sudharsan, Bharath, et al.
(författare)
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Toward Distributed, Global, Deep Learning Using IoT Devices
- 2021
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Ingår i: IEEE Internet Computing. - : IEEE. - 1089-7801 .- 1941-0131. ; 25:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Deep learning (DL) using large scale, high-quality IoT datasets can be computationally expensive. Utilizing such datasets to produce a problem-solving model within a reasonable time frame requires a scalable distributed training platform/system. We present a novel approach where to train one DL model on the hardware of thousands of mid-sized IoT devices across the world, rather than the use of GPU cluster available within a data center. We analyze the scalability and model convergence of the subsequently generated model, identify three bottlenecks that are: high computational operations, time consuming dataset loading I/O, and the slow exchange of model gradients. To highlight research challenges for globally distributed DL training and classification, we consider a case study from the video data processing domain. A need for a two-step deep compression method, which increases the training speed and scalability of DL training processing, is also outlined. Our initial experimental validation shows that the proposed method is able to improve the tolerance of the distributed training process to varying internet bandwidth, latency, and Quality of Service metrics.
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