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This study is aimed to conceptually engineer the effects of hot potatoes (bad loans) in the banking system. The study’s research design uses elementary concepts of graph theory comprising of mappings of systemic behavior of contemporary banking. Issues have been formally underpinned, described, and visualized through directed and linear graphs. Findings of the study show that it is an inherent feature of the banking system to generate hot potatoes and allow them to sit there. It creates heat in the system by way of latency, turgescence, propagation, and concurrent cyclicality. These predicaments of systemic crises of banking deteriorate the sustainability of the system. The pilot study (using classical t-Test) conducted as part of this research has validated the theoretical argument aforementioned. The study provides new insights into these die-hard issues. It helps refine the agenda of future research in banking.

PurposeThe study aims to investigate the barriers in implementing social distancing at the workplace as an aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic period.Design/methodology/approachStudy design consists of a review of literature, data collection and analysis. It encompasses identification, verification and analysis of the relationships among the barriers. Data have been collected from a panel of experts on matrix-type questionnaires from workplaces. Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) augmented with “Matrice d' Impacts Croise's Multiplication Appliquée a UN Classement (Cross Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification)” (MICMAC) for structural analysis.FindingsThe literature has identified twenty major barriers to implementing social distancing at the workplace. The research findings reveal/show that the barrier “matter of disrespect” occupies the bottom level in the ISM model. Therefore, it is the most critical barrier; whereas, employees with disabilities and “herding culture” are crucial as they occupy the next lowest level, therefore, are crucial. Moreover, there are ten barriers positioned in the middle of the model having moderate-severe effects, and seven falls on the top level of the model having relatively less severe effects. Results of MICMAC affirm and avow the results of ISM.Research limitations/implicationsThe study will have profound theoretical and practical implications for stakeholders since it provides lot of new useful and valuable information, gives relational insights and determines priorities subject to usual limitations of survey research.Originality/valueIt is an original attempt to make some sense of practicability of social distancing for stakeholders including policymakers, frontline health workers and public at large.

Eight man-made forest plantations located in different regions of the Punjab province Pakistan were sampled to assess the tree and nursery stock damage caused by the Indian crested porcupine Hystrix indica. The incidence of damage to Morus alba Dalbergia sissoo and Eucalyptus camaldulensis averaged 9.36 10.82 and 8.0% respectively and the overall damage to all species estimated was 9.4%. However the degree of damage to different tree species between the plantations showed highly significant difference (F= 5.31; Pless than 0.01). Damage to mature trees of Acacia modesta Populus deltoides Bombax ceiba and Tamarix sumba was not recorded in any plantation. On an average plant nurseries of Dalbergia sissoo Morus alba and Bombax ceiba received 9.0 14.97 and 27.05% damage respectively. Up-rooting stumps of Dalbergia. sissoo Bombax ceiba Phoenix dactylifera and Euclyptus camaldulensis after transplanting a characteristic behaviour of Indian crested porcupine was commonly observed in the plantations.

PurposeIn current vista of corporate governance (CG), whistleblowing (WB) has become critical for practitioners, researchers and other stakeholders. This study aims to identify, prioritize and analyze the interrelationships of determinants of effective WB on the basis of opinion of a medium-sized panel of experts.Design/methodology/approachIt is a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted in the field setting. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from the respondents. This study follows an interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach.FindingsThis study found that the factor “specific law for WB” has maximum driving power but minimum dependence and occupies bottom level (the most critical level) in the ISM model. The Matrice d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée á un Classement analysis revealed that there is no autonomous and dependent factor in the model. There are eight linking factors and only one independent factor.Research limitations/implicationsThe study found that the factor “specific law for WB” has maximum driving power but minimum dependence and occupies bottom level (the most critical level) in the ISM model. The Matrice d'Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée á un Classement analysis revealed that there is no autonomous and no clear-cut dependent factor in the model. There are eight linking factors out of which five have high dependence as well, and there is only one independent factor.Practical implicationsThis study has ensued in identification of significant challenging issues in WB and in development of interrelationships to gain insights into priority of these issues. This study uses limited primary data in context of Pakistan; therefore, generalizability of the findings is limited.Originality/valueThis study presents a novel theoretical and conceptual model focused on effective WB. The value of the study on effective WB is highly relevant for today’s complex organizations but incipient in literature. The insights provided by the study have vital importance for corporations to embark on the regime of reforms in CG.

PurposeWomen entrepreneurship is the fundamental carter of economic development. This study aims to identify the dynamics that encourage entrepreneurial attitudes among women in MENA countries. More precisely, it required to scrutinize the role of the government, role models, the entrepreneurial training and women’s demographic characteristics in encouraging women to embrace entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on primary data, where data were gathered from a sample of 300 women from MENA countries through a self-administered questionnaire and were subjected to one-way ANOVA tests. Different statistical tools were used to draw some valued conclusions from the gathered data. The study reveals that women entrepreneurs acknowledge the role played by the government, entrepreneurship training, role models and demographic variables in encouraging them to embrace entrepreneurship.FindingsThe government and the entrepreneurial training were found to be the greatest variables encouraging women to embrace entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, the low overall mean exhibited that most women do not believe that these bodies have played their role satisfactorily. Whereas the ANOVA results reveal that age and work experience were not important dynamics behind encouraging women to embrace entrepreneurship.Research limitations/implicationsData were collected from a sample of 300 women entrepreneurs with a simple random sampling technique from the following MENA countries: Oman, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. It is too difficult to approach the women respondents and then collect data from them especially in MENA countries; hence the sample is small and limited.Practical implicationsHowever, such studies are still in the minority, and, with few exceptions, most have been published in the niche. The study finds imperative for policymakers to go beyond measures that aim to address the challenges that individual women entrepreneurs face and to study the institutional framework affecting women entrepreneurship in relationship to motivations and resources. Additional care is desired to compel the environment and context to eliminate barriers to women entrepreneurship at source. The government should play a significant role in encouraging women to embrace entrepreneurship, especially in times of economic slowdown. World-wide, women are under-represented among the population of entrepreneurs, and they tend to have different motivations and intentions. The first, and most obvious, implication highlights governments need to create special funds for unlocking the potential by enhancing their levels of entrepreneurship skills using the traditional instruments such as training. The government should come up with new and specific training programmes, providing support for growth-oriented women entrepreneurs with dedicated business incubator and business accelerator programmes.Social implicationsEntrepreneurs are strongly influenced by role models and social context. It is therefore important to promote women entrepreneurs as role models and ensure that the education system is gender-neutral and does not discourage women from going into different fields. Finally, more targeted actions can be taken to ensure that family policies, social policies and tax policies do not discriminate against entrepreneurship by women.Originality/valueThe author believes that only few entrepreneurship researchers are interested in feminist epistemology, disappointingly the more advanced understanding of feminism witnessed in sociology and the political science literature is not reflected in the field of entrepreneurship. Hence, there is a need for investigate the dynamics like government role, entrepreneurial training, role models and demographic characteristics, to have a fuller understanding of how they affect, to ensure a more accurate assessment of the outcomes for the development of women entrepreneurs in MENA countries. This study is an attempt to investigate the dynamics such as government role, entrepreneurial training, role models and demographic characteristics that encourage women to embrace entrepreneurship in MENA countries.

This study aims to generate a list of enablers of quality enhancement of higher business education in Pakistan and build a structural model of enablers to prioritize them. It also intends to impose direction and hierarchy on the inter-relationships of the enablers. The study’s design consists of a literature review, data collection from primary sources, and qualitative analysis. Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) coupled with Matriced’ Impacts Cruise’s Multiplication Appliquée a UN Classement (MICMAC) is used as a research methodology. The classical procedure of ISM and MICMAC is applied to primary data collected by a field survey from a panel of experts recruited from folks of stakeholders of business education. Results of the literature show that eighteen critical enablers enhance the quality of higher business education in Pakistan. Results of ISM show that the enabler ’job placement of graduates’ occupies the top-level of the ISM model being least critical. In contrast, the enabler ’intra-academia linkages’ occupying the bottom of the model is the most vital. Results of MICMAC show that all enablers, except ’job placement of graduates, are classified into linkage clusters, whereas ‘job placement of graduates’ is classified as an independent cluster. Overall results of the study show that enablers of quality enhancement of higher business education in Pakistan are agile and not settled. The study has profound theoretical, managerial, and practical implications for all stakeholders of business education. It also provides a research framework for future studies concerning subject phenomena. The discussion about the structural model culminates into policy guidelines for the regulators. The study is subject to some methodological/data/resources limitations like the limited review of literature, collection of data from a medium-size panel of experts from Pakistan only, using majority rule for aggregating responses, answering only that what is related to what, other common limitations of qualitative studies, shot period and absence of financial support. The authors conduct this study in a real-life field setting is built on the original dataset and address the efficient issue of phenomenon understudy differently. It is theory-building research, therefore, does not require prior theory. It exploits simple elementary concepts of Boolean algebra, set theory, and graph theory that generates new in-depth information for stakeholders.

Defining the vocal repertoire provides a basis for understanding the role of acoustic signals in sexual and social interactions of an animal. The Asian koel (Eudynamys scolopacea) is a migratory bird which spends its summer breeding season in the plains of Pakistan. The bird is typically wary and secretive but produces loud and distinct calls, making it easily detected when unseen. Like the other birds in the wild, presumably Asian koels use their calls for social cohesion and coordination of different behaviors. To date, the description of vocal repertoire of the male Asian koel has been lacking. Presently we analyzed and described for the first time the vocalizations of the adult male Asian koel, recorded in two consecutive breeding seasons. Using 10 call parameters, we categorized the vocalization type into six different categories on the basis of spectrogram and statistical analyses, namely the; \"type 1 cooee call\", \"type 2 cooee call\", \"type 1 coegh call\", \"type 2 coegh call\", \"wurroo call\" and \"coe call\". These names were assigned not on the basis of functional analysis and were therefore onomatopoeic. Stepwise cross validated discriminant function analysis classified the vocalization correctly (100%) into the predicted vocal categories that we initially classified on the basis of spectrographic examination. Our findings enrich the biological knowledge about vocalizations of the adult male Asian koel and provide a foundation for future acoustic monitoring of the species, as well as for comparative studies with vocalizations of other bird species of the cuckoo family. Further studies on the vocalizations of the Asian koel are required to unravel their functions in sexual selection and individual recognition.

Oviduct flushing is enriched by a wide variety of nutrients that guide the 3–4 days journey of pre-implantation embryo through the oviduct as it develops into a competent blastocyst (BL). However, little is known about the specific requirement and role of these nutrients that orchestrate the early stages of embryonic development. In this study, we aimed to characterize the effect of in vitro-derived bovine oviduct epithelial cell (BOECs) secretion that mimics the in vivo oviduct micro-fluid like environment, which allows successful embryonic development. In this study, the addition of an in vitro derived BOECs-condition media (CM) and its isolated exosomes (Exo) significantly enhances the quality and development of BL, while the hatching ability of BLs was found to be high (48.8%) in the BOECs-Exo supplemented group. Surprisingly, BOECs-Exo have a dynamic effect on modulating the embryonic metabolism by restoring the pyruvate flux into TCA-cycle. Our analysis reveals that Exo treatment significantly upregulates the pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) and glutamate dehydrogenase (GLUD1) expression, required for metabolic fine-tuning of the TCA-cycle in the developing embryos. Exo treatment increases the influx into TCA-cycle by strongly suppressing the PDH and GLUD1 upstream inhibitors, i.e., PDK4 and SIRT4. Improvement of TCA-cycle function was further accompanied by higher metabolic activity of mitochondria in BOECs-CM and Exo in vitro embryos. Our study uncovered, for the first time, the possible mechanism of BOECs-derived secretion in re-establishing the TCA-cycle flux by the utilization of available nutrients and highlighted the importance of pyruvate in supporting bovine in vitro embryonic development.

The ErbB4 gene is a schizophrenia (SCZ) risk gene that interacts with PSD-95 via its C-terminus, a connection disrupted in SCZ patients. To investigate the functional significance of this interaction, we generated a zygotic mutant mouse lacking the terminal valine “V” residue from the ErbB4 TVV motif. The homozygous (homo) mice exhibited disrupted ErbB4‒PSD-95 interactions and SCZ-relevant behavioral deficits, including impairments in motor function, sensory processing, and memory performance. Structural computational analysis further revealed that the mutation altered the structural conformation of the ErbB4 C-terminus, which affected its binding affinity for PSD-95. Mechanistically, the mutation led to up-regulated but less activation of ErbB4 and down-regulated but overactivation of PSD-95, possibly representing a failed compensatory response aiming to maintain the ErbB4-PSD-95 interaction. Additionally, homo mice presented NMDAR2A subunit specific hypofunction and reduced GAD67 expression. These findings highlight that the ErbB4–PSD–95 interaction is a critical molecular link in the synaptic dysfunction and behavioral abnormalities associated with SCZ.

The study is aimed to analyze the interrelationships of challenges of digital-marketing adoption in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector in Pakistan. The design comprises of review of up-to-date literature, primary data gathering, modeling and analysis. The data are collected through survey from an expert's panel recruited from stakeholders on the basis of predetermined criteria by using matrix type questionnaire. The literature discourse for extraction of list of challenges, Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) to extract the underlying model of interrelationships, and Matriced' Impacts Croise's Multiplication Appliquée a UN Classement (Cross Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification) popularly known as MICMAC for analysis are employed as research methods. Results of literature survey reveal that there are total fifteen challenges of digital-marketing adoption in FMCG-sector. Results of ISM modeling show that customers' digital engagement, consumer trust concerns, engaging relevant content, utilizing multi-media channels, integration of AI, continuous optimization, building digital capabilities, marketing innovation, responsive customer service, and handling new sources of data occupy Level I. Managing supplier & customer coordination occupies Level II. Organizational resistance occupies Level III. Integration of online and offline channels occupies Level IV. Data privacy & security occupies Level V. Technological barrier occupies Level VI. The results of data-centric and scale-centric MICMAC analysis substantiate the results of ISM modeling. It is a real time data based unique type of study that provides understanding to stakeholders particularly to marketers, regulators, FMCG mangers, researchers and technologists.