Sharif Digital Repository

This study empirically investigates how companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) manage their earnings from 2010 to 2019. It also examines the impact of Corporate Governance (CG) on the choice of Earnings Management (EM) strategies among these companies. The study employs data from companies listed on the PSX during the period from 2010 to 2019 to test these relationships. Researchers in current research used discretionary accrual as proxy to measure the EM by using the model that was modified by Jones. Future probability is measured a year ahead cash flow taken from operation, that is, a year ahead discretionary income and a year ahead earnings’ change. To conduct empirical... 

Providing home hemodialysis (HHD) therapy is a complex process that not only requires the use of a complex technology but also involves a diverse group of stakeholders, and each stakeholder has their requirements and may not share a common interest. Bringing them together will require the alignment of their interests. A process management perspective can help to accomplish the alignment of their interests. To align their interests, it is crucial to identify interest groups and understand their interests. The main objective of this paper is to identify the stakeholders and represents their interests as a list of requirements in the HHD process. An extensive literature review has been carried... 

Nonlinear optical (NLO) materials are essential components in modern photonics and optical devices due to their ability to generate new frequencies through the nonlinear interaction with intense light. Synthesizing porphyrin-based NLO materials is complex and challenging, requiring specialized techniques to achieve high purity and yield. Controlling chromophore orientation and optimizing nonlinear optical properties are key difficulties that demand interdisciplinary efforts for practical photonics and optical applications. In the present study by using z-scan technique some of non-linear optical (NLO) parameters includingthird order NLO susceptibility (χ3), and molecular second... 

This paper focuses on characterization of intervertebral disc behavior upon fatigue stress. It consists in in-vitro experiments to measure intervertebral disc deformation with regard to forces applied to produce fatigues test. In this paper, a system modeling based non-invasive method to assess back pain is proposed which may be used for designing of prediction model to predict the failure of intervertebral disc (IVD) experiencing fatigue loading. An artificial compression fracture was simulated in the lower level of vertebra followed by a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) bone cement injection. Fatigue loading was applied on the specimens and the load was incrementally increased form 650 N... 

The growth and productivity of different varieties of beetroot Beta vulgaris were examined in presence of urea, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, compost and salt during the field trial, and the chemical constitution of three different varieties, dark red, ruby queen and detroit-2 was identified quantitatively by spectrophotometer. Ruby queen shows maximum growth as compared to dark red and detroit-2. The application of urea, nitrogen, phosphate, potassium and compost reduces the amount of catalase and total antioxidant enzymic potensial while increasing the concentrations of proteins, lipids, and sugars, with high growth and yield. Maximum growth was observed in the presence of urea, while... 

Cotton contributes 0.6% to the value added in GDP and 3.1% to the value added in the agriculture sector of Pakistan. The dusky cotton bug (DCB), Oxycarenus hyalinipennis (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae), is among the insect pest species of highest economic significance in cotton production in the country. Adults and nymphs feed on seeds and cotton bolls, affecting seed germination. The dusky cotton bug is a polyphagous insect that feeds on a variety of host plants. Its adults and nymphs typically feed on squares of the cotton plant, resulting in a pale yellow color of squares and subsequent shedding of infested squares. Insecticide resistance in cotton insect pests is an emerging threat to sustainable... 

This study focuses on a forward looking approach in which deep eutectic solvents (DESs), a new class of designer solvents, were impregnated into micro porous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane for the separation of CO2 from CH4. Three types of DESs were prepared by mixing and heating of hydrogen bond acceptor (choline chloride) with either malic acid, tartaric acid or oxalic acid as hydrogen bond donor. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed the hydrogen bond interactions in the resulting DES. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to evaluate the thermal stability of the prepared membranes. The DES based supported liquid membranes were investigated systematically to... 

An energy management system (EMS) was proposed for a campus microgrid (μG) with the incorporation of renewable energy resources to reduce the operational expenses and costs. Many uncertainties have created problems for microgrids that limit the generation of photovoltaics, causing an upsurge in the energy market prices, where regulating the voltage or frequency is a challenging task among several microgrid systems, and in the present era, it is an extremely important research area. This type of difficulty may be mitigated in the distribution system by utilizing the optimal demand response (DR) planning strategy and a distributed generator (DG). The goal of this article was to present a... 

Alkalis, surfactants and/or polymers are usually injected in the injector wells so that the injection fluids can sweep through the reservoir and mobilize/recover more oil. However, the formation of stable emulsion due to the residual chemicals in the recovered crude oil poses problems in the primary separation process. This study focuses on the effect of Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer injection on creaming and coalescence of crude oil and water emulsion produced in the primary gravity separator. In addition, a model is developed in this work to predict the separation effectiveness of oil and water emulsion containing ASP. In this work, the effect of ASP on the stability and the separation of... 

Alkalis, surfactants and/or polymers are usually injected in the injector wells so that the injection fluids can sweep through the reservoir and mobilize/recover more oil. However, the formation of stable emulsion due to the residual chemicals in the recovered crude oil poses problems in the primary separation process. This study focuses on the effect of Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer injection on creaming and coalescence of crude oil and water emulsion produced in the primary gravity separator. In addition, a model is developed in this work to predict the separation effectiveness of oil and water emulsion containing ASP. In this work, the effect of ASP on the stability and the separation of... 

Based on exclusive thermal dynamic of nanomaterials, various applications are noted in engineering and industrial processes. Owing to such thermal impact, the researchers have presented comprehensive research on nanomaterials. While claiming novel applications of nanofluids, the stability of nanomaterials is important for which less attention has been paid. On this end, the aim of current research is to predict the thermal instability of graphene nanoparticles with suspension of water base fluid due to transient Hartmann flow. The Poiseuille flow of water-based nanoparticles subject to the magnetic force is assumed between two plates. The numerical outcomes are predicted with implementation... 

The Ukrainian economic crisis began with the start of the war and grew over time. This is because trade between countries was spread out because of problems with the supply chain. However, the energy sector in Ukraine is largely disturbed by this armed conflict. The purpose of this study was to test the impact of infrastructure damage, trade sanctions, the economic crisis, and energy investments in green energy in Ukraine through the lens of sustainable development goals (SGDs). The data is collected from the Ukrainian public, and the sample size for this research is 384. This research has used the structural equation modeling method by using Smart PLS 3 for data analysis. The findings of... 

The current study revealed the effectiveness of polypropylene (PP) fibers and cement to enhance the strength of black cotton soil. PP fibers and cement with different concentrations were mixed with black cotton soil. The strength of PP fiber and cement-based soil samples was measured in terms of unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and California Bearing ratio (CBR). Specimens for UCS and CBR tests were prepared at 2%, 4%, 6% and 8% of cement (by dry weight of soil) and seven percentages of polypropylene fibers i.e. 0.0%, 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4%, 0.5% and 0.6% (by dry weight of soil). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis confirmed the presence of polypropylene and cement contents in... 

The current study revealed the effectiveness of polypropylene (PP) fibers and cement to enhance the strength of black cotton soil. PP fibers and cement with different concentrations were mixed with black cotton soil. The strength of PP fiber and cement-based soil samples was measured in terms of unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and California Bearing ratio (CBR). Specimens for UCS and CBR tests were prepared at 2%, 4%, 6% and 8% of cement (by dry weight of soil) and seven percentages of polypropylene fibers i.e. 0.0%, 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4%, 0.5% and 0.6% (by dry weight of soil). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis confirmed the presence of polypropylene and cement contents in... 

Novel PVA/PEG cross-linked membranes were prepared with (0–20 wt. %) of silica nanoparticles. The presence of both the polymers and additive was confirmed by FTIR analysis. The thermal properties of the membranes were analyzed by TGA and DSC analysis. The morphological and mechanical properties of the membranes were studied by SEM analysis and tensile testing, respectively. The gas permeation performances of the membranes were examined using state-of-the-art gas permeability cell. It was found that permeability of all the gases increased with the increase of silica loading, whereas ideal selectivity of carbon dioxide with respect to nitrogen and methane increased up to 10 wt. % loading and... 

The recent work investigates the heat transfer attributes in the flow of engine oil which comprises of nano-particles such as Cu and TiO2. The performance of Copper and Titanium oxide is over looked in the flow of engine oil. The energy equation is amended by the features of thermal radiation, viscous dissipation, and heat generation. The mathematical model signifies the porosity, entropy generation and moving flat horizontal surface with the non-uniform stretching velocity. Quasi-linearization, which is a persuasive numerical technique to solve the complex coupled differential equations, is used to acquire the numerical solution of the problem. Flow and heat transfer aspects of Cu–TiO2 in... 

This paper presents recent developments on effects of rest and fatigue loading on properties of healthy vertebra discs. A comparison of different approaches used in literature to study the properties of intervertebral disc is presented. The major achievements in this area so far are discussed in the context of their advantages and disadvantages. The past approaches are based on bio-mechanical models which mostly used statistical techniques for the analysis and estimation of fatigue loaded Intervertebral Disc (IVD). However, those modeling techniques were not flexible enough for analysis of customized tests. In this paper, we applied System Identification (SI) based NLARX modeling technique... 

Cereal grains are a good source of macronutrients and micronutrients that are required for metabolic activity in the human body. Sprouts have been studied to enhance the nutrient profile. Moreover, secondary metabolites are examined as green food engineering technology that is used in the pharmaceutical, functional ingredients, nutraceutical, and cosmetic industries. The sprout-based food is commonly used to enhance the quality of products by softening the structure of the whole grain and increasing the phytochemicals (nutritional value and bioactive compounds). These sprouting grains can be added to a variety of products including snacks, bakery, beverage, and meat. Consuming whole grains... 

The microfluidic device, known simply as microfluidics, is an emerging technology that has become a significant tool for pharmaceutical businesses to process and analyze materials for developing, optimizing, testing, and delivering various drugs in advanced nanocarriers. Technically, microfluidics is a technique to handle small solution volumes (nanoliters to picoliters) in microchambers of different geometries and dimensions ranging from a few nanometers to hundreds of micrometers. Each year, many pharmaceutical drug delivery systems have failed clinical translation because of scale-up problems. Now, scientists are trying to find some suitable alternatives and more robust methodologies to... 

Detecting fake news is increasingly crucial in the digital age as social platforms and online news outlets amplify the spread of misinformation. This study proposes a novel approach for fake news detection using a Bi-LSTM neural network with an attention mechanism. The Bi-LSTM model's ability to discern long-range relationships and sequential patterns in text data is augmented by the attention mechanism, focusing on key segments within the text to enhance discriminative power. The dataset for training comprises a diverse collection of news articles, meticulously annotated by human fact-checkers to include both real and fake news samples. Pre-processing steps, including tokenization, are...