17. Al-Isra’/The Night Journey
I/We begin by the Blessed Name of Allah
The Immensely Merciful to all, The Infinitely Compassionate to everyone.
17:01
All Glory is to The One WHO took HIS Servant Muhammad for a journey by night,
from the Grand Sacred Masjid in Holy Makkah to the Distant Masjid in Blessed Jerusalem;
the environs of which WE have especially blessed,
so that WE make him see some of OUR Wonders of Almightiness.
Truly HE - HE is All-Listening, and HE is All-Watching.
17:02
And WE granted the Scripture - the Torah - to Moses, and
made it a source of guidance for Descendants of Jacob.
Saying:
‘Do not take anyone - metaphorically or hypothetically - for a guardian other than ME!
17:03
You are all descendants of those whom WE carried in the Ark with Noah.
He was truly a grateful servant!’
17:04
And WE warned Descendants of Jacob about OUR Decision in their Scripture:
‘You will definitely create and promote corruption in the land twice, and
you will indeed exalt yourselves’ with haughtiness and become grossly overbearing.
And thus you will be punished twice.
17:05
So when the first of these two warnings came true - as the Descendants of Jacob were tuned to sinful disobedience;
WE raised against you OUR servants, people of great power - the Babylonians.
And they ravaged your homes and caused havoc throughout the land.
And it was thus a warning fulfilled!
17:06
Then WE returned to you another chance of victory against them after you had repented,
and strengthened you with wealth/prosperity and sons/manpower,
and made you even more numerous in soldiery than ever.
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Current scenario of newer diseases with multiple causes has drawn the attention of the researchers in the field of therapeutics and they are now inclined to identify molecules effective for targeted therapy. Objective: Quinoline (1-azanaphthalene); belongs to heterocyclic aromatic nitrogen compound. Some quinoline-based derivatives are also known for their anti-tumor activity. The study was planned to evaluate the cytotoxic potential of quinoline derivatives. Methods: Berberine; a quinoline compound was made part of study to make structural analogs which were docked against potential target proteins. Cytotoxic profiling of all derivatives was done using MTT cytotoxicity assay. Results: The pharmacoinformatic and structure activity relationship studies of analogs were done. The cytotoxic profiles were elucidated by comparing viability rates of analogs treated hepatic cancerous cell line with untreated hepatic cells and untreated mesenchymal stem cells as standards. Marked cytotoxicity was seen in all molecules at low doses than reported in past studies with relevance to parent compound. Conclusions: The results will be further confirmed through various other cell culture assays targeting different marker proteins, pharmacoinformatics tools and structure activity relationship studies
Being able to predict bankruptcy can be very valuable for debtors, creditors, shareholders and other stakeholders. Historically, different models that predict corporate bankruptcy have been constructed. Three bankruptcy predicting models are used in this thesis; the models of Altman (1968), Ohlson (1980) and Shumway (2001). The relatively old original models are applied to U.S. listed firms. It became clear that when the original models are applied to a more recent sample of 1999-2013, the predictive power of the models is very low, and bankruptcy is over predicted. In order to be able to use the relatively old models in more recent periods, the results show that the models have to be re-estimated. The original models with the original variables are used, only the coefficients and the interpretation of the outcome of the models change by downside risk. The downside risk models show that especially variables of short term liquidity are more important now a day in predicting bankruptcy than in the original models. After reestimated the models, the accuracy rates of all models increased. Especially applying the downside risk models of Altman (1968) and Ohlson (1980) to the sample of 1999- 2013 result in high percentages of correctly classified observations and high areas under Receiver Operating Curves. The research was carried out with an aim to contribute to the discussion regarding business failure prediction of Pakistani Firms using Altman (1968) Z-Score, Ohlson (1980) O-Score and Shumway (2001) hazard model, its applicability and validity in Pakistani scenario so that to provide an addition into the literature of drivers of the prediction of the business failure in Pakistan. The research was carried on three research questions; can Altman (1968), Ohlson (1980) and Shumway(2001) model correctly forecast the bankruptcy problems in Pakistani environment, if not, can only changes in coefficients of Altman(1968) Ohlson (1980) and Shumway (2001)model’s ratios are sufficient for this purpose, is there is a need of new bankruptcy model for Pakistani firms and if so which of the financial ratios and relationships between financial ratios are useful in forecasting Pakistani business financial failure. This study used data of Pakistani publicly listed companies for the period of January 1999-December 2013 to test the accuracy of Altman’s Z-score, O-score a Hazard model in predicting failure of Pakistani’s companies and for model development. Multiple discriminant analysis (MDA), Logit and Probit are chosen as the suitable statistical technique. Multiple discriminant analysis (MDA), Logit and Probit is a statistical technique that can be employed to classify firms into one or more mutually exclusive categories such as bankrupt and non-bankrupt firms. MDA approach has been the most popular technique for bankruptcy studies as shown in literature. Results show that Altman(1968) model does fairly well for predicting the bankruptcy of a firm, with accuracy ranging from 94.6% to 83.9% but the model tends to misclassify a non-failed firm in to the failed group with error ranging from 61.1% to 91.1%.The re-estimated model does fairly well for predicting the delisting of a firm, with accuracy more than 80% as well as to predict with 100% accuracy for successful firms into the stable group with no error in whole yearly sample which is a high achievement of this model. Proposed model predict failure with overall 80%accuracy. Study findings suggest that results of Altman (1968), OhlsonO-Score and Shumway (2001) hazard model to estimate financial distress of sample firms should be interpreted cautiously in Pakistan, due to its low predication in successful companies. The re-estimated and proposed models give better results.