Purpose Islamic marketing ethics focus on the principles of equity, justice and value maximization for the welfare of society. These ethics play a vital role in elevating the standards of customer behavior. The strategy of focusing customer is now considered as important element because of rapidly changing marketing trends in Islamic banks. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find out the important features of Islamic marketing ethics and identify their effect on customer’s satisfaction in Islamic banking. Design/methodology/approach This study is descriptive and quantitative. Data were collected from 1000 customers of Islamic banks by applying convenient sampling technique. Smart PLS was used to check the scale validation by confirmatory factor analysis. To test the hypotheses, structural equation modeling technique was used. Findings Results enlightened that Islamic marketing ethics play a significant role in enhancing the customer’s satisfaction. Islamic banks should focus on marketing mix along with Islamic and ethical perspectives to improve the customer’s satisfaction level. Practical implications This study highlighted that Islamic marketing ethics have great impact on customer satisfaction. Therefore, Islamic banks need to concentrate on the ethical perspective of Islamic marketing in order to develop long term customer relationships. Islamic banks need to revise their marketing practices, and they should align their marketing tactics with ethical Islamic boundaries. They need to design, communicate and enforce the code of Islamic ethics within organizations. Originality/value This paper fulfills an identified need to study how Islamic marketing ethics effect customer satisfaction.

Background. Stroke is an important morbidity for low and middle income countries like Bangladesh. We established the first stroke registry in Bangladesh. Methods. Data was collected from stroke patients who were admitted in Department of Neurology of BIRDEM with first ever stroke, aged between 30 and 90 years. Patients with intracerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid and subdural hemorrhage, and posttrauma features were excluded. Results. Data was gathered from 679 stroke patients. Mean age was 60.6 years. Almost 68% of patients were male. Small vessel strokes were the most common accounting for 45.4% of all the patients followed by large vessel getting affected in 32.5% of the cases. Only 16 (2.4%) died during treatment, and 436 (64.2%) patients had their mRS score of 3 to 5. Age greater than 70 years was associated with poor outcome on discharge [OR 1.79 (95% CI: 1.05 to 3.06)] adjusting for gender, duration of hospital stay, HDL, and pneumonia. Age, mRS, systolic blood pressure, urinary tract infection, pneumonia, and stroke severity explained the Barthel score. Conclusion. Mortality was low but most of patient had moderate to severe disability at discharge. Age, mRS, systolic blood pressure, urinary tract infection, pneumonia, and stroke severity influenced the Barthel score.

AIMTo study the effect of itopride on gastric accommodation, gastric emptying and drinking capacity in functional dyspepsia (FD).METHODSRandomized controlled trial was conducted to check the effect of itopride on gastric accommodation, gastric emptying, capacity of tolerating nutrient liquid and symptoms of FD. We recruited a total of 31 patients having FD on the basis of ROME III criteria. After randomization, itopride was received by 15 patients while 16 patients received placebo. Gastric accommodation was determined using Gastric Scintigraphy. 13C labeled octanoic breadth test was performed to assess gastric emptying. Capacity of tolerating nutrient liquid drink was checked using satiety drinking capacity test. The intervention group comprised of 150 mg itopride. Patients in both arms were followed for 4 wk.RESULTSMean age of the recruited participant 33 years (SD = 7.6) and most of the recruited individuals, i.e., 21 (67.7%) were males. We found that there was no effect of itopride on gastric accommodation as measured at different in volumes in the itopride and control group with the empty stomach (P = 0.14), at 20 min (P = 0.38), 30 min (P = 0.30), 40 min (P = 0.43), 50 min (P = 0.50), 60 min (P = 0.81), 90 min (P = 0.25) and 120 min (P = 0.67). Gastric emptying done on a sub sample (n = 11) showed no significant difference (P = 0.58) between itopride and placebo group. There was no significant improvement in the capacity to tolerate liquid in the itopride group as compared to placebo (P = 0.51). Similarly there was no significant improvement of symptoms as assessed through a composite symptom score (P = 0.74). The change in QT interval in itopride group was not significantly different from placebo (0.10).CONCLUSIONOur study found no effect of itopride on gastric accommodation, gastric emptying and maximum tolerated volume in patients with FD.

Background: Pakistan has recently observed a significant growth in public health education programmes. Little is known about the structure of these programmes nor whether they are adequately responsive to national health system needs. Aims: We reviewed existing public health degree programmes in Pakistan along with an exploration of the national public health market and health system needs. Methods: A mixed-methods study was conducted between January 2015 and March 2016. Seventeen public health degree programmes were reviewed for programmatic and instructional attributes. Thirteen key-informant interviews were conducted to explore health system needs and challenges related to public health workforce. Results: We found substantial variation in public health academic programmes in terms of offered courses, credit hours, number of faculty and tuition costs. About 70% of public health degree programmes were generic (i.e. with no specific concentration track) and only 18% offered practicums. Overall median tuition cost in 2016 was US$ 10 350. During key-informant interviews, emerged themes for challenges included lack of practical public health skills, limited knowledge of latest theoretical principles, poor communication skills and insufficient IT orientation. Identified themes about knowledge and skills areas to address future public health challenges of Pakistan included system thinking mind set, healthcare IT skills, and leadership and management skills. Conclusions: Public health education in Pakistan falls short of meeting current national challenges. Pakistan needs a national public health accreditation body for regulating education, harmonizing global standards to local context and developing relevant career pathways.

PurposeThis study aims to identify the impact of corporate governance on performance of sugar mills. In order to study this relation, a model is constructed in which ownership structure and independent directors are taken as independent variables. Whereas firm performance is analyzed by using proxy variables such as return on asset (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and sales growth. Moreover, size of board, working capital management (WCM) and philanthropy are taken as mediating variables between governance variables and firm performance.Design/methodology/approachThe data of 32 sugar mills listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange for the period of four years (i.e. 2014–2017) is used for this research. Moreover, to investigate the model, generalized least squares statistical method is used to measure the relationship between variables.FindingsThe results revealed that there is significant but positive relationship between independent directors and ROA while ownership structure and ROE have significant but negative relationship. Thus, the board of directors should make it sure that all stakeholders and organizations should increase the nonfamily ownership in firms for better corporate performance. Moreover, philanthropy and WCM mediate the relationship between corporate governance and firms' performance.Practical/implicationsThis research work will be helpful in the corporate governance, and further researchers can conduct their study by considering executive/nonexecutive director and institutional owners as governance variables.Originality/valueThis paper fulfills an identified need to study how Corporate Governance effect the performance of firm.

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Smoking, age greater than 60 years and hypoxemia were identified as factors that increased the odds of mortality in IPF patients, whereas pirfenidone was found to lower the odds of mortality.

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