“What we need to acknowledge from people like Iqbal is that you can have debate within a context of familiarity and friendship” – Bishop Nazir-Ali

In February Bishop Nazir-Ali was in conversation with Professor Javed Majeed at an event on the philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal co-hosted by the South Asia Centre and Bloomsbury Pakistan. During the Bishop’s visit to LSE, Sonali Campion interviewed him about the contemporary relevance of Iqbal’s writing, particularly in questions around the relationship between religion and the state

Factors associated with smoking quit attempts among tobacco smokers

Despite more than one-third of tobacco users attempting to quit tobacco each year, only 4–6 % of them succeed to remains abstinent after one year. The aim: This study aims to estimate the proportion of smokers who attempt to quit tobacco smoking and determine factors associated with quitting behaviour. Methods: This community-based, cross-sectional study was conducted among 720 smokers aged 18 years and above residing in a rural area of Haryana state of India. A chi-square test determined the association between various variables under study and quitting attempts among study subjects. Factors found to be statistically significant using a chi-square test were entered into a binary logistic regression analysis to obtain determinants of smoking quitting attempts among the respondents. Results: 28.5 % of the respondents had attempted to quit smoking during the past 1 year. The majority of them, i.e., 73.7 %, had attempted once, whereas 21.0 % and 5.4 % of respondents had made 2 and 3 attempts, respectively, to quit smoking during the last 1 year. Factors independently associated with quitting behaviour were educational level (AOR=1.851, p=0.028), age of initiation (AOR=0.620, p=0.026), reasons for smoking (AOR=1.681, p=0.016), money spent on smoking (AOR=1.700, p=0.003), family pressure to quit smoking (AOR=1.725, p=0.006) and advice from health professionals to quit smoking (AOR=2.104, p<0.001). Conclusion: Around one-third of smokers have attempted to quit tobacco smoking in the past year. Hence there is a need to formulate policies towards a targeted intervention for smokers who have not attempted to quit smoking in the past 1 year for effective tobacco contro

Bacillus thuringiensis and its application in agriculture

Presently, a number of approaches to pest control via genetic engineering have been developed and genetically engineered crops expressing insecticidal characteristics are under cultivation for the last 15 years. Use of Bacillus thuringiensis genes encoding o̅ endotoxins with insecticidal characteristics is the major approach and a number of such B. thuringiensis genes have been expressed in crops with variable level of efficiency. It is very crucial to achieve adequate level of B. thuringiensis gene expression to have durable resistance against target insect pests. As with many aspects of genetic engineering, politics can impact on the success of a project involving the development of B. thuringiensis transgenic crops, irrespective of its apparent social, economic or environmental benefits. Public education will be essential to ensure the widespread adoption of genetic adoption technologies in agriculture, and scientists will have to play an active role in this process

Frequency and Severity of Perineal tears among women during vaginal delivery

Objective: to arbitrate the frequency and severity of perineal tears among the patients of Vaginal delivery. Study Design: A Cross-sectional Study.Place and Duration of study: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Nishtar Hospital Multan and Allied Hospital, Faisalabad from 29 December 2016 to 28 June 2017.  Methodology: the study was conducted after obtaining the approval of ethical committee for collecting data from patients. The patients aged 20-40 years were included in the study, both multipara and  primipara. An examination was performed on the perineum, vulva, vagina, and cervix at the third stage of labor in order to discover any tears or injuries. All the informations were collected on per designed Performa. Collected data was entered and analyzed by using SPSS software. Results: the incidence of perineal tears was calculated to be 79.89%. The most commonly observed injury was the first-degree perineal tear. it accounted for 101(68.70%) cases. while the second-degree perineal tear was found to be 39(26.53%) cases. third and fourth degree perineal tear remained the least in observed frequency as in 2.72% and 2.04% of cases respectively. Conclusion: The observations of our study concluded that majority of patients delivered vaginally experienced perineal tear, among those first degree perineal tear was more prevalent. KEY WORDS: Perineal tear, perineal trauma, severity of perineal tears

IS BEVACIZUMAB EFFECTVE IN MANAGING CENTRAL SEROUS CHORIORETINOPATHY MANAGEMENT

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of Bevacizumab in central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) Methodology: It is a randomized control trail. The study was conducted in Ophthalmology department of Allied Hospital, Faisalabad and Nishtar Hospital, Multan. From September 2016 to October 2017. Ethical approval was obtained from Hospital Ethics committee. Forty six patients took part in this study. Sample was collected using probability consecutive sampling technique. Computer software SPSS version 23 was used to analyze the data. Frequency and percentage was calculated for the qualitative variables like gender and Chi square test was applied to check the significance and association among variables. P value less than and equal to 0.05 was taken significant. Results: Forty six patients took part in the study belonging to both genders. There were 58.7% male (n=27) and 41.3% females (n=19) when gender distribution was analyzed. Mean and standard deviation for age came out to be 47.17±2.13. The baseline value for visual acuity had mean and standard deviation of 42.82±7.91, while Mean±S.D of visual acuity after treatment was 57.78±4.33. The difference between the means of visual acuity at baseline and after treatment was statistically significant (p=0.001). Similarly mean and standard deviation of central macular thickness before and after treatment was 357.89±96.17 and 149.76±30.19 µm respectively. There was reduction in the mean of central macular thickness after treatment and the difference between the two results was also statistically significant (p=0.001). Conclusion: This study concludes that bevacizumab is significantly effectual in the management of CSC. But more research work in the form of randomized controlled trails is required to evaluate the effectiveness of intravitreal bevacizumab in this condition. Keywords: Bevacizumab, Chorioretinopathy, Visual acuity, Central macular

Census Study of Ducks, Swans and Geese from High-Altitude Wetlands of Pakistan

The family Anatidae consists of aquatic birds such as ducks, geese and swans of varied sizes that belong to the order Anseriformes (Carboneras, 1992). The Anatidae comprise of approximately 148 species (Johnsgard, 2010). This family is commonly found across the globe except for in Antarctica. Data on ecology and population of these water birds was taken from protected areas of Pir Lasura National Park (June-July 2009), Banjosa Game Reserve (May-June 2009), Dhirkot National Park (February 2008), Pir Chanasi National park (April-May 2010) and Tolipir National Park (April-May 2008). Only four species from the family Anatidae were found in the study region. Banjosa Game Reserve had the most diversity with 41 % of Mute swan, 10% of Lesser White-fronted Goose and 32% of the Northern Shoveler. Efforts are needed by the concerned parties to conserve the population of the Lesser White-fronted Goose which was only observed in Banjosa Game Reserve and had a low population density, along with a vulnerable status globally

Stalking of healthcare professionals by their clients: The prevalence, motivation, and effect

It is proposed that healthcare professionals are prone to be stalked by their patients, but many feel ashamed to talk about it, believing that they might have done something to warrant the stalking. We undertook a rigorous review of the literature with the primitive goal of highlighting noteworthy issues on the stalking of healthcare professionals and psychologists by their patients. Databases such as PubMed and Google Scholar were searched to collate articles and studies on the topic with the keywords “stalker, stalking, assaults, aggression, and physicians”. From the review, the prevalence rate of stalking healthcare professionals ranged between 6% - 53%. This huge variation was largely due to the inconsistencies in the definition of what constituted stalking. The common motives of stalkers were largely due to erotomania or misguided expectation and a sense of resentment due to service dissatisfaction. Finally, it was apparently right to conclude that, medical doctors or healthcare professionals are at risk of being stalked on the grounds of service dissatisfaction, and mismanagement of treatment processes resulting in physical or perceived client injuries. Whereas psychologists and other psychiatrists are more prone to be stalked due to erotomaniac reasons

Factors That Affect the Green Technology Awareness in Melaka

Nowadays, in this era of globalization, the world keeps on developing day by day. Our earth is now becoming more polluted than before due to the environmental effects caused by human being. The greed of human being had caused them to ignore the consequences of their decision and how far it would affects the environment. In accordance with this, Melaka has decided to start going green by practicing Green Technology that will not only improves the quality of environment but as well as the quality of life for the citizen in Melaka. The objective of this research is to find out factors that affects the awareness towards Green Technology. This research was held in Melaka as the respondents all from Melaka citizens. Based on the conceptual framework, the independent variables are knowledge, attitude towards environment, and government policy and regulation. Meanwhile for the dependent variables is awareness towards Green Technology. The data was gained from questionnaire session, journals, articles which had been analyzed by using the SPSS system. As the results of this research, it stated that Government Policy and Regulation is the most effective factors towards awareness of Green Technology. The result also showed that mostly people in Melaka already aware about the Green Technology, they just lack in practicing the green practices. Therefore, hopefully Melaka citizens become more alert and aware towards the Green Technology which will lead to aspiration of Melaka to achieve greatly as the title of Melaka Green City on 2020

Understanding the headteachers’ role in Pakistan: Emerging role demands, constraints and choices

Little effort is made to study the role of headteachers in the eastern context, including Pakistan. This paper is based on the study conducted in the government and non-government schools in Pakistan in order to understand headteachers \u27 role in terms of the emerging demands, constraints and choices. The study suggests that the government school headteachers seem to be less proactive and more interested in maintaining status quo because of the influence of the \u27topdown management model\u27. The study also suggests that the government headteachers have limited choices and many constraints because of the influence of the bureaucratic system. Their counterparts in non-government schools seem to be more proactive in making the best use of available choices and in maintaining equilibrium between the role demands, choices and constraints. The research findings further reveal that the non-government headteachers tend to have a broader vision of managing schools effectively than their counterparts in the government schools

Fixed point results for set-contractions on dislocated metric space with a directed graph

Generalized (rational) graph contractions in the framework of a dislocated metric space endowed with a directed graph are investigated. Fixed point results for set-contractions are obtained. We also provide some examples to illustrate our main results. Moreover, the well-posedness of obtained fixed point results are also shown. Our obtained results extend many results in the existing literature