Birthorder as Determinant of Personality Traits among Employees

Huamn personality in relations to human behaviors like job attitudes, interpersonal relations and natural determinants of behaviours as genetics, are key research features. Personality and birthorder has great impact on human behaviour. Previous research has concluded the influences of birth order on human performance. The objective of Present study is to explore the impact of birth order on the personality of employee. A sample of 100 professionals: 65 males and 35 females were taken from different professions Convenient sampling method was used.  Five traits questionnaire (Fincham & Rhodes, 1999) was used to measure personality and birth order. The findings suggest that birth order show variations in personality traits. but no professional differences were found in this study. First born are more conscientious and are less agreeableness, while middle born are more agreeable and less neurotic and last born are more extroversion and open to new experiences.Our results  explored that gender only vary in agreeableness personality trait as females are more agreeable than male employees. These findings implies that awareness training programs should be arranged for social and educational setup to provide career counseling with regard to personality grooming. We conclude tht  birth order influences personality and people attitudes,it is essential to acknowledge everyone  in social and workplace setup. Keywords: Birth order, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, extroversion

Teaching English Language at SSC Level in Private Non-Elite Schools in Pakistan: Practices and Problems

English language is taught as a compulsory subject up to graduate level in Pakistani educational system. Despite studying English for over 14 years, majority of students coming from non-elite schools, lack required command in English language skills to pursue their higher education and professional careers. With this background in mind, the current research focused on teaching English reading and writing skills and the problems faced while teaching these skills at Secondary School Certificate (SSC) level in private non-elite schools in Karachi. The sample of the study comprised 20 SSC level students, 12 SSC level English language teachers of non-elite private schools and 5 student notebooks. Data were collected through open-ended questionnaires, group interviews and notebook analysis. Data were examined using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that teaching English language reading practices include reading the text aloud, translating the chapter, providing the central idea and meanings of difficult words to the students. The major problems faced by the teachers in teaching reading skills are learners’ lack of interest in reading, lack of concentration and low reading comprehension skills. The study also revealed practices of teaching writing skills such as provision of model texts and relevant vocabulary items. The major problems while teaching writing skills are lack of pre-writing activities, learners’ deficient command over vocabulary, grammar, spellings and punctuation, lengthy syllabus and limited time

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Towards Green Growth: Monitoring Progress and Investigating Its Determinants in South Asia

Keeping in view the global environmental emergency Green Growth assessment will show policymakers how to maximize economic outcomes while ensuring environmental sustainability. This study aims to construct a Green Growth (GG) Index and empirically test its long-run and short-run determinants for the time series data from 1990 to 2021 in the case of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. A set of nineteen indicators covering three dimensions, including resource productivity, environmental quality and economic and social aspects, is used to develop the GG index through the principal component methodology. Given the mixed order of integration, Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method is utilized to check the co-integration relationship of variables. The results of this study depict that in the case of Bangladesh, there are three significant determinants in which urbanization and forest area are positively associated with GG and trade openness negatively. In India, GG is significantly and positively influenced by urbanization and forest area, while socio-economic conditions impair it. For the third country, Pakistan, urbanization, trade openness, law and order have significant and positive associations with GG, while socio-economic conditions have significant but negative relationships. Based on the study's outcomes, dependent variables show divergence from their short-run equilibrium with error correction terms -0.726, -0.914 and -0.439 for Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, respectively. Therefore, this study suggests implementing policies related to urbanization, trade openness, forest area, law and order and socio-economic conditions to stimulate GG.</jats:p

Fiscal Shocks and Socioeconomic Indicators: An Analysis of Welfare State of Pakistans Economy

The Pakistan’s current scenario obstructs the government and its authorities to have the objectives, goals and strategies for public interest and the development of its economy. In view of this, the research paper is designed to examine the impact of government policies on the economic and social welfare of the economy. In this context the impact of fiscal policy shocks (i.e., government expenditure shocks and tax revenues shocks) on GDP growth rate, poverty, inequality and GDP pe capita (as measure of economic well-being) is being assessed. The research paper has employed SVAR econometric model from the period 1990 to 2022 to assess the impact of fiscal policy shocks on the economic and social welfare

Quality Standards of Qualitative Research in Applied Linguistics: A Conceptual Review

This study inspects different dimensions of ensuring standards in qualitative research within the field of applied linguistics. It presents a conceptual review of already established key quality standards of qualitative research, their application, their significance followed by the recommendations to ensure quality standards in applied linguistics qualitative research. For this purpose, the researchers have considered journal articles, book chapters and books published between 2002 and 2023 on digital databases to examine the key standards of ensuring trustworthiness and their application in the field of applied linguistics qualitative research. The study presents recommendations for novice researchers who are attempting to conduct qualitative studies ensuring the maximum level of trustworthiness and credibility and making their studies sound in terms of quality standards

Impact of Writing Strategy Instruction on the Writing Performance of Undergraduate EAP Learners in Pakistan

Second language writing research reveals learners performing poorly on writing tasks because of inadequate writing development resulting from ineffective writing instruction. This scenario prevails at the local higher education where the students are under prepared in academic English, which poses a challenge to them in coping with their studies; and English language teachers, are challenged to equip these students with the academic writing skills. This prompted the authors to plan a pedagogical intervention which is reported here. The study   investigated the impact of explicit writing strategy instruction on the writing performance of 40 undergraduate students enrolled in English for academic purposes (EAP) course at a university in Pakistan. Employing the positivist paradigm and quantitative approach, a single group quasi-experimental study with an intact group of students was carried out. Participants’  choice of writing strategies (WS) (cognitive, metacognitive and social) for the writing process (pre-writing, drafting and reviewing) using a 5-point Likert scale,  and a writing test for writing performance scores were the measures used prior and after the intervention to gather data for studying the impact of WS on WP. The intervention comprised orientation about the writing process and writing strategies followed by teacher- facilitated application of writing strategies on various academic writing tasks. The findings reveal explicit instruction helpful in teaching students WS which improved their WP. The study contributes to the limited empirical research about pedagogical intervention in second and academic writing in the context and the findings are significant for EAP teachers in similar settings to provide the much -needed academic support to the learners.