The International Security Environment Relevant to Pakistan (A Historical Perspective)

Pakistan came into existence amidst one of the most tumultuous times of the Cold War which suddenly escalated unprecedentedly in a manner where small, newly freed out of the colonial clutches, administratively fragile, economically unsustainable and, most of all, poorly led nations were caught in a sheer state of insecurity. Mentioning Pakistan precisely, it had not even emerged on the world map when prominent world leaders especially Pandit Nehru and other leaders from his party embarked upon an exhaustive campaign against its survival. Their propaganda hinged on a widely publicized conviction predominantly furthered by the western media which doubted Pakistan’s sustenance as a state rather they predicted its re-amalgamation into India due to its highly remote administrative infrastructure, absence of sound economy, and lack of pragmatic political leadership. This particular scenario was aggravated by almost the entire Muslim religious hierarchy in the sub-continent which fiercely opposed the creation of Pakistan, thus posing formidable existential threats to the newly born Muslim state.  An earnest effort, therefore, has been made to evaluate the international security environment within the ambit of international relations where Pakistan as an ideologically Muslim state commenced with its role as a responsible nation contributing to world peace.

Critical success factors in implementing an e-rostering system in a healthcare organisation

Effective and efficient staff scheduling has always been a challenging issue, especially in health service organisations. Both the extremes of staff shortage and overage have an adverse impact on the performance of healthcare organisations. In this case, an electronic and systematic staff scheduling (e-rostering) system is the often seen as the best solution. Unless an organisation has an effective implementation of such a system, possible cost savings, efficiency, and benefits could be minimal. This study is aimed to research key success factors for the successful effective implementation of an electronic rostering system, especially at healthcare organisations. A case study research method was used to evaluate critical success factors for effectively implementing an e-rostering system. The data were collected through interviews and observations. The findings indicate that technical support, an effective policy, leadership, clear goals and objectives, gradual change, evidence of the advantages of the new system, senior management support, and effective communication are the critical success factors in implementing an e-rostering system in healthcare organisations. Prior to this study, no such factors were grounded in the current context, so this research would help in bridging the gap towards effective implementation of an e-rostering system in the healthcare sector. This research also suggests future studies in different cultures and contexts

Primary non-functioning paraganglioma of liver: A rare tumour at an unusual location

Pheochromocytomas are rare tumours, 22% of which are extra-adrenal and are known as paragangliomas. We report a case of a young male with non-functioning paraganglioma of the liver; a very uncommon primary site. A CT scan with contrast showed a huge, highly vascular mass lesion in the right lobe of the liver and a core biopsy confirmed it to be a paraganglioma. Whole body study with iodine-131-meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) tracer highlighted the liver tumour but was negative for any other active lesions depicting that the tumour was confined to the liver. The lesion was completely resected by extended right hepatectomy and the patient had an uneventful recovery. There is no evidence of disease recurrence at 3 years of follow up

Size selectivity in antibiofilm activity of 3-(Diphenylphosphino)propanoic acid coated gold nanomaterials against Gram positive Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus mutans

Abstract Biofilm formation by pathogenic bacteria is one of the major threats in hospital related infections, hence inhibiting and eradicating biofilms has become a primary target for developing new anti-infection approaches. The present study was aimed to develop novel antibiofilm agents against two Gram-positive bacteria; Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 43300) and Streptococcus mutans (ATCC 25175) using gold nanomaterials conjugated with 3-(diphenylphosphino)propionic acid (Au-LPa). Gold nanomaterials with different sizes as 2–3 nm small and 9–90 nm (50 nm average size) large were stabilized by LPa via different chemical synthetic strategies. The nanomaterials were fully characterized using atomic force microscope (AFM), transmission electron microscope, ultraviolet–visible absorption spectroscopy, and Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy. Antibiofilm activity of Au-LPa nanomaterials was tested using LPa alone, Au-LPa and unprotected gold nanomaterials against the both biofilm-producing bacteria. The results showed that LPa alone did not inhibit biofilm formation to a significant extent below 0.025 mM, while conjugation with gold nanomaterials displayed manifold enhanced antibiofilm potential against both strains. Moreover, it was also observed that the antibiofilm potency of the Au-LPa nanomaterials varies with size variations of nanomaterials. AFM analysis of biofilms further complemented the assay results and provided morphological aspects of the antibiofilm action of Au-LPa nanomaterials

Multi-resolution cell orientation congruence descriptors for epithelium segmentation in endometrial histology images

It has been recently shown that recurrent miscarriage can be caused by abnormally high ratio of number of uterine natural killer (UNK) cells to the number of stromal cells in human female uterus lining. Due to high workload, the counting of UNK and stromal cells needs to be automated using computer algorithms. However, stromal cells are very similar in appearance to epithelial cells which must be excluded in the counting process. To exclude the epithelial cells from the counting process it is necessary to identify epithelial regions. There are two types of epithelial layers that can be encountered in the endometrium: luminal epithelium and glandular epithelium. To the best of our knowledge, there is no existing method that addresses the segmentation of both types of epithelium simultaneously in endometrial histology images. In this paper, we propose a multi-resolution Cell Orientation Congruence (COCo) descriptor which exploits the fact that neighbouring epithelial cells exhibit similarity in terms of their orientations. Our experimental results show that the proposed descriptors yield accurate results in simultaneously segmenting both luminal and glandular epithelium

Effect of micro sized marble sludge on physical properties of natural rubber composites

Marble waste as sludge is collected from Marble industry, as a way of solving the environmental problem of industrial waste. The sludge was dried, ground and passed through desire sieves (10, 15, 20, 37 and 75 μm), This powder was characterized by the X-ray fluorescence technique and then incorporated in the formulation of NR composites with different loading of micro sized MS particles (20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 parts per hundred of rubber, phr). The cure characteristics, mechanical properties and swelling properties of MS/NR composites were evaluated. Results indicate that minimum torque, maximum torque, tensile strength, modulus, tear strength, hardness, crosslink density were increased while the scorch time, cure time, cure rate, cure rate index (CRI), elongation at break, compression set, rebound resilience, abrasion loss, swelling coefficient, average molecular weight and filler-rubber interaction decrease with increasing MS loading

Hypertensive crisis, burden, management, and outcome at a tertiary care center in Karachi.

Objectives: Hypertension, if uncontrolled, can lead to hypertensive crisis. We aim to determine the prevalence of hypertensive crisis, its management, and outcome in patients presenting to a tertiary care center in Karachi. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted at the Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan. Adult inpatients (\u3e18 yrs) presenting to the ER who were known hypertensive and had uncontrolled hypertension were included. Results. Out of 1336 patients, 28.6% (387) had uncontrolled hypertension. The prevalence of hypertensive crisis among uncontrolled hypertensive was 56.3% (218). Per oral calcium channel blocker; 35.4% (137) and intravenous nitrate; 22.7% (88) were the most commonly administered medication in the ER. The mean (SD) drop in SBP in patients with hypertensive crisis on intravenous treatment was 53.1 (29) mm Hg and on per oral treatment was 43 (27) mm Hg. The maximum mean (SD) drop in blood pressure was seen by intravenous sodium nitroprusside; 80 (51) mm Hg in SBP. Acute renal failure was the most common complication with a prevalence of 11.5% (24). Conclusion: The prevalence of hypertensive crisis is high. Per oral calcium channel blocker and intravenous nitrate are the most commonly administered medications in our setup