Maternal education, empowerment, economic status and child polio vaccination uptake in Pakistan: a population based cross sectional study

Objectives: To explore the association of maternal education and empowerment with childhood polio vaccination using nationally representative data of Pakistani mothers in a reproductive age group. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Secondary analysis of Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS), 2012–2013 data was performed. Participants: Of the 13 558 mothers included in the survey sample, 6982 mothers were able to provide information regarding polio vaccinations. Main outcome measures: Polio vaccination coverage among children aged up to 5 years was categorised as complete vaccination (all four oral polio vaccine (OPV) doses), incomplete vaccination, and no vaccination (zero OPV dose received). Mothers' empowerment status was assessed using standard ‘Measure DHS’ questions regarding their involvement in decision-making related to health, household possessions and visits among family and friends. Education was categorised as no education, primary, secondary and higher education. Results of multinomial regression analyses were reported as adjusted OR with 95% CI. We adjusted for age, wealth index, urban/rural residence, place of delivery, and antenatal and postnatal visits. Results: Only 56.4% (n=3936) of the children received complete polio vaccination. Women with no education had significantly higher odds of their child receiving no polio vaccination (OR 2.34, 95% CI 1.05 to 5.18; p<0.01) and incomplete vaccination (OR 1.40, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.87; p<0.01). Further, unempowered women also had significantly higher odds of not taking their child for any polio vaccination (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.17 to 2.12; p<0.01) and incomplete vaccination (OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.41; p=0.04). Conclusions: Illiteracy, socioeconomic status and empowerment of women remained significant factors linked to poorer uptake of routine polio vaccination

Housing decision making technical information: an approach for improving quality housing delivery during the initiation development phase process

Incomplete communication between decision maker, proposer and secretariat happened due to time constraint and distance's factor among them in decision making process for housing development project. Consequently convenience to information becomes limited due to the restricted amount of data given by developer. The problem is to make the best decision in construction; it must come from various information sources and specialists, especially in housing where the sector is near to the public (social) objective. Due to these decision making problems, developer faces a late delivery and sick housing project conflict. This paper aims to identify the technical decision making information for housing development at the initiation phase in Malaysia. Delphi method is employed by using questionnaire survey which involved 50 private developers for the first round of data collection. However, only 34 developers contributed to the second round of the data collection process. At the last round, only 12 developers were finalised as the main contributor in the final process. As a result, the findings are work schedule, location and size of project are most necessary information in technical information part which are required during decision making for housing development among Malaysian developers. Moreover, the advancement of skill must be improved and developers should not be easily pleased with their achievement as the information technology advances at a pace we can hardly keep up with

Housing Decision Making Technical Information: An Approach for Improving Quality Housing Delivery during the Initiation Development Phase Process

Incomplete communication between decision maker, proposer, and secretariat happened due to time constraint and distance's factor among them in the decision-making process for housing development project. Consequently, the convenience of information becomes limited due to the restricted amount of data given by the developer. The problem is to make the best decision in construction; it must come from various information sources and specialists, especially in housing where the sector is near to the public (social) objective. Due to these decision-making problems, the developer faces a late delivery and sick housing project conflict. This paper aims to identify the technical decision making information for housing development at the initiation phase in Malaysia. Delphi method is employed by using questionnaire survey which involved 50 private developers for the first round of data collection. However, only 34 developers contributed to the second round of the data collection process. At the last round, only 12 developers were finalized as the main contributor in the final process. As a result, the findings are work schedule, location and size of project are most necessary information in technical information part which are required for decision making for housing development among Malaysian developers. Moreover, the advancement of skill must be improved and developers should not be easily pleased with their achievement as the information technology advances at a pace we can hardly keep up with

Multifaceted modelling of complex business enterprises

We formalise and present a new generic multifaceted complex system approach for modelling complex business enterprises. Our method has a strong focus on integrating the various data types available in an enterprise which represent the diverse perspectives of various stakeholders. We explain the challenges faced and define a novel approach to converting diverse data types into usable Bayesian probability forms. The data types that can be integrated include historic data, survey data, and management planning data, expert knowledge and incomplete data. The structural complexities of the complex system modelling process, based on various decision contexts, are also explained along with a solution. This new application of complex system models as a management tool for decision making is demonstrated using a railway transport case study. The case study demonstrates how the new approach can be utilised to develop a customised decision support model for a specific enterprise. Various decision scenarios are also provided to illustrate the versatility of the decision model at different phases of enterprise operations such as planning and control

EEG signal classification using wavelet feature extraction and neural networks

Decision support systems have been utilised since 1960, providing physicians with fast and accurate means towards more accurate diagnoses and increased tolerance when handling missing or incomplete data. This paper describes the application of neural network models for classification of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. Decision making was performed in two stages: initially, a feature extraction scheme using the wavelet transform (WT) has been applied and then a learning-based algorithm classifier performed the classification. The performance of the neural model was evaluated in terms of training performance and classification accuracies and the results confirmed that the proposed scheme has potential in classifying the EEG signals

Young Adults Who Save for Retirement: A Grounded Theory Study of the Decision-Making Process

The retirement saving decisions of young adults are important because of the widely recommended best practice to begin saving for retirement early in adulthood. This study investigated how young adults make retirement saving decisions through qualitative analysis of the decision-making process using Grounded Theory methodology. Twenty-five young adults between the ages of 18 and 35 who are currently saving for retirement were interviewed about their experience. Each interview addressed seven topics concerning life-stage transitions, time preferences, incomplete information, budget constraints, compound investing, financial literacy, and future expectations. Research analysis of data saturation revealed eight propositions about factors that influence how young adults decide to save for retirement. From these propositions, the researcher developed a theoretical model that integrated concepts into an illustrative framework of the decision-making process