Pedagogical Implications of Corpus-based Approaches to ELT in Pakistan

The advent of corpora has opened new vistas for language study and restructured linguists’ and academicians’ approaches to lexicography and English language teaching (ELT). After 1980s, the use of online language corpora and computer tools garnered tremendous attention of English language teachers and academicians. Keeping in view the modern trends and needs of learners, this research focused on the practical implications of online corpora for ELT and its utility in the Pakistani context. Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE) is used as a reference corpus for this research. MICASE is a collection of nearly 1.8 million words of transcribed speech (almost two hundred hours of recording). The transcribed data of MICASE includes wide range of speech events like seminars, lectures, advisory meetings and lab sessions. The study identified the utility of lexical items at syntactic level and its usage in various contexts. Furthermore, the layers of meanings and uses of lexicons through in-depth study of right and left collocates were explored in the reference corpus. The results showed that lexicons can be used as noun, verb and adjective depending upon the context of the study and right and left collocates play a significant role in understanding the meanings of lexical items in various contexts. Thus, this strategy can be fruitful for English language learners and academic discourse community who are interested in understanding the versatile uses of lexical items and their contextual meaning.Keywords: collocate, context, corpus, ELT, MICAS

An Investigation of Multidimensional Energy Poverty in Pakistan

Poverty is an alarming problem all over the world. It is one of the severe challenges today faced by not only the developing nations but by the developed nations also. However, the problem is worst in developing countries [United Nations and IEA (2010)]. All these countries face poverty in different forms such as food poverty, energy poverty, shortage of natural resources, shortage of agricultural products, lack of shelter and clothing among others. It is persuasive to correlate poverty with lack of energy consumption also. Such a correlation identifies that poor use energy very inadequately [Pachauri, et al. (2004)]. Energy helps societies to move from one development stage to another. Worldwide energy demand is increasing while supply is decreasing due to increase in the world population, emerging economies and economic development. In current day to day life energy has become an essential requirement. For all of us energy is required for lighting, transportation, cooking, health services, and to fulfill many of our basic needs. Electricity access at household level enhances telecommunication, entertainment, and knowledge via radio, television, and computer etc

A Design for Proprioceptive Force in 3D Agility Robot Through Use of AI

For robots to be considered effective, they should be able to maneuver through 3D environments. To achieve such mobility, robots needs to be designed in such a way that would span various topographies. So, artificial intelligence algorithms have been developed to ensure agility of the robots when walking on murky topographies. In the current state of the art legged robots, there is still much progress need to be made in research to turn them into automobiles with great agility to be used in the real world utility and provide mobility in rough. GOAT leg as a means of artificial intelligence is still a new phenomenon. There still exists a number of preliminary tests that need to be done in accessing and in the characterization of the leg’s current performance and its implications in the future. This study seeks to develop and agility model which would be useful in ensuring that the robots remain agile in such complex environments. To do this, a simulation has been through Matlab analysis. Results of the current study showed that, 3-RSR was designed to ensure that a high fidelity proprioceptive force control would enable legs with the mechanically spring stiffness. Implications and future recommendations also discussed

Policy on SMEs in Pakistan:: Relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation, Firm Performance and Ownership Structure

To strengthen growth of SMEs in Pakistan, it is important for the policy makers to understand some significant related variables. For instance, Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) is one such variable which can affect the performance of any business substantially; however, it is debatable if some of its dimensions do not affect the firm performance. This research investigates the relationship among the EO dimensions, firms’ performance and ownership structure. In this study, the collection of data was done by using a self-administered questionnaire survey using a 5-point Likert scale and Statistical Package for social sciences (SPSS) version 24. The findings revealed that EO has a statistically significant effect on firms’ performance and when checked individually for each dimension of the EO, it was clear that results for innovation were statistically insignificant, because innovation needs certain time and specific environmental conditions to yield significant results, whereas results for risk-seeking, proactive approach, autonomy, aggressive attitude, and competitive spirit were statistically significant and positively linked with the firms’ performance. The findings of this research reveal that ownership structure does play a significant moderating role on the relationship between performance of the firm and EO dimensions (Innovativeness, Proactiveness and competitive Energy) while Ownership structure doesn't play any significant moderating role between firm performance and few other EO dimensions (risk-attitude, autonomy and aggressiveness). Keywords:     Public Policy, Entrepreneurial Orientation, Firm Performance, Ownership Structure, Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Pakista

AI in Bioinformatics

In bioinformatics science and computational molecular biology, artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly gained interest. With the availability of numerous types of AI algorithms, it has become prevalent for researchers to use off-shelf programmes to identify their datasets and mine them. At present, researchers are facing difficulties in selecting the right approach that could be extended to a given data collection, with numerous intelligent approaches available in the literature. Researchers need instruments that present the data in an intuitive manner, annotated with meaning, precision estimates, and description. In the fields of bioinformatics and computational molecular biology (DNA sequencing), this article seeks to review the use of AI. These fields have evolved from the needs of biologists to use the large volumes of data continuously obtained in genomic science and to better understand them. For several approaches to bioinformatics and DNA sequencing, the fundamental impetus is the evolution of species and the difficulty of dealing with incorrect results. The type of software programmes developed by the scientific community to search, identify and mine numerous usable biological databases are also mentioned in this article, simulating biological experiments with and without mistakes. The review of antibody-antigen interactions and their diversity, and the study of epidemiological evidence that can help forecast antibody-antigen interactions and the induction of broadly neutralising antibodies are important questions to be answered in the field of vaccinology

Management of allergic fungal sinusitis with postoperative oral and nasal steroids: a controlled study.

In Patients with allergic fungal sinusitis, the mainstay of treatment remains surgical removal of allergic mucin and fungal debris. But as a single modality, surgery is associated with high rates of recurrence, so a number of adjunctive medical modalities have been tried, including postoperative corticosteroid therapy. We conducted a study of 63 Patients with allergic fungal sinusitis who underwent endoscopic sinus surgery with or without postoperative steroid therapy. A group of 30 Patients who had been treated prior to January 2000 had undergone surgery only, their cases were reviewed retrospectively, and they served as historical controls. Another 33 Patients who were treated after June 2000 underwent surgery plus oral and nasal steroid therapy. All Patients were followed for a minimum of 2 years. Recurrences were seen in 50.0% (15/30) of the no-steroid group and 15.2% (5/33) of the steroid group-a statistically significant difference (p = 0.008). The results of our study strongly support the use of steroids to control allergic fungal sinusitis and prevent its recurrence, and we recommend further study to identify the optimal dosage and duration of therapy

Corpus-driven analysis of Pakistani newspaper editorials on COVID-19 discourse

Cataclysmic changes by the gradual spread of COVID-19 have triggered the interest of scientists, scholars, academicians, and linguists in analyzing the discourse related to the spread of the pandemic. The descriptions made by all of these scholars not only contribute to language with linguistic innovations but also cause the emergence of human attitudes and behaviours. At the same time, the issues raised through the language used during the challenging time of such crises shape and reveal several human schemas of language, discourse, society, and culture. Several studies on past situations of diseases and calamities have provided critical analyses of these schemas of difficult times in human history. Discourses through various linguistic practices in this regard play a crucial role in shaping and demonstrating the schemas of the crisis hit societies. Media discourse, specifically, has hidden powers to exercise, identify and report various socio-cultural issues. The current study focuses on finding the themes of socio-cultural attitudes and behaviours that emerged from newspaper editorials published in Pakistani newspapers in February, March and April, 2020. To achieve this goal, the corpusdriven analysis of 198 newspaper editorials having 215,842 words was conducted. The study revealed various themes that prevailed in this pre-vaccination period of COVID-19 in Pakistan. The themes included the metaphoric use of the language such as battle, corps and frontline; racism while naming the virus as China virus or Hazara virus; conspiracy theories assumed to be associated with COVID-19 spread i.e. suspected involvement of Bill Gates and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), US and World Health Organization (WHO); negligence on the part of people; and criticism on government for health facilities and implications of globalization. It is concluded, based on these findings, that media representation of prevaccination phase of COVID-19 in Pakistan is loaded with unhealthy discourse which could have been avoided in order to shape positive attitudes and behaviours of the masses

Frequency of erectile dysfunction in COPD patients

Objective: Objective of study was to investigate the frequency of erectile dysfunction in COPD patients. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in pulmonology department of Nishtar Hospital Multan. 336 outpatients diagnosed as COPD according to Global Initiative of Chronic Lung Disease criteria, were included by non-probability consecutive sampling from February 2016 to august 2016 after taking the approval from ethics committee of the institution. Written consent of the study was signed by all patients. All patients were divided in mild, moderate, severe and very severe form of COPD on basis of FEV1. All patients completed International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) Questionnaire. Data was analyzed by using SPSS vol 23. Numerical variables like age, BMI and duration of COPD were statistically analyzed by using their mean and standard deviation and t-test was used to check their significance. Non numerical variables like area of living, income status, smoking status and different stages of COPD were statistically analyzed by using their frequency and chi square test was applied to check the significance. P value <0.05 was taken as significance. Results: Overall, 100% (n=336) male patients were included, in this study. The main outcome variable of this study was Erectile Dysfunction (ED). Classification of erectile dysfunction was noted as no, mild, moderate and severe as 32.7% (n=110), 23.5% (n=79), 16.4% (n=55) and 27.4% (n=92) respectively. Classification of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was observed as mild, moderate, severe and very severe as 5.1% (n=17), 45.8% (n=154), 32.1% (n=108) and 17% (n=57) respectively. No association was found between erectile dysfunction and area (p=0.484), stratified age (p=0.970), stratified BMI (p=0.283), except income (p=0.000) and smoking status (p=0.000) Conclusion: Erectile dysfunction is hidden and under discuss comorbidity in COPD patients. There is significant prevalence of erectile dysfunction in COPD patients. All respiratory physicians should ask and investigate erectile dysfunction in COPD patients. All patients of COPD should be encouraged to share their sexual problems. Key words: COPD, Erectile dysfunction, sexual functio