Strategic Human Resource Management and Employee Creativity: The Role of Leadership Style and Knowledge Management Capacity

In this study we explored the relationship between strategic human resource management practices and creativity of the employees. Using multisource data gathering technique, we collected data from 382 employees and their respective 68 supervisors working at ministry of migration and displacement Baghdad-Iraq. We built on the theoretical framework based on employee–organizational relationship theories, specifically, organizational support theory, and leadership theory. We found that strategic human resource management practices affect the employees’ potential to produce creative ideas at organizations directly or indirectly through knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing, and knowledge application. We also found that leadership styles affect the relationship between strategic human resource management practices and creativity of the employees. The results of this study provided new insight among strategic human resource management practice, knowledge management capacity, knowledge application, creativity of employees, transactional leadership, transformational leadership style, and the interaction of leadership styles with human resource management practices for creativity of employees. Research implications and future research directions are also discussed in this research. Keywords: Strategic human resource practices, knowledge management capacity, employee creativity, transactional leadership, transformational leadershi

Abuse among school going adolescents in three major cities of Pakistan: is it associated with school performances and mood disorders?

Objective: To assess the proportion of various types of abuses and their association with school performances and psychological stress among adolescents from three major cities of Pakistan. Methods: The cross-sectional school survey was conducted from March to September 2009, comprising adolescent students at six schools in Karachi, Lahore and Quetta. Data was collected using a self-administered and pre-tested questionnaire by trained medical students. SPSS 16 was used for statistical analysis.. Results: Of the 414 subjects in the study, there were 223(54%) boys and 191(46%) girls with an overall mean age of 14.36 ±1.08 years. In all, 140(33.7%) participants were physically abused and 236(57%) participants were verbally abused in the preceding 12 months. Besides, 245(59.2%) were involved in physical fight and 195(47.1%) had suffered injury during the preceding year. There were 171(41.4%) subjects having suffered bullying during the same period. Verbal abuse (p=0.05), physical fight (p=0.05) and bullying (p\u3c0.001) were significantly associated with poor school performances among adolescents. Physical abuse (p=0.05), verbal abuse (p=0.003), injury (p=0.02) and bullying (p\u3c0.001) were significantly associated with psychological stress. Conclusion: Various types of abuse were quite prevalent in adolescents that were significantly associated with poor school performance and poor mental health

Advanced characterisation study of ultrasound contrast bubbles in their natural hydrated state

This study presents a systematic investigation on in-house ultrasonic contrast agents, known as microbubbles (MBs), in their natural hydrated state. Contrast microbubbles have strong acoustic scatter profiles that significantly enhance ultrasonic visualisation of the human vasculature. Understanding and characterising the behaviour and morphological properties of these microbubbles is of interest and is the main research aims of this thesis - currently there are only a few clinically approved microbubbles. To manufacture clinically translatable theranostic vehicles, it is imperative to understand the mechanical and nanostructural properties of these bubbles in vitro; this will enrich the understanding of how their structural, biophysical and chemical properties impact their functionality in vivo. The behaviour and morphological properties of microbubbles have not been fully explored, this includes the lipid arrangement of the shell membrane. Hence, the work of this thesis is centred around exploring the physical properties of the bubbles. In particular, the microbubble shell is investigated in detail by applying complementary, state-of-the-art, experimental techniques such as atomic force microscopy and cryogenic focused-ion-beam scanning electron microscopy. The phospholipid microbubbles used throughout have been manufactured using microfluidic technology; the gaseous phase would intersect at a T-junction with the hydrophilic liquid phase, producing contrast bubbles by exploiting the amphiphilic properties of phospholipids. Subsequent ultrasound investigations have investigated their attenuation capabilities (dB cm-1 ) over the 12 – 55 MHz frequency range. The results from these studies indicated a sub-population of sub-micron bubbles due to the higher attenuation seen at higher frequencies. Then, using nanoparticle tracking analysis, resonant mass measurements and optical brightfield microscopy, data has been generated to reveal the complete size distribution of bubbles produced using the patented microfluidic method for generating ultrasound contrast bubbles. One of the key findings of this thesis was the discovery of sub-micron (<1000 nm) and micron-sized bubbles in solution. This finding then allowed for both the distributions to be investigated using atomic force microscopy and cryogenic focused ion-beam scanning electron microscopy. Atomic force microscopy (in combination with an optical microscopy set up) is used extensively to directly visualise the shell membrane and its nanostructural components. This led to the quantification of the thickness of shell membranes as well as the observation of morphological changes that occur during bubble deformation and, ultimately, their collapse. AFM imaging mode techniques such as tapping mode and quantitative imaging mode have allowed for the thickness and lipid configuration of phospholipid-shelled MBs to be quantified for the first time, a key finding in this thesis. A shell thickness of ~6.5 nm has been found using atomic force microscopy, leading to the proposal of the membranes being tri-layered; undertaking a {hydrophilic head-hydrophobic tail}-{hydrophobic tail - hydrophilic head}-{hydrophilic head hydrophobic tail} – configuration. Further work using force-curve mode AFM has also been conducted to measure mechanical forces at the nanoscale. This AFM mode generated force spectroscopy data with enough force resolution that, when combined with elastic models, gave insight into the interactions, and mechanical responses that these bubbles elicit when undergoing force compression. Bubble stiffness and Young’s Modulus have been calculated using different mechanical theories to evaluate which is most appropriate for analyses on the soft matter bubble systems. In this context, it has been shown for the first time comprehensively (accounting for the now measured shell thickness) that the linear elastic Reissner Model is not a suitable one as it can overestimate (GPa range) or underestimate (KPa range) if the correct shell thickness value is not used. The high force resolution allowed for investigating the polyethylene glycol brushes end-grafted to the phospholipid microbubbles. Using the Alexander-de Gennes polymer brush theory revealed overestimated PEG- brush thickness values, which could also be affected by ionic/DVLO forces due to the curvature of the bubble shell. Cryogenic focused-ion beam scanning electron microscopy is a valuable technique for the detailed study of soft matter systems. The focused-ion-beam allowed for probing deep into the cryopreserved sample by milling through the upper surface to expose suspended bubbles. Cryo imaging through focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy allowed for probing sub-micron contrast bubbles under conditions that are close to in vivo. This work corroborated the results highlighting a trilayer configuration of lipids (~8 nm when taking into account the PEG brush), and provided novel information on the structure of the shell membrane and heterogenic lipid domain formation, which could have implications in drug/gene loading capabilities. In conclusion, this study provides systematic characterisation of in-house phospholipid-shelled contrast bubbles using various advanced techniques to characterise mechanical, nanostructural, and size properties across the nano and microscale. This study is the first to offer such a comprehensive report on the properties of phospholipid contrast bubbles in their natural hydrated states. Thus, cutting edge techniques and improved methods for bubble imaging are presented, which can be used to propel the development of theranostic contrast bubbles

Equipping community health workers with digital tools for pandemic response in LMICs

Background: Community health workers (CHWs) are well-positioned to play a pivotal role in fighting the pandemic at the community level. The Covid-19 outbreak has led to a lot of stress and anxiety among CHWs as they are expected to perform pandemic related tasks along with the delivery of essential healthcare services. In addition, movement restrictions, lockdowns, social distancing, and lack of protective gear have significantly affected CHWs\u27 routine workflow and performance. To optimize CHWs\u27 functioning, there is a renewed interest in supporting CHWs with digital technology to ensure an appropriate pandemic response.Discussion: The current situation has necessitated the use of digital tools for the delivery of Covid-19 related tasks and other essential healthcare services at the community level. Evidence suggests that there has been a significant digital transformation to support CHWs in these critical times such as remote data collection and health assessments, the use of short message service and voice message for health education, use of digital megaphones for encouraging behavior change, and digital contract tracing. A few LMICs such as Uganda and Ethiopia have been successful in operationalizing digital tools to optimize CHWs\u27 functioning for Covid-19 tasks and other essential health services.Conclusion: Yet, in most LMICs, there are some challenges concerning the feasibility and acceptability of using digital tools for CHWs during the Covid-19 pandemic. In most cases, CHWs find it difficult to adopt and use digital health solutions due to lack of training on new digital tools, weak technical support, issues of internet connectivity, and other administrative related challenges. To address these challenges, engaging governments would be essential for training CHWs on user-friendly digital health solutions to improve routine workflow of CHWs during the Covid-19 pandemic

Low Private Investment and Government Failure as the Binding Constraints to Pakistan’s Economy Growth Diagnostics Analysis

This research targets the most binding constraints in the economy of Pakistan during the period from 2007 to 2013 using Husmann-Rodrick-Vilasco (2005) decision tree. The growth diagnostics proves that the economy of Pakistan undergoes and passes from the stages of dilemma and huge economic complexities during this period. The economic growth of Pakistan is continuously being affected by structural problems including domestic energy crisis, low investment, high inflation, and security issues. Growth diagnostics points out to four major constraints to economic growth of Pakistan and these are: energy crisis, inadequate market development, poor performance of institutions, and lack of efficient public sector management. Only two of these constraints are explained in this study including low level of private investment and government failure. For policy implications, several areas like private sector growth, good governance, institutional strength, market development, macroeconomic stability, infrastructure development are important to make considerable reforms

Assessing the Determinants of Savings in Pakistan: An Evidence from PSLM 2010-11

The present study aims at investigating the determinants of the savings in Pakistan by using Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) survey data collected by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) for the year 2010-11. The Multiple Regression Model is estimated for finding out the household saving determinants. The results reveal that savings have positive relationship with income, livestock, number of earner, while these are negatively related with education, gender of the household head and poverty in Pakistan. The regional level analysis reveals that marginal propensity to save is higher in rural areas as compared to urban counterpart. Among the provinces it is the highest in Punjab and lowest in Sindh. To promote savings among households in Pakistan, policies aiming at increasing income of the people should be formulated and implemented. Other policies include creation of job opportunities and provision of loan for livestock especially for the poor and females

Public Sector University Governance in Punjab: a case of University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore

Governance is the policy level decision making. The day to day functioning and implementation of policies may be referred to as management. In this research, we have studied the governance and management mechanism of the public sector universities in Punjab by taking University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences as a case. The qualitative methodology was applied in conducting this study. Two methods of data collection were used; secondary documents, and guided semi-structured interviews. After the reforms introduced by the HEC in the higher education system of Pakistan, and the up gradation of the university, the overall mechanics of governance, and management have taken a paradigm shift. The policy making process is structured in a way that syndicate being the highest organ of governance in this manner. Syndicate provides the direction. Vice Chancellor is the head of administration and is responsible for the daily academic and administrative functioning of the university. However, in making decisions university has to face a certain level of external interference. Keywords: Governance, Public Sector, University Governance, Punja

Estimating the Role of Prices towards Poverty in Pakistan

This study investigates the effects of prices on poverty by applying the methodology of Son and Kakwani (2006) using the two data sets of Pakistan Living Standard Measurement Survey (PSLM) of 2007-08 and 2010-11 in Pakistan. The study calculates three poverty measures such as headcount ratio, poverty gap, and severity of poverty. The study also estimates the price elasticities of poverty for two commodities groups such as food and fuel. The study decomposes the price elasticity of poverty measures into two components; income component and distribution component. The study also estimates pro-poor price index (PPPI) for all the poverty measures. The results show that there in reduction in poverty from 16 % in 2007-08 to 12 % in 2010-11.  The results reveal that food price elasticity of poverty is greater than fuel price elasticity of poverty. The income as well as distribution components contribute to increase poverty, but income component contributes more than the redistribution one towards increase in poverty. The results also disclose that the increases in the prices of both commodities hurt the poor more than the non-poor. The increase in price of food commodities disturbs the poor more than the increase in prices of fuel commodities during 2007-08 and 2010-11. The government should compensate the poor and give some subsidies regarding food

Assessing the Determinants of Savings in Pakistan: An Evidence from PSLM 2010-11

The present study aims at investigating the determinants of the savings in Pakistan by using Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) survey data collected by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) for the year 2010-11. The Multiple Regression Model is estimated for finding out the household saving determinants. The results reveal that savings have positive relationship with income, livestock, number of earner, while these are negatively related with education, gender of the household head and poverty in Pakistan. The regional level analysis reveals that marginal propensity to save is higher in rural areas as compared to urban counterpart. Among the provinces it is the highest in Punjab and lowest in Sindh. To promote savings among households in Pakistan, policies aiming at increasing income of the people should be formulated and implemented. Other policies include creation of job opportunities and provision of loan for livestock especially for the poor and females