MEDIATING ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT BETWEEN OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AND TURNOVER INTENTION IN PAKISTANI UNIVERSITIES

The prime objective of theresearch is to study the mediating role of organizational commitment (OC) between the relationship of occupational stress and turnover intention (TI) among university teaching staff in Malakand Division, Pakistan. Data were collected from 186 faculty members working in government universities of Malakand division which was analyzed using SPSS and AMOS. The results showed a significant positive relationship of psychological and physiological stress withTI s and negative with OC. Furthermore, OC mediated the relationship between psychological and physiological stress and TI

MEDIATING ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT BETWEEN OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AND TURNOVER INTENTION IN PAKISTANI UNIVERSITIES

The prime objective of theresearch is to study the mediating role of organizational commitment (OC) between the relationship of occupational stress and turnover intention (TI) among university teaching staff in Malakand Division, Pakistan. Data were collected from 186 faculty members working in government universities of Malakand division which was analyzed using SPSS and AMOS. The results showed a significant positive relationship of psychological and physiological stress withTI s and negative with OC. Furthermore, OC mediated the relationship between psychological and physiological stress and TI

Plantar pressure repeatability data analysis for healthy adult based on EMED system

This paper presents the repeatability data analyses and discusses the selection of the appropriate type of plantar pressure measurements for the EMED system with regards to Pressure Level Values (PLV) over the touch insole area of healthy adults. In this research, a participant with age 28 years old has been chosen as a sample to measure under foot pressure, it is conducted the test 20 times and took part in four types of plantar pressure clinical assessments, Dynamic (normal walking), Dynamic with load (normal walking, carrying 1.5 Kg), Static (Standing test), and Static with load (Standing, carrying 1.5 Kg). The analysis is implemented using a new approach of recognizing the measurements into 7 different levels of pressure that assigned with 7 colors by considering the image processing algorithm. Variance Coefficient (VC) check is adopted for the statistical analysis and the selection decision. The results highlighted that the overall pressure levels in dynamic with load category have a better variance as compared with three other categories of plantar pressure on this type of repeatability test. In conclusion, EMED system can be considered as an effective instrument to record plantar foot pressure measurements in such type of analysis

Effect of dietary supplementation of rice dried distillers grains (rDDGS) on blood profile in Barbari goats

The present study was carried out to determine the effect of feeding different levels of rice dried distiller grains (rDDGS) on haemato-biochemical profile of Barbari goats. Twenty-four Barbari goats of 1-2 years of age were randomly divided into four groups (Control, T1, T2 and T3) having six animals in each group. Barbari goats in control group were fed with basal diet comprising of wheat straw, chaffed green maize fodder and compounded concentrate mixture in a ratio of 20:30:50. The animals in T1, T2 and T3 groups were fed with basal diet supplemented with 10, 20 and 30% of rDDGS on dry matter basis, respectively for the period of 90 days. Results revealed no significant differences on blood profile except WBC (×103/µl), neutrophil (%) and lymphocytes (%) in the groups supplemented with rDDGS. Total protein was found highly significant in T2 group followed by T1 and T3 groups. Total immunoglobulin, catalase, TBARS and ALT in rDDGS supplemented groups were also found significantly different. It was concluded that rDDGS can be incorporated in Barbari goat ration up to level of 20% without having any detrimental effect on health of goats

Image processing based foot plantar pressure distribution analysis and modeling

Although many equipments and techniques are available for plantar pressure analysis to study foot pressure distributions, there is still a need for mathematical modelling references to compare the acquired measurements. In order to derive formulas in this concern, this research proposes a measurement-based method which adopts the reference measured parameters such as; the weight of a subject, contact-area size, age, and the pressure level distribution over a plantar image captured by the EMED plantar pressure system. The proposed analysis and algorithm were verified by a group 79 volunteers through data collection with four various measurement conditions. Three mathematical modelling equations have been proposed that describe the relationships between the foot plantar pressure levels and the subject’s body mass, foot size, and age. The modelling of foot plantar pressure could be useful for various applications such as gait analysis, hospitals, clinics, custom shoe making, and early detection of ulceration in the case of diabetic patients

Foot plantar pressure distribution modeling based on image processing

Several factors have been associated with the distribution of plantar foot pressure, including: (i) the body weight, (ii) age, (iii) foot structure and (iv) standing / walking strategy. It is predicted that the biomechanics of the foot is influenced by the structure of the foot. The objective of this study was to obtain the plantar pressure distribution model of the foot using custom image processing algorithms upon the images captured by a commercial plantar pressure measurement machine, the EMED-X. The study involved the participation and data collection from 79 human subjects, ranging from age 20–60 years old. This model can be analysed further to be used as a predictor for the formation of foot ulceration in certain subjects

Granular cell tumors of the urinary bladder

BACKGROUND: Granular cell tumors (GCTs) are extremely rare lesions of the urinary bladder with only nine cases being reported in world literature of which one was malignant. Generally believed to be of neural origin based on histochemical, immunohistochemical, and ultrastructural studies; they mostly follow a clinically benign course but are commonly mistaken for malignant tumors since they are solid looking, ulcerated tumors with ill-defined margins. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We herein report two cases of GCTs, one benign and one malignant, presenting with gross hematuria in a 14- and a 47-year-old female, respectively. RESULTS: Histopathology revealed characteristic GCTs with positive immunostaining for neural marker (S-100) and negative immunostaining for epithelial (cytokeratin, Cam 5.2, AE/A13), neuroendocrine (neuron specific enolase, chromogranin A, and synaptophysin) and sarcoma (desmin, vimentin) markers. The benign tumor was successfully managed conservatively with transurethral resection alone while for the malignant tumor, radical cystectomy, hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, anterior vaginectomy, plus lymph node dissection was done. Both cases show long-term disease free survival. CONCLUSION: We recommend careful pathologic assessment for establishing the appropriate diagnosis and either a conservative or aggressive surgical treatment for benign or localized malignant GCT of the urinary bladder, respectively

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Abdominoperineal excision of male lower urinary tract for synchronous adenocarcinoma of urethra and urinary bladder

Urethral adenocarcinoma is the least common histologic subtype of a rare primary carcinoma of the male urethra. Its site of origin remains speculative. The scarcity of reported cases in the literature makes it difficult to define the optimal management. This report is of a 40-year-old morbidly obese man with synchronous adenocarcinoma of the bulbar urethra and bladder, treated surgically by en bloc abdominoperineal penoprostatocystectomy. The pleural recurrence, after a disease-free period of 2 years, responded well to platinum-docetaxel-based systemic chemotherapy. Synchronous occurrence of adenocarcinoma of the urethra and bladder has not been previously reported. This case also highlights the possible role of upcoming adjuvant chemotherapeutic agents

The power of ADKAR change model in innovative technology acceptance under the moderating effect of culture and open innovation

Background: Continuous change is a vital factor for organization’s sustainable growth and success. The implementation of modern information technology in business has become a core need of the hour. This study endeavours to answer how to cope with resistance to change when implementing new technology in the banking sector. A theoretical model has been developed with the blend of ADKAR change model, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and Hofstede dimensions of national culture to investigate the impact of the ADKAR change model on Technology Acceptance under the moderation of two national culture’s dimensions. Materials and Methods: In order to collect data, 500 self-administered questionnaires were dropped personally in five major banks of five cities of Pakistan using the convenience-based employee intercept sampling technique. The validated response rate was 68% by having 340 fit questionnaires for analysis using covariance-based structure equation modelling with the help of SmartPLS. Results: The results uncover the significant existence of covariance between dimensions of the ADKAR change model and technology acceptance model. The findings are statistically significant, inferring the influential role of change management on technology adoption. Conclusion: The study results provide promising implications based on these conclusions and findings for both theoretical aspects of these different models and practitioners