Friendly Fire: Wheat Subsidy in Punjab, Pakistan

During the past decade every year the Punjab government has faced an awkward situation at wheat harvest. It must buy millions of tons of wheat at an above-market price despite massive carry-forward stocks already lying in its granaries. Cost of procuring such huge quantities and subsidising sales to flour mills is enormous and is met with commercial borrowing. In recent years, the government has struggled to balance its accounts for wheat operations; its outstanding liability to commercial banks stood at Rs. 444.7 billion in June 2018, viz. 22 percent of the total budget of the province in 2017-18. Clearly, the government procures more wheat annually than it needs with borrowed money that it cannot pay back. Ostensibly, wheat procurement aims to benefit small farmers, but its procedures exclude, rather than include them. Conversely, consumers end up buying expensive wheat-flour. A significant beneficiary of the procurement regime appears to be commercial banks finance the procurement and earn interest thereupon. Keywords: Food Subsidy, Wheat Procurement, Subsidy Refor

The impact of parents education, parents income, teacher education and locality of school on students relinquish school during primary level in DG Khan district

In this study, reasearcher examined the impact of parent's education, parents income, teacher education and locality of school on students relinquish school during primary level. The study data was collected from different urban and rural areas of D.G.Khan schools. The study used the multiple regressions to analyze the effect of parent's education, parent's income, teacher education and locality of school on students relinquished school during primary level of education. This research findings show that parent's education, parents income and teacher education were significant and locality of school was insignificant. It is concluded that parent's education, parents income, teacher education are affected to students relinquished school during primary level in the districtand locality of school has no affect on students relinquish school during primary

Diabetes Diagnosis through Machine Learning: An Analysis of Classification Algorithms

Diabetes is a serious and chronic disease characterized by high levels of sugar in the blood. If left untreated, it can lead to numerous complications. In the past, diagnosing diabetes required a visit to a diagnostic center and consultation with a doctor. However, the use of machine learning can help to identify the disease earlier and more accurately. This study aimed to create a model that can accurately predict the likelihood of diabetes in patients using three machine learning classification algorithms: Logistic Regression (LR), Decision Tree (DT), and Naive Bayes (NB). The model was tested on the Pima Indians Diabetes Database (PIDD) from the UCI machine learning repository and the performance of the algorithms was evaluated using various metrics such as accuracy, precision, F-measure, and recall. The results showed that Logistic Regression had the highest accuracy at 71.39% outperforming the other algorithms

Assessment of menisci and ligamentous injuries of the knee on magnetic resonance imaging: correlation with arthroscopy

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the validity of MRI, in the assessment of the meniscal and cruciate ligamenteous injuries of the knee joint and comparison with arthroscopic findings. METHODS: A one year prospective cross-sectional study from January 2006 to January 2007, was performed on 50 patients (32 males & 18 females) with knee injury presenting at the orthopedic unit of AKUH. The patients were referred to radiology department for MRI evaluation and arthroscopy. RESULTS: The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for MRI of the menisci and ligaments were as follows: medial meniscus resulted in 100% sensitivity, 69.27% specificity, 90% PPV, 100% NPV and 92% accuracy: lateral meniscus resulted in 87.5% sensitivity, 88.23% specificity, 77% PPV, 93% NPV and 88% accuracy: anterior cruciate ligament resulted in 86.67% sensitivity, 91.43% specificity, 81% PPV, 94% NPV and 88% accuracy; posterior cruciate ligament resulted in 100% sensitivity, 95.83% specificity,50% PPV, 100 NPV and 96% accuracy. CONCLUSION: Magnetic resonance imaging is a good, accurate and non invasive modality for the assessment of menisci and ligamenteous injuries. It can be used as a first line investigation in patients with soft tissue trauma to knee

Turnover Intention and Perceived Organizational Support; Mediating Role of Work Engagement and Organizational Commitment

The purpose of this research is to address practical issues regarding the prediction and prevention of turnover intentions of highly skilled employees by focusing on Perceived Organizational Support and two of its outcomes i.e. Organizational Commitment and Work Engagement. Data was collected from different banks of Lahore i.e; Bank of Punjab, Habib Bank Ltd., Meezan Bank, Alfalah Bank, Standard Chartered, UBL, and MCB were visited. This cross-sectional study has used a quantitative technique in order to collect data from a sample size of 300 respondents. In this study, item response theory is used to select the sample size. To collect the data, the questionnaires were distributed among bankers. The response rate was 93% (i.e. 280 out of 300). Results show that Perceived Organizational support has a high impact on turnover intention whereas the organizational commitment and work engagement both can support the Perceived organizational support. Whereas if Perceived organizational support is increased with the help of Organizational Commitment and Work Engagement there will be less turn over intentions in the Organization

HETEROTIC ESTIMATION AND ADAPTABILITY OF TOMATO HYBRIDS FOR FRUIT YIELD AND ITS RELATED TRAITS IN PAKISTAN.

Current study is emphasizing on the estimation of heterosis for different yield attributing traits and adaptability of tomato hybrids. It was performed in the research area of VCRP, HRI, NARC Islamabad during 2018-2019. Crossing was completed among six parents followed by line × tester. The analyzed data depicted significant differences (P ≤ 0.01) among all the characters.Due to desirable high negative heterotic values hybrids Peto-86 × Nagina and Riograndi × Roma were found suitable for breeding early maturing hybrids. For plant height maximum positive heterosis was observed in Riograndi × Nagina, for no. of cluster/plant in Naqeeb × Roma, for traits like flower cluster-1, fruit cluster-1, fruit length & width and single fruit weight in Naqeeb × Continental while for yield Riograndi × Continental showed maximum heterosis. Therefore among 9 tested hybrids Naqeeb × Continental was found to be highly preferable and recommended for utilization in different breeding programmes

AN ANALYSIS OF DIURNAL AIR TEMPERATURE RANGE CHANGE AND ITS COMPONENTS IN SHAHEED BENAZIR ABAD SINDH

A study has been carried out to analyse the temporal and seasonal patterns in the trends of diurnal air temperature range (DTR) and its components in Shaheed Benazir Abad for the time period 1996–2014.The magnitude, the slope and the significance of trends were investigated by using the linear regression method, the trend magnitude, the Mann-Kendall test and the Sen’s estimator of slope. The Mann-Kendall test and Sen's estimator of slope were calculated by using Addinsoft's XLSTAT 2015 software. The hypothesis of Mann-Kendall test was investigated at 95% confidence level for all variables. The result shows that minimum temperature of Shaheed Benazir Abad has increased at the rate of 0.063°C per year during study period while the maximum temperature for all months exhibits no change. This increase of minimum temperature contributed to the decreasing trend of diurnal temperature range. The DTR decreased at the rate of 0.057°C /year in Shaheed Benazir Abad. The investigation of seasonal DTR trends revealed that Summer and Spring seasons also witnessed a decreasing trends at the rate of 0.26 °C/year and 0.047°C/year respectively. Winter and aseasons, on the other hand, have experienced the increasing trends of DTR at the rate of 0.136 °C/year and 0.115 °C/year respectively. It is found by MK test that Tmax (winter), Tmax (Spring) and Tmin (Spring) exhibited the significant positive trends at the rate of 0.21°C/year, 0.368 °C/year and 0.421°C/year respectively. The increasing trends of Tmax of winter and spring indicate that winter and spring are warmer now

Risk factors for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in urban Pakistan: A multicenter case-control study

Objective: To evaluate risk factors for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in an urban setting of Pakistan.DESIGN AND Methods: In this multicenter case-control study, patients aged 15years old or older with sputum culture and sensitivity (C/S) diagnosed with pulmonary MDR-TB were defined as cases, whereas patients aged 15years old or older with sputum C/S diagnosed and susceptible to pulmonary TB were regarded as controls. Fifty cases and 75 controls were enrolled from three tertiary-care hospitals in Karachi.Results: Multivariable logistic regression models showed that cases were more likely to have had a TB patient in the house prior to the diagnosis of MDR-TB (adjusted odds ratio [ORadj]=3.1, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.2, 8.3) or had a history of prior TB treatment (ORadj=4.2, 95% CI: 1.1, 15.4). Furthermore, cases compared with controls tended to be male (ORadj=3.6, 95% CI: 1.4, 9.7), 15-25years of age (ORadj=3.7, 95% CI: 1.2, 11.3), of Sindhi ethnicity (adjusted OR=9.1, 95% CI: 1.9, 43.4) or with low educational attainment (ORadj OR=5.5, 95% CI: 1.7-17.6, for no formal schooling; ORadj=3.8, 95% CI: 1.1-14.1, 1 for 1-5 school years).CONCLUSIONS: A TB patient in the house or a history of prior TB treatment was strongly associated with MDR-TB in this study. Furthermore, younger age, male gender, Sindhi ethnicity and poor educational attainment entailed a high risk for MDR-TB. Targeted educational intervention for patients and their contacts may minimize the noncompliance with prescribed TB treatment and lessen MDR-TB magnitude in settings like Karachi

Impact of Training and Supervisor Support on Organizational Commitment with mediating role of Job Satisfaction

Training and Supervisor support shows a very important role in growing organizational commitment. The purpose of this research is to give a hypothetical justification of: a) impact of supervisor support on organizational commitment, mediating part of job satisfaction for the positive connection between supervisor support and organizational commitment, b) direct impact of training on organizational commitment and job satisfaction for the positive association among training, organizational commitment too. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed. The population which is targeted for this study was employees of the textile firms in Lahore. Data were collected from 320 employees. The study uses the SPSS and Structural Equation Modelling to test the hypotheses among 320 respondents. The results indicate that there is a significant relationship between training and organizational commitment, supervisor support and organizational commitment, training and job satisfaction. Supervisor support is significantly related with job satisfaction and there is a significant relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment

Indirect Fluorescent Antibody Technique based Prevalence of Surra in Equines

This project was carried out to find the prevalence of trypanosomiasis in equine in District Gujranwala by using indirect fluorescent antibody technique and thin smear method. Blood samples were collected from a total of 200 horses and donkeys of different ages and either sex. Duplicate thin blood smears were prepared from each sample and remaining blood samples were centrifuged to separate the serum. Smears from each animal were processed for giemsa staining and indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT). Giemsa stained smears revealed Trypanosome infection in 4/200 (2.0%) samples and IFAT in 12/200 (6.0%) animals