Impact of structured meetings on the learning of faculty members

Objective: To determine impact of structured meetings on learning and faculty developmentMethodology: The observational cross sectional study was conducted at Bahria University Medical &Dental College from October 2010 to March 2011. Feed back of all faculty members of university wasacquired on weekly structured meeting (with alternating theme of journal club and problem based scenariopresentation) by a self reported questionnaire. The responses obtained on a 5-point Likert scale weredivided into two groups; I, senior faculty (professors, associates and assistants) II, junior faculty(lecturers). Chi square test was applied to compare categorical variables and results considered significantwith p value\u3c 0.05.Result: 49 faculty members; 15 in Group I and 34 in Group II responded, 90% respondent considered it tobe a healthy activity. Senior faculty agreed to the usefulness of structured meetings in terms of facultydevelopment, social interaction, provision of learning opportunities, upgrading of presentation,communication, listening and critical appraisal skills, understanding of biostatistics, self awareness,personal productivity and tolerance to listen to criticism more than the junior faculty (p-value 0.000).Conclusion: The perception regarding weekly structured meeting indicated that it enhanced faculty\u27sknowledge, improved presentation skills, enhanced confidence level, developed positive attitudes andpromoted educational leadership qualities in the faculty all through interaction and dialogue

Comparison of the WHO Retreatment Regimen with the Six Drugs Regimen in Patients of Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Objective: To compare the frequency of early response of WHO retreatment regimen with the six drugs regimen in pulmonary tuberculosis retreatment Category patients.Study design: Randomized control trial (RCT)Place and Duration: Chest Department, Fauji Foundation Hospital Rawalpindi from 22nd May 2016 to 22nd November 2016.Methodology: Patients who had previously been treated for pulmonary tuberculosis for at least 1 month duration and is a failure, relapse or defaulter case presenting in Fauji Foundation Hospital Rawalpindi, both indoor and outdoor were enrolled in the study. Patients were randomized by lottery method to either of the two treatment arms; WHO retreatment regimen or six drug formulations. Clinical features were documented, baseline investigations, AFB smear, Gene Xpert and AFB Culture were sent. Drugs were given on once daily dosage. AFB smear and AFB culture were repeated at 3rd month of treatment. They had a regular follow up in Chest OPD and had monthly visits to the ophthalmology department for visual acuity, fundoscopy and to ENT department for audiometry. Their chest X-ray was done baseline then 3 months. Blood complete picture and liver function tests, serum uric acid, renal function tests were performed baseline, at 2 weeks then 3 months. After their treatment was completed they were followed to look for relapse.Results: Total 490 patients were included according to the inclusion criteria of the study. Patients were divided into two equal groups. Mean age (years) in the study was 40.00+21.10. There were 33 (6.7) male and 457 (93.3) female patients whereas the frequency of early response of WHO retreatment regimen with the six drugs regimen in pulmonary tuberculosis retreatment category patients was 187 (76.3) and 211 (86.1) respectively which was statistically significant (p-value 0.000).Conclusion: The study concludes that six drug regimen was superior to WHO standard regimen in the success rate of pulmonary tuberculosis retreatment category patients which useful in bringing new facts regarding management of retreatment category patient in our country as well as worldwide because of the limited research was done on this category of tuberculosis

Factors Affecting Part-time Students Performance in Pakistan

This research is concerned about part-time student performance within higher educational institutions in Pakistan. Part-time students contain a significant share of the student population. In the perspective of working students as part-time studying, there are some significant factors that should be considered seriously to perform well. This research was examined to find the relationship of soft skills (motivation to learn, stress, time management) among part time-students’ performance in south Punjab of Pakistan. Primary data was collected from a sample of 140 part-time enrolled students. Correlation and regression analysis were tested in this research. The result showed that time management was the most significant factor of student performance. Same as stress has significant but negative correlation with student performance. The study concluded that these soft skills have significant importance with the part-time working student performance

Psychological Assessment of Health Care Workers in Intensive Care Units During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT Background Fear and depression are common to any pandemic particularly in healthcare workers as they are in the front line to treat the diseased. Such a state directly affects the performance of the health system and the patients who are seeking care. This study aimed at assessing the psychological effect of COVID-19 among the healthcare workers in the intensive care units of two tertiary care hospitals of Rawalpindi & Islamabad.   Methods It was a descriptive cross-sectional study, conducted over five months i.e., 1st July 2020 to 1st November 2020. Non-probability consecutive sampling technique was used for recruiting health care workers. PHQ-9 tool was used including 9 questions (items) related to the depression due to COVID-19. Other tool Fear of COVID-19 scale was based on 5 points Likert scale as ‘strongly disagree’, ‘disagree’, ‘neutral’, ‘agree’ and ‘strongly agree’. Besides descriptive frequencies, mean and standard deviation, Spearman correlation (r) was applied to check the correlation between fear of COVID-19 with age (years) and professional experience (years).   Results Out of 382 healthcare workers (doctors, nurses & other staff) recruited in the study, around 50% were found to be suffering from severe depression and have developed a fear of the disease. A significant positive correlation was observed between the age of the healthcare worker and the degree of fear of COVID-19 (p<0.05). Similarly, a significant positive correlation was observed between the number of professional experience and the fear of COVID-19 (p<0.05).   Conclusion It is concluded that healthcare workers in ICU are at risk of depression because of fear of COVID-19. The current situation highlights the areas that need attention. Special training or orientation must be arranged for a situation of an outbreak or a pandemic and skills for keeping one’s psychological wellbeing and mental health must be imparted. KEYWORDS: Fear; Depression; Psychological impact; COVID-19, Healthcare workers, Pakista

Impact of Surrounding Infrastructure on Urban Environment: A Case Study of Karachi Metropolitan

Urban environment carries complex land-use and land cover (LULC), similarly Karachi as a metropolitan have multifaceted LULC and compact infrastructure. This study seeks to assess the impact of infrastructure of urban environment at mega city Karachi Pakistan. Approximately, fifteen different locations of metropolitan with different surroundings were evaluated based on the studied variables of surrounding such as temperature, humidity, formaldehyde (HCHO), total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) pollution, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in air i.e., air quality, maximum noise pollution and minimum noise pollution were investigated. The readings have been collected through relevant instruments and the results have been generated through interpolation in ArcMap 10.8. The obtained results revealed that the physical factors affect the temperature and humidity conditions of the study area. While environmental and noise pollution depends on the surroundings, e.g. industrial surrounding effects on air quality, i.e. 180 recorded at industrial region of Korangi, while construction sites are catalysts of noise pollution and highest noise pollution are recorded at North-Nazimabad. Cancer causing substance, i.e. formaldehyde found along the petrol pumps, airports and transportation junctions ranges up to 0.99 ppm near Jinnah International airport and mass transit location of Shahrah e Faisal. While total volatile compound pollution has been found along the Malir catchment area, i.e. 0.4 mg/m3. The lifestyle of Karachiites need to be transform there is a dire need to think about physical and mental concord of the citizens of metropolitan. Similarly, government should play some positive actions and introduced green and environmental friendly technology to control air and noise pollution

Geospatial techniques for comparative case study of spatiotemporal changes in New Karachi and North Karachi parks

The well-known fact is that parks play a significant role in sustaining the urban environment. Megacities like Karachi are developing rapidly with a simultaneous increase in the city area, putting immense pressure on open green spaces. The widespread built-up development is replacing the previously existing vegetative cover. The lack of green spaces is the main concern, and this problem will only worsen due to overpopulation associated with the rapid growth of cities. The lack of evidence-based planning contributes to the unbalanced spatial distribution of parks in quantity and quality. The present research aimed to compare and find out the quality and status of parks such as park areas under encroachment and temporal changes in the vegetative cover of parks in the predominantly low to middle-income residential areas of New Karachi and North Karachi Towns of Karachi metropolitan. Geospatial techniques have been used for mapping, assessments, and analyses. Results indicate that boundary walls are a good solution to stop or reduce park encroachments as correlation indicates the parks with boundary walls have a significantly lower percentage of encroachment in 2022. The existing work indicated that the number of trees has increased in most parks in both towns in 2022. The overall correlation results indicate that factors affecting park quality positively have a positive association with other positively affecting factors and a negative association with factors that affect park quality negatively. There is a dire need to implement better planning strategies to enhance the quality of existing parks and construct new parks in the study area

Land Use Analysis of Central Business District (CBD) of Metropolis Saddar Karachi through SRS/GIS Techniques

The high density of buildings and roads are commonly associated with the Central Business District (CBD) of a metropolitan and multicultural city Karachi, Pakistan. It is the highly interactive place of a metropolis, therefore, considers functionally effective zones. This paper will prove even with a high rate of urbanization and expansion due to urban sprawl, still Saddar is the focus of attraction concerning several facts. The main objectives of the study were to explore the land-based cataloging of Saddar based on activity and to assess the environmental issues which are associated with this land use classification for the sustainability of CBD the people perception methods of identification of research, Land-use (LU) Analysis of Area of Interest (AOI) via, questionnaire-based surveying, and geo-coding of activities methods have been used in this study.  The obtained results revealed that Saddar town covers land use approximately, 4.28% Leisure, 9.38% Shopping, Business or Trade, 7.9% Social, Institutional, or Infrastructure Related, 4.62% Mass Assembly of People, 6.37% Industrial, Manufacturing, and Waste Related, while 5.68% Traveler Movement,5.9% Natural Resource Related,52.40% Residential,3.4% No Human Activity or Unclassified. Approximately, 44.2% of the land use was engaged in capita producing activities, which reflects CBD’s functional strength.  Overall, it recommended that there should be more green spaces in the CBD to improve air quality. Vertical urban gardening/forest can be implemented as Saddar has limited space and it is a concrete jungle having very less open space

Factors Affecting Bank-specific and Macroeconomic profitability Determinants of Islamic and Conventional Banks in Pakistan

This empirical research aims to look at the factors that mark the financial performance of Islamic and traditional banking sector in Pakistan. Theresults of the data signify that gross domestic product and inflation is connectedtothefinancialperformanceofIslamicbanks in all aspectsof profitability ratios and grossdomesticproducthasinsignificantrelation with the return on equity and assets ofconventionalbanks.Inflation has a weighty effect on return of assets of conventional banks.Further results indicate a negative impact of bank size on return of assets Islamic and positive impact on conventional banks. Anegativeimpact of banksizeonreturnonequityofIslamicandpositiveimpactonconventional banks. There is no performance impact of bank size on price earnings ratio. Results alsoindicatethatanegativeperformanceimpactofageofbankonreturn on assets of Islamic and traditional banks

Land-Use/Land Cover Analysis Through Object Based Technique: A Case Study of Shahrah-e-Faisal

Karachi is the major financial hub of Pakistan. The urban sprawl generates many sub financial hubs as well e.g. Saddar which is consider as CBD of metropolitan, specifically area along I.I. Chundrigar road is almost have offices and business set-up. The similar pattern has been emerged in many other places e.g. Shahrah-e-Faisal and Tariq road. Along all three major roads mixed-used development particularly commercialization has taken place prominently and these sectors emerged as main business Centre. The present study was aimed to assess the Land-Use/Land Cover (LU/LC), green cover and air quality index analysis through object based analysis on very high-resolution satellite imagery at Shahrah-e-Faisal. The obtained results showed that the combine three activities such as Shopping, Business and Trade (SBT), Social, Institutional and Infrastructure related activities (SII), and travel or movement (ToM) were occupied on 51.34% of land. The residential activities also make an attractive volume of proportion was up to 47.11%. Therefore, it can be the perfect example of smart growth if introduction greenways initiate more effectively along with some attraction spots for Leisure