Parental Aspirations and Schooling Investment: A Case of Rural Punjab, Pakistan

Human capital accumulation is closely related to development indicators, such as, socioeconomic status and workers’ productivity. The study aims to assess the impact of difference in aspirations between communities on schooling investment, instrumented by arrival of a factory. The study uses the dataset of 2010-11 of Privatization in Education Research Initiative (PERI), which comprises a sample of children aged 5–14 who are currently enrolled in schools. By applying the Instrumental Variable (IV) analysis, it is found that aspirations motivated by the external factors have a pronounced impact on investment in schooling. Moreover, impact on investment is channeled into expenditures rather than the private schools enrolment

Systematic Review of Usability Engineering Management Studies for the Aging Population -UEM4Agin

Usability management is one of the core elements of any software to make it efficient and effective. Unfortunately, most of the time usability as well as its management is neglected while developing software that may result as ineffective and inefficient software design. In different eras different researchers performed studies to highlight the management of usability and to show its importance. Due to the increase in the aging population, the concern for the aging population assistances of each equipment becomes to be necessary. Number of Steps has been taken so far to help out the aging population but remained limited to visual considerations, such as stronger contrasts or larger characters on the displays and printing, or such physical characteristics as the ease for pressing buttons. In this paper, our focus is to perform a systematic review (SR) of usability management specifically for the aging population/senior citizens and its limitations. The systematic review aims to address three research questions: 1) What is the current status of usability management/usability engineering management research for the aging population/senior citizen around the globe? As we found that the literature on usability management for the aging population began in 1992 and increased thereafter, there is a lack of organized research teams and dedicated usability management journals for researching the aging population. High-impact theoretical studies are scarce. On the application side, no original and systematic research frameworks have been developed. The understanding and definition of usability and usability management is not well synchronized with international norms. 2) What are the existing methods, approaches, frameworks and practices that are currently being used in usability engineering management for the aging population? 3) What are the limitations of usability engineering management for the aging population/senior citizen? Purpose of this study is to identify the current research problems, existing studies for providing valid solution to these problems and will find out the limitations of existing work for covering the existing problems in usability engineering management specifically for the aging population. This will be done by performing quantitative literature of different databases and all the results will be gathered by analyzing and summarizing the statistical data using “R Studio”. Remedial techniques for handling the limitation of usability engineering management will be planned in future for the aging population

Blind User

In this era of information and communication, technology has become indispensible for everyone including people with blindness. It is noticed that for visually challenged users, the progress has been a much slower as compared to normal people. There are number of visually impaired users who demands special application that could assist them in their routine tasks. User participation is a significant matter of the time that researched and discussed in software development industry. Software development knowledge reflects that participation of different users in the process of software development lifecycle (SDLC), can participate to usability of software. Necessary inclusion for having better usability and accessibility are generally lacking in software engineering procedures. The study outline that is established to inquire the importance of blind people participation in the software development. The main aim of the research is to explore the level of visually impaired participation in SDLC process. In the study the model; Blind User System Development Life Cycle (BUSDLC) is proposed. In the study a survey with 32 software experts is included. This paper attempts to bring attention towards visually challenged people and establish Blind user centered SDLC for visually challenged people. This will help to improve software development process. Moreover the proposed BUSDLC can be implemented in any software development industry to prove its effectiveness

Probiotics: mechanism of action, health benefits and their application in food industries

Probiotics, like lactic acid bacteria, are non-pathogenic microbes that exert health benefits to the host when administered in adequate quantity. Currently, research is being conducted on the molecular events and applications of probiotics. The suggested mechanisms by which probiotics exert their action include; competitive exclusion of pathogens for adhesion sites, improvement of the intestinal mucosal barrier, gut immunomodulation, and neurotransmitter synthesis. This review emphasizes the recent advances in the health benefits of probiotics and the emerging applications of probiotics in the food industry. Due to their capability to modulate gut microbiota and attenuate the immune system, probiotics could be used as an adjuvant in hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, cancer, and gastrointestinal diseases. Considering the functional properties, probiotics are being used in the dairy, beverage, and baking industries. After developing the latest techniques by researchers, probiotics can now survive within harsh processing conditions and withstand GI stresses quite effectively. Thus, the potential of probiotics can efficiently be utilized on a commercial scale in food processing industries

Biochar: An emerging recipe for designing sustainable horticulture under climate change scenarios

The interest in sustainable horticulture has recently increased, given anthropogenic climate change. The increasing global population will exacerbate the climate change situation induced by human activities. This will elevate global food demands and the vulnerability of horticultural systems, with severe concerns related to natural resource availability and usage. Sustainable horticulture involves adopting eco-friendly strategies to boost yields while maintaining environmental conservation. Biochar (BC), a carbon-rich material, is widely used in farming to improve soil physical and chemical properties and as an organic substitute for peat in growing media. BC amendments to soil or growing media improve seedling growth, increase photosynthetic pigments, and enhances photosynthesis, thus improving crop productivity. Soil BC incorporation improves abiotic and biotic stress tolerance, which are significant constraints in horticulture. BC application also improves disease control to an acceptable level or enhance plant resistance to pathogens. Moreover, BC amendments in contaminated soil decrease the uptake of potentially hazardous metals, thus minimizing their harmful effects on humans. This review summarizes the most recent knowledge related to BC use in sustainable horticulture. This includes the effect of BC on enhancing horticultural crop production and inducing resistance to major abiotic and biotic stresses. It also discuss major gaps and future directions for exploiting BC technology

Probiotics: mechanism of action, health benefits and their application in food industries

Probiotics, like lactic acid bacteria, are non-pathogenic microbes that exert health benefits to the host when administered in adequate quantity. Currently, research is being conducted on the molecular events and applications of probiotics. The suggested mechanisms by which probiotics exert their action include; competitive exclusion of pathogens for adhesion sites, improvement of the intestinal mucosal barrier, gut immunomodulation, and neurotransmitter synthesis. This review emphasizes the recent advances in the health benefits of probiotics and the emerging applications of probiotics in the food industry. Due to their capability to modulate gut microbiota and attenuate the immune system, probiotics could be used as an adjuvant in hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, cancer, and gastrointestinal diseases. Considering the functional properties, probiotics are being used in the dairy, beverage, and baking industries. After developing the latest techniques by researchers, probiotics can now survive within harsh processing conditions and withstand GI stresses quite effectively. Thus, the potential of probiotics can efficiently be utilized on a commercial scale in food processing industries

Salt stress proteins in plants: An overview

Salinity stress is considered the most devastating abiotic stress for crop productivity. Accumulating different types of soluble proteins has evolved as a vital strategy that plays a central regulatory role in the growth and development of plants subjected to salt stress. In the last two decades, efforts have been undertaken to critically examine the genome structure and functions of the transcriptome in plants subjected to salinity stress. Although genomics and transcriptomics studies indicate physiological and biochemical alterations in plants, it do not reflect changes in the amount and type of proteins corresponding to gene expression at the transcriptome level. In addition, proteins are a more reliable determinant of salt tolerance than simple gene expression as they play major roles in shaping physiological traits in salt-tolerant phenotypes. However, little information is available on salt stress-responsive proteins and their possible modes of action in conferring salinity stress tolerance. In addition, a complete proteome profile under normal or stress conditions has not been established yet for any model plant species. Similarly, a complete set of low abundant and key stress regulatory proteins in plants has not been identified. Furthermore, insufficient information on post-translational modifications in salt stress regulatory proteins is available. Therefore, in recent past, studies focused on exploring changes in protein expression under salt stress, which will complement genomic, transcriptomic, and physiological studies in understanding mechanism of salt tolerance in plants. This review focused on recent studies on proteome profiling in plants subjected to salinity stress, and provide synthesis of updated literature about how salinity regulates various salt stress proteins involved in the plant salt tolerance mechanism. This review also highlights the recent reports on regulation of salt stress proteins using transgenic approaches with enhanced salt stress tolerance in crops

Effects of a high-dose 24-h infusion of tranexamic acid on death and thromboembolic events in patients with acute gastrointestinal bleeding (HALT-IT): an international randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background: Tranexamic acid reduces surgical bleeding and reduces death due to bleeding in patients with trauma. Meta-analyses of small trials show that tranexamic acid might decrease deaths from gastrointestinal bleeding. We aimed to assess the effects of tranexamic acid in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding. Methods: We did an international, multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in 164 hospitals in 15 countries. Patients were enrolled if the responsible clinician was uncertain whether to use tranexamic acid, were aged above the minimum age considered an adult in their country (either aged 16 years and older or aged 18 years and older), and had significant (defined as at risk of bleeding to death) upper or lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Patients were randomly assigned by selection of a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Patients received either a loading dose of 1 g tranexamic acid, which was added to 100 mL infusion bag of 0·9% sodium chloride and infused by slow intravenous injection over 10 min, followed by a maintenance dose of 3 g tranexamic acid added to 1 L of any isotonic intravenous solution and infused at 125 mg/h for 24 h, or placebo (sodium chloride 0·9%). Patients, caregivers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. The primary outcome was death due to bleeding within 5 days of randomisation; analysis excluded patients who received neither dose of the allocated treatment and those for whom outcome data on death were unavailable. This trial was registered with Current Controlled Trials, ISRCTN11225767, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01658124. Findings: Between July 4, 2013, and June 21, 2019, we randomly allocated 12 009 patients to receive tranexamic acid (5994, 49·9%) or matching placebo (6015, 50·1%), of whom 11 952 (99·5%) received the first dose of the allocated treatment. Death due to bleeding within 5 days of randomisation occurred in 222 (4%) of 5956 patients in the tranexamic acid group and in 226 (4%) of 5981 patients in the placebo group (risk ratio [RR] 0·99, 95% CI 0·82–1·18). Arterial thromboembolic events (myocardial infarction or stroke) were similar in the tranexamic acid group and placebo group (42 [0·7%] of 5952 vs 46 [0·8%] of 5977; 0·92; 0·60 to 1·39). Venous thromboembolic events (deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism) were higher in tranexamic acid group than in the placebo group (48 [0·8%] of 5952 vs 26 [0·4%] of 5977; RR 1·85; 95% CI 1·15 to 2·98). Interpretation: We found that tranexamic acid did not reduce death from gastrointestinal bleeding. On the basis of our results, tranexamic acid should not be used for the treatment of gastrointestinal bleeding outside the context of a randomised trial