Unravelling Water Use Efficiency in Sugarcane and Cotton Production in Pakistan

The present Policy Viewpoint explores water use efficiency between the two competing cash crops of the Kharif season, sugarcane and cotton. It is concluded that the sugarcane crop consumes about 3.5 times more water than the cotton crop. Moreover, one litre of water used in cotton production generates about 4 times higher monetary benefit at both the farm gate and at the processing stage. Sugarcane alone consumes about 42 percent of the total annual household water demand of Pakistan. Keywords: Cotton, Sugarcane, Water Use Efficiency, Water Pricing, Pakista

Prevalence of thyroid disorders in first trimester of pregnancy

Background: More recently there has been growing concern that more marginal degrees of thyroid dysfunction particularly subclinical hypothyroidism (elevated TSH and normal T4 concentration) and isolated hypothyroxinemia (normal TSH and low T4) are associated with fetal loss, prematurity and impaired offspring cognitive function and potential risk for fetal loss. Thus, it would seem logical to systematically screen pregnant woman for thyroid disorders. This study focuses specifically on thyroid screening in first trimester of pregnancy.Methods: This is a prospective cross-sectional study over 18 months (December 2020 to June 2022) in 300 patients attending the department of obstetrics and gynecology of teaching hospital attached to Khaja Bandanawaz Institute of Medical Sciences (KBNIMS), KBN University, Gulbarga for antenatal check-up during first trimester of pregnancy.Results: As per our study prevalence of thyroid disorder 14%, subclinical hyperthyroidism 3.67% and subclinical hypothyroidism 10.33%.Conclusions: According to data of our study, it is very ideal to subject all pregnant women for thyroid screening in first trimester with special emphasis to pregnant women in extremes of age, extremes of BMI, bad obstetric history and adverse outcome in previous pregnancy as it shows significant relationship with risk of having thyroid abnormalities

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words, and so is an Emojis Emojisfication of Language: A Pragmatic Analysis of Facebook Discourse

This research study aims to examine language change occurring in written discourse due to increase in the usage of emojis and the way emojis, in comparison to words, are performing communicative functions on social media platforms such as Facebook. The study focused on Pakistani Facebook users. For the study, Facebook is one of the most authentic social media platforms because 71.75 % (Internet Word Stat) of Pakistani internet users use Facebook which is the highest statistics among all social media applications. In order to investigate the recent language change and communicative functions performed by emojis, we utilized Speech act theory as it strives to investigate that by uttering something a speaker is indeed performing a social action, thus named as “Speech act”. Searle’s (1979) model of Illocutionary act in Speech act theory will particularly be used for the study. In addition to that, Dresner & Herring (2010) state that that smileys/ emojis function as illocutionary force, this theory will be applied to strengthen the argument. Moreover, for the collection of data, Discourse Completion Task/Test were used to collect elicit responses from the participants of focused groups. These focused groups contained students and faculty members from NUML and AIR Universities. The study concluded that, indeed, there is an arousing change in the written communication because younger generation uses emojis as compared to the aged people. The new forms of digital written communication (Facebook) has an immense amount of emojis instead of words for expression of their emotions. Emojis play vital role in conveying the “expressive” speech act in written communication and use of words is becoming lesser. They are pragmatically as competent as the words in the in communication, they fill the gap of facial expressions in the written mode of communication

Effectiveness of Palm Fisting Exercise on Occurrence of Thrombophlebitis among the IV Cannulated Patients Receiving Chemotherapy – A Selected Hospital of Delhi

Thrombophlebitis is a common complication among IV cannulated patients receiving chemotherapy. Themain objectives of the present study were to compare the effect of palm fisting exercise on the occurrenceof thrombophlebitis among the IV cannulated patients receiving chemotherapy in experimental and controlgroups and to find an association between the occurrences of thrombophlebitis with selected demographicvariables in the experimental group. The quantitative research approach was used. The research designwas post-test-only control design. Sample comprised of 60 patients who were newly cannulated in thearm and were receiving chemotherapy for at least two days from the medical oncology ward of Delhi StateCancer Institute, New Delhi, selected by the lottery method and assigned in to experimental and controlgroups. There was a significant difference of palm fisting exercise on the occurrence of thrombophlebitisamong the IV cannulated patients receiving chemotherapy between the experimental and control groups.There was a significant difference of palm fisting exercise on the occurrence of thrombophlebitis amongthe IV cannulated patients receiving chemotherapy between the experimental and control group at 0.05level of significance. In experimental group, there was a significant association between the occurrencesof thrombophlebitis among the IV cannulated patients receiving chemotherapy with selected variables,viz., age, stages of cancer, duration of illness, concurrent illness, body mass index, size of the cannula, siteof the cannula, duration of chemotherapy administration, number of present cycles of chemotherapy andother treatment modalities at 0.05 level of significance. So, palm fisting exercise with soft ball was effectivein reducing the occurrence of thrombophlebitis among the IV cannulated patients receiving chemotherapy

Urdu Conjunct Predicates (N+V) Inventory from Urdu Universal Dependency Corpus

This research study aims to develop a semantic inventory of Urdu nouns which may serve as a useful resource for developing natural language processing tools. It is an effort towards improving the severely under-resourced status of Urdu. Conjunct predicate is a type of complex predicate where a noun is followed by a light verb and both work as a single syntactic constituent. Conjunct predicate N+V collocation is extracted from universal dependency annotated Urdu corpus i.e., URDU_UD_UTB (Bhat et al., 2017). Resultant data provided adequate information to categorize the pattern of nouns compatible with light verbs in their all-possible morphological forms. This research yields a sizeable repository ofUrdu conjunct predicate along with figuring out a range of case markers licensed by N+V collocation as a constituent which does further implication on the volitionality. Resultant mined data can be used in some future research work to train the data in some cross-linguistic computational programs

Voice onset time of Mankiyali language: an acoustic analysis

The endangered Indo-Aryan language Mankiyali, spoken in northern Pakistan, lacks linguistic documentation and necessitates research. This study explores the Voice Onset Time (VOT) values of Mankiyali's stop consonants to determine the duration of sound release, characterized as negative, positive, and zero VOTs. The investigation aims to identify the laryngeal categories present in the language. Using a mixed methods approach, data were collected from five native male speakers via the Zoom H6 platform. The study employed the theoretical framework of Fant's (1970) source filter model and analyzed each phoneme using PRAAT software. Twenty-five tokens of a single phoneme were recorded across the five speakers. The results reveal that Mankiyali encompasses three laryngeal categories: voiceless unaspirated (VLUA) stops, voiceless aspirated (VLA) stops, and voiced unaspirated (VDUA) stops. The study highlights significant differences in VOTs based on place of articulation and phonation. In terms of phonation, the VLUA bilabial stop /p/, alveolar stop /t/, and velar stop /k/ exhibit shorter voicing lag compared to their VLA counterparts /pʰ, tʰ, kʰ/. All VLUA and VLA stops display +VOT values, while all VDUA stops exhibit -VOT values. Regarding place of articulation, the bilabial /p/ demonstrates a longer voicing lag than the alveolar /t/ but a shorter lag than the velar /k/. Additionally, the results indicate similarities in voicing lag among the VDUA stops /b, d, ց/. This study offers valuable insights into the phonetic and phonological aspects of Mankiyali and holds potential significance for the language's preservation

Factors Affecting the Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction in Telecom Industry of Pakistan

The current study focuses on the service quality factors which influence customer satisfaction in telecom industry of Pakistan. Customer satisfaction can be built up when brand satisfies the requirements and cravings of clients. Therefore, we took five service quality dimensions (empathy, reliability, assurance, responsiveness & tangibility) as predicting variables towards criterion variable customer satisfaction. This research was carried out on customers of telecom sector. An aggregate of 320 questionnaires were distributed among the customers of telecom industry of Pakistan through electronic forms as well as simple forms out of which 255 forms were returned i.e. response rate was79.7%. The outcomes of statistical tests demonstrate that three out of five predictor variables i.e. assurance, responsiveness and reliability have positive impact on customer satisfaction while empathy and tangibility have no significant influence on customer satisfaction. Research limitations and future plans also discussed in this research

Comparison Between Flipped Classroom and Traditional Classroom Strategies in Teaching Human Anatomy

Objective: To compare the effect of flipped classroom versus traditional classroom on students' academic performance in teaching human anatomy. To assess the perceptions of medical students about flipped classroom and traditional classroom strategies. Study Design: The present study followed quasi-experimental design, including pretest, posttest, and a questionnaire. Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out in the Department of Anatomy, at Wah Medical College, Pakistan from April 10 , 2023, to June 9 , 2023. Materials and Methods: A total of 143 second year MBBS students were randomly divided into two groups;Group I (n=72) and Group II (n=71). Group I (Experimental group) was exposed to the flipped classroom while Group II (Control group) was taught through the traditional classroom. A Pretest and a posttest were taken at the start and end of the experiment. Perceptions of students regarding flipped classroom and traditional classroom strategies were recorded through a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. The data was analyzed by SPSS version 23. The p value 0.05 was significant. Results: The mean pretest score was not statistically significant between groups I and II (p>0.05). By the end of the study, the mean posttest score of each group significantly raised as compared to its pretest score (p<0.001). However, Group I achieved a significantly higher posttest score than Group II (p<0.05). Students perceived flipped classroom as more beneficial than traditional classroom (p=0.001) as it enhanced their understanding, memorization, integration, and application of subject knowledge. Moreover, flipped classrooms proved to be more valuable in engaging students and improving their ability to participate in problem-solving activities. Conclusion: Flipped Classroom has proven to be a more effective strategy in teaching human anatomy to medical students compared to traditional classroom method

Carbapenem Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacteriaceae, and Acinetobacter baumannii , Prevalence, Biochemical Identification and Clinical Characteristics in Karachi, Pakistan

Antibiotic resistant pathogens are affecting the community and healthcare institutions all over the world. Pakistan is a developing country and resistance to drugs is the main issue and is of great importance. Current study is focused on isolation and identification of bacterial pathogens, i.e. member of Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii for the evaluation of prevalence, distribution of sensitivity and antibiogram of different antibiotics and carbapenem resistance isolates with phenotypic detection of resistant gene. Total 200 samples of different sources were collected and tested for bacterial pathogens. Out of 200 samples, 83 (41.5%) were found positive for different bacterial pathogens while 117 (58.5%) were negative. Among these 83 positive samples, Urine 43 (51.8%), Pus 22 (26.5%), Blood 8 (9.8%), Tissue 3 (3.6%), wound swab 2 (2.4%), Sputum 3 (3.6%) and HVS 2 (2.4%). E. coli 37 (44.6%), Klebsiella species 23 (27.7%), Proteus vulgaris 8 (9.6%), Ps. aeruginosa 4 (4.8%), Acinetobacter baumannii 4 (4.8%), C. freundii 2 (2.4%), S. typhi 2 (2.4%), P. mirabilis 1 (1.2%), M. morganii 1 (1.2%) and member of Enterobacteriaceae 1 (1.2%) were identified. Out of 83 (41.5%) positive samples there are 17 samples which showed resistance against Imipenem (IPM) and were further processed by phenotypic method Modified Hodge Test MHT. After Modified Hoge Test (MHT) among all these 17 samples there were only 07 (39%) positive and the remaining 11 (61%) were negative, its mean there was no gene involve in 11 samples

A Review on Strong Impacts of Thermal Stress on Plants Physiology, Agricultural Yield; and Timely Adaptation in Plants to Heat Stress

In this review, we checked the harsh influence of high temperature or heat stress on plant metabolism and crop yield. Plants can bear a minimum range of temperature; temperature more than this optimum range comes in the term of heat stress. Climate changes increase the number and severity of heat waves that reduced the development of plants and resulted in the death of the entire plant. Heat stress is a major stressful environment that destroys plant growth, biochemical reactions, and the yield of crops across the world. High-temperature influences many physiological and chemical reactions in plants. HS is now a big deal for crop production and the essential goal of agriculture is to maintain a high yield of crops. A plant lives in the conditions of high temperature based on its capacity to receive the HT stimulus, generate and change the signal, and then initiate physiological and biochemical changes. The plants show physiological and biochemical responses to heat the stress, is an active area of research. To deal with HT, different molecular techniques are in progress. After thoroughly reviewed of the different discoveries on plants’ responses, adaptation, and forbearance to HT at the cellular, organelles, and entire plant levels, this article described several approaches that could be taken to increase thermo- forbearance in plants