A synthesis on SWOT analysis of public sector healthcare knowledge management information systems in Pakistan

Healthcare is a community service sector and has been delivering its services for the betterment of civic health since its establishment at communal level. For working efficiently and effectively, this sector profoundly relies on correct and complete health information of people and a proficient integrated healthcare knowledge management information system (HKMIS) to manage this information. The performance of Healthcare organizations has significantly augmented by inception of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in HKMIS in developed countries, but is yet to exhibit its full potential in developing countries specifically those with huge populations like Pakistan. An exploratory qualitative research methodology was adopted to conduct this study. The purpose and objective of this study was to determine and investigate the internal and external factors that influence the performance of HKMIS by performing SWOT analysis on two of the largest public-sector healthcare organizations of Pakistan. The findings of this study will certainly help authorities to devise methods of improvement in Pakistani HKMIS eventually paving ways towards a better and improved healthcare in the future

Energy Efficiency and Throughput Optimization in 5G Heterogeneous Networks

Device to device communication offers an optimistic technology for 5G network which aims to enhance data rate, reduce latency and cost, improve energy efficiency as well as provide other desired features. 5G heterogeneous network (5GHN) with a decoupled association strategy of downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) is an optimistic solution for challenges which are faced in 4G heterogeneous network (4GHN). Research work presented in this paper evaluates performance of 4GHN along with DL and UL coupled (DU-CP) access scheme in comparison with 5GHN with UL and DL decoupled (DU-DCP) access scheme in terms of energy efficiency and network throughput in 4-tier heterogeneous networks. Energy and throughput are optimized for both scenarios i.e. DU-CP and DU-DCP and the results are compared. Detailed performance analysis of DU-CP and DU-DCP access schemes has been done with the help of comparisons of results achieved by implementing genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Both these algorithms are suited for the non linear problem under investigation where the search space is large. Simulation results have shown that the DU-DCP access scheme gives better performance as compared to DU-CP scheme in a 4-tier heterogeneous network in terms of network throughput and energy efficiency. PSO achieves an energy efficiency of 12 Mbits/joule for DU-CP and 42 Mbits/joule for DU-DCP, whereas GA yields an energy efficiency of 28 Mbits/joule for DU-CP and 55 Mbits/joule for DU-DCP. Performance of the proposed method is compared with that of three other schemes. The results show that the DU-DCP scheme using GA outperforms the compared methods

Spatiotemporal shifts in thermal climate in responses to urban cover changes: a-case analysis of major cities in Punjab, Pakistan

peer reviewedThis study investigates the relationship of urban thermal environment (UTE) with various influential factors as well as ecological conditions. The relation between LST and land use and land cover (LULC) changes was explored in terms of remote-sensing (RS) based indices; heat effect contribution index (HECI), Urban thermal field variance index (UTFVI), Surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII), Normal Difference Built-up Index (NDBI), and Normal Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). LULC maps were classified using the unsupervised classification technique and made error matrix to determine the accuracy. Results revealed that the vegetated area in Faisalabad decreased by 230km2 due to an expansion in the urban area of 124-320km2 during the period 1992-2014. An average LST in the rural buffers is increasing rapidly as compare to urban buffer and varied over the eight years with a range of 0.68-2.57 (°C). After 2007, SUHII's linear trend was negative because rural temperatures were still rising. Based on HECI, we found that urban expansion mainly led to increase in LST. UTFVI has shown poor ecological conditions in all urban buffers. In addition, there is a positive correlation between LST and NDBI, while NDVI indicates a negative correlation with LST

The high-resolution (1km) groundwater storage and depletion maps across Irrigated Indus Basin (IIB) during 2002-2019

 We provided high-resolution (1km) groundwater storage (GWS) and depletion (DEPgw) maps across Irrigated Indus Basin (IIB) for 2002-2019. We applied two independent methodologies (1) spatial downscaling for improving GRACE-based GWS data, and (2) SWAT (Soil Water Assessment Tool) and pixel-based water balance approach for DEPgw estimates. GWS were estimated from the GRACE data, then downscaled to 1 km × 1 km using data-driven spatial downscaling models. We combined the downscaled GRACE-based GWS estimates with results from a calibrated SWAT hydrological model to estimate the DEPgw. The resultant maps delineate the groundwater depletion hotspots of cropping systems in the 55 canal command areas of IIB and could contribute to sustainable water use and agricultural development in the region.   Readers can refer to the following publication for more details on the methods.   Arshad, A., Mirchi, A., Samimi, M. and Ahmad, B., 2022. Combining downscaled-GRACE data with SWAT to improve the estimation of groundwater storage and depletion variations in the Irrigated Indus Basin (IIB). Science of the Total Environment, 838, p.156044. </p

A comprehensive knowledge management process framework for healthcare information systems in healthcare industry of Pakistan

The major challenge in the existing healthcare industry of Pakistan is that despite the presence of extensive data and related information, there is no solid Knowledge Management (KM) process or framework for controlling and catering the diversified nature of knowledge creation for effective decision making resulting in ineffective and inefficient organization and utilization of various important resources being used during the decision making operations [12] [13]. In this study, we present and suggest a comprehensive and phased knowledge management process framework that integrates and streamlines varied and multiple processes in a phased manner to collect, analyze and manage knowledge and the knowledge creation process for supporting the effective decision making in healthcare information systems related to healthcare industry of Pakistan. This KM process framework will help identify the information needs and provide decision makers with useful step-by-step recommendations and guidelines based upon the integrated knowledge and past experience

KIIPF - An integrated inter-operable knowledge management process framework for healthcare: Implementation in Pakistani healthcare industry

Being complex systematically, Knowledge Management (KM) has always been challenging in the healthcare industry (HCI) of developing countries like Pakistan due to gap in acquiring and implementing KM processes. Despite the fact that extensive data and related information is available, the Pakistani HCI has been facing a major challenge due to the absence of a sound and solid KM process framework. Hence, the existing healthcare information systems in Pakistan lack the ability to control and cater the diversified nature of new knowledge creation and innovation. Consequentially, it results in inefficient and ineffective organization of knowledge along with inability to properly utilize important resources that are used for decision making activities. In this study, the researchers present and suggest an integrated and inter-operable KM process framework that helps to streamline and integrate a KM process in a phased comportment that identifies, defines, analyzes, collects and manages knowledge along with its innovation, dissemination, sharing and storage in an appropriate way

An exploratory qualitative study to identify factors affecting requirements elicitation and fact finding while developing health care knowledge management systems in Pakistan

Requirements elicitation or Requirements gathering is the most important part of any project irrespective of the system development methodology being used. A number of fact- finding techniques have been introduced in this respect. Many Healthcare Knowledge Management System (HKMS) projects start with an incomplete or incorrect list of requirements which ultimately result in halting, delaying or failure of those projects. Requirements elicitation is the most important step of the requirements discovery process which focuses on fact-finding and data acquisition by using different techniques. The purpose of this study is to identify and determine those factors which affect the requirements gathering and discovery process and cause hindrance individually or collectively during fact-finding process. This ultimately results in misguiding the direction of the project. Dealing with such factors will help in developing proper and appropriate system requirements specifications. Furthermore, this study will also pave the way to find out solutions to cater and mitigate the occurrence and existence of such factors

Innovative Trend Analysis of High-Altitude Climatology of Kashmir Valley, North-West Himalayas

This paper investigates the annual and seasonal variations in the minimum and maximum air temperature (Tmin and Tmax) and precipitation over Kashmir valley, Northwestern Himalayas from 1980&ndash;2019 by using the innovative trend analysis (ITA), Mann-Kendall (MK), and Sen&rsquo;s slope estimator methods. The results indicated that the annual and seasonal Tmin and Tmax are increasing for all the six climatic stations, whereas four of them exhibit significant increasing trends at (&alpha; = 0.05). Moreover, this increase in Tmin and Tmax was found more pronounced at higher altitude stations, i.e., Pahalgam (2650 m asl) and Gulmarg (2740 m asl). The annual and seasonal precipitation patterns for all climatic stations showed downward trends. For instance, Gulmarg station exhibited a significant downward trend for the annual, spring, and winter seasons (&alpha; = 0.05). Whereas, Qazigund showed a significant downward trend for the annual and spring seasons (&alpha; = 0.05). The overall analysis revealed that the increased Tmin and Tmax trends during the winter season are one of the reasons behind the early onset of melting of snow and the corresponding spring season. Furthermore, the observed decreased precipitation trends could result in making the region vulnerable towards drier climatic extremes. Such changes in the region&rsquo;s hydro-meteorological processes shall have severe implications on the delicate ecological balance of the fragile environment of the Kashmir valley

APPLICATION OF L-METHIONINE CONFERS SALINITY TOLERANCE IN MAIZE THROUGH MODULATION OF METABOLITES AND ANTIOXIDATIVE DEFENSE

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Abstract&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The world's arid and semi-arid regions are frequently subjected to significant abiotic stresses, particularly salt stress, which threaten crop yield and production. In light of this, the current study aimed to assess the mitigating effects of salinity stress through different doses of L-methionine (0, 50, and 100 mg L-1), with the goal of promoting sustainable production of Dekalb maize hybrids (Dk-6317 and Dk-9108). The experiment was carried out during spring 2020 in a pot setup, where salt stress was induced by applying two levels of sodium chloride (0 and 120 mM). Exogenous L-methionine at 50 mg L-1 and 100 mg L-1 significantly improved maize growth, yield, photosynthetic pigments, and antioxidant defence characteristics. Salt stress significantly (p ≤0.05) reduced plant height (17.89% and 21.40%), shoot fresh weight (17.13% and 17.42%), shoot dry weight (18.03% and 29.98%), root fresh weight (21.56% and 31.02%), root dry weight (33.37% and 30.51%), and leaf area (16.28% and 21.18%) of Dk-6317 and DK-9108, respectively, when compared to L-methionine treatments. Furthermore, correlation analysis revealed a significant (p ≤0.05) correlation between various studied traits, including enzymatic and stress-related antioxidants, as well as yield attributes. As a result, antioxidant enzyme activity such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) promotes plant growth by positively correlating with photosynthetic pigments, resulting in higher yield attributes. It appears that L-methionine improves maize crop development when subjected to salt exposure, a novel aspect of L-methionine's beneficial role. A beneficial interaction between L-methionine and photosynthetic pigments suggests its potential to mitigate salt toxicity effects and enhance sustainable maize production.&lt;/p&gt

Long-Term Perspective Changes in Crop Irrigation Requirement Caused by Climate and Agriculture Land Use Changes in Rechna Doab, Pakistan

Climate change and agriculture land use changes in the form of cropping patterns are closely linked with crop water use. In this study the SDSM (statistical downscaling model) was used to downscale and simulate changes in meteorological parameters from 1961 to 2099 using HadCM3 General Circulation Model (GCM) data under two selected scenarios i.e., H3A2 and H3B2. Results indicated that Tmax, Tmin, and wind speed may increase while relative humidity and precipitation may decrease in the future under both H3A2 and H3B2 scenarios. Downscaled meteorological parameters were used as input in the CROPWAT model to simulate crop irrigation requirement (CIR) in the baseline (1961&ndash;1990) and the future (2020s, 2050s and 2080s). Data related to agriculture crop sown area of five major crops were collected from Punjab statistical reports for the period of 1981&ndash;2015 and forecasted using linear exponential smoothing based on the historical rate. Results indicated that the cropping patterns in the study area will vary with time and proportion of area of which sugarcane, wheat, and rice, may exhibit increasing trend, while decreasing trend with respect to the baseline scenario was found in maize and cotton. Crop sown area is then multiplied with CIR of individual crops derived from CROPWAT to simulate Net-CIR (m3) in three sub-scenarios S1, S2, and S3. Under the H3A2 scenario, total CIR in S1, S2, and S3 may increase by 3.26 BCM, 12.13 BCM, and 17.20 BCM in the 2080s compared to the baseline, while under the H3B2 scenario, Net-CIR in S1, S2, and S3 may increase by 2.98 BCM, 12.04 BCM, and 16.62 BCM in the 2080s with respect to the baseline. It was observed that under the S2 sub-scenario (with changing agriculture land-use), total CIR may increase by 12.13 BCM (H3A2) and 12.04 BCM (H3B2) in the 2080s with respect to the baseline (1961&ndash;1990) which is greater as compared to S1 (with changing climate). This study might be valuable in describing the negative effects of climate and agriculture land use changes on annual crop water supply in Rechna Doab