Impact of Health Literacy on Fear of Covid-19, Protective Behavior, and Conspiracy Beliefs: University Students’ Perspective

Health literacy is an essential to respond proactively to pandemic situations like Covid-19. It helps the general public to reduce the spread of infectious diseases, prevent from over-reactions, reduce carelessness, adopt health protective behavior. The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of health literacy on fear of Covid-19, protective behavior, and conspiracy beliefs of university students in Pakistan. A cross-sectional survey using an online questionnaire was conducted at two public sector universities in Punjab with permission. A total of 271 received responses were analyzed by applying both descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS. The results indicated students\u27 gender had a relationship with their health protective behavior indicating that female students were more likely to adopt health protective behavior as compared to male students. Besides, the students\u27 health literacy did not predict their fear of Covid-19 and conspiracy beliefs. However, the health literacy of university students predicted their health protective behavior which meant that the students with better health literacy likely to adopt health protective behavior related to Covid-19 infection. There was a need for promotion of health literacy related to Covid-19 to fight not only the current pandemic situation but also an infodemic associated with it. These results are useful for policymakers, health professionals, university and library administration for promoting health and creating awareness related to Covid-19 pandemic. It would also be helpful in developing useful directions for health literacy programs promoting health education and protective behavior to avoid and management Covid-19 infection. This research would make a worthy addition to existing research on health literacy as limited empirical studies have been conducted so far

Exploration of organizational productivity in developing countries

Today, Human Resource have identified that competent and skillful employees are the valuable factor in growing and developing organizations. So, respecting their needs their needs management can lead employee job satisfaction. People are the most important in the hospitality organizations because they are the central to the hospitality and service; employees’ attitude, behaviors play a significant role to produce quality of services. Customer satisfaction and customers' perception about the quality of services are significantly influenced by the attitudes and behaviors of employees to provide services. The most industries are creating comparative understandings to keep employees productive and committed at work. Job satisfaction includes evaluative and expectancy components. The job satisfaction as a pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experience. Job satisfaction as affective response resulting from the evaluation of the work environment to enhance organizational productivity. Employees' work performance is the degree to which employees are carrying out their jobs in a given tasks. This study contributes to better understanding of fairness perceptions by employees. There is large amount of research in this field, the organization focuses on to attain the expected performance from employees, because employees perform key role to achieve organizational goals

Relapse Rate after Opioid Detoxification in Drug Addict Patients

Background: Drug addiction is widely regarded as a pathological condition that involves the continued abuse of drugs in the development of drug-seeking behavior and a decrease in the ability to respond to naturally rewarding stimuli. Objective: To determine the frequency of relapse after opioid detoxification in drug addict patients. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was performed in psychiatry department of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, PIMS, Islamabad, from October 2017 to April 2018. All adult patients who were using cannabis for at least 1 year, irrespective of gender ages between 18 to 60 years were included in the study. For drug use characteristics about preferred choice of drugs and injection-related risk behaviors were noted and analyzed. All findings were entered in a structured Proforma. Data was entered in SPSS version 21 and analyzed. Effects modifiers like age, gender, marital status, types of drugs, etc., were controlled by stratification. Post stratification chi square test was applied. A p value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Total 310 patients were included; 83% patients were male and 17% were females. The mean age of the patients was 39.02±21.42 years. 70% patients had relapse after opioid detoxification while 30% patients had NO relapse. The relapse rate after detoxification was more common in first month of detoxification (56%). After 3 months the relapse rate after detoxification was 12.5%. The statistical analysis showed that there was a very significant association between types of drugs, ages of patients, marital status and relapse rate (p ≤ 0.05). There was an insignificant association between gender and relapse rate (p ≥ 0.5). Conclusion: The study concluded that the relapse within six months of opioid detoxification in drug addicts is very common. Many factors contribute in relapse rate

Relapse Rate after Opioid Detoxification in Drug Addict Patients

Background: Drug addiction is widely regarded as a pathological condition that involves the continued abuse of drugs in the development of drug-seeking behavior and a decrease in the ability to respond to naturally rewarding stimuli. Objective: To determine the frequency of relapse after opioid detoxification in drug addict patients. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was performed in psychiatry department of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, PIMS, Islamabad, from October 2017 to April 2018. All adult patients who were using cannabis for at least 1 year, irrespective of gender ages between 18 to 60 years were included in the study. For drug use characteristics about preferred choice of drugs and injection-related risk behaviors were noted and analyzed. All findings were entered in a structured Proforma. Data was entered in SPSS version 21 and analyzed. Effects modifiers like age, gender, marital status, types of drugs, etc., were controlled by stratification. Post stratification chi square test was applied. A p value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Total 310 patients were included; 83% patients were male and 17% were females. The mean age of the patients was 39.02±21.42 years. 70% patients had relapse after opioid detoxification while 30% patients had NO relapse. The relapse rate after detoxification was more common in first month of detoxification (56%). After 3 months the relapse rate after detoxification was 12.5%. The statistical analysis showed that there was a very significant association between types of drugs, ages of patients, marital status and relapse rate (p ≤ 0.05). There was an insignificant association between gender and relapse rate (p ≥ 0.5). Conclusion: The study concluded that the relapse within six months of opioid detoxification in drug addicts is very common. Many factors contribute in relapse rate

delay in diagnosis of motor neuron disease. a tertiary care experience

Motor Neuron Disease is a progressive neurological disorder with poor prognosis. Inability to correctly recognize the disease, leads to undue agony and diagnostic dilemma. Studies have been done to look at the average duration taken to diagnose the disease from the onset of symptoms. The literature shows that latency from symptom onset to diagnosis range from 10.6–17.5 months. No such study has been conducted in our region. We reviewed 62 patients referred to the neurophysiology lab from year 2009 to 2013 with quarry of MND. Only 40 patients were identified to fulfill the El Escorial criteria for MND. The median time of diagnosis from onset of symptoms was one year. This is almost similar to that of world literature. We conclude that in spite of paucity of heath service and high rate of illiteracy the timeliness of diagnosis was consistent with the rest of the world

Measurements of branching fractions, absolute transition probabilities and J-file sum rule for the 4p(5)5p -\u3e 4p(5)5s transitions array in neutral krypton

We present new results of transition rates for twenty two electric dipole transitions of neutral krypton associated with the 4p55p→4p55 s configurations-based levels covering the wavelength region from 500 to 1000 nm using a krypton filled hollow cathode discharge lamp coupled with a set of four miniature spectrometers. The branching fractions of various dipole allowed transitions were extracted using the observed line intensity ratios, whereas, the absolute values of the transition probabilities were deduced from the measured branching fractions in combination with the known lifetimes of the upper levels. The experimental data are in good agreement with that calculated in the intermediate angular momentum coupling scheme. In addition, line strengths for all the transitions have been extracted using the measured transition probabilities. The J-file sum rule was also tested for each level attached to the 4p55p→4p55 s configurations based on the recently measured and calculated normalized multiplet strengths

How information literacy influences creative skills among medical students? : The mediating role of lifelong learning

This research investigated the influence of information literacy on the creative skills of medical students through the mediation of lifelong learning. A cross-sectional survey was conducted for data collection among medical students, recruited through a stratified convenient sampling procedure, of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The questionnaire was personally administered by visiting each college with written permission. A total of 473 survey responses were collected and analysed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling. The results revealed that the information literacy of medical students had a direct and indirect but positive influence on their creative skills. Lifelong learning not had a direct but positive effect on creative skills but also mediated the relationship between information literacy and creative skills. The empirical evidence for how information literacy influences creative skills through the mediated role of lifelong learning may inform policy and practice for information literacy instructions. These results may help academicians and information specialists to initiate a credited or integrated course on information literacy in the curriculum of medical students not only in Pakistan but also in other developing countries. This research would be a worthwhile contribution to the existing research on information literacy as the mediated role of lifelong learning between information literacy and creative skills has never been examined so far.Peer reviewe

Economic Evaluation of Placer Gold Along River Indus From Ghazi to Kund, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan: Implications for Commercial Scale Pilot Plant

A detailed study was conducted on Indus river in order to evaluate the economic potential. Samples werecollected for geochemical studies from both stream sediments (SS) and heavy mineral concentrates (HMC) along Indusriver from Ghazi, Hund, Beka, Alladher and Kund in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. All the samples were analyzed forgold (Au), silver (Ag) and base metals in order to get information about geochemical associations. Panning and sluicemethods were applied for the collection of these samples and extraction of visible gold. Results show that HMC havehigh Au contents, having maximum value of 44.15 g/t and 39.15 g/t in Kund and Beka areas respectively with anaverage value of 15.18 g/ton and 11.37 g/ton while the SS have average amount of Au as 0.8 g/t. In both these mediahigher concentration of gold was found in HMC. On the basis of results from both sampling media, the placer golddeposits in Kund, Alladher and Beka are considered highly economical for the commercial exploration of placer gold.Overall, the HMC derived from silt, sand, gravels and cobbles along Indus river indicated potential for placer gold thatcan be utilized for extraction of gold at commercial scale

Transmuted Singh-Maddala Distribution: A new Flexible and Upside-Down Bathtub Shaped Hazard Function Distribution

The Singh-Maddala distribution is very popular to analyze the data on income, expenditure, actuarial, environmental, and reliability related studies. To enhance its scope and application, we propose four parameters transmutedSingh-Maddala distribution, in this study. The proposed distribution is relatively more flexible than the parent distribution to model a variety of data sets. Its basic statistical properties, reliability function, and behaviors of the hazard function are derived. The hazard function showed the decreasing and an upside-down bathtub shape that is required in various survival analysis. The order statistics and generalized TL-moments with their special cases such as L-, TL-, LL-, and LH-moments are also explored. Furthermore, the maximum likelihood estimation is used to estimate the unknown parameters of the transmuted Singh-Maddala distribution. The real data sets are considered to illustrate the utility and potential of the proposed model. The results indicate that the transmuted Singh-Maddala distribution models the datasets better than its parent distribution.La distribución Singh-Maddala es muy popular para analizar datos deingresos, gastos, actuariales, ambientales y de confiabilidad.Para mejorar su alcance y aplicación se propone su extensión a la distribución de cuatro parámetros Singh-Maddala transmutada. Esta es más flexible en la modelación de diversos conjuntos de datos. Sus propiedades básicas, las funciones de confiabilidad y riesgos son estudiadas. La función de riesgo es decrecientes o tiene forma de bañera invertida. Como se requiere en varios estudios de sobrevivencia se exploran sus estadísticas de orden y los momentos TL, con sus casos especiales L, TL, LL y LH. Se emplea máxima verosimilitud para la estimación de los cuatro parámetros. Datos reales son usados para ilustrar la utilidad y potencialidad del modelo propuesto. Los resultados indican que la distribución propuesta ajusta mejor que la original