Female Political Power and the Complexity of Social Barriers in Pakistan

Women constitute half of the world’s population; however, they are seldom represented according to their numbers. This underrepresentation is prevalent in all socio-economic aspects and in societies across the world. Irrespective of geographical location, women continue to be discriminated, especially in the political domain. This paper has deployed quantitative techniques, based on secondary data of independent sources. It is to check the actual level of female political participation in Pakistan, since independence. The level of female political participation in Pakistan union-council to upper-house (Senate) is studied in comparison with other nations in Asia and the world. It is even at the eve of Pakistan’s 70th anniversary, women are restricted to education and health sectors only, whereas, in the political arena societal factors, cultural taboos, and religious misinterpretation are found to be the main hurdles. Also, the persistent patriarchal mindset in the social system remains the underlying belief for low levels of female political participation

Pakistan’s Counter-Terrorism Narrative and Non-Traditional (Holistic) Security Paradigm with Civic Engagement

The woes of terrorism and extremism pose a threat to the stability, economic development and human growth of nations. It, therefore, remains a serious concern for the state to rethink its strategies towards bringing stability. This paper, on deploying content analysis technique, explores the traditional security paradigm as a state-centric approach under the diverse concept of security. The non-traditional approaches; Buzan’s holistic perspective of a national security complex, Mehbub-ul-Haq’s human security notion and Mohammed Ayoob’s concept of weak state, are scrutinized to study the actual and potential role of civic engagement towards constructing an effective counter-terrorism narrative of Pakistan. It is established that due civic engagement has the potential to counter the extreme dogmas through collaborative efforts at home. It can also address the wrong perception about Pakistan’s inefficient counter-terror measures at the regional and global level

Global variation of COVID-19 mortality rates in the initial phase

Objective: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused devastation in over 200 countries. Italy, Spain, and the United States (US) were most severely affected by the first wave of the pandemic. The reasons why some countries were more strongly affected than others remain unknown. We identified the most-affected and less-affected countries and states and explored environmental, host, and infrastructure risk factors that may explain differences in the SARS-CoV-2 mortality burden.Methods: We identified the top 10 countries/US states with the highest deaths per population until May 2020. For each of these 10 case countries/states, we identified 6 control countries/states with a similar population size and at least 3 times fewer deaths per population. We extracted data for 30 risk factors from publicly available, trusted sources. We compared case and control countries/states using the non-parametric Wilcoxon rank-sum test, and conducted a secondary cluster analysis to explore the relationship between the number of cases per population and the number of deaths per population using a scalable EM (expectation-maximization) clustering algorithm.Results: Statistically significant differences were found in 16 of 30 investigated risk factors, the most important of which were temperature, neonatal and under-5 mortality rates, the percentage of under-5 deaths due to acute respiratory infections (ARIs) and diarrhea, and tuberculosis incidence (p \u3c 0.05).Conclusion: Countries with a higher burden of baseline pediatric mortality rates, higher pediatric mortality from preventable diseases like diarrhea and ARI, and higher tuberculosis incidence had lower rates of coronavirus disease 2019-associated mortality, supporting the hygiene hypothesis

Female Political Power and the Complexity of Social Barriers in Pakistan

Women constitute half of the world’s population; however, they are seldom represented according to their numbers. This underrepresentation is prevalent in all socio-economic aspects and in societies across the world. Irrespective of geographical location, women continue to be discriminated, especially in the political domain. This paper has deployed quantitative techniques, based on secondary data of independent sources. It is to check the actual level of female political participation in Pakistan, since independence. The level of female political participation in Pakistan union-council to upper-house (Senate) is studied in comparison with other nations in Asia and the world. It is even at the eve of Pakistan’s 70th anniversary, women are restricted to education and health sectors only, whereas, in the political arena societal factors, cultural taboos, and religious misinterpretation are found to be the main hurdles. Also, the persistent patriarchal mindset in the social system remains the underlying belief for low levels of female political participation

Pakistan’s Counter-Terrorism Narrative and Non-Traditional (Holistic) Security Paradigm with Civic Engagement

The woes of terrorism and extremism pose a threat to the stability, economic development and human growth of nations. It, therefore, remains a serious concern for the state to rethink its strategies towards bringing stability. This paper, on deploying content analysis technique, explores the traditional security paradigm as a state-centric approach under the diverse concept of security. The non-traditional approaches; Buzan’s holistic perspective of a national security complex, Mehbub-ul-Haq’s human security notion and Mohammed Ayoob’s concept of weak state, are scrutinized to study the actual and potential role of civic engagement towards constructing an effective counter-terrorism narrative of Pakistan. It is established that due civic engagement has the potential to counter the extreme dogmas through collaborative efforts at home. It can also address the wrong perception about Pakistan’s inefficient counter-terror measures at the regional and global level

Improvement in Neuropathy Specific Quality of Life in Patients with Diabetes after Vitamin D Supplementation

Objective. To assess the effect of vitamin D supplementation on neuropathy specific quality of life (NeuroQoL) in patients with painful diabetic neuropathy. Methods. This prospective, open label study was conducted between June 2012 and April 2013. Patients with symptomatic diabetic neuropathy were given a single dose of 600,000 IU intramuscular vitamin D, and NeuroQol was assessed at baseline and at five follow-up visits every 4 weeks. Results. Of 143 participants, 41.3% were vitamin D deficient (vitamin D < 20 ng/ml). Treatment with vitamin D resulted in a significant increase in 25(OH)D (P<0.0001) and a significant improvement in the NeuroQoL subscale score for emotional distress (P=0.04), with no significant change in the other NeuroQoL domains of painful symptoms and paresthesia, loss of temperature and touch sensation, unsteadiness, limitation in daily activities, and interpersonal problems. There was a significant reduction in patient perception about foot problems on QoL of “quite a lot” (P<0.05) and “very much” (P<0.0001) with a significant reduction in the baseline response of having a “poor” QoL from 5.2% to 0.7% (P<0.0001) and an increase in the response of an “excellent QoL” from 1.5% to 7.4% (P<0.0001). Conclusion. Vitamin D is effective in improving quality of life in patients with painful diabetic neuropathy

EVALUATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES ASSOCIATED WITH NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS (NPSTS)

The major purpose of conducting this research study was to gauge secondary school teachers' pedagogical practices according to the rubrics and competencies defined in the National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPSTs) document. The main objectives of the study were (a) to study the current status of teachers' pedagogical practices in Punjab (b) to gauge secondary school teachers’ pedagogical practices through rubrics associated with NPSTs and (c) to recommend certain measure for the betterment of teacher pedagogical practices in the classroom. This observational study was descriptive type research which was conducted in a real setting. 453 secondary school teachers from the province of Punjab were selected through multi-stage sampling techniques. An observation checklist with defined rubrics was developed. Based on the analysis of data, it was observed that very few of the secondary school teachers had attained the level the competence in using different pedagogies while different subjects. Most of the secondary school teachers were teaching subjects with the same teaching methods and were fall under the category of emerging teachers

Effect of COVID-19 on Mental Health of Healthcare Professionals of Karachi

Objective: To assess the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of healthcare professionals from district central, Karachi. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at Hamdard University Dental Hospital, Karachi, from October 2021 to June 2022. The study population consisted of dentists, doctors and dental/medical students of clinical years. Data collection from healthcare professionals was performed using an online questionnaire through different social networking sites such as Whatsapp and Facebook. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 21 whereas binary logistic regression was applied for inferential analysis. Results: A total of 205 participants were included in the study with a response rate of 100%. The mean age of the study participants was 31.54±8.64 years, 121 (59.0%) of them were aged up to 30 years, 110 (53.7%) of them were females, 99 (48.3%) of them were dentist whereas 57 (27.8%) were doctors by profession. Moreover, 100 (48.8%) participants were found to have an impact of COVID-19 on their mental health. Furthermore, multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that profession of the healthcare professionals was significantly associated with the impact of COVID-19 on their mental health where both dentists and doctors had significantly lower odds of having an impact of COVID-19 on their mental health than dental/medical students of clinical years (AOR 0.16, 95% CI 0.06-0.42, p<0.001 and AOR 0.18, 95% CI 0.06-0.52, p=0.001 respectively). Conclusion: A little less than half of the healthcare professionals included in the study had an impact of COVID-19 on their mental health. Moreover, healthcare students had significantly higher odds of having such an impact than healthcare practitioners. Authors recommend provision of psychological counseling, implementation of safety measures and the availability of related protective equipment for the healthcare workers, particularly for dental and medical students, to enable them to deal with their patients in a minimal risk environment

Pattern of Drug Resistance and Risk Factors Associated with Development of Drug Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Pakistan.

BACKGROUND:Drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) is a major public health problem in developing countries such as Pakistan. OBJECTIVE:The current study was conducted to assess the frequency of drug resistant tuberculosis including multi drug resistance (MDR- TB) as well as risk factors for development of DR-TB, in Punjab, Pakistan. METHODOLOGY:Drug susceptibility testing (DST) was performed, using proportion method, for 2367 culture positive Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) cases that were enrolled from January 2012 to December 2013 in the province of Punjab, Pakistan, against first-line anti-tuberculosis drugs. The data was analyzed using statistical software; SPSS version 18. RESULTS:Out of 2367 isolates, 273 (11.5%) were resistant to at least one anti-TB drug, while 221 (9.3%) showed MDR- TB. Risk factors for development of MDR-TB were early age (ranges between 10-25 years) and previously treated TB patients. CONCLUSION:DR-TB is a considerable problem in Pakistan. Major risk factors are previous history of TB treatment and younger age group. It emphasizes the need for effective TB control Program in the country