Problem Faced by Under Training Teachers and Their Solutions in Govt. Universities of Karachi

The current problems faced by under training teachers in government universities of Karachi has been investigated in this study. The study lies under the category of quantitative method as the quantitative data has been presented in a form of figures leading to some facts which has assisted the research to get precise results. The pattern of the article follows four major divisions. These divisions can be classified in a way that first division comprises of first two parts, i.e. introduction and significance of the study. Second division also comprises of two parts, i.e. the Hypothesizes and objectives of the study. Third division is the definition of some terms with respect to the study. Fourth division comprises of the methodology that has been applied through out the research. Then the fifth and final division is about the discussion and the last part comprises of conclusion from this study. Questionnaire has been used as the data collecting instrument. Considered population was the student teachers enrolled in different courses in government universities of Karachi. For statistical analysis of the data SPSS has been used to get more accurate findings. With respect to the findings, the conclusion has been made that teachers’ education department in government universities of Karachi are in a strong need of rapid changes, which can help to enhance the quality of training quality by overcoming the current issues. Keywords: Training Teachers, Pakistan, Govt. Universities DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/9-5-07 Publication date:May 31st 201

Work Stress of Teachers from Government Girls’ Secondary Schools Karachi

Teacher is a well-known profession all over the world. But now a days crisis of quality education can be prominently seen. Among elements effecting teachers’ productivity “Stress” is one of the core elements raising poor productivity by the teachers. Stress is expanding due to various issues. Although, stress is not always playing a negative role in person’s productivity, as at some levels stress tends to accelerate focus of a person, which makes the productivity better. But unfortunately, in secondary school teachers are confronting some common stress generating elements all over Karachi. Those elements are not impacting their professional life positively. The purpose of this study is to determine the common stress generating elements and their impacts on teachers’ productivity. Going through both qualitative by teachers interview and on the bases of interviews developed lickert scale closed ended questionnaire, distributed to 50 male and female teachers, among which 45 teachers responded. Data was analyzed by SPSS. According to the results there is a need of betterment of some policies on management grounds in order to overcome the stress generating elements. Keywords: Secondary school teachers, stress level, stressors. DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/9-6-01 Publication date:March 31st 201

Scientific trends on research on denture stomatitis based on Scopus database : a bibliometric analysis

Denture stomatitis is a clinical condition that affects people who wear removable maxillary dentures. It causes redness, soreness, and erythema and ultimately affects the general condition of the patient. The objective of this study was to analyze the le

Factors motivating smoking cessation: A cross-sectional study in a lower-middle-income country

Introduction: Only one-quarter of smokers in Pakistan attempt to quit smoking, and less than 3% are successful. In the absence of any literature from the country, this study aimed to explore factors motivating and strategies employed in successful smoking cessation attempts in Pakistan, a lower-middle-income country.Methods: A survey was carried out in Karachi, Pakistan, amongst adult (≥ 18 years) former smokers (individuals who had smoked ≥100 cigarettes in their lifetime but who had successfully quit smoking for \u3e 1 month at the time of survey). Multivariable logistic regression, with number of quit attempts (single vs. multiple) as the dependent variable, was performed while adjusting for age, sex, monthly family income, years smoked, cigarettes/day before quitting, and having suffered from a smoking-related health problem.Results: Out of 330 former smokers, 50.3% quit successfully on their first attempt with 62.1% quitting cold turkey . Only 10.9% used a cessation aid (most commonly nicotine replacement therapy: 8.2%). Motivations for quitting included self-health (74.5%), promptings by one\u27s family (43%), and family\u27s health (14.8%). Other social pressures included peer-pressure to quit smoking (31.2%) and social avoidance by non-smokers (22.7%). Successful smoking cessation on one\u27s first attempt was associated with being married (OR: 4.47 [95% CI: 2.32-8.61]), employing an abrupt cessation mode of quitting (4.12 [2.48-6.84]), and telling oneself that one has the willpower to quit (1.68 [1.04-2.71]).Conclusion: In Pakistan, smoking cessation is motivated by concern for self-health and family\u27s health, family\u27s support, and social pressures. Our results lay a comprehensive foundation for the development of smoking-cessation interventions tailored to the population of the country.Implications: Little is known about the patterns and strategies employed by smokers who are attempting to quit smoking, especially in lower-middle-income countries like Pakistan. Likewise, there are very few smoking cessation programs designed to assist in quitting. Our study will allow for a better understanding of the culture-specific motivating factors and strategies that most contributed to successful quit attempts. Based on these results, evidence based smoking cessation interventions can be developed tailored to the socioeconomic demographic of our country and region, including smoking cessation clinics and public outreach and media campaigns highlighting key elements of successful smoking cessation

Metoprolol tartrate-ethylcellulose tabletted microparticles: formulation and in vitro evaluation

This study introduced a novel phase separation technique for the microencapsulation of metoprolol tartrate as a model. Non-solvent addition coacervation technique was employed for the loading of drug into ethylcellulose, a hydrophobic plastic polymer. Dichloromethane (DCM) and paraffin oil were employed as solvent and non-solvent, respectively. Microparticle batches abbreviated as M1, M2 and M3 were formulated by embedding 1 g of drug into 1 g, 2 g and 3 g of polymer, respectively followed by direct compression into tabletted microparticulate batches named a T1, T2 and T3, respectively. The drug and polymer remained intact in encapsulated form as confirmed by FTIR, XRD and DSC. However, a slight change in drug nature from crystalline to amorphous behavior and an endothermic peak for metoprolol tartrate at 130 ºC was observed in drug and microparticle thermograms. Slightly aggregated spherical free flowing microparticles in a size range of 64 μm-103 μm were obtained. The entrapment efficiency ranged from 77% to 89%. The straight line obtained from a plot between square root of time (Hrs) versus drug release (%) and regression co-efficient (R2) confirmed that best fit model to all dissolution profiles was Higuchi's model. The modes of drug release from microparticles and tabletted microparticles were Quasi-Fickian diffusion and anomalous diffusion, respectively. T3 was selected as an optimum formulation as its dissolution profile resembled (f2 = 76.25) Mepressor® (Novartis Pharma-Pakistan). The accelerated stability study, regarding dissolution behavior and drug contents, at 40ºC/75% RH proved T3 stable in 40 ºC/75% RH for six months. Non-solvent addition coacervation technique involving comparatively safe solvents such as dichloromethane and paraffin oil as solvent and non-solvent, respectively is a good techniques for the encapsulation of Biopharmaceutics Classification System class I drugs such as metoprolol tartrate.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Computing the Parametric Geo-Accumulation and Ecological Risk Indices of Some Heavy Metals Along on, Charsadda-Peshawar Road, Pakistan

Charsadda to Peshawar road is characterized with diverse surrounding environment of residential settlements,industrial zones, commercial and agricultural sectors along with heavy traffic route which is contributing to heavy metalpollution. This study is focused on heavy metals: Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr) and Lead (Pb) contribution to theatmospheric pollution level. The heavy metals pollution assessment is carried out by sample collection (soil dust samplesand two vegetation species Cyperus esculentus and Cynodon dactylon) from ten sites along the road which were analyzedby using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). Average values of pollution index (PI) as well as average value ofpollution load index (PLI) for Cr, Cd and Pb in case of Cyperus esculentus, Cynodon dactylon and dust were calculated.Geo-accumulation index of roadside dust for Cr, Cd and Pb were estimated along with ecological risk due to roadsidedust using potential ecological risk index (RI). The analyses of this study suggest that the indices for the Cd metal foundto be of more concern than Cr or Pb which correspond to middle or low level of pollution. Statistical analysis revealedthat the three metals had a weak to moderate relationship with one another indicating multiple and somewhat similarsources of pollution

Design of an integrated sub-6 ghz and mmwave mimo antenna for 5g handheld devices

The reported work demonstrates the design and realization of an integrated mid-band (sub-6 GHz) and mmWave multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) antenna for 5G handheld devices. The proposed prototype consists of the two-port MIMO configuration of the mid-band antenna placed at the top and bottom of the substrate, while the 4-port mmWave MIMO antenna is placed sideways. The MIMO configuration at the top and bottom consists of a two-element array to achieve high gain at the mid-band spectrum, while the antennas placed sideways are optimized to cover the 5G-mmWave band spectrum. The overall dimensions of the board were selected the same as the of smartphones, i.e., 151 mm x 72 mm. The mid-band antenna has an operational bandwidth of 2.73 GHz, whereas the mmWave antenna has an impedance bandwidth of 3.85 GHz with a peak gain of 5.29 and 8.57 dBi, respectively. Furthermore, the design is analyzed for the various MIMO performance parameters; it was found that the proposed antennas offer high performance in terms of envelop correlation coefficient (ECC), diversity gain (DG), mean effective gain (MEG) and channel capacity loss (CCL) within operational range. A fabricated prototype was tested and measured results show strong agreement with predicted results. Moreover, the proposed work is compared with state-of-the-art work for the same applications to demonstrate its potential for targeted application

Peer-taught virtual research workshops for surgical residents: Protocol for a novel and sustainable solution to improving surgical research in Pakistan

Objective: To generate a protocol describing the methodology for a study assessing the effectiveness of a comprehensive series of peer-taught online research workshops for surgical residents across Pakistan in terms of improving research-related knowledge and skills, and long-term research involvement and output.Methods: The quasi-experimental study will consist of a series of six online research workshops conducted over Zoom for surgical residents across Pakistan. An online sign-up form will be circulated on social media to current surgical residents throughout Pakistan. Curricular content covered in the workshops will be developed in collaboration with experienced research faculty at the Departments of Surgery and Community Health Sciences at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi. Facilitators of the workshops will be current surgical residents with a solid track record of research involvement at the hospital. Improvement in research-related knowledge and skills will be assessed through pre- and post-tests for each workshop. A post-series feedback form will assess satisfaction with the organisation, content relevance, peer-teaching and online delivery of the workshops. Long-term research involvement and output will be assessed by follow-up surveys at 6 months and 1 year post-workshop. All data-collection will be done via Google Forms. For ethical purposes, informed consent will be taken from participants prior to enrolment; data will be collected using a unique identifier number to maintain anonymity; and the only incentive provided to participants will be a Certificate of Completion for the research workshop series.Results: We expect that surgical trainees participating in the series of six research workshops will demonstrate a highly significant percentage improvement (p80%) to rate the overall organisation, effectiveness of online mode of instruction, and relevance to surgical training of the workshops as excellent/good. We also expect that most participants (\u3e80%) would strongly agree/agree that peer-education is an effective model of teaching in research workshops. Finally, we expect statistically significant improvement (pConclusions: In light of the ever-growing need for academic surgeons in Pakistan, this research protocol details a comprehensive strategy for research capacity-building among surgical trainees across the country. By equipping trainees with the knowledge and skills to conduct high-quality research, virtual research workshops provide a novel, grassroots-level and sustainable solution for addressing the surgical research crisis in Pakistan

Maximum Current in Nitride-Based Heterostructure Field-Effect Transistors

We present experimental and modeling results on the gate-length dependence of the maximum current that can be achieved in GaN-based heterostructurefield-effect transistors(HFETs) and metal–oxide–semiconductor HFETs (MOSHFETs). Our results show that the factor limiting the maximum current in the HFETs is the forward gate leakage current. In the MOSHFETs, the gate leakage current is suppressed and the overflow of the two dimensional electron gas into the AlGaN barrier region becomes the most important factor limiting the maximum current. Therefore, the maximum current is substantially higher in MOSHFETs than in HFETs. The measured maximum current increases with a decrease in the gate length, in qualitative agreement with the model that accounts for the velocity saturation in the channel and for the effect of the source series resistance. The maximum current as high as 2.6 A/mm can be achieved in MOSHFETs with a submicron gate