Development and validation of juvenile Criminal thinking styles’ inventory

The current research explored the styles of criminal thinking among juvenile delinquents in Pakistani cultural context. Initially, 40 juvenile delinquents were interviewed individually to generate an item pool of 34 distinct thought statements. After excluding repetitive items a list of 19 items was piloted on 30 juvenile delinquents as a self-report measure of 5-point rating scale (Juvenile Criminal Thinking Styles’ Inventory). Finally, a sample of 211 juvenile delinquents were given the final list of 19 items, Measure of Criminal Social Identity (Boduszek, Adamson, Shevlin, & Hyland, 2012; Shagufta, 2015), and a demographic form. Principal Component factor analysis determined a three factor solution, namely Social Alienation, Vindication, and Domination. The inventory found to have high internal consistency and concurrent validity. The outcomes are discussed in terms of the implications of criminal thinking styles for juvenile correctional counselling services and propose further research

Rural Development and Education: Critical Strategies for Ending Child Marriages

Gender inequality remains a prevalent global concern and has been identified as a significant contributing factor to the occurrence of child marriages. Child marriage is a serious human rights violation that has significant socio-economic effects on children, families, and communities. This study aimed to identify key determinants of child marriages through the use of multiple regression analysis. Child marriage was operationalized as the dependent variable, while wealth, unemployment, education, rural poverty, and gender inequality were employed as independent variables. The findings of the study revealed a positive correlation between rural poverty and child marriages, suggesting that areas of higher poverty may be associated with a greater incidence of child marriages. Additionally, the study found a negative relationship between knowledge and child marriages, indicating that the empowerment of local communities through education may serve as an effective strategy to decrease child marriages. The results of this study have important policy implications, and it is crucial that federal governments and administrative bodies prioritize measures to protect against child marriages in order to address gender inequality

Evaluation of kidney injury molecule-1 as a disease progression biomarker in diabetic nephropathy

Background & Objective: Kidney Injury Molecule-1 (KIM-1) is a peptide whose release into circulation is specific to tubular injury. This study aimed to estimate levels of kidney injury molecule-1 in diabetic patients with and without kidney disease. And evaluate the role of KIM-1 as an early screening marker of progressive kidney injury.Methods: This follow-up study included n=85 subjects from the diabetic clinic of Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center (JPMC) in collaboration with Aga Khan University from November 2016 till September 2017. They were divided as: i) Group A1 (n=30) participants with diabetes for \u3c5 years without microalbuminuria ii) Group A2 (n= 30) subjects with diabetes for 6-10 years with microalbuminuria; iii) Group B (n=25) subjects as healthy control group. All study participants were followed for 6 months and their blood glucose, urea, creatinine, electrolytes, albuminuria and serum KIM-1 were assayed.Results: High KIM-1 at baseline was present in group A2 patients as compared to controls and group A1 (p\u3c0.001). Higher levels were seen after six months in group A1 along with the presence of micro albuminuria (p\u3c0.001) suggesting kidney damage. Moderate positive association were seen for KIM1 with creatinine levels (r=0.530; p\u3c0.001), and HbA1c (r=0.576; p\u3c0.001) in all patients. While a strong positive association was seen for blood urea nitrogen as a marker for kidney function both at baseline (r= 0.728; p=0.000) and follow up (r=0.747; p=0.001). Multiple logistic regression controlling for age showed that KIM1 was independently associated with BUN (r=0.727; p\u3c0.001), creatinine (r=0.510; p\u3c0.001) and HbA1c (r=0.401; p=0.008) in all groups.Conclusion: Rising KIM-1 levels with progressive kidney damage with or without derangement of kidney function is reported in this study. This finding may pave a way towards identifying KIM1 as a prognostic marker for kidney injury

Efficacy of Asparagus recemosus (Satavar) in stimulating follicular growth and ovulation in anovulatory infertility: a randomized controlled trial

Background: Anovulation is the commonest cause of female infertility, responsible for 30% of cases and the most frequent cause of anovulation in women is polycystic ovarian syndrome. The aim of the study was to evaluate the anovulatory efficacy of Asparagus recemosus, commonly known as Satavar, in stimulating follicular growth and ovulation in an ovulatory infertility.Methods: A randomized standard controlled study was carried out at the National institute of Unani medicine Hospital, Bangalore. Patients (n=40) were randomly allocated to test (n=20) and control (n=20) groups. Infertile women in the age group of 18-40 years with menstrual irregularities, polycystic ovarian disease & spouse normal seminogram were included in the study. Patients with primary ovarian failure, thyroid dysfunction, hyperprolactinaemia, systemic illnesses, malignancy and those on hormonal therapy in last 3 months were excluded. In test group, 6 grams of A. recemosus powder twice daily from day 1-14 of cycle and in control group, clomiphene citrate 50 mg once daily from day 2-6 of cycle was administered orally for 2 consecutive cycles. Primary outcome measures (follicular growth & ovulation) and secondary outcome measure (conception) were assessed for improvement. Data were analyzed using Student ‘t’test, chi-square and Fisher exact test.Results: After 1st and 2nd cycles of treatment, follicular growth was 30% and 40% in test group and 60% & 50% in control group; ovulatory rate was 25% & 30% in test group and 40% & 25% in control group and conception rate was 0% in test group and 10 % and 5% in control group.Conclusions: The effect of test drug was comparable with that of control drug in stimulating follicular growth & ovulation, though the drug was not as effective as control drug to achieve conception. 

An Efficient Three Step Method For finding the Root Of Non-linear Equation with Accelerated convergence.

We have made an effort to design an accurate numerical strategy to be applied in the vast computing domain of numerical analysis. The purpose of this research is to develop a novel hybrid numerical method for solving a nonlinear equation, That is both quick and computationally cheap, given the demands of today's technological landscape. Sixth-order convergence is demonstrated by combining the classical Newton method, on which this method is largely based, with another two-step third-order iterative process. The effectiveness index for this novel approach is close to 1.4309, and it requires only five evaluations of the functions without a second derivative. The findings are compared to standard practice. The provided technique demonstrates higher performance in terms of computational efficiency, productivity, error estimation, and CPU times. Moreover, its accuracy and performance are tested using a variety of examples from the existing literature. Keywords: efficient scheme, nonlinear application, nonlinear functions, error estimation, computational cost

ABO Blood Groups And Their Link With The Risk of Pre-Eclampsia

ABO blood group antigens have been identified as pathological agent in different disease conditions. For some time, the association of blood group with pregnancy associated conditions like pre-eclampsia is extensively under debate. Preeclampsia is a distressing condition of pregnancy which commonly causes maternal and fetal mortality around the globe. Multiple risk factors are found to be associated with preeclamptic occurrence. In this study our aim was to delineate a specific blood group which could be implicated as a risk factor for pre-eclampsia. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital of Karachi and retrieved obstetric data including blood group was from medical record files of 368 patients. Obtained data was analyzed by IBM SPSS version 21. Results: The prevalence of B group was recorded to be 41.3% as compared to O (26.1%), A (22.8%) and AB (9.8%). So, it can be concluded that women having blood group B are more prone to develop pre-eclampsia. Conclusion: Blood grouping of pregnant women in early weeks of pregnancy could assist in prediction or better management of pre-eclampsia

Comparison of outcome in medical versus expectant management in unruptured tubal pregnancy with β-hCG 1000-3000 IU/L

Background: Ectopic pregnancy (EP) is an important cause of maternal morbidity as well as mortality in the 1st trimester. This study was done to compare outcome in medical versus expectant management in patients with unruptured tubal pregnancy having β-hCG 1000-3000 IU/L.Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 82 (41 in each group) women with tubal ectopic pregnancy (TEP) having β-hCG levels between 1000-3000 IU/L and 18 to 40 years of age were enrolled. Women having non-tubal pregnancy, ruptured ectopic pregnancy, heterotopic pregnancy, hypersensitivity to methotrexate were excluded. Included women were randomly assigned to either Group-A (expectant management) or Group-B (medical management). Outcome was measured after one week and considered successful if patient had β-hCG levels negligible i.e. <10 IU/L and complete resolution on ultrasonography (absence of adnexal mass, pelvic free fluid, gestational sac).Results: Overall mean age was 30.65±6.37 years. The mean gestational age in Group-A was 7.12±2.12 weeks and 7.63±2.41 weeks in Group-B. The mean β-hCG levels in Group-A was 1984.63±515.81 IU/L and 1937.33±519.68 IU/L in Group-B. Outcome was successful in 90.24% in Group-A and 63.41% in Group-B (p-value=0.004).Conclusions: Expectant management is associated with better outcome as compared to medical management in tubal ectopic pregnancy having β-hCG between 1000-3000 IU/L

Criminal Thinking Styles and Criminal Social Identity Among Juvenile Delinquents: Moderating Role of Parenting Styles

Parenting is considered imperative in the development of juvenile\u27s cognitions, and beliefs. The parent-child relationship might significantly influence juvenile’s thought patterns and social communications. Different parenting styles perhaps indicate criminal involvement of juveniles, resultantly turns them into delinquent. The present study was done to discover whether parental authority styles moderate the path that links criminal thinking styles to criminal social identity amongst juvenile delinquents. Participants of the study were 211 juvenile delinquents who responded on Juvenile Criminal Thinking Styles’ Inventory (Sana & Rafiq, 2019), Measure of Criminal Social Identity (Boduszek, et al., 2012), Parental Authority Questionnaire (Babree, 1997) and approached through purposive sampling technique. Association among variables was measured by using the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient whereas moderating effects of parental authority styles in linking criminal thinking styles to criminal social identity were assessed through hierarchical regression. The results show a positive relationship of criminal thinking styles with criminal social identity, authoritarian and permissive parenting styles while a negative relationship with authoritative parenting style. Moreover, it is evident that strict (authoritarian) and liberal (permissive) parenting moderates the interrelationship of criminal thinking styles and criminal social identity of juvenile delinquents as compared to reliable and trustworthy (authoritative) parenting. Results suggest working to develop intervention as well as prevention programs for juveniles that need appropriate attention and affection from parents, which resultantly persuade distorted thought patterns and criminal peer associations