Gender Differences in Demand for Schooling

The comparison of human development indicators in Table 1 shows that Pakistan’s performance is below the average for South Asian countries and below the average for the developing countries. Furthermore, gender differences in human development are also significant within country and across countries. For example, in 1999, differences in male and female literacy rate was 24 points in Pakistan, higher then the difference in less developed countries (equalling 15 points). [See HDC (2001)]. Similarly, within Pakistan, male literacy rate increased from 35 percent in 1980-81 to 56.6 percent in 1998-99 whereas female literacy rate increased from 16 percent in 1980-81 to 32.6 percent in 1998-99. This shows that despite doubling of female literacy rate, the gap between male and female literacy rate widened from 19 percent in 1980-81 to 24 percent in 1998-99. Similarly, another indicator of human capital, i.e., the net enrolment rates at primary level exhibited a declining trend in 1990s, particularly among males. An important reason for the decline could be rise in poverty. Table 2 shows a sustained increase in net enrolment ratio with income, and the positive income effect is higher in urban areas. In rural areas, the enrolment rate increases with income but there is slight decline in female enrolment rate at the highest income level. Thus, despite rapid rise in female enrolment the gender, differences persist and income is the main factor affecting demand for education.

Analysis of Non-conventional Indicators of Gender Relations: Evidence from Pakistan

Since 1980 many developing countries have adopted two major macroeconomic strategies: Stabilisation and Structural Adjustment. A generally held view regarding the impact of these macroeconomic strategies is that it led to unemployment, low investment, decline in real wages, capital flight, rise in inequality and poverty. All these resulted in deterioration in living conditions of the poor in the short run.1 In some cases, the long run benefits, if any, of these programmes are sacrificed due to the high social costs in the short run. A number of studies, examining the impact of the observed macroeconomic impact of the Structural Adjustment Policies (StAP), report mixed impact on women. For example, on the one hand, Khan (1999) found an increasing trend in feminisation of agricultural labour2, and feminisation of poverty3 while Brown (1992), on the other hand, reports employment as a key factor in determining women’s empowerment and argues that some aspects of economic reforms hold for improvement in the long-run. The argument is based on the assumption that greater economic role for women offers protection and that employment itself mitigates against domestic violence. However, the overall effect of structural adjustment is difficult to measure as it varies across countries, across sectors, and across individuals within a household.

Gender Differences in Demand for Schooling

The comparison of human development indicators in Table 1 shows that Pakistan’s performance is below the average for South Asian countries and below the average for the developing countries. Furthermore, gender differences in human development are also significant within country and across countries. For example, in 1999, differences in male and female literacy rate was 24 points in Pakistan, higher then the difference in less developed countries (equalling 15 points). [See HDC (2001)]. Similarly, within Pakistan, male literacy rate increased from 35 percent in 1980-81 to 56.6 percent in 1998-99 whereas female literacy rate increased from 16 percent in 1980-81 to 32.6 percent in 1998-99. This shows that despite doubling of female literacy rate, the gap between male and female literacy rate widened from 19 percent in 1980-81 to 24 percent in 1998-99. Similarly, another indicator of human capital, i.e., the net enrolment rates at primary level exhibited a declining trend in 1990s, particularly among males. An important reason for the decline could be rise in poverty. Table 2 shows a sustained increase in net enrolment ratio with income, and the positive income effect is higher in urban areas. In rural areas, the enrolment rate increases with income but there is slight decline in female enrolment rate at the highest income level. Thus, despite rapid rise in female enrolment the gender, differences persist and income is the main factor affecting demand for education

Analysis of Non-conventional Indicators of Gender Relations: Evidence from Pakistan

Since 1980 many developing countries have adopted two major macroeconomic strategies: Stabilisation and Structural Adjustment. A generally held view regarding the impact of these macroeconomic strategies is that it led to unemployment, low investment, decline in real wages, capital flight, rise in inequality and poverty. All these resulted in deterioration in living conditions of the poor in the short run.1 In some cases, the long run benefits, if any, of these programmes are sacrificed due to the high social costs in the short run. A number of studies, examining the impact of the observed macroeconomic impact of the Structural Adjustment Policies (StAP), report mixed impact on women. For example, on the one hand, Khan (1999) found an increasing trend in feminisation of agricultural labour2, and feminisation of poverty3 while Brown (1992), on the other hand, reports employment as a key factor in determining women’s empowerment and argues that some aspects of economic reforms hold for improvement in the long-run. The argument is based on the assumption that greater economic role for women offers protection and that employment itself mitigates against domestic violence. However, the overall effect of structural adjustment is difficult to measure as it varies across countries, across sectors, and across individuals within a household

Smoking behaviour among young doctors of a tertiary care hospital in North India

Background:Tobacco use is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced. There are more than one billion smokers in the world. Almost half of the world's children breathe air polluted by tobacco. Aim of current study was to study the smoking trends among young doctors in a tertiary care institute in north India.Methods:A descriptive observational cross-sectional epidemiological study was conducted among 250 doctors of a tertiary care Hospital in Jammu & Kashmir (Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, SKIMS) during the two months of February-March, 2014. The predesigned tool adopted during data collection was a questionnaire that was developed at the institute with the assistance from the faculty members and other experts.Results:Among 250 participants, (20%) were smokers; among smokers, (76%) were regular smokers and (24%) were occasional smokers. Majority of smokers were in the age group of 21-30 years (80%) & started smoking between 11-20 years (70%). All of them were male (100%). No significant difference was observed among urban and rural students. Among smokers, majority (60%) was in the practice of smoking for last 6 months to 1 year and 26% smoked for <6 months; & (14%) smoked for more than 5 years .It was found more than half of the responding (60%) students used to smoke 5-9 cigarettes per day; 14% is <5 and 26% consumed 10 or more per day .Among smokers, peer pressure was found in 80% cases. (χ2 = 107, P <0.001). Among smokers, almost 20% had other addiction and among non-smokers only 5% had .Effect of parental smoking  was significantly higher in smokers than non-smoker (χ2 = 66.2, P <0.001) .It was seen that peer pressure was the most important risk factor (60%) of initiation of smoking habit followed by parental influence (20%). Majority (78.4%) had no intention to quit in the next 6 months. Lack of Incentive (36.36%) and Addiction (27.27%) were the main reasons for not quitting.Conclusion:We need to create more awareness regarding hazards of smoking in general population especially in medical students, and afterwards provide psychological and pharmacological support for those who intend to quit, as medical students can themselves become a tool to fight this hazard at all levels.

Chromium stress in Brassica juncea L. cv. 'Pusa Jai Kissan' under hydroponic culture

Chromium (Cr) entering plant tissue inhibits most physiological processes at all levels of metabolism including inhibition of growth, photosynthesis and nitrate assimilation. Since Cr exists in many forms, its toxicity to plants depends on its valence state, with Cr (VI) found to be highly toxic and mobile than Cr (III). Different concentrations of Cr (0, 25, 50 and 100 μM) in the form of K2Cr2O7 was added to 30 days old Brassica juncea plant and harvested on the 3rd and 5th days after treatment for estimation of plant growth, chlorophyll, total soluble protein, free amino acids and nitrate reductase activity. Cr was found to cause deleterious effects on whole plant growth. The potential of plants with the capacity to accumulate or to stabilize Cr compounds for bioremediation of Cr contamination has gained interest in recent years. The biochemical aspects like photosynthetic pigments (Chl a and Chl b), total protein and amino acids content decreased with Cr concentration. A significant increase in nitrate reductase activity was observed corresponding to Cr concentration.Key words: Brassica juncea, chromium, heavy metal, phytoremediation

Extent of liver inflammation in predicting response to interferon alpha & Ribavirin in chronic hepatitis C patients: a cohort study

Background: Liver inflammation due to HCV infection leads to fibrosis, which is an independent predictor of treatment response to interferon therapy in Chronic Hepatitis C (CHC) patients. This relationship has not been studied for liver inflammation on pretreatment liver biopsy and End of Treatment Response (ETR). ALT is a less invasive test than liver biopsy for measuring liver inflammation. Aim of this study was to compare ETR to Interferon alpha (recombinant Interferon) & Ribavirin in CHC patients having higher and lower grades of liver inflammation and to determine the diagnostic accuracy of pretreatment ALT for grades of liver inflammation.Methods: A retrospective cohort of 876 naive CHC patients, who completed Interferon alpha & Ribavirin for 24weeks, was studied for ETR. Pretreatment grade of inflammation on liver biopsy was taken as the exposure variable. It was classified as high if there was moderate or severe and low if there was minimal or mild. Multivariable logistic regression modeling was performed. Diagnostic accuracy of pretreatment ALT for liver inflammation grades was determined by computing Area Under the Receiver Operator Curve (AUROC).Results: Of all patients, 672 having diagnostic liver biopsy and ETR available were analyzed. Among them, 103 had high and 569 had low grades of liver inflammation. Mean age was 36.9 (SD 9.1) years, with patients with high grades being older than those with low grades inflammation (p=0.03). High grades of liver inflammation was associated with ETR (RR 1.17, 95% CI 1.12-1.18) adjusting for age, Total Leukocyte count (TLC) and pretreatment levels of ALT, irrespective of liver fibrosis. This relation remained significant for \u27bridging fibrosis and cirrhosis\u27 and not for \u27no\u27 or \u27portal fibrosis\u27. AUROC of pretreatment ALT for males and females was moderately accurate for severe inflammation compared to minimal inflammation and less accurate for high grades compared to low grades.CONCLUSIONS: ETR in patients with higher grades of liver inflammation was 17% higher than those with lower grades irrespective of fibrosis and 9% higher for bridging fibrosis and cirrhosis. Pretreatment ALT was moderately accurate for severe inflammation only on liver biopsy in both males and females

1-(5a,5b,8,8,11a,13b-Hexamethyl­eicosa­hydro-1H-cyclo­penta­[a]chrysen-3-yl)-1-ethanone

The title compound, C29H48O, is a triterpenoid isolated from Adiantum incisum forssk. In the crystal structure, the asymmetric unit contains two independent mol­ecules which are not significantly different. Each mol­ecule contains four six-membered rings, all adopting chair conformations, and a five-membered ring in an envelope conformation. In the mol­ecular structure, non-classical intra­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds are observed

Methyl 3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1,2-benzothia­zole-2-acetate 1,1-dioxide

The title mol­ecule, C10H9NO5S, is composed of two essentially planar units with a dihedral angle of 89.16 (6)° between them. In the crystal structure, there are weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O inter­actions resulting in dimeric pairs of mol­ecules about inversion centres and chains of mol­ecules extended along the a and c axes, thus stabilizing the structure. In addition, benzothia­zole rings lying parallel to each other with centroid–centroid distances of 3.679 (2) and 3.999 (2) Å indicate the existence of π–π stacking inter­actions