Landlessness and Rural Poverty in Pakistan

Although reducing rural poverty has been the key agenda of economic reforms in Pakistan, the rural poverty continued to rise during the 1990s. The causes of rural poverty are complex and multidimensional. The rural poor are quite diverse both in the problems they face, and the possible solutions to these problems are also different. The paper uses the most recent household data set available—PIHS 2001-02—to examine the causes of rural poverty, as to what accounts for its persistence and what policy measures should be taken to alleviate it. Poverty estimates using official poverty line suggest the high prevalence of rural poverty ranging from 39 percent to 48 percent in all provinces. Rural poverty is found to be strongly correlated with lack of asset in rural areas. The unequal land ownership in the country is found to be one of the major causes of rural poverty, as poverty level was the highest among the landless households followed by non-agriculture households. The incidence of landlessness is common in rural areas. About 67 percent households own no land in the country. Unusually, just 0.3 percent households own 55 and above acres of land across the country, suggesting a highly skewed landownership pattern. Gini Coefficient of landholding suggests that Punjab has the most unequal landownership pattern, followed by the NWFP, Sindh, and Balochistan. The highly unequal land distribution seems to have resulted in tenancy arrangements such as sharecropping, resulting in high prevalence of absolute poverty particularly in Sindh. A broad-based land reform programme, including land redistribution and fair and enforceable tenancy contracts together with rural public works programmes and access to credit, is critical to reducing rural poverty in Pakistan.Poverty, Pakistan

The accuracy of three-dimensional bladder ultrasonography in determining the residual urinary volume compared with conventional catheterisation

Abstract OBJECTIVE: To determine the accuracy of three-dimensional bladder ultrasonography (US, using the BVI 3000, Verathon, WA, USA) for determining the residual urinary volume, compared with the conventional catheterisation method. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study at day-care unit of a University hospital after obtaining approval from the Ethics Review Committee of the hospital. Thirty-four patients with lower urinary tract symptoms requiring cystometrography were included. The postvoid volume was measured by bladder US, with three readings taken, and then patient was catheterised using a 12-F Nelaton catheter to measure the urinary volume. The mean of the three readings was compared with the catheterisation volume. RESULTS: The mean (SD) urinary volumes by US and catheterisation were 261 (186) and 260 (175) mL, respectively, and the correlation (r (2)) was 0.97. There was no effect of age, gender or body mass index on the accuracy of bladder US, which was accurate even when the urinary volume was ⩽100 mL. CONCLUSION: The bladder US estimate is as accurate as catheterisation for determining the postvoid residual urinary volume. Its accuracy was also comparable when the urinary volume is \u3c100 mL, and there was no significant effect of age, gender and body mass index. This system could replace the more invasive catheterisation, and with excellent accuracy

Impact Assessment of SPC Tools on Quality Improvement in Pakistani Industrial Environment: A Dynamic Case Study

Whether one belongs to service or production industry, Quality is always a big issue for business persons and the customers. If we do not have any means of measuring the performance of manufacturing Unit in trouble, how can we improve it? As W. Edwards Deming said “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it”. Everybody in the field of TQM is familiar with control charts and statistical process improvement for Quality. A number of tools, including the Six Sigma tool box, are made up of seven simple tools: flow chart, check list, histogram, Pareto chart, cause and effect diagram, scatter diagram, control chart. The Japanese call them "seven QC (quality control) tools, which have been used for decades to support quality improvement efforts to solve the problem. Usually variation is the only main reason for varying or low quality of their product/service, increasing dissatisfaction among customers and decreasing business credibility as a result. For that purpose, we chosen a business organization “Silver Lake Foods Pvt. Ltd.” as a study object, as management of SLFL was highly willing to cooperate. SLFL is a Food Manufacturing organization which produces food items like Biscuits, toffees, candies and chocolates, drinks etc. Management of SLFL has found that the process average for critical characteristics i.e. weight, taste etc. were out of control and causing big losses. In some cases, they have some ideas about possible causes. However, in most cases, they do not want or lack of knowledge and resources restrict them to carry out experimental design to find out the reasons for the change or decline quality.We have decided to use statistical process control (SPC) procedures for quality control, quality improvement and then ultimately towards total quality management.There were some ideas about possible causes but, as in most cases, they were reluctant or lacking the knowledge and resources to perform experimental design to find out the causes of variation or the causes of decreased (/ing) quality. We decided to use statistical process control (SPC) program to make the steps towards quality control and from quality control to quality improvement and then ultimately towards TQM. The Proposed study intends to find out impact of SPC tools in Quality improvement in Pakistani Industrial environment by studying Silver Lake Foods Pvt. Ltd. This  research also identify the main  sources of variations and bottlenecks  through dynamic use of SPC tools and  suggest recommendations regarding higher quality improvement and customer satisfaction levels in future. Keywords: Six Sigma tool box, TQM, Customer satisfaction, SPC tools, SLFP (Silver Lake Foods Pvt. Limited), Food industry, Quality improvemen

Psychometric Properties of an Instrument Developed to Assess Students’ Evaluation of Teaching in Higher Education

Student evaluation of teaching is a global predominant practice in higher education institutions. Therefore, a major university in Jordan developed a questionnaire for students’ use in evaluating their instructors’ teaching effectiveness.  Since student evaluation of teaching is an important process, the present study tried to examine the psychometric properties of the instrument. Item-total correlations showed acceptable internal consistency. In addition, a two-factor structure of the scale (teaching effectiveness and course attributes) was supported by exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis from two independent samples. Convergent validity was supported by a moderate correlation coefficient between course averages of students’ ratings on the first factor and course averages of students’ final grades in each course. Finally, students’ responses on the factor that captures teaching effectiveness were found to have very high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha of 0.96). However, this instrument lacks evidences of content validity and convergent validity. Therefore, it is important to be cautious in evaluating faculty members and making promotion decisions that is based solely on the scores obtained using this instrument.

Predictive and prognostic modelling and simulation of coating failures due to corrosion and mechanical failures

This research presents analytical and mathematical modelling of coating failures within industrial components, structures, mobile assets and systems due to corrosive degradation and mechanical fracture. These failures lead to serval surface problems, therefore contact mechanics and electrochemistry approaches incorporating induced residual stresses have been adopted to develop a comprehensive solution for the prediction prognostic of such failures. Experimental study of film cracking and its propagation into substrates, interfacial transient behaviours and film-substrate system has been conducted. A parallel study of corrosive degradation to include cathodic delamination, cathodic blistering and tribo-corrosion of films has been conducted. Experimental and analytical studies of induced residual stresses within the coating and their effects on failure mechanisms and propagation have been completed. A detailed investigation of elastic mismatch at the interfacial contact and interfacial crack tip field has been performed and a complex stress intensity factor is presented. Mathematical derivation of oscillatory singularity, mode mix and interfacial fracture criterion to include adhesion are presented. This paper presents novel mathematical modelling incorporating interfacial crack propagating, diffusion of corrosive species and cathodic blistering for prediction and prognoses of coating failures

COVID-19 in a mosaic trisomy 13 patient with polycystic kidney disease

A grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.Presentation, management, and outcomes of COVID-19 infections among younger patients is an area of medicine with deficits in research, likely due to the lower incidence of severe COVID-19 disease among the younger population. Management can be challenging, and clinicians often guide their decision-making based on the ever-changing protocols that are tailored mostly to the elderly population. Even more underrepresented in COVID-19 research are patients with chromosomal abnormalities and trisomy syndromes, as they appear less frequently, but have risk of increased morbidity and mortality due to underlying medical conditions. We describe a case of severe COVID-19 infection in a young patient with mosaic trisomy 13 and pre-existing polycystic kidney disease, who developed severe acute hypoxic respiratory failure and acute chronic kidney injury. The patient was provided maximal pharmacological support and her clinical course helps to shape the understanding of COVID-19 infections in the setting of chromosomal abnormalities and complex medical history