The Impact of Social Cash Transfers on Poverty in Pakistan-A Case Study of Benazir Income Support Programme

Governments around the world often make social cash transfers to their residents for varied purposes such as consumption smoothing, poverty reduction, improved take-up of education and health services, etc. In Pakistan, these transfers took a big stride with the initiation of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in 2008. Social cash transfers have multiple types of impacts e.g. on health, education, reproductive behavior, voting behavior etc. This study aims to investigate the existence of a relationship between social cash transfers and poverty. Specifically, the research question is: Is there any impact of BISP receipt on poverty in Pakistan? This research question is answered with the help of utilization of Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) 2015-16 (Government of Pakistan, 2017) which presents information on households’ consumption (used to measure poverty) as well as households’ cash transfer recipient status. Official poverty estimation methodology is used for defining the poverty status of a household. The relationship between cash transfers and poverty is studied through the nearest-neighbor matching method limiting ourselves to BISP. The findings show that there is no significant relationship between BISP cash transfer and poverty when full dataset is used and a negative but economically insignificant relationship when only people from the bottom consumption quintiles are considered. Based on these findings, way-forward in terms of future research and making necessary modifications in the programme design of BISP is suggested

The Impact of Social Cash Transfers on Poverty in Pakistan-A Case Study of Benazir Income Support Programme

Governments around the world often make social cash transfers to their residents for varied purposes such as consumption smoothing, poverty reduction, improved take-up of education and health services, etc. In Pakistan, these transfers took a big stride with the initiation of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in 2008. Social cash transfers have multiple types of impacts e.g. on health, education, reproductive behavior, voting behavior etc. This study aims to investigate the existence of a relationship between social cash transfers and poverty. Specifically, the research question is: Is there any impact of BISP receipt on poverty in Pakistan? This research question is answered with the help of utilization of Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) 2015-16 (Government of Pakistan, 2017) which presents information on households’ consumption (used to measure poverty) as well as households’ cash transfer recipient status. Official poverty estimation methodology is used for defining the poverty status of a household. The relationship between cash transfers and poverty is studied through the nearest-neighbor matching method limiting ourselves to BISP. The findings show that there is no significant relationship between BISP cash transfer and poverty when full dataset is used and a negative but economically insignificant relationship when only people from the bottom consumption quintiles are considered. Based on these findings, way-forward in terms of future research and making necessary modifications in the programme design of BISP is suggested

Sewing Needle as Foreign Body in Urethra of an Adolescent Boy: Case Report

Self-insertion of a foreign body in the urethra is an uncommon presentation clinically. The cases usually arise due to fulfillment of sexual desire, for recreation, play, or exploration, or the foreign body insertion may take place accidentally. We present a case of an adolescent boy with a foreign body urethra presenting to the emergency room with urinary retention, pain, and dysuria. Attending urologist suspected urethral stricture and ordered ultrasonography to investigate which turned out to be a sewing needle in his urethra. The patient was then enquired about the foreign body. He tried to self-dilate his urethra as he was experiencing lower urinary tract symptoms. The sewing needle was removed by endoscopy and he was administered with antibiotics and painkillers. The urethral foreign bodies may present with pain, dysuria, or urinary incontinence and these foreign bodies are mostly seen in the male population in the adolescent age group

The Relationship between Knowledge Management Practices and Organizational Performance: Evidence from Banking Sector of Southern Punjab, Pakistan

The main objective of this study is to empirically investigate the relationship between knowledge management practices and organizational performance in the banking sector of districts of Punjab, Pakistan. Target population of the study was all the employees providing customer services of all banks located in the districts of Punjab province of Pakistan. Simple random sampling was used to select an appropriate and truly representative sample. Sample size of this research was 306 and out of 306 questionnaires, 291 were useful for the purpose of this research and hence making our response rate 95%. The reliability of data was tested by Cronbach’s alpha and regression analysis was used for testing of hypotheses. All the hypotheses of the study were accepted which stated that information technology, organizational elements and knowledge have positive relationship with organizational performance and further this relationship was statistically significant. This study has been conducted in the banking industry which bars to generalize the results of this research to other business settings. The findings of this kind of study are possibly useful to decision making bodies within the Banking services and it is also helpful for the government policy makers to develop policies for the better operations of banking sector with the aim of growing banking industry. This study makes a contribution in knowledge management literature by empirically investigating the impact of knowledge management practices on organizational performance

Effect of Cattle-Specific Diseases on Carcass Inspection and Meat Quality

There are severe cattle-specific viral (foot and mouth, vesicular stomatitis, rinderpest, rift valley fever, malignant catarrhal fever, lumpy skin, rabies, bovine leukosis, bovine viral diarrhea, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy), bacterial (tuberculosis, black quarter, botulism, malignant oedema, leptospirosis, brucellosis, anthrax, hemogenic septicemia, actinomycosis, actinobacillosis, mastitis, and metritis), parasitic (lungworm, fasciolosis, cysticercosis, hydatid disease, and onchocercosis), and protozoal (trypanosomiasis, theileriosis, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and sarcosporidiosis) diseases that affect the carcass judgment and meat quality. These diseases adversely affect cattle health, welfare, and red meat production. This chapter aims to describe the etiology, mode of transmission, ante-mortem and post-mortem findings, carcass and meat quality judgment, and differential diagnosis of these diseases

Gender Differences in Adverse Drug Reactions during HAART Therapy in HIV/AIDS Patients at a Tertiary Care Hospital Penang, Malaysia

Aims and objective: Current study is aimed to explore and observe adverse drug reactions occurrence of antiretroviral therapy and to examine the gender differences in treatment outcomes of HIV/AIDS patients during HAART therapy. Method: An observational retrospective study of all patients on HAART therapy diagnosed with HIV infection from January 2007 to December 2012 was conducted at infectious disease department of Hospital Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. Patients socio-demographic, clinical and laboratory data was retrieved via self developed validated data collection form. Results: Out of 743 patients 571 (76.8%) were male and 172 (23.1%) were female patients. A total number of 425 (57.2%) adverse drug reactions were reported among which 311 (73.1%) occurred in males and 114 (26.8%) in female patients, with a significant statistical relationship (p=0.02, OR=1.21). Out of total ADRs (57.2%) observed in both genders, a significant association was observed in Lipodystrophy (p=0.05), anemia (p=0.02), Peripheral Neuropathy (p=0.02) and pancreatitis (p=0.01). A total of 455 (79.6%) male and 139 (80.8%) female patients have improvement in CD4 cells count at the final follow up, a significant association (p=0.05) was observed among the mode of transmission and treatment outcome. Conclusion: Overall, the ADRs observed in both gender emphasize the importance of developing safer HAART regimens and managing these adverse effects in a timely manner in order to avoid long-term health consequences

Aqueous Garlic Extract as a Plant Biostimulant Enhances Physiology, Improves Crop Quality and Metabolite Abundance, and Primes the Defense Responses of Receiver Plants

Biostimulants are the next-generation choice for sustainable agricultural production and are gradually becoming an alternative to synthetic chemicals. Various botanicals are proposed to exert stimulatory effects, and garlic allelochemicals are among such botanicals; however, a peer-reviewed scientific evaluation is required to understand garlic-derived substances such as biostimulants. Current studies were therefore performed to identify the bioactivity of garlic extract as a biostimulant to improve crop quality, alter its physiological potential, and prime its defense responses against pathogenic fungal infections. 100 µg mL−1 aqueous garlic extracts (AGE) in consort with 1 mM of acetyl salicylic acid (ASA) and distilled water as a control treatment were applied to eggplant and pepper seedlings as foliar application and fertigation methods. The results revealed stimulatory responses in the growth of the vegetables with improved plant height, number of leaves, root growth, fresh and dry weight, etc., due to AGE and ASA applications. Moreover, significant alterations were indicated in plant metabolites such as chlorophyll, carotenoids, and soluble sugars. Additionally, stimulation of the antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD), as well as the root activity of these plants, was observed after treatment. Application of AGE and ASA also exerted priming effects on pepper plants, inducing defense responses prior to Phytopthora capsici inoculation, and the treated plants therefore successfully resisted infection through activated antioxidant systems, and probably carotenoid and other protectory metabolites. Stress-induced H2O2 content was extremely low in the treated plants, indicating successful resistance against pathogenic infection

Implications of Abscisic Acid in the Drought Stress Tolerance of Plants

Drought is a severe environmental constraint, which significantly affects plant growth, productivity, and quality. Plants have developed specific mechanisms that perceive the stress signals and respond to external environmental changes via different mitigation strategies. Abscisic acid (ABA), being one of the phytohormones, serves as an important signaling mediator for plants’ adaptive response to a variety of environmental stresses. ABA triggers many physiological processes, including bud dormancy, seed germination, stomatal closure, and transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of stress-responsive gene expression. The site of its biosynthesis and action must be clarified to understand the signaling network of ABA. Various studies have documented multiple sites for ABA biosynthesis, their transporter proteins in the plasma membrane, and several components of ABA-dependent signaling pathways, suggesting that the ABA response to external stresses is a complex networking mechanism. Knowing about stress signals and responses will increase our ability to enhance crop stress tolerance through the use of various advanced techniques. This review will elaborate on the ABA biosynthesis, transportation, and signaling pathways at the molecular level in response to drought stress, which will add a new insight for future studies