The effect of TQM on organisational performance:empirical evidence from the textile sector of a developing country using SEM

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a widely used management philosophy across many sectors. Organisations implement TQM in order to gain competitive advantage in terms of quality, productivity, customer satisfaction, and profitability. However, the literature seems inconclusive about the positive effect of TQM on organisational performance. Several studies argue that the effect of TQM practices on organisational performance need to be evaluated in different social, cultural, and economic settings. The effect of national culture on TQM implementation is also gaining importance. Therefore, this study provides empirical evidence from a developing country of South Asia. This study was conducted in the context of textile companies of Pakistan. The data was collected from the member companies of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) by using a questionnaire. The questionnaires were sent to 210 textile companies and the respondents were quality or production managers. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to investigate the relationship between TQM practices and organisational performance. The findings of this study indicate that TQM has a highly positive effect on organisational performance. These findings support the divergence argument which indicates that the positive effect of TQM on organisational performance is not limited only to the companies located in developed nations, but can also be equally achieved in the other parts of the world. All the TQM elements have positive relationship with financial and non-financial results. However, the element of people does not have significant relationship with financial and non-financial results

Complications and interventions associated with epidural analgesia for postoperative pain relief in a tertiary care hospital.

Introduction: Epidural analgesia is one of the commonly used methods of postoperative pain control despite its associated complications. Early recognition and intervention is required to minimize the effect of these complications. Present audit was conducted to find out the incidence of complications and type of interventions required to change the outcome. MethodOLOGY: The record of all the Patients who had epidural catheter placed for postoperative pain management reviewed from the departmental acute pain management register. Parameters included level of insertion, drugs used, number of days infusion continued and complications like nausea, vomiting, motor block, sedation, dural tap, catheter pull out, hypotension and itching. In addition, the intervention done to manage these complications was also recorded. Results: Total 1706 entries of epidurals were recorded in study period 2001 to 2007. The overall incidence of the complication was 26.6%. The common complications were motor block (13.4%), dural tap (1.2%), ineffective pain control (2.4%), accidental catheter pull outs (3.8%) and problems associated with the delivery system of drug (1.7%). The 12% of Patients required intervention for the particular complications. The regime was discontinued in 28%, drug concentration changed in 21.5% while the other modes of pain management were used in 19% of Patients. 0.9% of Patients required epidural blood patch while 2% of Patients required catheterization for urinary retention. Conclusion: This audit shows the importance of regular assessment and early intervention to manage epidural related complications in improving outcome

A Comparison of Standard Setting Methods for Setting Cut-Scores for Assessments with Constructed Response Questions

Standard setting provides a way to define minimal competency for various professional assessments. In the literature, a number of methods are proposed but there are implications for examinees because they can produce varied passing scores. Angoff is a widely applied method in context of educational assessments to define the borderline student that required extensive training of judges and skills to conceptualize minimum proficiency. The Cohen has defined an alternative procedure to overcome the limitations of Angoff. Additionally, we explored the relative method by computing average of score distribution as a point below that mean as the passing mark. Objective of the study was to investigate performance of Angoff with other standard setting procedures to inform future standard setting practices. These methods were applied to various exams having small, medium and large number of students. We found Angoff method produced credible and reliable pass scores and close to the relative method but Cohen and Modified Cohen gave divergent results. We recommend studied standard setting procedures explored further with different formats of assessments having varied sample sizes

DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS OF PESTICIDES ON HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT

Pesticides are toxic chemicals used for controlling of insects and pests which caused harms to plants or animals. Pesticides also effect the environment as well as human health. They play a vital role in securing of food but they require a number of risks and problems. Therefore, present study is designed to know the pesticide usage and its harmful effects on environment and health of cotton growers. There are 19 rural union councils out of which 4 were selected through simple random sampling. From each selected union council, 2 villages were selected at random and from each selected village, 20 cotton growers were selected randomly thus making a sample size of 160 respondents. A well planned pre-tested and validated interview schedule was prepared for the collection of data from the selected respondents. The collected data were examined by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for illustration conclusions and making recommendations. A vast majority (90%) of the respondents selected the pesticides on better results, (83.1%) on behalf of multinational company and majority (76.3%) selected pesticides of national company and a significant of majority (70%) of respondents used the gloves whereas a huge majority (85.6%) of respondents weared the mask during pesticide application. It was found that a huge majority (81.9%) of respondents had headache effect, 67.1% had fatigue, and majority (68.8%) had dizziness while 68.1% had skin disorders. Govt. should promote the first aid training program for safety measurement regarding pesticide usage and enhance the protection techniques for environment and health of organisms regarding pesticides effect

Anaesthetic management of patients undergoing deep brain simulation: A retrospective review of 8 cases from a tertiary care center of Pakistan

Objectives: To review anaesthesia related outcome, perioperative complications and overall length of stay (LOS) in hospital for patients who had deep brain stimulation (DBS).Methods: The study was retrospective review of patients medical records diagnosed with Parkinson disease (PD) and underwent DBS at The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi from 2017-2019. Data was reviewed from file notes and patient chart and recorded on predesigned Performa. Frequency and percentages were used to present the data.Results: All patients were anaesthetized using Sleep-Awake-Sleep technique (SAS). Dexmedetomidine was mainly used for conscious sedation. Bispectral index monitor (BIS) was used to monitor the depth of sedation, and kept between 70-85 during sedative phase. All patients had successful intraoperative neurological monitoring, stimulation, and placement of electrodes. Total duration of anesthesia varied significantly in between the patients. Maximum duration was 600 minutes. None of our patient had any intraoperative event related to anaesthetic management. Overall five patients had some adverse events during ward stay. Mean LOS in hospital was four days.Conclusion: Anaesthetic management of DBS is well-tolerated. It requires dedicated team. The SAS technique is excellent for intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring. Careful selection of sedative agents and monitoring depth of anaesthesia using BIS would be beneficial in terms of improving related outcomes

Assessment of Learning Achievement of Visually Impaired Children at Primary Level

The paper dispenses and disseminates assessment of the learning achievement of visually impaired children at primary level in Punjab. This explorative study was devised primarily to assess the academic achievement of the visually impaired and to analyze items developed for visually impaired children in Punjab. Keeping in view the aforementioned objectives and issues, the empirical work was administered in two urban districts of Punjab’s populated congested city Lahore and Okara.  For the sake of research work, samples were assembled from the different groups of male and female visually impaired children in Punjab. In this research work, (N = 100) boys and girls participated as sample of the study. The research questionnaire was constructed on the basis of the conceived strategies and assessment methods. An achievement test in Braille and sighted system was developed in the subject of Social Studies. The test contained 38 questions which were in the form of MCQs and open ended. For item analysis, ITEMAN software was employed and for other data analysis SPSS was used. The results and findings retrieved from the study were analyzed and revealed through descriptive statistics. The most of the items had a moderate difficulty level. Overall all the achievement of male and female students was satisfactory; however, no char difference was found across the gender. Most of the test items were reliable and valid. The study may be beneficial for psychometricians, teachers, parents of visually impaired children and other stakeholders specially in the sub-sector of special education

The Impact of Participation & Role Conflict on Job Satisfaction: An Analysis of Gomal University Lecturers (Regular and Contract)

  There is almost unanimity that job satisfaction is a key to efficiency and productivity of workers in almost all professions interalia many factors. Participation in decision making and role conflict are the main ingredients of job satisfaction in creative professions like teaching at postgraduate level. This paper intends to identify the impact of these two factors on job satisfaction of lecturers in Gomal University DIKhan. Population of the study consists of the entire faculty member in Grade BPS 18 i.e. Lecturer on contract as well as regular basis. Because of shortage of time availability only 35 were selected .and data was analyzed through statistical packages. The main variables of the study are job satisfaction, role of the conflict among participant and decision making process. Publicly employed people have no or less discretionary power in managing their work however, in Gomal University, the level of participation of teachers (lecturers) in decision making was found high and they are satisfied, majority of the respondents were of the view that they have conflict in performing their roles on the job therefore, their level of satisfaction is suffering. Key Words;    Job Satisfaction, Conflict, Lecturers, Gomal University

A Bibliometric Review of Highly Cited and Hot Papers on Coronavirus and COVID 19

The main objective of the study is to identify and examine the characteristics of the highly cited and hot papers on Coronavirus and COVID 19. The distributions of highly cited and hot papers per year, country, organization and journal were analyzed, as well as authorship pattern and most frequently used keywords. The Web of Science (WOS) indexing database was selected to extract the bibliometric data of highly cited and hot papers on Coronavirus. Top cited and hot papers mainly originated from China, the United States, England, and Saudi Arabia and the majority were published from 2019 to 2020. The University of Hong Kong and Huazhong University of Science and Technology were leading organizations. Journal of Medical Virology, the Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine were top in publishing. Many of the publications have been contributed by multiple authors as compared to a single author. The frequently used keywords included acute respiratory syndrome, pneumonia, coronavirus, outbreak, infection, respiratory syndrome coronavirus, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS‐CoV). This bibliometric analysis of the highly cited articles on Coronavirus and COVID 19 from Web of Science has demonstrated several significant points, which help to map the progress on COVID 19 development and recent research trends and potentially guide Coronavirus researchers for evaluating and orienting their future research works

Comparison of Constrained Induced Movement Therapy and Bimanual Training on Functional Outcome of Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to compare the effects of constrained induced movement therapy (CIMT) and BimanualIntensive Training (BIT) on functional outcomes of hemiplegic cerebral palsy children. METHODOLOGY Cerebral palsy children with age groups of 5 to 12 years were included with a total sample size of 38. Simplerandom sampling was done, and data was collected from Islamabad. Two groups were formed and named groupA: constrained induced movement therapy with 19% and group B: bimanual training with 19% respectively. Thefunctional outcome for the CIMPT and for the BIT group was assessed on the pretest and post-test scoreevaluation of QUEST and JTHF tests. RESULTS Statistically significant (p <0.05) improvement was found in The Quality of Upper Extremity Skills Test (QUEST)and Jebsen-Taylor Test of Hand Function (JTHF) in the between -group analysis. For within the group analysisthe p-value <0.05 suggests that there was a significant diffe rence in within-group analysis too. The values forgrasp and dissociated movements suggest that QUEST post-test values are impactful in the CMIT group whereasin the BIT group simultaneous and spontaneous movement was increased but JTHF post -test values were moresignificant in CMIT. CONCLUSION BIT is more beneficial for both hand’s simultaneous and spontaneous movement, whereas CMIT is morebeneficial for grip and overcoming the “learned-nonuse” phenomena in cerebral palsy children