Modeling the Role of Maternal Care in the Educational and Health Development of the Children

Mothers play different roles in their family which has an effect on  health and well being of all members of the family specially on children. Almost in all different societies around the world, they have been assigned to be primary care-givers to infants and children. The present study investigates the relationship of maternal care and its effects on the educational performance and health of children in Pakistan from a statistical perspective. The modeling and significance has been established by measures of association and automated linear regression

Domestic Violence against Women: Statistical Analysis and Legislative Solutions

Violence against women contains many facets and beating wives is one of the most prevalent in Pakistan. The issue has been justified on state and private social level based upon religious and social arguments. Women empowerment and equal protection before law is guaranteed on both constitutional and legislative levels but effective implementation of these laws to gain equal living standards to wives is still a far cry. This paper aims to study the issue at different levels. It will define the domain of issue by statistical analysis based upon data provided by United Nation Global Data Base on violence against women and will probe into factors hindering the enforcement of state aspirations to protect women from violence at family level

Domestic Violence against Women: Statistical Analysis and Legislative Solutions

Violence against women contains many facets and beating wives is one of the most prevalent in Pakistan. The issue has been justified on state and private social level based upon religious and social arguments. Women empowerment and equal protection before law is guaranteed on both constitutional and legislative levels but effective implementation of these laws to gain equal living standards to wives is still a far cry. This paper aims to study the issue at different levels. It will define the domain of issue by statistical analysis based upon data provided by United Nation Global Data Base on violence against women and will probe into factors hindering the enforcement of state aspirations to protect women from violence at family level

Code-Switched Urdu ASR for Noisy Telephonic Environment using Data Centric Approach with Hybrid HMM and CNN-TDNN

Call Centers have huge amount of audio data which can be used for achieving valuable business insights and transcription of phone calls is manually tedious task. An effective Automated Speech Recognition system can accurately transcribe these calls for easy search through call history for specific context and content allowing automatic call monitoring, improving QoS through keyword search and sentiment analysis. ASR for Call Center requires more robustness as telephonic environment are generally noisy. Moreover, there are many low-resourced languages that are on verge of extinction which can be preserved with help of Automatic Speech Recognition Technology. Urdu is the $10^{th}$ most widely spoken language in the world, with 231,295,440 worldwide still remains a resource constrained language in ASR. Regional call-center conversations operate in local language, with a mix of English numbers and technical terms generally causing a "code-switching" problem. Hence, this paper describes an implementation framework of a resource efficient Automatic Speech Recognition/ Speech to Text System in a noisy call-center environment using Chain Hybrid HMM and CNN-TDNN for Code-Switched Urdu Language. Using Hybrid HMM-DNN approach allowed us to utilize the advantages of Neural Network with less labelled data. Adding CNN with TDNN has shown to work better in noisy environment due to CNN's additional frequency dimension which captures extra information from noisy speech, thus improving accuracy. We collected data from various open sources and labelled some of the unlabelled data after analysing its general context and content from Urdu language as well as from commonly used words from other languages, primarily English and were able to achieve WER of 5.2% with noisy as well as clean environment in isolated words or numbers as well as in continuous spontaneous speech.Comment: 32 pages, 19 figures, 2 tables, preprin

Role of Medicine Patent Pool (MPP) in Resolving Conflict between Patents and Access to Essential Medicines

This paper analyses the issue from both international intellectual property law and access to medicine with reference to contributions made by Medicine Patent Pool (MPP), an alternate model of resolving conflict between patent protection of medicines and access to medicine. Adoption of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement, under framework of World Trade Organisation (WTO), has significantly altered the enforcement standards of intellectual property rights, especially patent rights (Halewood, 1997).  Although, TRIPS Agreement introduces minimum standards of intellectual property rights protection but in case of pharmaceutical patents, they have impact on access to essential medicines because of strict standards (Kojo, 2018). This paper aims at analysing role of MPP towards solving conflict between patents on medicines and access to medicine

Role of Medicine Patent Pool (MPP) in Resolving Conflict between Patents and Access to Essential Medicines

This paper analyses the issue from both international intellectual property law and access to medicine with reference to contributions made by Medicine Patent Pool (MPP), an alternate model of resolving conflict between patent protection of medicines and access to medicine. Adoption of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement, under framework of World Trade Organisation (WTO), has significantly altered the enforcement standards of intellectual property rights, especially patent rights (Halewood, 1997).  Although, TRIPS Agreement introduces minimum standards of intellectual property rights protection but in case of pharmaceutical patents, they have impact on access to essential medicines because of strict standards (Kojo, 2018). This paper aims at analysing role of MPP towards solving conflict between patents on medicines and access to medicine

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN PAKISTAN: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Background and Purpose: In Pakistan, courts are still seen as the primary forum for resolving civil disputes. The large number of pending civil cases that require an unacceptable amount of time to achieve a final judgment is proof of this. Delays in the administration of justice and the length of trials are elements that have led to the development of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) approaches; at the same time, they are critical issues that need to be addressed in Pakistan and throughout the world. Many procedural reforms have been implemented to date, and the mechanism of consumer redress has improved. However, existing institutions are ineffective in resolving the vast majority of consumer disputes that arise from online transactions. The study aims at exploring the legal and technical challenges that would not allow the use of ODR for disputes in Pakistan.   Methodology: This research uses the doctrinal legal analysis methodology by asking ‘what the law states about the ODR in Pakistan’ to enrich the subject matter of the ODR and cover all perspectives, issues, features, and the most current advancements in the area of ODR and ADR in Pakistan. Currently, there is no applicable national or international law in Pakistan mainly regulating ODR. Therefore, at this stage, this article analyses the existing rules such as Recognition and Enforcement (Arbitration Agreements and Foreign Arbitral Awards) Act 2011 and Alternative Dispute Resolution Act 2017 to examine whether they apply to ODR. Along with exploring the nature of existing legal framework on the ADR and ODR, this paper significantly develops a theoretical framework that application of ODR standards, in a substernal manner, depends on its socio-cultural acceptance.  Notably, this article does not employ empirical research on the data of ODR. Instead, it uses statistics provided by international and national commissions, groups and centres.     Findings: There is evidence that ODR is still at an early stage of evolution in Pakistan, as it faces cultural, regulatory and technological challenges that hinder the growth of ODR.   Contributions: Despite its incomplete development, ODR has demonstrated its potential adaptability by accommodating national contexts. This is an essential feature because the aim is not to blindly transfer a dispute resolution system from other jurisdictions but to habilitate it to the national cultural features as well as social limitations, especially those regarding ICT infrastructure. ODR has also shown its great potential in Pakistan, may provide an affordable and speedy alternative to the usually unsatisfying traditional litigation system, and may allow the resolution of disputes to be completed time-efficiently and cost-effectively.   Keywords: Access to Justice, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Consumer Disputes, Online Dispute Resolution   Cite as: Kaya, S., & Khan, M. D. (2022). Online dispute resolution in Pakistan: Challenges and opportunities. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(2), 103-119. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss2pp103-11

International Human Rights and Access to Medicines

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThe issue of access to medicines has been widely discussed under the international human rights law regarding patients without medicines. Through critical analysis of relevant documentary material of the international human rights law, this thesis examines the status of access to medicines as a human right. To explore the status of access to medicines as a human right, this study examines the available sources of international human rights law. Benefiting from the indivisibility of human rights, the study presents the scope of interpreting access to medicines as a human right under the right to life and health. The thesis argues for the status of access to medicines as a human right instead of considering it a mere ethical or moral demand. The recent outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is not only a test for human advancement in medical sciences but is also a reality-check for human rights in general and access to medicines in particular. The study systematically argues that treating the issue of access to medicines as an ethical or moral demand, instead of treating it as a human right, has affected the response to pandemics and epidemics. The Access to Medicines Index Report 2018 concludes that almost 2 billion people face several issues accessing the required medicines. The deprivation causes pain, fear, and violation of human right to life and health. To establish access to medicines as a human right, it is imperative to develop the human rights framework for access to medicines under the international human rights law. The arguments will progressively analyse the status of access to medicines as a human right. For developing the human rights framework, the study will analyse the norm-creation process of the international human rights law, the status of access to medicines as a legal norm, the obligations of state parties, limitations to recognise and enforce access to medicines as a legal norm, and the ways to elevate the standing of access to medicines as a human right

Reduction of Economic Burden on State Exchequer by Using Various International Legal Flexibilities under TRIPS Agreement 1994 of WTO

During budget year 2016-17, public spending on procurement of medicines in Pakistan surged 29% touching an exorbitant figure of PKR 7.5 billion (Health Budget, 2016-17)Volume of provincial expenditure on medicine almost doubled rising to PKR 1.02 billion from 0.67 billion in last budget year 2015-16. Growing sum of public spending on medicine procurement has many factors such as poverty, money devaluation, indigenous production incapacity, and less developed standards of research and development. Apart from all enumerated above, global pharmaceutical patent protection regime under TRIPS Agreement, initiated by WTO, plays a pivotal role increasing public spending on procurement of medicines in developed and least developed countries. This work presents ways for reducing economic burden on state exchequer by exploiting maximum possible flexibilities under WTO regime to procure cost effective medicines. The work will be done in three parts; explaining Pakistan role and status in global pharmaceutical patent protection regime, existing challenges, and potentials for the country to save public spending on health using international legal agreements under WTO