Sustainable Incubator Management—A Case Study for Pakistan.

Information technology (IT) is impacting all spheres of human activity at an unprecedented rate. Parallel to this development, there is also an intense debate on the contribution of this technology towards productivity and growth on the one hand, and human welfare on the other, in developed and developing countries. The “Technology Based Industrial Vision and Strategy for Pakistan’s Socio Economic Development” commissioned by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) lays out guidelines on how to make Pakistan an economically stable and technologically advanced ‘knowledge economy’. Based on recommendations from this document, the Government of Pakistan (GoP) has made investments in infrastructure and human resource development. Sites have been allocated for IT campuses and human resources sent abroad for training. With these trained IT and engineering personnel now returning to the country, plans are underway to develop what USAID1 calls “centres of excellence, commercial research centres…or to be more concise, incubator centres.” In order to fully utilise the potential of these centres and to establish stronger networking with the universities from where these trained personnel are returning, the concept of “incubator programmes” has been floated to facilitate technology commercialisation. Although the incubator phenomenon was conceived in the 1950s, it only mushroomed rapidly in North America in the 1980s. Today, even though America has the largest number of incubator facilities in the world, most have failed to produce desired results, primarily due to poor management and lack of clear vision. This paper focuses on the development of a sustainable blue print for incubator programmes in Pakistan through proactive management and enterprise development. This model would integrate faculty, students, laboratory resources, research facilities and strategically align the objectives of these entities with the industry. Such programmes have the potential to make Pakistani students globally competitive and also diversify the income resources of incubators, hence making them less dependent upon subsidies and acting as true platforms of technological entrepreneurship, small and medium enterprises, which are considered the drivers of knowledge based economies. JEL classification: O32, H42, L15, I23 Keywords: Innovation, Technology, Public Economic

Functional connectivity alterations in epilepsy from resting-state functional MRI

The study of functional brain connectivity alterations induced by neurological disorders and their analysis from resting state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rfMRI) is generally considered to be a challenging task. The main challenge lies in determining and interpreting the large-scale connectivity of brain regions when studying neurological disorders such as epilepsy. We tackle this challenging task by studying the cortical region connectivity using a novel approach for clustering the rfMRI time series signals and by identifying discriminant functional connections using a novel difference statistic measure. The proposed approach is then used in conjunction with the difference statistic to conduct automatic classification experiments for epileptic and healthy subjects using the rfMRI data. Our results show that the proposed difference statistic measure has the potential to extract promising discriminant neuroimaging markers. The extracted neuroimaging markers yield 93.08% classification accuracy on unseen data as compared to 80.20% accuracy on the same dataset by a recent state-of-the-art algorithm. The results demonstrate that for epilepsy the proposed approach confirms known functional connectivity alterations between cortical regions, reveals some new connectivity alterations, suggests potential neuroimaging markers, and predicts epilepsy with high accuracy from rfMRI scans.Scopu

Paediatric inflammatory bowel disease: Clinical presentation and disease location

Objective: To determine different clinical presentationsand disease location demarcatedby upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopyand relevant histopathologyin children diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).Methods: This is 5 years (2010 to 2015) retrospective studyconducted at the Aga Khan University Hospitalenrolling65admitted children between 6 months to 15years from either gender, diagnosed with IBD on clinical presentation, endoscopy and biopsy. Different clinical presentations at the time of diagnosis were noted in different categories of the disease. All patients underwent upper and lower (up to the terminal ileum) endoscopy with multiple punch biopsies and histologic assessment of mucosal specimens. All endoscopies were done by paediatric gastroenterologists at endoscopy suite of the hospital and all specimens were reported by the pathology department. ESPGHAN revised criteria for the diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease in children and an adolescent was used to standardize our diagnosis. Extent of disease on endoscopy and relevant histopathology of the biopsy samples were noted at the time of diagnosis. Data was summarized using mean, standard deviation, numbers and percentages for different variables.Results: Total 56 children were enrolled according to inclusion criteria. There were 34children (61.53%) diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC), 10 patients (16.92%) had Crohn\u27sDisease (CD) and 11 (21.53%) patients were labeled as Indeterminate colitis (IC). Mean age at onset of symptoms was10.03±2.44 and mean age at diagnosis was11.10±2.36. Abdominal pain (80%) and chronic diarrhea (70%) were common symptoms in CD whereas bloody diarrhea (79.41%) and rectal bleeding(64.70%)were common presentation in UC. Patients diagnosed with indeterminate colitis(IC) had similar clinical features as in UC patients. Only 7% patients had some extra-intestinal features in the form of joint pain and/or uveitis. Aspartate aminotransferase level (95.18 ±12.89) was relatively high in patients withCD in comparison with other categories of IBD. Endoscopic findings and relevant histopathology of biopsy samples in UC showed 65% patient had pan-colitis and 13 % with disease restricted to rectum only whereas in CD 70% patient had disease in ileo-colon and only 10 % had involvement of ileum at the time diagnosis.Conclusion: Patients with UC dominated in our cohort. The most common clinical presentation in UC was bloody diarrhea and rectal bleeding and patients with CDhad abdominal pain and chronic diarrhea as predominant clinical features. Extraintestinal features were uncommon in our cohort. In endoscopic findings, pan-colitis was the mostfrequentfinding in UC and ileo-colonwas common location in CD. IC and UC shared common clinical features and disease location on endoscopy

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND PROJECT SUCCESS: THE ROLES OF SOCIAL CAPITAL AND SELF-EFFICACY

Transformational leaders must constantly monitor their environments to identify and develop significant internal and external exposure to multiple points of view. Transformational leaders serve as role models for bridging organizational boundaries and proactive outreach to external stakeholders to communicate information, develop inter-organizational cooperation, establish coalitions, and harness resources. The major goal of this article is to examine the dynamics that drive organizational project success, specifically the impact of transformational leadership on external and internal social capital in management teams. This research analyzed transformational leadership and project success relationships in Pakistan’s construction industry setting along with the moderating role of the project manager subordinate’s social capital and the mediating role of the project manager subordinate’s self-efficacy. The data were collected from196 subordinates of project managers of different private organizations. Data were examined through correlation, regression, and the Hayes model through SPSS. According to the results, transformational leadership is positively associated with project success and substantially associated with social capital. Additionally, self-efficacy is positively associated with transformational leadership and project success, and it mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and project success. Social capital moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and project success, according to additional findings. This study sheds light on the relationship between transformational leadership and self-efficacy in the context of project success.

Design and Implementation of a Wearable Health Device

Many situations arise every day where humans have to worry about their health and fitness. Further monitoring critical human body parameters in reliable and regular manner helps clinical practitioners and common person to take critical decisions and improve life quality. With advancements in microelectronics and sensor technology, it has become possible to design and develop small size wearable devices for clinical and home usage that give and record regular health related data.   The current work presents design and development of a small wearable device that measures pulse rate, oxygen saturation, skin and body temperature using high-accuracy pulse Oximeter sensor and temperature sensors. The Pulse/Oxygen saturation and skin/body temperature data from sensors is fed to Analog Front End (AFE) devices AFE 4490 and LMP 90100 by Texas Instruments respectively. The data is further processed at an ultra low-power Mixed Signal Micro-Controller, MSP430F5338 of Texas Instruments and fed to Bluetooth transceiver. The processed data giving the requisite health parameters is further displayed on the hand held device and can be periodically send to PDAs or to a central server through Bluetooth transceiver

Socio-demographic correlates of betel, areca and smokeless tobacco use as a high risk behavior for head and neck cancers in a squatter settlement of Karachi, Pakistan

BACKGROUND: Head and neck cancers are a major cancer burden in Pakistan. They share a common risk factor profile including regular consumption of products of betel, areca and tobacco. Use of paan, chaalia, gutka, niswar and tumbaku is acceptable in Pakistan and is considered a normal cultural practice. This cross-sectional study was carried out to understand the relation of socio-demographic factors for the consumption of paan, chaalia, gutka, niswar and tumbaku in Pakistani population. Through systematic sampling, 425 subjects from a squatter settlement in Karachi were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. High risk behavior was defined as Daily use of any of the above products. RESULTS: Daily use of all the substances except chaalia was higher among males compared to females. Chaalia use was higher among adolescents than adults while non-married consumed both chaalia and gutka more than married. Mohajir ethnicity had higher prevalence of paan, gutka and tumbaku use while Pathans had higher prevalence of niswar use. CONCLUSION: Prevalence of use of chewable products is high in Pakistan with particularly high use of certain substances related with socio-demographic profiles. Industrially prepared products, chaalia and gutka, are gaining popularity among youth. Policies and focused interventions can be developed taking into consideration the preferred use of products among different socio-demographic groups

Nebivolol Attenuates Neutrophil Lymphocyte Ratio: A Marker of Subclinical Inflammation in Hypertensive Patients

Background. High value of neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a strong independent predictor and biomarker of ongoing vascular inflammation in various cardiovascular disorders. Objective. The main focus of the study is to investigate the effect of nebivolol on NLR in mild to moderate hypertensive patients in comparison with metoprolol. In addition, BMI, blood pressure, TLC count, blood sugar, and lipid profile were also assayed before and after treatment. Materials and Methods. In this 12-week prospective double-blinded randomized study, 120 patients with mild to moderate hypertension were randomly divided into two groups to prescribed daily dose of tab nebivolol 5–10 mg and metoprolol 50–100 mg, respectively, for 12 weeks. The data were analyzed using SPSS 16 software. Results. A total of 100 patients completed the study. Both drugs lowered blood pressure significantly, nebivolol 20.5/10.5 and metoprolol 22.5/11.2 (p<0.001) from baseline. Regarding inflammation, nebivolol reduced total leukocyte count (p=0.005) and neutrophil count (p=0.003) and increased lymphocyte count (p=0.004) as compared to metoprolol. Similarly, nebivolol but not metoprolol significantly reduced NLR ratio (p=0.07). Nebivolol improved lipid profile and blood sugar compared to metoprolol, but values were nonsignificant. Conclusion. Nebivolol has a strong impact on reducing NLR, a marker of subclinical inflammation in hypertensive patients. Moreover NLR can be used as a disease and drug monitoring tool in these patients

Sublethal and transgenerational effects of synthetic insecticides on the biological parameters and functional response of Coccinella septempunctata (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) under laboratory conditions

Synthetic insecticides have been an inevitable part of plant protection throughout the world. Sublethal effects of these chemicals on beneficial insect species are one of the contemporary issues these days. Using the age-stage, two-sex life table model, this study evaluated the sublethal and transgenerational effects of six synthetic insecticides (imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, lambda-cyhalothrin, cypermethrin, chlorpyrifos and profenofos) commonly applied to winter vegetables, on the fitness and predation of the seven-spotted ladybeetle, Coccinella septempunctata, which is an efficient predator of aphids worldwide. According to results, all insecticides at their sublethal doses (LC30) significantly suppressed the emergence of adults, adult weight, fertility and fecundity of the parental generation compared to control treatment. The larval stage was prolonged and oviposition, fecundity and total longevity of the adult beetles were decreased in unexposed progeny whose parents were exposed to sublethal doses of all insecticides. Moreover, the biological parameters of adults, including the intrinsic rate of increase (r), finite rate of increase (λ) and net reproductive rate (R0) were significantly reduced when exposed to sublethal doses of insecticides. The predation rate of the F1 generation adults was also decreased after exposure to the sublethal doses of insecticides. However, chlorpyrifos, profenofos, lambda-cyhalothrin and cypermethrin exhibited more deleterious effects on the fitness and population parameters of beetles than imidacloprid and thiamethoxam

Global, regional and national burden of bladder cancer and its attributable risk factors in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease study 2019

Introduction The current study determined the level and trends associated with the incidence, death and disability rates for bladder cancer and its attributable risk factors in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2019, by age, sex and sociodemographic index (SDI; a composite measure of sociodemographic factors). Methods Various data sources from different countries, including vital registration and cancer registries were used to generate estimates. Mortality data and incidence data transformed to mortality estimates using the mortality to incidence ratio (MIR) were used in a cause of death ensemble model to estimate mortality. Mortality estimates were divided by the MIR to produce incidence estimates. Prevalence was calculated using incidence and MIR-based survival estimates. Age-specific mortality and standardised life expectancy were used to estimate years of life lost (YLLs). Prevalence was multiplied by disability weights to estimate years lived with disability (YLDs), while disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) are the sum of the YLLs and YLDs. All estimates were presented as counts and age-standardised rates per 100 000 population. Results Globally, there were 524 000 bladder cancer incident cases (95% uncertainty interval 476 000 to 569 000) and 229 000 bladder cancer deaths (211 000 to 243 000) in 2019. Age-standardised death rate decreased by 15.7% (8.6 to 21.0), during the period 1990–2019. Bladder cancer accounted for 4.39 million (4.09 to 4.70) DALYs in 2019, and the age-standardised DALY rate decreased significantly by 18.6% (11.2 to 24.3) during the period 1990–2019. In 2019, Monaco had the highest age-standardised incidence rate (31.9 cases (23.3 to 56.9) per 100 000), while Lebanon had the highest age-standardised death rate (10.4 (8.1 to 13.7)). Cabo Verde had the highest increase in age-standardised incidence (284.2% (214.1 to 362.8)) and death rates (190.3% (139.3 to 251.1)) between 1990 and 2019. In 2019, the global age-standardised incidence and death rates were higher among males than females, across all age groups and peaked in the 95+ age group. Globally, 36.8% (28.5 to 44.0) of bladder cancer DALYs were attributable to smoking, more so in males than females (43.7% (34.0 to 51.8) vs 15.2% (10.9 to 19.4)). In addition, 9.1% (1.9 to 19.6) of the DALYs were attributable to elevated fasting plasma glucose (FPG) (males 9.3% (1.6 to 20.9); females 8.4% (1.6 to 19.1)). Conclusions There was considerable variation in the burden of bladder cancer between countries during the period 1990–2019. Although there was a clear global decrease in the age-standardised death, and DALY rates, some countries experienced an increase in these rates. National policy makers should learn from these differences, and allocate resources for preventative measures, based on their country-specific estimates. In addition, smoking and elevated FPG play an important role in the burden of bladder cancer and need to be addressed with prevention programmes.publishedVersio

Use of multidimensional item response theory methods for dementia prevalence prediction : an example using the Health and Retirement Survey and the Aging, Demographics, and Memory Study

Background Data sparsity is a major limitation to estimating national and global dementia burden. Surveys with full diagnostic evaluations of dementia prevalence are prohibitively resource-intensive in many settings. However, validation samples from nationally representative surveys allow for the development of algorithms for the prediction of dementia prevalence nationally. Methods Using cognitive testing data and data on functional limitations from Wave A (2001-2003) of the ADAMS study (n = 744) and the 2000 wave of the HRS study (n = 6358) we estimated a two-dimensional item response theory model to calculate cognition and function scores for all individuals over 70. Based on diagnostic information from the formal clinical adjudication in ADAMS, we fit a logistic regression model for the classification of dementia status using cognition and function scores and applied this algorithm to the full HRS sample to calculate dementia prevalence by age and sex. Results Our algorithm had a cross-validated predictive accuracy of 88% (86-90), and an area under the curve of 0.97 (0.97-0.98) in ADAMS. Prevalence was higher in females than males and increased over age, with a prevalence of 4% (3-4) in individuals 70-79, 11% (9-12) in individuals 80-89 years old, and 28% (22-35) in those 90 and older. Conclusions Our model had similar or better accuracy as compared to previously reviewed algorithms for the prediction of dementia prevalence in HRS, while utilizing more flexible methods. These methods could be more easily generalized and utilized to estimate dementia prevalence in other national surveys