Gender Differences in the Use of Parts of Speech in Pakistani English Newspaper Columns: A Critical Discourse Analysis

This research is a critical discourse analysis of parts of speech used by two different genders, male and female in Pakistani English newspaper columns. A corpus has been compiled from four Pakistani English newspapers i.e. The Dawn, The News, The Nation and The Express Tribune. A sample size of 240 columns (120 both by male and female writers) has been compiled in this study. This research highlights the implicit function of parts of speech in Pakistani English newspapers. These parts of speech have been limited to nouns, pronouns, verbs and adjectives. It explores how male and female writings differ in the use of parts of speech in Pakistani English newspaper columns and to uncover the manipulation through its uses. Keywords: CDA, POS, Corpus driven, English News Columns, Gender, Pakista

Genre Analysis of Conclusion Sections of Pakistani Research Articles in Natural and Social Sciences

This study has investigated macro-structures (Move Analysis) of conclusion section of Research Articles (henceforth RAs) in Social Sciences and Natural Sciences. The purpose of the study is to find out the differences in RAs conclusion sections across various disciplines in terms of moves and steps constituting each move. For this purpose, 50 RAs conclusions have been selected for analysis, 25 each from  social sciences and natural sciences. RAs have been selected randomly from different journals written by Pakistani authors. A new model has been proposed for the move analysis by following Yang & Allison’s (2003) and Bunton’s (2005) models for conclusion section. This study has revealed variations in move structure of RAs conclusions across various disciplines in Pakistani context. This study may contribute an understanding of the nature of conclusions of RAs across various disciplines. It may be helpful for both writing instructors, whose purpose is to have their students succeed in using this component of genre, and to writing students, who are willing to take part in distinct discourse communities. Key Words: Genre Analysis, Research Article Conclusion, Move Analysis, Disciplinary Variatio

Investigating Content and Language Integration in an EFL Textbook: A Corpus-Based Study

This research evaluates an English language textbook from CLIL perspective. For this purpose, an intermediate level (grade-11) English language textbook has been selected and analyzed utilizing Coyle’s conceptual framework of 4Cs (i.e. content, cognition, communication and culture).Content, communication, and culture have been explored through a checklist, whereas cognition has been explored by developing a corpus from the questions given in the exercises of the textbook and analyzing in the light of Bloom’s taxonomy. The results reveal certain breeches between CLIL features and the textbook’s contents. Layout, learning outcomes, organization of the content, subject matter, authenticity of the text, exercises, and focus on language skills does not seem to match with CLIL perspectives. Listening and speaking skills are observed to be ignored. Moreover, the exercises do not seem to foster critical thinking and interaction between students and teachers. Most of the questions are observed covering only first two levels (i.e. knowledge and comprehension) of Bloom’s taxonomy. The study concludes that CLIL principles are not integrated in the textbook. Therefore, the textbook is not suitable to an ESL/EFL setting

A Comparative Corpus-based Analysis of Collocational Patterns in Self and Other-translators

With the dawn of post-colonialism and a surge in migrations, several bilingual authors started translating their original texts into the target language. As a result, translation studies started distinguishing it from other-translations owing to its special status based on various extra-linguistic features. Consequently, now it goes by the term self-translation studies (Anselmi, 2012) -a field of its own. However, none of the studies have distinguished self and other-translations at the basic linguistic level. This study aims to trace and compare the patterns of collocations in other-translations and self-translations with reference to non-translated texts. For this purpose, a corpus-based on a monolingual comparable model (Baker, 1993) and consisting of three further sub-corpora i.e. other-translators, self-translators,and Pakistani writersis used. The lexical collocations model proposed by Benson et al. (1997) provides a theoretical framework for this study. The sub-corpora are tagged by TagAnt 1.2.0 and treated further using AntConc 3.5.8. The findings of the study reveal that self-translators employ more collocate types and they are more homogeneously distributed around a single node in comparison to the other-translators. The results are significant for the theoretical understanding of self-translations and invite more investigations at the linguistic level to set apart the features of the two categories

Out-of-Pocket Expenditure on Delivery Care in Public and Private Health Sectors – A Study in a Rural District of Pakistan

Pakistan witnessed a significant improvement in maternal health outcomes during the past two decades. However, persistent urban-rural and socio-economic inequalities exist in access to maternal healthcare services across the country. The objective of this study was to estimate out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) on delivery care by women in the public and private health sectors in RajanPur district. This was a cross-sectional study conducted, among 368 randomly selected mothers who had childbirths from 1st October to 31st December 2020. The study applied multi-stage random sampling technique to select the study participants. The results showed that about two-thirds of mothers preferred public hospitals for most recent delivery. The percentage of cesarean deliveries conducted in private hospitals (43.8%) was 4.7 times higher than in public hospitals (9.3%). About 99% of mothers incurred OOPE during delivery care, and the mean OOPE incurred during delivery care was PKR 2840 (US$17.75) in public hospitals and PKR 25596 (US$159.9) in private hospitals. OOPE on cesarean delivery in private hospitals (PKR 39654.7, US$247.8) was 2.5 times higher than the public hospitals (PKR16111.9, US$100.69), whereas OOPE incurred on normal delivery care in private hospitals (PKR14339, US$89.62) was 9.5 times higher than OOPE in public hospitals(PKR 1501.4, US$9.38).To conclude, the findings and recommendations drawn from the research would provide some insights to health policymakers and planners in developing an integrated and viable maternal healthcare program in Pakistan

A Comparative Corpus-based Analysis of Collocational Patterns in Self and Other-translators

With the dawn of post-colonialism and a surge in migrations, several bilingual authors started translating their original texts into the target language. As a result, translation studies started distinguishing it from other-translations owing to its special status based on various extra-linguistic features. Consequently, now it goes by the term self-translation studies (Anselmi, 2012) -a field of its own. However, none of the studies have distinguished self and other-translations at the basic linguistic level. This study aims to trace and compare the patterns of collocations in other-translations and self-translations with reference to non-translated texts. For this purpose, a corpus-based on a monolingual comparable model (Baker, 1993) and consisting of three further sub-corpora i.e. other-translators, self-translators, and Pakistani writers is used. The lexical collocations model proposed by Benson et al. (1997) provides a theoretical framework for this study. The sub-corpora are tagged by TagAnt 1.2.0 and treated further using AntConc 3.5.8. The findings of the study reveal that self-translators employ more collocate types and they are more homogeneously distributed around a single node in comparison to the other-translators. The results are significant for the theoretical understanding of self-translations and invite more investigations at the linguistic level to set apart the features of the two categories

Go Together: Bridging the Gap between Learners and Teachers

After the pandemic, humanity has been facing different types of challenges. Social relationships, societal values, and academic and professional behavior have been hit the most. People are shifting their routines to social media and gadgets, and getting addicted to their isolation. This sudden change in their lives has caused an unusual social breakdown and endangered their mental health. In mid-2021, Pakistan's first Human Library was established under HelpingMind to overcome these effects. Despite online sessions and webinars, HelpingMind needs technology to reach the masses. In this work, we customized the UI or UX of a Go Together Mobile Application (GTMA) to meet the requirements of the client organization. A very interesting concept of the book (expert listener or psychologist) and the reader is introduced in GTMA. It offers separate dashboards, separate reviews or rating systems, booking, and venue information to engage the human reader with his or her favorite human book. The loyalty program enables the members to avail discounts through a mobile application and its membership is global where both the human-reader and human-books can register under the platform. The minimum viable product has been approved by our client organization

Inpatient Case-mix Cost Vs Average Cost for Health Care Services in King Fahd Central Hospital, Saudi Arabia: A Comparative Study

Health care systems aim to deliver high-quality medical care while considering efficient resource usage and cost-effective forms of interventions. Such purposes require scientific tools or mechanisms which aid in cost assessment before the efforts of cost reduction are considered. Diagnosis-related groups based costing methodology (Case-mix) is considered one of the preferred costing approaches in the health care sector. King Fahd Central hospital Jazan, the only tertiary hospital in the Jazan region, was selected for case-mix system-based patient-level costing of health services. The study’s objective was to estimate the cost per Diagnosis-Related Group (DRG) per inpatient admission and compare it with the already established average cost of health care services for inpatients. We applied a cross-sectional retrospective approach to categorize the inpatients based on their diagnosis and procedures and then estimate the actual cost of health care services provided to inpatients during 2018 and compared it with the average cost of the health services. There was a considerable difference between DRG-based costing (SAR 269,663,897) and average costing (SAR 247,035,938). The Diagnosis Related Group costing was found to be more reliable and representative of the services provided to the patients and is recommended to be used for reimbursement purposes

Inpatient Case-mix Cost Vs Average Cost for Health Care Services in King Fahd Central Hospital, Saudi Arabia: A Comparative Study

Health care systems aim to deliver high-quality medical care while considering efficient resource usage and cost-effective forms of interventions. Such purposes require scientific tools or mechanisms which aid in cost assessment before the efforts of cost reduction are considered. Diagnosis-related groups based costing methodology (Case-mix) is considered one of the preferred costing approaches in the health care sector. King Fahd Central hospital Jazan, the only tertiary hospital in the Jazan region, was selected for case-mix system-based patient-level costing of health services. The study’s objective was to estimate the cost per Diagnosis-Related Group (DRG) per inpatient admission and compare it with the already established average cost of health care services for inpatients. We applied a cross-sectional retrospective approach to categorize the inpatients based on their diagnosis and procedures and then estimate the actual cost of health care services provided to inpatients during 2018 and compared it with the average cost of the health services. There was a considerable difference between DRG-based costing (SAR 269,663,897) and average costing (SAR 247,035,938). The Diagnosis Related Group costing was found to be more reliable and representative of the services provided to the patients and is recommended to be used for reimbursement purpose

Patient-Level Cost Estimation for Health Services at Secondary Hospital, Saudi Arabia

Cost information can help to improve the quality of medical care budgeting, and it can also improve the efficient allocation of resources and patient outcomes. The objective of this study was to estimate the inpatient unit cost of healthcare services in a secondary hospital in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional retrospective approach was applied to categorize the inpatients discharged from the hospital from January to December 2018. A top-down costing method for cost estimation was used. We found that the overhead cost center holds 40.17% of the total hospital cost, and intermediate and final care cost centers consumed 25.50% and 34.33%, respectively. Among inpatients wards, the Surgical ward had the highest operational cost (39.27%). Human resources consumed the hospital's highest resources (75%) on salaries. The hospital's cost structure was not remarkable and needs revolutionary changes to adopt the new payment mechanism envisioned in the 2030 Saudi vision