Spinal Cord Stimulator Relieves Neuropathic Pain in a Patient With Radiation-Induced Transverse Myelitis

We present a patient with intractable neuropathic pain because of radiation-induced transverse myelitis unresponsive to medical treatment. After a successful trial of spinal cord stimulation, a permanent stimulator was implanted. Improvement was noted in verbal pain score, medication usage and function. Spinal cord stimulation may offer a therapeutic option for patients with neuropathic pain resulting from transverse myelitis and should be considered when other treatments fail. ▪Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73581/1/j.1533-2500.2007.00148.x.pd

Relationship between empathy and personality traits in students of a Public Sector Medical University

Introduction: Empathy among medical students and doctors, is rather unexplored part of medical flora and fauna which may vary with each personality. Objective: to determine the correlation between empathy and personality traits of final year medical students. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Rawalpindi Medical University, Pakistan. A total of 144 medical students were included in the study. For personality traits assessment and empathy assessment, Big Five Inventory and Interpersonal Reactivity Index were used. All the data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results: The mean score for empathy scale was found to be 61.25 ± 10.0. Females were more empathetic than males in all subscales but pointedly so in empathetic concern scale. Overall empathy scale was strongly correlated with Agreeableness and Neuroticism (P<0.001). Perspective taking scale was positively related with Agreeableness and openness, Empathy concern scale was positively related with Agreeableness, and Personal Distress was positively related with Conscientiousness and Neuroticism. The demographic factors of age and gender explained only 1.7%, 6.8%, 2.4% and 2.0% of the variance in the four scales of empathy. After adjustment for age and gender, perspective taking was positively associated with Agreeableness and Openness and Personal distress was associated with Agreeableness, Neuroticism and Openness. Conclusion: We conclude that personality traits have a substantial correlation with empathy and its subscales. So we need to evaluate the personality of a medical student and tailor a set of rules for each individual consistent with their persona to develop empathy in them. Keywords: Big Five; Personality; Empathy; Medical students; Pakista

Relationship between empathy and personality traits in students of a Public Sector Medical University

Introduction: Empathy among medical students and doctors, is rather unexplored part of medical flora and fauna which may vary with each personality. Objective: to determine the correlation between empathy and personality traits of final year medical students. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Rawalpindi Medical University, Pakistan. A total of 144 medical students were included in the study. For personality traits assessment and empathy assessment, Big Five Inventory and Interpersonal Reactivity Index were used. All the data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results: The mean score for empathy scale was found to be 61.25 ± 10.0. Females were more empathetic than males in all subscales but pointedly so in empathetic concern scale. Overall empathy scale was strongly correlated with Agreeableness and Neuroticism (P<0.001). Perspective taking scale was positively related with Agreeableness and openness, Empathy concern scale was positively related with Agreeableness, and Personal Distress was positively related with Conscientiousness and Neuroticism. The demographic factors of age and gender explained only 1.7%, 6.8%, 2.4% and 2.0% of the variance in the four scales of empathy. After adjustment for age and gender, perspective taking was positively associated with Agreeableness and Openness and Personal distress was associated with Agreeableness, Neuroticism and Openness. Conclusion: We conclude that personality traits have a substantial correlation with empathy and its subscales. So we need to evaluate the personality of a medical student and tailor a set of rules for each individual consistent with their persona to develop empathy in them. Keywords: Big Five; Personality; Empathy; Medical students; Pakista

Impact of Public-Private-Partnership Programmes on Students’ Learning Outcomes: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment

Learning outcomes refer to the performance of the students in academic tests pertaining to the respective grade level. In Pakistan, survey evidences from Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) show a significant dispersion in learning outcomes of public schools as compared with private sector counterpart. The perceived results of learning outcomes in private schools very clear but less evidence is found for educational outcome of schools run under public-private partnership programs. This becomes especially relevant when status of curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities is compared between public school, private schools, and schools run under public private partnership. In recent literature, it is found that schools taken up by public-private partnership have been providing a better learning environment—Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Development, Administrative changes, Academic Innovation and Planning, Teacher Reform and Student Affairs—is perceived to have a positive impact on learning outcomes. It is to investigate and document that the investments in these areas are justifiable. To promote this fact, we conduct a quasi-experiment to examine the profiles of students in a public-private partnership school at Karachi (running under Zindagi Trust program) and a public school (as counterfactual) in the same neighbourhood. We also recorded the household and socioeconomic characteristics to create a good set of control variables. The propensity-score results show that public-private school is performing better than that of comparison group in attaining learning outcomes thus showing positive effects of PPP. Finally, the study probed into household and parental covariates of student's educational outcomes to enhance internal validity of results. JEL Classification: I21, C21, L32. Keywords: Educational Learning Outcomes, Public-Private Partnership, Quasi-experiment

Electrohydrodynamic Processes and Their Affecting Parameters

Electrohydrodynamic processes such as electrospinning and electrospraying are simple, flexible, and cost-effective. Both processes use electrically charged jet of polymer solution for the fabrication of micro- or nanofibers and micro- or nanoparticle. Both of these electrodynamic techniques have been receiving increasing attention not only in the scientific community but also in industry. These fibers and particles offer several morphological and functional features that are suitable for tissue engineering in biomedical applications. The main apparatus used for both of these processes is almost the same. Both need electric voltage to induce charge on the droplet, which at optimized electric field leads to micro- or nanofibers and micro- or nanoparticles. Rayleigh in 1882, for the first time, theoretically estimated the maximum amount of charge that a liquid droplet could carry to change in a jet. This theory is now known as the “Rayleigh limit.” He predicted that a droplet on reaching Rayleigh limit would move as fine jets of liquid. More than 100 years later, Rayleigh limit theory was confirmed experimentally. Beside electric field there are other operating and solution parameters that need to be optimized before we obtain a desire product

Prevalence of body-focused repetitive behaviors in three large medical colleges of Karachi: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) that include skin picking (dermatillomania), hair pulling (trichotillomania) and nail biting (onychophagia), lead to harmful physical and psychological sequelae. The objective was to determine the prevalence of BFRBs among students attending three large medical colleges of Karachi. It is imperative to come up with frequency to design strategies to decrease the burden and adverse effects associated with BFRBs among medical students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 210 students attending Aga Khan University, Dow Medical College and Sind Medical College, Karachi, in equal proportion. Data were collected using a pre tested tool, “Habit Questionnaire”. Diagnoses were made on the criteria that a student must be involved in an activity 5 times or more per day for 4 weeks or more. Convenience sampling was done to recruit the participants aged 18 years and above after getting written informed consent. Results: The overall prevalence of BFRBs was found to be 46 (22%). For those positive for BFRBs, gender distribution was as follows: females 29 (13.9%) and males 17 (8.1%). Among these students, 19 (9.0%) were engaged in dermatillomania, 28 (13.3%) in trichotillomania and 13 (6.2%) in onychophagia. Conclusions: High proportions of BFRBs are reported among medical students of Karachi. Key health messages and interventions to reduce stress and anxiety among students may help in curtailing the burden of this disease which has serious adverse consequences

Management of Chemicals in Pakistan: Concerns and challenges

Abstract Key Words

An Analysis of the Relationships among Exports, Imports, Physical Capital and Economic Growth in Pakistan

This review emphasized the relationship among capital formation, economic growth, exports and imports in case of Pakistan scenario using time series data from 1976 to 2015. Augmented Dickey Fuller Test, Johansen Co-integration, Vector error correction model and Granger Causality techniques have been used to check the relationships among exports, imports and economic growth. The results from this study show that the exports, imports, real GDP and gross fixed capital formation have a long run relationship and are co-integrated. This study uses the data of Pakistan and concludes that GDP doesn’t granger cause with the export and import while export and imports do granger cause with the GDP in the long run. Finding of the study also displays that physical capital formation has no impression over GDP. Previous study shows the positive relation among exports, imports, capital formation and economic growth while this study shows that in the long run capital formation and economic growth has no effect. Government subsidizes the exports and also increases the duty bills on imports that help boost the domestic industries manufacture the goods and motivate to produce the best quality of goods. JEL codes: F2, O4

Descriptive study of the species Limnophora Robineau-Desvoidy 1830 (Diptera:Muscidae) in Iraq – Kerbala

The current study was conducted during the year 2020 in some areas of the holy Kerbala governorate with the aim of diagnosing some species of insects of environmental and biological importance and knowing their distribution and the time of occurrence during seasons. The results showed that the species Limnophora obsignata (Rondani, 1866) (Muscidae: Coenosiinae) was recorded for the first time in Iraq. It was found that throughout the study period, this species was more frequently found in river habitats and seasons with moderate temperatures and humidity (spring and autumn). The external appearance of this species was described, as well as the anatomy of the male reproductive system of the samples