The Increasing Dine-out Trend: Investigation from Karachiites

This paper analyzes the increasing preference of people in regard to dining out more in the recent years as compared with eating at home. The trend of dining out is often not to fulf il hunger instead it is more often because of socializing and just for the sake of trying out new places. The present study further elaborates the impact and consequences of the increased dining out on the changing lifestyle of people. Particularly in Pakistan, the trend of dining out is increasing and is being taken as a leisure trip or a social gathering, which is very different than as it was perceived once when eating out was restricted to occasions and celebrations. This trend is multi-faceted as it is not restricted to a particular segment or class that is being affected by the change in dining out trends. The focus in this study has been on exploring how the trend is increasing amongst the youth as well as a family event, and more importantly, how it is signif icant despite the increase varies in different social classes. This paper also emphasizes on literature that includes the various strategies used by restaurateurs to encourage increasing dine out behaviour. For primary data collection, a questionnaire, containing both open-ended and close-ended questions, was floated and responses of consumers belonging to different areas of Karachi were recorded. The f indings of the study highlighted that male customers are more signif icant contributors to the dine out trend than that of the female customer

Nanostructured thin film of iron tin oxide by aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition using a new ferrocene containing heterobimetallic complex as single-source precursor

Aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition (CVD) is a sophisticated, unique and modern technique which is used to deposit coatings, films, and other related structures from thermally unstable or the involatile precursors at laboratory and large scale productions. A light weight semiconducting and ceramic oxide based coatings on appropriate substrates can be produced at a lower cost by employing chemical vapour deposition method. There is broader choice of chemical precursors and their availability for obtaining high quality thin films at lower cost and the reaction environment is more flexible ranging from low pressure to atmospheric pressure in CVD. New ferrocene containingheterobimetallic precursor, [C58H80Fe2O4Sn2] has been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and molecular structure was determined by X-ray single crystal analysis. The heterobimetallic complex was used as a single-source precursor for the growth of iron tin oxide thin film by aerosol assisted chemical vapor deposition. The deposited thin film was characterized by X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy techniques. The average roughness of deposited film at 425 °C from heterobimetallic precursor was in the range of 4.39 nm. The deposited thin film on glass strip was found to have no cracks, excellent adhesion and to be crystalline in nature and free from any carboneous impurities

A Generalized Class of Circular Designs Strongly Balanced for Neighbor Effects

Minimal strongly balanced neighbor designs are useful (i) to minimize the bias due to neighbor effects economically, and (ii) to estimate the direct effect and neighbor effects independently. Such designs can easily be obtained for v odd and are available in literature. In this article, A generalized class of minimal circular designs strongly balanced for neighbor effects in blocks of equal and two different sizes have been constructed in which only v/2 unordered pairs of treatments do not appear as neighbors, where v is the number of treatments

Stigma towards people with mental illness and community mental health ideology among university students: A comparative study

The study examines the difference between the stigma among psychology and non-psychology students towards people with mental illness and to find out their ideology towards community mental health services. A cross-sectional study was conducted among university students. All together (N= 300) participants were recruited through the quota convenient sampling. CAMI (Community Attitude towards the Mentally Ill) scale was used in this research, assess four types of attitudes towards mental illness (i.e., Authoritarianism, Benevolence, Social restrictiveness, and Community mental health ideology). The findings of this study show a significant difference between the attitudes of psychology and non-psychology students. Both the subscales, authoritarianism and social restrictiveness conclude that non-psychology students showed more authoritative and restrictive behavior towards mentally ill people and are less oriented towards community mental health ideology as compared to psychology students. However, psychology students showed less benevolence as compared to non-psychology students towards mentally ill people. Additional findings indicated that the level of authoritarianism, social restrictiveness, and benevolence is high among males as compared to females. The study highlights the need for society to develop a plan and action to change stigma attached to mental illness at both institutional and community levels

Exploring the Nexus between the Environmental Investment, Environmental Performance, and the Proactive Environmental Strategy in a Supply Chain

The main objective of the current research is to answer the following questions. What role is played by environmental investments in the association between environmentally proactive strategies and environmental performance in supply chain? And in what way the adoption and implementation of environmentally proactive strategies is affected by organizational commitment and customer pressure in the supply chain. The research does not focus on analyzing the variables enabling the occurrence of environmental practices rather it is based on practices, which are environmentally sound. It has been suggested by the previous research studies that the main factors are organizational commitment and customer pressure. The study has used questionnaire adapted from the prior studies to collect the data. The SEM-PLS is used to analyses the collected data. Due to limited research available on the association of corporate environmental practices and supply chains specific to the emerging countries, the data has been collected in the manufacturing industry of Indonesia. The findings of the study have been discussed along with limitations. The research also gives implications for future

Information Security Culture Concept towards Information Security Compliance: A Comparison between IT and Non-IT Professionals

This paper examines the factors determining a positive Information Security Culture (ISC) concept and the influence of ISC towards ISP compliance intention (INT) between IT and non-IT professionals in Malaysian public universities. Partial least square structural equation modelling, using PLS MGA, is used to assess the measurement and structural models, and to compare the results between the two groups. Results indicate all factors have significant contribution towards ISC in both groups, with two out of seven ISC factors have significant differences. This study has revealed that although both groups have the same ISC factors, IT and non-IT professionals have significant difference in terms of believe that Top Management Commitment and Information Security Knowledge are required for implementing a positive ISC. In addition, there is a significant difference between these two groups in terms of the influence of ISC towards ISP compliance intention. ISC has less influence towards INT for Non-IT professionals compared to IT professionals within the same ISC. These empirical findings would benefit in formulating better security strategies by providing appropriate efforts for different groups of employees in the organizations. This study also provides a total cyber security solution for improving information security culture and employees’ compliance towards Information Security Policy

Effect of Dilution of Propofol on Pain at Site of Injection: Comparison Between 1% vs. 0.33% Formulation

Objective: To study the effect of propofol dilution on pain at injection site with formulations of 1% and 0.33%. Methodology: A randomized controlled trial was conducted for 24 months at the Department of Anaesthesia and Critical Care, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Islamabad. A total of 100 patients were included in the study. Patients were divided into two equal groups: group C received 1% propofol while patients of group D received 0.33% formulation diluted with distilled water. Patients received propofol at the start of anesthesia before any premedication. A 5ml volume was injected over a period of 5s in an 18G cannula over dorsum of hands. Behaviourial pain scale was used and descriptive data analysis was done. Results: Then mean age of patients was 37.36±14.77 with 46 males and 56 females. Pain at the injection site was experienced in 20 (40%) patients of group C whereas 16 (32%) patients experienced pain in group D. There was no association of pain with a strength of propofol solution (p value 0.405). Conclusion: Strength of propofol solution has no association of pain at the injection site and dilution has no better effect in terms of pain scor

Contributing factors and their association with blood pressure control amongst hypertensive patients

Objective: To assess contributing factors and their association with blood pressure control amongst hypertensive patients.Methodology: This cross sectional comparative study was conducted at OPD general medicine dept, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, from July to December 2018. Hypertensive patients of both genders, having age more than 18 years, and on antihypertensive medication form at least six months were included in the study. Optimally controlled BP was defined as an average systolic BP < 140 and diastolic BP < 90 mmHg if the patient is younger than 60 years, or an average systolic BP < 150 and diastolic BP < 90mmHg if patient was older than 60 years. Logistic regression was applied to assess the effect of different factors on blood pressure control of the hypertensive patients.Results: In the study sample majority 107 (55.4%) of the patients belonged to 41-60 years age group, and females 106 (54.9%) were predominant. Main bulk 155 (80.3%) of the patients was married and mostly 80 (41.5%) patients had monthly income in the range of 25000-50000. About half 89 (46.1%) of the patients enrolled for the study were doing adequate physical activity. Optimized blood pressure was found in 92 (47.67%) patients.Conclusion: The proportion of hypertensive patients whose blood pressure was optimally controlled was relatively low and less than half of patients had blood pressure in acceptable limits. Age group (41-60) years, routine use of vegetable on most days of week, physical activity, adherence to treatment and taking less than three drugs have a strong relationship with blood pressure to keep in optimized limits

Numerical optimization of (FTO/ZnO/CdS/CH₃NH₃SnI₃/GaAs/Au) perovskite solar cell using solar capacitance simulator with efficiency above 23% predicted

The presented study deals with the investigations of the methyl ammonium tin halide (CH3NH3SnI3) based perovskite solar cells for optimized device performance using solar capacitance simulations software. Several necessary parameters such as metal work functions, thickness of structural layers, charge carrier’s mobility and defect density have been explored to evaluate the device performance. Calculations reveal that for the best efficiency of device the maximum thickness of the perovskite (CH3NH3SnI3) absorber layer must be 4.2 μm. The thickness values of 0.01 μm for ZnO electron transport layer (ETL), 0.871 μm for GaAs hole transport layer and 0.001 μm for CdS buffer layer have been found which proved to be optimum for maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 23.80% for the device. The variation of open circuit voltage (Voc), Short circuit current (Jsc), Fill Factor (FF %), quantum efficiency (QE) against thickness of all layers and interface defect densities in FTO/ZnO/CdS/CH3NH3SnI3/GaAs/Au composition have been critically explored and their crucial role for the device performance has been reported. Heterojunctions between ZnO-ETL and CdS buffer layers have shown improved device performance and PCE. Current investigations may prove to be useful for designing and fabrication of climate friendly, non-toxic and highly efficient solar cells

The scope and role of family medicine in health care system of Pakistan: perceptions of health care professionals

Objective: To assess and compare the discernments of medical students and healthcare professionals about family medicine as a distinct speciality, and effect of awareness session on their comprehension.  Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 4th year and final year under graduate students and professional doctors working in different hospital of twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. A lecture on “family medicine and its scope as a career” was arranged for the students of 4th year and final year students. Similarly, a workshop on “family medicine and its scope as a career” was arranged and professional doctors were invited. A predesigned self-administered questionnaire already used by a similar study, was given to all the students before and after the awareness session to students and doctors. Results: A total of 225 participants were included consisting on 170 undergraduate students and 55 professional doctors working in different hospitals of twin cities. There were 68 (40%) male participants in undergraduate and 30 (54.54%) male participants among professional doctors. The mean age of undergraduate students was 21.45+1.26 years and mean age of professional doctors was 32.65+3.35 years. Less than half 80 (47.06%) of the undergraduate students had knowledge about the family medicine as speciality but in professional doctors almost all 50 (90.91%) participants know family medicine as speciality. Almost all undergraduate students 145 (85.29%) and professional doctors 52 (94.54%) feel that family medicine can improve the health care in Pakistan. Conclusion: It is necessary to include the family medicine as part of curriculum for undergraduate medical students to develop interest in this newly emerging vital speciality, which can help in betterment of health care in this country