An army with a country : How the Pakistan military imposes hegemony via the infrastructure and welfare sectors

In addition to defending their countries, modern day militaries assist the state in labour intensive non-defence related activities. This ranges from disaster relief to providing administrative assistance. In countries where the military already exercises hegemonic control, possession of such auxiliary capabilities can potentially provide an avenue to extend the military’s jurisdiction / further strengthen its hegemony. This research uses Pakistan military as a case study. It operationalises military presence in two development sectors – Fauji Foundation representing welfare foundations, and Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) representing infrastructure building – to explore the underlying practices and methods through which militaries can use their additional or supplementary competencies to their own advantage. An analysis of the primary data collected from the field for this thesis shows that while the [Pakistan] military is present and thriving in the ‘development’ sector, it reflects on, or calls this presence its nation building role. Closer scrutiny reveals that although the terms ‘development’ or nation building are used interchangeably, the military’s understanding thereof, and the extent it holds itself responsible for it, are two separate questions. Moreover there is no clear answer thereto. The question is what is in the military’s habitus that compels its behaviour? What is the guiding rationale? The objective of this thesis is twofold: a) to investigate how the Pakistan military operationalises its presence in non-military domains to establish its hegemony albeit through non coercive means; and to understand b) what are the practices that allow for its continuous presence in the civil sphere (using the two case studies) without divesting its military status. The specific question that this thesis asks is what are the underlying practices and perceptions that allow the Pakistan military to establish its hegemony? The research design of this thesis deviates from other studies pertaining to civil military interactions in that instead of rationalising the relationship of the two domains (inter se) within historical trajectories, it approaches the actions / practices of the military as a product of social conditions and contexts. Using habitus as a prism of analysis, it directs attention to the processes and procedures through which behaviours, codes of conduct and most importantly the perceptions and thoughts inform generated actions. This study shows that Pakistan military’s presence in the non-defence sectors is not circumscribed by the duration of the coup. Even when the military is not directly in control of the political and administrative structures, we see it present and thriving in almost all traditionally civil domains – especially those archetypically linked with public service delivery. Primary data collected for this research reveals that after three takeovers, the military is not actively considering another coup. However, by extending its presence in the civil arenas it has discovered new avenues of concretising its hegemony. Just because a takeover is not a viable option any more does not mean the military is willing to compromise its omnipresence. It navigates the military yet not-military nature of entities like FWO and Fauji Foundation to consolidate its hegemony. These commercial concerns do not feature as symbols of hegemony or off-budget money making schemes within its habitus, but as attempts to fix the country. The military considers itself not only responsible but ideally suited for delivering on nation building / ‘development’. I argue that this new kind of hegemony does not operate in lieu of hegemony as we understand but as an extension thereof. Using the usual tools of a hegemon – coercion and consent – would mean violating civil-military boundaries. By investing in the ‘developmental’ realms yet simultaneously calling it nation building, the military can be in control of the country and popular amongst the population. Based upon the findings of the case studies this thesis illustrates that the military ensures an absence of a money trail linking it to such organisations. This way the civil military boundaries stay intact. Moreover, the trusteeship of ‘development’ remains with the civil state. The military does not need to acquire political control outright anymore as it is extending its hegemony via socio-cultural means. And such the military’s preponderance endures because neither the hegemon nor the public perceive it as a forceful imposition

Drivers of Microbial Risk for Direct Potable Reuse and de Facto Reuse Treatment Schemes: The Impacts of Source Water Quality and Blending.

Although reclaimed water for potable applications has many potential benefits, it poses concerns for chemical and microbial risks to consumers. We present a quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) Monte Carlo framework to compare a de facto water reuse scenario (treated wastewater-impacted surface water) with four hypothetical Direct Potable Reuse (DPR) scenarios for Norovirus, Cryptosporidium, and Salmonella. Consumer microbial risks of surface source water quality (impacted by 0-100% treated wastewater effluent) were assessed. Additionally, we assessed risks for different blending ratios (0-100% surface water blended into advanced-treated DPR water) when source surface water consisted of 50% wastewater effluent. De facto reuse risks exceeded the yearly 10-4 infections risk benchmark while all modeled DPR risks were significantly lower. Contamination with 1% or more wastewater effluent in the source water, and blending 1% or more wastewater-impacted surface water into the advanced-treated DPR water drove the risk closer to the 10-4 benchmark. We demonstrate that de facto reuse by itself, or as an input into DPR, drives microbial risks more so than the advanced-treated DPR water. When applied using location-specific inputs, this framework can contribute to project design and public awareness campaigns to build legitimacy for DPR

Penentu ketidakpadanan pekerjaan dalam kalangan graduan: Kajian kes pekerja perkeranian di Lahore, Pakistan

Job mismatch among graduates reflects inefficiencies in the labor market. An imbalance between the demand and supply of graduates in the labor market leads to a horizontal mismatch. Nations make progress based on knowledge and education but despite obtaining higher education individuals are unable to find a job related to their field of study. This phenomenon occurs when educational institutes produce a large number of graduates while on the other hand, the supply of graduates exceeds the demand for graduates. This study aims to find out the determinants of horizontal mismatch and to analyze the reasons why workers have accepted the mismatched job. By using the worker’s self-assessment method required data is collected from the clerical workers of public and private sector universities at Lahore in 2019. These universities include the University of the Punjab, Lahore, and the University of Management and Technology, Lahore. Results of Logistic Regression analysis concluded that cost of job search, asymmetric information, and methods used to find a job are the most important determinants of job-mismatch. This study has also analyzed the reasons why workers have accepted their present mismatched job. Findings concluded that individuals accepted mismatched-job due to pay and promotion opportunities and a good working environment. This study suggested establishing linkages between educational institutes and industries to better formulate the policy that reduces the extent of horizontal mismatch.Ketidakpadanan pekerjaan mencerminkan ketidakcekapan dalam pasaran buruh. Ketidakseimbangan antara permintaan dan penawaran graduan dalam pasaran buruh membawa kepada ketidakpadanan mendatar. Negara maju berdasarkan pengetahuan dan Pendidikan tetapi walaupun memperoleh Pendidikan tinggi individu tidak dapat mencari pekerjaan yang berkaitan dengan bidang pengajian mereka. Fenomena ini berlaku apabila institut pendidikan mengeluarkan sejumlah besar graduan tetapi pasaran buruh tidak dapat menyerapnya dengan cekap kerana keterbatasan pekerjaan yang tersedia. Matlamat kajian ini adalah untuk mengetahuif aktor-faktor penentu ketidakpadanan mendatar dan menganalisis sebab-sebab pekerja telah menerima pekerjaan tidak sepadan. Dengan menggunakan kaedah penilaian kendiri pekerja, data yang diperlukan dikumpulkan daripada pekerjaper keranian universiti awam dan swasta di Lahore pada 2019. Universiti yang disasarkan termasuk Universiti Punjab, Lahore dan Universiti Pengurusan dan Teknologi. Keputusan analisis Regresi Logistik menunjukkan bahawa kos pencarian kerja, maklumat asimetri dan kaedah yang digunakan untuk mencari pekerjaan adalah penentu paling penting ketidakpadanan kerja. Kajian ini juga menganalisis sebab-sebab pekerja telah menerima pekerjaan mereka sekarang jika kerja itu tidak berkaitan dengan bidang pengajian mereka. Sebab-sebabini termasuk: disebabkan peluang gaji dan kenaikan pangkat, persekitaran kerja yang baik, lokasi pejabat, sekatan keluarga, perubahan minat kerjaya. Pekerjaan yang berkaitan dengan bidang pengajian tidak tersedia. Dapatan menyimpulkan bahawa individu menerima pekerjaan tidak sepadan kerana peluang gaji dan kenaikan pangkat serta persekitaran kerja yang baik. Kajian mencadangkan bahawa mesti ada hubungan yang kuku hantara institut pendidikan dan industri untuk merumuskan dasar yang lebih baik yang mengurangkan tahap ketidakpadanan mendatar

Determinants of job mismatch among graduates : a case study of clerical workers at Lahore, Pakistan

Job mismatch among graduates reflects inefficiencies in the labor market. An imbalance between the demand and supply of graduates in the labor market leads to a horizontal mismatch. Nations make progress based on knowledge and education but despite obtaining higher education individuals are unable to find a job related to their field of study. This phenomenon occurs when educational institutes produce a large number of graduates while on the other hand, the supply of graduates exceeds the demand for graduates. This study aims to find out the determinants of horizontal mismatch and to analyze the reasons why workers have accepted the mismatched job. By using the worker’s self-assessment method required data is collected from the clerical workers of public and private sector universities at Lahore in 2019. These universities include the University of the Punjab, Lahore, and the University of Management and Technology, Lahore. Results of Logistic Regression analysis concluded that cost of job search, asymmetric information, and methods used to find a job are the most important determinants of job-mismatch. This study has also analyzed the reasons why workers have accepted their present mismatched job. Findings concluded that individuals accepted mismatched-job due to pay and promotion opportunities and a good working environment. This study suggested establishing linkages between educational institutes and industries to better formulate the policy that reduces the extent of horizontal mismatch

A local wave tracking strategy for efficiently solving mid-and high-frequency Helmholtz problems.

International audienceWe propose a procedure for selecting basis function orientation to improve the efficiency of solution methodologies that employ local plane-wave approximations. The proposed adaptive approach consists of a local wave tracking strategy. Each plane-wave basis set within considered elements of the mesh partition is individually or collectively rotated to best align one function of the set with the local propagation direction of the field. Systematic determination of the direction of the field inside the computational domain is formulated as a minimization problem. As the resultant system is nonlinear with respect to the directions of propagation, the Newton method is employed with exact characterization of the Jacobian and Hessian. To illustrate the salient features and evaluate the performance of the proposed wave tracking approach, we present error estimates as well as numerical results obtained by incorporating the procedure into a prototypical plane-wave based approach, the least-squares method (LSM) developed by Monk and Wang (1999). The numerical results obtained for the case of a two-dimensional rigid scattering problem indicate that (a) convergence was achievable to a prescribed level of accuracy, even upon initial application of the tracking wave strategy outside the pre-asymptotic convergence region, and (b) the proposed approach reduced the size of the resulting system by up to two orders of magnitude, depending on the frequency range, with respect to the size of the standard LSM system

Synthesis and in-vitro cytotoxicity analysis of microwave irradiated nano-apatites

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Ceramics International. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in CERAMICS INTERNATIONAL, [VOL 39, ISSUE 4, (2013)] DOI 10.1016/j.ceramint.2012.11.017Nano-sized calcium deficient apatite (CDA) micelles were synthesized through microwave assisted the wet precipitation technique. Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was employed as surface template to furnish the CDA particles with tailored size and shape. As-precipitated CDA was heat treated to observe the effect of heat treatment temperature on the interatomic rearrangement of entities within the apatite lattice. This transformation is responsible for conversion of CDA to β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) at specific temperature. The phase purity, particles size, morphology and transformation kinetics were analyzed using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). In-vitro studies were performed on β-TCP with three cell lines: osteoblasts, HeLa, and SF 767. The results showed that nano-sized particles were successfully synthesized in short time. The cells had appreciable proliferation/attachment on the surface of these nano-particles. It is concluded that the microwave irradiated synthesized β-TCP has good capacity in terms of biocompatibility and has the potential to be used in hard tissue regeneration applications.Nano-sized calcium deficient apatite (CDA) micelles were synthesized through microwave assisted the wet precipitation technique. Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was employed as surface template to furnish the CDA particles with tailored size and shape. As-precipitated CDA was heat treated to observe the effect of heat treatment temperature on the interatomic rearrangement of entities within the apatite lattice. This transformation is responsible for conversion of CDA to β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) at specific temperature. The phase purity, particles size, morphology and transformation kinetics were analyzed using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). In-vitro studies were performed on β-TCP with three cell lines: osteoblasts, HeLa, and SF 767. The results showed that nano-sized particles were successfully synthesized in short time. The cells had appreciable proliferation/attachment on the surface of these nano-particles. It is concluded that the microwave irradiated synthesized β-TCP has good capacity in terms of biocompatibility and has the potential to be used in hard tissue regeneration applications

Effect of early tranexamic acid administration on mortality, hysterectomy, and other morbidities in women with post-partum haemorrhage (WOMAN): an international, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background Post-partum haemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide. Early administration of tranexamic acid reduces deaths due to bleeding in trauma patients. We aimed to assess the effects of early administration of tranexamic acid on death, hysterectomy, and other relevant outcomes in women with post-partum haemorrhage. Methods In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we recruited women aged 16 years and older with a clinical diagnosis of post-partum haemorrhage after a vaginal birth or caesarean section from 193 hospitals in 21 countries. We randomly assigned women to receive either 1 g intravenous tranexamic acid or matching placebo in addition to usual care. If bleeding continued after 30 min, or stopped and restarted within 24 h of the first dose, a second dose of 1 g of tranexamic acid or placebo could be given. Patients were assigned by selection of a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight numbered packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Participants, care givers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. We originally planned to enrol 15 000 women with a composite primary endpoint of death from all-causes or hysterectomy within 42 days of giving birth. However, during the trial it became apparent that the decision to conduct a hysterectomy was often made at the same time as randomisation. Although tranexamic acid could influence the risk of death in these cases, it could not affect the risk of hysterectomy. We therefore increased the sample size from 15 000 to 20 000 women in order to estimate the effect of tranexamic acid on the risk of death from post-partum haemorrhage. All analyses were done on an intention-to-treat basis. This trial is registered with ISRCTN76912190 (Dec 8, 2008); ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00872469; and PACTR201007000192283. Findings Between March, 2010, and April, 2016, 20 060 women were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive tranexamic acid (n=10 051) or placebo (n=10 009), of whom 10 036 and 9985, respectively, were included in the analysis. Death due to bleeding was significantly reduced in women given tranexamic acid (155 [1·5%] of 10 036 patients vs 191 [1·9%] of 9985 in the placebo group, risk ratio [RR] 0·81, 95% CI 0·65–1·00; p=0·045), especially in women given treatment within 3 h of giving birth (89 [1·2%] in the tranexamic acid group vs 127 [1·7%] in the placebo group, RR 0·69, 95% CI 0·52–0·91; p=0·008). All other causes of death did not differ significantly by group. Hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (358 [3·6%] patients in the tranexamic acid group vs 351 [3·5%] in the placebo group, RR 1·02, 95% CI 0·88–1·07; p=0·84). The composite primary endpoint of death from all causes or hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (534 [5·3%] deaths or hysterectomies in the tranexamic acid group vs 546 [5·5%] in the placebo group, RR 0·97, 95% CI 0·87-1·09; p=0·65). Adverse events (including thromboembolic events) did not differ significantly in the tranexamic acid versus placebo group. Interpretation Tranexamic acid reduces death due to bleeding in women with post-partum haemorrhage with no adverse effects. When used as a treatment for postpartum haemorrhage, tranexamic acid should be given as soon as possible after bleeding onset. Funding London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Pfizer, UK Department of Health, Wellcome Trust, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Role of medical student and resident doctors' representative organizations in health policy process in Pakistan

Introduction: This research explores the impact of Medical Student and Resident Doctors' (MSaRD) organizations on the health policy process in Pakistan, focusing on their adaptability and advocacy in a politically constrained environment. It explores how these entities have navigated the ban on student politics and leveraged digital platforms to influence health policy, highlighting their evolution from traditional activism to digital engagement. Methods: Adopting a mixed-methods approach, the study combines qualitative content analysis with natural language processing of diverse data types collected from social media. Qualitative content analysis was used for an interpretative examination of the content to identify underlying themes and patterns, while NLP, a computational technique, was applied to systematically process and analyze the entire volumes of textual data for patterns and trends to validate the qualitative analysis. The investigation covered two primary research questions: the organizational landscape of MSaRD in Pakistan and their framing of their opposition to the National Licensing Examination (NLE). Data collection encompassed social media posts, policy documents, media interviews, news articles, images and videos in Urdu and English. Results: Findings reveal a dynamic advocacy landscape where MSaRD organizations actively contribute to health policy discourse. Despite legal restrictions, these organizations utilize digital media to mobilize, advocate, and influence health reforms. Their strategic framing of the NLE, demonstrates their significant role in shaping public and policy discourse, reflecting their growing influence in Pakistan's health sector. Conclusion: MSaRD organizations in Pakistan have emerged as pivotal players in the health policy arena, attempting to bridge the gap between medical professionals and policy formulation. Their transition to digital advocacy platforms signifies a broader shift in health policy advocacy, underscoring the importance of recognizing and integrating these groups into the formal health policy process. The study advocates for a reevaluation of political engagement policies in healthcare, suggesting that MSaRD's contributions could lead to more inclusive and representative health policy outcomes.Medicine, Faculty ofPopulation and Public Health (SPPH), School ofGraduat

Determination of Air Voids, Capillary, and Gel Porosity in Hardened Concrete using Mass-Based Saturation Techniques

The pore size distribution of concrete has a significant effect on its properties and durability. Three types of pores were investigated in this project: capillary pores, gel pores, and air voids. The percentage of each type of porosity in eight concrete mixtures was determined using various saturation/mass-based techniques. This involved vacuum, pressure, and solvent saturation. The effect of slag, silica fume, and w/cm ratio on each type of porosity was investigated. Results of porosity obtained by saturation techniques were compared to results of ASTM C642: Standard Test Method for Density, Absorption, and Voids in Hardened Concrete, and results of air content obtained by saturation techniques were compared with microscopic air void analysis results. The overall results indicate greater saturation obtained by the test protocol followed in this project as compared to the standard test. The results also indicated the significant effect of mixture design on the gel and capillary porosity.M.A.S