LESSONS FROM PSYCHIATRY IN THE ARAB WORLD A Lebanese Trainee Psychiatrist’s Qualitative Views on the Provision of Mental Healthcare Services for Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon and an Interview with a Consultant Psychiatrist on the Effects of the Arab Spring on the Mental Health of Libyans

In this manuscript, a Lebanese trainee psychiatrist qualitatively analyses and discusses the provision of mental healthcare services for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. There are more than 250,000 Palestinian people sporadically dispersed in the refugee camps in Sidon, Beirut and other major cities in the Levant. Displacement, conflict, trauma, unemployment and poverty are but some of the myriad factors that influence Palestinian refugee mental health. This article traces the historical, political and socioeconomic determinants of health for Palestinians exiled in Lebanon and describes the pivotal role that the non-Govenmental Organisation Medical Aid for Palestinians is playing in helping to alleviate the psychiatric distress of Palestinian sufferers of mental illness. The latter half of the manuscript contains an interview with a consultant psychiatrist about his experiences volunteering in the war-torn lands of Libya post Arab Spring. He expounds on how he feels mental healthcare services in Libya are woefully inadequate and broaches on his perception of how the resilience and the ‘family-centric’ model of the Libyan people has conferred a certain degree of protection towards developing severe psychiatric illness

Predictors of vaccination card retention in children 12-59 months old in Karachi, Pakistan

Objective: To determine the factors associated with retaining the vaccination card among care takers of 12-59 months old children in Karachi, Pakistan.Methods: This was an analytical cross-sectional study in Karachi. Households were randomly selected throughout a multistage cluster sampling technique. Data was collected for 504 children of 12- 59 months of age. Questionnaire was administered to caretakers to gather information regarding the children\u27s vaccination status, socio-demographic characteristics and reviewing their vaccination cards. Statistical analysis was done by SPSS 19 using logistic regression.Results: Among 462 vaccinated children, caretakers of 33% provided vaccination cards. Odds of card retention decrease if the caretaker has a large household i.e., \u3e5 people sharing one room (AOR 0.277, 95% CI: 0.096, 0.797) and if the child is of four to five years of age (AOR 0.544, 95% CI: 0.305, 0.970). Gender of the child, and the caretaker\u27s education and access to electronic media were not significant predictors of vaccination card retention in our study.Conclusion: Our study showed that vaccination card retention for children 12-59 months of age was low (33%) in Karachi. There is a need to educate caretakers of young children regarding the importance of keeping vaccination card and to disseminate this information through healthcare providers. Improving vaccination card retention is one of the key measures which will help towards accurately estimating coverage and to inform health policy decisions

Servicescape under consideration of Hedonic and Utilitarian approach, a Conceptual debate related to customer satisfaction in context of female clothing brand in Pakistan

This research offers to explore the relationship between the customer satisfaction and servicescape under consideration of two motives as hedonic approach (related to fun & amusement) and utilitarian approach (related to satisfying the needs). This study depicts that which approach is influenced more by creating positive service environment and to revisit the consumers especially in case of females in Pakistan. To investigate how and which consumers are influenced from the different shopping experience exclusively in female clothing in Pakistan a qualitative approach has been used in this study. This conceptual study defends the soundness of relationship through intense literature review. According to this study, use of ambient factors, cleanliness, aesthetic factors, signs and symbols create a long lasting effect on customer satisfaction as they also wish to have some leisure and amusement by shopping particularly in case of females. In Pakistan, most of the females who are engaged in the shopping of different arrays are inclined towards hedonic servicescape more than utilitarian servicescape

Passive control of base drag employing dimple in subsonic suddenly expanded flow

This paper presents an experimental and computational investigation to study the effectiveness of dimples to control the base pressure in Backward facing step (BFS) for various Nozzle pressure ratio (NPR) having Compressible flow to minimize the base drag. Two dimples of 3 mm diameter located at 1800 interval along pitch circle diameter of 23 mm in the base region was employed as passive controls. The test was conducted for NPR 1.27, 1.38, 1.52 and 1.69. The model is designed in such a way so as to provide four BFS with angle of incidence as 150 from which the flow suddenly expands to a square duct of 25 mm. The experimental investigation is carried out for different length of duct 4D≤L≤10D to see the influence of geometric parameter on base pressure. From the present investigation, it was found that dimples as passive control is very effective at higher NPR and the wall pressure distribution too was quite stable at higher NPR. Also the geometric parameter was found to influence the base pressure for a particular NPR. Computational investigation using commercial CFD tool shows pressure and velocity distribution profile for both dimple and non-dimple control. Tests are carried out by using Navier-stokes equation, Turbulence model as SST, Reynolds number (Re) =122.56×103. From this investigation it is clear that for a given nozzle pressure ratio one can find optimum L/D ratio which will result in maximum increase/decrease of base pressure and dimples can be effective passive controller for reducing base drag without disturbing the flow field

THE PERFORMING ARTS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING

Although psychotropic drugs have been hailed as, \u27One of the success stories of modern psychiatry\u27 the prescribing of these medicines has not been without commotion, concern and controversy. Moreover, the President of the World Psychiatry Association Professor Dinesh Bhugra and colleagues, after conducting a recent large-scale study (n=25,522) on psychiatric morbidity in the UK, collectively issued the clarion call that, \u27The mental health of the nation was unlikely to be improved by treatment with psychotropic medication alone\u27. The provision of mental healthcare services may likely benefit from a holistic approach that includes a variety of treatment options that prioritizes patient safety and preference. The performing arts is gaining popularity among service users as an adjunctive form of treatment for mental illness. There is a growing body of evidence that provisionally supports the claim that art therapy, \u27Possesses the power to heal psychological wounds\u27. The North American Drama Therapy Association defines drama therapy as, \u27The intentional use of drama and/or theatre processes to achieve therapeutic goals\u27 and that it is \u27active and experiential\u27. This review article discusses and describes the merits of dramatherapy and how this treatment modality can contribute to a patient\u27s recovery from psychological distress

Algorithm selection using edge ML and case-based reasoning

In practical data mining, a wide range of classification algorithms is employed for prediction tasks. However, selecting the best algorithm poses a challenging task for machine learning practitioners and experts, primarily due to the inherent variability in the characteristics of classification problems, referred to as datasets, and the unpredictable performance of these algorithms. Dataset characteristics are quantified in terms of meta-features, while classifier performance is evaluated using various performance metrics. The assessment of classifiers through empirical methods across multiple classification datasets, while considering multiple performance metrics, presents a computationally expensive and time-consuming obstacle in the pursuit of selecting the optimal algorithm. Furthermore, the scarcity of sufficient training data, denoted by dimensions representing the number of datasets and the feature space described by meta-feature perspectives, adds further complexity to the process of algorithm selection using classical machine learning methods. This research paper presents an integrated framework called eML-CBR that combines edge edge-ML and case-based reasoning methodologies to accurately address the algorithm selection problem. It adapts a multi-level, multi-view case-based reasoning methodology, considering data from diverse feature dimensions and the algorithms from multiple performance aspects, that distributes computations to both cloud edges and centralized nodes. On the edge, the first-level reasoning employs machine learning methods to recommend a family of classification algorithms, while at the second level, it recommends a list of the top-k algorithms within that family. This list is further refined by an algorithm conflict resolver module. The eML-CBR framework offers a suite of contributions, including integrated algorithm selection, multi-view meta-feature extraction, innovative performance criteria, improved algorithm recommendation, data scarcity mitigation through incremental learning, and an open-source CBR module, reshaping research paradigms. The CBR module, trained on 100 datasets and tested with 52 datasets using 9 decision tree algorithms, achieved an accuracy of 94% for correct classifier recommendations within the top k=3 algorithms, making it highly suitable for practical classification applications

Relationship between CO2 emissions, tourism receipt, energy use and international trade in Pakistan

The current study explores the potential impact of economic growth, tourism receipt, energy consumption and trade openness on CO2 in Pakistan over the period of 1980-2017. The study adopted the Autoregressive Distributed Lagged (ARDL) model to investigate the short and long-run estimates simultaneously. The study further applied Granger causality to find out the direction of causalities. To arrive at long-run robust estimates, the study employed the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) model. Last but not least, the current study also used an innovative accounting approach i.e. Variance decomposition and Impulse production function. The results found that economic growth has a significant impact on CO2 emission and negative and highly significant impact on tourism receipt while emission, energy consumption and international trade are also the main determinants of tourism in Pakistan. The study found unidirectional causality from GDP, tourism receipt, energy consumption and trade openness towards CO2 emission. The outcomes of ARDL model are also supported by the DOLS results. The innovative accounting approach further strengthens the results of the study. In a nutshell, overall results indicate that tourist receipts, CO2 emission, energy consumption, and trade openness are interlinked. The findings of the current study thus suggest that the government should encourage investment in the industry\u27s services sector to enhance its efficiency. In addition, it will also need to ensure that the services sector contributes far more to the GDP than to the manufacturing sector. The results demonstrate investments should be diverted towards the services sector on a broader range as less-polluting services industries (tourism as one of the main sectors) are more feasible than polluting capital industries to invest in