The radical potential of feminist approaches to relief and recovery

Our Generation for Inclusive Peace (OGIP) – is a youth-led organisation aiming to make peace and security processes more inclusive, intersectional, and decolonised through advancing young voices and experiences. OGIP challenges the dominant frameworks for relief and recovery by exploring different contexts, perspectives, identities and experiences on relief and recovery and by demonstrating collaborative and transformative solutions based on their recent research series on feminist recovery

Financial risk exposures of the airlines industry: Evidence from Cathay Pacific Airways and China Airlines

This study explores the long run and dynamic relationships between the stock price of Cathay Pacific Airways and China Airlines against key determinants of financial risks exposure confronting the airline industry, which include interest-rate, exchange rate and fuel price risk exposures for the period of January 1996 to December 2011. The (Johansen & Juselius, 1990) cointegration technique was employed to detect any long time trending relationship followed Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) and Vector Auto-Regression (VAR). The generalised forecast error variance decomposition and the generalised impulse response function were employed to comprehend the effects of theses financial risk exposures. Our empirical results suggest that exchange rate movements have a substantial impact, compared to the fuel price and interest rate exposures against the stock price of the analysed airline. Our findings play a pertinent role in the determination of the respective airlines foreign vulnerability and financial policies which would be helpful for industry players and policy makers from a financial stability perspective

Promoting female participation in professional development programmes

A recent publication of the Ministry of Education, Islamabad, shows that the province of Sindh has a population of over 30 million. The overall literacy rate in this province is 46.7 %, while the female literacy rate is 35.4%. However, in the rural areas of Sindh the female literacy rate is 13.11% against the male literacy rate of 52.1%. There are many social, cultural and economic factors that inhibit females from availing opportunities on an equal basis with the other segments of society. The literature also reveals that due to the above-mentioned factors females are confined to play a passive role in general and in the education sector in particular. According to a recent UNDP publication, there is considerable disparity between males and females in terms of professional development. Considering the importance of professional development of females in the education sector in Sindh, the Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED), under the Pakistan Non- Government Initiatives (PNI-II), took an initiative to launch a project titled ‘Strengthening the Capacity of NGOs/CBOs’. The project targeted to provide opportunities of professional development to 258 individuals, but the actual number of those who graduated was 388, considerably exceeding the planned target. Out of 388, 68 % (262) were females, which show the enthusiasm and commitment of the participants, collaborating NGOs/CBOs and AKU-IED towards the professional development of females. Through this initiative, females were trained as ‘agents of change’ to motivate their communities towards education of their children, in particular the girl child. This presentation unfolds the learning experiences of the USAID Project-III team in promoting female participation in professional development programmes at AKU-IED

Impact of Socio-Demographic Characteristics on the Pattern of Skin Diseases Attending Different Dermatology Department of Public Hospitals Quetta, Pakistan

Abstract Objective: The study was conducted to determine the pattern of skin diseases affecting by the socio-demographic characteristics of the patients visiting the dermatology department of public hospitals in Quetta, Pakistan. Methodology: The prospective cross-sectional study was undertaken using a self prepapred proforma to compile the data while interviewing the patients attending the Dermatology Department of two public hospitals of Quetta, Pakistan, in order to determine the relationship between the demographic characteristics of patients and pattern of skin diseases.    Results: A total of 503 patients were enrolled in the study. Majority of the participants (33.8%) were categorized in the age group of 21-30 years. The most common patterns of skin diseases seen in outpatient department were eczema (21.5%), scabies (19.7%) and bacterial infections (12.7%). Inferential statistics revealed a significant relationship (p=0.001) between pattern of skin diseases and age, education, house occupancy, location and living standards of the study participants. Most of the patients were found to be living in a combined family system (65.6%), with poor living standards (81.7%) and uneducated (51.1%). Conclusion The current study presented that eczema and infectious diseases were the most common pattern of skin diseases in Quetta and they are significantly related  with socio-demographics of the patients so it can be concluded that better health education, maintaining personal hygiene, and improvement in the standard of living may aid a lot in managing and preventing the common skin diseases

Examining the Linkage of Academic Performance and Attention by Uddin's Numeral Finding and Typo Revealing Tests: A Cross-Sectional Pilot Study in Undergraduate Students of Bangladesh

Background: Attention is the state of applying the concentration to something and it's strongly linked to academic performance. The drive of this study was to analyze the academic performance and attention of undergraduate students. Methods: The study was implemented on 139 undergraduate students of Bangladesh selected from 9 universities from April to August 2018. In this study to investigate the attention of the students, the Uddin's Numeral Finding (NF) and Typo Revealing (TR) tests were used. Results: In the NF test male students with last semester cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 3.47 (highest) exerted the maximum 40% attention but female students exerted only 33.3% attention and their last semester CGPA was 3. Students with age > 22 years exerted maximum, 70.55%, and 35.2% attention in NF and TR tests respectively with last semester CGPA of 3.56 (maximum). In the NF and TR tests, highest, 89.73%, and 50.33% attention respectively were reported by 1st-year students with last semester CGPA of only 3.70. High-socioeconomic status students with last semester CGPA of 3.43 (lowest) exerted maximum 75.30% attention in NF test. There were no significant associations between variables. Conclusion: Attention is a very rudimentary function that often is a forerunner to cognitive functions. Individual differences in academic performance have been linked to differences in attention and intelligence

SCAPS Numerical Analysis of Solid-State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Utilizing Copper (I) Iodide as Hole Transport Layer

Here, numerical study of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell (SSDSSC) with Copper (I) Iodide as a hole transport layer was investigated using SCAPS-1D simulation software. The complete simulated device structures in this project are composed of FTO/TiO2/N719/CuI/Ni. Several key parameters of HTL such as layer thickness, doping concentration, working temperature, and interface defect have been analysed to obtain the highest efficiency for SSDSSC as well as the influence of back contact. The incorporation with various ETLs such as TiO2, ZnO, and SnO2 were also studied. The results show that SSDSSC with back contact yields a better performance due to low HTL thickness compared to without back contact. In addition, it can also be proved that TiO2 as ETL obtained the best efficiency up to 5.6%. Further investigation also found that combining optimized CuI and TiO2 parameters with a perovskite layer would increase cell efficiency to nearly 30%, higher than previously reported devices. The proposed parameter structure may trigger the temptation for the use of CuI as HTL in solar cell application

Intracardiac Thrombus in Coronavirus Disease-2019

Intracardiac thrombus is often seen as a complication of ischemic heart disease (IHD) and non-ischemia cardiomyopathies (NICM). The advancements in imaging modalities and therapeutic options have helped reduce the complications arising from ventricular thrombi, such as systemic embolization. Here we present two cases of intracardiac thrombus associated with coronavirus disease (COVID) 19, one with an apical thrombus in the left ventricle and the other with a thrombus in the right ventricle adjacent to chordae tendinae. The effects of covid-19 on the cardiovascular system are yet to be thoroughly evaluated. Venous and arterial thrombosis is commonly associated with COVID-19 but in situ detection of intracardiac thrombus has not been very frequently reported. Intracardiac thrombus and embolization pose a very high risk of complications in COVID-19. The coronavirus pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 during 2019-2021 has caused several deaths and has resulted in many long-term consequences, many of which remain unclear. In-hospital complications from COVID-19 are better reported due to constant monitoring. The ongoing, late, and chronic complications arising from COVID-19 require more vigilant case-by-case screening and surveillance

Polymer-Layered Silicate Nanocomposites for Cryotank Applications

Previous composite cryotank designs have relied on the use of conventional composite materials to reduce microcracking and permeability. However, revolutionary advances in nanotechnology derived materials may enable the production of ultra-lightweight cryotanks with significantly enhanced durability and damage tolerance, as well as reduced propellant permeability. Layered silicate nanocomposites are especially attractive in cryogenic storage tanks based on results that have been reported for epoxy nanocomposite systems. These materials often exhibit an order of magnitude reduction in gas permeability when compared to the base resin. In addition, polymer-silicate nanocomposites have been shown to yield improved dimensional stability, strength, and toughness. The enhancement in material performance of these systems occurs without property trade-offs which are often observed in conventionally filled polymer composites. Research efforts at NASA Glenn Research Center have led to the development of epoxy-clay nanocomposites with 70% lower hydrogen permeability than the base epoxy resin. Filament wound carbon fiber reinforced tanks made with this nanocomposite had a five-fold lower helium leak rate than the corresponding tanks made without clay. The pronounced reduction observed with the tank may be due to flow induced alignment of the clay layers during processing. Additionally, the nanocomposites showed CTE reductions of up to 30%, as well as a 100% increase in toughness