Role of Schools in Socio-Emotional Development of Higher Secondary Level Students and its Impact on their Societal Adjustment

Socio-emotional development consists of the child's experience, expression, and management of emotions and the ability to establish tremendous and profitable relationships with others. This research was conducted with the main objective to identify the role of schools in socio-emotional development of higher secondary level students and its impact on their societal adjustment with respect to investigate the grounds due to which students are involved in bad habits like abrupt anger, impatience, intolerance, overconfidence, superiority/inferiority complex, disobeying the teachers/elders, etc., and they are victims of mala fide activities also, such as smoking, ice addiction, misuse of mobile phones, unfair love, etc. It was a mixed-methods study (quantitative-cum-qualitative) conducted on public sector boys and girls higher secondary schools of Faisalabad division. The sample consisted of higher secondary grade (XI-XII) students, chairpersons (principals), parent and general members of the school councils. A Likert type scale and a semi-structured interview protocol was developed by the researchers for data collection. The instruments were validated by experts and questionnaire was pilot tested to ensure reliability employing Cronbach Alpha. The findings revealed that there was a significant impact of social and emotional development on societal adjustment p < 0.000. There was a significant positive relationship of social development and emotional development with societal adjustment. Qualitative data revealed that schools are not playing their role in true spirit to develop higher secondary level students, socio-emotionally. Apart from this, parents and home environment also play a major role in spoiling the socio-emotional development of students. It is recommended that an action plan may be drawn and implemented by the government at public higher secondary schools’ level for the proper socio-emotional development of students and their societal adjustment. &nbsp

Oil Price Flux and Macroeconomy of Oil Exporters

Oil is an important energy source, embodies the largest commodity market in the world. Global economic performance has been highly correlated with oil price changes. The study considered 10 major oil exporters to measure the effect of oil price changes on their economies considering variables: Oil Prices (OP), Inflation (CPI) , GDP deflator, Lending interest rate (IR), real interest rate (RIR), Official Exchange Rate (EX), and Net domestic credit (LDU).  By applying Johansen Co-integration techniques, long run relationship among variables has been analyzed covering the time period from 1970 to 2019. In order to find the short run relationship, Error Correction Model (ECM) technique is used. Study affirmed that there exist a strong relation among economic variables and oil price fluctuations; however the intensity of relationship displays a variation. Oil prices are associated with GDP deflator and RIR significantly as compared to other variables. Moreover, it can be suggested that each country should observe it own economic strategy in response to price change to reflect on economic policy instead of following some other country trends

Efficiency Test of Forecasts: an illustration for Carbon Emission

World Economies are facing numerous challenges concurrently. Among them one of most pertinent is global warming. Almost all the countries are victims of climate changes. Therefore, several economic mechanisms in environmental policy have been adopted to combat the distasteful impacts of climate change. The implication of environmental policies for clean energy environment in a country can be accessed via several channels. Forecast analysis is one of them, it reveals the forthcoming arrangement. The direction of the forecast trend discloses the current as well as potential outlook, indicating the intensity of policy brunt. The study evaluated the forecast and their accuracy to ensure the performance of forecast. Carbon emission in Gulf countries and their forecast are used as a case study. ARIMA model is used to obtain the forecast. Afterward, to evaluate the forecast performance, the study utilized the different efficiency criterion defined by Nordhaus (1987). By following the several efficiency test study found consistent and efficient forecasts.  These performance tests ascertain the reliability and accuracy of the trend followed by forecasts.  Accurate Forecasts direct better policy formation and management decision with buoyancy. Moreover, earlier policy resolution becomes more lucid

Surgical outcomes of intramedullary spinal cord ependymomas

Intramedullary Spinal Cord Ependymomas (ISCE) are uncommon pathologies that need to be aggressively managed before clinical deterioration sets in. Novel application of different therapeutic strategies is being assessed for improving long-term outcomes in patients presenting with these rare neoplasms. In this review, we have discussed the existing literature on ISCEs, and the role of surgery in determining outcomes in terms of neurological status, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS)

Comparison of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology and Thyroid Scan in Solitary Thyroid Nodule

Objective. This was a comparative study between FNAC and thyroid scan used to diagnose the solitary thyroid nodule and histopathology was used as gold standard to compare the results of both modalities. We hypothesized that Fine needle aspiration cytology and thyroid scan diagnose solitary thyroid nodule (STN) as accurately as histopathology. Materials and Methods. This study comprised of 50 patients with solitary thyroid nodules (STN) presented to OPD. After clinical examination these patients were referred to Centre for Nuclear Medicine, Mayo Hospital Lahore for thyroid function tests and thyroid scan (TS). These patients underwent FNAC in the department of Pathology and surgery in Mayo Hospital. The cases were operated and evaluated for histopathological changes. Results. On thyroid scan, 40 patients (80%) having cold nodule were labeled as suspicious 10 patients (20%) had hot nodule. On FNAC 23 patients (46%) had benign lesion, 22 patients (44%) had indeterminate lesion and 5 patients (10%) had malignant lesions. On histopathology, 45 patients (90%) were confirmed to have benign lesions and 5 patients (10%), malignant lesions. After comparison of results of thyroid scan and FNAC with histopathology, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy of thyroid scan were 80%, 20%, 10%, 90% and 26%, respectively whereas those of FNAC were 80%, 97.7%, 80%, 97.7% and 96%, respectively. Conclusion. Fine needle aspiration was a significantly better predictor of malignancy than thyroid scan and resulted in a smaller proportion of excisions for benign nodules

Follow-up bibliometric analysis of neurosurgical publications from Pakistan and institutional comparison with other countries using h-index and i-10 Index

Aim: The aim of the study was to analyze the neurosurgical research output of Pakistan and compare it with that of developed countries.Methodology: We conducted a bibliometric analysis of publically available databases for all neurosurgical publications from Pakistan. All indexed peer-reviewed publications from January 2009 to December 2014 where at least one author was affiliated with any neurosurgical departments in Pakistan and research was conducted in Pakistan were selected. Manual and electronic search was done using MeSH terms to search for articles from Pakistan. Articles were then categorized according to design, subspecialty, region, and year.Results: Our search identified 121 articles during the defined study period (mean = 20.16 ± 5.2 papers/year). A relatively constant increase was noticed for the last 6 years, i.e., 2009-2014. From the total 121 references, 100 (82.4%) publications were from one city, and on subanalysis, 80 (66.1%) were from a single institution. Three primary authors cumulatively contributed to 76 (62.8%) of these publications. Almost two-thirds (n = 76, 62.8%) of these publications were published in either regional or international journals while only 37.2% (n = 45) were published in local nonneurosurgery-specific journals. Only one study in the 6-year study period was with Level I evidence (meta-analysis).Conclusion: Neurosurgery research in Pakistan has shown modest improvement in terms of quality and quantity. Collaboration between various centers and channelizing different resources to create national data registries along with basic science laboratories is much needed

Analysis of Pre and Post Merger and Acquisition Financial Performance of Banks in Pakistan

Merger and Acquisition is a strategy adopted by the organizations globally to meet the needs of dynamic business environment. This strategy also has much importance in Pakistan mostly in banking sector. Therefore, the objective of the study is to assess the impact of M&A on the financial performance of banks in Pakistan. The accounting and financial data of 10 banks were used in this study. Data was taken from the financial statement analysis (FSA) by State Bank of Pakistan from the period of 20062011. For the analysis of pre and post Merger and Acquisition performance 15 financial ratios were used in the study. To compare the results Paired sample t-Test was used to measure the significant difference between pre and post M&A financial performance. The overall results show that there is no significant difference in financial performance. It is concluded that there is insignificant difference between pre and post M&A performance of banks in Pakistan