Use of fresh parental fibular allograft for reconstruction of skeletal defects after limb salvage surgery

Abstract OBJECTIVE: To share early experience with paediatric patients having undergone skeletal reconstruction after limb salvage surgery. METHODS: A reterorespective audit study was conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from 1994 to 2011 An audit of the institutional tumour registry was done and relevant cases of paediatric patients having undergone skeletal reconstruction after limbsalvage surgery were tracked. Outcomes were objectively assessed through Musculoskeletal Tumour Society score. International Society of Limb Salvage grading was used to measure union of the graft to the host bone. RESULTS: Of the total 9 patients, 5(55.6%) were males and 4(44.4%) were females with an overall mean age of 11±3 SD years (range: 7-14 years). Six (66.7%) cases involved lower limbs, while 2(22.2%) cases involved upper limbs. The mean follow-up was 41±3SD months (range: 14-204 months). There was no tissue reaction observed locally or systemically. No local recurrence was seen. Mean Musculoskeletal Tumor Society score was 21.2±3 SD and International Society Of Limb Salvage grading was excellent in 5(55.5%) patients and good in 2(22.2%). One (11.1%) fibula fractured due to non-union at the proximal site. One (11.1%) patient died of the disease. Donor site morbidity was minimum except a big toe drop in 1(11%) case. CONCLUSIONS: Parental fresh fibular allografts provide a good alternative for skeletal reconstruction. Donor site morbidity was minimal

EFFECTS OF AEROBIC TRAINING ON TARGETED HEART RATE ZONE

Reduced targeted heart rate zone is an indication of fitness of an athlete andReduced targeted heart rate zone is an indication of fitness of an individualand the main purpose of the current study was to investigate the “effects ofaerobic training on targeted heart rate zone among college students”. Thestudy was experimental in nature. The population of the study comprised of allthose students (male) who were boarding in hostel with age range 18-22 yearsof Government Post Graduate College Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP),Pakistan. The sample of fifty (n-50) healthy, sedentary, and volunteer subjectsfor the study was determined through Physical Activity ReadinessQuestionnaire (PAR-Q). Resting heart rate of each subject was taken bydigital heart rate monitor as pre-test. Targeted heart rate zone was calculatedthrough the formula [(220-age-RHR) x percentage of intensity+ RHR]. Thesubjects were randomly divided into two equal groups each of 25 subjects. Theexperimental group underwent aerobic training at moderate intensity (50% to70% of the Maximum Heart Rate) for eight weeks while the control groupcarried on their routine life activities. There were four training sessions perweek and each session comprised of 30 minutes besides warm up and warmdown. After eight weeks aerobic training, the post-test of resting heart rate ofeach subject of both group was conducted as the procedure adopted for the prtest. The pre-test data and post-test date was analyzed with the help of SPSSversion 20 by applying the descriptive statistical sources mean, minimum,maximum and standard deviation to show the difference between pre-test andpos-test. The results of the study showed that there was descriptively decreasein targeted heart rate zone of subjects of the experimental group while controlgroup showed no improvement. In light of the findings of the study, it isconcluded that aerobic exercises play important role in the reduction oftargeted heart rate zone and this quality paves the way to show goodperformance in daily physical and sports activities

Does Non-Moral Ignorance Exculpate? Situational Awareness and Attributions of Blame and Forgiveness

In this paper, we set out to test empirically an idea that many philosophers find intuitive, namely that non-moral ignorance can exculpate. Many philosophers find it intuitive that moral agents are responsible only if they know the particular facts surrounding their action. Our results show that whether moral agents are aware of the facts surrounding their action does have an effect on people’s attributions of blame, regardless of the consequences or side effects of the agent’s actions. In general, it was more likely that a situationally aware agent will be blamed for failing to perform the obligatory action than a situationally unaware agent. We also tested attributions of forgiveness in addition to attributions of blame. In general, it was less likely that a situationally aware agent will be forgiven for failing to perform the obligatory action than a situationally unaware agent. When the agent is situationally unaware, it is more likely that the agent will be forgiven than blamed. We argue that these results provide some empirical support for the hypothesis that there is something intuitive about the idea that non-moral ignorance can exculpate

Substantial and sustained reduction in under-5 mortality, diarrhea, and pneumonia in Oshikhandass, Pakistan : Evidence from two longitudinal cohort studies 15 years apart

Funding Information: Study 1 was funded through the Applied Diarrheal Disease Research Program at Harvard Institute for International Development with a grant from USAID (Project 936–5952, Cooperative Agreement # DPE-5952-A-00-5073-00), and the Aga Khan Health Service, Northern Areas and Chitral, Pakistan. Study 2 was funded by the Pakistan US S&T Cooperative Agreement between the Pakistan Higher Education Commission (HEC) (No.4–421/PAK-US/HEC/2010/955, grant to the Karakoram International University) and US National Academies of Science (Grant Number PGA-P211012 from NAS to the Fogarty International Center). The funding bodies had no role in the design of the study, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or writing of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

An Analysis of the Influence of Cultural Beliefs on Educational Leadership Practices in Pakistan: A Comparative Study of Public and Private Schools

Education is a key component of social and cultural development, and the influence of cultural beliefs on educational leadership practices cannot be overstated. This study focuses on the impact of cultural beliefs on educational leadership practices in Pakistan, with a specific emphasis on the comparison of public and private schools. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of cultural beliefs on educational leadership practices in Pakistan and to compare the practices in public and private schools. The population of the study consisted of educational leaders in public and private schools in Pakistan. The sample of the study was selected through purposive sampling and consisted of 10 educational leaders in both public and private schools. In-depth interviews and observation were used as the primary data collection tools in this study. The data was analysed using a thematic analysis approach. The findings of this study revealed that cultural beliefs significantly influence educational leadership practices in Pakistan, particularly in terms of decision-making, communication, and relationship-building. It is recommended that further research be conducted to better understand the influence of cultural beliefs on educational leadership practices in different cultural contexts. Additionally, the results of this study can be used to inform the development of cultural competence training programs for educational leaders in Pakistan

The Impact of technology integration on student engagement and achievement in mathematics education: A systematic review

The current research carried out a comprehensive analysis of academic research that explored the effects of technology incorporation on mathematics students' engagement and academic performance. As technology usage in education has grown more prevalent, understanding its impact on student outcomes has become increasingly significant. The primary goal of this systematic review was to examine existing research and generate a comprehensive synthesis of the outcomes. A rigorous methodology was utilized, involving a thorough examination of pertinent databases, and adhering to stringent inclusion and exclusion criteria. A quantitative approach was taken, and data were extracted utilizing a tailored data extraction form. The target population included students of all age groups enrolled in mathematics courses that integrated technology, and purposive sampling was employed as the sampling strategy. Fifteen research studies satisfied the inclusion criteria and were integrated into the final analysis. The results suggest that the integration of technology has a favorable influence on mathematics students' engagement and academic achievement. Specifically, technology integration has a noteworthy impact on student motivation, attitudes, and academic performance. The usage of technology also supports the growth of critical thinking skills and problem-solving abilities. Technology-based interventions are effective for learners of various ages and skill levels. These research findings have implications for policymakers and educators, emphasizing the prospective benefits of technology integration in enhancing student outcomes in mathematics education. Additionally, the results signal the necessity for further studies to investigate the specific means by which technology can enhance mathematics education. This systematic review presents informative insights into technology's impact on mathematics education and highlights the potential advantages of technology integration in advancing student outcomes

Student-Performulator: Student Academic Performance Using Hybrid Deep Neural Network

Educational data generated through various platforms such as e-learning, e-admission systems, and automated result management systems can be effectively processed through educational data mining techniques in order to gather highly useful insights into students’ performance. The prediction of student performance from historical academic data is a highly desirable application of educational data mining. In this regard, there is an urgent need to develop an automated technique for student performance prediction. Existing studies on student performance prediction primarily focus on utilizing the conventional feature representation schemes, where extracted features are fed to a classifier. In recent years, deep learning has enabled researchers to automatically extract high-level features from raw data. Such advanced feature representation schemes enable superior performance in challenging tasks. In this work, we examine the deep neural network model, namely, the attention-based Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) network to efficiently predict student performance (grades) from historical data. In this article, we have used the most advanced BiLSTM combined with an attention mechanism model by analyzing existing research problems, which are based on advanced feature classification and prediction. This work is really vital for academicians, universities, and government departments to early predict the performance. The superior sequence learning capabilities of BiLSTM combined with attention mechanism yield superior performance compared to the existing state-of-the-art. The proposed method has achieved a prediction accuracy of 90.16%