The readiness of NGOs for health-related SDGs in Pakistan

NGOs are not making specific efforts for health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Pakistan, and yet there exists great potential in NGOs that can be harnessed to promote SDGs through putting in more concentrated efforts, writes Rabia Tabassum

An Experimental Study of the Performance of Prospective Teachers of Flipped Classroom and Non-Flipped Classroom

Video-recording of lectures and creating of podcasts for playback on the computer and other portable devices which accommodate the new formats of self-developed learning are identified as flipped classroom. The study was focused on the objective to Investigate performance of prospective teachers of flipped classroom and non-flipped classroom with respect to flipped classroom strategy. Therefore, null hypotheses were formulated; there is no significant difference between the mean scores of flipped classroom and non-flipped classroom of prospective teachers before and after treatment; Pretest posttest equivalent group experimental research design was taken for the study. A paired random sampling technique was employed to select the sample on the basis of pretest scores from the subjects.. Experimental group was named flipped classroom and control group was named non-flipped classroom. Treatment of flipped classroom strategy provided to the flipped classroom and the non-flipped classroom was thought through lecture demonstration method. Posttest was administered to collect data from both groups without delay after treatment of six academic weeks. Results of the study illustrated that there was significant difference between the performance of flipped and non-flipped classrooms prospective teachers. It was recommended that flipped classroom may be an integral part of curriculum of professional development courses in Pakistan

Análisis de los ensayos argumentativos del alumno pakistaní: un enfoque multidimensional

The present study is a corpus based research using a statistical approach multi-dimensional analysis (MDA) by Biber to study linguistic patterns of learner language. MDA has gained much appreciation due to its objective and empirical nature. It not only systematically arranges common linguistic patterns but also elaborates the functional association of these patterns. The MDA is performed at two levels known as old MD and New MD. The present researchis only about second level (New MD). The results show that in Pakistani learners’ writing the prominent linguistic patterns are characteristically informational rather than argumentative. Instead of building arguments, learners are more interested in sharing information. Pakistani English has historical roots from pre-partitioned India, therefore, it has under gone through communal, traditional and dogmatic apexes. In the beginning, people started learning English as a second language that was inevitably entering in their social and cultural life.El presente estudio es una investigación basada en corpus que utiliza un enfoque estadístico de análisis multidimensional (MDA) de Biber para estudiar los patrones lingüísticos del lenguaje del alumno. MDA ha ganado mucha apreciación debido a su naturaleza objetiva y empírica. No solo organiza sistemáticamente patrones lingüísticos comunes, sino que también elabora la asociación funcional de estos patrones. El MDA se realiza en dos niveles conocidos como MD antiguo y MD nuevo. La presente investigación es solo sobre el segundo nivel (Nuevo MD). Los resultados muestran que en la escritura de los aprendices paquistaníes, los patrones lingüísticos prominentes son característicamente informativos más que argumentativos. En lugar de construir argumentos, los alumnos están más interesados ​​en compartir información. El inglés paquistaní tiene raíces históricas de la India pre-dividida, por lo tanto, ha pasado por vértices comunales, tradicionales y dogmáticos. Al principio, la gente comenzó a aprender inglés como un segundo idioma que inevitablemente entraba en su vida social y cultural

A Study of and Violence against Women in Feudal Society with Special Reference to “My Feudal Lord’’ by “Tehmina Durrani”

This study aims to explore the sexual harassment and violence against women in a feudal society in the novel “My Feudal Lord” by “Tehmina Durrani”. It spotlights how women live under social restrained destiny; where they suffer letdown, thwarting, dismay and mocking. Physical violence is usually accompanied by psychological abuse and in many cases by sexual assault. Wife beating is a century old phenomenon; which transcends all natural, ethnic and class boundaries. We can see the same condition in Durrani’s “My Feudal Lord”, where women are not only ill-treated by their husbands but also by the feudals of their areas. All these problems and incidents are dangerous for women’s identity. The paper deals with major aspects of hegemonic masculinity, sexual harassment and violence against women. This report will study the threats to female identity in the light of Kristeva’s feministic views (1980, 1983, 1986, 2008). Keywords: Sexual harassment, Feudal lord, Violence against women, Women identit

Implications of Critical Literacy for Language Classroom

The present study is aimed at examining how critical literacy helps the students in using language efficiently and exploring new ways of reading any text. The study focuses on gauging the place of critical literacy at graduate level and also checks the awareness of students and teachers to this productive way of using language. This study also tries to find out about the gap that exists between the objectives of critical literacy in Pakistan and our present curriculum. For this purpose both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis were used. Finally it brings the results that in Pakistan curriculum dominantly focuses the structural level of language and does not give students sociopolitical insight. The learning of students is more bookish and does not enable the learners to employ their language skill in understanding the ways of the world. Keywords: Critical Literacy, Critical thinking, Curriculum, Civic education, Teaching methodolog

Impact of Bullying On the Performance of the Students at Primary Level in Sindh

The study was designed to find out the impact of bullying on the performance of the students at primary level of the students in Sindh. All Heads and Teachers working at government primary schools of Sindh were constituted population of the study. The study was delimited to the government primary schools of district Hyderabad. The study was significant in this sense that administrators of the schools can plan their best schedule for minimizing the bad practice of bullying into the government primary schools of Sindh. Government can also plan best curriculum to engage the students into different activities so that rate of bullying can be decreased. Twenty male Heads and one hundred male teachers were taken randomly through simple random sampling technique for the collection of the data. Two questionnaires were prepared for Heads and the Teachers respectively for collection of the information. After getting information from the heads and teachers, data was tabulated and analyzed by applying suitable statistical tools. It was concluded from the results that rate of bullying at primary schools is higher as compared to the schools of others districts of Sindh. It was suggested that different seminars should be arranged for imparting new techniques to deal with the students at primary level and to increase their knowledge rather rate of bullying into the schools. Keywords: Bullying, Curriculum, Techniques, Knowledg

Characterization of Mutations Linked with Second Line Anti-TB Drug Resistance in Pakistan

Background: The incidence of multiple drug resistance tuberculosis is on the rise worldwide and Pakistan is one of 30 high TB burden countries. Resistance to second line drugs especially fluoroquinolones is being reported by many laboratories. This is increasing the gravity of the situation resulting in extensively drug resistant cases, which is difficult to treat, and has more side effects.Methods: One hundred and thirty-three (133) clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis, collected by convenience sampling, were characterized for mutations in eth-A, gyrA, msh-A, rrs genes, and the promoter region of inh-A gene that confer resistance to second line anti-TB drugs. The mutations were detected by allele-specific-PCR and PCR amplification followed by SSCP and DNA sequencing.Results: Mutations in gyrA gene at codon 91, 94 and 95 were found in 4 (3.0%) M. tuberculosis isolates. Mutations in rrs gene were found in 17 (12.8%) isolates, ten (7.5%) isolates had mutation at A1401G position, 5 (3.76%) isolates at C1402T position and 3 (2.25%) isolates had G1484T mutation. For resistance to ethionamide, none of the isolates showed mutation in eth-A gene. In promoter region of inh-A gene, mutations were detected at -C15T, -A112G, -C110T in two samples. Two mutations, A312T and A332G, were found in msh-A gene in one sample. Collectively, 24 (18%) isolates were found to harbor mutations associated with second line anti TB drug resistance.Conclusion: Our work revealed high frequency of mutations (18%) associated with resistance against second line anti-TB drugs. This situation can lead to increase in XDR-TB cases. We, therefore, recommend improved diagnostic and drug sensitivity testing, better prescription, and development of superior drugs to control tuberculosis.   Keywords: Antibiotic resistance; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Second line anti-TB drug

Discovery of novel 1,2,4-triazole tethered β-hydroxy sulfides as bacterial tyrosinase inhibitors: synthesis and biophysical evaluation through in vitro and in silico approaches

In this study, a series of 1,2,4-triazole-tethered β-hydroxy sulfide scaffolds 11a–h was synthesized in good to remarkable yields (69–90%) through the thiolysis of oxiranes by the thiols in aqueous basic catalytic conditions. The synthesized 1,2,4-triazole-tethered β-hydroxy sulfides were screened against bacterial tyrosinase enzyme, and Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial cultures i.e., (S. aureus) Staphylococcus aureus & (E. coli) Escherichia coli. Among the synthesized derivatives, the molecules 11a (IC50 = 7.67 ± 1.00 μM), 11c (IC50 = 4.52 ± 0.09 μM), 11d (IC50 = 6.60 ± 1.25 μM), and 11f (IC50 = 5.93 ± 0.50 μM) displayed the better tyrosinase inhibitory activity in comparison to reference drugs ascorbic acid (IC50 = 11.5 ± 1.00 μM) and kojic acid (IC50 = 30.34 ± 0.75 μM). The molecule benzofuran-triazol-propan-2-ol 11c proved to be the most potent bacterial tyrosinase inhibitory agent with a minimum IC50 of 4.52 ± 0.09 μM, as compared to other synthesized counterparts and both standards (kojic acid and ascorbic acid). The compound diphenyl-triazol-propan-2-ol 11a and benzofuran-triazole-propan-2-ol 11c showed comparable anti-bacterial chemotherapeutic efficacy with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC = 2.0 ± 2.25 mg mL−1 and 2.5 ± 0.00 mg mL−1, respectively) against S. aureus bacterial strain in comparison with standard antibiotic penicillin (MIC = 2.2 ± 1.15 mg mL−1). Furthermore, among the synthesized derivatives, only compound 11c demonstrated better anti-bacterial activity (MIC = 10 ± 0.40 mg mL−1) against E. coli, which was slightly less than the standard antibiotic i.e., penicillin (MIC = 2.4 ± 1.00 mg mL−1). The compound 11c demonstrated a better binding score (−7.08 kcal mol−1) than ascorbic acid (−5.59 kcal mol−1) and kojic acid (−5.78 kcal mol−1). Molecular docking studies also validate the in vitro anti-tyrosinase assay results; therefore, the molecule 11c can be the lead bacterial tyrosinase inhibitor as well as the antibacterial agent against both types of bacterial strains after suitable structural modifications

UNDERSTANDING PHYSICS BY PHYSICS SUITE STRATEGIES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN PAKISTAN

One of the teaching learning purposes of schooling is the social and psychological development of a child. Every field of today’s life is a slave of technology, which is in the state of flux. The role of physics is dominated of all other subjects in the school. Motivation of “doing” is important than simply acquiring knowledge. Physics suite is a set of strategies which enables the students ‘to learn to do’ in real life and enables them to be a socially active member of a society as well as psychologically sound personality. Main objective of the study was to examine the understanding of the learners taught by physics suite at secondary level in Pakistan. A null hypothesis “there is no significant difference between the mean scores of pupils taught with physics suite and those with traditional method”. Post-test only equivalent group design was used for the collection of data. A group of 40 students was observed, as experimental and control group comprising 20 students each. After six weeks data was collected through post test and analyzed using t test. Significant difference was found between the mean scores of experimental and control groups and the null hypothesis was rejected