Application of Multiple Criteria Decision Models for Oilseed Crops in Pakistan’s Punjab

Pakistan is deficient in major food products. Self-sufficiency in food has virtually always been a major priority, because imports of wheat, edible oil, sugar, pulses and milk products put a massive burden on the balance of payments for the country. The increase in the production of oilseed has been a priority goal of the agricultural development policy in Pakistan. The oilseed crops have been validated as alternative crops on several target locations of different agro-ecological zones [PARC (1990)]; but the success of this validation work in terms of their dissemination is very limited. The possibility of including these crops in well established systems needed to be well conceived. The selection of farming systems, which have the potential to adopt such crops, is a prerequisite to investigate the problems and prospects of oilseed crops. The emphasis of the study is, therefore, on the identification of typical farm situations where the oilseed crops can be evaluated for their potential inclusion in the cropping plans. A real decision-making environment in agriculture involves several objectives along with their explicit targets.

Maternal education, empowerment, economic status and child polio vaccination uptake in Pakistan: a population based cross sectional study

Objectives: To explore the association of maternal education and empowerment with childhood polio vaccination using nationally representative data of Pakistani mothers in a reproductive age group. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Secondary analysis of Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS), 2012–2013 data was performed. Participants: Of the 13 558 mothers included in the survey sample, 6982 mothers were able to provide information regarding polio vaccinations. Main outcome measures: Polio vaccination coverage among children aged up to 5 years was categorised as complete vaccination (all four oral polio vaccine (OPV) doses), incomplete vaccination, and no vaccination (zero OPV dose received). Mothers' empowerment status was assessed using standard ‘Measure DHS’ questions regarding their involvement in decision-making related to health, household possessions and visits among family and friends. Education was categorised as no education, primary, secondary and higher education. Results of multinomial regression analyses were reported as adjusted OR with 95% CI. We adjusted for age, wealth index, urban/rural residence, place of delivery, and antenatal and postnatal visits. Results: Only 56.4% (n=3936) of the children received complete polio vaccination. Women with no education had significantly higher odds of their child receiving no polio vaccination (OR 2.34, 95% CI 1.05 to 5.18; p<0.01) and incomplete vaccination (OR 1.40, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.87; p<0.01). Further, unempowered women also had significantly higher odds of not taking their child for any polio vaccination (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.17 to 2.12; p<0.01) and incomplete vaccination (OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.41; p=0.04). Conclusions: Illiteracy, socioeconomic status and empowerment of women remained significant factors linked to poorer uptake of routine polio vaccination

Teachers: the Epitome of Pedagogy

This study focuses on almost all factors, those if, found collectively in a teacher makes him a role model. The paper highlights the fact that an ideal teacher is one who is a friend, a performer, an artist, a speaker, an analyst, a trainer, a guide, an anchorperson and a judge. The paper concludes that the blend of personal and professional qualities and didactic knowledge of the subject are valued key points. This study also sets path for further and deeper discussion of images of a good teacher at all educational levels in general and at tertiary level in particular. Key words: Role model; Quality Education; Lucidity; Ideal Teacher; Evaluation; Instructional objectives

EAST: Energy Efficient Adaptive Scheme for Transmission in Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, we propose Energy-efficient Adaptive Scheme for Transmission (EAST) in WSNs. EAST is IEEE 802.15.4 standard compliant. In this approach, open-loop is used for temperature-aware link quality estimation and compensation. Whereas, closed-loop feedback helps to divide network into three logical regions to minimize overhead of control packets on basis of Threshold transmitter power loss (RSSIloss) for each region and current number of neighbor nodes that help to adapt transmit power according to link quality changes due to temperature variation. Simulation results show that propose scheme; EAST effectively adapts transmission power to changing link quality with less control packets overhead and energy consumption compared to classical approach with single region in which maximum transmitter power assigned to compensate temperature variation