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

A Case Study of the Department of Technology Education to Promote Entrepreneurial Pedagogical Skills of the Educators of Technical and Vocational Education (TVE)

The research aims to study the entrepreneurial pedagogical skills of the pre-service educators of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). It also aims to examine the curriculum of pre service TVET educator training programs in Pakistan. It’s a mixed type of research. KAP survey has been coduted from the students of the department of Technology Education, University of the Punjab to study their knowledge, attitude and teaching practices towards entrepreneurhsip education in TVET. A comparison has also been made between Technology education students and Business Education students to study the attitude towards entrepreneurship. Curriculum analysis of the department of technology education was also analysed. National Education Policy (NEP) was analysed to study the current efforts at the national level to promote entrepreneurship education in TVET programs.  SPSS was used to analyse quantitative data.  T- test was applied for statistical analysis. The practical implecations of this study are for the policy makers, curriculum developers and TVET institutes. This research will provide a basis for future research on effective pedagogical skill to enhance entreprenruial mind set of the TVET students. Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technical and vocational education; entrepreneurial curriculum; entrepreneurial pedagogical skill

Policy Paper: Technical and Vocational Teacher Education for Promoting Entrepreneurship among Students

This paper aims to determine entrepreneurial potential among technical education students and to develop a policy for technical and vocational teacher education for promoting entrepreneurship. Qualitative and quantitative approaches have been utilized in this research paper. Theory of Planned Behavior will be help full for proceeding quantitative research. Survey will be conducted among technical education students for determining entrepreneurial potential among students. It will also observe the impact of technical education on entrepreneurial mind set development. Qualitative approach will be utilized to analyze scheme of studies of technical and vocational education training institutes. Policy will also be analyzed.  On the basis of analysis we give recommendations. This study will be help full for promoting entrepreneurial mind set among the youth of the region. It will develop job creating opportunities for socio-economic development of the region. It will also explore the horizons for future research how to develop entrepreneurial technical and vocational curriculum. This study will be help full for policy makers, curriculum developers, future planners and institutions Keywords: Entrepreneurship Education; Technical and Vocational Education; pedagogical skills

Management of non-epileptic seizures through Hypnosis: a case study

Conversion disorder is associated with diverse somatic complaints including visual deficiency, psychogenic nonepileptic seizures, lethargy, paralyses etc. Studies have revealed that in addition to pharmacological treatment, psychological intervention including hypnosis has a significant impact in the management of conversion disorder. The current case study was focused to see any effect of unique hypnotic technique, Circle Therapy for the management of conversion disorder. The patient A.J. was referred for the evaluation and psychological management ofnon-epileptic seizures. After a complete physical and psychological observation and interview, stressors were identified a n d the patient underwent brief hypnotic session and it was suggested to diminish the stressors. The first therapy session showed remarkable impact and a second session was given as booster the next day. There were no signs of conversion disorder after the second session and even after eleven months

Lifetimes of Fine Levels of Li Atom for 20 < n < 31 by Extended Ritz Formula

Lithium and lithium-like elements look like hydrogen atoms if their two electrons and the nucleus are considered a core around which a single electron is orbiting. The energy and radii expressions for hydrogen atoms can be used for lithium and lithium-like elements; an important modification is introducing an effective principal quantum number. The effective principal quantum number differs from the principal quantum number of hydrogen by the quantum defect. Quantum defect has respective values for various levels of lithium and lithium ions. In this study, we used extended Ritz formulas to calculate quantum defects required to calculate energies of ns, np, nd, and nf series. Using these energies, we calculated transition probabilities and then the lifetimes of the lithium levels. The lifetimes were calculated with the published data; an excellent agreement was recorded. The work also extended the available list of lifetimes. Forty lifetimes are new and presented for the first time. a polynomial for each of the ns, np, nd, and nf series lifetimes has been produced that fits well the lifetime valuesComment: 9 Pages 4 table

Pop-out and IOR in Static Scenes with Region Based Visual Attention

This paper proposes a novel approach to construct the saliency map by combining region-based maps of distinct features. The multiplication style feature fusion process in the natural visual attention is modelled as weighted average of the features under influence of the external top-down and the internal bottom-up inhibitions. The recently discovered aspect of feature-based inhibition is also included in the procedure of IOR along with the commonly implemented spatial and feature-map based inhibitions. Results obtained from the proposed method are compatible with the well known attention models but with the advantages of faster computation, direct usability of focus of attention in machine vision, and broader coverage of visually prominent objects