Health professional students’ perceptions regarding their role in tobacco control: findings from the Global Health Professional Students Survey, Pakistan, 2011

Background: An important way of reducing tobacco use is to train the health professional (HP) students to assist in tobacco cessation by educating patients and public. In order to shape their thoughts for the desired role, it is vital to understand their existing perceptions regarding HP’s role in tobacco control. Thus, the aim of our study was to find out the perceptions of Pakistani HP students regarding their future role in tobacco control, and examine factors associated with negative perceptions.<p></p> Methods: Secondary data analysis of the Global Health Professional Students Survey, Pakistan, 2011 was performed. Study population included 3445 health professional students in third year of graduate level programs. The dependent variable (perceptions of HP students), was developed using four questions from the survey. Students who did not regard HP’s role in tobacco control were labeled as having negative perceptions. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to analyze association between HP students’ perceptions and various socio-demographic, attitudinal and knowledge related factors; and were reported as adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence interval.<p></p> Results: We found that 44.8% (n = 1542) of students do not regard HPs as role model for their patients and public, and perceive that HPs do not play an important part in patient’s quitting tobacco use. These negative perceptions were associated with male sex (OR = 1.25, 95% CI 1.02 – 1.53, p value 0.028), and poor knowledge about tobacco cessation techniques (OR = 1.32, 95% CI 1.12 – 1.55, p value < 0.001). Negative perceptions were also associated with their attitudes towards ban on: tobacco advertisements (OR = 1.67, 95% CI 1.13 – 2.48, p value 0.010); and tobacco use at public places (OR = 1.60, 95% CI 1.26 – 2.03, p value < 0.001).<p></p> Conclusion: The role of HPs for tobacco control is fairly under-perceived by HP students, and the undesired negative perceptions are associated with male sex, poor knowledge about tobacco use cessation techniques and negative attitudes towards legislative control. A comprehensive approach, focusing on these aspects should be adopted to train HPs, in order to utilize them as an effective manpower for tobacco control

Determinants of Employee Satisfaction: A Case Study of Banking Sector in Lahore, Pakistan

The contributing role of financial institutions towards stabilization and growth of an economy cannot be overlooked. Employees play a pivotal role in achieving organizational goals. Gaining employee satisfaction and commitment is a gnawing concern facing banking industry of Pakistan. This paper aims to investigate the impact of factors such as work – family balance, perceived job security and Person-Environment (P.E) Fit on employee satisfaction in the banking sector of Lahore, Pakistan. Using systematic random sampling technique, a sample of 252 employees from various banks was surveyed using a structured and standardized questionnaire. Correlation and regression techniques were applied to analyze the data. The results supported the study hypotheses, revealing that work-family balance, perceived job security and person-environment fit had impact of employee satisfaction in the banking sector. Keywords: Employee Satisfaction, Work-Family Balance, Perceived Job Security, Person-Environment Fi

Determinants of Employee Satisfaction: a case study of Banking Sector in Lahore, Pakistan

The contributing role of financial institutions towards stabilization and growth of an economy cannot be overlooked. Employees play a pivotal role in achieving organizational goals. Gaining employee satisfaction and commitment is a gnawing concern facing banking industry of Pakistan. This paper aims to investigate the impact of factors such as work – family balance, perceived job security and person-environment fit on employee satisfaction in the banking sector of Lahore, Pakistan. Using systematic random sampling technique, a sample of 252 employees from various banks was surveyed using a structured and standardized questionnaire. Correlation and regression techniques were applied to analyze the data. The results supported the study hypotheses, revealing that work-family balance, perceived job security and person-environment fit had impact of employee satisfaction in the banking sector. Keywords: Employee Satisfaction, Work-Family Balance, Perceived Job Security, Person-Environment Fi

Prevalence and determinants of susceptibility to cigarette smoking among school students in Pakistan: secondary analysis of Global Youth Tobacco Survey

Background: Susceptibility to smoke has been recognized as a strong predictor of smoking experimentation and taking up regular smoking habit. The identification of smoking susceptible individuals and its determinants is important in the efforts to reduce future smoking prevalence. The aims of this study are to estimate prevalence of susceptibility to smoke among adolescents, and identify factors associated with it.<p></p> Methods: Cross sectional data was obtained from Global Youth Tobacco Survey conducted in three cities of Pakistan in year 2004. Study population consisted of students in grades, 8th, 9th, and 10th; aged 13 to 15 years. Secondary analysis using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to estimate the associations between smoking susceptibility and co-variates. Descriptive statistics were reported in proportions, and adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence interval were used to report logistic regression analyses.<p></p> Results: Approximately 12% of nonsmoking students were found susceptible to smoking. Students, who were females (OR = 1.53, 95% CI [1.24-1.89]); whose parents (OR = 1.64, 95% CI [1.35-1.99]); or close friend smoked (OR = 2.77, 95% CI [2.27- 3.40]) were more susceptible to cigarette smoking. Students who had good knowledge about harmful effects of smoking (OR = 0.54, 95% CI [0.43-0.69]); and had access to anti-smoking media (OR = 0.73, 95% CI [0.59-0.89]) were less likely to be susceptible to smoking.<p></p> Conclusion: Students who were females, had smoking parents, friends or exposure to newspaper/magazines cigarette marketing, were more susceptible to cigarette smoking among Pakistani adolescents. While knowledge of harmful effects of smoking and access to anti-smoking media served as protective factors against susceptibility to smoking.<p></p&gt

Anticancer screening of medicinal plant phytochemicals against Cyclin-Dependent Kinase-2 (CDK2): An in-silico approach

Background: Cyclin-Dependent Kinase-2 (CDK2) is a member of serine/threonine protein kinases family and plays an important role in regulation of various eukaryotic cell division events. Over-expression of CDK2 during cell cycle may lead to several cellular functional aberrations including diverse types of cancers (lung cancer, primary colorectal carcinoma, ovarian cancer, melanoma and pancreatic carcinoma) in humans. Medicinal plants phytochemicals which have anticancer potential can be used as an alternative drug resource.Methods: This study was designed to find out anticancer phytochemicals from medicinal plants which could inhibit CDK2 with the help of molecular docking technique. Molecular Operating Environment (MOE v2009) software was used to dock 2300 phytochemicals in this study.Results: The outcome of this study shows that four phytochemicals Kushenol T, Remangiflavanone B, Neocalyxins A and Elenoside showed the lowest S-score (-17.83, -17.57, -17.26, -17.17 respectively) and binds strongly with all eight active residues Tyr15, Lys33, Ileu52, Lys56, Leu78, phe80, Asp145 and Phe146 of CDK2 binding site. These phytochemicals could successfully inhibit the CDK2.Conclusion: These phytochemicals can be considered as potential anticancer agents and used in drug development against CDK2. We anticipate that this study would pave way for phytochemical based novel small molecules as more efficacious and selective anti-cancer therapeutic compounds

3-Benzyl-5-benzyl­idene-2-sulfanylidene-1,3-thia­zolidin-4-one

In the title mol­ecule, C17H13NOS2, the essentially planar thia­zole ring (r.m.s deviation 0.005 Å) forms dihedral angles of 16.85 (8)° and 75.02 (8)° with the phenyl rings. The dihedral angle between the two phenyl rings is 61.95 (9)°

Frequency of Central Nervous System Anomalies Associated with Hydrocephalus Diagnosed by Magnetic Resonance Imaging in all Ages

Hydrocephalus is a medical condition which is physiologically recognized by elevated intracranial pressure. It occurs mostly as a consequence of certain central nervous system pathologies such as Chiari malformation type I and II, myelomeningocele, space occupying lesions, TBM, Bacterial meningitis, glioblastoma, traumatic brain injuries along with hemorrhage. It is clinically recognized by many stellar signs such as seizures, dementia, gait disturbances and bradycardia along with sleep apnea. The main purpose of our research paper was to carefully evaluate the frequency of different CNS pathologies which represent as the etiology of raised intracranial pressure in all ages. The duration of study was from 01 June 2018 to 01 June 2019 at Lahore General Hospital, Pakistan. A retrospective cross-sectional study included 120 patients which were admitted to Neuro-Radiology department with provisional diagnosis of hydrocephalus along with the associated clinical manifestations. The patients were chosen through convenient sampling technique. All the examined patients included males and females of all ages.  Overall 120 patients were included in this study. Out of 120 patients; males were 70 (41.6%) and females were 50 (33.6%) in this study population.  The central nervous system pathology which was found to be most frequently associated with hydrocephalus was space occupying lesion 25 % (30cases) with mean age of 38.8, seconded by TBM 11.6 % (14cases) with the mean age of 37.2; glioma 9.1% (11cases) with mean age of 42 and SAH  8.3% (10cases) with the mean age of 48.8.  In conclusion, MRI was the gold standard modality for the evaluation of hydrocephalus due to central nervous system pathologies

Privacy-Aware and Secure Decentralized Air Quality Monitoring

Indoor Air Quality monitoring is a major asset to improving quality of life and building management. Today, the evolution of embedded technologies allows the implementation of such monitoring on the edge of the network. However, several concerns need to be addressed related to data security and privacy, routing and sink placement optimization, protection from external monitoring, and distributed data mining. In this paper, we describe an integrated framework that features distributed storage, blockchain-based Role-based Access Control, onion routing, routing and sink placement optimization, and distributed data mining to answer these concerns. We describe the organization of our contribution and show its relevance with simulations and experiments over a set of use cases