Bringing the Focus Back: Aurat March and the Regeneration of Feminism in Pakistan

This paper traces the evolution and regeneration of the feminist movement in Pakistan. It examines the contemporary feminist movement in the country against the backdrop of strong opposition faced by protest style congregations named ‘Aurat March’ on international women’s day. Weaving the narrative through conversations of leading feminists and prominent individuals belonging to the religious right, it postulates how the backlash to raising issues of sexuality and body politics has regenerated the feminist movement in Pakistan

Water pipe smoking amongst the university and college students of Karachi, Pakistan

Background: An extensive literature search revealed that water pipe smoking is an emerging health risk and deserves the attention of health professionals. This study was therefore undertaken to determine the frequency of water pipe smoking among students in college and universities of Pakistan and to assess the practices, knowledge and attitude towards water pipe smoking among them. Method: A cross sectional survey was conducted in the College and Universities of Karachi, Pakistan from April 2009 to October 2009. Students were selected through non probability sampling and given self administered questionnaire after the informed consent. Result: A total of 422 students participated with response rate of 92.08%.Overall prevalence of water pipe smoking was found to be 45.2 % with current water pipe smokers of 16.5% males and 5.7% females (p=\u3c0.001). About 39.3% (160/407) of them were found to have inadequate knowledge and 64% had positive attitude about water pipe smoking. Inadequate knowledge and negative attitude towards water pipe smoking is significantly associated with current water pipe smoking than former or ever water pipe smokers (p=\u3c0.001). Conclusion: Inadequate knowledge and social acceptability of water pipe smoking and the male gender are leading to high current smoking tendency among young adults in Karachi, Pakista

Caught between Two Cultures: Pragmatic Transfer in English-using Pakistanis Apology Responses

In Pragmatics, scholars have given special attention to study the influence of leaners culture and social rules in understanding and using target language pragmatics. For this purpose, speech acts have been studied quite widely. This study investigates the speech act of responding to apology in Pakistani English, British English and Pakistani Urdu, and tries to highlight whether respondents transfer their cultural and social rules in the target language or not. The present study followed quantitative approach for data collection and analysis. A discourse completion test (DCT), consists of 12 apology response scenarios is used for data collection. The findings illustrate that English-using Pakistanis pragmatic choices are clearly influenced by their perceptions of various sociocultural and contextual variables. The English-using Pakistanis and Pakistani Urdu speakers are found using two main strategies (Acceptance, and Acknowledgment). In contrast, British English speakers tend to use Acceptance and Evasion strategies more often. Further, the findings have indicated that English-using Pakistanis and Pakistani Urdu speakers have used more Rejection strategies than their British English counterparts, though such communicative features are not salient in their ARs, and Pakistanis are surprisingly found quite clear and direct. The findings of the study may be helpful to English teachers who should be made aware that L2 learners’ pragmatic transfer is influenced by learners’ culture and social rules, and, as a result, should not be treated simply as a pragmatic ‘error’ or ‘failure’ to be corrected and criticized

From pragmatic competence to intercultural competence: Pakistani ESL teachers perspectives of teaching interculturality in ESL classroom

In recent years, the areas of intercultural pragmatics and transcultural pragmatics under the phenomenon of “interculturality” have been investigated by linguists and language scholars because interculturality has a deep-rooted connection with the language and second language teaching and learning. This data-oriented study follows a quantitative research design. The data is collected through a survey questionnaire from 75 English teachers who are teaching at the university level in five different public and private sector universities in Pakistan. The overall results encourage embedding the knowledge of interculturality in ESL/EFL classes. There is a need to organize training sessions for teachers because many teachers reported that they do not utilize such skills in their ESL/EFL classrooms. In addition, the majority of teachers also believed in employing new approaches for teaching transcultural pragmatics to their students. This study further highlights that teacher/educators could also benefit from working together to develop the teaching of interculturality and transcultural competence, and to make this development happen in relation to teacher professional development

Big data reduction framework for value creation in sustainable enterprises

Value creation is a major sustainability factor for enterprises, in addition to profit maximization and revenue generation. Modern enterprises collect big data from various inbound and outbound data sources. The inbound data sources handle data generated from the results of business operations, such as manufacturing, supply chain management, marketing, and human resource management, among others. Outbound data sources handle customer-generated data which are acquired directly or indirectly from customers, market analysis, surveys, product reviews, and transactional histories. However, cloud service utilization costs increase because of big data analytics and value creation activities for enterprises and customers. This article presents a novel concept of big data reduction at the customer end in which early data reduction operations are performed to achieve multiple objectives, such as a) lowering the service utilization cost, b) enhancing the trust between customers and enterprises, c) preserving privacy of customers, d) enabling secure data sharing, and e) delegating data sharing control to customers. We also propose a framework for early data reduction at customer end and present a business model for end-to-end data reduction in enterprise applications. The article further presents a business model canvas and maps the future application areas with its nine components. Finally, the article discusses the technology adoption challenges for value creation through big data reduction in enterprise applications

Human papilloma virus infection: vaccine knowledge attitude, and informational behavior among undergraduate students

Background: The study aimed to know the Human Papilloma Virus infection, vaccine knowledge attitude, and informational behavior among university students. Methodology: The study was conducted on students of Government College University Faisalabad from January 2022 to March 2022. The study consisted of a questionnaire that verbalized the awareness and prevalence of HPV in particular age groups male and female students. The questionnaire was divided into four sections to assess the awareness, knowledge, and behavior of students toward the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). Results: In the demographic representation about 85% (n=235 out of 275) of students belong to the age group of 18-22 while 14% (n=38 out of 275) students were from 23 to 24 years old. 23%(n=64) students were males while 76%(n=211) participants were females. Figures collected showed that 1%(n=3) participants were married while the remaining (about 98%) were single. According to the figures, about 70% of the partakers knew about the mode of transmission and the complications caused by the Human Papilloma Virus while 34% of all the students had no idea about HPV, its transmission, complications, or treatment. 65% had an idea that HPV causes genital warts and 75% were aware of the HPV vaccine. Moreover, 65% of students thought condoms as a source of prevention against HPV and 54% marked contact with body fluids as a mode of transmission of HPV. Conclusion: The knowledge and attitude towards HPV infection and HPV-related diseases and HPV vaccine among female students in the Government College University Faisalabad were significant. There is a need of well-defined education programs in the form of seminars, workshops and symposiums on the awareness of HPV infection are necessary to fill the knowledge gap among general population

Antibiotic utilization patterns for different wound types among surgical patients : findings and implications

Antimicrobial prophylaxis is effective in reducing the rate of surgical site infections (SSIs) post operatively. However, there are concerns with the extent of extend prophylaxis post-operatively especially among low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This increases antimicrobial re-sistance (AMR), which is a key issue in Pakistan. Consequently, we conducted an observational cross-sectional study among 583 patients undergoing surgery at a leading teaching hospital in Pakistan with respect to the choice, time and duration of antimicrobials to prevent SSIs. Identi-fied varables included post-op prophylactic antimicrobials given to all patients in all surgical procedures. In addition, cephalosporins were frequently used for all surgical procedures and among these, the use of third generation cephalosporins was common. The duration of post-operative prophylaxis was 3-4 days, appreciably longer than guideline suggestions, with most patients prescribed antimicrobials up to discharge. The inappropriate choice of antimicrobials combined with prolonged post-operative antibiotic administration post-operatively need to be addressed. This includes appropriate interventions, including antimicrobial stewardship pro-grams, which have been successful in other LMICs to improve antibiotic utilization associated with SSIs and reduce AM

Effect of early tranexamic acid administration on mortality, hysterectomy, and other morbidities in women with post-partum haemorrhage (WOMAN): an international, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background Post-partum haemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide. Early administration of tranexamic acid reduces deaths due to bleeding in trauma patients. We aimed to assess the effects of early administration of tranexamic acid on death, hysterectomy, and other relevant outcomes in women with post-partum haemorrhage. Methods In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we recruited women aged 16 years and older with a clinical diagnosis of post-partum haemorrhage after a vaginal birth or caesarean section from 193 hospitals in 21 countries. We randomly assigned women to receive either 1 g intravenous tranexamic acid or matching placebo in addition to usual care. If bleeding continued after 30 min, or stopped and restarted within 24 h of the first dose, a second dose of 1 g of tranexamic acid or placebo could be given. Patients were assigned by selection of a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight numbered packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Participants, care givers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. We originally planned to enrol 15 000 women with a composite primary endpoint of death from all-causes or hysterectomy within 42 days of giving birth. However, during the trial it became apparent that the decision to conduct a hysterectomy was often made at the same time as randomisation. Although tranexamic acid could influence the risk of death in these cases, it could not affect the risk of hysterectomy. We therefore increased the sample size from 15 000 to 20 000 women in order to estimate the effect of tranexamic acid on the risk of death from post-partum haemorrhage. All analyses were done on an intention-to-treat basis. This trial is registered with ISRCTN76912190 (Dec 8, 2008); ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00872469; and PACTR201007000192283. Findings Between March, 2010, and April, 2016, 20 060 women were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive tranexamic acid (n=10 051) or placebo (n=10 009), of whom 10 036 and 9985, respectively, were included in the analysis. Death due to bleeding was significantly reduced in women given tranexamic acid (155 [1·5%] of 10 036 patients vs 191 [1·9%] of 9985 in the placebo group, risk ratio [RR] 0·81, 95% CI 0·65–1·00; p=0·045), especially in women given treatment within 3 h of giving birth (89 [1·2%] in the tranexamic acid group vs 127 [1·7%] in the placebo group, RR 0·69, 95% CI 0·52–0·91; p=0·008). All other causes of death did not differ significantly by group. Hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (358 [3·6%] patients in the tranexamic acid group vs 351 [3·5%] in the placebo group, RR 1·02, 95% CI 0·88–1·07; p=0·84). The composite primary endpoint of death from all causes or hysterectomy was not reduced with tranexamic acid (534 [5·3%] deaths or hysterectomies in the tranexamic acid group vs 546 [5·5%] in the placebo group, RR 0·97, 95% CI 0·87-1·09; p=0·65). Adverse events (including thromboembolic events) did not differ significantly in the tranexamic acid versus placebo group. Interpretation Tranexamic acid reduces death due to bleeding in women with post-partum haemorrhage with no adverse effects. When used as a treatment for postpartum haemorrhage, tranexamic acid should be given as soon as possible after bleeding onset. Funding London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Pfizer, UK Department of Health, Wellcome Trust, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Households Socio-Economic Determinants of Childhood Diarrhoea Morbidity in Selected South Asian Countries

This study attempts to find out the association between the householdsocioeconomic factors with childhood diarrhoea in Pakistan, Bangladeshand Nepal. To estimate the determinants of diarrhoea, the study uses thedata derived from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in threeAsian countries: Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal from 2011 to 2013. Tofind out the diarrhoea morbidity among child under five, the child age,child gender, mother’s education and working status, child immunization,source of drinking water, type of toilet facility, washing hands behavior,floor material, and economic status of household has been used asindependent variables. Binary logistic model is used to estimate theprobability of diarrhoea morbidity among children of selected countries inthis study. The results of binary logistic regression indicate that to reducediarrhoea morbidity, washing hands especially after using toilet and attime of preparing food and eating food can play a major part. Mother’seducation and work status have significant impact on diarrhoea morbidity.The study concludes that family size has a strong impact on childhooddiarrhoea morbidity. In small families, mothers have more time for childcare than large families. So the chances of diarrhoea incidence are less insmall families

Anaphylactic shock as a rare side effect of intravenous amiodarone

Amiodarone is a very commonly used antiarrhythmic agent. However, it has a wide variety of systemic side effects as well as many hypersensitivity and allergic reactions, ranging from angioedema to anaphylactic shock in patients who have iodine allergies. We present a rare and unique case of an 86-year-old female who developed anaphylactic shock from intravenous (IV) amiodarone. She had no reported allergies to iodine or iodinated contrast. She had a history of chronic persistent atrial fibrillation and was being maintained on oral amiodarone as an outpatient. She was admitted with shortness of breath and was found to have atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular response. She was started on an IV amiodarone bolus. Immediately after a few milliliters of infusion, she complained of shortness of breath, with facial flushing and generalized blanching erythema, followed by severe hypotension and cardiopulmonary arrest. IV amiodarone infusion was suspected to be the culprit and was discontinued immediately. IV epinephrine 0.3 mg was administered, followed by the advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS) protocol for cardiopulmonary arrest. She did not respond to the standard ACLS protocol and continued to remain in cardiopulmonary arrest. A spot diagnosis of anaphylactic reaction to IV amiodarone was made, and she was started on IV epinephrine infusion 0.1 µg/kg/minute, and immediate return of spontaneous circulation was achieved. She was started on IV methylprednisolone 125 mg, IV famotidine 20 mg, and IV diphenhydramine 25 mg. She was intubated and required mechanical ventilation. She was successfully extubated later and safely discharged, receiving oral metoprolol 25 mg for rate control and PO rivaroxaban 20 mg once daily. Anaphylactic shock from IV amiodarone administration is a potentially fatal complication observed in patients with prior reported allergies to iodine or iodinated contrast media. It has rarely been reported in the absence of prior allergy to iodine or iodinated contrast media. Prompt recognition by clinicians is prudent for early diagnosis and appropriate treatment