The concept and perception of peace education in Gilgit Baltistan Pakistan: A comparative case study

In the geographically remote culture and context of Gilgit Baltistan Pakistan, this study explores the perceptions and practices of peace education by two secondary school head teachers (one in a relatively urban area and another in a rural area), as well as three additional teachers from each school. A qualitative, interview-based research approach is employed. The concept of peace education is related by the interviewed teachers to the inculcation and development of positive thinking and positive attitude among students. This positivity is seen as instrumental for the holistic development of the children, and ultimately, for the cultivation of a peaceful society

The Role of Teachers in Values Education in Pakistan: A Case of Early Childhood Education and Development from Pakistan.

The teachers in early childhood education and preschool have a significant influence on curriculum and daily practices in the class, therefore, have a dominant influence on the implementation of values education. Deeming values as a social construct, this small-scale qualitative case study was carried out to explore the priority values of early childhood education teachers and their ways of teaching values in a school in northern Pakistan. Interviews and classroom observations were conducted to gather in-depth data from the school leadership and the teachers. Teachers were found primarily focused on the inculcation of societal values, behaviors and life skills needed for children to successfully adjust to society. In this school, teachers are playing a dominant role in the values education of the young children through role modeling, daily practices and routines and interactions with the parents. School leadership is focused on values education. While doing so, they are aspiring for other stakeholders to accept the upper hand of the school values and expect them to facilitate the inculcation of these values in young children. The school and teachers are facing the problem of the reluctance of parents to take full responsibility for the values education of their children

The value based professional development for teachers’ attitude, behavior and enhanced professionalism : A school based intervention through a Whole School Improvement Program (WSIP)

This paper highlights the strategies and approaches employed to bring about positive changes in the attitude and behavior of the teachers and enhance their sense of professionalism in a girl’s high school of Gilgit Baltistan Pakistan. In addition to that, it illuminates the successes, challenges and the influence of these strategies and approaches on the overall school environment. These interventions were part of the one year long whole school improvement program(WSIP) exercised by PDCN in the academic year 2009-10 of the particular school. The strategies started with vision building, team building and task delegation, distributing the leadership and teacher empowerment, emotional intelligence sessions and workshops on professional ethics for teachers. After this initial platform building, regular sessions of reflective dialogues, maintaining professional portfolios, managing the student’s and teacher’s behavior were made the daily culture of the school. Additionally, individual and group counseling, mentoring, peer coaching and calling guest speakers on special issues were made the regular practices of the school life. The interventions resulted into the positive attitudinal, behavioral and value based changes in teachers’ personalities and their outlook toward the profession. After few months a learning culture and enthusiasm for the profession was quite visible in the attitude and behaviors’ of the teachers. Their sense of achievement and ownership of their accomplishments, voluntarily preparing and gathering materials for their lessons and portfolios as lifelong learners were some of the characteristics of the school culture. Our yearlong experiences at the school, leading and facilitating the change, realized us the significance of the value based professional development of the teachers particularly focused on the attitude, behavior and professional ethics. Therefore, in the light of the experiences we suggest for the policymakers and teacher educational institutions, to design and deliver tailor made programs in the above mentioned areas

Bedtime Smart Phone Usage and Its Effects on Work-Related Behaviour at Workplace

The over usage and over dependency on digital devices, like smartphones, has been considered as a growing international epidemic. The increased dependency on gadgets, especially smartphones for personal and official uses, has also brought many detrimental effects on individual users. Hence it is vital to understand the negative effects of smartphone usage on human. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effects of bedtime smartphone usage on work performances, interpersonal conflicts, and work engagement, via the mediating role of sleep quality among employees. Using a cross-sectional study design, a questionnaire-based field survey was conducted on 315 employees who participated as respondents. The results confirmed the negative effects of bedtime smartphone usage on sleep quality. Along with it, the effects of sleep quality on work performances, work engagements and interpersonal conflicts were also proven to be statistically significant. Regarding the mediating role of sleep quality, it was empirically evident that sleep quality mediates the relationship between bedtime smartphone usage with work performances and interpersonal conflicts. The findings revealed that bedtime smartphone usage reduces sleep quality among the employees, resulting in lower work performances and engagements while contributing to higher interpersonal conflicts. The findings concluded that smartphone usage before sleep increases the prospects of employees to be less productive, less engaged, and have more workplace conflicts. The findings warrant the continued managerial as well as academic research attention, as the smartphones are now used by many organisations to run businesses as well

Evaluating the impact of environmental education on ecologically friendly behavior of university students in pakistan: The roles of environmental responsibility and islamic values

With increasing global environmental problems, considerable evidence now suggests that environmental education can influence students’ ecologically friendly behavior significantly. Addressing increased environmental problems requires better understanding of the relations between focused and explicit environmental education, environmental responsibility, and religious values. The current study examined the relationship between environmental education and ecologically friendly behavior, utilizing insights from resource conservation theory. The relationship between the variables mentioned above was examined to determine the mediating effect of environmental responsibility and the moderating effect of Islamic values. Through a cross-sectional approach, data were gathered from 413 university students. The data were analyzed using analytical techniques such as “structural equation modeling” and “PROCESS.” The study’s findings support the predicted conceptual model, indicating that environmental education was positively related to environmentally friendly behavior. Furthermore, environmental responsibility partially mediated the relationship above, whereas Islamic values positively moderated the relationships between environmental education and ecologically friendly behavior as well as between environmental education and environmental responsibility. These findings emphasize the critical role of environmental education and Islamic values in comprehending the ecological behaviors of Muslim students

Exploring the impact of linguistic signals transmission on patients’ health consultation choice: web mining of online reviews

Background: Patients face difficulties identifying appropriate physicians owing to the sizeable quantity and uneven quality of information in physician rating websites. Therefore, an increasing dependence of consumers on online platforms as a source of information for decisionmaking has given rise to the need for further research into the quality of information in the form of online physician reviews (OPRs). Methods: Drawing on the signaling theory, this study develops a theoretical model to examine how linguistic signals (affective signals and informative signals) in physician rating websites affect consumers’ decision making. The hypotheses are tested using 5521 physicians’ six-month data drawn from two leading health rating platforms in the U.S (i.e., Healthgrades.com and Vitals.com) during the COVID-19 pandemic. A sentic computing-based sentiment analysis framework is used to implicitly analyze patients’ opinions regarding their treatment choice. Results: The results indicate that negative sentiment, review readability, review depth, review spelling, and information helpfulness play a significant role in inducing patients’ decision-making. The influence of negative sentiment, review depth on patients’ treatment choice was indirectly mediated by information helpfulness. Conclusions: This paper is a first step toward the understanding of the linguistic characteristics of information relating to the patient experience, particularly the emerging field of online health behavior and signaling theory. It is also the first effort to our knowledge that employs sentic computing-based sentiment analysis in this context and provides implications for practice

Contribution of Small-Scale Agroforestry to Local Economic Development and Livelihood Resilience: Evidence from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (KPK), Pakistan

Agroforestry plays a vital role in enhancing environmental sustainability, improving local economies, and reducing poverty through livelihood resilience. Several researchers have studied the importance of agroforestry, but little attention has been paid to livelihood resilience and local economic development in developing countries. This study aims to find the role of small-scale agroforestry in local economic development in the Shangla and Swat districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Province, Pakistan. In this study, a total of 350 quantitative household surveys, 12 qualitative household case studies, and interviews of experts are used. The ordinary least squares (OLS), linear regression model, household income, wealth index, and five capitals of sustainable livelihood approach (SLA) were used to measure livelihood resilience. Results show several significant findings which may apply on a larger scale and in other cities of Pakistan or other countries. First, it directly shows the association between agroforestry, resilience-building, and local economic development. Second, financial capital can be improved through agroforestry, which can improve other capital assets. Third, small-scale agroforestry brings non-financial benefits such as environmental sustainability, improved living standards, reduced soil erosion, and provided shade. Fourth, irrigation plays a vital role in building livelihood resilience and promoting agroforestry. Lastly, on-farm diversity can be improved through agroforestry. This research discusses several practical implications along with recommendations for future research

Development of local economy through the strengthening of small-medium-sized forest enterprises in KPK, pakistan

Small–medium-sized forest enterprises (SMFEs) have historically played an essential role in developing countries’ economies worldwide because most businesses start as small businesses, and government support and knowledge-based recourse are critical to the sustainable development of SMFEs and local economies. The current studies examined the effects of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) government’s (Pakistan) support (GS) and entrepreneur knowledge (EK) on the development of small–medium-sized forest enterprises (SD) and their contribution to the local economic development (LED) of the region. Primary data were collected from 350 SMFEs in KPK, Pakistan. The model was developed by using a structural equation model (SEM) to investigate the impact of GS, EK, and SMFEs on the growth, SG, and sustainable development of the local economy. This study concludes that EK and GS could increase growth in SMFE businesses and contribute to LED. On the other hand, crediting loans and equipping businesses with training could not directly affect SMFE businesses and LED growth. The government needs to use natural resources and the SMFE communities as leaders among suppliers in the local market for the sustainable development of LED and SMFEs, alongside focusing on preserving and taking initiatives to develop. This study discusses several practical implications for policymakers, business owners, and academics, with recommendations for future research

Can Leaders' Humility Enhance Project Management Effectiveness? Interactive Effect of Top Management Support

This paper aims to explore the effect of humble leadership on project management effectiveness by integrating the mediating role of employee creativity. Top management support moderates the direct (humble leadership and project management effectiveness) and indirect relationships through employee creativity. Time-lagged data were obtained from 332 persons working in a matrix organization on sustainable information technology projects. The results show that humble leadership enhances project management effectiveness by mediating and moderating processes. This study provides a solution to an underlying research question that has gone unanswered in prior studies. What are the strategies proposed for humble leadership in fostering the effectiveness of project management

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