La actitud de los estudiantes hacia la biología en las escuelas secundarias de Islamabad, Pakistán

In this age of science and technology, the world is facing geographical challenges, whereasthe future nation builders are losing their interest even in science subjects, especially, inbiology. There are numerous factors that contributed towards students’ success in a particularsubject but the most important one is their attitude towards that subject. The focus of thepresent study was to investigate the attitude of students towards Biology in SecondarySchools in Islamabad. The population of this study comprised all 10th grade Biology studentsin different institutions in Islamabad. Owing to the shortage of time, the researcher selected506 students (from six public and four private schools) as a convenience sample for this study.These students were administered through a valid and reliable instrument known as “BiologyAttitude Scale” (BAS) developed by the researcher. The study used a 5-point Likert type scaleto measure students’ attitude towards Biology on seven dimensions: “Interest in Biology”,“Career in Biology”, “Importance of Biology”, “Biology Teacher”, “Difficulty in Biology”,“Equipment use in Biology” and “Methodology of Biology”. Students’ attitude toward Biologywas analyzed by using the mean score of an individual statement. The findings of the studyrevealed that overall students showed a positive attitude towards Biology. Female studentsexhibited a positive attitude as compared to male students. Similarly, students in publicschools showed a positive attitude toward students of private schools.En esta era de la ciencia y la tecnología, el mundo enfrenta desafíos geográficos, mientras que los futuros constructores de naciones están perdiendo su interés incluso en temas de ciencias, especialmente en biología. Existen numerosos factores que contribuyeron al éxito de los estudiantes en un tema en particular, pero el más importante es su actitud hacia ese tema. El objetivo del presente estudio fue investigar la actitud de los estudiantes hacia la biología en las escuelas secundarias de Islamabad. La población de este estudio comprendió a todos los estudiantes de biología de 10º grado en diferentes instituciones en Islamabad. Debido a la escasez de tiempo, el investigador seleccionó a 506 estudiantes (de seis escuelas públicas y cuatro privadas) como muestra de conveniencia para este estudio. Estos estudiantes fueron administrados a través de un instrumento válido y confiable conocido como "Biology Attitude Scale" (BAS) desarrollado por el investigador. El estudio utilizó una escala tipo Likert de 5 puntos para medir la actitud de los estudiantes hacia la biología en siete dimensiones: "Interés en biología", "Carrera en biología", "Importancia de la biología", "Profesor de biología", "Dificultad en biología", "Uso de equipos en biología" y "Metodología de la biología". La actitud de los estudiantes hacia la biología se analizó utilizando el puntaje promedio de una declaración individual. Los resultados del estudio revelaron que los estudiantes en general mostraron una actitud positiva hacia la biología. Las estudiantes exhibieron una actitud positiva en comparación con los estudiantes varones. Del mismo modo, los estudiantes en las escuelas públicas mostraron una actitud positiva hacia los estudiantes de las escuelas privadas

INVOLVEMENT AND COMMUNICATION ON FACE BOOK: EXPLORING INTERACTION PATTERNS OF PERSONALITY AND ADULT ATTACHMENT STYLES

The study is intended to explore individuals’ involvementand interaction on Facebook as an outcome of personality dimensions,and attachment styles. Participants (N=383) Facebook users included 60.3% females with an age range of 18-27 years (means = 22.47±2.91). Results suggested that extraversion (β=.12, p<.05) and neuroticism (β=.15, p<.05) predicted Facebook usage (intensity), and effects of neuroticism is moderated by secure attachment style (β interaction= - .23, p<.01). Social interaction on Facebook was predicted by extraversion (β=.14, p<.05) and the effects was moderated by secure attachment style (β interaction= -.16, p<.05). It is concluded that computer mediated communication on social networking sites is a complex phenomenon and shall be studied as a consequence of interaction between personal and environmental factors

NewsGPT: ChatGPT Integration for Robot-Reporter

The integration of large language models (LLMs) with social robots has emerged as a promising avenue for enhancing human-robot interactions at a time when news reports generated by artificial intelligence (AI) are gaining in credibility. This integration is expected to intensify and become a more productive resource for journalism, media, communication, and education. In this paper a novel system is proposed that integrates AI's generative pretrained transformer (GPT) model with the Pepper robot, with the aim of improving the robot's natural language understanding and response generation capabilities for enhanced social interactions. By leveraging GPT's powerful language processing capabilities, this system offers a comprehensive pipeline that incorporates voice input recording, speech-to-text transcription, context analysis, and text-to-speech synthesis action generation. The Pepper robot is enabled to comprehend user queries, generate informative responses with general knowledge, maintain contextually relevant conversations, and act as a more domain-oriented news reporter. It is also linked with a news resource and powered with a Google search capability. To evaluate the performance of the framework, experiments were conducted involving a set of diverse questions. The robot's responses were assessed on the basis of eight criteria, including relevance, context, and fluency. Despite some identified limitations, this system contributes to the field of journalism and human-robot interaction by showcasing the potential of integrating LLMs with social robots. The proposed framework opens up opportunities for improving the conversational capabilities of robots, enabling interactions that are smoother, more engaging, and more context aware

Anti-mullerian hormone: Above and beyond conventional ovarian reserve markers

Management of ovarian dysfunctions requires accurate estimation of ovarian reserve (OR). Therefore, reproductive hormones and antral follicle count (AFC) are assessed to indicate OR. Serum anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) is a unique biomarker that has a critical role in folliculogenesis as well as steroidogenesis within ovaries. Secretion from preantral and early antral follicles renders AMH as the earliest marker to show OR decline. In this review we discuss the dynamics of circulating AMH that remarkably vary with sex and age. As it emerges as a marker of gonadal development and reproductive disorders, here we summarize the role of AMH in female reproductive physiology and provide evidence of higher accuracy in predicting ovarian response to stimulation. Further, we attempt to compile potential clinical applications in children and adults. We propose that AMH evaluation has a potential role in effectively monitoring chemotherapy and pelvic radiation induced ovarian toxicity. Furthermore, AMH guided ovarian stimulation can lead to individualization of therapeutic strategies for infertility treatment. However future research on AMH levels within follicular fluid may pave the way to establish it as a marker of quality besides quantity of the growing follicles

Cross talk between serum Kisspeptin-Leptin during assisted reproduction techniques

Background & Objective: Leptin facilitates onset of puberty by impact on hypothalamic Kisspeptin, gonadotropin releasing hormone, follicle stimulating and luteinizing hormone. The link of peripheral Leptin-Kisspeptin in regulating the ovarian and endometrial tissue in relation to adiposity is unknown. Therefore, we wanted to identify Kisspeptin-Leptin association with body mass index (BMI) and success of assisted reproductive treatments (ART) in infertile females.Methods: A cross sectional study was carried from August 2014 till May 2016 after receiving ethical approval at Australian Concept Infertility Medical Centre, and Aga Khan University. The study group comprised of females with an age range of 25-37 year who had duration of unexplained infertility for more than two years. They were grouped as; underweight (/m2), normal weight (18-22.9 kg/m2), overweight 23-24.99 kg/m2 and obese (\u3e25 kg/m2). Kisspeptin and Leptin levels were measured by enzyme linked immune sorbent assay before down regulation of ovaries and initiation of treatment protocol of ART. Failure of procedure was detected by beta human chorionic gonadotropin \u3c25mIU/ml (non-pregnant) whereas females with levels \u3e25mIU/ml and cardiac activity on trans-vaginal scan were declared pregnant.Results: Highest Kisspeptin and Leptin levels were seen in normal weight group (374.80 ± 185.08ng/L; 12.78 ± 6.8 pg/ml) respectively, yet the highest number of clinical pregnancy was observed in overweight group (42%).A strong correlation of Kisspeptin with Leptin (r=0.794, p=0.001) was observed in the overweight females.Conclusion: Leptin-Kisspeptin-fertility link is expressed by maximum number of clinical pregnancies in the female group that showed strongest relationship between serum Leptin and Kisspeptin levels, irrespective of their BMI

Ethical Dimensions of Climate and Environmental Issues in Pakistani Media

One of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, Pakistan, is facing a variety of cases of climate and environmental ethics violations by a number of local and regional actors. Advocacy journalism has the potential to publicize these violations and injustices, stimulating democratic dialogue among the public audience that can eventually push leadership to make eco-friendly policies and raise public concerns on international platforms. The present study critically analyses the advocacy journalism coverage of cases of local and regional climate and environmental ethics violations in almost 8000 editorials in mainstream Pakistani Urdu and English language newspapers over two years and examines the amount of space and priority of coverage given to them. The quantitative content analysis method is used to measure and compare the frequency of sample content in two major categories and two subcategories to determine the role of advocacy journalism in highlighting the ethical violations of climate and environmental issues in Pakistan. In the first case, selected newspapers are argued to give inappropriate coverage on both climate change and environmental degradation issues to their readers. Moreover, the editorial priorities of newspapers in both languages to advocate local and regional threats of climate change are mainly jumbled and therefore misleading to the readers. In conclusion, results reveal that both state and mass media are non-adherent to different articles of UNESCO\u27s Declaration of Ethical Principles in Relation to Climate Change. The final analysis suggests that Pakistani advocacy journalism is equally responsible for present climate change woes of the country and hence – instead of being part of the solution – has become part of the problem

Anti mullerian hormone: Ovarian response indicator in young patients receiving long GnRH agonist protocol for ovarian stimulation

Objective: Anti Mullerian hormone (AMH) is gaining place as ovarian marker, chiefly in infertility assistance. We explored its correlation with oocytes retrieval after long GnRH agonist protocol for stimulation, in younger and older infertile population.Methods: This retrospective analysis compiled data of 166 females, receiving ICSI treatment from June 2014 to March 2015. Serum FSH, LH, Estadiol, AMH and antral follicle count were assessed. Outcomes were measured as good (5 to 19 oocytes) and bad responders.Results: Higher discriminatory power of AMH (AUROC; 0.771; p \u3c 0.05) was seen in comparison to FSH (0.692; p \u3c 0.05) and AFC (0.690; p \u3c 0.01). AMH reported strongest association with oocyte retrieved (odds ratio of 15.06). Subgroup analysis reported 68.6 % risk of bad response with AMH levels of less than 1.37ng/ml. This association was observed more significant in young infertile patients \u3c35 year of age (r=0.245; p=0.012) versus older population \u3e35 year (r=0.169; p\u3e0.05).Conclusion: Our study reaffirms that serum AMH correlates well with oocytes retrieved, particularly in females younger than 35 years. We suggest incorporation of AMH in baseline assessment of infertile females, who are falsely advised to postpone interventions based on their age and normal FSH levels