Implication of HR components on Employee Performance: A comparative analysis of Public & Private Sector employees

Globalization and technological advancement has made market competitive. To survive in market every organization needs to maintain high performance. It can only be possible when the employees working in organization perform more efficiently than competitors. Increase in competition of market has made employee performance a big question to organization for its survival in global competition. Study reveals performance of employee is affected by various component of human resource management i.e. Job satisfaction, leadership, training &development and work stress. HRM is managing people effectively and efficiently to achieve strategic aims of organization. This study focuses on analyzing the impact of HR components on performance of employee. It also compares impact of HR component respect to public and private organizations. The study finds HR components have significant positive relationship with employee performance except work stress. Study also interprets findings irrespective of organization type

Geotechnical characteristics of effluent contaminated cohesive soils

In developing countries like Pakistan, raw industrial effluents are usually disposed-off directly into open lands or in water bodies resulting in soil contamination. Leachate formation due to rainfalls in openly dumped solid waste also adds to soil contamination. In this study, engineering behavior of soils contaminated by two industrial effluents, one from paper industry (acidic) and another from textile industry (basic), has been investigated. Laboratory testing revealed significant effects of effluent contamination on engineering behavior of tested soils. Liquid limit, plasticity index, optimum moisture content and compression index of tested soils were found to increase with effluent contaminant, indicating a deterioration in the engineering behavior of soils. Whereas maximum dry density, undrained shear strength and coefficient of consolidation of the contaminated soils showed a decreasing trend. The dilapidation in engineering characteristics of soils due to the addition of industrial effluents could pose serious threats to existing and future foundations in terms of loss of bearing capacity and increase in settlement. Keywords: soil contamination, industrial waste, engineering behavior, effluent waste, leachate. First published online: 28 Nov 201

Evaluation of Quality during Construction Projects: A Case Study of Pakistan

Achieving and maintaining quality values are indispensable for attaining organizational and customer satisfaction. This research investigates different aspects of operationalize quality culture and factors affecting the quality of building construction in under developed countries like Pakistan. A qualitative and quantitative survey was circulated among different stakeholders including Clients, Consultants and Contractors to assess the level of the contractor’s performance, the project monitoring and controlling techniques, proper health and safety requirements, client satisfaction and workers experience in construction industry projects. The practice of professional quality management in building projects is increasing, however, many flaws and negligence are still found in local practices. This analysis also indicates that political and socio-economic factors play a significant role in maintaining the quality level in local industry. Therefore, the allocation of sufficient resources, proper training of workers, and recruitment of quality control staff and the use of advanced technologies are recommended for proper implementation of QMS (Quality Management System)

Frequency of raised red cell distribution width in acute exacerbation of COPD patients

Objective: objective of our study is to investigate and establish the frequency of raised red cell distribution width in acute exacerbation of COPD patients. Study design: Cross sectional study Place and Duration of study: This study was conducted in pulmonology department of Nishtar Hospital Multan from January 2016 to December 2017. Methods: Total 384 patients were selected by non-probability consecutive sampling and approval of study was taken from ethical committee of the institution. Written permission of study was signed by every patient enrolled in study. Numerical variables like age, weight, white blood cells, platelets, MCV, hemoglobin (Hb) and duration of COPD were analyzed statically by taking their mean and standard deviation and t-test was applied to test their significance. Non numerical variables like gender, anemia, thrombocytopenia, income and area of living were statistically analyzed by taking their frequency and chi square test was applied to test their significance. While the outcome variable red cell distribution width was assessed by 3-part hematology chamber. Results: Overall, there were 100% (n=384) patients were included, in this study, both genders. There were 60.7% (n=233) males and 39.3% (n=151) females. 72.1% (n=277) patients belonged to urban areas while 27.9% (n=107) belonged to rural areas. 69% (n=265) had good income and 31% (n=119) had low income. The mean age and BMI of the patients was 65.22±6.45 years and 26.21±2.18 kg/m2 respectively. There were 26% (n=100) patients between 40-60 years while majority of the patients i.e. 74% (n=284) between 61-80 years of age. The distribution of BMI of the patients observed as; 39.3% (n=151) patients between 18-25 kg/m2 and 60.7% (n=233) patients between 26-32 kg/m2. The main outcome variable of this study was red cell distribution width. The Mean±S.D of red cell distribution width was 14.03±1.62%. While, red cell distribution width noted as normal and raised; 54.9% (n=211) and 45.1% (n=173) respectively. Conclusion: Study concluded that there was significant prevalence of raised red cell distribution width (RDW) in acute exacerbation of COPD patients. This easy, inexpensive and quick parameter should be investigated further. So it can be used as prognostic marker and predictor of mortality in acute exacerbation of COPD patients. Key words: Acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD), red cell distribution width (RDW), COPD, Inflammation

FUNCTIONAL OUTCOME AFTER DECOMPRESSION FOR DORSAL SPINE TUBERCULOSIS SURGREIS

OBJECTIVE: functional outcome of improvement after decompression for dorsal spine tuberculosis in terms of frankle grading. METHODOLOGY: This prospective study was conducted after ethical approval at neurosurgical ward mmc/mti through non-probability sampling. Clinical and radiological examined patients with carriers of dorsal spine tuberculosis were enrolled in study. After surgery they were followed for three months and improvement were measured comparing pre and post op Frankle grading. RESULTS:  Total of 38 patients underwent surgical procedure decompression ± fusion through postero-lat approach (costotransversectomy) in which 42% were male and 58% were female. Mean age was 34±5. Distribution for age group was 18-30(08), 31-40(13), and 51-60 (06). Level of disease D4-D8 were 17(44.8%), D9-D12 were 21(55.2%). CONCLUSION: decompression and stabilization in spine tuberculosis is safe, effective and results in good outcome clinically. The advantages of surgery include through debridement, decompression and achievement of spinal stabilization. KEY WORDS: Dorsal spine tuberculosis, corpectomy with fusion, laminectomy, outcome measure

Clinical Presentation of Alzheimer Disease (ad): a hospital based observational study.

Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative illness that mani-fests itself clinically and pathologically.Objective: To identify the various patterns of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in adults.Methodology: A hospital based observational study was conducted in the Depart-ment of Neurology Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) Karachi, Pakistan from May 2018 to November 2019.Cases with complaint of memory impairment and/or cognitive impairment, with or without behavioral changes were included in the study. Acute delirious state uremia / hepatic encephalopathy hypo / hypergly-cemia and hypo / hypernatremia were excluded diagnosis. The main outcome measures were clinical patterns of AD with age and sex distribution, affective disor-der with cognitive impairment (Pseudo dementia) and affective disorder without cognitive impairment.Results: A sample of 51 cases (36 males and 15 females) with memory impairment was included. Age’s between 25-85years (mean 57years). Out of 51 cases 44 had probable /possible Alzheimer’s disease (AD) 03 had affective disorder with cogni-tive impairment (pseudo dementia), 04 patients had affective disorder without cognitive impairment. Among probable / possible cases of AD 23 (52.27%) had multi infarct dementia (having history of past cerebrovascular disease), same sta-tistics among Parkinson’s patient’s i.e. diagnosis was Parkinson’s disease with memory impairment were 18 (40.90%) followed by alcoholic dementia in 03 (6.8%). There was no definite Alzheimer’s disease case in this study.Conclusion: Vascular dementia not the definite Alzheimer’s disease is the com-monest memory impairment type presentation in our study. Among Parkinson’s disease patient’s dementia was found quite high in our study.Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Vascular dementia (MID), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Cognition, Memory

Climate Change Impacts on Fishing in Coastal Rural of Tanzania

Millions of people around the world depend on fisheries and aquaculture directly or indirectly for their food security, livelihoods and poverty reduction. However, ocean’s ability to meet their needs is in grave danger. Fish is a crucial source of livelihood for fishermen in the coastal rural regions of Tanzania but climate change has caused a major threat to the same. As ocean temperatures rise, many fish species are being driven into deeper waters or toward the planet's poles. The shifting conditions, meanwhile, are inviting historically anomalous breeds into new ranges with unpredictable results. The precise degree to which these phenomena are contributing to Tanzania's current plight is difficult to quantify but ample evidence suggests such changes are already affecting fisheries across the country. Climate-related impacts are occurring across regions of Tanzania and primary sectors of its economy are more vulnerable. Keywords: Climatic Change, Fishing, Climatic Change Adaption, Tanzania

An integrative machine learning approach to discovering multi-level molecular mechanisms of obesity using data from monozygotic twin pairs

We combined clinical, cytokine, genomic, methylation and dietary data from 43 young adult monozygotic twin pairs (aged 22-36 years, 53% female), where 25 of the twin pairs were substantially weight discordant (delta body mass index > 3 kg m(-2)). These measurements were originally taken as part of the TwinFat study, a substudy of The Finnish Twin Cohort study. These five large multivariate datasets (comprising 42, 71, 1587, 1605 and 63 variables, respectively) were jointly analysed using an integrative machine learning method called group factor analysis (GFA) to offer new hypotheses into the multi-molecular-level interactions associated with the development of obesity. New potential links between cytokines and weight gain are identified, as well as associations between dietary, inflammatory and epigenetic factors. This encouraging case study aims to enthuse the research community to boldly attempt new machine learning approaches which have the potential to yield novel and unintuitive hypotheses. The source code of the GFA method is publically available as the R package GFA.Peer reviewe

Matrix and Tensor Factorization Methods for Toxicogenomic Modeling and Prediction

Peer reviewe