Evaluation of teaching and learning course in the nursing baccalaureate curriculum in one University Teaching Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan

AbstractThe Generic BSC Nursing four years degree program is a great achievement of Pakistan Nursing Council (PNC). It was developed in collaboration with HEC (Higher Education Commission). There is an unprecedented shortage of nurse educators in the country. The course entitled NU361: Teaching and Learning: Principles and Practices, forms the foundation for educating students about teaching theory, principles and practices. There is discussion at the PNC level that a one year teacher training program for nurses will be established. However, till this program comes into existence this is the only course offering for potential nurse educators. The teaching learning course will be described as one medium to educate a cadre of nurse educators in the country. This paper will describe the existing HEC/PNC course for NU 361: Teaching and Learning: Principles and Practices as it presents itself in the curriculum. Changes were made based on the prevailing nurse educator situation in Pakistan. Course content was added to reflect current trends in nursing education. This paper will highlight how the given course in the national curriculum was reviewed for curriculum alignment, strengths and limitations. In addition, a new teaching pedagogy of moodle was introduced in the course. It is envisioned that this course will enable student nurses’ to utilize appropriate teaching learning strategies in their future settings

Engagement of Undergraduate Nursing Students in Virtual Learning Environment in Karachi Pakistan

Aga Khan University (AKU) is implementing blended learning (BL) in their existing programs. This study reports the use of BL mode in one of the courses entitled Advanced Concepts of Community Health nursing (ACCHN), offered for undergraduate nursing students, for the first time in Karachi Pakistan. A qualitative exploratory design was adopted.The year II students of Post-RN BScN programme who were studying the course were invited to participate in the study. Data was collected by using focus group discussions (FGDs.). Students found ACCHN course flexible because of the use of blended modalities. They felt that their learning was enhanced by multiple resources shared by faculty on Moodle. In terms of strategies, students found Vodcasts useful. Moreover, few students felt DFs were not as useful, due to wordy posts, which were time consuming to read and understand. Students also found lack of facilitation by faculty on DFs. Students suggested that faculty can use synchronous modes such as Skype and Webex to summarize the discussions. Load shedding and low bandwidth were also discussed by students as obstacles in successful implementation of the course. The findings concluded that bandwidth and electricity issue at home needs to be resolved at the national level

Molecular Design of Side-Group Liquid Crystalline Polymers: Understanding Their Interactions with Small Molecule Liquid Crystal Solvent

Liquid crystal (LC) gels – the combination of macromolecules with small molecule LCs – couple the elasticity and mechanical strength of polymers to the order inherent to LCs and are attractive to many researchers hoping to marry liquid crystals' optical and electro-optical responsiveness with polymers' mechanical strength and ease of processing. In particular, side-group liquid crystal polymers (SGLCPs) are flexible-chain polymers that are functionalized with LC side-groups. Here we introduce the concept of polymer dopants: homogenously dissolved LC-containing SGLCP homopolymers that are molecularly designed for solubility in and coupling to small molecule LC solvents. Using polymer analogous chemistry (changing the molecular makeup of the side groups and their linkers, while keeping backbone molecular weight, polydispersity index, and degree of polymerization constant), we’ve targeted the effect of side-group orientation, dipole position and strength, spacer length and linking-group type on polymer solubility and bulk material properties. We've shown that, at low concentration, these dopants can have significant effects on the bulk material properties of two types of LCs: ferroelectric and vertically aligned nematic LCs

Parental Choice: Facilitators and Barriers of Utilizing Childcare Centers in Karachi, Pakistan

This qualitative study explored parental perceptions regarding parent's choice of quality childcare centers in urban areas of Karachi, Pakistan. Sixteen participants were selected from two centers in different geographical areas. For parents, the most common reason for selecting the childcare centers was the lack of other available options such as family support. Availability and accessibility of childcare centers were reported as supporting factors, while lack of family support, lack of information, and violent city conditions were identified as barriers to choosing childcare centers. In addition, husband support was perceived as a facilitator and a barrier to choosing childcare centers

Story Comparisons: Evidence from Film Reviews

Interested in formally modelling similarity between narratives, we investigate judgements of similarity between narratives in a small corpus of film reviews and book–film comparisons. A main finding is that judgements tend to concern multiple levels of story representation at once. As these texts are pragmatically related to reception contexts, we find many references to reception quality and optimality. We conclude that current formal models of narrative can not capture the task of naturalistic narrative comparisons given in the analysed reviews, but that the development of models containing a more reception-oriented point of view will be necessary

To Explore the Experiences of Women on Reasons in Initiating and Maintaining Breastfeeding in Urban Area of Karachi, Pakistan: An Exploratory Study

This is an exploratory study that explores the experiences of lactating women in initiating, continuing, or discontinuing breastfeeding in an urban area of Karachi, Pakistan. Objectives. To explore the experiences of lactating women and to understand their support and hindering mechanisms in initiating and maintaining breastfeeding. Methods. This is an exploratory design assisting in exploring the participant's experiences of initiating and maintaining breastfeeding to better understand their world. Purposive sampling was used, and data was analyzed through manual thematic analysis. Results. The data revealed that mother's knowledge, sociocultural environment, breastfeeding decision, and self- and professional support acted as driving forces for the participants. However, sociocultural environment, physiological changes, time management, and being a housewife to breastfeed their children were all challenges and barriers that the participants thought hindered their breastfeeding initiation and maintenance. Conclusion. Breastfeeding is a natural but taxing phenomenon, and breastfeeding mothers experience supporting and hindering factors in initiating and maintaining breastfeeding

Model photo-responsive elastomers based on the self-assembly of side group liquid crystal triblock copolymers (Presentation Recording)

We report the synthesis of azobenzene-containing coil-liquid crystal-coil triblock copolymers that form uniform and highly reproducible elastomers by self-assembly. To serve as actuators to (non-invasively) steer a fiber optic, for example in deep brain stimulation, the polymers are designed to become monodomain “single liquid crystal” elastomers during the fiber-draw process and to have a large stress/strain response to stimulation with either light or heat. A fundamental scientific question that we seek to answer is how the interplay between the concentration of photoresponsive mesogens and the proximity to the nematic-isotropic transition governs the sensitivity of the material to stimuli. Specifically, a matched pair of polymers, one with ~5% azobenzene-containing side groups (~95% cyanobiphenyl side groups) and the other with 100% cyanobiphenyl side groups were synthesized from identical triblock pre-polymers (with polystyerene end blocks and 1,2-polybutadiene midblocks). These can be blended in various ratios to prepare a series of elastomers that are precisely matched in terms of the backbone length between physical crosslinks (because each polymer is derived from the same pre-polymer), while differing in % azobenzene side groups, allowing the effect of concentration of photoresponsive groups to be unambiguously determined

What the heck is Logic? Logics-as-formalizations, a nihilistic approach

Logic is about reasoning, or so the story goes. This thesis looks at the concept of logic, what it is, and what claims of correctness of logics amount to. The concept of logic is not a settled matter, and has not been throughout the history of it as a notion. Tools from conceptual analysis aid in this historical venture. Once the unsettledness of logic is established we see the repercussions in current debates in the philosophy of logic. Much of the battle over the ‘one true logic’ is conceptually talking past each other. The theory of logics-as-formalizations is presented as a conceptually open theory of logic which is Carnapian in flavour and grounding. Rudolf Carnap’s notions surrounding ‘external’ and ‘pseudo-questions’ about linguistic frameworks apply to formalizations, thus logics, as well. An account of what formalizations are, a more structured sub-set of modelling, is given to ground the claim that logics are formalizations. Finally, a novel account of correctness, the COFE framework, is developed which allows the notions of logical monism, pluralism and nihilism to be more precisely formulated than they currently are in the discourse