Attitude of overseas Pakistani students towards modular examination.

oai:mmcedupk_jmmcfinal.jmmc.mmc.edu.pk:article/8Introduction: Modularization an innovative initiative taken by educational institutes around the globe to increase the student’s productivity and efficiency.   Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the knowledge and attitude regarding modularization in overseas Pakistani students. Methodology: A cross sectional survey was conducted at the International Medical College of one of the public sector university during December 2012 till February 2014. A total of 425 undergraduate students were approached through non-probability convenience sampling technique and requested to fill a semi structured questionnaire after taking written consent. Result: According to the outset of this paper a total of 425 students were questioned. Among the total 189 students were male (44.47%) and 236 were female (55.52%) out of which the majority belonged from North America/Canada (79.06%). A vast percentage (48.94) invested of about 2 hours of study daily. 63.06% of students believed modular examination to be a fair system and 32.94% of students thought it to be a failure to affect any educational standards. 36% of students blame stress/load for their poor result and 31.06% agrees with the lengthy syllabus being responsible for their down showing GPA’s. 43.06% of students face hardships because of irregular attendance. The major complaint of students (39%) was their teaching style. 46.12% of students prefer to study from lecture notes. Thus, this study completely clears all the aspects of student’s performance in modular system of examinations and its flow and shortcomings. It is important that more effort should be put into cater to student’s stress, loads and make it an effective system to improve a student’s capability and efficiency.  Conclusion: The findings of this study can guide us to revise and reshape the assessment system practiced at various medical colleges in Karachi

Comparison of Outcomes of Topical Anesthesia with Peribulbar Anesthesia in Vitrectomy for Unresolving Vitreous Hemorrhage

OBJECTIVES: To compare the Surgeon's ease level and duration of surgery in topical anesthesia with peribulbar anesthesia for vitrectomy without sedation in patients with unresolving vitreous hemorrhage of duration greater than 3 months. METHODOLOGY: A randomized controlled trial was carried out at the Department of Ophthalmology, Lahore General Hospital, Postgraduate Medical Institute, Lahore from October 2017 to September 2018. A total of 110 patients were equally divided (n=55) in group A (topical anesthesia) and group B (peribulbar anesthesia) by lottery method. In group A, 0.5% proparacaine hydrochloride eye drops were instilled into the conjunctival sac every 3 minutes preoperatively 5 times before surgery. For group B patients, 5cc injection consisting of 2.5ml of 0.5% bupivacaine and 2.5ml of 1% lidocaine was injected thirty minutes before surgery. Surgical time was noted from first incision to enter the eye for vitrectomy till application of last closing suture. Surgeon ease was recorded with a 4 Grade scale. All data was recorded, entered, and analyzed by SPSS version 25.0. Continuous variables were presented as mean, standard deviation and independent t-test was applied. RESULTS:  The mean age of the patient was 43.83±9.76 years. Male cases were 78 (70.9%) and female cases were 32 (29.1%). Mean duration of surgery was 30.32±7.07 minutes and the surgeon’s ease was 2.30±0.98. There was a significant difference (P<0.05) with respect to mean duration of surgery and surgeon’s ease level in patients who were given topical anesthesia (28.12±6.57 minutes and 3.11±0.90) versus peribulbar anesthesia (32.52±6.92 minutes and 2.67±0.90). CONCLUSION: Topical anesthesia without sedation is better than peribulbar anesthesia for vitrectomy without sedation in patients with unresolving vitreous hemorrhage of duration greater than 3 months

Performance assessment and microbial diversity of two pilot scale multi-stage sub-surface flow constructed wetland systems

This study assessed the performance and diversity of microbial communities in multi-stage sub-surface flow constructed wetland systems (CWs). Our aim was to assess the impact of configuration on treatment performance and microbial diversity in the systems. Results indicate that at loading rates up to 100g-BOD5/m2.day, similar treatment performances can be achieved using either a 3 or 4 stage configuration. In the case of phosphorus (P), the impact of configuration was less obvious and a minimum of 80% P removal can be expected for loadings up to 10g–P/m2.day based on the performance results obtained within the first 16 months of operation. Microbial analysis showed an increased bacterial diversity in stage four compared to the first stage. These results indicate that the design and configuration of multi-stage constructed wetland systems may have an impact on the treatment performance and the composition of the microbial community in the systems, and such knowledge can be used to improve their design and performance