Leadership Practice among Nurses in Tertiary Care Hospital Lahore

Introduction: The planned role of leadership can be used to examine on how to engage leadership models and use leadership behavior to progress organizational performance. The intangible assets such as leadership styles, culture, skill and competence, and motivation are key sources of strength in firms that can combine people and processes and organizational performance. A need was also observed for nursing leaders to reflect and self-evaluate their leadership considering perceptions from the team on their adopted actions and practices, as the leadership practices are powerful indicators of the performance of the work of the nursing team. Methodology: Leadership Practices - Self assessment and Leadership Practices – Observer: The data collection tool was used for this study is self-assessment scale. It was designed in 1987 to be utilized by a leader to self-evaluate themselves in how frequently they engage in leadership practices. The thirty descriptive statements are given and a Likert scale was used. The head nurses was required indicating their opinions by circle from, rarely or Very Seldom = 1, Once in a While = 2 Sometimes = 3 Fairly Often = 4 Very Frequently or Almost Always = 5. The five practices are identified as challenge the process, inspire a shared vision, enable others to act, model the way, and encourage the heart same repeatedly question asked from nurses to assess the perception (Posner & Kouzes, 1988). Results: The study revealed that the managers moderately performed the leadership practices. A significantly positive relationship was found between the manager and subordinate's assessment of challenging the process and inspiring a shared vision (p=.045). Discussion: the results of this study support the existence of a relationship between the self-assessment and the subordinate's assessment. This study also indicates that the managers in this study moderately exhibited the leadership practices as identified in Kouzes and Posner's (1987) research. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/100-03 Publication date:May 31st 202

The Relationship Between Religious Tourism and Individual’s Perceptions (A case study of Hazrat Data Ghanj Bakhsh’s shrine)

Tourism as an industry has become one of the rapidly flourishing sectors in the world economy. It has experienced a continual evolution, and expanding ‎diversification over the last few decades. Religious tourism is one of the ancient types of tourism, i.e. travel entirely and intensely motivated for religious reasons. Specifically talking about Pakistan in business and research circles, religious tourism has recently been accepted as a thriving segment. This paper investigates the relationship between religious tourism and individuals’ perceptions at Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh\u27s (HDGB) Shrine. For this empirical study, a survey method, primarily of Likert Scales is used. The collected data is used to gather information about the relationship between individuals’ perceptions and religious tourism at HDGB shrine. Individuals’ perceptions are measured regarding: directional signage; safety and security; displays and exhibits; good value for money and; equal access. The results show that individuals’ perceptions regarding directional signage, safety and security, displays and exhibits, good value for money, and equal access have positive relationships with religious tourism

The effectiveness of South Africa\u27s immigration policy for addressing skills shortages

South Africa is presently experiencing a serious shortage of skilled workers. This situation is negatively influencing the economic prospects and global participation of the country. The primary purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of sas immigration policy to support skills immigration. The outcome of this study indicated that South Africas immigration policy is restrictive and has undoubtedly influenced the shortage of skills in the country. This study has confirmed the findings of similar studies undertaken by the Centre for Development and Enterprise that South Africas skills immigration policy is very restrictive and is thus not helpful in addressing the skills shortages of the country

Religion Tourism and Entrepreneurial Development (A Case Study Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh Shrine)

Tourism as an industry has become one of the rapidly flourishing economic sector in the world, and its earliest form is religion tourism that starts from the dawn of humanity. All the cities of the world hosted religious centers are not only a major part of the cultural landscape, but they also promote the economic activities in the form of local business and marketing. Religion tourism generates revenue in multiple ways: money spent by tourists enhances the scale of the local business and spending by local government and residents which in return accelerates the economic activities. This study has been conducted for a Shrine of Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh (HDGB) in Lahore (Pakistan) to check how religion based tourism promotes entrepreneurial activities. The relationship has been checked by the visitor’s perceptions and local business activities at Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh (HDGB) shrine. For this empirical research, primary survey has been conducted for the sample size of 360 questionnaires from the tourists, management and entrepreneurs around HDGB shrine. The visitor’s perceptions are measured with directional signage, safety and security, displays and exhibits, good value for money, and equal access

Some morphometric relationship traits of Labeo bata (Hamilton, 1822) from Head Panjnad, Pakistan

In the present research work, 127 Labeo bata having diverse body size ranging from 8.20 to 16.00 cm total length collected from Head Panjnad, Pakistan were used for the analysis of some morphometrics, that is, length-weight and length-length relationships. Condition factor and their relationships to investigate growth external morphometric characters, that is, total length (TL), standard length (SL), fork length (FL), head length (HL), head width (HW), body girth (BG), dorsal fin length (DFL), dorsal fin base (DFB), pectoral fin length (PtFL), pectoral fin base (PtFB), pelvic fin length (PvFL), anal fin length (AFL), caudal fin length (CFL) and caudal fin width (CFW) showed highly significant correlation with both cases, that is, increasing total length and body weight. A significant positive relationship was found between condition factor (K) and body weight, while no significant correlation was found in condition factor and total length.Key words: Morphometry, length-weight, length-length relationship, condition factor, Labeo bata

The Potential of Stilbene Compounds to Inhibit Mpro Protease as a Natural Treatment Strategy for Coronavirus Disease-2019

COVID-19 disease has had a global impact on human health with increased levels of morbidity and mortality. There is an unmet need to design and produce effective antivirals to treat COVID-19. This study aimed to explore the potential ability of natural stilbenes to inhibit the Mpro protease, an acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) enzyme involved in viral replication. The binding affinities of stilbene compounds against Mpro were scrutinized using molecular docking, prime molecular mechanics-generalized Born surface area (MM-GBSA) energy calculations, and molecular dynamic simulations. Seven stilbene molecules were docked with Mpro and compared with GC376 and N3, antivirals with demonstrated efficacy against Mpro. Ligand binding efficiencies and polar and non-polar interactions between stilbene compounds and Mpro were analyzed. The binding affinities of astringin, isorhapontin, and piceatannol were −9.319, −8.166, and −6.291 kcal/mol, respectively, and higher than either GC376 or N3 at −6.976 and −6.345 kcal/mol, respectively. Prime MM-GBSA revealed that these stilbene compounds exhibited useful ligand efficacy and binding affinity to Mpro. Molecular dynamic simulation studies of astringin, isorhapontin, and piceatannol showed their stability at 300 K throughout the simulation time. Collectively, these results suggest that stilbenes such as astringin, isorhapontin, and piceatannol could provide useful natural inhibitors of Mpro and thereby act as novel treatments to limit SARS-CoV-2 replication

Prevalence of Risk Factors for Coronary Artery Disease in Southern Punjab, Pakistan

Purpose: To explore the prevalence of risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD) in Southern Punjab, Pakistan.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted for the prevalence of risk factors for CAD among 200 patients admitted at the different hospitals of Southern Punjab, Pakistan from December 2012 to April 2013. A questionnaire was used to collect data, including demographic information, family health history, dietary habits, physical activity and tobacco use. History of hypertension, diabetes mellitus (DM) or its treatment was recorded after observing their medical reports.Results: The proportion of females and males was 65.53 and 34.46 %, respectively. Of the 200 patients, the mean age of males was 52.7 years and 55.8 years for females. The most prevalent coronary artery risk factors were physical inactivity (52.5 %), hypertension (52 %), poor dietary habits (48.5 %), fatty food consumption (47.5 %), obesity (38 %) and smoking (37 %), respectively. Other less common risk factors were diabetes (30 %) and family history of CAD (20 %).Conclusion: CAD was seen in only 20 % of the subjects; the prevalence of individual risk factors ranged from 30 to 52.5 % and can be improved by encouraging the patients to adopt a healthy life style.Keywords: Risk factors, Prevalence, Coronary artery disease, Diabetes, Southern Punja

Development of Phytocosmeceutical Microemulgel Containing Flaxseed Extract and Its In Vitro and In Vivo Characterization

Antioxidants from natural sources are extensively attaining consideration to avert the skin from damage and aging caused by free radicals. Flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum L.), a natural therapeutic agent, was meant to be explored cosmeceutical by quantifying its potential phytoconstituents and to be incorporated into a microemulgel for topical use. Hydroalcoholic fractions (both methanolic and ethanolic; 80%) flaxseed extracts were subjected to phytochemical screening by quantifying total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet (HPLC-UV), and for biological activities through 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay, tyrosinase inhibition assay, and sun protection factor (SPF). Ethanolic fraction was selected for further study by TPC (18.75 mg gallic acid equivalent/g) and TFC (1.34 mg quercetin equivalent/g). HPLC-UV analysis showed the existence of benzoic, quercetin, caffeic, vanillic, p-coumaric, gallic, cinnamic, syringic, and sinapic acids. Biological activities showed 87.00%, 72.00%, and 21.75 values for DPPH assay, tyrosinase inhibition, and SPF assays, respectively. An oil-in-water (OW) microemulsion containing the flaxseed extract, with 99.20 nm Zeta size, −19.3 Zeta potential and 0.434 polydispersity index was developed and incorporated in Carbopol-940 gel matrix to formulate an active microemulgel with 59.15% release in in vitro studies. The successfully formulated stable active microemulgel produced statistically significant effects (p < 0.05), in comparison to a placebo, on skin erythema, melanin, sebum, moisture, and elasticity, in a noninvasive in vivo study performed on 13 healthy human female volunteers. Other cosmeceutical products can also be formulated from flaxseed, making it a considerable candidate for further utilization in the pharmaceutical industry

Design of nimesulide-chitosan microparticles by pH change coacervation

The present study involves the preparation of nimesulide-chitosan microparticles (NCM) as sustained delivery carriers with different polymer concentrations by pH change coacervation method using glutaraldehyde as cross-linking agent. Microparticle size was measured using light microscope. The drug release from NCM was tested by the rotating basket method of USP and the dissolution data were analyzed assuming various kinetic models. According to the results, the mean diameter and morphology of various batches of prepared NCM was 102 ± 1.95 μm to 152 ± 1.73 μm and yellowish rough spheres, respectively. Fourier trans-form infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetric analysis confirmed the compatibility of nimesulide with chitosan. X-ray diffractometry showed that there is a decrease in crystallinity of the drug after microencapsulation. All batches of NCM showed good flow properties. The rate of drug release decreased with increased concentration of chitosan. Formulation F5 was found to be an optimum formulation depending upon good encapsulation efficiency (65.87 ± 3.44 %) and smaller size (103 ± 3.37 μm). Maximum amount of drug release was 90.03 % in 12 h. The drug release data was analyzed by Korsmeyer-Peppas equation to calculate the diffusional exponent (n), which indicated diffusion pattern of nimesulide release. The stability studies of the NCM showed that drug was fully stable in microparticles at storage conditions of room temperature, 37 °C, 25 °C/60 % relative humidity (RH) and 45 °C/60 % RH, for 3 months using stability testing chamber. The present combination for encapsulating nimesulide demonstrates an effective way to prolong the drug release.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Effect of Different Hydrophillic Binders on the Dissolution Profiles of Mefenamic Acid

The aim of this study was to elaborate the effect of hydrophilic binders on the release profiles of matrix tablets containing mefenamic acid. Mefenamic acid tablets were prepared using wet granulation method. The investigated hydrophilic binders included starch, pectin, tragacanth and honey. It was found that there was a decrease in the percentage of drug release with the increase in the binder (except tragacanth) concentration, i.e. sustained release behavior was obtained. Zero order model was best fit to all dissolution profiles (indicating controlled release behavior) except that of honey based formulations which followed Higuchi kinetics. It can be concluded from all above stated results that pectin might be considered as a good binder for the tablet formulation of mefenamic acid as compared to lactose as a standard one. Hence the present study justifies the use of pectin as substitute of starch as a binder.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire