A study of learning stress and stress management strategies of the students of postgraduate level: a case study of Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan

Stress management .........................This study was designed to study Learning Stress and Stress Management Strategies for University Students. The objectives of the study were to find out the common symptoms of stress, causes of stress and to suggest stress management strategies used by students for coping with stress. For collecting data, survey method was adopted. This study was completed by following the procedure of descriptive method of research. 39 questions were used for data collection. 200 students from different departments of The Islamia University of Bahawalpur were chosen as a sample of the study. This study concluded that majority of students felt fatigue during stress. Burden of study, assignments were major causes of stress and they agreed that they reduce stress by watching T.V/Movies, listen to music or take part in other leisure time activities. It was recommended that burden of study may be reduced by conducting co curricular activities in academic area

Randomised trial to assess the efficacy of pelvic drainage in preventing pelvic collection after elective rectal resection for cancer

INTRODUCTION: Rectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer occurring in both males and females globally. In India, the incidence of rectal cancer among males is higher than females, which is different from the rest of the world. Increasing incidence among younger males in India has been seen as a trend. Low socioeconomic status has been seen to be associated with the incidence of rectal cancer both globally and in India. Though the management of rectal cancer is multimodal, adequate surgical resection is the mainstay of treatment and is considered the primary treatment modality. Rectal resection remains a morbid operation, one of the most troublesome complications being pelvic collection. Pelvic drainage by means of closed tubular drainage has been practised routinely with the objective of reducing the post operative morbidity. This study aims to observe the role of closed tube pelvic drainage in the post operative outcome following rectal resection. Although the ineffectiveness of such an intervention in reducing postoperative morbidity has been established in patients undergoing small intestinal and colonic resections, there is no conclusive data in patients undergoing rectal resection. In fact the effectiveness of such an intervention for rectal resection has been questioned. OBJECTIVES: 1. To detect the presence of pelvic collection by ultrasonographic imaging of the pelvis on the 5th post operative day and measure its volume if present. 2. To assess the morbidity in terms of deviation in the normal post operative course 3. To record the number of days of hospital stay according to ‘fit for discharge’ criteria. 4. To document the occurrence of urinary tract infection (UTI) during the post operative period (30 days following surgery). METHODS: The study was a randomized controlled trial which included all patients undergoing elective rectal resection under General Surgery Unit 2. The intervention was absence of pelvic drainage and this was compared against the comparator which was closed pelvic drainage. The exclusion criteria were: 1. Patients operated on an emergency basis. 2. Patients with disseminated disease where surgery is a palliative procedure. 3. Patients with compromised immunity (on steroids, immunosupression, post transplant patients). 4. Patients with intraoperative complications for which drainage is inevitable (spillage). The method used for randomisation was a block randomisation with concealment in sealed envolopes. The sample size was calculated by a two proportion methos with a power of 80% and an alpha error of 5%. Statistical analysis was performed by means of chi square test and independent sample T test. RESULTS: Although the study was not carried on till the complete sample size was reached, the results were all consistent and showed trends in the same direction. However, statistically significant conclusions cannot be drawn from the analysis of the results. The duration of the study and the time constraint is one of the major limitation of this study. Apart from this, sensitivity of a pelvic ultrasonogram, observer bias and the inability to perform blinding are the other limitations. The increased incidence of rectal cancer among younger males has stood out in this study which is in contrast with studies from the western population. The use of pelvic drainage has not shown to drastically contribute towards reducing post operative morbidity in terms of decreased pelvic collections or reduced hospital stays. Infact, the absence of a pelvic drain has shown a trend towards reduced incidence of pelvic collection and reduced hospital stay. However, these results are not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: The aim of conducting this study was to establish a definitive association between the routine use of closed tube drainage of the pelvis in patients undergoing resection for rectal cancer. The paucity of data in this area and the equivocal results of existing studies further warranted the need for this study. Although the study was not carried on till the complete sample size was reached, the results were all consistent and showed trends in the same direction. However, statistically significant conclusions cannot be drawn from the analysis of the results. The duration of the study and the time constraint is one of the major limitation of this study. Apart from this, sensitivity of a pelvic ultrasonogram, observer bias and the inability to perform blinding are the other limitations. The increased incidence of rectal cancer among younger males has stood out in this study which is in contrast with studies from the western population. The use of pelvic drainage has not shown to drastically contribute towards reducing post operative morbidity in terms of decreased pelvic collections or reduced hospital stays. Infact, the absence of a pelvic drain has shown a trend towards reduced incidence of pelvic collection and reduced hospital stay. However, these results are not statistically significant. The other factor that contributed to the outcome of these patients was neoadjuvant therapy in the form of long course chemoradiation. The lack of unequivocal evidence in the benefit of routine pelvic drainage has shown that it is a questionable intervention

Virtualization Technology: Cross-VM Cache Side Channel Attacks make it Vulnerable

Cloud computing provides an effective business model for the deployment of IT infrastructure, platform, and software services. Often, facilities are outsourced to cloud providers and this offers the service consumer virtualization technologies without the added cost burden of development. However, virtualization introduces serious threats to service delivery such as Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, Cross-VM Cache Side Channel attacks, Hypervisor Escape and Hyper-jacking. One of the most sophisticated forms of attack is the cross-VM cache side channel attack that exploits shared cache memory between VMs. A cache side channel attack results in side channel data leakage, such as cryptographic keys. Various techniques used by the attackers to launch cache side channel attack are presented, as is a critical analysis of countermeasures against cache side channel attacks

Why are National Pharmaceutical Brands more Considered than Multinationals? A case of Pakistan’s Pharmaceutical Industry

The aim of study to empirically evaluate the health care professional attitude towards the pharmaceutical products in context to the Pakistan pharmaceutical market current situation, that why are national companies’ brands more consider than multinationals, based on primary data collected through self-administered questionnaire by field visits to 250 health care professional. Results of explanatory sequential method indicates that product efficacy is the primary factor to considered, followed by sales representative, promotional material and price factor including; some influence of new launches, packaging and availability of the products are reported. However the bio equivalence report and patient demands are rarely considered by HCP

Radiographic Evaluation of Knee Joint in Patients with Knee pain and its correlation with Osteoarthritis and Gender

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most rampant reason of knee discomfort and pain. Knee osteoarthritis accounts for 83 percent of the overall Osteoarthritis burden. Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is projected to grow more frequent as age progresses, and it is more common in women and overweight individuals. The Kellgren and Lawrence scoring criteria is usually employed to estimate the severity of disease. To evaluate the Radiographic findings associated with knee joint pain and to assess the prevalence of osteoarthritis in individuals with knee joint discomfort, as well as its correlation with gender.Methods: From August to December 2021, cross-sectional research was undertaken at the Department of Radiology, Amin Medical Complex, Sialkot. This research comprised participants of both gender having knee discomfort, ranging in age from forty to eighty yrs. SPSS version 24 was employed to record the data and analyze the information.Results: Total 100 Patients (M=45, F=55) were enrolled in this study. Out of 100 participants with knee pain 45(45%) patients had abnormal knee radiographic findings. Osteoarthritis of the knee accounted for 35% of all abnormal radiographic findings in this study, with synovial effusion accounting for 8% of the total, and erosion only contributing for 2%. Knee osteoarthritis was found to be more prevalent in females than in males (24% vs. 11%), demonstrating that gender is a significant predictor for knee osteoarthritic disease. Findings corroborate the implementation of the Kellgren-Lawrence marking scheme to characterize Knee osteoarthritis in population research.Conclusion: The findings suggest that radiographic aspects of knee Osteoarthritis are substantially linked to knee discomfort, and that it is more frequent in people over the age of 55. Knee osteoarthritis is substantially linked with gender, with females suffering from it at a higher rate. The findings authenticate the implementation of the Kellgren-Lawrence grading scheme to characterize Knee osteoarthritis in population research

Purposes to Seek Information Resources by Academicians of the Oldest & Leading University of the Sub-Continent: An Explanatory Study

Major goal of this research was to know the purposes of seeking information resources by the academicians at GC University Lahore. As an allied goal, effort was made to know the role of the university library in meeting information and research needs of the academic faculty. Mixed methods research design was adopted for meeting goals of the research. Explanatory Sequential Design (QUAN + qual) was utilized. Firstly, quantitative data was collected through the instrument of questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS Software. Qualitative data was collected from 30 seasoned academicians working in different departments of the university. Thematic approach was followed to make analysis of the qualitatively driven data. Results of the study show that academicians search information resources for the purposes of preparing lectures, for guiding research scholars and students, for presenting research papers, to keep up with current developments, for writing research articles and enhancing their general knowledge. Findings of the study show that respondents are satisfied with the resources and services of university library. Participants recommend the need of formal training for developing skills to search specific information resources through online sources. Findings of this study are limited to the teaching faculty at GC University Lahore Pakistan, a leading institute of the sub-continent. The study has practical implication for the authorities of the universities and policy-makers of Higher Education Commission, Islamabad to design services in accordance with the needs of faculty members of the university. The study has revealed purposes of seeking information resources by academic faculty of the university, role of the library and practical solutions to meet information and research needs of the teaching faculty members

Resource Sharing among Medical Teaching Libraries: A Developing Country Perspective

Resource sharing is a functional as well as financial need of any library. In this modern era of information technology while information explosion is at extreme, it is impossible for a library to cover the entire surface of available knowledge. Developed countries are actual beneficiaries of this practice where idea of resource sharing has been transformed into a formal practice. Developing South Asian countries are also working on this concept in order to adopt it as a practice. This study identified the resource sharing opportunities for medical teaching libraries in Lahore with reference to perception and willingness. The sample of this study encompassed 26 leading medical libraries of all public and private degree awarding institutions in Lahore, Pakistan. The survey research method was adopted for this study. Findings showed that resource sharing is a valuable practice. It enhances the level of user satisfaction. It adds value to library collections which is not limited to library books only. Libraries are willing to initiate resource sharing through creating union catalogues. This study could be applied to all medical libraries in Pakistan to develop a real time formal resource sharing network which would accelerate performance reaming in limited financial resources

PHYSICIAN’S PERCEPTION TOWARDS CONTEMPORARY PHARMACEUTICAL ADVERTISEMENTS IN PAKISTAN

The aim of this survey research was to study the perceptions of public and private sector physicians toward Direct to Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertisements (DTCPA) with the help of triangulated study approach. Using cluster sampling technique, the primary data was collected via adapted questionnaire and, 389 completely filled questionnaires were compiled out of 400 questionnaires distributed. Data analysis was conducted in SPSS by using descriptive statistics and t-test. Results revealed that private sector physicians are more inclined towards DTCPA; they believe that DTCPA can help to improve physician patient relationship, diagnosis and treatment plans. However, self medication and undesirable interventions from patients can increase the healthcare hazards and cost. Moreover, the public sector physician’s tendency towards DTCPA is comparatively less than private sector, even though majority of public sectors physicians have also favored the stance to achieve better healthcare outcomes