Monitoring and Evaluation: Civil Society Organisations’ Competitive Edge in Effective Poverty Alleviation

The role of Civil Society Organisations as preferred partners in development is strongly emerging across the globe. Among many reasons, one is reasonably good governance. The social sector has shown the acumen to learn and apply corporate management practices and international standards fast enough to start leading the competition. Notwithstanding the fact that a large part of development funding under soft loans and grants is channeled to the government, the CSOs receive a significant share directly and indirectly to implement development projects in communities. It has opened tremendous opportunities for CSOs to experiment and evolve new approaches in project management, community organisation, service delivery, product development, resource mobilisation and financial management. What makes the civil society organisations different from the public sector organisations? Fundamentally two things; these are non-governmental and nonprofit. However, the real difference is in the way civil society organisations are managed. It includes leadership, commitment, professionalism, systems and practices, thrust of work and most of all performance.

Monitoring and Evaluation: Civil Society Organisations’ Competitive Edge in Effective Poverty Alleviation

The role of Civil Society Organisations as preferred partners in development is strongly emerging across the globe. Among many reasons, one is reasonably good governance. The social sector has shown the acumen to learn and apply corporate management practices and international standards fast enough to start leading the competition. Notwithstanding the fact that a large part of development funding under soft loans and grants is channeled to the government, the CSOs receive a significant share directly and indirectly to implement development projects in communities. It has opened tremendous opportunities for CSOs to experiment and evolve new approaches in project management, community organisation, service delivery, product development, resource mobilisation and financial management. What makes the civil society organisations different from the public sector organisations? Fundamentally two things; these are non-governmental and nonprofit. However, the real difference is in the way civil society organisations are managed. It includes leadership, commitment, professionalism, systems and practices, thrust of work and most of all performance

Peripheral Neuropathy in Newly Diagnosed Cases of Type II Diabetes Mellitus

Objective: Diabetes mellitus linked to severe macrovascular and the microvescular complications. Diabetic peripheral neuropathy is the challenging complication of the diabetes mellitus, which is linked to the morbidity, mortality, and big economic burden. We determined the frequency of peripheral neuropathy in newly diagnosed cases of type II diabetes mellitus.Materials & Methods: The current descriptive Cross Sectional study took place in Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore, From June 2014 to January 2015. All the patients, those were newly diagnosed with diabetes mellitus, aged 30-60 years and both genders were included. Detailed history regarding diabetes was taken. Patients underwent for the evaluation of peripheral neuropathy by taking physical examination, previous history and vibration perception test. All the data was recorded in the Proforma.Results: Total 150 cases were studied, out of them, 42.67% were aged 30-45 years while 57.33% were in the age range of 46-60 years and their overall mean age was 46.35 ± 9.52 years. Males were 54.0% and females were 46.0%. Frequency of peripheral neuropathy for newly diagnosed type II diabetic subjects was noted 20.67%, with insignificant association of age and gender.Conclusion: It was concluded that the peripheral neuropathy was 20.67% among patients newly diagnosed with diabetes mellitus

Hydrodynamics study of the modified rotating disc contactor for CO2 absorption from natural gas using emulsion liquid membrane

This study modified the rotating disc contactor (RDC) structure to optimize its performance for CO2 separation from natural gas feed using stable emulsion liquid membrane (ELM). Based on parametric study of absorption of CO2 from natural gas feed into ELM, the mass transfer behavior in the RDC system was optimized. Rotor diameter, stator inner diameter, and minimum free area of RDC were modified to achieve maximum contact between dispersed liquid phase and gas feed phase, which was necessary to achieve maximum mass transfer. The problem of rupture of the emulsion droplet due to pressure created by direct dispersion of gas at the bottom of conventional RDC extraction system was addressed by adding an impeller at the bottom compartment of RDC. The impeller provided continuous mixing of emulsion and a gas sparger was fitted along the impeller's side that maintained the dispersed aqueous phase miscible in system. The hydrodynamic behavior of a modified RDC was optimized for CO2 absorption from natural gas in ELM, which indicated that modified design dimensions can provide a maximum liquid-gas contact. Beside the concentration of CO2 in natural gas feed, it was observed that the speed of RDC and run time significantly influence CO2 absorption from natural gas using ELM. When all the parameters optimized for CO2 absorption from natural gas feed this study is useful in extending the application of RDC in liquid-gas system. In this study, the use of ELM in RDC can be effective for CO2 when applied under proper conditions

Innovative method to prepare a stable emulsion liquid membrane for high CO2 absorption and its performance evaluation for a natural gas feed in a rotating disk contactor

This paper presents an innovative method to prepare a stable emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) for high CO2 absorption in a natural gas feed. This new method achieved high throughput at low power consumption. The ELM prepared using this new method was characterized by determining the effects of the concentration of the ELM constituents, emulsification time, and speed on the emulsion droplet size (EDS) and stability. This was followed by a parametric study of the process parameters for CO2 separation from natural gas in a rotating disk contactor (RDC)-based setup to evaluate the performance of a stable ELM. The results suggest that the retention time of the stable ELM in a RDC increases with increasing amount of absorbed CO2. The results support the fundamental development of the ELM process to achieve a high overall separation efficiency of CO2 removal from natural gas with a relatively small contact time. This is the first parametric study of CO2 absorption from a gas stream in ELM using a RDC as the contracting equipment. The results of the parametric study suggested that the factors of time, TEA concentration and RDC speed have significant effect on the CO2 absorption from natural gas feed. It was identified that 4% TEA in ELM, 30 min operational time and 700 rpm speed of modified RDC system is suitable for maximum CO2 absorption from gas mixture of CO2/CH4. Furthermore, the study suggested that the ELM containing 4% TEA can absorb 5.6 kmol/m3 CO2

Architectural Design and Prototyping of Co-PPGIS: A Groupware-Based Online Synchronous Collaborative PPGIS to Support Municipality Development and Planning Management Workflows

Co-PPGIS has a wide variety of applications like municipal planning, emergency response, public health and security, etc. The main focus of this chapter is on the development and design of a Web Collaborative PPGIS (Co-PPGIS) infrastructure. As part of municipality’s planning and management services, Co-PPGIS is developed for real-time map sharing application system. Co-PPGIS is an effective and essential online meeting system for supporting group collaborations on geographic information such as maps and imageries, and capturing and sharing of local/domain knowledge in real time. Co-PPGIS permits amalgamation of geospatial data and collaborator’s input in the form of geo-referenced notations. It incorporates coherent components as map sharing, real-time chat, video conferencing, geo-referenced textual and graphical notations. The study aims to focus on public participation and geo-collaboration facilitated with information sharing, interactive geo-conferencing, real-time map, and data sharing with tools to draw features or add annotation to the map while discussions, uploading documents, and live communication. Co-PPGIS provides an efficient and reliable platform that will significantly reduce the time to acquire, process, and analyze data. The significance of this study is to contribute to existing public participation practices, to municipal planning, to decision-making, or to geographic information science

Hyperuricemia as a Predictor of Poor Fetal Outcome in Pre-Eclamptic Women

Background:To evaluate the relation between raised serum uric acid level and fetal outcome.Methods:This Cohort study was conducted at Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Services Hospital, Lahore, to compare the risk of poor fetal outcome in hyperuricemic and normouricemic pre-eclamptic patients. A total of 300 patients with the diagnosis of pre-eclampsia were included in the study and serum uric acid levels were obtained in all the patients. They were divided into two groups: Group A: Pre-eclamptic Normouricemic; Group B: Pre-eclamptic Hyperuricemic. All patients were followed after delivery for fetal outcome and results were compared in both groups.Results: The mean maternal age was 28.60 ± 3.308 years. The mean gestational age was 36.85 ± 0.59 weeks. The mean uric acid level of the patients at presentation was 5.067 ± 1.74 mg/dl. The mean uric acid level in group A was 3.64 ± 0.73 mg/dl and in group B was 7.98 ± 0.85 mg/dl. In group A, 9.3% newborns were found small-for-gestational-age (SGA), whereas in Group B, 23.3% newborns were found having SGA. The relative risk was calculated for development of SGA in hyperuricemia and was found significant (RR=2.5; 95% CI: 1.40- 4.45).Conclusion: Serum uric acid level measurement is a useful and inexpensive marker for predicting pre-eclampsia and fetal growth retardation in women presenting with gestational hypertension

Comparative study of combined co-enzyme Q10 and Clomiphene Citrate vs Clomiphene Citrate alone for ovulation induction in patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome

A total of 136 patients with PCOS were followed through the Department of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Unit-IV, Lady Aitchison Hospital, Lahore. Patients were randomly divided by lottery method into two groups i.e., Group-A (CoQ10 plus Clomiphene citrate) and Group-B (Clomiphene citrate alone). The selected patients in the study group (group-A) were given Clomiphene citrate 100mg/day from cycle days 2-6 for 45 days (2 cycles) and CoQ10 in a dose of 50mg soft gel capsules thrice per day starting at cycle day-2, until HCG administration. Patients in controlled group (group-B) received Clomiphene citrate 100mg/day twice a day cycle for 45 days. Data were analysed in SPSS v25.0. In group-A (CoQ10 plus Clomiphene citrate), successful ovulation induction was noted in 16 (23.5%) patients, showing that with the addition of CoQ10, the chances of ovulation induction increased. Keywords: Co-enzyme Q10, Clomiphene Citrate, Ovulation Induction, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

Faculty willingness for continuing online teaching-post COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan

Objective: To determine faculty willingness for continuing online education after coronavirus disease-2019 in Pakistan, and to correlate it with perceived gain in experience in online teaching during the pandemic. Method: The cross-sectional study was conducted at Aziz Fatimah Medical and Dental College, Faisalabad, Pakistan, from January to July 2021, and comprised medical faculty with teaching experience of at least 2 years. Data was collected using an online questionnaire though Google Forms. Multiple regression analysis was done to determine faculty willingness with perceived experience levels in online education. Data was analysed using SPSS 25. Results: Of the 100 subjects approached, 68(68%) responded; 51(75%) females and 17(25%) males. Of the total, 30(44.1%) participants were aged 33-40 years, 25(37%) were from  Basic Sciences, 27(39.7%) from Clinical Sciences, 16(23.5%) from Allied Health Sciences, and 39(57.4%) had teaching experience <5 years.. Overall, 39(57.4%) participants were willing to continue online education post-pandemic, 20(29.4%) agreed partially and 9(13.2%) did not agree. A positive linear relationship was found between willingness to continue online education and increase in perceived experience level in teaching online (p=0.021). Conclusion: There was a significant difference between perceived experience level in online teaching before and after the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic. Those with increase in perceived experience level were willing to continue online education. Key Words: Online education, Post-COVID-19, Faculty, Willingness

Monitoring the Spatial Structure of land values in Lahore Metropolitan area

Spatio-temporal variations in assessment of land values play a vital role in better urban planning and policy making. This study focuses on spatial structures of land values in Lahore metropolitan area by using different spatial and statistical techniques. The comparative analysis of land values for the years 2012 &amp; 2018 is generated which is useful for planners, investors, and policy makers. The research is descriptive but explanatory in nature to show correlation between independent variables (real land values) and dependent variables (interpolated land values). The interpolation techniques which have the highest correlation coefficient, were used further processing. The inter category shift based on interpolation maps for comparison shows categorical shift which is useful for investors in future. The results indicate that the land values are higher in Central Business District and Gulberg Zone because of highly active business zone which increases the demand of the land which is ultimately increasing the value of land in Lahore metropolitan area. Full Tex