Home Bound Working Women and Organizational Efficiency of Developing Economy

This research aims to understand the preferences of educated unemployed womenof Pakistan and India on the imposition of the law of “Flex time/rules for homebound educated women”. For this purpose, 158 respondents were asked to f illa survey out of which 79 respondents were educated employed women and 79respondents were unemployed women (79). Chi-square was applied to the data.Findings suggest that 94% of the women from both the groups are of the viewthat an introduction of women quota would result in an increase in women par-ticipation in the workforce. To understand management’s perspective, 6 inter-views with HR heads of selective industries were conducted. Narrative Analysiswas applied which revealed only 10 to 20% women participated in the totalworkforce. The study also highlights reasons for low women participation. Theseinclude cultural norms, maternal issues, maternity problems, after marriage re-strictions and childbirth. The study concludes that introducing an introductionof women quota in both public and private sectors would help increase womenparticipation and contribution to the country’s economy

Impact of caregiving on various aspects of the lives of caregivers

Objective: This study was designed to assess the impact of caregiving on the lives of the caregivers. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between July and September 2015 at a teaching hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Participants who were more than 18 years old and were involved in caregiving (former or current) of a family member were invited to participate in the study. The participants were recruited through consecutive sampling technique. A total of 400 caregivers were interviewed. Written informed consent was obtained from all the participants. A pretest structured questionnaire was used for data collection and included sections on demographic details and impact of caregiving on various aspects of the lives of caregivers. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 19 (IBM, NY, USA). Results: Information about a total of 400 caregivers (215 men and 185 women) was included in the final analysis. The majority (57.0%) of the participants were aged between 18 and 30 years. About three-fifths (60%) of the participants were single and the majority of the participants were students. Approximately 64% of the participants were currently involved in caregiving and about 48% of the participants responded that caregiving has an overall negative impact on various aspects, such as physical (40.8%), psychological (47.8%), and professional aspects(51.8%) of their lives. Conclusion: Negative impact of caregiving was observed among caregivers due to extensive demands of caregiving and limited resources. Therefore, it is imperative for health care providers to explore, identify and support caregivers to cope in a better way to the challenging task of caregiving

Detection of subclinical rheumatic heart disease in children using a deep learning algorithm on digital stethoscope: A study protocol

Introduction: Rheumatic heart diseases (RHDs) contribute significant morbidity and mortality globally. To reduce the burden of RHD, timely initiation of secondary prophylaxis is important. The objectives of this study are to determine the frequency of subclinical RHD and to train a deep learning (DL) algorithm using waveform data from the digital auscultatory stethoscope (DAS) in predicting subclinical RHD.Methods and analysis: We aim to recruit 1700 children from a group of schools serving the underprivileged over a 12-month period in Karachi (Pakistan). All consenting students within the age of 5-15 years with no underlying congenital heart disease will be eligible for the study. We will gather information regarding sociodemographics, anthropometric data, history of symptoms or diagnosis of rheumatic fever, phonocardiogram (PCG) and electrocardiography (ECG) data obtained from DAS. Handheld echocardiogram will be performed on each study participant to assess the presence of a mitral regurgitation (MR) jet (\u3e1.5 cm), or the presence of aortic regurgitation (AR) in any view. If any of these findings are present, a confirmatory standard echocardiogram using the World Heart Federation (WHF) will be performed to confirm the diagnosis of subclinical RHD. The auscultatory data from digital stethoscope will be used to train the deep neural network for the automatic identification of patients with subclinical RHD. The proposed neural network will be trained in a supervised manner using labels from standard echocardiogram of the participants. Once trained, the neural network will be able to automatically classify the DAS data in one of the three major categories-patient with definite RHD, patient with borderline RHD and normal subject. The significance of the results will be confirmed by standard statistical methods for hypothesis testing.Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval has been taken from the Aga Khan University, Pakistan. Findings will be disseminated through scientific publications and to collaborators.Article focus: This study focuses on determining the frequency of subclinical RHD in school-going children in Karachi, Pakistan and developing a DL algorithm to screen for this condition using a digital stethoscope

Anorexic behaviour and attitudes among female medical and nursing students at a private university hospital

Objective: To study the anorexic behaviour and attitude among female medical and nursing students in a tertiary care hospital.SUBJECTS AND Methods: A cross-sectional survey to determine the proportion of anorexic behaviour among female medical and nursing students at The Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi was conducted. A multistaged sampling technique was utilized in which our study population was first divided according to field of enrollment (medical or nursing school) and then stratified by class. Within each stratum, we used convenience sampling due to time and availability constraints. We utilized a modified Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) to collect data. The Eating Attitude Test is probably the most widely used standardized measure of symptoms characteristic of eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa.Results: A total of 180 female students were interviewed. Ninety-four (52.2%) were medical students and 86 (47.8%) were nursing students. Among the 94 medical students, 26 (27.7%) were from first year, 14 (14.9%) from second year, 15 (16.0%) from third year, 20 (21.3%) from fourth year and 19 (20.2%) from the final year of medical college. Among the 86 nursing students 34 (39.5%) were from first year, 23 (26.7%) from second year, 27 (31.4%) from third year and 2 (2.4%) from fourth year. The proportion of anorexic behaviour among medical students was 8.0%, 7.1% and 20.0% in first, third and fourth years respectively. No individuals with anorexic behaviour were found in second and fifth years. The total proportion of anorexic behaviour among female health care students was 21.7%.CONCLUSION: Results showed a 21.7% prevalence of anorexic behaviour, a figure much higher than that reported in similar studies conducted in Asia. We also found that the proportion was much higher among female nursing students as compared to female medical students. A previous visit to a psychiatrist for reasons other than eating disorders was found to be associated with anorexic behaviour

Projected Rainfall Variability Based on PRECIS Regional Model

The present study indicates the potential projected variation of decadal mean rainfall over Kohistan region of Sindh Province, Pakistan. Precipitation variability is a crucial climatic factor that affects human health and their settlements. In this study, the precipitation variability associated with climate change in Kohistan region, Sindh, Pakistan is simulated using the PRECIS regional climate modeling system. The study analyses the precipitation variability in the future for two spells (2021-2050 and 20712099) with respect to the past (1961-1990) climate under the baseline ECHAM5 dataset for A1B Scenario at a resolution of 25x25 km. Based on this analyses, the precipitation scarcity is projected for 2021-2050 and 2071-2099 decades. The projected results showed a serious precipitation variation and shortfall of 12.60, 53.98, and 48.19% during 2031-2040,2041-2050 and 2081-2090 decades respectively as compared to baseline (1961-1990). The analyzed situation would be harmful to the water resources and agricultural production in the region during the shortfall, which imposes the adverse effect on the recharge of groundwater and quality. That might cause of long drought spell in the region. While during the 20212030 decade shown slight influence on the potential of hill torrents and groundwater recharge. However, the results reveal for the period of 2071-2080 and 2091-2099, the extreme floods with 60.50 and 70.50% are projected as compared to baseline 1961-1990. The increasing trend of precipitation indicates additional recharge of fresh groundwater and quality, with increasing level of aquifers, subsequently more agricultural production would be expected with alternate employment opportunities in the water sector. The projected results, indicating the decadal scenarios of the drought and wet spells in the region by the precipitation variation, which may impact on the hill torrents, groundwater and agricultural production, and employment opportunities. These quantitative projections should enable policymakers and stakeholders to plan for future measures

Design and analysis of Maxwell fisheye lens based beamformer

Antenna arrays and multi-antenna systems are essential in beyond 5G wireless networks for providing wireless connectivity, especially in the context of Internet-of-Everything. To facilitate this requirement, beamforming technology is emerging as a key enabling solution for adaptive on-demand wireless coverage. Despite digital beamforming being the primary choice for adaptive wireless coverage, a set of applications rely on pure analogue beamforming approaches, e.g., in point-to-multi point and physical-layer secure communication links. In this work, we present a novel scalable analogue beamforming hardware architecture that is capable of adaptive 2.5-dimensional beam steering and beam shaping to fulfil the coverage requirements. Beamformer hardware comprises of a finite size Maxwell fisheye lens used as a scalable feed network solution for a semi-circular array of monopole antennas. This unique hardware architecture enables a flexibility of using 2 to 8 antenna elements. Beamformer development stages are presented while experimental beam steering and beam shaping results show good agreement with the estimated performance

Higher Education Capacity Building in Water Resources Engineering and Management to Support Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal for Water in Pakistan

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals requires a multi‐pronged approach, with a key element being the development of a trained Community of Practice to sustain the advances in the relevant sectors. The engagement of higher education as a catalyst in the development and capacity building of the next generation of professionals and citizens comprising the Community of Practice is essential to meet the challenges of poverty, climate change, and clean water and to sustain those advances past 2030. This paper describes a capacity building program funded by the United States Agency for International Development to partner the University of Utah, in the United States, with Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, in Pakistan, to create the U.S.‐Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water (USPCASW). The USPCASW program includes six core components of Curriculum Reform, Applied Research, Exchanges and Training, Governance, Gender Equity, and Sustainability. This paper describes the project, the activities for each component, and the multi‐level assessment of the program, activities, and impact. The paper also highlights the overarching impact of the program and its alignment with achieving the Sustainable Development Goal for Water. Following the description of the program components and assessment, the paper concludes with a discussion of challenges and lessons learned

Characterization and Comparison of the Leukocyte Transcriptomes of Three Cattle Breeds

In this study, mRNA-Seq was used to characterize and compare the leukocyte transcriptomes from two taurine breeds (Holstein and Jersey), and one indicine breed (Cholistani). At the genomic level, we identified breed-specific base changes in protein coding regions. Among 7,793,425 coding bases, only 165 differed between Holstein and Jersey, and 3,383 (0.04%) differed between Holstein and Cholistani, 817 (25%) of which resulted in amino acid changes in 627 genes. At the transcriptional level, we assembled transcripts and estimated their abundances including those from more than 3,000 unannotated intergeneic regions. Differential gene expression analysis showed a high similarity between Holstein and Jersey, and a much greater difference between the taurine breeds and the indicine breed. We identified gene ontology pathways that were systematically altered, including the electron transport chain and immune response pathways that may contribute to different levels of heat tolerance and disease resistance in taurine and indicine breeds. At the post-transcriptional level, sequencing mRNA allowed us to identify a number of genes undergoing differential alternative splicing among different breeds. This study provided a high-resolution survey of the variation between bovine transcriptomes at different levels and may provide important biological insights into the phenotypic differentiation among cattle breeds

Global mortality from dementia: Application of a newmethod and results from the global burden of disease study 2019

INTRODUCTION: Dementia is currently one of the leading causes of mortality globally, and mortality due to dementia will likely increase in the future along with corresponding increases in population growth and population aging. However, large inconsistencies in coding practices in vital registration systems over time and between countries complicate the estimation of global dementia mortality. METHODS: We meta-analyzed the excess risk of death in those with dementia and multiplied these estimates by the proportion of dementia deaths occurring in those with severe, end-stage disease to calculate the total number of deaths that could be attributed to dementia. RESULTS: We estimated that there were 1.62 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI]: 0.41–4.21) deaths globally due to dementia in 2019. More dementia deaths occurred in women (1.06 million [0.27–2.71]) than men (0.56 million [0.14–1.51]), largely but not entirely due to the higher life expectancy in women (age-standardized female-to-male ratio 1.19 [1.10–1.26]). Due to population aging, there was a large increase in all-age mortality rates from dementia between 1990 and 2019 (100.1% [89.1–117.5]). In 2019, deaths due to dementia ranked seventh globally in all ages and fourth among individuals 70 and older compared to deaths from other diseases estimated in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. DISCUSSION: Mortality due to dementia represents a substantial global burden, and is expected to continue to grow into the future as an older, aging population expands globally

Global mortality from dementia : Application of a new method and results from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Introduction Dementia is currently one of the leading causes of mortality globally, and mortality due to dementia will likely increase in the future along with corresponding increases in population growth and population aging. However, large inconsistencies in coding practices in vital registration systems over time and between countries complicate the estimation of global dementia mortality. Methods We meta-analyzed the excess risk of death in those with dementia and multiplied these estimates by the proportion of dementia deaths occurring in those with severe, end-stage disease to calculate the total number of deaths that could be attributed to dementia. Results We estimated that there were 1.62 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI]: 0.41-4.21) deaths globally due to dementia in 2019. More dementia deaths occurred in women (1.06 million [0.27-2.71]) than men (0.56 million [0.14-1.51]), largely but not entirely due to the higher life expectancy in women (age-standardized female-to-male ratio 1.19 [1.10-1.26]). Due to population aging, there was a large increase in all-age mortality rates from dementia between 1990 and 2019 (100.1% [89.1-117.5]). In 2019, deaths due to dementia ranked seventh globally in all ages and fourth among individuals 70 and older compared to deaths from other diseases estimated in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. Discussion Mortality due to dementia represents a substantial global burden, and is expected to continue to grow into the future as an older, aging population expands globally.Peer reviewe