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In this dissertation, I study the impact of cell phones on agriculture and labor market decisions in context of Pakistan. In the second chapter, I look at the impact of access to cell phone coverage on production choices of farmers in rural Pakistan using a spatial regression discontinuity design. In the third chapter, I study the impact of cell phone network quality on women's economic participation using new data from a nationally representative survey in Pakistan. In the fourth chapter, I study the impact of cell phones on trader efficiency and perishable crop quality using new micro-transaction records data. A transition to cash crop production is widely considered to be a principal path- way for poverty reduction and economic development. However, cash crops are often perishable, and therefore suffer from a high risk of incurring post-harvest losses when modern storage is unavailable and market linkages are weak. In the second chapter, I utilize administrative village census data and primary household survey data I collected in rural Pakistan, to estimate the impact of cell phone access on crop choice, farmer-trader coordination, and post-harvest losses. To deal with endogeneity of cell phone tower placement, I exploit a policy that restricts cell phone coverage in Pakistan from villages that lie within 10 km of the Indian border. Regression discontinuity estimates of village level data indicate that cell phone access causes an increase in the probability of producing perishable crops. To uncover the distinct impacts of cell phone access on crop choice and farmer-trader coordination, I estimate the household level regressions by degree of perishability. Results show that cell phones only have a strong positive effect on plantation and farmer-trader coordination for perishable crops. Farmers' agricultural income and household consumption increase. In the third chapter, I study the impact of reliability of communication network on labor market outcomes for women in Pakistan. In the context of developing countries such as Pakistan, cultural constraints and high incidence of violence against women, restricts women to engage in economic opportunities with low returns and low mobility. Access to a safe and reliable communication network can allow women to communicate with their households while traveling. This allows them to engage in high return economic opportunities. Using data from a new module, that I designed, for the nationally representative Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey(PSLM), I look at the impact of reliability of communication network on economic participation of women in Pakistan. For identification, I make use of a natural experiment, where a computerized numbering system in Pakistan randomly assigns numbers to different destination codes. The variation in destination codes induces variation in network quality. Results show that reliable communication network leads to increase in women's economic participation. Moreover, women shift towards high return mobility requiring activities; leading to substantial income gains. In the fourth chapter, I look at the impact of farmers' cell phone access on efficiency of agriculture crop traders in rural Pakistan. The trade of perishable crops in developing countries remains inefficient due to lack of timely coordination and communications between farmers and traders. In this chapter, I utilize a high frequency data of micro-transactions in one of the study districts from Chapter 2, to look at the impact of cell phone coverage on the efficiency of trade. Applying Spatial Regression Discontinuity Methods to transaction records, I find that access to cell phone coverage leads to a decrease in the percentage of crop not purchased due to capacity constraint as well as an increase in the quality of crops purchased.

Enhanced transparency, accountability, and government or donor responsiveness to people needs are imperative to achieve better and more sustainable development results on the ground. The rapid spread of new technologies is transforming the daily lives of millions of poor people around the world and has the potential to be a real game changer for development. Improved accountability and responsiveness are critical for reaching the goals of eliminating extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity with a focus on improving the well-being of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in society. Within the broader political economy context, many questions remain unanswered about the role that new technologies can play to act as an accelerator for closing the accountability gap. Within this context, this report brings together new evidence from leading academics and practitioners on the effects of technology-enabled citizen engagement. The report aims to address the following four main questions: how do new technologies empower communities through participation, transparency, and accountability?; are technologies an accelerator for closing the accountability gap - the space between supply (governments, service providers) and demand (citizens, communities, civil society organizations) that must be bridged for open and collaborative governance?; under what conditions does this occur?; and what are the experiences and lessons learned from existing grassroots innovators and donor-supported citizen engagement and crowdsourcing programs, and how can these programs be replicated or scaled up?. The report presents a theoretical framework about the linkages between new technologies, participation, empowerment, and the improvement of poor people's human well-being based on Amartya Sen's capability approach. The book provides rich case studies about the different factors that influence whether or not information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled citizen engagement programs can improve the delivery and quality of public services to poor communities. The report analyzes in depth both the factors and process of using new technologies to enhance the delivery of primary health services to pregnant women in Karnataka, India, and of several community mapping and crowdsourcing programs in Guinea, Haiti, Kenya, Libya, Sudan, and other countries.

Humble leadership has gained attention in recent years due to its potential impact on employee performance. This study explores the association between humble leadership and follower innovative behavior by investigating the moderating role of core self-evaluation (CSE) and the mediating role of leader-member exchange (LMX). The study uses data from 328 followers and their immediate leaders to test a mediated moderation model. Results show that there is a favorable association between humble leadership and LMX and followers’ innovative behavior, particularly pronounced for followers who possess lower levels of CSE. The findings suggest that humble leaders should focus their development efforts on followers with low CSE to achieve complementarity congruity and improved innovation. This research enhances the existing body of knowledge by emphasizing the significance of comprehending the functions of relational procedures and the psychological resources of followers in determining the effectiveness of humble leadership. These findings have practical implications for organizations seeking to enhance their leadership effectiveness and followers’ innovative behavior.

This study aims to determine the firm and sector efficiency using data envelopment analysis for 121 listed firms, 3 from 2004 to 2016. Based on the efficiency score of 1 and 0, DEA analysis results indicate that 10% firm was highly efficient in the whole sample, 80% are semi-efficient in selected sectors and 10% slightly inefficient. Thus, we can conclude that all firms are not equally efficient. Also, the study used a Logit/ Probit Regression model, and results indicate that the brand value and type of sector has a positive impact on firm efficiency. The study concludes that Brand value increases firm efficiency, so managers should put more focus on building firm brand value.

Multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacterial cells embedded in biofilm matrices can lead to the development of chronic cariogenesis. Here, we isolated and identified three Gram-positive MDR oral cocci, (1) SJM-04, (2) SJM-38, and (3) SJM-65, and characterized them morphologically, biochemically, and by 16S rRNA gene-based phylogenetic analysis as Georgenia sp., Staphylococcus saprophyticus, and Rothia mucilaginosa, respectively. These three oral isolates exhibited antibiotic-resistance against nalidixic acid, tetracycline, cefuroxime, methicillin, and ceftazidime. Furthermore, these Gram positive MDR oral cocci showed significant (p < 0.05) variations in their biofilm forming ability under different physicochemical conditions, that is, at temperatures of 28, 30, and 42 °C, pH of 6.4, 7.4, and 8.4, and NaCl concentrations from 200 to 1000 µg/mL. Exposure of oral isolates to TiO2NPs (14.7 nm) significantly (p < 0.05) reduced planktonic cell viability and biofilm formation in a concentration-dependent manner, which was confirmed by observing biofilm architecture by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical microscopy. Overall, these results have important implications for the use of tetragonal anatase phase TiO2NPs (size range 5–25 nm, crystalline size 13.7 nm, and spherical shape) as an oral antibiofilm agent against Gram positive cocci infections. We suggest that TiO2NPs pave the way for further applications in oral mouthwash formulations and antibiofilm dental coatings.

Highly porous ZIF-67 (Zeolitic imidazole framework) has a conductive crystalline metal organic framework (MOF) structure which was served as a precursor and template for the preparation of nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) electrocatalysts. As a first step, the chloroplatinic acid, a platinum (Pt) precursor was infiltrated in ZIF-67 with a precise amount to obtain 0.12 mg.cm-2 Pt loading. Later, the infiltrated structure was calcined at 700°C in Ar:H2 (90:10 vol%) gas mixture. Multi-walled nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes were grown on the surface of ZIF-67 crystals following thermal activation at 700°C. The resulting PtCo-NCNTs electrocatalysts were deposited on Nafion-212 solid electrolyte membrane by spray technique to study the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in the presence of H2/O2 gases in a temperature range of 50-70°C. The present study elucidates the performance of nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes ORR electrocatalysts derived from ZIF-67 and the effects of membrane electrode assembly (MEA) steaming on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) employing PtCo-NCNTs as ORR electrocatalysts. We observed that the peak power density at 70°C was 450 mW/cm2 for steamed membrane electrode assembly (MEA) compared to 392 mW/cm2 for an identical MEA without steaming.

Objective: To investigate the effect of pan retinal photocoagulation (PRP) on Optic nerve head blood flow with OCT angiography in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Methods: This prospective interventional study was conducted at Eye Unit III, Institute of Ophthalmology, Mayo Hospital, Lahore, over a period of seven months i.e. from 10th May 2019 to 10th November 2019. Thirty-five patients having proliferative diabetic retinopathy were included in this study. Ocular blood flow was measured with OCT Angiography, then pan retinal photocoagulation was performed and patients were called for follow-up after one month and ocular blood flow was measured again with OCT Angiography. The difference in the blood flow was calculated. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for the categorical data and mean and standard deviations were calculated for the continuous data. Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test was performed and effects of PRP on blood flow were compared. Significance level was taken as p≤0.05. Results: Out of 35 patients, 30 patients (85.71%) had decreased post PRP blood flow, four patients (11.43%) had increased post PRP blood flow and one patient (2.86%) did not have any effect. Conclusion: OCT angiography revealed there is significantly reduced optic nerve head blood flow in PRP treated eyes compared to non-PRP treated eyes. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.5.2190 How to cite this:Amanat SA, Khan AA, Tayyab H, Sarwar S. Effect of panretinal photocoagulation on optic nerve head blood flow with OCT angiography in patients with diabetic retinopathy. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(5):1075-1078. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.5.2190 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Poor control of diabetes mellitus (DM) is partly attributed to doctors' poor adherence to guidelines. To evaluate doctors' adherence to pharmacotherapeutic recommendations of DM management guidelines and factors associated with guidelines adherence and glycaemic control. This prospective observational study included 30 doctors who were treating DM patients in their private clinics in Quetta, Pakistan. On visit 1, a total of 600 prescriptions written by 30 enrolled doctors (20 patients per doctor) were noted along with patients' sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. American Diabetes Association guidelines was used as a reference. The prescriptions noted were judged for guidelines compliance. Of 600 enrolled patients, 450 patients (15 patients per doctor) were followed for one more visit and included in final analysis. Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level noted one visit 2 was related with the respective prescription on visit 1. Data were analyzed by SPSS (version 23). A -value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Patients received a median of two antidiabetic drugs (range: 1-5). A total of 73.1% patients were on polytherapy. Metformin was the most frequently prescribed (88.4%) antidiabetic followed by gliptins (46.2%). A total of 41.6% prescriptions were judged guidelines compliant. In multivariate binary logistic regressions (MVBLR) analysis, chronic kidney disease (CKD) (OR = 0.422) and polytherapy (OR = 0.367) had statistically significant negative associations ( -value <0.05) with guidelines' compliant prescriptions. The group of doctors comprised of specialists and consultants wrote significantly ( -value = 0.004) high number of guidelines adherent prescriptions (mean rank = 20.25) than the group comprised of medical officers (mean rank = 11.34). On visit 2, only 39.5% patients were on goal glycemic levels. In MVBLR analysis, suffering from dyslipidemia (OR = 0.134) and CKD (OR = 0.111), receiving sulfonylurea (OR = 0.156) and guidelines' compliant prescription (OR = 4.195) were significantly ( -value <0 .05) associated with glycemic control. Although guidelines compliant prescriptions produced better glycemic control, but doctors' adherence to guidelines and glycemic control were poor. Polytherapy and CKD emerged as risk factors for guidelines divergent prescriptions. Dyslipidemia, CKD and reception of sulfonylureas had negative association with glycemic control.

The predictable values that indicate the performance of any company and determine that how well they are performing in order to achieve their objective is referred by the term called as “key performance indicators”. The key performance indicator techniques and other methods that are similar to KPI are usually implemented in the businesses that are running online, but for an e-commerce business, it is always difficult to select the right KPI. As long as the KPIs are concerned, the biggest blunder that an online business can make is that they calculate everything along with the KPIs. But whatever they are calculating cannot be referred as the “key” because they are measuring each and everything, so this can immediately become devastating. The need is to only measure certain specific keys in order to calculate the performance of a business. The main aim of this research is to establish the set of standard rules that must be adopted in order to identify the best KPIs for an e-commerce business website based on google analytics and machine learning technique.