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The livelihoods of households affected by land acquisition in rural Vietnam are crucial for sustainable development and community resilience. This study employs the sustainable livelihoods approach, which recognises the interconnectedness between various factors shaping livelihood outcomes, to investigate factors behind livelihood changes among 474 farm households affected by land acquisition in rural Vietnam. By applying Multinomial Logit (MNL) regression, this paper delves into how personal and household characteristics influence the transition from farming to non-farming activities in agrarian settings. Our findings reveal the diverse and multifaceted impacts of various factors such as gender, age, educational level, household size, household labour force, and the extent of land loss on livelihood strategy choices. This study offers nuanced insights that can guide policymakers and practitioners to design effective interventions that promote sustainable livelihoods and enhance community resilience amidst the challenges posed by land acquisition and rural transformation.

Land-based livelihoods in Pakistan's high mountain regions are highly vulnerable to climate change due to the complex interactions between people and their natural environment. This study uses a mixed-method approach to explore how climate change affects land-based livelihoods in the high mountain Nagar District, Pakistan. Data were collected using a structured household survey of 430 randomly selected farmers, supplemented by focus group discussions and key informant interviews. The findings reveal that 87.7 % of farmers have observed negative impacts of climate change, such as increased crop diseases, reduced water for irrigation, and lower crop yields. Bivariate results indicate that factors related to farming practices, such as farming experience and cropping zones, significantly influence farmers' perceptions of impacts. The study emphasizes the urgent need for targeted government intervention and agricultural planning to boost the resilience of farmers in Nagar District. It calls for improved irrigation, crop disease management, and support tailored to high-mountain farming practices. The research highlights the importance of developing adaptation strategies to protect vulnerable farming communities from climate change impacts and supports the need for effective autonomous adaptation measures. This research contributes to a better understanding of climate change impacts on high-mountain agriculture and emphasizes the need to safeguard vulnerable farming communities.

This study aims to scrutinize the phenolic secondary metabolites in the polar peel decocture of Malus domestica var Maharaji via hyphenated techniques along with the study of the antibacterial, anti-candida, and tyrosinase inhibitory potential of bioactive compound-rich fractions. Preliminary phenolics go over was performed together with thin layer chromatography before the polar decocture was subjected to hyphenated techniques. FTIR investigation revealed the C-O bonds as in phenols, O-H bond stretch, and vibrations of alcohols and carboxylic acids as well as portrayed the C-H and >C=O stretches among other functional groups all of which are representative of phenolic and polyphenolic compounds. GC-MS perusal demonstrated the presence of bioactive compounds like Quercetin (13.04%), Ascorbic acid (6.48%), p-Coumaric acid (6.17%), Caffeic acid (5.69 %), Mallic acid (5.44%), Apigenin (5.28%), Citric acid (5.15%), Gallic acid (4.38%), Cyanidin (3.52%), and Ferulic acid (3.51%). Kirby-Bauer method followed by the resazurin microtiter assay technique (REMA) for MIC/MBC against six MTCC bacterial strains and one yeast, all producing stubborn opportunistic infection in humans, was used to assess the antibacterial property of all the bioactive rich fractions. Some fractions comparatively revealed a good activity index (AI) against tested microbes. MIC concentrations for bacteria ranged from 15-24 mg/ml while a lower MBC value recorded was 18 mg/ml. Methanol fraction revealed significant tyrosinase inhibitory activity by revealing IC50 of 980.98 µg/ml when L-Tyrosine was substrate and IC50 of 830.68 µg/ml when L-DOPA was substrate when juxtaposed to standard kojic acid that revealed IC50 of 128.822 µg/ml when L-Tyrosine was substrate and IC50 of 149.43 µg/ml when L-DOPA was substrate. The bioactive compounds possessed by the fractions, may be synergistically, turned out to be more effective in the diphenolase reaction and kojic acid acts more effectively in the monophenolase one. It was inferred that peel phenolics of this malus variety have a lot of therapeutic potential in the context of bacterial infections and pigmentation disorders.

Rural and agricultural communities' adaptation to climate change has gained significant attention owing to many countries' vulnerability to climate change risks. A similar trend has been witnessed in South Asia, a highly climate-vulnerable region, where research has grown dramatically considering the agriculture sector's vulnerability to climate-induced disasters. However, little attention has been paid to the adaptation of the livelihoods of rural households. This research, therefore, takes the case of Pakistan to explore livelihood adaptation strategies of rural households to climate change and investigate the factors that expedite or halt the adoption of livelihood diversification strategies. A multistage sampling design is used in this research, where 480 rural households from the Punjab province of Pakistan were selected and interviewed using stratified and random sampling approaches. A multivariate probit (MVP) regression model is employed to analyze the factors affecting households' adoption of livelihood adaptation strategies. The results show that besides adaptation of agronomic operations (agricultural adaptation strategies), rural households in the study area employed a wide range of strategies to adapt their livelihoods to climate change. These strategies include poultry and livestock farming, value addition of farm produce, trading of animals and farm commodities, small businesses (shops, etc.), daily wage labor, horticultural crop farming, and non-farming jobs. The estimates of the MVP model revealed that respondents' education, household size, income, access to a credit facility, access to farm advisory services, and access to climate forecasts have significantly influenced the choice of livelihood adaptation strategies. Based on these findings, this research recommends that the authorities should make efforts to improve farmers' understanding of the adaptation of climate change risks and educate them to adopt multiple livelihood options to improve the resilience of their livelihoods to climate-induced risks. This research has important policy implications for other countries with similar socio-economic features.

This study investigates the experiences of violence women faced during and after climate-induced migration in Pakistan, focusing on the context of floods. Through in-depth interviews, the study explores the specific forms of violence experienced by women, the underlying factors contributing to their vulnerability, their coping strategies employed in flood-affected areas, and the disaster management abilities of women in Pakistan. The findings of the study indicate that the economic hardships and poverty, displacement and gender disparities, overcrowded living conditions in relief camps, breakdown of law and order during disasters, and limited access to healthcare services stand out as noticeable reasons for gender-based violence. Key informants reported an increase in domestic violence incidence. However, women’s role as caretakers, their ability to livelihood diversification, and their knowledge of local conditions were among the dominant coping measures in the study area. Therefore, the study suggests implementing gender-sensitive disaster management strategies that prioritize women’s safety, access to resources, strengthening legal protections against gender-based violence, and promoting women’s leadership in disaster preparedness and response efforts.

Women are highly exposed to climate-induced natural disasters in Pakistan due to socio-cultural barriers resulting in heightened social injustice among them. This paper investigates the drivers of social injustice during forced migration among women living in vulnerable areas of Pakistan. The study utilized data from fifteen key informants’ interviews by employing a systematic narrative analysis to investigate women’s responses towards migration and gender dimensions of adverse climatic events. The results show that economic, socio-cultural, and health related factors were among the key contributors exposing women to social injustice during migration while in search for better life. The findings further unveiled that decisions regarding migration were mainly taken by the household heads especially who in most cases were the male family members. In all circumstances, securing lives, livelihoods, and properties, access to better education, healthcare facilities, and to overall improve socioeconomic situation of the household, were the primary goals of deciding to move to newfound. Given that some members of the household pursue migration as a result of adverse climatic events, government strategies are required to mitigate risks at destinations and create opportunities for the displaced populations.

The expansion of a country's ecological footprint generates resources for economic development. China's import bill and carbon footprint can be reduced by investing in green transportation and energy technologies. A sustainable environment depends on the cessation of climate change; the current study investigates nuclear energy efficiency, economic complexity, air transportation, and industrial improvement for reducing environmental footprint. Using data spanning the years 1983–2016, the dynamic autoregressive distributed lag simulation method has demonstrated the short- and long-term variability in the impact of regressors on the ecological footprint. The study findings revealed that economic complexity in China had been found to have a statistically significant impact on the country's ecological footprint. Moreover, the industrial improvement process is helpful for the ecological footprint in China. In the short term, air travel has a negative impact on the ecological footprint, but this effect diminishes over time. Additionally, energy innovation is negative and substantial both in the short and long run, thus demonstrating its positive role in reducing the ecological footprint. Policy implications can be extracted from a wide range of issues, including economic complexity, industrial improvement, air transportation, energy innovation, and ecological impact to achieve sustainable goals.

Risk communication is crucial since individuals need to understand how they are at risk and what proper steps to deal with flood events. Sharing information with the public opens the door for two-way communication about risks, wherein you learn about people's perspectives and work together to find ways to mitigate the risks. Beyond government scope, relief organizations play a big part in advising individuals about the likelihood of catastrophic events as they possess the commonalities that define community engagement. In numerous accounts of devastating events, the failure of risk management groups to coordinate their efforts and the public's mistrust of relief agencies are highlighted. One possible explanation for this skepticism could be relief organizations' failures in communicating risks. In addition, individuals' lack of skills and experience with catastrophes has left rural residents unprepared, which is why relief agencies need to raise their efforts or measures to communicate with people about possible risks. If these measures are uncovered, it could improve public communication and provide information for formulating recommendations to prevent fatalities. This study identifies the strategies used by relief organizations in enhancing disaster risk communication across four severely affected districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The qualitative research used semi-structured interviews with 50 participants from relief organizations, local institutions, and affected households. We employed qualitative content analysis and NVivo software to analyze the data. The findings of this study highlighted some significant strategies that relief organizations adopted in this line of work: the administration of educational and information transmission, managing obstacles in communication, and managing inter-organizational communications. The findings validate the potential for relief organizations to become change agents, facilitate communication between the public and relief organizations, and ultimately strengthen community resilience and reduce disaster risks as part of local responses.

Adoption of improved agricultural technologies can help achieve the two Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of no poverty and zero hunger by 2030. This study investigates the determinants of farmers' adoption of hand tractors in the HKH region of Pakistan using binary logit model. We also examine what facilitates and what impedes the adoption of hand tractor adoption using key informant interviews. Results show that household head education, farming experience, knowledge of hand tractor use, access to credit, extension contact, and trust in technology positively affect the adoption of hand tractor; however farm size is negatively related. The findings reveal that ethnic conflicts, political conflicts, elite capture in decision making, unavailability of functional community-based entities, weak extension-farmers contact, as well as weak inter- and intra-community linkages are key barriers affecting hand tractor adoption. Similarly, observed changes on neighbors’ fields, experiencing hand tractor on trial basis, communication networks, risk observations, and trust propensities motivate hand tractor adoption in the study region. Thus, to effectively disseminate improved agricultural technologies, policymakers should consider these factors.

Floods are the most common natural hazard in Pakistan, and research on flood risk management is continuously growing to improve policies for effective flood risk management. One of the critical determinants of effective food risk management is better communication of flood risks through the Flood Early Warning System. FEWS have been implemented widely; however, not all at-risk residents have been prompted to take immediate action in response to these alerts. This research looks at community social barriers to the non-technical aspects of FEWS and what Non-Governmental Organizations could do to address these gaping holes. This study used data from a field survey carried out in the four most severely affected districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province to explore gaps in non-technical aspects of flood early warning systems in Pakistan. The data were acquired through a comprehensive, structured questionnaire (600 household heads in total-150 HHs from each region) and focus group discussions with community leaders and elders (FGDs = 6), NGOs professionals (FGDs = 2) along with more casual exchanges over the phone. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis. The survey results found that most sampled respondents reported a lack of access to necessities, failure to heed flood alerts, misreading alerts, and poor connection between producers and consumers challenges under warning distribution and communication. Similarly, the critical challenges reported under the preparedness component were the exclusion of social groups from emergency preparedness, uncustomary contingency plans, and lack of political will. Furthermore, the key challenges included limited resources, risk perceptions, and a sense of belonging to ancestral lands under the response capability component. This paper finds that NGOs serve as a bridge between local communities and key disaster management institutions by tailoring solutions to individual community needs, educating necessary authorities about disaster risk reduction, facilitating communication among susceptible populations and authorities, and raising awareness through campaigns. Based on these results, we suggest authorities improve FEWS by improving communication infrastructures, translating early warnings into local languages, and developing a two-way information exchange system between stakeholders and contemporary emergency response plans.

The United Nations SDGs Report 2020 revealed that climatic variability victimized masses across the globe in 2018 and the global average temperature would rise to 3.2°C during this century. The GHG emission reduction targets for 2030 were prioritized under the Paris Climate Agreement (PCA) of 2015 to keep the rise in global temperature below 1.5°C. Here, parallel action for climate adaptation is on top of it. However, targets for both adaptation and mitigation are lagging. Climatic variations will continue more likely with similar trends thus influencing the development needs vis-à-vis environmental security and sustainability of resources. It entails climate compatibility, particularly for the water security agenda for SDG-13 and Paris Climate Agreement (PCA), which requires an inclusive governance regime and ownership for national and sub-national scenarios. In this context, this paper aimed to assess existing water sector governance for climate compatible development (CCD) by taking the case of Pakistan which is among the top 10 countries vulnerable to climate change. Considering the limitations of available methodologies due to the involvement of various aspects and concepts of governance, an integrated multivariate mix-method model was formulated by combining rules and rights-oriented approaches. This MCDA-based model integrates six novel climate governance principles against six basic components of the basic institutional governance framework; Simple Multi-attribute Rating Technique (SMART) with a set of sectoral indicators of 09 criteria of climate compatible development (CCD). It proved well for this water sector case study with cross-sectional data from 340 key informant interviews (KIIs) and 17 focus group discussions (FGDs) in Pakistan, validated statistically. It can be used for periodic sectoral governance assessments for CCD.

The effects of climate change are global and will worsen in the future. People face uncontrollable large-scale events due to the crisis. To manage climate-induced risks, understanding all threats is crucial. A country's governance system is responsible for risk management. Pakistan is highly vulnerable to climatic disasters, making its governance system crucial. To achieve climate risk resilience, farmers need tailored institutional services. This study investigates the efficacy of such services in Punjab province, Pakistan. Four hundred eighty farmers in Punjab's mixed cropping zone were interviewed face-to-face using a predesigned structured questionnaire to collect data on five types of institutionally provided services (e.g., weather and climate forecasts, farm advisory, financial services, technical support, and training). Institutional support for climate risk management is assessed using an indicator-based index approach by selecting four indicators/dimensions reflective of service effectiveness (e.g., content coverage, service accessibility, compatibility, and usefulness). The survey results showed that farmers had varying perceptions of institutional services, with low-medium levels of support and fair content coverage, accessibility, and usefulness. Most services lacked compatibility. Researchers recommend improving agricultural service compatibility to build farming communities' resilience to climate risks.

The economy of Pakistan has constantly been plunged due to its severe electricity shortages over the last 2 decades and persistently faces challenges in revamping its electricity supply network. The purpose of this research was to assess the causal relationship between carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), combustible renewable and waste (CRW), electric power consumption (EC), electricity production from coal (EPC), hydroelectric (EPH) and natural gas (EPN) sources, energy use (EU) and gross domestic product (GDP). The scope of this research included Pakistan’s annual time series data from 1971 to 2014. This study employed Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound testing analysis to determine the long-term and short-term correlations among all research parameters. This research also conducted Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), Phillips-Perron (PP) and Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin (KPSS) tests to evaluate the stationarity existence among dependent variable and independent variables. The outcomes of the fully modified least squares (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and canonical co-integrating regression (CCR) estimators showed that coefficients of EC, EPH and GDP all were a significantly positive relationship with CO2 emissions, while the coefficients of CRW, EPC and EU were negatively significant, respectively. Furthermore, the outcomes from the short-run analysis revealed that the error correction term value was -0.8668, which indicates that from short-run to long-run equilibrium, the adjustment of the deviation of CO2 emission is by 86.68 percent annually. Moreover, the diagnostic results also demonstrated that the model employed in this research is stable and reliable. Pakistan was selected in this research work because of the deficit of power and if environmental degradation continues unchecked, it will eventually affect the state’s economic growth and CO2 emissions. The study’s primary policy recommendation is that government energy policymakers in Pakistan who create the environment framework in should pursue conservative energy measures as such measures will not negatively impact economic growth.

The modern organizational structure expects that the human resource department should train the employees effectively to sustain the environment. This study aims to understand the role of green human resource management (GHRM) in the efficiency of organizations’ employees in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of Pakistan. The questionnaire was developed on a five-point Likert scale to collect primary data from the target respondents, and the target respondents of this study were the employees of SMEs in Pakistan. The results of the study indicate that GHRM is an important tool to motivate and train employees, which ultimately increases the efficiency of employees. This study demonstrates that the SMEs in Pakistan need to consider the critical role of GHRM as it is emerging and provides reliable resources as per the organization’s requirements for better performance. This study provides recommendation for future studies to consider and contribute to the literature and to the practices of SMEs in Pakistan for the efficiency of their employees.

This study applied a nuclear technique in conjunction with a classical monitoring tool to characterize the origin, fate, and behavior of metal pollutants in groundwater of Islamabad-Rawalpindi Metropolitans, which are also known as the “twin cities.” In total, 122 groundwater samples were collected and analyzed in accordance with standard methods. GIS and multivariate statistical analysis were employed for the groundwater vulnerability assessment and source apportionment. The results of the aesthetic parameters indicated that the majority of groundwater sources were tested and were colorless, odorless and tasteless in the “twin cities.” In addition, the findings of this study indicated that the concentration of pH, phosphates, copper, manganese, and zinc were within the drinking water standards in the “twin cities” as stipulated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) at all sampling points in the study area. The groundwater quality was found unsuitable for consumption due to elevated levels of electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids at 9.83% and 4.09% of samples, respectively. The contents of arsenic and fluoride were well within the allowable range at almost all points except at one location. However, iron and lead contents were above permissible limits. A statistical analysis revealed that trace metals originated from both geogenic and anthropogenic sources such as enhanced rock-water interaction, over abstraction, evaporation enrichment, improper waste disposal, discarded batteries, cross contamination of water supply and sewerage lines, active recharge from Lie drain, and domestic, industrial, and agricultural effluents. The computed water quality index (WQI) based on heavy metals elucidated that groundwater quality was poor in most of the study area due to elevated electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, lead, iron, arsenic, and fluoride values. A highly depleted isotopic composition of 13C provides clues about the aquifer’s vulnerability from miscellaneous sources such as domestic, urban, construction, and agricultural sites and the dissolution of carbonate minerals. This study clearly indicates that a rapidly growing population, unplanned urbanization, industrialization, improper waste disposal, over abstraction, and a lack of water abstraction policies are significantly contributing toward the impairment of groundwater quality in the study area. The study strongly emphasized the need to regulate groundwater abstraction by improving water treatment and the supply system for the provision of safe water to the urban populace. These results will help in designing remedial strategies for improving water quality in the “twin cities.”

The ongoing adverse effects of climate change produced by carbon dioxide emissions have sparked global advocacy to face its adverse consequences with the utmost vigor. Pakistan’s contribution to global emissions is less than 1% while it is among the most vulnerable countries facing threat of climate change. The sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by particular nations must be understood to comprehend the procedures necessary to reduce emissions globally. This study is a contribution to empirics of the CO2 emissions, gross domestic product, crop production index, livestock production index, population, agricultural land, land under cereal crop and agriculture value-added. This study considered annual data from 1961 to 2014 for the country of Pakistan. We performed an Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound testing approach to investigate the long-run and short-run association among all research variables. To check the stationarity of the study variables, we also employed Augmented Dickey-Fuller and Phillips-Perron (P.P.) tests. The outcomes of the long-run estimates indicate that the coefficients of agricultural land and land under cereal crop have a positive and significant relationship with CO2 emissions, while the coefficients of crop production index have a negative and significant relationship with CO2 emissions, respectively. The outcomes from short-run estimates show that the coefficients of crop production index and livestock production index are both positive and statistically significant, which implies that these variables are crucial in boosting carbon emissions. The error correction model value is also negative and statistically significant, indicating the deviation of CO2 emissions to other variables from short-run to long-run equilibrium. According to the Pairwise Granger causality test, there is evidence of both unidirectional and bidirectional causation between the research variables. Based on the research outcomes, the government must carefully consider its regulations on agricultural and livestock production and embrace ecologically friendly techniques in the agriculture sector, which may minimize carbon emissions over time.

In Pakistan, climate change is adversely affecting agricultural production and undermining the food security and subsistence of millions of farm households. Farmers’ understanding of climate change and their adaptation strategies can serve as a useful step to help minimize climate risks. This study explores farmers’ perception of and adaptation strategies to climate change and their determinants in the rice-growing zone of Punjab province, as this region of the country is highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. The multistage stratified-random sampling method was used to select 480 farmers from the four rice districts of the region, and data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Logistic regression and contingency tables are used to analyze the determinants of farmers’ adopted strategies and adaptation extent (number of adopted strategies). Results show that farmers perceived significant changes in the climate, including the rise in average summer and winter temperatures and the decline in overall precipitation. The study further found that farmers’ adopted adaptation strategies include supplementary irrigation, adjustments in rice cultivation dates, crop diversification, use of climate-smart varieties, better fertilizer management, and farm resizing. Logit model showed that farmers’ age, primary occupation, income, landholding, access to irrigation, credit, climate information, and farm advisory appeared to be the significant determinants of their adaptation decision. The adaptation extent strongly correlates with farmers’ education and access to climate information and credit services. Based on these findings, this study suggests the relevant institutions improve farmers’ access to irrigation water, credit, farm advisory, and climate information to improve their adaptation extent and hence resilience of the rice-farming system.

OBJECTIVES Heart rate (HR) is a crucial health indicator and is also one of the health factors we need to pay explicit attention to. Body Mass Index (BMI) is considered a cofactor in heart-related issues like heart rate increment and recovery. Thus a study was conducted to determine the relationship between BMI and the rate of heart rate increment and recovery. METHODOLOGY 24 participants aged 17-20 were examined during elliptical machine training once a week continuously for three months. Their regular resting heart rate and change in heart rate during and after the elliptical workout were recorded and compared with BMI. RESULTS The HR increments were noted alongside BMI for male participants below BMI 21.13, and female participants below BMI 20.16. The heart rate increment tempo decreases alongside the increased BMI for both sexes afterwards. The heart rate recovery (HRrecovery) for male participants falls with the BMI increase to ~25 and increases thereafter. The female participants show a differing trend: HRrecovery rates increase following BMI growth till BMI ~ 20 and then decrease parabolically till the maximum BMI among female participants. The findings suggest no linear and non-significant correlation between BMI and heart rate increment or HRrecovery. The coefficient of determination is too tiny (R2 = 0.1395 for males and R2 = 0.003 for females) to indicate the causation between BMIs and HRrecovry. CONCLUSION This is the first study scrutinizing the role of body mass index on heart rate increment and heart rate recovery. Thus BMI should not be used as the cofactor or risk for heart activity or impaired functions.

Introduction: The most important product of fermentation of non-digestible carbohydrates is short chain fatty acids. Formation of these metabolites are mainly dependent on diet and gut microbial colonization. Literature has been supportive of the fact that short chain fatty acids play significant role in chronic inflammation (allergic diseases) and host physiology and metabolic processes including obesity and diabetes. Little is known about the differences in the metabolism between breast-fed and bottle-fed infants in our country. This study was designed to determine the differences in the metabolism between breast-fed and bottle-fed infants in Pakistani cohort. Material & Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out in 50 healthy infants. Enrollment of these children was done from different centers and localities in Peshawar. Stool samples were collected from the included infants and short chain fatty acids were studied by using Gas Chromatography. Results: A total of 50 healthy infants (25 breast-fed and 25 bottle-fed) with mean age (mean ± sd) 78.40 35.88 days (range: 1-4 months) were included in this survey. Breast feeding was associated with lesser absolute concentrations of total short chain fatty acids. Among short chain fatty acids, acetates were more in breast feeding infants (median 651, p= 0.001) compared to formula feeding infants while propionates (median 81.06, p=0.02), butyrates (median 31.86, p=0.007) and iso-butyrates (median 3.76, p=0.003) were dominant in FFI which indicated an important role of short chain fatty acids in human health. Conclusion: It may be concluded that feeding practices strongly influence the gut microbial metabolism and metabolites (short chain fatty acids).

Objective: To compare the performance index of private and public sector hospitals of Karachi, Pakistan. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: In a tertiary care hospitals (one private and one public sector) of Karachi, from Nov 2016 to Nov 2017. Methodology: A sample size of 153 were enrolled by purposive sampling technique. Performance index of both hospitals was compared by asking questions from the hospitals staff. Data were collected by the researcher using closed ended questionnaire. Results: Out of 153, 78 (51%) cases were for private hospitals and 75 (49%) cases were for public hospitals. While evaluating the performance index by hospital work area/unit elements, “Enough staff to handle workload" was significantly higher for private hospitals with the p-value of

Empty pesticide container recycling helps control nonpoint source pollution and provides alternative sources for basic materials. This article investigates end users’ adoption of recycling their pesticide container waste and investigates the determinants influencing their adoption. The study uses an extensive farm survey of 210 farmers from the District Faisalabad of the Province of Punjab (Pakistan). It applies the partial least squares structural equation modeling technique to assess the impact of different elements, such as subjective norms, attitude, perceived behavioral control, intention, and environmental concerns, on end users’ adoption regarding recycling of pesticide empty container waste. The results explain that perceived behavioral control and intention to reuse pesticide container waste positively predict end users’ adoption. Furthermore, adoption is positively impacted by attitude, subjective norms, and environmental concerns via the intention to recycle pesticide container waste. The study urges the need to encourage end users to share responsibility for pesticide container waste management for a sustainable society.

While previous studies show that risk perceptions vary across populations and domains, there is little empirical evidence on the interplay between individual-level characteristics and risk domains in shaping perceived social risks in a country such as China. This study examines empirically the effects of individual-level characteristics on risk perceptions across different domains. Based on a large sample survey data from 31 provincial capitals in China, our analysis demonstrates that risk perceptions fall into four domains: contingencies, health threat, natural hazards, and social security. The multilevel model estimates indicate that confidence in local government responsible for risk management and being a male are uniformly and significantly correlated to less risk perceptions among all risk domains. Education presents a consistent pattern in amplifying risk perceptions, with only some effects on perceived health threat and contingencies displaying statistical significance. Also, age and income exhibit mixed associations with risk perceptions, only with age significantly attenuating perceived contingencies. The results also demonstrate that religious faith, party membership, and Hukou are related to risk perceptions. We discuss the theoretical and policy implications of our findings and conclude with research limitations and future research avenues.

Social scientists around the world commonly use the Likert scale. The scale has some limitations; in many cases, researchers are ignoring those limitations. Many social scientists have been trying to find out an alternative, but all initiatives do not correctly solve the problems. Among all limitations, the most critical issue is that Likert scale adopts a similar variance between two successive scale points. Fuzzy-Likert scale is a useful alternative for solving the existing limitation of the traditional Likert scale. Therefore, the current article describes the limitations of existing Likert scale and application of Fuzzy-Likert scale in perceived risk assessment. Naturally, risks are interrelated with different factors. Assessing risks with simple existing Likert scale is not entirely appropriate. A well-structured Fuzzy-Likert scale can be used to mitigate the existing problems. This article clarifies how efficiently researchers can use a Fuzzy-Likert scale for assessing the perceived risk in agriculture using a simple structured questionnaire with the help of an example. To reach the conclusions and recommendations, the researchers used different published articles, online repositories, report etc. through content analysis.

Premature mortality and undernutrition rates in Pakistan are among the highest in the world. Inadequate infant and young child feeding are the major causes of premature mortality and undernutrition. Yet, very little is known about the determinants of complementary feeding practices in Pakistan. Therefore, this study aims to identify the determinants of inadequate complementary feeding practices among children aged 6 to 23 months in Pakistan by using the latest nationally representative data from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (2017-18). The results show that only 12% of children consume a minimum acceptable diet, 21% achieve minimum dietary diversity, and 38% reach minimum meal frequency. Multivariate regression analysis shows that child age, child weight at birth, mother's access to newspapers/magazines at the individual level, wealth at the household level, and prenatal visits at the community level are significant predictors of complementary feeding practices among children aged 6-23 months in Pakistan. These findings show that, in addition to poverty alleviation, raising awareness through health practitioners, increasing access to media, and expanding access to child and maternal healthcare can improve complementary feeding practices in Pakistan. This consequently reduces premature mortality and undernutrition.

The soft set is one of the key mathematical tools for uncertainty description and has many applications in real-world decision-making problems. However, most of the time, these decision-making problems involve less important and redundant parameters, which make the decision making process more complex and challenging. Parameter reduction is a useful approach to eliminate such irrelevant and redundant parameters during soft set-based decision-making problems without changing their decision abilities. Among the various reduction methods of soft sets, normal parameter reduction (NPR) can reduce decision-making problems without changing the decision order of alternatives. This paper mainly develops a new algorithm for NPR using the concept of σ-algebraic soft sets. Before this, the same concept was used to introduce the idea of intersectional reduced soft sets (IRSSs). However, this study clarifies that the method of IRSSs does not maintain the decision order of alternatives. Thus, we need to develop a new approach that not only keeps the decision order invariant but also makes the reduction process more simple and convenient. For this reason, we propose a new algorithm for NPR using σ-algebraic soft sets that not only overcome the existing problems of IRSSs method but also reduce the computational complexity of the NPR process. We also compare our proposed algorithm with one of the existing algorithms of the NPR in terms of computational complexity. It is evident from the experimental results that the proposed algorithm has greatly reduced the computational complexity and workload in comparison with the existing algorithm. At the end of the paper, an application of the proposed algorithm is explored by a real-world decision-making problem.

Abstract Pakistan is highly exposed to climate-induced disasters, especially floods. Flooding history shows that educational establishments have been disproportionately hard-hit by flooding events. In Pakistan, school safety and preparedness is still a choice, rather than a mandatory requirement for all schools. But schools in Pakistan do have a responsibility to keep safe the students in their care, especially during and after the catastrophic events. This implies the need to maintain the environment in and around school property, so as to minimize the impacts of floods and to have the mechanisms in place to maximize a school’s resilience. This study examined the emergency preparedness activities of 20 schools in four districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province that had recently been severely affected by floods. Through face to face interviews and a structured questionnaire (n = 100) we collected data on the four pillars of emergency preparedness: emergency planning, preparation measures, safe school facilities, and hazard education and training. The study revealed that the majority of the sample schools had experienced more than one natural hazard-induced disaster, predominantly flooding, yet despite this had not undertaken adequate emergency preparedness activities. There are particular gaps with regard to plans for students with disabilities, the continuity of school operations after a disaster, the presence of maps to identify evacuation routes, the availability of emergency equipment and resources, disaster preparedness guidelines, and psychological first aid and crisis counseling. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis that our researchers carried out indicates that, although schools in the survey have taken many steps towards flood preparedness, many weaknesses still exist and there remain significant opportunities to strengthen the preparedness level of many schools. The goal of this study is to inform policy decisions that improve school safety in Pakistan and to suggest the priority areas for future school disaster preparedness and management efforts.

The similarities, differences, and contradictions regarding climate change adaptation and resilience by academics and practitioners have already been documented. It is the need of time to set new precedence by observing the adaptations and resilience as tools to respond to the climate variations. This study analyzed the influence of climate change adaptations and synergy between resilience from livelihood vulnerability and adaptations. A field survey of 489 farming households is conducted with the help of a well-structured questionnaire from four districts of the south part of Punjab province of Pakistan. This study uses the Endogenous Switching Regression model for the sake of analysis. The outcomes of the study reveal that age, education, family size, total land, and seed price have significant linkage with the adoption of adaptations. The synergistic effects of adaptation and resilience are also visible here as the adaptations factors are significantly contributing towards yield, per capita income, poverty, and poverty gap of the respondents. This study suggests the provision of proper education and smart technology to help in enhancing the adaptive capacity of farmers. More imperatively, adaptations to climate variations can be concluded as a remedial tool for resilient livelihood. It is believed that the present study can be considered as a guide for future research on other regions of Pakistan and neighboring countries.

The primary concentration of this study was to assess the marketing risks faced by hybrid rice growers and explore the trajectories. With this notion, data were collected from randomly selected 300 hybrid rice growers in purposively chosen areas with the application of a structured interview schedule and conducting five focus group discussions with the farmers. The study identified seven key risks responsible for the poor marketing of hybrid rice in Bangladesh. Perceived marketing risks were assessed by farmers opinion on likelihood and severity of each risk source through using a fuzzy-Likert scale. According to the finding high fluctuation of hybrid rice price was the most serious risk in hybrid rice marketing in Bangladesh. The regression result found several socio-demographic factors of the farmers are significantly related with perceived risk. This study, therefore, suggests government taking pro policies for hybrid rice growers organized around farmers those socio-demographic characteristics for minimizing marketing risk.

ABSTRACT: Agriculture is considered as the main driving force in Pakistan’s economy employing 45% of the country’s labor force and generating 20% of national GDP Agriculture sector of Pakistan is facing numerous challenges including non-adoption of agricultural technology at the farm level, due to farmers’ lack of access to the latest information. In this context, the current study focusses on the use of the mobile phone in accessing agricultural information among the farmers of the of district Muzaffargarh,Punjab, Pakistan. A multistage sampling technique was used to collect data from the two tehsils (cities/sub-districts) of Muzaffargarh formulating a total sample of 180 farmers. SPSS computer-based Software was used for analyzing the data. Results revealed that 91.2% of the farmers indicated mobile phone ownership. It was further reported that 87.20 % of the farmers used private sectors advisory staff to obtain agriculture information. Market information was ranked as the highest accessed information among the rest of farm-related use. Easy access to updated information and connectivity with stakeholders were reported as the highest perceived benefits of mobile phone use (4.63 & 4.72 mean). Findings reported that farmers’ limited aptitude of Mobile phone usage and lack of awareness of information sources as major constraints in farm-related use of the Mobile phone. On the basis of findings, the current study provided recommendations and policy implications for utilizing the true potential of these ICT-enabled solutions in agriculture.