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Globalization of education is widely contested in the current academic discussion due to its polarizing effects on the economy, society, and culture. Globalization and colonization have several commonalities because the origin of globalization can be traced to the colonial era. The privatization of education has also emerged with globalization. Applying a post-colonial critique and analysis, this paper will discuss how globalization is a colonial legacy that transforms Western educational policies in developing countries like Pakistan and how it creates Westernization, supremacy, and marginalization of teachers and students (Spring, 2008). Pakistan was formerly the colonized region of united India under Great Britain's empire. Globalization in education policies are rapidly changing the current educational landscape in several countries including Pakistan. The advancement of global forces enhanced standardization and privatization in the education system of Pakistan which has increased educational inequity along with the loss of indigenous language and culture. The post-colonial and indigenous scholarship in education will offer better frameworks of equitable access to quality education for all.

In many nations around the globe, including Pakistan, education is losing ground as a public good to become another market-based commodity as the state shrinks its responsibility to schooling. This presents challenges to democratic futures, and particularly for young democratic states such as Pakistan. The government of Pakistan is pouring a significant amount of money into the private provision of education, encouraged by the policies and investments of international donor-partners such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. These changes in educational provision represent the impacts of neoliberalism and globalisation on Pakistani policymaking and the growing influence of the conceptualisation of education as a private commodity. To address these trends, we offer a normative philosophical framework for a conception of education as a critical public good in Pakistan, drawing on Islamic tradition, public good theory, human rights, and common good global education theories.

Objective: To evaluate serum copper and zinc levels in patients with different types of alopecia compared to healthy controls, and to assess the potential relationship between trace element deficiencies and specific alopecia types. Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Chemical Pathology and Endocrinology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi, from 1 June 2021 to 30 April 2023. Materials and Methods: A total of 250 patients categorized into five groups; Group-1 male pattern hair loss, Group-2 female pattern hair loss, Group-3 alopecia areata, Group-4 telogen effluvium, and Group 5 healthy individuals were enrolled. Serum zinc and copper levels were tested by using atomic absorption spectrophotometer and results were compared with the help of SPSS by applying one-way ANOVA and post hoc test. The p value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: In Group-3, the mean serum copper was 15.14±3.26 followed by Group-4 (14.99±2.23), Group-2 (14.11±3.83), Group-1 (9.92±2.23), and the control group was 14.97±3.6. As in Group-2, the mean serum zinc was 12.93±2.97 followed by Group-4 (11.13±3.50), Group-3 (10.23±2.91), and Group-1 (8.70±2.08), and the control group was 14.01±1.82. Serum zinc had a statistically significant difference (p value ≤0.05) between all groups of alopecia. Whereas statistically significant low copper levels were observed only in male pattern hair loss with p value ≤0.001. Conclusion: Low zinc levels are related to all types of alopecia. Whereas low copper levels are observed only in male pattern alopecia. Hence zinc supplementation can be used to get some beneficial effects in all types of alopecia. Whereas patients with male pattern alopecia should also be evaluated for serum copper levels and supplementation is required only if they have low copper levels.

Background: Former assessments of active learning in dental education have not offered a thorough research effort on this topic because of their strong focus on specific active learning strategies. We carried out a systematic review to map the breadth and depth of the literature on active learning strategies in undergraduate dental education. Methods: Following the PRISMA guidelines for systematic review, the studies between January 2005 and October 2022 were included by using the databases of MEDLINE, ERIC, EMBASE, and Scopus. Original research articles in English that underwent peer review were selected. The articles that were not in English language and unrelated were excluded. Before extracting relevant material, two seasoned researchers independently verified the eligibility of whole texts, abstracts, and titles. Risk of Bias was assessed by using Cochrane Risk of Bias 2.0 tool for RCTs and Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for observational studies. Results were synthesized qualitatively. Results: The review of 93 articles assessed research using three methodologies: learning only, reaction assessment, and response and learning evaluations combined. Most studies used post-intervention evaluations, quantitative techniques, and self-report measures to assess student satisfaction and knowledge gain. Active learning approaches like group discussions, problem-based learning, team-based learning, and flipped learning were most commonly studied. Conclusion: Active learning in undergraduate dentistry classes can enhance learning, but further research is needed to assess its impact on skill development and behavioral change.

Genetic Algorithm is an optimization technique inspired by nature. The technique has been used by scientists and engineers for real-life search and optimization problems. This work makes use of the genetic algorithm for the solution of the traveling salesman problem. This work focuses on real-time problems; the algorithm is used to find the optimum path for sales travelers inside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. The solution provides the shortest distance between the cities to be traveled and gives the optimal route. The coding is done in Python-3 and software is developed for the traveling salesmen, where the salesmen can select the cities, they want to travel, and the software will provide the optimal path and the distance.

Because battery-powered underwater vehicles have limited long-term mission capacity, the development of ocean thermal engines that can harvest ocean thermal energy (OTE) is a potential solution to this “energy limitation” issue. Ocean thermal engines using solid-liquid phase change materials (PCM) for thermal–mechanical energy conversion. This study examined the effects of combining PCMs with metal foams (MF) on OTE harvesting. Two phase change materials and three MFs were considered. Experiments were conducted to measure the temperature change inside the PCM, phase change duration, and volume change to evaluate the thermal and energy-harvesting performances under different temperature and pressure conditions. Results show that(1) Mixed PCM composed of 95 % n-hexadecane and 5 % n-octane melting point decreased by 0.9–1.6 °C and volume change rate reduced by 16–40 % compared to pure n-hexadecane. (2) The mixed PCM has by 14–18 % higher output power than pure n-hexadecane. (3) Within the test range, to maximize the power density, the optimal porosity of copper foam and back pressure during melting were 94 % and 20 MPa, respectively. This study provides useful insights into the design and optimization of ocean thermal engines.

Surveillance videos record malicious events in a locality utilizing various machine learning algorithms for detection. Deep-learning algorithms being the most prominent AI algorithms are data-hungry as well as computationally expensive. These algorithms perform better when trained over a diverse and huge set of examples. These modern AI methods have a dire need of utilizing human intelligence to pamper the problem in such a way as to reduce the ultimate effort in terms of computational cost. In this research work, a novel methodology termed Bag of Focus (BoF) based training methodology has been proposed. BoF is based on the concept of selecting motion-intensive blocks in a long video, for training different deep neural networks (DNN's). The methodology reduced the computational overhead by 90% (ten times) in comparison to when full-length videos are entertained. It has been observed that training networks using BoF are equally effective in terms of performance for the same network trained over the full-length dataset. In this research work, firstly, a fine-grained annotated dataset including instance and activity information has been developed for real-world volume crimes. Secondly, a BoF-based methodology has been introduced for effective training of the state-of-the-art 3D, and 2D Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). Lastly, a comparison between the state-of-the-art networks have been presented for malicious event recognition in videos. It has been observed that 2D CNN even with lesser parameters achieved a promising classification accuracy of 98.7% and Area under the curve (AUC) of 99.7%.

Evidence about how to translate and mobilise research evidence for use in schools remains quite limited. The present study sought to address this gap by leveraging an opportunity to examine such processes. In February 2021, Edutopia (a large US-based, practice-focused educational intermediary organisation) hosted a large virtual event, with 6526 participants, to communicate/highlight just-released findings from four large-scale, funded causal studies into the efficacy of project-based learning and to encourage educators to adopt this practice. Examining this event, this primarily qualitative study addressed one main research question: How were research evidence and other forms of evidence used to justify and motivate the adoption of project-based learning in schools? This study also drew upon secondary data to examine certain self-reported impacts. This study applied a two-layered analytic frame to broadly examine the "selling" and "gelling" of educational research evidence and other forms of evidence, and to uncover if/how five main factors of innovation adoption were addressed. Findings provided detail and analysis along each of these dimensions and, further, revealed certain apparent tensions associated with making the case for project-based learning--for example, some instances of possible research 'over-selling', and a focus on answering certain questions that could not be addressed solely via research evidence, necessitating a reliance on other evidence sources. Survey/summary results suggested participants were strongly convinced of this innovation's positive impacts and were eager to discuss it further with colleagues, though given data limitations we were unable to discern the extent/ways participants' subsequent practices subsequently shifted.

Abstract Background Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is considered as one of the major public health problems globally. Health education strategies can help in managing blood glucose level and complications among DM patients. Health education intervention is effective to manage and control the blood glucose levels among diabetic patients. This study explored the effectiveness of health education intervention on DM among school teachers in public sector schools of Pakistan. Methods This was quasi-experimental study where baseline & end line assessments were conducted on teachers of public sector schools of Sindh province, Pakistan, from October to December 2019. Pretested structured questionnaire was used in this study. Participants (n = 136). were randomly selected from the list of government schools registered with district education department An intervention comprised of health education sessions with DM patients was undertaken after conducting baseline assessment followed by end line assessment. The institutional review board of Health Services Academy Pakistan ethically approved this study. Results All the respondents completed post-test with mean ± SD age of participants being 39.2 ± 1.34 years. Female teachers comprised 65% out of which 70% were living in rural areas. Knowledge on DM pre-test score was 20.03 ± 3.31 that increased in post-test to 49.11 ± 2.21 (p

Background Globally, there is an increased risk of COVID-19 infection among front-line health workers (FHW). This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practices of FHW of Pakistan after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Methods A population web-based survey on COVID-19 vaccine was conducted on 635 FHW in Pakistan between April 15, 2021, and July 15, 2021. The survey focused on four main sections consisting of socio-demographic data, knowledge, attitude, and practices after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The data was analyzed on SPSS. p < 0.05 was considered significant. Results Overall, 60% of FHW were nervous before getting vaccinated, with the leading reason to get vaccinated being their concern to protect themselves and their community (53.4%). A majority of FHW had fear about the unseen side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine (59.7%) used in Pakistan, with the most common side effect reported as soreness at the injection site (39%). It has been noted that almost all of the FHW observed preventive practices after getting vaccinated. The results showed that married respondents had favorable practices towards COVID-19 vaccines (B = 0.53, p < 0.01) (B, unstandardized regression coefficient). It was also found that more informational sources (B = 0.19, p < 0.01), higher knowledge of vaccination (B = 0.15, p < 0.001), and favorable attitude toward vaccine (B = 0.12, p < 0.001) significantly predicted favorable practices toward COVID-19 vaccination. Conclusion The findings reflect that FHW, though they were worried about its side effects, have good knowledge and a positive attitude after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. This study is significant as the FHWs are a symbol for guidance, a reliable source of information, and an encouraging means of receiving COVID-19 vaccine for the general public. This study also reported that post-vaccination side effects were mild which will aid in reducing the vaccine hesitancy among the general Pakistani population.

Abstract We present the 3DGAN for the simulation of a future high granularity calorimeter output as three-dimensional images. We prove the efficacy of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) for generating scientific data while retaining a high level of accuracy for diverse metrics across a large range of input variables. We demonstrate a successful application of the transfer learning concept: we train the network to simulate showers for electrons from a reduced range of primary energies, we then train further for a five times larger range (the model could not train for the larger range directly). The same concept is extended to generate showers for other particles depositing most of their energies in electromagnetic interactions (photons and neutral pions). In addition, the generation of charged pion showers is also explored, a more accurate effort would require additional data from other detectors not included in the scope of the current work. Our further contribution is a demonstration of using GAN-generated data for a practical application. We train a third-party network using GAN-generated data and prove that the response is similar to a network trained with data from the Monte Carlo simulation. The showers generated by GAN present accuracy within $$10\%$$ 10 % of Monte Carlo for a diverse range of physics features, with three orders of magnitude speedup. The speedup for both the training and inference can be further enhanced by distributed training.

In many nations around the globe, including Pakistan, education is losing ground as a public good to become another market-based commodity as the state shrinks its responsibility to schooling. This presents challenges to democratic futures, and particularly for young democratic states such as Pakistan. The government of Pakistan is pouring a significant amount of money into the private provision of education, encouraged by the policies and investments of international donor-partners such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. These changes in educational provision represent the impacts of neoliberalism and globalisation on Pakistani policymaking and the growing influence of the conceptualisation of education as a private commodity. To address these trends, we offer a normative philosophical framework for a conception of education as a critical public good in Pakistan, drawing on Islamic tradition, public good theory, human rights, and common good global education theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past two decades, the Government of Pakistan has significantly invested in higher education (HE) to bring structural reforms in funding, governance, and quality assurance mechanisms. Their overarching mission has been to fuel national socioeconomic development by ensuring equal access to HE. Given this, the present study aimed to address the following research question: To what extent have current HE reforms in Pakistan enabled equitable access to HE? To address this question, this study drew from a social justice-centered framework to track trends in HE access that is, broadly and based on socio-economic status, gender, urbanicity/rurality, and region/province. Using secondary data from diverse sources including the HEC, Academy of Education Planning and Management, and the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, we conducted descriptive longitudinal analyses. Findings underscore that the system has failed to provide equal access to HE in several ways and discuss some possibilities for policymakers in equalizing the opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]