Socio-Cultural Causes of the Increasing Rate of Maternal Mortality in District Lodhran, Pakistan

This qualitative study conducted at District Lodhran, Punjab, Pakistan adopted a constructivist approach with an aim to investigate the social-cultural factors accelerating maternal mortality. The primary data was collected through in-depth interviews from 40 family members of deceased mothers and four focus group discussions, and the information for the secondary data pertaining to the victims of maternal death recorded in District Lodhran for the year 2016-17 was collected from the Health Department. The study concluded that there are various social and cultural practices, i.e. the practice of early marriages, repeated pregnancies with the wish of having a male child, treatment and living of pregnant women in the joint family system, and son’s preferences are the causative factors behind maternal mortality. The study recommends inculcation of awareness, especially among gestating women, regarding maternal health and associated factors, besides civil society’s measures for improvement and the government’s special attention towards the issue.

ISPR Productions vs. Nationalism, Inclination to Join Army and Image Building: Case of Pakistan's Military Operations

This study targets to investigate the impact of Inter-Services of Public Relations (ISPR) production, broadcasted during the war against terrorism, on Pakistani youth. It is hypothesized that ISPR productions have helped in inflating the motivation level of Pakistani youth, thus helping in promoting the nationalism and positive image of Pakistan. Furthermore, the role of ISPR productions in motivating youth to join Pakistan's Army is also explored. A cross-sectional survey research design was used. The sample of this study was comprised of youth aged between 18 to 24 years, selected through the non-probability purposive sample. The measures comprised of a self-constructed indigenous questionnaire assessing the impact of ISPR productions during a military operation in image building, promotion of nationalism and motivation to join the army. The data analyzed through SPSS Version 22.00 yielded insightful findings. The finding revealed that watching ISPR productions helped in instilling a fervent attitude of Pakistani youth towards nationalism and the Pakistani military. There had been a clearer inclination of youth to aspire for joining the military for upholding the nationalism beliefs, and this finding appears promising, keeping in mind the relative declining opinion that has been observed in youth from the past decade pertaining to nationalism and military operations.

Knowledge, Attitude & Practices towards Safe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

Affordable and sustainable access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is a key public health issue and focus of Sustainable Development Goals. Literature showed that households having prior knowledge and an acceptable attitude towards WASH practices have less number of diseases. The main objective of the study was to explore the level of respondents' knowledge, attitude and practices towards safe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Conditions in South Punjab, Pakistan. The study was mixed-method research. SPSS also applied, and results demonstrate that there was very lack of knowledge about safe WASH practices; the majority of respondents have a traditional attitude. Whereas only 27.3% of respondents have always access to safe drinking water, 96% of respondents were not using any domestic water treatment method, 22.9% were defecating in the open, and the percentage of always handwashing with soap was found to only 29.6%. Social Mobilization programs along with government action to ensure safe WASH conditions are recommended.

Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Egyptian Political Movies: Framing Social Justice in the Movie Ahl El Kemma (Cream of the Crop)

Nascent research is conducted on the advancement of discourse analysis in film to include different modes as images, sound and text. This study is focused on how images are embedded within texts in an audio-visual medium such as cinema to highlight political messages; it also seeks to broaden our understanding of politics beyond a relatively narrow conceptualization of the "political" through studying non-traditional discourses such as cinematic discourse. The aim of the study is to develop a systematic approach to film analysis to examine political nuance sin film. The method adopted in this research is Multi modal Discourse Analysis (MDA) focusing on embedding visuals, audio, and text in the film to examine how a political meaning can be conveyed through the interaction between those different modes. Drawing on the multi modal discourse analysis literature, different modalities will be studied to understand how those modes interact in the cinematic discourse. The film, "Cream of the Crop", is selected as an example to examine how political meanings in film can tackle the cinematic representation of the notion of social justice. This study contributes to the vast array of literature on the multi modal discourse analysis of films by focusing on political dynamics within them.

Teaching of English to Veterinary University Students: A Study to Examine Learner’s Intentions towards Online Learning during Different Waves of COVID-19 in Pakistan

In the present era, knowing the students' intention towards online learning has become necessary due to the persisting situations of the COVID-19. The current study explores the teaching of English to Biological Science students through online to explore their intentions towards online learning due to different waves of COVID-19 in Pakistan. The study used a rational method that utilizes cross-sectional data.The study employed a random sampling technique to trace the respondents.By using the AMOS, the results of a study underline a positive significant effect of performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), facilitating conditions (FC), and perceived usefulness (PU) on intention towards online learning (ITOL) among the Biological Science students. The findings of the study are significant as they provide valuable insights to comprehend the elements that influence online learning (OL)concerning the teaching of English as a second language.

Intellectual Property Rights: The Other Side of the Coin

The modern world operates on the survival of the fittest rule. Hence, there is cutthroat competition among the states, and every state is striving for greater economic development. Development is based on the minimal use of resources which in turn is dependent upon technological innovations. These innovations incur huge research and development costs and can easily be copied to serve as the basis for further developments by the rivals. Thus, the idea of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) was introduced. While there are many advantages that these rights have to offer, they also prove to be deleterious in some ways as they also play a role in restricting innovation by the global North, which further widens the gap between both worlds. This paper traces the history of the IPR and develops an argument that proposes that IPR has been a cause of inequalities and has restricted innovation.

A Systematic Review on Digital Game-Based Versus Traditional Learning Approaches

A digital game-based learning approach is a sophisticated method in which the student is dynamically involved in the learning. The traditional or old learning technique is fully replaced by this learning strategy. Several research studies have demonstrated that employing a game-based strategy boosts learning. The purpose of the current review study was to employ descriptive and statistical approaches to compare the learning outcomes of pupils who used a digital game-based learning approach to those who used traditional learning strategies. A total of 26 papers published between 2012 and 2021 were chosen based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The previous research' literature evaluation revealed that the digital game-based learning method has proved to be every operative learning technique in a number of disciplines and learning situations. Learners are extremely engaged in the learning process while using a digital game-based learning technique

Effect of Teacher’s Professional Development on The Teachers’ Instructional Practices in Special Education

The study was performed to see the effect of Teachers' Professional Development on the Teacher's Instructional Practices in Special Education. The aims of this research include exploring the use of special education teacher instructional practices in schools and studying the influence of professional development on instructional practices of teachers. The study was quantitative in nature and used a self-developed survey for the collection of data from respondents. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. The result indicates that instructional practices differ on the basis of gender; however, qualification has no influence on instructional practices. Moreover, the distance (division)of respondents, duration of training did not affect the professional development of respondents. Moreover, professional development had a direct relationship with the instructional practices in special education.

A Corpus-Based Comparative Stylometry of Both Sexes in Pakistani Editorials Amidst Stance Markers

The current comparative mixed-method study attempts to analyses two features of stance markers-attitude markers and self-mention—in the editorials of Pakistani male and female columnists to capture the similarities and differences in their writing styles called stylometry. Hyland’s (2005) interaction model, comprising attitude markers and self-mention, was applied on the corpus consisting of 30 editorials, 15of which were from each gender: male and female. Editorials from two newspapers—The Dawn and The News—were analyzed with the help of Ant Conc. Findings indicated that attitude markers were less significant in both genders’ writings, confirming unanimity among the stylometry of both genders. Self-mentions were present with a higher proportion in male editorials than female editorials, revealing the difference.

Analysis of Punjabi Syllable Structure

The focus of this study is the analysis of Punjabi syllablestructure in the light of Generative Phonology Theory. UnderGenerative Phonology, CV phonology theory is used for the analysis of thePunjabi syllable. CV phonology is a three-tiered model explaining thestructure of the syllable. The data for this study is taken from native Punjabispeakers living in Lahore and its surrounding areas. Results of the studysuggest that Punjabi speakers use four main patterns for Syllableconstruction, namely CV, CVC, V and VC.