Syeda Princes Ali - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Syeda Princes Ali
Environment and Ecology Research, 2014
Cigarette smoking is an addictive and destructive behavior and it can cause serious health proble... more Cigarette smoking is an addictive and destructive behavior and it can cause serious health problems and most important preventable cause of death in the world. In the present study using questionnaire data of smokers (n = 323) and non-smokers (n=218)from the patients in the Out Patients Department (OPD) of civil hospital Quetta was collected. Based on smoking history, the study population was categorized into smokers (<25 cigarettes/day), and non-smokers while smokers were further subdivided into three sub-categories based on their ages: up to 35, up to 50, and above 50. The results depicts that the mean hemoglobin (Hb) levels of smokers and non-smokers were 15.9+0.4g/L and 12.6+0.5g/L respectively, which increased progressively with the number of cigarettes consumed per day. It was observed that 0%, 53.11% and 68.92 were suffering from Chest diseases in group 1, 2 and 3 respectively. In case of high blood pressure population belonging to group 1 and 2 showed greater percentage while group 3 showed lower percentage. Increase in the percentage of heart diseases with age and smoking habit was also observed in all three groups which were prominent in group 3. The present study confirms that the smoking had severe effects on health of the smokers causing lungs and heart diseases. Furthermore, the implications could be made that 60% of the total population is smokers which are the indicator in increase attitude of community towards smoking despite many initiative of declaring smoking as taboo by government and tradition of the area.
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, 2019
Critical thinking (CT) is a generic attribute that is greatly valued across academic disciplines ... more Critical thinking (CT) is a generic attribute that is greatly valued across academic disciplines in higher education, and around the globe. It is also defined as one of the graduate attributes of higher education for the sample private university where this research was conducted, as it is perceived that CT helps the graduate to become ‘engaged citizens’ in the twenty-first century. Despite the well-documented importance of CT, its assessment remains a challenge. This study addresses this challenge through the systematic development and field-testing of a rubric for assessing critical thinking in a multidisciplinary context in higher education. A multidisciplinary group of faculty (i.e. education, nursing, medicine) from the sample university partnered with a policy research group in Canada to translate this plan into action. The development of the assessment tool followed a multi-step process including: (i) identification of the main elements of CT; (ii) choice of a rubric format; ...
Journal of Graduate Medical Education, 2019
Background The mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (mini-CEX) and direct observation of procedural ... more Background The mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (mini-CEX) and direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS) are reliable tools for work-based assessment of medical trainees. Tools of this type do not yet exist for evaluation of practical laboratory skills of pathology residents. Objective We developed and piloted a 9-item instrument for direct observation of laboratory skills (DOLS). Methods We used the DOLS tool with 10 hematopathology residents (PGY-1 to PGY-5) from Aga Khan University. Each resident was evaluated by 3 faculty members in the laboratory during 4 separate encounters using the DOLS instrument. We assessed construct validity, interrater reliability and G coefficient, feasibility of using DOLS, and learner satisfaction. Results A total of 120 encounters were observed with a mean score (±1 SD) of 56.7% (±12.44). Assessment scores moderately correlated with the number of laboratory procedures previously performed by participants (r = 0.658 and 0.641; P = .0001) and wi...
The Journal of emergency medicine, Apr 12, 2018
Violence against health care providers (HCPs) remains a significant public health problem in deve... more Violence against health care providers (HCPs) remains a significant public health problem in developing countries, affecting their performance and motivation. To report the quantity and perceived causes of violence committed upon HCPs and identify strategies intended to prevent and de-escalate it. This was a mixed-methods concurrent study design (QUAN-QUAL). A structured questionnaire was filled in on-site by trained data collectors for quantitative study. Sites were tertiary care hospitals, local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) providing health services, and ambulance services. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions at these same sites, as well as with other stakeholders including media and law enforcement agencies. One-third of the participants had experienced some form of violence in the last 12 months. Verbal violence was experienced more frequently (30.5%) than physical violence (14.6%). Persons who accompanied patients (58....
Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 2017
Objectives: This study was conducted to adduce evidence of validity for admissions tests and proc... more Objectives: This study was conducted to adduce evidence of validity for admissions tests and processes and for identifying a parsimonious model that predicts students' academic achievement in Medical College. Methods: Psychometric study done on admission data and assessment scores for five years of medical studies at Aga Khan University Medical College, Pakistan using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structured equation modeling (SEM). Sample included 276 medical students admitted in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Results: The SEM supported the existence of covariance between verbal reasoning, science and clinical knowledge for predicting achievement in medical school employing Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimations (n=112). Fit indices: X 2 (21) = 59.70, p =<.0001; CFI=.873; RMSEA = 0.129; SRMR = 0.093. Conclusions: This study shows that in addition to biology and chemistry which have been traditionally used as major criteria for admission to medical colleges in Pakistan; mathematics has proven to be a better predictor for higher achievements in medical college.
Research and Development in Medical Education, 2016
Background: The present study was designed to compare the knowledge gain of students in lectures ... more Background: The present study was designed to compare the knowledge gain of students in lectures and peer assisted learning (PAL) via end of course test scores. The purpose of this comparison was to assess the ability of PAL in enhancing academic achievement and to consider its addition within the traditional medical syllabus. Methods: A randomized control trial (RCT) was conducted at Department of Community Medicine, Lahore Medical and Dental College in 2014. Convenience sampling was used and out of 125 fourth year MBBS students, those who agreed to take part in the study (N = 99), were randomly allocated to PAL (n = 49) and lecture (n = 50) groups. Community Health & Nutrition was the course chosen for the study. Both lecture and the PAL sessions were conducted simultaneously and the duration and content covered in each session were the same for both groups. Knowledge gained was assessed through a pre-and post-test. Chi-square test, independent t test, paired t test and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used for data analysis. Results: The study participants demonstrated a significant difference in the pre-test and post-test scores in both the study groups (P ≤ 0.001). However, no statistically significant difference was found in the post-test scores between the Lecture and PAL groups, F (1, 95) = 0.584, P = 0.447. Gender and high school qualifications had no bearing on test scores in both learning groups. Conclusion: The present study concludes that in terms of academic achievements, PAL was equally effective to lectures. Therefore, PAL can be incorporated as a supplement to lectures in medical school curricula. Article info Please cite this article as: Daud S, Chaudhry AM, Ali SK. Lecture based versus peer assisted learning: quasi-experimental study to compare knowledge gain of fourth year medical students in community health and nutrition course.
Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 2016
Background: Written Feedback (WFB) plays a significant role in student's learning in terms of imp... more Background: Written Feedback (WFB) plays a significant role in student's learning in terms of improvement of their academic writing skills. However, the quality of WFB may be affected by various personal and contextual factors. This study aimed to identify nurse teachers' conceptions and practices of WFB on written assignments in nursing degree offering institutions in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used to answer the study questions. The study was conducted at 11 nursing schools in Karachi by recruiting those teachers who were teaching in nursing degree programs. The sample size of the study consists of 80 teachers. Universal sampling technique was used to select the subjects of the study. Results: The study result consists of demographic information of the participants, teachers' conceptions and their practices of WFB. Although majority (92%) of the teachers believed that WFB is important for students' learning, they acknowledged that they were not able to provide WFB at optimum level to their students. This gap in practice is attributed to various personal, contextual, and organizational factors; among them, the highest reported factors were teachers' lack of training for provision of WFB (84%), distraction in the environment (78%), and constraints of time due to teacher's workload (74%). Conclusions: The importance of WFB for students' learning is well established in the literature. However, the preparation of teachers and an enabling environment to facilitate teachers for optimum practices of WFB needs considerable attention by educational institutions.
World Journal of Education, 2016
This mixed-methods research aimed to understand the practices and perceptions of teachers regardi... more This mixed-methods research aimed to understand the practices and perceptions of teachers regarding written feedback. For this purpose, a survey was administered to 150 teachers forming a non-probability sample, who were working in various universities in Karachi. The disciplines chosen for the study included nursing, applied linguistics, medicine and education departments in institutes of higher education situated in Karachi. Before sampling, initial screening was done to obtain a list of institutes which provide written feedback on students' assignments. Two homogenous groups of teachers by discipline (nursing and education) were then selected for focus group discussions. It was found that most teachers consider written feedback an important tool for guiding and helping students improve their work. In fact, they consider written feedback as important as verbal feedback. Teachers also recognized the importance of discussing the written feedback with the students but they rarely did so because of time constraints. Most teachers preferred to directly fix students' errors instead of providing feedback to enable them to correct those errors by themselves. While less than half of the participants used a checklist for grading, others used annotation. Several factors were found to have a great influence on the amount and quality of feedback. The most significant factor was whether teachers had formal training in providing feedback. Only 17% of the participants in this study had proper training to give written feedback. They also identified several environmental and personal factors that had an impact on their feedback practices including time, the relationship between the teacher and individual students, and, most importantly, the policies and culture of the institutes.
JPMA. The Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 2015
To explore faculty's perceptions of challenges in providing verbal feedback to the Residents ... more To explore faculty's perceptions of challenges in providing verbal feedback to the Residents and suggest ways to overcome the barriers. As part of a larger study on feedback assessment, five focus group discussions were conducted at the Department of Medicine, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, during faculty development workshops held from January to June 2010. Qualitative grounded theory was used to explore faculty perceptions of challenges in providing verbal feedback to the Residents. Of the 54 faculty members, 49(91%) participated. Four themes that emerged were 'time constraint' indicating high patient load; 'faculty related issues' indicating faculty's apprehension about its own evaluation by Residents; 'educational…
Pakistan Journal of Botany
Study was undertaken to investigate the long term and short term effect of climate change on appl... more Study was undertaken to investigate the long term and short term effect of climate change on apple production in Kotli Sattian area of Rawalpindi District, using Malus domestica var. Ambri L. as an indicator. Climate data for previous 30 years (i.e. 1979-2009) was correlated with net apple production per year. The study also explored other supporting ecological factors like metal content analysis and current soil status (pH, moisture content, organic matter, soil texture) of the orchard’s soil. This investigation revealed that all physico-chemical parameters were supporting production but it declined mainly due to drastic climate change aspects including unusual seasonal variations, elongated summer periods and unusual rainfall periods. In context of questionnaires results, an overwhelming number of farmers (91%) were of the opinion that climate change was the main factor behind decline apple production. The case study served as an effort to bring awareness in the local farmers abou...
Background: To correlate pollen count with pulmonary function tests in first degree asymptomatic ... more Background: To correlate pollen count with pulmonary function tests in first degree asymptomatic relatives of asthmatic patients as well as in asthmatic patients as control sharing common genetic and environmental exposure. Methods: The study was cross-sectional comparative comprising of 120 subjects, of whom 60 were the first degree asymptomatic relatives of non-asthmatic patients. Portable office spirometry was carried out along with pollen count on the same day taken from the meterological department data. Result: The spirometric variables like PEFR, FEV1, FEV6 and FEV1/FEV6 were deranged as pollen count increased. The changes in these variables were found to be present before development of clinical signs and symptoms of pollen allergy. Conclusion: High risk individuals like first-degree relatives not having symptoms of pollen allergy show decrement in pulmonary function tests parameters during high pollen count seasons. Key Words: Pollen Allergy, First degree relative, Portable...
Background: To investigate the effect of high air-borne pollen count on respiratory system. Metho... more Background: To investigate the effect of high air-borne pollen count on respiratory system. Methods: This cross sectional (descriptive) study included sixty known asthmatics, of either sex and of all ages. Pollen count as per cubic meter was recorded daily during February to May as reported by meteorological department. History, clinical examination and lung function tests were recorded in each case. The Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) with pollen count of asthmatic patients was correlated. Results: The PFT of asthmatic patients were adversely affected significantly during pollen season. There was negative correlation of moderate strength with FEV1 in asthmatic patients with high air borne pollen count during the pollen season. Conclusion: Spirometry was shown to be an effective technique to study the pollen allergy problem in already asthmatic patients.
Pakistan Journal of Botany
Abstract: In this study we explored aerobiological aspects for a period of two years (2009-1010) ... more Abstract: In this study we explored aerobiological aspects for a period of two years (2009-1010) in Islamabad city using RotoRod Sampler Model 40. Presence of large amount of pollens in the air poses serious implications on pollinosis. In the month of March highest daily pollen count was observed. This revealed a correlation of pollen count with optimum range of temperature for flourishing and dispersing of pollen grains. General trend between pollen count release and the number of allergy patients was found in accordance suggesting a high pollen risk for the residents and the visitors during peak time of the year.
This study was conducted to assess the vegetation communities of the open urban spaces viz., gree... more This study was conducted to assess the vegetation communities of the open urban spaces viz., green belts, gardens and parks of Islamabad city. A total of 162 plant species representing 137 genera and 58 families were recorded. Two way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN) classified the floristic species composition into four major community types which showed some overlap in an ordination space, reflecting relatively homogenous nature of the vegetation. Pinus roxburghii and Grewia asiatica were more prevalent in green belts while native vegetation dominated by Dalbergia sissoo and Acacia nilotica were present in undisturbed green spaces. Broussonetia papyrifera and Populus euphratica showed distribution along the drains/nullahs in the city. Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) was applied to identify environmental gradients to define vegetation distribution. First ordination axis demonstrated species distribution influenced by presence of invasive species whereas second axis ide...
Molecular vision, Jan 11, 2010
To investigate the involvement of stress-regulating genes, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNO... more To investigate the involvement of stress-regulating genes, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and primary closed angle glaucoma (PCAG). POAG and PCAG patients recruited from different areas of Pakistan were diagnosed on the basis of clinical history, raised intraocular pressure (IOP), cup-to-disc ratio (CDR) and visual field defects. Their blood was collected and genomic DNA was extracted from it, followed by PCR amplification and VNTR typing of the eNOS gene, while the HSP70 SNP was analyzed with PCR-RFLP. For both of the polymorphisms, the genotype distribution of the POAG and PCAG patients was compared with unaffected controls. HSP70 polymorphism was found to be significantly associated with PCAG (chi(2)=15.29 [p<0.001], OR=2.63 [95% CI=1.55-4.48]), with p<0.001 for the dominant model and OR=2.09 (95% CI=1.10-3.96) , with…
8q24 has recently received much attention after genome-wide studies identified the association of... more 8q24 has recently received much attention after genome-wide studies identified the association of common sequence variants in the 8q24.21 gene desert as well as a 5′UTR polymorphism of the PSCA gene with individual susceptibility to urinary bladder cancer (UBC). The objective of the present study was to determine the association of selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at the 8q24 locus (rs9642880 and rs6983267 at 8q24.21 and rs2294008 near the prostate stem cell antigen [PSCA]) with urothelial bladder cancer (UBC) among the Pakistani population. For this purpose, genotyping of selected SNPs was performed by simple allele-discriminating polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in 200 UBC cases and 200 healthy controls. All three variants were found to be associated with a significantly increased UBC risk (p<0.05) after adjusting for age, gender and smoking. rs9642880 was found to be associated slightly stronger with low grade as compared to high grade UBC, while rs2294008 was associated with increased risk of high grade and invasive stages of the disease, and rs6983267 exhibited a strong positive association with UBC risk irrespective of tumor stage and grade. In conclusion, the current study shows a significant involvement of the 8q24 locus in UBC etiology in Pakistani patients.
Molecular vision, 2011
The present study was designed to determine the association of polymorphisms of the DNA repair ge... more The present study was designed to determine the association of polymorphisms of the DNA repair genes X-ray cross-complementing group 1 (XRCC1) (c.1316G>A [rs25487]) and xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group D (XPD)…
TAPROBANICA: The Journal of Asian Biodiversity, 2014
Environment and Ecology Research, 2014
Cigarette smoking is an addictive and destructive behavior and it can cause serious health proble... more Cigarette smoking is an addictive and destructive behavior and it can cause serious health problems and most important preventable cause of death in the world. In the present study using questionnaire data of smokers (n = 323) and non-smokers (n=218)from the patients in the Out Patients Department (OPD) of civil hospital Quetta was collected. Based on smoking history, the study population was categorized into smokers (<25 cigarettes/day), and non-smokers while smokers were further subdivided into three sub-categories based on their ages: up to 35, up to 50, and above 50. The results depicts that the mean hemoglobin (Hb) levels of smokers and non-smokers were 15.9+0.4g/L and 12.6+0.5g/L respectively, which increased progressively with the number of cigarettes consumed per day. It was observed that 0%, 53.11% and 68.92 were suffering from Chest diseases in group 1, 2 and 3 respectively. In case of high blood pressure population belonging to group 1 and 2 showed greater percentage while group 3 showed lower percentage. Increase in the percentage of heart diseases with age and smoking habit was also observed in all three groups which were prominent in group 3. The present study confirms that the smoking had severe effects on health of the smokers causing lungs and heart diseases. Furthermore, the implications could be made that 60% of the total population is smokers which are the indicator in increase attitude of community towards smoking despite many initiative of declaring smoking as taboo by government and tradition of the area.
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, 2019
Critical thinking (CT) is a generic attribute that is greatly valued across academic disciplines ... more Critical thinking (CT) is a generic attribute that is greatly valued across academic disciplines in higher education, and around the globe. It is also defined as one of the graduate attributes of higher education for the sample private university where this research was conducted, as it is perceived that CT helps the graduate to become ‘engaged citizens’ in the twenty-first century. Despite the well-documented importance of CT, its assessment remains a challenge. This study addresses this challenge through the systematic development and field-testing of a rubric for assessing critical thinking in a multidisciplinary context in higher education. A multidisciplinary group of faculty (i.e. education, nursing, medicine) from the sample university partnered with a policy research group in Canada to translate this plan into action. The development of the assessment tool followed a multi-step process including: (i) identification of the main elements of CT; (ii) choice of a rubric format; ...
Journal of Graduate Medical Education, 2019
Background The mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (mini-CEX) and direct observation of procedural ... more Background The mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (mini-CEX) and direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS) are reliable tools for work-based assessment of medical trainees. Tools of this type do not yet exist for evaluation of practical laboratory skills of pathology residents. Objective We developed and piloted a 9-item instrument for direct observation of laboratory skills (DOLS). Methods We used the DOLS tool with 10 hematopathology residents (PGY-1 to PGY-5) from Aga Khan University. Each resident was evaluated by 3 faculty members in the laboratory during 4 separate encounters using the DOLS instrument. We assessed construct validity, interrater reliability and G coefficient, feasibility of using DOLS, and learner satisfaction. Results A total of 120 encounters were observed with a mean score (±1 SD) of 56.7% (±12.44). Assessment scores moderately correlated with the number of laboratory procedures previously performed by participants (r = 0.658 and 0.641; P = .0001) and wi...
The Journal of emergency medicine, Apr 12, 2018
Violence against health care providers (HCPs) remains a significant public health problem in deve... more Violence against health care providers (HCPs) remains a significant public health problem in developing countries, affecting their performance and motivation. To report the quantity and perceived causes of violence committed upon HCPs and identify strategies intended to prevent and de-escalate it. This was a mixed-methods concurrent study design (QUAN-QUAL). A structured questionnaire was filled in on-site by trained data collectors for quantitative study. Sites were tertiary care hospitals, local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) providing health services, and ambulance services. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions at these same sites, as well as with other stakeholders including media and law enforcement agencies. One-third of the participants had experienced some form of violence in the last 12 months. Verbal violence was experienced more frequently (30.5%) than physical violence (14.6%). Persons who accompanied patients (58....
Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 2017
Objectives: This study was conducted to adduce evidence of validity for admissions tests and proc... more Objectives: This study was conducted to adduce evidence of validity for admissions tests and processes and for identifying a parsimonious model that predicts students' academic achievement in Medical College. Methods: Psychometric study done on admission data and assessment scores for five years of medical studies at Aga Khan University Medical College, Pakistan using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structured equation modeling (SEM). Sample included 276 medical students admitted in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Results: The SEM supported the existence of covariance between verbal reasoning, science and clinical knowledge for predicting achievement in medical school employing Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimations (n=112). Fit indices: X 2 (21) = 59.70, p =<.0001; CFI=.873; RMSEA = 0.129; SRMR = 0.093. Conclusions: This study shows that in addition to biology and chemistry which have been traditionally used as major criteria for admission to medical colleges in Pakistan; mathematics has proven to be a better predictor for higher achievements in medical college.
Research and Development in Medical Education, 2016
Background: The present study was designed to compare the knowledge gain of students in lectures ... more Background: The present study was designed to compare the knowledge gain of students in lectures and peer assisted learning (PAL) via end of course test scores. The purpose of this comparison was to assess the ability of PAL in enhancing academic achievement and to consider its addition within the traditional medical syllabus. Methods: A randomized control trial (RCT) was conducted at Department of Community Medicine, Lahore Medical and Dental College in 2014. Convenience sampling was used and out of 125 fourth year MBBS students, those who agreed to take part in the study (N = 99), were randomly allocated to PAL (n = 49) and lecture (n = 50) groups. Community Health & Nutrition was the course chosen for the study. Both lecture and the PAL sessions were conducted simultaneously and the duration and content covered in each session were the same for both groups. Knowledge gained was assessed through a pre-and post-test. Chi-square test, independent t test, paired t test and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used for data analysis. Results: The study participants demonstrated a significant difference in the pre-test and post-test scores in both the study groups (P ≤ 0.001). However, no statistically significant difference was found in the post-test scores between the Lecture and PAL groups, F (1, 95) = 0.584, P = 0.447. Gender and high school qualifications had no bearing on test scores in both learning groups. Conclusion: The present study concludes that in terms of academic achievements, PAL was equally effective to lectures. Therefore, PAL can be incorporated as a supplement to lectures in medical school curricula. Article info Please cite this article as: Daud S, Chaudhry AM, Ali SK. Lecture based versus peer assisted learning: quasi-experimental study to compare knowledge gain of fourth year medical students in community health and nutrition course.
Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 2016
Background: Written Feedback (WFB) plays a significant role in student's learning in terms of imp... more Background: Written Feedback (WFB) plays a significant role in student's learning in terms of improvement of their academic writing skills. However, the quality of WFB may be affected by various personal and contextual factors. This study aimed to identify nurse teachers' conceptions and practices of WFB on written assignments in nursing degree offering institutions in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used to answer the study questions. The study was conducted at 11 nursing schools in Karachi by recruiting those teachers who were teaching in nursing degree programs. The sample size of the study consists of 80 teachers. Universal sampling technique was used to select the subjects of the study. Results: The study result consists of demographic information of the participants, teachers' conceptions and their practices of WFB. Although majority (92%) of the teachers believed that WFB is important for students' learning, they acknowledged that they were not able to provide WFB at optimum level to their students. This gap in practice is attributed to various personal, contextual, and organizational factors; among them, the highest reported factors were teachers' lack of training for provision of WFB (84%), distraction in the environment (78%), and constraints of time due to teacher's workload (74%). Conclusions: The importance of WFB for students' learning is well established in the literature. However, the preparation of teachers and an enabling environment to facilitate teachers for optimum practices of WFB needs considerable attention by educational institutions.
World Journal of Education, 2016
This mixed-methods research aimed to understand the practices and perceptions of teachers regardi... more This mixed-methods research aimed to understand the practices and perceptions of teachers regarding written feedback. For this purpose, a survey was administered to 150 teachers forming a non-probability sample, who were working in various universities in Karachi. The disciplines chosen for the study included nursing, applied linguistics, medicine and education departments in institutes of higher education situated in Karachi. Before sampling, initial screening was done to obtain a list of institutes which provide written feedback on students' assignments. Two homogenous groups of teachers by discipline (nursing and education) were then selected for focus group discussions. It was found that most teachers consider written feedback an important tool for guiding and helping students improve their work. In fact, they consider written feedback as important as verbal feedback. Teachers also recognized the importance of discussing the written feedback with the students but they rarely did so because of time constraints. Most teachers preferred to directly fix students' errors instead of providing feedback to enable them to correct those errors by themselves. While less than half of the participants used a checklist for grading, others used annotation. Several factors were found to have a great influence on the amount and quality of feedback. The most significant factor was whether teachers had formal training in providing feedback. Only 17% of the participants in this study had proper training to give written feedback. They also identified several environmental and personal factors that had an impact on their feedback practices including time, the relationship between the teacher and individual students, and, most importantly, the policies and culture of the institutes.
JPMA. The Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 2015
To explore faculty's perceptions of challenges in providing verbal feedback to the Residents ... more To explore faculty's perceptions of challenges in providing verbal feedback to the Residents and suggest ways to overcome the barriers. As part of a larger study on feedback assessment, five focus group discussions were conducted at the Department of Medicine, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, during faculty development workshops held from January to June 2010. Qualitative grounded theory was used to explore faculty perceptions of challenges in providing verbal feedback to the Residents. Of the 54 faculty members, 49(91%) participated. Four themes that emerged were 'time constraint' indicating high patient load; 'faculty related issues' indicating faculty's apprehension about its own evaluation by Residents; 'educational…
Pakistan Journal of Botany
Study was undertaken to investigate the long term and short term effect of climate change on appl... more Study was undertaken to investigate the long term and short term effect of climate change on apple production in Kotli Sattian area of Rawalpindi District, using Malus domestica var. Ambri L. as an indicator. Climate data for previous 30 years (i.e. 1979-2009) was correlated with net apple production per year. The study also explored other supporting ecological factors like metal content analysis and current soil status (pH, moisture content, organic matter, soil texture) of the orchard’s soil. This investigation revealed that all physico-chemical parameters were supporting production but it declined mainly due to drastic climate change aspects including unusual seasonal variations, elongated summer periods and unusual rainfall periods. In context of questionnaires results, an overwhelming number of farmers (91%) were of the opinion that climate change was the main factor behind decline apple production. The case study served as an effort to bring awareness in the local farmers abou...
Background: To correlate pollen count with pulmonary function tests in first degree asymptomatic ... more Background: To correlate pollen count with pulmonary function tests in first degree asymptomatic relatives of asthmatic patients as well as in asthmatic patients as control sharing common genetic and environmental exposure. Methods: The study was cross-sectional comparative comprising of 120 subjects, of whom 60 were the first degree asymptomatic relatives of non-asthmatic patients. Portable office spirometry was carried out along with pollen count on the same day taken from the meterological department data. Result: The spirometric variables like PEFR, FEV1, FEV6 and FEV1/FEV6 were deranged as pollen count increased. The changes in these variables were found to be present before development of clinical signs and symptoms of pollen allergy. Conclusion: High risk individuals like first-degree relatives not having symptoms of pollen allergy show decrement in pulmonary function tests parameters during high pollen count seasons. Key Words: Pollen Allergy, First degree relative, Portable...
Background: To investigate the effect of high air-borne pollen count on respiratory system. Metho... more Background: To investigate the effect of high air-borne pollen count on respiratory system. Methods: This cross sectional (descriptive) study included sixty known asthmatics, of either sex and of all ages. Pollen count as per cubic meter was recorded daily during February to May as reported by meteorological department. History, clinical examination and lung function tests were recorded in each case. The Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) with pollen count of asthmatic patients was correlated. Results: The PFT of asthmatic patients were adversely affected significantly during pollen season. There was negative correlation of moderate strength with FEV1 in asthmatic patients with high air borne pollen count during the pollen season. Conclusion: Spirometry was shown to be an effective technique to study the pollen allergy problem in already asthmatic patients.
Pakistan Journal of Botany
Abstract: In this study we explored aerobiological aspects for a period of two years (2009-1010) ... more Abstract: In this study we explored aerobiological aspects for a period of two years (2009-1010) in Islamabad city using RotoRod Sampler Model 40. Presence of large amount of pollens in the air poses serious implications on pollinosis. In the month of March highest daily pollen count was observed. This revealed a correlation of pollen count with optimum range of temperature for flourishing and dispersing of pollen grains. General trend between pollen count release and the number of allergy patients was found in accordance suggesting a high pollen risk for the residents and the visitors during peak time of the year.
This study was conducted to assess the vegetation communities of the open urban spaces viz., gree... more This study was conducted to assess the vegetation communities of the open urban spaces viz., green belts, gardens and parks of Islamabad city. A total of 162 plant species representing 137 genera and 58 families were recorded. Two way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN) classified the floristic species composition into four major community types which showed some overlap in an ordination space, reflecting relatively homogenous nature of the vegetation. Pinus roxburghii and Grewia asiatica were more prevalent in green belts while native vegetation dominated by Dalbergia sissoo and Acacia nilotica were present in undisturbed green spaces. Broussonetia papyrifera and Populus euphratica showed distribution along the drains/nullahs in the city. Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) was applied to identify environmental gradients to define vegetation distribution. First ordination axis demonstrated species distribution influenced by presence of invasive species whereas second axis ide...
Molecular vision, Jan 11, 2010
To investigate the involvement of stress-regulating genes, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNO... more To investigate the involvement of stress-regulating genes, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and primary closed angle glaucoma (PCAG). POAG and PCAG patients recruited from different areas of Pakistan were diagnosed on the basis of clinical history, raised intraocular pressure (IOP), cup-to-disc ratio (CDR) and visual field defects. Their blood was collected and genomic DNA was extracted from it, followed by PCR amplification and VNTR typing of the eNOS gene, while the HSP70 SNP was analyzed with PCR-RFLP. For both of the polymorphisms, the genotype distribution of the POAG and PCAG patients was compared with unaffected controls. HSP70 polymorphism was found to be significantly associated with PCAG (chi(2)=15.29 [p<0.001], OR=2.63 [95% CI=1.55-4.48]), with p<0.001 for the dominant model and OR=2.09 (95% CI=1.10-3.96) , with…
8q24 has recently received much attention after genome-wide studies identified the association of... more 8q24 has recently received much attention after genome-wide studies identified the association of common sequence variants in the 8q24.21 gene desert as well as a 5′UTR polymorphism of the PSCA gene with individual susceptibility to urinary bladder cancer (UBC). The objective of the present study was to determine the association of selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at the 8q24 locus (rs9642880 and rs6983267 at 8q24.21 and rs2294008 near the prostate stem cell antigen [PSCA]) with urothelial bladder cancer (UBC) among the Pakistani population. For this purpose, genotyping of selected SNPs was performed by simple allele-discriminating polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in 200 UBC cases and 200 healthy controls. All three variants were found to be associated with a significantly increased UBC risk (p<0.05) after adjusting for age, gender and smoking. rs9642880 was found to be associated slightly stronger with low grade as compared to high grade UBC, while rs2294008 was associated with increased risk of high grade and invasive stages of the disease, and rs6983267 exhibited a strong positive association with UBC risk irrespective of tumor stage and grade. In conclusion, the current study shows a significant involvement of the 8q24 locus in UBC etiology in Pakistani patients.
Molecular vision, 2011
The present study was designed to determine the association of polymorphisms of the DNA repair ge... more The present study was designed to determine the association of polymorphisms of the DNA repair genes X-ray cross-complementing group 1 (XRCC1) (c.1316G>A [rs25487]) and xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group D (XPD)…
TAPROBANICA: The Journal of Asian Biodiversity, 2014