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The triad of clinical symptoms linked with proteinuria of nephrotic range, including hypoalbuminemia and edema, is known as nephrotic syndrome. When body excrete more than40 mg/m2/hr of protein or a first morning protein: creatinine ratio of more than 2-3: 1 then we call it proteinuria of nephrotic range.(1)It is estimated that the vast majority of children with nephrotic syndrome have some form of primary or idiopathic sickness, with minimal change disease being the most prevalent.Thromboembolic consequences are more common in people who have nephrotic syndrome. (2) This study tends to shed light if there is increase or decrease in level of protein C, S or antithrombin III in nephrotic syndrome. OBJECTIVE: To determine the mean level of protein C, protein S and AT Ill in children with nephrotic syndrome. SETTING: The research was conducted at Department of Haematology at Children Hospital Lahore. STUDY DESIGN: Cross sectional study. DURATION OF STUDY: The study was completed in six months from 25-08-2017 to 29-02-2018. DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE: Patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were taken for Protein C, Protein S and Antithrombin III assays Collect blood 3ml (9 vol) in 0.109M (3.2%) anticoagulant (1 Vol) and Centrifuge. All centrifuge specimens were run in DIAGNOSTIC STAGO. Results: A total of 100 children with nephrotic syndrome were enrolled after fulfilling inclusion criteria. The mean age of the children was 6.26±2.72 month. 69(69%) were male children. Protein C level was 95.31±16.02, Protein S level 84.05±13.31 and antithrombin III level was 86.50±16.36. Conclusion: Protein C, S and Antithrombin III level were within normal range. Further studies are needed to delineate the exact pathogenesis behind thromboembolic phenomenon in nephrotic syndrome children.

The goal of this research was to look at the attitudes of library leaders’ towards user care in university libraries of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad. This study was conducted utilizing a quantitative research methodology that included a survey approach and a questionnaire. The data were collected from all library leaders’ working in the universities/ degree awarding institutions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad recognized by Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Both descriptive as wells as inferential statistics were applied to analyze data using SPSS. The results revealed that the library leaders had an overall positive attitude towards user care. There were no statistically significant differences in the library leaders’ attitude based on types of university, number of employees in libraries, year of establishment of university, library working days in a week, and library timing respectively. Conversely, there were statistically significant mean differences in library leaders’ attitude towards user care based on geographical locations of university and gender of the respondents. The results provided a pragmatic insight into the user-centred approaches for managing customer (user) relationship for marketing of library resources and services. This research also had an important contribution to the existing literature on relationship marketing in general and user relationship management in particular as only a few such studies appeared so far.

This paper intended to provide and critical and analytical review of research on workplace information literacy published form South-Asia with a view to inform policy and practice. Library, Information Science and Technological Abstracts (LISTA) was searched to identify the key studies published in the proposed research area using multiple keywords. The search process resulted in 384 citations which was screened for duplication and relevance. As a result, 375 citations were excluded due to duplication and non-relevance. Only nine citations remained to deal with for review. The reference lists of these citations were also examined to identify more related citations which resulted in 3 more citation to be included. Thus, there were only 12 citations included in this review. The results indicated the dearth of studies on workplace information literacy in South-Asia. Most of these studies focused on library and information professionals, followed by scientists, and university teachers using survey research design. There was only a single study that addressed information literacy in visually impaired teachers. The respondents of the reviewed studies were competent to basic levels of information literacy where they were less comfortable in advanced levels of information literacy. There was a critical necessity for a need-based IL curriculum for workplace environments. These results indicated the need for more research on workplace information literacy in South-Asia to information policy and practice. This study would be a great contribution to the existing literature as it can be used a foundational study for workplace information literacy in South-Asia.

This systematic review examined the evidence of psychometric properties of scales available in studies reporting surveys measuring information related anxieties such as library anxiety, information seeking anxiety, and information anxiety. A systematic search in four databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, LISA, and LISTA was carried out using the keywords 'library anxiety', 'information anxiety', 'information seeking anxiety', and 'information seeking' AND 'anxiety'. This review included those studies reporting the use of any scale measuring information related anxiety published in the English language and included all type of documents (e.g. journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, theses/dissertations, research reports). The screening process resulted in 45 studies meeting the eligibility criterion. The extracted data included author names, year of publication, type of scale used, scale title, background, type of construct assessed, number of items in the scale, scale origin, studies reporting use, studies contributing psychometric information, scale availability, and psychometric properties reported. The results indicated nine instruments assessing information-related anxieties. The classical test theory was applied for eight instruments. No psychometric properties were reported for a single instrument. Most psychometric instruments were developed in the United States. Face/Content validity through experts, construct validity through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and internal consistency reliability through Cronbach alpha was the most commonly used psychometric analysis. None of these studies applied the Rasch model of modern item response theory for psychometric examination. This review has serious implications on the inferences drawn by the practitioners and researchers based on the earlier assessment of information related anxieties. It suggests the development of standards for not only designing new psychometric tests but also fo

This study was conducted to find effect of storage time and temperature on platelet indices of samples taken in EDTA. Methods:In this study 100 samples without the specification of gender were included. CBC samples were taken in two EDTA vials from each patient. All the samples were separated in two groups. One sample group was stored at room temperature(RT) and other at 2-6°C. CBC was run on CBC analyzer Sysmex XN-1000 at 0 hours, 4 hours, 12 hours and 24 hours. Results: There was significantly increasing trend for MPV, PDW and P-LCRat RT and decreasing trend at 4°C when compared with 0 hours. PCT showed significant decreasing trend at 4°C with respect to 0 hours. Significant decrease in platelet count was observed after storage at room temperature as well as at 4°C. Conclusion:Although 4°C consider as optimal temperature to transport specimen for CBC but Platelet Indices values varies significantly in comparison to baseline when stored at 4oC and at room temperature. It seems prudent to conclude that if platelet pathology is the major drive for CBC test performance then specimen should be run without delay.

The purpose of this study was to appraise the prevailing status of customer relationship management (CRM) practices in university libraries of Pakistan to increase strong and mutual beneficial relationship with user. Moreover, correlates of CRM practices with types, categories, and geographical locations of university libraries were also explored. This study adopted cross-sectional survey research design using a questionnaire. The survey questionnaire was emailed to the in-charge/head librarians of all 193 university libraries in Pakistan and response rate was 74%. The results were consolidated at the analysis stage. The results have demonstrated that current status of CRM practices (customer focus, organizational focus, customer feedback management) is in the adolescence phase, while information technology infrastructure is inadequate for absolute implantation of CRM programmes and strategies. The data indicate that CRM practices are linked with university libraries types and geographical locations private sector university libraries are concentrating more on organizational focus as compared to public sector while university libraries of Islamabad Capital Territory are having good IT Infrastructure from KPK Province and AJK region respectively. The study suggests that all academic institutions should formulate a clearly specified user care and satisfaction policy. In Pakistan, Information Management / Library & Information Sciences schools and library associations should conduct ongoing training, workshops, seminars, and conferences on CRM strategies, practices, programs, tactics and mechanism, defined in this study. University top management must encourage, provide financial resources and train staff for smooth running and implementation of CRM. Complete IT infrastructure, CRM software and models should be adopted as per market demand. CRM models may be developed for Pakistani university libraries or such models may be opted with some amendments from other pure bu

This study intended to carry out a scientometric analysis of the literature on health literacy related to Covid-19 pandemic and infodemic to determine its periodic growth, publication format dispersion, core journals, authorship patterns, geographic origin, keywords patterns, and core institutions. Two general bibliographic databases such as Scopus and Web of Science were searched using keywords such as ‘health literacy, health education, health communication, health promotion, combining with Covid-19 using AND to identify related citations. The data set of 620 citations were analyzed and visualized for several bibliographic characteristics using ScientoPy and VOSviewer. The results revealed that there is a phenomenal growth in the volume of literature on health literacy since the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic to onward. A large majority of these citations were the journal papers. These citations were published in 340 journals scattered in a variety of fields. A little less than two-thirds of the literature was the result of a collaborative effort. The United States appeared as the leading contributor by producing one-third of the total items, followed by China and the United Kingdom. However, Vietnam dominated with the number of citations among top authors and top institutions. This research provided useful insight into the patterns of scholarly communication in the health literacy research produced in the Covid-19 era. These trends would be beneficial to researchers of several disciplines by determining the core areas, core authors, and core journals publishing this literature. It also encourages scholars to initiate collaborative and multi-disciplinary research on health literacy for deep and pragmatic insight.

This research investigated the levels of health literacy among Pakistani university students in the Covid-19 pandemic and infodemic. The university students were surveyed using an online questionnaire at two public sector universities and one private sector university in Punjab-Pakistan. The administration of the data collection instrument was completed with permission from concerned authorities. A total of 374 responses received which were imported to SPSS and analyzed by applying descriptive as well as inferential statistics. The results revealed that the health literacy of university students in the Covid-19 pandemic and infodemic was not at an optimal level as these participants expressed difficulty for half of the items of the health literacy scale. A large majority of these students had health literacy from low to moderate levels. Besides, the students' age, sex, study program, and Covid-19 testing did not appear to predict their health literacy. However, the geographical background of these students predicted their health literacy indicating that urban had students had higher literacy as compared to rural students. The results of this study indicated the need for health education and promotion among the general public in Pakistan especially university students as they serve as a change agent for people around them. The program for health literacy related to Covid-19 would be a great step to respond proactively to the pandemic and infodemic situation. Hoping, these results would be helpful for not only policymakers, healthcare providers, health information professionals especially engaged in health promotion but also for library staff to play their role in the health emergency related to Covid-19. This study would be a worthy contribution to the existing research on health literacy as a limited amount of research appeared from developing countries like Pakistan.

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Knowledge Sharing Behavior Scale (KSBS) using academicians at the University of Sargodha, Sargodha. The quantitative research design was adopted using a survey questionnaire to collect data from academicians. A 28-item KSBS was administered to 300 academicians, recruited through the convenient stratified process by visiting each department with permission. The researchers received 237 usable questionnaires indicating a response rate. The validity (e.g., construct validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity) and reliability (e.g., internal consistency measure Cronbach Alpha) of the instrument was examined using partial least square structural equation modeling with SmartPLS. The results indicated that KSBS is not a valid measure for assessing knowledge sharing behavior in an academic context, specifically in the Pakistani environment. These results suggested the need for more investigation examining psychometric evaluation of KSBS in academic and other contexts before generalization of these results. This research would make an invaluable contribution to the existing research on knowledge sharing in general and knowledge sharing behavior in particular, as only a few such studies are available so far.

Health literacy is an essential to respond proactively to pandemic situations like Covid-19. It helps the general public to reduce the spread of infectious diseases, prevent from over-reactions, reduce carelessness, adopt health protective behavior. The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of health literacy on fear of Covid-19, protective behavior, and conspiracy beliefs of university students in Pakistan. A cross-sectional survey using an online questionnaire was conducted at two public sector universities in Punjab with permission. A total of 271 received responses were analyzed by applying both descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS. The results indicated students' gender had a relationship with their health protective behavior indicating that female students were more likely to adopt health protective behavior as compared to male students. Besides, the students' health literacy did not predict their fear of Covid-19 and conspiracy beliefs. However, the health literacy of university students predicted their health protective behavior which meant that the students with better health literacy likely to adopt health protective behavior related to Covid-19 infection. There was a need for promotion of health literacy related to Covid-19 to fight not only the current pandemic situation but also an infodemic associated with it. These results are useful for policymakers, health professionals, university and library administration for promoting health and creating awareness related to Covid-19 pandemic. It would also be helpful in developing useful directions for health literacy programs promoting health education and protective behavior to avoid and management Covid-19 infection. This research would make a worthy addition to existing research on health literacy as limited empirical studies have been conducted so far.

This research assessed the prevalence and levels of information seeking anxiety among business students at Lahore School of Economics, Lahore, Pakistan so that remedial measures could be taken to reduce anxiety. The data were collected from 283 students using a survey questionnaire, containing an Information Seeking Anxiety Scale along with certain demographic and academic variables, and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results indicated the prevalence of information seeking anxiety among these students across different dimensions and overall scale at mild to moderate levels. There was no significant relationship between nature of MBA program, gender, school background, geographical origin, ICT skills, English language competency, and information seeking anxiety. However, gender appeared to predict the dimension of search anxiety as female students were more anxious than males when searching for information. The results are very useful to inform policy and practice for development of information capabilities in the digital information landscape. These findings could be used as a guide for developing and designing information literacy programs aimed to reduce information seeking anxiety resulting in the improvement of students’ academic performance. This study has made a reasonable contribution to the existing literature on information seeking anxiety as a limited number of studies appeared focusing specifically on information seeking anxiety.

This study investigated the organizational commitment of information professionals working at university libraries in Pakistan. Survey method was adopted using a questionnaire to collect data from 329 information professionals of Punjab and Islamabad. The questionnaire contained 18-items measure of organizational commitment, developed by Meyer, Allen and Smith (1993), along with certain demographic variables. Each statement was measured on 5-point Likert scale (e.g. 1=Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3= Neutral, 4=Agree, 5= Strongly Agree). The collected data were analysed by applying descriptive as well as inferential statistics in SPSS. Results indicated that information professionals were slightly committed to their organizations and most of these had emotional attachment with the organization. There were no significant mean differences in the index of organizational commitment based on age, gender, sector, area, and continuing education. However, the qualification, designation, experience, employment nature, and salary of the participants appeared to be predictor of organizational commitment. These results are important for university administration especially human resource department who work for retention of productive and committed employees and ensure strategic human resource development. This study would make worthy contribution in the existing research on organizational commitment in general and information professionals in particular.

This research carried out a systematic review of the evidence of reliability and validity of scales available in studies reporting surveys of individuals to assess anxiety associated with information related tasks such as library anxiety, information seeking anxiety, and information anxiety. A systematic search using keywords ‘library anxiety’, ‘information anxiety’, 'information seeking anxiety', and 'information seeking' AND 'anxiety' was carried in Web of Science, Scopus, LISA, and LISTA to identify the relevant literature. This review included those studies reporting the use of any scale assessing information related anxiety, and published in the English language, and included all type of documents (e.g. journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, thesis/dissertations, reports). The two-phase screening process, title/abstract screening, and full-text screening resulted in 85 eligible studies reviewed in this paper. The data extracted from each eligible study included author names, year of publication, scale title, type of constructed assessed, sample characteristics, number of items in the scale, types of reliability and validity reported. The results revealed that most of the empirical studies did not report the reliability and validity of scales used for data collection. Eight instruments assessing information related anxieties were identified. These scales were heterogeneous in the number of statements and subscales and homogenous in the type of scale options. An internal consistency coefficient such as Cronbach's alpha was the widely used reliability measure. Face validity, content validity, and construct validity either through exploratory factor analysis or confirmatory factor analysis were the most used validity measures. These results quite had serious implications on the inferences drawn by the practitioners and researchers based on the results of existing studies. The use of good-quality measures for assessing information related anxieties need

This study explored political information behavior of citizens residing in a rural setting from the district of Toba Tek Singh, Punjab-Pakistan. Qualitative research design using an unstructured interview guide was employed to conduct this research. Face-to-face interviews of 51 participants, selected through purposive sampling process, were conducted for data collection by visiting their homes using local language. Each participant was informed of his responses at the end of the interview for data verification and authentication. Each interview was carefully recorded and transcribed. Using thematic analysis, the verbal data were analyzed and multiple responses were grouped together and reduced into ‘information needs’ and ‘information channels.’ After that, the frequencies and percentages of the responses against these themes were counted because it was possible due to the uniformity in the qualitative data. The results indicated that a large majority of these participants were politically ignorant and did not seem to be in need of political information. A good number of participants required political information on current affairs, rural development policies, government policies and decisions, and both local and national political news. They mainly depended on mass media particularly television for political information followed by newspapers, radio, and interpersonal relationships. Since the rural dwellers were not interested in political information due to political ignorance and backwardness, efforts should be made to improve their political awareness. There was a critical need to evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of the existing information infrastructure for the rural population in Pakistan. The results will assist the policy makers in the development of a need-based, unified, and integrated rural information delivery system. This research would make a worthy contribution in existing research on information needs and seeking behavior of rural co

This study examined the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment among information professionals working at university libraries in Pakistan. A cross-sectional survey using a questionnaire was conducted. The questionnaire contained items related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment along with demographic variables. All the professionals working in university libraries of Punjab and Islamabad were considered as study population. It was decided to collect data from all these professionals. The questionnaire was administered either through personal visits or through email. A total of 329 questionnaires retuned which were used for data analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied for data analysis. The results revealed job satisfaction appeared to be a statistically significant but positive predictor of organization commitment among survey participants. The facets such as promotion, supervision, and job itself also appeared to be the positive correlative of overall organizational commitment. Conversely, the three facets of job satisfaction pay, fringe benefits and colleagues were not significantly correlated with overall organizational commitment as well as with all its facets. These results are useful for human resource departments of universities who work strategically for retention of satisfied and productive employees for their institutions. This study would make worthy contribution in the existing research on library management.

This study examined the knowledge sharing behavior of the academicians working at University of Sargodha, Sargodha. Quantitative research design using survey method was adopted to conduct this research. The data were collected from 237 academicians sing a questionnaire which contained Knowledge Sharing Behavior Scale and demographic variables. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were applied for data analysis. The results indicated that these academicians used to share their knowledge more often through documents and reports, personal conversations, team meetings, participation in brainstorming sessions, organizational meetings, sharing success stories and personal experiences, asking questions, past mistake and failure stories, coaching junior employees, supporting personal development of new members, and making presentations in the meetings. There were no statistically significant mean differences in the index of knowledge sharing behavior based on gender, social background, education, and teaching experience. Conversely, age and number of publications appeared to be the correlatives of knowledge sharing behavior. The results might help university administration in designing programs for promotion of knowledge sharing culture for collaborative learning and research. This study would be a worthy contribution to the existing literature on knowledge sharing in general and knowledge sharing behavior of academicians in particular.

This research intended to develop and validate a Covid-19 Literacy Scale (CLS). This study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase items were generated based on an extensive literature review, public advisory platforms, and public service messages related to Covid-19. After that these statements were submitted to a panel of experts for content and face validity. While in the second phase, a cross-sectional survey was conducted using students of three university from the province of Punjab, Pakistan for construct validity and reliability. An online questionnaire was administered among students with permission from the concerned authorities. A total of 369 responses received which were imported in SPSS for data analysis. The construct validity was assessed through exploratory factor analysis and the reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach alpha coefficient. The results indicated a 23-items scale structured into two dimensions, namely, ‘infection spread and symptoms’ (11 items) and ‘infection prevention and treatment’ (12 items), Each statement had loading strengths greater than .56 and the model explained 66.6% of the total variance. The values of reliability coefficient for overall scale (CA = .970) as well as for both sub-dimension such as ‘infection spread and symptoms’ (CA = .957) and ‘infection prevention and treatment (CA = .936) were great. The correlation coefficients of test retest ranged from 0.71 to .87 which also appeared at satisfactory level. Thus, the newly developed instrument appeared as a reliable and valid measure for Covid-19 literacy assessment. This research would make a worthwhile contribution to health literacy in general and Covid-19 literacy in particular as no such scale was available in the existing literature.