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Background: Lower levels of social support, self-efficacy, and religiosity have been implicated in the onset and persistence of depression. Depression is characterized as a mood disorder marked by persistent feelings of hopelessness, sadness, and a lack of interest in activities. Social relationships and support significantly influence general well-being and mortality risk. This study aimed to investigate the effect of social support on depression among amputees. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted from May to July 2018 at three rehabilitation centers in Quetta. Primary data were collected from amputees, due to both traumatic and non-traumatic causes, using a non-probability purposive sampling technique. Depression was assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Ethical approval was obtained from the Health Services Academy (HSA), Islamabad, and written informed consent was secured from all participants. Results: A total of 54 participants were included, comprising 7 women (13%) and 47 men (87%). Nearly all participants (98.1%) reported positive social support, while 2% experienced negative or no social support. HADS results revealed that 31.5% (n = 17) of participants experienced no or mild depression, while 68.5% (n = 37) had moderate to severe depression. A statistically significant relationship was found between social support and depression (p = 0.04). Conclusion: Higher levels of social support significantly reduce depression severity among amputees, underscoring the critical role of social relationships in mitigating depression in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Workplace bullying is a widespread occurrence that has been identified as a significant concern in enterprises all around the world. The research aimed to examine the impact of workplace bullying on self-esteem among pharmacists with the moderating role of defense styles. Method: This study utilised stratified random sampling to include 498 pharmacists from public and private hospitals in Sanaa, Yemen. Data was collected through structured questionnaires on demographics, workplace bullying (NAQ-R), self-esteem (Rosenberg scale), and defense styles (DSQ-40). Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, regression, correlation, T-tests, and moderation analysis. Results: Results of the current study showed that workplace bullying has a significant negative impact on self-esteem, and defense styles do not moderate self-esteem and workplace bullying. Female pharmacists have higher workplace bullying and lower self-esteem. Gender differences in defense styles have insignificant results. Conclusion: This research supports overcoming workplace bullying among employees in any organisation. Comprehensive anti-bullying policies must be developed and implemented to create a safe and supportive workplace for pharmacists. Anti-bullying strategies that promote gender equality address power disparities and guarantee that female employees have access to particular resources for support should incorporate gender-sensitive practices. In order to reduce the adverse effects of workplace bullying on mental health and boost the self-esteem of victims by offering counseling services, frequent training sessions, and seminars. It is also helpful in enhancing self-esteem and improving interpersonal relationships among employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seasons have a major impact on the frequency and characteristics of burn injuries; in warmer months, thermal burns from outdoor activities are more common, while in cooler months, incidents involving heating sources and fires are more common. It is essential to comprehend these trends in order to customize safety precautions and awareness initiatives. Studies on the impact of seasonal variations help burn centers allocate resources more effectively in order to prepare for variations in patient volume and severity. Data from January 2016 to December 2022, with an emphasis on burn types excluding nonburn cases, were analyzed retrospectively over a 7-year period at the Burn Care Centre in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad. The research examined hospital stays, demographics, burn causes, admissions, total burned surface area, and death rates while dividing the years into winter and summer seasons for analysis. With 4014 admitted patients, the study found that winter admissions increased by 11.007%, with winter admissions accounting for 55.503% of all admissions and summer admissions for 44.496%. The gender distribution stayed the same, with 54.59% of the population being male and 45.99% being female. Hospital stays were longer for summer admissions (16.428) than for winter admissions (11.285). Summertime saw a rise in electric burn cases (307 cases), with a 43 case fatality rate. With 1699 cases, flame burns predominated in the epidemiology of burns, followed by scald burns with 1384 cases. In conclusion, seasonal differences have a substantial impact on burn profiles, with winter seeing a marked rise in occurrences. Men are also more likely to sustain electric burns, particularly in the summer. Effective management and prevention techniques depend on an understanding of these patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Healthcare workers who work in emergency departments are at a high risk of being involved in workplace violence (WPV) due to the nature of their profession which is very stressful and tense worldwide. Objective: The purpose of this study was to see the frequency of violence against healthcare workers and to identify the type of violence as well as the offender involved in this act in the hospital of Multan city. Study type, settings & duration: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Nishtar Medical College and Hospital Multan from June to August 2019. Methodology: We conducted this cross-sectional study using the World Health Organization's tool to collect quantitative data on different aspects of workplace violence (WPV) among universally selected 164 healthcare professionals working in the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital of Multan after taking informed consent. Results: Most physicians reported exposure to at least one type of violence in the past two months. A most common form of violence was verbal violence, which accounted for about three fourth (75.6%), and physical violence about 24.4%. The perpetrators of such incidences were mostly relatives of attendants of patients. Very few cases that created such events of aggression were investigated. Conclusion: Violence in hospitals is a serious public health concern. Verbal violence is the most reported workplace form of violence, affecting mostly physicians. Higher authorities and policymakers should introduce legitimate procedures and interventions to manage this serious issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study discusses the social persuasion advertisers use to implicitly communicate society’s sociocultural norms through visual communication in advertisements, specifically in Pakistan. For instance, the research explores how advertisers, as cultural brokers, represent women by challenging established sociocultural norms by utilising persuasive strategies through visual communication in Pakistani ads. The research comes under the qualitative content analysis paradigm; the data were collected, identified, interpreted, and analysed, focusing on the cultural values/norms represented through women’s dressing and sexually devised postures in Pakistani society. Moreover, the research employed the constant comparison method for the data analysis. Findings indicate that Pakistani advertisers represent women mainly in a stereotypical manner. However, when they deviate from representing her in a non-stereotypical way, they go far beyond the set norms to persuade them quickly. For instance, they found representing women as a posture of sexual appeal to persuade ordinary people’s minds by employing social neuro-persuasion challenging the Pakistani established sociocultural beliefs, norms, or values. These advertisers seem to deviate from traditional ideologies because they minutely know the sensual, desirous nature of most Pakistani men. Henceforth, they represent women as an alluring tool of persuasion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Written corrective feedback (WCF) in enhancing writing proficiency has been the subject of numerous studies, but few studies have examined students' perceptions about the value of feedback on their written errors. Language teachers use global tools and techniques to give students feedback on their written work. How feedback is delivered and received by students is valued differently. The current study concentrated on how students interpret written corrective feedback and which WCF tactics they favor in writing classrooms. To examine these objectives empirically, the researchers employed a selfadministered questionnaire to collect data from 180 participants from a high secondary school in Multan, Pakistan. At the same time, 40 participants were interviewed for their opinions about written corrective feedback (WCF). Some participants expressed concerns about ambiguous feedback that confuses them about their errors, whereas most participants favored the feedback process as beneficial. The most preferred strategies were meta-linguistic explanation and direct written corrective feedback that facilitated writing proficiency and language knowledge. Overall, WCF guides errors to avoid and how to adapt their writing style for composing compelling manuscripts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the frequency of antibiotic use through internet and social media among the people visiting Rawal institute of health sciences. To assess knowledge about antibiotics and to explore role of internet search engines and social media for accessing information regarding antibiotic use. Study Design: Cross-sectional Descriptive study. Setting: Rawal Institute of health sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan. Period: June 2019 to September 2019. Material & Methods: A was study carried to find out the role of internet and social media for use of antibiotics through a structured questionnaire from 150 people visiting RIHS. Sampling was done through non probability convenient sampling method. Response rate was 100%. Results: The data of 150 participants showed 92% have used antibiotics in their life time, of those 92% (n=138) participants, 26 %(n=39) have used them through prescription, 30% (n=45) have done self-medication, 19% (n=29) have used social media for medication. 91% think that information regarding use of antibiotics can be spread through internet and social media. Conclusion: The results conclude that social media and internet related antibiotic sales is contributing a substantial share. Majority of the participant also think that internet and social media are the best source to spread information for safe use. National guidelines should be devised for appropriate information seeking and communication interventions can be done using internet and social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Literature showed that HIV +ve individuals were deficient for vitamin D as well. Vitamin D deficiency is one of the top most commonly observed abnormality and an independent prognostic marker of HIV disease. The scientific groups' emphases on the likely impact of its dearth on HIV infested populace. One of most communal comorbidities in HIV-1 patients is insufficiency of Vitamin D (Vit D), which is estimated by measuring 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) concentrations. Patients having vitamin D levels < 20ng/ml (50nmol/l) were considered as having vitamin D deficiency. HIV infection & ART (antiretroviral therapy) may create risk factors for insufficiency of vitamin D, it also has a role in slowing down HIV ailment progression. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Medicine Department in Services Hospital Lahore from June 22, 2017 to December 22, 2017. 160 Patients with HIV confirmed by ELISA method were selected by non-Probability Consecutive sampling technique. Data was entered in SPSS v23.0 & Chi square test was applied. Results: Out of 160, Frequency of Vitamin D deficiency was 111(69.4%). Results demonstrated that majority of patients 74(46.25%) are having disease for 1-3 years. While 54(33.75%) patients are having the disease for <1 year and 32(20.0%) are having the disease for >3 years. There were no significant differences between Vitamin D deficiency with age, gender and duration of HIV/AIDS (p-values 0.123, 0.136 & 0.634 respectively). Conclusion: Frequency of vitamin D deficiency is very high. This recommends that all HIV positive individuals should be considered for routine screening. Low serum calcium should prompt investigation of 25-OHD levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Maternal health care refers to the better outcome of labor and reduced maternal mortality. Antenatal care utilization is an important determinant for improved maternal health care. In this study, we examine how father's involvement influences antenatal and perinatal care utilization by mothers.Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was performed in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for three months. Systematic random sampling method was used for obtaining the desired sample. Safe Motherhood Questionnaire (Woman) developed by Johns Hopkins Program for International Education in Gynecology and Obstetrics (JHPIEGO) was adapted and utilized to gather the required data. Sample size for the study was calculated as 303 by the WHO calculator keeping confidence level at 95% and with an associated prevalence of 73%. The data were entered into SPSS version 21 (Chicago, IL). Frequencies and percentages were calculated for qualitative variables. Mean and standard deviation was calculated for quantitative variables.Results: This study revealed that the father's attitude toward antenatal care was found to be significantly (p < .05) associated with a higher education and greater income level. While father's favorable attitude toward childbirth was found to be significantly (p < .05) associated with higher education and lower age (18-29 years). Frequency of fathers who disagreed to the statement "It is not necessary for a husband/partner to accompany his wife to antenatal care visits" was 204 (67.1%), whereas those who disagreed with the statement "It is not necessary for a husband/partner to accompany his wife when she is giving birth" were 255 (83.8%). While frequency of fathers who disagreed with the statement "Giving birth is mostly a woman's matter; Husbands/partners have little to contribute" was 267 (87.9%).Conclusions: Our study found a positive association between father's involvement in maternal health and factors such as paternal education level, age, income level and father's attitude. Fathers' antenatal involvement was associated with paternal age and income level, while their perinatal involvement was associated with paternal age and education level. Our study on father's attitude toward presence at time of birth showed 83.8% compliance. Similarly, there was 67.1% compliance for presence during antenatal checkups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this study was to probe the role of texts and contexts in framing the linguistic representation of women in newspapers. The present study intended to explore the genre of crime reporting by situating it in the local Pakistani context with special reference to women related crimes. Genre studies have been popular in ESP and Applied Linguistics; hence this research contributes to genre studies by correlating genre of crime reports and sociolinguistics. This study employed qualitative approach and used random sampling for data collection out of three most popular English newspapers in Pakistan i.e. Dawn, The News and Daily Times. The data was collected over a period of one month. Analysis of the data is carried out by using the techniques of critical discourse analysis (CDA) as well as systemic functional linguistics (SFL). The major findings throw light on the fact that women related crime news reports are carefully crafted representation of typical patriarchal culture where they are embedded. The research is highly significant as it contributes not only to Genre Studies by analyzing an unidentified genre, but also to the Gender Studies as it highlights the marginalized representations of women in Pakistani English newspaper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One fruitful line of research has been to explore the working of print media and for this semiotic images in the magazines and the "Ideologies" that are a ssocia ted with these semiotic images have always been a vast subject of interest. To date, frequent research in this field has been carried out in Western countries and on English Magazines. In contrast to it, this paper purports to explore the ideology (ies) and femininity (ies) in Pakistani women magazines i.e. a very popular genre among women in Pakistan and hence it looks at it in local context. This paper, in particular looks at distinctive semiotic features that plays a pivotal role in the publicity and popularity of these magazines among its readers. This study employs qualitative approach and uses random sampling for data collection and semiotic analysis for data analysis. The data is collected over a period of three months (Nov 2006-Jan 2007) out of two magazines (Khwateen Digest and Shuaa) that made a total of six magazines. Analysis of the data throws light on the fact that women magazines are more than only semiotic and linguistic constructs. They are constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing the ideologies and identities of its targeted audiences. The results of this study benefits to the people working in the field not only of Sociolinguistics, but also it is of great interest for Interdisciplinary studies such as; Gender Studies, Culture Studies and Media Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pharmacists are key to China's healthcare system, balancing traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western pharmaceuticals. The expanding pharmaceutical industry has increased their workload, contributing to work family conflict, which affects job satisfaction and performance and can lead to burnout. Psychological flexibility may alleviate the negative effects of work family conflict on job performance., Method: This study used a cross-sectional quantitative approach to examine the relationships between work family conflict, psychological flexibility and job performance among 1,359 pharmacists in Shenzhen, China. Online questionnaires assessed work family conflict using the Work and Family Conflict Scale, psychological flexibility using the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-2 and job performance using the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire., Results: Correlation analyses revealed significant positive associations between work family conflict and psychological flexibility and between psychological flexibility and job performance. Regression analyses showed that work family conflict negatively predicted job performance, while psychological flexibility positively predicted it. Pharmacists in metropolitan areas reported higher psychological flexibility than those in rural areas, but there were no significant differences in job performance. Male pharmacists had higher psychological flexibility and job performance scores than females although the differences were not statistically significant., Conclusion: This study underlines the importance of psychological flexibility in enhancing job performance amid work family conflict. The study suggests implementing stress reduction programmes, mindfulness training and workplace policies such as flexible working hours and childcare services to reduce work family conflict and foster psychological flexibility. Addressing these issues can significantly improve the well-being and job performance of pharmacists in China., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)., (© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of mortality and long-term disability worldwide, and accurate imaging is essential for effective diagnosis, management, and prognosis. This systematic review evaluates the diagnostic capabilities of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compared to computed tomography (CT) in assessing TBI across various severities. Through a comprehensive search strategy, studies were selected that directly compared MRI and CT in TBI diagnosis, incorporating advanced MRI techniques such as susceptibility-weighted imaging and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery. The findings confirm that while CT is indispensable in acute settings for the rapid identification of life-threatening conditions such as hemorrhage and skull fractures, MRI offers superior sensitivity for detecting subtle lesions, microbleeds, and diffuse axonal injury. MRI techniques, including magnetic resonance spectroscopy, demonstrated the ability to detect metabolic changes in normal-appearing white matter, which were predictive of long-term neurological outcomes. Additionally, the integration of biomarkers, such as imaging modalities, showed the potential to improve diagnostic accuracy and reduce unnecessary CT scans. Despite the limitations related to study heterogeneity and the exclusion of non-English studies, this review underscores the complementary roles of MRI and CT in TBI management, suggesting that a combined approach can provide the most thorough assessment and improve patient outcomes. Future research should focus on large-scale trials to further refine the clinical application of these imaging modalities., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work., (Copyright © 2024, Dabas et al.)

Patients admitted to the intensive care unit are prone to various complications, one of which is acute kidney injury (AKI). The etiology of acute kidney injury can be multifactorial. Among the various causes, sepsis remains the most prevalent. Cholemic nephropathy (CN) is a rare cause of AKI. Patients with CN usually present with elevated total bilirubin levels of greater than 20 mg/dl. However, CN has been reported in patients with total bilirubin levels of less than 20 mg/dL. These patients were found to have chronic elevations of bilirubin due to chronic liver disease rather than an acute rise in bilirubin levels. In this case series, we present two cases of patients with chronic liver disease who were admitted to the intensive care unit and were found to have AKI with elevated total bilirubin levels over 15 mg/dl., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2023, Mohamed et al.)

The objectives of this study were to find out the frequency of anxiety and depression in medical students and various coping mechanisms adopted by them to identify the coping trends and to stress the need of equipping these students with positive coping tools to deal with anxiety and depression. A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based observational study was conducted on a population of 500 medical students of Federal Medical and Dental College, Islamabad. The duration of the study was three months. By using the WHO sample size calculator, taking the confidence level 95%, anticipated population proportion 70% and absolute precision required 7%, the sample size was calculated at 165. The samples were collected by non-probability consecutive sampling via a questionnaire. In the study, two instruments were used: 1) Aga Khan University Anxiety and Depression Scale (AKUADS), and 2) Brief Cope Inventory. Self-administered questionnaires were filled by the students and the data collected from these questionnaires was analysed on SPSS version 19. Out of the sample size of 165 (98 female, 67 male) students, excluding 12 students with previous history of mental and physical illness, the prevalence of depressed students found after calculating their scores according to the Aga Khan Anxiety and Depression Scale (AKUADS score ≥19) was 95 (57.57%). The most used positive coping mechanisms by these students were religion (5.55±1.91), acceptance (5.28±1.56), planning (5.27±1.58) and active coping (4.85±1.45). The most used negative coping mechanisms were self-blame (5.52±1.83), self-distraction (5.29±1.56), and venting (4.67±1.49). The high presence of negative coping mechanisms indicates the urgency of the need for proper counselling and guidance of medical students about dealing correctly with anxiety and depression.