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EFL teachers working in Saudi Arabian universities are often from different social, cultural and academic backgrounds. The factors that affect their self-efficacy can vary from one teacher to another because of their different social and cultural associations. This research is carried out in the light of the existing literature to determine some of the factors and variables which may influence the level of EFL teachers' self-efficacy who teach at the universities in Saudi Arabia. Some of the factors are related to the personal traits of the teachers such as competence, experience, flexibility, hard work, perseverance, motivation, attitude, self-efficacy, resourcefulness and how they see themselves as teachers; whereas others are associated with their cultural, social and academic background, the working environment of an organization, and the attitudes of learners. Teacher self-efficacy is prone to be affected either negatively or positively by all these factors.

The nature of supervisory relationship is dynamic that changes over the course of candidacy. Subsequently, the supervision demands of supervisees also change to help them in performing certain tasks at specific research stages. In this context, this research is proposed to investigate the supervision experiences of supervisees in four different research stages (i.e. Stage 1: developing synopsis, Stage 2: collecting data, Stage 3: writing thesis and Stage 4: submitted thesis). In the light of six supervision aspects (i.e. Project management, Intellectual support, pertinent research skills, Inter-personal communication skills, Workload management and Supportive skills) the quality of supervision was assessed from supervisees' perspective. Cross-sectional survey design was used to assess the supervision experiences of (N=422) supervisees in four distinct stages of research supervision. The data were collected from 12 public and private universities of the Punjab. For this study, a multi-sectioned, self-constructed Supervisor-Supervisee Relationship Questionnaire (Saleem, 2014) was used. The findings of the study highlighted the need to train the supervisors to manage their time not just in terms of teaching and supervision of research students, but also keeping the stages of their research in mind. By addressing the stage specific needs of supervisees the quality of supervision could be improved.

Objective: To determine the frequency and pattern of thyroid dysfunction in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Endocrinology, Jinnah Hospital, Lahore Pakistan, from Jan from Jun 2017. Methodology: Seventy-seven patients diagnosed with PCOS, based on Rotterdam criteria, were enrolled in the study. Thyroid function status was evaluated using measurement of serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free T3, T4 and anti-thyroperoxidase (anti-TPO) antibodies. Results: The mean age of the study population was 29.0±9.2 years. Out of 77 females with PCOS, 63(81.8%) were euthyroid, five (6.5%) patients were diagnosed with primary hypothyroidism, and nine (11.7%) were found to have subclinical hypothyroidism. Anti-TPO antibodies were detected in 18 patients (23.4%), including 12(19.0%) euthyroid females. Conclusion: Thyroid dysfunction was found among patients with PCOS. Evidence of autoimmunity was seen even in euthyroid patients.

Despite the growing salience of the Pakistan-China and US-Indian alliances, Pakistan-US relations continue to be a valuable enhancement both to stability and to Washington's influence in South Asia. The United States contributes to Pakistan's national security, just as Pakistan reciprocates in those areas where the U.S.-Indian relationship has its limitations. Pakistan also helps play a stabilizing effect on the US-China rivalry, despite Islamabad's close association with Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Variable benefits have been reported from the adjunctive use of simvastatin and the 5HT3 receptor antagonist, ondansetron, in patients with schizophrenia. We investigated their independent efficacy and possible synergy to improve negative symptoms of schizophrenia within a single trial. Methods: A 6-month, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with a 4-arm, 2 × 2 factorial design, in three centres in Pakistan. In total, 303 people with stable treated schizophrenia aged 18–65 were randomly allocated to add-on ondansetron, simvastatin, both or neither. The primary outcome was a Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) negative score at 3 and 6 months. Results: Mixed model analysis and analysis of covariance revealed no main effects of simvastatin or ondansetron but a significant negative interaction between them (p = 0.03); when given alone, both drugs significantly reduced negative symptoms compared to placebo but they were ineffective in combination. Individual treatment effects versus placebo were −1.9 points (95%CIs −3.23, −0.49; p = 0.01) for simvastatin and −1.6 points for ondansetron (95%CIs −3.00, −0.14; p = 0.03). Combined treatment significantly increased depression and side effects. In those with less than the median 5 years of treatment, ondansetron improved all PANSS subscales, global functioning measures and verbal learning and fluency, whereas simvastatin did not. Conclusion: Small improvement in negative symptoms on simvastatin and ondansetron individually are not synergistic in combination in treating negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Ondansetron showed broad efficacy in patients on stable antipsychotic treatment within 5 years of illness. The findings suggest that ondansetron should be evaluated in patients at risk of psychosis or early in treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lyme borreliosis is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu leto. This disease has been recently reported in Pakistan but the efficacy of different antibiotics against it has not been tested. Therefore, this study was aimed at evaluating the efficacy of different antibiotics in curing this disease under field conditions and ascertaining the role of C-reactive protein as a prognostic agent in Borrelia-positive dogs. For this purpose, twenty-four dogs of different breeds were used in the study. These dogs were found Borrelia positive on PCR and equally divided into four groups (n=6). Group A was treated with doxycycline @ 10mg/Kg, B with azithromycin @ 20mg/Kg and C with clindamycin @ 11mg/Kg, and D with amoxicillin @2mg/Kg. All drugs were administered orally in different forms, i.e., tablet, capsule, or suspension as per the availability. Five clinical biomarkers including fever, anorexia, arthritis, lameness, and lymphadenopathy were used to declare the status of the disease at days zero, 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th. Serum samples were also collected on the same days for determining C-reactive protein (CRP) values. The results of clinical biomarkers showed that doxycycline cured the dogs immediately when checked on the 7th day followed by amoxicillin on the 21st day; whereas dogs treated with azithromycin and clindamycin did not show promising results. Besides, results of CRP showed that doxycycline had significantly (p < 0.05) greater efficacy than Azithromycin till the end of the trial and clindamycin till the 21st day. However, the comparative efficacy of doxycycline and amoxicillin showed a significantly (p < 0.05) greater efficacy of the former till the 7th day. These results have proved that doxycycline is the best drug, followed by amoxicillin, to treat dogs suffering from Lyme borreliosis. Moreover, it is also ascertained that CRP can be effectively used to monitor the prognosis of Lyme borreliosis in pet dogs. These results will be helpful for the pet clinicians and veterinarians working to diagnose, treat, and monitor Lyme borreliosis under field conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternaria species are necrotic plant pathogens that cause dark spot disease to nearly one hundred host plants, affecting them from vegetative to reproductive stages. Infection typically appeared on leaves and stems as dark brownish to black spots that form concentric ring patterns as they enlarge, typically showing blight symptoms. The objective of the study was to characterize Alternaria species associated with radish leaf blight in Pakistan. In this study, a total of six isolates causing typical symptoms of leaf blight were collected from radish leaves (cv. Sufaid Pari) during a survey in February 2023 at the Vegetable Research Station Sahiwal (VRSS) Punjab, Pakistan. Being the first identification, all recovered isolates from symptomatic radish leaves were characterized based on morphological traits, pathogenicity and molecular analysis of internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS) of the 5.8S rDNA gene. Sequence analysis showed that radish isolates grouped to three Alternaria species: mainly A. brassicae, A. brassicicola and A. alternata respectively. Pathogenicity tests demonstrated that all isolates could produce similar necrotic lesions on detached radish leaves as observed during the field survey. Morphological characteristics act as a primary method for identifying Alternaria spp. although it is not feasible due to some Alternaria genera are morphologically related, consequently, molecular method of identification was sufficient for accurate species identification. This study represents is the first comprehensive investigation of Alternaria spp. causing leaf blight of radish in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of properties related to spin textures, such as the magnetic vortex state, is mainly based on spin configuration data, which is directly related to magnetic parameters involved in the system's Hamiltonian. Here, we focus on magnetic parameter estimation by implementing the machine learning (ML) approach, especially on magnetic force microscopy (MFM) images of vortex states within nanodots generated by micromagnetic simulation. The exchange constant Aex and saturation magnetization Ms as well as exchange length as a reduced parameter Lex(Aex, Ms) are estimated by different convolutional neural network (CNN) models. We also evaluated the CNN models, trained on simulated MFM images with non-zero temperature, on a reference experimental MFM image and found the performance to a satisfactory level of accuracy. Moreover, the same CNN models, trained for binary classification of vortex states based on helicity from MFM images, successfully identified the vortex helicity from simulated as well as experimental MFM images. These findings show the possible application of ML in magnetic parameter estimation and the analysis of magnetic vortex states simply with images obtained from this commonly used imaging technique that is significant in efficient investigation of material properties based on intrinsic parameters for spintronic device applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To procure inequalities for divergences between probability distributions, Jensen’s inequality is the key to success. Shannon, Relative and Zipf-Mandelbrot entropies have many applications in many applied sciences, such as, in information theory, biology and economics, etc. We consider discrete and continuous cyclic refinements of Jensen’s inequality and extend them from convex function to higher order convex function by means of different new Green functions by employing Hermite interpolating polynomial whose error term is approximated by Peano’s kernal. As an application of our obtained results, we give new bounds for Shannon, Relative and Zipf-Mandelbrot entropies.