1,721,148 research outputs found
The prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection in beta-thalassemia patients in Pakistan: a systematic review and meta-analysis: A systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textBackgroundHepatitis C virus infection is the most commonly reported bloodborne infection in Pakistan. Frequent blood transfusions in β-thalassemia patients expose them to a high risk of HCV infection. The purpose of this paper is to summarise the current data on the prevalence of HCV infection in β-thalassemia patients in Pakistan by using a systematic review and meta–analysis.MethodsPubMed, EMBASE, Web of Sciences, the Cochrane Library, Directory of Open Access Journal and local databases were systematically searched for studies published between January 1st, 1995 and May 31st, 2019. Meta-analysis was performed using the DerSimonian and Laird random-effects models with inverse variance weighting. The presence of publication bias was tested by Egger test, and the methodological quality of each included article was evaluated by the STROBE.ResultsWe identified a total of 229 potential studies, of which 27 studies were finally considered in the meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of HCV in β-thalassemia patients in Pakistan was 36.21% (95% CI: 28.98–43.75%) based on 5789 β-thalassemia patients, but there was considerable heterogeneity. Meta-analysis estimated the HCV prevalence among the β-thalassemia patients at 45.98% (95% CI: 38.15–53.90%) in Punjab, 31.81% (95% CI: 20.27–44.59%) in Sindh, and 28.04% (95% CI: 13.58–45.26%) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Meta–regression analysis showed that geographical location was a key source of heterogeneity.ConclusionsThe pooled prevalence of HCV in β-thalassemia patients in Pakistan was more than one in three, and higher than in neighbouring countries. It varies regionally within the country. With the use of standard prevention procedures during blood transfusion, the risk of HCV transmission in β-thalassemia patients could be controlled and the prevalence of HCV in β-thalassemia patients reduced
Fertility transition in Pakistan: neglected dimensions and policy implications
No full textThis research addresses some of the neglected non-program dimensions related to stagnant fertility transition in Pakistan. Previous research identified a range of factors influencing fertility in Pakistan, particularly the effect of distortions in reported ages, fertility inhibiting variables, timing of first marriage and first birth, and birth intervals. The literature provides evidence that there is no systematic analysis of these dimensions particularly at the regional levels. This research addresses these dimensions by evaluating the fertility and reproductive health data in particular using the cross-sectional data from the 1990 and 2006 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey, and 2000-01 Pakistan Reproductive Health and Family Planning Survey.Based on the application of relevant demographic and statistical techniques, the study demonstrates evidence of clear discrepancies in age reporting among married females across the seven geographic regions. This had influence on the estimated marital fertility rates which tend to be significantly higher when the reporting effects were adjusted. The analysis of fertility inhibiting factors reveals that timing of marriage and contraceptive use are crucial determinants associated with fertility reduction in Pakistan. By far, the strongest factor driving increase at first marriage in Pakistan is the level of female education which tends to vary significantly across different geographic regions. The analysis of the duration between marriage and first conception shows rather unexpected complex hazard functions with two peaks suggesting the behaviour of two different groups of women: those adhering to the traditional pattern in which conception take place soon after marriage; and those who postpone conception after marriage. Punjab, Baluchistan and urban regions are ahead of the fertility transition at the national level, confirming the effect of longer birth intervals. Based on the analysis of the proximate determinants framework, it can be concluded that Pakistan has entered the early third phase of the fertility transition. Urban Punjab and Baluchistan have also showed convergence to the third phase of the fertility transition. Breastfeeding and amenorrhea have emerged as significant determinants of birth interval duration.The results of this study highlight various areas for programme intervention and policy development. There is a dire need for a policy to improve the levels of female literacy and education especially in poorly developed regions which are in the second phase of fertility transition. A cost-effective intervention would be using mass media, for example radio broadcasting as the medium to disseminate reproductive health and family planning information. Pakistan needs specific policy interventions aimed at empowering girls with education for delaying marriage and encouraging contraceptive use. In formal education programmes, the syllabus should include the introduction to contraception, sexual health education as well as information on sexually transmitted diseases
Factors associated with contraceptive approval among religious leaders in Pakistan
No full textResearch is needed to understand the role of religion in family planning dynamics, particularly in societies where the views of religious leaders can be an important influence on the reproductive decisions of individuals. This paper attempts to describe the factors associated with approval of contraception among religious leaders in Pakistan. The data are taken from the 1999–2000 Survey of Perception of Religious Leaders about Population Welfare. Regression modelling shows that whether or not religious leaders approve of family planning is associated with their views on the ideal family size, their level of religious education, the specific religious sect to which they belong, their own knowledge and use of family planning, their exposure to television and the region of the country in which they live
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Is recent Afghanistan survey data suitable for fertility analysis? A regional investigation based on fertility inhibiting determinants
No full textAfghanistan has been a country blighted by war over the past five decades and limited research is available on its demography. This study seeks to assess the suitability of recent survey data for Afghanistan (the 2010 Afghanistan Mortality Survey (AMS)and the 2015 Afghanistan Demographic and Health Survey (ADHS)) for estimating levels and trends in fertility. As several fertility measures rely on the quality of age data, we first apply demographic tools for the identification of age misreporting, finding evidence that it is severe. We then explore the consistency of fertility reporting across the two surveys, finding that the 2015 ADHS reports higher fertility among older women than the 2010 AMS although the seasonal pattern of fertility is consistent across the two surveys. We then estimate total fertility rates in 2008–2010 and 2012–2015 and measures of Bongaarts’s key proximate determinants of fertility for Afghanistan and its provinces for urban and rural areas separately. The results show that fertility is similar in urban and rural Afghanistan. Although most of the provincial data on the proximate determinants is reasonably consistent with the fertility rates, there are anomalies in some provinces which indicate the possible under-reporting of births. Overall, we conclude that the fertility data in the two surveys can be used with care to give an indication of broad regional fertility patterns and trends in the country
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