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Article
Publication date: 12 December 2022

Zahrah Rafique

One of the targets of sustainable development goal (SDG) 2030 is to reduce maternal mortality ratio to 70 per 100,000 live births and ensure pregnant women attend at least four…

Abstract

Purpose

One of the targets of sustainable development goal (SDG) 2030 is to reduce maternal mortality ratio to 70 per 100,000 live births and ensure pregnant women attend at least four antenatal visits. In urban Pakistan, it is expected that more women utilize antenatal care (ANC) because urban areas have more resources, higher education and wealthier people. Despite these facilities, the lack of utilization of antenatal care among pregnant women is abysmal—the latest estimate by Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) places the figure at 63%. Therefore, the paper attempts to identify the factors that affect the utilization of ANC in urban areas by using the PDHS 2017–2018.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used cross-tabs to determine the socioeconomic characteristics of women, and used the marginal effects from the probit model to evaluate the significance and relationship between socioeconomic determinants and antenatal visits. Finally, the study used Adam Wagstaff's decomposition analysis to identify the magnitude and main determinants of inequality.

Findings

The marginal effects show that socioeconomic variables such as education, province of residence, birth of a first child, age, education and consulting a doctor predicted the probability of 4+ antenatal visits. The decomposition analysis shows that women who consulted a doctor, belonged to non-poor class, were more educated and older contributed significantly to the inequality of antenatal care utilization in urban areas.

Practical implications

The study calls for increasing the number of doctors, promoting education, increasing awareness related to pregnancy complications and reducing wealth inequality. Moreover, the study also calls for increasing global intervention by implementing programs similar to ending preventable maternal mortality (EPPM) to increase antenatal coverage.

Originality/value

The distinctiveness of the study can be found in the fact that no study has been conducted that analyses the inequality related to the usage of ANC in urban areas of Pakistan.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-06-2022-0390

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 50 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 31 December 2003

Young ll Park and Seung Moon

The 1997-98 financial crisis has had a profound effect on how East Asian economies the role of the IMF and its strategic interests relative to those of the United States in the…

Abstract

The 1997-98 financial crisis has had a profound effect on how East Asian economies the role of the IMF and its strategic interests relative to those of the United States in the international financial regime. It has prompted them to create a regional mechanism for financial and monetary cooperation, ranging from deeper policy dialogue and surveillance, to a system of financial cooperation, and common exchange rate arrangements. This paper analyses the economic and strategic motivations behind this and outlines recent developments in financial cooperation in East Asia to provide possible directions for the future.

A network of bilateral swap arrangements under the Chiang Mai Initiative(CMI) needs stronger policy dialogue and surveillance to develop into a regional financing facility, a sort of East Asian IMF. The facility plays a role as an regional lender of last resort, providing short-term funds to a member country facing a temporary liquidity shortage and for market intervention to stabilize foreign exchange rate. East Asian countries need to achieve regional exchange rate stability. In the long run, the region may develop a common currency arrangement, but it cannot be expected in the very near future because there is no convergence of macroeconomic conditions, economic structure and systems. A realistic approach would be for East Asian developing countries to adopt a currency basket system to minimize the impact of dollar/yen exchange rate volatility on their economies. Strong political will and a vision for regional integration will be required to introduce it.

Details

Journal of International Logistics and Trade, vol. 1 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1738-2122

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 4 March 2014

Andrei Novac and Robert G. Bota

How does the human brain absorb information and turn it into skills of its own in psychotherapy? In an attempt to answer this question, the authors will review the intricacies of…

Abstract

How does the human brain absorb information and turn it into skills of its own in psychotherapy? In an attempt to answer this question, the authors will review the intricacies of processing channels in psychotherapy and propose the term transprocessing (as in transduction and processing combined) for the underlying mechanisms. Through transprocessing the brain processes multimodal memories and creates reparative solutions in the course of psychotherapy. Transprocessing is proposed as a stage-sequenced mechanism of deconstruction of engrained patterns of response. Through psychotherapy, emotional-cognitive reintegration and its consolidation is accomplished. This process is mediated by cellular and neural plasticity changes.

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1991

Doug Harber, Fern Marriott and Nirwan Idrus

The outcome of the implementation of a Total Quality Control (TQC) programme in a large manufacturing enterprise in Australia is described. Emphasis is given to the effects of TQC…

Abstract

The outcome of the implementation of a Total Quality Control (TQC) programme in a large manufacturing enterprise in Australia is described. Emphasis is given to the effects of TQC on employees′ perceived participation in the programme and concomitant employees′ job satisfaction. An extensive discussion of the relationships between these variables and TQC is contained in the preceding article. The results obtained from this study show that job satisfaction is related to employee participation, but to varying degrees at different job levels. Surprisingly, it was also found that there was a low increase in perceived employee participation following the implementation of TQC. The need for further research in the area is clearly shown. Future research should be based on more comprehensive research designs that incorporate longitudinal studies and investigate the differential effects of TQC at various job levels within an organisation. This approach will facilitate a better understanding of the complex dynamics within organisations when such programmes are implemented.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 8 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1974

C. ZELLER

A general approach to the problem is suggested. Using optical contrast as a general characteristic it is shown how objects are identified as such before their structure is…

Abstract

A general approach to the problem is suggested. Using optical contrast as a general characteristic it is shown how objects are identified as such before their structure is analysed. Perception is regarded as a preprocessing phase for pattern recognition, in which essential information is abstracted from an optical image. A focusing device enables the suggested system to analyse the shape of objects in detail.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 3 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Article
Publication date: 10 December 2009

John Taylor, Raymond Novaco and Lucy Johnson

Anger has been shown to be associated with aggression and violence in adults with learning disabilities in both community and secure settings. Emerging evidence has indicated that…

Abstract

Anger has been shown to be associated with aggression and violence in adults with learning disabilities in both community and secure settings. Emerging evidence has indicated that cognitive behavioural anger treatment can be effective in reducing assessed levels of anger in these patient populations. However, it has been suggested that the effectiveness of these interventions is significantly affected by verbal ability. In this service evaluation study the pre‐ and post‐treatment and 12‐month follow‐up assessment scores of 83 offenders with learning disabilities who received cognitive behavioural anger treatment were examined in order to investigate whether participants' responsiveness to treatment was a function of measured verbal IQ. The results indicate that, overall, the effectiveness of anger treatment was not the result of higher verbal ability as reflected in verbal IQ scores. It is concluded that cognitive behavioural therapy for anger control problems can be effective for people with moderate, mild and borderline levels of intellectual functioning and forensic histories.

Details

Advances in Mental Health and Learning Disabilities, vol. 3 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-0180

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 August 2012

Ruxia Ma, Xiaofeng Meng and Zhongyuan Wang

The Web is the largest repository of information. Personal information is usually scattered on various pages of different websites. Search engines have made it easier to find…

Abstract

Purpose

The Web is the largest repository of information. Personal information is usually scattered on various pages of different websites. Search engines have made it easier to find personal information. An attacker may collect a user's scattered information together via search engines, and infer some privacy information. The authors call this kind of privacy attack “Privacy Inference Attack via Search Engines”. The purpose of this paper is to provide a user‐side automatic detection service for detecting the privacy leakage before publishing personal information.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the authors propose a user‐side automatic detection service. In the user‐side service, the authors construct a user information correlation (UICA) graph to model the association between user information returned by search engines. The privacy inference attack is mapped into a decision problem of searching a privacy inferring path with the maximal probability in the UICA graph and it is proved that it is a nondeterministic polynomial time (NP)‐complete problem by a two‐step reduction. A Privacy Leakage Detection Probability (PLD‐Probability) algorithm is proposed to find the privacy inferring path: it combines two significant factors which can influence the vertexes' probability in the UICA graph and uses greedy algorithm to find the privacy inferring path.

Findings

The authors reveal that privacy inferring attack via search engines is very serious in real life. In this paper, a user‐side automatic detection service is proposed to detect the risk of privacy inferring. The authors make three kinds of experiments to evaluate the seriousness of privacy leakage problem and the performance of methods proposed in this paper. The results show that the algorithm for the service is reasonable and effective.

Originality/value

The paper introduces a new family of privacy attacks on the Web: privacy inferring attack via search engines and presents a privacy inferring model to describe the process and principles of personal privacy inferring attack via search engines. A user‐side automatic detection service is proposed to detect the privacy inference before publishing personal information. In this user‐side service, the authors propose a Privacy Leakage Detection Probability (PLD‐Probability) algorithm. Extensive experiments show these methods are reasonable and effective.

Details

International Journal of Web Information Systems, vol. 8 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1744-0084

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 2009

Robert A. Waterson

This study reflects an examination of four teachers and their approaches to teaching the Holocaust and comparative genocide. The purpose was to address four succinct research…

Abstract

This study reflects an examination of four teachers and their approaches to teaching the Holocaust and comparative genocide. The purpose was to address four succinct research questions that followed a conceptual framework which emerged around these teachers’ rationale, methodology, preparation, and characteristics. Analysis of the results allowed for the emergence of six themes: (a) citizenship, (b) curriculum and design, (c) teaching pedagogy, (d) influence of modeling, (e) neoteny, and (f) life-altering experiences.

Details

Social Studies Research and Practice, vol. 4 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1933-5415

Article
Publication date: 22 January 2019

Syed Awais Ahmad Tipu, Kamel Fantazy and Vinod Kumar

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine how different supply chain attributes as determinants of the openness of supply chain affect organizational performance (OP).

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine how different supply chain attributes as determinants of the openness of supply chain affect organizational performance (OP).

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 259 supply chain executives in Pakistan. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The findings indicate that organizations may take the selective view of their supply chains resulting in a varying focus on different SC attributes. The results show that though all identified supply chain attributes positively relate to OP, some attributes such as combined agility and cooperation among supply chain partners have a weak correlation coefficient. This indicates that overall the relative openness of supply chain among selected sample of Pakistani organizations is low.

Practical implications

Supply chain executives may not have a selective focus on some attributes; rather, they may consider to have a broader perspective drawing upon a wider range of supply chain attributes as identified in the current study. In order to remain competitive, Pakistani manufacturing organizations need to learn more about opening up their boundaries and enhance the openness of their supply chain.

Originality/value

The contribution of the current study is two folds. First, drawing upon the current literature, it proposes the instrument to measure the relative openness of supply chain. Second, it empirically tests the selected conceptual model which highlights the relevance of supply chain attributes and their role in the resulting relative degree of supply chain openness. The empirical examination of the selected conceptual model of supply chain openness tends to make contribution to the wider literature on supply chain management.

Details

Benchmarking: An International Journal, vol. 26 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-5771

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 6 November 2018

Candace Borders, Frank Hsu, Alexander J. Sweidan, Emily S. Matei and Robert G. Bota

Studies suggest deep brain stimulation (DBS) as a treatment modality for the refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It is unclear where to place the DBS. Various sites…

Abstract

Studies suggest deep brain stimulation (DBS) as a treatment modality for the refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It is unclear where to place the DBS. Various sites are proposed for placement with the ventral capsule/ventral striatum (VC/VS) among the most studied. Herein, we aim to summarize both quantitative Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) data and qualitative descriptions of the participants' symptoms when given. A literature search conducted via PubMed yielded 32 articles. We sought to apply a standard based on the utilization of YBOCS. This yielded 153 distinct patients. The outcome measure we focused on in this review is the latest YBOCS score reported for each patient/cohort in comparison to the location of the DBS. A total of 32 articles were found in the search results. In total, 153 distinct patients' results were reported in these studies. Across this collection of papers, a total of 9 anatomic structures were targeted. The majority of studies showed a better response at the last time point as compared to the first time point. Most patients had DBS at nucleus accumbens followed by VC/VS and the least patients had DBS at the bilateral superolateral branch of the median forebrain bundle and the bilateral basolateral amygdala. The average YBOCS improvement did not seem to directly correlate with the percentile of patients responding to the intervention.

Well-controlled, randomized studies with larger sample sizes with close follow up are needed to provide a more accurate determination for placement of DBS for OCD.

Details

Mental Illness, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2036-7465

Keywords

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