Factors associated with child mortality in Pakistan and implications for the national health programs

"This study attempts to establish the levels of infant and child mortality in Pakistan using an indirect estimation technique to analyze data from the 1984-85 Pakistan Contraceptive Prevalence Survey....[Results indicate] that children's survival chances have hardly improved in recent years.... Suggestions are offered on ways to improve the effectiveness of rural health programs."     

Testing and Merging Information for Effect Size Estimation

A large-sample test for testing the equality of two effect sizes is presented. The null and non-null distributions of the proposed test statistic are derived. Further, the problem of estimating the effect size is considered when it is a priori suspected that two effect sizes may be close to each other. The combined data from all the samples leads to more efficient estimator of the effect size. We propose a basis for optimally combining estimation problems when there is uncertainty concerning the appropriate statistical model-estimator to use in representing the sampling process. The objective here is to produce natural adaptive estimators with some good statistical properties. In the context of two bivariate statistical models, the expressions for the asymptotic mean squared error of the proposed estimators are derived and compared with the parallel expressions for the benchmark estimators. We demonstrate that the suggested preliminary test estimator has superior asymptotic mean squared error performance relative to the benchmark and pooled estimators. A simulation study and application of the methodology to real data are presented.     

Dynamic capabilities: A review and research agenda

The notion of dynamic capabilities complements the premise of the resource‐based view of the firm, and has injected new vigour into empirical research in the last decade. Nonetheless, several issues surrounding its conceptualization remain ambivalent. In light of empirical advancement, this paper aims to clarify the concept of dynamic capabilities, and then identify three component factors which reflect the common features of dynamic capabilities across firms and which may be adopted and further developed into a measurement construct in future research. Further, a research model is developed encompassing antecedents and consequences of dynamic capabilities in an integrated framework. Suggestions for future research and managerial implications are also discussed.     

Relationship marketing: Its key role in entrepreneurship

The authors argue that relationship marketing can readily be adopted by a small entrepreneurial business but it will need to be adapted to the entrepreneurial environment into which it is introduced. Results from initial research suggest that entrepreneurial enterprises employ relationship marketing more effectively than less entrepreneurial organisations and they derive commercial benefits such as higher growth rates and fewer customer defections. The authors argue that entrepreneurship can be learned and so less entrepreneurial firms have the potential to learn from more successful entrepreneurs. They offer some specific recommendations but they recognise that the task is not easy because the SME has to create an internal culture that is capable of both embracing relationship marketing and being alert to opportunity.     

Towards building an integrated perspective on e-democracy

This paper evaluates the dominant perspectives for understanding e-democracy in practice. It argues that although these, on their own, only provide static and partial accounts of the role and implications of e-democracy, nevertheless they should not be disregarded. The paper proposes an integration of their key positions to generate a more rounded and complete account of the role of e-democracy in practice. It suggests that Giddens's Structuration Theory provides a starting point in this direction. A structuration perspective is able to integrate many of the diverse perspectives whilst simultaneously avoiding technological and social determinism by focusing attention on the interplay of social structures and agency in e-democracy practices. This perspective assists in illuminating the underlying institutional arrangements and structures in which e-democracy practices are embedded, as well as the strategies employed by human actors. It focuses attention on structures of signification, domination and legitimation that surround e-democracy practices and also how individuals are both enabled and constrained in these practices. It is argued that more complete and balanced accounts which emerge from such an integrated perspective could assist in developing a more effective e-democracy policy.     

Women’s status and domestic violence in rural Bangladesh: Individual- and community-level effects

We explore the determinants of domestic violence in two rural areas of Bangladesh. We found increased education, higher socioeconomic status, non-Muslim religion, and extended family residence to be associated with lower risks of violence. The effects of women's status on violence was found to be highly context-specific. In the more culturally conservative area, higher individual-level women's autonomy and short-term membership in savings and credit groups were both associated with significantly elevated risks of violence, and community-level variables were unrelated to violence. In the less culturally conservative area, in contrast, individual-level women's status indicators were unrelated to the risk of violence, and community-level measures of women's status were associated with significantly lower risks of violence, presumably by reinforcing nascent normative changes in gender relations.     

Marital Satisfaction and Maternal Emotional Expressiveness: Links with Children's Sibling Relationships

Associations between marital quality, maternal emotional expressiveness and children's sibling relationships were examined in a sample of 64 seven-year-olds and their mothers. Mothers reported on the quality of their marital relationships, and children rated the quality of their sibling relationships. Mothers and children provided data on maternal emotional expressiveness. Results indicated that marital dissatisfaction was associated with hostile and rivalrous sibling relationships and with maternal negative emotional expressiveness. Mothers' negative emotional expressiveness was correlated with hostile and rivalrous sibling relationships, and maternal positive emotional expressiveness was associated with affectionate sibling relationships. Maternal emotional expressiveness mediated the links between the marital relationship and sibling hostility and rivalry.     

SEIR Model to address the impact of face masks amid COVID-19 pandemic

Early in the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), face masks were used extensively by the general public in several Asian countries. The lower transmission rate of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Asian countries compared with Western countries suggested that the wider community use of face masks has the potential to decrease transmission of SARS-CoV-2. A risk assessment model named Susceptible, Exposed, Infectious, Recovered (SEIR) model is used to quantitatively evaluate the potential impact of community face masks on SARS-CoV-2 reproduction number (R₀) and peak number of infectious persons. For a simulated population of one million, the model showed a reduction in R₀ of 49% and 50% when 60% and 80% of the population wore masks, respectively. Moreover, we present a modified model that considers the effect of mask-wearing after community vaccination. Interestingly mask-wearing still provided a considerable benefit in lowering the number of infectious individuals. The results of this research are expected to help public health officials in making prompt decisions involving resource allocation and crafting legislation.