This study attempts to unveil and prioritize the factors affecting labor productivity in Pakistani construction industry. A triangulation strategy was adopted, comprised of a comprehensive literature review, data collection through a questionnaire survey from contractors, clients and consultants, and Delphi survey. Fortyone labor productivity factors, shortlisted through literature review, were ranked by 315 respondents based on their past experience. The relative importance index was calculated to determine the weightage of each factor. To validate the results, top fifteen factors were further analyzed using a three-round Delphi survey. The most significant labor productivity factors are identified as: shortage of skilled labor, payment delay by owner to contractor, unrealistic scheduling and expectation of labors performance, clarity of technical specification, and delay in wages payment to labor. Shortage of skilled labor remained on top in both the ranking techniques. The study has underlined certain deviations in the ranking of labor productivity factors, attained through the analysis of questionnaire survey data and Delphi analysis. The study's results are envisaged to improve the labor productivity of building projects in Pakistan in terms of the project completion time and cost. The study's findings can be generalized with care in other developing countries having similar work environment.

Background: Most of the diabetic patients present as diabetic foot in surgical outdoor and emergency department. Diabetic Foot infections are common and take long duration to be treated. Both Gram positive and Gram negative aerobic bacteria are involved in diabetic foot infection. Aim: To determine the frequency of most prevalent bacteria in wound of diabetic foot ulcers and to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility of isolated bacteria from diabetic foot ulcers so that an empirical antibiotics can be started before the report of culture and sensitivity. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in surgical unit 1 of Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH) Bahawalpur from 01-08-2020 to 31-07-2021. This study was conducted on 145 patients with diabetic foot ulcer from outdoor and emergency department of BVH. Data about patient’s demography, duration of diabetes, duration of DFUs, type of pathogen and its antibiotic susceptibility was entered on a proforma. Pus sample was obtained from wound under aseptic measures. Culture sensitivity to assess presence of type of pathogen and its antibiotic susceptibility of all the samples was done from the pathology department of the hospital. Results: The mean age of patients was 52.02±10.14 years. There were 77(53.1%) males and 68(46.9%) females. The foot ulcer’s mean duration was 3.81±1.43 months. There were 15(10.3%) patients with St. aureus, 12(8.3%) with E.coli, 12(8.3%) with Proteus mirabilis, 15(10.3%) with P. aeruginosa, 12(8.3%) with Enterobacter spp., 9(6.2%) with Morganella spp., 19(13.1%) with P. vulgaris, 18(12.4%) with P. Mirabilis, 16(11%) with K. pneumonia and 17(11.75) with Morganella pathogen in this study. There were 74(51%) patients sensitive to Amikacin, 73(50.3%) sensitive to Amoxicillin, 66(45.5%) sensitive to Aztreonam, 74(51%) sensitive to Ceftriaxone, 75(51.7%) sensitive to Cefuroxime and 68(49.6%) sensitive to Cephazolin. Conclusion: The most frequent organisms in DFUs, regardless of age, gender and comorbidity, were P. vulgaris, St. aureus and P. aeruginosa. The most sensitive antibiotic in these ulcers was Piperacillin and Meropenem and the most resistant was Cephazolin. Keywords: Diabetic Foot Ulcers, Antimicrobial Susceptibility, St. aureus, P. vulgaris, P. aeruginosa, Piperacillin

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Background: Acute abdomen is considered as one of the major causes leading to surgical emergencies and intestinal obstruction, perforation and many other underlying causes resulting in surgical consultation. Aim: To determine rate of recurrence of abd. TB in cases presenting with acute abdomen to Sh. Zayed Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan. Study Design: The Cross sectional study Sampling Technique: Consecutive sampling non probability Sampling Technique Methods: This particular study was conducted at teaching hospital Rahim Yar Khan from 10-04-2021 to 31-12-2022 in which the cases of both genders with age ranging from 15 to 60 years having acute abdomen presenting within 24 hours were included. Abdominal tuberculosis (TB) was labeled on histopathology when there was caseating granuloma. Results: There were around 90 cases included in this present study. Out of these 50 (55.55%) were male patients and the rest of 40 (44.44%) were female patients. Approximately 34.91±11.35 was the Mean age in years of the patients and 67.13±21.39 in Kilograms was the mean weight. There were about 22 (24.44%) cases which had previous history of abdominal surgery. The abdominal tuberculosis was diagnosed in 30 (33.33%) of the cases as shown in figure 12. Abdominal TB was observed in 16 (32%) males and 14 (35%) females in their respective groups with p= 0.81. TB was detected in 20 (35.71%) out of 56 cases in age group 15 to 39 years as compared to 6 (25%) out of 24 cases with age 40-60 years with p= 0.44. There was no significant difference in terms of abdominal TB and weight (p= 1.0) and also with cases that had previous surgery with p= 0.57. Conclusion: The abdominal tuberculosis (TB) is detected in one third of all the cases presenting with acute abdomen and there is no significant association of this with any of the confounding variable of the study. Key words: Acute abdomen, abdominal TB, Granuloma, Biopsy

Aim: To examine the associations between emotional intelligence (EI) and Binge Eating Disorder (BED) with a mediating role played by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the unemployed population, thus performance in an integrated manner. Study design: A Cross-sectional study Place and duration of Study: Rural and urban areas of Punjab, Pakistan during the months of December 2020-2021 Methodology: For this purpose, Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, Binge Eating Scale and PTSD Check List–Civilian Version was used to measure EI, BED, and PTSD score, respectively. The assumptions were tested using non-linear regression-based partial least squares path modelling (PLS-SEM). Results: The results revealed that unemployed individuals are at enhanced risk to develop BED. High levels of EI help to cope the stress of unemployment and overcome BED and vice versa. In this study, PTSD, a cause of unemployment, was found to be negatively related to EI and positively related to BED. However, no mediation of PTSD between EI and BED was observed. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that enhanced emotional abilities are directly associated with lower levels of work-related stress and BED. However, a diagnostic study is needed to validate the findings and establish BED diagnosis in individuals with low EI. This study helps in validation of emotional intelligence as a factor in the development of binge eating disorder. It helps in the development of programs based on prevention of binge eating disorder in unemployed population on the basis of emotional intelligence level understanding. Keywords: Unemployment, eating behaviour, emotional stability, stress disorder, mediation analysis