Thursday, December 24, 2020

Schools unlikely to be reopened in January, says Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani

Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani says students would not be promoted without sitting for exams this time.

KARACHI: Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani has said it is unlikely that schools would be allowed to resume classes from next month as earlier decided.

"Keeping in view the ongoing second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, it is unlikely that education institutes would be reopened in January 2021," said Ghani while addressing a press conference in Karachi on Wednesday.

However, the provincial minister asserted that students would not be promoted without sitting for examinations this time.

Coronavirus situation in Sindh

The statement comes as the province's coronavirus tally surged 206,489 out of which 32,139 infections were recorded in just 22 days.

Sindh has also recorded COVID-19 deaths at an alarming rate since the start of December as 444 people succumbed to the contagion.

Pakistan's highest coronavirus prevalence has been observed in Karachi and Hyderabad with positivity rates crossing 15% on multiple occasions.

Education policy

Last month, the federal government, on recommendations by the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC), had announced that educational institutes will remain closed from November 26 to January 10.

The students will study at home or get weekly homework till December 24 and winter vacations will start December 25. All examinations have been postponed except admission and recruitment tests.

The schools were scheduled to reopen on January 11.

Although education is a provincial subject under the 18th Amendment, the provinces adopted Centre's policy owing to a Supreme Court decision directing for a uniformed policy to tackle the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

COURSES IN TEVTA https://allabouttopstudies.blogspot.com/2020/12/TEVTA%20Launches%202nd%20Phase%20of%20E-Learning%20Courses.html

Saturday, December 19, 2020

TEVTA Launches 2nd Phase of E-Learning Courses

Punjab’s Minister for Industries, Mian Aslam Iqbal, has revealed that the provincial government is revamping the existing educational system on par with international standards. While addressing an online ceremony, the provincial minister lauded the efforts of the government for consistently reforming education standards in Punjab.

Mian Aslam Iqbal was addressing the virtual launch of the second phase of the e-learning courses offered under the Hunarmand Nojawan Program. Notable participants in the ceremony included Chairperson TEVTA, Ali Salman Siddique, COO TEVTA, Akhtar Abbas Bharwana, Head SMU, Fazeel Asif, and other senior officials.

The provincial minister remarked at the level of outreach sustained by the new e-learning platform. When discussing the success of the Hunarmand Program under the Kamyab Jawan initiative, Iqbal informed that students took great interest in the courses being offered through the online portal.

Iqbal further mentioned that over 130,000 students had already applied for admission in the courses offered through the e-learning portal. Chairman & CEO TEVTA, Ali Salman Siddiqui, said that the organization has set up tentative schedules for teaching the e-learning courses to 50,000 students.

He mentioned that after Phase-I is successfully completed, as many as 16,200 students will be trained in the categories of e-learning, including technical, graphic design, and virtual assistant schematics.

Until today, more than 5,000 students have received training through the Hunarmand Nojawan Program.

Mian Aslam Iqbal stated that the e-learning courses under TEVTA management are a big hit amongst students and teachers. Given the current scenario, Iqbal suggested that the organization is playing an important role in making the youth financially independent, as per the vision of PM Imran.

Private schools announce date to reopen institutions, resume regular classes

ISLAMABAD: The private schools’ association has announced to reopen education centres from January 11 without waiting for an order by the government regarding the resumption of regular classes

After concluding its session today, the private schools’ association made an announcement to resume regular classes at the educational institutions across the country from January 11 prior to the review meeting of the federal government for taking a final decision.

The association’s officials said in a statement that the academic sessions will be resumed without waiting for any orders issued by the government. They added that the strategy for reopening schools will be finalised soon.

The statement from the administrations of private schools came forth amid the consistent rise in the number in COVID-19 infections and mortality rate.

Earlier in November, the federal government had announced the closure of all educational institutions from November 26 to December 24 due to the spread of COVID infections during its second wave in the country.

Shafqat Mahmood, while addressing an important press conference alongside Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, had announced that “all educational institutions will remain closed across Pakistan from November 26 till December 24 and winter vacations will be started from December 25 to January 10.

The federal education minister had expressed hopes that the educational institutions will be reopened from January 11 after witnessing improvements in the pandemic’s situation, however, he added that the situation will be reviewed in the first week of January 2021.

Should the Periodic Table be upside down for better understanding?

Could turning the periodic table on its head make some important aspects easier to understand and enthuse more people to study chemistry? This question is posed in an article published in Nature Chemistry by psychologists at the universities of Liverpool and Manchester and chemists from the University of Nottingham.

2019 marks the 150th anniversary of the first publication of Mendeleev’s periodic table, which has become the accepted way of arranging the elements and of predicting new ones – but is there a better way of presenting this information for a new and in particular a young audience?

A 180 degree turn

Nottingham chemists Sir Martyn Poliakoff and Dr Sam Tang suggest that by turning the periodic table through 180 degrees on a horizontal axis would make the Table more like a traditional graph so that values increase from bottom to top. Putting the lighter elements at the bottom and heavy ones at the top would mean most of the properties also increase from bottom to top, including; atomic number, atomic mass, atomic radius, maximum oxidation state and reactivity.

Martyn and Sam suggest that turning the periodic table upside-down will be making the filling of the electron shells easier to understand. Surprisingly, no one appears to have tried doing this before, in the past 150 years.

But how would people view upside-down periodic tables compared to the traditional one? To investigate this, Martyn enlisted the help of two experimental Psychologists – his daughter Dr Ellen Poliakoff from the University of Manchester and her collaborator Dr Alexis Makin from the University of Liverpool. Ellen and Alexis asked participants to rate silhouettes of periodic tables and at the same time recorded where the participants looked using eye-tracking. To avoid any preconceptions all the lettering was removed so participants were looking at blank squares.

Their results showed that participants had a slight preference for the traditional orientation and, in both orientations, people spent the most time looking in the centre. However, their eyes were drawn upwards with the traditional orientation and downwards for the upside-down version.

A child’s viewpoint

Sir Poliakoff, said: “Think of the periodic table from the viewpoint of children looking for the first time at Mendeleev’s table hanging on the classroom wall. The teacher rarely mentions any of the elements that are typically closest to the children’s eye-level and talks mostly about those high up near the top of the table. The current layout also makes it harder to understand one of the key concepts underlying the structure of the periodic table, namely the order of the filling of electron shells. In Mendeleev’s table, these fill from the top to the bottom while most everyday objects like beakers, baths and waste bins fill from the bottom up.

Mendeleev’s periodic table

Periodic table upside-down

Dr Poliakoff explains: “In both views people were drawn to look at the distinct part of the shape – the ‘legs’ of the table or the lighter elements. Our study used naïve participants who were not studying chemistry, so we still need to find out whether the effects are similar for those with expertise in chemistry. It’s also likely that more experience with the inverted table could overcome the slight preference that people showed for the upright version.”

Visual preferences

Dr Alexis Makin adds: “The findings also tell us something about the psychology of visual preferences. People preferred the traditional, upright periodic tables, even without recognising them. Such unconscious ‘mere exposure’ effects have been known since the 1960s. We suggest that they are driven by familiar sequences of images and eye movements, not just familiar images. This tells us something about the aesthetic appeal of art and design. People might say they like a painting, but what they really like is the way their eyes interact with it.”

Sir Martyn concludes: “It has been really fun working with Psychologists. We’ve had a surprisingly positive response to inverting the periodic table so far and whilst we are not claiming our version is in any way ‘more correct’ we feel it has some clear advantages. Looking at something from a new viewpoint gives rise to new ideas, so this new perspective may create some new thinking. Also, using the periodic table in this way demonstrates that the table is constantly evolving and can meet new challenges. We hope people will take a serious look at our suggestion and see what they think of this new perspective.”

Friday, December 18, 2020

You can’t sue Pfizer or Moderna if you have severe Covid vaccine side effects. The government likely won't compensate you for damages either

KEY POINTS

Under the PREP Act, companies like Pfizer and Moderna have total immunity from liability if something unintentionally goes wrong with their vaccines.

A little-known government program provides benefits to people who can prove they suffered serious injury from a vaccine.

That program rarely pays, covering just 29 claims over the last decade.

If you experience severe side effects after getting a Covid vaccine, lawyers tell CNBC there is basically no one to blame in a U.S. court of law.

The federal government has granted companies like Pfizer and Moderna immunity from liability if something unintentionally goes wrong with their vaccines.

"It is very rare for a blanket immunity law to be passed," said Rogge Dunn, a Dallas labor and employment attorney. "Pharmaceutical companies typically aren't offered much liability protection under the law."

You also can't sue the Food and Drug Administration for authorizing a vaccine for emergency use, nor can you hold your employer accountable if they mandate inoculation as a condition of employment.

Congress created a fund specifically to help cover lost wages and out-of-pocket medical expenses for people who have been irreparably harmed by a "covered countermeasure," such as a vaccine. But it is difficult to use and rarely pays. Attorneys say it has compensated less than 6% of the claims filed in the last decade.

Immune to lawsuits

In February, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar invoked the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act. The 2005 law empowers the HHS secretary to provide legal protection to companies making or distributing critical medical supplies, such as vaccines and treatments, unless there's "willful misconduct" by the company. The protection lasts until 2024.

That means that for the next four years, these companies "cannot be sued for money damages in court" over injuries related to the administration or use of products to treat or protect against Covid.

"When the government said, 'We want you to develop this four or five times faster than you normally do,' most likely the manufacturers said to the government, 'We want you, the government, to protect us from multimillion-dollar lawsuits,'" said Dunn.

It is very rare for a blanket immunity law to be passed. ... Pharmaceutical companies typically aren't offered much liability protection under the law.

DALLAS LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT ATTORNEY

The quickest vaccine ever developed was for mumps. It took four years and was licensed in 1967. Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine was developed and cleared for emergency use in eight months — a fact that has fueled public mistrust of the coronavirus inoculation in the U.S.

Roughly 4 in 10 Americans say they would "definitely" or "probably" not get vaccinated, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center. While this is lower than it was two months ago, it still points to a huge trust gap.

But drugmakers like Pfizer continue to reassure the public no shortcuts were taken. "This is a vaccine that was developed without cutting corners," CEO Dr. Albert Bourla said in an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday. "This is a vaccine that is getting approved by all authorities in the world. That should say something."

The legal immunity granted to pharmaceutical companies doesn't just guard them against lawsuits. Dunn said it helps lower the cost of the immunizations.

"The government doesn't want people suing the companies making the Covid vaccine. Because then, the manufacturers would probably charge the government a higher price per person per dose," Dunn explained.

Pfizer and Moderna did not return CNBC's request for comment on their legal protections.

Is anyone liable?

Remember, vaccine manufacturers aren't the ones approving their product for mass distribution. That is the job of the FDA.

Which begs the question, can you sue the U.S. government if you have an extraordinarily bad reaction to a vaccine?

Again, the answer is no.

"You can't sue the FDA for approving or disapproving a drug," said Dorit Reiss, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law. "That's part of its sovereign immunity."

Sovereign immunity came from the king, explains Dunn, referring to British law before the American Revolution. "You couldn't sue the king. So, America has sovereign immunity, and even each state has sovereign immunity."

There are limited exceptions, but Dunn said he doesn't think they provide a viable legal path to hold the federal government responsible for a Covid vaccine injury.

Bringing workers back to the office in a post-Covid world also carries with it a heightened fear of liability for employers. Lawyers across the country say their corporate clients are reaching out to them to ask whether they can require employees to get immunized.

GP: Coronavirus vaccine Washington D.C.

India Medley, Chief Nurse Officer at Howard University Hospital, receives the Covid-19 vaccine at Howard University Hospital in Washington, DC, on December 15, 2020.

Dunn's clients who run businesses serving customers in person or on site are most interested in mandating a Covid vaccine for staff.

"They view it as a selling point," Dunn said. "It's particularly important for , bars, gyms and salons. My clients in that segment of the service industry are looking hard at making it mandatory, as a sales point to their customers."

While this is in part a public relations tactic, it is legally within an employer's rights to impose such a requirement.

"Requiring a vaccine is a health and safety work rule, and employers can do that," said Reiss.

There are a few notable exceptions. If a work force is unionized, the collective bargaining agreement may require negotiating with the union before mandating a vaccine.

Anti-discrimination laws provide some protections as well. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, workers who don't want to be vaccinated for medical reasons are eligible to request an exemption. If taking the vaccine is a violation of a "sincerely held" religious belief, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would potentially provide a way to opt out.

Should none of these exemptions apply, employees may have some legal recourse if they suffer debilitating side effects following a work-mandated Covid inoculation.

Attorneys say claims would most likely be routed through worker's compensation programs and treated as an on-the-job injury.

"But there are significant limits or caps on the damages an employee can recover," said Dunn. He added that it would likely be difficult to prove.

Mandatory vaccination protocols, however, may not happen until the FDA formally approves the vaccines and grants Pfizer and BioNTech or Moderna a license to sell them, which will take several more months of data to show their safety and effectiveness.

"An emergency use authorization is not a license," said Reiss. "There's a legal question as to whether you can mandate an emergency observation. The language in the act is somewhat unclear on that."

$50,000 a year

The government has created a way for people to recover some damages should something go wrong following immunization.

In addition to the legal immunity, the PREP Act established the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), which provides benefits to eligible individuals who suffer serious injury from one of the protected companies.

The little-known government program has been around for a decade, and it is managed by an agency under HHS. This fund typically only deals with vaccines you probably would never get, like the H1N1 and anthrax vaccines.

If a case for compensation through the CICP is successful, the program provides up to $50,000 per year in unreimbursed lost wages and out-of-pocket medical expenses. It won't cover legal fees or anything to compensate for pain and suffering.

It is also capped at the death benefit of $370,376, which is the most a surviving family member receives in the event that a Covid vaccine proves to be fatal.

But experts specializing in vaccine law say it is difficult to navigate. "This government compensation program is very hard to use," said Reiss. "The bar for compensation is very high."

Also worrisome to some vaccine injury lawyers is the fact that the CICP has rejected a majority of the compensation requests made since the program began 10 years ago. Of the 499 claims filed, the CICP has compensated only 29 claims, totaling more than $6 million.

People who are harmed by a Covid vaccine deserve to be compensated fast and generously. The PREP Act doesn't do that.

PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HASTINGS COLLEGE OF LAW

David Carney, vice president of the Vaccine Bar Association, said the CICP might deny a claim for a variety of reasons. "One reason might be that the medical records don't support a claim," said Carney, who regularly deals with vaccine injury cases. "We have to litigate a lot of really complex issues ... and provide a medical basis for why the injury occurred."

Proving an injury was a direct result of the Covid vaccine could be difficult, according to Carney. "It's not as simple as saying. 'Hey, I got a Covid treatment, and now I have an injury.' There is a lot of burden of proof there."

There is also a strict one-year statute, meaning that all claims have to be filed within 12 months of receiving the vaccine.

"People who are harmed by a Covid vaccine deserve to be compensated fast and generously," said Reiss. "The PREP Act doesn't do that."

Lawyers tell CNBC that it would make more sense for Covid vaccine injuries to instead be routed through another program under the HHS called the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which handles claims for 16 routine vaccines. Known colloquially as "vaccine court," the program paid on about 70% of petitions adjudicated by the court from 2006 to 2018.

And since it began considering claims in 1988, the VICP has paid approximately $4.4 billion in total compensation. That dwarfs the CICP's roughly $6 million in paid benefits over the life of the program.

The VICP also gives you more time to file your claim. You have three years from the date of the first symptom to file for compensation.

"The VICP allows for recovery of pain and suffering, attorney's fees, along with medical expenses and lost wages, if any," said Michael Maxwell, a lawyer who practices in the areas of business litigation and personal injury. "Under the CICP, it's only lost wages and out-of-pocket medical expenses. That's it, unless there's a death."

The Covid-19 vaccines, however, aren't on the list of eligible vaccines.

Reiss said the best fix would be to change VICP's rulebook to add Covid vaccines to its list of covered inoculations. "That will require legislative change. I hope that legislative change happens."

What is Blogger and how can you use it

Blogger Review

What is Blogger and how can you use it

Blogger has been around for over twenty years and is one of the most widely recognized blogging platforms that is available online. This incredibly popular platform is without a doubt one of the most established blogging platforms and communities around. Many different writers have enjoyed making a custom blog page to post their content to, and over the years, it has become a way to make money while writing. In this post, we will discuss Blogger and all of its incredibly helpful perks for writers.

What Is Blogger?

Blogger originated back in 1999, but it was officially reborn in 2003 when Google purchased it. Google saw a major investment opportunity and immediately migrated Blogger onto its servers. Now, Blogger is one of the most popular blogging spaces online, and Google has empowered users to make money simply by writing online. It is known for its expansive community, beautiful interface, and great website customization. As far as established platforms go, it is easy to see Google’s touch in the professionalism provided by this particular website.

Though many sites that host blogs also host other kinds of content, Blogger really is specific to blogging. Anyone can sign up and begin creating a blog immediately. You will need to use or create a Google account to do so, but the setup process is very simple. Within Blogger, you can get right to work creating a compelling blog page. It is home to a wide range of customization opportunities, so you don’t have to make a blog site that looks like everyone else’s. This is particularly important for people who might have been considering a website builder rather than a specific blogging website. Through the use of themes and complete control of your site, you can create a stunning blog that will show off your personality or brand.

Years ago, Blogger gave its most popular writers the right to make money from posts. This is made possible by its connection to Google AdSense. With Google AdSense, you can allow Google to automatically display ads and other content on your blog. This means that you can begin making money when people view your blogs. Even better, it takes absolutely no work on your end to set this up. All you need to do is focus on posting great content.

Another popular trait that Blogger possesses is its extensive analytics. Google is known for its data analysis and its interest in website popularity. For this reason, it seems like a fairly obvious step to help writers on the site benefit from this. Google provides a complex display of analytics to help you further understand how people are interacting with your blog posts. Google Analytics is a powerful tool when it comes to refining your blog posts and building up your audience. Instead of simply posting, you can see what works and post with intent.

Pros and Cons of Blogger

Blogger might be one of the oldest modern blogging platforms, but that doesn’t mean that it is the best by all standards. Even with Google backing it, not everyone loves Blogger and what it brings to the table. This is why we wanted to offer up some pros and cons of the site to help you understand it better.

Pros

Large Community — Blogger as millions of users, which is great for growing an audience. Though people can find you online in general, the Blogger community makes it easier to build a following. There are plenty of people ready to discuss your posts.

Monetization — One obvious perk of Blogger is the fact that you can make a passive income without being an expert in online ads. Google does a great job of making it easy to monetize your posts after a certain threshold. This means that if your blog performs well, you can expect to earn some extra money on the site.

Ease of Use — Blogger is a notoriously user-friendly system and is easy for anyone to use. You can create an account, a site, and start posting with a few simple steps. It is perfect for those who are looking for simplicity.

Cons

Posting Limits — Blogger has a fairly unfavorable posting limit of 100 posts. Though it might seem high enough when you get started, even posting daily would max you out quickly. To overcome this, you must delete old posts and add new ones.

Less Features — Compared to other modern blogging sites, Blogger can fall short. It is a bit stuck in the past with its technology and features. If you want a completely modern experience, you will need to look for another site until Blogger gets some upgrades.

Forums Are Lacking — Considering Google is a huge name on the internet, it is surprising how many help requests get ignored on the forums. There is a lot of confusion and misinformation that can trouble users. If you get lost while using Blogger, don’t expect a fast or easy answer.

Why Is Blogger Right For?

Blogger is a helpful blogging site that is user-friendly and maintained by a tech giant. For writers who want a simple way to start posting that has a direct path to monetization, Blogger is probably a good match. However, if you are looking for the most advanced blogging system or experience, there might be better options available. Its simplicity and reliable branding make it an easy choice, especially for those who are just getting started. For writers who want a run a blog for years to come, Blogger may fall short.

Conclusion

Considering its long lifespan, it isn’t surprising that Blogger has millions of users. This popular blogging site is great for sitting down and making a blog in less than an hour. For the eager poster who doesn’t want to spend too much time handling technical aspects of a site, Blogger is certainly ready for you. Since it is completely free, it is an easy site for any blogger to check out and make an account to see if it is a good fit.

Karachi University KU Bachelors Entry Test Result 2020

The University of Karachi (KU) will announce the entry test result of bachelors degree on 17 December 2020. The university conducted the test on 13 December 2020. So, now students can check their result from the KU website.

However, according to the precious news, the university has to announce the result next date after the test, on 14 December. But due to some technical problems, KU delayed the result till 17 December.

Those students who appeared in the bachelors’ entry test of KU on 13 can check their result through the university website. (https://uok.edu.pk/)

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Karachi University announces BA, BCom registration schedule

Candidates can submit a fee of Rs4,500 from December 21, 2020, till February 10, 2020.

The University of Karachi has announced the schedule for submission of registration of BA, BCom, and improvement of division of BA, BCom, and BSc for external students.

According to the notification issued, candidates can submit a fee of Rs4,500 from December 21, 2020, till February 10, 2021. The registration forms and fee vouchers are available at the University of Karachi.

The change of subject would be allowed with a prescribed fee of Rs1,500, whereas a fee of change of faculty in the same year would be Rs1,500. Meanwhile, those candidates who had appeared in examination subject(s) other than their course(s) mentioned in their registration forms, are directed to submit a fee of Rs2,000 to clear the objection of unauthorised change of subject.

Those candidates who have passed their intermediate exams in 2019 or earlier are also eligible to apply for the registration.

The fee would be deposited in NBP, UBL, HBL, MCB, or Sindh Bank, while the Registration Unit (External) Counter No3 located at the Silver Jubilee Gate would receive the registration forms along with the paid fee vouchers and relevant documents from 10am till 1pm.

Sindh govt appoints new chairman for Board of Secondary Education, Karachi

Syed Sharaf Ali Shah has been appointed for a tenure of three years, replacing Dr Saeeduddin.

The new chairman of Board Secondary Education Karachi Syed Sharaf Ali Shah.

The Sindh government has appointed a new chairman to lead the Board of Secondary Education, Karachi(BSEK), a notification issued from the universities and boards department said Wednesday.

The new chairman, Syed Sharaf Ali Shah, has been appointed for a tenure of three years in place of Dr Saeeduddin upon the recommendation of Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.

"The interim contract of Dr Saeeduddin as Chairman Board of Secondary Education [...] is hereby terminated with immediate effect," the notification said.

It is pertinent to mention that the Sindh government has appointed Dr Saeeduddin as the new chairman of the Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi (BIEK).

Pak

See the moon's shadow on Earth from the 2020 total solar eclipse in these stunning satellite views

Skywatchers in southern South America were treated to a total solar eclipse on Monday (Dec. 14), and a weather satellite captured stunning views of the event from space.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) GOES-16 satellite watched as the moon's shadow danced across the Pacific Ocean, parts of Chile and Argentina and the Atlantic Ocean during 2020's only total solar eclipse. NOAA shared an amazing video of the satellite imagery on Twitter shortly after the eclipse.

The moon began blotting out the sun in some locations around 9:15 a.m. EST (1415 GMT), creating a partial eclipse for viewers in areas such as Lima, Peru. Meanwhile, viewers in the path of totality — a thin strip of Chile and Argentina — saw the skies darken around 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT) for a little over two minutes.

Views from GOES-16 provide an opportunity for skywatchers around the world to enjoy the total solar eclipse, since catching the event in person was difficult due to the narrow path of totality and limited travel opportunities with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The NOAA video captures a detailed view of Earth's deep-blue oceans, brown and green land and swirling white clouds from space. It shows the sun rising in the southern hemisphere and the dark shadow of the moon rolling across the Pacific Ocean and darkening skies over South America before continuing across the Atlantic Ocean.

"Although it was mainly visible from Earth in parts of South America, GOES East had a perfect view of the moon's shadow moving across the Earth," NOAA said in another tweet. (GOES East is the orbital position that GOES-16 has occupied since late 2017.)

The total solar eclipse of Dec. 14 was this year's last eclipse as well as its only total solar eclipse. NASA and other sources offered live broadcasts of the event, which you can watch online. The next total solar eclipse will happen over the Antarctic peninsula on Dec. 4, 2021.

Important tweet of the Federal Minister of Education, when will the educational institutions open

Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood has said that the decision to give leave to educational institutions was correct due to increase in Corona cases.

According to details, increase in deaths due to corona, Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood justified the decision to give leave to educational institutions. Shafqat Mehmood tweeted from his Twitter account that the children are safe at home. He said that educational institutions will be opened as soon as the situation improves. Shafqat Mehmood further said that children have a deep connection with education and in no case will the lives of children be endangered by opening educational institutions prematurely.

It is to be noted that the deadly attacks of Corona virus have intensified. A record 23 lives were swallowed by the deadly virus in Lahore yesterday. 255 new patients were also confirmed. A total of 57 deaths and 597 cases were reported across Punjab. The corona virus is intensifying with each passing day. The total number of cases during the Corona epidemic in Lahore has reached 62,483 and the death toll has risen to 1,361.

There have been 128138 cases and 3422 deaths across Punjab. Across the province, 115,298 patients with Corona have recovered so far. There are 8329 beds available for treatment of corona in 244 public and private hospitals across Punjab out of which 3786 beds are equipped with oxygen facility. According to the spokesperson of Primary Health, there are 669 ventilators available in the province and 239 in Lahore out of which 79 ventilators are used by patients in Lahore.

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Artificial Intelligence Discovers Surprising Patterns in Earth’s Biological Mass Extinctions

By TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY DECEMBER 13, 2020

Visualize Life's History

A new study applies machine learning to the fossil record to visualize life’s history, showing the impacts of major evolutionary events. This shows the long-term evolutionary and ecological impacts of major events of extinction and speciation. Colors represent the geological periods from the Tonian, starting 1 billion years ago, in yellow, to the current Quaternary Period, shown in green. The red to blue color transition marks the end-Permian mass extinction, one of the most disruptive events in the fossil record. Credit: J. Hoyal Cuthill and N. Guttenberg

The idea that mass extinctions allow many new types of species to evolve is a central concept in evolution, but a new study using artificial intelligence to examine the fossil record finds this is rarely true, and there must be another explanation.

Charles Darwin’s landmark opus, On the Origin of the Species, ends with a beautiful summary of his theory of evolution, “There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

In fact, scientists now know that most species that have ever existed are extinct. This extinction of species has on the whole been roughly balanced by the origination of new ones over Earth’s history, with a few major temporary imbalances scientists call mass extinction events. Scientists have long believed that mass extinctions create productive periods of species evolution, or “radiations,” a model called “creative destruction.” A new study led by scientists affiliated with the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Tokyo Institute of Technology used machine learning to examine the co-occurrence of fossil species and found that radiations and extinctions are rarely connected, and thus mass extinctions likely rarely cause radiations of a comparable scale.

Creative destruction is central to classic concepts of evolution. It seems clear that there are periods in which suddenly many species suddenly disappear, and many new species suddenly appear. However, radiations of a comparable scale to the mass extinctions, which this study, therefore, calls the mass radiations, have received far less analysis than extinction events.

This study compared the impacts of both extinction and radiation across the period for which fossils are available, the so-called Phanerozoic Eon. The Phanerozoic (from the Greek meaning “apparent life”), represents the most recent ~ 550-million-year period of Earth’s total ~4.5 billion-year history, and is significant to paleontologists: before this period most of the organisms that existed were microbes that didn’t easily form fossils, so the prior evolutionary record is hard to observe.

The new study suggests creative destruction isn’t a good description of how species originated or went extinct during the Phanerozoic, and suggests that many of the most remarkable times of evolutionary radiation occurred when life entered new evolutionary and ecological arenas, such as during the Cambrian explosion of animal diversity and the Carboniferous expansion of forest biomes. Whether this is true for the previous ~ 3 billion years dominated by microbes is not known, as the scarcity of recorded information on such ancient diversity did not allow a similar analysis.

Paleontologists have identified a handful of the most severe, mass extinction events in the Phanerozoic fossil record. These principally include the big five mass extinctions, such as the end-Permian mass extinction in which more than 70% of species are estimated to have gone extinct. Biologists have now suggested that we may now be entering a “Sixth Mass Extinction,” which they think is mainly caused by human activity including hunting and land-use changes caused by the expansion of agriculture. A commonly noted example of the previous “Big Five” mass extinctions is the Cretaceous-Tertiary one (usually abbreviated as “K-T,” using the German spelling of Cretaceous) which appears to have been caused when a meteor hit Earth ~65 million years ago, wiping out the non-avian dinosaurs.

Observing the fossil record, scientists came to believe that mass extinction events create especially productive radiations. For example, in the K-T dinosaur-exterminating event, it has conventionally been supposed that a wasteland was created, which allowed organisms like mammals to recolonize and “radiate,” allowing for the evolution of all manner of new mammal species, ultimately laying the foundation for the emergence of humans. In other words, if the K-T event of “creative destruction” had not occurred, perhaps we would not be here to discuss this question.

The new study started with a casual discussion in ELSI’s “Agora,” a large common room where ELSI scientists and visitors often eat lunch and strike up new conversations. Two of the paper’s authors, evolutionary biologist Jennifer Hoyal Cuthill (now a research fellow at Essex University in the UK) and physicist/machine learning expert Nicholas Guttenberg (now a research scientist at Cross Labs working in collaboration with GoodAI in the Czech Republic), who were both post-doctoral scholars at ELSI when the work began, were kicking around the question of whether machine learning could be used to visualize and understand the fossil record.

During a visit to ELSI, just before the COVID-19 pandemic began to restrict international travel, they worked feverishly to extend their analysis to examine the correlation between extinction and radiation events. These discussions allowed them to relate their new data to the breadth of existing ideas on mass extinctions and radiations. They quickly found that the evolutionary patterns identified with the help of machine learning differed in key ways from traditional interpretations.

The team used a novel application of machine learning to examine the temporal co-occurrence of species in the Phanerozoic fossil record, examining over a million entries in a massive curated, public database including almost two hundred thousand species.

Lead author Dr. Hoyal Cuthill said, “Some of the most challenging aspects of understanding the history of life are the enormous timescales and numbers of species involved. New applications of machine learning can help by allowing us to visualize this information in a human-readable form. This means we can, so to speak, hold half a billion years of evolution in the palms of our hands, and gain new insights from what we see.”

Using their objective methods, they found that the “big five” mass extinction events previously identified by paleontologists were picked up by the machine learning methods as being among the top 5% of significant disruptions in which extinction outpaced radiation or vice versa, as were seven additional mass extinctions, two combined mass extinction-radiation events and fifteen mass radiations. Surprisingly, in contrast to previous narratives emphasizing the importance of post-extinction radiations, this work found that the most comparable mass radiations and extinctions were only rarely coupled in time, refuting the idea of a causal relationship between them.

Co-author Dr. Nicholas Guttenberg said, “the ecosystem is dynamic, you don’t necessarily have to chip an existing piece off to allow something new to appear.”

The team further found that radiations may in fact cause major changes to existing ecosystems, an idea the authors call “destructive creation.” They found that, during the Phanerozoic Eon, on average, th one time are almost all gone by 19 million years later. But when mass extinctions or radiations occur, this rate of turnover is much higher.

This gives a new perspective on how the modern “Sixth Extinction” is occurring. The Quaternary period, which began 2.5 million years ago, had witnessed repeated climate upheavals, including dramatic alternations of glaciation, times when high latitude locations on Earth, were ice-covered. This means that the present “Sixth Extinction” is eroding biodiversity that was already disrupted, and the authors suggest it will take at least 8 million years for it to revert to the long term average of 19 million years. Dr. Hoyal Cuthill comments that “each extinction that happens on our watch erases a species, which may have existed for millions of years up to now, making it harder for the normal process of ‘new species origination’ to replace what is being lost.”

New Approach Devised to Show How Ghost-Like Neutrinos Helped Shape the Universe

By UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA DECEMBER 13, 2020

Universe Simulation Concept

Next Step in Simulating the Universe

Researchers led by the University of Tsukuba devise a new approach to show how ghost-like neutrinos helped shape the Universe.

Computer simulations have struggled to capture the impact of elusive particles called neutrinos on the formation and growth of the large-scale structure of the Universe. But now, a research team from Japan has developed a method that overcomes this hurdle.

In a study published recently in The Astrophysical Journal, researchers led by the University of Tsukuba present simulations that accurately depict the role of neutrinos in the evolution of the Universe.

Why are these simulations important? One key reason is that they can set constraints on a currently unknown quantity: the neutrino mass. If this quantity is set to a particular value in the simulations and the simulation results differ from observations, that value can be ruled out. However, the constraints can be trusted only if the simulations are accurate, which was not guaranteed in previous work. The team behind this latest research aimed to address this limitation.

“Earlier simulations used certain approximations that might not be valid,” says lead author of the study Lecturer Kohji Yoshikawa. “In our work, we avoided these approximations by employing a technique that accurately represents the velocity distribution function of the neutrinos and follows its time evolution.”

To do this, the research team directly solved a system of equations known as the Vlasov–Poisson equations, which describe how particles move in the Universe. They then carried out simulations for different values of the neutrino mass and systemically examined the effects of neutrinos on the large-scale structure of the Universe.

The simulation results demonstrate, for example, that neutrinos suppress the clustering of dark matter—the ‘missing’ mass in the Universe—and in turn galaxies. They also show that neutrino-rich regions are strongly correlated with massive galaxy clusters and that the effective temperature of the neutrinos varies substantially depending on the neutrino mass.

“Overall, our findings suggest that neutrinos considerably affect the large-scale structure formation, and that our simulations provide an accurate account for the important effect of neutrinos,” explains Lecturer Yoshikawa. “It is also reassuring that our new results are consistent with those from entirely different simulation approaches.”

This work represents a milestone in simulating the Universe and paves the way for further exploration of how neutrinos influence the formation and growth of the large-scale structure. For instance, the new simulation approach could be used to study the dynamics of neutrinos and unconventional types of dark matter. Ultimately, it might lead to a determination of the neutrino mass.

Next four to six months could be worst of Covid-19 pandemic: Bill Gates

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates .

WASHINGTON: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whose foundation has been part of the effort to develop and deliver Covid-19 vaccines, has warned that the next four to six months could be the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.

In recent weeks, the US has been experiencing record high cases, deaths and hospitalisations.

"I thought the US would do a better job handling it," Gates, who in 2015 had warned the world of such a pandemic, said on Sunday.

"Sadly, the next four to six months could be the worst of the pandemic. The IHME (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation) forecast shows over 200,000 additional deaths. If we would follow the rules, in terms of wearing masks and not mixing, we could avoid a large percentage of those deaths,” Gates, the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, told CNN.

The Covid-19 has so far killed more than 290,000 people in the US.

"Overall, when I did the forecasts in 2015, I talked about the deaths potentially being higher. So, this virus could be more fatal than it is. We didn't get the worst-case. But the thing that has surprised me is that the economic impact in the US and around the world has been much greater than the forecasts that I made five years ago," he said.

Gates said that his foundation had been funding a lot of the research for the vaccines.

"We're very agile. We're a partner in a thing called CEPI, which is the second biggest funder after the US government," he said.

"So, in diagnostics, therapy and vaccines, we know where the science is, we know how the pieces need to come together in an urgent way. And so our expertise in infectious disease, which normally only relates to developing countries, applied to the entire world for this crisis," he added.

The US need to help all of humanity, Gates said when asked of the executive order signed by President Donald Trump which prioritises distribution of the vaccine to Americans before it goes to people in other countries.

"We want the world economy be going. We want to minimize the deaths. And, you know, the basic technology is a German company. And so blocking international sharing and cooperation has been disruptive and a mistake during this entire pandemic," he said.

"So, we need to ramp up the capacity of all the vaccines. There will be some additional ones approved in the months ahead that are easier to scale up the manufacturing. But the US has benefited from other countries' work care, and we shouldn't be entirely selfish in how we go forward," he added.

Responding to a question, Gates said that he will take the vaccine publicly as former US presidents, Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama, have said to increase the confidence of the people in the vaccine.

"I will do the same. When it's my turn -- I'm not going to budge, but when my turn comes up, I will visibly take the vaccine, because I think that it's a benefit to all people to not be transmitting," he said.

Gates said that access to the vaccine should be based on medical need, not wealth at all.

"After all, this epidemic has been awful in the way that it's exacerbated inequities. It's been worse for Hispanics, worse for blacks, worse for low-income service workers, multigenerational households, a number of things that mean that, in terms of picking who gets the vaccine, we better be using equity to drive all those decisions," he said.

Despite the availability of the vaccine, Gates said that the next four to six months really call on Americans to do their best.

"Because we can see that this will end, and you don't want somebody you love to be the last to die of coronavirus," he said.

"Certainly, mask-wearing has essentially no downside. They're not expensive. Bars and restaurants in most of the country will be closed as we go into this wave. And I think, sadly, that's appropriate. Depending on how severe it is, the decision about schools is much more complicated, because, there, the benefits are pretty high, the amount of transmission is not the same as in restaurants and bars,” Gates said.

In response to another question, Gates said that the "transition is complicating" the fight against coronavirus pandemic.

" But ut the new administration is willing to rely on actual experts, and not attack those experts. They're laying out clear plans. So, I think we will get through this in a positive way. I'm pleased with the people and the priority that the president-elect, Biden, and his team are bringing to bear on this problem,” he said.

Biden'sen's doing his best to retain Francis Collins and Tony Fauci and add them to that strong group of people. These are people who are willing to admit when things aren't going well and deliver tough messages, particularly about the next four to six months. And so I do think the US will not be one of the worst performers as the team comes into office," Gates said.

The periodic table is 150 – but it could have looked very different

The periodic table stares down from the walls of just about every chemistry lab. The credit for its creation generally goes to Dimitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist who in 1869 wrote out the known elements (of which there were 63 at the time) on cards and then arranged them in columns and rows according to their chemical and physical properties. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of this pivotal moment in science,

The UN has proclaimed 2019 to be the International year of the Periodic Table.

But the periodic table didn’t actually start with Mendeleev. Many had tinkered with arranging the elements. Decades before, chemist John Dalton tried to create a table as well as some rather interesting symbols for the elements (they didn’t catch on). And just a few years before Mendeleev sat down with his deck of homemade cards, John Newlands also created a table sorting the elements by their properties.

Mendeleev’s genius was in what he left out of his table. He recognised that certain elements were missing, yet to be discovered. So where Dalton, Newlands and others had laid out what was known, Mendeleev left space for the unknown. Even more amazingly, he accurately predicted the properties of the missing elements.

Notice the question marks in his table above? For example, next to Al (aluminium) there’s space for an unknown metal. Mendeleev foretold it would have an atomic mass of 68, a density of six grams per cubic centimetre and a very low melting point. Six years later Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, isolated gallium and sure enough it slotted right into the gap with an atomic mass of 69.7, a density of 5.9g/cm³ and a melting point so low that it becomes liquid in your hand. Mendeleev did the same for scandium, germanium and technetium (which wasn’t discovered until 1937, 30 years after his death).

At first glance Mendeleev’s table doesn’t look much like the one we are familiar with. For one thing, the modern table has a bunch of elements that Mendeleev overlooked (and failed to leave room for), most notably the noble gases (such as helium, neon, argon). And the table is oriented differently to our modern version, with elements we now place together in columns arranged in rows.

But once you give Mendeleev’s table a 90-degree turn, the similarity to the modern version becomes apparent. For example, the halogens – fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), and Iodine (I) (the J symbol in Mendeleev’s table) – all appear next to one another. Today they are arranged in the table’s 17th column (or group 17 as chemists prefer to call it).

Period of experimentation

It may seem a small leap from this to the familiar diagram but, years after Mendeleev’s publications, there was plenty of experimentation with alternative layouts for the elements. Even before the table got its permanent right-angle flip, folks suggested some weird and wonderful twists.

One particularly striking example is Heinrich Baumhauer’s spiral, published in 1870, with hydrogen at its centre and elements with increasing atomic mass spiralling outwards. The elements that fall on each of the wheel’s spokes share common properties just as those in a column (group) do so in today’s table. There was also Henry Basset’s rather odd “dumb-bell”formulation of 1892.

Nevertheless, by the beginning of the 20th century, the table had settled down into a familiar horizontal format with the strikingly modern looking version from Alfred Wernerin 1905. For the first time, the noble gases appeared in their now familiar position on the far right of the table. Werner also tried to take a leaf out of Mendeleev’s book by leaving gaps, although he rather overdid the guess work with suggestions for elements lighter than hydrogen and another sitting between hydrogen and helium (none of which exist).

Despite this rather modern looking table, there was still a bit of rearranging to be done. Particularly influential was Charles Janet’s version. He took a physicist’s approach to the table and used a newly discovered quantum theory to create a layout based on electron configurations. The resulting “left step” table is still preferred by many physicists. Interestingly, Janet also provided space for elements right up to number 120 despite only 92 being known at the time (we’re only at 118 now).

SETTLING ON A DESIGN

The modern table is actually a direct evolution of Janet’s version. The alkali metals (the group topped by lithium) and the alkaline earth metals (topped by beryllium) got shifted from far right to the far left to create a very wide looking (long form) periodic table. The problem with this format is that it doesn’t fit nicely on a page or poster, so largely for aesthetic reasons the f-block elements are usually cut out and deposited below the main table. That’s how we arrived at the table we recognise today.

That’s not to say folks haven’t tinkered with layouts, often as an attempt to highlight correlations between elements that aren’t readily apparent in the conventional table. There are literally hundreds of variations (check out Mark Leach’s database) with spirals and 3D versions being particularly popular, not to mention more tongue-in-cheek variants.

Or the dizzy array of imitations that aim to give a science feel to categorising everything from beer to Disney characters, and my particular favourite “irrational nonsense”. All of which go to show how the periodic table of elements has become the iconic symbol of science.

Education Resources for World Schoolers

I am happy to welcome any guest blogs which may be of interest to readers & relate to either travel and/or world schooling.

As a world schooler who is always on the look out for new and enjoyable learning resources for my 7 yr old son I was delighted to recently receive an email from Kat Lerner, Community Manager from www.education.com introducing the company and website to me.

Kat said:

“Education.com aims to empower parents, teachers, and homeschoolers to help their children build essential skills and excel. With over 12 million members, Education.com provides educators of all kinds with high-quality learning resources, including worksheets, lesson plans, digital games, an online guided learning platform, and more”

Education.com is an American company which has many excellent resources covering a whole range of topics and subjects. They provide over 30,000 printable worksheets (some free and some chargeable) for both parents and teachers. Below is just one crossword example which Kat sent me demonstrating both the worksheet and the answer sheet.

She says “Hop aboard to learn about figurative language with this crossword puzzle worksheet! Visit education.com to find more fun learning resourc

There is also an example of a simple multiplication math sheet:

My only comment as a world schooling parent who is on the move a lot and doesn’t often have ready access to a printer is that I would love to see the service enhanced to enable completion of many of this worksheets available online so that they could be done on an ipad of suchlike.

These worksheets certainly help make learning fun though which I know is one of the primary objectives of the company.

They also have two separate Twitter accounts which can be found at: education_com and for younger children preschoolers.

Auto-antibodies' make some people more likely to suffer severe coronavirus symptoms and cause 'long Covid', scientists says

People with coronavirus have high numbers of 'autoantibodies' in their blood

Block body's Covid-tackling antibodies and attack several areas, including brain

Could account for why some Covid sufferers experience long-lasting symptoms

Extreme levels of 'friendly fire' antibodies in the immune system could trigger severe coronavirus symptoms and cause 'long Covid', scientists say.

Coronavirus patients have high numbers of 'autoantibodies' in their blood which block the body's Covid-tackling antibodies and attack several areas, including the brain, blood vessels and liver.

This could account for why some Covid sufferers experience long-lasting symptoms - such as fatigue, breathlessness and brain problems, a study found.

Extreme levels of 'friendly fire' antibodies in the immune system could trigger severe coronavirus symptoms and cause 'long Covid', scientists say .

LONG COVID: WHAT IS IT AND COULD IT BE FOUR DIFFERENT SYNDROMES?

Covid-19 is described as a short-term illness caused by infection with the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Public health officials tend to say people will recover within two weeks or so.

However it's become increasingly clear that this is not the case for everyone, and that the two-week period is only the 'acute illness' phase.

The North Bristol NHS Trust's Discover project, which is studying the longer-term effects of coronavirus, found that out of a total of 110 patients given a three-month check up, most (74 per cent) had at least one persistent symptom after twelve weeks. The most common were:

Excessive fatigue: 39%

Breathlessness: 39%

Insomnia: 24%

Muscle pain: 23%

Chest pain: 13%

Cough: 12%

Loss of smell: 12%

Headache, fever, joint pain and diarrhoea: Each less than 10%

Other long term symptoms that have been reported by Covid-19 survivors, both suspected and confirmed, anecdotally, include hearing problems, 'brain fog', memory loss, lack of concentration, mental health problems and hair loss.

The impact of Long Covid on people who had mild illness have not been studied in depth yet.

Data from the King's College London symptom tracking app shows that up to 500,000 people in the UK are currently suffering from the long-term effects of Covid-19.

In October, scientists claimed Long Covid could actually be split into four different syndromes.

Academics at the National Institute for Health Research — headed up by Professor Chris Whitty — were asked to review the limited evidence on long Covid to help both patients and doctors understand the 'phenomenon'.

Their findings warned that even children can suffer and it can't be assumed that people who are at lower risk of severe illness and death from Covid-19 are also at low risk of lasting side effects.

Doctors cautioned some mental health problems such as anxiety and depression in 'long-haulers', as they are known, could be down to lockdowns, as opposed to the virus itself.

The experts also claimed that the symptoms could be grouped into four different groups:

Post intensive care syndrome (PICS)

Post viral fatigue syndrome (PVFS)

Permanent organ damage (POD)

Long term Covid syndrome (LTCS)

Researchers at Yale University counted the number of 'autoantibodies' in the blood of 194 hospital workers and patients with Covid - compared to 30 healthy staff members.

They found that non-infected people had far fewer autoantibodies than those who had the virus.

Another set of tests discovered that people with more autoantibodies - which attack the same organs known to be damaged in Covid sufferers - experienced worse Covid-19 symptoms.

Scientists fear the negative effects of the 'friendly fire' could continue for an extended period of time, causing long Covid.

Covid-19 is described as a short-term illness caused by infection with the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Public health officials tend to say people will recover within two weeks or so.

However it's become increasingly clear that this is not the case for everyone, and that the two-week period is only the 'acute illness' phase.

Yale immunobiologist and the study's senior author Aaron Ring told The Guardian: 'Covid-19 patients make autoantibodies that actually interfere with immune responses against the virus.

'We certainly believe that these autoantibodies are harmful to patients with Covid-19,'Becauseantibodies can persist for a long time, it's conceivable that they may contribute to the development of long-Covid diseases.'

Antibodies are disease-fighting proteins made and stored by the immune system to fight off invaders in the future by latching onto their spike proteins.

Autoantibodies, on the other hand, are the incorrect shape to bind, instead attaching to proteins on human cells.

In the study, Dr Ring - along with immunobiology professor Akiko Iwasaki - conducted the study which has not yet been peer reviewed or published.

It follows the news that the chances of the University of Oxford's Covid-19 vaccine being rolled out by the end of this year are 'pretty high'.

The vaccine from Oxford and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca is yet to be approved for use in the UK - with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) still reviewing trial data.

The Government has secured 100 million doses of the vaccine, with four million ready for key workers once approval is given.

Oxford University vaccinology professor Sarah Gilbert said the chances of getting the jab - which is 90 per cent effective and costs just £2 per dose - before the end of 2020 'are pretty high'.

But she stressed that multiple vaccines - made using different technologies - will be needed to tackle the pandemic.

Professor Gilbert told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: 'It depends on the age group you're in and the JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) prioritisations.

Oxford University vaccinology professor Sarah Gilbert (pictured) said the chances of getting the jab before the end of 2020 'are pretty high'

'I think the chances are pretty high. But we do need multiple vaccines, all countries need multiple vaccines, the world needs multiple vaccines and we need vaccines made using different technologies, if that's possible.'

She said this was due to companies potentially encountering problems with the supply of raw materials as doses are produced, which could slow down vaccine rollout if other jabs are not available.

'So having multiple shots on goal, multiple irons in the fire, is what we really need,' she added.

Professor Gilbert's optimistic assessment comes as the UK's coronavirus case load continues to rise - with a further 18,447 coronavirus cases recorded today, up 1,175 on last Sunday.

Karachi Univeristy announces schedule for reserved seats 2021

The reserved seats are for sports, University of Karachi employees, special persons, armed forces, lawyers' offspring, among others.

The deadline for the submission is December 24

The fee of the processing fee is Rs2,000

The University of Karachi on Monday announced the schedule for submission of online admission forms for the reserved seats in morning program 2021, a statement from the varsity said.

The reserved seats are for sports, University of Karachi employees, special persons, armed forces, lawyers' offspring, FATA, Northern Areas, and Azad Jammu Kashmir, rural Sindh, and Balochistan.

The in-charge KU Directorate of Admissions Dr Saima Akhtar said that the online admissions forms for reserved seats are available at the varsity's website.

The candidates will pay Rs2,000 as the processing fee, while they can submit their admission forms by December 24, 2020.

She informed that if a candidate has appeared in the entry test held on December 12 and 13, 2020, he/she would be eligible to apply for the admissions on a reserved seat in those departments.

Academic dishonesty is eating away at Pakistan’s higher education. But professors are happy

Academic mic dishonesty is eating away at Pakistan’s higher education. But professors are happy

Quaid-e-Azam University’s department of mechanical engineering was rated better than Oxford in Shanghai Academic Ranking. Just that QAU does not have any engineering department.

Over half a dozen international “well-reputed” university ranking organisations annually publish their ratings. They tell you which university or department is better than which other, both within a country as well as between countries. Feel free to swallow their poisonous bait but do so at your own risk. These cunning ones easily take simpletons for a ride. At best, you will get questionable stuff. More likely, it will be meaningless nonsense or a fat bunch of lies.

An example: from the website of Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities — which ranks thousands of universities globally — the department of mechanical engineering at Quaid-e-Azam University was rated 76-100 in 2017. This placed it just below Tokyo University and just above Manchester University. Wow! Thereafter every year QAU improved its score and in 2020 it jumped into the 51-75 range putting it under McGill University but higher than Oxford University. The reader can google this and may discover other such gems too.

Better than Oxford? Having taught at QAU for the greater part of my life, I could jump for joy. But let the truth be told: QAU does not have a mechanical engineering department! In fact, it does not offer engineering of any kind and none is planned. A clerical mistake might explain a one-off report. But what software generated the precise numbers charting QAU’s progress year after year?

Laugh if you want but not too loudly. Save some breath for Times Higher Education which declared Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan as Pakistan’s top university. Unknown for research or teaching, AWKUM is top-most for violent intolerance. In April 2017 a 23-year-old AWKUM student, Mashal Khan, was accused of blasphemy then beaten with sticks and bricks before finally being shot to death. Hundreds of students cheered as he was dragged naked across the campus. They video-recorded the murder with smartphones, then posted it onto their FB pages.

A week later, yet another university ranking organisation called QS put Nust (Islamabad) at Pakistan’s number one and drove AWKUM off the scene. Such fatuous fabrications are galore. These commercial organisations never send inspectors to the thousands of overseas universities they rank. Instead, they simply email forms to university officials who fill them at will. The ranking criteria are adjusted to benefit the client. Everyone (except the student) makes a fast buck.

Across the world, ranking organisations have been exposed as inconsistent, changing metrics from year to year, and omitting critical pieces of information. Crooked university professors have also learned to game the system. This speeds up their promotions and brings in cash. In countries with strong academic ethics, success is partial. But in Pakistan, where academic honesty has been in free fall since 2002, it has worked better and better.

Consider: three weeks ago, newspaper headlines across Pakistan blazed with soul-lifting news. Eighty-one Pakistani scientists had been chosen from 159,683 scientists in universities across the world, ranked by their number of research publications and how often they were cited. Stanford University reportedly declared these 81 luminaries in the world’s top two per cent of scientists.

That’s a total lie! Stanford University has not sanctioned any such report. This doctored news wrongly draws upon the enormous prestige of Stanford. Only one of the four authors, John P.A. Ioannidis, has a Stanford affiliation. He is a professor of medical statistics while the other three authors are from the private sector. Their published work inputs numbers from an existing database into a computer that crunches them into a list.

That list is meaningless for Pakistan. It does not represent scientific acumen or achievement. Here’s why: generating scientific research papers without knowing any science or doing actual research has been honed into a fine art by academic crooks at home and abroad. At the second stage, the stuff produced has to be published, for which clever professors have developed 99 tricks. The third — and most difficult stage — is to generate citations after the paper is published.

At this point, the crooked professor relies upon crooked friends to cite him and boost his ratings. Those friends have their friends in India, China, South Africa, or elsewhere. This international web of connections is known as a citation cartel. Cartel members generate reams of scientific gibberish that the world of mainstream science pays no heed to. But in Pakistan the rewards are handsome — you soon become chairman, dean, vice-chancellor, or influence peddler. These gatekeepers shunt out all genuine academics lest they be challenged from below.

Knowing a few individuals who made it to the exalted ‘Stanford scientist list’, I would be surprised if they could pass a tough high-school-level exam for entering undergraduate studies in a decent university like Stanford. Others I cannot judge: some could certainly be genuine. But for one scientist to judge across fields has become harder in the age of super specialisation. So how to tell?

Given what few genuine academics Pakistan has, no satisfactory answer exists. One can expect nothing from the present gatekeepers of academia because fraud is a way of life for most. To spot even 100 genuine academics from among thousands is hard. Pakistan’s university system may well have crossed the point of no return and be beyond repair. But suppose one refuses to accept this pessimistic conclusion. How to separate the wheat from the chaff?

Simple: every university and HEC must demand that any professor claiming credit for a scientific paper must present that work before an informed audience and be appropriately questioned. Credible foreign specialists should be included. Technology allows this to be done remotely (Zoom, Skype, Webex, etc) and to preserve videos for later viewing. Each presentation must explain what that paper has contributed to knowledge production.

This has many pitfalls. Transparency is not a magic wand. Still, it will whittle down the so-called Stanford list by 80pc to 100pc. Self-congratulations, and official policies that encourage academic dishonesty, have inflicted massive damage upon Pakistan’s higher education system. Without extreme measures, the rot will continue forever. We must begin now.