Experiences and Perceptions of Special School Personnel Regarding Inclusive Education: A Qualitative Study

The present study explored the experiences and perceptions of psychologists with regards to the benefits of inclusive education for special needs children. The phenomenological approach was used, and data was collected from four psychologists in the form of semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to interpret the data. The following themes emerged in favor of inclusive education: (i) Providing Support to Special Need Students; (ii) Requiring Qualifications and Experienced Teachers; (iii) Offering Training to School Staff; (iv) Identifying Barriers that Interfere with Inclusion: Stigma and Integration; and (v) The Positive Effects of Inclusive Education: Empathy, Social Skills, and Academic Achievement. The importance of training teachers and staff in inclusive education was also highlighted. The present study indicates that awareness programs are required to remove the social stigma against children with special needs in advancing inclusive education in Pakistan.

Effects of Lysine Levels With Digestible Amino Acids on Growth Performance, Carcass Evaluation, Productive and Reproductive Traits of Aseel Chicken

This study evaluated the effect of varying dietary lysine (Lys) levels on growth, meat quality, productive and reproductive performance of Aseel chicken. Study was carried out in three phases, during first phase effect of dietary lysine (Lys) regimens was evaluated on growth performance and meat composition of Aseel chicken (Experiment 1). In total 540 birds, 180 from three Aseel varieties were studied. A Randomized Complete Block Design in factorial arrangement, with 9 treatments of 6 replicates with 10 birds each, was applied. Treatments consisted of 3 varieties [Mianwali (MW), Peshawari (PW), and Lakha (LK)] and 3 Lys levels [1.35% (L1); 1.3% (L2); and 1.25% (L3)]. Growth performance (feed intake, weight gain, and feed: gain ratio) and meat composition (dry matter, ash, crude protein, and fat contents) were evaluated. In phase two, effect of dietary Lys regimens was evaluated on subsequent growth (7-18 weeks) of Aseel chicken (Experiment 2). In total 378 birds, 126 from three Aseel varieties. A Randomized Complete Block Design under factorial arrangement, with 9 treatments of 6 replicates with 7 birds each, was employed. Treatments consisted of 3 varieties [Mianwali (MW), Peshawari (PW), and Lakha (LK)] and 3 Lys levels [1.35% (L1); 1.3% (L2); and 1.25% (L3)]. Growth performance (feed intake, weight gain, and feed: gain ratio) were evaluated. In phase three, effect of dietary Lys regimens was evaluated on productive performance, egg characteristics and hatching traits of Aseel chickens (Experiment 3). In total 63 females and 9 males of 26 weeks were studied. Randomized Complete Block Design under factorial arrangement, with 9 treatments of 7 replicates with 7 females and 1 male each, was employed. Treatments consisted of 3 varieties [Mianwali (MW), Peshawari (PW), and Lakha (LK)] and 3 Lys levels [1.35% (L1); 1.3% (L2); and 1.25% (L3)]. Productive performance (egg production, egg weight, egg mass, feed per dozen eggs and feed per Kg egg mass), egg characteristics (shape index, surface area and volume) and hatching traits (fertility and hatchability) were evaluated. Data were analyzed through factorial ANOVA using GLM procedures in SAS software, considering varieties and Lys levels as main effects and sex as block effect. Turkey’s HSD test was used to compare treatment means considering 5% probability level. There was significant influence of varieties and Lys levels on growth and meat quality. Improved WG (P=0.0002; 424.1±8.1) and F: G (P=0.0006; 2.84±0.05) was observed in MW variety as compared to PW (WG: 411.5±6.3; F: G=2.95±0.05) and LK (WG: 401.5±9.3; F: G=3.02±0.08). Among different (P<.0001) Lys regimens, higher and medium levels in the diet resulted in improved WG (423.3±8.2; 428.2±4.9), F: G (2.79±0.05; 2.80±0.03) and reduced FI (1175.8±3.7; 1198.0±5.4). Among dietary treatments medium dietary Lys regimen showed improved WG, F: G and final WG. Increased dry matter (P=0.0036; 73.80±0.17), lower ash contents (P<.0001; 1.23±0.03) and lower crude protein (P=0.0064; 21.97±0.17) contents were observed in thigh at medium Lys levels, whereas only difference (P=0.0150; 1.30±0.04) in ash was found in breast with low Lys diet. While, the breast muscle ash % was lower for MW and PW variety (P<.0001; 1.30±0.03, 1.31±0.05). In subsequent phase results indicated higher WG (P<.0001; 1244.4±15.2) and improved F: G (P<.0001; 2.82±0.03) in MW variety compared to PW (WG: 1113.1±10.4; F: G: 3.05±0.02) and LK (WG: 1161.5±8.75; F: G: 2.94±0.03). For dietary treatments medium dietary Lys regimen showed improved WG, F: G and final WG. Increased dry matter (P=0.0176; 75.03±0.17), lower ash contents (P=0.026; 1.59±0.05) and lower crude protein (P=0.0175; 19.77±0.17) contents were observed in thigh under medium Lys levels, whereas the difference (P=0.0479) in CP was found only in breast, where L1 (22.30±0.17) and L2 (22.37±0.16). Carcass characteristics including slaughtering weight, dressed weight and dressing percentage showed higher (P<0.05) values in medium Lys dietary treatments. Among varieties MW variety showed overall enhanced carcass characteristics. In production and reproduction phase results showed differences in egg production, egg weight, egg mass, feed conversion per dozen and feed conversion per kg egg mass with in varieties, where PW variety showed higher egg production (P<0.0001; 40.9±0.54), MW and LK showed higher egg weight (P<0.0001; 46.52±0.55,45.19±0.65), PW and MW showed higher egg mass (P<0.0001, 1728.3±31.9, 1684.2± 39.1), PW showed lower feed conversion per dozen eggs (P<0.0001; 2.35±0.03) and PW and MW indicated lower feed conversion per kg EM (P=<0.0001; 6.52±0.12, 6.72±0.15) and interaction of variety and dietary treatments. Similarly egg geometry and egg quality parameters showed differences with in varieties where MW variety showed higher egg length (P<.0001; 54.57±0.50), lower shape index (P<.0001; 73.69±0.92), higher egg volume (P<.0001; 42.5±0.50), higher egg surface area (P<.0001; 59.7±0.47) and interaction of variety and dietary treatments, where MW in interaction with medium Lys regimen. Improved hatching traits were found for fertility (P<.0001; 82.1±0.67) and hatchability (P<.0001; 59.9±0.65) in PW variety, moreover, PW variety in interaction with Lys regimens showed higher fertility (P<.0001) and hatchability (P<.0001). Fertility and hatchability did not show any significant variation in response to dietary treatments. It was concluded that 1.30% digestible Lys level regimen can be used to improve the early and subsequent growth rate of Aseel chicken. Similarly, improved growth due to dietary Lys in juvenile phase has interaction with varieties in improving productive and reproductive performance of Aseel. Mianwali variety due to its higher growth may be exploited as a meat-type chicken.