Impact Analysis of Higher Education Research Trajectory on Governance and Public Policy: A Case Study of Four Federal Universities of Pakistan

The research situates link between the graduate researches in four academic institutes of Islamabad and analyzes its impact on the public policy. The study explores the relevance of graduate research trajectory followed by various academic departments of four major federal universities in Pakistan in formulation and execution of public policy. The author collected last five years graduate level dissertation titles from four federal universities and classified them by using thematic approach. An interview guide/questionnaire is prepared accordingly. Chairpersons, deans, professors, bureaucrats, and parliamentarians were approached for semi-structured, in-depth interviews. This is a qualitative study using thematic and analytical approach. The research finds a lack of cohesion between the graduate research trajectory and policy needs of the public institutions. The absence of a national research vision and collaborative framework, difference in training cultures of bureaucracy and academia, lack of logistic support system, defective learning strategies, and an overall neglect for social sciences are the major reasons for incoherence. The analytical correlation of the recorded opinions reveals opportunities to maximize the relevance of the academic research in public policy domain

Study of Insulin Sensitivity to Trace Metals in Type 2 Diabetic Patients and its Association With Candidate Gene Polymorphisms

There is a general agreement that polymorphisms of several key genes such as Insulin Substrate Receptor (INSR) Gene contribute to the disease in type 2 diabetic patients. The objectives of the present study were to identify the contribution of polymorphism of exons 8 and 17 of the INSR gene to Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and to estimate the role of Chromium and Manganese in diabetes. The cross-sectional comparative study was carried out on 100 known Diabetic patients at Ayub Teaching Hospital Abbottabad. One hundred normal healthy controls were collected from both Ayub and Women Medical College, Abbottabad. This study was conducted from September 2014 to April 2016. DNA were extracted from all blood samples and subjected to PCR amplification of exons 8 and 17 of the INSR gene. This was followed by conformation-sensitive gel electrophoresis for band visualization of the frequencies of homozygous and heterozygous states of alleles for both Exons. Serum Chromium and Manganese levels were determined by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer using the standard technique. Serum Chromium levels were reduced significantly in diabetic subjects as compared to controls. Serum Manganese level did not show any significant difference between diabetics and non-diabetics. Alleles of exon 8 and 17 of the INSR gene do not appear to contribute to diabetes in the sample studied. We found in our present study that low levels of Chromium may be contributing factor in development of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.