Sir Syed University admissions academic session 2011

Sir Syed University starts admission process
Karachi, Sept 16: The two-month long admission process at the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET) to admit some 1,800 students in different engineering disciplines for the 2011 academic session commenced on Wednesday. Students having 60 percent marks in HSc pre-engineering, general science, pre-medical would be eligible for admissions into Electronics, Computer Engineering, Biomedical, Telecommunication and Civil Engineering departments. According to the schedule, October 29 was the last date for submission of application forms which would be followed by the admission test on November 7, while interviews would be held from November 8 to 12. SSUET Registrar Shah Mahmood H Syed said that last year some 1,500 students were granted admissions while facilities have been upgraded to accommodate 1,800 students for admission this year. app

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Back to school can mean a return to head lice worries
Karachi: They're the ultimate creepy crawler. Creatures that truly give people the willies. And they're apt to make you feel unclean, or maybe even a bad parent (neither of which, experts say, is valid).

Head lice truly are nasty little buggers - parasitic insects that infest the head, eyebrows and eyelashes of their human hosts and cause the creepiest tickling sensation along the scalp.

They're a worldwide phenomenon, but in the United States they infect mostly school-age children, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health experts estimate that 6 million to 12 million US kids, 3 to 11 years old, get infested each year.

Vigilance is the key to heading off an infestation, said Deborah Altschuler, president of the National Pediculosis Association, a nonprofit group aimed at head lice prevention.

"The best way is to know what to look for, screen often and detect the problem as soon as possible," she said.

Any child can get head lice. Dr. David Flinders, a family physician in Provo, Utah, stressed that getting head lice shouldn't reflect badly on children who have them or on the children's families.

"People often think it's associated with poor hygiene or low socioeconomic status," Flinders said. But, he said, "an affluent person is just as likely to get head lice as someone from a lower socioeconomic status."

Head lice spread through close contact. They can't jump or fly so they must crawl between people who are touching each other.

"It comes from person-to-person, head-to-head," Flinders said. "It's mostly a disease of elementary school kids because they're pretty intimate. They are touching heads when whispering and talking, or taking naps together." Head lice also can spread through the sharing of combs or hairbrushes.

Today, more ways than ever exist to prevent infestations from occurring and to effectively get rid of head lice. But preventing head lice first and foremost means reducing their ability to spread between people, Flinders and Altschuler said. That includes:

* Maintaining appropriate personal space - something nearly impossible to reinforce among young children.

* Having shorter hair. "Girls with longer hair are more likely to pick up head lice than boys or girls with shorter hair," Flinders said.

* Checking a child's hair regularly for lice or lice eggs, which are also called nits. "If you wait, or you don't know to be diligent, you may find yourself with a lot tougher problem," Altschuler said.

Her association recommends that parents comb their children's hair a couple times a week, or at bath time, using a special fine-toothed comb able to sweep lice and nits out of a child's hair.

"We say comb first because a quality comb is a wonderful tool to help you remove what you can't even see," she said.

Even with these precautions, a child might still get head lice. In that case, parents need to shift into treatment mode quickly.

Most doctors recommend using over-the-counter or prescription lice treatments that contain mild pesticides such as pyrethrins, which are extracted from chrysanthemums. "They appear to be pretty safe for humans, except for infants," Flinders said. "It is difficult to eradicate an infestation without resorting to pesticides."

However, Altschuler's group is among those who don't like the idea of using such treatments.

"It's one of the only times a parent would directly apply a pesticide to their child," Altschuler said. "Parents need to get to the problem as early as possible so they can avoid the use of chemicals or pesticides."

Instead, she recommends that parents brush the lice and nits out of an infested child's hair. It's a painstaking process that must be repeated daily because a new infestation can easily occur if any nits or lice are missed, but her group believes it's safer than pesticides. Another non-chemical option now available, the LouseBuster, is a device that uses heated air to kill off lice and nits. "It forces hot air at high temperatures into hair," Flinders said. "That will dehydrate the lice." An oral systemic medication, ivermectin, also has been used for hard-to-treat cases of lice infestation, Flinders said. The medication kills adult lice as they bite into a person, but it won't kill off nits, which means the infestation will continue until all existing eggs have hatched. Other points to remember include:

* It's kids who mostly fall prey to head lice, but everyone in a family needs to be checked.

* Repeated treatments will be needed to completely rid the infested person of lice, no matter what form of treatment is used.

* Be sure to vacuum furniture and run all bedclothes through a dryer to help keep the lice from spreading.

"If your child becomes infested, don't panic," Flinders said. "It doesn't mean your child has poor hygiene or you're a bad parent or you've done something wrong. Just treat the problem, and be sure to check everybody." More information The Nemours Foundation has more on head lice. For more on battling head lice, read about a school nurse's view from the front lines.

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KU confers degrees
Karachi: The University of Karachi (KU) has awarded eight M.Phil, 14 PhD, and two MS degrees to the candidates from various departments. The university has extended the date of submission of application forms for the posts of Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, and lecturers to September 30, 2010.

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Teachers seeking pay raise threaten to close varsity
Peshawar: Teachers of the University of Peshawar Wednesday warned to close the university and other institutions on the campus from September 20 if the 50 per cent increase in salaries announced by the government was not given to the university employees.

The threat was hurled as the employees of public sector universities started the protest drive by wearing black bands on their arms and observing one-hour boycott from duty. Provincial president of the Federation of All Pakistan Academic Staff Association Prof Dr Mohammad Fida said that the protest would intensify when the universities reopen.

Peshawar University Teachers Association (PUTA) President Prof Dr Johar Ali in a letter to chairman of the Higher Education Commission, Islamabad, Javed Laghari, warned of shutting the educational institutions on the university campus if the employees were not given 50 percent increase in salaries announced by the prime minister.

Dr Johar Ali said they were under extreme pressure from members of the association to take a tough stand, as they were angry at the discriminatory attitude of the government towards the employees of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa universities who were yet to get 50 percent raise in salaries.

He said the increase announced by the federal government in the budget had been given to university employees in rest of the provinces. He said the university employees had started a token strike by wearing black bands and would close down the campus from September 20, 2010 if their demand was not met. "The non-payment of increase in salaries to the university employees in the province is clear violation of the directives of the prime minister," Dr Johar Ali argued.

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AIOU to give admission on result cards
Islamabad: Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) on Wednesday announced that the continuing students of the varsity can get admission in the next higher programme by submitting their result cards only.

AIOU Director Admissions Sohail Nazir Rana said that the facility is announced for the students whose last semester's result has been declared till September 10.

They can submit their admission forms by attaching result cards instead of provisional certificate/degree.

The admission will be granted after verification of the result cards from Examination Department of the University, the director clarified.

This facility has been announced due to possibility of deferment in getting degree or provisional certificate and to save the precious time of students.

The admission forms and prospectus are available from the main campus of University at Sector H-8 as well as from its all Regional Campuses/Offices around the country.

The last date for submission the admission form alongwith late fee is September 20. Sohail said that the candidates are advised to deposit the admission forms alon gwith prescribed fee in any branch of First Women Banks, Bank Al-Falah, Allied Bank across the country while in nominated branches of National Bank and Habib Bank of Pakistan. The news

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