Variability in Reproductive Choices: A Comprehensive Analysis of Women's Working Status and Fertility Behavior in Pakistan.

The relationship between women's working status and fertility behavior has been a topic of interest for researchers and policymakers. The societal shifts over time, particularly the increasing participation of women in the workforce, have transformed traditional roles. Women, once primarily perceived as caregivers, are now assuming roles of economic independence. This transformation prompts a re-evaluation of the traditional association between women's working status and fertility behavior. This study aims to investigate the impact of women's working status on fertility behavior using a multistage stratified sampling design. A total of 408 women aged 15 to 49 years were recruited from 2 strata: working and non-working women. The data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, and generalized additive models were used for in-depth analysis of the dataset. An examination of fertility patterns indicates that, on average, working women bear 2.90 live children, while their non-working counterparts have an average of 3.52 children. Stillbirth was reported in 13% of housewives and 15.1% of working women. However, further analysis revealed that the relationship between women's employment status and fertility behavior varied depending on Social and Cultural Norms, Reproductive Rights, Workplace Policies, Economic Independence, Age, and Life Stage. Our findings suggest that promoting access to family-friendly policies and services, as well as challenging gender norms and cultural values, could help address the impact of women's employment on fertility behavior.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Lessons From Developing Stroke Education Programs for West Michigan Asian Communities.

BACKGROUND: Asians in the United States, facing health care disparities, have increased stroke risk. Multiple subgroups, with distinct cultures and languages, add complexity to caring for Asian American (AsA) communities. We developed a tailored stroke education program for underserved West Michigan AsA communities. Methodology, lessons learned, and diversity, equity, and inclusion insights are described. METHODS: Neurology residents and faculty, in collaboration with trained community-specific navigators, developed culturally resonant stroke education that was tailored to meet the needs of specific self-identified West Michigan AsA communities. Educational and debriefing sessions were delivered over 6 months, following the Plan-Do-Study-Act model, to elucidate diversity, equity, and inclusion insights and improve materials and delivery methods. RESULTS: Eighty-six non-English-speaking participants from 5 self-identified AsA communities (Burmese, Buddhist Vietnamese, Catholic Vietnamese, Chinese, and Nepali) attended educational stroke sessions. The average age of attendees was 57.6±13.2 years; most were females (70%). Diversity, equity, and inclusion insights included identification of Asian cultural beliefs about acute stroke treatment (eg, bloodletting), investigator insights (eg, need for kitchen-table programs), systemic barriers (eg, language), and mitigation strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Institutions should consider the integration of equity-focused, trainee-influenced quality improvement projects, such as this culturally resonant stroke educational program for AsA, to enhance stroke care in these vulnerable communities.

Board characteristics, institutional ownership, and investment efficiency: Evidence from an emerging market.

This study investigates the impact of board governance mechanism on investment efficiency (IE) in PSX-listed firms. The study also examines the role of institutional ownership (IO) in board-IE relationships. In addition, we extend our analysis to re-examine this relationship by splitting the sample into two groups, i.e., the introductory phase of corporate governance (CG) i.e., 2004 to 2013, and revised codes of CG (2014 to 2018) to examine the impact of these separately on IE. The sample data comprises 155 non-financial PSX-listed firms from 2004 to 2018. IE is measured using firms' growth opportunities. The random effect model is used to test the study's hypotheses. A robustness test is also performed to validate the study's findings. The paired-sample t-test results show a significant improvement in IE after revising the CG codes in 2012. According to the regression results, board size has a significant direct, whereas board diversity has a significant inverse effect on IE. Regarding moderating effect, IO was found to moderate the relationship between board independence and IE significantly. Furthermore, it was discovered that following the issuance of revised CG codes-2012, the level of board independence and diversity increased in PSX-listed firms; however, only diversity positively impacted IE, and board independence had no impact on IE from 2014 to 2018. Despite the issuance of revised CG codes-2012, the level of CG among PSX-listed firms is low, which is a source of concern for regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.

Smoke-water obtained via different biotics: a cost-effective and safer approach to biochemically sound banana ripening with prolonged shelf-life.

This study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of smoke-water obtained from biotics, for example coconut shells, rice husk, and pine cones on banana ripening, and compared with calcium carbide. Bio-chemical composition and remarkable bactericidal effect towards ATCC cultures of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus cereus discovered the biological safety of the smoke-water in all collected smoke-water samples. Further, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was carried out to investigate heavy metals; however, no traces were found in all collected samples. Consequently, it is proposed that heavy metal-free smoke-water obtained from various biotics series might be employed as ultrasafe fruit ripening as compared to calcium carbide (CaC2) that was found with heavy metal traces.

Safety and quality assessment of street-vended barbecue chicken samples from Faisalabad, Pakistan.

The current study was designed to assess the safety and quality status of street-vended barbecue chicken samples. The samples were collected from four regions of Faisalabad city: Ghulam Mohammad Abad (R1), Jhang Road (R2), Sargodha Road (R3), and Satiana Road (R4); and compared with the self-prepared barbecue chicken sample (R0). Purposely, all the collected samples were subjected to assess the quality aspects by physicochemical analyses. The results of the physicochemical analysis showed that moisture content varied from 54% to 60%, crude protein 26.97% to 32.87%, crude fat 7.25% to 9.00%, crude ash 1.61% to 1.72%, pH 5.60 to 6.30, free fatty acid value 1.00% to 1.39%, and peroxide value 0.63 to 0.84 meq/Kg. Results pertaining to the enumeration of total microbial load and total coliform count exhibit 2.39-5.17 and 1.20-3.20 log cfu/g, respectively. The samples were assessed for heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Cd, and Fe) by atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The concentration of highly toxic metals Pb and Cd was found to be much higher than recommended value as they ranged from 1.90 to 3.70 mg/kg for Pb and 0.10 to 0.90 mg/kg for Cd. However, the level of essential metals (Fe and Zn) in barbecue chicken samples ranged from 67.10 to 180 and 8.30 to 35.80 mg/kg which was much higher than their safe limits for Fe (15 ppm) and Zn (5 ppm), respectively. The study concludes that the consumption of street-vended barbecue chicken possesses to be a serious public health risk for consumers.

Studying green financing with economic development in BRI countries perspective: does public-private investment matter?

The study aims to test and inquire about the nexus between green financing and economic development in the belt-and-road initiative (BRI) member countries with the role of public-private investments. The study used the generalized method of moments (GMM) assessment approach from 1990Q1 to 2018Q4 to evaluate research topicality. The study's findings have uncovered some hidden insights and presented new insights. In line with this, the study's findings highlighted that an accurate role of green financing is significant in economic development in BRI economies throughout the research period. The results demonstrate that the GMM method of investigation has distinct validity in establishing the overall significance of results about the role of public-private investments in BRI nations. However, the study results about public-private investments showed a varying impact on nations with high GDP per capita. Moreover, the findings from this research indicate that the development of renewable energy sources is also widely aided by applying environmental regulations. At the same time, factors including population size, technological innovation, industrial structure, and foreign direct investment (FDI) significantly control the relationship between green financing, public-private investments, and economic development. On these findings, the study also recommended practical directions for stakeholders.

Transcriptome diversity assessment of Gossypium arboreum (FDH228) leaves under control, drought and whitefly infestation using PacBio long reads.

Alternative splicing (AS) and alternative polyadenylation (APA) are common mechanisms in eukaryotes to increase the complexity of transcriptomes and subsequently proteomes. Analysis of long reads transcriptomics data can result in the discovery of novel transcripts, splice sites, AS or APA events. Gossypium arboreum is an important cultivated cotton species and a putative contributor of the A sub-genome to the modern tetraploid cotton; and inherently tolerant to several biotic and abiotic stresses. Specifically, its variety 'FDH228' is considered to be an important resistance source. In this study, we sequenced the G. arboreum (var. FDH228) transcriptome using PacBio IsoSeq and illumina short read sequencing under three different conditions i.e. untreated/healthy, treated with biotic stress through whitefly infestation, and treated with abiotic stress via water deprivation, for the discovery and surveying of canonical and non-canonical AS, APA and transcript fusion events. We were able to obtain 15,419 unique transcripts from all samples representing 11,343 genes, out of which 10,832 were annotated and 520 were novel with respect to the published reference genome. These transcripts were grouped into different structural categories including 60 Antisense, 11,959 having a full-splice match, 999 with incomplete-splice match, 30 fusion transcripts, 177 genic, 479 intergenic, 771 novels in the catalog, and 944 Novel but not found in the catalog. Subsequently, randomly selected candidate transcripts were experimentally validated using qRT-PCR. Our comprehensive identification of canonical and non-canonical splicing events, and novel and fusion transcripts aids in the understanding of the resistance mechanisms for this specific germplasm.

Assessment of Attitudes and Intentions towards COVID-19 Vaccines and Associated Factors among General Populations of Pakistan: A Cross-Sectional Study.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of public health in combatting COVID-19 is to increase herd immunity. However, vaccine reluctance makes attaining herd immunity a worldwide challenge. This investigation aimed to identify negative and positive attitudes and intentions about COVID-19 vaccinations. METHODS: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted once free COVID-19 vaccines became available in Pakistan in 2021. 4392 Pakistanis aged 18 and older were surveyed from seven administrative units between 1 July and 30 August 2021. Online structured questionnaires were utilized to collect data using a simple sampling procedure. The questionnaires were divided into three major sections: sociodemographic, health factors, and attitudes toward COVID-19. RESULTS: The survey link was shared with approximately 4500 participants. 97.6%(4392) completed the survey once begun. Frequency, percentage and Chi-square tests were used to analyze statistical data. Most of the participants in the research were men (2703 (61.54%)), 3277 (74.61%) were aged 18-29 years, and 1824 (41.53%) were residents of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. (18.69%) Respondents expressed COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, whereas 36.66% of participants liked getting the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines and (35.84%) of participants preferred the Pfizer vaccine. A significant number of participants (38.05%) were concerned about the vaccine's unexpected side effects Thus, it is essential to realize that many participants were concerned about the vaccine's unexpected side effects. CONCLUSIONS: The overall high level of concern about the unforeseen side effects of COVID-19 vaccines, as well as widespread vaccine hesitancy among Pakistani populations and its predictors, should be taken into account if public health intervention campaigns in Pakistan are changing negative attitudes and improving compliance with regard to COVID-19 vaccines.

Silicon-nanoparticles doped biochar is more effective than biochar for mitigation of arsenic and salinity stress in Quinoa: Insight to human health risk assessment.

The increasing contamination of soil with arsenic (As), and salinity has become a menace to food security and human health. The current study investigates the comparative efficacy of plain biochar (BC), and silicon-nanoparticles doped biochar (SBC) for ameliorating the As and salinity-induced phytotoxicity in quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) and associated human health risks. Quinoa was grown on normal and saline soils (ECe 12.4 dS m-1) contaminated with As (0, 20 mg kg-1) and supplemented with 1% of BC or SBC. The results demonstrated that plant growth, grain yield, chlorophyll contents, and stomatal conductance of quinoa were decreased by 62, 44, 48, and 66%, respectively under the blended stress of As and salinity as compared to control. Contrary to this, the addition of BC to As-contaminated saline soil caused a 31 and 25% increase in plant biomass and grain yield. However, these attributes were increased by 45 and 38% with the addition of SBC. The H2O2 and TBARS contents were enhanced by 5 and 10-fold, respectively under the combined stress of As and salinity. The SBC proved to be more efficient than BC in decreasing oxidative stress through overexpressing of antioxidant enzymes. The activities of superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and catalase were enhanced by 5.4, 4.6, and 11-fold with the addition of SBC in As-contaminated saline soil. Contamination of grains by As revealed both the non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks to human health, however, these effects were minimized with the addition of SBC. As accumulation in grains was decreased by 65-fold and 25-fold, respectively for BC and SBC in addition to As-contaminated saline soil. The addition of SBC to saline soils contaminated with As for quinoa cultivation is an effective approach for decreasing the food chain contamination and improving food security. However, more research is warranted for the field evaluation of the effectiveness of SBC in abating As uptake in other food crops cultivated on As polluted normal and salt-affected soils.

Crohn's Disease with Fistula: 10 Year Trends and Mortality in the United States.

Background/Aims: Crohn's disease (CD) results in significant morbidity, mortality, and healthcare burden. This study evaluated the temporal trends of CD hospitalizations with a fistula over the last decade to understand the outcomes of severe CD. Methods: National Inpatient Sample database from 2009 to 2019 was used to identify CD hospitalizations with a fistula. The outcomes of interest included temporal trend analysis of length of stay (LOS), mean inpatient cost (MIC), and mortality. Results: There was an increase in the total number of fistulizing CD hospitalizations from 5,386 in 2009 to 12,900 in 2019 (p<0.01). The mean age decreased from 44.9±0.6 to 41.8±0.4 years for the study period (p<0.01). Caucasians were the predominant ethnicity, followed by Africans, Hispanics, and others (p<0.001). The mean LOS for fistulizing CD hospitalizations decreased significantly from 11.57±0.09 days in 2009 to 7.20±0.05 days in 2019 (p<0.001). There was a significant decrease in inpatient mortality from 1.72% in 2009 to 0.73% in 2019 (p<0.01). The MIC did not have a significant trend. There was a decreasing trend toward partial/total colectomies, rectosigmoid, and small bowel surgeries from 2009 to 2019 (p<0.001). Conclusions: There has been a rise in CD hospitalizations with fistulizing disease in the last decade. Despite this, the mortality and inpatient LOS have been decreasing significantly. In addition, the increase in CD hospitalizations with fistulizing disease has had no significant effect on hospital costs.

Optimization-Based Economical Flexural Design of Singly Reinforced Concrete Beams: A Parametric Study.

In the past, many studies have been conducted on the optimization of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. These studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of different optimization techniques to obtain an economical design. However, the use of optimization techniques to an obtain economical design is not so practical due to the difficulty in applying most of the optimization techniques to achieve an optimal solution. The RC beam is one of the most common structural elements encountered by a practising design engineer. The current study is designed to highlight the potential of the Solver tool in MS Excel as an easy-to-use option for optimizing the design of simply supported RC beams. A user-friendly interface was developed in a spreadsheet in which beam design parameters from a typical design can be entered and an economical design can be obtained using the Evolutionary Algorithm available in the MS Excel Solver tool. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed optimization tool, three examples obtained from the literature have been optimized. The results showed that up to 24% economical solution can be obtained by keeping the same material strengths that were assumed in the original design. However, if material strength is also considered as a variable, up to 44% of the economical solution can be obtained. A parametric study was also conducted to investigate the effect of different design variables on the economical design of simply supported RC beams and to derive useful rules of thumb for their design and proportioning, with the objective of cost minimization. The results of the parametric study suggest that the grade of the reinforcing steel is one of the most influential factors that affect the cost of simply supported RC beams. Practicing engineers can use the trends derived from this research to further refine their optimal designs.

The helix of CO2, household income, and oil pricing under the assumption of Keynesian consumption function: A policy-mix scenario of oil-importing South Asia for SDGs-2030.

The purpose of this study is to explore energy prices and their impact on household consumption under the condition of Keynesian consumption theory in South Asian countries over the 1995-2020 periods. By employing the panel ordinary least square model estimation technique, the study attempted to find the relationship between household income and consumption under the theory of Keynesian consumption function. Furthermore, we investigated the relationship between household consumption and environmental sustainability, policy mix variables, and energy pricing. First of all, this study confirms the existence of Keynesian consumption theory in these economies of South Asia. Furthermore, energy pricing, environmental sustainability, and inflation rate are the factors that inducing toward high household consumption in South Asia. Considering the policy mix factors, inflation rate contribution positively while tax rate inducing this consumer for low household consumption. Based on the empirical analysis, this study suggested some parameters to these Asian economies particularly and other similar economies generally.

Cost-effective fabrication, antibacterial application and cell viability studies of modified nonwoven cotton fabric.

In the present work, nonwoven cotton fabric was modified for antibacterial applications using low-cost and eco-friendly precursors. The treatment of fabric with alkali leads to the formation of active sites for surface modification, followed by dip coating with silver nanoparticles and chitosan. The surface was chlorinated in the next step to transform amide (N-H) groups in chitosan into N-halamine (N-Cl). The modified and unmodified surfaces of the nonwoven cotton fabric have been characterized by FTIR, SEM, and XRD. The active chlorine loading is measured with iodine/sodium thiosulphate. The antimicrobial activity and cell toxicity assay were carried out with and without modifications of nonwoven cotton fabric. The antimicrobial efficacies of loaded fabric were evaluated against four bacterial species (Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter aerogenes, and E.coli). It was found that modified fabric exhibited superior efficiency against gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strains as compared to their bulk counterparts upon exposure without affecting strength and integrity of fabric. The overall process is economical for commercial purposes. The modified fabric can be used for antimicrobial, health, and food packaging industries, and in other biomedical applications.

Analysis of the Major Investment Object by Using a Novel Approach Based on Neutrosophic Information.

Neutrosophic set (NS) is an extensively used framework whenever the imprecision and uncertainty of an event is described based on three possible aspects. The association, neutral, and nonassociation degrees are the three unique aspects of an NS. More importantly, these degrees are independent which is a great plus point. On the contrary, neutrosophic graphs (NGs) and single-valued NGs (SVNGs) are applicable to deal with events that contain bulks of information. However, the concept of degrees in NGs is a handful tool for solving the problems of decision-making (DM), pattern recognition, social network, and communication network. This manuscript develops various forms of edge irregular SVNG (EISVNG), highly edge irregular SVNG (HEISVNG), strongly (EISVNG), strongly (ETISVNG), and edge irregularity on a cycle and a path in SVNGs. All these novel notions are supported by definitions, theorems, mathematical proofs, and illustrative examples. Moreover, two types of DM problems are modelled using the proposed framework. Furthermore, the computational processes are used to confirm the validity of the proposed graphs. Furthermore, the results approve that the decision-making problems can be addressed by the edge irregular neutrosophic graphical structures. In addition, the comparison between proposed and the existing methodologies is carried out.

Factors influencing exclusive breastfeeding duration in Pakistan: a population-based cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding has the most profound impact on infant health and wellness, and also have significant implications for the mother. The duration of the breastfeeding determines the infant's protection from malnutrition and other common infectious diseases; consequently, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) six months, followed by gradual weaning and breastfeeding until the baby is two years old. In Pakistan, the practice of breastfeeding is heavily dependent upon certain demographic, economic, social, and biological factors, which ultimately impact the quality of care provided to the infant and their health. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to measure the impact of these factors on the exclusive breastfeeding duration in Pakistan. METHODS: The data for the study has been collected from Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) for the year 2017-18. Binary logistic regression model and survival analysis are used to determine the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. RESULTS: We use a binary logistic regression to estimate the effect of each factor on the duration of EBF. The binary logistic regression finds significant relationships between region, maternal education, wealth index, size of a child, watching television, delivery by cesarean, and maternal age and EBF. We then use log-likelihood, AIC, BIC criteria to determine if a parametric or non-parametric model would provide a better fit; based on these results we fit an Inverse Gaussian (Weibull) distribution for the survival analysis. These results show that there are more significant factors associated with EBF duration in parametric survival analysis than in the binary logistic regression results. Thus, the survival analysis is a better method for predicting the relationship between the duration of EBF and its factors. Furthermore, logically EBF is designated to be done for six months which would not be properly gauged with a binary response variable. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study provide proof that exclusive breastfeeding is a common practice among women in Pakistan, and to improve the quality of post-natal care, health policy in the country needs to focus on the existing demographic and social factors which are found significant in this study.

Prevalence and management of aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in different wheat genotypes and their impact on yield and related traits.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production is significantly altered by the infestation of sucking insects, particularly aphids. Chemical sprays are not recommended for the management of aphids as wheat grains are consumed soon after crop harvests. Therefore, determining the susceptibility of different wheat genotypes and selecting the most tolerant genotype could significantly lower aphid infestation. This study evaluated the susceptibility of six different wheat genotypes ('Sehar-2006', 'Shafaq-2006', 'Faisalabad-2008', 'Lasani-2008', 'Millat-2011' and 'Punjab-2011') to three aphid species (Rhopalosiphum padi Linnaeus, Schizaphis graminum Rondani, Sitobion avenae Fabricius) at various growth stages. Seed dressing with insecticides and plant extracts were also evaluated for their efficacy to reduce the incidence of these aphid species. Afterwards, an economic analysis was performed to compute cost-benefit ratio and assess the economic feasibility for the use of insecticides and plant extracts. Aphids' infestation was recorded from the seedling stage and their population gradually increased as growth progressed towards tillering, stem elongation, heading, dough and ripening stages. The most susceptible growth stage was heading with 21.89 aphids/tiller followed by stem elongation (14.89 aphids/tiller) and dough stage (13.56 aphids/tiller). The genotype 'Punjab-2011' recorded the lower aphid infestation than 'Faisalabad-2008', 'Sehar-2006', 'Lasani-2008' and 'Shafaq-2006'. Rhopalosiphum padi appeared during mid-February, whereas S. graminum and S. avenae appeared during first week of March. Significant differences were recorded for losses in number of grains/spike and 1000-grain weight among tested wheat genotypes. The aphid population had non-significant correlation with yield-related traits. Hicap proved the most effective for the management of aphid species followed by Hombre and Husk among tested seed dressers, while Citrullus colocynthis L. and Moringa oleifera Lam. plant extracts exhibited the highest efficacy among different plant extracts used in the study. Economic analysis depicted that use of Hombre and Hicap resulted in the highest income and benefit cost ratio. Therefore, use of genotype Punjab-2011' and seed dressing with Hombre and Hicap can be successfully used to lower aphid infestation and get higher economic returns for wheat crop.

Health risk assessment of endocrine disruptor bisphenol A leaching from plastic bottles of milk and soft drinks.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is of major concern to public health due to its toxic potential and xenoestrogenic endocrine-disrupting effect. One of the major sources of BPA comes from the plastic bottles used to pack milk and soft drinks. The purpose of the present study was to assess and compare the risk associated with BPA transfer from plastic bottles to milk and soft drinks being stored in summer and winter conditions. A sensitive and reliable method of solid phase extraction cartridge packed with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) was employed. In milk samples (supplied in plastic bottles) of winter season, BPA levels were 0.17-0.32 mg/ kg. In milk samples of summer season, BPA levels were 0.77-1.59 mg/ kg. In soft drink samples of winter, BPA levels were between 0.14 and 0.3 mg/kg. While in 4-month-aged summer soft drink samples, BPA levels were 0.7-1.02 mg/kg of food. The daily exposure dose (DED) of BPA in milk samples of winter season was 1.42-2.67 µg/kg which was below the standard tolerable daily intake (TDI) of 50 µg of BPA/kg of body weight as per USEPA. The DED of BPA in milk samples of summer season was 5.58-10 µg/kg of body weight which was also less than TDI. For soft drink samples, BPA from winter samples was ranged from 1.17 to 1.67 µg/kg of body weight while for summer 4-month-aged samples was 2.5-7.08 µg/kg of body weight. Both types of samples were still less than TDI of BPA.

CSR initiatives, organizational performance and the mediating role of integrating CSR into management control systems: Testing an inclusive model within SMEs in an emerging economy.

This paper addresses a current gap in the literature by investigating the mediating role that integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) into the management control systems (MCS) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can play in the relationship between CSR initiatives and organizational performance. We propose, and empirically validate, an inclusive model to examine these relationships. The study then extends further by embedding two constituents of CSR integration into MCS: namely, management control technology and involvement of management accountants in CSR management. Our study is distinguished by validating, as a contribution, a single construct for each of these two constituents. Data were collected from 117 SMEs in an emerging economy, Abu Dhabi-UAE. PLS structural equation modeling was used in the data analysis. We find that CSR initiatives in SMEs influence organizational performance both directly and indirectly through MCS. Interestingly, the results show that only the involvement of management accountants in CSR management mediates the relationship between CSR initiatives and SME performance. This indicates that the role of human intervention prevails over technology intermediation in conveying the positive effect of CSR initiatives on organizational performance. Overall, the findings help to understand how MCS is an important driving mechanism whereby SMEs may derive performance outcomes from deploying CSR initiatives. The study concludes with implications for future research and policy-makers.