Fathers' perception of child health: a case study in a squatter settlement of Karachi, Pakistan

This study looks at child health from a father’s perspective. While the close relationship between children and mothers has been acknowledged, and brought about the concept of Mother and Child Health (MCH), little attention has been paid to the role of fathering. In Pakistan, where the study was undertaken, a high infant and under-five mortality coincides with a low acceptance of MCH services and a tradition of female seclusion, , which severely limits women’s movements in public. Purdah is often cited as an important cause for the low MCH-coverage, indicating an inappropriate design of established MCH-services with its exclusive focus on mothers, and prompting the questions taken up in this study: what is the role of fathers in child health, how do they define child health needs and how do they participate in child care? The study was undertaken in the squatter settlement Orangi in Karachi where the Aga Khan University is involved in a PHC program. A set of qualitative methods was used including key informant interviews, focus group interviews with fathers, group interviews with women and community health workers with a total of 61 informants, and observation of father-child interaction. Apart from their basic role as breadwinners, most fathers participate directly in child care. As far as working hours allow, fathers spend time with their children by taking them out or playing with them. Among 174 cases of child holding in roads and places, 75 per cent were carried by the father; this was yes for the majority of children even in the mother’s presence. One-third of children brought to general practitioners were accompanied by the father. Fathers help their wives in child care in activities like feeding, soothing, bathing and giving medicine; a considerable minority even changes nappies. In the socio-cultural context, the high level of male involvement especially in caretaking outside the house can be seen as a coping mechanism with the tradition of female seclusion. The qualities of fathers as key decision-makers and second line caretakers and mothers’ role as primary caretakers call for a two-pronged approach to child health, addressing and involving both parents

Exploration of radial nerve in patients with humerus shaft fracture with radial nerve palsy, is it necessary?

Fractures in the distal third of the humerus shaft usually are associated with complete or incomplete radial nerve lesions which may be caused due to traction, entrapment or compression between bony fragments. We managed these patients by bridge plating using minimally invasive percutaneous plate osteosynthesis. A total of 5 patients were operated on and all showed full functional recovery of radial nerve. Fracture united in all cases and no patient developed any complication

Nutritional value of Pleurotus (Flabellatus) Djamor (R-22) cultivated on sawdusts of different woods

The sawdust of different woods were investigat ed for the cultivation of exotic strain of Pleurotus (flabellatus) djamor (R-22) to find out the efficiency of different nutrients including protein, fat, crude fiber, ash, dry matter and moisture. Among all type of nutrients, protein, fat, cr ude fiber, ash, dry matter and moisture of Pleurotus ostreatus on sawdust of different woods were observed. Protein was observed on cont rol treatment (cotton waste, kikar, mango, mixed sawdust, simbal and kail (21.89), (21.64), (21.34), (21.16), (21.03) and (20.75) % respectively. Fat was observed on control treatment (cotton waste, kikar, mango, mi xed sawdust, simbal and kail (0.80), (0.53), (0 .41), (0.33), (0.24) and (0.11)% respectively. Crude fiber was observed on control treatment (cotton waste, kikar, mango, mixed sawdust, simbal and kail (8.92), (8.45), (8.17), (7.96), (7.70) and (7.32) % respectively. Ash was observ ed on control treatment (cotton waste, kikar, mango, mixed sawdust, simbal and kail (7.65), (6.75), (6 .47), (6.39), (6.33) and (6.23%) respectively. Dry matter was observed on control treatment (cotton waste, kikar, mango, mixed sawdust, simbal and kail (6.47), (6.27), (6.13), (6.01), (5.87) and (5.67) % respectively. Moisture was observed on control treatment (c otton waste, kikar, mango, mixed sawdust, simbal and kail (84.55), (81.20), (79.85), (76.26), (74.35) and (71.14) % respectively. Oyster mushroom showed relatively more contents on control treatment cotton waste as compared to other substrates. The maximum protein, fat, crude fiber, ash, dry matter and moisture contents in Pleurotus (flabellatus) djamor (R-22) was obtained on Kikar sawdust .The lowest contents was obtained on kail sawdust

Bioinformatics and phylogenetic analysis of human Tp73 gene

The Tp73 gene encoding p73 protein belongs to the Tp53 gene family and it functions in the initiation of cell-cycle arrest or apoptosis and also involves in regulating a series of pathways including breast cancer, neuroblastoma and cholorectal cancer. New discoveries about the control and function of p73 are still in progress and it is hoped to develop better diagnostics and therapeutics by exploiting this system. Evolutionary studies are of principal importance in the field of biological research since for a very long time as provided the basis for comparative genomics. The sequence of Homo sapiens Tp73, transcript variant-7 mRNA sequence was retrieved from the NCBI in FASTA format and was studied for its relationships and percent similarity within human and others species. Genetic variation among Tp73 found in human beings and other organisms were studied in detail. Phylogenetic analysis and multiple sequence alignment of the human Tp73, transcript variant-7 mRNA sequence through unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) was performed which showed its pattern of variations and relationship among different organisms especially with rat, mouse and chimpanzee. This current study will help in modern research strategies through the manipulation and exploitation of p73, as its pathways are promising and one can predict its extensive clinical and biological use in the near future for the human benefit worldwide.Keywords: Tp73, Bioinformatics, phylogenetics analysis, cancer, Tp53African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(26), pp. 4187-419

Biofortification of Diverse Basmati Rice Cultivars with Iodine, Selenium, and Zinc by Individual and Cocktail Spray of Micronutrients

Given that an effective combined foliar application of iodine (I), selenium (Se), and zinc (Zn) would be farmer friendly, compared to a separate spray of each micronutrient, for the simultaneous biofortification of grain crops, we compared effectiveness of foliar-applied potassium iodate (KIO3, 0.05%), sodium selenate (Na2SeO4, 0.0024%), and zinc sulfate (ZnSO4∙7H2O, 0.5%), separately and in their combination (as cocktail) for the micronutrient biofortification of four Basmati cultivars of rice (Oryza sativa L.). Foliar-applied, each micronutrient or their cocktail did not affect rice grain yield, but grain yield varied significantly among rice cultivars. Irrespective of foliar treatments, the brown rice of cv. Super Basmati and cv. Kisan Basmati had substantially higher concentration of micronutrients than cv. Basmati-515 and cv. Chenab Basmati. With foliar-applied KIO3, alone or in cocktail, the I concentration in brown rice increased from 12 to 186 µg kg−1. The average I concentration in brown rice with foliar-applied KIO3 or cocktail was 126 μg kg−1 in cv. Basmati-515, 160 μg kg−1 in cv. Chenab Basmati, 153 μg kg−1 in cv. Kisan Basmati, and 306 μg kg−1 in cv. Super Basmati. Selenium concentration in brown rice increased from 54 to 760 µg kg−1, with foliar-applied Na2SeO4 individually and in cocktail, respectively. The inherent Zn concentration in rice cultivars ranged between 14 and 19 mg kg−1 and increased by 5–6 mg Zn per kg grains by foliar application of ZnSO4∙7H2O and cocktail. The results also showed the existence of genotypic variation in response to foliar spray of micronutrients and demonstrated that a foliar-applied cocktail of I, Se, and Zn could be an effective strategy for the simultaneous biofortification of rice grains with these micronutrients to address the hidden hunger problem in human population

Underwater Resurrection Routing Synergy using Astucious Energy Pods

The accomplishment of sustainable communication among source and destination sink node is a rigors challenge and even establishing bodacious communication link between these nodes is nothing short of a miracle because data routes are governed by the underwater environment. Energy consumption has a significant influence as all active devices rely on the battery. As cost-effective data packet transmission is established as a norm, no charging or replacement can be achieved. Hop link evaluation and shrewd connection discovery by way of a resurrecting linking element were just a genuinely grim task, and only feasible to create the extra powered energy pods (URR-SAEP) that had never been carried out before after detailed study. After packet transfer, the sensor node performs the link inspection process, and when a link is deemed shaky at less than or equivalent to 50 percent of capacity, the target node incorporates its residual capacity status and returns it to the source node that attaches other unoptimizable energy pods to improve only the targeted node link from 50 percent to 90 percent. Performance evaluation using NS2 with Aqua-Sim 2.0 simulator has been obtained comparing with DBR and EEDBR protocols in terms of point-to-point delay, Packet dissemination ratio, Network lifespan and Energy Diminution

Evaluation of Anthropometric Parameters of Central Obesity among Professional Drivers: A Receiver Operating Characteristic Analysis

Different anthropometric parameters have been proposed for assessing central obesity. The diagnostic performance of these anthropometric parameters and their ability to correctly measure central obesity for the professional community, like drivers, is questionable and needs to be assessed. The study aimed to examine the diagnostic performance of anthropometric parameters as indicators of central obesity in drivers as measured by waist circumference (WC) and to determine the best cut-off values for these parameters that would identify obese drivers. Anthropometric measurements from a cross-sectional sample of 197 professional drivers were taken under standard protocol. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis was used to examine the diagnostic performance and to determine the optimal cut-off point of each anthropometric parameter to identify centrally obese drivers. It was found that WC had a significant positive correlation with all other obesity indicators. The ROC curve analysis indicated that all the parameters analyzed had a good performance, but the waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) had a more predictive value of the area under the curve (AUC). Optimal cut-offs to identify central obesity in drivers were 0.55, 2.06, 0.95, and 25.44 for WHtR, conicity index, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index, respectively. These cut-off points for different indicators can be used to detect central obesity for drivers.

Identification of Input Nonlinear Control Autoregressive Systems Using Fractional Signal Processing Approach

A novel algorithm is developed based on fractional signal processing approach for parameter estimation of input nonlinear control autoregressive (INCAR) models. The design scheme consists of parameterization of INCAR systems to obtain linear-in-parameter models and to use fractional least mean square algorithm (FLMS) for adaptation of unknown parameter vectors. The performance analyses of the proposed scheme are carried out with third-order Volterra least mean square (VLMS) and kernel least mean square (KLMS) algorithms based on convergence to the true values of INCAR systems. It is found that the proposed FLMS algorithm provides most accurate and convergent results than those of VLMS and KLMS under different scenarios and by taking the low-to-high signal-to-noise ratio

Enhanced Fractional Adaptive Processing Paradigm for Power Signal Estimation

Fractional calculus tools have been exploited to effectively model variety of engineering, physics and applied sciences problems. The concept of fractional derivative has been incorporated in the optimization process of least mean square (LMS) iterative adaptive method. This study exploits the recently introduced enhanced fractional derivative based LMS (EFDLMS) for parameter estimation of power signal formed by the combination of different sinusoids. The EFDLMS addresses the issue of fractional extreme points and provides faster convergence speed. The performance of EFDLMS is evaluated in detail by taking different levels of noise in the composite sinusoidal signal as well as considering various fractional orders in the EFDLMS. Simulation results reveal that the EDFLMS is faster in convergence speed than the conventional LMS (i.e., EFDLMS for unity fractional order)