DETERMINING CARRYING CAPACITY OF UNTREATED AND TREATED AREAS OF MARI RESERVE FOREST (POTHWAR TRACT) AFTER RESEEDING WITH CENCHRUS CILIARIS

ABSTRACT Mari Reserve Forest of Pothwar tract covers an area of 3055 ha. Due to uncontrolled grazing, the range area has degraded and supports mainly unpalatable vegetation. In 2005-06, a 911 ha area was reseeded with Cenchrus ciliaris (Dhaman/Buffel grass). Forage production on both the reseeded/treated and untreated areas was measured in 2007 at the end of the growing season during October. The reseeded area produced about 16 times (7733 kg/ha) more forage than the untreated area (491 kg/ha). General Grass coverage on an average was 27% and 78% in untreated and treated pastures, respectively. Carrying capacity (Animal Units per Year) based on dry biomass of grasses/herbs was found to be 0.07 AUY/ha and 1.18 AUY/ha in untreated and treated areas, respectively or in other words, rakh with an area of 3055 ha can provide fodder to 3605 AUY if seeded, and otherwise it will support only 214 AUY. These results indicate that reseeding may be an important management practice for improving degraded rangelands of Pakistan

Adult Recipients of Matched Related Donor Blood Cell Transplants Given Myeloablative Regimens Including Pretransplant Antithymocyte Globulin Have Lower Mortality Related to Graft-versus-Host Disease: A Matched Pair Analysis

AbstractBecause pretransplantation anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) seems to reduce graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) and treatment-related mortality (TRM) after unrelated donor bone marrow transplantation (BMT), we investigated this agent in matched related donor (MRD) blood cell transplantation (BCT). Fifty-four adults receiving rabbit ATG, cyclosporine A, and methotrexate with myeloablative conditioning and undergoing first MRD BCT were matched for disease and stage with 54 patients not given ATG. Most ATG-treated patients had fludarabine with oral (7) or i.v. busulfan (46) with total body irradiation (TBI) in 10. Control patients largely received TBI with VP16 (28) or oral busulfan with cyclophosphamide (15) or fludarabine (7). The ATG was given at a total dose of 4.5 mg/kg over 3 d, finishing on day 0. Rates of acute GVHD (aGVHD) grade II-IV, aGVHD grade III-IV, and chronic GVHD (cGVHD) were 19 ± 5% versus 32 ± 6% (P = .1), 6 ± 3% versus 13 ± 5% (P = NS), and 55 ± 8% versus 96 ± 3% (P = .002) in the ATG and control groups, respectively. Patients given ATG had fewer sites involved by cGVHD compared with the control group (mean 2.1 ± 0.2 versus 2.8 ± 0.2, P = .04). Non-relapse mortality (NRM) with and without ATG, respectively, was 4 ± 3% versus 17 ± 5% at 100 d and 9 ± 4% versus 34 ± 7% at 4 yr (P = .002). Deaths were GVHD related in 3 ATG-treated patients versus 14 controls (P = .007). Despite a trend to more relapse with ATG (43 ± 7% versus 22 ± 7% at 4 yr, P = 0.05), survival was 66 ± 7% in the patients given ATG versus 50 ± 7% in the controls (P = 0.046). This study indicates that myeloablative regimens incorporating fludarabine and oral or i.v. busulfan with pretransplantation ATG given to recipients undergoing MRD BCT may result in less cGVHD, lower TRM, and probably improved quality of life in survivors compared with previous protocols

Establishing a Target Exposure for Once-Daily Intravenous Busulfan Given with Fludarabine and Thymoglobulin before Allogeneic Transplantation

AbstractA combination of fludarabine (Flu) and daily i.v. busulfan (Bu) is well tolerated and effective in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Although there is some evidence that Bu exposures exceeding 6000 μM/min may lead to excessive toxicity, there is little information on the effect of exposures below this level on outcomes. We studied Bu exposure, as measured by area under the concentration-time curve (AUC), in 158 patients with various hematologic malignancies in an attempt to identify an optimal range for targeted therapy. The preparative chemotherapy regimen comprised Flu 50 mg/m2 on days -6 to -2 and i.v. Bu 3.2 mg/kg on days -5 to -2 inclusive. Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis included methotrexate, cyclosporin A, and antithymocyte globulin. Patients with Bu exposures below the median AUC of 4439 μM/min were at increased risk for acute GVHD grade II-IV (hazard ratio [HR], 2.30; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.19 to 4.49; P = .014). Those in the highest and lowest Bu exposure quartiles (daily AUC <3814 μM/min and >4993 μM/min) had an increased risk of nonrelapse mortality (subdistribution HR, 3.32; 95% CI, 1.46 to 7.54; P = .004), as well as worse disease-free survival (HR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.09 to 2.99; P = .021) and overall survival (HR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.12 to 3.37; P = .018). Bu exposures between 4440 and 4993 μM/min were accompanied by the lowest risk of both nonrelapse mortality and acute GVHD

Lentivirus-mediated gene therapy for Fabry disease

Enzyme and chaperone therapies are used to treat Fabry disease. Such treatments are expensive and require intrusive biweekly infusions; they are also not particularly efficacious. In this pilot, single-arm study (NCT02800070), five adult males with Type 1 (classical) phenotype Fabry disease were infused with autologous lentivirus-transduced, CD34+-selected, hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells engineered to express alpha-galactosidase A (α-gal A). Safety and toxicity are the primary endpoints. The non-myeloablative preparative regimen consisted of intravenous melphalan. No serious adverse events (AEs) are attributable to the investigational product. All patients produced α-gal A to near normal levels within one week. Vector is detected in peripheral blood and bone marrow cells, plasma and leukocytes demonstrate α-gal A activity within or above the reference range, and reductions in plasma and urine globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) and globotriaosylsphingosine (lyso-Gb3) are seen. While the study and evaluations are still ongoing, the first patient is nearly three years post-infusion. Three patients have elected to discontinue enzyme therapy

Study protocol of DIVERGE, the first genetic epidemiological study of major depressive disorder in Pakistan

INTRODUCTION: Globally, 80% of the burdenof major depressive disorder (MDD) pertains to low- and middle-income countries. Research into genetic and environmental risk factors has the potential to uncover disease mechanisms that may contribute to better diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, yet has so far been largely limited to participants with European ancestry from high-income countries. The DIVERGE study was established to help overcome this gap and investigate genetic and environmental risk factors for MDD in Pakistan. METHODS: DIVERGE aims to enrol 9000 cases and 4000 controls in hospitals across the country. Here, we provide the rationale for DIVERGE, describe the study protocol and characterise the sample using data from the first 500cases. Exploratory data analysis is performed to describe demographics, socioeconomic status, environmental risk factors, family history of mental illness and psychopathology. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Many participants had severe depression with 74% of patients who experienced multiple depressive episodes. It was a common practice to seek help for mental health struggles from faith healers and religious leaders. Socioeconomic variables reflected the local context with a large proportion of women not having access to any education and the majority of participants reporting no savings. CONCLUSION: DIVERGE is a carefully designed case-control study of MDD in Pakistan that captures diverse risk factors. As the largest genetic study in Pakistan, DIVERGE helps address the severe underrepresentation of people from South Asian countries in genetic as well as psychiatric research

Study protocol of DIVERGE, the first genetic epidemiological study of major depressive disorder in Pakistan.

INTRODUCTION: Globally, 80% of the burdenof major depressive disorder (MDD) pertains to low- and middle-income countries. Research into genetic and environmental risk factors has the potential to uncover disease mechanisms that may contribute to better diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, yet has so far been largely limited to participants with European ancestry from high-income countries. The DIVERGE study was established to help overcome this gap and investigate genetic and environmental risk factors for MDD in Pakistan. METHODS: DIVERGE aims to enrol 9000 cases and 4000 controls in hospitals across the country. Here, we provide the rationale for DIVERGE, describe the study protocol and characterise the sample using data from the first 500 cases. Exploratory data analysis is performed to describe demographics, socioeconomic status, environmental risk factors, family history of mental illness and psychopathology. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Many participants had severe depression with 74% of patients who experienced multiple depressive episodes. It was a common practice to seek help for mental health struggles from faith healers and religious leaders. Socioeconomic variables reflected the local context with a large proportion of women not having access to any education and the majority of participants reporting no savings. CONCLUSION: DIVERGE is a carefully designed case-control study of MDD in Pakistan that captures diverse risk factors. As the largest genetic study in Pakistan, DIVERGE helps address the severe underrepresentation of people from South Asian countries in genetic as well as psychiatric research

Impact of variable network load on group based video multicast scheme over the HSDPA network

This paper examines the effect of cell loadings on the performance of a group based multicast algorithm implemented on the HSDPA air interface. The group based multicast scheme could offer higher QoS and capacity in a HSDPA network. However, the performance of the multicast algorithm could be affected by neighboring cell loadings. In order to compensate the variable SINR conditions caused by the variation in neighboring cell loading it is necessary to optimize the group switching algorithm to maintain high QoS in a cell and to minimize the uplink feedback traffic. The paper presents simulation results showing the effects of cell loading on the performance of the group based multicasting scheme. An OPNET based multi-cell simulation model has been used to obtain the results

Efficient clustering approach for intrusion detection in adhoc networks

Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) are temporary wireless networks useful in emergency rescue services, battlefields operations, mobile conferencing and a variety of other useful applications. Due to dynamic nature and lack of centralized monitoring points, these networks are highly vulnerable to attacks. Intrusion detection systems (IDS) provide audit and monitoring capabilities that offer the local security to a node and help to perceive the specific trust level of other nodes. We take benefit of the clustering concept in MANETs for the effective communication between nodes, where each cluster involves a number of member nodes and is managed by a cluster-head. It can be taken as an advantage in these battery and memory constrained networks for the purpose of intrusion detection, by separating tasks for the head and member nodes, at the same time providing opportunity for launching collaborative detection approach. The clustering schemes are generally used for the routing purposes to enhance the route efficiency. However, the effect of change of a cluster tends to change the route; thus degrades the performance. This paper presents a low overhead clustering algorithm for the benefit of detecting intrusion rather than efficient routing. It also discusses the intrusion detection techniques with the help of this simplified clustering scheme

Taxonomy of Cyber Crimes and legislation in Pakistan

We inhabit a rapidly developing world of shifting trends. Information Technology that was considered as a key contributor in progress of any country has evolved into a nightmare in form of Cyber Crimes. Despite proper legislation, most of such offences of less severe nature remain veiled in Pakistan. Deficient law enforcement and absence of an international treaty against Cyber Crimes helps Cyber Criminals skip unscathed. Study will focus on categorization of Cyber Crimes and legislation in Pakistan to cope with these crimes. We report some Cyber Crimes that still lie outside law jurisdictions in Pakistan and take a look at reported crimes in IT history of Pakistan

Phytotoxic effects of "Euphorbia dracunculoides": a weed of rainfed chickpea-chickpea cropping system

Phytotoxic effect occurs when plants release chemicals that inhibit neighoubouring plants. Phytotoxic effects of aqueous extracts of different parts of Euphorbia dracunculoides L. (green spurge) at two concentrations, and its infested soil were investigated on germination and seedling growth of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). The fruit extract at 1:20 (w/v) concentration caused maximum reduction (12%) in germination of chickpea seeds while leaf extract at 1:10 (w/v) concentration resulted in maximum mean germination time value and minimum germination index of chickpea seeds. All the traits of chickpea seedling growth including emergence were adversely affected by the aqueous extracts at both concentrations. Further, the inhibition of chickpea seedling growth was more pronounced with 1:10 (w/v) concentration whereas the lower concentration (1:20 w/v) showed stimulatory effect on shoot length, seedling vigor index and chlorophyll contents of chickpea seedlings. The leaf extract at 1:10 (w/v) concentration proved most harmful to seedling growth and chlorophyll contents (76% reduction) of chickpea. Soil beneath the E. dracunculoides plants significantly reduced emergence (23%), seedling vigor index (55%) and chlorophyll content (19%) of chickpea but a significant increase in N (6%), P (16%) and K (4%) contents of chickpea seedlings was recorded. Thus it can be concluded that E. dracunculoides contains compounds in its tissues which may cause phytotoxic effects on chickpea under field conditions.Se produce un efecto fitotóxico cuando las plantas liberan sustancias químicas que producen inhibiciones en las plantas próximas. Utilizando extractos acuosos a dos diferentes concentraciones de distintas partes de Euphorbia dracunculoides L., así como del suelo infestado, se investigaron sus efectos fitotóxicos sobre la germinación y crecimiento de plántulas de garbanzo (Cicer arietinum L.). Extractos del fruto 1:20 (p/v) provocaron la máxima reducción (12%) en la germinación de las semillas de garbanzo, mientras que extractos de hoja 1:10 dieron el máximo valor del tiempo medio de germinación y el mínimo en el índice de germinación. Todos los caracteres de crecimiento de las plántulas de garbanzo, incluyendo la emergencia, fueron perjudicados por los extractos acuosos a ambas concentraciones. Además, la concentración 1:10 inhibió el crecimiento de las plántulas de garbanzo de forma más pronunciada, mientras que la 1:20 mostró un efecto estimulante sobre la longitud de brotes y el índice de vigor y contenido de clorofila de las plántulas de garbanzo. El extracto de hoja 1:10 resultó más perjudicial para el crecimiento de plántulas y el contenido de clorofila (76% de reducción). Suelo extraído debajo de las plantas de E. dracunculoides redujo significativamente la emergencia (23%), el índice de vigor (55%) y el contenido de clorofila (19%) de las plántulas, pero en cambio se registró un aumento significativo en el contenido en N (6%), P (16%) y K (4%) de las plántulas. Se concluye que E. dracunculoides contiene compuestos en los tejidos que pueden causar efectos fitotóxicos en garbanzo en condiciones de campo