Impact of FDI and Trade Balance on Economic Growth during 1990-2014, a Case Study of Pakistan

Purpose:The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of macroeconomic variables, Foreign Direct Investment and Trade Balance on the Economic Growth (GDP) on Pakistan economy by using the 25 years data from the time period 1990-2014.Methodology:For the empirical finding time series annually data are used to monitor by examination the stationarity of all dependent and independent variables. Unit root (ADF) test are used to check the stationarity of all the variables. Additionally The Johansen co-integrated test to check the long run relationship in the middle of the variables and to see the short run relationship VECM are used. All the variables are significant, and goodness of fit use regression the econometric model is analyses.Findings:The study found that there is significant impact of independent variables Foreign Direct Investment and Trade Balance on dependent variable GDP. And the signs of co-efficient shows, Trade Balance have negative relation with GDP while Foreign Direct Investment has positive relation with GDP. Keywords: Unit Root , Co-integrated , ECM , Regression , FDI , Trade Balanc

Comparison between Right and Left Hemisphere Lesion of Stroke Patients for Functional Gait Assessment

Objective: To compared the functional gait among left and right hemisphere lesion patients of stroke. Methods: This cross sectional comparative study included 126 patients with right and left sided hemispheric lesion. The study was conducted from December 2019 to March 2020. Patients were selected consecutively from different hospitals and rehabilitation centers of Lahore, Pakistan on the basis of inclusion & exclusion criteria. Functional gait assessment (FGA) scale was used to measure functional gait performance and disturbance related to balance in stroke patients. Independent sample t-test was used for comparison of functional gait between left and right hemispheric lesions. A p-value ≤ .05 was taken statistically significant. Results: A total of 126 patients of stroke with right and left sided hemisphere lesion were assessed for functional gait assessment. The mean age of patients in group A and B was 54.19±8.54 years and 51.46±8.57 years, respectively. The mean weight of patients in group A and B was 61.95±8.82 kg and 58.67±5.83 kg, respectively. Functional gait assessment mean score in group A was 12.56±2.60 and in group B was 15.59±4.17 points with p-value of 0.001. There was a significant difference of FGA scores present between the two groups. Conclusions: The study concluded that ambulatory functions differ with respect to site of hemisphere lesion. The site of hemisphere lesion impact on patient's functional gait has statistically significant

Word by word labelling of Romanized Sindhi text by using online python tool

Sindhi is one of the most ancient languages in the world and it has its own written and spoken scripts. After the rigorous study it was found that a lot of research work has been done in different languages, but word by word labelling of Sindhi language had not been done yet. In this research study, word labelling was done on 100 sentences of Romanized Sindhi texts using Python online tool. The dataset was collected from different sources which include Sindhi newspaper, blogs and social media webpages. From this dataset, a rule-based model has been applied for the Parts-of-Speech (POS) tagging of the Romanized Sindhi sentences. A total of 624 words of Romanized Sindhi texts were tested and successfully tagged by the SindhiNLP tool in which 482 words were tagged as nouns and pronouns, 92 words tagged as verbs and 50 words tagged as determinants

Hepetatis c virus a rare cause of cereberal venous sinus thrombosis

Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis is challenging condition because of its variability of underlying pathological causes. Numerous conditions can cause cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), and often more than one cause can be found in an individual patient. The causes leading to CVST can be classified into two broad categories; infective and non-infective. Among infective causes, chronic hepatitis C infection is considered as one of the extremely rare causes of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis

Rare presentation of cerebral venous sinus Thrombosis

We report case of a 16 year old girl with no known co-morbidities, presented with headache, quadriparesis and sudden vision loss. She had pallor and BMI was 33.09kg/m2. She had left 6th nerve palsy, bilateral papilledema and no perception of light. Motor examination showed power of 4/5 in all four limbs with bilateral extensor plantars. Neuroimaging was suggestive of superior saggital sinus thrombosis. CSF opening pressure was 72 cm of water.20 ml CSF was drained leading to improvement in headache and visual acuity. CVST presenting with quadriparesis and visual loss is a rare entity. Common presentations of CVST include headache, seizures, focal neurological deficit and altered conscious level. In our case risk factors for CVST like anemia and high body mass index (BMI) were present, but presenting clinical features were unusual. CVST is treatable so early diagnosis and knowledge of whole spectrum of clinical presentation is of extreme importance

Rhabdomyolysis due to status epilepticus causing acute renal Failure

Acute renal failure is one of the most common complications of rhabdomyolysis. Rhabdomyolysis is a serious syndrome and should be suspected in patients presenting after direct or indirect muscle injury, seizures, strenuous exercise, crush injuries and ingestion of drug or toxins. Rhabdomyolysis secondary to status epilepticus is a serious complication, leading to life threatening acute renal failure. Therefore, early recognition of risk of rhamdomylosis in status epilepticus and initiation of treatment is important

Effects of mental imagery on lower limb function in sub-acute stage of stroke patients; a randomized controlled trial

Introduction: Stroke is the most common type of cerebrovascular injury caused by sudden decrease in blood supply that can lead to weaknesses and other associated problems. Many treatment options are available for stroke with promising results. This trial was designed to explore the role of mental imagery (visual) in the sub-acute stage, considering the stroke patient, especially in evaluating its effects on the lower extremities. Material & Methods: An experimental randomized controlled trial was performed from July to August 2018 in physiotherapy departments of National Hospital and Aadil Hospital Defence Lahore. A total of 80 patients having sub-acute stroke with strong perceptions having a score of 25 or more in the Mini Mental Score Exam and a 3 +/5 manual muscle testing grade system in the lower extremity were taken using non-probability consecutive sampling procedure. All the patients were divided into 2 groups randomly. Conservative treatment including strengthening and balance training were given to one group and conservative treatment with addition of visual imagery to the second group. Independent t-test was used to assess significant differences between the two groups. Results: Comparison of Berg Balance Scale at pre-intervention between the experimental group and the controlled group was not significant, 13.76 ± 2.85 vs 13.84 ± 3.26 (p=0.927), respectively. After intervention the effects of treatment were significant in both groups, 18.64 ± 2.33 vs 17.80 ± 2.94(p=0.007), respectively. Comparison of Time Up and Go test at pre-intervention between groups was not significant, 6.28 ± 1.86 vs 6.68 ± 0.99(p=0.347), respectively. The intervention effects after treatment in both groups were significant, 1.84 ± 1.28 vs 3.56 ± 1.26 (p=0.001), respectively. Conclusion: It is concluded that mental imagery along with conservative treatment plays a vital role in construction of neural circuit in sub-acute stroke patients

Model-based in silico analysis of the PI3K/Akt pathway: the elucidation of cross-talk between diabetes and breast cancer

Background A positive association between diabetes and breast cancer has been identified by various epidemiological and clinical studies. However, the possible molecular interactions between the two heterogeneous diseases have not been fully determined yet. There are several underlying mechanisms which may increase the risk of breast cancer in diabetic patients. Introduction In this study, we focused on the role of O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) enzyme in the regulation of phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) pathway through activation/deactivation of Akt protein. The efficiency of insulin signaling in adipocytes is reduced as a result of OGT overexpression which further attenuates Akt signaling; as a result, the efficiency of insulin signaling is reduced by downregulation of insulin-responsive genes. On the other hand, increased expression of OGT results in Akt activation in breast cancer cells, leading to enhanced cell proliferation and inhibition of the apoptosis. However, the interplay amongst these signaling pathways is still under investigation. Methods In this study, we used Petri nets (PNs) to model and investigate the role of PI3K and OGT pathways, acting as key players in crosstalk between diabetes and breast cancer, resulting in progression of these chronic diseases. Moreover, in silico perturbation experiments were applied on the model to analyze the effects of anti-cancer agents (shRNA and BZX) and anti-diabetic drug (Metformin) on the system. Results Our PN model reflects the alterations in protein expression and behavior and the correlation between breast cancer and diabetes. The analysis proposed two combination therapies to combat breast cancer progression in diabetic patients including combination of OGTmRNA silencing and OGT inhibitor (BZX) as first combination and BZX and Metformin as the second. Conclusion The PN model verified that alterations in O-GlcNAc signaling affect both insulin resistance and breast cancer. Moreover, the combination therapy for breast cancer patients consisting of anti-diabetic drugs such as Metformin along with OGT inhibitors, for example BZX, can produce better treatment regimens

Brain-protective mechanisms of autophagy associated circRNAs: Kick starting self-cleaning mode in brain cells via circRNAs as a potential therapeutic approach for neurodegenerative diseases

Altered autophagy is a hallmark of neurodegeneration but how autophagy is regulated in the brain and dysfunctional autophagy leads to neuronal death has remained cryptic. Being a key cellular waste-recycling and housekeeping system, autophagy is implicated in a range of brain disorders and altering autophagy flux could be an effective therapeutic strategy and has the potential for clinical applications down the road. Tight regulation of proteins and organelles in order to meet the needs of complex neuronal physiology suggests that there is distinct regulatory pattern of neuronal autophagy as compared to non-neuronal cells and nervous system might have its own separate regulator of autophagy. Evidence has shown that circRNAs participates in the biological processes of autophagosome assembly. The regulatory networks between circRNAs, autophagy, and neurodegeneration remains unknown and warrants further investigation. Understanding the interplay between autophagy, circRNAs and neurodegeneration requires a knowledge of the multiple steps and regulatory interactions involved in the autophagy pathway which might provide a valuable resource for the diagnosis and therapy of neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we aimed to summarize the latest studies on the role of brain-protective mechanisms of autophagy associated circRNAs in neurodegenerative diseases (including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and Friedreich’s ataxia) and how this knowledge can be leveraged for the development of novel therapeutics against them. Autophagy stimulation might be potential one-size-fits-all therapy for neurodegenerative disease as per considerable body of evidence, therefore future research on brain-protective mechanisms of autophagy associated circRNAs will illuminate an important feature of nervous system biology and will open the door to new approaches for treating neurodegenerative diseases

Pan-Genome Analysis of Human Gastric Pathogen H. pylori: Comparative Genomics and Pathogenomics Approaches to Identify Regions Associated with Pathogenicity and Prediction of Potential Core Therapeutic Targets

Helicobacter pylori is a human gastric pathogen implicated as the major cause of peptic ulcer and second leading cause of gastric cancer (similar to 70%) around the world. Conversely, an increased resistance to antibiotics and hindrances in the development of vaccines against H. pylori are observed. Pan-genome analyses of the global representative H. pylori isolates consisting of 39 complete genomes are presented in this paper. Phylogenetic analyses have revealed close relationships among geographically diverse strains of H. pylori. The conservation among these genomes was further analyzed by pan-genome approach; the predicted conserved gene families (1,193) constitute similar to 77% of the average H. pylori genome and 45% of the global gene repertoire of the species. Reverse vaccinology strategies have been adopted to identify and narrow down the potential core-immunogenic candidates. Total of 28 nonhost homolog proteins were characterized as universal therapeutic targets against H. pylori based on their functional annotation and protein-protein interaction. Finally, pathogenomics and genome plasticity analysis revealed 3 highly conserved and 2 highly variable putative pathogenicity islands in all of the H. pylori genomes been analyzed