Prevalence and patterns of physical activity among school aged adolescents in Pakistan: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Less than one fifth of Pakistani adolescents, aged 13–15, years achieve recommended activity levels. This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to determine a pooled estimate of the prevalence of PA, and to systematically evaluate the literature available on PA among adolescents in Pakistan. A systemic search of databases was conducted. In addition, hand search of references of all the included relevant publications was performed. Random effects meta-analysis was used to get weighted prevalence of PA among adolescents. Quality of undertaken studies was assessed using New-Castle Ottawa Scale. After removing duplicates, reviewing titles and abstracts and screening full texts, 15 articles were included for analysis. All studies were conducted in school setting, with a total sample size of 10,651. Weighted pooled prevalence of PA among adolescents was 36.0% with high heterogeneity (99.28%). Most of the studies met study quality assessment criteria except for comparability of subjects in different outcome groups and assessment of outcome. Prevalence of PA among adolescents is low in Pakistan. Formal strategies are needed for promoting PA among adolescents for their improved health and for reducing future burden of NCDs

Assessment of nutritional status among adolescents: a hospital based cross sectional study

Background:Adolescence, a period of transition between childhood and adulthood, occupies a crucial position in the life of human beings. The primary causes of under nutrition in India are its large population, socio-economic differences and inadequate access to health facilities. Nutritional assessments among adolescents are important as they are the future parents and constitute a potentially susceptible group. Studies on the assessment of nutritional status of adolescents are less in number and a National database has not yet been developed.Methods:The present hospital based cross sectional study was conducted in year 2013 among 344 rural adolescents of 10-19 years age (166 boys and 178 girls) attending the outpatient department at rural health training centre (RHTC) Dhaura Tanda, district Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, belonging to the Muslim and Hindu caste communities. The nutritional status was assessed in terms of under nutrition (weight-for-age below 3rd percentile), stunting (Height-for-age below 3rd percentile) and thinness (BMI-for-age below 5th percentile). Diseases were accepted as such as diagnosed by pediatrician, skin specialist and medical officer.Results:The prevalence of underweight, stunting and thinness were found to be 32.8%, 19.5% and 26.7% respectively. The maximum prevalence of malnutrition was observed among early adolescents (28%-47%) and the most common morbidities were URTI (38.6%), diarrhea (16.8%), carbuncle / furuncle (16%) and scabies (9.30%).Conclusion:The study concluded that the most common morbidities among adolescents were related to nutrition and personal hygiene. Regular health programmes should focus to educate and promote health among adolescent.

Novel deep learning approach to model and predict the spread of COVID-19

SARS-CoV2, which causes coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is continuing to spread globally, producing new variants and has become a pandemic. People have lost their lives not only due to the virus but also because of the lack of counter measures in place. Given the increasing caseload and uncertainty of spread, there is an urgent need to develop robust artificial intelligence techniques to predict the spread of COVID-19. In this paper, we propose a deep learning technique, called Deep Sequential Prediction Model (DSPM) and machine learning based Non-parametric Regression Model (NRM) to predict the spread of COVID-19. Our proposed models are trained and tested on publicly available novel coronavirus dataset. The proposed models are evaluated by using Mean Absolute Error and compared with the existing methods for the prediction of the spread of COVID-19. Our experimental results demonstrate the superior prediction performance of the proposed models. The proposed DSPM and NRM achieve MAEs of 388.43 (error rate 1.6%) and 142.23 (0.6%), respectively compared to 6508.22 (27%) achieved by baseline SVM, 891.13 (9.2%) by Time-Series Model (TSM), 615.25 (7.4%) by LSTM-based Data-Driven Estimation Method (DDEM) and 929.72 (8.1%) by Maximum-Hasting Estimation Method (MHEM)

Comparative Genomic Studies in Leguminous Species

Abstract: Comparative Genomics is relatively a new discipline of Genetics, which deals with the relationships between the genomes of genera, species, varieties or strains. For elaborating comparative genomics of legumes; fourteen accessions belonging to seven species viz; Vigna radiate, Vigna mungo, Vicia ervilia, Vicia faba, Phaseolus vulgaris, Cicer arietinum and Lens culinaris, were analyzed using Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Alleles of various sizes ranging from 500-1400 bp were amplified. On an average 3.5 allele per genotype were amplified. The average genetic distance ranged from 4-91%. Phylogenetic relationship among the legumes based upon DNA analysis was studied through dendrogram analysis. All the accessions were clustered in 6 groups. It was found that Vigna radiata and Vigna mungo accessions were most distantly related to each other

Comparative Proteomic Studies in Leguminous Species

Abstract: During present work, comparative Proteomics were employed for elaborating genetic diversity in 27 accessions of 6 genera of family Papilionaceae (legumes family). Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate Poly Acrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) was employed for analyzing seed storage protein of the species. The Proteomic assay comprised a total of 296 reliably score able protein alleles identified in the twenty-seven accessions of legumes. The genetic distance estimates ranged from 0-100%. Phylogenetic relationship among the legume based upon cluster analysis assorted all the accessions in to 4 groups A, B C and D comprising 15, 5, 4 and 3 accessions, respectively

Prevalence of Muscle Dysmorphia and Associated Health Activities in Male Medical Students in Karachi, Pakistan

Background: Muscle Dysmorphia (MD) is a subtype of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and is currently classified under anxiety disorders (subheading: Obsessive-compulsive disorder) in DSM 5. MD is hypothesized to affect the self-esteem and social outlook of the younger generation. MD shows a higher rate in males and may influence their self-confidence rendering them more prone towards using steroids, supplementary proteins and other drugs to alter their physical outlooks as shown in previous studies. This problem has been on the rise lately due to revolutionary advancement in the media and film industry and the abrupt changes about the standards of physical good looks and body shapes. With the lack of studies done in our population, our study will be helpful to consider the prevalence of the disease in our setting and increase awareness in the general public and clinicians. We hope to help clinicians/ therapists find better options in managing the disease. Materials: We performed a cross-sectional study with a sample size of 246 medical school students in Karachi to collect data through self-administered questionnaires. We used the DSM 5 criteria for the diagnosis of BDD and additional questions on the presence of MD. Nutritional habits, exercise routines, use of supplements and drugs were also obtained for exploratory analysis. Results: Our study predicted the prevalence of MD to be 25%. Other main findings included statistical significant associations between MD and the thoughts and practice of steroid use for muscularity. Conclusion: MD is an underdiagnosed and often unrecognized disease that we believe has significant consequences for the young male population. Further work is needed on this in our part of the world. Our research, we believe, can be a stepping stone for further studies that would incorporate wider populations