A Parent-Teacher View of Teens Behaviors in Nuclear and Joint Family Systems in Pakistan

This research work tries to unveil the changing teen’s behaviors in nuclear and joint family systems in Pakistan. Pakistan enjoys the social values of joint families; and, where grandparents are very important constituent of the family, the family structure is an important component in shaping the teens behaviors. Therefore, this paper focuses the sample of parents and teachers of the teens in the postmodern urban society and tried to better point out the eminent changes in the attitudes and behaviors of teens. This study follows a qualitative approach of research that pursues a phenomenological inquiry describing lived experience of the respondents regarding teen’s behavior in Pakistan

Role of Strategic Thinking in Corporate Identity

In this paper, an attempt has been made to unveil how strategic thinking contributes to corporate identity and survival. The instrument used to collect the data was a questionnaire which included a scale on creativity, pragmatic opportunism and intellectual informatism. The sample included the middle and top management of the telecom organizations in Pakistan. The questionnaires were distributed to 125 respondents and an 80% response was received. Results showed that strategic thinking has a fairly positive effect on corporate identity (CI). Among the creativity, intellectual informatism and pragmatic opportunism and when regressed with CI, pragmatic opportunism has the strongest effect on CI; creativity has a fairly positive impact on CI, whereas, intellectual informatism does not show significant impact on CI. Hopefully, this study will be informative for management about learning how they can use the available yet unfound opportunities and information within their creativity to build and maintain a good corporate identity

Biallelic variants in CHST3 cause Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia with joint dislocations in three Pakistani kindreds

Background Skeletal dysplasia is a heterogeneous group of disorders. Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasias comprise one subgroup. Deficiency of carbohydrate sulfotransferase 3 has been reported in a small number of patients with recessively inherited spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia with joint dislocation, short stature and scoliosis. We report here molecular and clinical findings of affected individuals in three consanguineous Pakistani families. Affected individuals in all three families had a uniform phenotype including severe short stature, multiple dislocated joints, progressive scoliosis and facial dysmorphism. Methods Clinical evaluation was done for three unrelated families. Radiological survey of bones was completed for patients from two of the families. Whole exome sequencing index patients from each family was performed followed by Sanger sequencing for validation of segregation of identified variants in respective families. In-silico analysis for determining pathogenicity of identified variants and conservation was done. Results Whole-exome sequencing revealed biallelic variants c.590 T > C;p.(Leu197Pro), c.603C > A;p.(Tyr201Ter) and c.661C > T;p.(Arg221Cys) in CHST3 (NM_004273.5) in the three families with eight, five and two affected individuals, respectively. Contrary to previous reports, affected individuals in none of the families exhibited a hearing loss. Conclusion We describe genotypic and phenotypic findings of three unrelated families with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia. Our study confirms phenotypic variability and adds to the genotypic spectrum of spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia.Peer reviewe

Oral cholera vaccines; current perspective and future need; towards the development of novel DNA vaccine for Vibrio species

About one-third of the countries in the world are on the verge of a cholera outbreak placing over a billion individuals at risk. Water sanitation and health (WASH) programs together with vaccination are preventive measures to eradicate cholera by 2030. While WASH takes a long time to successfully implement, vaccinations can reduce the cholera burden. 2030 is in less than a decade and yet the current WHO prequalified oral cholera vaccines (OCVs) failed to provide sufficient protective immunity to infants – the most affected age group in cholera outbreaks and cholera endemic regions, a shorter immunity in older children and adults, the requirement of multiple doses, and cold-chain for transport and storage are some of the limitations of OCVs and WHO recommends further research to provide better vaccines. DNA vaccine approach could be a potential approach in the future of cholera vaccines, providing ease of vaccine design and hence reducing production time, it is safer and cheaper, stable at room temperature, and can induce both humoral and cellular immune responses. Therefore, this can be a better alternative to the over-dependence on the first and second generations of vaccines