A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF TOLPERISONE VERSUS TIZANIDINE IN PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM ACUTE LOW BACK PAIN WITH MUSCLE SPASM

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to compare the efficacy and safety of Tolperisone tablets 50 mg three times daily versus Tizanidine 2 mg tablets thrice daily for the treatment of acute low back pain with muscle spasm. METHODS: The comparative study was carried out in 50 patients from orthopedics Dr. Pinnamaneni Siddhartha Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Foundation, Vijayawada. Only those patients fulfilling the inclusion/exclusion criteria were enrolled into the study. Participants suffering from acute low back pain with muscle spasm were divided into two groups. The participants were followed up on Day-14 as final analysis. RESULTS: Subjects receiving Tolperisone showed a mean value of 16.43±1.16 in the Roland Morris low back pain and disability questionnaire both groups on day 1 and was reduced to 7.82±1.15 (51.94%) on day 7 and 2.56±1.53 (84.46%) on day 14. Similarly, the patients in the tizanidine group had mean value of 15.93±1.61 on day 1, which was reduced to 6.77±1.68 (57.64%) on day 7, and 2.88±1.92 (81.95%) on day 14, as comparable to the Tolperisone group. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups, (p>0.05) for pain at rest, pain at night, restrictions of movement, changes in stiffness, changes in numbness, and changes in tenderness. There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups, (p<0.05) for pain on movement and kinesalgia. CONCLUSIONS: Tolperisone was found comparable in efficacy to Tizanidine in improving the clinical symptoms of changes in pain Self-assessment by the patient on different applied parameters

The implications of social media marketing towards enhancing brand loyalty / Muhammad Faheem Abdul Majid and Niftahul Janna Hussin

Research have demonstrated that there are a few variables that impact a client's choice to repurchase an item or benefit or to be faithful to be a specific item. . Lau et al. (2006) in his article said that there were a few components that affected buyers' image steadfastness towards certain brands. The variables were brand name, item quality, value, and advancement and administration quality. Other scientist have likewise thought of variables that impact brand dedication and one thing stays basic with them where they trust that item quality or saw item quality assumes a part in client brand devotion. In any case, an audit of writing on the relationship between item quality and brand unwaveringness has highlighted the hole in writing that basically breaks down the item quality and brand reliability build or the level of impact that item quality has on brand devotion. The current writing in regards to online networking is genuinely later and basically concentrates on the open doors and advantages of engagement between the buyer and the brand. By comprehension and using online networking showcasing, knowing the desires of social networking shoppers, and making trusting associations with those customers, social networking can be connected to any neighborhood business or expansive partnership to build purchaser steadfastness. Online networking has permitted clients to discuss what they need, need, as, and don't care for continuously, making an open door for organizations to take advantage of this information and interface on an individual level ("Strategic Direction," 2012, p.25). Since online networking is being used at an undeniably quick pace by purchasers, it is basic to direct research on the ebb and flow methodologies utilized by experts as a part of showcasing and advertising by gathering master suppositions on the subject of social networking advertisement. Inside the previous couple of years, online networking has turned into an inexorably mainstream medium for brand and shopper engagement. "The intuitive way of online networking (its capacity to build up discussions among people, firms in groups of merchants and clients, and include clients in substance era and worth creation) has energized experts with its capability to better serve clients and fulfill their necessities" (Sashi, 2012, p. 254). For quite a long time, advertising and showcasing experts have utilized diverse mediums to give client benefit and advance items. Online networking has cultivated the development of trusting connections amongst customer and brand, making it an inexorably imperative medium to use with a specific end goal to boost brand faithfulness. The researcher doing this exploration to perceive how the online networking can give an effect to the brand dependability. Since, the rise of neighborhood business visionary, for example, D'herbs, Sendayu Tinggi, Vida Beauty, Nouvelles Visages and numerous more made excessively numerous beautifying agents and healthy skin item sold in Malaysia. In this manner, they have to rival worldwide brand. Corrective has turned into a typical and prominent classification among youthful and grown-up individuals these days. This is on account of individuals now more worry about their look. In this globalization time, business visionary can take these chances to expand their image faithfulness through online networking

LAND POLLUTION AND ISLAMIC TEACHINGS

ABSTRACT The land is Allah’s most precious blessing for mankind. He adorned it with his countless blessings and appointed man as His vicegerent. Unfortunately, it is the man who polluted it for his own interest and now man himself is suffering from its dangerous consequences. Respiratory infections, lung cancer, cholera, hepatitis, typhoid and cardiovascular problem are but only a few of the long list diseases man has been suffering for a long time. Overcrowding in cities, increase in household and industrial waste, poisonous agricultural activities, excessive use of plastic and escalation of deforestation are the concrete reasons behind the exacerbating land pollution. That is why, land pollution has been the major concern for the whole world. Islam is a complete code of life. It is not just a set of instructions, but it is a complete guide with respect to every matter of life. Islam hates pollution and suggests strict punishment for those who are involved in such malpractices. There are many injunctions of Islam regarding land pollution and its preventions. It encourages man to plant trees, make land, water and air clean, and prohibits him to go against the nature of its environment. This is the only religion which shares its half faith in cleanliness. Therefore, man’s duty can never be the desolation and destruction of the earth. The responsibility of Allah’s vicegerent is of course to settle the earth and not to dispose of it in a way that is contrary to the purpose of creation

A STUDY TO EVALUATE THE SAFETY OF ARIPIPRAZOLE IN TREATMENT OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

Objectives: Aripiprazole is recommended in a dose of 10 and 15 mg/day, with a dose ranging between 10 and 30 mg/day in the treatment of schizophrenia. The primary objective of the study is to evaluate the safety profile of Aripiprazole in low dose of 15 mg versus high dose of 30 mg in the treatment of Schizophrenia. Methods: A total of 60 patients (not on treatment) between age 18-60 years of either gender who meet the diagnostic criteria as per DSM-IV classification for schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. All patients were randomly divided into two groups on single-blind study criteria. Group-I: Aripiprazole 15 mg once a day, morning dose for 6 weeks. Group-II: Aripiprazole 30 mg once a day, morning dose for 6 weeks. The ESRS includes 12 questionnaire items; each item is rated on a 7-point scale. Efficacy assessment included at baseline and at 6 weeks end study scoring on PANSS, EPRS, and CGI. Results: The total number of patients showed the ESRS (total symptoms) in group-I was 09 patients (35%) out of 26 and in group II, 13 patients (59%) out of total 22 showed the ESRS (total symptoms). In both the groups aripiprazole showed the comparable efficacy by improving overall symptoms in the number of patients. In group I, 20 patients have shown the improvement in overall scores of all scales. In group II, 16 patients have shown the improvement in overall scores in different scales. Conclusions: Aripiprazole is effective in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders, doses of 15 mg are equally effective as doses of 30 mg, side effects like EPS are more with higher doses of Aripiprazole

Workplace Bullying and Intention to Leave: The Moderating Effect of the Organizational Commitment

The main reasoning of this study is to figure out the relations among workplace bullying and turnover intention of the employee treating organization commitment as a moderating variable. Workplace bullying have a positive impact on intention to leave which reveals the widespread impact that bullying can have on targets in that still less rigorous types of bullying are coupled with victims intention to leave the workplace (e.g. department), the organization or the job. Workplace bullying are more relevant to systematic flaws in the organization and less to employees’ performances while person-related bullying is related more to the personal characteristics of the victims, so irrespective of their commitment, exit from the organization in such circumstances happens to be the preferable alternative for the victim. This study provides an insight that the harmful effects of workplace bullying could be handled effectively through the moderating effects of organizational commitment on the relation between workplace bullying and intention to leave. It therefore, required conducting a further study on the join effects of organizational commitment and bullying in terms of some other variables such as in-role job performance, which are vital to the working of the organizations

Admissible evidence in the court of development evaluation? : the impact of CARE's SHOUHARDO Project on child stunting in Bangladesh

Along with the rise of the development effectiveness movement of the last few decades, experimental impact evaluation methods – randomised controlled trials and quasiexperimental techniques – have emerged as a dominant force. While the increased use of these methods has contributed to improved understanding of what works and whether specific projects have been successful, their ‘gold standard’ status threatens to exclude a large body of evidence from the development effectiveness dialogue. In this paper we conduct an evaluation of the impact on child stunting of CARE’s SHOUHARDO project in Bangladesh, the first large-scale project to use the rights-based, livelihoods approach to address malnutrition. In line with calls for a more balanced view of what constitutes rigor and scientific evidence, and for the use of more diversified and holistic methods in impact evaluations, we employ a mixed-methods approach. The results from multiple data sources and methods, including both non-experimental and quasi-experimental, are triangulated to arrive at the conclusions. We find that the project had an extraordinarily large impact on stunting among children 6–24 months old – on the order of a 4.5 percentage point reduction per year. We demonstrate that one reason the project reduced stunting by so much was because, consistent with the rights-based, livelihoods approach, it relied on both direct nutrition interventions and those that addressed underlying structural causes including poor sanitation, poverty, and deeply-entrenched inequalities in power between women and men. These findings have important policy implications given the slow progress in reducing malnutrition globally and that the widely-supported Scaling Up Nutrition initiative aimed at stepping up efforts to do so is in urgent need of guidance on how to integrate structural cause interventions with the direct nutrition interventions that are the initiative’s main focus. The evaluation also adds to the evidence that targeting the poor, rather than employing universal coverage, can help to accelerate reductions in child malnutrition. The paper concludes that, given the valuable policy lessons generated, the experience of the SHOUHARDO project merits solid standing in the knowledge bank of development effectiveness. More broadly, it illustrates how rigorous and informative evaluation of complex, multi-intervention projects can be undertaken even in the absence of the randomisation, nonproject control groups and/or panel data required by the experimental methods. Keywords: development effectiveness; impact evaluation; experimental methods; child malnutrition; Bangladesh

Anterior Cervical Corpectomy with Cage Fixation for Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy

Objective:  This study aimed to report the clinical outcome of anterior cervical corpectomy with cage fixation in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy. Material and Methods:  This observational retrospective study included 36 patients from the Neurosurgery department of Lady Ready Hospital MTI, Peshawar from 2014 January to 2015 December. After performing surgery, the patients were followed up for six months for neurological outcome and various post-operative complications such as infection, transient recurrent laryngeal palsy, screw displacement and improvements in paresthesias and gait ataxia. Results:  Most of the patients have no post-operative complications. Seventy-five percent (n = 27) of patients reported an immediate improvement in paresthesia and fine hand movements and gait. The major reported complications were implant failure (5.55%) and recurrent laryngeal nerve transient palsy in two patients (5.55%) each. Conclusion:  In patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy, with anterior compression, cervical corpectomy with cage fixation is less invasive and an effective procedure with acceptable outcomes

Grade Classification for Water Chestnuts, their Dimensional Properties and Correlation Analysis

66-70The aim of the present study was to devise the grade classification for whole water chestnuts and kernels and to determine their dimensional properties. The data generated during the study will help in designing post-harvest handling equipments for water chestnuts in future. The mean values of length, width and thickness for whole water chestnuts ranged between ≤ 30 - > 45mm; ≤ 23- > 35mm and ≤ 9 - >18mm from grade I (very small) to grade V (very large) respectively, whereas, the corresponding values for whole water chestnut kernels ranged between ≤ 18 - > 36 mm; ≤ 13- > 22mm and ≤ 7 - > 16 mm from grade I to grade V respectively.  For all the five devised grades, the mean values of derived dimensional properties were significantly (p<0.05) different in both whole water chestnuts as well as in kernels. Correlation analysis revealed significant (p<0.05) positive correlation among all the dimensional properties of whole water chestnuts. In case of whole water chestnut kernels, all the dimensional properties showed significant positive correlation with each other, except sphericity and aspect ratio, which showed non-significant positive and negative correlations with all the dimensional properties respectively

Vitamin D Deficiency in Rawalpindi –Islamabad Region

To assess vitamin – D deficiency in Northern Pakistan in order to provide inputs towards developing effective preventive and remedial strategies.Methods:A total of five thousand six hundred and ninety three (n=5693) adult patients of both genders were screened for serum Vitamin D-3 levels over the period of six years.Results:Mean serum Vitamin D3 levels among males and females were in insufficient range and showed no significant difference (P&gt;0.05). In study population 56.5% (n=3216) of patients were Vitamin D-3 deficient (&lt;20 ng/ml), 18.2% (n=1037) showed insufficient levels (20-30 ng/ml) and 25.3% showed sufficient levels (&gt;30 ng/ml). Significant difference was observed on gender stratification with female population showed higher percentage of deficient levels (79.7%) versus males (20.3%) (p&lt;0.05). Age based stratification also showed significant difference with age groups younger than 50 years showed higher percentage of deficient levels than in patients older than 50 years (P&lt;0.05). Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in population of Rawalpindi and Islamabad region