Coverage and quality of antenatal care provided at primary health care facilities in the ‘Punjab’ province of ‘Pakistan’

Background: Antenatal care is a very important component of maternal health services. It provides the opportunity to learn about risks associated with pregnancy and guides to plan the place of deliveries thereby preventing maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. In ‘Pakistan’ antenatal services to rural population are being provided through a network of primary health care facilities designated as \u27Basic Health Units and Rural Health Centers. Pakistan is a developing country, consisting of four provinces and federally administered areas. Each province is administratively subdivided in to ‘Divisions’ and ‘Districts’. By population ‘Punjab’ is the largest province of Pakistan having 36 districts. This study was conducted to assess the coverage and quality antenatal care in the primary health care facilities in ‘Punjab’ province of ‘Pakistan’. Methods: Quantitative and Qualitative methods were used to collect data. Using multistage sampling technique nine out of thirty six districts were selected and 19 primary health care facilities of public sector (seventeen Basic Health Units and two Rural Health Centers were randomly selected from each district. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were conducted with clients, providers and health managers. Results: The overall enrollment for antenatal checkup was 55.9% and drop out was 32.9% in subsequent visits. The quality of services regarding assessment, treatment and counseling was extremely poor. The reasons for low coverage and quality were the distant location of facilities, deficiency of facility resources, indifferent attitude and non availability of the staff. Moreover, lack of client awareness about importance of antenatal care and self empowerment for decision making to seek care were also responsible for low coverage. Conclusion: The coverage and quality of the antenatal care services in ‘Punjab’ are extremely compromised. Only half of the expected pregnancies are enrolled and out of those 1/3 drop out in follow-up visits

Accessibility of antenatal services at primary healthcare facilities in Punjab, Pakistan

Introduction: Almost one-fifth of the world\\u27s population constitutes women of reproductive age who are repeatedly exposed to pregnancy and childbearing. Many are often at high risk of illness and mortality during pregnancy and require maternal healthcare services for early detection of complications. More than 0.5 million women die every year worldwide due to pregnancy-related complications. Almost 0.03 million of them are in Pakistan. Maternal healthcare in Pakistan is poor and results in high rates of morbidity and mortality. This paper evaluates the accessibility of antenatal care (ANC) services in primary healthcare settings in the Punjab province of Pakistan during the period June 2010-August 2011. Methods: The paper uses a cross-sectional study including mix methods (qualitative and quantitative).Nine districts were included in the project; one from each administrative tier or division. Nineteen health facilities, including two rural health centres (RHCs) and 17 basic health units (BHUs) were randomly selected from each district. The total sample was 171 health facilities. The qualitative assessment was carried out through focus-group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews with clients, providers, and health managers. Results: The reasons for the gaps in service accessibility were the distant location of facilities, a lack of transport, and inconvenient facility working hours. The issues of service accessibility were further exacerbated by socio-cultural factors such as low levels of client awareness, a lack of decision-making by clients, and the influence of spiritual healers and quacks. Health managers further pointed out weak co-ordination between vertical programmes and routine integrated health services, and a lack of human resources in distantly located facilities.Conclusion: In order to increase the accessibility of ANC services, facility working hours must be extended and adjusted according to the convenience of clients in primary healthcare (PHC) facilities. The utilisation of ANC services can also be increased through client awareness and gender empowerment for ANC decision-making

Antioxidant enzymes as bio-markers for copper tolerance in safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.)

Activities of antioxidants enzymes were investigated in order to evaluate protective mechanism of plants against oxidative stress induced by high concentration of copper. Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) plants were exposed to 100 μM copper (Cu) for two weeks under controlled environmental conditions using hydroponic culture. Cu induced changes in chlorophyll and carotenoids pigments. More Cu accumulated in the roots as compared with the leaves. Level of lipid peroxidation and antioxidative enzyme activities (peroxidase, catalase and superoxide dismutase) also correlated with the Cu content of the plant tissues. However, restricted transfer of the metal to the foliage and enhanced activity of peroxidase, catalase and superoxide dismutase may be of great significance for scavenging oxidative stress caused by excessive copper in safflower plants. Thus, these antioxidant enzymes served as good predictors for the evaluation of heavy metal tolerance.Keywords: Carthamus tinctorius, copper stress, oxidative damage, antioxidant defenseAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 9(33), pp. 5441-5444, 16 August, 201

Biochar affects growth and biochemical activities of fenugreek (Trigonella corniculata) in cadmium polluted soil

Cadmium (Cd) has no defined biological role and may enter the food chain from polluted soils. Biochar has been proposed as an organic amendment to minimize the toxic effects of Cd for plants grown on contaminated soils. In this study, biometric and biochemical attributes of fenugreek (Trigonella corniculata) grown on artificially cadmium (Cd) contaminated soil (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 mg Cd/kg soil) at three levels of cotton-sticks derived biochar (CSB; 0, 3 and 5 %) were studied. Data show significant decline in the growth, photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a, b and total, carotenoids, anthocyanin and lycopene), and physiological attributes (sub-stomatal CO2 concentrations, photosynthetic and transpiration rate) in the presence of high Cd concentrations (50 and 100 mg Cd/kg soil). However, the decline was reduced in the presence of CSB. A steady amplification in lipid peroxidation (assessed via Malondialdihyde (MDA)) and ascorbic-acid assembly was noted with increasing Cd. The concentration of Cd in the root and shoot also decreased with increasing CSB application rates from 3 % - 5 %.Overall, the greater production of protein, amino acids and sugar contents in response to higher application rates of CSB seems to be due to alleviation in Cd toxicity. Thus, cotton-sticks can be safely utilized in the form of biochar as amendment with additional benefit of reducing Cd bioavailability and toxicity to crop plants

Prevalence of nomophobia and its associated factors among medical students of a private medical college in Lahore

Background and Objective: Mobile phones have become an indispensable part of our daily life. Nomophobia (NMP) is an abbreviation for &ldquo;no-mobile-phone phobia,&rdquo; which defines apprehension faced by mobile phone users in its absence which leads them to become technically unable to communicate. Objective of the study is to determine the prevalence of NMP and its association with the demographic factors among medical students of a private medical college in Lahore. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the medical students from first to final year classes from May to November 2021. A validated NMP questionnaire was used along with questions related to the sociodemographic profile and frequency of mobile phone usage by the respondents. The self-reported questionnaire was filled out by all the students who were present on the day of data collection. Data were analyzed by SPSS 20. Results: Out of 646 medical students, 618 filled the questionnaire. Out of 618 respondents, 51.5% had moderate and 38.2% had severe NMP. Among sociodemographic variables, females (40.8%) had a statistically significant association with NMP (p = 0.027). Usage of mobile phones per day and disturbance in the students&rsquo; daily routine had a statistically significant association with the NMP (p = 0.029 and p = &lt;0.001, respectively). Conclusion: NMP is very common among medical students and females are more likely to experience this phenomenon. Frequent usage of mobile phones is directly related to NMP affecting the daily routine of the medical students.</p

Bifunctionality of the AcMNPV homologous region sequence (hr1): enhancer and ori functions have different sequence requirements

The Autographa californica multinucleocapsid nuclear polyhedrosis virus (AcMNPV) homologous region sequence hr1 is a putative origin of replication (ori) sequence and can also function as a transcriptional enhancer for delayed-early genes. We demonstrate that this 750-bp sequence, carrying five 28-bp core palindromes, enhances expression from the very late polyhedrin promoter up to 11-fold in a classical enhancer fashion in transient expression assays. Enhancement is at the level of transcription, as evident from RNase protection assay analysis. It is mediated by an α-amanitin-insensitive RNA polymerase from the authentic polyhedrin promoter transcription start site and follows the temporal activation profile characteristic of the polyhedrin promoter. Three lines of evidence conclusively demonstrated that hr1 acts typically as an enhancer of polyhedrin gene transcription independent of its role as an ori: (i) linearized hr1-reporter plasmids, incapable of replicating in the host cell, could enhance transcription from the promoter; (ii) reporter plasmid copy number was not affected by the presence of aphidicolin during transfection; (iii) reporter plasmid DNA recovered from Sf9 cells was sensitive to Dpn I confirming its unreplicated state in the transfection regime followed by us. Molecular dissection of the hr1 sequence elements revealed that a core palindrome alone can function as an ori sequence whereas a palindrome along with flanking sequences is essential for the enhancer activity. Enhancement of luciferase expression from the polyhedrin promoter is a function of the number of core palindromes and flanking sequences. Our results demonstrate that hr1, which has several motifs for enhancer binding proteins and transcription factors, has a dual role associated with both DNA replication and transcriptional enhancement

Ranking of health facility by ANC-enrolment and follow-up visits in the catchment areas.

<p>Ranking of health facility by ANC-enrolment and follow-up visits in the catchment areas.</p

Association of Social Development Ranking with the District ANC coverage.

<p>Association of Social Development Ranking with the District ANC coverage.</p

Quality of ANC services and client satisfaction (Overall and by types of facilities).

<p>Quality of ANC services and client satisfaction (Overall and by types of facilities).</p

Involvement of host factors in transcription from baculovirus very late promoters - a review

The baculovirus expression vector system has emerged as the system of choice for the expression of a number of heterologous genes of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic origin. This system utilizes the baculovirus very late, hyperactive polyhedrin and p10 promoters to drive the transcription of foreign genes. Regulation of transcription from these promoters is presently not well understood even though a number of viral gene products that may be important for transcription have been identified. Fresh insight into host-virus interactions during baculovirus pathogenesis is now offered by the identification of insect host factors that interact with transcriptionally essential motifs of these promoters as well as cis-acting enhancer-like elements upstream from the promoter