Determination of pesticide residues in blood samples of villagers involved in pesticide application at District Vehari (Punjab), Pakistan

Blood samples were collected from field workers involved in pesticide spraying activities at three different farms in Tahsil Mailsi, District Vehari (Punjab), Pakistan. Twenty seven villagers (including three controls), ranging from 16 to 50 years of age and one to nine years of pesticide application experience were tested. The blood samples were analyzed for 383 different pesticides using Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS) multi residue analytical technique. Only chlorpyrifos (0.009 mg/l) and pyributicarb (0.001 mg/l) were detected in the blood samples.Key words: Multi-pesticide residues, blood sample, GC-MS

PREVALENCE OF FASCIOLA HEPATICA IN GOATS AROUND MULTAN

Faecal Samples of 80 goats belonging to Nachi and Teddy breeds were collected bimonthly from areas around Multan, Pakistan. The overall prevalence of Fasciola hepatica in goats and relationship between body weight, age, breed of the host and also effect of parasite on the litter size of the host were studied. The overall prevalence of F. hepatica was 28.75%. Infection of parasite was more prevalent in Teddy than in Nachi goats (42.10 VS 16.67%; P45 kg, the difference was significant (p36 months. The prevalence was significantly different (P<0.05) in different age groups. It was concluded that the prevalence of Fasciola hepatica in goats was significantly affected by the breed age, and body weight of the animal. However, it had no effects on the litter size

Future scenarios of fish supply and demand for food and nutrition security in Bangladesh: An analysis with the AsiaFish model

Bangladesh has made significant progress in social and economic development in recent years, but micronutrient deficiencies and poor dietary diversity remain a significant challenge. This paper developed five scenarios to explore futures of fish supply-demand in Bangladesh using the AsiaFish model, with special emphasis on the role of fish in macronutrient and micronutrient supply to address the nation's malnutrition and nutrition security challenges. A business-as-usual (BAU) scenario followed historical trends for exogenous variables used in the model. The four alternative scenarios explored: the implications of increase productivity of farmed tilapia, pangasius and rohu carp (AS1); improvements in the quality of feeds (AS2); disease outbreak in farmed shrimps and prawns (AS3); and climate change impacts (AS4). The BAU scenario indicates that aquaculture growth will be a prominent contribution to increasing total fish supply and demand and fish exports to 2040. Apart from the scenarios that are favourable to aquaculture sector development, other alternative scenarios highlighted the lower growth rate of capture fisheries and aquaculture compared to BAU, resulting in declining in per capita fish consumption, fish exports and nutrient supply from fish as a consequence. Increased availability of aquaculture fish can slightly compensate for the lower growth of capture fisheries in term of their nutrition quality and dietary diversity, particularly for poor consumers. Policies towards sustaining fisheries and a nutrition-sensitive approach to aquaculture is recommended as both capture fisheries and aquaculture are essential for sustaining healthy and nutritious diets in Bangladesh

Prenatal Immune Challenge Is an Environmental Risk Factor for Brain and Behavior Change Relevant to Schizophrenia: Evidence from MRI in a Mouse Model

Objectives: Maternal infection during pregnancy increases risk of severe neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and autism, in the offspring. The most consistent brain structural abnormality in patients with schizophrenia is enlarged lateral ventricles. However, it is unknown whether the aetiology of ventriculomegaly in schizophrenia involves prenatal infectious processes. The present experiments tested the hypothesis that there is a causal relationship between prenatal immune challenge and emergence of ventricular abnormalities relevant to schizophrenia in adulthood. Method: We used an established mouse model of maternal immune activation (MIA) by the viral mimic Polyl:C administered in early (day 9) or late (day 17) gestation. Automated voxel-based morphometry mapped cerebrospinal fluid across the whole brain of adult offspring and the results were validated by manual region-of-interest tracing of the lateral ventricles. Parallel behavioral testing determined the existence of schizophrenia-related sensorimotor gating abnormalities. Results: Polyl:C-induced immune activation, in early but not late gestation, caused marked enlargement of lateral ventricles in adulthood, without affecting total white and grey matter volumes. This early exposure disrupted sensorimotor gating, in the form of prepulse inhibition. Identical immune challenge in late gestation resulted in significant expansion of 4th ventricle volume but did not disrupt sensorimotor gating. Conclusions: Our results provide the first experimental evidence that prenatal immune activation is an environmental risk factor for adult ventricular enlargement relevant to schizophrenia. The data indicate immune-associated environmental insults targeting early foetal development may have more extensive neurodevelopmental impact than identical insults in late prenatal life. © 2009 Li et al.published_or_final_versio

Sufism and Liberation across the Indo-Afghan Border: 1880-1928

How do we understand links between sufism and pro-egalitarian revolutionary activism in the early twentieth century; and how did upland compositions of self and community help constitute revolutionary activism in South Asia more broadly? Using Pashto poetry as my archive I integrate a history of radical egalitarian thought and political practice to a holistic study of self-making; of imperial spatiality; and of shifting gradients of power in the regions between Kabul and Punjab. Amid a chaotic rise of new practices of imperial and monarchic hegemony around the turn of the twentieth century, I argue, older sedimentations of ‘devotee selfhood’ in the high valleys of eastern Afghanistan gave rise, in social spaces preserved by self-reflexive poetic practice and circulation, to conscious desires for avoidance of all forms of hierarchy or sovereignty, in favour of a horizontal politics of reciprocity. Such inchoate drives for freedom later played a role in constituting anti-statist revolutionary subjectivities across great geographical and social distance. From upland sufi roots they rippled outward to intersect with the work of transnational socialist and anti-imperialist militants in Indian nationalist circles too; and even influenced scholars at the heart of the nascent Afghan nation-state

Real-Time PCR Improves Helicobacter pylori Detection in Patients with Peptic Ulcer Bleeding

Background and aims: Histological and rapid urease tests to detect H. pylori in biopsy specimens obtained during peptic ulcer bleeding episodes (PUB) often produce false-negative results. We aimed to examine whether immunohistochemistry and real-time PCR can improve the sensitivity of these biopsies. Patients and Methods: We selected 52 histology-negative formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded biopsy specimens obtained during PUB episodes. Additional tests showed 10 were true negatives and 42 were false negatives. We also selected 17 histology-positive biopsy specimens obtained during PUB to use as controls. We performed immunohistochemistry staining and real-time PCR for 16S rRNA, ureA, and 23S rRNA for H. pylori genes on all specimens. Results: All controls were positive for H. pylori on all PCR assays and immunohistochemical staining. Regarding the 52 initially negative biopsies, all PCR tests were significantly more sensitive than immunohistochemical staining (p<0.01). Sensitivity and specificity were 55% and 80% for 16S rRNA PCR, 43% and 90% for ureA PCR, 41% and 80% for 23S rRNA PCR, and 7% and 100% for immunohistochemical staining, respectively. Combined analysis of PCR assays for two genes were significantly more sensitive than ureA or 23S rRNA PCR tests alone (p<0.05) and marginally better than 16S rRNA PCR alone. The best combination was 16S rRNA+ureA, with a sensitivity of 64% and a specificity of 80%. Conclusions: Real-time PCR improves the detection of H. pylori infection in histology-negative formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded biopsy samples obtained during PUB episodes. The low reported prevalence of H. pylori in PUB may be due to the failure of conventional tests to detect infection