EFFECT OF PIGEON ORIGIN NEWCASTLE DISEASE VIRUS ON VARIOUS LIVER ENZYMES AND ASSOCIATED PATHOLOGICAL CHANGES IN EXPERIMENTALLY INFECTED PIGEONS

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) was isolated from a field outbreak in pigeons. The virus was characterized by haemagglutination test (HA) and confirmed by haemagglutination inhibition test (HAI). The pathotyping was done by mean death time (MDT), intracerebral pathogenicity index (ICPI) and intravenous pathogenicity index (IVPI). The ELD50 of the velogenic strain was 10-4.66/0.1 ml. Thirty-nine pigeons were randomly divided into three equal groups. Pigeons of one group were vaccinated with ND vaccine (LaSota strain) intraocularly after 14 days of procurement, while the other two groups served as vaccinated and non-vaccinated controls. Birds of these two groups were challenged with velogenic strain of field isolate of NDV 7 days post-vaccination. Birds were kept under observation for 15 days post-challenge. Haemorrhages and congestion were observed in trachea, lungs, liver, proventriculus and intestine of pigeons infected with NDV. Concentrations of AST, ALT and ALP did not differ among pigeons of the three groups

Jatropha curcas leaves mulch effect on seedling emergence and growth of maize (zea mays)

Allelopathy is a process in which one plant species may usefully or adversely affect the growth of other plant species through the production of allelochemicals. During the present investigation, mulch effect of Jatropha curcas leaves was evaluated on seed germination and seedling growth of maize varieties viz. Pioneer (V1), Azam (V2) and Jalal (V3). Mulch was applied at 1 and 2 tons/hectare. Phenolic compounds were detected in Jatropha curcas leaf (131.15 mg gallic acid eq./gm extract). Mulch applied at 2 tons/hectare significantly reduced seed germination (%), germination index, relative water content, root width and seedling dry weight. From the findings of the present investigation, it was inferred that Jatropha curcas leaves exhibited phytotoxic effects on maize at high concentrations

Smokeless tobacco initiation, use and cessation in south Asia: A qualitative assessment

Introduction: Smokeless tobacco (ST) is a significant South Asian public health problem. This paper reports a qualitative study of a sample of South Asian ST users.Methods: Interviews, using a piloted topic guide, with 33 consenting, urban dwelling adult ST users explored their ST initiation, continued use and cessation attempts. Framework data analysis was used to analyse country specific data before a thematic cross-country synthesis was completed.Results: Participants reported long term ST use and high dependency. All reported strong cessation motivation and multiple failed attempts because of ease of purchasing ST, tobacco dependency and lack of institutional support.Conclusions: Interventions to support cessation attempts amongst consumers of South Asian ST products should address the multiple challenges of developing an integrated ST policy, including cessation services.Implications: This study provides detailed understanding of the barriers and drivers to ST initiation, use and cessation for users in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. It is the first study to directly compare these three countries. The insight was then used to adapt an existing behavioural support intervention for ST cessation for testing in these countries

Urban-rural inequities in knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding tuberculosis in two districts of Pakistan's Punjab province

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>The aim of this study was to explore inequities in knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding tuberculosis (TB) among the urban and rural populations.</p> <p>Design</p> <p>A cross-sectional study was conducted in two districts of Pakistan's Punjab province. The 1080 subjects aged 20 years and above, including 432 urban and 648 rural respondents, were randomly selected using multistage cluster sampling and interviewed after taking verbal informed consent. Logistic regression was used to calculate the crude odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for the urban area. The differences in knowledge, attitudes, practices and information sources between the urban and rural respondents were highlighted using Pearson chi-square test and Fisher's exact test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The study revealed poor knowledge regarding TB. The deficit was greater in the rural areas in all aspects. The knowledge regarding symptoms (OR 2.03, 95% CI 1.59-2.61), transmission (OR 1.93, 95% CI 1.44-2.59), prevention (OR 2.24, 95% CI 1.70-2.96), duration of standard treatment (OR 1.88, 95% 1.41-2.49) and DOTS (OR 1.84, 95% CI 1.43-2.38) was significantly higher in the urban areas (all P < 0.001). Although a majority of the subjects (urban 83.8%, rural 81.2%) were aware of the correct treatment for TB, less than half (urban 48.1%, rural 49.2%) were aware of the availability of the diagnostic facility and treatment free of cost. The practice of seeking treatment at a health facility (P = 0.030; OR 2.01, 95% CI 1.06-3.82), as soon as they realized that they had TB symptoms (P < 0.001; OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.26-2.35), was significantly higher in the urban areas. People in the urban areas were more likely to feel ashamed and embarrassed being a TB patient (P < 0.001; OR 2.03, 95% CI 1.50-2.76); however, they seem to be supportive in case their family member suffered from TB (P = 0.005; OR 1.53, 95% CI 1.13-2.06). Nearly half of the respondents, irrespective of the area of residence, believed that the community rejects the TB patient (urban 49.8%, rural 46.4%). Television (urban 80.1%, rural 68.1%) and health workers (urban 30.6%, rural 41.4%) were the main sources for people to acquire the TB related information.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Respondents' knowledge regarding TB was deficient in all aspects, particularly in the rural areas. Intended health seeking behavior was better in the urban areas. Television and health workers were the main sources for TB related information in both the urban as well as the rural areas. Therefore, the area of residence should be considered in tailoring communication strategies and designing future interventions for TB prevention and control.</p

Revisiting Brucellosis in Small Ruminants of Western Border Areas in Pakistan

Brucellosis, globally known bacterial zoonosis, is endemic to Pakistan. B. abortus in bovines, B. melitensis in small ruminants and B. canis in dogs mainly cause this disease. A total of 1821 sera (1196 from sheep and 625 from goats) from animal herds near the Pakistan–Afghanistan border were collected. In parallel testing of sera for anti-Brucella antibodies (B. abortus and B. melitensis) was carried out by RBPT and indirect ELISA. The presence of Brucella DNA in sera was tested by real-time PCR. The overall percentage of seropositive samples was 0.99 (18/1821) by both tests. All positive samples originated from Baluchistan territory which translated into 1.76% (18/1021). None of the positive sera had signals for Brucella DNA and none of sera from goats carried detectable antibodies. Both tests showed an almost perfect agreement with Kappa statistics. The flock size was found to be associated with the presence of anti-Brucella antibodies. The samples of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) tested negative in both serological tests and hence were not processed for real-time PCR. The present study shows the presence of anti-Brucella antibodies in sheep in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan. Diagnostic services need to be improved and test and slaughter policies might be implemented for eradication of Brucella infection in these areas. Awareness about the infection is needed at the farmer’s level. Isolation and molecular biology of the isolates could help with understanding the prevailing etiology in a better way

Islamic Rhetoric in Pakistan: A Comparison at the National and Sub-national Levels

This research examines the role that Islamic ideology plays in Pakistani politics at the national and sub-national levels. It seeks to understand how Islamic parties appeal to Islam to garner support. I pull from and contribute largely to the theoretical literature on nationalism and apply it specifically to my research question. I argue that political leaders rely on Islamic rhetoric more heavily at the national level to create a national identity. However, my research will also show that this phenomena is less prominent in sub-national politics. At the provincial level, political parties and party leaders are more likely to engage their constituents by using rhetoric that speaks to their ethnic identity and promises access to essential resources. To provide evidence for this argument, a corpus analysis was chosen to investigate news articles, interviews, and quotes from Islamic political leaders at the sub-national and national levels, specifically political leaders from the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. The main result from this research is that Islamic rhetoric is used differently at the two levels. Thus, these results contribute to a better understanding of what motivates Islamic political parties in Pakistan and whether or not they are meaningfully distinct from other, more secular, political parties in Pakistan

Issues in Islamic derivatives and proposals for reforms in the OTC market in Indonesia

This paper aims to propose reforms to develop the Islamic derivatives transactions in Indonesia’s over-the-counter (OTC) market. It is argued that the use of derivatives instruments is considered non-sharia compliant by the National Sharia Board (NSB) of the Indonesian Council of Ulama. However, other Ulamas had adopted a different approach in discussing the issues of derivatives contracts. Standard doctrinal and comparative approaches are employed in this discursive qualitative analysis using an extensive review of the literature from primary and secondary sources to collect the data on Islamic derivatives in the OTC market. This research concludes with two proposals for Islamic derivatives in the OTC market in Indonesia; first, the use of musawamah (sale without revealing the cost) in the swap, al-khiyar (the right to make choice) in option, ju’alah (commission) in future contracts, and wa’ad (a promise) in option can further boost the investors in the OTC market. Second, the Islamic scholars should be softening towards the decision of using derivatives instruments in Indonesia. Such as in the case of the forward agreements, which should be exempted from non-sharia compliance, provided they are used solely for reducing risk due to necessity in al-tahawuth lil hajah al-massah (sharia-compliant genuine hedging needs)

Scientific papers citation analysis using textual features and SMOTE resampling techniques

Abstract Ascertaining the impact of research is significant for the research community and academia of all disciplines. The only prevalent measure associated with the quantification of research quality is the citation-count. Although a number of citations play a significant role in academic research, sometimes citations can be biased or made to discuss only the weaknesses and shortcomings of the research. By considering the sentiment of citations and recognizing patterns in text can aid in understanding the opinion of the peer research community and will also help in quantifying the quality of research articles. Efficient feature representation combined with machine learning classifiers has yielded significant improvement in text classification. However, the effectiveness of such combinations has not been analyzed for citation sentiment analysis. This study aims to investigate pattern recognition using machine learning models in combination with frequency-based and prediction-based feature representation techniques with and without using Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) on publicly available citation sentiment dataset. Sentiment of citation instances are classified into positive, negative or neutral. Results indicate that the Extra tree classifier in combination with Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency achieved 98.26% accuracy on the SMOTE-balanced dataset

Routine immunization in Pakistan: comparison of multiple data sources and identification of factors associated with vaccination.

Background: Within Pakistan, estimates of vaccination coverage with the pentavalent vaccine, oral polio vaccine (OPV) and measles vaccine (MV) in 2011 were reported to be 74%, 75% and 53%, respectively. These national estimates may mask regional variation. The reasons for this variation have not been explored. Methods: Data from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) for Balochistan and Punjab (2010-2011) are analysed to examine factors associated with receiving three or more doses of the pentavalent vaccine and one or more MVs using regression modelling. Pentavalent and OPV estimates from the MICS were compared to vaccine dose histories from surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP; poliomyelitis) to ascertain agreement. Results: Adjusted coverage of children 12-23 months of age were estimated to be 16.0%, 75.5% and 34.2% in Balochistan and 58.0%, 87.7% and 72.6% in Punjab for the pentavalent vaccine, OPV and MV, respectively. Maternal education, healthcare utilization and wealth were associated with receiving the pentavalent vaccine and the MV. There was a strong correlation of district estimates of vaccination coverage between AFP and MICS data, but AFP estimates of pentavalent coverage in Punjab were biased toward higher values. Conclusions: National estimates mask variation and estimates from individual surveys should be considered alongside other estimates. The development of strategies targeted towards poorly educated parents within low-wealth quintiles that may not typically access healthcare could improve vaccination rates