The Impact of Social Support on Psychological Distress among Khawajasira Community: The Mediated Effect of Self-Efficacy

 Khawajasira is a general terminology used typically in Pakistan that refers to the people who are transgender, hermaphrodite, inter-sexed, eunuch, transvestites, homosexual or bisexual (Brettell & Sagen, 1997). The current study examines the impact of Social Support and Self-efficacy in producing Psychological distress among Khawajasiras. A sample of total two hundred Khawajasiras (N=200) was drawn from the KhawajaSira community living in Southern Punjab. Urdu versions of Psychological Distress Scale K10 by Kessler (2010), General Self-Efficacy Scale (2003) and a 3 item self-created questionnaire were used to measure Psychological distress, Self-efficacy and Social support respectively. To measure reliability of all three scales, reliability analysis was performed. Analysis of data through SPSS suggested significant positive association among Self-efficacy and Social support; Social support and Self-efficacy significantly negatively associated with Psychological distress. Moreover, Social support significantly predicted the Psychological distress in Khawajasiras even after controlling the demographic variables. In KhawajaSira community, association between Social support and Psychological Distress was mediated by Self-efficacy. Suggestions for future research and implications of the study were also discussed.&nbsp

Livestock in Pakistan: An Insight into Climate Changes and Impacts

The global livestock sector is expanding at a faster rate than any other agricultural sub-sector. It employs approximately 1.3 billion people and accounts for approximately 40 % of global agricultural output. This industry is one of the most damaging sectors to the world\u27s increasingly scarce water resources, contributing to water pollution from animal wastes, hormones, antibiotics, chemicals from tanneries, pesticides, and fertilizers used to spray feed crop. Climate change harms livestock productivity by changing ecosystem services i.e. water availability, forage quality and quantity, diseases outbreak, and animals stress due to heat shock and reduction of livestock diversity and breeds. Ecosystem and animal health are under the direct influence of climate change. The prevalence and dispersal of animal illnesses and pathogens are presently on the rise due to climate change. Climate change may have a significant impact on farm animal production performance around the world. Heat stress appears to be one of the intriguing environmental variables affecting animals, making animal production challenging in many geographical locations around the world. Intake of feed can decrease at high temperatures while energy demands increase due to the activation of thermoregulation mechanisms, which harms productivity, growth, and development. This is because thermoregulation mechanisms are activated when temperatures are high. The rate at which animals digest their food is impacted, subjected to heat stress, in addition to their rate of growth and development. The animal\u27s heart rate, rectal temperature, and respiratory rate can all be increased during expose to environments with high temperatures

Use of Moringa oleifera Flower Pod Extract as Natural Preservative and Development of SCAR Marker for Its DNA Based Identification

The use of Moringa oleifera as natural food preservative has been evaluated in the present study. In addition, for quality assurance, the study has also been focused on the shelf life of product to authenticate the identification of plant by development of DNA based marker. Among the different extracts prepared from flower pods of Moringa oleifera, methanol and aqueous extract exhibited high antibacterial and antioxidant activity, respectively. The high phenolic contents (53.5±0.169 mg GAE/g) and flavonoid contents (10.9±0.094 mg QE/g) were also recorded in methanol and aqueous extract, respectively. Due to instability of bioactive compounds in aqueous extract, methanol extract is considered as potent natural preservative. The shelf life of methanol extract was observed for two months at 4°C under dark conditions. The developed SCAR primers (MOF217/317/MOR317) specifically amplified a fragment of 317 bp from DNA of Moringa oleifera samples collected from different regions of Punjab province of Pakistan. The methanol extract of Moringa oleifera flower pods has great potential to be used as natural preservative and nutraceutical in food industry

Inhibitory effect of Allium sativum and Zingiber officinale extracts on clinically important drug resistant pathogenic bacteria

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Herbs and spices are very important and useful as therapeutic agent against many pathological infections. Increasing multidrug resistance of pathogens forces to find alternative compounds for treatment of infectious diseases.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In the present study the antimicrobial potency of garlic and ginger has been investigated against eight local clinical bacterial isolates. Three types of extracts of each garlic and ginger including aqueous extract, methanol extract and ethanol extract had been assayed separately against drug resistant <it>Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Shigella sonnei, Staphylococcus</it><it>epidermidis</it> and <it>Salmonella typhi.</it> The antibacterial activity was determined by disc diffusion method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All tested bacterial strains were most susceptible to the garlic aqueous extract and showed poor susceptibility to the ginger aqueous extract. The (minimum inhibitory concentration) MIC of different bacterial species varied from 0.05 mg/ml to 1.0 mg/ml.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In the light of several socioeconomic factors of Pakistan mainly poverty and poor hygienic condition, present study encourages the use of spices as alternative or supplementary medicine to reduce the burden of high cost, side effects and progressively increasing drug resistance of pathogens.</p