12 research outputs found
Fareeha Zafar. Canals, Colonies and Class: British Policy in the Punjab 1880- 1940. Lahore, Pakistan: Lahore School of Economics. 2017. xxii + 317 pages. Price not given.
Fareeha Zafar’s book Canals, Colonies and Class: British
Policy in the Punjab 1880-1940 is essentially an edited reproduction of
her PhD thesis, The Impact of Canal Construction on the Rural Structures
of the Punjab: The Canal Colony Districts, 1880 To 1940. The thesis was
completed about 35 years ago at the School of Oriental and African
Studies, the University of London (now SOAS, the University of London).
She studies the British colonisation process in the Punjab and its
effect on the local environment, the production patterns, and social
relations, understanding that despite several similar studies on the
region, no serious effort had been made to synthesise these issues the
way she does in this book. However, in the form of a new book, the
synthesis does not add much value as it reiterates the British
colonisers’ well-known strategies, namely irrigation development as a
tool to settle disarmed forces and nomads and, thereby, strengthening a
class of local landed elite to maintain their power in the colonies,
their revenue-seeking policies, indebtedness of the landed class and
alike. Nevertheless, considering the timing of the original
contribution, the book, if read together with the contributions such as
Khuhro (1978/1999) and Cheesman (1997), provides a relatively rich
description of geographers’ analyses of the British policies, their
intentions, and their effects
Floor Brouwer (ed.) Sustaining Agriculture and the Rural Environment: Governance, Policy and Multifunctionality. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. 2004 (Reprinted 2016). Xi+360 pages. U.K. £98.10 (Hardback).
The edited book, “Sustaining Agriculture and the Rural
Environment”, is largely a European contribution to the Ecological
Economics. It provides a useful review of ‘multifunctionality’ as the
central attribute of the European Model of Agriculture (EMA) and its
applied value to other developing countries. Brouwer introduces the book
(in Chapter 1) with a premise that jointly with food and fibre, the
European farmers also produce ‘public goods’ such as landscapes and
biodiversity management, cultural heritage, and viable rural
communities. He warms up the reader to digest what follows in the book
with a quick overview of the market for these positive externalities and
strategies for their continuous supply in the European Union’s Common
Agriculture Policy. This paves the way for rest of the book, which is
organised into four parts and seventeen chapters
Emerging Issues in the Implementation of Irrigation and Drainage Sector Reforms in Sindh, Pakistan
Ever increasing demand for food, electricity and domestic
water use due to rapid growth in population has remained a key challenge
for Pakistan since the 1950s. The country has invested heavily in water
engineering projects to establish the world’s largest gravity-driven
irrigation network on the Indus [Bandaragoda (2006); Bengali (2009)].
Besides fulfilling a significant proportion of the country’s energy
demand from hydro-power installations, the system irrigates about 14
million hectares of farmlands and supports agriculture sector to
contribute about 21 percent of the GDP, 60 percent of the exports and 45
percent of the labour force [Bhutta (2006); Pakistan (2012)]. Amidst its
development, the elaborated irrigation facility has left a deep
footprint on productivity and environment of the basin itself in the
form of the rising levels of water-logging and salinity and the
degradation of deltaic ecology [Briscoe and Qamar (2009); Memon and
Thapa (2011)]. By the 1960s, every year about 40,000 hectares of fertile
farmlands were turning into wastelands because of water-logging and
salinity in the basin [Bhutta (2006); Mulk (2009); Qureshi, et al.
(2008)]. Therefore, the country had no option but to develop a remedial
drainage network of thousands of kilometres of drains and numerous tube
wells parallel to the existing irrigation infrastructure
Research on food loss and waste in the Western Balkans: A systematic review
Food losses and waste (FLW) is considered a critical issue in the ongoing debate on the sustainability of agri-food systems. However, the scholarly literature on FLW is still geographically-biased, with more attention devoted to developed countries, even in Europe. In this context, this article analyses the state of research on FLW in the Western Balkan region (viz. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia). A search performed in October 2021 on the Web of Science database returned 34 documents, and 21 eligible ones were included in the systematic review. The topical analysis of the literature addressed causes of FLW, stages of the food supply chain, extent and magnitude of FLW, FLW and food security, economic and environmental impacts of FLW, and food waste (FW) management strategies. A central finding was the scarcity of data on FW in the Western Balkans. Moreover, the literature focused on FW at the consumer level, while food loss at other stages of the food chain was generally overlooked. There is a lack of comprehensive analyses of the economic and environmental impacts of FLW as well as its implications in terms of food and nutrition security. The quantification of FLW is generally inaccurate and based on estimates and self-reported data. The literature focuses on FW reuse and recycling (e.g., energy, compost) while other management strategies (e.g., reduction/prevention, redistribution) are rarely addressed. However, the results indicated that consumers in the Western Balkans pay attention to the FW issue, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is an encouraging sign that can be exploited in awareness-raising campaigns and education activities. Meanwhile, research on FLW in the Western Balkans is highly needed to fill the identified knowledge gap and provide evidence to policies dealing with the transition to sustainable food systems in the region.Qatar National Librar
Association between Helicobacter pylori genotypes and severity of chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer disease and gastric mucosal interleukin-8 levels: evidence from a study in the Middle East
Background: The varied clinical presentations of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection are most likely due to differences in the virulence of individual strains, which determines its ability to induce production of interleukin-8 (IL-8) in the gastric mucosa. The aim of this study was to examine association between cagA, vacA-s1 and vacA-s2 genotypes of H. pylori and severity of chronic gastritis and presence of peptic ulcer disease (PUD), and to correlate these with IL-8 levels in the gastric mucosa. Methods: Gastric mucosal biopsies were obtained from patients during esophagogastroduodenoscopy. The severity of chronic gastritis was documented using the updated Sydney system. H. pylori cagA and vacA genotypes were detected by PCR. The IL-8 levels in the gastric mucosa were measured by ELISA. Results: H. pylori cagA and/or vacA genotypes were detected in 99 patients (mean age 38.4±12.9; 72 males), of whom 52.5% were positive for cagA, 44.4% for vacA-s1 and 39.4% for vacA-s2; and 70.7% patients had PUD. The severity of inflammation in gastric mucosa was increased with vacA-s1 (p=0.017) and decreased with vacA-s2 (p=0.025), while cagA had no association. The degree of neutrophil activity was not associated with either cagA or vacA-s1, while vacA-s2 was significantly associated with decreased neutrophil activity (p=0.027). PUD was significantly increased in patients with cagA (p=0.002) and vacA-s1 (p=0.031), and decreased in those with vacA-s2 (p=0.011). The level of IL-8 was significantly increased in patients with cagA (p=0.011) and vacA-s1 (p=0.024), and lower with vacA-s2 (p=0.004). Higher levels of IL-8 were also found in patients with a more severe chronic inflammation (p=0.001), neutrophil activity (p=0.007) and those with PUD (p=0.001). Conclusions: Presence of vacA-s1 genotype of H. pylori is associated with more severe chronic inflammation and higher levels of IL-8 in the gastric mucosa, as well as higher frequency of PUD. Patients with vacA-s2 have less severe gastritis, lower levels of IL-8, and lower rates of PUD. The presence of cagA genotype is not associated with the severity of gastritis or IL-8 induction in the gastric mucosa. The association of cagA with PUD may be a reflection of its presence with vacA-s1 genotype
Association of the 9p21.3 locus with risk of first-ever myocardial infarction in Pakistanis: Case-control study in South Asia and updated meta-analysis of Europeans
Objective: To examine variants at the 9p21 locus in a case-control study of acute myocardial infarction (MI) in Pakistanis and to perform an updated meta-analysis of published studies in people of European ancestry.Methods and results: A total of 1851 patients with first-ever confirmed MI and 1903 controls were genotyped for 89 tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms at locus 9p21, including the lead variant (rs1333049) identified by the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. Minor allele frequencies and extent of linkage disequilibrium observed in Pakistanis were broadly similar to those seen in Europeans. In the Pakistani study, 6 variants were associated with MI (P\u3c10(-2)) in the initial sample set, and in an additional 741 cases and 674 controls in whom further genotyping was performed for these variants. For Pakistanis, the odds ratio for MI was 1.13 (95% CI, 1.05 to 1.22; P=2 x 10(-3)) for each copy of the C allele at rs1333049. In comparison, a meta-analysis of studies in Europeans yielded an odds ratio of 1.31 (95% CI, 1.26 to 1.37) for the same variant (P=1 x 10(-3) for heterogeneity). Meta-analyses of 23 variants, in up to 38,250 cases and 84,820 controls generally yielded higher values in Europeans than in Pakistanis.Conclusions: To our knowledge, this study provides the first demonstration that variants at the 9p21 locus are significantly associated with MI risk in Pakistanis. However, association signals at this locus were weaker in Pakistanis than those in European studies
Genetic determinants of major blood lipids in Pakistanis compared with Europeans.
BACKGROUND: Evidence is sparse about the genetic determinants of major lipids in Pakistanis. METHODS AND RESULTS: Variants (n=45 000) across 2000 genes were assessed in 3200 Pakistanis and compared with 2450 Germans using the same gene array and similar lipid assays. We also did a meta-analysis of selected lipid-related variants in Europeans. Pakistani genetic architecture was distinct from that of several ethnic groups represented in international reference samples. Forty-one variants at 14 loci were significantly associated with levels of HDL-C, triglyceride, or LDL-C. The most significant lipid-related variants identified among Pakistanis corresponded to genes previously shown to be relevant to Europeans, such as CETP associated with HDL-C levels (rs711752; P<10(-13)), APOA5/ZNF259 (rs651821; P<10(-13)) and GCKR (rs1260326; P<10(-13)) with triglyceride levels; and CELSR2 variants with LDL-C levels (rs646776; P<10(-9)). For Pakistanis, these 41 variants explained 6.2%, 7.1%, and 0.9% of the variation in HDL-C, triglyceride, and LDL-C, respectively. Compared with Europeans, the allele frequency of rs662799 in APOA5 among Pakistanis was higher and its impact on triglyceride concentration was greater (P-value for difference <10(-4)). CONCLUSIONS: Several lipid-related genetic variants are common to Pakistanis and Europeans, though they explain only a modest proportion of population variation in lipid concentration. Allelic frequencies and effect sizes of lipid-related variants can differ between Pakistanis and Europeans