Balochi Oral Tradition

The oral tradition of the Baloch belongs to an ethnic group speaking a northwest Iranian language called Balochi and inhabiting Balochistan, a country now divided among Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. It was until recently--and to a great extent in many parts of the country it remains even now--a living art. It is, however, an art that is losing ground rapidly to the written word and to modern means of communication and entertainment.Not

Singer of Tales: Story of a Baloch Minstrel how he was discovered in his early age as a future epic singer

Until the late 20th century Balochistan had a class of minstrels, called Pahlawan (lit. “singer of heroic deeds”), who used to go around and sing verse narratives, called shayr. They mostly came from the dependent social class but had a unique place in Baloch society as they were considered as the custodians of Baloch history and code of behavior. Many such minstrels were related to prominent figures and tribal chiefs while others were itinerary minstrels who earned a living by singing at wedding ceremonies or visiting villages after harvests. Although minstrelsy was not a family profession, there were families who passed it on from father to son. In the majority of cases, the profession was started during the early age of a person and continued until the end of one’s days. Now that the socio-economic conditions have changed, minstrelsy has become a dying art with no or very few new ones learning the art. Among the living minstrels, Pahlawan Mazar is one of the most prominent names. This paper is based on his life experience and discusses how he entered the profession, who were his teachers, how much time he spent before becoming an independent singer of epics and so on

Contamination of Water Resources by Food Dyes and Its Removal Technologies

Food dyes comprise different groups which impart color to a wide range of food products. Food products are mainly purchased and consumed by people because they are nutritive and flavorsome and have an attractive color. Food color stimulates appetite and enhances its esthetic appeal of food on table for customer. With sky rocketing industrialization and modernization, the worldwide production of dyes in 2010 was forecasted to be 2.1 metric tons. It has been estimated that 15% of total dyes produced worldwide are discharged to water bodies which adversely affect aquatic ecosystem. Dyes in water reduces its transparency, thereby declining light penetration in the water, hence influencing photosynthesis which consequently reduces dissolved oxygen which is an alarming situation for both aquatic flora and fauna. Dyes wastewater discharged from huge number of industries like textile, leathers, paint, food, pharmaceutical etc. and deteriorating the aquatic environment and pose threat to living organism. The presence of dye molecules in water channels is an emerging alarm to an environmental scientist. An environmental friendly and self-sustainable treatment method should be explored to address this problem. Therefore, this work elaborates the various methods used for removal and degradation of dyes in water, although some processes have a common shortcoming like production of secondary pollution to the environment. This chapter have tried to highlight the important application of food dyes, their contamination and their toxic effect. Herein we also focus on remediation techniques like separation (adsorption, filtration, etc.) and degradation (chemical, biological and electrochemical oxidation) of dyes in aqueous solution. The mechanism and pros and cons of different methods are explored and discussed briefly

Impact of Leadership Style on Organization Commitment: In A Mediating Role of Employee Values

This paper aims to how leadership ship style effects the organization commitment of the employees, when the organization culture is reflecting the employee’s values in the organization. This paper is a conceptual based paper which gives theoretical evidence to support the idea. The paper also gives a brief overview of transactional leadership and transformational leadership. The results of the paper suggest that the leadership style is a strong dimension of organization commitment when organization culture of the organization represents the employees’ values in the organization. Employees are more satisfied if the organization will meet their expectations which are the part of that organization culture, so they are more committed with the organization. The paper is not giving any empirical evidence of the model. Further studies can be carried out by replacing transactional leadership with servant leadership

Communicating Business Ethics: The Role of Ethics in the Millennial Entrepreneur’s Decision to Start a Business

This review paper is an integration and extension of the existing knowledge on Business ethics regarding the perception of entrepreneurs belonging to the Millennial Generation and its role in their decision- making process while establishing a new business. Using the available body of literature, this study aims to determine whether business ethics is perceived as an integral part of the decision-making process of the Millennial Generation. Millennials is the most recent and largest workforce of today and includes those born between 1980 and 1990. This study starts with general discussion on business ethics and its relation with age, followed by a review of ethics for entrepreneurs and the Millennials. This review revealed that although majority of Millennials consider business ethics as a vital component of business, however, all of them have not included the business ethics yet prior to start a new business in their decision making

A prospective randomized controlled trial for comparison of oral misoprostol with methyl ergometrine in the third stage of labour for prevention of post-partum haemorrhage

Background: Near about 11% of women having live births have severe PPH (Globally 14 million women per year). About 3.9% of vaginal deliveries and 6.4% of cesarean section get PPH. Near about 1.4 million women die of PPH every year. Frequency of PPH is related to management of third stage of labour. Objective of the study was to compare the efficacy of misoprostol with conventional oxytocics for active management of third stage of labour.Methods: The present study was carried out in tertiary care teaching hospital for a period of three years from June 2007-May 2010. A total of 364 study participants who reported to labour ward with labour pains in latent phase and subsequently went in spontaneous labour were enrolled and randomly distributed to two groups and given oral misoprostol and i.v. ergometrine.Results: The mean age in Group A was 23.17±2.55 and 24.31±3.28 respectively. It was observed that most the study participants in both the groups had the duration of third stage of labour in between 10-14 minutes i.e. 29% in Group A and 36.3% in Group B respectively. The duration of third stage of labour was significantly more in Group B compared to Group A.Conclusions: Misoprostol is a promising drug in the management of third stage of labour for the prevention of post- partum haemorrhage

ANTIHYPERGLYCAEMIC EFFECT OF FICUS DALHOUSIAE MIQ LEAF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT IN ALLOXAN-INDUCED DIABETIC RATS

Objective: Ficus dalhousiae Miq. Has been documented for a wide range of uses in Ayurvedic and Unani medicine. The aim of this study was to evaluate the anti-hyperglycaemic effect of FDLEE in alloxan induced diabetic rats. Methods: Plant material was collected from Tirupati A. P, during the month of March 2013 the leaves were wiped carefully to make them free from dust and foreign material and dried under shade at room temperature. After seven days, the leaves were powdered and passed through a sieve. The powder was weighed (500 gm) and was extracted by maceration process and the solvent was evaporated in a rotavapor at 40º- 50º C under reduced pressure. The total yield of the extract was 16.5%. Phytochemical screening was carried out for the detection of alkaloids, flavanoids, glycosides, saponins, sterols and tannins by simple qualitative methods. Diabetes mellitus was induced by single i. p injection of freshly prepared solution of Alloxan monohydrate at a dose of 150mg/kg b. w. The animals were kept under observation for 48hr; Blood glucose was measured by glucometer. The rats with blood glucose levels above 250 mg/dl were selected for the experimental studies. FDLEE (100, 200 & 400mg/kg, b. w) was administered orally once a day for a period of 10 days. Body weight and blood glucose levels were determined on different experimental days. Results: Significant decrease in body weight and increase in blood glucose and lipid profile were observed in diabetic rats. The administration of FDLEE and glibenclamide daily for 10 days reversed body weights and blood glucose significantly. Conclusion: FDLEE exhibited anti-hyperglycaemic and anti-hyperlipidaemic effects in diabetic rats which supports its use as an adjunct in treatment of diabetes

Impact of antibiotic usage on resistance in microorganisms; urinary tract infections with E-coli as a case in point

Objectives: In this study, we sought to establish a correlation between consumption of flouoroquinolones in our hospital and the emergence of ofloxacin resistant strains of E. coli in the urinary specimens. Data of all urinary samples, received at Aga Khan University Hospital between January 1995 and December 2002, was retrieved and analyzed. Specimens yielding E-coli as an isolate were included in this study. Methods: E. coli Isolates showing \u3e103 colonies were identified using standard microbiological techniques. Antibiotic susceptibility of E. coli was tested using Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method. Antimicrobial usage data, obtained through hospital Pharmacy as unit utilized per year for Quinolones in different medical and surgical units was available only for the period of 1997- 2002. Results: Among 32,722 urinary specimens E. coli (53%) was the most frequent isolate. Steady increase in the number of ofloxacin resistant E. coli was noted, 24% in 1995 to 55% in 2002. Maximum quinolone resistant E. coli have been observed in Medical units, 41% in 1997 increasing to 70% in 2002, followed by Surgery units (35% to 54%) and Pediatrics (12 to 38%). Sharp increase in ofloxacin consumption in our hospital, 1997 (28613 units) to 2002 (96880 units) has been observed. Trends in quinolone resistance correlate significantly with utilization in the same period as shown by linear regression. Conculsion: E. coli resistance against most antibiotics has been on a rise particularly for quinolones. The utilization of quinolones correlates with increasing resistance in our hospitalized patients