Perspective and Prospects of Commencing New Education Policy (NEP) of Pakistan: A Review of Conference.

This article focuses on four important factors: Assessment, Curriculum and Text Books’ Policy, Teachers for quality education and Education and management, as formulated by Education and Literacy Department of Sindh Government. Open poll discussions and views given by educationists and experts were taken. All the views have been summarized for consideration by all concerned. Chief Minister Sindh, Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Javed Hussain, Education Minister, Hamida Khoro and Education Secretary to Government of Sindh, Ghulam Ali Pasha also shared their opinions on the new Education Policy and Government’s intention to ensure quality education in Sindh Province. The purpose of this article is to review and summarize the views presented in the Education Conference and reach fruitful conclusions. The implications are also made keeping in mind the targets of New Millennium Development Goals (NMDGs).Assessment, Curriculum and Text Book Policy, Education and Management, Literacy

Family Types, Authority Structure and Women Workers in Sindh Labor Force: Problems and Prospects

The development of a society is virtually dependent upon the quality of human resources both male and female, the changing pattern of economic and social development of world societies irrespective of their level of development, necessitates and equal advancement of both the social segments. The numerical reality that women constitute about nearly half of the total population of Sindh ideally assigns to them equal participating role in the economic life of the province. However, like other developing countries, women’s role in Sindh as an active worker-producer of goods and services has not been duly recognized by this male dominated society. With the objective of ensuring increased participation of women, clear-cut guidelines about integrating women in the development process and defining their roles are still lacking in Sindh. The present study is a step in the direction of bridging the gap of information about female labor force participation of Sindh in different, activity rates, industry group, occupation group and employment status in 1981 and 1998 population census. The most important conclusion that emerges from this study is that though percentage of women labor force in different, activities, industry group, occupation group and employment status has mostly increased in 1998 as compared to 1981, but being nearly half of the population this increase is still very low.Family, Authority, Problems, Female, Labor Force, Sindh

Motor neuronopathy associated with Adenocarcinoma of Esophagus

Neurologic paraneoplastic syndromes (NPS) are remote neurologic effects, except metastasis, of systemic cancers. These are a rare group of disorders, commonly associated with small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC).1 Various NPS have been described, including motor neuronopathy. The motor neuronopathy has commonly been described with small cell carcinoma of lung, breast cancer and lymphoproliferative disorders.2,3 We report a case of motor neuronopathy in association with large cell adenocarcinoma of esophagus. To our knowledge this is the first reported case of motor neuronopathy associated with adenocarcinoma of the esophagus

Serum cholesterol in neonates and their mothers. a pilot study

Reports from the Aga Khan University indicate that 58% of 400 school children studied had undesirably high serum cholesterol levels. The present study was undertaken to determine whether the high cholesterol levels are present at birth and to determine the relationship between cord blood, maternal blood cholesterol and maternal diet. Cord blood from 58 neonates and fasting venous blood form 45 mothers were analyzed for total serum cholesterol. Mothers were interviewed regarding their usual diet during pregnancy. Mean cord blood cholesterol was 56.90 mg/dl (range 26 to 123 mg/dI). Mean maternal blood cholesterol was 232.4mg/dl (range 141-382 mg/dl). Mean maternal intake of cholesterol was 457 mg (recommended level _ 300 mg/day). There was no significant co-relation between cord blood cholesterol and maternal blood cholesterol or maternal intake of cholesterol. Eighteen percent of the mothers reported a strong family history of hypercholesterolemia and/or heart disease, but this genetic tendency was not observed in the blood cholesterol level at birth indicating that environmental factors namely diet may have a prime role in determining serum cholesterol levels in childhoo

Silencing of MBD1 and MeCP2 in prostate-cancer-derived PC3 cells produces differential gene expression profiles and cellular phenotypes

Alterations in genomic CpG methylation patterns have been found to be associated with cell transformation and neoplasia. Although it is recognized that methylation of CpG residues negatively regulates gene expression, how the various MBPs (methyl-binding proteins) contribute to this process remains elusive. To determine whether the two well characterized proteins MeCP2 (methyl-CpG-binding protein 2) and MBD1 (methyl-CpG-binding domain 1) have distinct or redundant functions, we employed RNAi (RNA interference) to silence their expression in the prostate cancer-derived PC3cell line, and subsequently compared cell growth, invasion and migration properties of these cell lines in addition to their respective mRNA-expressionprofiles. Cells devoid of MeCP2 proliferated more poorly compared with MBD1-deficient cells and the parental PC3 cells. Enhanced apoptosis was observed in MeCP2-deficient cells, whereas apoptosis in parental and MBD1-deficient cells appeared to be equivalent. Boyden chamber invasion and wound-healing migration assays showed that MBD1-silenced cells were both more invasive and migratory compared with MeCP2-silenced cells. Finally, gene chip microarray analyses showed striking differences in the mRNA-expression profiles obtained from MeCP2- and MBD1-depleted cellsrelative to each other as well as when compared with control cells. The results of the present study suggest that MeCP2 and MBD1 silencing appear to affect cellular processes independently in vivo and that discrete sets of genes involved in cellular proliferation, apoptosis, invasion and migration are targeted by each protein

Family Types, Authority Structure and Women Workers in Sindh Labor Force: Problems and Prospects

The development of a society is virtually dependent upon the quality of human resources both male and female, the changing pattern of economic and social development of world societies irrespective of their level of development, necessitates and equal advancement of both the social segments. The numerical reality that women constitute about nearly half of the total population of Sindh ideally assigns to them equal participating role in the economic life of the province. However, like other developing countries, women’s role in Sindh as an active worker-producer of goods and services has not been duly recognized by this male dominated society. With the objective of ensuring increased participation of women, clear-cut guidelines about integrating women in the development process and defining their roles are still lacking in Sindh. The present study is a step in the direction of bridging the gap of information about female labor force participation of Sindh in different, activity rates, industry group, occupation group and employment status in 1981 and 1998 population census. The most important conclusion that emerges from this study is that though percentage of women labor force in different, activities, industry group, occupation group and employment status has mostly increased in 1998 as compared to 1981, but being nearly half of the population this increase is still very low

Association of IL-10 & IL-10RA polymorphisms with lymphatic filariasis in South Indian population

Aim: The filariasis infection is initiated by mosquito derived third stage larva (L3), which establishes itself in different immunocompetent niches by adopting different evasion and immunomodulatory mechanisms. Immunological and clinical outcomes can vary considerably at the individual and population levels during lymphatic filariasis infection. The protein product coded by the interleukin-10 (IL-10) gene has broad immunomodulatory function in filarial load and patency of the disease. The potential influence of altered IL-10 expression encoded by IL-10 promoter single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and IL-10RA signaling pathway, in pathogenesis and clinical outcome of filarial infection was established in the present study Study Design: Genetic association based on case-control study. Place and Duration of Study: Lymphatic filariasis cases referred to National Filariasis Control Program (NFCP), Siddipet, Medak, Andhra Pradesh, India between Feb 2006 to Dec 2009. Methodology: A total of 100 non-endemic, 50 endemic and 118 lymphatic filariasis patients were included in the present study based on clinical and diagnostic criteria. Genetic polymorphisms in the IL-10 promoter region (-1082G/A, -819C/T and -592 A/C) and IL-10 RA coding region S138G were screened following PCR-RFLP and ARMS-PCR technique respectively. Results: Patients with familial aggregation of lymphedema exhibited significant association with IL-10 -1082 ‘A’ allele (A vs G OR 2.68, CI - 1.12-6.37, P=0.02) coding for lower IL-10 levels. Similarly the G variant of IL-10RA S138G SNP revealed a significant association with lymphatic filariasis in the endemic population studied (GG vs AA OR 2.50 CI-1.22-5.13, P= 0.021). The Haplotype analysis also revealed the low signaling ATA is significantly associated with the disease in this cohort (P=0.03). The Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction Analysis (MDR) for IL-10 and IL-10RA SNPs interaction revealed the three locus model as the best model wherein the epistatic interactions of variant G allele of IL-10RA S138G, the A allele of the -1082G/A and the T allele of the - 819C/T SNPs in IL-10 were found to be a possible risk genotype for filarial infection. (TA = 0.5230, CV-10/10, P=0.001). Conclusion: IL-10 promoter haplotypes and IL-10 RA S138G polymorphisms are the possible genetic determinants of susceptibility to lymphatic filariasis. Further functional studies are warranted to validate these results.Yasmeen Sheik, Sameera Fatima Qureshi, Ananthapur Venkateshwari, Saeed Nourmohammadi, Basheeruddin Mohammad and Pratibha Nallar