Assessing the Impact of Eucalyptus Plantation on Groundwater Availability in Pakistan

Eucalyptus tree was first planted in Pakistan in the 1980s under the project of Pakistan Forest Institute sponsored by United States Agency for International Development. It is not native to Pakistan's environment, so it has become a threat to the ecosystem. A mature Eucalyptus tree shape is like a shrub or tall tree. It is centered by the number of controversies like allelopathy, loss of soil fertility, the substitution of conventional forests and causing various hydro-ecological imbalances of an ecosystem. Eucalyptus tree consumes three times more water in arid and semi-arid environments, because of vapor pressure deficit. About 80% of Pakistan's area is present in the semi-arid and arid climate. Pakistan is facing a serious water shortage and rapid groundwater level depletion in many parts of the country. It is believed that species of Eucalyptus tree are extracting more groundwater than water recharge. Therefore, the present study is conducted to identify the adverse impacts of Eucalyptus plantation on the groundwater level of Lahore. Six parks in Lahore were selected as study sites, i.e., Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Bagh-e-Jinnah, Jillani Park, Nawaz Sharif Park, Jallo Park, and Johar Town Park. A total of 3,484 Eucalyptus trees were identified with different age groups. These trees belong to the species of Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Eucalyptus citriodora and Eucalyptus sideroxylone. The study reveals that since 1990, the groundwater level has significantly reduced in study sites. It is recommended that Eucalyptus trees may be replaced with other indigenous species so that the rate of groundwater depletion can be slowed down

Maternal history and second trimester uterine artery Doppler in the assessment of risk for development of early and late onset pre-eclampsia and intra uterine growth restriction

Background: To evaluate the value of one step uterine artery Doppler and maternal history in the prediction of early onset pre-eclampsia and intra uterine growth restriction in a random populationMethods: This study was conducted from 2012 to 2014 Lalla Ded hospital which is a tertiary care hospital associated with GMC Srinagar. This was a prospective study conducted on 200 pregnant women in the second trimester between 19-22 weeks of gestation. Singleton pregnant women were recruited from those attending antenatal care clinics at this hospital over a period of two years. Obstetric and medical history was taken. Transabdominal ultrasound was done and then patients were subjected to Doppler examination of uterine arteries.Results: Mean age of study population was 26.3 years with maximum number of patients in 25-29 year age group. Total numbers of primigravida were 59.5%. Maternal history revealed that 9.5% had previous history of hypertensive pregnancy, 3.5% had history of IUGR. Early onset pre-eclampsia (32 weeks) was present in 57.1% cases. Doppler abnormalities were present in 7.5%. In the patients who developed pre-eclampsia 57.1% had uterine artery Doppler abnormalities.Conclusions: Maternal history and uterine artery Doppler at 19-22 weeks gestation is a single step test for the prediction of early onset(<32 weeks) and late onset pre-eclampsia and intra uterine growth restriction

Clinicopathological Study of Patients Presenting with Adnexal Masses

Background: To assess the clinicopathological outcome of women with adnexal masses . Method: In this observational study patients with a diagnosis of adnexal mass, who underwent laparotomy, were included. All the patients were evaluated by a complete history, general abdominal and pelvic examination, followed by ultrasonography. Their preoperative findings are then correlated with surgical findings and histopathological diagnosis. Descriptive statistics are applied and results shown in the form of frequencies and percentages. Result: In 50 patients commonest presenting symptom was pain abdomen followed by mass abdomen. Ultrasound features correlate well with histopathological features. Majority (94.6%) patients had benign adnexal pathology and 5.4% had malignant pathology. Most common neoplasms were surface epithelial tumours followed by dermoid cyst. Conclusion:Demographic detail, ultrasonography and CA-125 are good preoperative indicators of malignant nature or benign nature of adnexal masses. Most common adnexal tumours are surface epithelial tumours followed by dermoid cysts and malignant tumours are common in postmenopausal group

Impact of Climate Change on Land use/Land cover of Chakwal District

Alterations in land use and land cover, either natural or anthropogenic can disturb the balance of fragile ecosystems. Climate change plays a unique role in governing the structure and state of land features and alters the structure of ecosystem as well as its services required by earth. Human health and environment are matter of concern due to changes induced by human in its natural environment (Jat et al., 2008). Human has an urge to remain near nature, for that they shift from dense urban areas to less dense areas (Western, 2001). So is the case of new housing societies where the land mafias intimate the people about new settlements (Zaman and Baloch, 2011), which are made by cutting the forests, removing trees and disturbing the ecosystem. For proper planning and management of natural resources, it is necessary to study the land cover and its associated changes (Asselman and Middelkoop, 1995). Modelling of changes within land cover to identify environmental trends on the local, national or regional level, have been realized in the scientific community (Nath et al., 2020). GIS/RS provides continuous change dynamics (Berlanga-Robles and Ruiz-Luna, 2011) of land cover/land use, i.e. by satellite monitoring (Ruiz-Ruano et al., 2016). The understanding of land cover changes is necessary for decision making (Lu et al., 2004) in the natural resource management (Seif et al., 2012). This study was carried out to identify the impact of changes in climate upon land use and land cover of Chakwal district from 1995 to 2020. Geospatial techniques were applied to estimate the differences in land features, using different time interval satellite datasets (Table 1). Six major classes of land features including, agriculture, bare land, built-up, forest, shrubs/grass and water were selected for this study, with respect to time

Initial Environmental Examination for Power Plant in Local Sugar Mill

This research presents the IEE (Initial Environmental Examination) and EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) for sugar mills as power generation business. The study evaluates the proposed project according to the environmental assessment requirements of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency. The study has been conducted using standard environmental assessment methodology with the consultation of national and international environmental guidelines such as World Bank environmental and International Finance Corporation (IFC). The installation of 100 MW cogeneration thermal power plant adjacent to existing sugar mill located in district Muzaffargarh has been considered as a case study. &nbsp;It has been concluded that the residual impacts of the proposed operation will be of minor significance and careful implementation of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) will ensure that environmental impacts are managed

Common Methods to Understand and Develop Indigenous Probiotics Yeast for Ruminant

Probiotic yeast enhanced the ruminal gut microbial balance by producing intercellular effectors and important metabolites. The impact of yeast addition on animal health is influenced by different interlinked factors including animal genomics, its gut microbiota, and environment. Therefore, all factors should be considered regarding achieving the maximum outputs from animal probiotic yeast. In the situation of a high feeding cost, microbial feed supplements provide a suitable nutritional approach, which allows increased nutrient digestion rate and accordingly improves animal performance. Many yeast products are commercially available, but their efficiency as probiotic dietary addition in a particular breed is mostly questionable. Therefore, identification of ideal probiotic yeast strain is of great interest in this context. Innovative methods in relation to develop new probiotic are mainly focused on the exploring novel microbial strains from indigenous sources. It has been noted that for the identification of best probiotic strain for the host, a linkage between culture-independent and culture-dependent methods is a functional step. In this chapter, we will discuss the mode of action of probiotic yeast on animal lower gut microbiota and identification of ideal probiotic yeast by using advanced molecular methods

Nano-antivirals: A comprehensive review

Nanoparticles can be used as inhibitory agents against various microorganisms, including bacteria, algae, archaea, fungi, and a huge class of viruses. The mechanism of action includes inhibiting the function of the cell membrane/stopping the synthesis of the cell membrane, disturbing the transduction of energy, producing toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS), and inhibiting or reducing RNA and DNA production. Various nanomaterials, including different metallic, silicon, and carbon-based nanomaterials and nanoarchitectures, have been successfully used against different viruses. Recent research strongly agrees that these nanoarchitecture-based virucidal materials (nano-antivirals) have shown activity in the solid state. Therefore, they are very useful in the development of several products, such as fabric and high-touch surfaces. This review thoroughly and critically identifies recently developed nano-antivirals and their products, nano-antiviral deposition methods on various substrates, and possible mechanisms of action. By considering the commercial viability of nano-antivirals, recommendations are made to develop scalable and sustainable nano-antiviral products with contact-killing properties

Establishing Reference Intervals for HBA1C in all three Trimesters of Pregnancy; A Cross-Sectional Study on Healthy Pregnant Women of Quetta, Baluchistan

Objective: To establish the reference intervals in healthy pregnant females of Quetta, Baluchistan, for Glycosylated Hemoglobin (HbA1c) in all three trimesters of pregnancy. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Pathology Department Combined Military Hospital, Quetta Pakistan, from Jun 2018 to Jun 2019. Methodology: Blood samples of healthy pregnant females were drawn for Glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c). Fasting plasma glucose and haemoglobin were also measured to rule out hyperglycemia and anaemia. Samples for Glycated haemoglobin(HbA1c) were analyzed by Turbidimetric Immuno-inhibition (TINIA) method. For all the trimesters, 5th and 95th percentiles were taken as reference intervals for Glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) and compared for each trimester. Results: A total of 388 samples were taken, of which 136(35.05%) females were from the first trimester, 128(32.98%) and 124(31.97%) from the second and third trimesters, respectively. The mean age of the study population was 25.1±3.7 years in the first trimester, 26.7±4.5 years in the second-trimester while and the third trimester it was 26.8±4.8 years. In the first, second,and third trimesters, the reference intervals for Glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) were 3.8-5.2%, 4.1-5.4%, and 4.2-5.7%,respectively. Conclusion: For the exact diagnosis of hyperglycemia in pregnancy, each laboratory should establish its reference intervals of Glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) for each trimester as it varies from trimester to trimester

Discrimination of Seasonal Snow Cover in Astore Basin, Western Himalaya using Fuzzy Membership Function of Object-Based Classification

The temporal mapping of seasonal snow cover is generally being delineated through low resolution MODIS data (250-500m resolution) due to daily frequency of image acquisition; however, it sometimes compromises the mapping accuracies. In this study, the time-series of high resolution satellite imagery was used to evaluate the spatio-temporal changes in the snow covered area of Astore basin during summer and winter seasons from 1990 to 2017. The Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA) technique was applied on multi-spectral images of Landsat (TM and OLI sensors) of respective years (1990, 2000, 2010 and 2017) in order to discriminate the snow covered area in both seasons. Although OBIA is a strong technique that has been successfully applied in numerous research problems of remote sensing regarding cryosphere, but due to hindrances (i.e. Clouds and haze), it is sometimes not highly efficient to detect the snow accurately, therefore, Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) has been calculated to distinguish snow covered area from snow free areas. The range of 0.4-1.0 was used as a threshold value for fuzzy membership function in OBIA to delineate the snow cover more precisely. The study suggested that the snow covered area is gradually increasing in winters during past few decades in the basin; however, in summer season as compared to winters, no specific trend has been observed