Intimate partner violence and mental health effects: A population-based study among married women in Karachi, Pakistan

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is recognized all over the world for its association with mental health problems in women. In Pakistan, such violence occurs commonly, but detailed information on mental health effects is scarce. The purpose of this study is to focused on married couples in urban Karachi to investigate mental health effects associated with physical, sexual and psychological violence perpetrated by husbands towards wives. Disclosure rates and health care-seeking behaviour were also investigated.Method: This cross-sectional study involved 759 women between the ages of 25 and 60 years, selected using a multi-stage random sampling technique. The women were interviewed by trained community midwives using a structured questionnaire.Results: In the total population of women, mental symptoms were prevalent. Women subjected to any form of violence reported, however, considerably poorer mental health than unexposed women. A statistically significant difference for almost all of the studied health parameters persisted even after controlling for socio-demographic factors. The strongest associations were found for suicidal thoughts and physical violence (OR 4.41; 3.18–6.12), sexual abuse (OR 4.39; 3.17–6.07) and psychological abuse (OR 5.17; 3.28–8.15). The interviews revealed that only 27% of the women subjected to violence had disclosed this to anyone, in most cases to their parents.Conclusion: The findings in this study highlight that the violence women have to face contributes to the development of multiple forms of psychological stress and serious mental health problems. Women’s restrictive life circumstances seriously hamper women’s empowerment. Reliable health surveillance system and health care services are needed to serve abused women. Policy initiatives focused on IPV and gender inequality in Pakistan should be initiated

Violence permeating daily life: a qualitative study investigating perspectives on violence among women in Karachi, Pakistan

Background: This study explored how married women perceive situations which create family conflicts and lead to different forms of violence in urban Pakistan. In addition, it examines perceptions of consequences of violence, their adverse health effects, and how women resist violence within marital life. Methods: Five focus group discussions were conducted with 28 women in Karachi. Purposive sampling, aiming for variety in age, employment status, education, and socioeconomic status, was employed. The focus group discussions were conducted in Urdu and translated into English. Manifest and latent content analysis were applied. Results: One major theme emerged during the analysis, ie, family violence through the eyes of females. This theme was subdivided into three main categories. The first category, ie, situations provoking violence and their manifestations, elaborates on circumstances that provoke violence and situations that sustain violence. The second category, ie, actions and reactions to exposure to violence, describes consequences of ongoing violence within the family, including those that result in suicidal thoughts and actions. The final category, ie, resisting violence, describes how violence is avoided through women’s awareness and actions. Conclusion: The current study highlights how female victims of abuse are trapped in a society where violence from a partner and family members is viewed as acceptable, where divorce is unavailable to the majority, and where societal support of women is limited. There is an urgent need to raise the subject of violence against women and tackle this human rights problem at all levels of society by targeting the individual, family, community, and societal levels concurrently

Intimate partner violence in urban Pakistan: prevalence, frequency, and risk factors

Tazeen S Ali1,2, Nargis Asad3, Ingrid Mogren4, Gunilla Krantz51School of Nursing, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan; 2Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of Global Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; 3Department of Psychiatry, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan; 4Department of Clinical Science, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden; 5Department of Public Health and Community Medicine/Social Medicine, The Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, SwedenBackground: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an important public health issue with severe adverse consequences. Population-based data on IPV from Muslim societies are scarce, and Pakistan is no exception. This study was conducted among women residing in urban Karachi, to estimate the prevalence and frequency of different forms of IPV and their associations with sociodemographic factors.Methods: This cross-sectional community-based study was conducted using a structured questionnaire developed by the World Health Organisation for research on violence. Community midwives conducted face-to-face interviews with 759 married women aged 25–60 years.Results: Self-reported past-year and lifetime prevalence of physical violence was 56.3 and 57.6%, respectively; the corresponding figures for sexual violence were 53.4% and 54.5%, and for psychological abuse were 81.8% and 83.6%. Violent incidents were mostly reported to have occurred on more than three occasions during the lifetime. Risk factors for physical violence related mainly to the husband, his low educational attainment, unskilled worker status, and five or more family members living in one household. For sexual violence, the risk factors were the respondent’s low educational attainment, low socioeconomic status of the family, and five or more family members in one household. For psychological violence, the risk factors were the husband being an unskilled worker and low socioeconomic status of the family.Conclusion: Repeated violence perpetrated by a husband towards his wife is an extremely common phenomenon in Karachi, Pakistan. Indifference to this type of violence against women stems from the attitude that IPV is a private matter, usually considered a justifiable response to misbehavior on the part of the wife. These findings point to serious violations of women’s rights and require the immediate attention of health professionals and policymakers.Keywords: intimate partner violence, domestic violence, Pakistan, gender inequality, prevalence, frequency, risk factor

Optical spectroscopy of the large Kuiper Belt objects 136472 (2005 FY9) and 136108 (2003 EL61).

We present high signal precision optical reflectance spectra of the large Kuiper Belt objects 2005 FY9 and 2003 EL61. The spectrum of 2005 FY9 exhibits strong CH4 ice bands. A comparison between the spectrum and a Hapke model indicates that the CH4 bands are shifted 3.25 ± 2.25 Å relative to pure CH4 ice, suggesting the presence of another ice component on the surface of 2005 FY9, possibly N2 ice, CO ice, or Ar. The spectrum of 2003 EL61 is remarkably featureless. There is a hint of an O2 ice band at 5773 Å; however, this feature needs to be confirmed by future spectroscopic observations of 2003 EL61 with a higher continuum signal precision sufficient to detect a second, weaker O2 ice band at 6275 Å. [on SciFinder(R)

Reverberation Mapping Results for Five Seyfert 1 Galaxies

We present the results from a detailed analysis of photometric and spectrophotometric data on five Seyfert 1 galaxies observed as a part of a recent reverberation mapping program. The data were collected at several observatories over a 140-day span beginning in 2010 August and ending in 2011 January. We obtained high sampling-rate light curves for Mrk 335, Mrk 1501, 3C120, Mrk 6, and PG2130+099, from which we have measured the time lag between variations in the 5100 Angstrom continuum and the H-beta broad emission line. We then used these measurements to calculate the mass of the supermassive black hole at the center of each of these galaxies. Our new measurements substantially improve previous measurements of MBH and the size of the broad line-emitting region for four sources and add a measurement for one new object. Our new measurements are consistent with photoionization physics regulating the location of the broad line region in active galactic nuclei.Comment: 45 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. For a brief video explaining the key results of this paper, see http://www.youtube.com/user/OSUAstronom

SN 2010U: A Luminous Nova in NGC 4214

The luminosity, light curve, post-maximum spectrum, and lack of a progenitor on deep pre-outburst images suggest that SN 2010U was a luminous, fast nova. Its outburst magnitude is consistent with that for a fast nova using the maximum magnitude-rate of decline relationship for classical novae

A systematic review of randomised controlled trials on the effectiveness of exercise programs on lumbo pelvic pain among postnatal women

Background: A substantial number of women tend to be affected by Lumbo Pelvic Pain (LPP) following child birth. Physical exercise is indicated as a beneficial method to relieve LPP, but individual studies appear to suggest mixed findings about its effectiveness. This systematic review aimed to synthesise evidence from randomised controlled trials on the effectiveness of exercise on LPP among postnatal women to inform policy, practice and future research. Methods: A systematic review was conducted of all randomised controlled trials published between January 1990 and July 2014, identified through a comprehensive search of following databases: PubMed, PEDro, Embase, Cinahl, Medline, SPORTDiscus, Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group’s Trials Register, and electronic libraries of authors’institutions. Randomised controlled trials were eligible for inclusion if the intervention comprised of postnatal exercise for women with LPP onset during pregnancy or within 3 months after delivery and the outcome measures included changes in LPP. Selected articles were assessed using the PEDro Scale for methodological quality and findings were synthesised narratively as meta-analysis was found to be inappropriate due to heterogeneity among included studies. Results: Four randomised controlled trials were included, involving 251 postnatal women. Three trials were rated as of ‘good’ methodological quality. All trials, except one, were at low risk of bias. The trials included physical exercise programs with varying components, differing modes of delivery, follow up times and outcome measures. Intervention in one trial, involving physical therapy with specific stabilising exercises, proved to be effective in reducing LPP intensity. An improvement in gluteal pain on the right side was reported in another trial and a significant difference in pain frequency in another. Conclusion: Our review indicates that only few randomised controlled trials have evaluated the effectiveness of exercise on LPP among postnatal women. There is also a great amount of variability across existing trials in the components of exercise programs, modes of delivery, follow up times and outcome measures. While there is some evidence to indicate the effectiveness of exercise for relieving LPP, further good quality trials are needed to ascertain the most effective elements of postnatal exercise programs suited for LPP treatment

Reverberation Mapping of the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 7469

A large reverberation mapping study of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 7469 has yielded emission-line lags for Hbeta 4861 and He II 4686 and a central black hole mass measurement of about 10 million solar masses, consistent with previous measurements. A very low level of variability during the monitoring campaign precluded meeting our original goal of recovering velocity-delay maps from the data, but with the new Hbeta measurement, NGC 7469 is no longer an outlier in the relationship between the size of the Hbeta-emitting broad-line region and the AGN luminosity. It was necessary to detrend the continuum and Hbeta and He II 4686 line light curves and those from archival UV data for different time-series analysis methods to yield consistent results.Comment: 9 Pages, 7 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

The furan microsolvation blind challenge for quantum chemical methods: First steps

© 2018 Author(s). Herein we present the results of a blind challenge to quantum chemical methods in the calculation of dimerization preferences in the low temperature gas phase. The target of study was the first step of the microsolvation of furan, 2-methylfuran and 2,5-dimethylfuran with methanol. The dimers were investigated through IR spectroscopy of a supersonic jet expansion. From the measured bands, it was possible to identify a persistent hydrogen bonding OH-O motif in the predominant species. From the presence of another band, which can be attributed to an OH-π interaction, we were able to assert that the energy gap between the two types of dimers should be less than or close to 1 kJ/mol across the series. These values served as a first evaluation ruler for the 12 entries featured in the challenge. A tentative stricter evaluation of the challenge results is also carried out, combining theoretical and experimental results in order to define a smaller error bar. The process was carried out in a double-blind fashion, with both theory and experimental groups unaware of the results on the other side, with the exception of the 2,5-dimethylfuran system which was featured in an earlier publication