Evaluation of Nutrition Surveys in Flood-affected Areas of Pakistan: Seeing the Unseen!

In 2010 Pakistan experienced the worst floods recorded in its history; millions of people were affected and thousands lost their lives. Nutrition assessment surveys led by UNICEF were conducted in flood?affected areas of Punjab and Sindh provinces to assess the nutrition status of children between 6–59 months while Aga Khan University (AKU) undertook a parallel assessment including micronutrient status in their project areas within Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab. Standardised Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transition (SMART) methodology was used. 881 children from Sindh, 1,143 from Punjab and 817 from AKU project areas were measured for anthropometry and their households were interviewed. The findings indicated that while immediate life?saving interventions were essential, there was also an urgent need to address chronic malnutrition. Through high?level dissemination of the survey results, treatment and prevention of malnutrition has become a priority for the provincial and federal government in Pakistan and for donors

Positive-strand RNA viruses—a Keystone Symposia report

Positive-strand RNA viruses have been the cause of several recent outbreaks and epidemics, including the Zika virus epidemic in 2015, the SARS outbreak in 2003, and the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. On June 18–22, 2022, researchers focusing on positive-strand RNA viruses met for the Keystone Symposium “Positive-Strand RNA Viruses” to share the latest research in molecular and cell biology, virology, immunology, vaccinology, and antiviral drug development. This report presents concise summaries of the scientific discussions at the symposium

Comparison of future intensity duration frequency curve by considering the impact of climate change: case study for Kuching city

Floods are occurring more frequently nowadays. The most common parameter used to analyse the flood severity is average recurrence interval (ARI). Very often, hydrologist found that the severity of flood is 100-year ARI. However, there is a possibility that the 100-year ARI flood severity will hit the same place again after a few months later. The two main possible reasons are (1) future warmer temperatures will increase future extreme precipitation extremes and (2) limited length recorded rainfall data had derived inaccurate Intensity duration frequency (IDF) curves. Therefore, there is an initiative in this study to derive future IDF curve by considering the future rainfall using ‘delta’ approach. The annual maximum precipitations for 2020s, 2050s and 2080s are generated using Statistical Downscaling Model (SDSM), neural network (NN) with scale conjugate gradient and Cuckoo search optimization algorithms. The selected study rainfall station is Kuching Airport. Results revealed that the newly projected IDF curves at various durations and ARIs are slightly higher than historical IDF curve. However, this research is still in the nascent stage and the results obtained are not finalized yet. More investigation works are carried out currently to establish reliable relationships between daily and sub-daily extreme precipitations based on the scaling general extreme value distribution

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphism influences the association of the methylome with maternal anxiety and neonatal brain volumes

10.1017/S0954579414001357Development and Psychopathology271137 - 150DPESBGUSTO (Growing up towards Healthy Outcomes