Psychotherapeutic Interventions for Depression: Reducing Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Adults

Paper approved May 2017 by the faculty of UMKC in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Nursing PracticeDepression is often a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and psychotherapy for depression can result in positive cardiovascular disease outcomes for patients. A correlational study explored the impact of psychotherapy referrals with medication treatment for depression on cardiovascular risk factors of blood pressures, HbA1C, and depression which is measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). At three internal medicine clinics in the Midwest, 31 adults with depression and cardiovascular risk factors were included in the psychotherapy intervention. Retrospective data was collected from August 2015-August 2016 prior to the psychotherapy referrals, and prospective data was obtained from September 2016-December 2016 from clients receiving psychotherapy referrals with medication treatment which was initiated for patients with a diagnosis of depression and cardiovascular risk factors. Pre-post risk factors of blood pressure, HbA1C, and depression were measured within the intervention group. The project found a strong positive correlation between HbA1C and PHQ-9 with psychotherapy but no significant correlation between blood pressures and PHQ-9 scores in the intervention group. Regression analysis confirmed that depression treatment positively affects HbA1C and PHQ-9 scores. Treatment of depression can reduce cardiovascular risk factors and favorably impact mortality and morbidit

Epidemiological analysis of emerging and re-emerging virus infections in Mozambique

Background Emerging and re-emerging viral infections are an increasing important concern for global public health. Previous studies conducted in Mozambique have shown occurrence of several emerging virus infections, including arbovirus. However, existing evidence on arbovirus is not recent and no data exists on co-occurrence of arbovirus and malaria. Besides, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic hit Mozambique since March 2020, causing until mid-2021 three waves. There is a lack of an in-depth characterization of the epidemiologic profile of COVID-19 in Mozambique. Methods Samples from acute febrile patients selected retrospectively (2009 to 2015) and prospec-tively (2017 a 2018) were screened for Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika virus using com-mercially available ELISA. Additionally, we reviewed records of suspected and con-firmed cases of COVID-19 collected in 11 provinces of Mozambique between March 2020 to September 2021. All of confirmed COVID-19 cases were subsequently mapped. Results From the 895 retrieved samples, the positive samples we found 54 (6.0%) were IgM an-ti-CHIKV, 160 (17.8%) positive for IgG anti-CHIKV, 16/577 (2.8%) for DENV-NS1. And IgM anti-ZIKV were also found in 42/850 (4.9%). For the prospective approach, of the 906 participants, the positive frequency was as follow 134 (14.8%) for IgM anti-CHIKV, 332 (36.6%) for IgG anti-CHIKV, 64 (7.1%) for IgM anti-DENV, 16 (1.8%) NS1-DENV and 83 (9.2%) for IgM anti-ZIKV. Malaria was diagnosed in 56 (6.2%) participants, 16 (1.1%) of whom were also IGM-positive for CHIKV, 3 (5.4%) for DENV-IgM and 10 (0.4%) for ZIKV. Regarding COVID-19, a total 778,926 individuals were screened for SARS-CoV-2 using Rt-PCR real time and Ag-RDT between 22 March 2020 and 30 September 2021, of whom (17.8%; 138,468/778,926) returned positive. The number of cas-es was increased by more than 60,000 from the first to the third wave of COVID-19 pan-demicand the Chi-square test revealed significant differences between the three waves (p<0.01). Conclusion This study represents the largest serological study of arbovirus in febrile patients con-ducted in Mozambique. The results from this study indicate that first: for several years CHIKV, DENV and ZIKV have silently circulated and the Mozambicans across all prov-inces. And second, that co-occurrence between malaria and CHIKV, DENV and ZIKV among febrile patients is more common than previously thought. In addition, our analysis also describes the three waves of COVID-19 in Mozambique. The findings raise the need for increased awareness of arboviral infection as another cause of acute febrile illness and recommend active surveillance of viral emerging diseases to improve human public health

LINGUISTIC VARIATION AMONG SOUTH ASIAN ENGLISHES: A CORPUS-BASED MULTIDIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS

Pakistani English is considered to be a distinct variety of English on the basis of its comparison with British English and American English. However, this claim is partial as its distinction from other varieties of English particularly used in South Asia has not yet been established. Thus, there is a need to investigate the similarities and differences between Pakistani and South Asian Englishes, and to analyse how far Pakistani English is distinct from other South Asian Englishes. Therefore, the present study aims at analyzing the linguistic features of Pakistani English as a separate variety from other varieties of English used in India and Bangladesh. For this purpose, a corpus of Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi English newspaper reportage was developed and analyzed using Biber’s (1988) multivariate/ multidimensional approach. The findings indicated that Pakistani press reportage is different from Indian and Bangladeshi press reportage on all the five dimensions, especially on Dimension 2, in which Pakistani press reportage is narrative, while Bangladeshi press reportage is non-narrative in nature. On Dimension 3, the press reportage of Pakistan is highly explicit as compared to Indian and Bangladeshi press reportage. Further, the sub-categories of Pakistani press reportage also exhibit variation when compared to the sub-categories of Indian and Bangladeshi press reportage. The possible causes of linguistic variation among these countries are their culture and geographical origin. It is further suggested that South Asian Englishes are evolving rapidly and linguistic variation among them certainly be a worth researchable area. Keywords: Multidimensional analysis, Pakistani English, press reportage, South Asian Englishes, world Englishes. Cite as: Ali, S. &amp; Shehzad, W. (2019). Linguistic variation among South Asian Englishes: A corpus-based multidimensional analysis. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 4(1), 69-92. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol4iss1pp69-9

Prospects of microalgal biodiesel production in Pakistan – a review

Biodiesel is an alternative, renewable, biodegradable and environmentally friendly fuel for transportation, with properties like petroleum-derived diesel, and can be used directly in a compression ignition engine without any modifications. The world's fossil fuel and crude oil reserves are going to dry up in the next few decades, but, contrariwise, an attractive, high quality, readily available and economically extractable oil from microalgae is a substitute feedstock to produce alternative biodiesel fuel for the transportation sector in the future. Microalgae have a higher biomass productivity (tons/hectare/year) and lipid yield (kg/kg of algal biomass) as compared to vegetable oil crops. To overcome the problem of energy deficiency in developing countries, like Pakistan, and boost their economic growth, alternative fuels are proving very important for environment-friendly and sustainable development, especially in the last few decades. Different research studies on microalgae cultivation, characterization of microalgae oil (lipids), and evaluations of its socio-economic feasibility to produce renewable biodiesel have been conducted in the past in Pakistan for its future prospects. This review paper includes the overall summary and compilation of the microalgae research conducted in Pakistan on biodiesel production and includes the algal biodiesel production cost analysis. The studies showed promising results for harnessing microalgae and using its lipids to produce biodiesel with favourable properties that were comparable to the conventional diesel in Pakistan. The information related to the microalgae research will help stakeholders and governmental organisations working in the renewable energy sector to consider its cultivation on a large scale, using waste water as a feedstock to produce biodiesel to meet the target set by the Government of Pakistan of using 10% blended biodiesel by the year 2025 in Pakistan

Study on Effect of Functional Competency on Performance of Indian Manufacturing Sector

India is one of the fastest emerging global manufacturing hub with a large number of firms shifting their manufacturing base to the country due to cheap labor and good supplier(s) base. Over the years, India has the largest number of companies, outside of Japan, that have been recognized for excellence in quality. As many as 21 companies have received the Deming Excellence awards; 153 companies have achieved Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) Excellence Award for their total productivity management practices by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM) committee (Source: IBEF, 2010). Here in this research article author(s) conducted an empirical survey among Indian manufacturing firms to understand how manufacturing competency effect the firm performance. It has been observed that manufacturing competency has negative impact on firm performance which is contradicting with the so far empirical studies conducted in European, Japanese and American countries. Here in this study authors provides in depth analysis to explain this negative impact and how this can lead to positive impact

Foreign Capital Flows and Human Development in Developing Countries: Does Institutional Quality Matter?

The impact of foreign capital on human development has been at best ambiguous, while that of institutions is undoubtedly favorable. That said, the way foreign capital relates to human development may be affected by the quality of institutions. This paper assesses this very phenomenon in 65 developing countries over the time period 1984-2014. In this regard, this study incorporates three indicators of human development namely, per capita income (PCI), Secondary School Enrollment (SSE) and Life Expectancy (LE). Using two step system GMM estimation technique, we found that the impact of foreign capital varies with respect to the indicators of human development and the type of foreign capital being studied. Both FDI and FPI negatively affect per capita income and secondary school enrollment, while, remittances affect all the indicators of human development positively, except for life expectancy. The interaction between institutions and each type of foreign capital flow exerts a positive influence on all indicators of human development. However, this positive interaction fails to completely eliminate the adverse influence of the capital flows, which reflects inadequacy of existing institutional quality in developing countries and the need for institutional reforms

Determinants of Consumer preferences of Branded Goods: A Case Study of Selected Districts of Punjab Pakistan

The objective of the study was to analyze the determinants of consumer preferences for branded or non branded goods in Punjab (Pakistan). For this purpose two cities named Faisalabad, Mandibhaudin and two corresponding villages( Manget and Makkuana) were selected. Users of branded and open Tea were selected for the study and Binary Logit Model was used to draw conclusions. It was found that due to low income levels more percentage of consumers were using non branded low quality goods as they are cheaper. Results indicated that variable income, education, consumer loyalty, taste, quality, and advertisement were positively related to the choice of branded tea while price was negative related to the choice of branded tea. Hosmer-Lemeshow Statistics shows that model is good fit. Keywords: Consumer Preferences; Branded Goods; Logit Model; Hosmer-Lemeshow Test

Suppressor of cytokine signaling-3 in pregnant females with or without hypertension

Suppression of Cytokine Signalling-3 (SOCS-3) modulates the inflammatory pathways responsible for vascular stability. Therefore, we aimed to estimate SOCS-3 levels in 2nd trimester pregnant females and correlate it with blood pressure. A case control study recruiting (n=111) females was conducted at the Aga Khan University. They were classified as pregnancy induced hypertensives ornormotensive as per American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Guidelines. Weight, Body mass index, lipid profile and blood glucose were recorded while SOCS-3 was measured by ELISA. Higher SOCS-3 levels were seen in hypertensive group (30 pg/ml) versus normotensive (16 pg/ml). Both Systolic & diastolic blood pressure (r=0.520; p \u3c0.001) (r=0.490; p \u3c0.001) showed an independent significant positive correlation with SOCS-3 level. It is safe to suggest that SOCS-3 has an association of causing high blood pressure. However, more research needs to be conducted to establish a mechanism and chronological order to these events in a pregnant female

Is manual reticulocyte count a reliable option for under resourced countries

OBJECTIVES: To establish the credibility of manual reticulocyte counts without compromising the quality of care, and to evaluate the degree of acceptability of manual reticulocyte counts in terms of accuracy and cost effectiveness in comparison with two automated haematology analyzers. METHODS: Visual reticulocyte enumeration was evaluated for comparability, within-batch precision and costing with respect to Coulter STKS and Gen S haematology analyzers. RESULTS: The results of reticulocyte estimation for 80 samples as obtained by 3 modes were correlated using Pearson\u27s correlation coefficient (r) which were computed as 0.884, 0.875, and 0.793 for manual-Gen.S, Gen.SSTKS and manual-STKS respectively thus showing positive association of these results. STKS had the CV of 10.4% and was more precise compared to Coulter Gen.S (CV = 11.6%) while manual counts showed the least precision with a CV of 19.8%. The cost per test was calculated to be $0.11 for manual technique in contrast to$0.45 for Gen S and $1.09 for STKS. CONCLUSION: Visual counting of reticulocytes can be used as a reliable tool for estimating reticulocytes in resource strained countries as it is not only cost effective but can also efficiently discriminate between high and low reticulocyte ranges which are required for sound clinical judgment