Impact of Deceptive Marketing on Consumers Behavior: A Case of Cellular Industry of Pakistan

The research study discusses the relationship between deceptive marketing and consumer behavior regarding the telecommunication industry of Pakistan. As Pakistan is the third largest telecommunication emerging market in the world so, the factors that affect the reaction of consumers are important.  Many customers who use different cellular networks are deceived through false marketing and deceptive features shown in the advertising. The factors that are considered deceptive according to the consumers are examined, that are incorrect interpretation, financial and emotional loss and misleading claims to determine consumer behavior. Moreover, the reaction to these factors is also considered when the customer is exposed to deception in marketing. Keywords: Deceptive marketing, Consumers behavior, incorrect interpretation, financial and emotional loss, misleading claims and cellular industry

An Unbiased Lipid Phenotyping Approach To Study the Genetic Determinants of Lipids and Their Association with Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors.

Direct infusion high-resolution mass spectrometry (DIHRMS) is a novel, high-throughput approach to rapidly and accurately profile hundreds of lipids in human serum without prior chromatography, facilitating in-depth lipid phenotyping for large epidemiological studies to reveal the detailed associations of individual lipids with coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors. Intact lipid profiling by DIHRMS was performed on 5662 serum samples from healthy participants in the Pakistan Risk of Myocardial Infarction Study (PROMIS). We developed a novel semi-targeted peak-picking algorithm to detect mass-to-charge ratios in positive and negative ionization modes. We analyzed lipid partial correlations, assessed the association of lipid principal components with established CHD risk factors and genetic variants, and examined differences between lipids for a common genetic polymorphism. The DIHRMS method provided information on 360 lipids (including fatty acyls, glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, and sterol lipids), with a median coefficient of variation of 11.6% (range: 5.4-51.9). The lipids were highly correlated and exhibited a range of associations with clinical chemistry biomarkers and lifestyle factors. This platform can provide many novel insights into the effects of physiology and lifestyle on lipid metabolism, genetic determinants of lipids, and the relationship between individual lipids and CHD risk factors

Finding Home in Nature: Nature's Role in Immigrant Weelbeing

It has been observed in the past few years that a large number of migrants have arrived in Europe. The number of international students who come to Sweden each year is one of the most overlooked groups of immigrants. The immigrant students are experiencing difficulties in their health and wellbeing due to new country settlement challenges.Therefore, this study examines the relationship between immigrant students and their natural environments, focusing in particular on their wellbeing. In order to achieve this objective, a qualitative study of 11 semi structured interviews are conducted on two south Asian groups of immigrants studying in Gothenburg, Sweden.This study investigates how immigrant students cope with challenges in the host country by utilizing natural places. It also investigates how they can improve their psychological and emotional wellbeing by interacting with nature using biophilia and attention restoration theories.There are three primary domains in which immigrant students can establish meaningful relationships with nature and enhance their holistic wellbeing, according to the findings of this study. First, they can embrace nature by spending time in natural places every day. Second, they can participate in nature-based recreation that strengthens their connection with nature, helps them get ready for the challenges of living in a new country, and makes them feel healthy overall. Third, the bond they build with nature through daily interactions and outdoor recreation can improve their psychological and emotional wellbeing

Accuracy of genotype MTBDR plus line probe assay in patients with tuberculous pleural effusion: Comparison with clinical and culture based diagnosis

Background: Pleural tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis is challenging due to paucibacillary disease. Diagnostic accuracy of GenoType MTBDRplus Line Probe Assay (MTBDRplus) has been evaluated in this study for pleural TB diagnosis.Objective: To evaluate diagnostic accuracy of MTBDRplus for pleural TB diagnosis compared to clinical and microbiological diagnosis.Methods: This prospective study was conducted at the Aga Khan University, Pakistan. Pleural fluid from 203 suspected pleural TB patients was collected and tested for smear, culture and MTBDRplus. Diagnostic accuracy of MTBDRplus was determined using clinical diagnosis and culture as the gold standard.Results: Out of 203 TB suspect patients, MTBDRplus, culture and smear were positive in 14 (6. 9%), 27 (13.3%) and 4 (1.9%) cases, respectively. A total of 106/203 patients (27 culture positive and 79 culture negative) successfully completed TB treatment. Considering clinical diagnosis as gold standard, sensitivity of MTBDRplus was 13.2%; 95% CI (7.4-21.2%) and specificity was 100%; 95% CI (96.1-100%). The sensitivity and specificity of MTBDRplus in culture positive samples were 44.4%; 95% CI (25.5-64.7%) and 98.9%; 95% CI (95.9-99.9%), respectively. Excluding indeterminate results, MTBDRplus accurately detected isoniazid sensitivity in 5/6 and rifampicin sensitivity in 6/6 cases.Conclusion: MTBDRplus had a low sensitivity of 13.2% in clinically diagnosed and 44% in culture-confirmed pleural TB patients and therefore could not be included in most diagnostic algorithms. Due to a higher sensitivity than smear, MTBDRplus may have a role in tuberculous pleural effusion diagnosis if it is positive pending culture results and pleural biopsy

Identification of new susceptibility loci for type 2 diabetes and shared etiological pathways with coronary heart disease

To evaluate the shared genetic etiology of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and coronary heart disease (CHD), we conducted a genome-wide, multi-ancestry study of genetic variation for both diseases in up to 265,678 subjects for T2D and 260,365 subjects for CHD. We identify 16 previously unreported loci for T2D and 1 locus for CHD, including a new T2D association at a missense variant in HLA-DRB5 (odds ratio (OR) = 1.29). We show that genetically mediated increase in T2D risk also confers higher CHD risk. Joint T2D–CHD analysis identified eight variants—two of which are coding—where T2D and CHD associations appear to colocalize, including a new joint T2D–CHD association at the CCDC92 locus that also replicated for T2D. The variants associated with both outcomes implicate new pathways as well as targets of existing drugs, including icosapent ethyl and adipocyte fatty-acid-binding protein.D.S. has received support from NHLBI, NINDS, Pfizer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Genentech, and Eli Lilly. Genotyping in PROMIS was funded by the Wellcome Trust, UK, and Pfizer. Biomarker assays in PROMIS have been funded through grants awarded by the NIH (RC2HL101834 and RC1TW008485) and Fogarty International (RC1TW008485). The RACE study has been funded by NINDS (R21NS064908), Fogarty International (R21NS064908), and the Center for Non-Communicable Diseases (Karachi, Pakistan). B.F.V. was supported by funding from the American Heart Association (13SDG14330006), the W.W. Smith Charitable Trust (H1201), and the NIH/NIDDK (R01DK101478). J.D. is a British Heart Foundation Professor, European Research Council Senior Investigator, and NIHR Senior Investigator. V.S. was supported by the Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research. S. Ripatti was supported by the Academy of Finland (251217 and 255847), the Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics, the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme projects ENGAGE (201413) and BioSHaRE (261433), the Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research, Biocentrum Helsinki, and the Sigrid Juselius Foundation. The Mount Sinai IPM Biobank Program is supported by the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies. S. Anand is supported by grants from the Canada Research Chair in Ethnic Diversity and CVD and from the Heart and Stroke Michael G. DeGroote Chair in Population Health, McMaster University. Data contributed by Biobank Japan were partly supported by a grant from the Leading Project of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. We thank the participants and staff of the Copenhagen Ischemic Heart Disease Study and the Copenhagen General Population Study for their important contributions. The CHD Exome+ Consortium was funded by the UK Medical Research Council (G0800270), the British Heart Foundation (SP/09/002), the UK NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, the European Research Council (268834), the European Commission’s Framework Programme 7 (HEALTH-F2-2012-279233), Merck, and Pfizer. PROSPER has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement HEALTH-F2-2009-223004

Exome-wide association study of plasma lipids in >300,000 individuals.

We screened variants on an exome-focused genotyping array in >300,000 participants (replication in >280,000 participants) and identified 444 independent variants in 250 loci significantly associated with total cholesterol (TC), high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and/or triglycerides (TG). At two loci (JAK2 and A1CF), experimental analysis in mice showed lipid changes consistent with the human data. We also found that: (i) beta-thalassemia trait carriers displayed lower TC and were protected from coronary artery disease (CAD); (ii) excluding the CETP locus, there was not a predictable relationship between plasma HDL-C and risk for age-related macular degeneration; (iii) only some mechanisms of lowering LDL-C appeared to increase risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D); and (iv) TG-lowering alleles involved in hepatic production of TG-rich lipoproteins (TM6SF2 and PNPLA3) tracked with higher liver fat, higher risk for T2D, and lower risk for CAD, whereas TG-lowering alleles involved in peripheral lipolysis (LPL and ANGPTL4) had no effect on liver fat but decreased risks for both T2D and CAD