PHARMACOLOGICAL SCREENING FOR ANTI-ARTHRITIC ACTIVITY OF MORINGA OLEIFERA

Objective: The present study was performed to investigate the anti-arthritic activity of ethanolic and aqueous leaf extracts of Moringa oleifera (MO)against formaldehyde-induced arthritis in laboratory rats.Methods: Arthritis was induced in albino Wistar rats by administration of 0.1 ml formaldehyde (2% v/v, sc) into subplantar region of the right hindpaw. Diclofenac sodium (10 mg/kg, i.p.) was used as the standard drug. The ethanolic leaf extracts of MO at doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg and aqueousleaf extract at 500 mg/kg body weight p.o were administered for 10 days. At the end of the study period, changes in paw edema volume, paw thickness,arthritis score, and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were recorded along with histopathology of knee joints in all groups were studied.Results: There was a significant reduction recorded in paw edema volume, paw thickness, arthritis score, and CRP levels on treatment with diclofenacsodium, ethanolic and aqueous extracts of MO. When compared between the two extracts, aqueous extract in the dose of 500 mg/kg body weight wasfound to be more potent.Conclusion: The results demonstrated significant anti-arthritic activity of ethanolic and aqueous leaf extracts of MO at a dose of 500 mg/kg bodyweight.Keywords: Moringa oleifera, Formaldehyde, Arthritis, C-reactive protein

FRACTIONAL CALCULUS, SHORT HISTORY

We know how to find derivatives .But it is a question that how to find derivatives if the order of differentiation to be negative or non integer. To find such types of derivatives, field of mathematics that is fractional calculus is used. Fractional order derivatives and integrals give a new dimension to mathematicson one hand and many problems in physical sciences can be expressed and solved successfully by using fractional calculus on the other hand. In this paper we discuss in brief fractional calculus

Health Expenditures, Institutional Quality and Economic Growth

The study aims to determine the effect of health expenditures on economic growth while taking into account the quality of health institutions, keeping in view the fact that it’s not just the level, rather quality of expenditures or institutions that matters. Our hypothesis was where institutions are better health investment in health brings more economic growth as compared to those with low quality institutions. To attain that objective the standard neoclassical Solow Growth Model at steady-state level was taken as theoretical framework and made a production function adding institutional quality proxied by government effectiveness along with other variables like health expenditure, primary education completion rate, population growth etc. For estimation purposes, data for the sample of 20 South, East Asian and Pacific developing countries was used for the period 1995-2017. It was found that if health expenditures adjusted for the quality of government expenditures increase by 100%, then the economic growth will increase by 5%

An innovation in flipped class room: A teaching model to facilitate synchronous and asynchronous learning during a pandemic

Objective: To conduct an on line Flipped Class Room (FCR) to facilitate synchronous (in class activity) and asynchronous learning [Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)] and acquire feedback of the learning experience from medical students at Aga Khan University.Methods: This interventional study was conducted with year II students undergoing Endocrine Reproduction Module at the Aga Khan University during April 13 to May 22, 2020. Pre reading material and pretest was shared with the students via Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) one week before the class. Microsoft Teams was used to conduct online session by two facilitators, where student discussion on case studies was encouraged. A WhatsApp group was created with the facilitators to respond to any student queries. The session was recorded and later uploaded on VLE. Posttest and a student satisfaction survey was conducted at the end of the session.Results: The average score for the pretest and posttest was 19.67 ± 1.37 and 24.60 ± 1.34 respectively (p value \u3c0.05). The learner curve showed an increase in the knowledge learned by 4.93 points (p value \u3c0.05). Fifty-five percent students felt that placement of session was appropriate and were satisfied with the instructions and expected outcomes, received constructive feedback for improvement and generated positive attitude towards learning.Conclusions: The innovative model of FCR through facilitation of synchronous and asynchronous learning empowered student\u27s engagement and interactive learning. Students perceived this as a great learning experience which they enjoyed with positive reinforcement from feedback given by the facilitators. They suggested continuation of this model for further learning sessions in other modules of undergraduate medical education at Aga Khan University

Mishal: A Case Study of a Deradicalization and Emancipation Program in SWAT Valley, Pakistan

Nestled in the SWAT valley lies Pakistan’s earliest known deradicalization initiative for former militants, the Mishal Deradicalization and Emancipation Program (DREP). The Deradicalization program was launched following a military operation in 2009 against the Pakistan wing of the Taliban, namely, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The program aimed to deradicalize and rehabilitate arrested militants, with what officials claim is a 99 percent success rate and with more than 2,500 former Taliban fighters now ‘reformed’. The program abides by a ‘no blood on hand’ policy, whereby it only takes in militants who have not caused any bodily harm to others. In this paper, we analyze the deradicalization program and highlight the limits and challenges it faces. The paper also highlights the common individual and environmental factors among the beneficiary population of the deradicalization program. This study finds that most participants of the program belonged to large or broken families with weak socio-economic profiles. Additionally, these individuals had very little technical knowledge of religion. This study also finds that the program is more oriented towards re-integration rather than deradicalization due to its policy of inducting only low and mid-level cadre militants. The program also has other severe limitations including lack of credible religious scholars, limited financial and human resources

Work Stress of Teachers from Government Girls’ Secondary Schools Karachi

Teacher is a well-known profession all over the world. But now a days crisis of quality education can be prominently seen. Among elements effecting teachers’ productivity “Stress” is one of the core elements raising poor productivity by the teachers. Stress is expanding due to various issues. Although, stress is not always playing a negative role in person’s productivity, as at some levels stress tends to accelerate focus of a person, which makes the productivity better. But unfortunately, in secondary school teachers are confronting some common stress generating elements all over Karachi. Those elements are not impacting their professional life positively. The purpose of this study is to determine the common stress generating elements and their impacts on teachers’ productivity. Going through both qualitative by teachers interview and on the bases of interviews developed lickert scale closed ended questionnaire, distributed to 50 male and female teachers, among which 45 teachers responded. Data was analyzed by SPSS. According to the results there is a need of betterment of some policies on management grounds in order to overcome the stress generating elements. Keywords: Secondary school teachers, stress level, stressors. DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/9-6-01 Publication date:March 31st 201

Multilateral bargaining for resource division

We address the problem of how a group of agents can decide to share a resource, represented as a unit-sized pie. We investigate a finite horizon non-cooperative bargaining game, in which the players take it in turns to make proposals on how the resource should be allocated, and the other players vote on whether or not to accept the allocation. Voting is modelled as a Bayesian weighted voting game with uncertainty about the players’ weights. The agenda, (i.e., the order in which the players are called to make offers), is defined exogenously. We focus on impatient players with heterogeneous discount factors. In the case of a conflict, (i.e., no agreement by the deadline), all the players get nothing. We provide a Bayesian subgame perfect equilibrium for the bargaining game and conduct an ex-ante analysis of the resulting outcome. We show that, the equilibrium is unique, computable in polynomial time, results in an instant Pareto optimal agreement, and, under certain conditions provides a foundation for the core of the Bayesian voting game. Our analysis also leads to insights on how an individual’s bargained share is in- fluenced by his position on the agenda. Finally, we show that, if the conflict point of the bargaining game changes, then the problem of determining a non-cooperative equilibrium becomes NP-hard even under the perfect information assumption

Vitamin D status and pulmonary exacerbations in children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis: Experience from a tertiary care center

Background: The function of Vitamin D in preventing inflammation and infection has been studied previously for different pathologies in different populations globally. Relationships between serum Vitamin D levels and its effect on pulmonary exacerbations in the cystic fibrosis (CF) population are not well studied in our part of the world. Therefore, we aimed to ascertain the Vitamin D status in pediatric and adolescent CF patients and its association with pulmonary exacerbations.Materials and methods: A retrospective study was conducted at The Aga Khan University Hospital from 2015 to 2018. Patients of CF with sweat chloride value \u3e60 mmol/l and who had at least one measurement of 25 hydroxy Vitamin D (25 OHD) were included in the study. Annual serum Vitamin D levels were documented for enrolled patients and their past 1-year data were analyzed for pulmonary exacerbations, average length of stay, and tracheal/airway colonization with organisms.Results: 69 patients were included in the study. 28 patients (40.57%) were found to be Vitamin D deficient, 22 patients (31.88%) were Vitamin D insufficient and 19 patients (27.53%) were labeled as Vitamin D insufficient. The average number of exacerbations per year was significantly high in Vitamin D deficient group (3.71 ± 0.96) in comparison with insufficient (3.18 ± 1.09) and sufficient groups (2.26 ± 0.93) (P \u3c 0.001).Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency is related to an increased number of annual pulmonary exacerbations and pseudomonas infections