Dichromacy: Color Vision Impairment and Consanguinity in Heterogenous Population of Pakistan

Background and Objectives: Dichromacy, an X-linked recessive disorder is identified worldwide, more in males than females. In European Caucasians, its incidence is 8% in males and 0.5% in females. In India, it is 8.73% in males and 1.69% in females, and in Iran, it is 8.18% in males and 0.43% in females. Population based epidemiological data about dichromacy in different ethnic groups in Pakistan is not available. The aim of this study was to find out the population prevalence of inherited red-green dichromacy in a heterogenous population of the district of Chiniot, Punjab, Pakistan, and to determine the impact of consanguinity and ethnicity. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, boys and girls of the higher secondary schools were examined in the three tehsils of district Chiniot. Pseudoisochromatic Ishihara Test has been employed for detection of dichromacy in the study population. The sample size was calculated statistically as 260, which was expanded to 705 and divided by population density of the three tehsils. Results: Screening of 359 males and 346 females revealed 19 (5.29%) dichromat males and only 2 (0.58%) females. The study population belonged to 23 castes / isonym groups. The consanguinity found in the district of Chiniot is 84.82% and in the dichromat families, it is 85.71%, of which 52.37% are first cousin. Interpretation & Conclusion: The study has shown that the incidence of dichromacy could be reduced through genetic counselin

EFEKTIVITAS METODE AL MIFTAH LIL ULUM DALAM MENINGKATKAN KEMAMPUAN MEMBACA KITAB KUNING SANTRI DI PONDOK PESANTREN AL BADAR PAREPARE

Perkembangan zaman yang semakin pesat serta bertambahnya populasi santri menjadi tantangan bagi pondok pesantren agar dapat bertindak lebih inovatif dalam membentuk sistem pembelajaran, khususnya pembelajaran kitab kuning. Menjawab tantangan ini pondok pesantren Al Badar Parepare menerapkan metode pembelajaran Al Miftah Lil Ulum. Penelitian ini berfokus pada efektivitas metode Al Miftah Lil Ulum dalam meningkatkan kemampuan membaca kitab kuning santri di pondok pesantren Al Badar Parepare. Fokus penelitian dicapai dengan meninjau pada: (1) Perencanaan dan Pelaksanaan Pembelajaran Metode Al Miftah Lil Ulum di Pondok Pesantren Al Badar Parepare, (2) Evaluasi Pelaksanaan Pembelajarannya, dan (3) Peningkatan Kemampuan Membaca Kitab Kuning Santri Setelah Penerapan Pembelajaran Metode Al Miftah Lil Ulum. Jenis penelitian kualitatif dengan pendekatan studi kasus. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan wawancara, observasi, dan dokumentasi. Data yang terkumpul dianalisis dengan mereduksi data, mendisplay data, menarik kesimpulan, dan verifikasi. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa metode Al Miftah Lil Ulum terbukti dapat meningkatkan tingkat pemahaman santri dalam membaca kitab kuning. Keefektifan metode ini terbukti dengan banyaknya santri yang telah menyelesaikan 4 jilid Al Miftah Lil Ulum dalam kurun waktu yang singkat. Santri Al Badar juga berhasil meraih banyak juara dan penghargaan dalam beragam kompetisi kitab kuning maupun bahasa Arab

Childhood pneumonia - progress and challenges

No Abstract. South African Medical Journal Vol. 96(9) (Part 2) 2006: 890-89

Connecting species’ geographical distributions to environmental variables: range maps versus observed points of occurrence

Connecting the geographical occurrence of a species with underlying environmental variables is fundamental for many analyses of life history evolution and for modeling species distributions for both basic and practical ends. However, raw distributional information comes principally in two forms: points of occurrence (specific geographical coordinates where a species has been observed), and expert-prepared range maps. Each form has potential short-comings: range maps tend to overestimate the true occurrence of a species, whereas occurrence points (because of their frequent non-random spatial distribution) tend to underestimate it. Whereas previous comparisons of the two forms have focused on how they may differ when estimating species richness, less attention has been paid to the extent to which the two forms actually differ in their representation of a species’ environmental associations. We assess such differences using the globally distributed avian order Galliformes (294 species). For each species we overlaid range maps obtained from IUCN and point-of-occurrence data obtained from GBIF on global maps of four climate variables and elevation. Over all species, the median difference in distribution centroids was 234 km, and median values of all five environmental variables were highly correlated, although there were a few species outliers for each variable. We also acquired species’ elevational distribution mid-points (mid-point between minimum and maximum elevational extent) from the literature; median elevations from point occurrences and ranges were consistently lower (median −420 m) than mid-points. We concluded that in most cases occurrence points were likely to produce better estimates of underlying environmental variables than range maps, although differences were often slight. We also concluded that elevational range mid-points were biased high, and that elevation distributions based on either points or range maps provided better estimates