THE ROLE OF GLUTAMATE SIGNALLING IN DIABETIC NEUROPATHY

The majority of diabetics develop neuropathy, which can be debilitating, but the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms are poorly understood. Diabetic neuropathy progresses in a distal to proximal manner. Previous studies have shown that glutamate, the most common excitatory neurotransmitter, plays a role in the pathogenesis of neuropathy. The reason why the role of glutamate in nociception becomes a problem in diabetes and the mechanisms that are involved are unknown. Based on the preliminary data, the hypothesis was that glutamate pathways are likely to be involved in diabetic neuropathy particularly neuropathic pain. Pathways were investigated to look for changes that might reflect neuropathic pain and fit with previously established pharmacological evidence. The aim of this project was to identify changes in expression of genes and their protein products that are involved in glutamate signalling in diabetes. This will help to further the understanding of the mechanisms of diabetic neuropathy. In diabetic rats, there were consistent changes in expression, particularly in the lumbar and sacral dorsal root ganglia of the spinal cord and in the sympathetic ganglia. The changes were consistent between the different groups of animals as well as between adjacent groups of ganglia. The most prominent changes in both the GK groups included marked upregulation of Gria4 (ionotropic AMPA receptor), downregulation of Grik3 and Grik4 (both ionotropic, kainite receptors) and Grin1 and Grin2A (both ionotropic, NMDA receptors), activation of all of which has been shown to induce hyperalgesia; downregulation of Slc1a6 (excitatory amino acid transporter 4) and upregulation of Slc1a1 (excitatory amino acid transporter 3), both of which mediate neural reuptake of glutamate from the synaptic cleft; and upregulation of Gclc (glutathione synthase), which reflects a response to protect against oxidative damage. Despite many theories existing about the pathogenesis of diabetic neuropathy, there is no unifying hypothesis. It is possible that changes in glutamate signalling can contribute to these other mechanisms and possibly unify these different theories. A better understanding of the role that glutamate plays in development of diabetic neuropathy may pave the way for future therapeutic intervention

Bayesian compressive sensing framework for spectrum reconstruction in Rayleigh fading channels

Compressive sensing (CS) is a novel digital signal processing technique that has found great interest in many applications including communication theory and wireless communications. In wireless communications, CS is particularly suitable for its application in the area of spectrum sensing for cognitive radios, where the complete spectrum under observation, with many spectral holes, can be modeled as a sparse wide-band signal in the frequency domain. Considering the initial works performed to exploit the benefits of Bayesian CS in spectrum sensing, the fading characteristic of wireless communications has not been considered yet to a great extent, although it is an inherent feature for all sorts of wireless communications and it must be considered for the design of any practically viable wireless system. In this paper, we extend the Bayesian CS framework for the recovery of a sparse signal, whose nonzero coefficients follow a Rayleigh distribution. It is then demonstrated via simulations that mean square error significantly improves when appropriate prior distribution is used for the faded signal coefficients and thus, in turns, the spectrum reconstruction improves. Different parameters of the system model, e.g., sparsity level and number of measurements, are then varied to show the consistency of the results for different cases

Learning Styles of Students and Teaching Styles of Teachers in Business Education: A Case Study of Pakistan

AbstractThe purpose of the research was to find the association between learning styles and teaching styles at undergraduate level in a business school. Canfield Learning Styles Inventory (CLSI, 1992) and Staffordshire Evaluation of Teaching Styles (SETS, 2007) were used. 262 students and 12 teachers were taken through random sampling from four disciplines: Marketing, Management, Human Resource Management, and Finance. There was a positive correlation between student learning style and teacher teaching style, which was statistically significant (r = .77, n = 262, P < .0005). The results clearly indicate that awareness raising sessions should be arranged for students and teachers to realize the importance and implications of knowing their learning and teaching styles in business education environment

The Association Between Learning Style, Learning Strategies with Academic Performance Among Nursing Students

Background: One of the most important problems in student's education is academic failure. Identifying factors that affecting academic achievement and pay attention to these factors is a stride toward success. Students' academic achievement and related factors have priority in education research. Objective: The objective of present study was to evaluate the association between learning styles and learning strategies on academic performance among nursing students. Materials and Methods: A Co-relational study was conducted in The University of Lahore. In this study 109 students were selected via convenient sampling. In this study co-relation test was used to assess the association between learning styles and learning strategies on academic performance among nursing students. Results: According to correlation coefficients, there is a positive significant relationship between students learning styles (.060) and learning strategies (.013) and p value is less than 0.01. Conclusion: Considering positive and significant correlation between learning and study strategies with academic achievement in nursing students, so, we suggest that students and teachers use these strategies to improve academic achievement and reduce the academic loss of students. Keywords: Learning. Learning styles. Learning strategies. Academic performance. Students DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/72-08 Publication date:March 31st 202

Impact of foreign aid to agriculture sector on agricultural productivity in developing countries in the context of second goal of SDGs

Thesis(Master) --KDI School:Master of Development Policy,2016In order to achieve the objectives of Sustainable Development Goals in the context of agriculture and food availability to everyone, the role of aid stands critical. The study will examine the impact of agriculture aid on average and at different quintiles of productivity level in low income and lower middle income countries (77 developing countries) during the period of 2002 to 2014. The agricultural productivity is taken as dependent variable and the explanatory variables include agricultural aid (main variable of interest), agricultural population, agricultural land, drought, primary gross enrolment, gross capital formation, gross fixed capital formation (in agriculture sector) and government’s policy effectiveness during the period from 2002 to 2014. The estimated results show the positive and significant relationship between agriculture aid and productivity. However, the policy indicators have revealed negative but insignificant association with the dependent variable. The study suggests that the donor agencies have to increase the agricultural aid by 126 percent to get the double agricultural productivity by the year 2030 from the current average aid level of US$44.07 million per year.Chapter One: Introduction Chapter Two: Literature Chapter Three: Data and Methodology Chapter Four: Results Chapter Five: ConclusionmasterpublishedNadia HUSSAIN

Factors Associated within 28 Days In-Hospital Mortality of Patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Objective. To determine the factors leading to in-hospital mortality within 28 days in hospitalized patients with ARDS. It was a prospective observational cohort study conducted in Intensive Care Unit of Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi from March to August 2011. Methodology. Data was collected from patients admitted in the intensive care unit on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria. The patients were followed daily for 28 days to record any in-hospital complications and the outcome of patients. Results. Total of 46 patients were included during this period out of which 56% (26) were males and 43% (20) were females. Mean age was 44 ± 19 years. There were 11 (23.9%) patients with age \u3e65 and 35 (76%) had age \u3c65 years. There were 21 (45.6%) patients with pulmonary ARDS and 25 (54.3%) had extrapulmonary ARDS. APACHE II score of \u3e20 was present in 23 (50%) patients while the rest had score of \u3c20. Regarding in-hospital complications, 23 (50%) patients developed sepsis, 31 (67.4%) had multiorgan failure, 14 (30%) had refractory shock, and 15 (32.6%) developed refractory hypoxemia. Out of 46 patients, 26 (56.5%) died within 28 days. On univariate analysis, high APACHE score, multiorgan failure, refractory shock, and refractory hypoxemia were main causes of death. Conclusion. ARDS is a syndrome of high mortality with mortality rate of 56.5% in this study. High APACHE, sepsis, multiorgan failure, refractory shock, and refractory hypoxemia are the leading causes of death in our patients

Compliance of hand written transfusion requisition form and improvement after online request - A clinical audit

Objective: To assess the compliance of healthcare personnel with regard to sending completely filled transfusion requisition forms.Methods: The audit was conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, and comprised requisition slips received at the hospital blood bank from September 2014 to February 2015. The British Committee for Standards in Haematology guidelines was used as the standard. Percentage of each variable on the proforma was analsyed. Rating \u3c50% for each form was defined as needs improvement , 51-99% as good compliance and 100% as excellent compliance . After implementing strategies to increase awareness and the launching of an online transfusion requisition form, a re-audit of physician compliance was done from February to April 2016 and the results were compared with the initial audit.. Data was analysed using SPSS 21.Results: The audit and the re-audit both comprised 1000 transfusion requisition forms each. In the audit, The sum of total scores of all the transfusion requisition forms was 4911, indicating a compliance rate of 46.9%, while the corresponding numbers in the re-audit were 10000 and 100%.Conclusions: The implementation of online blood transfusion requisition system had a positive impact on compliance rate

Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients presenting with conversion disorder in a tertiary care hospital in north India

 Background: Conversion (functional neurological symptom) disorder refers to patients who have neurological symptoms in the absence of neurological disease, encompassing one or more symptoms of altered voluntary motor or sensory function. Aim of the study was to study the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with conversion disorder.Methods: The study population comprised all the patients (both inpatients and outpatients) of conversion disorder attending department of psychiatry, government medical college Srinagar over a period of 6 months who fulfilled the inclusion criteria of the study were evaluated on a semi-structured proforma for demographic variables and clinical characteristics.Results: A total of 76 patients of conversion disorder were included in our study. Conversion disorder is more common in age group of 20-29 years (52.6%), females (93.4%) and among students (71.1%) belonging to rural background. Motor symptoms were the predominant presentation with pseudo seizure (69.7%) being the commonest. A majority of the patients had an obvious psychosocial stressor, of which family-related (36.8%) and relationship- related (15.8%) problems accounted for the major types.Conclusions: Conversion disorders are commonly seen in young adult females, students and in those from rural background. They are mostly preceded by psychosocial stressors

Initials Impact of Nursing Manager Perception of Empowerment and Years of Experience on Resistance to Change in Practice

Introduction:  Nurse Managers play a vital role to maintain an organization. They are responsible for nursing employment, ward management and other routine managerial activities. The nation is divided between knowledge and ignorance.  Human resources management plays a significant role in any organization. The main challenge in human resources management is capable and knowledgeable employee. Today it is a world of competition and day by day new policies are made and implemented in any business. Changes are inevitable in any organization. During the process of change every organization has to face resistance by the employees.Objective: The objective of study to check Impact of Nursing Manager Perception of Empowerment and Years of Experience on Resistance to Change in PracticeMaterial and methods: a descriptive correlational study was conducted to the impact of nursing manager perception of empowerment and years of experience on resistance to change in practice. The target population 150 and the study was conducted on head nurses of different hospitals. Participants were asked to fill demographic and conditions for work effectiveness questionnaire (CWEQ-II) and resistance to change scale. Conclusion: according to this study the perception of empowerment in nursing managers has significant relationship with resistance to change. As the perception of empowerment increases the degree of resistance decreases. In current health system, it is necessary to develop perception empowerment that has proven to effective to decrease resistance to change in practice among nurses. Keywords: Nursing Manager, Empowerment, and Experience and Resistance to Change DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/62-11 Publication date:May 31st 2019

Clinico-haematological profile of adult pancytopenia patients at a tertiary care institute in South India

Background: Pancytopenia is not a disease by itself; rather it describes simultaneous presence of anemia, leukopenia and thrombocytopenia resulting from a number of disease processes. Varieties of hematological and non-hematological disorders may affect bone marrow either primarily or secondarily, resulting in the manifestation of pancytopenia. The incidence of various hematological disorders causing pancytopenia varies due to geographical distribution and genetic predisposition. This study highlights the spectrum of causes, clinical presentation and bone marrow morphology of pancytopenia.Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted for a period of two years at Al-Ameen Medical College, Bijapur, Bangalore. During this period, fifty patients with a hematological diagnosis of pancytopenia were studied during period in the department of pathology.Results: Among the 50 cases studied, 35 were males and 15 were females. Most of the patients presented with generalized weakness and fever. The commonest physical finding was pallor, followed by splenomegaly and hepatomegaly. Dimorphic anemia was predominant blood picture. Bone marrow study showed 72% hypercellular marrow, 12% normocellular and 16% hypocellular marrow. The commonest cause for pancytopenia was megaloblastic anemia followed by iron deficiency anaemia and malaria.Conclusions: The present study concludes that detailed hematological investigations along with bone marrow examination in pancytopenic patients is helpful to diagnose or rule out the causes of pancytopenia.