Assessing the Socio-Economic and Environmental Impacts of 2014 Drought in District Tharparkar, Sindh-Pakistan

Thar Desert constitutes the largest desert of Pakistan. It is the only densely populated desert in the world, whose inhabitants is attached to their location and is unwilling to migrate. In recent past, Thar has been struck three times by droughts, the most recent was of 2014 while, and the most severe was in 1992-2002, following which it was declared one of the food insecure regions of the world e.g. Yemen, Syrian Arab Republic, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Burundi, Afghanistan. Understanding people perception of drought can assist to identify barriers to and drivers of adaptation that later help to develop adaptation related policies. This study seeks to assess the present condition of Thar natives and to understand from the views of people that how much negative impact of drought has on their lives. Primary data were obtained through personal interviews from local people (N=251) during field survey which was conducted in July 2015. Natives indicated that drought is a natural phenomenon; it does affect their lives, but not to a significant level. Among the affected people, the poor who live in rural areas and depend directly on agriculture have been hit especially hard. The installation of a solar reverse osmosis (SRO) plant that serves District Tharparkar has resolved most of the water shortage issues. However, water quality remains an issue for villagers, dependent on well water that is saline or polluted. Human activities such as deforestation and use of non-renewable resources for fuel are increasing environmental degradation. There is a dire need to establish best medical centers other than urban sites of the district to improve health condition of the native

Acute myeloid leukaemia in children: experience at a tertiary care facility of Pakistan

Objective: To document the demographics and outcome of children with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) treated at a tertiary care facility of Pakistan. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted at Aga Khan University on children (less than 15 years) diagnosed to have AML between January 2000 to May 2007.Total 40 cases were diagnosed out of which 37 charts were available for review. Results: The average age of presentation was 8.5±4.5 years and 75% were males. The most common presenting feature was fever in 83% followed by bleeding in 41% and pallor in 39%. Initial WBC of \u3e 100,000 was seen in 19% of patients. The most common FAB subtype was M4 39%. Twenty three patients underwent treatment out of which 12 patients are alive and in remission. Majority were followed up around 2 years and 6 months. Out of the 11 patients who died three had resistant disease, four relapsed and rest died due to sepsis mostly during induction. Conclusions: The most common sub type in our study is AML M4 although AML M2 is reported as predominant subtype. About a third of the patients could not start or complete therapy due to financial constraints. The overall survival for our patients who completed therapy was 52%

Screening of hepatitis B and C among people visiting general practice clinics in a rural district of Sindh, Pakistan.

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B (HB), Hepatitis C (HC) and their risk factors are amongst the major health problems in developing countries including Pakistan. This study aimed to screen for HB and HC among people who visited General Practice clinics and also to identify the differences of screening positive cases by age and sex. METHODS: This was a retrospective study conducted in Tando Muhammad Khan city, one of the rural districts of Sindh. All together we reviewed 5989 laboratory reports of people for hepatitis B and C on consecutive basis from two laboratories. A pre-designed and structured perform was used to collect the required information. Chi-squared test and univariate analysis was calculated to assess the difference in HB and HC proportion by age groups and sex. RESULTS: One-fourth of reports were positive for at least one entity whereas 8% and 17% of reviewed reports of adults (\u3e 18 years and above) were screened positive for HB and HC respectively. Positive screened tests were higher among older age group compared to young age group (HB: older age group = 56.6% vs. younger age group = 43.4%; OR = 1.07) and (HC: older age group = 58.3% vs. younger age group = 41.7%; OR = 1.08). In the same way, positive screened tests were higher among men compared to women (HB: men = 67.0% vs. women = 33.0%; OR = 1.2) and (HC: men = 62.0% vs. women = 38.0%; OR = 1.3), CONCLUSION: A large proportion of people were screened positive for HB and HC inthis study. Prevention and screening are suggested at larger scale for urgent planning and implementation of intervention strategies in this regard. Further research is also recommended to explore this important health issue at large scale

Diabetic Neuropathy And Its Correlation With Vitamin D3

oai:ojs2.biosight.org:article/1The purpose of this study was to determine neurotransmitter and vitamin D3 levels in both men and women. Fifty healthy middle-aged men and women of 41.17 ± 9.6 and 42 ± 9.59 years respectively were selected. They have no known disease. While 50 male and female diabetic patients with an average age of 55.5 ± 14.92 and 47.87 ± 10.81 years were selected respectively. Anthropological data, including age, weight and length, were recorded in both controls and patients. To test the hypothesis of study relationship between vitamin D and neurotransmitters was analyzed in both groups. The statistical significance was taken at the p-level <0.05. The diabetic patients had neuropathy for 3 to 5 years with high HbA1c. Age and gender do not significantly affect neuropathy in diabetes. The average standard deviation of vitamin D3 is significantly lower in those having diabetic neuropathies, 12,448 ± 3,519 ng / ml (SD), which is not 24,958 ± 5,419 ng / ml, and was compared with vitamin D3 neuropathy in patients who did not have diabetes. (p <0.01). This analysis has shown that the neuropathy of diabetes is strongly linked to vitamin D3 after including confusion such as "Duration of diabetes and HbA1c". In patients with diabetes, the effects of vitamin D3 on neuropathy and the need for further studies ensure that there is a delay in preventing the dose of vitamin D3 or in the onset of neuropathy due to diabete

Schiff Bases and Their Metallic Derivatives: Highly Versatile Molecules with Biological and Abiological Perspective

1998 onwards, a span reporting thousands of research articles describes the ever-increasing applicability of Schiff bases and their metallic complexes; this chapter comprehensively examines the literature of the last 20 years. The structural diversity of these molecules made them available for a very wide range of biological and abiological applications. Schiff bases are excellent chelators and due to this unique property have found their place in qualitative and quantitative determination of metals in aqueous media. The structural diversity of metal chelates proved these to be outstanding catalysts and displayed interesting fluorescence effect. Finally, Schiff base moieties have found a unique position during the in vitro and in vivo experiments for drug development against a huge number of biological entities including bacteria, fungi, cancer cells, viruses, parasites, etc

Negative index fishnet with nanopillars formed by direct nano-imprint lithography

In this paper we demonstrate the ability to fabricate fishnets by nanoimprinting directly into a pre-deposited three layer metal–dielectric–metal stack, enabling us to pattern large areas in two minutes. We have designed and fabricated two different fishnet structures of varying dimensions using this method and measured their resonant wavelengths in the near-infrared at 1.45 μm and 1.88 μm. An important by-product of directly imprinting into the metal–dielectric stack, without separation from the substrate, is the formation of rectangular nanopillars that sit within the rectangular apertures between the fishnet slabs. Simulations complement our measurements and suggest a negative refractive index real part with a magnitude of 1.6. Further simulations suggest that if the fishnet were to be detached from the supporting substrate a refractive index real part of 5 and FOM of 2.74 could be obtained

Isolation and Characterization of Flavonoid Naringenin and Evaluation of Cytotoxic and Biological Efficacy of Water Lilly (Nymphaea mexicana Zucc.)

Despite its limited exploration, Nymphaea mexicana Zucc. can be beneficial if pharmacology, isolation, and biological evaluation are given attention. It is an aquatic species that belongs to the family Nymphaeaceae. The thrust area of the work was the extraction, isolation, and biological evaluation of different extracts of the N. mexicana Zucc. plant. The primary goal of this research was to assess the antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anticancer activities of the extracts and to isolate the target naringenin compound. Comparative FT IR analysis of different extracts of this plant revealed the presence of functional groups of plant secondary metabolites, including polyphenols, flavonoids, terpenoids, esters, amines, glycosides, alkanes, alkaloids, fatty acids, and alcohols. Moderate free radical scavenging potential has been achieved for the various extracts via reducing power and DPPH assays. While cytotoxic activity was evaluated by colorimetric and lactate dehydrogenase cell viability tests on potent cancer cell lines. Lung adenocarcinoma epithelial cells (A-549), and breast cells (MC-7) were treated with MeOH extract. The antimicrobial activity against bacterial strains was evaluated using Gram-positive and -negative cultures, where maximum and minimum inhibition zones were recorded for different strains, including 1.6–25.6 μg/mL for Streptococcus aureus, using the agar well diffusion method. In addition, the anti-inflammatory activity of different extracts of N. mexicana Zucc. was evaluated in a nitrite radical scavenging assay with high concentrations of secondary metabolites, which are important against human pathogens and other diseases

Incidence, outcome and risk factors for sepsis- a two year retrospective study at surgical intensive care unit of a teaching hospital in Pakistan

Background: Sepsis is amongst the leading causes of admission to the intensive care units and is associated with a high mortality. However, data from developing countries is scarse. Aim of conducting this study was to determine the incidence, outcome and risk factors for sepsis on admission to surgical intensive care unit (SICU) of a teaching hospital in Pakistan. Methods: Two year retrospective observational study included all consecutive adult admissions to the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) of a University Hospital, from January 2012 to December 2013. Results: Two hundred and twenty-nine patients met the inclusion criteria. Average age of the patients was 46.35±18.23 years (16–85), mean Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score was 15.92±8.13 and males were 67.6%. Median length of ICU stay was 4 [IQR 5]. 43% patients fulfilled the criteria of sepsis at the time of admission to the SICU and incidence of severe sepsis/septic shock was 35%. Abdominal sepsis was the most frequent source of infection (57.5%). The overall intensive care unit mortality was 32.31% but the mortality of sepsis-group was 51.15% as compared to 17.7% of the non-sepsis group. Stepwise logistic regression model showed that increasing age, female gender, non-operative admission, admission under general surgery and co-morbidities like ischaemic heart disease and chronic kidney disease were significant predictors of sepsis. Conclusion: The incidence of sepsis and severe sepsis/septic shock, on admission to SICU is high and mortality of the sepsis group is nearly three times the mortality of the non-sepsis group