Suprachoroidal Versus Intravitreal Injection of Triamcinolone Acetonide As Primary Treatment For Diabetic Macular Edema

Abstract Objective: This study aims to evaluate and compare the effects of suprachoroidal and intravitreal triamcinolone administration, as a primary treatment, on best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central macular thickness (CMT), and intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME). Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted from November 2022 to April 2023. 64 eyes were enrolled with Inclusion criteria comprising patients with diabetic macular edema (DME) (central involving) with BCVA < 6/9, CMT > 300 µm on optical coherence tomography (OCT), and no prior DME treatment. Patients were divided into suprachoroidal triamcinolone (SCTA) (Group I) and intravitreal triamcinolone (IVTA) (Group II) groups. Follow-up occurred at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months post-injection. BCVA, CMT, and IOP were recorded. Data were analyzed using SPSS with a significance threshold of p < 0.05. Results: Both treatment groups exhibited improved BCVA and reduced CMT. Suprachoroidal delivery demonstrated more substantial visual acuity improvements compared to the intravitreal group. Reduction in IOP was observed in the suprachoroidal group at 1stweek post-treatment (p<0.001), while the intravitreal group experienced increased IOP at later follow-ups (p<0.001). Conclusion: This study illuminates the efficacy of both suprachoroidal and intravitreal triamcinolone administration as the primary treatment for DME. While both modalities displayed promising outcomes, suprachoroidal delivery exhibited more substantial visual acuity improvements with fewer side effects and promising alternatives for DME treatment.

Foliar application of liquiritin protects Chinese flowering cabbage against cucumber mosaic virus and increases health-promoting compounds

Decades of research have revealed notable similarities between the immune systems of the plant and animal kingdoms. Liquiritin has long been used to stimulate the body immunity in animals against an array of diseases. Considering the homology of some induced immune responses between animals and plants, we examined the effects of exogenously applied liquiritin to stimulate defense responses in Chinese flowering cabbage plants against cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) infection under greenhouse and field conditions. Foliar application of liquiritin (200 ppm) effectively suppressed the development of CMV symptoms by not less than 40% compared with the control in cabbage plants in both greenhouse and field trials along with the significant increases in the marketable yield and nutritional quality of cabbage. Liquiritin application enhanced the production of phenolic compounds and different defense-related enzymes in treated plants. Moreover, quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that liquiritin significantly up-regulated the expression of different defense-related genes upon pathogen inoculation, indicating an induction of the salicylic acid-mediated defense system. Collectively, the findings of this study indicate that liquiritin can effectively control CMV in cabbage plants.This study was supported by funding from the Science and Technology Foundation of Guangdong Province (Project No: 2020B0202090002); Guangdong Agriculture Department of China (2020KJ122) and Science and Technology Foundation of China (Project No: QN2020013006).Peer reviewe

Growing Geo-economic and Geo-strategic Interests of India in Afghanistan: Implications for Pakistan

The tragic event of 9/11 changed not only the global political environment of the world but also altered the security and political environment of South Asian region. A change in Pakistan’s foreign policy towards Afghanistan was witnessed. Since Pakistan’s emergence as a separate independent state, its dispute with Afghanistan on Durand Line has substantially influenced the course of its foreign policy towards Afghanistan. The issues in Afghanistan directly affect Pakistan in the domain of politics, economics and society. The troubled relations between the two states gave a chance to India to win thesympathies of Afghanis after 9/11.India emerged as a strong regional player and established good relations with Afghanistan by helping them. To secure its interests in Afghanistan India also established good relations with Iran. They share some common motives. Both the countries abominate the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and feared of the exportation of militants to their own soil. So far friendly ties between India and Afghanistan always remain as a source of anxiety for Pakistan. India participated in Bonn Conference 2001 which underlined the base of political and constitutional structure for Afghanistan. India is regarded as a positive actor by most of Afghans contrary to Pakistan. The paper examines the strategic interests of India in Afghanistan and its subsequent impacts on Pakistan

Counter-Terrorism: Push and Pull Factors Impacting Male Youth Involved in Violent Extremism in Punjab, Pakistan

The study examines contribution of societal dogmas and extremist religious ideologies pushing the youth to religious extremism. It asses contribution of people’s persuasion and the state’s coercive measures ranging from law enforcement to physical actions to pull the youth return to peace. The study is qualitative for which interviews are conducted with former militants, their relatives, and friends in Sargodha and Jhang, Pakistan. Four main findings are: First, societal dogmas to devote one’s life for a religious cause motivated the youth to resort to extremism. Second, extremist religious ideologies centred upon jihadism to sacrifice one’s life for a religious cause pushed the youth to terrorism. Third, people’s persuasion especially persuasion by families acted as a major pull factor to bringing the youth back to normal life. Fourth, the state’s coercive hand in enforcement of law and order, security operations, jails and other police actions dissuaded the youth to tread further the path of terrorism. Nonetheless, the pull factors such as societal dogmas and religious ideologies played their role in motivating the youth to terrorism. The pull factors such as people’s persuasion and the state’s coercion outclassed them to assert peace thus preventing them from falling into the abyss of terrorism

Virtual Learning Strategies during Covid-19: A Case Study of The University of Lahore, Pakistan

Due to COVID-19, the government of Pakistan had to take measures to bring about changes in almost all infrastructures, including that of education and decided to switch to a virtual learning environment and urged all educational institutes to adopt virtual learning strategies to facilitate student learning process. In an attempting to contain the virus instructed educational institutes to explore virtual space to continue learning process. The University of Lahore was one of the few universities in Pakistan that took the lead and decided to serve the learning purpose.  However, due to cultural differences and dependency on traditional learning, most universities found it difficult to follow suit. The University of Lahore has crossed a milestone and emerged as a model for other universities across country. The virtual learning strategies that have been adopted by the University are no less than international standards and the administration have been working tirelessly to ensure the smooth running of this digital education system. Based on the student survey and faculty interviews, this study recommends regular virtual trainings by educational institutes and to overcome the issues of internet connectivity and electricity in the country as a whole to better deal with the challenges that lie ahead

Requirement Engineering Challenges in Agile Software Development

Agile software development has large success rate due to its benefits and promising nature but natively where the size of the project is small. Requirement engineering (RE) is crucial as in each software development life cycle, “Requirements” play a vital role. Though agile provides values to customer’s business needs, changing requirement, and interaction, we also have to face impediments in agile, many of which are related to requirement challenges. This article aims to find out the challenges being faced during requirement engineering of agile projects. Many research studies have been conducted on requirement challenges which are somehow biased, no suggestions are given to improve the agile development process, and the research does not highlight large-scale agile development challenges. Hence, this article covers all the challenges discussed above and presents a comprehensive overview of agile models from requirement engineering perspective. The findings and results can be very helpful for software industry to improve development process as well as for researchers who want to work further in this direction