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Abstract This study was performed to screen out the various species of 'Cucurbitaceae' family, musk melon (Kalash and Durga), bottle gourd (Crystal Long and Nuefield) and squash (Green Round, and Squash Malika) against the salt stress. All genotypes were treated with five different levels of NaCl (T0 = control, T1 = 1.5 dS m-1, T2 = 3.0 dS m-1, T3 = 4.5 dS m-1 and T4 = 6.0 dS m-1) and half strength of Hoagland's nutrients solution as the base nutrient solution. Results showed that the bottle gourd varieties "Nuefield" and "Crystal Long" performed best by maintaining the highest germination (93.2% and 85.6%), number of leaves per plant (4.5 and 5.7), shoot length (16.84 cm and 16.14 cm), root length (13.48 cm and 13.00 cm), plant fresh weight (942.2 g and 918.6 g), plant dry weight (118.4 g and 107.5 g), leaf area (171.2 cm2 and 169.1 cm2), chlorophyll content (3.5 μg/cm-2 and 3.4 μg/cm-2) with low chloride (1.57 ppm and 1.59 ppm) and sodium content (0.47 ppm and 0.51 ppm) under salt stress followed by varieties of Squash (Green Round, and Squash Malika) and musk melon (Kalash and Durga). It was also found that a higher level of salinity (4.5 dS m-1 and 6.0 dS m-1) has more adverse effects on the performance of all selected genotypes. Conclusively, it can be recommended that as compared to all tested species, bottle gourd varieties "Nuefield" and "Crystal Long" have the ability to withstand against salinity stress and should be planted under salt stress conditions.
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Background@#The prevailing global work scenario and deteriorating health facilities in economies indulge the risk perspective in the labor market model. This is the reason that the risk factor is cautiously attributed to wages and labor market efficiencies specifically in developing and emerging economies. In this respect, Occupational Injuries of Workers (OIW) is considered essential to demonstrate the risk and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) setups given the constraints of the labor. Intuitively, the prime objective of this study is to make an assessment of the labor market considering the OIW through the indicators of industry division, employment status, occupational distribution, adopted treatment, gender and regionality. @*Methods@#The assessment strategy of the study has been categorized into trend analysis and Index Value Calculation (IVC) segments employing the data from 2001 to 2018. @*Results@#The pattern of the selected indicators of the OIW has been observed in the available data while the IVC estimations are considered through time and reference categories. The findings of both exercises revealed absolute and relative heterogeneities at both industry and occupational levels. @*Conclusion@#The consistency for gender and regional distribution of both assessments points out the need for effective policy initiatives. The study suggests separate analyses of industry and occupations for a better understanding of the OHS setups and up-gradation in Pakistan.
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Objective: To determine frequency of different types of leukemias and aberrant CD markers expression on these types. Study Design: Descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Immunology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi from Jul 2015 to Dec 2015
Material and Methods: All peripheral blood and bone marrow samples to confirm the suspicion of acute leukemia with flow cytometric immunephenoltyping were included in the study. Cells were stained with lineage specific monoclonal antibodies against cell specific CD markers through lyse wash procedure. Cell acquisition and analysis was done on Cell Quest software in multi parameter flow cytometer. Data was entered in SPSS v 20.0 to determine the frequencies of different types of leukemias and aberrant CD markers expression
Results: Over 6 months, 102 males and 49 females were tested with mean age 26 +/- 21 years. Commonest leukemia was AML M2. Among 69 pediatric cases with mean age 7.4 +/- 5.8 years, precursor B ALL was commonest. Among 82 adults with mean age 41.5 +/- 15.7 years, AML M2 was commonest leukemia. Total 32 cases [18 children and 12 adults] expressed cross lineage aberrant markers, CD13, CD33 and CD7
Conclusion: Aberrant CD markers expression must be kept in mind during lineage assignment of acute leukemias while performing flow cytometric immunophenotyping
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Introduction: Spirometry is important in the diagnosis and management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), yet it is a common clinical observation that it is underused though the extent is unclear. This survey aims to examine the use of spirometry in the diagnosis and management of COPD patients in districts of, Karachi. Material and Methods: It is a cross-sectional survey involving four clinic settings: hospital-based respiratory specialist clinic, hospital-based mixed medical specialist clinic, general outpatient clinic (primary care), and tuberculosis and chest clinic. Thirty physician-diagnosed COPD patients were randomly selected from each of the four clinic groups. All of them had a forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) to forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio less than 0.70 and had been followed up at the participating clinic for at least 6 months for COPD treatment. Results: Of the 120 COPD patients, there were 111 males and mean post-bronchodilator FEV1 was 46.2% predicted. Only 22 patients (18.3%) had spirometry done during diagnostic workup, and 64 patients (53.3%) had spirometry done ever. Conclusion: We conclude that spirometry is underused in general but especially by non-respiratory physicians and family physicians in the management of COPD patients. More effort at educating the medical community is urgently needed.
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Introduction: The aim of this research is to identify the magnitude of self-reported insomnia in medical student in Rehman Medical College, Peshawar; to characterize sleeping habits of medical students; to identify the basic causes of insomnia and to determine how subjective sleep quality affects their day to day activities
Material and Methods: It was a cross sectional survey conducted at Rehman Medical College Peshawar. A total number of 200 students from both 1st year and 2nd year MBBS were enrolled. Participants completed a self-reported questionnaire. The variables of questionnaire were derived from National Sleep Foundation [USA]. Data were entered in MS Excel and Data analysis was done on SPSS version 15 for descriptive statistics
Results: Response rate was 81.5%, amongst them 65.0% were day scholars while 35.0% were boarders; 22 students were found insomniac according to the National Sleep Foundation [USA] criteria for adult sleep, of these 13 insomniacs were Day scholars and 9 were boarders. Major causes for decreased sleep among the insomniac students were, Stress 14 [73.68%], Studies 14 [73.68%], Exams 13 [68.42%], load shedding 11 [57.89%], and disturbing events around them 6 [31.57%]. A sizable number of students, 17 [80.95%] believed that their performance was affected because of the sleep disturbance; also 17 [80.95%] students got irritated due to lack of sleep, 15 [71.42%] students thought that their concentration and retention of lessons in classrooms was greatly affected, 14 [66.67%] students thought that their studies and diet got affected due to less sleep, 13 [61.90%] felt that their personal appearance got affected, 12 [57.14%] students observed that their punctuality was affected by decreased sleep, whereas 7 [33.33%] mentioned that their relationship with friends and family got affected due to decreased sleep
Conclusion: Insomnia is fairly common among medical students in Rehman Medical College and is associated with stress, exam tension, load shedding, and medical studies. The preliminary data on insomnia categorizes student sleep disturbance as day scholars and borderline. The study provides data on causes and effect of insomnia, which may be used to guide sleep hygiene promotion and intervention among college students
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Humans , Activities of Daily Living , Cross-Sectional Studies , Students, MedicalABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to determine Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid [BALF] differential leukocyte count [DLC] in patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD] and to identify the predominant cell type in our set of population. It is a cross sectional study. This study was conducted at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan from March 2012 till October 2012. The study comprises of 140 patients with COPD with no treatment or poor compliance to treatment and no history of any interventional procedures. All patients have undergone pulmonary function tests [PFTs] to differentiate obstructive pattern disease from restrictive. Fiber optic bronchoscopy was also done, after which 10 cc of BALF was collected and run for DLC. Patients were divided in two groups A and B according to gender, and each group was further divided in to two subgroups on the basis of age i.e. above 40 years and below 40 years. All patients have higher percentage of lymphocytes as compared to polymorphs. A higher concentration of lymphocytes as compared to polymorphs in COPD patients is considered to be an uncommon in Pakistan as per literature survey is concerned, because very less work is done on BALF analysis. Our study suggests that percentage of lymphocytes in patients suffering from COPD is quite high and cases are not restricted to classical acute pulmonary infections
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Pulmonary Nocardiosis [PN] is a severe and infrequent infection caused by Nocardia species, pathogen that can behave both as opportunistic as well as infectious with a high morbidity and mortality that mainly affects immunocompromised patients. In recent years, an increase in PN cases has been detected among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD]. The factors that are associated with its presence and determinants of its prognosis remain unknown. The aim of this study is to identify the frequency of nocardia in bronco alveolar lavage fluid [BALF] of patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Analyze the bronco alveolar lavage fluid [BALF] of patients suffering from COPD for presence of nocardia and determination of differential leukocyte count. Prospective study. This study was conducted at Tertiary Care Hospitals in Karachi from March 2012 till October 2012. It is a prospective study of COPD patients. The study comprises of 140 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with or without treatment. All patients were divided in two groups A and B according to gender, and each group was further divided according to age i.e. above 40 years and below 40 years. Out of 140 patients 68 turned out to be positive for Nocardia. Nocardiosis is considered to be uncommon in Pakistan, but out study suggests that prevalence of Nocardial infections in patients suffering from COPD is quite high and cases are not restricted to the classical immunocompromised host
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Growing water scarcity in Pakistan is compelling people to use the treated wastewater at least for landscape irrigation and plantation to augment available water resources. In the present study, a laboratory scale electrocoagulation [EC] process was utilized to treat the raw wastewater in order to bring the quality up to the international wastewater reuse standards. Effect of various operating parameters such as operating time, current density and inter-electrode spacing was evaluated to achieve the maximum possible treatment efficiency. It was found that the application of 24.7 mA/cm[2] current density with an inter-electrode spacing of 5 cm may provide 91.8%, 77.2% and 68.5% removal in turbidity, COD and TSS within 30 minutes of EC treatment. The quality of treated wastewater was compared with various international standards/guidelines for wastewater reuse. It was found that the studied parameters such as BOD, COD, TDS, TSS, turbidity, NO3-N, NH3-N, chloride, Na[+], Ca[2+], Mg[2+], sulfate, total phosphorus, electrical conductivity Oil and Grease [O and G] and total coliform [TC] were within allowable limits. Electrical conductivity, TDS and Sodium Adsorption Ratio [SAR] are mainly used for the determination of wastewater suitability for safe irrigation. Their values do not exceed the international wastewater reuse standards. The study shows that the raw wastewater generated at the study site after EC treatment is safe for landscape irrigation and plantation
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Agricultural Irrigation , Waste Management , Recycling , Water , Water SupplyABSTRACT
The objective of this study is to analyse the in vitro expression of Erythropoietin and Erythropoietin Receptor in pathological biopsies of oral squamous cell carcinoma. The biopsy samples of oral squamous cell carcinoma provided by Barts and the London NHS trust hospital. The samples were taken from buccal mucosa, lip, lateral border of tongue, tonsilor region, oropharynx and nasal columnella. These samples were cut to form the formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissue blocks, and immunohistochemistry was performed on each sample, which later on viewed under microscope. In this study erythropoietin staining was present in all the specimens of oral squamous cell carcinoma studied. Within the tumors Erythropoietin staining showed a differential pattern that was related to the differentiation of the tumour. In poorly differentiated tumours, erythropoietin was present in all the tumour cells spread throughout the tissue. In well differentiated tumours, erythropoietin staining was only present in the prickle cell layer. Erythropoietin receptor staining within the tumours showed a differential staining too. In the poorly differentiated tumours, erythropoietin receptor was only present in the muscle plus adjacent inflammatory cells and was absent in the tumour islands. In the well differentiated tumours some islands showed weak staining in the prickle cell layer, while the surrounding inflammatory infiltrate was positive. This study has confirmed that oral squamous cell carcinoma express both erythropoietin and erythropoietin receptor. Erythropoietin staining showed a differential pattern that was related to the differentiation of tumour. Erythropoietin receptor was expressed in salivary gland ducts and serous but not in mucous acini. These findings suggest that more studies are needed to explore the functional significance of erythropoietin and erythropoietin receptor in oral squamous cell carcinoma and in salivary glands