Illness Perception, Perceived Social Support and Quality of Life in Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients

The objective of the current study is to determine the relationship between illness perception, perceived social support and quality of life in pulmonary tuberculosis patients. To this end, the World Health Organization Quality of life scale, the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support were used to measure the relationship between variables. The quantitative approach was used, with purposive sampling. A total of 150 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis were part of the final sample. Hierarchical multiple regression results indicate that social support of family, friends, and significant others, are significant positive predictors of quality of life in pulmonary TB patients. This study has implications for designing better health and social policy for pulmonary tuberculosis patients with respect to (i) advancing support from significant others, (ii) strengthening quality of life through daily activities and work opportunities, and (iii) provision of medical and treatment information consistently.

Systematic Study of Scarabaeidae

The present studies were carried out to investigate the dung beetles‟ fauna in the selected parts of northern Pakistan including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (KPK) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The area is diverse and virgin for its flora and fauna pertaining to different habitats, especially the dung beetles in subfamily scarabaeinae. The study was conducted in the three selected ecological zones including alpine zone, montane temperate forest and tropical deciduous forest. These zones were further divided into sub-zones for comprehensive collection of dung beetles fauna. The systematic study revealed the presence of ten genera and twenty-four species from the study area including Digitonthophagus gazelle, D. bonasus, Heliocopris midas, H. bucephalus, Onthophagus (Phanaeomorphus) gagates, O. (Altonthophagus) kukunoren-sis, O. (Palaeonthophagus) marginalis, O. (Palaeonthophagus) nuchicornis, O. (s. str.) proletarius, O. (Coloboonthophagus) tragus, Onitis falcatus, O. lama, O. philemon, O. subopacus, O. virens, Catharsius molossus, C. pithecius, Metacatharsius inermis, Copris repertus , C. sacontala, C. punctatus, Scarabaeus sacer, Cheironitis arrowi and Gymnopleurus flagellates. Out of these, eights species were newly recorded for Pakistan including Onthophagus gagates, Onthophagus kukunorensis, O. (s. str.) proletarius, He-liocopris bucephalus, Copris punctatus, C. repertus, C. sacontala and Onitis lama. The diagnosis of each genus, identification keys to genera and species, colored photographs and geographical distribution maps for each species along with scale length size were provided.