Psychosocial Nurturing of Children in Islam

Psychosocial nurturing of children is linked with Parenting and personality development theories and child development theories too report evidences of influences of parenting on children nurturing. The purpose of this paper is to explore existing parenting styles in current literature and how these parenting styles influence upon and form the personality of the children in their early years. The paper aims to examine parenting with reference to authoritarian parenting, authoritative parenting, permissive parenting and uninvolved parenting. It discussed the expectations and responsiveness of the parents which determine their behavior and style. Through parenting, psychosocial nurturing of the children is determined and it was explained in existing literature and analyzed in Islamic teachings. The study followed a critical interpretivist method which examined the literature and conducted content analysis. The study examines the parenting concept and parenting style in Islamic teachings. Islam lays special emphasis on communication and attitude of the parents towards their children particularly in early childhood. Parenting style in Islamic teaching displays a loving and guiding mode. It is less demanding and more responsive in early years. Parenting in Islamic teaching encourages developing tolerance, harmony and peace. It shows flexibility to accept children’s dispositions and tries to discipline their inner faculties. Islamic teachings expect from parents to be responsive with love and passion. It gives children freedom to talk, walk, think and act in a carefree environment where they can become socially and emotionally strong. Parenting in Islam accepts children’s interests and attitudes with positive responses and respects their rights with warmth and love. It particularly develops moral awareness so that children can distinguish between right and wrong and also understand that they need to abide by rules and regulations. Lastly literature also reports that parenting in Islam does not allow any sort of harassment, coercion, frightening and unjust environment for the little angels.

Development of Recombinant Proteins for the Control and Diagnosis of Hydropericardium Syndrome

Hydropericardium syndrome (HPS) is a viral disease of poultry which is caused by Fowl adenovirus (FAdV). This virus belongs to family Adenoviridae and genus Aviadenovirus. In recent years, Hydropericardium syndrome (HPS) has emerged as one of the important diseases occurring in Pakistan and has caused heavy economic loss. Efforts have been made to develop conventional vaccines against this disease. These vaccines were formulated from infected liver homogenate. Unfortunately, formalin-inactivated liver organ vaccines failed to protect the poultry industry in the country. Hence, there is a need to develop a suitable vaccine to combat this disease. Currently, recombinant vaccine candidates are being developed for the prevention and control of some infectious diseases in several laboratories elsewhere. The present work is an effort to develop a recombinant protein, using molecular biology, biotechnological and immunological approaches for effective control and diagnosis of HPS. In the present study, the viral particle was isolated from natural outbreak of Hydropericardium syndrome in broilers, Punjab province of Pakistan using conventional methods. The existence of the virus was initially observed by Scanning Electron Microscopic examination. Icosahedral shaped viral particles of 70 – 80 nm in diameter were observed. Further, the presence of FAdV was confirmed by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) by amplification of 730 bp variable region (L1 and part of P1 loop) of hexon gene. DNA sequence analysis and Phylogenetic analysis of the PCR product revealed that isolate is closely related with Indian fowl adenovirus – 4 isolate. To investigate which gene product encoded by fowl adenovirus plays vital role in immune response against the disease, two genes representing structural proteins of the virus (Penton base & short fiber) and one gene representing non structural protein (100K) were selected to develop recombinant constructs. To achieve this, the Penton base (1587bp), Short fiber (1437bp) and 100K (2397bp) genes were amplified by PCR and cloned in an expression vector (pET28a). The histidine residues along with thrombin protease site were engineered upstream to inserts (viral genes). The presence of recombinant DNA fragments were confirmed by double digestion method, PCR amplification of insert using gene specific primers and DNA sequencing of the inserts. Nucleotide sequences of inserts revealed that two genes (Penton base and Short fiber) of local isolate have >98% homology with the Indian FAdV-4 isolates, while one gene (100K) has 96% homology with the Russian FAdV-10 isolate. The recombinant constructs were expressed in E. coli. The expression of recombinant proteins was assessed by SDS-PAGE. Western blot analysis confirmed the presence of histidine tagged recombinant proteins i.e. short fiber (60Kda), penton base (65Kda) and 100K (95Kda) using anti His tag antibody. The three recombinant proteins were purified by Nickle affinity chromatography. The biological and immunological activity of recombinant proteins were assessed for potential use as antigen in vaccine and diagnostic (ELISA). The purified recombinant proteins were adjuvanted separately with Freund’s complete adjuvant and broilers were immunized. ELISA test was performed and antibody titers were determined against the respective recombinant proteins. The results indicated that protein constructs pSMJ-2 (penton base) and pSMJ-3 (short fiber) are more immunogenic antigens as compared to protein construct pSMJ-1 (100K) and commercial vaccine. Challenge protection test also proved that penton base (pSMJ-2) and short fiber (pSMJ- 3) protein constructs conferred 90% and 80% protection respectively against pathogenic virus challenge. Whereas 100K (pSMJ-1) protein construct and commercial inactivated vaccine provided 50% and 70% protection respectively. The results obtained by ELISA and challenge test in this study indicated that the constructed recombinant proteins are suitable candidates to develop subunit vaccine and diagnostic kit (strip test) thereby can be used for prevention and control of this disease.