Environmental pollution caused by heavy metals are of great concern now a day as it pose a great threat to human, animals and plants by entering into food chain and living tissue. A large number of heavy metals are being under consideration worldwide due to their potent environmental effects. Chromium (Cr) is one of them causing serious environmental damages. The irrigation of important food crops and vegetables with industrial and municipal wastewater might have human and animals to a significant health risk. For the remediation of heavy metal contaminated soils and water, the most economically effective, ecologically safe and environmental friendly technique is phytoremediation. Few hyper-accumulator edible crops such as, brassica and sunflower are subject to accumulate higher concentration of heavy metal from moderate to highly contaminated soils. Keeping in view the above scenario, this research was conducted to study the morpho-physiological and biochemical mechanisms of sunflower involved in Cr tolerance. Six Faisalabad Hybrids, FH-614, FH-600, FH-619, FH-620, FH-425, FH-612 varieties were selected and one best Cr tolerant variety was chosen for further experiments. The present study was divided into four sub studies. Prior to pot experiment, a short seed germination test was run under different Cr levels (0, 10, 50 and 100 µM) in petri dishes. The selected varieties were grown in Cr spiked soil (0, 5, 10 and 20 mg kg-1) in a pot experiment under natural conditions. Plant height, root length,fresh and dry biomass of root, stem and leaves, chlorophylls and SPAD value, carotenoids, water use efficiency (A/E), transpiration rate (E), stomatal conductance (gs)and photosynthetic rate (A) were measured. The enzymatic activities of antioxidants, such as ascorbate peroxidase (APX), superoxide dismutase (SOD), guaiacol peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), reactive oxygen species such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), malondialdehyde (MDA), electrolyte leakage and soluble proteins both in roots and leaves were also measured. Cr contents in roots, stem and leaves were determined. The best tolerant variety of sunflower FH-614 was screened and selected for further experiments. Then, same variety of sunflower (FH-614) was grown in Cr spiked soil (0, 5, 10 and 20 mg kg-1) and citric acid (CA) (0, 2.5 and 5mM) and 5-aminoluvulinic acid (ALA) (0, 10 and 20 mg L-1) with factorial arrangement to investigate the promoting role of ALA and chelating effects of CAin Cr stressed plants alone and in combinations. All morpho-physiological and biochemical attributes of sunflower were measured under Cr, CA and 5-ALA. The statistical data revealed that Cr significantly decreased the agronomic traits of all six selected hybrids along with biochemical and physiological changes. The second study (Cr +CA) showed same trend of Cr stress but the application of CA alleviated the Cr induced toxicity and also enhanced the Cr concentration and accumulation in plant tissues. The third study (Cr+5-ALA) depicts similar results to second study but the combined application of CA and 5-ALA under Cr stressed plants in fourth study showed additive effects in alleviating Cr induced toxicity and accumulation of Cr in plant tissues. In combined application, CA enhanced the mobility and solubility of Cr in soil while 5-ALA regulated the normal functioning of plant metabolism which capable plant to accumulate higher concentration of Cr and translocated it to higher parts (stem and leaves). The present study suggested that the combined application of CA and 5-ALA to sunflower plants grown in Cr contaminated soils can enhance the phytoextraction of Cr and a suitable management technique for the Cr contaminated soils. The possibility of combined CA and 5-ALA for other heavy metals and plants required more detailed studies in future to combat heavy metal pollution.
آہ ! مولانا مجیب اﷲ ندوی افسوس ہے کہ دارالمصنفین کے سابق رفیق، جامعتہ الرشاد کے بانی و ناظم مولانا مجیب اﷲ ندوی نے داعی اجل کو لبیک کہا، اناﷲ وانا الیہ راجعون۔ وہ ان علما میں تھے جو اسلامی علوم سے واقف ہونے کے ساتھ ہی زمانے کے حالات قوم و ملت کے مسائل اور اپنے ملک اور دنیائے اسلام کے واقعات سے بھی باخبر رہتے تھے، ان کا انتقال ۱۲؍ مئی ۲۰۰۶ء کو مغرب کے وقت لکھنو کے ایک پرائیویٹ اسپتال میں ہوا، دوسرے روز صبح کو ان کی لاش اعظم گڑھ لائی گئی اور اسی دن سہ پہر کو جامعتہ ارشاد کے جس کمرے میں وہ رہتے تھے اسی سے متصل پورب کی طرف کے قبرستان میں ان کی تدفین ہوئی، مولانا بڑے چاق و چوبند اور چلت پھرت کے آدمی تھے، سفرکثرت سے کرتے تھے مگر گزشتہ دو تین برس سے طول عمر اور ضعف و علالت کے باعث جامعتہ الرشاد کے باہر نکلنا بند کردیا تھا مگر اس معذوری اور خانہ نشینی کے باوجود ان کا ذہن و دماغ پوری طرح کام کرتا تھا اور لکھنے پڑھنے کا مشغلہ بھی ایک حد تک جاری تھا شروع سے وہ نماز کا بڑا اہتمام کرتے تھے، سفر حضر ہر جگہ جماعت سے نماز ادا کرتے تھے مگر آخر میں ضعف اتنا بڑھ گیا کہ مسجد کی حاضری موقوف ہوگئی جس کا انہیں بڑا ملال رہتا تھا۔ انتقال سے کئی ہفتے پہلے ان پر غشی طاری ہوئی اور بات چیت بند ہوگئی اور بالآخر وہ وقت آپہنچا کہ ان کی جوش عمل سے سرشار، متحرک جدوجہد سے معمور اور ہر دم رواں دواں رہنے والی زندگی کا خاتمہ ہوگیا اور قوم و ملت کا یہ ہم درد اور بہی خواہ اپنے مالک حقیقی سے جاملا۔ مولانا کا آبائی وطن غازی پور ضلع کا موضع...
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), declared as a pandemic in March 2020, is an acute respiratory tract illness caused by coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) with clinical manifestations ranging from mild upper respiratory tract symptoms to severe pneumonia. Objectives: To determine the disease spectrum of Covid-19 in a cohort with a travel history from Iran. Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional study with a retrospective collection of data was conducted at Agha Khan University, Karachi from 15th March to 19th April 2020. One hundred and fifty-five laboratory-confirmed cases of Covid-19 were recruited from a government quarantine facility. Data were obtained from the Punjab Emergency Services (Rescue 1122) database where a record of SARS-CoV-2 positive cases and quarantined persons is maintained. Study subjects with a travel history to Iran were contacted by telephone to obtain information about demographics, symptoms, and co-morbid conditions. SPSS version 24 was used to analyze the data. Frequencies and percentages were calculated. Results: Among the returning travelers, 213 had laboratory-confirmed Covid-19, out of which 155 were included in this study. 56.1% were males with a mean age of 40 years. Among the study participants, 91.6% remained asymptomatic throughout the stay, while 8.4 % became symptomatic. 77.5% of the participants had received BCG vaccination in childhood. Among symptomatic cases 15.4% had asthma and 7.7% had hypertension. The most common clinical manifestation was cough which was present in 38.5% of the study participants. None died among the study participants. Conclusion: A mild presentation of COVID-19 was seen in our study participants with 91.6% among them being asymptomatic, while 8.4% were symptomatic. There was a high positivity rate in males as compared to females.
Background: Lymphoscintigraphy is now the primary imaging modality used in determining a diagnosis in patients with suspected extremity lymphedema. However, analysis is mainly by visual qualitative analysis which is subjective and has a wide inter-observer variability. Subtle differences in ilioinguinal uptake between normal and abnormal limbs may be missed with visual qualitative analysis. This study seeks to compare quantitative analysis to qualitative analysis by computing percentage ilioinguinal nodes uptake at 1.5 hours.
Objectives: To compare quantitative analysis to qualitative analysis of lower limb lymphoscintigraphy in the diagnosis of lymphedema.
To determine the diagnostic accuracy of quantitative lymphoscintigraphy analysis.
Methodology: 52 lymphoscintigrams of consecutive patients meeting the study criteria were analyzed quantitatively. 53 normal and 51 abnormal limbs were analyzed. For both the normal and abnormal limbs, a region of interest was drawn around the injection site (B) and ilioinguinal nodes (A) at 1.5 hr. static images and the counts in these ROIs recorded. Percentage ilioinguinal nodes uptake was computed as: Analysis of variance was done to determine whether there is significant difference in ilioinguinal uptake between normal and abnormal limbs. Using different cut-offs, and qualitative analysis as a reference standard, specificity and sensitivity was calculated and the figures used to plot a receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curve. Area under the curve was estimated.
Findings: 52 patients; 36 females and 16 males (104 limbs) were analyzed. Proportion of male limbs with a lymphoscintigraphy proven lymphedema was significantly higher (78% vs 36%, p<0.001).
ANOVA revealed a statistically significant difference between the mean uptake of normal (19.7%) and abnormal limbs (5.5%) (F=81, p
Discussion: The statistically significant difference in the means of ilioinguinal uptake between normal limbs and limbs with lymphedema is indicative of reduced lymphatic function as seen in previous studies. More female subjects were enrolled in the study suggesting that edema of whatever etiology is more common in females. The higher proportion of male limbs with lymphedema indicates that edema in our male subjects was more likely to be due to lymphedema.