Social Media Policies of Medical Colleges of Pakistan

Introduction: A total of 144 medical colleges are contributing to the country’s progress. Excessive usage of social media is a cause of not only the deterioration of physical and psychological health of medical students, but has also become a defining reason of procrastination and attaining less than ideal grades. Where most western institutes implement strict social media policies in medical schools, those in Pakistan are gravely lacking. Objective: The objective of this research implementation of social media in medical schools of Pakistan and then identify the need to develop such policies. Methods: We conducted qualitative research in which method of data collection was primarily focus group discussions (FGD) of a total of 40 participants from five different medical colleges of Pakistan. The participants included medical practitioners and medical students(n=20) who were further divided into four groups of five participants each. FGD was conducted online. Results: Content analysis revealed seven core themes as point of discussions to be highlighted. Almost all participants were grossly unaware of the importance of social media usage regulation and its implementation in medical schools. Conclusion: At the end of the FGD it was unanimously agreed upon that there must be a uniform and standard social media policy defined by the regulating bodies of medical schools. This research may further be conducted by including policymakers in the sample. KEYWORDS: Social media, policy, medical colleges.

Investigation on Intercropping of Ziziphus Mauritiana With Cajanus Cajan for Fruit and Fodder at Marginal Land and Cultivation of Carissa Carandas for Fruits Through Saline Water Irrigation

Salinity is a growing threat to crop production which affects sustainability of agriculture in arid/semiarid areas. Growth responses of plant to salinity vary considerably among species. Cajanus cajan, Ziziphus mauritiana and Carissa carandas are sub-tropical crops, grown worldwide particularly in Asian subcontinent for edible and fodder purposes but not much is known about their salinity tolerance and intercropping. Effect of salinity has been initially studied in present work at germination of C. cajan under different sea salt salinities using presoaked seeds with water and respective salt solutions. Seed germination decreased with increasing salinity and it was more sever in presoaking under water of different salinities. The 50% threshold reduction started at ECiw= 3.5 dSm-1 sea salt in presoaking treatments. However, this threshold was decreased up to ECiw= 16.8 dSm-1 sea salt at further seedling establishment stage. Growth experiment of C. cajan in drum pot culture (Lysimeter) also showed a salt induced growth reduction in which plant tolerate salinity up to 4.2 dSm-1. At this salinity, leaf pigments (chlorophylls and carotenoids), proteins and insoluble sugars decreased up to 50% whereas, soluble sugars were increased (~25%). Reproductive growth was also affected at this salinity, in which at least 70% reduction in flowers, pods and seeds were observed. Salt tolerance of symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria associated with root of C. cajan showed salinity tolerance up to ECw= 36.6 dSm-1 NaCl salinity invitro environment. For intercropping experiments, Ziziphus mauritiana (grafted variety) was selected with C. cajan. Preliminary investigations showed a growth promotion in Z. mauritiana at low salinity (ECe= 7.2 dSm-1) and growth was remained unaffected up to ECe= 11.1 dSm-1. Intercropping of C. cajan with Z. mauritiana was primarily done in drum pot (Lysimeter) culture. Result showed better growth responses of both species when growing together as intercrops than sole in which encouraging results were found in 8th day irrigation interval rather than of 4th day. Biochemical parameters e.g. photosynthetic pigments, protein, phenols, electrolyte leakage and sugars of these species displayed increase or decrease according to their growth responses. Increased activity of antioxidant enzymes and that of nitrate reductase and its substrate (NO3) also contributed in enhancement of growth. Field experiment of intercropping of above mentioned plants at marginal land irrigated with underground water (Eciw= 2.8 dSm-1) showed better vegetative growth of both species than sole crop. The overall reproductive growth remained unaffected, although, the numbers, size and weight of fruit were better in intercropping system. Photosynthetic pigments were mostly increased, whereas, leaf protein and sugars remained unchanged. In addition, higher values of LER and LEC (> 1) indicated the success of intercropping system. Experiment on salinity tolerance of Carissa carandas (varn. karonda) using drum pots culture showed improvement at low salinity (up to ECiw= 4.2 dSm-1 sea salt) whereas, higher salinity (ECiw= 12.9 dSm-1 sea salt) adversely affected vegetative and reproductive growth. Plant managed to tolerate up to ECiw= 9.9 dSm-1 sea salt. Salinity severely affected biochemical parameters including photosynthetic pigments, proteins and sugars, whereas leaf phenolics were increased. Leaf accumulated high amount of Na+ whereas, affect absorption of essential minerals like K+ was decreased. In the light of above mentioned investigations, it appears that, C. cajan can be propagated in saline soils with good presoaking techniques in non-saline water which would helped to grow at moderately saline conditions. It could be a good option used as intercrop species because of its ability to improve soil fertility even under water deficit conditions. The proposed Cajanus-Ziziphus intercropping system could help poor farmers to generate income from unproductive soils by obtaining sufficient fodder from C. cajan for their cattle and producing delicious edible fruits from Z. mauritiana for commercial purposes. Carissa carandas could also be introduced as new crop for producing fruits from moderate saline waste lands and used for preparing prickle, jam, and jelly for industrial purposes.