Introduction: Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is found widely around the globe. Its sero-prevalence varies from 30-90% in most countries, which increases with age and lower socio-economic status. Reliable data on HCMV-IgG and IgM sero-prevalence and HCMV-associated immunobiology are not available for Karachi, Pakistan. Objectives: This project aimed to determine HCMV-IgG, IgM sero prevalence and identify sociodemographic factors associated with HCMV sero positivity. The characteristics of HCMV-specific T cells with ageing and anti-HCMV IgG titre in HCMV sero-positive individuals were also examined. Methodology: Sero-prevalence and associated sociodemographic factors were determined in a total of 1000 individuals (≥18 years) that were interviewed and tested for HCMV-specific IgG and IgM antibodies. T cells stimulated in-vitro against HCMV-derived proteins in 32 healthy adults (24-65 years) were analysed by a multi parametric flow cytometry assay and correlated with age and IgG titre. Results: Sero-prevalence of HCMV-IgG and IgM was 93.2 and 4.3%, respectively. Age (p=0.002), gender (p=0.001), crowding index (p=0.003), education (p<0.001), income (p=0.008), marital status (p=0.008) and sampling location (p<0.001) were significantly associated with HCMV-IgG sero-prevalence. Sero prevalence of HCMV-IgM was found to be significantly associated with decreasing household size (p=0.008). The logistic regression model demonstrated increasing age (Odds Ratio [OR] = 3.95; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.79-8.71), female gender (OR = 1.89; 95% CI: 1.10-3.25) and decreasing income (OR = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.54 0.96) as independent predictors of HCMV-IgG sero-positivity. CD8+ T cell responses against pp65 (0.07-9.8%), IE1 (0.03-48.1%), pp50 (0.6 6.9%) and UL28/UL23/UL24/UL33 (0.06-13.9%), whereas, CD4+ T cell responses against lysate (0.05-8.6%), pp65 (0.02-2.2%) and gB/gH (0.02-4.1%) were observed at varying magnitude. Age correlated with reduced naïve (rs = -0.681; p<0.0001) and early differentiated cells (rs = -0.374; p=0.035); and increased late differentiated cells (rs = 0.407; p=0.021) in the CD8+ T cell compartment. Age was not correlated with HCMV-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cell responses except IE1-specific CD8+ response (rs = 0.471; p=0.049). T cell responses displayed age-dependent reduction of naïve (IE1-specific CD8+ cells: rs = -0.62; p=0.014, HLA-A restricted epitope-specific CD8+ cells: rs = -0.536; p=0.039, pp65-specific CD4+ cells: rs = -0.449; p=0.02) and accumulation of late differentiated cells (HLA-C restricted epitope-specific CD8+ cells: rs = 0.7; p=0.036). CD4+ TEM (rs = 0.441, p=0.012) and CD8+ revertant effector memory (rs = 0.538, p=0.002) subsets were positively correlated with anti-HCMV IgG titre. Interestingly, IgG titre displayed positive correlation with lysate-specific (rs = 0.371; p=0.037) and pp65-specific (rs = 0.4098; p=0.034) CD4+ T cells and these responses were predominantly of the TEM phenotype (Lysate-specific CD4+: rs = 0.509; p=0.004, pp65-specific CD4+: rs = 0.561; p=0.004). Conclusions: Sero-prevalence of HCMV in the study population is high. The IgM sero-positivity observed in small households (1-3 individuals) could have resulted from a recurrent HCMV infection. The magnitude of HCMV-specific T cell responses appears to remain stable across 24-65 years of age in population studied and immune alterations in the T-cell compartment may be evident in HCMV seropositive individuals. Elevated anti-HCMV IgG titre and increased differentiated T cells observed in the study population could indicate potential susceptibility to early immunosenescence.
ام المومنین سیدہ ماریہ قبطیہؓ سیدہ ماریہ قبطیہ بنت شمعون کو بطور ہدیہ شاہ مقوقس نے آپؐ کی خدمت میں بھیجا تھا۔(تبیان القرآن جلد ۱۲ ص ۱۰۳) پر ہے’’ دو بہنیں ماریہ اور سیرین ‘ ایک ہزار مثقال سونا، بیس ملائم کپڑے، خچر(دلدل) ایک درازگوش گدھایفغور یا عفیر تھا اور اس کے ساتھ ایک خصی شخص جس کا نام ثابور تھا اور ایک بوڑھا شخص جو ماریہ کا بھائی تھا ۔اس نے مدینہ پہنچ کر اسلام قبول کر لیا تھا۔مقوقس مصر کے ہر قل (قیصر روم) کا نائب تھا۔ مقوقس اس کا لقب تھا۔مسلمان مورخین نے اس کا نام جریج بن سینا القبطی بتایا ہے۔ مقوقس نے تحائف بھیجے جن میں دو قبطی النسل کی معزز خواتین، ایک خلعت، سواری کے لیے گھوڑا( افرازہ نامی) ایک سفید خچر( دلدل) اور ایک گدھا یفغور یا عفیر شامل تھے۔(دائرۃ معارف الاسلام ج۲۱ص ۴۵۵) لیکن صاحب مدارج النبوہ ( مدارج النبوہ جلد دوم ص ۲۸۳) لکھتے ہیںکہ ان تحائف میں ایک نیزہ ،بیس قد کا لباس اور ہزار مثقال سونا، مزید لکھتے ہیں کہ حاطب بن بلتعہ کو سو مثقال سونا اور پانچ کپڑے بطور انعام کے دئیے‘‘۔ آپﷺ نے حضرت ماریہ کو حرم نبوی میں داخل فرمایا۔ان سے جناب ابراھیم پیدا ہوئے۔ساتویں روز ان کا عقیقہ کیا گیا۔سر منڈھا کر بالوں کے برابر چاندی تول کر صدقہ کی۔ دو مینڈھے ذبح کیے۔جناب ابراھیم ۱۷ یا ۱۸ ماہ کی عمر میں ہجرت کے دسویں سال انتقال کر گئے۔آپﷺ نے فرمایا: بخدا !! ابراھیم ہم تمھاری موت سے نہایت غمگین ہیں،آنکھ رو رہی ہے اور دل غم زدہ ہے مگر ہم ایسی کوئی بات زبان سے نہ کہیں گے جس سے ہمارا رب راضی نہ ہو‘‘ ۔ رسمِ باطل کا خاتمہ: جس روز آپ کا انتقال ہو ا، اتفاق سے سورج کو گہن لگا۔عرب سمجھتے تھے کہ سورج گرہن...
Background and Aims: It has been established that the hazard of falling in Parkinson's patients is a primary cause of loss of independence, and hence it is a significant component to the disease's burden. As a result, the goal of this study is to evaluate the relationship between level of disease progression and the risk of falling in order to understand the critical need for rehab intervention in Parkinson's disease.
Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 24 participants participated in study through convenience sampling technique from primary and tertiary care institutes/ hospitals. Tinetti balance and gait test was used to evaluate the risk of fall among patients while The Hoehn and Yahr Scale was used to track the progression of Parkinson's symptoms and disability.
Results: Total 24 (n=24) participants with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease were enrolled in the study in which the majority of the participants belong to age group 59-69 years. The balance and gait of Parkinson’s patient is strongly negative correlated i.e. -8.33 with the severity of Parkinson’s disease with .000 level of significance which is strongly negative correlated with the severity of Parkinson’s disease (p<0.05).
Conclusion: This demonstrates that the balance and gait of a Parkinson’s person is not related to the severity level Parkinson’s disease thus fall management in PD patients must be kept in priority during the rehab intervention for ADL independence and social participation.
The science textbook is one of the elements that can affect the quality of science education. The science textbook for any grade usually contains complicated and abstract concepts that students have to comprehend. It was evident from reported literature that these science concepts usually demand a higher level of reasoning ability from students while they have not yet attained that cognitive developmental level. One of the reasons is that Piaget‘s proposed age-stage model does not exist in its true sense and there is great variation in distribution of students at different Piagetian developmental levels (PDLs) throughout the world. This causes a mismatch between curricula demand and students‘ reasoning ability level. This mismatch is ultimately claimed to affect the students‘ attitude towards science learning. This study aimed to analyze the cognitive demand of the curricula of the 8th grade General Science textbook and patterns of Piagetian developmental levels and attitude towards science learning of students at 8th and 9th grades. Along with that, this study was also focused on exploring the effect of the mismatch between curricula demand and students‘ Piagetian developmental levels on students‘ attitude towards science learning. From 35 districts of Punjab province, three districts (Okara, Sargodha, & Rawalpindi) were conveniently selected for data collection. The data was collected from 1233 students of 8th and 9th grades of 37 government schools of these three districts. Curriculum Analysis Taxonomy (CAT) was applied to breakdown the 8th grade General Science textbook in terms of Piagetian developmental levels. Attitude of the students was measured by Attitude towards Science Learning scale (AtSL), a five point Likert scale, whereas the existing Piagetian developmental levels of the students were measured by administering of the Pendulum task (PRT III). Both research instruments were in Urdu (national language) and were personally administered by the researcher to ensure the reliability and a high rate of return of data. The mismatch between cognitive demands of the curricula of the 8th grade General Science textbook and existing Piagetian developmental levels of students of 8th grade was calculated. Later, the effect of this mismatch (between cognitive demands of the curricula of the 8th grade General Science textbook and existing Piagetian developmental levels of students at 8th grade) on attitude towards science learning was examined. It was found that respondents‘ parental profile regarding qualification and profession was very low. The contents of General science textbook of 8th grade were found to be distributed unevenly at different Piagetian developmental levels throughout textbook. Most of the respondents were at different sub-stages of the Concrete Operational level and a few were at Early Formal Operational level. It was further found that female students scored higher on the Pendulum task and also have better attitude towards science learning than male students. Similarly 9th grade students performed better on the Pendulum task and have more positive attitude towards science learning than 8th grade students. Rural and urban students were not significantly different in their attitude, whereas urban students performed significantly better on the Pendulum task. Students at different Piagetian developmental levels significantly differ in their attitude towards science learning. It was concluded that the respondents were from the lower socio-economic sector of society. Female students were more clustered at higher levels of cognitive development than male students, and female students have better attitude towards science learning. The attitude of the students increases with the increase in their reasoning ability. It was concluded that there exists a mismatch between students‘ reasoning ability and curricula demand and, with the increase in quantity of the mismatch, a decrease in attitude towards science learning occurs. It was recommended that the curriculum development experts need to develop a model in terms of Piagetian developmental levels for deciding the nature, level and complexity of the content while developing science textbooks at any grade. It is further recommended that teachers replace the didactic teaching method with the interactive one. The teachers should group students with different reasoning abilities within the class. Teachers should use different teaching techniques to introduce the content of the science textbooks to enhance, encourage and motivate students and to develop their attitude towards science learning.