Fasting Gastric Acidity Evidential Effect on Esophageal Mucosal Damage

Gastric substances that potentially increase the esophageal mucosal damage are: gastric acid, pepsin, bile salts, and pancreatic enzymes. From all of these substances, the highest potential for reflux damage is gastric acid. Although the main cause of clinical symptoms of GERD is acid reflux, it has been known that there are subgroups with typical reflux symptoms that do not provide sufficient response or not responsive to PPI treatment. Despite the improvement of esophagitis, there is no clinical improvements in reflux symptoms of 30% respondents. Therefore, this study was designed to determine fasting gastric acidity with endoscopic findings in patients with GERD. A comparative-analysis study, which determine the fasting gastric acidity from endoscopic findings in patients with GERD. Samples recruited using consecutives sampling technique and divided into groups of esophagitis and non-esophagitis reflux. A total of 40 samples involved in this study. The Mann-Whitney test, was used for analyzing the difference between fasting gastric acidity from endoscopic findings of esophagitis lesions in patient with GERD. The median value for fasting gastric acidity in the esophagitis reflux group was 1.88 (0.82-4.84), whereas the median value for fasting gastric acidity in the non-esophagitis reflux group was 2.49 (0.68-5.97). The Mann-Whitney test result was p=0.298 (p>0.05). This study shows that there is no significant difference of fasting gastric acidity from endoscopic findings between esophagitis and non esophagitis reflux groups in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). This study shows that esophagitis lesions are not affected by gastric acidity.

A Study of Teachers Professional Knowledge and its Practice at Secondary Level in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the teachers‟ professional knowledge and its practice at secondary level in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In professional knowledge teachers‟ know their subject contents and how to teach those contents to their students. Teachers also focus on the action or process of teaching as well as the knowledge and skills gained through experience. Objectives of the study were: (i) To investigate the teachers‟ professional knowledge and its practice at secondary level; (ii) To examine the factors that affect the teachers‟ professional knowledge and its practice at secondary level; (iii) To find out what are the difficulties in the implementation of teachers‟ professional knowledge and its practice; and (iv) To compare the views of working teachers and prospective teachers regarding teachers‟ professional knowledge and its practice. For achieving the objectives of the study the following null hypotheses were tested; (i) There is no significant difference between teachers‟ professional knowledge and its practice; (ii) There is no significant effect of environmental factors on teachers‟ professional knowledge and its practice; (iii) There is no significant difference between difficulties and teachers‟ professional knowledge, its practices and implementation; and (iv) There is no significant difference between the views of working teachers and prospective teachers regarding teachers‟ professional knowledge and its practice. The population of the study was comprised of all the 210 prospective teachers who were enrolled as students of B.Ed (130) and M.Ed (80) in Northern University Nowshera (NUN) and all the 18683 (SST) male teachers at secondary level of Government Secondary Schools in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A convenient sample of 105 prospective teachers from Northern University Nowshera (NUN) and 600 male working teachers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were selected through convenient sampling technique. The data were collected from xviii B.Ed and M.Ed classes of Northern University Nowshera (NUN) and from five Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: D.I.khan, Haripur, Mardan, Nowshera and Swabi. Three point questionnaires were used as research instrument for collection of data from the sample teachers. Chi-square technique was used to analyze the data statistically. The study was significant for all stakeholders in education including teachers, students, educational authorities and policy makers.