Linkages between poverty and food insecurity in Pakistan: Evidence from urban and rural households in Peshawar

Objective

To assess household poverty, sanitation and hygiene practices, and food security in both urban and rural settlements of district Peshawar.

Methods

We conducted this cross-sectional study from March 2019 to October 2019 in the urban and rural households of Peshawar, KPK. Using stratified random sampling, 554 households (HH) having children and young adolescents of age 5-19 years, adult men > 19 - 62 years, and adult women >19 - 62 years were included in this study. Data was collected using comprehensive tool comprised of all validated questionnaires and was analyzed using SPSS Version 24.0.

Result

Within the urban clusters, the maximum number of households (n=29) were from Gari Baloch and the minimum number of households (n=7) were from Gulberg. In the rural clusters, the maximum number of households surveyed (n=41) were from Lamara, minimum(n=21) was from Chargula. The average age of household heads was 44.5 ±12.5 with mean age slightly higher in urban areas (45.1 ±11.8) compared to 44.0 ±13.2 in rural areas. The mean poverty score was 56.8 (±11.6) with 72.1% non-poor households, and 94.2% households being food secure. Handwashing practices were highly prevalent among all the HH, however, handwashing practices before eating were comparatively lower in all HH (45.2%), lowest (37.8%) among rural households.

Conclusion

The findings of the study revealed both non-poor and food secure households with satisfactory water, hygiene and sanitation practices.

Molecular characterization of divergent isolates of Citrus bent leaf viroid (CBLVd) from citrus cultivars of Punjab, Pakistan

Citrus viroid infection is emerging as a serious threat because of its efficient systemic movement within the host plant and its quick spread due to contaminated pruning tools. A survey was conducted to investigate the primary distribution and molecular characterization of Citrus bent leaf viroid (CBLVd) and its variants in different citrus cultivars. A total of 154 symptomatic citrus samples were collected and detected by RT‒PCR with newly designed specific primers with the incidence of 36.33%. During biological indexing study on Etrog citron, expressions of reduced leaf size, yellowing with a light green pattern, and bending were observed. Amplified products were sequenced and analyzed using a nucleotide BLAST search, which showed 98% homology with other CBLVd isolates. The results of the phylogenetic tree analysis showed the presence of two main groups (A and B), with the predominant variants of CBLVd, i.e., CVd-I-LSS (Citrus viroid Low Sequence Similarity) sequences, clustering in subgroup A1 along with newly detected CVd-I-LSS from Palestinian sweet lime (Citrus limettioides), which has been identified as a new host of CVd-I-LSS in Pakistan. Further analysis of the sequences in subgroup A1 showed that the variant of CVd-I-LSS infecting citrus cultivars had a close relationship with isolates reported from China, Japan, and Iran, which may have resulted from the exchange of planting material. This study also unveiled the variability in nucleotide sequences of CBLVd, which made it unable to be detected by old primers. The results of this study indicate that the widespread presence of divergent variants of CBLVd is a major concern for the citrus industry in Pakistan and other countries where virulent isolates of CBLVd are prevalent. These findings suggest the need for future research on effective management and quarantine measures to stop the spread of CBLVd.

Financial Institutional and Market Deepening, and Environmental Quality Nexus: A Case Study in G-11 Economies Using CS-ARDL

This study presents a new insight into the dynamic relationship between financial institutional deepening (FID), financial deepening, financial market deepening (FMD), foreign direct investment (FDI), economic growth (GDP), population, and carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂e) in the G-11 economies by employing a cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) approach during 1990-2019. The outcomes from the CS-ARDL and dynamic common correlated effects mean group (DCCEMG) models shows that financial deepening, GDP, FDI, and population degraded environmental quality both in the short run and the long run. Contrary to this, FID and FMD improves environmental quality in these countries. The government should work to maximize financial institutions (access, depth, efficiency) and financial markets (access, depth, efficiency) to reduce the CO₂e. A strong positive and in-phase correlation of CO₂e with economic growth and population is observed for G-11 countries. These results suggest policy makers should further improve financial institutions by creating opportunities for their populations. Moreover, the governments of G-11 countries should revise their foreign direct investment policies and attention should be given to import efficient means of energy production.

Can Financial Institutional Deepening and Renewable Energy Consumption Lower CO2 Emissions in G-10 Countries: Fresh Evidence from Advanced Methodologies

To tackle the challenges associated with global warming and climate change, several countries set their targets to lower carbon emissions in accordance with COP21 (Paris Conference). Even though studies highlighted the different aspects that contribute to environmental degradation, there still exists the scarcity of adequate research that emphasizes the environmental implications of financial institutional deepening, renewable energy consumption (REC), and technology innovations. Therefore, this study investigated the significance of financial institutional deepening, REC, gross domestic product (GDP), imports, exports, and technology innovations to achieve sustainability in G-10 countries, namely The Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan, Belgium, Canada, and Italy from 1990 to 2020. The results obtained from cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) and the dynamic common correlated effects mean group (DCCEMG) models reveal that financial institutional deepening and imports positively impact CO₂ emissions (CO₂e) both in the long and short run. A 1% increase in financial institutional deepening and import will increase CO₂e by 0.5403% and 0.2942% in the short run and 0.2980% and 0.1479% in the long run levels, respectively. Contrary to this, REC, GDP, exports, and technology innovations improve environmental quality in these countries. The Dumitrescu & Hurlin causality test shows bidirectional causality between imports and CO₂e, GDP and CO₂e, exports and CO₂e, and financial institutional deepening and CO₂e, compared to unidirectional causality from technology innovations to CO₂e and from REC to CO₂e. Apart from this, the outcomes suggest that policymakers in G-10 countries have to consider their financial markets and firms to revise their current environmental policies.

The Concept of Messiah in Abrahamic Religions: A Focused Study of the Eschatology of Sunni Islam

The purpose of this research is to conduct a comparative analysis of the Messiah in Semitic religious discourse, focusing on Muslims' specially the Sunni school of thought. The notion of Mahdism is generally recognized in all three major sematic faiths. Muslims scholars, particularly Shiites, believe in Mahdi and see him as the cornerstone of their faith, to the point where Shiites theology is difficult to fathom without it. We argued in this article that the Shiites' concept of Mahdism is derived from both Jewish theological literature, which is based on the concept of a savior who will arrive at the end of time, and Christian theology, which considers Jesus as a Redeemer who came for the salvation of Humanity after grave sin. Sunnis, who constitute the majority of Muslims, hold a different view of Messiah. The objective of this study was to establish the actual Sunni Muslim position on the issue of Mahdism and salvation, as obtained from authentic sources of Islam.

Efficacy of 2.5% and 1.25% Povidone-Iodine Solution for Prophylaxis of Ophthalmia Neonatorum

OBJECTIVE

To determine the efficacy of 2.5% and 1.25% Povidone-Iodine solution for Ophthalmia neonatorum prophylaxis.

STUDY DESIGN

Interventional study.

PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY

Eye Department, Combined Military Hospital, Sargodha, from May to November 2014.

METHODOLOGY

Atotal of 200 eyes of 100 newborn babies were enrolled and divided into two groups of 100 right eyes and 100 left eyes. Aconjunctival swab for bacterial culture was taken within 30 minutes after delivery. Asingle drop of 2.5% Povidone-Iodine was then placed in the right eye while in the left eye a single drop of 1.25% Povidone-Iodine was placed. Thirty minutes after placing Povidone-Iodine, a conjunctival swab was again taken. Abacterial suspension was prepared from each swab in determining bacterial counts. The bacterial suspension was inoculated on yeast extract agar and the number of colony forming units were counted. At each culture, the number of colony forming units before and after instillation of 2.5% Povidone-Iodine and 1.25% Povidone-Iodine were compared. Wilcoxon's signed rank test was used for statistical analysis.

RESULTS

The 2.5% Povidone-Iodine solution caused a statistically significant decrease in the number of colony forming units (p=0.001). Similarly, the 1.25% Povidone-Iodine solution also reduced the number of colony forming units to a statistically significant level (p=0.001).

CONCLUSION

The 1.25% concentration of Povidone-Iodine is as effective as the 2.5% concentration of Povidone-Iodine in reducing the number of colony forming units in healthy conjunctivae of newborns.

Enhancement in the germination, growth and yield of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) using pre-sowing magnetic treatment of seeds

The effect of pre-sowing magnetic treatments was investigated on germination, growth and yield of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus cv. Sapz pari). The dry okra seeds were exposed to sinusoidal magnetic field induced by an electromagnet. The average magnetic field exposure was 99 mT for 3 and 11 min and seeds with no magnetic field treatment were considered as control. Both treated and non-treated seeds were sown in experimental plots (120 m2) under similar conditions. Samples were collected at regular intervals for statistical analysis. A significant increase (P < 0.05) was observed in germination percentage, number of flowers per plant, leaf area (cm2), plant height (cm) at maturity, number of fruits per plant, pod mass per plant and number of seeds per plant. The 99 mT for 11 min exposure showed better results as compared to control.