Perspective and Prospects of Commencing New Education Policy (NEP) of Pakistan: A Review of Conference.

This article focuses on four important factors: Assessment, Curriculum and Text Books’ Policy, Teachers for quality education and Education and management, as formulated by Education and Literacy Department of Sindh Government. Open poll discussions and views given by educationists and experts were taken. All the views have been summarized for consideration by all concerned. Chief Minister Sindh, Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Javed Hussain, Education Minister, Hamida Khoro and Education Secretary to Government of Sindh, Ghulam Ali Pasha also shared their opinions on the new Education Policy and Government’s intention to ensure quality education in Sindh Province. The purpose of this article is to review and summarize the views presented in the Education Conference and reach fruitful conclusions. The implications are also made keeping in mind the targets of New Millennium Development Goals (NMDGs).Assessment, Curriculum and Text Book Policy, Education and Management, Literacy

Family Types, Authority Structure and Women Workers in Sindh Labor Force: Problems and Prospects

The development of a society is virtually dependent upon the quality of human resources both male and female, the changing pattern of economic and social development of world societies irrespective of their level of development, necessitates and equal advancement of both the social segments. The numerical reality that women constitute about nearly half of the total population of Sindh ideally assigns to them equal participating role in the economic life of the province. However, like other developing countries, women’s role in Sindh as an active worker-producer of goods and services has not been duly recognized by this male dominated society. With the objective of ensuring increased participation of women, clear-cut guidelines about integrating women in the development process and defining their roles are still lacking in Sindh. The present study is a step in the direction of bridging the gap of information about female labor force participation of Sindh in different, activity rates, industry group, occupation group and employment status in 1981 and 1998 population census. The most important conclusion that emerges from this study is that though percentage of women labor force in different, activities, industry group, occupation group and employment status has mostly increased in 1998 as compared to 1981, but being nearly half of the population this increase is still very low.Family, Authority, Problems, Female, Labor Force, Sindh

Clinical, pathological and molecular factors predicting Axillary Node involvement in primary Breast Cancer in Pakistani women

Background: Axillary lymph node involvement in primary breast cancer is one of its most important prognostic features. Thus any factors that may predict axillary lymph node involvement in this setting could be potentially helpful in treatment planning and other interventions. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate clinical, pathological and immuno-histochemical markers in univariate and multivariate analysis, which may be helpful predictors of axillary lymph node involvement in breast cancer. Method: A retrospective analysis of 555 cases. Of these 58% had axillary nodal positivity and 42% were negative. Conclusion: Factors of no significance included patient’s age, height, weight, age of first pregnancy, parity, marital status, menopausal status, family history of breast cancer, side of tumor. In univariate analysis the age of menarche, duration of symptoms, tumor size, site in outer quadrant, S phase and skin and nipple involvement all predicted axillary nodal involvement. The length of breast-feeding, increased intraductal component and increased PCNA were inversely proportional to nodal involvement. In multiple regression analysis however only size of the tumor, involvement of the skin and nipple and disease in the outer quadrant of breast were the factors, which assumed significanc

Promoter Hypermethylation of Tumor suppressor Genes correlates with Tumor grade and Invasiveness in patients with Urothelial Bladder Cancer

Purpose: To investigate the promoter methylation status at selected loci which encode for key proteins involved in apoptosis, DNA repair, cell cycle control and progression in urothelial cell carcinoma of bladder and compare the findings from tissue samples with that of plasma. Methods: Total genomic DNA was isolated from 43 non-muscle invasive (low grade) and 33 muscle invasive (high grade) urothelial bladder cancer samples along with 10 control cases of normal bladder mucosa. Promoter methylation status was investigated for RASSF1A, APC, MGMT, CDKN2A and CDKN2B genes using real-time methylation-specific PCR with SYBR® green. Plasma samples from 16 patients with muscle invasive high grade bladder cancer were also subjected to similar analyses. Results: Promoter hypermethylation was frequently observed in RASSF1A, APC and MGMT gene promoters (p-value \u3c 0.001). The methylation was more prominent in the muscle invasive high grade bladder cancer when compared to non-muscle invasive low grade group (p-value \u3c 0.001) and normal bladder mucosa (p-value \u3c 0.05). The RNA expression of RASSF1A, APC and MGMT was also found to be decreased in the muscle-invasive high grade bladder cancer when compared to the non muscle invasive low grade group (p-value \u3c 0.05). RASSF1A, MGMT and CDKN2A showed comparable results when data from 16 plasma samples was compared to the corresponding tissue samples. Conclusion: Our results suggest that epigenetic silencing of RASSF1A, APC and MGMT genes is strongly associated with invasive high grade urothelial bladder cancer. Thus, status of promoter methylation has the potential to serve as valuable tool for assessing aggressiveness of urothelial cell carcinoma of bladder

Chemical characterization of atmospheric particulate matter in Delhi, India, part II: Source apportionment studies using PMF 3.0

World Bank reports Delhi as a second most polluted megacity in the world for particulates pollution. In Delhi, PM10 (d ≤ 10 μm) aerosol samples were monitored throughout 2008 and their characterization for major chemical elements (Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Br, Sr, Ba, Pb, Cd, Sn and Sb) and ions (Cl-, NO3-, SO42-, Na+, NH4+, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+) have been documented in an earlier study. To resolve complexity in source apportionment for chemical constituents in PM10, UNMIX 6.0 and Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF 3.0) models are applied. Four factors were derived to explain routine sources of PM10 (crustal origin, road-traffic and secondary aerosols). Factor-1, designated as road-traffic source, has been determined by temporal correlation among Pb, Cu, Zn, Ni and V with strong correlation between Pb and Zn. This source factor-1 has shown more than 60% contribution to receptor site. Factor-2, referred as crustal origin due to strong inter-relationship among Si, Fe, Al, Ca and Mg, has also shown to be significant contribution to similar species in receptor matrix. Factor-3 ( NH4+, NO3-) has been differentiated due to contribution of secondary aerosols in the receptor region. This factor-3 has indicated major fraction of these ionic species for their uniform percentage variability, where mean values have been projected close to 75th percentile. Surprisingly, source factor-4 has explained the specific chloride source in the region with major contribution of 86%. For policymakers, results presented would serve as benchmark of source apportionments in Delhi

Improved SAS codes for life table analysis of arthropod populations.

Abstract: Fertility life table (FLT) analysis of arthropod populations can capture chronicle sub lethal effects not detected by acute survival assays (MARINHO-PRADO, 2011; NASCIMENTO et al., 1998; NARDO et al (2001) LIU et al, 2005; LUMBIERRES et al, 2004). Inference on FLT parameters requires the use of computational methods to estimate the variance of demographic summary measures derived from information of survival and fertility of the arthropod populations under study. Jackknife-based software available for life table analysis (HULTING et al, 1990 ; MAIA et al, 2000) were developed for analyzing qualitative treatments, but such approach is frequently misused for contrasting levels of quantitative factors (GANJISAFFAR et al., 2011; PAKYARI et al., 2011; RAZMJOU et al. 2011). We present herein an extension of SAS codes already available for analysis of qualitative treatments (lifetable.sas, MAIA et al, 2000) now including methods for analysis of quantitative factors via jackknife-based regression analysis

Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) as a Prognostic Marker: an Immunohistochemical Study on 315 Consecutive Breast Carcinoma Patients

Objective: To assess the independent and interdependent prognostic value of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in carcinoma of breast in female population. The Type I family of growth factor receptors includes epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR also known as EGFRI). Methods: The expression of EGFR protein was analysed immunohistochemically on 315 tumour specimens of infiltrating ductal carcinoma of breast. These patients also had axillary lymph nodes sampling. Results: Overexpression and/or amplification of EGFR was observed in 70 (22.00%) tumours. Eleven (16%) were grade I, 43 (61%) grade II and 16 (23%) grade Ill tumours. Axillary lymph node metastasis had significant correlation with intensified positivity of EGFR (p\u3c 0.05). Significant number of EGFR positive patients developed local recurrence and distant metastases to brain, liver and bone (p\u3c 0.05). EGFR positivity showed significant correlation with the disease free and overall survival (p\u3c 0.05). At a median follow-up of48 (4 years) months in EGFR positive patients, the overall survival was 3.39 years and disease free survival was 2.86 years. EGFR negative tumour patients showed a better survival. In this group the overall survival was 4.62 years and the disease free survival was 4 years. Conclusion: EGFR analysis can be a useful indicator for the selection of patients who are at the high risk, for hormonal therapy decisions and can be useful as a target for new treatment modalities

Foliation of the Kottler-Schwarzschild-De Sitter Spacetime by Flat Spacelike Hypersurfaces

There exist Kruskal like coordinates for the Reissner-Nordstrom (RN) black hole spacetime which are regular at coordinate singularities. Non existence of such coordinates for the extreme RN black hole spacetime has already been shown. Also the Carter coordinates available for the extreme case are not manifestly regular at the coordinate singularity, therefore, a numerical procedure was developed to obtain free fall geodesics and flat foliation for the extreme RN black hole spacetime. The Kottler-Schwarzschild-de Sitter (KSSdS) spacetime geometry is similar to the RN geometry in the sense that, like the RN case, there exist non-singular coordinates when there are two distinct coordinate singularities. There are no manifestly regular coordinates for the extreme KSSdS case. In this paper foliation of all the cases of the KSSdS spacetime by flat spacelike hypersurfaces is obtained by introducing a non-singular time coordinate.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Nucleon-Quarkonium Elastic Scattering and the Gluon Contribution to Nucleon Spin

It is shown that the amplitude for the scattering of a heavy quarkonium system from a nucleon near threshold is completely determined by the fraction of angular momentum, as well as linear momentum, carried by gluons in the nucleon. A form for the quarkonium-nucleon non-relativistic potential is derived.Comment: 4 pages, no figures. Author's e-mail: [email protected]