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The study assumes that students belonging to diverse educational levels were dissimilar in the level of practicing and competence in online health literacy. The survey method used a questionnaire to measure the responses of students of 16 universities in Lahore, Pakistan. A sample of 1512 students was selected by using a 4-stage stratified cluster sampling strategy. Data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis H test, Dunn test, and Mann-Whitney Utest (non-parametric). The findings show that educational level does have a significant association with practicing level in online health literacy (P.Value.0041). Moreover, education level also has a significant association with competence level in online health literacy (P. Value.045). The study recommends that online health literacy should be encouraged among the students, and the universities should be well-equipped with adequate hardware and human resources to facilitate the students.

This study attempts to examine the challenges in the adoption of digital health technology among educated youth in Pakistan. Using qualitative research methods, opinions of male and female students of public and private sector universities in Islamabad were gathered through eight Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). The study themes included: Complexity of language and medical terminology on the internet, lack of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills, less reliability of different websites, and threat to privacy. The study found that several factors such as poor facilitations conditions, institutional negligence, problematic medical jargon, online frauds, and privacy insensitivity are hampering the access to eHealth services among students of universities in Islamabad. As the global health systems are moving towards eHealth services, the lack of technological knowledge of the patients may harm their access to health services. Thus, there is a need to minimize the barriers to digital health education at the institutional level.

Religious sectarian intolerance occurs when members of different religious sects within a faith are unable to tolerate the religious beliefs and practices of each resulting in bigotry and prejudice toward each other. The present research sought to develop a psychometrically sound measure of religious sectarian intolerance for Muslim adults. The research comprised two studies. Study I involved the development of an initial item pool for the Religious Sectarian Intolerance Scale (RSIS). The initial pool of items was based on thematic analysis from focus group discussions. This item pool was reviewed by a committee of experts resulting in a 39-item initial draft of the RSIS, which was administered to a purposive sample of Pakistani Muslim adults (N = 270). The exploratory factor analysis revealed a four-factor structure for the RSIS (with loadings ranging from 0.56 to 0.94) that explained 62% of the variance. The factors include dogmatic loyalty (9 items), social intolerance (13 items), renunciation of other religious Sects. (8 items), and propagation of one's Sect. (9 items). All factors were moderately related to each other with acceptable Cronbach's alpha (.78 to .92). Study II replicated the factorial structure of RSIS through confirmatory factor analysis on an independent sample of Muslim adults (N = 274). The convergent validity of the RSIS was demonstrated by a positive relationship with dogmatism. Overall, the findings indicated that the RSIS is a psychometrically sound measure that provides a standard operationalization for religious sectarian intolerance in Muslim cultures and it needs to be studied further in Muslim populations across the globe.

Three new authors (Adnan Adil, Emmanuel Asampong, and Rahmattullah Khan Abdul Wahab Khan) were not initially listed in the Epub ahead of print.

Studies investigating the relationship between sex hormones, inflammatory mediators and joint disorders have reported that sex hormones affect the pathogenesis of joint disorders. We aimed to investigate temporomandibular joint disorder (TJD) in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and the possible role of systemic mediators and sex hormones in TJD pathogenesis.PCOS patients (n = 45) and controls (n = 30) aged 20-40 years, were enrolled in this case-control study. TJD diagnosis was performed by the specialist and blood samples were tested in the early follicular phase and on the 21 st (midluteal) day to investigate the levels of estrogen, progesterone, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 1-8-9, interleukin (IL)-1ß and Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α.TJD incidence was significantly higher in PCOS than the control group (51.1% and 6.9% respectively, p 0.01). Midluteal progesterone (p 0.01) was lower in PCOS group than the controls (p 0.01). TNF-α (p 0.01), MMP 1 (p 0.01) and MMP 8 (p = 0.02) levels were found significantly higher in PCOS than the control group. Further, Progesterone levels were found significantly lower in TJD (+) PCOS patients than TJD (-) PCOS patients. However, significant difference was not found between the PCOS TJD (+) and PCOS TJD (-) patients for estrogen, MMP 1, MMP 8, MMP 9, TNF-α and IL-1ß.TJD frequency was found significantly increased in PCOS patients. Related with this, TJD co-occurrence should be kept in mind in the diagnosing and treatment process of PCOS due to hormonal alteration.

Khatib Ahmad Khan,1 Danabekova Aigerim,2 Zhao Xueqing,2 Adnan Adil,3 Saba Ghayas,3 Safia Yasmeen,3 Kinza Khalid,3 Ammara Tahir3 1School of Oriental Studies, Xian International Studies University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Chinese Language and Literature, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Psychology, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Punjab, PakistanCorrespondence: Saba GhayasDepartment of Psychology, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Punjab, PakistanEmail Saba.ghayas@uos.edu.pkIntroduction: Attitude toward participation in the research plays an important role in the quality of any research. Therefore, researchers aimed at construction and piloting of scale to measure attitude toward research participation for university students.Method and Results: In Study I, an initial pool of items was generated on the basis of literature review, semi-structured interviews and expert opinions. After ensuring content validity and finalizing items with the help of experts, the scale was applied on a sample of 426 university students including both men (n = 114) and women (n = 312) with age range of 17– 30. Exploratory factor analysis revealed the two factor structure was with 60.33% cumulative variance. The factors revealed were positive attitude and negative attitude toward research with alpha reliability of 0.84 for positive attitude while 0.76 for negative attitude. In Study II, confirmatory factor analysis revealed excellent model fit indices with two factor structure. Study III was meant to provide evidence of construct validity. Positive correlation showed exploration and curiosity with positive attitude toward research and negative correlation of exploration and curiosity with negative attitude toward research participation provided strong evidence for convergent validity. While non-significant correlation of attitude toward research with religiosity confirmed the divergent validity of the scale.Conclusion: Findings of the study revealed that Attitude Toward Research Participation Scale is a valid and reliable measure. It can be used for university students to measure their attitude toward research.Keywords: research attitude, psychometric properties, validity, reliability

Hişmioğulları, Adnan Adil (Balikesir Author), Vanadium is one of the essential trace elements for mammals, which has important functions in the metabolism of carbohydrates. There is limited data about the effects of vanadium (IV) chloride supplementation on appetite-related hormones in literature. Our target was to analyse the impacts of vanadium supplementation on appetite-related hormone (leptin, nesfatin-1 and apelin) levels in rats with experimentally induced diabetes. Twenty eight male Sprague–Dawley albino rats were used in this study. After formation of diabetes, 0.3 mg/mL of vanadium was added to drinking water of rats for four weeks. A substantial increment was found in serum glucose (p < 0.001), HbA1c (p < 0.001), HOMA-IR (p < 0.01), and leptin (p < 0.001) levels and a significant decrease in insulin, apelin and nesfatin-1 concentrations in diabetic rats. Moreover, blood glucose, HbA1c, HOMA-IR, and leptin levels decreased in diabetic + vanadium group, but nesfatin-1 (1.74 ± 0.94 ng/mL), apelin (1.74 ± 0.94 ng/mL), and insulin concentrations were found higher compared with the diabetic group. As a result of this study, vanadium has increased the levels of circulating nesfatin-1 and apelin levels in diabetic rats while decreasing blood glucose and leptin concentrations. But further studies are required to determine the blood glucose lowering effects of vanadium and its relationship with appetite related hormones in diabet., scientific foundation of Cankiri Karatekin University CAKU-2012/04

The present study intended to explore and compare the mediating role of negative thoughts between the sense of parental competence and postpartum depression in postpartum mothers who gave birth to their baby either through vaginal or cesarean delivery. A purposive sample of 170 women suffering from postpartum depression was recruited from different hospitals in Gujrat, Pakistan. Urdu versions of the Parenting Sense of Competency Scale, Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire, and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale were used to measure the focal constructs of the study. Data were collected from May 2018 to October 2018. Path analysis revealed that parental competence had negative direct effects on postpartum depression (

Being an important Islamic concept, tawakkul is a fundamental and core value in the Islamic belief system. The present research intended to investigate the mediating role of tawakkul between religious orientation and depression. A purposive sample of (N = 350) Muslim adults with the age of 25 years and above (M = 31.92, SD = 8.72) was recruited in the study. A cross-sectional survey research design was used. Tawakkul Scale (Gondal et al., 2021), Urdu version of depression subscale of DASS-21 (Aslam, 2018), and Urdu version of Religious Orientation Scale (Khan, et al., 2016) were used in the present study. Results indicated that tawakkul had a negative relationship with depression and extrinsic social religious orientation. On the other hand, it had a positive relationship with intrinsic religious orientation and extrinsic personal religious orientation. The findings of the path model indicated that tawakkul mediated the relationships of intrinsic and extrinsic personal religious orientations with depression. Limitations, implications of the findings of the present study, and suggestions for future investigations have been reflected upon.

Hünnap (Ziziphus jujuba), meyve ve ilaç olarak uzun bir kullanım geçmişine sahiptir. Biyolojik olarak etkin olan ana bileşenleri C vitamini, fenolik bileşikler, flavonoidler, triterpenik asitler ve polisakkaritlerdir. Hünnap meyvelerinin birçok fitokimyasal incelenmesi sonucunda; antikanser, anti-inflammatuvar, anti-obezite, immunstimülan, antioksidan, başta karaciğer olmak üzere, gastrointestinal ve sinir sistemlerini korumak gibi önemli biyolojik etkilere sahip oldukları gösterilmiştir. Bu derleme, hünnapın biyo-etkin özelliklerini örnek çalışmalarla açıklamayı amaçlamıştır., Jujuba (Ziziphus jujuba) has a long history of usage as a fruit and remedy. The main biologically active components are vitamin C, phenolics, flavonoids, triterpenic acids, and polysaccharides. Many phytochemical studies of jujuba fruits indicate that Z. jujuba has important biological effects, such as the anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antiobesity, immunostimulant, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective and gastrointestinal protective activities. This review aims to explain bioactive characteristics of Z. jujuba by several examples of studies.

The present study proposed and tested a model of organizational socialization that specified that organizational socialization might lead to more frequent organizational citizenship behaviors through knowledge sharing and role clarity in a purposive sample of new employees (with current job experience ≤6 months, N = 300) of various banks, hospitals, and universities of Sargodha, Rawalpindi, and Islamabad cities. Organizational Socialization Scale (Haueter et al., 2003), Knowledge Sharing Scale (Hsu, 2008), Role Clarity Scale (Rizzo et al., 1970), and Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale (Lee & Allen, 2002) were used to measure the focal constructs. Path analysis revealed that besides the direct effect of organizational socialization on the OCB, knowledge sharing and role clarity serially mediated between socialization and OCB. Moreover, both knowledge sharing and role clarity had positive direct effects on OCB. Implications of the research and recommendations for further research have been reflected upon.

Objectives: ADAMTS (A Disintegrin And Metalloproteinase with ThromboSpondin repeats) proteinases, which are released outside the cell (soluble) have very critical roles in damage and repair of extracellular matrix (ECM) processes. Our aim was to analyse the ADAMTS-1 and ADAMTS-9 which were the member of the ADAMTS gene family of metalloproteinases that might had been involved in the cytokines-mediated etiopathogenesis of endometriosis. Methods: A case-control study was performed in an university hospital. Thirty-four patient with endometriosis which was defined via laparoscopy and thirty-three healthy female volunteers were recruited in the present study. Serum ADAMTS-1 and ADAMTS-9 and IL-beta (IL-1 β) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels were determined by a human enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) in all subjects. Results: The demographic characteristics of the patients were significantly higher than healthy control group. The IL-1 β and VEGF levels were significantly higher; ADAMTS-1 and ADAMTS-9 levels were significantly lower in the endometriosis patients compared to the controls. We also found a negative correlation between ADAMTS-1, ADAMTS-9, and IL-1 β, VEGF. Conclusion: The results of the study might suggest that ADAMS-1 and ADAMTS-9 have a role in the pathogenesis of the endometriosis.

The digitalization of health information has globally impacted the health literacy of educated youth. In the resource-deprived countries like Pakistan, the promotion of digital health literacy can ...

For married individuals living in Pakistan, stress within their relationship has emerged as a major source of marital conflicts and even relationship dissolution. However, research based on the systemic transactional model of dyadic coping (DC) suggests partners’ use of coping strategies may help in buffering these devastating effects of stress. The original German version of the Dyadic Coping Inventory (DCI) is a widely used self-report measure that has been translated in various languages, however, has not been validated for use with individuals living in Pakistan who speak Urdu. The purpose of the present study was to translate and validate the DCI into Urdu for use with married individuals living in Pakistan. Data were collected from 538 Pakistani married adults. Findings supported the original factor structure of the German and English version of the DCI. As such, results supported the 33-items DCI-Urdu as a valid and reliable measure to assess DC behaviors in Pakistani married individuals. Further, convergent and discriminant validity and measurement invariance (MI) across gender for the DCI-Urdu were consistent with that of DCI-English. A validated measure of the DCI in Urdu provides new directions for researchers and clinicians working with couples in Pakistan.

The purpose of the present research was to construct and validate a measure of temperance-one's capability of moderation or voluntary self-restraint. This research comprised two studies. In Study I, an item pool of 83 items was generated, 75 items were finalized by a committee of experts, and then these items were administered on a purposive sample of university students (n = 250). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed a four-factor solution with 24 items and the factors were named as Self-regulation (α = .72), Prudence (α = .71), Humility (α = .79), and Forgiveness (α = .73). Study II of the present research confirmed the factorial structure of the Temperance Scale in an independent sample of university students (n = 268). The Temperance Scale, Academic Procrastination Scale, and Empathy Quotient Short Form were administered to the participants. Confirmatory factor analysis of the Temperance Scale demonstrated a good model fit to the data with the same four factors as established during the EFA. The Temperance Scale was positively correlated with empathy and it had a nonsignificant relationship with academic procrastination. The results support that the newly developed scale has promising validity.

On the basis of evolutionary threat assessment theory, the present study was designed to examine the relationship between religiosity and depression through the mediation of afterlife beliefs among Pakistani Muslim elderly population. Old adults in the age range of 60 to 85 years (N = 515; mean age = 65.2 years, SD = 6.46), including 304 men and 211 women, were recruited purposively from Punjab, Pakistan. Education level of the participants was primary to post-graduation. Religiosity, depression, and afterlife beliefs of the elderly participants were measured through Short Muslim Practice and Belief Scale, DASS, and Afterlife Belief Scale for Muslims, respectively. Structural equation modeling was carried out. Results revealed that fully mediated negative relationship exists between religiosity and depression via positive afterlife belief. Furthermore, extinction-based afterlife belief partially mediates the relationship between religiosity and depression. Results of the study validate the postulates of ETAS theory.

The chronic course of endometriosis suggests that the immune system may play a role in its aetiology. There may be resistance to cell lysis, as well as an immune defect underlying endometriosis. Granzyme B is a serine protease that is secreted by Natural Killer (NK) cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes during a cellular immune response and can induce apoptosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between both Granzyme B levels and Granzyme B gene polymorphisms in endometriosis patients. Women between the ages of 20–45 were included in the study. The patients were divided into two groups: those diagnosed with endometriosis and those who had not been diagnosed with endometriosis. In the blood samples, Granzyme B gene polymorphisms and serum levels of Granzyme B were studied. There was no difference between the groups in terms of median Granzyme B levels and the presence of AA, AG, and GG genotypes. There was a difference in median granzyme levels for the control group; the GG genotype was found at a lower frequency. The immune defect within endometriosis-related immune cells may not be exclusively due to Granzyme B. Other mediators that are secreted from immune cells may have additive effects.IMPACT STATEMENTWhat is already known on this subject? NK cells are cytotoxic and inhibit the implantation of autologous endometrial cells that are spilled into the peritoneum by retrograde menstruation. Thus, a reduction in NK cell activity may facilitate the progression of endometriosis. The literature review reveals that there are studies suggesting that NK cell activity may be insufficient in endometriosis. Granzyme B is a serine protease that is secreted by NK cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes during a cellular immune response. What do the results of this study add? Granzyme B is one of the cytotoxic granules in NK and cytotoxic T lymphocyte cells and its genetic polymorphisms were tested in endometriosis. We found that median Granzyme B levels were significantly different in patients with the GG genotype in the control group, compared to those with the AA and AG genotype. However, this difference was not detected between the control and endometriosis groups. What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Our results contribute to uncovering the pathogenesis of endometriosis since there are no previous studies in the literature regarding this topic. Although we did not find a difference, our results will inform further studies made on this topic. Studies with different molecules and an increased number of patients are needed. The immune defect of endometriosis may not be due exclusively to Granzyme B. Other mediators that are secreted from immune cells may have mutual effects and interactions. © 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This study assessed the mediating role of cognitive rigidity between temperament and social adjustment in teachers of schools and religious madaris of Pakistan while controlling for the influence of teaching experience. A purposive sample of 300 teachers (150 from public schools and 150 from religious madaris with equal representation of both the genders) was recruited from Sargodha and Lahore. Teachers of schools and madaris were matched in terms of their gender, age, and educational qualification. Urdu translated versions of the Approach–Avoidance Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ), Cognitive Flexibility Scale (CFS), and Social Adjustment Scale were used to operationalize the focal constructs of this study. Path analysis revealed that approach temperament negatively and avoidance temperament positively predicted cognitive rigidity, which in turn led to lowered levels of social adjustment. Approach temperament positively and avoidance temperament negatively predicted social adjustment. The negative association between approach temperament and cognitive rigidity was stronger in the group of school teachers, whereas the positive association between avoidance temperament and cognitive rigidity was stronger among teachers of religious madaris. The positive indirect effect of approach temperament on social adjustment through rigidity was stronger for school teachers. Significant differences were observed in the mean scores of teachers of madaris and schools on avoidance temperament, social adjustment, and cognitive rigidity. Implications of the study and suggestions for future research have been reflected upon.

The concept of smart cities is gaining popularity within academic, practice, and policy circles. Smart cities are intended to be self-sufficient via cutting-edge technologies, purposive innovations, and inventions. However, while technology is growing at an unexpectedly fast pace, one of the essential components of smart cities ‘humans' is lagging behind. The need for and scope of literacies to survive in smart cities pose challenges for their citizens. This study aims to identify the range of literacies required in smart cities and the roles of libraries, archives, and museums (LAM) in supporting citizen literacies for social and digital inclusion. The LAM sector is one of the major stakeholders in the digital transformation sphere. Therefore, the LAM sector must identify the nature of required literacies, the roles and strengths of other stakeholders, and the opportunities to increase its presence in the process. This study systematically identifies and addresses these issues through a conceptual framework process and proposes future research directions for the LAM sector.