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Background: Medical librarians support curriculum and research by delivering appropriate and high-quality information and facilities to students and faculty members. COVID-19 pandemic disrupted physical teaching and learning worldwide endorsing virtual education which was supported by digital information resources. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent of utilization of physical and digital learning resources along with customer satisfaction in a health science library before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: An online self-administered questionnaire was administered using Microsoft Forms to students and faculty members. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 24. Qualitative variables were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. A Chi-square test was carried out to compare customers' satisfaction with the utilization of information resources before and during the pandemic. A p-value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: A total of 230 participants were included in the study. The library was visited by 18.7% and 26.1% of customers daily, and weekly respectively before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, none of them used the library daily during a pandemic, while digital library usage increased during this time. A significant reduction in the level of customers' satisfaction was observed with the physical library services in coronavirus outbreaks compared to satisfaction before the pandemic, p=0.028. Participants were satisfied with the utilization of digital library services during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period, p=0.024. Conclusion: The use of digital libraries surged during the pandemic resulting in a rapid adaptation of electronic books and journals. Librarians' have played a vital role in the current catastrophe by improving awareness of stakeholders regarding e-resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to evaluate the bibliometric research of Library and Information Science (LIS) research contributed by the authors affiliated with the University of Karachi (UoK), Pakistan. The dataset was limited to 22 years from January 2000 to December 2021 and a list of evaluated papers has been proved from various online and print sources. Google Scholar has been employed to access the record of citation(s). Ninety-two papers were identified with at least one author affiliated with the UoK on the subject category of LIS and these papers were cited 707 times. Two-author collaboration was found to be the preferred authorship pattern and the papers written in this pattern got a better citation result. A number of research articles' contributions have been found that female authors are more than male authors. Syed Jalaluddin Haider, Munira Nasreen Ansari and Farhat Hussain emerged as the most prolific authors with 26, 25 and 15 papers, respectively. The papers published in international journals got higher citations and about threefourth of the papers were published in the top 11 sources which in found from these research. The subject dispersion revealed that LIS Education and Library Management were the favorite areas. The characteristics of the ten most cited papers revealed that 60% citations were gained by these papers. The findings of this paper support understanding the research trends in LIS at UoK. There is a need to accelerate the research activities, revisit the research policies and promote the research culture in the UoK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Visfatin is proposed as an adipocytokine secreted from visceral fat and its blood level correlate with obesity, diabetes mellitus and inflammation. Aim of this study was to examine association of serum visfatin with measures of obesity in a group of patients with diabetic nephropathy and normal controls. Methodology: This was a cross sectional study analyzing 60 subjects including 30 patients of diabetic nephropathy and 30 controls. Anthropometric measurements were done using standard methods and visfatin was measured through EIA Kit. Results: Serum visfatin in obese subjects among both groups was not different from non obese subjects (7.9 ±6.1 vs. 6.4 ± 3.2 p=0.238). We found a positive correlation of visfatin with BMI (r=0.313, p<0.05) but no correlation with waist circumference (r=0.148 p=0.695) and waist to hip ratio (0.198, p=0.136). Serum visfatin in subjects of diabetic nephropathy and non diabetics was (9.2 ±5.4 vs. 5.2 ±3.4 p<0.05. Conclusion: Serum visfatin does not correlate with markers of visceral obesity including waist circumference and waist to hip ratio. However, a positive correlation is observed with BMI. Future studies involving larger sample size and quantifying visceral tissue expression of visfatin may explain its potential role in visceral obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate association of serum visfatin with CKD secondary to diabetic nephropathy and to compare it with patients of CKD secondary to other risk factors., Methods: Seventy eight individuals including 28 healthy controls and 50 patients of CKD were included in this study. Patients with CKD were further grouped based on etiology of CKD into diabetics and non-diabetics. Patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, urinary tract infection, urolithiasis, liver cirrhosis, stroke, ischaemic heart disease, and rheumatoid arthritis were excluded. Measurement of Serum visfatin was done through EIA Kit (Phoenix pharmaceuticals Burlingame CA)., Results: Visfatin concentration was significantly high in patients with CKD compared to controls (8.7 +/- 4.7 vs. 5.2 +/- 3.3 p = 0.001). No significant difference in Visfatin concentrations between patients of CKD with and without diabetes was detected (9.2 +/- 5.5 vs. 8.3 +/- 3.2 p = 0.694). A significant negative correlation of visfatin with estimated GFR (r2= -0.383, p = 0.01) and a positive correlation with degree of proteinuria (p = 0.01) was observed., Conclusion: The present study confirms the association of visfatin with CKD, however further studies at molecular level to check its expression within renal tissue may clarify its definitive role in CKD