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Ants are eusocial insects belong to family Formicidae and live in symbiotic association with different species of the fungus. Fungi serving them as food and others relationship between fungus and ants is fungi increase the durability of the nest ants living in carton nests in the trees. Our goal was to investigate through literature obvious interactions between ants and common fungi, protection of ants' colonies from pathogens and uses of fungal isolates in sustainable agriculture. Fungal bank in the ants colony is their source of food and colonies of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are attacked by numerous parasites, pathogens, and parasitoids that exploit entire colonies and their resources. Symbiotic fungi strains belonging to Penicillium found in ants nests are antibiotic producer. High frequency and high diversity of these colonies suggested that insects preferentially sustained this fungus for their survival. Fungal growing ants evolved a close mutualistic relationship with multiple species of Actinobacteria belonging to the genus Pseudonocardia for protection of colony from various diseases. Fungus-growing ants and Pseudonocardia symbionts are novel and significant source of antibiotic and antifungal agents and used as model system due to experimental tractability and well-studied ecology. Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae and Lecanicillium psalliotae are Entomopathogenic fungi found in mutualistic association with Attine ants used in a much smaller scale. Formulation of entomopathogenic fungi-based pesticides biosynthesis of fungal-based nanoparticles at industrial scale is useful in recent sustainable agriculture.

Around the globe, plastic has been entering the aquatic system and is ingested by organisms. Identification, optimal digestion method, and characterization of the polymers to trace sources are of growing importance. Hence, the present work investigated microplastics accumulation, digestion protocol efficiency, and characterization of polymers with FTIR analysis in the guts of five fishes (Lethrinus nebulosus, Rastrelliger kanagurta, Acanthopagrus arabicus, Otolithes ruber, and Euryglossa orientalis) from the Karachi coastal area, Arabian Sea. A total of 1154 microplastics (MPs) were ingested by 29 out of 33 fish species (87%). The highest average MP/fish was recorded in Otolithes ruber (54) and the lowest in Rastrelliger kanagurta (19.42). Microfibers were the most abundant shape with the highest numbers (35.52%) as compared to the rest of the MPs identified. Transparent microfibers were recorded as the highest in numbers followed by red, black, blue, and green. In this study, KOH with different concentrations and exposure times along with oxidizing agent hydrogen peroxide was tested (Protocols 3 and 4). Results showed these bases were highly efficient in obtaining optimal digestion of the samples. FTIR analysis confirmed that the majority of the polymers found in the fish guts were polyethylene and polypropylene. This study validated for the first time the presence of these polymers of plastic in marine fish from Pakistan. Resumo Em todo o mundo, o plástico tem entrado no sistema aquático e tem sido ingerido por organismos. A identificação, o método de digestão ideal e a caracterização dos polímeros para rastrear fontes são de crescente importância. Portanto, o presente trabalho investigou o acúmulo de microplásticos, a eficiência do protocolo de digestão e a caracterização de polímeros com análise de FTIR nos tratos digestivos de cinco peixes (Lethrinus nebulosus, Rastrelliger kanagurta, Acanthopagrus arabicus, Otolithes ruber e Euryglossa orientalis) do litoral de Karachi, no mar Arábico. Um total de 1154 microplásticos (MP) foram ingeridos por 29 das 33 espécies de peixes (87%) estudadas. A maior média MP/peixe foi registrada no Otolithes ruber (54), e a menor no Rastrelliger kanagurta (19,42). As microfibras foram a forma mais abundante e com os maiores números (35,52%), em comparação ao restante das MPs identificadas. As microfibras transparentes foram detectadas em maior número, seguidas por vermelho, preto, azul e verde. Neste estudo, o KOH foi testado em diferentes concentrações e tempos de exposição, juntamente com o agente oxidante peróxido de hidrogênio (Protocolos 3 e 4). Os resultados mostraram que essas bases foram altamente eficientes para a obtenção de digestão ideal das amostras. A análise de FTIR confirmou que a maioria dos polímeros encontrados nos tratos digestivos dos peixes eram polietileno e polipropileno. Este estudo validou pela primeira vez a presença desses polímeros de plástico em peixes marinhos do Paquistão.

Aim: To study the association between weather and frequency of cataract surgeries performed over the year in four different hospitals of Lahore, Punjab. Place and duration of study: The data of 8375 patients who underwent cataract surgeries over last three years 2017, 2018 and 2019 from four different hospitals, Medicare Eye hospital, Jinnah Hospital, Akhtar Saeed Trust Hospital and Lahore General Hospital, was collected. Study design: It was a cross sectional survey. Non-probability conventional sample was used. The data was analyzed by SPSS-20 and presented in forms of bar charts and line graphs. Methods: Total 8375 patients were selected from previous records for our study from four different centers. The hospitals were Akhtar Saeed trust hospital, Jinnah hospital,Lahore general hospital and Lahore Medicare Eye center. Lahore General hospital (LGH) and Jinnah Hospital are from government sector. Akhtar Saeed Hospital is a trust hospital and Lahore Medicare is a private Hospital.All patients with unilateral or bilateral cataract with age above 40 years were included where as patients under 40 years, cataract planned under general anesthesia and patients who had cataract associated with retinal attachment were excluded. Results: Total patients included in our study were 8375.There were 4439 (53%) men and 3936 (47%) women. Out of these 3721 (44.43%) from Jinnah hospital, 2498 (29.83%) were from Lahore General Hospital, 1676 (20.01%) from Medicare and 480 (5.73%) from trust Hospital. In Jinnah hospital, the highest number of cataract surgeries were observed in months of March 500 (13.44%), October 375 (10.08%) and February 341 (9.16%) and months with a smaller number of cataract surgeries were July 201 (5.40%), June 185 (4.9%) and August 170(4.57%).In LGH three months showing maximum number of patients were October313(12.53%), November 285(11.41%) and April 281(11.25%) and minimal in July 158(6.33%), August 128 (5.12%) and June 99(3.96%). Conclusion: It was clear from results of our study that higher number of cases were seen in months of March, April and October and the lowest number of surgeries were observed in months of June, July and August on an average. A definite seasonal variation was observed in number of cataract surgeries performed over the year, in different eye hospitals of Lahore (Punjab) Pakistan. Keywords: Cataract, Surgery, Seasonal variation

Objective: To compare midvastus and subvastus approach regarding operative parameters(lateral retinacular release, operative time, neurovascular injury) and outcome (Knee Society Score, Straight Leg Raise) at 12 weeks in single stage bilateral total knee arthroplasty. Study Design: Randomized clinical trial study Place and Duration of Study: Institute of Orthopaedic Surgery and South City Hospital Karachi from 1st January 2016 to 31st December 2018. Methodology: Fifty two patients of both genders ofmore than 50 years with osteoarthritis grade III or IV and bony changes confirmed by AP and lateral radiographs of knee were included. Patients with previous knee surgeries including high tibial osteotomy, deformities >20°(on mechanical axis), any neuromuscular problem and BMI ≥30 were excluded. Final assessment was done at 12 weeks. Isometric quadriceps strength was assessed by holding of contraction in seconds during the lifting (10cm above the plinth) phase of SLR (patient lying supine).Knee score (preoperative and final follow-up) was performed by Knee Society Score. Results: Thirty five were females and 21 males with mean age 65.3 years (50-78 years). Mean body mass index was 27.8 Kg/m2 (26.4-29.9). In midvastus TKR, the mean operative time was 61.7 minutes (range 52-70) whereas the same was 68.3 minutes (range 58-74) in subvastus TKR with p value 0.002. Rate of lateral retinacular release (LLR) was significantly (p=0.011) different between the midvastus TKR 5 (8.9%) and subvastus TKR 11 (19.6%). Neither group had neurovascular injury or early infection of the knee. Active SLR in subvastus group was achieved in shorter time (mean 3.1 days) as compared to midvastus group (mean 4.7 days). There was no difference (p=0.173) in isometric quadriceps strength at 12 weeks between subvastus TKR (mean 18 seconds) and midvastus TKR (mean 17 seconds). Knee society pain and functional scores were comparable between the two approaches at final follow up. Conclusion: Subvastus exposure has advantage of achieving active straight leg raise earlier while midvastus has lower frequency of lateral retinacular release. No difference in hospital stay and postoperative pain scores. Both subvastus and midvastus approaches are safe and offer comparable Knee Society Score outcomes. Keywords: Midvastus, Subvastus, Total knee arthroplasty, Knee Society Score, Straight leg raise

Background: A better understanding of the role of persistent C. trachomatis infections in tubal factor subfertility may be useful in optimizing the fertility work-up by incorporating screening tests for persistent C. trachomatis infections. The aim is to accurately estimate the risk of persistence and identify those women who are at highest risk of tubal pathology. Aim: To compare the frequency of chlamydial infection in infertile women compared to normal women. Study Design: Case control study. Settings: Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Hospital, Bahawalpur. Study duration: 1st October 2019 to 31st March 2020. Methods: A total of 88 women (44 infertile and 44 normal), having normal semen analysis report, of age ranging from 18 to 40 years were included. Patients with polycystic ovarian disease, hyperprolactinemia, & hypothyroidism were excluded. Blood sample of all women in both groups was sent to the institutional pathology laboratory for presence or absence of chlamydial infection. Results: The mean age of women in case group was 27.80 ± 3.60 years and in control group was 28.05 ± 3.69 years. The mean duration of marriage in case group was 4.93 ± 1.66 years and in control group was 4.95 ± 1.68 years. The mean BMI in case group was 29.36 ± 2.52 kg/m2 and in control group was 29.50 ± 2.51 kg/m2. My study reveals the frequency of chlamydial infection in infertile women was seen in 15 (34.09%) women as compared to 05 (9.09%) in normal women which has shown p-value of 0.007 and odds ratio of 5.17 which is significant. Conclusion: This study concluded that frequency of chlamydial infection in infertile women is higher compared to normal women. Keywords: Infertility, chlamydial infection, tubal factor, sexually transmitted diseases

The prospective study was conducted in tertiary hospitals' Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology from January 2022 to June 2022 to assess the incidence of feto-maternal outcomes in cases with morbidly adherent placenta. The study was conducted on 155 women fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Demographic and medical data were recorded. The procedure was performed using a lower-segment approach, and complications were managed according to protocol. Results showed that of 155 women, post-partum hemorrhage occurred in 35.5%, massive blood loss in 66.5%, bladder injury in 14.2%, maternal ICU admission in 35.5%, maternal mortality in 9%, small for gestational age in 21.9% and NICU admission in 26.5%. Results showed that morbidly adherent placenta could cause life-threatening feto-maternal complications; placental disorders must be diagnosed and managed to reduce morbidity and mortality.

Objective: To observe the patterns and disorders of menstruation among physiotherapy undergraduates in Lahore city. Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted at Riphah International University, Lahore from January 2020 to June 2020 after obtaining ethical approval. The data was collected through convenience sampling technique from two hundred physiotherapy undergraduate students by using anonymous questionnaire containing questions related to menstrual pattern, associated symptoms and heaviness of day wise bleeding. Informed consent was taken from all participants before data collection. Data was entered and analyzed on SPSS 21. Results: Menarche was found among 60% of undergraduates between the age of 13 and 14 and 24% of undergraduates between the ages of 15 and 17. A total of 71% of undergraduates had a regular menstruation cycle while 23% had irregular periods. 71% of undergraduates had a menstrual cycle of range between 21-28 days, 17% had irregular cycles, and 14% did not know how to go their menstrual duration. Most undergraduates have Bleeding for up to 1 week, with standard, medium, and restrained Bleeding. In 72% of undergraduates exploiting contains lumps, though 28.5% undergraduates do not experience exploiting. Because of their menses, 29% of undergraduates were incompetent to join university. 24% of undergraduates take leave from university because of painful menstruation whereas 9% take leave from university because of extreme blood flow. Dysmenorrhea signs were prevalent. Menses had a massive influence on societal lives and performances primarily on undergraduates. Conclusion: Dysmenorrhea and regular indiscretions were communal and mostly undergraduate’s responsiveness to menstruation signs was scarce. In its outcomes, there is entail for a teaching based program on menarche and menstrual issues. Keywords: Menarche, Dysmenorrhea, Undergraduates

Objective: To identify the maternofetal outcomes of Acute Hepatitis E in Pregnancy Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore. It included 41 women with gestational age >32 weeks, singleton pregnancy, presenting with Hepatitis E infection. Their demographic and pregnancy-related characteristics were included. Maternal and fetal outcomes were assessed. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS v.25. Results: Mean age of the participatns was 27.12 ± 3.85 years; the mean gestational age was 31.00 ± 6.15 weeks. Thirty one patients (75.6%) were admitted through the emergency. Twenty four (58.5%) needed packed cell transfusion and 32 (78%) needed fresh frozen plasma transfusion. Eleven patients (26.8%) developed hepatic encephalopathy and all of them required intensive care admission. The maternal mortality rate was 4 (9.8%). Thirty eight (92.1%) pregnancies were viable at the time of arrival. The fetal mortality rate was 7 (17.1%). Conclusion: HEV infections significantly contribute to materno-fetal morbidity and mortality. Screening for and monitoring HEV infection earlier during the pregnancy should be of primary public health importance. Improving awareness in women of childbearing age regarding HEV transmission and its adverse fetal effects should be prioritized. Key words: Hepatitis E virus, Maternofetal Outcomes, pregnancy, Childbearing age

Objective: To find out the frequency of Musculoskeletal Pain among Postmenopausal women with Overall and Central Obesity. Methods: A Cross-Sectional study was carried out at Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, for six months. A sample size of 250 patients with generalized obesity and central obesity was taken. Non-Probability, Convenience Sampling technique was used. The Nordic questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. Data was analyzed on SPSS version 21. Results: Results showed that majority respondents were in the age group of 51-60 i.e. 43.6% (N=109), respondents with BMI >30 were 50.8% (N=127), waist/height ratio 99.2% (N=248) were > 0.5, waist/hip ratio 86.8% (N=217) were >0.85, 90% (N=225) were present with waist circumference >88cm. Conclusion: This study concludes that musculoskeletal pain is high in postmenopausal women with overall obesity and has shown more pain in the neck, back, shoulder and lower extremities, while postmenopausal women with central obesity have suffered more with back pain. Keywords: Body Mass Index, Obesity, Post menopause, Musculoskeletal pain.

Introduction Postpartum depression is a quite prevalent phenomenon in Pakistani males with an estimated prevalence rate of 28% as documented by a recent study conducted with males living in Karachi city. As more males are now engaging in the care of infant babies, therefore, the study of paternal postpartum depression is warranted. However, only one study was conducted with Pakistani males to find out the prevalence of paternal postpartum depression. Objective The present study was conducted to find out the demographic correlates of paternal postpartum depression in Pakistani males. Methods A total of 400 males were recruited from the major cities of Pakistan by using purposive, and snowball sampling from December 2020 to April 2021. The study used cross sectional survey research design. The males of 18-45 years age and having the recent birth of a baby in the past 1month to 1 year were included in the study. The age range of participating males was 18-45 years (M=28.50, SD=5.94) whereas the age range of their spouses was 16-43 years (M=24.98, SD=5.08). The informed consent, demographic information form, and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) Urdu translated version were appended together using Google Form based questionnaire to collect the data. The EPDS Urdu translated version had good Cronbach Alpha reliability of .71. All the participants signed the informed consent before their participation in the survey. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (v25) was used to analyze the data by computing descriptive statistics, and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The value of p Results The impact of participants age, age of the spouse, marital duration, birth order of recently born child, time spent at home, sleep duration, educational level, and employment type of participants were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, and analysis of variance. The ANOVA analysis revealed that age, age of spouse, time spent at home, and employment type had a significant impact on postpartum depression in participating males respectively (F(2,397)=6.65, p=.001, ηp2 =.03); (F(2,393)=5.97, p=.003, ηp2 =.02); (F(2,397)=6.23, p=.002, ηp2 =.03); (F(2,395)=9.69, p=.000, ηp2 =.04). On the other hand, marital duration, birth order of the recently born child, sleep duration and educational level of the participating males had no significant impact on the postpartum depression. The post hoc analysis revealed that younger age (18-27 years), younger age of spouse (16-25 years), time spent at home ( Conclusions There are certain demographic variables which can impact the experience of paternal postpartum depression in Pakistani males. The further studies need to be carried out by including other variables too like social support. Disclosure Work supported by industry: no, by N/A.

Grape powdery mildew (PM) is an economically important disease worldwide, and necessitates high input of fungicides for successful grape production. Development of cultivars that carry resistance from multiple backgrounds is an important strategy to obtain durable resistance in the field. This strategy requires a) the identification of sources of resistance and marker development to track those resistances, b) characterization of the mechanisms of resistance, c) marker-assisted breeding to introduce the selected loci into elite cultivars, and, finally, d) understanding of pathogen biology and responses to different resistance sources. We have identified and tagged novel sources of genetic resistance from eight genetic backgrounds, including Muscadinia rotundifolia, two different Chinese species (Vitis piasezkii and Vitis romanetii), a wide array of Vitis vinifera cultivars and wild forms of V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris from Asia. Molecular markers that are tightly linked to different loci are used at the early stage to select seedlings that carry resistance loci. PM resistance from two or more genetic backgrounds is combined in multiple steps, while maintaining high fruit-quality attributes and other important horticultural traits. Resistance is confirmed by careful evaluation for disease development in the field, the greenhouse or by in-vitro assay. Multipronged testing of seedling plants for resistance allows better assessment of pathogen biology and interaction with different resistance loci and allows us to make decisions about combining resistance loci. Results will be presented with elucidation of the mechanism of resistance from different backgrounds, specificity to different isolates and the effectiveness of molecular markers in the breeding program.

Obesity is one of the most serious global public health challenges of the 21st century. The adjustment of gut microbiota is often recommended as an efficient strategy to treat obesity. This modulation of gut microbiota can be performed by many methods, including dietary intervention, antibiotic application, the use of prebiotics and probiotics, bariatric surgery and faecal microbiota transplantation. In most cases, positive effects have been observed in response to treatment, but invalid and even contrary effects have also been observed in some cases due to factors that are unrelated to intervention methods, such as genetic factors, patient age or gender, environmental microbiota, climate, geography and lifestyle. These factors can cause variation of gut microbial populations and thus should also be taken into consideration when selecting modulation strategies.