Managing menstruation during natural disasters: menstruation hygiene management during "super floods" in Sindh province of Pakistan.

Menstruation is part of women's normal life, which requires basic hygienic practices. Managing hygiene can be affected by several factors and situations such as natural disasters. Focusing on 'super flooding' in Pakistan's Sindh Province, we pay attention to how this 'natural disaster' has affected hygienic practices of menstrual cycle of women. The study meticulously examines the dynamics of menstrual hygiene management, encompassing the nuanced encounters with feelings of shame and embarrassment among girls and women situated in flood camps, schools, and community shelters. It also intends to highlight women's challenge and embarrassment to participate in the distribution process of essential resources such as pads. The insights garnered from this study hold potential relevance for various stakeholders, including policymakers, healthcare practitioners, and researchers, offering a nuanced comprehension of the intersection of menstrual hygiene, climate change, and well-being of women.

Comparative transcriptomic analysis unveils the deep phylogeny and secondary metabolite evolution of 116 Camellia plants.

Camellia plants include more than 200 species of great diversity and immense economic, ornamental, and cultural values. We sequenced the transcriptomes of 116 Camellia plants from almost all sections of the genus Camellia. We constructed a pan-transcriptome of Camellia plants with 89 394 gene families and then resolved the phylogeny of genus Camellia based on 405 high-quality low-copy core genes. Most of the inferred relationships are well supported by multiple nuclear gene trees and morphological traits. We provide strong evidence that Camellia plants shared a recent whole genome duplication event, followed by large expansions of transcription factor families associated with stress resistance and secondary metabolism. Secondary metabolites, particularly those associated with tea quality such as catechins and caffeine, were preferentially heavily accumulated in the Camellia plants from section Thea. We thoroughly examined the expression patterns of hundreds of genes associated with tea quality, and found that some of them exhibited significantly high expression and correlations with secondary metabolite accumulations in Thea species. We also released a web-accessible database for efficient retrieval of Camellia transcriptomes. The reported transcriptome sequences and obtained novel findings will facilitate the efficient conservation and utilization of Camellia germplasm towards a breeding program for cultivated tea, camellia, and oil-tea plants.

Maternal pesticide exposure and its relation to childhood cancer: an umbrella review of meta-analyses.

This umbrella review summarizes the available meta-analyses elucidating the effects of maternal pesticide exposure on adverse health outcomes in children particularly the risk of childhood cancer. A literature search was conducted on PubMed and Scopus with 10-years temporal restriction and with search terms of ('pesticides') and ('maternal' or 'pregnancy' or 'gestational' or 'perinatal' or 'children' or 'infants' or 'birth weight' or 'gestational age' or 'cancer' or 'tumor' or 'malignancy' or 'carcinoma') and ('meta-analysis' or 'systematic review'). Using relative risk estimates, e.g., odds ratio (OR), relative risk (RR), ß coefficients, and 95% confidence interval (CI) as a prerequisite for inclusion/exclusion criteria a total of 19 eligible meta-analyses were included. The results showed that maternal domestic/occupational pesticide exposure increases the risk for childhood leukaemia. The overall OR regarding the risk of pesticide exposure and leukaemia was 1.23 to 1.57 with heterogeneity I2 values that varied between 12.9% and 73%. Some studies found that exposure to dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p´-DDE) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB-153) pesticides appears to decrease infant birth weight to some extent [p,p´-DDE (ß = -0.007 to -0.008)] and [PCB-153 (ß = -0.15 to -0.17)]Needing more studies on this relationship, our study found that pesticide exposure is a risk factor for leukaemia in children.

The soybean GmNFY-B1 transcription factor positively regulates flowering in transgenic Arabidopsis.

Nuclear Factor Y (NF-Y) gene family regulates numbers of flowering processes. Two independent transgenic Arabidopsis lines overexpressing (OX) GmNFY-B1 and GmNFYB1-GR (GmNFYB1 fused with the glucocorticoid receptor) were used to investigate the function of NFY-B1 in flowering. Furthermore, GmNFYB1-GR lines were chemically treated with dexamethasone (Dex, synthetic steroid hormone), cycloheximide (Cyc, an inhibitor of protein biosynthesis), and ethanol to examine their effects on different flowering related marker genes. Our results indicated that the transgenic lines produced longer hypocotyl lengths and had fewer numbers of rosette leaves compared to the wild-type and nf-yb1 mutant plants under both long and short-day (LD and SD) conditions. The qRT-PCR assays revealed that transcript levels of all flowering time regulating genes, i.e. SOC, FLC, FT, TSF, LFY, GI2, AGL, and FCA showed higher transcript abundance in lines OX GmNFYB1-GR. However, FT and GI genes showed higher transcript levels under Dex and Dex/Cyc treatments compared to Cyc and ethanol. Additionally, 24 differentially expressed genes were identified and verified through RNA-seq and RT-qPCR in GmNF-YB1-GR lines under Cyc and Dex/Cyc treatments from which 14 genes were up-regulated and 10 were down-regulated. These genes are involved in regulatory functions of circadian rhythm, regulation of flower development in photoperiodic, and GA pathways. The overexpression of GmNF-YB1 and GmNF-YB1-GR promote flowering through the higher expression of flowering-related genes. Further GmNF-YB1 and its attachment with the GR receptor can regulate its target genes under Dex/Cyc treatment and might act as flowering inducer under LD and SD conditions.

COVID-19 Amid Rumors and Conspiracy Theories: The Interplay Between Local and Global Worlds.

Stories and narratives are part of our human sociocultural history, which are always preserved in what I call "societal memory." We construct stories to weave meanings that help us make sense of our lifeworlds. Like stories, rumors and conspiracy theories can offer deep meanings when analyzed in specific contexts. Such narratives become most prominent in times of looming uncertainties, anxieties, and fears. Thus, the challenging coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has become surrounded by plentiful rumors and conspiracy theories. These narratives reveal geopolitics when they code the pandemic as "bioengineered." They also demonstrate local concerns, as in Pakistan, people started drinking "miraculous" tea as a form of prevention, shaving their heads, and/or praying to God to undo his "punishment." Some conceptualized the pandemic as an invented "plot." These narratives seem to empower individuals to make sense of this pandemic and to deal with its multidimensional effects: they allow them to feel confident enough to go outside and earn their livelihood. In this chapter, the author builds on his long-term ethnographic fieldwork on infectious diseases, recent telephone interviews, and content analysis of the media to discuss narratives revolving around COVID-19 in Pakistan. The author argues that these rumors and conspiracy theories are social phenomena pregnant with multiple meanings that deserve to be thoroughly explored, especially by anthropologists. A dearth of understanding about COVID-19 and narratives surrounding it would substantially impede the strategies to deal with this ongoing pandemic.

Exploring vaccine hesitancy and acceptance in the general population of Pakistan: Insights into COVID-19-related distress, risk perception, and stigma.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused several impacts. Focusing on 360 participants (178 males, 182 females), this study explored the association between COVID-19 related distress, risk perception, stigma, and vaccine hesitancy and acceptance in the general population. Measures used included the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and COVID Stress Scale (CSS) to evaluate anxiety, depression, and COVID-19 related distress, the COVID-19 Risk Perception Scale and COVID-19 Stigma Discrimination Scale to assess risk perception and stigma, and the Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Scale and Vaccine Acceptance Instrument to measure vaccine hesitancy and acceptance. The findings revealed that 66.9% of participants exhibited vaccine hesitancy, and stress and risk perception were significant predictors of both vaccine hesitancy and acceptance, even after controlling for demographic factors. This study highlights the importance of understanding the factors mentioned above that will contribute to vaccine hesitancy and acceptance, which will contribute to promoting vaccine acceptance.

Culture of vaccine acceptability or resistance: The curious case of Chile's COVID-19 vaccine rollout and anthropology's role in increasing vaccination uptake.

Castillo and colleagues have described the curious case of Chile's COVID-19 vaccine rollout that how Chile has revealed a great success to vaccine a greater population. Interestingly, there are several factors responsible for that success and a lesson learnt for many countries who are lagging in this regard. Building on these authors arguments, I have defined the "culture of vaccine acceptability." In contrast, I explain the "culture of vaccine rejectability" based on own fieldwork in Pakistan. Chilean case has demonstrated how a culture is developed and influences vaccine uptake. For that, the countries lagging need to engage (medical) anthropologists as they are the culturologists.

Recent progress and perspectives on physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying cold tolerance of tea plants.

Tea is one of the most consumed and widely planted beverage plant worldwide, which contains many important economic, healthy, and cultural values. Low temperature inflicts serious damage to tea yields and quality. To cope with cold stress, tea plants have evolved a cascade of physiological and molecular mechanisms to rescue the metabolic disorders in plant cells caused by the cold stress; this includes physiological, biochemical changes and molecular regulation of genes and associated pathways. Understanding the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying how tea plants perceive and respond to cold stress is of great significance to breed new varieties with improved quality and stress resistance. In this review, we summarized the putative cold signal sensors and molecular regulation of the CBF cascade pathway in cold acclimation. We also broadly reviewed the functions and potential regulation networks of 128 cold-responsive gene families of tea plants reported in the literature, including those particularly regulated by light, phytohormone, and glycometabolism. We discussed exogenous treatments, including ABA, MeJA, melatonin, GABA, spermidine and airborne nerolidol that have been reported as effective ways to improve cold resistance in tea plants. We also present perspectives and possible challenges for functional genomic studies on cold tolerance of tea plants in the future.

Exploring cultural sensitivity during distance simulations in pediatric emergency medicine.

Background: Cultural sensitivity (CS) training is vital to pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) curricula. This study aimed to explore CS in Yale PEM fellows and emergency medicine (EM) residents at Indus Hospital and Health Network (IHHN) in Pakistan through distance simulation activities. Methods: This mixed-methods analysis of an educational intervention was conducted at Yale University in collaboration with IHHN. We approached seven U.S. PEM fellows and 22 Pakistani EM residents. We performed a baseline CS assessment using the Clinical Cultural Competency Questionnaire (CCCQ). Afterward, the U.S. PEM fellows facilitated the Pakistani EM residents through six distance simulation sessions. Qualitative data were collected through online focus groups. The CCCQ was analyzed using descriptive statistics, and content analysis was used to analyze the data from the focus groups. Results: Seven U.S. PEM fellows and 18 of 22 Pakistani EM residents responded to the CCCQ at the beginning of the module. The mean (±SD) CCCQ domain scores for the U.S. PEM fellows versus the Pakistani EM residents were 2.56 (±0.37) versus 2.87 (±0.72) for knowledge, 3.02 (±0.41) versus 3.33 (±0.71) for skill, 2.86 (±0.32) versus 3.17 (±0.73) for encounter/situation, and 3.80 (±0.30) versus 3.47 (±0.47) for attitude (each out of 5 points). Our qualitative data analysis showed that intercultural interactions were valuable. There is a common language of medicine among the U.S. PEM fellows and Pakistani EM residents. The data also highlighted a power distance between the facilitators and learners, as the United States was seen as the standard of "how to practice PEM." The challenges identified were time differences, cultural practices such as prayer times, the internet, and technology. The use of local language during debriefing was perceived to enhance engagement. Conclusion: The distance simulation involving U.S. PEM fellows and Pakistani EM residents was an effective approach in assessing various aspects of intercultural education, such as language barriers, technical challenges, and religious considerations.

COVID-19 and cancelled vaccination programs: Forecasting outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) in Pakistan.

As Schmid-Küpke and colleagues discuss the reasons behind cancelling the routine vaccination in Germany, the pandemic has affected all six World Health Organization Regions as around 56 countries suspended their mass vaccination campaigns during the first six months of the pandemic. The same happened in Pakistan. Consequently, there are great and valid concerns that there will be outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease (VPDs) in the country. To effectively deal with them and increase vaccine uptake, it is indispensable for the Pakistani government to consider all factors, whhile speccially engaging anthropologists for creating a well-prepared vaccination plan.

Impacts of Rumors and Conspiracy Theories Surrounding COVID-19 on Preparedness Programs.

Being a part of our sociocultural history, stories and narratives help us make sense of our lifeworlds. Stories, rumors, and conspiracy theories offer deep meanings when analyzed in specific contexts, and prominently appear in the face of looming uncertainties, anxieties, and fears. Similarly, many narratives have surrounded the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic at the global and local levels as people try to make sense of this invisibly spreading virus and its multidimensional effects. Drawing on the media reports, I show and analyze global-level narratives that reveal geopolitics in play. To present the local level narratives in Pakistan, I build on my long-term ethnographic fieldwork, recent telephone interviews, and content analysis to discuss why these tales emerge and spread. As the pandemic unfolded, local people started drinking "miraculous" tea as a form of prevention, shaving their heads, and/or praying to God to undo His "punishment" and conceptualizing the pandemic as an invented "plot." With my analyses, I compare the "viral rumors" with the virus and argue that these narratives are social phenomena, carrying multiple meanings that need the thorough attention of social scientists, for example, anthropologists, just as we need experts to study a virus.

Dietary Trace Element Intake and Risk of Breast Cancer: A Mini Review.

Trace elements are essentially required for various physiological and metabolic functions, and any disturbance in the trace elements homeostasis may result in the development of chronic diseases including breast cancer. Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer type reported in women equally affecting both the high-income and low-income countries. This review therefore aimed to evaluate the impact of dietary trace element intake in relation to the incidence of breast cancer. We focused on five trace elements, thus emphasizing dietary selenium, zinc, iron, copper, and cadmium intake and risk of breast cancer. A systematic approach was applied to perform this review through entering a search term in PubMed and Scopus databases. A total of 24 articles were included after meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Most of the studies regarding dietary iron intake showed a detrimental effect of increased dietary heme iron on breast cancer incidence risk. In addition, there is a limited evidence of high dietary intake of selenium and zinc to reduce the risk of breast cancer. Also, a few studies showed a relationship between high cadmium consumption and risk of breast cancer. More studies related to cadmium and copper exposure are needed to confirm this relationship. As a result, the findings of this review suggested that high dietary heme iron is a potential risk factor for breast cancer.

Why May COVID-19 Overwhelm Low-Income Countries Like Pakistan?

Since the coronavirus disease 2019, called COVID-19, has overwhelmed the high-income countries with ample resources and established health-care system, we argue that there are plausible concerns why it may devastate the low-income countries like Pakistan. Focusing on Pakistan, we highlight the underlying reasons, eg, demographic features, ineffective health-care system, economic and political inequalities, corruption, and socio-cultural characteristics, that create fertile grounds for COVID-19 to overwhelm low-income countries. This study presents Pakistan's brief profile to demonstrate these underlying structures that may make low-income countries like Pakistan more vulnerable in the face of an unceasing COVID-19 pandemic. The study concludes that the country may make appropriate and possibly effective short-term preparedness measures to halt or slow the transmission of the virus, and deal with its current implications as well as it may pay significant attention to long-term measures to deal effectively with COVID-19's longer-term effects. These measures will help them, including Pakistan, to deal appropriately with a similar future critical event.

Implications of COVID-19 and "super floods" for routine vaccination in Pakistan: The reemergence of vaccine preventable-diseases such as polio and measles.

With multiple waves and variants, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected routine vaccination programs globally. Its impact is also visible in Pakistan as routine health services continue to be disrupted. Consequently, thousands of children have emerged as vulnerable in the face of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs), which have already started causing outbreaks in the country. Infections with polio and measles have been significantly reported, especially during the last few years. This reemergence of both diseases is posing great challenges for the country at local, national, and global levels. These impacts are being multiplied by the 2022 flooding - called "super floods" - in the country. Hence, relevant stakeholders, such as the Pakistani government and the World Health Organization (WHO), need to revisit the entire vaccination program to address and resolve issues occurring at the management or local levels. It is highly important to pay attention to the context that provides a fertile ground to negatively affect vaccine uptake.

Cloning and in silico characterization of an abiotic stress-inducible U-box domain-containing protein gene GsPUB8 from Glycine soja.

The ubiquitination pathway is involved in the posttranslational modification of cellular proteins. However, the role of E3 ubiquitin ligase family proteins under abiotic stress conditions remains unclear, particularly in soybean. The core objective of the current study was to isolate and functionally characterize the GsPUB8 protein gene from wild soybean (Glycine soja) by using a homologous cloning method to investigate its abiotic stress responses. The GsPUB8 is a 40,562 Da molecular weight protein with 373 amino acid residues. The sequence alignment revealed the presence of U-box domain while the phylogenetic analysis showed an abundance of PUB8 proteins in both monocot and dicot plants. Analysis of gene structure predicted the absence of introns along with the presence of one exon. Furthermore, the activity of the GsPUB8 protein was anticipated in the plasma membrane and its expression was persuaded with NaCl, ABA, PEG6000, and NaHCO3 treatments with considerably higher manifestation in roots than leaves although, expressed in both vegetative and reproductive parts of G. soja. GsPUB8 protein showed 54% and 32% sequence identity to U-box domain containing 8 and 12 proteins from Arabidopsis thaliana and Oryza sativa subsp. japonica, respectively. GsPUB8 exhibited relatively higher expression under saline and drought stress particularly in roots. Whereas, the 3D model of GsPUB8 protein was generated using the SWISS-MODEL. This study can be used to manipulate the GsPUB8 protein or GsPUB8 gene for transformation purposes and its functional characterization under abiotic stress conditions.

Syndemics at play: chronic kidney disease, diabetes and COVID-19 in Pakistan.

Although coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic, it has several specificities influencing its outcomes due to the entwinement of several factors, which anthropologists have called "syndemics". Drawing upon Singer and Clair's syndemics model, I focus on synergistic interaction among chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetes, and COVID-19 in Pakistan. I argue that over 36 million people in Pakistan are standing at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19, developing severe complications, and losing their lives. These two diseases, but several other socio-cultural, economic, and political factors contributing to structured vulnerabilities, would function as confounders. To deal with the critical effects of these syndemics the government needs appropriate policies and their implementation during the pandemic and post-pandemic. To eliminate or at least minimize various vulnerabilities, Pakistan needs drastic changes, especially to overcome (formal) illiteracy, unemployment, poverty, gender difference, and rural and urban difference.

Rituals of Containment: Many Pandemics, Body Politics, and Social Dramas During COVID-19 in Pakistan.

Infecting millions of people, causing around two million deaths, and affecting billions of people worldwide during January 2021, the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is not merely one pandemic but many. These many pandemics, which I identify herein, have revealed the overt and subtle entanglements among religion, science, and politics around COVID-19. Building on my current ethnographic research on COVID-19 using purposive sampling and interview guide in Pakistan, and borrowing from various anthropological concepts such as "social drama," proposed by Victor Turner, and ritual, I have developed a concept that I call rituals of containment. With this concept, I extend my previous argument regarding "symbolic ownership" to show a visible "body politics" by demonstrating how religion, science, and politics around COVID-19 are entangled at individual and government levels. This has become observable through the rituals of the Pakistani government of containment to deal with COVID-19. Such entanglements are visible in the case of strategies to tackle infected "viral bodies," as the government has enacted its authority: (1) to bury what I am terming the dead viral body without its beloved ones present; (2) to return or not to return this body to family members in a coffin; (3) or to provide the grieving family with a symbolic empty coffin. These Covidian politics have led to the question: Who in actuality owns the body? In conclusion, I argue that the problem lies in the discriminatory and contradictory rituals of containment of the government, not in using scientific evidence and guidelines.

COVID-19 in Pakistan and Papua New Guinea: reflections on mass testing and challenges.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic continues during 2021. Some countries are revisiting their containment measures to be eased or re-imposed after massive testing programs. Yet is testing itself a solution? Testing may be an important containment step, yet in low-income countries (LICs), it may be substantially challenging to carry out. This is because the situation in LICs is complexified by inadequate and corrupt economic, political, and healthcare systems in which testing is often beyond reach. Focusing on Pakistan and Papua New Guinea (PNG), we contend that the sparse number of recorded COVID-19 infections may demonstrate that both countries lack the required resources to conduct effective testing and deal with the pandemic. To appropriately tackle the pandemic, such countries need focus on implementing the measures they can and on public education about how viruses work and why it is so important to seek to contain their spread. Furthermore, we invite thorough studies to examine and analyze massive testing from various perspectives.

Effect of maternal zinc supplementation or zinc status on pregnancy complications and perinatal outcomes: An umbrella review of meta-analyses.

Zinc is an essential trace element involved in different physiological functions. During pregnancy, it plays a crucial role in healthy embryogenesis. This umbrella review, therefore, aimed to summarize the existing literature of meta-analyses evaluating the effect of maternal zinc supplementation or zinc status on maternal and neonatal outcomes. Two databases, PubMed and Scopus, were selected to search the available literature without any temporal restriction. The literature search was performed during October 2020 and a total of 192 records were identified through the literature search. After screening the titles and applying the inclusion/exclusion criteria, finally, 15 articles were included in this umbrella review. This umbrella review showed that maternal zinc supplements reduce the risk of preterm birth. Although no substantial effect of zinc supplements was found for other feto-maternal outcomes. Also, we found a significant relationship between low maternal zinc status and risk of pregnancy complications. Zinc supplements reduce the risk of preterm birth. Long-term interventions and cohort studies are needed for future research directions. Further studies and a thorough investigation will help to decide the recommended zinc dose or intake during pregnancy.

Local Perceptions of COVID-19 in Pakistan's Sindh Province: "Political Game", Supernatural Test, or Western Conspiracy?

OBJECTIVE: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has received various distinct perspectives and responses at the local as well as global levels. The current study pays attention to local perspectives, which have appeared in the Sindh Province of Pakistan. METHODS: Given the constraints of the pandemic, and using convenience sampling, we conducted 10 online group discussions, 7 one-on-one interviews, and 30 cellphone discussions from a small town of Sindh Province. We made every effort to make our sampling inclusive in terms of decisive sociocultural factors: gender, religion, level of formal education, and occupation/job. We obtained data from women, men, Muslims and non-Muslims, the formally educated and noneducated, government employees, and daily wage laborers. Moreover, to perform content analysis, we used social media such as WhatsApp and Facebook. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS: We have found that some people consider COVID-19 a "political" game, "supernatural test" or "Western plot". The given perceptions then guide further actions: either ignore or adopt the preventive measures or take supernatural preventive measures. Considering it as a test of God, Muslims perform prayers, while the Bagrri community who practice Hinduism are taking cow urine to deal with the virus. This study brings these perspectives to the center stage; yet, the results cannot be generalized across the country, or within the province. Moreover, the study situates these perspectives within the global and socio-cultural, economic, and political contexts and invites more in-depth studies to inquire why such perspectives emerge. CONCLUSIONS: We discuss different narratives concerning COVID-19 in a small town of Sindh Province. We maintain that documenting these various perspectives and analyzing their impacts on the preparedness programs is essential, yet understanding the causes behind the stated standpoints is equally essential, if not more so.