A review of Gryllidae (Grylloidea) with the description of one new species and four new distribution records from the Sindh Province, Pakistan.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Sultana R
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8695564 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Here, we used RNA-seq reads to assemble the complete mitochondrial genomes of the spring field cricket, Gryllus veletis, and the variable field cricket, Gryllus lineaticeps. The mitochondrial genomes of G. veletis (15,686 bp, MW322713) and G. lineaticeps (15,607 bp, MW315773) each contain the expected 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, and a large control (D-loop) region. The arrangements of these features were similar for both species and consistent with other closely related Orthoptera. A phylogenetic analysis of the mitochondrial genome sequences revealed that G. veletis and G. lineaticeps cluster with the other Gryllus species and all reside in a clade with the Gryllidae.
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Project description:Some new ladybird (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) records collected during the last four years across Sindh are reported. A first preliminary checklist of ladybirds from Sindh is presented, consisting of one subfamily, ten tribes, 21 genera, and 29 species including four new records, namely Bulaealichatschovii (Hummel), Exochomuspubescens Küster, Scymnus (Pullus) latemaculatus Motschulsky, Scymnus (Pullus) syriacus Marseul, and four varieties of the species Cheilomenessexmaculatus (Fabricius).
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Project description:Mushrooms with a thin-fleshed pileus that becomes plicate on opening, deliquescent lamellae and dark brown to blackish basidiospores are commonly called coprinoid mushrooms. The genus Coprinellus is one of the important lineages of coprinoid mushroom in the family Psathyrellaceae. Species-level taxonomy in Coprinellus is based mainly on the presence or absence and the structure of veil and cystidia on the pileus, of cystidia on the lamellae and on basidiospore morphology. In this study, four new species of Coprinellus (Co.campanulatus, Co.disseminatus-similis, Co.pakistanicus and Co.tenuis) are described from Pakistan. Species descriptions are based on morphological and molecular data. Phylogenetic analyses based on nuc rDNA ITS region show that the new species Co.campanulatus and Co.disseminatus-similis are clustered in a clade including members of section Micacei; Co.tenuis falls in a clade with members of section Domestici; and Co.pakistanicus recovered in a separate clade adjacent to other recently described clades of genus Coprinellus. Morpho-anatomical descriptions of the new species and comparison with closely allied taxa are provided. With this study, the number of known species of Coprinellus in Pakistan has reached eight.
| S-EPMC6160792 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundMultiple Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines appear to be safe and efficacious, but only high-income countries have the resources to procure sufficient vaccine doses for most of their eligible populations. The World Health Organization has published guidelines for vaccine prioritisation, but most vaccine impact projections have focused on high-income countries, and few incorporate economic considerations. To address this evidence gap, we projected the health and economic impact of different vaccination scenarios in Sindh Province, Pakistan (population: 48 million).Methods and findingsWe fitted a compartmental transmission model to COVID-19 cases and deaths in Sindh from 30 April to 15 September 2020. We then projected cases, deaths, and hospitalisation outcomes over 10 years under different vaccine scenarios. Finally, we combined these projections with a detailed economic model to estimate incremental costs (from healthcare and partial societal perspectives), disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) for each scenario. We project that 1 year of vaccine distribution, at delivery rates consistent with COVAX projections, using an infection-blocking vaccine at $3/dose with 70% efficacy and 2.5-year duration of protection is likely to avert around 0.9 (95% credible interval (CrI): 0.9, 1.0) million cases, 10.1 (95% CrI: 10.1, 10.3) thousand deaths, and 70.1 (95% CrI: 69.9, 70.6) thousand DALYs, with an ICER of $27.9 per DALY averted from the health system perspective. Under a broad range of alternative scenarios, we find that initially prioritising the older (65+) population generally prevents more deaths. However, unprioritised distribution has almost the same cost-effectiveness when considering all outcomes, and both prioritised and unprioritised programmes can be cost-effective for low per-dose costs. High vaccine prices ($10/dose), however, may not be cost-effective, depending on the specifics of vaccine performance, distribution programme, and future pandemic trends. The principal drivers of the health outcomes are the fitted values for the overall transmission scaling parameter and disease natural history parameters from other studies, particularly age-specific probabilities of infection and symptomatic disease, as well as social contact rates. Other parameters are investigated in sensitivity analyses. This study is limited by model approximations, available data, and future uncertainty. Because the model is a single-population compartmental model, detailed impacts of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as household isolation cannot be practically represented or evaluated in combination with vaccine programmes. Similarly, the model cannot consider prioritising groups like healthcare or other essential workers. The model is only fitted to the reported case and death data, which are incomplete and not disaggregated by, e.g., age. Finally, because the future impact and implementation cost of NPIs are uncertain, how these would interact with vaccination remains an open question.ConclusionsCOVID-19 vaccination can have a considerable health impact and is likely to be cost-effective if more optimistic vaccine scenarios apply. Preventing severe disease is an important contributor to this impact. However, the advantage of prioritising older, high-risk populations is smaller in generally younger populations. This reduction is especially true in populations with more past transmission, and if the vaccine is likely to further impede transmission rather than just disease. Those conditions are typical of many low- and middle-income countries.
| S-EPMC8523052 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundAntenatal care (ANC) is critical to decrease maternal and neonatal mortality. However, little is known about the utilization of ANC services in Pakistan. This study assessed the utilization of ANC in Sindh province, Pakistan, and identified the factors that affect its use.MethodsWe analysed a subset of data from Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Program Indicator Surveys conducted in Sindh province, Pakistan in 2013 and 2014. Respondents included 10,200 women who had given birth in the past two years. The outcome measure was making at least four ANC visits. Logistic regression models were used to identify demographic, socioeconomic, characteristics of ANC, and informational factors associated with ANC use.ResultsMost women (83.5%) received one or more ANC, mostly by doctors (95%), but only 57.3% of them made the recommended four or more visits, and just 53.7% received their initial ANC care during the first trimester. Making four or more ANC visits was associated with: fewer household occupants (odds ratio [OR] = 0.98; 95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.97, 0.99]), large city residence (OR = 1.92; 95% CI = [1.57, 2.35]), higher women's education (OR = 1.70; 95% CI = [1.33, 2.15]), greater household wealth (OR = 5.66; 95% CI = [4.22, 7.60]), and receiving MCH information from lady health worker (OR = 1.17; 95% CI = [1.00, 1.37]), mother-in-law (OR = 1.17; 95% CI = [1.01, 1.36]), other relatives/friends (OR = 1.19; 95% CI = [1.03, 1.38]), or nurse/midwife (OR = 1.31; 95% CI = [1.06, 1.61]).ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that both socioeconomic factors and health information sources are associated with women's use of ANC. Therefore, programs should target socially disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, particularly rural, less educated, and poor women, to improve utilization of ANC. In addition, strategies to increase exposure to MCH information sources should be a priority in Sindh, Pakistan.
| S-EPMC6447146 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The province of Sindh reported the first COVID-19 case in Pakistan on 26th February 2020. The Government of Sindh has employed numerous control measures to limit its spread. However, for low-and middle-income countries such as Pakistan, the management protocols for controlling a pandemic are not always as definitive as they would be in other developed nations. Given the dire socio-economic conditions of Sindh, continuation of province-wise lockdowns may inadvertently cause a potential economic breakdown. By using a data driven SEIR modelling framework, this paper describes the evolution of the epidemic projections because of government control measures. The data from reported COVID-19 prevalence and google mobility is used to parameterize the model at different time points. These time points correspond to the government's call for advice on the prerequisite actions required to curtail the spread of COVID-19 in Sindh. Our model predicted the epidemic peak to occur by 18th June 2020 with approximately 3500 reported cases at that peak, this projection correlated with the actual recorded peak during the first wave of the disease in Sindh. The impact of the governmental control actions and religious ceremonies on the epidemic profile during this first wave of COVID-19 are clearly reflected in the model outcomes through variations in the epidemic peaks. We also report these variations by displaying the trajectory of the epidemics had the control measures been guided differently; the epidemic peak may have occurred as early as the end of May 2020 with approximately 5000 reported cases per day had there been no control measures and as late as August 2020 with only around 2000 cases at the peak had the lockdown continued, nearly flattening the epidemic curve.
| S-EPMC8601461 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The genus Iporhogas Granger, 1949 (Braconidae: Rogadinae) is recorded for the first time for Vietnam. Four new species of the genus Iporhogas, viz. Iporhogas albilateralis sp. n., I. contrastus sp. n., I. simulatus sp. n. and I. tricoloratus sp. n., from Vietnam are described and illustrated, and additionally, one species, Iporhogas guangxiensis Chen & He, 1997, is newly recorded for Vietnam's fauna of the family Braconidae. A key to the five Vietnamese species of the genus Iporhogas and a checklist with distributions of the ten species are provided.
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Project description:ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and correlates of early initiation of breast feeding and prelacteal feeding in highly disadvantaged districts in Pakistan.DesignThis cross-sectional study design.SettingsThis study was carried out in twelve districts of the Sindh province of Pakistan.ParticipantsA total of 4800 mothers with children under 2 years, selected through a multistage random sampling method.Data analysisBivariate association, survival analysis (Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard techniques), multivariate linear regression and the ordinary least square model were used.ResultsThe results show that the prevalence of early initiation of breast feeding was 68% and prelacteal feeding was 32%. Adequate treatment, proper guidance at antenatal care visits, postpartum health check, normal birth with skilled birth attendants, institutional birth, skin-to-skin contact at birth and birth size were all associated with early breastfeeding initiation (p<0.001). The odds of early initiation of breast feeding after birth are higher if the respondents received proper guidance (OR 2.05; 95% CI 1.02 to 4.11) or made skin-to-skin contact (OR 10.65; 95% CI 6.82 to 16.65). Bivariate association between the prelacteal feeding and a set of correlates suggests that all variables under study were significantly associated with the outcome variable of interest at a 95% or higher significance level. The factors which significantly reduced the odds of prelacteal feeding were adequate treatment (OR 0.29; 95% CI 0.23 to 0.37) and postpartum health check (OR 0.65; 95% CI 0.53 to 0.80).ConclusionSudy concludes that the correlates like adequate treatment of mothers during labour, postpartum health check-up, normal birth with skilled birth attendants, institutional births and skin-to-skin contact between mother and the baby determine the early initiation of breast feeding and prelecteal feeding. Early initiation of breast feeding needs to be encouraged, and communities must be educated against the use of prelacteal feeding.
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Project description:Low Birth Weight (LBW) is considered as a major public health issue and leading cause of neonatal death. Almost one in four newborns are reported as underweight in Pakistan. Children born with low birth weight are highly vulnerable to develop diseases and death and/or remain undernourished (i.e., stunted and wasted). This study determines the LBW newborns are more prone to develop stunting and wasting in province of Sindh, Pakistan. Moreover, regression-based estimation of the impact of LBW on the child health outcomes of under five years of age, may be prone to selection bias because of the nature of non-experimental data set, thus, propensity score matching methods are used in this study. Data for this study was used from Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS-2014). MICS is a two-stage, stratified cluster sampling household level data covering urban and rural areas and consists of 19,500 households from five administrative divisions and 28 districts of Sindh province of Pakistan. The total sample size of children less than five years of age after cleaning the data are 7781, of which 2095 are LBW having birth weight categorized as "smaller than average and very small" and 5686 are normal birth weight (NBW) having birth weight very large, larger than average, and average. This study employed propensity score matching (PSM) regression methods to understand whether the children born as low birth weight are more prone to stunting and wasting and/or both. In province of Sindh, moderate wasting children under five years were 21%, severe wasting 6% and both wasting and stunting 10%. The propensity score results are shown significant in all groups. Specifically, all four types of PSM methods confirm a significant difference in the potential outcome variables-meaning that a child born with LBW has a significant adverse effect on the potential child health outcome variables (stunting, wasting and both). Thus, the propensity score matching findings confirm a significant and adverse effect of LBW on potential health outcomes of under five children. Similarly, low birth weight children are significantly more likely to be moderately wasted (OR = 1.5, CI = 1.3-1.6) and severely wasted (OR = 1.6, CI = 1.3-2.0) and both (stunted and wasted, OR = 2.0, CI = 1.7-2.3) as compared to children with normal birth weight. Male children, if born with low birth weight, are significantly more likely to be moderately wasted (OR = 1.3, CI = 1.1-1.5) and both (wasted and stunted, OR = 1.3, CI = 1.1-1.5) than girls. This large data analysis finding proved that the LBW newborns are on higher risk to develop wasting and stunting in Pakistan.
| S-EPMC8497567 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundSince the establishment of the Nam Xuan Lac Habitat and Species Conservation Area in 2003 in Bac Kan Province, northern Vietnam, only two herpetological studies have been conducted: One recorded 14 species of amphibians from Ban Thi-Xuan Lac area in 2004 and a recent study reported 32 species of amphibians from this protected area in 2019.New informationAs a result of our field surveys in 2020 and 2021, a total of 23 species of amphibians was recorded from the Nam Xuan Lac Habitat and Species Conservation Area. Eight of them are recorded for the first time from Bac Kan Province, comprising one species of Microhylidae, two species of Megophryidae, one species of Dicroglossidae, two species of Ranidae and two species of Rhacophoridae. Besides morphological descriptions, we provide ecological notes of newly-recorded species of amphibians from Bac Kan Province.
| S-EPMC8847297 | biostudies-literature