Search results for: Reproductive Maternal Newborn and Child Health

Authors: Supriadi Hardianto, Aditya Daniswara

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Today's workplace, flooded by millennial Generation or known also as Generation Y. A common problem that faced by the company towards Gen Y is a high turnover rate, attitudes problem, communication style, and different work style than the older generation. This is common in private sector. The objective of this study is to get a better understanding of the Gen Y Career Attitude at the workplace. The subject of this study is focusing on 430 respondent of Gen Y which age between 20 – 35 years old who works for a private company. The Questionnaire as primary data source captured 9 aspects of career attitude based on Career Attitudes Strategy Inventory (CASI). This Survey distributes randomly among Gen Y in the IT Industry (125 Respondent) and Manufacture Company (305 Respondent). A Random deep interview was conducted to get the better understanding of the etiology of their primary obstacles. The study showed that most of Indonesia Gen Y have a moderate score on Job satisfaction but in the other aspects, Gen Y has the lowest score on Skill Development, Career Worries, Risk-Taking Style, Dominant Style, Work Involvement, Geographical Barrier, Interpersonal Abuse, and Family Commitment. The top 5 obstacles outside that 9 aspects that faced by Gen Y are 1. Lower communication & networking support; 2. Self-confidence issues; 3. Financial Problem; 4. Emotional issues; 5. Age. We also found that parent perspective toward the way they are nurturing their child are not aligned with their child’s real life. This research fundamentally helps the organization and other Gen Y’s Stakeholders to have a better understanding of Gen Y Career Attitude at the workplace.

Keywords: career attitudes, CASI, Gen Y, career attitude at workplace

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Authors: Jolien Rijlaarsdam, Charlotte A. M. Cecil, J. Marieke Buil, Pol A. C. Van Lier, Edward D. Barker

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Although there is mounting evidence that the experience of being bullied associates with both internalizing and externalizing symptoms, it is not known yet whether the identified associations are specific to these symptoms or shared between them. The primary focus of this study is to assess the prospective associations of bullying exposure with both general and specific (i.e., internalizing, externalizing) factors of psychopathology. This study included data from 6,210 children participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Child bullying was measured by self-report at ages 8 and 10 years. Child psychopathology symptoms were assessed by parent-interview, using the Development and Well-being Assessment (DAWBA) at ages 7 and 13 years. Bullying exposure is significantly associated with the general psychopathology factor in early adolescence. In particular, chronically victimized youth exposed to multiple forms of bullying (i.e., both overt and relational) showed the highest levels of general psychopathology. Bullying exposure is also associated with both internalizing and externalizing factors from the correlated-factors model. However, the effect estimates for these factors decreased considerably in size and dropped to insignificant for the internalizing factor after extracting the shared variance that belongs to the general factor of psychopathology. In an integrative longitudinal model, higher levels of general psychopathology at age seven are associated with bullying exposure at age eight, which, in turn, is associated with general psychopathology at age 13 through its two-year continuity. Findings suggest that exposure to bullying is a risk factor for a more general vulnerability to psychopathology through mutually influencing relationships.

Keywords: bullying exposure, externalizing, general psychopathology, internalizing, longitudinal

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Authors: Shailender Kumar

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Current health policy pronouncements in India advocate for insurance-based financing mechanism to achieve universal health coverage (UHC), while undermine the role of comprehensive healthcare provision system. UHC is achieved when all people receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. This study, using 68th & 71st NSS rounds data, examines their relative and combined strength in achieving the above objective. Health-insurance has been unsuccessful in reducing prevalence and catastrophic effects of out-of-pocket payment and even dismantle the effectiveness of traditional way of health financing system. Healthcare provision is the best way forward to enhance health and well-being of households in condition if India removes existing inadequacies and inequalities in service provision across districts/states and ensure free/low cost medicines/diagnostics to the citizens.

Keywords: health policy, demand-side financing, supply-side financing, incidence of health payment

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Authors: Malik Takreem Ahmad, Pablo Lamata, Rasi Mizori

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Background: In recent years, mobile health apps have grown in popularity as a means for people to track and manage their health. While there is increasing worry that these applications may potentially contribute to the emergence of health anxiety, they can also help to encourage healthy behaviours and provide access to health information. Objective: The objective of this literature review is to look at available mhealth apps and critically evaluate the compromise between reassurance and anxiety. Methodology: A literature review was carried out to analyse the effects of mhealth apps on the creation of health anxiety within the general population. PubMed and SCOPUS were used to search for relevant articles, and abstracts were screened using inclusion criteria of the terms: mhealth apps; e-Health; healthcare apps; cyberchondria; Health anxiety; illness anxiety disorder. A total of 27 studies were included in the review. Results and discussion: The findings suggest a direct relationship between mobile health app use and health anxiety. The impact of mobile health apps on health anxiety may depend on how they are used - individuals receiving a constant stream of health-related information may trigger unnecessary concern about one's health. The need for more regulation and oversight is identified, which can lead to app quality and safety consistency. There are also concerns about data security and privacy and the resulting "digital gap" for individuals without mobiles or internet access. Conclusion: While health apps can be valuable tools for managing and tracking health, individuals need to use them in a balanced and informed way to avoid increased anxiety.

Keywords: mobile health, mhealth apps, cyberchondria, health anxiety

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Authors: Nadia Fatima Zahra Malki

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Quality is one of the most important modern management patterns that organizations seek to achieve in all areas and sectors in order to meet the needs and desires of customers and to remain and continuity, as they constitute a competitive advantage for the organization. and among the most prominent organizations that must be available on the quality factor are health organizations as they relate to the most valuable component of production. It is a person, and his health, and any error in it threatens his life and may lead to death, so she must provide health services of high quality to achieve the highest degree of satisfaction for the patient. This research aims to study the quality of health services and the extent of their impact on patient satisfaction, and this is through an applied study that relied on measuring the level of quality of health services in the university hospital center of Algeria and the extent of their impact on patient satisfaction according to the dimensions of the quality of health services, and we reached a conclusion that the determinants of the quality of health services It affects patient satisfaction, which necessitates developing health services according to patients' requirements and improving their quality to obtain patient satisfaction.

Keywords: health service, health quality, quality determinants, patient satisfaction

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Authors: K. Y. S. Putri, Heri Fathurahman, Yuki Surisita, Widi Sagita, Kiki Dwi Arviani

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Society needs the assistance of academics in understanding and being skilled in health communication literacy. Information technology runs very fast while health communication literacy skills in getting health communication information during the pandemic are not as fast as the development of information technology. The research question is whether there is an influence of health communication on information technology in health information during the pandemic in Indonesia. The purpose of the study is to find out the influence of health communication on information technology in health information during the pandemic in Indonesia. The concepts of health communication literacy and information technology are used this study. Previous research is in support of this study. Quantitative research methods by disseminating questionnaires in this study. The validity and reliability test of this study is positive, so it can proceed to the next statistical analysis. Descriptive results of variable health communication literacy are of positive value in all dimensions. All dimensions of information technology are of positive value. Statistical tests of the influence of health communication literacy on information technology are of great value. Discussion of both variables in the influence of health communication literacy and high-value information technology because health communication literacy has a high effect in information technology. Respondents to this study have high information technology skills. So that health communication literacy in obtaining health information during the 2019-2022 pandemic is needed. Research advice is that academics are still very much needed by the community in the development of society during the pandemic.

Keywords: health information, health information needs, literacy health communication, information technology

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Authors: Milind Bharambe, Chander Shekhar

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India is a vast country with its 1.21 billion population at the dawn of new decade, which accounts for one sixth of the global human capital in the world today. It is well known that health expenditure in India is dominated by private spending. This is an unfortunate consequence of India’s development because of large positive externality associated with health spending, which make health a merit good. This paper has used data from NSSO and Indian Government’s spending on health as reported by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Understanding of the dynamism of age-structure of the population would greatly optimize the expenditure on health care services. A country with good public health indicators is bound to possess good human capital which is an asset to the economic growth and indicator of development status of country. The paper tries to present the linkages between the health expenditure incurred by different states at various levels of demographic transition levels and the efficiency in utilization of health expenditure. It also looks into the way in which allocative efficiency health services can be improved. Paper tries to explore the per capita spending on health and how the demographic transition taking place in different states of India affect the required quantity and quality of health services.

Keywords: age structure, demographic transition, health expenditure, morbidity

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Authors: Getahun Nigusie Demise

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Background; antiretroviral treatment reduce HIV-related morbidity, and prolonged survival of patients however, there is lack of up-to-date information concerning the treatment long term effect on the survival of HIV positive children especially in the study area. Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the incidence and predictors of mortality among HIV positive children on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in public hospitals of Harer town who were enrolled from 2011 to 2021. Methodology: Institution based retrospective cohort study was conducted among 429 HIV positive children enrolled in ART clinic from January 1st 2011 to December30th 2021. Data were collected from medical cards by using a data extraction form, Descriptive analyses were used to Summarized the results, and life table was used to estimate survival probability at specific point of time after introduction of ART. Kaplan Meier survival curve together with log rank test was used to compare survival between different categories of covariates, and Multivariate Cox-proportional hazard regression model was used to estimate adjusted Hazard rate. Variables with p-values ≤0.25 in bivariable analysis were candidates to the multivariable analysis. Finally, variables with p-values < 0.05 were considered as significant variables. Results: The study participants had followed for a total of 2549.6 child-years (30596 child months) with an overall mortality rate of 1.5 (95% CI: 1.1, 2.04) per 100 child-years. Their median survival time was 112 months (95% CI: 101–117). There were 38 children with unknown outcome, 39 deaths, and 55 children transfer out to different facility. The overall survival at 6, 12, 24, 48 months were 98%, 96%, 95%, 94% respectively. being in WHO clinical Stage four (AHR=4.55, 95% CI:1.36, 15.24), having anemia(AHR=2.56, 95% CI:1.11, 5.93), baseline low absolute CD4 count (AHR=2.95, 95% CI: 1.22, 7.12), stunting (AHR=4.1, 95% CI: 1.11, 15.42), wasting (AHR=4.93, 95% CI: 1.31, 18.76), poor adherence to treatment (AHR=3.37, 95% CI: 1.25, 9.11), having TB infection at enrollment (AHR=3.26, 95% CI: 1.25, 8.49),and no history of change their regimen(AHR=7.1, 95% CI: 2.74, 18.24), were independent predictors of death. Conclusion: more than half of death occurs within 2 years. Prevalent tuberculosis, anemia, wasting, and stunting nutritional status, socioeconomic factors, and baseline opportunistic infection were independent predictors of death. Increasing early screening and managing those predictors are required.

Keywords: human immunodeficiency virus-positive children, anti-retroviral therapy, survival, treatment, Ethiopia

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Authors: Namrata Mishra

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Health of a person plays a vital role in the collective health of his community and hence the well-being of the society as a whole. But, in today’s fast paced technology driven world, health issues are increasingly being associated with human behaviors – their lifestyle. Social networks have tremendous impact on the health behavior of individuals. Many researchers have used social network analysis to understand human behavior that implicates their social and economic environments. It would be interesting to use a similar analysis to understand human behaviors that have health implications. This paper focuses on concepts of those behavioural analyses that have health implications using social networks analysis and provides possible algorithmic approaches. The results of these approaches can be used by the governing authorities for rolling out health plans, benefits and take preventive measures, while the pharmaceutical companies can target specific markets, helping health insurance companies to better model their insurance plans.

Keywords: breadth first search, directed graph, health behaviors, social network analysis

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Authors: Mads Schultz, Galice Hoarau, Marvin Choquet

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Members of the genus Calanus are key species in the North Atlantic and Arctic marine ecosystems due to their vast abundance and their ability to accumulate high amounts of lipid. As a link between primary producers and higher trophic levels, the temporal presence of each Calanus species is important in a time of changing communities and northward distribution shifts. This study focused on the temporal niches of the sympatric species Calanus helgolandicus, Calanus finmarchicus, Calanus glacialis, and Calanus hyperboreus in Skjerstad fjord, a Norwegian fjord (67˚14’N, 14 ˚44’E). Three depth intervals were sampled monthly over a year, targeting copepodite stages of the genus Calanus. Species determination was carried out genetically using insertion/deletion markers. In addition, during the reproductive season (Jan-May), weekly samples of the upper 50 meters of the water column targeting nauplii and 5 depth intervals targeting copepodites were collected. Nauplii samples were sorted into two groups (NI-NIII and NIV-NVI), and species were genetically identified. Specimens from stage CIV to adults from each depth interval of copepodite sampling were photographed in order to generate a supporting timeline of visual traits, including gonad maturation stage, presence of stomach content, and total lipid content. The most abundant species were Calanus finmarchicus and Calanus glacialis, followed by Calanus hyperboreus. These species were present in the water column throughout the year, whereas Calanus helgolandicus, the least abundant species, was only present during the summer and autumn period. Each species showed distinct temporal niches, with Calanus finmarchicus occupying the upper 50 meters longer than any of the other species. Calanus hyperboreus dominates in abundance early in the spring but are outnumbered by Calanus glacialis and Calanus finmarchicus after spring bloom sets in. In Skjerstad fjord, Calanus hyperboreus is a clear capital breeder with a long period of nauplii presence before the spring bloom. Calanus glacialis and Calanus finmarchicus both utilize income breeding, with Calanus glacialis developing to the larger nauplii stages quicker than Calanus finmarchicus, but also having a shorter reproduction period. Indeed, the “traditional Arctic” species Calanus hyperboreus and Calanus glacialis appear to end their reproduction period earlier than the North Atlantic Calanus finmarchicus.

Keywords: calanus, depth distribution, reproduction, stage composition, temporal niches

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Authors: Tagel Gebrehiwot, Carolina Castilla

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Food insecurity and child malnutrition are among the most critical issues in Ethiopia. Accordingly, different reform programs have been carried to improve household food security. The Food Security Program (FSP) (among others) was introduced to combat the persistent food insecurity problem in the country. The FSP combines a safety net component called the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) started in 2005. The goal of PSNP is to offer multi-annual transfers, such as food, cash or a combination of both to chronically food insecure households to break the cycle of food aid. Food or cash transfers are the main elements of PSNP. The case for cash transfers builds on the Sen’s analysis of ‘entitlement to food’, where he argues that restoring access to food by improving demand is a more effective and sustainable response to food insecurity than food aid. Cash-based schemes offer a greater choice of use of the transfer and can allow a greater diversity of food choice. It has been proven that dietary diversity is positively associated with the key pillars of food security. Thus, dietary diversity is considered as a measure of household’s capacity to access a variety of food groups. Studies of dietary diversity among Ethiopian rural households are somewhat rare and there is still a dearth of evidence on the impact of PSNP on household dietary diversity. In this paper, we examine the impact of the Ethiopia’s PSNP on household dietary diversity and child nutrition using panel household surveys. We employed different methodologies for identification. We exploit the exogenous increase in kebeles’ PSNP budget to identify the effect of the change in the amount of money households received in transfers between 2012 and 2014 on the change in dietary diversity. We use three different approaches to identify this effect: two-stage least squares, reduced form IV, and generalized propensity score matching using a continuous treatment. The results indicate the increase in PSNP transfers between 2012 and 2014 had no effect on household dietary diversity. Estimates for different household dietary indicators reveal that the effect of the change in the cash transfer received by the household is statistically and economically insignificant. This finding is robust to different identification strategies and the inclusion of control variables that determine eligibility to become a PSNP beneficiary. To identify the effect of PSNP participation on children height-for-age and stunting we use a difference-in-difference approach. We use children between 2 and 5 in 2012 as a baseline because by then they have achieved long-term failure to grow. The treatment group comprises children ages 2 to 5 in 2014 in PSNP participant households. While changes in height-for-age take time, two years of additional transfers among children who were not born or under the age of 2-3 in 2012 have the potential to make a considerable impact on reducing the prevalence of stunting. The results indicate that participation in PSNP had no effect on child nutrition measured as height-for-age or probability of beings stunted, suggesting that PSNP should be designed in a more nutrition-sensitive way.

Keywords: continuous treatment, dietary diversity, impact, nutrition security

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Authors: Margherita Cardellini

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To our knowledge, dark skinned children are often victims of discrimination from adults and society, but few studies specifically focus on skin color discrimination on children coming from the same children. Even today, the 'color blind children' ideology is widespread among adults, teachers, and educators and maybe also among scholars, which seem really careful about study expressions of racism in childhood. This social and cultural belief let people think that all the children, because of their age and their brief experience in the world, are disinterested in skin color. Sometimes adults think that children are even incapable of perceiving skin colors and that it could be dangerous to talk about melaninic differences with them because they finally could notice this difference, producing prejudices and racism. Psychology and neurology research projects are showing for many years that even the newborns are already capable of perceiving skin color and ethnic differences by the age of 3 months. Starting from this theoretical framework we conducted a research project to understand if and how primary school children talk about skin colors, picking up any stereotypes or prejudices. Choosing to use the focus group as a methodology to stimulate the group dimension and interaction, several stories about skin color discrimination's episodes within their classroom or school have emerged. Using the photo elicitation technique we chose to stimulate talk about the research object, which is the skin color, asking the children what was ‘the first two things that come into your mind’ when they look the photographs presented during the focus group, which represented dark and light skinned women and men. So, this paper will present some of these stories about episodes of discrimination with an escalation grade of proximity related to the discriminatory act. It will be presented a story of discrimination happened within the school, in an after-school daycare, in the classroom and even episode of discrimination that children tell during the focus groups in the presence of the discriminated child. If it is true that the Declaration of the Right of the Child state that every child should be discrimination free, it’s also true that every adult should protect children from every form of discrimination. How, as adults, can we defend children against discrimination if we cannot admit that even children are potential discrimination’s actors? Without awareness, we risk to devalue these episodes, implicitly confident that the only way to fight against discrimination is to keep her quiet. The right not to be discriminated goes through the right to talk about its own experiences of discrimination and the right to perceive the unfairness of the constant depreciation about skin color or any element of physical diversity. Intercultural education could act as spokesperson for this mission in the belief that difference and plurality could really become elements of potential enrichment for humanity, starting from children.

Keywords: colorism, experiences of discrimination, primary school children, skin color discrimination

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Authors: Oluwaseun Adeleke, Samuel O. Ikani, Fidelis Edet, Anthony Nwala, Mopelola Raji, Simeon Christian Chukwu

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Background: The Delivering Innovations in Selfcare (DISC) project aims to increase access to self-care options for women of reproductive age, starting with self-inject subcutaneous depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-SC) contraception services. However, the project has faced challenges in ensuring the continuous availability of the commodity in health facilities. Although most states in the country rely on the federal ministry of Health for supplies, some are gradually funding the procurement of Family Planning (FP) commodities. This attempt is, however, often accompanied by procurement delays and purchases inadequate to meet demand. This dilemma was further exacerbated by the commencement of demand generation activities by the project in supported states which geometrically increased commodity utilization rates and resulted in receding stock and occasional service disruptions. Strategies: The project deployed various strategies were implemented to ensure the continuous availability of commodities. These include facilitating inter-facility transfer, monthly tracking of commodity utilization, and alerting relevant authorities when stock levels reach a minimum. And supporting state-level procurement of DMPA-SC commodities through catalytic interventions. Results: Effective monitoring of commodity inventory at the facility level and strategic engagement with federal and state-level logistics units have proven successful in mitigating stock-out of commodities. It has helped secure up to 13,000 units of DMPA-SC commodities from federal logistics units and enabled state units to prioritize supported sites. This has ensured the continuity of DMPA-SC services and an increasing trend in the practice of self-injection. Conclusion: A functional supply chain is crucial to achieving commodity security, and without it, health programs cannot succeed. Stakeholder engagement, stock management and catalytic interventions have provided both short- and long-term measures to mitigate stock-outs and ensured a consistent supply of commodities to clients.

Keywords: family planning, contraception, DMPA-SC, self-care, self-injection, commodities, stock-out

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Authors: Vaibhavi Birle

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Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome is a rare clinic-radiological syndrome associated with acute changes in blood pressure during pregnancy. It is characterized symptomatically by headache, seizures, altered mental status, and visual blurring with radiological changes of white matter (vasogenic oedema) affecting the posterior occipital and parietal lobes of the brain. It is being increasingly recognized due to increased institutional deliveries and advances in imaging particularly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In spite of the increasing diagnosis the prediction of PRES and patient factors affecting susceptibility is still not clear. Hence, we conducted the retrospective study to analyse the factors associated with PRES at our tertiary centre.

Keywords: pres syndrome, eclampsia, maternal outcome, fetal outcome

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Authors: Fereshteh Ganjavi, Rachel Schaffer, Varsha Jorawar

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Elena’s Light is a non-profit organization focused on building brighter futures for refugees, especially women and children. Our mission is to empower refugee women and children by addressing social, legal, and public health issues that predominantly concern them. Elena’s Light offers a range of services that support refugees from structural disadvantages, cultural and social stress, marginalization, and other stressors related to migration. Using a three-pronged approach, our programs focus on legal advocacy, English language acquisition, and health and wellness. Following the Afghan humanitarian crisis, Elena’s Light has developed and intensified advocacy efforts in the legal realm to address the influx of refugees who desperately need assistance. We developed and hosted a Know Your Rights presentation with local immigration lawyers and professionals in February 2022 on the Afghan Humanitarian Parole, which was very successful with over 100 attendees. Elena’s Light is hosting the second Know Your Rights session in early August 2022 on immigration options for Afghans, including Temporary Protected Status (TPS), asylum, Special Immigrant Visa (SIV), and humanitarian parole. Lastly, EL is also leading the local initiative to develop a pro-bono committee to respond to the overwhelming need for lawyers to work on legal cases for Afghan during this crisis. Furthermore, through our other services, we provide free, in-home customizable ESL tutoring sessions to refugee women with a focus on driver’s education, facilitating acculturation, and improving employment opportunities. We also provide in-home maternal, pediatric, and mental health education and wellness services that are aimed at addressing the explicit and implicit barriers to healthcare for refugee populations. Elena’s Light’s diverse community aims to counter the structural disadvantages and anxiety-inducing emotions and experiences related to being a refugee. We would like to join this International Conference on Refugee Law since protecting refugee rights is our mission. We would like to share what we have learned from our legal initiatives for refugee rights. We would also like to listen, learn from, and discuss with experts and researchers how to better understand and advocate for refugee rights. We hope to improve our understanding of how to provide better legal aid for our clients through this conference.

Keywords: legal, advocacy, Afghan humanitarian crisis, policy, pro-bono

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Authors: Mareli Fischer, Kevin G. F. Thomas

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Although Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent childhood neurobehavioural disorders, little empirical research has been published on its clinical presentation in Africa, and, globally, few studies evaluate ADHD intervention programs that emphasize parent training. Hence, Stage 1 of this research programme aimed to describe the functional impairment of South African children with ADHD, and also sought to investigate the influence of sociodemographic variables (e.g., sex, age, socioeconomic status, family environment) and clinical variables (e.g., ADHD subtype and comorbidity) on the degree of that impairment. We used the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents as a diagnostic tool, and the Child Behavior Checklist, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and the Impairment Rating Scale as measures of functional impairment. Results from this stage of the research indicated that South African children and adolescents who meet diagnostic criteria for ADHD experience most functional impairment in the school domain, as well as in the area of social functioning. None of the measured sociodemographic variables had a significant detrimental or protective effect on how ADHD symptoms impacted on functioning. In terms of comorbidity, the presence of Major Depressive Disorder, Conduct Disorder, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder were all associated with significantly impaired overall functioning. Stage 2 of the research programme aimed to design, implement, and evaluate a child-specific intervention that targeted the primary areas of impairment identified in Stage 1. Existing literature suggests that a positive parent-training programme, in the group format, is one of the best options for cost-effective and successful ADHD intervention. Hence, the intervention took that form. Parents were taught basic behaviour analysis concepts within a supportive group context. Evaluation of the intervention’s efficacy used many of the same measures as in Stage 1, but also featured semi-structured interviews with participants and naturalistic observation of parent-child interaction. We will discuss preliminary results of that evaluation. Studying functional impairment and designing intervention plans in this way will pave the way for evidence-based treatment plans for children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD.

Keywords: attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, children, intervention, parenting groups

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Authors: Abdel-Tawab H. Mossa

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Synthetic pesticides are widely used in large-scale worldwide for control pests in agriculture and public health sectors in both developed and developing countries. Although the positive role of pesticides, they have many adverse toxic effects on humans, animals, and the ecosystem. Therefore, in the last few years, scientists have been searching for new active compounds from natural resources as an alternative to synthetic pesticides. Currently, many commercial natural pesticides are available commercially worldwide. These products are recommended for uses in organic farmers and considered as safe pesticides. This paper focuses on the adverse effects of natural pesticides on mammals. Available commercial pesticides in the market contain essential oils (e.g. pepper, cinnamon, and garlic), plant extracts, microorganism (e.g. bacteria, fungi or their toxin), mineral oils and some active compounds from natural recourses e.g. spinosad, neem, pyrethrum, rotenone, abamectin and other active compounds from essential oils (EOs). Some EOs components, e.g., thujone, pulegone, and thymol have high acute toxicity (LD50) is 87.5, 150 and 980 mg/kg. B.wt on mice, respectively. Natural pesticides such as spinosad, pyrethrum, neem, abamectin, and others have toxicological effects to mammals and ecosystem. These compounds were found to cause hematotoxicity, hepato-renal toxicity, biochemical alteration, reproductive toxicity, genotoxicity, and mutagenicity. It caused adverse effects on the ecosystem. Therefore, natural pesticides in general not safe and have high acute toxicity and can induce adverse effects at long-term exposure.

Keywords: natural pesticides, toxicity, safety, genotoxicity, ecosystem, biochemical

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Authors: Anshita Sharma

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India is one of the countries to initiate family planning with intention to control the growing population by reducing fertility. In effort to this, India had introduced the National family planning programme in 1952. The level of unmet need in India shows a reducing trend with increasing effectiveness of family planning services as in NFHS-1 the unmet need for limiting, spacing and total was 46 percent, 14 percent & 9 percent, respectively. The demand for spacing has reduced to at 8 percent, 8 percent for limiting and total unmet need was 16 percent in NFHS-2. The total unmet need has reduced to 13 percent in NFHS-3 for all currently married women and the demand for limiting and spacing is 7 percent and 6 percent respectively. The level of unmet need in India shows a reducing trend with increasing effectiveness of family planning services. Despite the progress, there is chunk of women who are deprived of controlling unintended and unwanted pregnancies. The present paper examines the socio-cultural and economic and demographic correlates of unmet need for contraception in India. It also examines the effect of women’s autonomy and unmet need for contraception on family size among different socio-economic groups of population. It uses data from national family health survey-3 carried out in 2005-06 and employs bi-variate techniques and multivariate techniques for analysis. The multiple regression analysis has done to seek the level and direction of relationship among various socio-economic and demographic factors. The result reveals that women with higher level of education and economic status have low level of unmet need for family planning. Women living in non-nuclear family have high unmet need for spacing and women living in nuclear family have high unmet need for limiting and family size is slightly higher of women of nuclear family. In India, the level of autonomy varies at different life point; usually women with higher age enjoy higher autonomy than their junior female member in the family. The finding shows that women with higher autonomy have large family size counter to women with low autonomy have low family size. Unmet need for family planning decrease with women’s increasing exposure to mass- media. The demographic factors like experience of child loss are directly related to family size. Women who experience higher child loss have low unmet need for spacing and limiting. Thus, It is established with the help that women’s autonomy status play substantial role in fulfilling demand of contraception for limiting and spacing which affect the family size.

Keywords: family size, socio-economic correlates, unmet need for limiting, unmet need for spacing, women`s autonomy

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Authors: Yuping Zhang, Teng Ma, Nadia Everaert, Hongfu Zhang

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Supplying dietary fiber during gestation is known to improve the welfare of feed-restricted sows. However, whether high fiber supplementation during pregnancy can improve the performance of sows and their offspring depends on the type, amount, source, etc., in which the solubility plays a key important role. Insoluble fibers have been shown to increase feed intake of sows in lactation, meet the needs of sows for milk production, reduce sow’s weight and backfat loss, and thus improve the performance of sows and their offspring. In this study, we investigated the effect of the addition of fermented feed mulberry (FFM), rich in insoluble fiber, during the whole gestation on the performance of sows and their offspring and explored possible mechanisms by determining serum hormones and fecal microbiota. The FFM-diet contained 25.5% FFM (on dry matter basis) and was compared with the control–diet (CON, corn, and soybean meal diet). The insoluble fiber content of the FFM and CON diet are respectively 29.3% and 19.1%. both groups were allocated 20 multiparous sows, and they are fed different feed allowance to make sure all the sows get the same digestible energy for each day. After farrowing, all sows were fed the same lactation diet ad libitum. The serum estradiol, progesterone concentration, blood glucose, and insulin levels at gestation day 0, 20, and 60 were tested. And also, the composition and differences fecal microbiota at day 60 of gestation were analyzed. Fecal consistency was determined with Bristol stool scale method, those with a score below 3 were counted as constipation The results showed that there was no impact of the FFM treatment on sows’ backfat, bodyweight changes, blood glucose, serum estradiol, and progesterone concentration, litter size, and performance of the offspring(p > 0.05), Except significant decrease in the concentration of insulin in sows’ serum at 60 days of gestation were observed in the FFM group compare to the CON group (P < 0.01). FFM diet also significantly increased feed intake on the first, third, and 21st days of sow lactation. (p < 0.01); The α- and β- diversity and abundance of the microbiota were significant increased (p < 0.01) compared with the CON group, The abundance of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were significantly increased, meanwhile the abundances of Spirochetes, Proteobacteria, and Euryarchaeota, were significantly reduced in the feces of the FFM group. We also analyzed the fecal microbiota of constipated sows vs non-constipated sows and found that the diversity and abundance did also differ between these two groups. FFM and CON group < 0.01). The relationship between sow’s constipation and microbiota merits further investigation.

Keywords: fermented feed mulberry, reproductive performance, fecal flora, sow

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Authors: Suhrita Saha

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Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy company Mattel Inc and it made debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York in 9 March 1959. From being a fashion doll to a symbol of fetishistic commodification, Barbie has come a long way. A Barbie doll is sold every three seconds across the world, which makes the billion dollar brand the world’s most popular doll for the girls. The 11.5 inch moulded plastic doll has a height of 5 feet 9 inches at 1/6 scale. Her vital statistics have been estimated at 36 inches (chest), 18 inches (waist) and 33 inches (hips). Her weight is permanently set at 110 pounds which would be 35 pounds underweight. Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie wanted a doll that represented adulthood and allowed children to imagine themselves as teenagers or adults. While Barbie might have been intended to be independent, imaginative and innovative, the physical uniqueness does not confine the doll to the status of a play thing. It is a cultural icon but with far reaching critical implications. The doll is a commodity bearing more social value than practical use value. The way Barbie is produced represents industrialization and commodification of the process of symbolic production. And this symbolic production and consumption is a standardized planned one that produce stereotypical ‘pseudo-individuality’ and suppresses cultural alternatives. Children are being subject to and also arise as subjects in this consumer context. A very gendered, physiologically dissected sexually charged symbolism is imposed upon children (both male and female), childhood, their social worlds, identity, and relationship formation. Barbie is also very popular among Indian children. While the doll is essentially an imaginative representation of the West, it is internalized by the Indian sensibilities. Through observation and questionnaire-based interview within a sample population of adolescent children (primarily female, a few male) and parents (primarily mothers) in Kolkata, an Indian metropolis, the paper puts forth findings of sociological relevance. 1. Barbie creates, recreates, and accentuates already existing divides between the binaries like male- female, fat- thin, sexy- nonsexy, beauty- brain and more. 2. The Indian girl child in her associative process with Barbie wants to be like her and commodifies her own self. The male child also readily accepts this standardized commodification. Definition of beauty is thus based on prejudice and stereotype. 3. Not being able to become Barbie creates health issues both psychological and physiological varying from anorexia to obesity as well as personality disorder. 4. From being a plaything Barbie becomes the game maker. Barbie along with many other forms of simulation further creates a consumer culture and market for all kind of fitness related hyper enchantment and subsequent disillusionment. The construct becomes the reality and the real gets lost in the play world. The paper would thus argue that Barbie from being an innocuous doll transports itself into becoming social construct with long term and irreversible adverse impact.

Keywords: barbie, commodification, personality disorder, sterotype

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Authors: Sharareh Hekmat, Michelle Lane

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Pregnancy during adolescence affects both the growth and development of mother and baby, particularly in low socioeconomic and food insecure areas. This mixed methods study is aimed at discovering a need for a community-based probiotic yogurt program to assist pregnant women in the Mukuru slum Nairobi, Kenya. Surveys were conducted with pregnant women (14-25 years old, n=43), which included questionnaires on dietary intake, food access, and health/quality of life perception. The frequency and means procedure was used to analyze maternal characteristics, Women’s Dietary Diversity Score (WDDS) and Household Hunger Scale. 24-hour recalls were analyzed via ESHA Food Processor, and median nutrient intakes were reported as a percent of recommendations. An environmental scan was conducted to assess food availability, accessibility, and quality. WDDS reflected a low-moderate diet variation (3.86 food groups out of 9, SD ± 1.3) among the women. The 24-hour recall suggested an inadequate intake of many nutrients, most significantly B12, potassium and calcium. 86% of women reported little to no household hunger. However, the environmental scan revealed low quality and poor sanitation of food. This study provides evidence that a probiotic program would be desirable, and contribute to the nutritional status of women in the Mukuru community.

Keywords: dietary diversity, pregnant women, probiotics, urban slum, Kenya

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Authors: Priya Sepaha

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Commercial Surrogacy refers to a contract in which a woman carries a pregnancy for intended parents. There are two types of surrogacy; first, Traditional Surrogacy, in which, sperm of the donor or father is artificially inseminated in the women and carries the fetus till birth. Second, Gestational Surrogacy, in which the egg and sperm of the intended parent are collected for artificial fertilization through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) technique and after the embryo formation, it is transferred into the womb of a surrogate mother with the help of Assisted Reproductive Technique. Surrogacy has become so widespread in India that it has now been nicknamed the "rent-a-womb" capital of the world due to relatively low cost and lack of stringent regulatory legalisation. The legal aspects surrounding surrogacy are complex, diverse and mostly unsettled. Although this appears to be beneficial for the parties concerned, there are certain sensitive issues which need to be addressed to ensure ample protection to all stakeholders. Commercial surrogacy is an emerging business and a new means of human trafficking particularly in India. Poor and illiterate women are often lured in such deals by their spouse or broker for earning easy money. Traffickers also use force, fraud, or coercion at times to intimidate the probable surrogate mothers. A major chunk of money received from covert surrogacy agreement is taken away by the brokers. The Law Commission of India has specifically reviewed the issue as India is emerging as a major global surrogacy destination. The Supreme Court of India held in the Manji's case in 2008, that commercial surrogacy can be permitted with certain restrictions but had directed the Legislature to pass an appropriate Law for governing Surrogacy in India. The draft Assisted Reproductive Technique (ART) Bill, 2010 is still pending for approval. At present, the Surrogacy Contract between the parties and the ART Clinics Guidelines are perhaps the only guiding force. The Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA), 1956 and Sections 366(A) and 372 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 are perhaps the only existing laws, which deal with human trafficking. Yet, none of these provisions specifically deal with the serious issue of trafficking for the purpose of Commercial Surrogacy. India remains one of the few countries that still allow commercial surrogacy. International Surrogacy involves bilateral issues, where the laws of both the nations have to be at par in order to ensure that the concerns and interests of parties involved get amicably resolved. There is urgent need to pass a comprehensive law by incorporating the latest developments in this field in order to make it ethical on the one hand and to curb disguised human trafficking on the other.

Keywords: business, human trafficking, legal, surrogacy

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Authors: Dessy Arumsari, Ais Assana Athqiya, Mulyaminingrum

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Healthcare in remote areas is one of the major concerns in Indonesia. Building hospitals in a nation of 18.000 islands with a larger-than-life bureaucracy and problems with corruption, a critical shortage of qualified medical professionals and well-heeled patients resigned to traveling abroad for health care is a hard feat to accomplish. To assuring that all populations have access to appropriate and cost-effective care, a new solution to tackle this problem is with the presence of RV Car Clinic. This car has a concept such as a walking hospital that provides health facilities inside it. All of the health professionals who work in RV Car Clinic will do the rotation for a year in order to the equitable distribution of health workers. We need to advocate the policy makers to help realize RV Car Clinic in remote areas. Health services can be disseminated by the present of RV Car Clinic. Summarily, the local communities can get cost effectively because RV Car Clinic will come to their place and serve the health services.

Keywords: health policy, health professional, remote areas, RV Car Clinic

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Authors: Kristof Grätz

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Background: Coping with crisis situations (e.g., the identity crisis in adolescence) is omnipresent in today's socialization and should be encouraged as a child. For this reason, students should be given the opportunity to create, endure and manage these crisis situations in a sporting context within the project “Herausforderung.” They should prove themselves by working on a self-assigned task, accompanied by ‚coaches’ in a place outside of their hometown. The aim of the project is to observe this process from a resource-oriented perspective. Health promotion, as called for by the WHO in the Ottawa Charter since 1986, includes strengthening psychosocial resources. These include cognitive, emotional, and social potentials that contribute to improving the quality of life, provide favourable conditions for coping with health burdens and enable people to influence their physical performance and well-being self-confidently and actively. A systematic strengthening of psychosocial resources leads to an improvement in mental health and contributes decisively to the regular implementation and long-term maintenance of this health behavior. Previous studies have already shown significant increases in self-concept following experiential educational measures [Fengler, 2007; Eberle & Fengler, 2018] and positive effects of experience-based school trips on the social competence of students [Reuker, 2009]. Method: The research project examines the influence of the project “Herausforderung” on psychosocial resources such as self-efficacy, self-concept, social support, and group cohesion. The students participating in the project will be tested in a pre-post design in the context of the challenge. This test includes specific questions to capture the different psychosocial resources. For the measurement, modifications of existing scales with good item selectivity and reliability are used to a large extent, so that acceptable item and scale values can be expected. If necessary, the scales were adapted or shortened to the specific context in order to ensure a balanced relationship between reliability and test economy. Specifically, these are already tested scales such as FRKJ 8-16, FSKN, GEQ, and F-SozU. The aim is to achieve a sample size of n ≥ 100. Conclusion: The project will be reviewed with regard to its effectiveness, and implications for a resource-enhancing application in sports settings will be given. Conclusions are drawn as to which extent to specific experiential educational content in physical education can have a health-promoting effect on the participants.

Keywords: children, education, health promotion, psychosocial resources

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Authors: Valentine Seymour

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Environmental volunteering organisations use questionnaires to explore the relationship between environmental volunteers and their health. To the author’s best knowledge, no one has explored volunteers’ health perception, which could be considered when designing a health impact measurement tool used to increase effective communication. This paper examines environmental volunteers' perceptions of health, knowledge which can be used to design a health impact measurement tool. This study uses focus group interviews, content analysis, and a general inductive approach to explore the health perceptions of volunteers who engage in environmental volunteering activities from the perspective of UK charity The Conservation Volunteers. Findings showed that volunteer groups presented were relatively similar in how they defined the term health, with their overall conceptual model closely resembling that of the World Health Organization 1948 definition. This suggests that future health impact measurement tools in the environmental volunteering sector could base their design around the World Health Organization’s definition.

Keywords: health perception, impact measurement, mental models, tool development

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Authors: Sharon Milberger, Jane Turner, Denise White-Perkins

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Michigan shares the overall U.S. national need for more highly qualified professionals who have knowledge and experience in the use of evidence-based practices to meet the special health care needs of children, adolescents, and adults with neurodevelopmental disabilities including autism spectrum disorder (DD/ASD). The Michigan Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (MI-LEND) program is a consortium of six universities that spans the state of Michigan and serves more than 181,800 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. The purpose of the MI LEND program is to improve the health of infants, children and adolescents with disabilities in Michigan by training individuals from different disciplines to assume leadership roles in their respective fields and work across disciplines. The MI-LEND program integrates “L.I.F.E.” perspectives into all training components. L.I.F.E. is an acronym for Leadership, Interdisciplinary, Family-Centered and Equity perspectives. This paper will describe how L.I.F.E. perspectives are embedded into all aspects of the MI-LEND training program including the application process, didactic training, community and clinical experiences, discussions, journaling and projects. Specific curriculum components will be described including content from a training module dedicated to Equity. Upon completion of the Equity module, trainees are expected to be able to: 1) Use a population health framework to identify key social determinants impacting families and children; 2) Explain how addressing bias and providing culturally appropriate linguistic care/services can influence patient/client health and wellbeing; and 3) Describe the impact of policy and structural/institutional factors influencing care and services for children with DD/ASD and their families. Each trainee completes two self-assessments: the Cultural and Linguistic Competence Health Practitioner Assessment and the other assessing social attitudes/implicit bias. Trainees also conduct interviews with a family with a child with DD/ASD. In addition, interdisciplinary Equity-related group activities are incorporated into face-to-face training sessions. Each MI-LEND trainee has multiple ongoing opportunities for self-reflection through discussion and journaling and completion of a L.I.F.E. project as a culminating component of the program. The poster will also discuss the challenges related to teaching and measuring successful outcomes related to diversity/equity perspectives.

Keywords: disability, diversity, equity, training

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Authors: Wing Hang Shelley Leung

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With the rise of the recent social movement, namely #MeToo, it shows that a lot of women and children in fact suffered from sexual abuse and some even suffered from child abuse, including in Hong Kong. In view of the ongoing social movements, this paper argues that we have to look beyond their impacts and understand the roots of the problem: what if the underlying cause of the recent social movements was the inherited values that were rooted in us since we were young, or the public’s lack of confidence in the legal system when it comes to this type of personal matters? What if the movements reveal the problematic issue of the lack of protection plans, either in the private or public sphere? If the legal system is presumed to not be able to preemptively protect everyone or effectively punish all perpetrators, can other pillars provide supports to fill in the loopholes of the legal system? This paper takes a theoretical approach to look into current sexuality education, the legal system in Hong Kong and the adoption of Asian values in society to argue that difficulties that are being placed onto victims in disclosing sexual violence they had experienced. Reviews of the current system and recent sexual assaults court cases for case studies allow the research to address the issues of victims’ experience including (a) their reactions to incidents; (b) issues they have in trials; (c) psychological impacts of the incidents; and (d) their understandings of gender equality before and after incidents. The study is significant because it criticises the current legal system in Hong Kong and provides insights to the public by explaining the dynamics between the problem, the legal system and the society. Also, it contributes to the ongoing research about the psychological impacts to victims in Hong Kong, especially how they are placed in a disadvantaged position in the legal system and society and even for their recovery. It contributes to the findings of how family structures, parental responsibilities and gender studies influence a child’s perception of gender equality in Hong Kong and hence their immediate reactions to incidents. To fully address the needs of victims, especially our younger generation, as well as to prevent future harm and to raise awareness, an inclusive framework which recognizes the needs of protecting and safeguarding women and children in the private sphere and a proper education for gender equality are needed.

Keywords: child abuse, children's rights, domestic violence, gender equality, Hong Kong, Me too, sexual violence, women's rights

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Authors: Malki Nadia Fatima Zahra, Kellal Chaimaa, Brahimi Houria

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Quality is one of the most important modern management patterns that organizations seek to achieve in all areas and sectors in order to meet the needs and desires of customers and to remain continuity, as they constitute a competitive advantage for the organization, and among the most prominent organizations that must be available on the quality factor are health organizations as they relate to the most valuable component of production It is a person and his health, and that any error in it threatens his life and may lead to death, so she must provide health services of high quality to achieve the highest degree of satisfaction for the patient. This research aims to study the quality of health services and the extent of their impact on patient satisfaction, and this is through an applied study that relied on measuring the level of quality of health services in the university hospital center of Algeria and the extent of their impact on patient satisfaction according to the dimensions of the quality of health services, and we reached a conclusion that the determinants of the quality of health services. It affects patient satisfaction, which necessitates developing health services according to patients' requirements and improving their quality to obtain patient satisfaction.

Keywords: health service, health quality, quality determinants, patient satisfaction

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Authors: Veenu Bala, Yashpal S. Chhonker, Bhavana Kushwaha, Rabi S. Bhatta, Gopal Gupta, Vishnu L. Sharma

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According to UNAIDS 2013 estimate nearly 52% of all individuals living with HIV are now women of reproductive age (15–44 years). Seventy-five percent cases of HIV acquisition are through heterosexual contacts and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), attributable to unsafe sexual behaviour. Each year, an estimated 500 million people acquire atleast one of four STIs: chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis and trichomoniasis. Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) is exclusively sexually transmitted in adults, accounting for 30% of STI cases and associated with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), vaginitis and pregnancy complications in women. TV infection resulted in impaired vaginal milieu, eventually favoring HIV transmission. In the absence of an effective prophylactic HIV vaccine, prevention of new infections has become a priority. It was thought worthwhile to integrate HIV prevention and reproductive health services including unintended pregnancy protection for women as both are related with unprotected sex. Initially, nonoxynol-9 (N-9) had been proposed as a spermicidal agent with microbicidal activity but on the contrary it increased HIV susceptibility due to surfactant action. Thus, to accomplish an urgent need of novel woman controlled non-detergent microbicidal spermicides benzenepropanamine analogues have been synthesized. At first, five benzenepropanamine-dithiocarbamate hybrids have been synthesized and evaluated for their spermicidal, anti-Trichomonas and anti-fungal activities along with safety profiling to cervicovaginal cells. In order to further enhance the scope of above study benzenepropanamine was hybridized with thiourea as to introduce anti-HIV potential. The synthesized hybrid molecules were evaluated for their reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibition, spermicidal, anti-Trichomonas and antimicrobial activities as well as their safety against vaginal flora and cervical cells. simulated vaginal fluid (SVF) stability and pharmacokinetics of most potent compound versus N-9 was examined in female Newzealand (NZ) rabbits to observe its absorption into systemic circulation and subsequent exposure in blood plasma through vaginal wall. The study resulted in the most promising compound N-butyl-4-(3-oxo-3-phenylpropyl) piperazin-1-carbothioamide (29) exhibiting better activity profile than N-9 as it showed RT inhibition (72.30 %), anti-Trichomonas (MIC, 46.72 µM against MTZ susceptible and MIC, 187.68 µM against resistant strain), spermicidal (MEC, 0.01%) and antifungal activity (MIC, 3.12–50 µg/mL) against four fungal strains. The high safety against vaginal epithelium (HeLa cells) and compatibility with vaginal flora (lactobacillus), SVF stability and least vaginal absorption supported its suitability for topical vaginal application. Docking study was performed to gain an insight into the binding mode and interactions of the most promising compound, N-butyl-4-(3-oxo-3-phenylpropyl) piperazin-1-carbothioamide (29) with HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase. The docking study has revealed that compound (29) interacted with HIV-1 RT similar to standard drug Nevirapine. It may be concluded that hybridization of benzenepropanamine and thiourea moiety resulted into novel lead with multiple activities including RT inhibition. A further lead optimization may result into effective vaginal microbicides having spermicidal, anti-Trichomonas, antifungal and anti-HIV potential altogether with enhanced safety to cervico-vaginal cells in comparison to Nonoxynol-9.

Keywords: microbicidal, nonoxynol-9, reverse transcriptase, spermicide

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Authors: Umer Farooq

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The present work is being presented with a general aim of highlighting the role of protection/propagation of indigenous breeds of livestock in an area as a sustainable tool for poverty alleviation. Specifically, the aim is to introduce a formerly neglected Cholistani breed of cattle being reared by the Cholistani desert nomads of Pakistan. The said work will present a detaile account of research work conducted during the last five years by the author. Furthermore, it will present the performance (productive and reproductive traits) of this breed as being reared under various nomadic systems of the desert. Results will be deducted on the basis of the research work conducted on Cholistani cattle and keeping abreast the latest reforms being provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Initiative to Support Pastoralism (WISP) of the UN. The timely attention towards the protection and propagation of this neglected breed of cattle will pave a smoother way towards poverty alleviation of rural/suburban areas and a successful sustainable agriculture in low input production systems such as Pakistan. The 15 recognized indigenous breeds of cattle constitute 43% of the total livestock population in Pakistan and belong to Zebu cattle. These precious breeds are currently under threat and might disappear even before proper documentation until and unless streamlined efforts are diverted towards them. This horrific state is due to many factors such as epidemic diseases, urbanization, indiscriminate crossing with native stock, misdirected cross breeding with exotic stock/semen, inclined livestock systems from extensive (subsistence) to intensive (commercial), lack of valuation of local breeds, decreasing natural resources, environmental degradation and global warming. Hefty work has been documented on many aspects of Sahiwal and Red Sindhi breeds of cattle in their respective local climates which have rightly gained them an international fame as being the vital tropical milk breeds of Pakistan. However, many other indigenous livestock breeds such as Cholistani cattle being reared under pastoral systems of Cholistan are yet unexplored. The productive and reproductive traits under their local climatic conditions need to be studied and the future researches may be streamlined to manipulate their indigenous potential. The timely attention will pave a smoother way towards poverty alleviation of rural/suburban areas and a successful sustainable agriculture in low input production systems.

Keywords: Cholistan desert, Pakistan, indigenous cattle, Sahiwal cattle, pastoralism

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