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There appears to be a globally unifying discourse that suggests Muslim communities are not supportive of girls' education. This paper aims to destabilize such a discourse by inserting the narratives of Muslim parents pursuing girls' education in Assam's Nagaon district. By paying attention to the concepts of "bhal suwali" (good girlhood) and "bhal ghor" (good family) articulated by parents in my study, this paper connects the performances of certain types of gender practices with the pursuit of class aspirations. It shows that good girlhood works as symbolic capital that helps Muslim parents to culturally authorize their daughters as legitimate actors in the field of education, while legitimizing themselves as good family. This paper draws attention to three practices of respectable femininity through which good girlhoods are enacted in the field of education, namely: negotiating poverty respectably, prioritizing gendered discipline, and merging career aspirations with marital prospects.

In collisionless plasma, the function of an externally imposed static electric field has been investigated for facilitating the generation of high-power terahertz (THz) radiation. A nonlinear transient current density occurs at THz radiation frequency due to the optical rectification of high-power laser pulse having secant hyperbolic temporal intensity profile. This transient current driving a THz radiation is found to be strongly depended on the pulse width of laser, electron plasma frequency, and externally applied electric field. The effect of mismatched phase between the generated THz wave and laser has also been studied. Numerical simulations show that the strength of THz amplitude initially increases with propagation distance and then decreases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To study the long term clinical and echocardiographic outcomes of percutaneous Trans mitral balloon commissurotomy (PTMC) performed in patients with severe mitral stenosis. Methodology: Total 103 patients were enrolled in this study. Their PTMC procedure was performed between the years 2015 to 2019. Those patients who returned for follow-up in the year 2021 were enrolled. At the time of follow-up their clinical and echocardiographic parameters were recorded. Results: The mean age was 27.44±6.26 years and 97 (94.2%) of them were female. Mitral valve area was improved significantly, planimetry; 0.813±1.39 vs. 1.288±0.21cm2 and PHT; 0.871±0.13 vs. 1.336±0.19 cm2 between baseline and follow-up, respectively. Pressure gradient across mitral valve also improved 7.233±2.81 vs. 14.407±0.92 mmHg between baseline and follow-up, respectively. Pulmonary artery pressures were also reduced significantly 24±0.27 vs. 55±2.41 mmHg as well as the right ventricular systolic pressures 24.4±2.94 vs. 62.34±10.98 mmHg between baseline and follow-up, respectively. At follow-up, 70.9% had NYHA I class, 16.5% had NYHA II class, 11.7% had NYHA III class, and 1% had NYHA IV class compared to 6.8%, 5.8%, 33.9%, and 53.4% pre-procedure, respectively. Conclusion: Long term follow-up of patients after PTMC showed satisfactory outcomes both clinically, as evident from improvement in NYHA functional class, and from echocardiographic stand point with sustained increase in mitral valve area over the period of years. Overall the results of PTMC performed in patients with severe mitral stenosis are satisfactory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salvadora persica (S. persica) contains steam-distillable oil made of 90% Benzylisothiocyanate (BITC). It’s proven to have a wide range of bactericidal activity. The objectives of this study were to develop biodegradable periodontal chips containing S. persica, and BITC in a chitosan base and to evaluate their antibacterial activity against Prevotella intermedia and Eikenella corrodens. Periodontal chips were developed that incorporated S. persica (Miswak) extract and BITC in a chitosan base. Sterile distilled water was used as negative control while chlohexidine was used as positive control. A gel diffusion test was performed to detect the potential antibacterial activity followed by Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) Tests. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to identify the morphology and configuration of Prevotella intermedia and Eikenella corrodens bacteria before and after treatment with chips. The mean inhibition zone for the S. persica chips was found to be 9.0 mm. The MIC and MBC tests demostrated that all the concentrations for the chips succesfully inhibited the growth of the bacteria. Chlohexidine used as positive control also inhibited the bacteria. The negative control of sterile distilled water showed no inhibtion of bacterial growth. SEM showed that all chips produced distinct alterations to the bacterial morphology. E. corrodens and P. intermedia underwent shrinkage and formed irregular shapes. Periodontal chips formulated from S. persica and BITC incorporated into a chitosan base as a target drug delivery method, showed potent antibacterial activity against E. corrodens and P. intermedia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing concern regarding mental health and psychological distress caused by the COVID-19. The degree of fear has been assessed by few studies but most of those used invalidated measures. Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S) is a seven-item scale developed during this pandemic. We evaluated the psychometric properties of the Urdu version of FCVS-19 in the Pakistani population. They were also asked the question about COVID-19 factors that were associated with fear. The Urdu translation of the measure has excellent internal consistency and validity. Our study shows FCV-19S has robust psychometric characteristics and can be used to assess mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]