Objective: To determine the perception of medical students about factors affecting academic performance and to associate them with academic performance. Study Design: Cross sectional.Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out in the Department of Community Medicine at Wah Medical College, Wah Cantt from January 2018 to August 2018.Materials and Methods: After explaining purpose of the study and taking informed consent, questionnaires were distributed to students and collected after two days. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 19. Frequency tables and charts were constructed for qualitative and quantitative variables accordingly.  Association of academic performance with factors affecting academic performance were determined by chi-square.Results: The factors that affect the academic performance most were parental concern (87.2%), time spent on social media (78.4%), influence of friends (74.4%), silence during study (88.8%) and style of teaching (80.8%). Significant association was found between academic performance and place of residence, daily breakfast, peer academic performance, night study and joining medical profession on own will.Conclusion: Supervision by parents, academically competent peers, apposite institutional environment, pertinent use of media and good teaching strategies mostly affect the academic performance.How to cite this: Khan KW, Ramzan M, Zia Y, Zafar Y, Khan M, Saeed H. Factors Affecting Academic Performance of Medical Students. Life and Science. 2020; 1(1): 8-11.  doi: https://doi.org/10.37185/L&S.1.1.45

In this research work, a theoretical analysis of the photovoltaic properties of nonfullerene organic solar cells is performed. Four molecules have been designed by incorporating different donor units around the central cyanobenzene based acceptor core through thiophene spacer by mimicking the structure of R. DFT and TD‐DFT have been used to explore the following properties of solar cell material: opto‐electronic properties, reorganization energy, transition density matrix, and open circuit voltage. The designed molecules have side groups triphenylamine (M1), 2‐(5‐(4 [diphenylamino]phenyl) thiophen‐2‐yl) acrylonitrile (M2), 4‐(5‐(ethynylthiophen‐2‐yl)‐N,N‐diphenylaniline (M3), and 4‐(benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazol‐4‐yl)‐N,N‐diphenylaniline (M4). Among all the designed molecules, M4 has shown bathochromic shift with λmax 663 nm due to extended conjugation between end‐capped donor units and central electron‐deficient core. Similarly, among all of the designed molecules M4 also shown lower mobility of electron (λe) and hole (λh) which are 0.0047 and 0.0050 eV, respectively, that are also comparable to R. The lower reorganization energy of M4 exhibits the higher transfer of charge among all other designed molecules. Moreover, the open circuit voltage of M4 was 1.56 eV according to that of PC61BM acceptor. Results showed that designed Acceptor‐π spacer‐Donor molecule opened a new pathway for the solar cell material with modified and advanced properties.

Objective: To measure the frequency of uncorrected ametropia in children with 2 to 8 weeks of persistent headache referred to ophthalmic outpatient department for evaluation. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted at CMH Gujranwala from March 2018 to November 2018.A total of 262 children, aged from 5 to 16 years, with 2 to 8 weeks history of persistent headache underwent detailed ophthalmic assessment for refractive errors, and other ophthalmic evaluation. Children with ametropia, confirmed with cycloplegic refraction and post-mydriatic testing were prescribed with glasses. Patients without any ophthalmic findings were referred back to pediatrics department for further evaluation. Results: Mean age of study population was 8.97 ± 3.16 years. Mean duration of headache was 5.03 ± 1.81 weeks. Ametropia was found in 56 (21.4%) children, while 206 (78.6%) had no refractive error. Out of children with ametropia, 20 (35.7%) had myopia, 24 (42.8%) had astigmatism and 12 (21.5%) had hypermetropia. There was no difference in ametropic children and children without ametropia with respect to gender (p=0.73), age (p=0.54) and duration of headache (p=0.71). Conclusion: A significant proportion of children with ametropia have initial symptoms of headache. Any child with un-explained headache must undergo ophthalmic evaluation to diagnose refractive error, if any. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.3.268 How to cite this:Mehboob MA, Nisar H, Khan M. Ametropia in children with headache. Pak J Med Sci. 2019;35(3):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.3.268 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Objectives: Khuzdar, the largest city of Southern Balochistan, is endemic for malaria with API of 6. The study was aimed at comparing the clinico-lab profile of severe and uncomplicated malaria in the region and to determine any association with age. No such study is reported in the region so far. Methods: A prospective clinical observational study was conducted in Combined Military Hospital, Khuzdar between 2018 and 2020. A total of 210 Malaria patients, irrespective of age and gender were included. Cases were categorized into severe and uncomplicated according to WHO criteria. The clinical parameters and lab profile of severe and uncomplicated cases were compared and data was analyzed using SPSS 23.0. Categorical variables were analyzed for association of clinical features with severe malaria using Fisher exact test. Continuous variables were compared between uncomplicated and severe malaria using Mann-Whitney U –test. Statistical significance of lab parameters with type of malaria was derived using Kruskal Wallis. Results: Uncomplicated and severe cases were 191 (91%) and 19 (9%) respectively. Severe malaria was significantly associated with jaundice, bleeding from gums, epistaxis, pallor, vomiting, respiratory distress, thrombocytopenia, low Hb, raised serum bilirubin and raised PT (p value<0.05). In children, frequency of multiple complications was significantly higher than adult patients. (75% vs 25%, p-value 0.002).Overall case fatality of severe malaria was 5.2% (1/19). However, case fatality rate was 100% in cerebral malaria. Conclusions: Certain clinical and lab parameters can be used to predict prognosis and thus avoid adverse outcome in malaria patients. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.7.4210 How to cite this:Khan M, Nisar H, Mushahid N. Clinical and Lab profile of severe and uncomplicated malaria: A prospective study from Khuzdar Balochistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(7):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.7.4210 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Purpose: Scurvy is a disease that has ancient relevance but is a rare occurrence in the present times, due to the advancements in studies and convenient access to professional nutritionists and other services that provide guidance and plans to fulfil all nutritional requirements. In this case report, the authors present the case of a 68 year old male who was diagnosed with scurvy. The diagnosis and treatment of this disease has seen to be greatly delayed due to the infrequency of the cases reported, causing serious consequences for the patient. Scurvy presents with a variety of symptoms affecting the skin and soft tissues such as perifollicular hemorrhages, petechiae, bruising, and arthalgrias. Methodology: The patient was prescribed 250 mg vitamin C supplements (also called Ascorbic acid) 3 times a day and was monitored after 2 weeks to note signs of improvements. Physical examination included observing petechial haemorrhages and bruises. Blood test should be recommended to assess vitamin C levels in blood after the prescribed duration of time. Findings: The signs and symptoms were resolved after regular intake of ascorbic acid supplements for 2 weeks. Recommendation: The findings signifies the need for consideration of scurvy as a possible diagnosis for petechial rash and easy bruising along with other differentials even during the modern era.