Background: Self medication is becoming very popular among medical students as they get exposed to knowledge about diseases and drugs, but which is very superficial in second year undergraduates, so the present study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of self medication among second year undergraduate students.Methods: A questionnaire based study containing 12 questions was conducted in 175 second year undergraduate students after taking informed consent. Statistical analysis was done by using descriptive statistics by Graph Pad Prism version 6.01.Results: Out of the 175 students, 155 (88.57%) students have taken self medication. The common reason for taking it was no need to visit the doctor for minor illness (64%), quick relief (48.57%) and time saving (34.29%). The common indications for taking self medication were fever (69.14%) and cough and cold (69.14%) followed by headache (64%). Although students rarely practised it due to risk associated like adverse effects 131 (74.86%) and lack of proper knowledge about drugs 118 (67.3%).Conclusions: Self medication is highly prevalent among students, as most of the students get it from pharmacies, it is necessary to make strict guidelines for availability of such medicines over the counter and also there is need to educate the students about harmful consequences of self medication to make them responsible future doctors.

This paper examines the circular debt problem in the Pakistani energy sector. After presenting the profile of the energy sector in Pakistan, the paper explains why circular debt has emerged in the sector. Two principal reasons are discussed for the circular debt problem: First, consumer tariffs were insufficient to recover the rising costs of power generation and the government (due to fiscal constraints) was not compensating PEPCO for the resulting losses. Second, PEPCO has faced significant problems in recovering dues from consumers. In order to resolve the circular debt problem, sharp adjustments in power tariffs may be required combined with the need by the government to explicitly recognize the costs of power subsidies in the budget.

Melanin is the pigment of skin (coat) and hairs in all mammals. The 954 bp long MC1R gene codes for the production of MC1R or the α-MSH receptors which are present on the melanosomes. These receptors regulate the synthesis of melanin pigments viz., eumelanin or phaeomelanin leading to black and reddish to yellowish pigmentations respectively. PCR-RFLP analysis of 138 bp region of MC1R gene was conducted in two buffalo populations having distinct coat colours; Nagpuri (black) and Purnathadi (whitish). Three genotypes, EDED, EDE* and E*E* were observed at frequencies of 0.86, 0.03 and 0.11 for Nagpuri and 0.74, 0.08 and 0.18 in Purnathadi buffaloes; similarly the observed gene frequencies for ED and E* alleles were 0.87, 0.13 and 0.78, 0.22 in Nagpuri and Purnathadi buffaloes, respectively. DNA-sequencing revealed a transition mutation (A→G) at 118 bp locus confirming polymorphism, however presence in both the population failed to point towards any specific role in body coat colour of buffaloes.

No abstract