Objective: Sleep disorders are among the most common psychiatric and medical conditions. In the present study, the hypnotic effect of Tanacetum parthenium was studied in mice.  Material and Methods: The hydro-alcoholic extract (HAE) of T. parthenium and three fractions of it, namely water fraction (WF), ethyl acetate fra...

When choosing their sleeping sites, primates make adaptive trade-offs between various biotic and abiotic constraints. In human-modified environments, anthropic factors may play a role. We assessed the influence of ecological (predation), social (intergroup competition), and anthropic (proximity to human settlements) factors in sleeping site choice by long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) o...

We sought to gain insight into functions potentially altered by mechanostimulation and investigate the relationship between touch and darkness responses. Microarrays and quantitative RT-PCR were conducted to identify genes and analyze behaviors of calmodulin-like (CML) and xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolase (XTH) genes. Strikingly, 589 genes had touch-inducible expression; 171 had reduce...

Objective: To find out the effect of physical activities and obesity among Ramadan fasting hypertensive patients of Karachi. Methods: 117 hypertensive patients were selected conveniently from the staff and faculty members of Dow University and other locations of Karachi. The inclusion criterion was the hypertensive patients with at least 20 days of fasting. The investigators visited three times...

Treatment of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) leaves by extended darkness generates a genetically activated senescence program that culminates in cell death. The transcriptome of leaves subjected to extended darkness was found to contain a variety of reactive oxygen species (ROS)-specific signatures. The levels of transcripts constituting the transcriptome footprints of chloroplasts and cytop...

A study was undertaken to investigate knowledge, attitudes and practices about sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis) among communities living in and around Serengeti National Park (SENAPA). Structured questionnaires were administered to a total of 1490 consenting participants. Of the respondents, 924 (62%) knew sleeping sickness, and 807 (87.3%) knew the right place to seek healthca...

Patients with congenital achromatopsia and congenital stationary night blindness have been known to show a transient pupillary constriction to darkness. We examined 50 normal subjects and 108 patients with retinal and optic nerve dysfunction to see if any had an initial pupillary constriction to darkness. We used a new infrared television apparatus. Four patients with congenital stationary nigh...