Antisense oligonucleotide-mediated alternative splicing has great potential for treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) caused by mutations within nonessential regions of the dystrophin gene. We have recently shown in the dystrophic mdx mouse that exon 23, bearing a nonsense mutation, can be skipped after intramuscular injection of a specific 2 -O-methyl phosphorothioate antisense oligoribonucleotide (2OMeAO). This skipping created a shortened, but in-frame, transcript that is translated to produce near-normal levels of dystrophin expression. This expression, in turn, led to improved muscle function. However, because DMD affects muscles body-wide, effective treatment requires dystrophin induction ideally in all muscles. Here, we show that systemic delivery of specific 2OMeAOs, together with the triblock copolymer F127, induced dystrophin expression in all skeletal muscles but not in cardiac muscle of the mdx dystrophic mice. The highest dystrophin expression was detected in diaphragm, gastrocnemius, and intercostal muscles. Large numbers of fibers with near-normal level of dystrophin were observed in focal areas. Three injections of 2OMeAOs at weekly intervals enhanced the levels of dystrophin. Dystrophin mRNA lacking the targeted exon 23 remained detectable 2 weeks after injection. No evidence of tissue damage was detected after 2OMeAO and F127 treatment either by serum analysis or histological examination of liver, kidney, lung, and muscles. The simplicity and safety of the antisense protocol provide a realistic prospect for treatment of the majority of DMD mutations. We conclude that a significant therapeutic effect may be achieved by further optimization in dose and regime of administration of antisense oligonucleotide.exon skipping ͉ muscular dystrophy

This research article examines the impact of stock market capitalization on carbon emissions using forty high carbon-emitting countries from 1996 to 2018. This study adopts the Driscoll-Kraay method that simultaneously tackles heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation, and contemporaneous correlation issues. We find an inverted U relationship between stock market capitalization (SMC) and environmental degradation. We propose an extended environmental Kuznets curve based on SMC while energy intensity, industrialization, and urbanization increase emissions in sample countries. The quadratic method, SLM test, and derivative graphing detect the consensus of the inverted U relationship. The weak-negative SMC2 coefficient reveals that the dangerous impact of capitalization declines gradually and finally curbs the environmental degradation challenges. The relationship is strong in highly polluted countries with overvalued stock markets. The study catches no policy synergies between the growing stock market and increased carbon emissions. Stock market capitalization should be integrated into climate change adaptation strategies at national and regional levels, primarily to address the dark effect of environmental degradation.

Distortion in balance of payments is one of the dominant causes for the sluggish economic condition of Pakistan. The present article has focused to scrutinize the relationship of the balance of payments to its certain determinants that are actually blamable or not for its distortion. The robust ARDL structure has been utilized to develop the bound testing approach to co-integration and error correction models on data set for 1972-2013.The bound test declares that there exists stable long run relationship of balance of payments to its determinants. The upshots indicate that real exchange rate inversely influences the balance of payments not only in the long run but also in the short run. Interest rate inversely affects the balance of payment in the long run but positively affects in the short run .Fiscal balance affects the BOP negatively in the long and short run simultaneously. As regards the real GDP, it moves the BOP in the positive direction in both long and short run. The money supply cast a positive influence on the BOP in the short run but negative effect in the long run. So the need of the hour is that the real GDP of Pakistan should be increased by the deliberate policy of the government. Because it is the GDP that can increase our savings consumption and government expenditures and exports and can improve balance of balance of payment.

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The present study is designed to investigate that how Economic Growth (EG) of the South Asian region has affected the Environmental Degradation (ED) from 1980 to 2018. This study has used Newey and West (1987) robust standard errors approach to overcome the problem of autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity in panel data. The results of the statistical model confirmed the existence of the Inverted U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). Furthermore, the results also confirmed that the use of energy is also deteriorating the environment significantly. One significant contribution of the study is to check the causality between EG and CO2 by applying a relatively new approach namely Granger non-causality test presented by Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012). The results confirmed that economic growth is contributing towards more CO2 emissions. The study concluded that South Asian countries should use environment-friendly renewable energy sources to achieve a higher growth rate.

This study investigates the relationship between self-efficacy and Organization Citizenship Behavior (OCB), moderated by incivility and mediated by pro-social motivation. Selfefficacy is the employee's belief in him about his skills to perform tasks in different situations. The direct and indirect effects of self-efficacy of teachers towards their OCB through prosocial motivation have been observed in this study. For this purpose, data has been collected through questionnaires (N = 301) using convenience sampling in three-time phases with two weeks gaps between each phase. SPSS 22.0 and Amos 22.0 were used along with Process by Hayes for moderated mediation analysis. The results indicate that self-efficacy leads to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and pro-social motivation, moderated by incivility and mediated by pro-social motivation. In a nutshell, this study demonstrates self-efficacy enhances pro-social motivation and OCB within academic settings with reference to Pakistan, advocating that if teachers are confident to perform a task, they can also demonstrate their extra-role behavior. The present study contributes to the literature by analyzing the novel framework within the Pakistan context. The mediating effect of prosocial motivation between teachers' self-efficacy and OCB has not been discussed in the prior studies. The implications, discussion, and conclusion are also discussed.

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The concept of poverty is usually explained in terms of financial resources; however, it may also include deprivation in non-economic dimensions, such as education, health, and standard of living. These three dimensions of poverty or well-being have lacked attention from researchers in the past. At the start of the twentieth century, researchers explored whether non-economic poverty also drives people towards a lower quality of life and decreased well-being. In this regard, one of the popular instruments that can help to alleviate non-economic poverty is the minimum wage policy. It helps workers to maintain a stable standard of living required to avoid poverty. The prime objective of this research is to assess the importance of minimum wages in reducing social poverty in 11 selected Asian countries