Despite its destructiveness, disaster clears the way to accomplish a set of goals. That was why the Gold Coast governor and officials welcomed the 1939 earthquake as an opportunity to rebuild Accra. However, mishandling their reconstruction plan proved disadvantageous. The aftermath of the disaster, including an unprecedented rehousing project, exacerbated urban discontent. How everyday urban residents responded to rehousing further exposed the weakness of the colonial state and gave momentum to nationalism. The paper introduces natural disasters and relief programs into the scholarly narratives that have demonstrated that anticolonial nationalism emerged from a chain of grievances from amongst colonial subjects, some of which were unfulfilled social and economic expectations. The experiences of rehousing following the earthquake powerfully informed local perspectives and contributed to the chain of events leading to formal decolonization.

Vitamin D is an important nutrient for bone health, and vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of various diseases. Gilgit Baltistan, the northern-most area of Pakistan, has a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency, despite many nutritional and food safety programmes. The present study aimed to find how knowledge, attitudes and practices associated with vitamin D related to the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among people residing in different areas of Gilgit Baltistan. The cross-sectional study was descriptive and used data from a survey carried out between February 2019 and December 2020 on individuals of both sexes aged 10 years or over in Gilgit Baltistan. Of the 575 survey participants, 306 (53.2%) had experienced signs and symptoms of vitamin D deficiency, i.e. tiredness, fatigue and bone weakness. Approximately 64.8% had some general knowledge of vitamin D and its relation to health. Participants aged 19–25 years had the highest scores on knowledge of vitamin D. Only 22.7% of interviewees had ever taken any supplements and only 25.6% often exposed themselves to sunlight. Females’ mean knowledge score (28.7; SD 7.02) was higher than that of males (24; SD 9.01). A lack of consistency was observed between attitude towards daylight exposure and knowledge of vitamin D. There was a large correlation between knowledge and attitude (p = 0.001), while a non-significant association was demonstrated between knowledge and practices (p = 0.1). Better knowledge, attitude and practices by people living in cities or more-developed regions indicates that education can be an effective way to provide awareness regarding micronutrient deficiencies. More emphasis is needed on enhancing knowledge, awareness and practices associated with vitamin D deficiency in rural areas of Pakistan. It is strongly recommended that an awareness campaign on micronutrients is launched in both rural and urban areas of Pakistan, concentrating on poor socioeconomic settings.

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL) is considered a neglected tropical disease which in Pakistan can now be considered as a growing public health problem. The exact figures on the magnitude of the disease are lacking both at the national and regional level and only a few health centres are available for diagnosis of CL. The present study was designed to identify the epidemiology of CL infection from August 2018 to December 2019 and to assess clinical aspects of CL in Baluchistan Province of Pakistan. A total of 4072 clinically suspected CL cases were analysed statistically. The highest number of CL cases were reported in May, followed by April, January and then July, February and June and the lowest number of cases were observed in March and November. The highest prevalence rate was found in males where 38% of reported cases were aged 0–9 years. The majority (24.4%) of lesions were found on the hands followed by the face in which cheeks, ears and nose were the effected organs. About 50% of the participants have single lesion while 14% of the participants had two and nearly 3% of the participants have six lesions. The atypical clinical presentations were observed in Baluchistan and common unusual presentations were lupus erythematosus. The study findings suggest that more epidemiological studies and health education campaigns are needed for the population awareness regarding CL in Baluchistan. It is recommended that risk factors should be evaluated to establish control and management strategies to prevent disease at the individual and community level.

To overcome the limited feasibility of various refractory high-entropy alloys (HEAs) due to the presence of (i) very dense elements (W and Ta), (ii) costly elements (Hf and Ta), and (iii) oxidation prone elements (V) in them, AlxCryMozNbTiZr HEAs were prepared via arc-melting. Considering the critical nature of oxidation resistance in high-temperature applications, HEAs were characterized to form a combinatorial library of microstructural and oxidation behavior. AlxCryMozNbTiZr HEAs revealed multiphase microstructures consisting of intermetallic phases along with BCC matrices. Mass loss and porous microstructures were obtained in Mo-rich HEAs after oxidation at 1000 °C for 1 h. The presence of Al enhanced the oxidation resistance and developed a protective oxide layer on the HEAs. Al30Cr10-NTZ exhibited promising potential for use in high temperature applications, as it showed an oxidation time exponent of ∼0.5 and a dense and continuous oxide layer.