Study of Thermally Stimulated Luminescence in Synthetic Quartz (in the Region 96K - 273K)

Physic

An Optimal k Nearest Neighbours Ensemble for Classification Based on Extended Neighbourhood Rule with Features subspace

To minimize the effect of outliers, kNN ensembles identify a set of closest observations to a new sample point to estimate its unknown class by using majority voting in the labels of the training instances in the neighbourhood. Ordinary kNN based procedures determine k closest training observations in the neighbourhood region (enclosed by a sphere) by using a distance formula. The k nearest neighbours procedure may not work in a situation where sample points in the test data follow the pattern of the nearest observations that lie on a certain path not contained in the given sphere of nearest neighbours. Furthermore, these methods combine hundreds of base kNN learners and many of them might have high classification errors thereby resulting in poor ensembles. To overcome these problems, an optimal extended neighbourhood rule based ensemble is proposed where the neighbours are determined in k steps. It starts from the first nearest sample point to the unseen observation. The second nearest data point is identified that is closest to the previously selected data point. This process is continued until the required number of the k observations are obtained. Each base model in the ensemble is constructed on a bootstrap sample in conjunction with a random subset of features. After building a sufficiently large number of base models, the optimal models are then selected based on their performance on out-of-bag (OOB) data.Comment: 12 page

Enhancing Wheat Yield and Phosphorus use Efficiency through Foliar Application in Calcareous Soil

The experiment was conducted at Agricultural Research Farm of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Agricultural University, Peshawar during 2011-12 to evaluate the effect of foliar P on growth, yield and P uptake by wheat crop, respectively.. Soil P was applied in the form of TSP while foliar P was applied in the form of KH2PO4 with maximum concentrations of 1% P equally applied in three split doses at tillering, boot and anthesis stage of wheat crop c.v. Atta Habib. The foliar application of P showed significant effect on grains spike-1, thousand grain weight, grain yield, biological yields and plant P and K and post harvest soil P. The grain yield increased from 2.12 to 2.60 t ha-1 with 2 kg foliar P ha-1 but further increases in P levels showed decreasing trend. Combination of soil and foliar application showed the supplemental effect in increasing the grain yield. Application of 20 kg soil + 2 kg foliar applied P ha-1 increased the grain yield from 2.57 t ha-1 to 2.92 t ha-1 showing increase of 13.67 and 37.73 % over alone soil applied control, respectively. The biological yield showed 12.94 % increase over control with 2.0 kg foliar P but further increases in P doses again failed to do so. The post harvest soil P, and plant [P] and [K] at both boot and anthesis stage improved with foliar application of P. The comparatively higher performance by 20 kg soil+2 kg foliar P ha-1 suggested that this could be the optimum level for wheat under the prevailing soil and climatic condition. However, such studies on diverse soil, crop and climatic condition should be conducted for confirmation of results and widespread recommendation. Keywords: Wheat, Yield Foliar spray of KH2PO

Impact of Accreditation, Services Quality, Green Standards and Product Superiority on Customer Loyalty: A Case of Healthcare Quality in Hospitals of Pakistan

This study comprehends the association of quality services, product superiority, accreditations and green environment of hospitals; with corporate brand image, patient trust and loyalty.  Respondents of the research study were from seven different healthcare organizations including private, charitable and naval sectors in four major cities (Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Karachi) of Pakistan.  Questionnaires were disseminated to 580 participants, and 447 responses were received.  The data analysis was processed in SPSS 20 and SmartPLS 3.0.  Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied to examine the inference for significant and insignificant associations between constructs. The outcomes specify that hospital accreditation positively and significantly impacts the customer loyalty through mediating effects of corporate brand image and customer trust.  Similarly quality of services positively and significantly impacts the customer loyalty through mediating effects of corporate brand image. However rest of the relationships in this study were not found significant through mediating effects of customer trust and brand image. The hospitals management in Pakistan is recommended to instrument the accreditation of healthcare standards in its true spirit and should introduce innovations in healthcare technologies in institutions for unveiling more high-quality and superior health products and services to build strong corporate image and patient trust on rock-hard foundations to establish the satisfied and loyal patients

Reduced reference image and video quality assessments: review of methods

With the growing demand for image and video-based applications, the requirements of consistent quality assessment metrics of image and video have increased. Different approaches have been proposed in the literature to estimate the perceptual quality of images and videos. These approaches can be divided into three main categories; full reference (FR), reduced reference (RR) and no-reference (NR). In RR methods, instead of providing the original image or video as a reference, we need to provide certain features (i.e., texture, edges, etc.) of the original image or video for quality assessment. During the last decade, RR-based quality assessment has been a popular research area for a variety of applications such as social media, online games, and video streaming. In this paper, we present review and classification of the latest research work on RR-based image and video quality assessment. We have also summarized different databases used in the field of 2D and 3D image and video quality assessment. This paper would be helpful for specialists and researchers to stay well-informed about recent progress of RR-based image and video quality assessment. The review and classification presented in this paper will also be useful to gain understanding of multimedia quality assessment and state-of-the-art approaches used for the analysis. In addition, it will help the reader select appropriate quality assessment methods and parameters for their respective applications

Reduced reference image and video quality assessments: review of methods

With the growing demand for image and video-based applications, the requirements of consistent quality assessment metrics of image and video have increased. Different approaches have been proposed in the literature to estimate the perceptual quality of images and videos. These approaches can be divided into three main categories; full reference (FR), reduced reference (RR) and no-reference (NR). In RR methods, instead of providing the original image or video as a reference, we need to provide certain features (i.e., texture, edges, etc.) of the original image or video for quality assessment. During the last decade, RR-based quality assessment has been a popular research area for a variety of applications such as social media, online games, and video streaming. In this paper, we present review and classification of the latest research work on RR-based image and video quality assessment. We have also summarized different databases used in the field of 2D and 3D image and video quality assessment. This paper would be helpful for specialists and researchers to stay well-informed about recent progress of RR-based image and video quality assessment. The review and classification presented in this paper will also be useful to gain understanding of multimedia quality assessment and state-of-the-art approaches used for the analysis. In addition, it will help the reader select appropriate quality assessment methods and parameters for their respective applications

Neotectonic Activity in Quetta-Ziarat Region, Northwest Quetta City, Pakistan

Geomorphic parameters are very helpful as they can quickly explain the concerned area, which is going through a tectonic adjustment. For this purpose, four indices were applied to examine the active tectonics in the QuettaZiarat region. These indices include: sub-basins asymmetry (Af), transverse topography (T-Factor), hypsometric integral (HI) and stream-length gradient (SL). The calculation of the three indices as denoted by Af, HI and SL show low active tectonics, whereas T-Factor suggests moderate to high level of tectonic activity. While index of active tectonics (IAT) indicated a low to moderate level of active tectonics. In addition, these indices are compared with lithological and climatic consequences to detect the final neotectonics judgement

Antecedents of Sustainable Financial Performance: Evidence from the Banking Sector of Pakistan

This research aims to investigate the determinants of the sustainable financial performance of banks listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. The data for the present research is collected from 30 banks over the period of 2012-2022. The panel cross-linear regression was employed to analyse the data by employing Stata. Various bank-specific factors were found to be positive and statistically significant antecedents of banks’ financial performance. However, bank size, business model and financial structure have negative and insignificant impacts on the bank’s financial performance. In a similar vein, macro-economic factors have a significant negative and insignificant positive impact on banks’ financial performance. Concerning social factors, only hospital funding has an adverse effect on financial performance. Last but not least, environmental financing is negatively and insignificantly linked with banks’ financial performance. Accordingly, this research concludes that managers and policymakers of commercial banks must keep their social and environmental investments in check to attain sustainable financial performance

Serum Level of Desert Hedgehog Protein in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Preliminary Results

Objective: To investigate the role of desert hedgehog (Dhh) in a neurodevelopmental disorder known as autism. Subjects and Methods This study was conducted at the Autism Research and Treatment Center, King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from October 2011 to May 2012. The serum levels of the Dhh protein in 57 patients recently diagnosed with autism and 37 age-matched healthy children were measured using ELISA. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) was used for the assessment of autistic severity. Results: The mean serum level of Dhh in patients with autism (1.38 ± 0.50 ng/ml) was significantly lower (p = 0.0003) than that of normal controls (1.73 ± 0.37 ng/ml). There was no significant relationship between the serum level of Dhh and the CARS score (p = 0.28), age (p = 0.51) or gender (p = 0.76). Conclusions: The Dhh serum level of patients with autism was lower than that of controls, probably indicating that the serum level of Dhh might be implicated in the physiology of autism. However, this finding should be treated with caution until further investigations are performed with larger populations