Pharmacology, phytochemistry, and toxicity of Rhazya Stricta Decne.

Shoot formation of garlic (Allium sativum L.) tissue culture was studied in Murashige and Skoog (MS) and Gamborg's basal medium (B5) which are supplemented with a different combination of growth hormones namely 6-benzyl aminopurine (BAP) and a-Naphtaleneacetic acid (\)AA) with and w'ithout cold pretreatments A stem-disc of shoot tips \vas used as explants for the induction ofgarlic shoot formation in the six weeks period.. A number of shoots, bulbs and fresh weight of bulb were observed. The shoot and bulbs formation were rapidly induced via organogenesis for the cold-pretreated bulbs at 4°C grown in a half MS media which contained 0.1 ppm of BAP in combination with 0.1 ppm NAA. Apparently, the induction of shoot and bulbs ofgarlic were influenced by temperature, hormones composition and nitrogen source

Improvement in physical properties of eroded agricultural soils through agronomic management practices

Arable land in Pakistan is shrinking due to construction of houses and development of infrastructure, there has been a trend of shifting agriculture towards steep lands in order to feed the increasing population. Soil erosion on these lands is one of the most significant ecological restrictions to sustainable agriculture. A study was conducted during 2006-2008 to test the agronomic management practices for mitigating the adverse effects of soil erosion on arable soil. The experiment was designed in RCB with split plot arrangements. Cropping patterns, i e maize (Zea mays L.)-wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-maize (C1), maize-lentil (Lens culinaris Medic.)-maize (C2) and maizewheat+ lentil intercrop-maize (C3) were kept in main plots while fertilizer treatments; the control (T1), 50% NP also called farmers' practice (T2), 100% NPK or the recommended dose (T3) and 20 tonnes/ha farmyard manure integrated with 50% mineral N and 100% P and K (T4) were kept in sub-plots. Fertilizer treatments significantly improved soil physical properties in both depths. T4 showed the maximum improvement (13, 12, 22 and 31%) in bulk density, porosity, saturation and available water over the control and 3, 3, 8 and 7% over the T3 in surface soil. Cereal-legume rotation showed the maximum improvement while significant improvement in soil physical properties was noted with time, i e from kharif 2006 to rabi 2007. Highly significant negative correlation was observed between bulk density and saturation percentage (r2=0.97) and bulk density and AWHC (r2=0.93). It was concluded that NPK fertilizer alone cannot restore the physical environment of eroded soil to its maximum limit, but this objective could, rather, be achieved through mixed application of farmyard manure and mineral fertilizers. For this purpose, being an unstable nutrient element, recommended dose of mineral N must be reduced by 50% to avoid its over-application. In addition to other benefits of legumes in rotation, its improvement of physical properties further assert their importance in farming on such eroded lands

Humic Acid Coated Phosphatic Fertilizers Enhance Growth, Yield and Phosphorus Uptake of Maize Crop in Alkaline Soil

Phosphorus availability to crop is one of the major causes of poor crop production worldwide. Effect of inorganic phosphorus (P) fertiliser sources, i.e., nitro phosphate (NP), di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and single superphosphate (SSP) coated with different humic acid levels on crop production and P utilization efficiency (PUE) of maize was studied

EFFECT OF SLOPE STEEPNESS AND WHEAT CROP ON SOIL, RUNOFF AND NUTRIENT LOSSES IN ERODED LAND OF MALAKAND AGENCY, NWFP, PAKISTAN

ABSTRACT Field experiment was conducted during 2003-2005 on slopping land near Thana Malakand Agency, NWFP on wheat plots in comparison with bare plots. The test plots were maintained at three slope positions, i.e. top-slope (6 %), mid-slope (3 %) and bottom-slope (0 %). The effect of both slope position and wheat crop was statistically significant on runoff, soil and nutrient losses. The respective losses of runoff and soil were 33 and 42% higher from mid-slope as compared to bottom-slope, 24 and 30 % higher from top-slope as compared to mid-slope, and 49 and 59 % higher from top-slope as compared to bottom-slope. Wheat crop reduced runoff losses by 60 % and soil losses by 64% as compared to bare plots. The order of nutrient losses from all plots during the experimental period was: K > OM > N > Fe > P > Cu > Mn > Zn. Nutrient enrichment ratio of the sediments was greater than 1 for all the nutrients which indicated higher losses of nutrients through surface runoff. From the effect of slope and wheat crop on soil and runoff losses, empirical equations were developed which can be expressed as: E

Ethnobotanical Profile of Weed Flora of District Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

District Charsadda is a very important center of plant biodiversity in the central plain of Peshawar valley, Pakistan. The present study was carried out during March 2015 to April 2016 to investigate the ethnobotanical profile of common weed flora present in district Charsadda, KP, Pakistan. The study revealed that there were 40 weed species belonging to 21 families. Among them 25 weeds were annual herb, 9 weeds were perennial herb, three were annual grass, one was climbing herb, one was the parasitic weed, and one was rhizomatic grass. The dominant families were Asteraceae, Fabaceae and poaceae having 5 species (12.5%) each followed by Ranunculaceae 3 species (7.5%). plants were systematically arranged into botanical names, local names, families, habit, habitat, partly used, flowering periods, locality and ethnobotanical uses. The main aim of the study is the documentation and ethnobotanical information of the weed flora growing in the area

IoT-Based Solutions to Monitor Water Level, Leakage, and Motor Control for Smart Water Tanks

Today, a large portion of the human population around the globe has no access to freshwater for drinking, cooking, and other domestic applications. Water resources in numerous countries are becoming scarce due to over urbanization, rapid industrial growth, and current global warming. Water is often stored in the aboveground or underground tanks. In developing countries, these tanks are maintained manually, and in some cases, water is wasted due to human negligence. In addition, water could also leak out from tanks and supply pipes due to the decayed infrastructure. To address these issues, researchers worldwide turned to the Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology to efficiently monitor water levels, detect leakage, and auto refill tanks whenever needed. Notably, this technology can also supply real-time feedback to end-users and other experts through a webpage or a smartphone. Literature reveals a plethora of review articles on smart water monitoring, including water quality, supply pipes leakage, and water waste recycling. However, none of the reviews focus on the IoT-based solution to monitor water level, detect water leakage, and auto control water pumps, especially at the induvial level that form a vast proportion of water consumers worldwide. To fill this gap in the literature, this study presents a review of IoT-controlled water storage tanks (IoT-WST). Some important contributions of our work include surveying contemporary work on IoT-WST, elaborating current techniques and technologies in IoT-WST, targeting proper hardware, and selecting a secure IoT cloud server

Linkage analysis of hearing impairment in families of Bannu Distric

Objective: To link congenital hearing loss with known loci to establish a platform for future research

Evaluation of six different groups of insecticides for the control of citrus psylla Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Psyllidae)

Studies on the efficacy of different insecticides against citrus psylla, Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) were carried out at Agricultural Research Institute, Tarnab, Peshawar, Pakistan. Six insecticides viz. Actara 25 WG, (thiamethoxam) Cascade 10 DC (Flufenoxuron), Match 050 EC (lufenuron), Thiodan 35 EC (endosulfan), Karate 2.5 EC (α-cyhalothrin), and Supracide 40 EC (methidathion), were tested for their effectiveness against D. citri. After first spray overall mean population of D. citri was 3.63, 4.75, 5.59, 6.66, 7.47, 8.11 per six inches tender shoot on Actara 25 WG, Cascade 10 DC, Match 050 EC, Thiodan 35 EC, Karate 2.5 EC and Supracide 40 EC treated plants respectively, while on control plants the population was 12.39. Similarly, after the second spray of each of the same insecticides the population of D. citri was 2.65, 4.23, 5.61, 6.41, 7.35 and 8.73 respectively. Where in controls there were 15.18 psyllids. Percent decrease of D. citri population in comparison to control after the first spray was highest in Actara 25 WG (72.20) followed by Cascade 10 DC (62.91), Match 050 EC (54.07), Thiodan 35 EC (47.61), Karate 2.5 EC (38.94) and Supracide 40 EC (35.74). After the second spray percent decrease over control recorded was highest in Actara 25 WG (83.54), followed by Cascade 10 DC (71.08), Match 050 EC (63.94), Thiodan 35 EC (60.79), Karate 2.5 EC (52.52) and Supracide 40 EC (45.62)

Economic Status and Subjective Wellbeing of Sikh Community in District Peshawar, Pakistan

This paper explores the economic status of the Sikh community residing in District Peshawar, Pakistan. The economic variables have been measured in terms of house status, house nature and different facilities in house, income of the respondents and their different monthly expenditure. A sample of 310 households has been selected through purposive sampling. The multi-variate regression analysis was applied to measure the wellbeing. The quantitative data reveals that more than eighty percent respondents (84.4%) supported the view that they have a stable economic status based on cloths, cosmetics and mobiles. Material Living Condition, Health access and status, Natural and Living Environment (NLE), and Education Access and Status (EA&S) is positively related to wellbeing. Personal Safety (PS) and security affecting the wellbeing of the Sikh community. The Health Access and Status (HA&S) and Social Relation and Cohesion (SR&C) is negatively related (-.147) to wellbeing. The government should ensure personal safety, health and education access and better natural and living environment for Sikh community in the country in general and Peshawar in particular

IoT Based Smart Water Quality Monitoring: Recent Techniques, Trends and Challenges for Domestic Applications

Safe water is becoming a scarce resource, due to the combined effects of increased population, pollution, and climate changes. Water quality monitoring is thus paramount, especially for domestic water. Traditionally used laboratory-based testing approaches are manual, costly, time consuming, and lack real-time feedback. Recently developed systems utilizing wireless sensor network (WSN) technology have reported weaknesses in energy management, data security, and communication coverage. Due to the recent advances in Internet-of-Things (IoT) that can be applied in the development of more efficient, secure, and cheaper systems with real-time capabilities, we present here a survey aimed at summarizing the current state of the art regarding IoT based smart water quality monitoring systems (IoT-WQMS) especially dedicated for domestic applications. In brief, this study probes into common water-quality monitoring (WQM) parameters, their safe-limits for drinking water, related smart sensors, critical review, and ratification of contemporary IoT-WQMS via a proposed empirical metric, analysis, and discussion and, finally, design recommendations for an efficient system. No doubt, this study will benefit the developing field of smart homes, offices, and cities