Economic and Cultural Relations Between Pakistan and the Soviet Union During Ayub Khan’s Period

This article deals with Pakistan and Soviet Union relationship from 1958 to 1969 during Ayub Khan’s regime. It highlights aspects of all events which were main obstacles among both countries relationship at that time. It also covers the following circumstances. What was the Ayub Khan’s policy in his early period and why did he give up soon and why did he make his foreign policy in the direction of Soviet Union? Firstly, from independence of Pakistan many Governments of Pakistan received many offers from Soviet Union for paid visit, but why did Ayub Khan visit Soviet Union three times in the land mark history of Pakistan? It also points out all the pacts which were made between Pakistan and Soviet Union and its role in the war of Indo-Pak 1965

HEALTH STATUS AND IMPRISONMENT PROFILE OF JAIL INMATES OF DISTRICT JAIL RAHIM YAR KHAN, PAKISTAN

Out of 850 total prisoners of district jail, Rahim Yar Khan, 100 were selected at random and examined for prevalence of HIV. Apart from HIV screening, data was collected about different diseases, narcotics use, occupations, reasons for imprisonment, ages and marital status of the prisoners through a questionnaire. None of these prisoners was suffering from HIV, the results regarding narcotics habits showed that 3% of the prisoners were used to bhang, 4% took heroin, 5% were using snuff, 34% cigarette smokers and 54% were not taking any narcotics. Nineteen percent of the prisoners suffered from various diseases like asthma, allergy, chest infection, hernia, heart problem, jaundice, lung infection, ulcer, weakness, typhoid and gastric problems whereas 81% were healthy

Monitoring and Varietal Preference of Mango Midge, Procontarinia mangicola (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae)

Abstract.-The current study was planned to evaluate the efficiency of colored sticky traps and plastic sheets in capturing adults and larvae of Procontarinia mangicola, respectively. The susceptibility of different varieties of mango against P. mangicola was also explored. Amongst the eight types of color traps, orange colored traps captured the highest number (145.6±19.7/trap) of P. mangicola adults while white-colored traps captured the lowest numbers (23.7±3.4/trap). The peak adult and larval population was observed on ). The highest numbers of galls/leaf and larvae/trap recorded on Sufaid Chaunsa indicated that it was the most preferred mango variety. The research findings will be helpful for the proper management of P. mangicola and to avoid losses to the mango industry

Interest Rate Risk Management by Financial Engineering in Pakistani Non-Financial Firms

The study aimed to investigate firm decisions of using interest rate derivatives and factors affecting this decision. Study is conducted by selecting data of 191 non-financial sector companies listed on PSX from 2010 to 2015. Logit model was employed to detect contribution magnitude of foreign sales, profitability, leverage, liquidity, price to earnings, interest coverage ratio and dividend payout towards decisions by a firm of using the interest rate derivatives. The expected users of interest rate derivatives for purpose of interest rate exposure management were the firms with high foreign sales, lesser leverage, low profits, low dividend payout ratio and low interest coverage ratio. The examination concludes that these derivatives are financial engineering tools and serve as immunization instruments for a firm from anticipated future financial risk

In silico comparison of transcript abundances during Arabidopsis thaliana and Glycine max resistance to Fusarium virguliforme

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sudden death syndrome (SDS) of soybean (<it>Glycine max </it>L. Merr.) is an economically important disease, caused by the semi-biotrophic fungus <it>Fusarium solani </it>f. sp. <it>glycines</it>, recently renamed <it>Fusarium virguliforme </it>(Fv). Due to the complexity and length of the soybean-Fusarium interaction, the molecular mechanisms underlying plant resistance and susceptibility to the pathogen are not fully understood. <it>F. virguliforme </it>has a very wide host range for the ability to cause root rot and a very narrow host range for the ability to cause a leaf scorch. <it>Arabidopsis thaliana </it>is a host for many types of phytopathogens including bacteria, fungi, viruses and nematodes. Deciphering the variations among transcript abundances (TAs) of functional orthologous genes of soybean and <it>A. thaliana </it>involved in the interaction will provide insights into plant resistance to <it>F. viguliforme</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we reported the analyses of microarrays measuring TA in whole plants after <it>A. thaliana </it>cv 'Columbia' was challenged with fungal pathogen <it>F. virguliforme</it>. Infection caused significant variations in TAs. The total number of increased transcripts was nearly four times more than that of decreased transcripts in abundance. A putative resistance pathway involved in responding to the pathogen infection in <it>A. thaliana </it>was identified and compared to that reported in soybean.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Microarray experiments allow the interrogation of tens of thousands of transcripts simultaneously and thus, the identification of plant pathways is likely to be involved in plant resistance to Fusarial pathogens. Dissection of the set functional orthologous genes between soybean and <it>A. thaliana </it>enabled a broad view of the functional relationships and molecular interactions among plant genes involved in <it>F. virguliforme </it>resistance.</p

Potential impact of microbial consortia in biomining and bioleaching of commercial metals

Biomining is the use of microorganisms for the commercial extraction of lavish metals from ores and mines with least effect on environment. Microbes play vital role in bioleaching procedures in commercial mining. The bacterial cells are used to detoxify/replace waste cyanide, marginal biomass and activated carbon. These methods are preferred over conventional techniques due to energy efficient, low cost, environment friendly and production of useful by-products. At industrial scale, different microbial strains (Acidophilic, Sulphobacillus, Rhodococcus, Ferrimicrobium &chemolithotrophic) are deployed to boost the processes of copper and uranium bioleaching. About 20% of the world’s copper is extracted by using this technique. These extraction procedures involve oxidation of insoluble metal sulphides to soluble sulphates. The isolation of thermophilic microbes for mineral biooxidation increase the commercial extraction of minerals at industrial scale. The conventional pyrometallurgical techniques have environmental concerns as they result in depletion of high grade ores and release harmful gaseous. The microbe-assisted gold mining is expected to double the yield of gold and needs to be fully explored using diverse array of microbes. Bioleaching is simple and low cost method for the developing countries with large ore deposits. About 30 strains of microbes have been discovered so for with potential impact on bioleaching. With advances in molecular genetics, physiology and microbial genomics, more promising strains with increased bioactivities are possible. Further efforts are underway to culture diverse range of archaea and improving its genetic potential to be used as industrial tool for commercial bioleaching. The currents review enlightens the recent trends in biomining/bioleaching and implementation of modern biological approaches to engineer target microbes for commercial use

Capital Structure Decision, Importance and implementation(The Case of KSE)

Financial management of the capital structure decision is one of the most important decisions. Capital structure decisions in the areas of corporate finance are at the heart of many decisions. These so dividend policies, project financing, the issuance of long-term securities, mergers and financing of copies, and so on. This thesis focuses on the determinants of capital structure for the non-financial firms listed on the Karachi Stock exchange (KSE). The sample period selected for the study was 1993-2002. The effect of five explanatory variables is measured on leverage ratio which is calculated by dividing the total debt by total assets.  We first present some descriptive statistics on our selected variables. The most interesting finding of our descriptive statistics is the highest leverage ratio for textile industry whereas the average profitability of textile industry is negative.  Our explanation of this fact is the continuous year to year understatement to the profit by family controlled firms in the textile industry in order to deprive government of taxes and minority shareholders of dividend. The profit figure is thus negative on average for all years that brings down the equity figure and raises the debt percentage in overall financing. We used five explanatory variables to measure their effect on leverage ratio.  Three of our variables were significantly related to leverage ratio whereas the remaining two variables were not statistically significant in having relationship with the debt ratio.  Our results approve the prediction of trade-off theory in case of tangibility variable whereas the growth (GT) variable confirms the agency theory hypothesis. Size (SZ) variable neither confirms to the prediction of trade-off theory nor to asymmetry of information theory. KEY WORDS; Capital structure, Karachi Stock exchange, Dividend policie

Density functional theory simulation of cobalt oxide aggregation and facile synthesis of a cobalt oxide, gold and multiwalled carbon nanotube based ternary composite for a high performance supercapattery

A novel ternary composite consisting of cobalt oxide (Co3O4) nanoparticles (NPs) grown on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and mixed with gold (Au) NPs is synthesized by a single step hydrothermal route. Initially, density functional theory (DFT) simulations were carried out to model the aggregation of Co3O4 NPs and validated further with experimental results. To circumvent this issue, MWCNTs with gold NPs were introduced, which significantly reduced the particle aggregation. Standard three electrode cell studies revealed that the Co3O4/Au@MWCNT composite possesses an excellent energy density, rate capability and very good cyclic stability compared to unsupported Co3O4 or the binary Co3O4@MWCNT. The promising electrochemical performance compared to the single Co3O4 or the binary Co3O4@MWCNT materials is assigned to the synergetic effects of MWCNTs and Au to disaggregate the Co3O4 NPs and to enhance the overall conductivity, respectively. In order to get insight into the evaluation of the performance, two electrode devices were assembled employing activated carbon as a negative electrode and the Co3O4/Au@MWCNT composite as a positive electrode material. The two electrode supercapattery device demonstrated splendid cycling stability with a retention value of 91.90% in 1 M KOH for over 3500 cycles. Additionally, it exhibited an excellent energy density of 18.80 W h kg-1 at a power density of 302.00 W kg-1. These encouraging outcomes can be associated with the distinctive morphology, outstanding conductive networks, increased electroactive sites, and emergence of strong networking of Co3O4, MWCNT and Au in the ternary composite. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Effect of Substituting Soybean Meal with Moringa oleifera Meal on the Growth and Body Composition of Labeo rohita Fingerlings

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Biological activity of synthesized 5-{1-[(4-chlorophenyl)sulfonyl]piperidin-4- yl}-2-mercapto-1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives demonstrated by in silico and BSA binding studies

We synthesized a series of compounds bearing pharmacologically important 1,3,4-oxadiazole and piperidine moieties. Spectral data analysis by 1 H-NMR, 13C-NMR, IR and EI-MS was used to elucidate the structures of the synthesized molecules. Docking studies explained the different types of interaction of the compounds with amino acids, while bovine serum albumin (BSA) binding interactions showed their pharmacological effectiveness. Antibacterial screening of these compounds demonstrated moderate to strong activity against Salmonella typhi and Bacillus subtilis but only weak to moderate activity against the other three bacterial strains tested. Seven compounds were the most active members as acetyl cholinesterase inhibitors. All the compounds presented displayed strong inhibitory activity against urease. Compounds 7l, 7m, 7n, 7o, 7p, 7r, 7u, 7v, 7x and 7v were highly active, with respective IC50 values of 2.14±0.003, 0.63±0.001, 2.17±0.006, 1.13±0.003, 1.21±0.005, 6.28±0.003, 2.39±0.005, 2.15±0.002, 2.26±0.003 and 2.14±0.002 µM, compared to thiourea, used as the reference standard (IC50 = 21.25±0.15 µM). These new urease inhibitors could replace existing drugs after their evaluation in comprehensive in vivo studies