Islamic Contributions to Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues

The normative practice in the history of science in the West is to start with the Greeks and then jump to the European Renaissance, both studied as a background for the emergence of modern science in the seventeenth century. More considerate works devote a few pages to the Islamic scientific tradition, as a harbinger of the Greek legacy. This practice, based on the nineteenth-century Orientalism, has seriously harmed the emergence of an accurate history of science in general and the nature of contributions made by the Islamic scientific tradition to science in particular. These accounts continue to produce a caricature of a tradition that lasted longer than the Greek and the modern scientific traditions. When placed in its own historical matrix, the nature of Islamic contributions to science is a totally different story

Customer Involvement in Service Innovation in Banking Sector of Pakistan

Customer involvement in service innovation has a positive impact on the performance and growth of banking sector. Prior studies recognize only importance of customer involvement in service innovation. Yet the researchers have not explored the relationship between technology advancement and customer involvement. The process of customer involvement in service innovation with mediating effect of technology is investigated by conducting quantitative research in banking sector of Pakistan. Data was collected by standard questionnaire. For data analysis, correlation coefficient was used through IBM SPSS Amos Software. The findings suggest that there is significant relationship between technology, customer involvement and service innovation.  Keywords: Customer involvement, service innovation, technology, quantitative stud

Impact of Working Capital Management on Firm Profitability in Textile Industry of Pakistan

This study shows the link between the working capital management and the firm’s profitability Current Ratio and Cash Conversion Cycle are studied under Working Capital Management head and Return on Asset & Net Profit Margin is studied under the Profitability head. These relationships are studied under the context of Pakistan textile industry for which we have taken their financial information of the data period from 2006-2012, as this research was based on secondary data. The convenience sampling technique is used for the selection of sample of our study which consists of 6 textile firms. The different descriptive statistics, correlation coefficient and regression of all variables are computed to confirm our hypothesis through IBM and SPSS Software. From data analysis we have conclude that the CR, CCC and NPM, ROA has a negative relationship with each other. The regression results showed that the model is fit for research. The importance of research is given in paper. Keywords: Working Capital Management, Current Ratio, Cash Conversion Cycle, ROA, NP

An Assessment of Livestock Production Potential in Pakistan: Implications for Livestock Sector Policy

About two third of the farming community in Pakistan consists of small farmers who are characterised by small land holdings (less than 5 hectares) and by several factors that influence their productive potential and income generating capacity [Pakistan (1998)]. Livestock farming is an integral part of rural smallholders and has a vast untapped potential for productivity increase and income generation. Livestock holdings by the small farmers constitute a significant portion of the farm incomes. Small farmers and landless livestock producers derive around 10-25 percent of their incomes from this sub-sector.......

Flavonoid-Mediated Modulation of CYP3A Enzyme and P-Glycoprotein Transporter: Potential Effects on Bioavailability and Disposition of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors

The consumption of herbal products and dietary supplements along with conventional medicines has raised concerns regarding herb-drug interactions. The available literature from experimental and clinical studies suggested that the consumption of herbs or dietary supplements that modulate efflux proteins, especially P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and metabolic enzyme CYP3A, may cause clinically relevant herb-drug interactions by alteration of bioavailability and disposition profiles of targeted drug. It has been also hypothesized that both CYP3A and P-gp work synergistically to limit systemic exposure of orally administered substrate drugs. Many in vitro and in vivo studies suggested that co-administration of flavonoids significantly enhances the bioavailability of orally administered drugs, which may be due to inhibition of the CYP3A enzyme and P-gp transporter. Recently, a large number of orally administered tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have been clinically approved for cancer chemotherapy, and many are currently estimated to be under development. TKIs are all primarily metabolized by CYP3A, and most of them are also substrates of P-gp. Numerous studies have suggested that the plasma exposure of orally administered TKIs increases when co-administered with other drugs due to their dual inhibitory activities against P-gp and CYP3A. However, limited data are available regarding the interaction between flavonoids and TKIs. The objective of this article is to review the potential role of flavonoids in modulation of CYP3A enzyme and P-gp transporter and their influence on bioavailability and disposition of TKIs

Biological significance of Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) in human health – a review

The recognition of vitamin C (Ascorbic acid) is associated with history of an unrelenting search for the cause of the ancient hemorrhagic disease scurvy. Isolated in 1928, vitamin C is essential for the development and maintenance of connective tissues. It plays an important role in bone formation, wound healing and the maintenance of healthy gums. Vitamin C plays an important role in a number of metabolic functions including the activation of the B vitamin, folic acid, the conversion of cholesterol to bile acids and the conversion of the amino acid, tryptophan, to the neurotransmitter, serotonin. It is an antioxidant that protects body from free radicals’ damages. It is used as therapeutic agent in many diseases and disorders. Vitamin C protects the immune system, reduces the severity of allergic reactions and helps fight off infections

Simple, sensitive and rapid determination of linifanib (ABT-869), a novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor in rat plasma by UHPLC-MS/MS

An overall model for sulfur self-retention in ash during coal particle combustion is developed in this paper. It is assumed that sulfur retention during char combustion occurs due to the reaction between SO2 and CaO in the form of uniformly distributed non-porous grains. Parametric analysis shows that the process of sulfur self-retention is limited by solid difussion through the non-porous product layer formed on the CaO grains and that the most important coal characteristics which influence sulfur self-retention are coal rank. content of sulfur forms. molar Ca/S ratio and particle radius. A comparison with the experimentally obtained values in a FB reactor showed that die model can adequately predict the kinetics of the process, the levels of the obtained values of the SSR efficiencies, as well as the influence of temperature and coal particle size.U radu je prikazan razvijeni model zadržavanja sumpora u pepelu tokom sagorevanja uglja. Pretpostavka modela je da se zadržavanje sumpora tokom sagorevanja koksnog ostatka odigrava usled reakcije SO2 i CaO koji je u obliku ravnomerno raspoređenih zrna. Parametarska analiza je pokazala da je proces zadržavanja sumpora kontrolisan difuzijom kroz formirani sloj čvrstog produkta na zrnima CaO, kao i da su rang uglja, sadržaj formi sumpora molarni Ca/S odnos i veličina čestice važne osobine uglja koje utiču na proces. Poređenje sa eksperimentalnim rezultatima dobijenim u reaktoru sa fluidizovanim slojem je pokazalo da model može adekvatno da predvidi kinetiku procesa, efikasnost zadržavanja sumpora u pepelu, kao i uticaj temperature i veličine čestice uglja

Shrinking of Solid-state Nanopores by Direct Thermal Heating

Solid-state nanopores have emerged as useful single-molecule sensors for DNA and proteins. A novel and simple technique for solid-state nanopore fabrication is reported here. The process involves direct thermal heating of 100 to 300 nm nanopores, made by focused ion beam (FIB) milling in free-standing membranes. Direct heating results in shrinking of the silicon dioxide nanopores. The free-standing silicon dioxide membrane is softened and adatoms diffuse to a lower surface free energy. The model predicts the dynamics of the shrinking process as validated by experiments. The method described herein, can process many samples at one time. The inbuilt stress in the oxide film is also reduced due to annealing. The surface composition of the pore walls remains the same during the shrinking process. The linear shrinkage rate gives a reproducible way to control the diameter of a pore with nanometer precision

Design and Analysis of a PV system for irrigation of a ten Hectare farm in Pakistan

Farmers in Pakistan are very intent in solar pumps because of the lack of utility power. Photovoltaic panels are in widespread use worldwide for a reliable low-cost electricity generation for irrigation. When properly designed, a PV water pumping system can result in notable long-term cost. In this paper using actual farm data, the design of a stand-alone PV water pumping system has been completed using HOMER Pro. The designed system consists of 78 PV panels with 60 batteries and a 20.7 kW inverter for the pump. The system analysis shows that such a system can meet the watering needs of that farm throughout the year for all type of crops. The dynamic model of the designed system has been simulated in MATLAB/Simulink. Perturbation and the observation-based algorithm has been used for maximum power extraction from PV. Simulation results show that the system can provide a stable voltage and frequency. This research also provides a relative study among all alternative systems economically

Study of phase transition properties in rochelle salt crystal

28-31The extra spin-lattice interactions terms, external electric field term, direct spin-spin interaction term and fourth-order phonon anharmonic terms have been added to two-sublattice pseudo-spin lattice couples mode(PLCM) model for Rochelle salt crystal. By applying the double-time thermal Green function method and using the modified model, theoretically, expressions for the shift, width, soft mode frequency, dielectric constant and loss tangent have been derived. By fitting model parameters values, temperature variations of the above quantities have been calculated for Rochelle salt crystal. We compare theoretical variations of soft mode frequency for Rochelle salt crystal, by getting correlated values of soft mode frequency from experimental data of dielectric constant. We compare our theoretical values for dielectric constant and loss tangent for Rochelle salt with the experimental result of Sandy and Jones [Phys Rev, 168(2), 481-493 (1968)]. Our theoretical results well agree with experimental data of others for Rochelle salt. Present expressions will also be useful for other similar crystals like sodium ammonium tartrate tetrahydrate (NaNH4C4H4O6.4H2O) crystal, lithium ammonium tartrate monohydrate (LiNH4C4H4O6.H2O) crystal and lithium thallium tartrate monohydrate (LiTlC4H4O6.H2O) crystal etc