CHILDREN'S URDU LITERATURE

One of the major fields of literature and journalism is Children's Literature. In the 19th century, the tradition of the publication of magazines in Urdu journalism became very strong, but the first regular magazines for children began in the early twentieth centure. “Bachon Ka Akhbar” of Munshi Mehboob Alam is regarded as the first children magazine published in May 1902. So far more than 300 such magazines have been launched till now. The Role of Government in this regard also praiseworthy. In the last half of Twentieth Century Government of Pakistan translate many booklets from English Literature to Urdu Literature for Children.  It made the history of children literature

Recompensa, um motorista para a criatividade; papel mediador das avaliações de recompensa entre auto eficácia e desempenho criativo

The purpose of this dyadic study was to explore the insight that trigger the creative performance. For such purpose self-efficacy and rewards in shape of challenge and threat appraisal were used. A Survey was conducted to collect the data from the public and private sector organizations related to technical education in Punjab. Sample was the faculty member working on positions of instructors, senior instructor and lectures. A total of 302 respondents were analyzed. The results of the analysis show that there is significant relationship among self-efficacy and creative performance. The mediation analysis also shows that challenge appraisal of rewards for creativity and threat appraisal of reward also worked as mediator. Consequently, we reached at the point that having high level of self-efficacy, individuals in technical education organizations appraises the reward as a challenge and perform creatively. And on the other side having low level of self-efficacy, but appraising the Reward as a threat, tends to impact negatively on creative performance.El propósito de este estudio diádico fue explorar la información que desencadena el rendimiento creativo. Para tal fin se utilizaron la autoeficacia y las recompensas en forma de desafío y evaluación de amenazas. Se realizó una encuesta para recopilar los datos de las organizaciones del sector público y privado relacionadas con la educación técnica en Punjab. La muestra fue el miembro de la facultad que trabaja en posiciones de instructores, instructor senior y conferencias. Se analizaron un total de 302 encuestados. Los resultados del análisis muestran que existe una relación significativa entre la autoeficacia y el rendimiento creativo. El análisis de la mediación también muestra que la evaluación desafiante de las recompensas por la creatividad y la evaluación de la amenaza de recompensa también funcionó como mediador. En consecuencia, llegamos al punto en que, al tener un alto nivel de autoeficacia, los individuos en las organizaciones de educación técnica valoran la recompensa como un desafío y se desempeñan de manera creativa. Por otro lado, tiene un bajo nivel de autoeficacia, pero evaluar la recompensa como una amenaza, tiende a tener un impacto negativo en el rendimiento creativo.O objetivo deste estudo diádico foi explorar a percepção que aciona o desempenho criativo. Para esse propósito, a auto-eficácia e as recompensas em forma de desafio e avaliação de ameaça foram usadas. Uma pesquisa foi realizada para coletar os dados das organizações do setor público e privado relacionadas à educação técnica em Punjab. Amostra foi o membro do corpo docente trabalhando em posições de instrutores, instrutor sênior e palestras. Um total de 302 respondentes foi analisado. Os resultados da análise mostram que existe uma relação significativa entre autoeficácia e desempenho criativo. A análise da mediação também mostra que a avaliação de recompensas de recompensas por criatividade e avaliação de ameaças de recompensa também funcionou como mediador. Consequentemente, chegamos ao ponto em que, tendo alto nível de autoeficácia, indivíduos em organizações de educação técnica avaliam a recompensa como um desafio e realizam de forma criativa. Por outro lado, ter baixo nível de autoeficácia, mas avaliar a recompensa como uma ameaça, tende a impactar negativamente no desempenho criativo

Lexicogrammatical Features of Covid-19: A Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic Corpus Based Analysis

The outbreak of Covid-19 has influenced people worldwide and has led to generate a bulk of literature in the form of awareness campaigns, research reports, blogs, etc. The text and corpus produced, thus is of interest to the language researchers and linguists. According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2014), the corpus of a language helps to theorize the language as it provides authentic, representative, and quantitative data. The wordCovid-19since its coinage appears in the corpora as a lexeme with a particular grammatical structure. This study focuses on the lexicogrammar of the node word Covid-19in the Covid-19 corpus of 224,061,570 words available on the Sketch Engine. The design of this research focuses on the perspective of systemic functional grammar to analyze the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations of the word COVID-19. We found that it occurred 423× times as a noun in the corpus of 1.51 per million tokens. The word-sketchofCovid-19includesinfect, spread, fight as syntagmatically related and the word pandemic, epidemic, disease, outbreak, caseas paradigmatically related. However, the same lexeme may enter into both relationships like COVID-19 and disease, Covid-19 and epidemic. They enter into a systemic contrast, and they also collocate. The lexico-grammatical environment of Covid-19 in the corpus shows the dichotomy of emergency and safety; chaos and health care responsibility; and pandemic and health care systems. This analysis helps in understanding how lexico-grammatical systems and structures relate to meaning-making process

Sorghum an Important Annual Feedstock for Bioenergy

Plant-based renewable biofuels guarantee sustainable solutions to food and energy demands. High-biomass C4 grasses including sugarcane, corn, and sorghum are potential candidates for bioenergy. Among these, sorghum enjoys the status of a highly diverse food, feed, and biofuel source worldwide. The natural attributes like abiotic stress tolerance, diverse genetic base, viable seed industry, and sound breeding system make sorghum a perfect candidate for establishing an efficient and low-cost biofuel industry. Scientists are exploring ways to exploit forage, sweet, and biomass sorghums as climate-smart energy crops. In this context, conventional breeding has played a significant role in developing high-yielding sorghum varieties. For biomass sorghum, stem compositional analysis helps screen low lignin and high polysaccharide types as feedstocks for biofuels. Recent tools of phenomics, genomics, proteomics, and genome editing are key players of designing eco-friendly bioenergy sorghum. Here, we report stem compositional analysis and proteomics-based evaluation of USDA sorghum germplasm as a baseline to develop sorghum as a biofuel feedstock

Predicting Bankruptcy Using Z-Score and Z Double Prime (Z”): A Study of Pakistan Stock Exchange

Due to the unprecedented happenings and dynamic conditions of international economic system, firms are always at the verge of bankruptcy no matter how sound they are, their sustainability is always in jeopardy. Besides, lenders are continuously raising red flags and giving consistent warnings about possible perils of corporate failure due to fragile economic conditions and increasing debt levels in both corporate and individual businesses these days. Hence there was an exigency to ‘develop indicators for monitoring long term progress and sustainability of companies. Thereof it would contribute in illustrating to business analysts, firm stakeholders about the relevance of embracing these active checks for predicting bankruptcy as a sustainable business practice. This created a bizarre cult to look into the matter seriously. For this there is no mantra, no clever feats, sure-fire quick strategies. Instead there are well-defined, simple, systematic and sophisticated models to assess sustainability of companies. Thus, to avoid the tide of massive/substantial corporate failure and any future catastrophe; there is a dire need to identify the most suitable and preeminent model that can truly forecast the likelihood of default ahead of time in given circumstances. And, mainstay of this study is to provide an answer of question in hand by comparing two most venerable model choices i.e. Altman’s Z-score and Z double prime (Z”)

Role of parental age in newborn telomere length prolongation

Telomere length, a marker of biological aging, can be altered by parental telomere genetics. In this study, we aimed to find an association between parental age and newborn telomere length (TL) and deterioration patterns in parents and newborns. This was a cross-sectional study on 204 parent–newborn pairs from September 2021 to July 2022. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used to measure the telomere length (T/S ratio). A correlation and linear regression were used for the association between newborn TL and parental age. There was a positive correlation (r = 0.185, p = 0.007) between the fathers' age and newborn TL. However, regression analysis highlighted an association between the mother's as well as the father's age and newborn TL (B = 0.032, 0.04; p = 0.09, 0.009). The old-age mothers (35.1–40 years old) had newborn girls with longer TL; however, old-age fathers (35.1–45 years old) had boys with longer TL (1.94 ± 0.72, 2.48 ± 1.22) (p = 0.23). Therefore, longer telomere length was seen in newborns of older parents. Moreover, parental age, especially the father's age, showed an association with newborns' telomere genetics

Diagnostic Accuracy of Ultrasound in Detecting Hepatocellular Carcinoma Keeping Histopathology as Gold Standard

Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of USG in detecting hepatocellular carcinoma. Methodology: A total of 70 patients with liver cirrhosis with mass and age 18-60 years of either gender were included. Nodular lesion <3 cm in size, non-specific vascular profile, poor visualization and FNA / biopsy can cause complications were excluded. All the patients were then underwent first ultrasound and then histopathology. The ultrasonography findings were recorded presence or absence of HCC and correlated with CT scan findings. Results: In USG positive patients, 31(44.28%) (88.8%)True Negative had no hepatocellular carcinoma on histopathology (p=0.0001). Overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound in detecting hepatocellular carcinoma keeping histopathology as gold standard was 88.57%, 91.43%, 91.18%, 88.89% and 90.0% respectively. Conclusion: This study concluded that grey scale ultrasound along with Doppler ultrasound  is a simple, non-invasive, economical, readily available imaging modality with high sensitivity and accuracy in diagnosing hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatitis B virus in Pakistan: A systematic review of prevalence, risk factors, awareness status and genotypes

In Pakistan, there are estimated 7-9 million carriers of hepatitis B virus (HBV) with a carrier rate of 3-5%. This article reviews the available literature about the prevalence, risk factors, awareness status and genotypes of the HBV in Pakistan by using key words; HBV prevalence, risk factors, awareness status and genotypes in Pakistani population in PubMed, PakMediNet, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and Google Scholar. One hundred and six different studies published from 1998 to 2010 were included in this study. Weighted mean and standard deviation were determined for each population group. The percentage of hepatitis B virus infection in general population was 4.3318% ± 1.644%, healthy blood donors (3.93% ± 1.58%), military recruits (4.276% ± 1.646%), healthcare persons (3.25% ± 1.202%), pregnant women (5.872% ± 4.984), prisoners (5.75% ± 0.212%), surgical patients (7.397% ± 2.012%), patients with cirrhosis (28.87% ± 11.90%), patients with HCC (22% ± 2.645%), patients with hepatitis (15.896% ± 14.824%), patients with liver diseases (27.54% ± 6.385%), multiple transfused patients (6.223% ± 2.121%), opthalmic patients (3.89% ± 1.004%) and users of injectable drugs (14.95% ± 10.536%). Genotype D (63.71%) is the most prevalent genotype in Pakistani population. Mass vaccination and awareness programs should be initiated on urgent basis especially in populations with HBV infection rates of more than 5%

Identification of ionotrophic purinergic receptors in Huh-7 cells and their response towards structural proteins of HCV genotype 3a

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major health problem in developing countries including Pakistan. Chronic HCV infection results in progressive liver disease including fibrosis, cirrhosis, insulin resistance and eventually hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Ionotrophic purinergic (P2X) receptors are identified to involve in a spectrum of physiological and pathophysiological processes. However, the role of P2X receptors in HCV liver associated diseases still remains to be investigated. The current study was designed to identify the presence of P2X receptors in human liver cells. Furthermore, it investigates the response of P2X receptors towards HCV structural proteins (E1E2). To determine that how many isoforms of P2X receptors are expressed in human liver cells, human hepatoma cell line (Huh-7) was used. Transcripts (mRNA) of five different isoforms of P2X receptors were identified in Huh-7 cells. To examine the gene expression of identified isoforms of P2X receptors in presence of HCV structural proteins E1E2, Huh-7/E1E2 cell line (stably expressing HCV structural proteins E1E2) was used. The results showed significant increase (6.2 fold) in gene expression of P2X4 receptors in Huh-7/E1E2 cells as compared to control Huh-7 cells. The findings of present study confirmed the presence of transcripts of five different isoforms of P2X receptors in human liver cells and suggest that P2X4 receptors could be represented an important component of the purinergic signaling complex in HCV induced liver pathogenesis