Zoroastrian Monuments in Balochistan

            Balochistan has been one of the ancient regions of subcontinent in terms of cultural development. Here the birth of culture had been with the dawn of Neolithic Revolution in Bolan Pass at Mehrgarh around 7000 BCE. Balochistan has gone through cultural developments for thousands of years and it has seen several cultures.  Balochistan is a gateway of many civilizations and it has witnessed several expeditions and migrations. Archaeology, in this respect, has played a vital role to sort out the ancient cultures and civilizations to the picture of the people.  This study is mainly focused on the Zoroastrian Monuments and remains, found in areas like Makran, Kharan, Rakhani, Kohalu, Bharkan and Quetta. The Zoroastrian remains in Balochistan, which have been unearthed, show to the rest of the world that the Zoroastrian Religion existed in Balochistan and the followers of this religion are still present to the day. However, this study will be based on the remains of the Zoroastrianism scattered throughout province

Quantifying Democracy: An Exploration of how Numbers undermine Democracy in Pakistan.

            The global drive towards datafication of knowledge and decision-making is not simply an outcome of advancement in measurement techniques and new technology. It is rather embedded in new forms of global governance, which emphasizes the regimes of accountability, and evidence based policy. In this new mode of governance, information plays a key role. But not all forms of information are useful. It is only the information contained in a numerical form, presented in a simple and accessible format, collected through scientific indicators, which is acceptable. It is this form of data, which can claim to be objective, free from political bias and untainted by political opinion. However, behind these claims of scientific objectivity lie complex social processes and political power involved, and is very much susceptible to human fallibility and error. The paper will explore the ways in which the process of democracy is being defined and understood in Pakistan through quantitative approaches and will highlight how it undermines the genuine democratic process in the country

Psychological Capital and Work Outcomes: Moderating Role of Marital Status?

This study applied the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory to observe the moderating impact of marital status on the association between Psychological Capital and Job Satisfaction, OCBI. It proved that married and single employees observe different associations between their psychological capacities and work outcomes, possibly explained through the structural social support offered by marriage. We applied the covariance based- structural equation modeling using AMOS and approached the significant path, using multi-group CFA. The study applied time lagged data and used variant sources, such as self and peer reports, for independent and outcome variables. It has thus made an attempt to extend the theory of psychological capital, predominantly developed and tested in Western settings, in an Eastern setting. Keywords: Covariance Based SEM, Psychological Capital, Marital Statu

Toward Lossless Homomorphic Encryption for Scientific Computation

This paper presents a comprehensive investigation into encrypted computations using the CKKS (Cheon-Kim-Kim-Song) scheme, with a focus on multi-dimensional vector operations and real-world applications. Through two meticulously designed experiments, the study explores the potential of the CKKS scheme in Super Computing and its implications for data privacy and computational efficiency. The first experiment reveals the promising applicability of CKKS to matrix multiplication, indicating marginal differences in Euclidean distance and near-to-zero mean square error across various matrix sizes. The second experiment, applied to a wildfire dataset, illustrates the feasibility of using encrypted machine learning models without significant loss in accuracy. The insights gleaned from the research set a robust foundation for future innovations, including the potential for GPU acceleration in CKKS computations within TenSEAL. Challenges such as noise budget computation, accuracy loss in multiplication, and the distinct characteristics of arithmetic operations in the context of CKKS are also discussed. The paper serves as a vital step towards understanding the complexities and potentials of encrypted computations, with broad implications for secure data processing and privacy preservation in various scientific domains

Image-based visual servoing of a VTOL UAV

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are an area of significant research activity these days because of their use in dull, dangerous, and dirty tasks. Lack of human pilot paves the way for advanced and more sophisticated control algorithms that should just not control each and every aspect of flight dynamics but also accomplish the disired task at the same time. Visual Servoing is one way of controlling the attitude and position of aircrafts by using camera as a sensor

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Exclusive Breastfeeding Among Mothers Attending Tertiary Care Hospital

OBJECTIVES: To determine knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding exclusive breastfeeding among mothers attending tertiary care hospitals.  METHODOLOGY: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of Pediatrics in Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar. A total of 162 mothers were selected who were practicing breastfeeding of ages between 20 to 35 years, having a full-term baby of age up to 6 months old. The data is collected through a pre-planned questionnaire and then was analyzed using statistics version 24.0. The duration of the study was from 1st June 2020 to 30th October 2020. RESULTS: The results showed that no significant association was found between age groups, socio-economic status regarding knowledge, attitude, and practice (p>0.05). However, there was a significant difference between knowledge, attitude, and practice with respect to educational status (p<0.05). 123 (73.21%) mothers had unsatisfactory; whereas 39 (24.07%) mothers had excellent knowledge regarding breastfeeding. 39 (27.07%) of breast-feeding mothers had a positive attitude towards breastfeeding. 123 (73.21%) women showed a negative response regarding the practice of breastfeeding. CONCLUSION: Most of the mothers didn’t have adequate knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) practice. As a result, it is suggested that media can be used as a medium to educate women about the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF)

Teachers’ Perception Regarding Malpractices used in Examinations in Urban areas of District Peshawar

The study aimed at investigating factors associated with malpractices used in Secondary School Certificate Examination in the Urban Areas of District Peshawar. The main objectives of the study were to gather information from teachers about various cheating techniques used in examinations and know main factors that force students to cheat in examinations. Twenty (20) educational institutions for boys, including public and private, were purposively selected from urban areas of District Peshawar for the data collection. Questionnaires were distributed among 60 teachers of sampled High and Higher Secondary Schools in order to collect data. Majority of the respondents agreed to the fact that students usually use small chits as cheating technique in S.S.C. examination as they considered it safer and easier to hide from the examination conducting staff. The study further showed that the board officials, colleagues of the duty staff (examination conducting staff), fear of stopping of annual increments, pressure from the higher authority, poor standard of teaching, parents, and well reputation of institutions were key factors responsible for cheating in Secondary School Certificate Examination in urban areas of district Peshawar. An encouraging aspect of the study is also that the principals of the institutions were not involved in this unfair activity

Low-temperature thermochronology of central and northwestern Pamir gneiss domes

Abstract HKT-ISTP 2013 A

Switching modulation strategies for multilevel inverter

There is always a need to create efficient and optimized converters to deliver the best possible results to achieve a better THD profile in the waveform output. One way is by controlling the switching of the power switches of the converters using appropriate modulation schemes. While numerous works have been done in proposing new switching modulation strategies for multilevel inverters, this work will compare multicarrier PWM and near-to-level control (NLC) modulation schemes. In this paper, multicarrier PWM variants, namely, PD-PWM, POD-PWM, and APOD-PWM, are designed and simulated. Their voltage THD and spectrum performance are discussed when applied to single-phase 7, 9, and 11-level cascaded multilevel inverters. Then NLC modulation will be designed and applied to similar multilevel inverter circuits. It will be shown that the NLC exhibits some superior performances compared to PWM-based but with several drawbacks that can be optimized