Confirmation of sunflower F1 hybrids using SDS-PAGE analysis

Among bio-chemical techniques, sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDSPAGE) is most widely used due to its validity and simplicity for describing genetic structures of group of plants. In the present study, SDS-PAGE was used to confirm sunflower hybrids. Four male sterile lines, four restorer lines and their sixteen F1 hybrids were analyzed. Based on results of electrophoretic band spectra, Jaccard’s similarity index (S) was calculated for all possible pairs. The similarity matrix, thus, generated was converted to a dissimilarity matrix and used to construct dendrogram, using unweighed pair-group method with arithmetic means. Euclidean distance of 1.0 was observed among 5 comparisons, whereas maximum distance (3.87) was observed for 1 comparison only. In most of the cases, female parents, along with their respective crosses, were found in one cluster, indicating thatSDS-PAGE can be used reliably for the identification of hybrids in sunflower

Ascertaining the Impact of Cleanliness and Healthy Life Style (The Art of Living) in Human Health (Physical & Mental) and Its Relevance in Nation Building

Cleanliness means that there is no dirt, no dust, no stains, and no bad smells. The purpose of cleanliness is health, beauty, absence of offensive odor and to avoid the spreading of dirt and contaminants to oneself and others. To be in good health is to be in a state of balance. Health is a biological equilibrium that exists within our body. In order to achieve this balance, we need to fine tune our body to all levels, which can be achieved by doing meaningful works, in a conscientious and responsible manner, exercise, eating correctly and having a positive attitude towards ourselves and others. Much is said rhetorically about cleanliness in our society but practically its application is missing. A quick observation can reveal how insensitive a culture we have developed regarding cleanliness and hygiene. There are many other examples which can be cited to indicate the pathetic condition of cleanliness and hygiene in our society. Hence, conscious efforts are needed to tackle this issue. There is a dire need to educate and sensitize people about the importance of cleanliness in light of our faith. In this regard social institutions such as educational institutions, the media and religious institutions can play a vital role. According to the concept of health and disease in Unani System of Medicine, human body has two states i.e. healthy state and disease state. As described by great Unani sages that, “There are certain causes of health and disease.” The causes for health are called as, The Six Life Style Factors viz. Air, Food and Beverages, Physical Activity and Repose, Mental Activity and Repose, Sleep and Wakefulness, Retention and Evacuation. These essential factors are those which influence the body throughout the life. As all living creatures have qualities associated with them, so too do each of the six life style factors. The food and drinks we consume, the weather, our environment and our emotions, all exert different qualities of heat, coldness, moistness and dryness that can either be of benefit or detriment to us. “Cleanliness is a freedom movement for an aspiring Nation. Culture of cleanliness will influence the hygiene, health, aesthetics and natural setting of the nation, which is a new age currency of a country.

Network performance optimization using Odd and Even routing algorithm

The revolution on static wireless sensor network (WSN) had gained popularity in remote monitoring especially in oil and gas pipeline integrity. The use of WSN in oil and gas pipelines facilitates real time data transmission from sensors to the monitoring station located miles away. WSN for pipeline network are critical performance driven communication mechanism due to its unique linear geographical set up. The network performance of linear topology is compromised proportionally to the number of nodes. Such a drawback results in poor delivery ratio, throughput, latency and fairness due to its snowball effect towards the destination node. In this paper, we proposed a novel routing method, Odd-Even Linear Static Routing Path (OE-LSRP) to achieve significant improvements in overall network performance in TCP traffic. Various simulation experiments are tested with OE-LSRP in accordance to IEEE 802.11standard to achieve results in making it feasible for the pipeline network

TCP Timeout Mechanism for Optimization of Network Fairness and Performance in Multi-Hop Pipeline Network

In the recent years, wireless sensor network (WSN) has a huge impact in many remote based applications especially in oil and gas pipeline monitoring. Thus, the deployment of a multi-hop linear WSN will be a practical solution on pipelines. With a large multi-hop linear WSN, the overall network performance is badly affected especially due to node starvation. Inequality among source nodes is relatively an amplified factor of generated data rate and source node distances from the destination node. In this paper, we proposed a mathematical model for TCP Delayed Timeout Acknowledgement (DTO-ACK) mechanism for non-zero passive nodes. Optimum throughput fairness can be achieved by implementation of DTO-ACK with Dual Interleaving Linear Static Routing Protocol (DI-LSRP) for flat topology. Implementation of DTO-ACK and modification of TCP parameters reduces packet collision and ensures optimal throughput fairness in a multi-hop linear topology using TCP agent

Enhancing Pipeline Network Performance Using Dual Interleaving Cluster Head Routing Protocol

Remote monitoring of oil and gas pipelines has been the most prevalent application of static wireless sensor network (WSN). WSN has a great potential in facilitating real-time data transfer between sensor nodes and a centralise monitoring station. For pipeline WSN, network performance is critical among sensor nodes in a linear chain topology. Expanding the communication range by increasing number of nodes in a linear architecture compromises the performance of WSN. Thus, WSN results in a severe impact on low throughput, high latency, poor delivery ratio, high energy consumption and network inequality. In this paper, we proposed Dual Interleaving Cluster Head Linear Static Routing Protocol (DICH-LSRP), a routing protocol for cluster-based topology. DICH-LSRP in a pipeline simulation environment were evaluated with compliance to IEEE 802.11 standard on impending factors of WSN performance. The simulation results help to better understand some key areas of WSN performance metrics and the implementation of DICH-LSRP in a multi-hop linear topology

Potential Drug-Drug Interactions in Psychiatric Ward of a Tertiary Care Hospital: Prevalence, Levels and Association with Risk Factors

Purpose: To identify the prevalence of potential drug-drug interactions (pDDIs) in a psychiatric ward, their levels and association with risk factors.Methods: This study was conducted in the psychiatric ward of Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, Pakistan. Medical records of 415 patients were retrospectively reviewed for pDDIs using Micromedex Drug-Reax software. Logistic regression was applied to determine association of pDDIs with age, gender, hospital stay and number of drugs.Results: In our study, we identified total number of 825 pDDIs of 126 types, with median number of 1 pDDIs per patient. Overall 64.8 % of the patients had at least one pDDI; 27.2 % at least one major pDDI; and 58.5 % patients at least one moderate pDDI. Among 825 identified pDDIs, most were of moderate (75.6 %) or major (20.8 %) severity, good (66.4 %) or fair (29 %) type of scientific evidence; and delayed onset (71 %). The most frequent major and moderate pDDIs included haloperidol + procyclidine (127 cases), haloperidol + olanzapine (49), haloperidol + promethazine (47), haloperidol + fluphenazine (41), diazepam + divalproex sodium (40), haloperidol + trihexyphenidyl (37), lorazepam + divalproex sodium (34), fluphenazine + procyclidine (33) and olanzapine + divalproex sodium (32). There was significant association of occurrence of pDDIs with hospital stay of 7 days or longer (p = 0.005) and taking 7 or more drugs (p < 0.001).                                                       Conclusion: A high prevalence of pDDIs in the psychiatric ward was recorded, a majority of which were of moderate severity. Patients with long hospital stay and increased number of drugs were more exposed to pDDIs.Keywords: Drug-drug interactions, Potential drug-drug interaction, Prescriptions screening, Drug-related problems, Clinical pharmacy

Effect of basic motivational factors on construction workforce productivity in Pakistan

Human resource management is of strategic importance when it comes to industries that are labor intensive like construction industry. The effective management of human resource is the key towards achieving the higher construction workforce productivity thus accomplishing the construction projects within their predefined limits. The bond between motivation and productivity is widely accepted and of high significance as well. The relationship between motivation and productivity can be summarized as that productivity is directly linked to motivation, and motivation is, in turn, dependent on productivity. Suitable motivation of labor can be hypothesized as a key contributor to maximizing workers’ productivity Kazaz et al (2008. Workers need motivation just as equipments need fuel and operators. Motivation is a process which activates productivity. In order to effectively manage the human resources and to make sure that workforce is productive enough; it is necessary to understand those factors which have edge over others for motivating the construction workforce. In this study, the potential of organizational and economic factors will be studied for motivating employees. Data will be collected by the questionnaire. Relative importance index technique will be used to analyze the data. Results showed that economic factors have an edge over organizational factors when it comes to motivate the construction workforce

Ethnobotanical, phytochemical and pharmacological aspects of daphne mucronata (thymeleaceae)

Daphne mucronata is a shrub well known as a medicinal plant in different regions of Asia. Ethnobotanical, phytochemical and pharmacological studies have revealed strong anti-cancer potential of the plant. Literature reports the evaluation of the initial bioactivity profile and extraction of the plant followed by different chromatographic techniques to obtain fractions. As an outcome,  isolation and identification of coumarins, flavonoids, triterpenoids, lignin  cumarinolignans, glucosides, daphnecin, aquillochin, daphnine and umbelliferone from the plant have been reported. Of these compounds, a diterpene, named gnidilatimonoein, has shown promising anticancer potency in in vitro tests on various cancer cell lines. This review article is an effort to summarize literature published in recent years on the bioactivity of Daphne mucronata

Biomass expansion factors of Olea ferruginea (Royle) in sub tropical forests of Pakistan

Wood biomass gives information about total productivity of the forest as well as individual tree. Olea ferruginea (Royle) which is small and evergreen is widely distributed in native sub tropical forests of Pakistan and extensively used as fuelwood domestically. This study was carried out in the sub tropical forests of Pakistan at 33° 38’ north and 73° 00’ east latitude and longitude, respectively, and at an elevation of 917 m. Trees with exploitable diameter were selected randomly from the entire forest.Destructive sampling techniques were used for measuring biomass (kgm-3) in all the tree components. For this purpose, 5 trees were felled and the biomass of each component of the tree including main stem, branches, leaves, twigs and roots were estimated separately using volume, weight and density. The generic data of wood density (kgm-3) was used to determine the biomass (kg). The study showed that average contribution of stem portion of the tree was 49.01% of the total tree biomass, and branches showed 31.17%, leaves 1.98%, twigs 1.05% and roots 16.65% of the total tree biomass. So, it was found that the major part of the total tree biomass was present in the stem portion of O. ferruginea. Totalvolume of the tree was also found to be dependent on the diameter of the tree. Mean volume of the tree was 0.475 ± 0.07 m3. The prepared  biomass expansion factor will be helpful in estimating productivity, carbon stocks and yield of the forest.Key words: Biomass, biomass expansion factor, tree volume, Olea ferruginea

Mechanisms of cognitive trust development in artificial intelligence among front line employees: An empirical examination from a developing economy

Drawing upon insights from the trust literature, we conducted two empirical surveys with the front-line employees of firms in Pakistan investigating the factors influencing cognitive trust in artificial intelligence (AI). Study1 consisted of 46 in-depth interviews aimed at exploring factors influencing cognitive trust. Based on the findings of Study 1, we developed a framework to enhance employees’ cognitive trust in AI. We then conducted a quantitative survey (study 2) with 314 employees to validate the proposed model. The findings suggest that AI features positively influence the cognitive trust of employees, while work routine disruptions have negative impact on cognitive trust in AI. The effectiveness of data governance was also found to facilitate employees' trust in data governance and subsequently, employees' cognitive trust in AI. We contribute to the technology trust literature, especial in developing economics. We discuss the implications of our findings for both research and practice