The Impact of Treatment of Organic Manures on Future Soil Carbon Sequestration Under Different Tillage Systems in Pakistan

Funds provided by Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan for carrying out this Ph.D. research work under “Indigenous 5000 Fellowship Program” and “International Research Support Initiative Program” are highly acknowledged.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A Generalized Space-Efficient Algorithm for Quantum Bit String Comparators

Quantum Bit String Comparators (QBSC) operate on two sequences of n-qubits, enabling the determination of their relationships, such as equality, greater than, or less than. This is analogous to the way conditional statements are used in programming languages. Consequently, QBSCs play a crucial role in various algorithms that can be executed or adapted for quantum computers. The development of efficient and generalized comparators for any $n$-qubit length has long posed a challenge, as they have a high-cost footprint and lead to quantum delays. Comparators that are efficient are associated with inputs of fixed length. As a result, comparators without a generalized circuit cannot be employed at a higher level, though they are well-suited for problems with limited size requirements. In this paper, we introduce a generalized design for the comparison of two $n$-qubit logic states using just two ancillary bits. The design is examined on the basis of qubit requirements, ancillary bit usage, quantum cost, quantum delay, gate operations, and circuit complexity, and is tested comprehensively on various input lengths. The work allows for sufficient flexibility in the design of quantum algorithms, which can accelerate quantum algorithm development

Fast Food Trend Analysis by Evaluating Factors Leading to Customer Satisfaction

A fast food restaurant is a growing business and with the time evolving the pattern of eating habits is changing. Therefore, many people have started opting for fast food which is an appealing phenomenon for them. This research is conducted to evaluate the pattern of fast food and the customer satisfaction encompassing various factors. The analysis of the customer satisfaction encompasses independent variables which leads to consumer satisfaction and showcases the fast food trend. It is Karachi centric; target sample is from South Urban Region by the customers.The variables of this study are Quality of Service, Pricing, Ambiance and Quality of Food which are considered as independent. Age and Gender are part of Demographics. According to the IBIS World report on “Industry Market Research Report 2018”, the Global Food Industry has grown over the period of five years despite the change in factors such as consumer tastes and a recovering global economy. With the increase in disposable income the spending increased by the consumers on luxuries such as dinning out. In result of this the fast food operators started to gain benefits by providing full-service restaurants. The trend of Five years revealed growth by 3.5% in the Global Fast Food industry by generating revenue of $668bn in 2018 (IBISWORLD 2018). Since the trend of five years revealed the growth in fast food restaurant chains similarly this research has revealed the trend of fast food restaurant in Karachi Urban South region. McDonalds and KFC are the most preferred fast food chains because their customers are satisfied with the ambiance, pricing and quality of food which drives them to opt for the particular restaurant. For the results generation regression analysis have been applied which revealed significance of three independent variables and the interferential and descriptive analysis have also been implied. Keywords: customer satisfaction, price, quality of food, and ambiance DOI: 10.7176/JMCR/55-06 Publication date: April 30th 201

Competitive Advantage of Broiler Production in District Mansehra

Poultry is an important sub sector of livestock and is ahead of all other sub sectors in economic growth. Broilers production is a specialized branch of poultry farming. This research was conducted in Mansehra is the region where considerable amount of commercial broiler production takes place. The region of the study has a high concentration of commercial activities, infrastructural facilities like veterinary care as well as climate that favor the production and marketing of poultry meat products. This research was conducted in nine villages of district Mansehra namely Kotli Pain, KotliBala, Kheil, Tanda, Bafa, Chatar Plain, Ahl, Batal and Mongandawraha. The purpose of the research was to analyze the competitive advantage of broiler farming. There were 276 broiler farms in District Mansehra. Simple Random Sampling Technique was used for data collection from 70 respondents. Average total cost of production was found Rs. 738238.11 having average farm size of 3605 broilers. Feed and one day old chick costs constitute 90.01% of the total cost. Average expenditure on production per broiler was Rs. 220.20 having net profit per broiler of Rs. 24.11.Based on Porter study (1990), average variable cost (C) was used as a proxy for competitive advantage. Results of regression analysis show that the main factors that significantly affect competitive advantage of broiler farming in the study area was feed cost, day old chick cost, labor and medication cost while capacity utilization and extension service contacts negatively and significantly affect cost. It means that reducing the above mentioned costs and using installed capacity and extension service contacts will reduce production cost and will promote competitive advantage of broiler production. Broiler production should be encouraged through better feed management practices and also by feeding broilers with nutritious feed. Broiler farmers should be encouraged to fully use their installed capacity of their farm

Economics of Wheat Production in Mohmand Agency, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

The central theme of this research endeavour was to compute the cost and net returns of wheat crop. This study has also highlighted the significant variables contributing in wheat productivity. The study universe was two focused villages namely Malok-Korona and Peer-Qila of Ekaghund Tehsil, Mohmand Agency. The proportional allocation sampling technique was used to get the required sample size of 70 respondents. However, 26 respondents from Malok-Korona and 44 respondents from Peer-Qila were interviewed through face to face interview technique. The marked findings of this study divulge that vast majority of the farmers (61.43%) were using certified seed and the study area was predominantly dependent upon rainfall as reported by 60 % of the respondents. It is further revealed that the mean cost of production incurred by the sampled growers was estimated as Rs. 30,000 per acre. Income trend observed by 70 per cent of the respondent through wheat crop was found Rs.40000 per acre. The average income of farmers through wheat crop was Rs.35286 per acre. The estimated results of regression analysis corroborate the expected sign of the majority of coefficient of explanatory variables. Among explanatory variables seed, irrigation and labor days were significant while urea and FYM were found insignificant for crop yield. The study recommends that attempts for awareness, supply of loans, inputs like fertilizer, pesticide, apt agriculture approaches, demonstration plots and training programs should be made available to farmers for higher wheat production in Mohmand Agency

EDDense-Net: Fully Dense Encoder Decoder Network for Joint Segmentation of Optic Cup and Disc

Glaucoma is an eye disease that causes damage to the optic nerve, which can lead to visual loss and permanent blindness. Early glaucoma detection is therefore critical in order to avoid permanent blindness. The estimation of the cup-to-disc ratio (CDR) during an examination of the optical disc (OD) is used for the diagnosis of glaucoma. In this paper, we present the EDDense-Net segmentation network for the joint segmentation of OC and OD. The encoder and decoder in this network are made up of dense blocks with a grouped convolutional layer in each block, allowing the network to acquire and convey spatial information from the image while simultaneously reducing the network's complexity. To reduce spatial information loss, the optimal number of filters in all convolution layers were utilised. In semantic segmentation, dice pixel classification is employed in the decoder to alleviate the problem of class imbalance. The proposed network was evaluated on two publicly available datasets where it outperformed existing state-of-the-art methods in terms of accuracy and efficiency. For the diagnosis and analysis of glaucoma, this method can be used as a second opinion system to assist medical ophthalmologists

Point of Time and Effectiveness of Cause-Related Marketing: Strike While the Iron is Hot

“Cause” is the word of positive-valence stimuli and increasing the like-hood intend to be a pair with it. Linking of consumer purchase with social cause is common and in rising trend. It’s a favorable tool of an organization to engage consumer and make his emotional attachment in charitable cause and increase sales volume. Previous Cause Related Marketing (CrM) literature has examined the CrM in term of consumer or in term of brand or purchase, we could not find any study which is investigating the mediating role of specific time between CrM and attitudes of consumers towards brand, ad, offer and cause involvement. Present study examines the best use of CrM according to time in beverages industry on soft drink on a holy occasion of Muslims (i.e. Ramazan). An already established questioner was used for collection of data. Mall intercept convenience technique is use to gather data. It’s a multiple group analysis study, data was collected two times, once during event and once after the event, sample size was remain same both times. Morgan’s formula is used to select the size of samples. Results of study show that CrM has influence on customer attitude which was being measured in three types, furthermore these attitudes has positively influence individual’s intention to buy a specific brand in a specific time period. This study will be provided a best use of CrM campaign according to time. Research will also direct the marketers to use of CrM on a specific time to tackle their customer’s attitude

Contributing factors and their association with blood pressure control amongst hypertensive patients

Objective: To assess contributing factors and their association with blood pressure control amongst hypertensive patients.Methodology: This cross sectional comparative study was conducted at OPD general medicine dept, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, from July to December 2018. Hypertensive patients of both genders, having age more than 18 years, and on antihypertensive medication form at least six months were included in the study. Optimally controlled BP was defined as an average systolic BP < 140 and diastolic BP < 90 mmHg if the patient is younger than 60 years, or an average systolic BP < 150 and diastolic BP < 90mmHg if patient was older than 60 years. Logistic regression was applied to assess the effect of different factors on blood pressure control of the hypertensive patients.Results: In the study sample majority 107 (55.4%) of the patients belonged to 41-60 years age group, and females 106 (54.9%) were predominant. Main bulk 155 (80.3%) of the patients was married and mostly 80 (41.5%) patients had monthly income in the range of 25000-50000. About half 89 (46.1%) of the patients enrolled for the study were doing adequate physical activity. Optimized blood pressure was found in 92 (47.67%) patients.Conclusion: The proportion of hypertensive patients whose blood pressure was optimally controlled was relatively low and less than half of patients had blood pressure in acceptable limits. Age group (41-60) years, routine use of vegetable on most days of week, physical activity, adherence to treatment and taking less than three drugs have a strong relationship with blood pressure to keep in optimized limits

Diabetic foot self-care: associated risk factors, awareness and practice among type II diabetic patients

Objective: To evaluate associated risk factors, awareness and practice level of diabetic foot self-care among type II diabetic patients.Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted at outpatient departments of Akbar khan Niazi teaching hospital and PIMS hospital from June to December, 2018. All adult patients diagnosed as Diabetes Mellitus (DM) type 2 for at least one year without any foot related complication were selected. The questionnaire included on demographics and questions related to diabetes, awareness and practice of foot self-care.Results: A total of 196 patients were enrolled, majority 116 (59.18%) of which had age of 41-60 years with 105 (53.57%) of male participants, 76 (38.78%) patients were illiterate and 93 (47.45%) were unemployed or retired. Majority of the participants 109 (55.61%) had monthly income of 25000-50000. Eighty-eight (44.90%) patients were overweight and 32 (16.33%) obese. Majority 113 (57.65%) had diabetes from 5-10 years. On the basis of HbA1c level only 58 (29.59%) patients had HbA1c level of less than 7.0%. Significant number of patients had poor knowledge (41.3%) and practice level (39.8%) regarding foot care.Conclusion: Almost half of our patients attending primary healthcare centers have limited awareness and practice regarding diabetic foot self-care

Diabetic foot self-care: associated risk factors, awareness and practice among type II diabetic patients

Objective: To evaluate associated risk factors, awareness and practice level of diabetic foot self-care among type II diabetic patients.Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted at outpatient departments of Akbar khan Niazi teaching hospital and PIMS hospital from June to December, 2018. All adult patients diagnosed as Diabetes Mellitus (DM) type 2 for at least one year without any foot related complication were selected. The questionnaire included on demographics and questions related to diabetes, awareness and practice of foot self-care.Results: A total of 196 patients were enrolled, majority 116 (59.18%) of which had age of 41-60 years with 105 (53.57%) of male participants, 76 (38.78%) patients were illiterate and 93 (47.45%) were unemployed or retired. Majority of the participants 109 (55.61%) had monthly income of 25000-50000. Eighty-eight (44.90%) patients were overweight and 32 (16.33%) obese. Majority 113 (57.65%) had diabetes from 5-10 years. On the basis of HbA1c level only 58 (29.59%) patients had HbA1c level of less than 7.0%. Significant number of patients had poor knowledge (41.3%) and practice level (39.8%) regarding foot care.Conclusion: Almost half of our patients attending primary healthcare centers have limited awareness and practice regarding diabetic foot self-care