GENDER COMPARISON STUDY OF ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION AMONG UNIVERSITY LEVEL BASKETBALL

The purpose of the current research is to explore the difference in the achievement Motivation level between male and female basketball players of Pakistan. The Achievement motivation is one of the types of motivation, which resolves around athlete’s persistence in the face of failure, willingness to approach the success, and experience of pride after the task accomplishment. People, who are achievement motivated, are very wise in their goal setting, they set moderate to difficult goals. The Sports Orientation questionnaire (SOQ) developed by Gill & Deeter (1988) was used to investigate the answer of “which gender has more achievement motivation for basketball at intervarsity level”. A total of 150 university level male & female students have voluntarily participated in the present research study. For statistical procedure, independent t-test at the set level of significance 0.05 was used to test the hypothesis. The Findings showed no consequential difference in the achievement motivation and mean score of male and female university level basketball players

The effect of grandmultiparity on pregnancy related complications: The Aga Khan University experience

Background: Grandmultiparity has been associated with complications for both mother and the fetus.Objective: To evaluate if grandmultiparity is a risk factor in the presence of adequate antenatal care.Setting: A tertiary care teaching hospital.Methods: It was a retrospective study conducted in the department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at The Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi. During this period 9253 women were delivered, out of these 143 booked grandmultiparas (GMP) served as cases. The outcome of these women was compared with 430 non-grandmultiparas (NGMP). Logistic regression model was used to adjust for potential confounders.Results: Grandmultiparas had almost three times increased risk of having postpartum hemorrhage compared to NGMP group. Similarly, there were significantly low five-minute apgars in the GMPs compared to the NGMP group. Although the neonatal intensive care admissions were three times more in the GMPs but this did not reach statistical significance due to small number of cases in both groups.Conclusion: Our study indicates that grandmultiparity is a risk factor for pregnancy in this part of the world, even in the presence of reasonable antenatal care. This may be explained on the basis of the increased age of these women. Finally, we also recommend that an age-matched study needs to be undertaken in order to determine if age is an important determinant for risk factors in grandmultiparas

Comparative Pathogenicity of Liver Homogenate and Cell Culture Propagated Hydropericardium Syndrome Virus in Broiler Birds

Comparative pathogenicity of liver homogenate and cell culture propagated agents of hydropericardium syndrome was studied in broiler birds. In Experiment I, 25-day-old while in experiment II, broiler birds at different ages were inoculated through different routes. In Experiment I, liver homogenate caused 64% mortality through intramuscular route and 33.33% mortality through oral route. The cell culture propagated HPS virus caused 60 and 13.33% mortality in broiler birds through intramuscular and oral routes, respectively. In Experiment II, none of the day-old-chicks died when challenged with liver homogenate and cell culture propagated HPS virus through S/C and oral route. The liver homogenate and cell culture propagated HPS virus caused higher mortality in different age groups of broiler birds through s/c route compared to oral route. The values of hemoglobin (Hb) and packed cell volume (PCV) showed highly significant (P<0.05) reduction indicating anemia. The values of Hb and PCV of the broiler birds inoculated with infectious liver homogenate were significantly lower as compared to birds inoculated with cell culture propagated HPS virus. The results indicated that the liver homogenate is more pathogenic than cell culture propagated HPS virus. These changes may be due to adoptability of the original FAdVs (fowl adenovirus) after continued passages in the culture of chicken embryo liver cells. Importance of this study in vaccine production is also discussed

Fodder Yield, Nutrient Uptake and Quality of Oats (\u3cem\u3eAvena sativa\u3c/em\u3e L.) as Influenced by Different Agronomic Practices

The green fodder requirement and availability in India does not match and leaves a shortfall of about 63%. There is a little possibility of any tangible increase in fodder area due to competition from other economically competitive agricultural crops (Aulakh et al., 2012). Therefore, there is urgent need to maximize the tonnage and quality of fodder within the existing farming systems. Multicut nature of the crop ensures continuous supply of fodder. Kashmir valley possesses temperate type of climate, with snowfall and harsh conditions in the winter. Behaviour of crop under these conditions is entirely different from rest of country, which can be modified through different agronomic manipulations to derive maximum benefits. Sowing time has great impact on fodder yield. In agronomic techniques fertilizer management is the most important aspect. To improve supply of fodder over a period best cutting management needs to be evaluated. In view of these an experiment was undertaken to study the response of fodder oat to different sowing dates, fertility levels and cutting managements

Human-like Planning for Reaching in Cluttered Environments

Humans, in comparison to robots, are remarkably adept at reaching for objects in cluttered environments. The best existing robot planners are based on random sampling of configuration space- which becomes excessively high-dimensional with large number of objects. Consequently, most planners often fail to efficiently find object manipulation plans in such environments. We addressed this problem by identifying high-level manipulation plans in humans, and transferring these skills to robot planners. We used virtual reality to capture human participants reaching for a target object on a tabletop cluttered with obstacles. From this, we devised a qualitative representation of the task space to abstract the decision making, irrespective of the number of obstacles. Based on this representation, human demonstrations were segmented and used to train decision classifiers. Using these classifiers, our planner produced a list of waypoints in task space. These waypoints provided a high-level plan, which could be transferred to an arbitrary robot model and used to initialise a local trajectory optimiser. We evaluated this approach through testing on unseen human VR data, a physics-based robot simulation, and a real robot (dataset and code are publicly available 1 ). We found that the human-like planner outperformed a state-of-the-art standard trajectory optimisation algorithm, and was able to generate effective strategies for rapid planning- irrespective of the number of obstacles in the environment

Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Plasma Mineral Chemistry as Affected by Dietary Chloride and Chloride Salts Fed to Broiler Chickens Reared under Phase Feeding System

Requirements of dietary chloride (dCl) and chloride salts were determined by using 4×2 factorial arrangement under four phase feeding program. Four levels (0.31, 0.45, 0.59 and 0.73%) and two sources (NH4Cl and CaCl2) of the dCl were allocated to 1,472 chicks in eight dietary treatments in which each treatment was replicated four times with 46 birds per replicate. The four phase feeding program was comprised of four dietary phases: Prestarter (d 1 to 10), Starter (d 11 to 20), Grower (d 21 to 33) and Finisher (d 34 to 42); and diets were separately prepared for each phase. The cations, anions, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), temperature, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS) and salinity were analyzed in drinking water and were not affected by dietary treatments. BW gain (BWG; p≤0.009) and feed:gain (FG; p≤0.03) were improved in CaCl2 supplemented diets during d 1 to 10. The maximum response of BWG and FG was observed at 0.38% and 0.42% dCl, respectively, for d 34 to 42. However, the level of dCl for BWG during d 21 to 33 (p≤0.04) and d 34 to 42 (p≤0.009) was optimized at 0.60% and 0.42%, respectively. The level of dCl for optimized feed intake (FI; p≤0.006), FG (p≤0.007) and litter moisture (LM; p≤0.001) was observed at 0.60%, 0.38% and 0.73%, respectively, for d 1 to 42. Water intake (DWI) was not affected by increasing dCl supplementation (p>0.05); however, the ratio between DWI and FI (DWI:FI) was found highest at 0.73% dCl during d 1 to 10 (p≤0.05) and d 21 to 33 (p≤0.009). Except for d 34 to 42 (p≤0.006), the increasing level of dCl did not result in a significant difference in mortality during any phase. Blood pH and glucose, and breast and thigh weights (percentage of dressed weight) were improved while dressing percentage (DP) and gastrointestinal health were exacerbated with NH4Cl as compared to CaCl2 supplemented diets (p≤0.001). Higher plasma Na+ and HCO3− and lower Cl− and Ca++ were observed in NH4Cl supplemented diets (p≤0.001). Increasing supplementation of dCl increased plasma Cl− (p≤0.04; quadratically) and linearly reduced plasma K+ (p≤0.001), Ca++ (p≤0.003), HCO3− (p≤0.001), and Na+ (p≤0.001; quadratically). Consequently, higher requirements of dietary chloride are suggested for feed intake; nevertheless, lower levels of dietary chloride are sufficient to support optimal BWG and FG with increasing age. The NH4Cl supplemented diets ameliorate breast and thigh meat yield along with overall energy balance (glucose)

Genetic diversity studies in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) using molecular markers

Molecular characterization of thirteen common bean genotypes was done with random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. Initially, 15 primers were screened out of which only seven were selected which generated a total of 65 amplification products out of which 63 bands (96.62%) were polymorphic indicating fair amount of polymorphism. The genotypes shared 43% genetic similarity among themselves. Cluster analysis delineated the genotypes into three groups with seven, five and one genotype in cluster-I, II and III, respectively. The maximum similarity index (82.35) based dice similarity coefficient was obtained between SKUA-R-21 and SKUA-R-19, while it was minimum (27.72) between genotypes PBG-29 and SKUA-R-01.Key words: Genetic divergence, common bean, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)

Feasibility Study of a Facility to Produce Injection Molded Parts for Automotive Industry

[EN] This study aims at the preliminary assessment in designing a complete stand-alone industrial facility to produce injection molded parts for the automotive industry. A draft design solution to allow the company to evaluate the capital investment was performed giving an estimated solution in project profitability. Proposed successive design steps were developed. It includes the definition of input data and information, quantity determination, plat layout diagrams, machine selection, selection of material handling equipment, plant layout design including space requirements of production centers, aísles, support functions. Moreover, the outdoor facility masterplan design is also proposed. Finally, investment calculation via cash flow analysis is calculated.Yudianto, A.; Tan, H.; Qu, Z.; Xue, Q.; Naveen, A.; Mushtaq, M.; Gopi, K. (2020). Feasibility Study of a Facility to Produce Injection Molded Parts for Automotive Industry. 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Cell stemness is maintained upon concurrent expression of RB and the mitochondrial ribosomal protein S18-2

Stemness encompasses the capability of a cell for self-renewal and differentiation. The stem cell maintains a balance between proliferation, quiescence, and regeneration via interactions with the microenvironment. Previously, we showed that ectopic expression of the mitochondrial ribosomal protein S18-2 (MRPS18-2) led to immortalization of primary fibroblasts, accompanied by induction of an embryonic stem cell (ESC) phenotype. Moreover, we demonstrated interaction between S18-2 and the retinoblastoma-associated protein (RB) and hypothesized that the simultaneous expression of RB and S18-2 is essential for maintaining cell stemness. Here, we experimentally investigated the role of S18-2 in cell stemness and differentiation. Concurrent expression of RB and S18-2 resulted in immortalization of Rb1−/− primary mouse embryonic fibroblasts and in aggressive tumor growth in severe combined immunodeficiency mice. These cells, which express both RB and S18-2 at high levels, exhibited the potential to differentiate into various lineages in vitro, including osteogenic, chondrogenic, and adipogenic lineages. Mechanistically, S18-2 formed a multimeric protein complex with prohibitin and the ring finger protein 2 (RNF2). This molecular complex increased the monoubiquitination of histone H2ALys119, a characteristic trait of ESCs, by enhanced E3-ligase activity of RNF2. Furthermore, we found enrichment of KLF4 at the S18-2 promoter region and that the S18-2 expression is positively correlated with KLF4 levels. Importantly, knockdown of S18-2 in zebrafish larvae led to embryonic lethality. Collectively, our findings suggest an important role for S18-2 in cell stemness and differentiation and potentially also in cancerogenesis