Amanita mansehraensis, a new species in section Vaginatae from Pakistan

A new species of Amanita subgenus Amanita sect. Vaginatae is described and illustrated based on material collected in pine forests in district Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw, Pakistan. Amanita mansehraensis is recognized by the presence of a light brown or light greyish olive pileus with strong brown or deep brown pileus center; non-appendiculate, rimose, sulcate or plicate striate pileus margin; subglobose to ellipsoid basidiospores; and a saccate volva. The internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) and large subunit of the nuclear ribosomal RNA gene (nrLSU) were used for the delimitation of this species based on sequence data. The evolutionary relationships of A. mansehraensis with other species of Amanita were inferred by means of Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian inferences of the nrLSU dataset and concatenated ITS+nrLSU dataset. Amanita mansehraensis is most closely related to A. brunneofuliginea, A. pseudovaginata, and the recently described A. glarea

WHAT INSPIRES CONSUMERS TO PAY MORE: MEDIATING EVIDENCE OF BRAND PREFERENCE

The recent developments in branding have changed the market trend, and people are willing to pay more for branded products. The basic aim of this research work is to investigate the impact of brand image on the customer’s willingness to pay more/price premium for the branded products. This study also focuses on how customers brand preferences mediate this relationship. A deductive approach has been used for this study. The population of this research is the consumers of the fast-food industry. To evaluate the hypothesized relationship, the data is collected from 550 students from three different universities in Lahore, Pakistan. The SPSS Amos software has been used to analyze the data through correlation coefficient and regression analysis. This research study provides useful information to policy-makers in identifying and analyzing the factors that can play an essential role in building a favorable brand image in the minds of customers

Are Leaders’ Personality Traits Imperative For Employees’ Job Performance? The Context Of An Emerging Economy

Leader’s personality considerably influences the behavior of employees and is perhaps one of the most important predictor of their job performance. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the personality-performance paradigm in the context of emerging economies. Personality was assessed through big five traits, namely openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. While task performance attribute of job performance was considered as dependent variable. Stratified sampling technique was deployed to gather data from 149 SMEs belonging to diversified business sectors operating in the industrial city of Gujranwala, Pakistan. Cronbach’s alpha test endorsed the consistency of survey questionnaire, and multiple regression analysis was used to test hypotheses. All of the personality traits, with the exception of neuroticism, are found to be valid predictors of employee job performance, though the degree and significance of correlation varies. The study contributes to the enhanced understanding of the personality-performance relationship and highlights the desirable personality inventories of potential leaders and entrepreneurs. Broader practical implications and recommendations for future research bring the discussion to the close

Population Diversity and Role in the Socioeconomic Development of Domestic Buffaloes of Rural Areas of District Haripur, KPK Pakistan

This study conducted as a type of survey in a time period duration of 6 month that starts from the end of the march to the end of September total of the 1000 houses were visited from each of the selected villages of Haripur Pakistan along with 100 dairy farms study carried out by the questionnaires and by the direct meeting with the keepers of buffalos. Four villages were selected where the highest population of buffaloes were found in Syria maira. The farm buffalos were kept mostly for the purpose of selling the milk Results showed that the most of the areas the buffalo keeping is for the purpose of selling the milk wile in other where the selling rate is not found they keep them for their own food and milk purposes. It facilitate their economic status to rise as a part time job. Government should take steps to rise there stander

an empirical study

Thesis(Master) --KDI School:Master of Public Policy,2017Cutting edge speculations of endogenous development have significantly restored the examination of the relations amongst instruction and wellbeing (human capital), movement (cerebrum deplete) and financial development. Human capital and aptitudes matter is endogenous. Just we can say that Brain deplete is the movement of talented HR starting with one nation then onto the next nation. Prepared wellbeing experts are required in all aspects of the world. The objective of this research is to examine, the effect of brain drain on growth of Pakistan’s economy from the year 1980 to 2016. In this study we used economic growth as dependent variable with GPD as its proxy, FDI with proxy of net inflow in million dollars, exports having proxy of net exports in million dollars, exchange rate through official exchange rate and inflation rate for which Consumer Price Index-CPI is used as independent variable. We employed OLS model to the test the effect of brain drain on economic growth. The stationary of variable is showed/confirmed with the help of Augmented Dickey Fuller –ADF Test and Phillip Parron-PP Test. The empirical results shown that there is significant negative relationship between brain drain and economic growth of Pakistan. In addition, the hypothesis has also proved that brain drain and other descriptive variables have significant negative impact on economic growth. However, Labor migration alone does not impact on growth of economy but many other factors also effect directly or indirectly.1 Introduction 2 Literature Review 3 Research Methodology 4 Conclusion and Policy RecommendationsmasterpublishedMuhammad Farhan FIAZ

Boron, zinc and microtone effects on growth, chlorophyll contents and yield attributes in rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivar

The micronutrient required in minute quantity and their deficiency leads to diminished growth and yield of crops. The effect of soil application of Zinc (Zn), Boron (B) and Microtone (MT) on growth, chlorophyll contents, mineral profile and yield components were investigated in rice at Chakkanwali Reclamation Research Station District, Gujranwala, Pakistan in the year 2011. Seven treatments which includes Zn 33% at 3 kg/acre, Zn 33% at 6 kg/acre, B 11.3% at 1.5 kg/acre, B 11.3% at 3 kg/acre, Zn + B at 3 + 1.5 kg/acre, Zn + B at 6 + 3 kg/acre and MT + Zn 6% + B + Fe + Mn + Cu 1% each at 500 ml/acre, and F0 considered as the control were used. The results reveal that foliar application of Zn and B (Zn + B at 6 + 3 kg/acre) were proved as the best balanced fertilizer dose for higher growth and yield response. The plant height, tiller/plant, panicle length, kernels/plant, filled kernel/plant, productive kernel, straw, paddy and biological yield increased up to 29.75, 38.40, 28.19, 25.81, 36.52, 38.52, 32.47, 38.27 and 31.79%, respectively. The chlorophyll contents, B and Zn contents in rice plant also increased significantly as compared to the control. However, the B, Zn and MT application reduced the amylase and protein contents of rice plant at all treatment levels.Keywords: Micronutrients, rice crop, growth, chlorophyll contents, Oryza sativa L., yield attribute

Determinants Of Non-Performing Loans: An Empirical Investigation Of Bank-Specific Microeconomic Factors

The empirical study was undertaken to explore the determinants of non-performing loans (NPLs) of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector held by the commercial banks. Stratified sampling technique was used to collect primary data through well-structured survey questionnaire from credit analysts / bankers of 42 branches of 9 commercial banks, operating in the district of Lahore (Pakistan), for 2014-2015. Selective descriptive analysis and Pearson chi-square technique were used to illustrate and evaluate the significance of different variables affecting NPLs. Branch age, duration of the loan, and credit policy were found to be significant determinants of NPLs. The study proposes that bank-specific and SME-specific microeconomic variables directly influence NPLs, while macroeconomic factors act as intermediary variables. The results elaborate various origins of NPLs and suggest that they are primarily instigated by the loan sanctioning procedure of the financial institution. The paper also underlines the risk management practices adopted by the bank at branch level to averse the risk of loan default. Empirical investigation of bank-specific microeconomic factors of NPLs with respect to Pakistan’s economy is the novelty of the study. Broader strategic policy implications are provided for credit analysts and entrepreneurs

In vitro phytochemical analysis, antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of Mallotus Philippinensis

Background: Mallotus Philippinensis belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae was broadly utilized in traditional medicines especially in the tropical areas. Mostly distributed in the Himalaya from Kashmir East wards besides tropical India. The plant contains high content of steroids, diterpenoids, triterpenoids, flavonoids, phenols, proteins, saponins, alkaloids and carbohydrates. The previous studies demonstrated that plant exerted significant pharmacological effects like anti-helminthics, antifilarial, antiparasitic, antiulcer, antifungal, antibacterial and immuno-regulatory properties, and as an aphrodisiac. Still antimicrobial activities from different solvent extracts of this plant needed to explore.Objective: The goal of the present investigation was to evaluate the phytochemical constituents, antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant activity from the extract of plant Mallotus Philippinensis. Method: The ethanolic crude extract of plant was extracted by using maceration method. The resulting extracts were used to examined the antibacterial activity by disc diffusion method against some clinical strains (Bacillus, E. coli, S. aureus, Salmonella, Epidermites, E. facillus, Pseudomonas) and some ATCC strains (Bacillus, E. coli, S. aureus, K. pneumonia, Pseudomonas) and Phytoconstituents was also investigated for the presence or absence of various metabolites like proteins, carbohydrates, alkaloids , steroids flavonoids and saponin test. The DPPH method was used to determine the antioxidant activity. Results: The ethanol extract exhibit positive results for the inhibition of Bacillus, E. coli, S.aureus, Salmonella , Epidermites, E. facillus , Pseudomonas and also exhibit positive results for ATCC strains Bacillus , E.coli , S. aureus , K.pneumonia , Pseudomonas. The extract showed the presence of proteins, steroids, carbohydrates, alkaloids, flavonoids and saponin in the phytochemical screening. DPPH free radical scavenging activity assay disclosed the remarkable antioxidant activity of different parts of Mallotus Philippinensis ethanolic crude extracts. Conclusion: The findings of present project indicated that ethanolic extracts of Mallotus Philippinensis are sensitive against test bacteria. They also show antioxidant activity, and they contain rich number of phyto-constituents. In current study only crude extract was investigated for different curative effects against certain standard microbial strain. In future these extracts were considered after purification for development of various therapeutic agents

SA2-Net: Scale-aware Attention Network for Microscopic Image Segmentation

Microscopic image segmentation is a challenging task, wherein the objective is to assign semantic labels to each pixel in a given microscopic image. While convolutional neural networks (CNNs) form the foundation of many existing frameworks, they often struggle to explicitly capture long-range dependencies. Although transformers were initially devised to address this issue using self-attention, it has been proven that both local and global features are crucial for addressing diverse challenges in microscopic images, including variations in shape, size, appearance, and target region density. In this paper, we introduce SA2-Net, an attention-guided method that leverages multi-scale feature learning to effectively handle diverse structures within microscopic images. Specifically, we propose scale-aware attention (SA2) module designed to capture inherent variations in scales and shapes of microscopic regions, such as cells, for accurate segmentation. This module incorporates local attention at each level of multi-stage features, as well as global attention across multiple resolutions. Furthermore, we address the issue of blurred region boundaries (e.g., cell boundaries) by introducing a novel upsampling strategy called the Adaptive Up-Attention (AuA) module. This module enhances the discriminative ability for improved localization of microscopic regions using an explicit attention mechanism. Extensive experiments on five challenging datasets demonstrate the benefits of our SA2-Net model. Our source code is publicly available at \url{https://github.com/mustansarfiaz/SA2-Net}.Comment: BMVC 2023 accepted as ora