Plant Health

Environment friendly control of plant disease is an emerging need for agriculture in the twenty‐first century. Biological control using antimicrobial producing rhizobacteria to suppress plant diseases and promote plant health offers a powerful alternative to the use of synthetic chemicals. Many studies have been conducted to identify the specific traits by which plant growth‐promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) promote plant growth. Most of these studies were limited to examining just one or two of these traits. The plant growth‐promoting rhizobacteria produce a wide variety of antimicrobial compounds against pathogens. The addition of antagonistic antimicrobial producing bacterial strains, either individual or as mixture in combination with fungicide, significantly decreased the plant disease stress. A single PGPR strain can produce different kinds of antimicrobial defense compounds to compete pathogens. A biocontrol agent possessing multimechanism systems of defense can antagonize pathogens in a better way. This research chapter highlights the current advancements about plant‐PGPR interactions focusing on the principles and defensive mechanisms of PGPR during disease stress conditions and their potential use for the biocontrol of plant diseases. The integrated use of genetic, molecular, and ecological approaches will form the basis for significant future advances in biocontrol research against plant diseases

Novel Thieno[3,4-b]pyrazine based π-conjugated polymers for optoelectronic devices

Conjugated polymers have attracted considerable attention as a new class of electronic material, since the study of these systems has generated entirely new scientific concepts as well as potential for new technology. Conjugated polymers are organic semiconductors and as such important materials for applications in electronic and photonic devices. Prime examples are polymeric light-emitting diodes, plastic lasers, and polymer based photovoltaic cells, but at least in principle, conjugated polymers should be able to pertain all of the functions an inorganic semiconductor displays, FETs, and may lead in the future to "molecular electronics". The primary advantage of organic polymers over their inorganic counterparts is their ease of processing by dip coating, spin casting, printing, or use of doctor blade techniques. However, conjugated polymers are likewise important as sensory materials for water, organic vapors, and explosives either by fluorescence quenching or in artificial nose devices, which change their conductivity upon exposure to a suitable analyte

PSYCHO-SOCIAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IN ELEMENTRAY CLASSROOMS AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Teaching learning process, being complex, social, dynamic andinteractive in its nature, is prone to be affected by the psycho-sociallearning environment present in the classrooms. This study wasconducted to explore the prevailing psycho-social learning environmentand its relationship with students’ academic achievement at elementarylevel in District Attock. The population consisted of all the elementaryteachers of Mathematics for 7th Graders of public schools in all six subdistricts of District Attock. Three sub districts (Jund, Hassan Abdal, andPindi Gheb) were selected through cluster sampling technique. Twohundred and twelve mathematics elementary teachers were included inthe sample. For observation, purposive sample was further delimited to25% of the sample of the study. Thus, classrooms of 53 teachers wereobserved. An observation sheet based on three scales of ‘What IsHappening in the Class?’(WIHIC) questionnaire was used for datacollection, while academic achievement of 7th graders was assessedthrough the marks of quarterly exams. Collected data were analyzedthrough SPSS by mean score while Pearson “r” was used to find therelationship between psychosocial environment and academicachievement and standardized regression weights “β” was also appliedto find the effect of psychosocial environment on academic achievement.The findings revealed that most of the elementary classrooms werepsychosocially desirable and were found to be Task oriented andCooperative while Involvement was also found significant at elementarylevel. Positive and significant relationship between psychosociallearning environment and academic achievement was also found

An Analysis on Increasingly Global Manifestation of Education: A Study of Views of Faculty and Scholars of HEIS of Pakistan

Globalization has created the need for global citizens that have a keen awareness of the political, economic, social, and environmental concerns of our time (Bonk 2009). Rapid advancements in technology have made for profound paradigm shifts in almost every arena especially in education. The notion of global citizenship can took place as a result of both global education and the globalization of education in developing an international curriculum standard (Spring 2009). Purposes of this study were: (i). to investigate the demands of education as a business in response to globalization. (ii). to highlight the role of civil society and international organizations in the expansion of global education. (iii). to find the role of global pedagogy and curriculum in the globalization of education and global citizenship. The study was delimited to Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad. Population of the study was consisting of teachers and students.05 teachers of department of teacher education and 50 students of PhD were taken as a sample. The mixed method approach was used for this study. A questionnaire was used as research tool for the both population. Collected data were analyzed through SPSS by running frequencies, mean score, percentage and standard deviation. The main findings of the study revealed that global education through a business perspective, both for-profit and not-for-profit affects at the individual, local community, national government, and international organization level.  With the help of new technologies, we see increased interaction between these realms, fostering new partnerships, initiatives, and standards. The clear advantage to involve organizations is that learners can experience new and better types of communication and interaction. The role of global pedagogy and curriculum is largely accepted goal for global education to help students develop an understanding of the interdependence. It was recommended that schools and institutions of higher education should work to provide students with increasingly global perspectives while teaching those highly desirable 21st century skills. Keywords: Globalization, global education, expansion, pedagog

Telemedicine: A new frontier in clinical practice

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the important role of telemedicine as a tool for safe healthcare delivery across the world. While its use was more common in the developed world, the developing world has also adopted this strategy. It is important to develop a clear process and contextual guidance for effective use of this strategy for better patient-doctor interaction and its role in teaching/learning of trainees

Concept Mapping for Improving Expository Writing in Second Language

one from academic point of view. The students at intermediate level need to practice expository essay writing to be able to write fluently in their university stage ahead. The study investigated the effects of conceptmapping strategy on expository writing skill of the students atintermediate level. The study was experimental in nature with pretestposttest control group design. To this end, forty students fromGovernment Girls Higher Secondary School from Intermediate Part IIwere selected as an average sample after their Proficiency in EnglishLanguage Test (PET). They were divided into two equivalent groupsafter pretest. The concept mapping treatment was given to theexperimental group for six weeks. They composed 10 expository essaysfollowing concept mapping strategy for each essay. The control groupwas taught in a conventional way. Pretest-Posttest score difference ofwriting achievement of control and experimental groups revealedsignificant difference. It was observed that the he treatment group wrotemore organized, extensive, comprehensive and rich essays than thosewritten by students of control group. The findings suggest that conceptmapping is a practical tool in prompting expository writing skill of thestudents at intermediate level in Pakistani perspective