Molecular phylogeny and morphological characterization of Leucocoprinus birnbaumii from Punjab, Pakistan

Background: Leucocoprinus in Agaricaceae is a genus distributed worldwide and represented by nearly 50 species. From Pakistan, only four species in this genus have been known so far.Methods: The specimen was identified by morphological and anatomical characters combining with sequence analysis of nrDNA-ITS region.Results: Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, a bright yellow mushroom found on wood log from Sialkot district, Punjab, Pakistan. This species is identified by its medium sized bell-shaped pileus bearing the same colored squamule with sulcate striate margins, presence of metachromatic basidiospores and pseudoparaphyses around the basidia. Molecular data also supported its taxonomy as L. birnbaumii. The species is being described for the first time based on morphological and anatomical characters in combination with molecular phylogeny using ITS region of nrDNA.Conclusion: Leucocoprinus birnbaumii is widely distributed in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and South America. It grows in tropical and sub-tropical areas. Its occurrence in Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan with humid subtropical climate represents its wide ecological amplitude and geographic distribution.Keywords: Humid subtropical climate; ITS; nrDNA; Taxonomy   

Exploring strategies in-use for teaching and assessing narrative writing of grade five students belonging to a government primary school of Bin Qasim town, Karachi

Mastery over English language writing skills is considered a necessity in this highly competitive information age (Hyland, 2015; Nunan, 2015). Therefore, the Pakistani education system puts great emphasis on the development of the English language writing skills as the National Curriculum (2006) and the current Single National Curriculum (2020) for grades I-V urge students to produce many genres of writing such as narrative, descriptive, expository, and argumentative texts. Narrative writing is considered most appropriate for building fluency and mechanics in young children as they already have basic knowledge of storytelling when their parents or teachers start narrating fairy tales, fables, and myths (Westby & Culatta, 2016; Yuskar, 2021). Considering the importance of narrative writing skills, this study was carried out to explore the strategies of teaching and assessing narrative writing of grade five students of a government boys’ primary school situated in a rural context of Karachi i.e. Bin Qasim Town, which is a multilingual context but where access and exposure to the target language, to English, is limited.This research was conducted using an exploratory case study method. One grade five English language teacher and six grade five students of the target school participated in this study. The data was collected through individual interview, focus group discussion, classroom observations, and document analysis. Study findings reveal that traditional methods of teaching and assessment are being used for teaching and assessing students\u27 narrative writing skills in the language classroom of the school serving as the research site. In addition, the findings of the study highlight that grade five students are not given sufficient opportunities to participate in the process of writing texts. Consequently, there are various challenges that these grade five students appear to face while learning different genres of writing skills, including narrative writing skills. In fact, the severity of the situation can be gauged from the fact no evidence was found in the study that indicated that students of Grade V in the research site are able to produce independent narrative texts of their own. Therefore, this study recommends policy responses such as providing professional development courses for government school grade five English language teachers to teach and assess narrative writing skills so they can actually help grade five students to enhance their narrative writing skills and become independent writers

Moderating Effect of Marital Status among Mindfulness, Procrastination and Job Performance of Employees

Self-determination theory and job resource demand model is widely applied framework to understand mindfulness, procrastination and job performance of employees in organizational settings. The endeavor of the current research is to understand the moderating role of marital status among mindfulness, procrastination and job performance. Performance is behavior and is closely related to productivity in an organization. Although, job performance have several determinants where cognitive or mental ability is one of the determinants of job performance (Schmitt & Hunter, 2004). Purposive sampling technique was applied based on cross sectional approach. Mindfulness attention awareness scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003) Tuckman’s procrastination scale (TPS; Tuckman, 1991) and job performance scale (JPS; Wright, Kacmar, Mcmahan & Deleeuw, 1995) were used on the sample of 400 employees working in telecom organizations. The correlation as well as moderation analysis were carried out to investigate the study data. Findings demonstrate the relationship of mindfulness, procrastination and job performance whereas marital status is performing moderating role among study variables. The results support the self-determination theory and job resource demand model

Can Gender Moderate the Relationship of Mindfulness, Procrastination and Job Performance Among Telecom Employees?

Job demand resource model and self-determination theory is widely used for understanding procrastination, mindfulness, job performance and gender in organizational settings. The job demand resource model has been further used to understand gender as moderator among employee’s with mindfulness, procrastination and job performance. The present study focuses on gender as moderator in mindfulness, procrastination and job performance among male and female employees. The Purposive sampling technique with cross-sectional approach was applied. Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003), Tuckman’s Procrastination Scale (TPS; Tuckman, 1991), and Job Performance Scale (JP-S; Wright, Kacmar, Mcmahan, &Deleeuw, 1995) were  used to collect data from 400 employees working in telecom organizations in Rawalpindi and Islamabad city. The t-test and Hayes process were used to study correlation and moderation among study variables. It has been found female employees have mindfulness and procrastination tendencies then male employees whereas male employees were higher on job performance then female employees. Additionally, gender has non-significant effect on mindfulness, procrastination and job performance among employees. The results support the job resource demand model and self-determination theory. According to JDR model, job demands, and resources play important role in job performance of an employee in organizations and self-determination theory supports that mindfulness inhibit procrastination behavior and improve job performance of employees in organizations. These findings also suggest that procrastination could inhibit job performance among employees. Therefore, job performance could be stimulated by individual mindfulness in male and female employees

Sécurisation des communications et des réseaux informatiques dans des environnements tri-partites

PARIS5-BU Saints-Pères (751062109) / SudocSudocFranceF

In silico computation of functional SNPs of CYP2U1 protein leading to hereditary spastic paraplegia

Hereditary spastic paraplegia is a genetically heterogeneous neurological disease mainly characterized by growing spasticity in a lower limb area. Spastic paraplegia 56 (SPG56) causes the autosomal recessive form of hereditary spastic paraplegia. Over time, many attempts have been made to find heterogeneity in the genome to identify the major carriers of genetic disorders. In this work, computational tools were employed to identify the pathogenic missense variants of SPG56 (Spastic paraplegia 56) that can essentially cause HSP. Various in silico tools were utilized to perform variation analysis. A variant list containing 428 variants was retrieved from gnomAD, which was later passed through several phases of stringent analysis. Furthermore, the data was cross-checked to eventually determine the highly pathogenic missense variants of SPG56. Consequently, 12 missense variants were obtained which are predicted to induce highly damaging effects on the structural and functional characteristics of CYP2U1