A Calculus of Mobility and Communication for Ubiquitous Computing

We propose a Calculus of Mobility and Communication (CMC) for the modelling of mobility, communication and context-awareness in the setting of ubiquitous computing. CMC is an ambient calculus with the in and out capabilities of Cardelli and Gordon's Mobile Ambients. The calculus has a new form of global communication similar to that in Milner's CCS. In CMC an ambient is tagged with a set of ports that agents executing inside the ambient are allowed to communicate on. It also has a new context-awareness feature that allows ambients to query their location. We present reduction semantics and labelled transition system semantics of CMC and prove that the semantics coincide. A new notion of behavioural equivalence is given by defining capability barbed bisimulation and congruence which is proved to coincide with barbed bisimulation congruence. The expressiveness of the calculus is illustrated by two case studies.Comment: In Proceedings WWV 2015, arXiv:1508.0338

Re-imagining the nature of development: Biodiversity conservation and pastoral visions in the Northern Areas, Pakistan

Examines how, in the mountainous village of Shimshal, national parks and “community-based” conservation projects such as trophy hunting are deeply problematic, promoting exploitive ideologies of nature and development while delegitimizing the values and rights of pastoralists. The Shimshalis have creatively resisted the appropriations of their land by creating a Shimshal Nature Trust, implementing a model of ecological sovereignty instead of “community participation”—challenging the very logic of protected areas in international conservation

Spaces of nature: Producing Gilgit-Baltistan as the eco-body of the nation

A while ago, when I was studying in Grade 8 at an English-medium school in Lahore, our class was divided up in four groups for a Geography project on Pakistan. The group of which I was a part had to make a sculptural map of Pakistan, demonstrating the diverse physical and social qualities of its landscape. And so we had set about carving our country with materials like styro-foam, cotton, cloth, and cardboard. In the final map that we made, the region of Gilgit-Baltistan - then the “Northern Areas” – had remained unlabeled and unpeopled, marked only with mountains made of clay. Even today, nature remains the primary modality through which Gilgit-Baltistan is understood within the Pakistani national imagination. Its magnificent peaks and breathtaking valleys invoke within Pakistanis a simultaneous sense of emotional attachment and proud ownership, permitting them to claim Pakistan as “beautiful”. In this article, I elaborate how the aesthetics of nature constitute a key terrain for state power in Pakistan. Gilgit-Baltistan is integral to the way in which the spatial structure, geographical essence, and physical-ecological constitution of the Pakistani nation/state is imagined, and as such, the region helps to consolidate a sense of the national self through the definition of the natural self. If maps produce the geo-body of the nation (Winichakul 1997), then representational practices surrounding the ecology of particular regions serve to constitute what I call the eco-body of the nation, converting natural splendor into territorial essence and epitome. I have retained the region’s previous name of “Northern Areas” in this article, as the analysis was undertaken prior to the name change in 2009

MLIS Curriculum at Punjab University: Perception and Reflections

This study explores the history of curriculum revision in the department of LIS University of the Punjab (PU) Lahore. It focuses on the perceptions of PU alumni about the MLIS curricula. t investigates their satisfaction with curriculum, learning, faculty, instructional methods, instructional facilities, etc., through a questionnaire survey. The sample of 40 professionals who were graduates of three academic years (from 2005-2007) was selected. The findings reveal that 78 percent were up to 50 perrcent satisfied with the LIS curricula. Graduates will have to develop market-oriented skills, by improving communication skills, problem-solving, knowledge of IT, presentation skills, and proficiency in English

Flexo electro-optic Liquid Crystals for Phase Modulation

Soft matter, self-assembled 3D photonic structures such as blue phase liquid crystals have of great interest to the displays industry and are highly desirable as spatial light modulators because of their polarisation independence and fast switching. However, these types of devices suffer from multistep fabrication conditions and require high threshold voltages. To overcome these limitations, two key points were considered: High flexoelectric liquid crystals are capable of uniform 3D self-assembly, with a wide temperature range but have high threshold voltages, whereas, other classes of high dielectric liquid crystals have fast electro-optic response times with low threshold voltages but show poor 3D self-assembly. In this work, new mixture formulations have been devised having both properties in moderation in order to achieve simple yet stable 3D self-assembled blue phases with fast response times at as low as possible applied fields. Dielectric materials were considered from a commercial source whereas, miscible flexoelectric soft materials were synthesised in-house. These synthesised materials were fully characterised. Then mixtures were formulated in commercial high dielectric hosts to study their miscibility, new mesogenic transitions and electro-optic responses in terms of flexoelectric and dielectric properties. The selected mixtures were further investigated for the rapid growth of blue phases and their compatibility with reactive mesogens to form stable blue phases at room temperature. This new formulation of materials has given rise to mixtures and devices which are inherently easy to fabricate allowing the robust and resilient growth of blue phases under an hour in standard laboratory conditions. Furthermore, polarisation independent electro-optic switching has been characterised at fields <1V micron m-1. For phase modulation studies of these stabilised blue phase devices, phase shift was measured using a modified Young’s slit interferometer. The observed results were very promising, with a full 2.5 pi phase shift observed at a field of 9.25 V micron m-1 when compared to earlier reported devices (which required complicated multistep fabrication processes) giving values of full 1.8 pi phase shifts at 20 V micron m-1.EPRSC, Merck KGa

Addressing Depression among Women through Action on the Social Determinants of Health in Pakistan: A Literature Review

Depressive disorders constitute a substantial proportion of the global disease burden. These disorders are a major public health concern for both developed and developing countries, with particularly high prevalence observed in Pakistan, especially among women. Despite recognition of the social determinants (SDH) of depression to address mental health globally, Pakistan is lagging behind with poorly implemented mental health policies. This literature review examines the association of the SDH and depression among women in Pakistan. This review confirms a high prevalence of depression among women linked to SDH including poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, lack of social support and housing, inadequate health care access and poor mental health facilities with stigma attached to mental disorders. The findings also reveal a need for a comprehensive mental health policy to integrate mental health services into primary health care and to target mental health care towards underprivileged and marginalised women. &nbsp;A key component of an integrated approach to address the SDH associated with the growing burden of depression amongst women in Pakistan is a focus on mental health literacy among underprivileged and marginalized women