Current Standing and Future Challenges of Dairying in Pakistan: A Status Update

Pakistan is considered among the leading raw milk producing countries. Unlike the production systems in the developed countries, milk production systems in Pakistan represent smallholding with subsistence- or market-oriented-level farming followed by peri-urban or commercial-level farming. Historically, dairy sector has been owned and managed by the private sector. During the past two decades, new initiatives have been taken because of the active involvement of corporate private sector. These efforts have resulted in improvements like enlargement of herds and import of high-quality milk germ plasm, the productivity per animal, milk collection, processing and marketing, the supply of dairy inputs (machinery, equipment, feeds, semen, and elite dairy animals), and farmers knowledge, and skills on modern management practices. Conclusively, the dairy sector is performing at some sustainable level to meet the food requirements of the growing population and helping save a handful of foreign exchange. Yet, challenges like local replacements of high genetic potential dairy animals, health hazards of β-casein proteins, antibiotics and aflatoxins, and uneconomical operational costs facing the dairy industry in the near future need to be addressed. The main objective of this chapter is to identify the current trends in dairy industry of Pakistan and describe those factors, which can influence the sustainability and profitability of dairying in the near future

Enhancing Health Benefits of Tomato by Increasing its Antioxidant Contents through Different Techniques: A Review

Tomato is known to be a great dietary source of antioxidant lycopene which is found to be linked with reduced risk of life-threatening diseases like heart attack and cancers. Antioxidants delay the aging process by mopping up reactive free radicals from cells, those if present may damage our DNA and other vital cellular organelles. Antioxidant metabolites are a group of vitamins, carotenoids, phenolic compounds, and phenolic acids that can provide effective protection against Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) by neutralizing free radicals, which are unstable molecules linked to the development of many degenerative diseases and medical conditions. There are pre and postharvest techniques available in the literature and these when adopted by the researchers showed significant progress in enhancing antioxidant contents of tomato fruit. In addition, there are various biochemical and genetic modification approaches to improve the expression of several antioxidant enhancing phytonutrients, enzymes and genes in tomato fruit. Trichoderma enriched bio-fertilizer application in tomato enhanced ascorbic acid under the treatment of 100% bio-fertilizer and beta-carotene was increased under 75% Bio-Fertilizer+25% N whereas elevated lycopene contents were observed in case of recommended dose of NPK. Various omics approaches like genomics, transcriptomics, miRNAomics, proteomics, and metabolomics have emerged as extremely helpful tools for the plant scientists in improving the beta-carotene, lycopene and antioxidant levels resulting in highly desirable new tomato cultivars.  Thus, in light of immense advantages of these techniques, the present study was undertaken to collect all the necessary information about different techniques employed by numerous researchers to increase the antioxidant contents in tomato and to document here the optimized experimental conditions that can be beneficial for future studies in this field. However, still in-depth genome wide studies are needed for better understanding and further enhancement of traits like flavor, quality and antioxidant contents in context to rapidly changing and uncertain climate.Keywords: Antioxidants; tomato; lycopene; β-carotene; reactive oxygen species (ROS)

Sharia Screening Process: A Comparison of Pakistan and Malaysia

This paper aims to examine the Sharia screening methodologies used by Securities Commission of Malaysia and KSE Meezan Index (KMI-30 of Pakistan). The two set of screens used by both Islamic indices are business screens and financial screens. The existence of certain similarities and differences in screening methodology is evident. The findings also implicate that there is a dire need for standardisation of said process which will be beneficial in many ways and will surely aid in the development of ICM worldwide.

The cross-sectional study of anxiety levels and ratio of severity of thirteen symptoms of anxiety among medical students

Background: Anxiety is defined as physical, behavioral, social and psychological response to treat self-concept characterized by subjective, consciously perceived feelings of tension. Nowadays anxiety is most commonly found among medical students. This study was conducted to find out the anxiety levels and ratio of severity of thirteen symptoms of anxiety.Methods: A questionnaire based study was conducted among 178 medical students which tests the level of anxiety and severity of symptoms of anxiety. The questionnaire used was hamilton anxiety rating scale (HAM-A).Results: Out of 178 students, 80 (44.94%) students scored mild anxiety levels, 63 (35.39%) students scored moderate anxiety levels and 35 (19.66%) students scored severe anxiety levels.Conclusions: Mild form of anxiety is much more common among medical students and majority of these medical students are females. Moreover, the symptoms of anxiety including tension, anxious mood, depressed mood, insomnia, fear and CVS symptoms appear with moderate severity in majority of medical students while on the other hand some symptoms including general somatic muscular and sensory symptoms, difficulties in concentration and memory, genitor-urinary symptoms, respiratory symptoms, GIT symptoms and other autonomic symptoms appear with least severity among majority of medical students

Broiler rasyonlarında artemisia annua L.'nin performans, sindirim enzim aktiviteleri, bağırsak PH, mikroflora ve morfolojisi üzerine etkileri

Kanatlı hayvan endüstrisi, hızlı büyüyen tavukların yetiştirilmesine dayanmaktadır. Son yıllarda, tavuk endüstrisinde büyüme destekleyicileri olarak çeşitli antibiyotikler kullanılmıştır, ancak artan antibiyotik direnci ve insan sağlığı üzerindeki olumsuz etkileri nedeniyle kanatlı endüstrisinde antibiyotik kullanımı yasaklanmıştır. Bilim adamları, antibiyotik direnci arttıkça alternatif antibiyotik ürünleri aramaya başladılar. Probiyotikler, prebiyotikler, organik asitler, bitki özleri, eterik yağlar ve immünolojik uyarıcılar alternatiflerden bazılarıdır. Son yıllarda bu ürünler hayvan performansını iyileştirmiş, hayvan verimliliğini artırmış, enten enfeksiyonlarını önlemiş ve kontrol altına almış ve hayvan tarımında antibiyotik kullanımını azaltmıştır. Bu çalışma Artemisia annua L'nin etlik piliçler üzerindeki etkilerini kontrol etmek amacıyla yapılmıştır. Artemisia annua ayrıca tatlı pelin, tatlı Annie ve tatlı yıllık pelin (Çince: qugho) olarak da bilinir. Asya'nın ılıman bölgelerine özgü yaygın bir pelin türüdür. Artemisia cinsinde bulunan aktif bileşen Artemisinin'dir ve kimyasal olarak hem uçucu hem de uçucu olmayan bileşenler içerir. Artemisia cinsinin biyolojik aktiviteleri antibakteriyel, antiinflamatuar, antimalaryal, anti-koksidiyal, antioksidan ve anti-tümör etkilerini içerir. Sindirim enzim aktiviteleri, bağırsak mikroflorası ve bağırsak morfolojisi kontrol edildi. Mevcut çalışmada 96 günlük Ross 308 etlik piliç kullanıldı. İlk üç hafta boyunca tüm gruplara aynı bazal diyet ad-libitum verildi. Dördüncü hafta itibari ile 4 alt gruplu, bazal rasyonu tüketen grup; Kontrol, bazal yeme 5 mg/kg linkomisin ilave edilmiş yemi tüketen grup; Antibiyotik ve bazal yeme 5 g/kg Artemisia annua L. ilave edilmiş yemi tüketen grup; Artemisia olmak 3 gruba bölündü. Çalışma 42 gün sürmüş ve canlı ağırlık artışı, yem tüketimi ve FCR haftalık olarak belirlenmiştir. Kanatlıların canlı ağırlık artışı, yem tüketimi ve FCR haftalık olarak kontrol edilmiştir. 42 günün sonunda, her tekerrürden rastgele 3 tavuk seçilmiş ve kesim yapılmıştır. Kan ve dışkı örneği ve bağırsaklar toplandı ve daha sonra bağırsaklar morfoloji, bağırsak meroflorası, bağırsak pH'ı ve sindirim enzimi aktivitelerinin kontrol edilmesi için laboratuvarda analizler yapıldı. Denemenin 2. ve 3. haftarda tüm grupların vücut ağırlıkları istatistiksel olarak benzerdi (P>0.05), ancak Antibiyotik ve Artemisia gruplarının vücut ağırlıkları, kontrole kıyasla sayısal olarak daha yüksekti (P>0.05). Araştırma denemesi sonunda, kontrol, Antibiyotik ve Artemisia gruplarının vücut ağırlıkları sırasıyla 2668.33, 2683.50 ve 2752.25 g idi (P>0.05). 2 ve 3 haftalık çalışmada, tüm grupların vücut ağırlığı artışları arasında istatistiksel olarak benzerdi (P>0.05). Diğer taraftan Antibiyotik ve Artemisia gruplarının 2 haftalık canlı ağırlık kazanımları kontrole göre sayısal olarak daha yüksek iken, 3. haftada sadece Artemisia grubu kontrole göre sayısal olarak daha yüksekti. Artemisia grubunun 1" ve 3 haftalık yem tüketimi diğer iki gruba göre sayısal olarak daha yüksek iken, 2 & 4 haftalık antibiyotik ve Artemisia gruplarının yem tüketimi kontrol grubuna göre daha yüksekti. Genel dönemde Artemisia grubunun yem tüketimi kontrol grubuna göre daha fazlaydı. ve antibiyotik gruplarında fark önemli değildi (P>0.05) Kontrol, Antibiyotik ve Artemisia grupları için araştırma günlerinde genel yem tüketimi sırasıyla 2889.18 g, 2873,23 g ve 2917.87 g idi. İstatistiksel olarak fark yoktu (P >0.05) deney süresi boyunca gruplar arasında FCR, ancak gruplar arasında sayısal farklılıklar gözlendi.Amilaz için gruplar arasında istatistiksel fark bulunmamakla birlikte (P>0.05), Artemista grubu kontrol ile karşılaştırıldığında maksimum sayı (405.08 ± 26.41) gösterdi ve antibiyotik grubu (337.75 ± 13.99) Lipaz durumunda antibiyotik vii grubu (23.78 ± 1.11) kontrol ve Artemisia grubuna göre maksimum sayıya sahipken, Artemisia (21.15 ± 0.69) ) ve kontrol (23.10 ± 125) kanda hemen hemen benzer miktar gösterdi, Tripsin için yine antibiyotik grubu kontrol (103.43 ± 12.05) ve Artemisia grubuna (114.34 ± 9.25) göre daha yüksek bir sayım (139.82 ± 21.16) gösterdi. Benzer şekilde, Antibiyotik grubu tüm gruplar arasında en düşük pH'a sahiptir. Bunu sırasıyla kontrol ve antibiyotik grupları izledi. Bağırsak mikroflorasında Koliform, E. coli, Lactobacillus spp. ve toplam anaerobik bakteri olmak üzere dört bakteri maddesinin kolonileri sayıldı. Gruplar arasında koliform bakteri sayısında istatistiksel bir fark (P>0.05) gözlenmedi. Ancak kontrol grubu, araştırma grubuna kıyasla sayısal olarak daha yüksek miktarda koliform bakteriye sahiptir. E.coli bakterilerinin miktarları gruplar arasında istatistiksel olarak anlamlı farklılık göstermektedir (P0.05), ancak bakteri sayısı Artemisia grubunda sayısal olarak daha yüksekti. Toplam anaerobik bakteri sayısında, deney ve kontrol grupları arasında istatistiksel fark mevcuttu (P0.05) ancak sayısal fark mevcuttu. Artemisia grubu (686.86 ± 21.07) ile kontrol grubu (632.33 ± 19.42) arasında villus yüzey alanı olması durumunda istatistiksel fark bulunurken, villus yokluğunda antibik, Artemisia grubunda maksimum villus sayısı (44.49 ± 4.1) olduğu için. ve antibiyotik (40.25 ± 2.00) grupları. Antibiyotik grubu, villöz yüzey alanı durumunda (P=0,006) diğer iki gruba göre istatistiksel olarak farklılık göstermiştir. Sonuç olarak Artemisia annua L., kanatlı endüstrisinde hayvanların gelişimini olumsuz etkilemeden bakterilerde gelişebilecek anti-mikrobiyal direnci önlemek için iyi bir alternatif üründür. Bununla birlikte daha yüksek dozlarda ve besleme süresinin viii tamamında gelişecek etkilerini de ortaya koymak için daha fazla çalışmaya ihtiyaç vardır.The poultry industry is based on raising fast-growing chickens. In recent decades, several antibiotics have been employed as growth promoters in the chicken industry, but antibiotic use is banned in the poultry industry due to increased antibiotic resistance and negative impacts on human health. Scientists started searching for alternative antibiotic products as antibiotic resistance increased. Probiotics, prebiotics, organic acids, plant extracts, etheric oils, and immunological stimulants are some of the alternatives. In recent years, these products have improved animal performance, increased animal productivity, prevented and controlled enteric infections, and reduced antibiotic use in animal agriculture. This study has been done for checking the effects of Artemisia annua L on broiler. Artemisia annua is also known as sweet wormwood, sweet Annie, and sweet annual wormwood (Chinese: qngho). It's a common wormwood species native to Asia's temperate zones. The active ingredient present in the Artemisia genus is Artemisinin, and chemically it contains both volatile and non-volatile constituents. Biological activities of the Artemisia genus include antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-malarial, anti-coccidial, anti-oxidant, and anti-tumor effects. In this study effects of plant extract on broiler growth performance, FCR, intestinal pH, digestive enzyme activities, intestinal microflora, and intestinal morphology were checked. In the current study, 96 day old Ross 308 broiler birds were used and divided into three groups (Antibiotic group received lincomycin 5 mg/kg of basal diet, Control group received basal diet, and Artemisia annua group received 5 g/kg grinded plant). Each group consists of 32 birds having four replicate. During the first three weeks, same basal diet ad-libitum was provided for all groups. From 4th to 6th week, control group received finisher diet, Antibiotic and Artemisia group received experimental diet. Birds body weight gain, feed consumption, and FCR were checked weekly. At the end of 42nd day, 3 birds were selected randomly from each replicate and slaughtered. Blood and fecal sample, and intestine were collected, and later on analysis has been done in laboratory for checking intestinal morphology, intestinal microflora, intestinal pH, and digestive enzyme activities. In 2nd and 3rd weeks of study, body weights of all groups were statistically similar (P>0.05), however, body weights of Antibiotic and Artemisia groups were numerically higher as compared to control (P> 0.05). At the end of research trial, body weights of control, Antibiotic, and Artemisia groups were 2668.33, 2683.50, and 2752.25 g respectively (P>0.05). In 2nd and 3rd weeks of study, among body weight gains of all groups were statistically similar (P>0.05). On the other hand, in 2nd week body weight gains of Antibiotic and Artemisia groups were numerically higher as compared to control whereas, in 3rd week only the Artemisia group was higher numerically compared to control. In 1st and 3rd week feed consumption of Artemisia group was numerically higher compared to other two groups while in 2nd week feed consumption of antibiotic and Artemisia groups was higher than control group. During the overall period, feed consumption of Artemisia group was greater than control and antibiotic groups but the difference was not significant (P> 0.05). Overall feed consumption during research days for Control, Antibiotic, and Artemisia groups were 2889.18 g, 2873.23 g, and 2917.87 g, respectively. There was no statistically difference (P>0.05) among groups FCR during the experimental period, but numerical differences were observed among groups. Although no statistical difference found among groups (P> 0.05) for Amylase, Artemisia group showed maximum count (405.08 ± 26.41) as compared to control (364 ± 16.28) and antibiotic group (337.75 ± 13.99). In case of Lipase, antibiotic group had (23.78 ± 1.11) maximum count as compared to control and Artemisia group while Artemisia (21.15 ± 0.69) and control (23.10 ± 1.25) showed xi almost similar amount in blood. For trypsin, again antibiotic group showed a higher count (139.82 ± 21.16) than control (103.43 ± 12.05) and Artemisia group (114.34 ± 9.25). Similarly, Antibiotic group has lowest pH among all groups. It was followed by control and antibiotic groups, respectively. In intestinal microflora, colonies of four bacteria items including Coliform, E. coli, Lactobacillus spp., and total anaerobic bacteria were counted. There was no statistical difference (P>0.05) observed in the number of coliform bacteria among groups. But control group has a numerically higher amount of coliform bacteria as compared to research group. Amounts of E. coli bacteria have statistically significant difference among groups (P0.05) but bacterial count was numerically higher in Artemisia group. In the number of total anaerobic bacteria, statistical difference was present among experimental and control groups (P 0.05) but numerical difference was present. While in case of villous surface area statistical difference present among groups (P< 0.05). Villous height was higher in Artemisia group (686.86 ± 21.07) as compared to control (632.33 ± 19.42) and antibiotic (632.33 ± 19.42) group. Similar results were found in case of villi no. as Artemisia group had maximum villous no (44.49 ± 4.50) as compared to control (42.53 ± 2.87) and antibiotic (40.25 ± 2.00) groups. Antibiotic group showed statistical difference in case of villous surface area (P=0.006) as compared to other two groups. In conclusion, Artemisia annua showed only positive effects on bird's health, microflora, pH and morphology of intestine. There were no side effects observed in this study. Increase in dose rate may show better positive result of Artemisia annua used in broilers. So, it is the good alternative product for avoiding anti- xii microbial resistance in the poultry industry without compromising growth and production

A Novel Image Retrieval Based on Visual Words Integration of SIFT and SURF.

With the recent evolution of technology, the number of image archives has increased exponentially. In Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR), high-level visual information is represented in the form of low-level features. The semantic gap between the low-level features and the high-level image concepts is an open research problem. In this paper, we present a novel visual words integration of Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) and Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF). The two local features representations are selected for image retrieval because SIFT is more robust to the change in scale and rotation, while SURF is robust to changes in illumination. The visual words integration of SIFT and SURF adds the robustness of both features to image retrieval. The qualitative and quantitative comparisons conducted on Corel-1000, Corel-1500, Corel-2000, Oliva and Torralba and Ground Truth image benchmarks demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed visual words integration

Genome-Wide Association Mapping for Stomata and Yield Indices in Bread Wheat under Water Limited Conditions

Genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed for stomata- and yield-related attributes with high-density Illumina 90 K Infinium SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) array in bread wheat to determine genetic potential of germplasm for scarce water resources with sustainable yield potential. Major yield and stomata attributes were phenotyped on a panel of Pakistani and foreign accessions grown in non-stressed and water shortage environments during two seasons. Highly significant variations were shown among accessions in both conditions for examined characteristics. Water shortage conditions reduced the overall wheat yield and strong positive correlation existed among stomatal frequency, leaf venation and grain yield per plant. Population structure analyses based on 90,000 SNP data classified the accessions into four sub-populations which indicated the presence of genetic variability. Marker-trait association (MTA) analyses revealed that 422 significant SNPs at p ≤ 10−3, after crossing the false discovery rate (FDR) &lt;0.05 threshold, were linked with examined attributes. Pleiotropic loci (wsnp_Ex_c8913_14881924 and Tdurum_contig10598_304) were associated with flag leaf area (FLA), stomata size (SS), stomata frequency (SF), leaf venation (LV), number of grain per spike (NGS) and grain yield per plant (GYP), which were located on chromosome 4B and 6B at the positions 173.63cM and 229.64cM, respectively, under water shortage conditions. Pleotropic loci wsnp_Ex_c24167_33416760, wsnp_Ex_c5412_9564046 and Tdurum_contig81797_369 on chromosomes 7A, 2A and 4B at the positions 148.26cM, 261.05cM and 173.63cM, respectively, were significantly linked with stomata and yield indices such as FLA, SS, SF, LV, NGS and GYP under normal and water shortage conditions. The current experiment not only validated several MTAs for studied indices reported in other studies but also discovered novel MTAs significant under water shortage environments. Associated and significant SNPs will be useful in discovering novel genes underpinning water shortage tolerance in bread wheat for producing high-yielding and drought tolerant wheat varieties to fulfill the wheat demand for growing populations

Nemophila insignis Benth.

原著和名: シチメンサウ ミルマツナ科名: Hydrophyllaceae = ハゼリソウ科採集地: 千葉県 千葉市 (下総 千葉市)採集日: 1951/5/12採集者: 萩庭丈壽整理番号: JH001235国立科学博物館整理番号: TNS-VS-951235備考: 市販

Comparison of mean average precision using the OT-Scene image benchmark.

<p>Comparison of mean average precision using the OT-Scene image benchmark.</p