University of Central Punjab (UCP), Lahore, Pakistan‘s Responsibility for SDG‘s and World Complex Challenges Pertaining to its Innovation for Energy and Climate Change Management

One of the important essentials of modern living is energy without which modern world cannot survive and therefore depends deeply on energy usages and energy abusage. What is important to be seen is that more than 7.8 billion people on this planet are burning fossil fuels for their daily needs. Therefore, the challenge for the 21st century is how to conserve this ‘good’ energy and how to reduce its transformation into ‘bad’ energy and at the same time enjoy a sustainable lifestyle through modern inventions of science and technology. The problems facing University of Central Punjab, Lahore (UCP) is on the one hand how to minimise the usage of energy resources and secondly, how to move away from using fosil feuls and toward usage of eco-friendly energy sources for achieving sustainability and abiding by the Goal 7 of the SDG (Affordable and Clean Energy). Keeping sustainable development and energy conservation issues in mind, UCP has already in collaboration with M/S Premier Energy embarked upon the renewable solar energy solutions and 1/4th of the total energy consumption of UCP is being produced through state-of-the-art grid-tired solar system. UCP also promotes the sagacious use of water. In UCP, processor treat sewage water. In addition, UCP promotes the use of filtered drinking Processor treat sewage water. Promote the use of filtered water instead of bottled water

Cultural Consensus Model of Depression Beliefs Among Afghan Refugees

This study describes gender-specific beliefs about depression among Afghan refugees, a population shown to be highly distressed. A 73-item questionnaire covering causes, symptoms, and treatments of depression, developed through free-listing techniques and supplemented with items from existing scales, was administered to a non-random sample of 50 men and 43 women in San Diego County. Demographic information and data on baseline distress levels were also collected. The Cultural Consensus Model was used to estimate the culturally correct answer for each question, and to assess the proportion of shared beliefs within and between groups. Results from consensus analysis indicated a homogenous response pattern present for each group, and collectively when groups were combined. The proportion of shared beliefs across all depression domains was significantly (p \u3c .05) higher among women (.52) than in men (.46). Women also reported significantly higher agreement in terms of depression causality (women = .54, men = .42). Equal agreement (.45) was observed in groups regarding symptoms. Items relating to treatments were the most widely recognized by men (.53) and women (.57); however, significant differences in agreement were not observed. Results did not vary by demographic characteristics or by distress experiences for either group. Causes were associated with cultural conflicts and social isolation; women classified more somatic items, and both groups believed that treatments for depression included seeking professional help as well as lay techniques such as engaging in religious activities and exercise. Understanding cultural beliefs about depression among Afghan refugees could provide insights into the cultural and social reasons that influence help-seeking behaviors and the presentation of depressive symptoms in clinical settings, in turn, leading to improvements in service provision and depression care

Attaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage in Dubai\u27s Real Estate Industry

Real estate business leaders who fail to attain and sustain competitive advantage to increase profitability during periods of unstable or declining markets, experience either lost profits or bankruptcy. In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the brokerage market is saturated with over 5,000 active brokers and more than 2,000 registered real estate offices. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies that successful leaders of Dubai medium-sized real estate businesses implemented to attain and sustain competitive advantage to increase profitability during periods of unstable or declining markets. The population for the study included business leaders of 4 medium-sized real estate businesses in Dubai, who had successfully implemented competitive advantage strategies. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with the 4 leaders and from artifacts such as the company websites and social media pages. The conceptual framework for this study was the strength-weakness-opportunity-threat analysis technique. Inductive analysis was used to code and identify themes in the collected data, and the trustworthiness of interpretations was supported by member checking. Four themes emerged: reduce operating costs, execute corporate real estate management, promote corporate social responsibility, and utilize human capital. Findings from this study could contribute to positive social change by providing real estate business leaders with insights regarding strategy implementations necessary for attaining and sustaining competitive advantage and increasing financial independence, thereby promoting the culture and strengthening the local economy

Islamic Sukuk securities as financing instruments: An examination of bond pricing in the conventional and Islamic setting and a survey of literature on alternative benchmarks to the interest-based system

Not availabl

Molecular pathology of Diamond Blackfan anaemia

Diamond-Blackfan anaemia (DBA) is one of a rare group of genetic disorders known as ‘inherited bone marrow failure (IBMF) syndromes with bone marrow failure, birth defects and higher propensity to cancer. It is arare autosomal dominant disorder with an incidence of 7 in 106 newborns, DBA is characterized by a defect in erythroid lineage development and a quantitative as well as a qualitative defect in erythroid progenitors. This disorder is inherited in 45% of cases and emerges as de novo in the remaining cases. Diagnosis of DBA is challenging as it is based on several clinical features shared by other IBMF syndromes. Diagnosis of this disorder has remained for many years a challenge. In recent years, the use of Next generation sequencing (NGS) of the 83 ribosomal protein (RP) genes has greatly improved the diagnosis and the future prospect of managing the disease. This new diagnostic approach provides several advantages over other conventional and classic approaches, last but not least that now over 65-80% of DBA cases have been identified to carry a genetic mutation of one of the 83 RP genes, while only few could be analyzed until recently. It also facilitates the analysis of DBA family members to facilitate both the selection of possible donors for transplant and to distinguish inherited from de novo mutations. RP gene mutations leading to reduced amounts of RPs (affecting both the 40S and 60S ribosomal subunits) interfere with the processing of rRNA. Until recently the different rRNA species in DBA patients could only be analyzed using Northern blot technique, with several limitations mainly due to the poor yield of RNA in these patients. To resolve some of these problems, in this study we designed primers specific for 32s rRNA intermediate, 18s, 28s, and 5s rRNA. We studied the relative expression of these genes in DBA compared to healthy controls. We studied rRNA defect in a cohort of forty-eight DBA patients from resting and stimulated T cells. rRNA profile study showed a significant difference in the resting and stimulated T cells from DBA patients compared to controls. We then applied CRISPR CAS 9 technology, electroporation, flowcytometry, and timed cell-sorting to validate two novel heterozygous mutations discovered in our Lab, the RPS17 c.3G>C and RPL11 c.475_476 del AA. We optimized a method to successfully introduce a heterozygous knock in mutation using CRISPR/Cas9 technology in K562 erythroleukemic cell line. Firstly, K562 cells were transfected with LentiCRISPRv2 plasmid that has a specific guide RNA (gRNA) ligated to it using the Amaxa nucleofection system. Seventy-two hours later, single green fluorescent protein (GFP) expressing K562 cells were sorted into 96 wells plates. After three weeks of growing these single clones, they were analyzed and the viability was shown to be 50%. Sanger sequencing was carried out to confirm the presence of heterozygous knock in of the specific mutation. Quantitative real time PCR studies using our designed primers (18S, 28S, 32S and 5.8S rRNA) revealed that both mutations resulted in rRNA processing defect in K562 cell line compared to control. In conclusion, our study lead to the characterization of newly established mutations and we demonstrated that such mutations were responsible and causative of a defect in the production of rRNA in an in vitro model.Open Acces