Future Community-Based Ecotourism (CBET) development

Ecotourism is an alternative form of tourism and is usually confused with natural and cultural tourism.CBET is fast becoming a popular biodiversity conservation tool that develops and benefits the local community. Based on the context of conservation theory and practice, Community-Based Ecotourism (CBET) is a form of community-based natural resource management. However, a sustainable CBET development through Community Capacity Building (CCB)programs is not something that it easily achievable. Local community’s capacity varies from one culture to another. It takes a high level of community participation, in order for it to come to a level where the community members themselves are motivated to participate and contribute to the development of the program. This fully qualitative research involved 15 respondents from the community of Kg. Selai, Bekok in Johor, Malaysia. The result show there are five factors that sustained the ecotourism development based for Orang Asli Community in Kg. Selai, namely, existing CBET development, past CBET development, local community participation in planning stage of tourism, local participation in implementation stage of tourism and participation in nature conservation

A Comparative Predicting Stock Prices using Heston and Geometric Brownian Motion Models

This paper presents a novel approach to predicting stock prices using technical analysis. By utilizing Ito's lemma and Euler-Maruyama methods, the researchers develop Heston and Geometric Brownian Motion models that take into account volatility, interest rate, and historical stock prices to generate predictions. The results of the study demonstrate that these models are effective in accurately predicting stock prices and outperform commonly used statistical indicators. The authors conclude that this technical analysis-based method offers a promising solution for stock market prediction

Water stress causes differential effects on germination indices, total soluble sugar and proline content in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes

Different cultivars differ inherently in their response to drought and those cultivars best adapted to growth in arid and semiarid conditions form the most uniform and vigorous stands when grown under water deficits. The seeds of five wheat cultivars (GA-2002, Chakwal-97, Uqab-2000, Chakwal-50 and Wafaq-2001) were subjected to five different levels of osmotic stress; 0 bars (distilled water, control), -2, -4, -6 and -8 bars to assess the effect of osmotic stress on germination percentage, mean germination time, coleoptile length, proline and sugar amounts. The investigations were performed as factorial experiments under complete randomized design (CRD). Germination percentage, mean germination time and coleoptile length were shown to decrease with increasing osmotic stress, whereas a progressive increase in proline and sugar content were observed with increasing osmotic stress. The response of five cultivars examined under various levels of osmotic stress differed dramatically. Chakwal-50 and GA-2002 were amongst best performers, showing high germination rate, longest coleoptile length, highest proline values and sugar contents when compared with other cultivars under stress conditions. These were proven to be the most tolerant cultivars. Performance of  Wafaq-2001 and Uqab-2000 were poor when compared to the other cultivars under limited water stress conditions.Key words: Wheat, Triticum aestivum, water stress, osmotic stress, proline, sugar, seedling, germination

Ischemic stroke in young adults of South Asia

Objective: To study the risk factors, etiology and management of ischemic stroke in young adults in a South Asian population. Methods: Retrospective study conducted at a large tertiary hospital in Karachi. One hundred and eighteen patients between fifteen and forty-five years admitted over a five year period with a diagnosis of ischemic infarct constituted the study population. The study variables included the full clinical spectrum, spanning historical, laboratory, radiological and outcome parameters. Results: Forty-three percent of patients were hypertensive and 30% were diabetic. The combination of diabetes and hypertension was found in 19.5% of patients, intra-cranial and carotid artherosclerosis in 22% and embolism in 11% of the cases. The in-hospital mortality was 11%. The outcome was excellent in 27%, good in 50% and poor in 23% of patients. CONCLUSION: The risk factors for artherosclerosis and the contribution of intra and extra-cranial artherosclerosis were found to be much higher than those from the Western Hemisphere

N=2N=2 quantum chiral superfields and quantum super bundles

We give the superalgebra of $N=2$ chiral (and antichiral) quantum superfields realized as a subalgebra of the quantum supergroup $\mathrm{SL}_q(4|2)$. The multiplication law in the quantum supergroup induces a coaction on the set of chiral superfields. We also realize the quantum deformation of the chiral Minkowski superspace as a quantum principal bundle

Investigating the asymmetric linkages between infrastructure development, green innovation, and consumption-based material footprint: Novel empirical estimations from highly resource-consuming economies

The role of a reliable resource consumption measurement is essential for devising a relevant climate policy. The consumption-based material footprint is trade-adjusted domestic resource consumption that presents an accurate picture of the domestic material footprint. Pursuing the same, this study draws asymmetric linkages between infrastructure development, green innovation, and consumption-based material footprint (MF) in the top 11 highly material-consuming countries. Our preliminary findings strictly reject the preposition of data normality and highlight that the observed relationship is quantile-dependent, which may disclose misleading results in previous studies using linear methodologies. In compliance, a novel empirical estimation technique popularized as Method of Moments Quantile Regression is employed that simultaneously deal with non-normality and structural changes in data. The results exhibit that infrastructure development (green innovation) significantly increases (decreases) MF mainly across medium to higher quantiles (medium-higher level of MF). Interestingly, the resource-depleting effect of infrastructure is highest for higher quantiles and lowest for lower quantiles of MF. Economic growth (globalization) increase MF, and their resource-depleting effect is higher (lowest) for lower quantiles and lowest (highest) for higher quantiles. Lastly, population exhibits an inverted-U shape relationship with MF across lower to higher quantiles. These results suggest pertinent policy recommendations

Carotid Doppler ultrasonography in young stroke patients

Background: The present study focuses on the role of carotid doppler ultrasonography (CDUS) in the diagnosis and management of carotid stenosis in young stroke patients. Methods: The findings of carotid doppler in 45 ischemic stroke patients between 15-45 years of age were reviewed retrospectively. The variables of interest for this study included risk factors for atherosclerotic disease, primary abnormality detected on carotid doppler ultrasonography (ulceration vs. stenosis), degree of stenosis and the type of plaque (soft vs. calcified). Results: The prevalence of hypertension and diabetes was 50% and 35% respectively. The rate of carotid stenosis in the study population was found to be 31%. The degree of stenosis was mild in 35% and moderate in 21%. High-grade stenosis was found in 21% of patients. The plaque was soft in the majority of cases (43%). CONCLUSION: The proportion of carotid stenosis in young stroke patients was relatively high compared with previous studies. This may be due to an increase in the risk factors for atherosclerotic disease in developing countries

Elements of Community Capacity Building (CCB)for CBET development

Ecotourism is an alternative form of tourism and is usually confused with natural and cultural tourism.CBET is fast becoming a popular biodiversity conservation tool that develops and benefits the local community. Based on the context of conservation theory and practice, Community-Based Ecotourism (CBET) is a form of community-based natural resource management. However, a sustainable CBET development through Community Capacity Building (CCB)programs is not something that it easily achievable. Local community’s capacity varies from one culture to another. It takes a high level of community participation, in order for it to come to a level where the community members themselves are motivated to participate and contribute to the development of the program. This fully qualitative research involved 15 respondents from the community of Kg. Selai, Bekok in Johor, Malaysia. The result show there are five factors that sustained the ecotourism development based for Orang Asli Community in Kg. Selai, namely, existing CBET development, past CBET development, local community participation in planning stage of tourism, local participation in implementation stage of tourism and participation in nature conservation