Fear of Negative Evaluation, Loneliness and Life Orientation of Never Married Men and Women

The purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship among fear of negative evaluation, loneliness and life orientation among never married men and women. It was hypothesized that there would be a significant relationship among these variables and there would be gender differences among the participants. Correlational research design was used. The sample size of the study was 200 including 100 males and 100 females selected using purposive sampling. Correlation, regression, independent sample t test and mediation analysis were used. Findings showed that fear of negative evaluation is significantly and positively related with loneliness and negatively related with optimistic life orientation. In addition, loneliness significantly predicted optimistic and pessimistic life orientation. There were also significant gender differences among participants on loneliness and optimistic life orientation. In addition, it was found that loneliness significantly mediated the relationship between fear of negative evaluation and life orientation. Keywords: Fear of negative evaluation, loneliness, life orientation, optimism, pessimism. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/71-05 Publication date: February 29th 202

Competitive Strategies of Islamic Banks: A Case of Pakistan

The main aim of this study is to examine the competitive strategies of Islamic banks in Pakistan that they should adapt to compete in the banking industry. To achieve the aim, the authors conduct a study which is based on a theoretical framework. We examine the current situation of Islamic banking by investigating the current external environment using PEST (Political, Economic, Social and Technological) analysis, the industrial environment using Porter's Five Forces Model and internal environment using resource and competency analysis based on SWOT frame (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). The authors find that Islamic banks should employ differentiation strategy aimed at achieving a competitive advantage by offering better services and products. For achieving competitive position Islamic banks should adopt marketing tactics for attaining large market share, and conduct training workshops to deliver knowledge about Islamic banking to employees and also create awareness about the importance of interest-free banking in general public. This research paper is the first to examine the competitive strategies of Islamic banks in Pakistan the results of this study are valuable to Islamic Banks in Pakistan and the industry as it exposes the gaps in their strategy, which is addressed in time will help deter competition. They are also capable of gauging the success of the banks in employing specific competitive strategies. Keywords: Pakistan. Islamic banks, Competitive strategies, Differentiation, SWOT, PEST. DOI: 10.7176/JPCR/46-02 Publication date: November 30th 201

Decolonizing nature/knowledge: Indigenous environmental thought and feminist praxis

This faculty-student collaborative article is a result of a graduate seminar on ‘Environmental Education’ taught at the Aga Khan University’s Institute for Educational Development in Karachi, and it illuminates new perspectives and pedagogies of nature from the global South, specifically South Asia. Drawing inspiration from feminist and indigenous thought, the narratives of ecology shared here center the place of emotions, experience, memory and spiritual intimacy, offering one means of decolonizing environmental studies and expanding our understanding of ‘environmental consciousness’. These narratives defy ontologies of nature-human separation, capturing not just the co-existence of animals, spirits and humans but their co-constitution. Such indigenous ecologies of knowledge and wisdom, we argue, offer a timely corrective to fragmented and exploitative constructions of the natural environment as mere resource, pleasure, or commodity, while providing a profound, alternative basis for a richly layered, spirited, environmental education

From Tourist Involvement to Destination Attachment -The Chain Mediation Effecting of Self-Expansion and Psychological Ownership

Building an emotional connection with tourists and creating an attachment to the destination is essential in tourism marketing. The formation mechanism of destination attachment, as a particular emotion of tourists towards destinations, needs to be further studied. This study analyzes the role of variables such as self-expansion and psychological ownership in destination attachment formation from the perspective of tourist psychology to reveal its formation mechanism more objectively and clearly. The expected findings of this study are that there is a chain mediation role of self-expansion and psychological ownership between tourist involvement and destination attachment, and the need for cognitive closure plays a moderating role in the effect of tourist involvement on tourists self-expansion. This study breaks through the existing perspective of human-place relations and explains the formation process of destination attachment from the perspective of tourists\u27 selves and psychology. The findings give instructions for destinations to enhance tourist relationships and Improve destination marketing

Electromagnetic waves scattering from a sphere of complex conjugate medium

A boundary value problem involving the scattering of electromagnetic waves from a sphere of complex conjugate medium (CCM) is studied. The sphere is placed in free space. The source of excitation for the sphere in our case is a plane wave. Incident, scattered and transmitted fields are formulated. The unknown coefficients in the scattered and transmitted fields are found using boundary conditions. From these electromagnetic fields, the Mie efficiencies are determined. The technique used in studying the scattering of electromagnetic waves from CCM is analytical and a closed form solution is obtained. It is shown by numerical results that the scattering is enhanced in case of CCM sphere as a target. Results for the limiting cases are also derived to compare the validity of our formulation with the published work

Frequency of Missing Dose of Anti-Diabetic Medications and its Impact on Blood Glucose Levels Among Patients of Diabetes Mellitus

Objective: To determine the frequency of missed medications and its association with glycemic control among patients of diabetes mellitus. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Outpatient Department of Medicine, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan, from January 2022 to June 2022. Patients with type-1 or type-2 diabetes mellitus who visited the outpatient department and had a disease duration of at least six months were included in the study. Participants might be either gender and ranged in age from 18 to 70. Along with sociodemographic information, characteristics of diabetes mellitus were recorded including fasting and postprandial blood glucose levels, kinds of DM, drugs used, and family history of DM. All patients' frequency of missing diabetic mellitus prescription doses was also assessed. Results: In a total of 230 patients of DM, 148 (64.3%) were male. The mean age was a 45.00±12.48 year. Family history of diabetes was present in 113 (49.1%) patients. There were 215 (93.5%) patients who had type 2 DM while remaining 15 (6.5%) were type-1 DM. Mean duration of DM was 7.63±7.6 years. It was found that 105 (45.7%) patients were using both oral and insulin. It was noted that 30 (13.0%) patients were missing their DM medications daily, 43 (18.7%) most frequently, 21 (9.1%) frequently and 54 (23.5%) missed their DM medications/dosages occasionally. It was observed that statistically significant differences existed for blood glucose parameters and frequency of missed medications (p<0.0001). Conclusion: Vast majority of diabetes mellitus patients were found to miss their anti-diabetic medications. Missed medication frequency was significantly linked with higher blood glucose levels

Data on growth performance of marine Chlorella sp. cultured in different cost-effective media

This paper presents the data on growth performance of marine Chlorella sp. cultured in different cost-effective media including cow dung, cow urine, poultry litter, compost, NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium), and UTR (Urea, TSP, and red potash). Growth curve of Chlorella sp. was determined at 5 mg of cow dung, poultry litter, compost, NPK, UTR and 5 µL of cow urine per 350 ml sea water (25 ppt) to identify the onset of stationary phase. Further four media among these were selected to continue the experiment at 8 mg and 11 mg of concentration. The higher cell densities were 4.21 × 106 and 4.18 × 106 cells/mL for NPK at 8 mg and 11 mg of concentration on 6th and 5th day, respectively. Cow dung with an 11 mg of concentration exhibited 2.67 × 106 cells/mL on the 3rd day, which is around 1.5 times greater than the highest growth in the same concentration of poultry litter. Chlorella sp. had a higher cell density in NPK media than in other media, however it was discarded since it is inorganic and costly. Due to the low cell density in cow urine media and the prolonged stationary phase in poultry litter media, the focus of the subsequent study was then placed on cow dung media. The data will contribute to the selection of locally available and cost-effective culture media by determining the stationary phases for specific microalgal species which will replace the costly and labor-intensive commercial media

In-Depth Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis of Five K+ Transporter Gene Families in Soybean Confirm Their Differential Expression for Nodulation

Plants have evolved a sophisticated network of K+ transport systems to regulate growth and development. Limited K+ resources are now forcing us to investigate how plant demand can be satisfied. To answer this complex question, we must understand the genomic and transcriptomic portfolio of K+ transporters in plants. Here, we have identified 70 putative K+ transporter genes from soybean, including 29 HAK/KT/KUP genes, 16 genes encoding voltage-gated K+ channels, 9 TPK/KCO genes, 4 HKT genes, and 12 KEA genes. To clarify the molecular evolution of each family in soybean, we analyzed their phylogeny, mode of duplication, exon structures and splice sites, and paralogs. Additionally, ortholog clustering and syntenic analysis across five other dicots further explored the evolution of these gene families and indicated that the soybean data is suitable as a model for all other legumes. Available microarray data sets from Genevestigator about nodulation was evaluated and further confirmed with the RNA sequencing data available by a web server. For each family, expression models were designed based on Transcripts Per Kilobase Million (TPM) values; the outcomes indicated differential expression linked to nodulation and confirmed the genes' putative roles. In-depth studies such as ours provides the basis for understanding K+ inventories in all other plants

In Vitro Evaluation of the Effects of BAP Concentration and Pre-Cooling Treatments on Morphological, Physiological, and Biochemical Traits of Different Olive (<i>Olea euorpea</i> L.) Cultivars

In vitro propagation of olive (Olea euorpea L.) always remained a challenging task due to its woody nature and oxidation of culture. The current study intended to optimize shoot induction and proliferation protocol for different cultivars (“Leccino”, “Gemlik”, “Moraiolo” and “Arbosana”) of olive-on-olive media (OM) provided with different concentrations (0, 0.5, 1.5, and 2.5 mgL−1) of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) by pre-exposing their explants (nodal segments) with different regimes (0, 24, and 48 h) of cooling. The impacts of treatments were evaluated on morphological (shoot induction percentage, primary shoot length, number of leaves shoot−1, and number of shoots per explant−1), physiological (total chlorophyll, carotenoids, CO2 assimilation, and proline), biochemical (primary and secondary metabolites) attributes of cultivars after 50 to 60 days of culture. Data recorded were subjected to statistical analysis. All traits depicted significant increases in all genotypes with increasing pre-cooling treatments and increasing supplementations of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP). This increase was the highest for the interaction of 48 h pre-cooling and 2.5 mgL−1 BAP concentration. Moreover, correlation analysis of all traits revealed significant paired association among them in a positive direction, while principal component analysis (PCA) revealed the extent of association varied with types of treatments and the nature of genotypes. Among cultivars, Arbosana depicted more dramatic changes in morphological traits, physiological attributes, and biochemical contents due to varying interactions of pre-cooling and BAP treatments as compared to Moraiolo, Gemlik, and Leccino with in vitro systems