INCORPORATING THE INTERNET IN LEARNING BY THE MANAGEMENT SCIENCE STUDENTS AND ITS EFFECT ON THEIR ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS

Abstract Purpose: The study was planned with a clear purpose to examine how Management Science students incorporate the internet in their education and what outcomes it has on their academic performance. Research Design: A quantitative survey approach was adopted. For this purpose data were collected from a sample of 225 Management Science students scattered in five selected universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan using non-random proportionate sampling technique. Key Findings: The findings of the study indicate that 55% of students do not possess personal computer/Laptops. A vast majority of the respondents (79%) used the internet at their homes and 80% students agreed to the importance of internet use training. Students’Internet use for chatting with friends and family and for spending leisure time negatively affect CGPA but spending more time on academic online resources enhance their academic results. Similarly, their computer problems solving skills have positive effects on their CGPA but the problems of slow internet connectivity, electricity shortage, and much more information to deal with badly effect students’ academic performance. Conclusions: The internet use has a significant co-relationship with the students’ academic success. Therefore, the research suggests the authorities to provide training in the light of findings of this study, which would undoubtedly improve the academic output of the Management Science Students in the Universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

A Path to an Understanding of the Internet Use and Its Impact on the Academic Achievement of Social Science Students

The purpose of this study is to assess the use and impacts of internet on academic success of Social Science student studying in the public sector Universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. Survey research method using a questionnaire was employed for data collection from a sample of 303 Social Science students spread over five public sector universities of KP. The response rate was 66% and the data was analyzed through SPSS 20.0 using descriptive and inferential statistics. The key findings show that male respondents reported being more experienced in internet use than female and about 84% of the students agreed with the importance of getting the internet use training. University graduates mainly used internet for Social Networking Sites (SNSs), e-mail and academic purposes and were highly satisfied with e-reference material, SNSs and audio/visual resources. Similarly, watching sports online and using shopping and trading websites online correlates with students’ lower Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). Furthermore, frequent use of indexes and abstracts, technical reports and presentations available on slide share correlates with graduates’ higher CGPA. Besides these the students reported that, the slow speed of internet, electricity shortage and restrictions on students from their parents to use internet due to the availability of immoral sites on internet were the problems in their internet use. This is the first study in KP, Pakistan that dealt with this important topic by covering a large number of social science students from large number of universities

Impacts of habitat variability on the phenotypic traits of Aconitum violaceum Jacq. ex Stapf. at different altitudes and environmental conditions in the Ladakh Himalaya, India

Aconitum violaceum Jacq. ex Stapf is endemic to the Northern Himalayan regions of India, Pakistan and Nepal. To adapt and endure the rigorous stressful situations, phenotypic features of a specific plant species vary across different climatic conditions and elevations. The aim of this study was to reveal the impact of altitude and environmental conditions on the morphological attributes of a threatened species A. violaceum. Plants at high elevations (Maan-man, 4010m asl) were short; whereas the plants grown at ecological conditions of population-I (Khawous, 3220m asl) showed better growth and development in all morphological attributes. It has been noticed that there is a considerable reduction in the plant height, rhizome, leaf dimension, flower number and leaf number at higher elevations. Regression analysis and Pearson’s correlation coefficient demonstrated a positive relationship between plant height and all other morphological attributes. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the habitat, ecological conditions and elevations of population-I (Khawous) and Population-II (Numsuru) were proved to be relatively better for the luxuriant growth and development of an endemic plant species A. violaceum. From the observations, it can be inferred that A. violaceum grows successfully at an elevation ranges between 3000 to 3500m ASL. This study provides a comprehensive account of phenotypic variability concerning environmental conditions and suggested a suitable environment for sustainable cultivation of this important medicinal plant species in the Ladakh Himalaya

Normal Adrenal Versus Adrenal in Acute Abdomen on MDCT

Background: Knowledge of the range of normal size and morphology is useful for adequate interpretation of computed tomography (CT) scans in patients with suspected adrenal pathology.Objective: To compare the size of normal adrenal glands with the cases of acute abdomen on Multidetector CT.Methods: A total of 256 Contrast enhanced CT scans of abdomen where observed. 108 of them were for evaluation of acute abdomen and the rest were reported as normal scans. Adrenal gland measurements were taken at body (at the level of maximum thickness of body), lateral limb and medial limb (a line perpendicular the limb) in both the cases and normal patients.Results: The mean maximum thickness (in mm) of the right adrenal gland body, medial limb, and lateral limb were 5.9 ± 1.6, 4.4 ± 1.4, and 4.8 ± 1.3, respectively, and the mean maximum thickness (in mm) of the left adrenal gland body, medial limb, and lateral limb were 6.7 ± 1.9, 4.9 ± 1.5, and 5.1 ± 1.6, respectively. In cases with acute abdomen mean maximum thickness (in mm) of the right adrenal gland body, medial limb, and lateral limb were 6.2 ± 1.5, 4.2 ± 1.3, and 4.9 ± 1.7, respectively, and the mean maximum thickness (in mm) of the left adrenal gland body, medial limb, and lateral limb were 7.1 ± 1.9, 4.9 ± 1.5, and 5.1 ± 1.9, respectively.Conclusion: There is no significant statistical difference between various measurements of adrenals of normal and cases with acute abdomen

Local impact analysis of climate change on precipitation extremes : are high-resolution climate models needed for realistic simulations?

This study explores whether climate models with higher spatial resolutions provide higher accuracy for precipitation simulations and/or different climate change signals. The outputs from two convection-permitting climate models (ALARO and CCLM) with a spatial resolution of 3-4 km are compared with those from the coarse-scale driving models or reanalysis data for simulating/projecting daily and sub-daily precipitation quantiles. Validation of historical design precipitation statistics derived from intensityduration-frequency (IDF) curves shows a better match of the convection-permitting model results with the observations-based IDF statistics compared to the driving GCMs and reanalysis data. This is the case for simulation of local subdaily precipitation extremes during the summer season, while the convection-permitting models do not appear to bring added value to simulation of daily precipitation extremes. Results moreover indicate that one has to be careful in assuming spatial-scale independency of climate change signals for the delta change downscaling method, as high-resolution models may show larger changes in extreme precipitation. These larger changes appear to be dependent on the timescale, since such intensification is not observed for daily timescales for both the ALARO and CCLM models

Antimicrobial, Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Potential of Aerial Parts of Monotheca buxifolia

In this study, different aerial parts of Monotheca Buxifolia were screened for their antibacterial, antifungal, and anti-oxidant activity. Extract of the fruit was most active against P. mirabilis, MSSA and M. morganii strains. Moreover, the methanolic fruit extract demonstrated good antibacterial properties against VRSA, S. aureus and Acinetobacter. Despite having good antibacterial properties, Monotheca buxifolia showed low antifungal activity. The cytotoxic activity was the highest in the pet-ether fruit extract, causing 60% of lethality against Artemia salina larvae with LD50 at 3.307. The highest scavenging activity was shown by the methanolic leaf extract in a concentration-dependent pattern. The findings of this study suggest that Monotheca Buxifolia has good antibacterial, antioxidant potential but low antifungal properties

A genome-wide association study identifies protein quantitative trait loci (pQTLs)

There is considerable evidence that human genetic variation influences gene expression. Genome-wide studies have revealed that mRNA levels are associated with genetic variation in or close to the gene coding for those mRNA transcripts - cis effects, and elsewhere in the genome - trans effects. The role of genetic variation in determining protein levels has not been systematically assessed. Using a genome-wide association approach we show that common genetic variation influences levels of clinically relevant proteins in human serum and plasma. We evaluated the role of 496,032 polymorphisms on levels of 42 proteins measured in 1200 fasting individuals from the population based InCHIANTI study. Proteins included insulin, several interleukins, adipokines, chemokines, and liver function markers that are implicated in many common diseases including metabolic, inflammatory, and infectious conditions. We identified eight Cis effects, including variants in or near the IL6R (p = 1.8×10 -57), CCL4L1 (p = 3.9×10-21), IL18 (p = 6.8×10-13), LPA (p = 4.4×10-10), GGT1 (p = 1.5×10-7), SHBG (p = 3.1×10-7), CRP (p = 6.4×10-6) and IL1RN (p = 7.3×10-6) genes, all associated with their respective protein products with effect sizes ranging from 0.19 to 0.69 standard deviations per allele. Mechanisms implicated include altered rates of cleavage of bound to unbound soluble receptor (IL6R), altered secretion rates of different sized proteins (LPA), variation in gene copy number (CCL4L1) and altered transcription (GGT1). We identified one novel trans effect that was an association between ABO blood group and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) levels (p = 6.8×10-40), but this finding was not present when TNF-alpha was measured using a different assay , or in a second study, suggesting an assay-specific association. Our results show that protein levels share some of the features of the genetics of gene expression. These include the presence of strong genetic effects in cis locations. The identification of protein quantitative trait loci (pQTLs) may be a powerful complementary method of improving our understanding of disease pathways. © 2008 Melzer et al

A Genome Wide Meta-Analysis Study for Identification of Common Variation Associated with Breast Cancer Prognosis

Non peer reviewe

The SNP rs6500843 in 16p13.3 is associated with survival specifically among chemotherapy-treated breast cancer patients

We have utilized a two-stage study design to search for SNPs associated with the survival of breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. Our initial GWS data set consisted of 805 Finnish breast cancer cases (360 treated with adjuvant chemotherapy). The top 39 SNPs from this stage were analyzed in three independent data sets: iCOGS (n=6720 chemotherapy-treated cases), SUCCESS-A (n=3596), and POSH (n=518). Two SNPs were successfully validated: rs6500843 (any chemotherapy; per-allele HR 1.16, 95% C.I. 1.08-1.26, p=0.0001, p((adjusted))=0.0091), and rs11155012 (anthracycline therapy; per-allele HR 1.21, 95% C.I. 1.08-1.35, p=0.0010, p((adjusted))=0.0270). The SNP rs6500843 was found to specifically interact with adjuvant chemotherapy, independently of standard prognostic markers (p((interaction))=0.0009), with the rs6500843-GG genotype corresponding to the highest hazard among chemotherapy-treated cases (HR 1.47, 95% C.I. 1.20-1.80). Upon trans-eQTL analysis of public microarray data, the rs6500843 locus was found to associate with the expression of a group of genes involved in cell cycle control, notably AURKA, the expression of which also exhibited differential prognostic value between chemotherapy-treated and untreated cases in our analysis of microarray data. Based on previously published information, we propose that the eQTL genes may be connected to the rs6500843 locus via a RBFOX1-FOXM1 -mediated regulatory pathway.Peer reviewe

Pembauran Budaya di Desa Rantau Sakti Kecamatan Tambusai Utara Kabupaten Rokan Hulu

This study is to research how the intercourse of culture that existed in the Rantau Sakti village Tambusai Utara District and Rokan Hulu Regent intertribal nasions of Java, Medan Java, Batak, Minang, and Melayu. Theres a launching factors and hindrance factors too in culture intercourse. The data tekhnic collection with the koesioner, interview, and documentation. And the analisys of data is descriptive where the data presented in the form of a diagrams, percentages, pictures, and explanations. The research results show that The lives of the multicultural that could lead to the occurrence of intercourse of culture through assimilation, acculturation, and amalgamation. The intercourse of culture through three aspects of it can run well theres happened in Rantau Sakti village on seven principles like language, system of knowledge , a social organization , celebration life and technologi, means of subsistence, religion, and art . There is also intercourse of culture with amalgamation culture that leads to assimilation and acculturation. Its launching factor are the attitude of tolerance and open, in common religion, and the same occasion in the economic field. While the hindrance factor are differences of religion and stereotype (ethnic prejudice). Those two factors each happened to the process of changing culture with assimilation, acculturation, and amalgamation That leads to a positive thing.Keyword: The Culture Intercourse, Inter-ethnic