Study of Important Soil-Borne Viruses in Major Potato Growing Areas of Hazara and Malakand Divisions Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw-Pakistan

To study important soil-borne viruses of potato an extensive field surveys were conducted in Hazara and Malakand Divisions during potato growing seasons in 2011-12. Incidence and distribution of Potato mop-top pomovirus (PMTV) and Tobacco rattle tobra virus (TRV) was reported on the basis of characteristic symptoms expression, bait test, infectivity assays and double antibody sandwich-enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA). Both the viruses were prevalent in Hazara and Malakand divisions. The average symptoms based incidence in Hazara division for PMTV was 8.83% and TRV was 6.80% while in Malakand division the average symptoms based incidence for PMTV was 8.46% and TRV was 9.95%. DAS-ELISA based average incidence in Hazara of PMTV and TRV was 17.34% and 11.99% respectively. The average DAS-ELISA based incidence in Malakand division for PMTV was 21.36% and TRV was 13.71%. The highest symptom based incidence of PMTV in the Hazara was in Baffa 10.75% and in Kalam 10.34% was in Malakand division whereas the highest incidence of TRV in Hazara was in Gojri 8.08% and in Malakand was in Shangla-top 11.62 %. The highest incidence of PMTV based on ELISA was recorded in samples collected from the farmers field at Baffa (21.73%) of Hazara while (23.80%) in Kalam of Malakand division. The highest incidence of TRV based on ELISA in Hazara was found in Mangal 14.28% and in Malakand division the highest incidence was in Shangla Top 17.39%. Isolates of PMTV and TRV were characterized using biological and serological techniques. Biological characterization of the field isolates revealed that variability in the symptoms produced by them on host plant. The interaction and association of viruses (PMTV and TRV) and their vectors was calculated by using Jaccard index of similarity. The association of PMTV to its vector Spongosporsa subteranea in Hazara division was found 27.0% while their association in Malakand division was found 24.4%. The TRV associated to its vectors Trichodorus in Hazara division was found 8.94% while in Malakand division was 20.7%. It was concluded that molecular studies will be required to determine variability among the prevalent isolates of PMTV and TRV. Keywords: Virus, Nematode, Fungus, Incidence, Jaccard index of similarity

CAPITAL STRUCTURE, LIQUIDITY AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF THE FIRMS IN CEMENT AND SUGAR INDUSTRIES OF PAKISTAN

This research examines the impact of firm capital structure and liquidity on the financial performance of sugar and cement sector firms in Pakistan. The study used the secondary data of 30 firms randomly selected for the period 2005 to 2017. The data was analyzed through statistical tools like correlation and regression. The results revealed that the capital structure proxies have a negative correlation with financial performance proxies of these sector firms.The results indicated that debts to equity ratio and the fund capital ratio has a negative insignificant impact however the debts ratio and Funded debts ratio were found having a negative significant impact on the financial proxies of these selected firms. The results indicated a positive correlation of the liquidity with the financial performance of these firms. The results demonstrating positive effect of current and quick ratios on the financial performance proxies of these firms. The study has some meaningful insights for the financial managers and decision makers of these firms

POSTMODERN CRITIQUE OF MISSIONARIES’ HISTORIOGRAPHY (A Case Study of the Civilization of Southern Africa)

Southern Africa is unique in its culture and civilization. Its history of last four centuries is the most important and interesting one for the historians of Africa as well as researchers. In colonial period identity, political consciousness and new social order of southern African people were based on the western colonialists and missionaries’ representations and models. Both groups, missionaries and colonialists, view the region from the same angle because of their similar instrumental approach. Their prejudices and biases towards southern Africa lean towards Western superiority and African inferiority for material and spiritual exploitation. They claimed superiority of Christianity over southern African religious traditions and they also condemned it as superstitious and heathen. The missionaries’ historical texts are primary source of modern consistent historiography of southern Africa and they collaborated with European colonialists. However they presented southern African people, uncultured, and barbarians, as a rationale of imperialism. Their understanding of the internal dynamics of southern African history primarily formed the perspectives of colonialism; it is demand of postcolonial era to cure the curse of the misperceptions and to understand nature of religious traditions, culture and civilization of southern Africa. After the demise of colonialism revisionist trend, among the historians of southern Africa, became popular to retell the story of the civilization of the region. This study consists of postmodern critique of missionaries’ historiography of southern Africa. In the light of revisionism it would be possible to draw the real picture of southern Africa and to formulate new principles of historiography of the continent.</p

Automated PCB identification and defect-detection system (APIDS)

Ever growing PCB industry requires automation during manufacturing process to produce defect free products. Machine Vision is widely used as popular means of inspection to find defects in PCBs. However, it is still largely dependent on user input to select algorithm set for the PCB under inspection prior to the beginning of the process. Continuous increase in computation power of computers and image quality of image acquisition devices demands new methods for further automation. This paper proposes a new method to achieve further automation by identifying the type of PCB under inspection prior to begin defect inspection process. Identification of PCB is achieved by using local feature detectors SURF and ORB and using the orientation data acquired to transform the PCB image to the reference image for inspection of defects. A close-loop system is produced as a prototype to reflect the practicality of the idea. A Graphical User Interface was developed using MATLAB to present the proposed system. Test data contained 29 PCBs. Each PCB was tested 5 times for camera acquired images and 3 times for database images. The identification accuracy is 98.66% for database images and 100% for images acquired from the camera. The time taken to detect the model of PCB is recorded and is significantly lower for ORB based identification than SURF based. The system is also a close loop system which detects defects in PCB units. The detection of defects has highest accuracy of 92.3% for best controlled environment scenario. With controlled environment, the system could detect defects in PCB pertaining to smallest of components such as SMDs

Fuzzy decision making in Business intelligence in the context of Gilgit-Baltistan

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate and implement fuzzy decision based on unequal objectives and minimization of regret for the decision making in the business intelligence and to compare the weight of products while the minimization of regret that uses regression of products in Gilgit-Baltistan. Here we will convert the verbal expressions in to linguistic variables and use in fuzzy decision making model, which influences the main two factors, one is effect of the influence on the product and second its payoff for the most effectiveness on the products

Coverage of Baluchistan Issues in leading Newspapers of Pakistan

The conflict between Baloch nationalists and the Government of Pakistan has been a constant feature in the history of Pakistan. The study explores the treatment of conflict issues in Baluchistan in the editorials and columns of dailies of Pakistan, Jang and Dawn, in the year 2012. Findings show that the coverage on Baluchistan did not adequately reflect the intensity of the conflict. Most frequent themes were on political and religious leadership, foreign hands in Baluchistan and strategic importance of Baluchistan. Most of the opinion articles and columns, blamed bad governance, partial judicial system and rough attitude of security forces with local people as major reasons for the conflict in Baluchistan besides Bugti‟s murder and foreign proxy involvement

A Taxonomy of Text Mining

With a rapid increase in the volume of textual data on the Internet, extracting useful information through innovative text mining techniques has become crucial. In this context, terminology jargon in the literature related to text-mining creates ambiguity and has made it very difficult for researchers to focus in a specific direction and bring innovation. For example, review mining and opinion mining may have different applications, however, from a technical perspective, they are very similar. In this paper, we propose a classification of the text mining terminologies from the perspectives of technical and text-mining processes. The classification is based on a comprehensive literature survey and analysis. This research study presents a clear classification of text mining terminologies based on technical and text mining processes to resolve the issue of terminology jargon. By utilizing the proposed classification, researchers will be able to easily choose a specific direction instead of diverging amongst similar research problems, thereby, driving innovation. Further, the proposed classification will help advance and improve the overall research progress in all text-mining related fields

The impact of Diversity training on Commitment, Career satisfaction and Innovation

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between diversity training with organizational commitment, career satisfaction, and innovation in the organization. The paper builds conceptual understanding of the model. The paper takes organization commitment, career satisfaction and Innovation, as Innovation is the part of organization environment. There are many studies on diversity training but no one focused its effect of innovation. The paper concluded that employees who are trained for diversity are more committed towards their organizations, and more satisfied with their careers. The paper also concluded that diversity training has positive effect on innovation. This paper builds relationship among different variables through previous studies. Limitations of this paper are that it is not guaranteeing the empirical reliability of the model, than the research on innovation is difficult to conduct because innovation is very gradual and systematic process. While talking about the innovation in the organization, diversity training is a very technical and worth while approach for today’s organizations. The paper finds that diversity training has its effect on commitment, career satisfaction and innovation

Sonographic Association Between Fatty Liver and Gall Baldder Stone

Background: Fatty liver (chronic liver disease) was most frequently found associated with gall stones. It arises due to accumulation of lipid in hepatocytes mainly triglyceride. Due to high existence of obesity in the population, the risk of fatty liver and gall stones also increases. In Pakistan the prevalence of fatty liver was 15-20 %. Fatty liver and gall stones could easily be observed on ultrasound. Objective: To evaluate the sonographic association between fatty liver and gall bladder Stone. Study Design: Descriptive Study was conducted Settings: Sanabil health services. Lahore Period: Four months Material &amp; Methods: In our study patients presents with epigastric pain high cholesterol level and previous history of gall stones.While patient with the history of cholecystectomy were excluded. All the data had been composed from Sanabil Health Services Lahore. After informed consent, data was composed through ultrasound machine GE LOGIQ P7 with convex probe (frequency 2.5- 5MHZ) Results: According to results total volume of patient was 220. Now we were comparing between cholelithiasis and grading of fatty liver. Total no of GRADE 1 fatty liver patients were 63 out of 220 in which 13 patients were showing absence of GS while 50 patients showed GS. Total no of GRADE II fatty liver patients were 89 out of 220 in which 36 patients were showing absence of GS while 53 patients showed GS. Total no of GRADE III fatty liver patients were 68 out of 250 in which 20 patients were showing absence of GS while 48 patients showed GS. Total no of 69 out of 220 patients showed absence of GS while 151 patients out of 220 showed with GS. Conclusion: We concluded that the patients who had high cholesterol level, gall stones are associated with fatty liver disease. Moreover fatty liver disease was more common in females than males. Keywords: Nonalcoholic fatty liver, chronic liver disease, Gallbladder, Gall stones, Ultrasound and cholecystokinin. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/91-09 Publication date:July 31st 202

Why Do People Switch Mobile Platforms?

This study aims to examine the factors that influence customers to switch mobile platforms in Karachi. For this purpose, the study uses Information System Success Model (ISSM) to find out individuals’ intention of using mobile platforms and to predict and explain their behavior towards mobile phone devices. Further, the study also intends to analyze the effects of System Quality, Information Quality, Service Quality, User Satisfaction, Perceived Switching Value and Switching Intentions. Using the Information System Success Model (ISSM), data has been collected from telecommunications customers in Karachi, using self-administered questionnaires. A total of 424 questionnaires are found usable. We use Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the effects of System Quality, Information Quality, Service Quality, User Satisfaction, Perceived Switching Value on Switching Intentions. Using the Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), this study finds that Information Quality (IQ) has negative and significant impact on Perceived Switching Value (PSV) whereas Service Quality (SE-Q) has significant and positive impact on Perceived Switching Value (PSV). While Information Quality (IQ), Service Quality (SE-Q) & System Quality (SY-Q) also have positive and significant impacts on User Satisfaction (US) whereas Perceived Switching Value (PSV) and User Satisfaction (US) have a significant impact on Switching Intentions (SI). Moreover, Perceived Switching Value (PSV) has positive impact on Switching Intention and System Quality has negative and insignificant impact on Perceived Switching Value. Four limitations are available for future studies. First, as our variables are limited so in future other variables could be included in this study. Second, our population was only Karachi’s telecommunication customer which influences the results of the study. Third, our sample size was 573 respondents which ultimately decrease the generalizability of the paper because of not having appropriate sample size. Fourth, respondent was not cooperative while filling up questionnaire which might negatively influence the results. These limitations, however, provide directions for further future research