Contemporary challenges confronting Islamic banking & finance

The philosophy of Islamic economics is "brining economics in consonance with Shariah", guiding Islamic banking and finance to abolish interest from operations, has reported a monumental growth, envisaged the most lucrative and unsusceptible segment of the economy. Islamic finance is undoubtedly flourishing worldwide entails trajectory development but at other front it encounters a number of impediments in development since its inception. The emphasis of this study is to encapsulate in tabular form, the contemporary problems and challenges Islamic finance has encountered during the span of last 28-years from 1988 to 2015. The austere Shariah compliance; regulatory and prudential challenges; misconception among western society about Islamic banking philosophy; unavailability of money and capital market for scant Islamic financial instruments; piercing competition; privation of Islamic banking and finance awareness; absence of uniform reporting standards; complexities of regulatory and supervisory issues; lack of central supervisory body, governance and dearth of consensus among Shariah scholars been the precarious challenges among many others. A unified central regulatory and supervisory mechanism required in converging sprinkled Islamic finance practices and to foster a synchronized and standardized regulatory framework consensus need to be developed among all Shariah scholar

Assessment of nematodes in Punjab Urial (Ovis vignei punjabiensis) population in Kalabagh game reserve: development of a DNA barcode approach

Punjab urial (Ovis vignei punjabiensis) is a wild sheep of Pakistan, considered a vulnerable species by IUCN. Major threats to urial populations include habitat loss and poaching, causing severe declines in its population. Nematode infections may also compromise urial survival, but little is known about Punjab urial gastrointestinal nematodes. In this study, a novel DNA barcoding approach was developed using ITS-I as a target region, with a primer pair designed to amplify frequently reported nematode species for small ruminants. The novel primer pair was validated in silico and in vitro and subsequently used to determine the presence of nematodes in Punjab urial samples from Kala Bagh Game Reserve, District Mianwali (Pakistan). DNA barcoding revealed a higher prevalence of Haemonchus contortus (73.91%), Trichuris ovis (16.30%) and Trichostrongylus axei (3.26%) in Punjab urial. This study demonstrates that the novel DNA barcoding approach is a robust tool to detect nematode parasites from faecal samples of Punjab urial. This method can be used to detect nematode infections in wild and domestic hosts for surveillance and population conservation

Exploration of ohmic-sonication technique for the shelf-life extension of apple juice

International audienceObjective: Apple juice is pivotal food commodity naturally consumed for its nutritionrich and health promoting attributes for normal and diseased persons. Methods:Current research was performed to evaluate the nutritional composition, physico-chemical composition, microbiological and sensorial stability of apple juicesubjected to different treatments of ohmic heating – sonication techniques as T1(ohmic heated at 75oC for 60 sec at 220V), T2 (sonicated at 8 min at 20 kHz), T3 (ohmic-sonication at 75 0C for 60 sec at 220 V), and T4 (ohmic-sonication 8 mint at20 kHz). Results: The results elucidated signifi cant (p<0.05) reduction in pH values ofapple juice from T0 – T4 from 3.78 – 3.5, respectively. Among the total carotenoids T3(sonication-ohmic) showed the highest contents i.e., 108 μg mL-1. The storageresulted in signifi cant (p<0.05) in antioxidant activities (i.e., DPPH activities) of applejuice from T0 – T4 from 289 – 317 ug/g, while among the treatments the highestDPPH activities were noticed in T3. The maximum vitamin C was found in T3 i.e.,5.92% on 14th day of storage. Titratable acidity increased from 0.31 to 0.45 on storageapple juice from 0 – 14th day of storage. The total soluble solids signifi cantly (p<0.05)increased from 9.9 – 13.4% from T0 – T4 on storage of 0 – 14th day. While, themicrobial numbers revealed the increase in log CFU/mL from 0.91 – 2.31 on storage of0 – 14th day. Overall sensory acceptability showed the highest acceptability of theapple juice was T3 which showed the highest color, fl avor and overall acceptability ofapple juice. Conclusion: Conclusively, the research shows potential use of ohmicheating–sonication at 75 0C for 60 seconds at 220 V as a viable strategy of choice forshelf life extension of value added foods products to extend the shelf stability and tothe improve the microbiological safety of apple juice

Forecasting the population growth and wheat crop production in Pakistan with non-linear growth and ARIMA models

Food security as a major social concern and a global threat, requires better policy decisions based on empirical studies. This work presents a comparative statistical analysis of different methods to forecast wheat area, productivity, production, and population growth rate in Pakistan. Time series data from 1950 to 2020 were analyzed using various methods such as ARIMA, the compound growth exponential regression model (CGREM), Cuddy Della Valle instability index (CDVI), and decomposition analysis. The results show that CGREM performs better than other models. Periodic compound growth rates indicate that wheat area and yield decrease by about 67.0% and 40.0%, while the population decreases by 31.7%. For the period 2001-2020, the compound growth reaches the level of 0.60% for wheat area, 1.21% for yield, while it is high for the population and amounts to 2.22%. The overall compound growth rate for wheat area and yield (about 1.207%, 2.326%) is lower compared to the population (about 2.839%). The paper presents forecasts for wheat area, yield, and population in Pakistan will rise: 12.7%, 25.5%, 31.8% in 2030 and 43%, 97.8%, and 129% in 2050. The results of this study provide empirical evidence for the necessity of policy decisions addressing the problem of food security in Pakistan

Evaluation of drought-tolerant sunflower (

Global climate change is posing threats for sustainable crop production. Supra-optimal temperature and water stress are among few causes of global climate change which can cause significant damage to yield in various crop species including sunflower. Therefore, a study was initiated to develop new sunflower hybrids which may have higher seed yield and water use efficiency in current scenario of global climate change. Parental inbred lines were selected on the basis of cell membrane injury and cuticular waxes; these parental lines were used to develop various cross combinations. These cross combinations were evaluated at two locations and seasons. Some newly developed hybrids (H7, H8, H9) showed lesser days to flowering, high water use efficiency, high or comparable yield, kernel to seed% and oil contents% than high yielding commercial check Hysun.33. Water use efficiency (WUE) showed significant and high correlation with seed yield in both seasons. WUE decreased in spring season when compared with the autumn season due to high evapo-transpirational losses. General combining ability analyses showed that parental lines i.e. C.249 and RH.344 were the best combiners for water use efficiency and seed yield and may be exploited for the commercial development of drought resistant hybrids

Entailing the Next-Generation Sequencing and Metabolome for Sustainable Agriculture by Improving Plant Tolerance

Crop production is a serious challenge to provide food for the 10 billion individuals forecasted to live across the globe in 2050. The scientists&rsquo; emphasize establishing an equilibrium among diversity and quality of crops by enhancing yield to fulfill the increasing demand for food supply sustainably. The exploitation of genetic resources using genomics and metabolomics strategies can help generate resilient plants against stressors in the future. The innovation of the next-generation sequencing (NGS) strategies laid the foundation to unveil various plants&rsquo; genetic potential and help us to understand the domestication process to unmask the genetic potential among wild-type plants to utilize for crop improvement. Nowadays, NGS is generating massive genomic resources using wild-type and domesticated plants grown under normal and harsh environments to explore the stress regulatory factors and determine the key metabolites. Improved food nutritional value is also the key to eradicating malnutrition problems around the globe, which could be attained by employing the knowledge gained through NGS and metabolomics to achieve suitability in crop yield. Advanced technologies can further enhance our understanding in defining the strategy to obtain a specific phenotype of a crop. Integration among bioinformatic tools and molecular techniques, such as marker-assisted, QTLs mapping, creation of reference genome, de novo genome assembly, pan- and/or super-pan-genomes, etc., will boost breeding programs. The current article provides sequential progress in NGS technologies, a broad application of NGS, enhancement of genetic manipulation resources, and understanding the crop response to stress by producing plant metabolites. The NGS and metabolomics utilization in generating stress-tolerant plants/crops without deteriorating a natural ecosystem is considered a sustainable way to improve agriculture production. This highlighted knowledge also provides useful research that explores the suitable resources for agriculture sustainability

A comprehensive review on the prevalence, pathogenesis and detection of Yersinia enterocolitica

International audienceFood safety is imperative for a healthy life, but pathogens are still posing a significant life threat

Demographic history of the Punjab urial and implications for its management

The Punjab urial (Ovis vignei punjabiensis) is endemic to Northern Punjab, Pakistan, and is categorized as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. The urial population has declined by 30% over the last 3 generations. We used non-invasive fecal samples to identify individuals and estimate population size of Punjab urial in the Kalabagh Game Reserve, Pakistan. We genotyped samples using 12 microsatellite markers to assess genetic variation, population structure, and demographic changes. Microsatellite analysis revealed high levels of genetic variation in urials in terms of expected and observed heterozygosity and allelic diversity. The population structure of the Punjab urial in the Kalabagh Game Reserve, based solely on microsatellite variation using Bayesian clustering, indicated 3 different clusters in the reserve. Results revealed that the urial population may be facing inbreeding pressure because its ancestral effective population size has declined from between 20,000 and 50,000 to ≤1,000 animals today. This reduction has partly occurred because of a bottleneck that occurred about 10,000 years ago. Results also indicate that 1 urial population cluster has the signature of a bottleneck, which may be due to population isolation. The 3 urial clusters are small and broadly dispersed in a large territory, meaning they could be extirpated without any opportunity for natural re-population through dispersion. The results of our study support a management strategy that encourages maintaining connectivity between urial localities within the Kalabagh Game Reserve, increased diversity so the effective population size may recover from the historical decline, and the use of data generated here as a baseline of urial genetic diversity in the reserve for monitoring diversity over the long term