DISCREPANCIES OF SKILLS ACQUIRED DURING TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAMME AND REQUIRED IN ACTUAL CLASSROOM

The improvement of a teacher’s education is a critical national necessity. Thequality of teachers, more than any other factor, depends upon the quality ofinstructions, and, quality of instructions is largely determined by the excellence ofthe teachers. This requires that the teacher’s education institutions should be wellequipped with human as well as physical facilities.This research has been designed to cover up the following objectives: (1) To getthe opinion of the teachers trainers about essential classroom skills acquired bythe trainee teachers. (2) To identify the problems in acquiring and implementingthe essential classroom skills. (3) To point out the discrepancies between skillsthat have been developed during teacher training programme. In this respecttechnique of multistage sampling was used. At first two provinces i.e. Punjab andKhyber Pakhtunkhua were randomly chosen from the two provinces. Fortypercent teachers were chosen from the sampled teachers for classroomobservation, so hundred teachers were chosen for this purpose. An equal numberof teacher trainers were chosen from each district.The questionnaire was designed to get the response of the teacher trainers aboutthe required ad acquired skills during the teacher training programme i.e., B.Ed.and M.Ed. A checklist was constructed to carry out classroom observation of theteachers in the classroom and to see the difference of required skills and acquiredskills. Data collected through research instrument was analysed by using meanscore and t.test.Majority of the respondents agreed that the teachers have used appropriateteaching methods, made efforts to improve their instructional effectiveness, usedmodern techniques and useful skills in the classroom, and made sure that theirteaching was compatible with the class environment, used learning activities thatrequired the students to practice higher order thinking and used differentstrategies for solving the problems. The classroom observation did not supportthis perception

Pedagogical Implications of Corpus-based Approaches to ELT in Pakistan

The advent of corpora has opened new vistas for language study and restructured linguists’ and academicians’ approaches to lexicography and English language teaching (ELT). After 1980s, the use of online language corpora and computer tools garnered tremendous attention of English language teachers and academicians. Keeping in view the modern trends and needs of learners, this research focused on the practical implications of online corpora for ELT and its utility in the Pakistani context. Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE) is used as a reference corpus for this research. MICASE is a collection of nearly 1.8 million words of transcribed speech (almost two hundred hours of recording). The transcribed data of MICASE includes wide range of speech events like seminars, lectures, advisory meetings and lab sessions. The study identified the utility of lexical items at syntactic level and its usage in various contexts. Furthermore, the layers of meanings and uses of lexicons through in-depth study of right and left collocates were explored in the reference corpus. The results showed that lexicons can be used as noun, verb and adjective depending upon the context of the study and right and left collocates play a significant role in understanding the meanings of lexical items in various contexts. Thus, this strategy can be fruitful for English language learners and academic discourse community who are interested in understanding the versatile uses of lexical items and their contextual meaning.Keywords: collocate, context, corpus, ELT, MICAS

Corpus-driven analysis of Pakistani newspaper editorials on COVID-19 discourse

Cataclysmic changes by the gradual spread of COVID-19 have triggered the interest of scientists, scholars, academicians, and linguists in analyzing the discourse related to the spread of the pandemic. The descriptions made by all of these scholars not only contribute to language with linguistic innovations but also cause the emergence of human attitudes and behaviours. At the same time, the issues raised through the language used during the challenging time of such crises shape and reveal several human schemas of language, discourse, society, and culture. Several studies on past situations of diseases and calamities have provided critical analyses of these schemas of difficult times in human history. Discourses through various linguistic practices in this regard play a crucial role in shaping and demonstrating the schemas of the crisis hit societies. Media discourse, specifically, has hidden powers to exercise, identify and report various socio-cultural issues. The current study focuses on finding the themes of socio-cultural attitudes and behaviours that emerged from newspaper editorials published in Pakistani newspapers in February, March and April, 2020. To achieve this goal, the corpusdriven analysis of 198 newspaper editorials having 215,842 words was conducted. The study revealed various themes that prevailed in this pre-vaccination period of COVID-19 in Pakistan. The themes included the metaphoric use of the language such as battle, corps and frontline; racism while naming the virus as China virus or Hazara virus; conspiracy theories assumed to be associated with COVID-19 spread i.e. suspected involvement of Bill Gates and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), US and World Health Organization (WHO); negligence on the part of people; and criticism on government for health facilities and implications of globalization. It is concluded, based on these findings, that media representation of prevaccination phase of COVID-19 in Pakistan is loaded with unhealthy discourse which could have been avoided in order to shape positive attitudes and behaviours of the masses

Impact of an Energy Monitoring System on the Energy Efficiency of an Automobile Factory: A Case Study

Energy-saving strategies cannot be implemented without having detailed and regular power consumption data of a facility. The installation of an energy monitoring and data logging system can help in planning energy efficiency improvement policies by providing daily, monthly, and yearly energy consumption reports and graphs. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the impact of an energy monitoring and management system on the improvement of energy efficiency in the industrial sector of developing countries. This study introduced an energy monitoring and data logging system installed in an automobile factory in Pakistan. Energy consumption data, which also included power quality data, were collected with the help of energy analyzers and transmitted to a centralized supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software for data logging and monitoring purposes. This system was developed by combining Modbus with industrial Ethernet to communicate real-time energy consumption data of the factory to multiple local and remote locations. Monitoring and logging the real-time energy consumption data helped the user to find the significant energy losses inside the factory and to implement various energy conservation policies inside the facility, resulting in energy efficiency improvement. The energy consumption results indicate that the proposed system can help achieve an approximately 8% improvement in energy efficiency

Improvement of Plant Responses by Nanobiofertilizer: A Step towards Sustainable Agriculture

Drastic changes in the climate and ecosystem due to natural or anthropogenic activities have severely affected crop production globally. This concern has raised the need to develop environmentally friendly and cost-effective strategies, particularly for keeping pace with the demands of the growing population. The use of nanobiofertilizers in agriculture opens a new chapter in the sustainable production of crops. The application of nanoparticles improves the growth and stress tolerance in plants. Inoculation of biofertilizers is another strategy explored in agriculture. The combination of nanoparticles and biofertilizers produces nanobiofertilizers, which are cost-effective and more potent and eco-friendly than nanoparticles or biofertilizers alone. Nanobiofertilizers consist of biofertilizers encapsulated in nanoparticles. Biofertilizers are the preparations of plant-based carriers having beneficial microbial cells, while nanoparticles are microscopic (1–100 nm) particles that possess numerous advantages. Silicon, zinc, copper, iron, and silver are the commonly used nanoparticles for the formulation of nanobiofertilizer. The green synthesis of these nanoparticles enhances their performance and characteristics. The use of nanobiofertilizers is more effective than other traditional strategies. They also perform their role better than the common salts previously used in agriculture to enhance the production of crops. Nanobiofertilizer gives better and more long-lasting results as compared to traditional chemical fertilizers. It improves the structure and function of soil and the morphological, physiological, biochemical, and yield attributes of plants. The formation and application of nanobiofertilizer is a practical step toward smart fertilizer that enhances growth and augments the yield of crops. The literature on the formulation and application of nanobiofertilizer at the field level is scarce. This product requires attention, as it can reduce the use of chemical fertilizer and make the soil and crops healthy. This review highlights the formulation and application of nanobiofertilizer on various plant species and explains how nanobiofertilizer improves the growth and development of plants. It covers the role and status of nanobiofertilizer in agriculture. The limitations of and future strategies for formulating effective nanobiofertilizer are mentioned

Improvement of Plant Responses by Nanobiofertilizer : A Step towards Sustainable Agriculture

Drastic changes in the climate and ecosystem due to natural or anthropogenic activities have severely affected crop production globally. This concern has raised the need to develop environmentally friendly and cost-effective strategies, particularly for keeping pace with the demands of the growing population. The use of nanobiofertilizers in agriculture opens a new chapter in the sustainable production of crops. The application of nanoparticles improves the growth and stress tolerance in plants. Inoculation of biofertilizers is another strategy explored in agriculture. The combination of nanoparticles and biofertilizers produces nanobiofertilizers, which are cost-effective and more potent and eco-friendly than nanoparticles or biofertilizers alone. Nanobiofertilizers consist of biofertilizers encapsulated in nanoparticles. Biofertilizers are the preparations of plant-based carriers having beneficial microbial cells, while nanoparticles are microscopic (1-100 nm) particles that possess numerous advantages. Silicon, zinc, copper, iron, and silver are the commonly used nanoparticles for the formulation of nanobiofertilizer. The green synthesis of these nanoparticles enhances their performance and characteristics. The use of nanobiofertilizers is more effective than other traditional strategies. They also perform their role better than the common salts previously used in agriculture to enhance the production of crops. Nanobiofertilizer gives better and more long-lasting results as compared to traditional chemical fertilizers. It improves the structure and function of soil and the morphological, physiological, biochemical, and yield attributes of plants. The formation and application of nanobiofertilizer is a practical step toward smart fertilizer that enhances growth and augments the yield of crops. The literature on the formulation and application of nanobiofertilizer at the field level is scarce. This product requires attention, as it can reduce the use of chemical fertilizer and make the soil and crops healthy. This review highlights the formulation and application of nanobiofertilizer on various plant species and explains how nanobiofertilizer improves the growth and development of plants. It covers the role and status of nanobiofertilizer in agriculture. The limitations of and future strategies for formulating effective nanobiofertilizer are mentioned.Peer reviewe

Discourse functions of lexical bundles in Pakistani chemistry and physics textbooks

Lexical bundles (LBs) are indispensable building blocks and essential constituents of academic discourse. The appropriate utilization of the lexical bundle’s approach can effectively enhance students’ understanding of academic discourse. LBs in various academic genres have extensively been studied concerning written and spoken language. However, less research has been conducted to explore the occurrence, nature, and frequency of LBs in Pakistani academic discourse, especially in textbooks. Therefore, the present study aims to explore four-word common LBs and their functional taxonomies employed in Pakistani Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) level textbooks of Chemistry and Physics. A specialized corpus of these textbooks was built which was run on Antconc software for the identification and extraction of the LBs in the corpus. The classification of the identified LBs was then carried out utilizing Biber functional taxonomies of LBs. The study found 102 LBs occurring in the selected textbooks. In functional categories, there was a dominant use of discourse organizers and referential expressions. The findings related to frequent strings of words which can have significant educational implications for teachers, language material developers, and syllabus designers. The list of LBs with discourse functions provided by this study can significantly be used to enhance students’ academic writing and their ability to comprehend different types of scientific texts

Design Analysis of High-Power Level 4 Smart Charging Infrastructure Using Next-Generation Power Devices for EVs and Heavy Duty EVs

Trending electric vehicles with different battery technologies need universally compatible and fast chargers. Present semiconductor technology is not suitable for designing high-power-rating converters. The increasing demand for high-capacity electric vehicle chargers requires efficient and optimum advanced material technology. This research presents next-generation material-based smart ultra-fast electric vehicle charging infrastructure for upcoming high-capacity EV batteries. The designed level 4 charger will be helpful for charging future heavy-duty electric vehicles with battery voltages of up to 2000 V. The designed infrastructure will be helpful for charging both EVs and heavy-duty electric trucks with a wide range of power levels. Wireless sensor-based smart systems monitor and control the overall charging infrastructure. The detailed design analysis of the proposed charger using the Simscape physical modeling tool is discussed using mathematical equations

The Impact of Calcium, Potassium, and Boron Application on the Growth and Yield Characteristics of Durum Wheat under Drought Conditions

Water stress affects the growth, development, and yield of crops. The objective of this study is to evaluate the positive effects of nutrients (calcium, potassium, and boron) on durum wheat facing drought stress. Two treatments of calcium, potassium, and boron were used under drought and well-watered conditions on two varieties of durum wheat (V1—Preco; V2—Kronos). The data depict that the exogenous application of these nutrients gave significantly different (p < 0.05) results. The percentage increase in shoot length and root length was 29% and 35% compared to the untreated, drought-facing plants. There is also an increase in the synthesis of photosynthetic pigments and osmolytes. The foliar spray of nutrients enhances the synthesis of antioxidants, including superoxide dismutase, catalase, and peroxidase, which reduce the production of free radicals. It also helps to maintain the stability of membranes and other cell organelles. The spray application enhances the yield of durum wheat, i.e., the percentage increase in the number of grains per spike and 1000-grain weight was 23% and 25% compared to the untreated, drought-facing plants. The use of these nutrients considerably improves the functioning of antioxidant machinery, helping combat the adverse effects of drought. Additionally, they improve the growth- and yield-related parameters. Hence, these sprays can be used as a plant growth regulator