Recruitment Methods Used by Software Industry in Pakistan: Issues and Concerns

The research aims to examine the relationship between the organization size and the recruitment methods used. It also examines the differences in recruitment methods for filling the managerial and non managerial positions and exploring possible reasons for switching between these methods among IT organizations. We found that there is a significant relationship between the organization size and the frequency of recruitment. The smaller organizations tend to recruit more frequently as compared to larger organizations. The results also show that there is significant positive relationship between the size of organization and the choice of methods for recruitment of professionals. Most software houses find it difficult to recruit individuals with adequate professional training, skills and experience. Most professionals in the industry are fresh graduates with a sound theoretical base but with inadequate practical experience and skills. Software houses can help in developing these fresh graduates in more mature professionals by offering extensive internship programs

ACCREDITATION OF BUSINESS EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN: A STEP TOWARDS INTERNATIONALIZATION

To meet the challenges of the quality of higher education in Pakistan, National Business Education Accreditation Council (NBEAC) has introduced national level accreditation standards to assure prospective students, of the high standing of their program. The present research aims to compare the standards of NBEAC with international standards of EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) to assess whether NBEAC has the capacity to address education mobility across countries.  The finding of the research concluded that NBEAC standards are very well compatible with EQUIS standards. Thus, NBEAC accreditation  can  be  used  as  a  step  towards  international  accreditation  by  Pakistani institutions

Transcriptome Analysis and Genetic Engineering

Genetic engineering is the most powerful technology of this century which is dramatically revolutionizing the agriculture, health, pharmaceutical, and food industries all over the world. Transcriptomics and genetic engineering go hand in hand from the development of a genetically modified organism (GMO) to its utilization by the humans. Transcriptome analysis is the analysis of messenger RNAs (mRNAs), which are produced by transcription of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in an organism in response to a specific internal/external environment. Transcriptome analysis is not only useful to dig out the potential target genes for genetic modifications but also utilized to study the proper functioning of a genetically engineered gene, evaluation of the GMO for biosafety risks and for monitoring the presence and movement of GMO. Despite huge scope of genetic engineering, these manipulations can upset the natural balance of a genome by insertional, soma clonal, and pleiotropic effects of a foreign gene resulting in unintended alterations along with the targeted changes. The untargeted alterations pose risks to environment and health of animals and plants. In this chapter, the key advancements in the field of biotechnology and the relevant biosafety issues are reviewed. The advantages and limitations of the current methods used for the evaluation, monitoring, and regulation of GMOs are discussed

Regenerative Medicine in Liver Cirrhosis: Promises and Pitfalls

Liver cirrhosis is irreversible and mostly ends up with complete loss of liver function/end‐stage liver failure, and the only proven treatment is liver transplantation. Scarcity of donor, high cost, lifelong immunosuppression, and surgical complications are the major issues associated with liver transplantation and these urge to look for alternate therapeutic approaches. Advancements in the field of regenerative medicine are arising hope for the treatment of liver cirrhosis. This chapter deals with the scope of liver regenerative medicine in the treatment of liver cirrhosis. Review of the literature showed that liver regenerative medicine no doubt holds great promises and added a lot of hope to the cure of liver diseases. Primarily, cell‐based therapies had shown great potential to treat liver cirrhosis. Successful clinical human trials further strengthen their significance in the field. However, recent trends in liver regenerative medicine are focusing on the development of tissue engineering leading to generation of the whole organ. Despite advantages, liver regenerative medicine has several limitations and sometimes been over‐optimistically interpreted. In conclusion, the current scenario advocates to conduct more preclinical and clinical trials to effectively replace liver transplantation with liver regenerative medicine to treat liver diseases

Genomics of Salinity Tolerance in Plants

Plants are frequently exposed to wide range of harsh environmental factors, such as drought, salinity, cold, heat, and insect attack. Being sessile in nature, plants have developed different strategies to adapt and grow under rapidly changing environments. These strategies involve rearrangements at the molecular level starting from transcription, regulation of mRNA processing, translation, and protein modification or its turnover. Plants show stress-specific regulation of transcription that affects their transcriptome under stress conditions. The transcriptionally regulated genes have different roles under stress response. Generally, seedling and reproductive stages are more susceptible to stress. Thus, stress response studies during these growth stages reveal novel differentially regulated genes or proteins with important functions in plant stress adaptation. Exploiting the functional genomics and bioinformatics studies paved the way in understanding the relationship between genotype and phenotype of an organism suffering from environmental stress. Future research programs can be focused on the development of transgenic plants with enhanced stress tolerance in field conditions based upon the outcome of genomic approaches and knowing the mystery of nucleotides sequences hidden in cells

Antibacterial activity of local herbs collected from Murree (Pakistan) against multi-drug resistant Klebsiella pneumonae, E. coli and methyciline resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Exploring healing power in plants emerged in prehistory of human civilization. Sustaining good health has been achieved over the millions of years by use of plant products in various traditional sockets. A major contribution of medicinal plants to health care systems is their limitless possession of bioactive components that stimulate explicit physiological actions. Luckily Pakistan is blessed with huge reservoir of plants with medicinal potential and some of them; we focused in this study for their medicinal importance.In this study we checked the antibacterial activity inherent in Ricinus communis, Solanum nigrum, Dodonaea viscose and Berberis lyceum extracts for multidrug resistance bacterial strains Klebsiella pneumonae, E. coli and methyciline resistant Staphylococcus aureus. MRSA showed sensitivity for Ricinus communis. Multidrug resistant Klebsiella pneumonae was sensitive with Pine roxburgii and Ricinus communis but weakly susceptible for Solanum nigrum. Multidrug resistant E. coli was resistant to all plant extracts. Treatment of severe infections caused by the bacterial strains used in this study with Ricinus communis, Pine roxburgii and Solanum nigrum can lower the undesired side effects of synthetic medicine and also reduce the economic burden

Farmyard manure, a potential organic additive to reclaim copper and Macrophomina phaseolina stress responses in mash bean plants

Abstract In the era of global warming, stress combinations instead of individual stress are realistic threats faced by plants that can alter or trigger a wide range of plant responses. In the current study, the cumulative effect of charcoal rot disease caused by notorious fungal pathogen viz., Macrophomina phaseolina was investigated under toxic levels of copper (Cu) in mash bean, and farmyard manure (FYM) was employed to manage stress. Therefore, Cu-spiked soil (50 and 100 mg/kg) was inoculated with the pathogen, and amended with 2% FYM, to assess the effect of intricate interactions on mash bean plants through pot experiments. Results demonstrated that the individual stress of the pathogen or Cu was more severe for morpho-growth, physio-biochemical, and expression profiles of stress-related genes and total protein in mash bean plants as compared to stress combinations. Under single Cu stress, a significant amount of Cu accumulated in plant tissues, particularly in roots than in upper ground tissues, while, under stress combination less Cu accumulated in the plants. Nonetheless, 2% FYM in soil encountered the negative effect of stress responses provoked by the pathogen, Cu, or both by improving health markers (photosynthetic pigments, reducing sugar, total phenolics) and oxidative stress markers (catalase, peroxidase, and polyphenol oxidase), together with regulating the expression of stress-related genes (catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, and cytokinin-resistant genes), and proteins, besides decreasing Cu uptake in the plants. FYM worked better at lower concentrations (50 mg/kg) of Cu than at higher ones (100 mg/kg), hence could be used as a suitable option for better growth, yield, and crop performance under charcoal rot disease stress in Cu-contaminated soils

Transgenic maize inbred lines expressing high levels of Bacillus thuringiensis vegetative insecticidal protein (Vip3Aa86) offer effective control of maize stem borer (Chilo partellus)

The increasing incidence of field-evolved resistance in Lepidoptera (bollworms) insects towards Bt δ-endotoxins necessitates the need for an alternate strategy to prolong crop resistance. We have investigated the efficacy of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) derived toxin, the Vegetative Insecticidal protein Vip3Aa86 to manage maize stem borer in transgenic maize lines. Vip3A proteins do not share any midgut receptors or mechanism of action with any Cry insecticidal proteins and therefore are expected to possess toxicity even in the Bt resistant insects. The transgenic maize inbred lines generated through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation expressing a codon optimized, synthetic vip3Aa86 gene under the influence of the Poly ubiquitin promoter. The T0 progenitor plants were screened initially through GFP reporter gene expression and transgene insertion by specific amplifications that identified four vip3Aa86 transgenic maize lines. Highest vip3Aa86 transcript abundance was observed in the V1 transgenic line while lowest was observed in the VA8 transgenic maize line when subjected to relative mRNA expression analysis. The concentration of Vip3Aa86 protein in T1 transgenic maize lines ranged from 0.94 to 2.24 µg g− 1 leaf fresh weight. The percentage mortality of Chilo partellus was 76.6%, 56.7%, 40% and 53.3% respectively when fed on V1, V10, V12 and VA8 transgenic maize lines of T1 plants, for a period of 72 h in comparison to a control, non-transgenic maize sample. The study concluded that vip3Aa86 insecticidal gene holds great potential against maize stem borer and can be used in gene-pyramiding with Bt crops to prolong the crop resistance

Nanocomposite-Enhanced Efficient Evaporation System for Solar-Driven Seawater Desalination—An Optimized Design for Clean Water Production

Solar-driven evaporation is a promising technology for desalinating seawater and wastewater without mechanical or electrical energy. The approaches to obtaining fresh water with higher evaporation efficiency are essential to address the water-scarcity issue in remote sensing areas. Herein, we report a highly efficient solar evaporator derived from the nanocomposite of anatase TiO2/activated carbon (TiO2/AC), which was coated on washable cotton fabric using the dip-dry technique for solar water evaporation. The ultra-black fabric offers enhanced solar absorption (93.03%), hydrophilic water transport, and an efficient evaporation rate of 1.65 kg/m2h under 1 kW m−2 or one sun solar intensity. More importantly, the sideways water channels and centralized thermal insulation of the designed TiO2/AC solar evaporator accumulated photothermal heat at the liquid and air interface along with an enhanced surface temperature of 40.98 °C under one sun. The fabricated solar evaporator desalinated seawater (3.5 wt%) without affecting the evaporation rates, and the collected condensed water met the standard of drinking water set by the World Health Organization (WHO). This approach eventually enabled the engineering design groups to develop the technology pathways as well as optimum conditions for low-cost, scalable, efficient, and sustainable solar-driven steam generators to cope with global water scarcity

The <i>pvc</i> Operon Regulates the Expression of the <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> Fimbrial Chaperone/Usher Pathway (<i>Cup</i>) Genes

<div><p></p><p>The <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> fimbrial structures encoded by the <i>cup</i> gene clusters (<i>cupB</i> and <i>cupC</i>) contribute to its attachment to abiotic surfaces and biofilm formation. The <i>P. aeruginosa pvcABCD</i> gene cluster encodes enzymes that synthesize a novel isonitrile functionalized cumarin, paerucumarin. Paerucumarin has already been characterized chemically, but this is the first report elucidating its role in bacterial biology. We examined the relationship between the <i>pvc</i> operon and the <i>cup</i> gene clusters in the <i>P. aeruginosa</i> strain MPAO1. Mutations within the <i>pvc</i> genes compromised biofilm development and significantly reduced the expression of <i>cupB1-6</i> and <i>cupC1-3</i>, as well as different genes of the <i>cupB</i>/<i>cupC</i> two-component regulatory systems, <i>roc1/roc2</i>. Adjacent to <i>pvc</i> is the transcriptional regulator <i>ptxR</i>. A <i>ptxR</i> mutation in MPAO1 significantly reduced the expression of the <i>pvc</i> genes, the <i>cupB/cupC</i> genes, and the <i>roc1/roc2</i> genes. Overexpression of the intact chromosomally-encoded <i>pvc</i> operon by a <i>ptxR</i> plasmid significantly enhanced <i>cupB2</i>, <i>cupC2</i>, <i>rocS1</i>, and <i>rocS2</i> expression and biofilm development. Exogenously added paerucumarin significantly increased the expression of <i>cupB2</i>, <i>cupC2</i>, <i>rocS1</i> and <i>rocS2</i> in the <i>pvcA</i> mutant. Our results suggest that <i>pvc</i> influences <i>P. aeruginosa</i> biofilm development through the <i>cup</i> gene clusters in a pathway that involves paerucumarin, PtxR, and different <i>cup</i> regulators.</p></div