Pakistan’s Electricity Demand Analysis 1975-2016

The problem of energy is one that has plagued the economic growth of Pakistan for decades; the resulting domestic pressure has often led to the misallocation of resources, and therefore should be studied extensively for evidence based policy recommendation. The study in hand aims to envelope and analyze approximate factors responsible for determining electricity demand in the country. The study analyzes the aggregate demand for electricity in Pakistan from 1975-2016, by considering log-run climatic variable affecting electricity demand. The ADF, the Johansen Cointegration, and the ARDL techniques have been applied for the estimation of parameters and analysis. The scientific analysis found that in the short run and long run number of consumers, income (real GDP per capita) square of income and stock of appliances have a significant relationship with the demand of electricity. Where all significant relationships in the long run have a positive relationship with the demand apart from the square of income which may suggest a shift towards alternate means of energy production with a long term sustained growth in income. While, price is found to be insignificant determinant of electricity demand in both short run and long run, which reveals that electricity is considered a necessity by Pakistan’s electricity consumers. In the short run number of consumers, income, squared income, and stock of appliances, all have significant positive relationships with demand, and temperature has an insignificant positive relationship in the short run, but a significant positive relationship in the long run

The Influence of Internet Usage on the Academic Achievements of the Students in Pakistani Universities

The advent of the Internet has invaded every aspect of students’ life in all college and university campuses throughout the nation and throughout the world. At the same time the use of the Internet in the academic arena has empowered students to sharpen and refine their skills and communication capabilities in their pursuit of successful strategies of success. Present study was conducted to know the effect of internet use on the academic achievement of the students. The study also focused to examine the gender differences among students on excess usage of internet. It has delimited the whole world and made a man able to access anywhere, anytime and in any field of life. Facilities are available at one’s door step. Likewise, excessive use of Internet has become a problem today. This part of research contribution will analyze the reality and gap between the positive and negative impact and aspects of usage of Internet on education. For this purpose quantitative research was conducted. The respondents were the universities students of Rawalpindi and Islamabad city. Two (2) universities were selected from Rawalpindi and three (3) universities from Islamabad. Researcher used simple random sampling technique. Researcher conducted face to face structure interview based on interview schedule. The data obtained in this way were analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Most (60.4%) had positive effect of internet on academics performance, slightly less than one third (31.6%) had low GPA/poor results as an effect of Internet usage on academics performance

The Influence of Internet Usage on the Academic Achievements of the Students in Pakistani Universities

The advent of the Internet has invaded every aspect of students’ life in all college and university campuses throughout the nation and throughout the world. At the same time the use of the Internet in the academic arena has empowered students to sharpen and refine their skills and communication capabilities in their pursuit of successful strategies of success. Present study was conducted to know the effect of internet use on the academic achievement of the students. The study also focused to examine the gender differences among students on excess usage of internet. It has delimited the whole world and made a man able to access anywhere, anytime and in any field of life. Facilities are available at one’s door step. Likewise, excessive use of Internet has become a problem today. This part of research contribution will analyze the reality and gap between the positive and negative impact and aspects of usage of Internet on education. For this purpose quantitative research was conducted. The respondents were the universities students of Rawalpindi and Islamabad city. Two (2) universities were selected from Rawalpindi and three (3) universities from Islamabad. Researcher used simple random sampling technique. Researcher conducted face to face structure interview based on interview schedule. The data obtained in this way were analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Most (60.4%) had positive effect of internet on academics performance, slightly less than one third (31.6%) had low GPA/poor results as an effect of Internet usage on academics performance

Teaching of Phonics and Fluency in Improving Reading Abilities at Primary Level: Multan Pakistan

The present study aimed to classify that how different strategies of phonic teachings have potential influence in students' reading abilities and to explore how instructions regarding the sounds of letters aid pupils for pronouncing words more correctly in 5th grade at University Model School Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan Pakistan. The action research design was adopted for this study. (N=20) A pre-test was developed to study their current status of students' mind about identify the current situation of phonics and fluency in reading. The pre-test and posttest were based on 15 difficult words from three chapters of their English textbook. Pre-test results identified that students were not good at reading. After getting the pre-test results, the researcher developed one-week-long teaching based activities to enhance their fluency in reading, through different teaching materials. After the session, the researcher conducted the posttest (same test) to check their improvements in reading. In findings, a clear difference in results was identified between pre and posttest. It was found that student's awareness and fluency in reading can be improved through different teaching strategies

Teaching of Phonics and Fluency in Improving Reading Abilities at Primary Level: Multan Pakistan

The present study aimed to classify that how different strategies of phonic teachings have potential influence in students' reading abilities and to explore how instructions regarding the sounds of letters aid pupils for pronouncing words more correctly in 5th grade at University Model School Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan Pakistan. The action research design was adopted for this study. (N=20) A pre-test was developed to study their current status of students' mind about identify the current situation of phonics and fluency in reading. The pre-test and posttest were based on 15 difficult words from three chapters of their English textbook. Pre-test results identified that students were not good at reading. After getting the pre-test results, the researcher developed one-week-long teaching based activities to enhance their fluency in reading, through different teaching materials. After the session, the researcher conducted the posttest (same test) to check their improvements in reading. In findings, a clear difference in results was identified between pre and posttest. It was found that student's awareness and fluency in reading can be improved through different teaching strategies

Assessment on Proficiency of Using Information and Communication Technology among Students of University of Lahore (Sargodha Campus), Pakistan

The main purpose of the study was to assess the proficiency of using information and communication technology among students of University of Lahore (Sargodha Campus). The researcher conveniently selected the sample of 200 M.Phil. Students and sample included male and female students. A questionnaire was constructed that comprised of three parts. It was concluded that students had high proficiency in using spreadsheets, presentation software, internet, E-mail, E-learning whereas they had not enough knowledge of using blogs and were also facing obstacles in the use of ICTs in their work environment

Assessment on Proficiency of Using Information and Communication Technology among Students of University of Lahore (Sargodha Campus), Pakistan

The main purpose of the study was to assess the proficiency of using information and communication technology among students of University of Lahore (Sargodha Campus). The researcher conveniently selected the sample of 200 M.Phil. Students and sample included male and female students. A questionnaire was constructed that comprised of three parts. It was concluded that students had high proficiency in using spreadsheets, presentation software, internet, E-mail, E-learning whereas they had not enough knowledge of using blogs and were also facing obstacles in the use of ICTs in their work environment

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

Exploration of phenolic acid derivatives as inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 main protease and receptor binding domain: potential candidates for anti-SARS-CoV-2 therapy

Severe acute respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the etiological virus of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) which has been a public health concern due to its high morbidity and high mortality. Hence, the search for drugs that incapacitate the virus via inhibition of vital proteins in its life cycle is ongoing due to the paucity of drugs in clinical use against the virus. Consequently, this study was aimed at evaluating the potentials of natural phenolics against the Main protease (Mpro) and the receptor binding domain (RBD) using molecular modeling techniques including molecular docking, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. To this end, thirty-five naturally occurring phenolics were identified and subjected to molecular docking simulation against the proteins. The results showed the compounds including rosmarinic acid, cynarine, and chlorogenic acid among many others possessed high binding affinities for both proteins as evident from their docking scores, with some possessing lower docking scores compared to the standard compound (Remdesivir). Further subjection of the hit compounds to drug-likeness, pharmacokinetics, and toxicity profiling revealed chlorogenic acid, rosmarinic acid, and chicoric acid as the compounds with desirable profiles and toxicity properties, while the study of their electronic properties via density functional theory calculations revealed rosmarinic acid as the most reactive and least stable among the sets of lead compounds that were identified in the study. Molecular dynamics simulation of the complexes formed after docking revealed the stability of the complexes. Ultimately, further experimental procedures are needed to validate the findings of this study

Immunogenicity and Safety of a Third COVID-19 BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccine Dose in 5- to 11-Year Olds

In this ongoing study, substantially increased ancestral SARSCoV-2 neutralizing responses were observed 1 month after a third 10-µg BNT162b2 dose given to 5 to 11-year olds versus neutralizing responses post-dose 2. After dose 3, increased neutralizing responses against Omicron BA.1 and BA.4/BA.5 strains were also observed. The safety/tolerability profile was acceptable.Peer reviewe