Placolecis kashmirensis sp. nov. (Lichenized Ascomycota, Catillariaceae) from Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan

Placolecis kashmirensis sp. nov. is described from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan. It is characterized by a yellowish-brown thallus, hyaline, broadly ellipsoid ascospores, a relatively taller hymenium and pear-shaped pycnidia. The generic position is confirmed by a phylogenetic analysis based on nrITS sequences. Description, a phylogenetic tree, and identification key for all the known Placolecis species are provided

IMPACT OF FDI ON ECONOMY GROWTH: A COMPARISON OF SOUTH ASIAN STATES & CHINA

This paper makes a comparison of the impact of Foreign Direct investment on the economies of South Asian states including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with China. The paper attempts to investigate that what are the differences between the economies of South Asia region and China. For study purpose annual data are used. The variables selected are FDI, External Debt, and Remittances. Analytical tools of OLS test and granger causality test are used to analyze the data. The result confirmed the fast growing economic development of China as compared with states of South Asia. The results confirmed that China is much faster growing economy than South Asia region. In order to attract direct investment into the of South Asian states, there is a need to develop infrastructure, stabilized political environment, law and order situation, healthy economic environment, curtailing on external debt, tax exemption. If these countries give due attention to FDI role in economic development FDI can facilitate human capital formation, domestic investment and technology transfer in the region and they can also develop their economies much like that of China

Lecaimmeria pakistanica, a new lichen from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan

A new lichen species Lecaimmeria pakistanica K.Habib, R.Zulfiqar & Khalid sp. nov. is described and illustrated from rocks in the temperate forests of the Himalaya of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan. This species is characterized by its yellow-brown to brown thallus having areoles 0.4 to 1.5 mm across, branched and anastomosing paraphyses, a tall hymenium, large ascospores 20–32 × 10–16 μm, and no substance detected by thin layer chromatography. All other species of the genus have ascospore dimensions in the range of 14–22 × 5–14 μm. A phylogenetic analysis is provided based on ITS nrDNA sequences, and supports the separation of the novel species. Photographs and a comparative analysis with related species of Lecaimmeria are provided to confirm the status of the species

FIG. 2. — Oxneriaria immersa H.S.Asghar, R in New species of genus Oxneriaria S.Y.Kondr. & Lőkös (lichenized Ascomycota, Megasporaceae) from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

FIG. 2. — Oxneriaria immersa H.S.Asghar, R.Zulfiqar & Khalid, sp. nov. (holotype): A, crustose-areolate thallus; B, apothecia; C, cross section of an apothecium; D, ascospores. Scale bars: A, 1 cm; B, 0.5 mm; C, 50 µm; D, 15 µm.Published as part of Zulfiqar, Rizwana, Asghar, Hafiza Simab & Khalid, Abdul Nasir, 2023, New species of genus Oxneriaria S.Y.Kondr. & Lőkös (lichenized Ascomycota, Megasporaceae) from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, pp. 109-116 in Cryptogamie, Mycologie 44 (8) on page 112, DOI: 10.5252/cryptogamie-mycologie2023v44a8, http://zenodo.org/record/834401

FIG. 1 in New species of genus Oxneriaria S.Y.Kondr. & Lőkös (lichenized Ascomycota, Megasporaceae) from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

FIG. 1. — Molecular phylogenetic analysis by maximum likelihood (ML) method based on ITS sequences. Bootstrap values> 50% based on 1000 replicates for ML are shown at the branches and novel sequences generated during this study are in bold.Published as part of Zulfiqar, Rizwana, Asghar, Hafiza Simab & Khalid, Abdul Nasir, 2023, New species of genus Oxneriaria S.Y.Kondr. & Lőkös (lichenized Ascomycota, Megasporaceae) from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, pp. 109-116 in Cryptogamie, Mycologie 44 (8) on page 111, DOI: 10.5252/cryptogamie-mycologie2023v44a8, http://zenodo.org/record/834401

FIG. 3. — Oxneriaria insignis R in New species of genus Oxneriaria S.Y.Kondr. & Lőkös (lichenized Ascomycota, Megasporaceae) from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

FIG. 3. — Oxneriaria insignis R.Zulfiqar & Khalid, sp. nov. (holotype): A, crustose-areolate thallus; B, apothecia; C, cross section of an apothecium; D, ascospores. Scale bars: A, 1 cm; B, 0.5 mm; C, 150 µm; D, 15 µm.Published as part of Zulfiqar, Rizwana, Asghar, Hafiza Simab & Khalid, Abdul Nasir, 2023, New species of genus Oxneriaria S.Y.Kondr. & Lőkös (lichenized Ascomycota, Megasporaceae) from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, pp. 109-116 in Cryptogamie, Mycologie 44 (8) on page 113, DOI: 10.5252/cryptogamie-mycologie2023v44a8, http://zenodo.org/record/834401

Abnormal Respiratory Sounds Classification Using Deep CNN Through Artificial Noise Addition

Respiratory sound (RS) attributes and their analyses structure a fundamental piece of pneumonic pathology, and it gives symptomatic data regarding a patient's lung. A couple of decades back, doctors depended on their hearing to distinguish symptomatic signs in lung audios by utilizing the typical stethoscope, which is usually considered a cheap and secure method for examining the patients. Lung disease is the third most ordinary cause of death worldwide, so; it is essential to classify the RS abnormality accurately to overcome the death rate. In this research, we have applied Fourier analysis for the visual inspection of abnormal respiratory sounds. Spectrum analysis was done through Artificial Noise Addition (ANA) in conjunction with different deep convolutional neural networks (CNN) to classify the seven abnormal respiratory sounds—both continuous (CAS) and discontinuous (DAS). The proposed framework contains an adaptive mechanism of adding a similar type of noise to unhealthy respiratory sounds. ANA makes sound features enough reach to be identified more accurately than the respiratory sounds without ANA. The obtained results using the proposed framework are superior to previous techniques since we simultaneously considered the seven different abnormal respiratory sound classes

Contributions to molecular phylogeny of lichens 4. New names in the Teloschistaceae

The new genus Kudratoviella for the former Caloplaca zeorina group having the highest level of bootstrap support in the phylogenetic tree of the Teloschistaceae, based on combined dataset of nrITS, 28S nrLSU DNA and 12S SSU mtDNA sequences, which does not belong to any other earlier proposed genera of the subfamily Xanthorioideae, is described. The genus Oceanoplaca Arup, Søchting et Bungartz found to be a new synonym of the genus Loekoeslaszloa S. Y. Kondr., Kärnefelt, A. Thell et Hur, and Villophora onas Søchting, Søgaard et Arup appeared to be new synonym of Raesaeneniana maulensis (S. Y. Kondr. et Hur) S. Y. Kondr., Elix, Kärnefelt et A. Thell. Sixteen new combinations are proposed, i.e. Honeggeria leoncita (for Xanthomendoza leoncita Bungartz et Søchting), Honeggeria wetmorei (for Xanthoria wetmorei S. Y. Kondr. et Kärnefelt), Kudratoviella anularis (for Caloplaca anularis Clauzade et Poelt), Kudratoviella bohlinii (for Caloplaca bohlinii H. Magn.), Kudratoviella rajasthanica (for Caloplaca rajasthanica S. Y. Kondr., Upreti et G. P. Sinha), Kudratoviella scrobiculata (for Caloplaca scrobiculata H. Magn.), and Kudratoviella zeorina (for Caloplaca zeorina B. G. Lee et Hur), Loekoeslaszloa caesioisidiata (for Caloplaca caesioisidiata Arup et van den Boom), Loekoeslaszloa caesiosorediata (for Caloplaca caesiosorediata Arup et van den Boom), Loekoeslaszloa chemoisidiosa (for Oceanoplaca chemoisidiosa Søchting et Bungartz), Loekoeslaszloa isidiosa (for Placodium isidiosum Vain.), Loekoeslaszloa sideritoides (for Oceanoplaca sideritoides Søchting et Bungartz), Raesaeneniana darwiniana (for Villophora darwiniana Søchting, Søgaard et Arup), Raesaeneniana patagonica (for Villophora patagonica Søchting et Søgaard), Raesaeneniana rimicola (for Villophora rimicola Søchting), and Raesaeneniana wallaceana (for Villophora wallaceana Søchting et Søgaard). Iqbalia kashmirensis is for the first time confirmed from South Korea and India on the basis of ‘extraneous mycobiont DNA’ (sensu Kondratyuk et al. 2019 b)