Iqbal and Materialism: An Assessment

Iqbal reacted to the materialistic philosophies of his time in a highly intellectual manner. He was always an active propounder of resistance against injustice and exploitative materialism.  Therefore, he tried to deconstruct many such notions in his poetry which were responsible for dividing the mankind into the superior and the inferior. He offered counter narrative to the colonial discourse in a very logical way. He tried to show the meaning of love, harmony, peace and co-existence in the age of materialistic competition. Through his innovative concept of Khudi, he tried to remind people of their real worth. He was not in favour of conquering the wretched of the earth, rather, in-treating them with mutual love and respect without differentiating them on the basis of cast, colour and creed. In this paper an attempt will be made to foreground the anti-materialistic dimension in the poetry of Iqbal

Anti-Colonial Dimension in the poetry of Iqbal

This paper tries to highlight the Anti-colonial dimension in the poetry of Iqbal. As we know from the historical facts that the phenomenon of colonialism was never a smooth phenomenon. Consequently, there was always a feeling of revolt in the hearts and minds of the natives against the occupation forces. In this paper an attempt has been made to show how the poet like Iqbal developed his narrative of resistance against the myth of European superiority. Furthermore, the paper also tries to highlight the significance of the concept of ‘khudi’ in developing the counter-narrative to the discourse of colonialism

Portability of firm corporate governance in mergers and acquisitions

We study the corporate governance portability from bidders to targets in Mergers and Acquisitions and its impact on bidder announcement returns. We find that the bidder’s cumulative abnormal returns are higher in acquisitions where the bidder’s corporate governance quality exceeds that of the target. This result suggests a positive valuation effect for bidder shareholders resulting from the portability of good firm corporate governance from bidders to targets. We also find that this effect is stronger when bidders are domiciled in countries with better corporate governance. The results pass several robustness tests, including alternative measures of firm corporate governance and different sample periods.This paper is financed by National Funds of the FCT – Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology within the project UIDB/03182/202

A Floristic Description of Flora and Ethnobotany of Samahni Valley (A.K.), Pakistan

The present study reveals a description of floristic features like life form, leaf size spectra and ethnobotany of valley Samahni. This study was carried out during the years 2006-2008, in Samahni valley district Bhimber A.K. (Pakistan), using methods consisting of semi-structured interviews employing a check list of questions, questionnaires, direct observations and biological inventories. It provides information about different local plants and their life form and leaf size spectra. 120 plant species recorded belonging to 46 families. Poaceae is the dominating with 14 members. Among these the most of the plants are used to cure common diseases like diarrhea, earache, fever, jaundice, flu, cough and other skin diseases. Snake bite, wound healing and burning of body part are also treated with local herbs. Many plants are used for multiple purposes like as medicines, food, fodder, fuel, furniture and shelter. Due to deforestation vegetation is eliminating rapidly. But the efforts and knowledge about plant wealth conservation is at initial stages. Megaphanerophytes are dominating followed by therophytes. Hemicryptophytes, Nanophanerophytes and Geophytes come after these respectively. All the types of vegetation depend upon presence of trees. In leaf size spectra Microphyllous are dominant followed by Megaphyllous. This work can be the base for advance research in different fields like phytochemistry, molecular biochemistry and antimicrobial plant secondary metabolites. For further research this ethnobotanical work is very important because it has come into existence with large experience of ancient history

Pathogenicity of two seed-borne fungi commonly involved in maize seeds of eight districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan

This study was aimed to evaluate the pathogenicity of two mostly prevailing fungal species on maize (Zea maize L.) from different localities of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Pakistan. Pathogenic fungi deteriorate food grains by producing mycotoxins and aflotoxins during storage consequently shedding menace on its nutritive quality. There were 12 species of mycoflora associated with maize seeds in the analyzed samples. Fusaium and Aspergillus species were the largest group of seed-borne fungal species present in all localities (87.25% and 82.50%, respectively). Fusarium moniliforme causes ear rot, kernel rot, stalk rot, seedling blight, seed rot, wilt and stunt and Aspergillus niger is responsible for rot of stored grain. These species were tested to determine their pathogenicity to maize seed germination and seedlings. Pathogenicity findings depicted that maize variety under cultivation in the area was highly susceptible to these fungal pathogens as Bhimber (61.5%) and Mirpur (60.25%) zones had more prevalence than other areas of AJK (23.5%). Results show that Fusarium moniliforme had 50.2% pathogenicity on seeds and 6.55% on seedlings, whilst Aspergillus niger had 62.87% on seeds and 11.24% on seedlings. These depicts that mycoflora had significant detrimental impacts on seeds and seedling’s life of maize.Keywords: Pathogenicity, seed-borne, mycoflora, maize, germination, Azad KashmirAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(12), pp. 1363-137

EMOTIONAL DYSREGULATION, COPING STRATEGIES AND POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS SYMPTOMS AMONG ADOLESCENTS LIVING AT LINE OF CONTROL (LOC)

Background: The current research investigates the relationship between Emotional Dysregulation, Coping Strategies and Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in adolescents living at Line of Control (LOC). Subjects and Methods: Cross-sectional research design was used. The sample of 400 adolescent participants was drawn from different private and government schools by using convenient random sampling. The tools employed for collecting data included Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer 2004), Coping Strategies Scale for Adolescents (Sharif & Saleem 2014), and Post-traumatic Stress Symptoms Checklist (Foa et al. 1993). Results: Results of the study revealed that Emotional Dysregulation and Emotion Focused Coping had a positive and highly significant relationship with Post-traumatic stress symptoms. It was also revealed that Emotional Dysregulation and Emotion Focused Coping positively predicted Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms. Implications of the study and a few limitations have been discussed. Conclusion: The findings of this study will help in regulating adolescents’ psychological well-being by helping future researchers in not only understanding the coping strategies these children are employing at the moment but also developing and enhancing in them the healthy coping styles which they are currently not using. Furthermore, the unique nature of non-combatant civilian trauma remains to be understood from several other perspectives, to which this research was only a foundation stone

Life after COVID-19 outbreak: Expectations and thoughts

The occurrence of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic presents an unparalleled health enlightenment challenge. It’s extremely contagious and erratically lethal, and the pervasiveness of asymptomatic prevalence makes it difficult to contain. All infectious disease epidemics rear ethical concerns, from the restraint of individual independence to triaging and resource provision. It seems that we did not take lessons from the preceding epidemics and were poorly prepared to pledge with the threat that COVID-19 epidemic has put forward. The COVID-19 epidemic highlighted the significance of this query to both pandemic preparation strategies and healthcare policies. As the outbreak turned out to be a global pandemic, there is an improved emphasis on finding answers for vaccine preparation, focusing on neglected diseases, more virome study, and research collaboration across the globe in the future, being key tools to resist infection spread in future. Decelerating the COVID-19 spread necessitates people to enthusiastically transform their lives and monitor the finest practices for social isolation and sanitation. This review provides an overview of future research perceptions and offers suggestions on how we can help people to believe in normal life and how this pandemic will strengthen the trade, affect the individual habits and values, revolution in primary health care after these uncertain situations.Keywords: COVID-19; Pandemic; Neglected diseases; Primary health; Virom