AN ASSESSMENT OF THE CROP WATER DEMAND AND IRRIGATION WATER SUPPLY AT PABBI MINOR OF WARSAK GRAVITY CANAL

The research study was conducted on irrigation water supply and demand at Pabbi minor of Warsak gravity canal from June to August 1998. Objectives of the research were to assess the actual supply of irrigation water, irrigation water demand of major crops, and comparison between water supply and demand for all the outlets of Pabbi minor. Actual irrigation supply was determined by cutthroam flumes. Cropping pattern was determined by interviewing the farmers by making use of proformas developed for that purpose.Cropping pattern, evapotranspiration, sanctioned discharge, fallow, water demand, water supply

INFLUENCE OF AGRICULTURE EXTENSION SERVICES AND FARMER’S SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS ON ADOPTION OF DATE PALM (Phoenix dactylifera L.) IN DISTRICT DERA ISMAIL KHAN, PAKISTAN

This study was conducted in the major date producing areas (Dakki, Mian Wada, Mathra Abad, Jhok Ghamy Wali, Habib Abad, Bilot Sharif, Himat, Jhok Moazam, Matwala Shah, Chura and Jhok Malkanri) of the district Dera Ismail Khan, by personal interview method from a sample of 51 respondents selected from these areas for quantitative data collection. Most of the respondents have a secondary and higher secondary level of education (39.2%, 33.3%) respectively. 51% respondents has more than 200 kanals land. It was also found that this category (having more than 200 kanals) have higher secondary level of education. Majority of the respondents have no other source of income (74.5%). The grower’s percentage increased gradually and at present 37.2% respondents were attached with date palm cultivation since last 5-10 years whereas 27% were growing date palm from last 20 years. 84% respondents cultivate the “Dakki” cultivar which is one of the most profitable date cultivar but majority of the respondents (74%) got knowledge about enhanced varieties from their fellow farmers and only 22% respondents were educated by extension workers. 77.3% respondents were facing the problems of insect/pest attack but only 54.9% of the selected respondents apply the plant protection measures.  Although, all the farmers were satisfied from their date palm production, still 41.5% were expecting to get help from extension department about insects/pest and rodent control while 17% respondents expect others type of help from extension department (inputs). Key words:            Date palm, extension services, socio-economic characters, personal interview

Optimal demand-supply energy management in smart grids

Everything goes down if you do not have power: the financial sector, refineries and water. The grid underlies the rest of the country’s critical infrastructure. This thesis focuses on four specific problems to balance demand-supply gap with higher reliability, efficiency and economical operation of the modern power grid. The first part investigates the economic dispatch problem with uncertain power sources. The classic economic dispatch problems seek thermal power generation to meet the demand most efficiently. However, this project exploits two different power sources such as wind and solar power generation into the standard optimal power flow framework. The stochastic nature of renewable energy sources (RES) is modeled using Weibull and Lognormal probability density functions. The system-wide economic aspect is examined with additional cost functions such as penalty and reserve costs for under and overestimating the imbalance of RES power outputs. Also, a carbon tax is imposed on carbon emissions as a separate objective function to enhance the contribution of green energy. The calculation of best power dispatch is proposed using a cost function. The second part investigates demand-side management (DSM) strategies to minimize energy wastage by changing the time pattern and magnitude of utility load at the consumer side. The main objective of DSM is to flatten the demand curve by encouraging end-users to shift energy consumption to off-peak hours or to consume less power during peak times. It is more appropriate to follow the generation pattern in many cases instead of flattening the demand curve. It becomes more challenging when the future grid accommodates the penetration of distributed energy resources in a greater manner. In both scenarios, there is an ultimate need to control energy consumption. Effective DSM strategies would help to get an accurate balance between both ends, i.e., the supply-side and demand-side, effectively reducing power demand peaks and more efficient operation of the whole system. The gap between power demand and supply can be balanced if power peak loads are minimized. The third part of the thesis then focuses on modeling the consumption behavior of end-users. For this purpose, a novel artificial intelligence and machine learning-based forecasting model is developed to analyze big data in the smart grid. Three modules namely feature selection, feature extraction and classification are proposed to solve big data problems such as feature redundancy and high dimensionality to generate quality data for classifier training and better prediction results. The last part of this thesis investigates the problem of electricity theft to minimize non technical losses and power disruptions in the power grid. Electricity theft with its many facets usually has an enormous cost to utilities compared to non-payment because of energy wastage and power quality problems. With the recognition of the internet of things (IoT) technologies and data-driven approaches, power utilities have enough tools to combat electricity theft and fraud. An integrated framework is proposed that combines three distinct modules such as data preprocessing, data class balancing and final classification to make accurate electrical consumption theft predictions in smart grids. The result of our solution to balance the electricity demand-supply gap can provide helpful information to grid planners seeking to improve the resilience of the power grid to outages and disturbances. All parts of this thesis include extensive experimental results on case studies, including realistic large-scale instances

On a variant and extension of Gabler inequality

We propose a Jensen-Mercer type variant and a Niezgoda type extension of Gabler inequality along with applications

The Impact of Religiosity and Spirituality on Academic Dishonesty of Students in Pakistan

Business ethics has become a very popular topic in recent decades and having news on media on a daily basis which is now increased in a number of high profile business scandals that shook the business world. That is the cause of academy dishonesty of students in many universities and colleges where student training of ethics are very low for such kind of business scandals emerged. There are two factors which are under research in this topic in academy dishonest and cheating behavior which are religiosity and spirituality. This study shed lights on the religious beliefs and unethical behaviors by focusing the students of Pakistan which are studying at Universities level having academic dishonesty and cheating behavior. The individual attitudes, views, decisions making and the behaviors according to the situation are influenced by religiosity and spirituality which are posited in this study. The objective of this research is to find out the relationship between religiosity and spirituality on cheating behavior with the help of cheating attitude as mediator. A cross-sectional study conducted on the postgraduate student in Pakistan and collected from four post-graduate institutes in Lahore, which are COMSATS, NCBA&E, UMT and Punjab University. So the result of this research shows that religiosity but not spirituality is a predictor of attitudes of the student toward cheating and cheating behavior

The Impact of Religiosity and Spirituality on Academic Dishonesty of Students in Pakistan

Business ethics has become a very popular topic in recent decades and having news on media on a daily basis which is now increased in a number of high profile business scandals that shook the business world. That is the cause of academy dishonesty of students in many universities and colleges where student training of ethics are very low for such kind of business scandals emerged. There are two factors which are under research in this topic in academy dishonest and cheating behavior which are religiosity and spirituality. This study shed lights on the religious beliefs and unethical behaviors by focusing the students of Pakistan which are studying at Universities level having academic dishonesty and cheating behavior. The individual attitudes, views, decisions making and the behaviors according to the situation are influenced by religiosity and spirituality which are posited in this study. The objective of this research is to find out the relationship between religiosity and spirituality on cheating behavior with the help of cheating attitude as mediator. A cross-sectional study conducted on the postgraduate student in Pakistan and collected from four post-graduate institutes in Lahore, which are COMSATS, NCBA&E, UMT and Punjab University. So the result of this research shows that religiosity but not spirituality is a predictor of attitudes of the student toward cheating and cheating behavior

Protection of Consumer’s Rights in Pakistan

This paper is based on a qualitative research study which paves the way for a number of empirical studies related to the awareness about the consumer’s rights in Pakistan. The prime objective behind conducting this study is to clarify the fact that the old doctrine of Caveat Emptor is not sufficient in current days. The markets are highly competitive with an ample consumer’s choice and they need a greater awareness how to protect their rights. The paper starts with an introduction explaining the background detail of consumer’s rights and liabilities. There is a problem statement with a null and alternate hypothesis. The procedure for getting the legal remedy is discussed in detail. The evidence is sought from the registered lawsuits filed by consumers primarilyKey words: consumer and consumer’s rights, importance of consumer protection, Consumer Laws in Pakistan. Legal procedure of filing a complaint. Getting a suitable remedy. Claiming damages in consumer’s courts. Obligations of manufacturers and service providers

Mobile Ad hoc Networks Challenges

Now adays Mobile Ad Hoc Networks are becoming a major immerging technology in mobile computing. In this paper we focus on the evolution of the MANET, the challenges in it and a wide area of its applications. In the first section we provide a brief information about the history and evolution of MANET , next to it we discuss the major challenges in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks and towards the end we mentioned some of the application of MANET

A Novel Feature-Selection Algorithm in IoT Networks for Intrusion Detection

The Internet of Things (IoT) and network-enabled smart devices are crucial to the digitally interconnected society of the present day. However, the increased reliance on IoT devices increases their susceptibility to malicious activities within network traffic, posing significant challenges to cybersecurity. As a result, both system administrators and end users are negatively affected by these malevolent behaviours. Intrusion-detection systems (IDSs) are commonly deployed as a cyber attack defence mechanism to mitigate such risks. IDS plays a crucial role in identifying and preventing cyber hazards within IoT networks. However, the development of an efficient and rapid IDS system for the detection of cyber attacks remains a challenging area of research. Moreover, IDS datasets contain multiple features, so the implementation of feature selection (FS) is required to design an effective and timely IDS. The FS procedure seeks to eliminate irrelevant and redundant features from large IDS datasets, thereby improving the intrusion-detection system’s overall performance. In this paper, we propose a hybrid wrapper-based feature-selection algorithm that is based on the concepts of the Cellular Automata (CA) engine and Tabu Search (TS)-based aspiration criteria. We used a Random Forest (RF) ensemble learning classifier to evaluate the fitness of the selected features. The proposed algorithm, CAT-S, was tested on the TON_IoT dataset. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm, CAT-S, enhances classification accuracy while simultaneously reducing the number of features and the false positive rate.publishedVersio

Optimization and Characterization of Novel and Non-Edible Seed Oil Sources for Biodiesel Production

Biodiesel mainly comes from edible oil, and there is little research on its yield from non-edible sources with low-cost oil. It is paramount to investigate the non-edible oil resources which may lead to advance the commercial feasibility of biodiesel and cost effectiveness as well as resolve the food issues. This chapter describes four novel non-edible seed oil sources comprising Koelreuteria paniculata, Rhus typhina, Acacia farnesiana and Albizzia julibrissin for biodiesel production. We aimed to optimize different reaction parameters for oil extraction, alkali-catalyzed transesterification process for maximal biodiesel production and finally evaluate its compatibility with mineral diesel. The optimization factors in transesterification included the molar ratio of methanol to oil, reaction time, stirring intensity, catalyst concentration and temperature. Two methods have been described including Soxhlet and mechanical for extraction of seed oil. The synthesized esters were evaluated and characterized through the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR; 1H and 13C), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and the total conversion of crude oil to fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) were established. The inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and Elemental Analyzer (EA) were used for evaluation of elemental concentration. The physico-chemical characterizations of the biodiesel, i.e., flash point, pour point, cloud point, and density were within the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM; D6751) and European Standards ((EN14214). Koelreuteria paniculata produced highest biodiesel oil content by Soxhlet extraction (28–30%) followed by the Albizzia julibrissin (19–24%), Acacia farnesiana (23%), Rhus typhina (20–22%). The density ranged from 0.83–0.87 @ 15°C (g/cm3) and the kinematic viscosity ranged from 3.75–6.3 (mm2/s) among all the plant sources. Koelreuteria paniculata had highest Na (5456.2), Cr (1246.8), Ni (658.36), and Al (346.87) elemental concentrations (μg/g) than other plant sources. The elemental percent of C, H, N, and O of biodiesel ranged from 72.54–76.86, 11.25–13.34, 1.97–2.73, and 9.86–12, respectively. In conclusion, these non-edible plant seeds offer a cheap source of renewable energy and can be easily grown on barren and wastelands and contribute to efficient biodiesel production to mitigate the energy crisis