Use of Non Fossil Fuel Resources, Electricity, Economic Growth and Carbon Dioxide Emission in Pakistan

The ARDL (autoregressive distributed lag model) approach is used to study the effects of non fossil fuel resources, economic growth per capita, and use of electricity on carbon dioxide emanations in Pakistan from 1971 to 2014. The outcomes of OLS regression propose that use of non  fossil fuel resources play an essential function in curbing carbon dioxide emanations because sign of coefficients is negative and significant, on  the contrary the economic growth and electricity consumption increase carbon dioxide emanations in the environment.  The findings of ARDL propose that all variables have no effect on the carbon dioxide emanations in the long-run. Nevertheless, the Granger Causality test suggests there is bidirectional causality between carbon dioxide emanations and economic growth per capita.  Similarly, there is unidirectional causality between electricity utilization and carbon dioxide emissions. According to OLS regression findings, this study concluding that uses of non fossil fuel resources mitigate carbon dioxide emissions in Pakistan very effectively and therefore government give preference to use of non fossil fuel resources

Spatial Stimuli Gradient Based Multifocus Image Fusion Using Multiple Sized Kernels

Multi-focus image fusion technique extracts the focused areas from all the source images and combines them into a new image which contains all focused objects. This paper proposes a spatial domain fusion scheme for multi-focus images by using multiple size kernels. Firstly, source images are pre-processed with a contrast enhancement step and then the soft and hard decision maps are generated by employing a sliding window technique using multiple sized kernels on the gradient images. Hard decision map selects the accurate focus information from the source images, whereas, the soft decision map selects the basic focus information and contains minimum falsely detected focused/unfocused regions. These decision maps are further processed to compute the final focus map. Gradient images are constructed through state-ofthe-art edge detection technique, spatial stimuli gradient sketch model, which computes the local stimuli from perceived brightness and hence enhances the essential structural and edge information. Detailed experiment results demonstrate that the proposed multi-focus image fusion algorithm performs better than the other well known state-of-the-art multifocus image fusion methods, in terms of subjective visual perception and objective quality evaluation metrics

An Efficient & Less Complex Solution to Mitigate Impulsive Noise in Multi-Channel Feed-Forward ANC System with Online Secondary Path Modeling (OSPM)

This paper deals with impulsive noise (IN) in multichannel (MC) Active Noise Control (ANC) Systems with Online Secondary Path Modelling (OSPM) employing adaptive algorithms for the first time. It compares performance of various existing techniques belonging to varied computational complexity range and proposes four new methods, namely: FxRLS-VSSLMS, VSSLMS-VSSLMS, FxLMAT-VSSLMS and NSS MFxLMAT-VSSLMS to deal with modest to very high impulsive noise (IN). Simulation results show that these proposed methods demonstrated improved performance in terms of fast convergence speed, lowest steady state error, robustness and stability under impulsive environment in addition to modelling accuracy for stationary as well as non-stationary environment besides reducing computational complexity many folds

Petrography of Jutana Dolomite: Implications for Geotechnical Utility

Present study has been carried out to know the reliance of mechanical properties on the petrographic parameters. The Jutana dolomite is comprised of dolomite, sandy dolomite and siliciclastic beds. In this study microfacies analysis and geotechnical utility of Jutana dolomite has been determined. Based on the microscopic study different microfacies were identified. The mechanical properties of Jutana dolomite were investigated with the help of the strength tests such as uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) and uniaxial tensile strength (UTS) and shear strength. The results of the strength tests show that the Jutana dolomite is a moderately strong, which is suitable for construction purpose. In addition, the interrelationships of petrographic and mechanical properties of Jutana dolomite were determined. The percent quartz (8-41%) grains play a positive impact on the uniaxial compressive strength of Jutana dolomite

Interferon lambda-3 polymorphism and response to pegylated interferon in patients with hepatitis D

Background: Specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) near the interferon lambda-3 (IFNλ3) gene (formerly interleukin 28B) influence the response to treatment with interferon in hepatitis C patients. We aimed to investigate such an influence in hepatitis D patients.Methods: The study population consisted of hepatitis D patients who were previously treated with pegylated interferon for one year and who were spontaneous clearers of the virus post recent superinfection. The SNP of IFNλ3, rs12979860, was determined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism protocol.Results: The total number of patients was 64; median age was 30.5 years and 53 were male. The number of patients with sustained virological response 1 year post-treatment was 17, non-responders 29, relapsers 11 and spontaneous clearers post superinfection 7. Cirrhosis was present in 28 (44%). IFNλ3, rs12979860 genotype CC, was present in 41 (64.1%), CT in 21 (32.8%) and TT in 2 (3.1%). There was no difference in the body mass index, baseline alanine aminotransferase, hepatitis B e antigen and HBV DNA status among patients with sustained response and response failure (no response or relapse). The median age of response failures was 33.5 years compared to 26 in responders (P=0.024). They had higher gamma glutamyl transferase levels (P=0.030) and cirrhosis (P=0.003). Genotype CC was present in 29/40 of response failures compared to 9/17 of the responders (P=0.152). Logistic regression analysis showed that cirrhosis was the independent risk factor for failure to have a response (P=0.001). 4/7 patients with spontaneous clearance had genotype CC.Conclusions: IFNλ3 rs12979860 SNP does not have any significant influence on long-term hepatitis D clearance. Presence of cirrhosis may influence the response

Efficacy of exogenous application of 2, 4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2, 4-D) on growth and yield of mungbean (Vigna radiata L.)

The growth and yield promotion of mungbean in response to the use of 2, 4-Dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2, 4-D) was investigated through a pot study which was arranged in the wire house of Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad. The study was comprised of five treatments and three replications (control, 0.2 ppm 2, 4-D, 0.5 ppm 2, 4-D, 0.8 ppm 2, 4-D, and 1 ppm 2, 4-D). The suggested dose of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK) was applied at the amount of 20, 60 and 25 kg ha-1 added as Urea, DAP and SOP, respectively at sowing time. The data regarding growth (plant height, root and shoot length, root and shoot fresh and dry weight, and total biomass), yield (grain weight, number of grains plant-1) and NPK analysis in plants and soil was recorded and statistically analyzed. The response of exogenous application of 2, 4-D was significant at all levels in improving the performance of all the growth parameters and yield as compared to untreated control treatment. Maximum performance of all the parameters was recorded at 0.8 ppm application of 2, 4-D. As the concentration of 2, 4-D increased the development of plants also showed positive effect but up to 0.8 ppm application after that it started to decrease which showed that at higher concentrations 2, 4-D acts as growth retardant

Microbial Contamination in Drinking Water of Saggiyan-Lahore, Pakistan

The present study was carried to evaluate the physico-chemical parameters and microbial contamination of drinking water in the area of Saggiyan, Lahore. The tested water samples (S1-S30) were found to contain 199.6-402 mg/L TDS, 196-260 ppm EC, 196-260 ppm Hardness, 0.8-17 NTU turbidity, 169-290 mg/L alkalinity, 0-0.1 ppb arsenic and 0-0.1 ppm fluoride contents. 95% of the water samples were found contaminated with fecal coliforms while 27% of the samples had shown the presence of E. coli. Though the physico-chemical parameters of most water samples were found in the safe limits of WHO, however, the presence of microbial contamination rendered it non-suitable for drinking purposes

Interferon lambda-3 rs12979860 variants and response to pegylated interferon in chronic hepatitis-c genotype-3

Objective: To assess the role of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) near the interferon lambda-3 (IFNλ3) (formal IL-28B) gene rs12979860 in predicting sustained virologic response (SVR) in hepatitis-C virus genotype-3 (HCV-3). Study Design: Descriptive, analytical study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Medicine, The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from July 2012 to June 2014. Methodology: Patients with HCV-3 were classified as sustained virologic response (SVR), relapsers and non-responders. SNP rs12979860 was determined by PCR-RFLP protocol. Differences between categorical variables were assessed by chi-square or Fisher\u27s exact test, while those between continuous variables were evaluated using the Mann-Whitney U-test. Binary logistic regression analysis by forward conditional method was performed by using significant variables with p-values less than 0.05 as the criteria for model inclusion. Results: Out of 115 patients, rs12979860 genotype-CC, CT, TT was found in 37 (32.2%), 70 (60.9%), and 8 (7%) patients. 72 patients were male with median age of 45 years. Cirrhosis was present in 32 patients. Patients with response failures (no response and relapse, n=36 and 29, respectively) had higher baseline gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) level (p \u3c 0.001), higher alanine aminotransferase (p=0.027) and cirrhosis (p=0.001) than patients with SVR. Genotype-CC was present in 16/65 in response failures compared to 21/50 who achieved SVR (p=0.048). Rapid virologic response (RVR) (p \u3c 0.001), low GGT (p=0.001) and absence of cirrhosis (p=0.039) were the independent predictive factors for SVR. In patients who could not achieve RVR and in patients with cirrhosis, SVR was seen more in with genotype-CC (p=0.007 and 0.038). Conclusion: In patients infected with HCV-3, IFNλ3 rs12979860, SNP has less impact on SVR

Genetic transformation of sugarcane variety HSF-240 with marker gene GUS

In the current research an efficient transformation system for sugarcane was established. Shoot tip of variety HSF-240, excised from a six months old field grown plants were used as explant. For transformation, Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA101 with vector pIG121 Hm, harboring GUS, HPTII and NPTII genes were used. HPTII is a hygromycin resistant while NPTII is a kanamycin resistant gene. Effects of Acetosyringone, duration of co-cultivation and pre-selection, concentration of cefotaxime and hygromycin in medium on transformation efficiency were studied. High transformation efficiency and 60% GUS expression was observed when 50 μM acetosyringone was added in the co-cultivation medium. Among different durations of co-cultivation, 48 h produced high (40%) transient GUS positives with an absolute control of bacterial growth. For pre-selection, seven days gave a high transformation efficiency of 10%. Cefotaxime concentration of 1000 mg/L proved optimal for pre-selection of the explants with efficient control of bacterial growth. A high regeneration (31%; P < 0.01) of the transformants was observed at 50 mg/L hygromycin. Presence of GUS gene was confirmed by PCR analysis and only the transgenic plants contained the 430 bp fragment of GUS gene. The new protocol developed in this study could be used for the efficient transformation of sugarcane with desired gene to produce insect/pest resistant, drought tolerant and high yielding sugarcane varieties in future

Frequency limited impulse response gramians based model reduction

In order to simplify the analysis of complex electronic systems, they needsto be modeled accurately. Model reduction is further required to streamline the procedural and computational complexities. Further the instability caused by the model reduction techniques worstly effects the accuracy of a system. Therefore, we have proposed some improvements in the frequency limited impulse response Gramians based model order reduction techniques for discrete time systems. The propsed techniques assures the stability of the model after it get reduced. The proposed techniques provided better results than the stability preserving techniques