DIAMOnDS - DIstributed Agents for MObile & Dynamic Services

Distributed Services Architecture with support for mobile agents between services, offer significantly improved communication and computational flexibility. The uses of agents allow execution of complex operations that involve large amounts of data to be processed effectively using distributed resources. The prototype system Distributed Agents for Mobile and Dynamic Services (DIAMOnDS), allows a service to send agents on its behalf, to other services, to perform data manipulation and processing. Agents have been implemented as mobile services that are discovered using the Jini Lookup mechanism and used by other services for task management and communication. Agents provide proxies for interaction with other services as well as specific GUI to monitor and control the agent activity. Thus agents acting on behalf of one service cooperate with other services to carry out a job, providing inter-operation of loosely coupled services in a semi-autonomous way. Remote file system access functionality has been incorporated by the agent framework and allows services to dynamically share and browse the file system resources of hosts, running the services. Generic database access functionality has been implemented in the mobile agent framework that allows performing complex data mining and processing operations efficiently in distributed system. A basic data searching agent is also implemented that performs a query based search in a file system. The testing of the framework was carried out on WAN by moving Connectivity Test agents between AgentStations in CERN, Switzerland and NUST, Pakistan.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, CHEP03, La Jolla, California, March 24-28, 200

Steroid Injection as an Effective Treatment for Lateral Epicondylitis

Methods: In this case control study 70 patients with lateral epicondylitis with no previous history of trauma, surgery around elbow joint or previous history of steroid injection were included. Patients were given local steroid injection after preparing the area with an antiseptic solution. The most tender point was localized and 40 mg methyl-prednisolone solution mixed with one ml of 2% xylocaine solution was infiltrated. Patients were followed up at six weeks for the evaluation of global improvement in symptoms using Likert-type scale. Results:The mean age of the sample was 43 years. 42 patients were in the age group of 41-50 years. Majority (81.4%) patients were females. Most of the patients (81.4%) scored 1 and 2 on Linkert type scale, showing global improvement. Nine patients improved with the second dose of steroid injection making cumulative efficacy to 94%. Conclusion: Local steroid infiltration is an effective method of relieving pain and improving function in patients with tennis elbowBackground: To determine efficacy of local steroid infiltration in patients with lateral epicondylit

Two species of the hoverfly genus Eumerus Meigen (Diptera: Syrphidae) new record for Pakistan

An updated checklist of the genus Eumerus Meigen, 1822 is presented from Pakistan along with two new country records, i.e., Eumerus vestitus Bezzi, 1912 and Eumerus sogdianus Stackelberg, 1952. Eumerus sogdianus is native to Central and Southern Europe, but recorded from east to Central and Southern Asia, and Eumerus vestitus is native to the Afrotropical region, but recently also recorded from India. Both species are collected from northern areas of Pakistan – the extreme edge of the western Himalayas, where a significant diversity of hoverflies has been reported in recent studies. A brief diagnosis, identification key, and a taxonomic remark on known Pakistani Eumerus species are presented. A distribution map and detailed photographs of the newly recorded species are also presented

Analysis of morphological traits in different host plants associated with resistance to Phenacoccus solenopsis- an invasive pest in Pakistan

Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley (Pseudococcidae: Hemiptera) is a sucking insect pest and is polyphagous in nature. Twenty five (25) different host plants were screened against P. solenopsis and their  physicomorphic traits were determined to correlate their role against pest population. Among the tested plant species, most favorable host plants of mealy bug on the basis of population were Gossypium hirsutum (69.74±10.5), Solamum melongena (62.41±10.0), Helianthus annuus (61.83±10.0), Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (61.1±10.0) and Lantana camara (55.83±9.75), but the least preferred plants were tandla Digera arvensis (1.57±1.00) and Conyza bonariensis (3.83±1.75). Significant variations were observed in all the morphological plant characters recorded from different plant species. The maximum leaf thickness per plant was 2.04±0.23 ìm in plant species S. melongena while minimum thickness of leaf was recorded from lehli (0.25±0.02 ìm). Maximum trichome density per plant was 444±72.4 in sunflower followed by 411.6±19.6, 399±52, 391.6±22.0, in C. bonariensis, Abelmoschus esculentus and Withania somnifera respectively but minimum were 2.33±1.45 in Chinopodium morale, followed by 2.66±1.4, and 3±2.08 in Portulaca oleracea and Trianthema portulacastrum respectively. The maximum hair length per plant (2.62±0.07 mm) was of sunflower followed by 2.55±0.03 mm in okra, 2.53±0.06 mm in both S. melongena and G. hirsutum. It was concluded that plant characters including trichome density and hair length favor mealy bug population showing r-values of 0.357* and 0.190 respectively but leaf size and leaf width (leaf area and leaf thickness) exerted negative effect on pest population showing r-values of -0.172 and -0.285 respectively.Key words: Phenacoccus solenopsis, invasive species, physicomorphic traits, resistance

Exploration of Two Cucurbitaceae Fruit (Muskmelon and Watermelon) Seeds for Presence of Phytochemicals, and Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activities

Cucurbitaceae family fruits, especially melons, offers significant quantities of minerals carotenoids and phenolic compounds, contributing to their antioxidant activity. However, seeds of these fruits are usually discarded as waste by products. In current study, seeds of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) and muskmelon (Cucumis melo) were separated, dried, grounded and extracted, with 70% ethanol, to investigate total phenolic content (TPC), flavonoid content (TFC), carotenoid content (TC) content, and total antioxidant activity (TAA). Further, antimicrobial activities of these extracts were tested against selected bacterial and fungus strains. Results showed that extracts of both cucurbits presented significant amounts of phytochemicals, with higher quantities presented by watermelon seeds. In watermelon seeds, TPC were found 156.50 mg/GAE 100 g, TFC 56.78 mg CE/100 g, TC 36.65 mg/100 g, and TAA 71%, and these amounts were significantly higher than those found in muskmelon seeds. Antimicrobial study results showed that extracts of both seeds exhibited significant zone of inhibitions against three bacterial and three fungal species, and these values were very comparable to the reference antimicrobial drug used, Ciprofloxacin. Findings of current research work provided significant grounds for presence of phytochemical bioactives in two melon fruits seeds, providing the basis for extraction and utilization of these bioactives, through processing and fortification different pharma foods

Thermal-aware resource allocation in earliest deadline first using fluid scheduling

Thermal issues in microprocessors have become a major design constraint because of their adverse effects on the reliability, performance and cost of the system. This article proposes an improvement in earliest deadline first, a uni-processor scheduling algorithm, without compromising its optimality in order to reduce the thermal peaks and variations. This is done by introducing a factor of fairness to earliest deadline first algorithm, which introduces idle intervals during execution and allows uniform distribution of workload over the time. The technique notably lowers the number of context switches when compare with the previous thermal-aware scheduling algorithm based on the same amount of fairness. Although, the algorithm is proposed for uni-processor environment, it is also applicable to partitioned scheduling in multi-processor environment, which primarily converts the multi-processor scheduling problem to a set of uni-processor scheduling problem and thereafter uses a uni-processor scheduling technique for scheduling. The simulation results show that the proposed approach reduces up to 5% of the temperature peaks and variations in a uni-processor environment while reduces up to 7% and 6% of the temperature spatial gradient and the average temperature in multi-processor environment, respectively

Chemometric characterization of twenty barley varieties/lines based upon mineral profiling

International audienceDifferent varieties of cereal grains differ in their nutritional composition and product making characteristics. Barley is an underutilized and neglected food crop in Pakistan. Mainly barley is used as source of carbohydrates but is also an imperative source of minerals specially potassium, calcium and phosphorus. Although, the importance of these minor constituents as minerals is of significant importance for human nutrition, the micronutrients of different Pakistani barley varieties have not been studied up till now. The aim of this study was to characterize the mineral profile of Pakistani grown barley varieties from different geographical regions. Ash content in different barley varieties ranged between 1.32-2.00%. Potassium (409-585 mg/100g) and phosphorus (307-446 mg/100g) were found to be highest minerals in all varieties while selenium (0.04-0.30 mg/kg) and cobalt (3.1-24.2 µg/kg) were found in trace amount. Overall, the varieties grown in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa (KPK) province were found to be potentially good source of minerals especially iron and calcium. However, the varieties grown in Sindh province were found to be poor sources of minerals excluding sodium. Three statistically significant clusters were identified using chemometric tools. Barley variety Rakhshan-10 showed highest ash content and overall presented better mineral profile. Significant differences in mineral content were found in all barley varieties grown in different locations. Overall, findings of this study will help the food industries in selection of barley variety/ies with high mineral profile to be incorporated in barley-based food products

Two species of the hoverfly genus Eumerus Meigen (Diptera: Syrphidae) new record for Pakistan

Abstract An updated checklist of the genus Eumerus Meigen, 1822 is presented from Pakistan along with two new country records, i.e., Eumerus vestitus Bezzi, 1912 and Eumerus sogdianus Stackelberg, 1952. Eumerus sogdianus is native to Central and Southern Europe, but recorded from east to Central and Southern Asia, and Eumerus vestitus is native to the Afrotropical region, but recently also recorded from India. Both species are collected from northern areas of Pakistan - the extreme edge of the western Himalayas, where a significant diversity of hoverflies has been reported in recent studies. A brief diagnosis, identification key, and a taxonomic remark on known Pakistani Eumerus species are presented. A distribution map and detailed photographs of the newly recorded species are also presented