Search results for: Sadaf Nawaz

Authors: Sadaf Ilyas, Saba Riaz

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The extensive use of antibiotics has led to increases emergence of antibiotic-resistant organisms. Pseudomonas is a notorious opportunistic pathogen involoved in nosocomial infections and exhibit innate resistance to many antibiotics. The present study was conducted to assess the prevalence, levels of antimicrobial susceptibility and resistance mechanisms of Pseudomonas. A total of thirty clinical strains of Pseudomonas were isolated from different clinical sites of infection. All clinical specimens were collected from Chughtais Lahore Lab. Jail road, during 8-07-2010 to 11-01-2011. Biochemical characterization was done using routine biochemical tests. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by Kirby-Baeur method. The plasmids were isolated from all the strains and digested with restriction enzyme PstI and EcoRI. Transfer of Multi-resistance plasmid was checked via transformation and conjugation to confirm the plasmid mediated resistance to antibiotics. The prevalence of Pseudomonas in clinical specimens was found out to be 14% of all bacterial infections. IPM has shown to be the most effective drug against Pseudomonas followed by CES, PTB and meropenem, wheareas most of the Pseudomonas strains have developed significant resistance against Penicillins and some Cephalasporins. Antibiotic resistance determinants were carried by plasmids, as they conferred resistance to transformed K1 strains. The isolates readily undergo conjugation, transferring the resistant genes to other strains, illustrating the high rates of cross infection and nosocomial infection in the immunocompromised patients.

Keywords: pseudomonas, antibiotics, drug resistance, horizontal gene transfer

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Authors: Sidra Naeem, Ayesha Naeem, Sahar Rahim, Nadia Nawaz Qadri

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Citrus greening is a bacterial disease that causes considerable damage to citrus fruits worldwide. Efficient method for this disease detection must be carried out to minimize the production loss. This paper presents a pattern recognition system that comprises three stages for the detection of citrus greening from Orange leaves: segmentation, feature extraction and classification. Image segmentation is accomplished by adaptive thresholding. The feature extraction stage comprises of three visual descriptors i.e. shape, color and texture. From shape feature we have used asymmetry index, from color feature we have used histogram of Cb component from YCbCr domain and from texture feature we have used local binary pattern. Classification was done using support vector machines and k nearest neighbors. The best performances of the system is Accuracy = 88.02% and AUROC = 90.1% was achieved by automatic segmented images. Our experiments validate that: (1). Segmentation is an imperative preprocessing step for computer assisted diagnosis of citrus greening, and (2). The combination of shape, color and texture features form a complementary set towards the identification of citrus greening disease.

Keywords: citrus greening, pattern recognition, feature extraction, classification

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Authors: Mohanad Alhabo, Li Zhang, Naveed Nawaz

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In this paper, a non-cooperative game method is formulated where all players compete to transmit at higher power. Every base station represents a player in the game. The game is solved by obtaining the Nash equilibrium (NE) where the game converges to optimality. The proposed method, named Power Efficient Handover Game Theoretic (PEHO-GT) approach, aims to control the handover in dense small cell networks. Players optimize their payoff by adjusting the transmission power to improve the performance in terms of throughput, handover, power consumption and load balancing. To select the desired transmission power for a player, the payoff function considers the gain of increasing the transmission power. Then, the cell selection takes place by deploying Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). A game theoretical method is implemented for heterogeneous networks to validate the improvement obtained. Results reveal that the proposed method gives a throughput improvement while reducing the power consumption and minimizing the frequent handover.

Keywords: energy efficiency, game theory, handover, HetNets, small cells

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Authors: Mohanad Alhabo, Naveed Nawaz

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The ongoing call or data session must be maintained to ensure a good quality of service. This can be accomplished by performing the handover procedure while the user is on the move. However, the dense deployment of small cells in 5G networks is a challenging issue due to the extensive number of handovers. In this paper, a neighbour cell list method is proposed to reduce the number of target small cells and hence minimizing the number of handovers. The neighbour cell list is built by omitting cells that could cause an unnecessary handover and handover failure because of short time of stay of the user in these cells. A multi-attribute decision making technique, simple additive weighting, is then applied to the optimized neighbour cell list. Multi-tier small cells network is considered in this work. The performance of the proposed method is analysed and compared with that of the existing methods. Results disclose that our method has decreased the candidate small cell list, unnecessary handovers, handover failure, and short time of stay cells compared to the competitive method.

Keywords: handover, HetNets, multi-attribute decision making, small cells

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Authors: Mir Hussain Nawaz, Lyudmila Nedyalkova, Haizhong Zhu, Wael M. Rabeh

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In this study, we aim to biochemically and structurally characterize the interactions of human HK2 with the mitochondria in addition to the role of its N-terminal domain in catalysis and stability of the full-length enzyme. Here, we solved the crystal structure of human HK2 in complex with glucose and glucose-6-phosphate (PDB code: 2NZT), where it is a homodimer with catalytically active N- and C-terminal domains linked by a seven-turn α-helix. Different from the inactive N-terminal domains of isozymes 1 and 3, the N- domain of HK2 not only capable to catalyze a reaction but it is responsible for the thermodynamic stabilizes of the full-length enzyme. Deletion of first α-helix of the N-domain that binds to the mitochondria altered the stability and catalytic activity of the full-length HK2. In addition, we found the linker helix between the N- and C-terminal domains to play an important role in controlling the catalytic activity of the N-terminal domain. HK2 is a major step in the regulation of glucose metabolism in cancer making it an ideal target for the development of new anticancer therapeutics. Characterizing the structural and molecular mechanisms of human HK2 and its role in cancer metabolism will accelerate the design and development of new cancer therapeutics that are safe and cancer specific.

Keywords: cancer metabolism, enzymology, drug discovery, protein stability

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Authors: Sadaf Karkoodi, Hassan Karampour

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There is a growing interest in the construction industry towards hybrid systems. The hybrid systems use construction materials such as timber, steel, and concrete smartly, can be prefabricated, and are cost-effective and sustainable solutions to an industry targeting reduced carbon footprint. Moreover, in case of periodical shortage in timber resources, reusable and waste wood such as fibres can be used in the hybrid modules, which facilitates the circular economy. In this research, a hybrid frame is proposed and experimentally validated by introducing dried wood fibre products inside cold-formed steel square hollow sections without using any adhesives. As such, fibre-filled steel tubular (FFST) columns, beams, and 2D frames are manufactured and tested. The results show that the FFST columns have stiffness and strength 44% and 55% higher than cold-formed steel columns, respectively. The bearing strength of the FFST beams shows an increase of 39.5% compared to steel only. The flexural stiffness and strength of the FFST beams are 8.5% and 28% higher than the bare steel beams, respectively. The FFST frame depicted an 18.4% higher ultimate load capacity than the steel-only frame under a mid-point concentrated load. Moreover, the FFST beam-to-column bolted connection showed high ductile performance. The initial results and the proposed simple manufacturing process suggest that the proposed FFST concept can be upscaled and used in real structures.

Keywords: wood fibre, reusing wood, fibre-filled steel, hybrid construction

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Authors: Abdul Matin, Salik Nawaz, Suk-Yul Jung

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Balamuthia mandrillaris is well known to cause fatal Balamuthia amoebic encephalitis (BAE). Amoebic transmission into the central nervous system (CNS), haematogenous spread is thought to be the prime step, followed by blood-brain barrier (BBB) dissemination. Macrophages are considered to be the foremost line of defense and present in excessive numbers during amoebic infections. The aim of the present investigation was to evaluate the effects of macrophages alone or primed with cytokines on the biological characteristics of Balamuthia in vitro. Using human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMEC), which constitutes the BBB, we have shown that Balamuthia demonstrated > 90% binding and > 70% cytotoxicity to host cells. However, macrophages further increased amoebic binding and Balamuthia-mediated cell cytotoxicity. Furthermore, macrophages exhibited no amoebicidal effect against Balamuthia. Zymography assay demonstrated that macrophages exhibited no inhibitory effect on proteolytic activity of Balamuthia. Overall, to our best knowledge, we have shown for the first time macrophages has no inhibitory effects on the biological properties of Balamuthia in vitro. This also strengthened the concept that how and why Balamuthia can cause infections in both immuno-competent and immuno-compromised individuals.

Keywords: Balamuthia mandrillaris, macrophages, cytokines, human brain microvascular endothelial cells, Balamuthia amoebic encephalitis

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Authors: Sumaira Saleem, Sajjad Hussain, Asma Kashif Shahzad, Hina Shaheen

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This study aims at exploring the relationship between language and ideology and how such relationships are represented in the analysis of spoken texts, following Van Dijk’s Socio Cognitive Model (2002). In this study, it is tried to show that political Talk shows broadcast by Private TV channels are working apparatuses of ideology and store meanings which are not always obvious for readers. This analysis was about the situation created by Arslan Iftkhar, the son of ex-Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudry and PTI Chief Imran Khan. Arslan Iftikhar submitted an application against Imran Khan that he is not able to become a member of parliament of Pakistan. In the application, he demanded the documents, which are submitted by Imran Khan at the time of Election to the Election Commission of Pakistan. Murad Ali from PTI also submitted an application against PM Nawaz Sharif to the Election Commission of Pakistan for providing the copies. It also suggests that these talk shows mystify the agency of processes by using various strategies. In other words, critical text analyses reveal how these choices enable speakers to manipulate the realizations of agency and power in the representation of action to produce particular meanings which are not always explicit for all readers.

Keywords: ECP, CDA, socio cognitive model, ideology, TV channels, power

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Authors: Anam Nawaz

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The present study is an attempt to compare the translations of Faiz’s poetry made by native and non-native translators, to determine the role of the translator in terms of preserving the cultural ethos of the original text. Peter Newmark and Katharine Reiss’s approaches to translation criticism have been used to provide a theoretical framework for the study. This study also emphasizes those cultural and semantic aspects of the original which are translated more convincingly by a native translator, and contrasting those features which the non-natives can tackle more ably. The research also highlights the linguistic sockets, ignored by the interpreters in the translation process. The analysis showed that both native and non-native translators have made an admirable effort to stay as close to the original as possible. The natives with their advantage of belonging to the same culture have excelled in preserving the original subject matter, whereas the non-native renderings have been presented in a much rhythmic and poetic manner with an excellent choice of words. Though none of the four translators has been successfully able to recreate Faiz’s magic, however V. G. Kiernan and Sarvat Rahman’s translations can be regarded as the closest to the original. Whereas V. G. Kiernan with his outstanding command over English mesmerizes the readers, Sarvat Rahman’s profound understanding of cultural ties helps establish her translations as a brilliant example of faithful re-renderings.

Keywords: comparative translations, linguistic and cultural constraints, native translators, non-native translators, poetry and translation, Faiz Ahmad Faiz

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Authors: Maryam Rasool, Farhan Munir, Fahad Nawaz, Saad Ahmad

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A patch antenna operating in the Ultra-Wide Band of frequency (3.1 GHz – 10.6 GHz) is designed with enhanced security from interference from other applications by incorporating the notching technique. Patch antennas in the Ultra-Wide Band are becoming widely famous due to their low power, light weight and high data rate capability. Micro strip patch antenna’s patch can be altered to increase its bandwidth and introduce UWB character in it. The designed antenna is a patch antenna consisting of a conductive sheet of metal mounted over a large sheet of metal called the ground plane with a substrate separating the two. Notched bands are public safety WLAN, WLAN and FSS. Different techniques used to implement the UWB antenna were individually implemented and there results were examined. V shaped patch was then chosen and modified to an arrow shaped patch to give the optimized results operating on the entire UWB region with considerable return loss. The frequency notch prevents the operation of the antenna at a particular range of frequency, hence minimizing interference from other systems. There are countless techniques for introducing the notch but we have used inverted C-shaped slots in the UWB patch to get the notch characteristics as output and also wavelength resonators to introduce notch in UWB band. The designed antenna is simulated in High Frequency Structural Simulator (HFSS) 13.0 by Ansoft.

Keywords: HFSS, Notch, UWB, WLAN

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Authors: Anusha Sajjad, Sibtain Kazmi, Sadaf Sajjad, Ali Mohsin

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Shia Muslims, a distinct minority within the broader Muslim community, have a unique mourning practice set that remains underexplored in research. These practices hold cultural and religious significance and are essential to Shia spirituality. This study seeks to delve into the emotional and psychological dimensions of Shia Muslims' mourning rituals, specifically investigating how these practices serve as coping strategies during times of grief and adversity. The motivation for this research stems from a gap in understanding the psycho-spiritual aspects of Shia mourning, with a focus on the potential therapeutic value of these practices for individuals experiencing daily life stressors. This qualitative investigation employs an online survey conducted in September 2023 as the primary research method. Data was collected from a sample of 49 Shia Muslims who have actively participated in mourning rituals. Pearson's correlation test was applied to assess the relationship between participants’ reported feelings of mentally feeling ‘Lighter or Heavier' and their 'Coping' responses. Pearson's correlation analysis revealed a positive but relatively weak correlation between 'Mentally Feeling Lighter' and 'Coping' (r = 0.303) with a statistically significant p-value of 0.034. The findings suggest that there is a statistically significant positive correlation between feeling "Mentally Lighter" and coping, as reported by participants in Shia mourning rituals, although the strength of this correlation is relatively weak. This implies that individuals who feel "Mentally Lighter" are more likely to report coping effectively, but other factors likely contribute to the overall coping strategies employed by participants in this context. Further research with a larger sample size would be needed to strengthen this correlation further.

Keywords: shia, mourning, religion, coping

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Authors: Mohanad Alhabo, Li Zhang, Naveed Nawaz

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Small cell deployment in 5G networks is a promising technology to enhance capacity and coverage. However, unplanned deployment may cause high interference levels and high number of unnecessary handovers, which in turn will result in an increase in the signalling overhead. To guarantee service continuity, minimize unnecessary handovers, and reduce signalling overhead in heterogeneous networks, it is essential to properly model the handover decision problem. In this paper, we model the handover decision according to Multiple Attribute Decision Making (MADM) method, specifically Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). In this paper, we propose a hybrid TOPSIS method to control the handover in heterogeneous network. The proposed method adopts a hybrid weighting, which is a combination of entropy and standard deviation. A hybrid weighting control parameter is introduced to balance the impact of the standard deviation and entropy weighting on the network selection process and the overall performance. Our proposed method shows better performance, in terms of the number of frequent handovers and the mean user throughput, compared to the existing methods.

Keywords: handover, HetNets, interference, MADM, small cells, TOPSIS, weight

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Authors: Aqsa Akbar, Sadaf Ehsan, Suheera Khalid Sheikh

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Purpose: In the today’s competitive world, situational dynamism presents complex challenges for organizations to pursue production innovation. Calling for dire need to remain sustainable, the research aims to examine the interlinking mechanism of knowledge sharing and product innovation relationship. For this, a moderated mediation framework is developed in which employees’ creativity and top management support are suggested as viable factors affecting the knowledge sharing and product innovation relationship. Design/Methodology/Approaches A survey-based quantitative research design is selected for data collection via self-administered questionnaires from employees of Pakistan’s E-commerce organizations. Almost, 350 questionnaires were circulated and 285 were received back through a cross-sectional method. Data analysis is performed on SPSS 22.0 and AMOS. Finding The outcomes suggest that knowledge sharing is critical for companies undergoing product innovation. In addition, findings disclose that employees’ creativity partially mediates the relationship between knowledge sharing and product innovation. Furthermore, the moderation impact of top management support also substantiated the proposed hypothesis. Results are discussed in the light of the literature review, followed by the study’s limitations and future directions. Originality/Value The study donates significance towards the development of better understanding of how knowledge sharing is vital for product innovation. It adds on to the literature by highlighting mechanisms responsible for successful product innovation. Moreover, the study offers practical insights to Pakistan’s E-commerce industry and suggests about how to develop capabilities for product innovation.

Keywords: employees creativity, knowledge sharing, product innovation, top management support

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Authors: Sadaf Saeed

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The consideration of walkability as an urban design parameter in conjunction with transit-oriented development is an established trend in the developed countries but an upcoming trend in developing countries. In Pakistan, the first Bus Rapid Transit (locally called as Metro Bus) has been introduced in the city of Lahore in 2013 where around 40 percent of the riders access to transit stations by walking. To what extent the aspect of walkability has been considered in the local scenario? To address this question, this paper presents an account of urban design parameters regarding pedestrian provisions and quality of walking environment between Metro Bus stations and users’ destination in the transit neighbourhoods (areas up to 500-meter radius). The primary and secondary data for objective and subjective walkability measurements has been used for neighbourhoods of five selected transit stations ranked against the predefined critical assessed factors (CAF). The multi-criteria approach including visual and geospatially-based parameters at street level, along with walkability index score at selected sites linked with CAF evaluation were the selected methods for this study. The acceptability of walkability as an urban design parameter for transit planning in terms of connectivity and social implications of the concept has also been analysed in the local context. The paper highlights that the aspect of walkability in Lahore is being derelict owing to the focus of government on other initiatives such as park and ride and feeder bus services for mobility of passengers. However, the pedestrian-friendly design parameters as a part of future transit planning can enhance social, liveable and interactive walking environment within transit neighbourhoods.

Keywords: walkability, sustainability, transit neighborhoods, social communities

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Authors: Muhammad Sajid Arshad, Sadaf Bashir

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In this study, the effects of pomegranate peel based edible coating were determined on safety and quality of chicken nuggets. Four treatment groups were prepared as control (without coating), coating with sodium alginate (SA) (1.5%), pomegranate peel powder (PPP) (1.5%), and combination of SA and PPP. There was a significant variation observed with respect to coating treatments and storage intervals. The chicken nuggets were subjected to refrigerated storage (40C) and were analyzed at regular intervals of 0, 7, 14 1 and 21 days. The microbiological quality was determined by total aerobic and coliform counts. Total aerobic (5.09±0.05 log CFU/g) and coliforms (3.91±0.06 log CFU/g) counts were higher in uncoated chicken nuggets whereas lower was observed in coated chicken nuggets having combination of SA and PPP. Likewise, antioxidants potential of chicken nuggets was observed by assessing total phenolic contents (TPC) and DPPH activity. Higher TPC (135.66 GAE/100g) and DPPH (64.65%) were found in combination with SA and PPP, whereas minimum TPC (91.38) and DPPH (41.48) was observed in uncoated chicken nuggets. Regarding the stability analysis of chicken nuggets, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and peroxide value (POV) were determined. Higher TBARS (1.62±0.03 MDA/Kg) and POV (0.92±0.03 meq peroxide/kg) were found in uncoated chicken nuggets. Hunter color values were also observed in both uncoated and coated chicken nuggets. Sensorial attributes were also observed by the trained panelists. The higher sensory score for appearance, color, taste, texture and overall acceptability were observed in control (uncoated) while in coated treatments, it was found within acceptable limits. In nutshell, the combination of SA and PPP enhanced the overall quality, antioxidant potential, and stability of chicken nuggets.

Keywords: chicken nuggets, edible coatings, pomegranate peel powder, sodium alginate

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Authors: Kanwal Javid, Shazia Pervaiz, Maria Mumtaz, Muhammad Ameer Nawaz Akram

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Forests and grasslands ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon cycle. Land management activities influence both ecosystems and enable them to absorb and sequester carbon dioxide (CO2). Similarly, in Pakistan, these terrestrial ecosystems are well known to mitigate carbon emissions and have a great source to supply a variety of services such as clean air and water, biodiversity, wood products, wildlife habitat, food, recreation and carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration is the main agenda of developed and developing nations to reduce the impacts of global warming. But the amount of carbon storage within these ecosystems can be affected by many factors related to air quality such as land management, land-use change, deforestation, over grazing and natural calamities. Moreover, the long-term capacity of forests and grasslands to absorb and sequester CO2 depends on their health, productivity, resilience and ability to adapt to changing conditions. Thus, the main rationale of this study is to monitor the difference in carbon amount of forests and grasslands of Northern Pakistan using MODIS data sets and map results using Geographic Information System. Results of the study conclude that forests ecosystems are more effective in reducing the CO2 level and play a key role in improving the quality of air.

Keywords: carbon sequestration, grasslands, global warming, climate change.

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Authors: Sadaf Ambreen, Ayesha Bibi, Sara Rafiq

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Hypertension is a medical condition in which blood pressure in the arteries is elevated than the normal, having systolic blood pressure more than 120mmHg and diastolic blood pressure more than 80 mmHg. It leads to health complications and increase the risk of diseases such as stroke, heart failure, heart attack, and even death. The aim of the current study was to evaluate nutritional status and activity level among hypertensive early adults in District Mardan Data was collected from the subjects of Public Hospital, Mardan Medical Complex, through questionnaire. A complete information about individual sociodemographic, anthropometry and health status were collected, and physical activity was assessed by using IPAQ questionnaire. A total of 150 individuals were included in the study, in which 90% were females, and 10% were males. Data was analyzed through SPSS Version 22. Majority of the study subjects, 88%, were married, 70% having nuclear living system, 43% were having elementary education, and 43% were working as laborer. Body mass index and waist circumference in female counterpart were found to be positively associated with hypertension and was found statistically significant P=<0.01. Results showed that majority of females were fall in hypertension crisis category with mild activity, and males were having hypertension stage 1 with moderate activity. Our study concluded that non-optimal nutritional status and physical inactivity resulted in elevated blood pressure in females, therefore, lifestyle change such as optimal nutritional status and physical activity may play key role in reducing risk of hypertension.

Keywords: obesity/overwight, body mass index, waist circumference, early adulthood

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Authors: Rafia Hassan, Ali Rizwan, Sadaf Farhan, Bushra Sabir

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The purpose of this study is to compare the conventional crop monitoring system with the satellite based crop monitoring system in Pakistan. This study is conducted for SUPARCO (Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission). The study focused on the wheat crop, as it is the main cash crop of Pakistan and province of Punjab. This study will answer the following: Which system is better in terms of cost, time and man power? The man power calculated for Punjab CRS is: 1,418 personnel and for SUPARCO: 26 personnel. The total cost calculated for SUPARCO is almost 13.35 million and CRS is 47.705 million. The man hours calculated for CRS (Crop Reporting Service) are 1,543,200 hrs (136 days) and man hours for SUPARCO are 8, 320hrs (40 days). It means that SUPARCO workers finish their work 96 days earlier than CRS workers. The results show that the satellite based crop monitoring system is efficient in terms of manpower, cost and time as compared to the conventional system, and also generates early crop forecasts and estimations. The research instruments used included: Interviews, physical visits, group discussions, questionnaires, study of reports and work flows. A total of 93 employees were selected using Yamane’s formula for data collection, which is done with the help questionnaires and interviews. Comparative graphing is used for the analysis of data to formulate the results of the research. The research findings also demonstrate that although conventional methods have a strong impact still in Pakistan (for crop monitoring) but it is the time to bring a change through technology, so that our agriculture will also be developed along modern lines.

Keywords: area frame, crop reporting service, CRS, sample frame, SRS/GIS, satellite remote sensing/ geographic information system

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Authors: Fehmeada Bibi, Shafqat Nawaz Qaisrani, Masood Akhtar, Zulfiqar Ali

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Population trends learning is an important tool for conservation programs in rare as well as in common species of birds. A study was conducted to assess annual decline in species of birds and to identify the causes of this decline at Taunsa Barrage wildlife Sanctuary, Punjab, Pakistan. Data were collected by direct census method during wintering and breeding periods (2001 to 2002 and 2008 to 2011). The results indicated an increasing trend in 157, whereas a decreasing trend in 14 species of birds. Among the species with declining trend, there was a 92% decrease in White-backed Vulture (Gyps bengalensis), 60% in Greater Painted Snipe (Rostratula benghalensis), 57% in Garganey (Anas querquedula), Pallas’s Fish Eagle and Long-legged Buzzard (Buteo rufinus) 50% each, 41% in Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea), 39% in Little Cormorant (Phalacrocorax niger), 37% in Gadwall (Anas strepera), 33% in Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus), 30% in Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) and 26% in Red-crested Pochard (Netta rufina) population. Habitat exploitation, hunting and grazing were found the main causes of this decline. In conclusion, conservation and management of the study area is foremost to interests of declining bird population. It is suggested, therefore, to take immediate steps for the protection of the sanctuary to conserve the declining population of birds.

Keywords: population trends, wildlife sanctuary, bird, habitat exploitation

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Authors: Sadaf Kalhori

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Introduction: Doxorubicin (DOX)-induced cardiotoxicity is widely known as the most severe complication of anthracycline-based chemotherapy in patients with cancer. It is unknown whether Deferiprone (DFP), could reduce the severity of DOX-induced cardiotoxicity by inhibiting free radical reactions. Thus, this study was performed to assess the protective effect of Deferiprone on DOX-induced cardiotoxicity in a rat model. Methods: The rats were divided into five groups. Group one was a control group. Group 2 was DOX (2 mg/kg/day, every other day for 12 days), and Group three to five which receiving DOX as in group 2 and DFP 75,100 and 150 mg/kg/day, for 19 days, respectively. DFP was starting 5 days prior to the first DOX injection and two days after the last DOX injection throughout the study. Electrocardiographic and hemodynamic studies, along with histopathological examination, were conducted. In addition, serum sample was taken and total cholesterol, Malone dialdehyde, triglyceride, albumin, AST, ALT, total protein, lactate dehydrogenase, total anti-oxidant and creatine kinase were assessed. Result: Our results showed the normal structure of endocardial, myocardial and pericardial in the control group. Pathologic data such as edema, hyperemia, bleeding, endocarditis, myocarditis and pericarditis, hyaline degeneration, cardiomyocyte necrosis, myofilament degeneration and nuclear chromatin changes were assessed in all groups. In the DOX group, all pathologic data was seen with mean grade of 2±1.25. In the DFP group with a dose of 75 and 100 mg, the mean grade was 1.41± 0.31 and 1±.23, respectively. In DFP group with a dose of 150, the pathologic data showed a milder change in comparison with other groups with e mean grade of 0.45 ±0.19. Most pathologic data in DFP groups showed significant changes in comparison with the DOX group (p < 0.001). Discussion: The results also showed that DFP treatment significantly improved DOX-induced heart damage, structural changes in the myocardium, and ventricular function. Our data confirm that DFP is protective against cardiovascular-related disorders induced by DOX. Clinical studies are needed to be involved to examine these findings in humans.

Keywords: cardiomyopathy, deferiprone, doxorubicin, rat

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Authors: Ahmad Mohsin, Syda Fatima, Falak Nawaz, Aman Ullah Khan

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Selection of an appropriate architectural style is vital to the success of target web service under development. The nature of architecture design and selection for service-oriented computing applications is quite different as compared to traditional software. Web Services have complex and rigorous architectural styles to choose. Due to this, selection for accurate architectural style for web services development has become a more complex decision to be made by architects. Architectural style selection is a multi-criteria decision and demands lots of experience in service oriented computing. Decision support systems are good solutions to simplify the selection process of a particular architectural style. Our research suggests a new approach using DSS for selection of architectural styles while developing a web service to cater FRs and NFRs. Our proposed DSS helps architects to select right web service architectural pattern according to the domain and non-functional requirements. In this paper, a rule base DSS has been developed using CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System) to support decisions using multi-criteria requirements. This DSS takes architectural characteristics, domain requirements and software architect preferences for NFRs as input for different architectural styles in use today in service-oriented computing. Weighted sum model has been applied to prioritize quality attributes and domain requirements. Scores are calculated using multiple criterions to choose the final architecture style.

Keywords: software architecture, web-service, rule-based, DSS, multi-criteria requirements, quality attributes

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Authors: Saad Nawaz, Yu Gang, Miao Haibin

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Titanium alloys are attractive materials for aerospace industry due to their exceptional strength to weight ratio that is maintained at elevated temperatures and their good corrosion resistance. Major applications of titanium alloys were military aerospace industry, but since last decade the trend has now shifted towards commercial industry. On the other hand, titanium alloys are notorious for being poor thermal conductor that leads to them being difficult materials for machining. In this experimental study, Stellram Indexable milling cutter XDLT09-D41 is used for rough down milling of Ti6Al4V for small depth of cut under different combinations of parameters and application of high-pressure coolant. The machining performance was evaluated in terms of tool wear, tool life, and thermal crack. The tool wear was mostly observed at the tool tip and at bottom part of tool thermal deformations were observed which propagated with respect to time. Flank wear due to scratching of the cutting chips and diffusion wear because of high thermal stresses were observed specially at the bottom of the cutting tool. It was found that maximum tool life was obtained at the speed of 40m/min, feed rate of 358mm/min and depth of cut of 0.8mm. In the end, it was concluded that machining of Ti6Al4V is a thermally dominant process which leads to high thermal stresses in machining zone that results in increasing tool wear rate and deformation propagation.

Keywords: tool wear, cutting speed, flank wear , tool life

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Authors: Irfan Ahmad, Raza Ghafoor, Hammad Raza Ahmad, Muhammad Asif, Farrakh Nawaz, M. Tahir Siddiqui

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Due to the exploding population of Pakistan the pressure on natural forests is increasing to meet the demands of wood and wood based products. Agroforestry is being practiced throughout the world on scientific basis but unfortunately the farmers of Pakistan are reluctant in its adoption. The presents study was designed to assess the adoption of agroforestry practices in Faisalabad with respect to land holdings of farmers and future suitability by using Geographic information system (GIS). Faisalabad is the third largest city of the country and is famous due to the textile industry. A comprehensive survey from target villages of the Lyallpur town of Faisalabad district was carried out. Out of total 65 villages, 40 were selected for study. From each selected village, one farmer who was actively engaged in farming activities was selected. It was observed that medium sized farmers having 10-20 acre were more in number as compared to small and large farmers. Number of trees was found maximum in large farm lands, ratio of diseased trees was almost similar in all categories with maximum in small farmlands (24.1%). Regarding the future prospects 35% farmer were interested in agroforestry practices 65% were not interested in the promotion of trees due to the non-availability of technical guidance and proper markets. Geographic images of the study site can further help the researchers and policy makers in the promotion of agroforestry.

Keywords: agroforestry trends, adoption, Faisalabad, geographic information system (GIS)

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Authors: Ayesha Ashfaq, Muhammad Ajmal Ashfaq

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It has been assumed that metaphorical and symbolic contests are waged with metaphors, captions, and signs in political cartoons that play a significant role in image construction of political actors, situations or events in the political arena. This paper is an effort to explore the metaphorical devices in political cartoons related to the political confrontation in Pakistan between the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) and opposition parties especially after Panama leaks. For this purpose, political cartoons sketched by five renowned political cartoonists on the basis of their belongings to the most highly circulated mainstream English newspapers of Pakistan and their professional experiences in their genre, were selected. The cartoons were analyzed through the Barthes’s model of Semiotics under the umbrella of the first level of agenda setting theory ‘framing’. It was observed that metaphorical devices in political cartoons are one of the key weapons of cartoonists’ armory. These devices are used to attack the candidates and contribute to the image and character building. It was found that all the selected political cartoonists used different forms of metaphors including situational metaphors and embodying metaphors. Not only the physical stature but also the debates and their activities were depicted metaphorically in the cartoons that create the scenario of comparison between the cartoons and their real political confrontation. It was examined that both forms of metaphors shed light on cartoonist’s perception and newspaper’s policy about political candidates, political parties and particular events. In addition, it was found that zoomorphic metaphors and metaphors of diminishments were also predominantly used to depict the conflict between two said political actors.

Keywords: metaphor, Panama leaks, political cartoons, political communication

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Authors: Sehrish Iftikhar, Kiran Nawaz, Ahmad A. Shahid, Waheed Anwar, Muhammad S. Haider

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Early blight caused by Alternaria solani Sorauer is one of the most serious foliage diseases of the potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). This disease causes huge crop losses and has major economic importance worldwide. The antifungal activity for three medicinal plants (Foeniculum vulgare, Syzygium aromaticum, and Eucalyptus citriodora) against Alternaria solani has been evaluated. The inhibitory potential of selected essential oils on the radial mycelial growth and germination of spore was measured in vitro at various concentrations (5%, 2.5%. 1.25%, 0.625%, and 0.312%) using agar well diffusion assay. Essential oil of E. citriodora was most effective causing 85% inhibition of mycelial growth and 88% inhibition of spore germination at 0.625% and 1.25% concentrations. Essential oil of Foeniculum vulgare also caused 80% and 82% inhibition of the above mentioned parameters but at double the concentrations 1.25% and 2.5%. While essential oil of Syzygium aromaticum was least effective in controlling the mycelial growth and spore germination with 76% and 77% inhibition at 1.25% and 2.5%. All the selected essential oils, especially E. citriodora, showed marked antimicrobial activity significant at higher concentration. These results suggest that the use of essential oils for the control of A. solani can reduce environmental risks related with commercial fungicides, lower cost for control, and the chances for resistance development. Additional studies are essential to evaluate the potential of essential oils as natural treatments for this disease.

Keywords: clove, essential oils, fennel, potato

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Authors: Tooba N. Shamsi, Romana Perveen, Sadaf Fatima

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Protease Inhibitors (PIs) are widespread in nature, produced by animals, plants and microorganisms. They play vital role in various biological activities by keeping a check on activity of proteases. Present study aims to investigate antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of PPI from Cajanus cajan (CCTI) and Phaseolus limensis (LBTI). PPI was purified from C. cajan (PUSA-992) by ammonium sulfate precipitation followed by ion exchange chromatography. The anti-oxidant activity was analyzed by two most common radical scavenging assays of FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power) and DPPH (1,1- diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl). Also, in-vitro anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated using albumin denaturation assay and membrane stabilization assay at different concentrations. Ascorbic acid and aspirin were used as a standards for antioxidant and anti-inflammatory assays respectively. The PPIs were also checked for antimicrobial activity against a number of bacterial strains. The CCTI and LBTI showed DPPH radical scavenging activity in a concentration–dependent manner with IC50 values 544 µg/ml and 506 µg/ml respectively comparative to ascorbic acid which was 258 µg/ml. Following FRAP assay, it was evaluated that LBTI had 87.5% and CCTI showed 84.4% antioxidant activity, taking value of standard ascorbic acid to be 100%. The PPIs also showed in-vitro anti‐inflammatory activity by inhibiting the heat induced albumin denaturation with IC50 values of 686 µg/ml and 615 µg/ml for CCTI and LBTI respectively compared to the standard (aspirin) which was 70.8 µg/ml. Red blood cells membrane stabilization with IC50 values of 641 µg/ml and 587 µg/ml for CCTI and LBTI respectively against aspirin which showed IC50 value of 70.4 µg/ml. PPIs showed antibacterial activity against 7 known strains while there was apparently no action against fungi.

Keywords: Cajanus cajan, Phaseolus limensis, Lima beans, protein protease inhibitor, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial activity

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Authors: Muhammad Umair Mushtaq, Ameena Iqbal, Muhammad Aqib Hassan Ali Khan, Ismat Nawaz, Sohail Yousaf, Mazhar Iqbal

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Heavy metals are one of the priority pollutants as they pose serious health and environmental threats. They can be removed by various physiochemical methods but are costly and responsible for additional environmental problems. Bioremediation that exploits plants and their associated microbes have been referred as cost effective and environmental friendly technique. In this study, a pot experiment was conducted in a greenhouse to evaluate the potential of Celosia cristata and effects of bacteria, Pseudomonas japonica, and organic amendment moss/compost on tolerating/accumulating heavy metals. Two weeks old seedlings were transferred to soil in pots, and after four weeks they were inoculated with bacterial strain, while after growth of six weeks they were watered with a metal containing synthetic wastewater and were harvested after a growth period of nine weeks. After harvesting, morphological and physiological parameters and metal content of plants were measured. The results showed highest plant growth and biomass production in case of organic amendments while highest metal uptake has been found in non-amended pots. Positive controls have shown highest Pb uptake of 2900 mg/kg DW, while P. japonica amended pots have shown highest Cd, Cr, Ni and Cu uptake of 963.53, 1481.17, 1022.01 and 602.17 mg/kg DW, respectively. In conclusion organic amendments have strong impacts on growth enhancement while P. japonica enhances metal translocation and accumulation to aerial parts with little significant involvement in plant growth.

Keywords: ornamental plants, plant microbe interaction, amendments, bacteria

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Authors: Muhammad Ameer Nawaz Akram

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The 21st century has been revealed that many individuals around the world are living in urban settlements than in rural zones. The evolution of numerous cities in emerging and newly developed countries is accompanied by the rise of slums. The precise definition of a slum varies countries to countries, but the universal harmony is that slums are dilapidated settlements facing severe poverty and have lacked access to sanitation, water, electricity, good living styles, and land tenure. The slum settlements always vary in unique patterns within and among the countries and cities. The core objective of this study is the spatial identification and classification of slums in Gujrat city Pakistan from very high-resolution GeoEye-1 (0.41m) satellite imagery. Slums were first identified using GPS for sample site identification and ground-truthing; through this process, 425 slums were identified. Then Object-Oriented Analysis (OOA) was applied to classify slums on digital image. Spatial analysis softwares, e.g., ArcGIS 10.3, Erdas Imagine 9.3, and Envi 5.1, were used for processing data and performing the analysis. Results show that OOA provides up to 90% accuracy for the identification of slums. Jalal Cheema and Allah Ho colonies are severely affected by slum settlements. The ratio of criminal activities is also higher here than in other areas. Slums are increasing with the passage of time in urban areas, and they will be like a hazardous problem in coming future. So now, the executive bodies need to make effective policies and move towards the amelioration process of the city.

Keywords: slums, GPS, satellite imagery, object oriented analysis, zonal change detection

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Authors: Sikander Nawaz Khan

Abstract:

Natural disasters like flood, earthquake, cyclone, volcanic eruption and others are causing immense losses to the property and lives every year. Current status and actual loss information of natural hazards can be determined and also prediction for next probable disasters can be made using different remote sensing and mapping technologies. Global Positioning System (GPS) calculates the exact position of damage. It can also communicate with wireless sensor nodes embedded in potentially dangerous places. GPS provide precise and accurate locations and other related information like speed, track, direction and distance of target object to emergency responders. Remote Sensing facilitates to map damages without having physical contact with target area. Now with the addition of more remote sensing satellites and other advancements, early warning system is used very efficiently. Remote sensing is being used both at local and global scale. High Resolution Satellite Imagery (HRSI), airborne remote sensing and space-borne remote sensing is playing vital role in disaster management. Early on Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to collect, arrange, and map the spatial information but now it has capability to analyze spatial data. This analytical ability of GIS is the main cause of its adaption by different emergency services providers like police and ambulance service. Full potential of these so called 3S technologies cannot be used in alone. Integration of GPS and other remote sensing techniques with GIS has pointed new horizons in modeling of earth science activities. Many remote sensing cases including Asian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, Mount Mangart landslides and Pakistan-India earthquake in 2005 are described in this paper.

Keywords: disaster mitigation, GIS, GPS, remote sensing

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Authors: Muhammad Imran, Faheem Khadija, Zahoor Hussain, Raheel Anwar, M. Nawaz Khan, M. Raza Salik

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Amongst citrus species, sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck) occupies a dominant position in the orange producing countries in the world. Sweet orange is widely consumed both as fresh fruit as well as juice and its global demand is attributed due to higher vitamin C and antioxidants. Fruit quality is most important for the external appearance and marketability of sweet orange fruit, especially for fresh consumption. There are so many factors affecting fruit quality, tree age is the most important one, but remains unexplored so far. The present study, we investigated the role of tree age on fruit quality of different cultivars of sweet oranges. The difference between fruit quality of 5-year young and 15-year old trees was discussed in the current study. In case of fruit weight, maximum fruit weight (238g) was recorded in 15-year old sweet orange cv. Sallustiana cultivar while minimum fruit weight (142g) was recorded in 5-year young tree of Succari sweet orange fruit. The results of the fruit diameter showed that the maximum fruit diameter (77.142mm) was recorded in 15-year old Sallustiana orange but the minimum fruit diameter (66.046mm) was observed in 5-year young tree of sweet orange cv. Succari. The minimum value of rind thickness (4.142mm) was noted in 15-year old tree of cv. Red blood. On the other hand maximum value of rind thickness was observed in 5-year young tree of cv. Sallustiana. The data regarding total soluble solids (TSS), acidity (TA), TSS/TA, juice content, rind, flavedo thickness, pH and fruit diameter have also been discussed.

Keywords: age, cultivars, fruit, quality, sweet orange (Citrus Sinensis L. Osbeck)

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