Search results for: Sirajo Muhammad Sokoto

Authors: Muhammad Nouman Qureshi, Muhammad Hanif

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Adaptive cluster sampling (ACS) is specifically developed for the estimation of highly clumped populations and applied to a wide range of situations like animals of rare and endangered species, uneven minerals, HIV patients and drug users. In this paper, we proposed a generalized semi-exponential estimator with two auxiliary variables under the framework of ACS design. The expressions of approximate bias and mean square error (MSE) of the proposed estimator are derived. Theoretical comparisons of the proposed estimator have been made with existing estimators. A numerical study is conducted on real and artificial populations to demonstrate and compare the efficiencies of the proposed estimator. The results indicate that the proposed generalized semi-exponential estimator performed considerably better than all the adaptive and non-adaptive estimators considered in this paper.

Keywords: auxiliary information, adaptive cluster sampling, clustered populations, Hansen-Hurwitz estimation

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Authors: Muhammad Sohail Sajid, Muhammad Abdullah Malik, Muhammad Saqib, Faiz Ahmad Raza, Waseem Akram

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Aedes (Ae.) aegypti, the vector of pathogens of one health significance, has gained currency over the last decade. The present study reports the prevalence of A. aegypti larvae in indoor and outdoor niches from the three districts of different agro-geo-climatic zones of Punjab, including Chakwal (north), Faisalabad (central), and Dera Ghazi Khan (south). Mosquito larvae were collected, preserved, and transferred for identification. The relevant data were collected on a predesigned questionnaire. Stegomyia indices, including House Index (HI), Breteau Index (BI), and Container Index (CI), were calculated. The association of different breeding containers with the prevalence of Ae. aegypti larvae were estimated through Chi-square analysis. The highest Stegomyia indices were calculated in Chakwal (HI = 46.61%, BI = 91.67%, and CI = 15.28%) as compared to Faisalabad (HI = 34.11%, BI = 68.75% and, CI = 13.04%) and DG Khan (HI = 28.39%, BI = 68.23% and, CI = 11.29%), respectively. Irrespective of the geographical area, earthen jars, water tanks, and tree holes were found to be significantly associated (p < 0.05) with the abundance of Ae. aegypti larvae. However, tires and plastic bottles in Faisalabad and DG Khan while flower tubs and plastic buckets in Faisalabad and Chakwal were found to be significantly associated (p < 0.05) with the larval abundance. The results are a maiden attempt to correlate the magnitude of Ae. aegypti larvae in various microclimatic niches of Punjab, Pakistan, which might help in policy-making for preventive management of the menace.

Keywords: Aedes aegypti, ecology, breeding habitats, Stegomyia indices, breeding containers

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Authors: Ziyad Motala

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It is often proclaimed by leasers in Muslim majority countries that Islamic Law does not permit dissent against a ruler. This paper will evaluate and discuss freedom of speech and dissent as found in concrete prophetic examples during the time of the Prophet Muhammad. It will further look at the examples and practices during the time of the four Noble Caliphs, the immediate successors to the Prophet Muhammad. It will argue that the positivist position of absolute obedience to a ruler is inconsistent with the prophetic tradition. The examples of the Prophet and his immediate four successors (whose lessons Sunni Islam considers to be a source of Islamic Law) demonstrates among the earliest example of freedom of speech and dissent in human history. That tradition frowned upon an inert and uninvolved citizenry. It will conclude with lessons for modern day Muslim majority countries arguing with empirical evidence that freedom of speech, dissent and the right to be governed by consensus versus coercion are fundamental requisites of Islamic law.

Keywords: islamic law, demoracy, freedom of speech, right to dissent

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Authors: Ahmed Mateen, Zhu Qingsheng, Muhammad Awais, Muhammad Yahya Saeed

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This paper targets the rising factor of entrepreneurship innovation, which lacks in Pakistan as compared to the other countries or the regions like China, India, and Malaysia, etc. This is an exploratory and explanatory study. Major aspects have identified as the direction for the policymakers while highlighting the issues in true spirit. IT needs to be considered not only as a technology but also as itself growing as a new community. IT management processes are complex and broad, so generally requires extensive attention to the collective aspects of human variables, capital and technology. In addition, projects tend to have a special set of critical success factors, and if these are processed and given attention, it will improve the chances of successful implementation. This is only possible with state of the art intelligent decision support systems and accumulating IT staff to some extent in decision processes. This paper explores this issue carefully and discusses six issues to observe the implemented strength and possible enhancement.

Keywords: security and defense forces, IT-incentives, big IT-players, IT-entrepreneurial-culture

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Authors: Muhammad Ashfaq, Muhammad Saleem Haider, Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Sajjad, Amna Ali, Urooj Mubashar

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Phenotypic diversity was confirmed by measuring different morphological traits i.e. seed traits (seed length, seed width, seed thickness, seed length-width ratio, 1000 grain weight) and root-shoot traits (shoot length, root length, shoot fresh weight, root fresh weight, root-shoot ratio, root numbers and root thickness). Variance and association study of desirable traits determine the genotypic differences among the rice germplasm. All the traits showed significant differences among the genotypes. The traits were studied in Randomized complete block design (RCBD) at different water levels. Some traits showed positive correlation with each other and beneficial for increasing the yield and production of the crop. Seed thickness has positive correlation with seed length and seed width (r= 0.104**, r=0.246**). On the other hand, various root shoot traits showed positive highly significant association at different water levels i.e. root length, fresh root weight, root thickness, shoot thickness and root numbers. Our main focus to study the performance/correlation of root shoots traits under stress condition. Fresh root weight, shoot thickness and root numbers showed positive significant association with shoot length, root length, fresh root and shoot weight (r=0.2530**, r=0.2891**, r=0.4626**, r=0.4515**, r=0.5781**, r=0.7164**, r=0.0603**, r= 0.5570**, r=0.5824**). Long root length genotypes favors and suitable for drought stress conditions and screening of diverse genotypes for the further development of new plant material that performing well under different environmental conditions. After screening genetic diversity of potential rice, lines were studied to check the polymorphism by using some SSR markers. DNA was extracted, and PCR analyses were done to study PIC values and allelic diversity of the genotypes. The main objective of this study is to screen out the genotypes on the basis of various genotypic and phenotypic traits.

Keywords: rice, morphological traits, association, germplasm, genetic diversity, water levels, variation

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Authors: Mujahid Manzoor, Muhammad Shafique, Jam Nazeer Ahmad, Farman Ahmad, Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Rizwan Tariq, Shahbaz Ahmad, Muhammad Saleem Haider

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Date palms (P. dactylifera L.) are prominent in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Iran, UAE, and Iraq, as well as Algeria, Egypt, and Pakistan. Insect pests' attacks on different palm cultivars adversely affected their production in the last few decades. Pakistan ranked sixth for date production around the world. The most commercially grown cultivars are Aseel, Dhaki, Falsi, Karbalai, Mozawati, Jan Swore, Kohra, Hillawi, Kohra, and Begum Jhangi. Red palm weevils are considered as hazardous insect pests responsible for economic loss in palm orchards. This research work depicts the infestation of red palm weevils in eleven different palm cultivars (Hillawi, Mozawati, Kechanr, Aseel, Shamrani, Khudravi, Dhaki, Zeri, Kobra, Zaidi, Denda), which frequently grow in different regions of Pakistan through Y-shaped olfactometer analysis. In addition, the level of both antixenosis and antibiosis was spotted by examining the various parameters such as %age lure of weevils of mature females, general count of laid eggs in addition to their activeness. Furthermore, obtained results depicted that a positive contact was established with minimum antixenotic consequence revealed by a cultivar, “Hillawi” among most hold of RPW adults (22.32%), number of eggs laid (16.66%) and egg hatching (84.66%), while other cultivars, including Mozawati, Aseel, Kechanr, Shamrani, Khudravi, Dhaki, Zeri, and Zaidi, exhibited a greater level of antixenosis. Moreover, “Hillawi” documented the maximum number of eggs, while Kechanr, Mozawati, Aseel Kobra, and Denda showed minimum attraction by red palm weevils. Maximum red palm weevils were attracted in an olfactometer assay of sugarcane varieties.

Keywords: P. dactylifera, R. ferrugineus, olfactometer, antixenosis

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Authors: Hazrat Salman Sidique, Muhammad Tahir Khan, Haq Aman Ullah, Muhammad Mobashar, Muhammad Ishtiaq Sohail Mehmood

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The poor quality conventional feed for the livestock production in Pakistan are wheat straw, tops of sugar cane and tree leaves. To enhance the nutritive value of feed, this study focused on investigating the effects of fibrolytic enzyme (Fibrozyme®, Alltech Inc. Company, USA) at different levels i.e. 0, 5, 10, and 15g/kg of total mix ration on feed intake, digestibility, milk yield and composition, and economics of the ration in Holstein Friesians cows. Twelve Holstein Friesians cows of almost the same age, and lactation stage were randomly allocated into 4 equal groups i.e. A, B, C, and D. Four experimental rations supplemented with Fibrozyme® 0g, 5g, 10g, and 15g/Kg of total mix ration were assigned to these sets correspondingly. The dry matter intake was linearly and significantly (P<0.05) improved. A significant effect of Fibrozyme® was observed for organic matter digestibility, ether extract digestibility, crude fiber digestibility, nitrogen free extract digestibility, and acid detergent fiber digestibility while the results were statistically non-significant for crude protein digestibility, neutral detergent fiber digestibility, and ash digestibility. Milk yield and composition except fat were significantly (P<0.05) increased in all Fibrozyme® treated groups. This study concludes that supplementation of Fibrozyme® at the rate of 15g/Kg total mix ration improved the dry matter intake, nutrients digestibility, and milk production and constituents like protein, lactose, and solid not fat. Therefore, treatment of total mix ration with Fibrozyme® was desirably reasonable and profitable.

Keywords: digestibility, fibrozyme, TMR, digestibility, lactating cow

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Authors: Muhammad Ilham Agus Salim, Muhammad Ikbal

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The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) was set up in 2003 with the objectives of creating a single market and production base, enhancing equitable economic development as well as facilitating the integration into the global economy. The AEC involves liberalization and facilitation of trade in goods, skilled labour, services, and investment, as well as protection and promotion of investment. The thesis outlines the AEC Blueprint actions in scope of globalization of investment and capital market. Free flows of investment and freer flows of capital market urge countries in South East Asia to coordinate and to collaborate in securing the interest of public, and this leads to the importance of financial services authorities in ASEAN to prepare the mechanism of guarding the flows of investment. There is no exception, especially for Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK) as one of the authorized body in capital market supervision, to enforce its authorities as supervisory body.

Keywords: AEC blueprint, OJK, capital market, integration

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Authors: Ibrahim Isa Ali (Pantami), Abdu Jaafaru Bambale, Abimbola Alale, Danjuma Ibrahim Ndihgihdah, Muhammad Alkali, Adamu Idris Umar, Moshood Kareem, Samson Olufunmilayo Abodunrin, Muhammad Dokko Zubairu

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The National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy, NDEPS document developed by Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Communications & Digital Economy (FMoCDE) is anchored on 8 pillars for the acceleration of the National Digital Economy for a Digital Nigeria. NIGCOMSAT-1R and the planned HTS communication Satellite are critical assets for supporting the pillars in the drive for sustainable growth and development. This paper discusses on the gains and contribution of the strategy as a solid infrastructure. The paper also highlights these assets’ contribution as platform for Indigenous Content Development & Adoption, Digital Literacy & Skills, and Digital Services Development & Promotion.

Keywords: FMoCDE, HTS, NDEPS, nigcomsat!R, pillars

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Authors: Muhammad Shahzad Shifa, Amna Shifa, Muhammad Omar, Aamir Shahzad, Rahmat Ali Khan

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Many applications of remote sensing to vegetation and crop response depend on spectral properties of individual leaves and plants. Vegetation indices are usually determined to estimate crop biophysical parameters like crop canopies and crop leaf area indices with the help of remote sensing. Cotton crops assessment is performed with the help of vegetative indices. Remotely sensed images from an optical multispectral radiometer MSR5 are used in this study. The interpretation is based on the fact that different materials reflect and absorb light differently at different wavelengths. Non-normalized and normalized forms of these datasets are analyzed using two complementary data mining algorithms; K-means and K-nearest neighbor (KNN). Our analysis shows that the use of normalized reflectance data and vegetative indices are suitable for an automated assessment and decision making.

Keywords: cotton, condition assessment, KNN algorithm, clustering, MSR5, vegetation indices

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Authors: Muhammad S. Sajid, Asim Shamim, Muhammad Nisar Khan, Ashfaq A. Chatta, Muhammad Saqib

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Goats (Capra hircus) are a valued asset for resource poor farmers globally. But the parasitic infection especially Haemonchus contortus (Trichostrongylid), impact the health and production of goats globally. The present study intended to evaluate resilient and resistance to Haemonchus contortus in indigenous goat breeds (Teddy and Beetal) of Punjab, Pakistan. Out of 60, 30 goats of each breed were divided into 6 groups and each group contain five goats. Two group of each breed received challenged infection with 12000 and 18000 L3 (third stage) larvae of Haemonchus contortus under two infection protocol that is early and trickle and remaining two group of each breed was kept as control. Resilient and resistance of each breed was then measured on the basis of their phenotypic markers like: faecal egg counts, packed cell volume, FAMACHA score system, body weight, total protein, albumin and worm count on 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th week of post infection. Variation in response of each goat breeds to Haemonchus contortus was observed. Teddy breed showed significant (P < 0.05)resistance as compared to Beetal. It is probably first attempt to report an evaluation of goat breed response towards Haemonchus contortus in Pakistan. It was concluded that Teddy goats have a greater genetic tendency to resist against to the Haemonchus contortus infection and this breed could be kept and bred from the economic point of view. Evaluation of genetic markers are like: gene, protein expression, Immunoglobulin, Histamines and interleukins determination are recommended for future studies which can be helpful to be fined resistant breed of goats.

Keywords: goat, beetal, teddy, haemonchus contortus, resistance, resilience, phenotypic markers

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Authors: Abdullateef Abdulkarim Jimoh, Muhammad Lawal A., Usman Muhammad, Hamisu Abdullahi, Nuhu Abdullahi Jega

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Smart city projects can be aided by urban development policies in public facilities, but economic resources to finance urban system reorganization is an issue to various governments. This is further compounded with the impact of the slowing down of national economies. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the need to prioritize the economic benefits of smart city projects and, specifically, in towns transforming into cities like Birnin kebbi. The smart-city projects can aim at developing a new form of ‘‘modernity and civilization’’ of the productive economy. This study adopts the descriptive statistical approach to identify the key performance indicators (KPI) for tracking the progress of cities and its developmental objectives. It has been established that numerous aspects of the modernization policies can enhance the competitiveness of territories, particular in aspects of social cohesion, the diffusion of knowledge, creativity, accessibility, etc.

Keywords: economy, economic policy, public facilities, smart city, urbanization

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Authors: Waheed Gul, Muhammad Zeeshan, Ahmad Raza Khan, Muhammad Khurram

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Wireless Sensor Nodes (WSNs) have developed significantly over the years and have significant potential in diverse applications in the fields of science and technology. The inadequate energy accompanying WSNs is a key constraint of WSN skills. To overcome this main restraint, the development and expansion of effective and reliable energy harvesting systems for WSN atmospheres are being discovered. In this research, low-power acoustic energy harvesters are designed and developed by applying different techniques of energy transduction from the sound available in the surroundings. Three acoustic energy harvesters were developed based on the piezoelectric phenomenon, electromagnetic transduction, and hybrid, respectively. The CAD modelling, lumped modelling and Finite Element Analysis of the harvesters were carried out. The voltages were obtained using FEA for each Acoustic Harvester. Characterization of all three harvesters was carried out and the power generated by the piezoelectric harvester, electromagnetic harvester and Hybrid Acoustic Energy harvester are 2.25x10-9W, 0.0533W and 0.0232W, respectively.

Keywords: energy harvesting, WSNs, piezoelectric, electromagnetic, power

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Authors: Syed Qasim Gilani, Muhammad Umair, Muhammad Noman, Syed Bilawal Shah, Aqib Abbasi, Muhammad Waheed

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Cardiovascular Diseases(CVD's) are the major cause of death in the world. The main reason for these deaths is the unavailability of first aid for heart failure. In many cases, patients die before reaching the hospital. We in this paper are presenting innovative online health service for Cardiac Patients. The proposed online health system has two ends. Users through device developed by us can communicate with their doctor through a mobile application. This interface provides them with first aid.Also by using this service, they have an easy interface with their doctors for attaining medical advice. According to the proposed system, we developed a device called Cardiac Care. Cardiac Care is a portable device which a patient can use at their home for monitoring heart condition. When a patient checks his/her heart condition, Electrocardiogram (ECG), Blood Pressure(BP), Temperature are sent to the central database. The severity of patients condition is checked using Artificial Intelligence Algorithm at the database. If the patient is suffering from the minor problem, our algorithm will suggest a prescription for patients. But if patient's condition is severe, patients record is sent to doctor through the mobile Android application. Doctor after reviewing patients condition suggests next step. If a doctor identifies the patient condition as critical, then the message is sent to the central database for sending an ambulance for the patient. Ambulance starts moving towards patient for bringing him/her to hospital. We have implemented this model at prototype level. This model will be life-saving for millions of people around the globe. According to this proposed model patients will be in contact with their doctors all the time.

Keywords: cardiovascular disease, classification, electrocardiogram, blood pressure

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Authors: Joy Aworo-Okoroh

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Politics is about trust and trust is challenged by the speaker’s ability to manipulate language before the electorate. Critical discourse analysis investigates the role of language in constructing social relationships between a political speaker and his audience. This paper explores the linguistic choices made by President Muhammad Buhari that enshrines his ideologies as well as the socio-political relations of power between him and Nigerians in his speeches. Two speeches of President Buhari –inaugural and Independence Day speeches are analyzed using Norman Fairclough’s perspective on Halliday’s Systemic functional grammar. The analysis is at two levels. The first level of analysis is the identification of transitivity and modality choices in the speeches and how they reveal the covert ideologies. The second analysis is premised on Normal Fairclough’s model, the clauses are analyzed to identify elements of power, hesistation, persuasion, threat and religious statement. It was discovered that Buhari is a dominant character who manipulates the material processes a lot.

Keywords: politics, critical discourse analysis, Norman Fairclough, systemic functional grammar

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Authors: Muhammad Usman Sardar, Muhammad Haroon Nadeem, Shahbaz Ahmad, Ashiq Hussain

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The marketing of solar photovoltaic energy systems has one of the monetary settlements to address the higher rate to pay in advance with the purchase of two decades worth of electricity services. To deploy solar photovoltaic technologies and energy setups in areas, it’s important to create a system of credit that can ensure the availability of subsidized capital and commercial conditions for the society. Meanings of energy in developing countries like Pakistan were strongly prompted by marketable interests and industrialization trend influences within their culture. It’s going to be essential to prepare the concerned proceeding models of energy development strategies. This paper discuss the impact and share of environmental friendly solar photo-voltaic energy, researching to find the most appropriate alternate solutions for balance the energy demand and supply and current progressive position in different countries regarding to development and deployment. Based on the literature reviews, its presence found that most beneficial and concerning policies have implemented in several countries around the globe.

Keywords: photovoltaic marketing and pricing, renewable energy technology, solar photovoltaic, SPV

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Authors: Saima Nazir, Mustansar Ali Ghazanfar, Sanay Muhammad Umar Saeed, Muhammad Awais Azam, Saad Ali Alahmari

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Terrorism is an important and challenging concern. The entire world is threatened by only few sophisticated terrorist groups and especially in Gulf Region and Pakistan, it has become extremely destructive phenomena in recent years. Predicting the pattern of attack type, attack group and target type is an intricate task. This study offers new insight on terrorist group’s attack type and its chosen target. This research paper proposes a framework for prediction of terrorist attacks using the historical data and making an association between terrorist group, their attack type and target. Analysis shows that the number of attacks per year will keep on increasing, and Al-Harmayan in Saudi Arabia, Al-Qai’da in Gulf Region and Tehreek-e-Taliban in Pakistan will remain responsible for many future terrorist attacks. Top main targets of each group will be private citizen & property, police, government and military sector under constant circumstances.

Keywords: data mining, counter terrorism, machine learning, SVM

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Authors: Amir Ikram, Qin Su, Muhammad Fiaz, Muhammad Waqas Shabbir

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Women entrepreneurship witnessed a healthy rise in the last decade or so, and the scenario in Pakistan is not different. However female leaders are facing various, cultural, career oriented, and professional challenges. The study investigates the impact of social and industry-specific challenges on female entrepreneurship; social challenges was evaluated in terms of culture, and industry-specific challenges was measured in terms of team management and career growth. Purposive sampling was employed to collect data from 75 multicultural organizations operating in the culturally diverse and historic city of Lahore, Pakistan. Cronbach’s alpha was conducted to endorse the reliability of survey questionnaire, while correlation and regression analysis were used to test hypotheses. Industry-specific challenges were found to be more significant as compared to cultural factors. The paper also highlights the importance of female entrepreneurship for emerging economies, and suggests that bringing women to mainstream professions can lead to economic success.

Keywords: cultural challenges, emerging economy, female entrepreneurship, leadership

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Authors: Najib K. Dankadai, Ahmad 'Athif Mohd Faudzi, Khairuddin Osman, Muhammad Rusydi Muhammad Razif, IIi Najaa Aimi Mohd Nordin

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Researches in soft actuators are now growing rapidly because of their adequacy to be applied in sectors like medical, agriculture, biological and welfare. This paper presents system identification (SI) and control of the force generated by a two chambers pneumatic soft actuator (PSA). A force mathematical model for the actuator was identified experimentally using data acquisition card and MATLAB SI toolbox. Two control techniques; a predictive functional control (PFC) and conventional proportional integral and derivative (PID) schemes are proposed and compared based on the identified model for the soft actuator flexible mechanism. Results of this study showed that both of the proposed controllers ensure accurate tracking when the closed loop system was tested with the step, sinusoidal and multi step reference input through MATLAB simulation although the PFC provides a better response than the PID.

Keywords: predictive functional control (PFC), proportional integral and derivative (PID), soft actuator, system identification

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Authors: Aimen Batool Bint-E-Rashid, Syed Muhammad Dawood Ali Shah, Muhammad Usman Farooq, Mahgul Anwar

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As the world is progressing, the needs and demands of the consumer market are also changing. Nowadays the trends of consumer purchase decisions are dependent upon multiple factors. This study aims to identify the influential impact of country of origin over the perception and devotion towards daily personal care products specifically in reference to the knowledge and awareness regarding that particular brand in Pakistan. To corroborate this study, a 30-item brand origin questionnaire has been used with 300 purchase decision makers belonging to different age groups. To illustrate this study, a model has been developed based on brand origin, brand awareness and brand loyalty. Correlation and regression analysis have been used to find out the results which conclude the findings on the perspective of Pakistan’s consumer market as that brand origin has a direct relationship with brand loyalty provided that the consumer has a positive brand awareness. Support for the fact that brand origin impacts brand loyalty through brand awareness has been presented in this study.

Keywords: brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand origin, personal care products, P&G, Unilever

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Authors: Muhammad Ali Sarwar, Muhammad Farooq, Nayab Hassan, Hammad Hassan

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Pakistan is highly recognized for its agriculture and is well known for producing substantial amounts of wheat, cotton, and sugarcane. However, some factors contribute to a decline in crop quality and a reduction in overall output. One of the main factors contributing to this decline is the presence of weed and its late detection. This process of detection is manual and demands a detailed inspection to be done by the farmer itself. But by the time detection of weed, the farmer will be able to save its cost and can increase the overall production. The focus of this research is to identify and classify the four main types of weeds (Small-Flowered Cranesbill, Chick Weed, Prickly Acacia, and Black-Grass) that are prevalent in our region’s major crops. In this work, we implemented three different deep learning techniques: YOLO-v5, Inception-v3, and Deep CNN on the same Dataset, and have concluded that deep convolutions neural network performed better with an accuracy of 97.45% for such classification. In relative to the state of the art, our proposed approach yields 2% better results. We devised the architecture in an efficient way such that it can be used in real-time.

Keywords: deep convolution networks, Yolo, machine learning, agriculture

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Authors: Saeed Ur Rahman, Naveed Ullah, Muhammad Irshad Khan, Quensheng Cao, Niaz Muhammad Khan

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In this paper the optimization performance of non-uniform linear antenna array is presented. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is presented to minimize Side Lobe Level (SLL) and Half Power Beamwidth (HPBW). The purpose of using the PSO algorithm is to get the optimum values for inter-element spacing and excitation amplitude of linear antenna array that provides a radiation pattern with minimum SLL and HPBW. Various design examples are considered and the obtain results using PSO are confirmed by comparing with results achieved using other nature inspired metaheuristic algorithms such as real coded genetic algorithm (RGA) and biogeography (BBO) algorithm. The comparative results show that optimization of linear antenna array using the PSO provides considerable enhancement in the SLL and HPBW.

Keywords: linear antenna array, minimum side lobe level, narrow half power beamwidth, particle swarm optimization

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Authors: Tahir Ahmad, Abubaker Khan, Muhammad Kamran, Muhammad Umer Manzoor, Muhammad Taqi Zahid Butt

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Metal Matrix Composites (MMC) is a class of weight efficient structural materials that are becoming popular in engineering applications especially in electronic, aerospace, aircraft, packaging and various other industries. This study focuses on the development of carbon fiber reinforced copper matrix composite. Keeping in view the vast applications of metal matrix composites,this specific material is produced for its unique mechanical and thermal properties i.e. high thermal conductivity and low coefficient of thermal expansion at elevated temperatures. The carbon fibers were not pretreated but coated with copper by electroless plating in order to increase the wettability of carbon fiber with the copper matrix. Casting is chosen as the manufacturing route for the C-Cu composite. Four different compositions of the composite were developed by varying the amount of carbon fibers by 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 wt. % of the copper. The effect of varying carbon fiber content and sizes on the mechanical properties of the C-Cu composite is studied in this work. The tensile test was performed on the tensile specimens. The yield strength decreases with increasing fiber content while the ultimate tensile strength increases with increasing fiber content. Rockwell hardness test was also performed and the result followed the increasing trend for increasing carbon fibers and the hardness numbers are 30.2, 37.2, 39.9 and 42.5 for sample 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The microstructures of the specimens were also examined under the optical microscope. Wear test and SEM also done for checking characteristic of C-Cu marix composite. Through casting may be a route for the production of the C-Cu matrix composite but still powder metallurgy is better to follow as the wettability of carbon fiber with matrix, in that case, would be better.

Keywords: copper based composites, mechanical properties, wear properties, microstructure

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Authors: Muhammad Sohail Sajid, Mahvish Maqbool, Hafiz Muhammad Rizwan, Muhammad Saqib, Haroon Ahmad

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Ticks are blood-sucking ectoparasite that causes a decrease in production and economic losses and affects mammals, reptiles, and birds. Hyalomma anatolicum is the main vector for CCHF transmission and Pakistan has faced several outbreaks of CCHF in the recent past. Ferritin (fer)is a highly conserved molecule that is ubiquitous in most tick tissues and responsible for iron metabolism and storage. It was hypothesized that the development of acaricidal resistance and residual effects of commercially used acaricides could be controlled by using alternative control methods, including RNA interference. The current study aimed to evaluate the fer silencing effects on tick feeding, average body weight, egg mass index, and mortality. Ticks, collected through the standard collection protocols were further subjected to RNA isolation using the Trizol method. Commercially available kit procedures were followed for cDNA and dsRNA synthesis. The soaking/Immersion method was used for dsRNA delivery. Our findings have shown a 27% reduction in body weight of fer silenced group and showed a significant association of fer and body weight. Silencing of fer had a significant effect on the engorgement percentage (P= 0.0007), oviposition (P=0.008), egg mass (P= 0.004) and hatching (P= 0.001). The soaking method was used for dsRNA delivery and 15°C was found to be an optimum temperature for inducing gene silencing in ticks as at this temperature, maximum survivability after immersion was attained. This study along with previous studies, described that iron toxicity due to the silencing of fer could play an important role in the control of ticks and fer can be used as a potent candidate for vaccine development.

Keywords: ticks, iron, ferritin, engorgement, oviposition, immersion, RNA interference

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Authors: Muhammad Anjum Aqueel, Muhammad Jaffar Hussain, Abu Bakar Muhammad Raza

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Diaeretiella rapae (M’Intosh) attack most of the aphid species. However, it is specialized in feeding on crucifer aphid, Brevicoryne brassicae. Biological potential of parasitoid is its density-dependency due to sharing of limited resources in few cases. The present study was carried out to check the biotic potential of D. rapae at its different densities (1, 2, 4, 8 and 10 pairs) on fixed number of B. brassicae (100 in number) as a host. The present study was performed under laboratory conditions (25 ± 2 ºC temperature and 65-70 % R.H.). Different biological parameters for parasitoid (e.g. percent parasitism, adult emergence, adult longevity and per pair parasitism) were evaluated to check its biotic potential. The present findings showed that maximum parasitism (43.09 % ± 0.63) was observed in highest density (10 pairs) and minimum parasitism (16.59 % ± 1.28) in lowest density (1 pair) of the parasitoid. Maximum adult emergence (80.31 % ± 1.33) was observed in highest density (10 pairs) and minimum parasitism (45.99 % ± 1.27) in lowest density (1 pair) of the parasitoid. In the case of adult longevity, highest (8.2 days ± 0.38) and lowest (6 days ± 0.32) longevity were observed in lowest (1 pair) and highest (10 pairs) densities of parasitoids respectively. However, per pair parasitism rate decreased with the increase in parasitoid densities due to intra-specific competition, developed between the parasitoids for parasitism. The positive but close relationship was observed between percent parasitism and adult emergence. The increase in parasitoid densities increased the percent parasitism and adult emergence of the parasitoid. So, we conclude that an inter-specific competition negatively affected the efficacy of parasitoids and may reduce the fitness of the emerging parasitoid.

Keywords: Diaeretiella rapae, Parasitoid densities, Percent parasitism, adult emergence

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Authors: Muhammad Shahzad Tufail, Iram Liaqat, Umer Sohail Meer, Muhammad Ishtaiq, Muhammad Sattar

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Nanotechnology is a vibrant field with numerous applications in many different branches of science and technology. Several methods are used to synthesize nanoparticles (NPs), which have multiple range of applications. Comparatively, the biogenic synthesis of NPs is a more economical and environmentally favourable method than the traditional chemical method. The current study aims to synthesize biogenically silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using bacterial isolates. Four bacterial strains Escherichia coli (MT448673), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MN900691), Bacillus subtilis (MN900684) and Bacillus licheniformis (MN900686) were used for the synthesis of AgNPs from silver nitrate (AgNO3) solution. The biofilm time kinetics of four bacterial isolates (P. aeruginosa, E. coli, B. licheniformis and B. subtilis) was analysed by incubating bacterial cultures at 37◦C in test tubes over a period of different time intervals i.e., 2, 3, 5 and 7 days following crystal violet staining method. All the four strains had ability to form strong biofilms between 48 to 72 hours of incubation. Two strains (B. subtilis and B. licheniformis) formed significant (p < 0.05) biofilm after 3 days of incubation period. The other two strains (E. coli and P. aeruginosa) showed strong biofilm formation after 2 days of incubation. Next, the antibiofilm activity of biogenically synthesized AgNPs (10 - 100 µgmL-1) was analysed against biofilm forming human pathogenic bacteria. Findings of the work revealed that 60-90% inhibition was observed at 60 µgmL-1 of AgNPs, while maximum inhibition (i.e.,100%) was found at highest concentration (90 µgmL-1). It was evident that highly significant (p < 0.05) decrease in biofilm formation was observed with increasing concentration of AgNPs.

Keywords: antibiofilm, biofilm formation, nanotechnology, pathogenic bacteria, silver nanoparticles

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Authors: Amna Jalal, Muhammad Dildar Gogi, Muhammad Jalal Arif, Anum Tariq, Waleed Afzal Naveed, Talha Farooq, Mubashir Iqbal, Muhammad Junaid Nisar

Abstract:

Melon fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae: Dacinae) are economically important pests of the cucurbits and are geographically distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics of the world. It causes heavy quantitative and qualitative losses in bitter gourd. The present experiment was carried out to evaluate the performance of different biodegradable waxes based SPLAT-MAT-CL (Specialized Pheromone and Lure Application Technology-Male Anhelation Technique- Cue Lure) formulations in bitter gourd field. Fourteen SPLAT-MAT emulsions/formulations were prepared by admixing different SPLAT matrices with toxicant (spinosad) and sex pheromone cuelure (attractant) in different proportionate percentage by weight. The results revealed that attraction and trapping of fruit flies of B. cucurbitae varied significantly for different SPLAT-MAT-CL formulations (p < 0.05). The maximum B. cucurbitae males were trapped in SPLAT-MAT-CL-7 (60 flies/trap/day) followed by SPLAT-MAT-CL-9 (40 flies/trap/day). The performance of all other formulations of SPLAT-MAT-CL was found in the order of SPLAT-MAT-CL-8 (30 flies/trap/day) > SPLAT-MAT-CL-3 (28 flies/trap/day) > SPLAT-MAT-CL-5 (25 flies/trap/day) > SPLAT-MAT-CL-4 (22 flies/trap/day) > SPLAT-MAT-CL-12 (20 flies/trap/day) SPLAT-MAT-CL-2 (19 flies/trap/day) > SPLAT-MAT-CL-14 (17 flies/trap/day) > SPLAT-MAT-CL-13 (15 flies/trap/day) > SPLAT-MAT-CL-11 (10 flies/trap/day) > SPLAT-MAT-CL-1 (8 flies/trap/day) > SPLAT-MAT-CL-10 (02 flies/trap/day). Overall, all the SPLAT-MAT-CL formulations, except SPLAT-MAT-CL-10, demonstrated higher density of captures of B. cucurbitae males as compared to standard (06 flies/trap/day). The results also demonstrate that SPLAT-MAT-CL-7, SPLAT-MAT-CL-9, SPLAT-MAT-CL-8, SPLAT-MAT-CL-3, SPLAT-MAT-CL-5, SPLAT-MAT-CL-4, SPLAT-MAT-CL-12, SPLAT-MAT-CL-2, SPLAT-MAT-CL-14, SPLAT-MAT-CL-13, SPLAT-MAT-CL-11 and SPLAT-MAT-CL-1 explained approximately 5, 4.6, 4.1, 3.6, 3.3, 3.1,2.8,2.5 and 1.6 times higher captures of B. cucurbitae males over standards. However, SPLAT-MAT-CL-10 demonstrated 3 times fewer captures of B. cucurbitae males over standards. In conclusion, SPLAT-MAT-CL-7, SPLAT-MAT-CL-9 can be exploited for the monitoring and trapping of B. cucurbitae in its IPM of program.

Keywords: attractancy, field conditions, melon fruit fly, SPLAT-MAT-CL

Procedia PDF Downloads 266

Authors: Muhammad Harya Ramdhoni, Nidzam Sulaiman, Muhammad Ridwan

Abstract:

The Helsinki Agreement between the Indonesian Government (RI) and the Aceh Liberation Movement (GAM) on 15th Aug. 2005 fails to reconcile social and political turmoil in Aceh Darussalam (NAD). The political powers that were once unified in their struggle against Indonesian Government prior to this agreement have now become divided due to differences in political and economic interests. Using descriptive analysis and intellectual discourse, this paper proposes that the Aceh Sultanate be revived as an attempt to unite these divided political powers and to curtail potential conflicts in the area. This proposal is based on three assumptions. First, the Aceh Sultanate is the only Sultanate in Sumatera that did not fall victim to the social revolution post 1945 proclamation of independence. Second, the Acehnese still acknowledge the Sultanate as a sovereign political power even though it was defeated by the Dutch in 1904. Third, there are emotional, historical and cultural ties between the Acehnese and the Sultanate as they still perceived them to be their patron. Consequently, the Sultanate is the unifying element of all political powers in the area. This, however, is not an attempt to reinstate feudalism in Aceh. It only seeks to facilitate the political reconciliation process in Aceh Darussalam founded on sociological and historical background of locals.

Keywords: Sultanate Aceh, political reconciliation, political power, patron-client

Procedia PDF Downloads 263

Authors: Usman Adekunle Ojedokun, Adeyinka Abideen Aderinto

Abstract:

Migration remains an important course of action often resort-to by human and some other classes of animal for survival in the face of life-threatening conditions. However, the activity of certain group of immigrants, who are exploiting the socio-economic and environmental challenges in their home countries to conduct street begging across different countries in Africa, is fast becoming a major cause for concern. This paper examined the migratory trajectory of transnational street beggars in South Western, Nigeria. Strain and Migration Network Theories were adopted for the study. The methods of data collection were survey questionnaire, in-depth interview, and key informant interview. Convenience and purposive sampling techniques were employed for the selection of 395 transnational street beggars and 4 key informants were purposively chosen. Findings revealed that transnational street beggars immigrated into Nigeria all year round and all of them came by road. Also, while some of them entered the country officially, others gained entry illegally. The majority (29.3%) arrived through Sokoto, a border State to some neighbouring countries. This study calls for more security measures at the Nigerian borders as a way of controlling the influx of this category of beggars into the country.

Keywords: transnational street beggars, street begging, migration, Nigeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 259

Authors: Nadia Masood Khan, Muhammad Salman Khan, Gul Muhammad Khan

Abstract:

Cardiologists perform cardiac auscultation to detect abnormalities in heart sounds. Since accurate auscultation is a crucial first step in screening patients with heart diseases, there is a need to develop computer-aided detection/diagnosis (CAD) systems to assist cardiologists in interpreting heart sounds and provide second opinions. In this paper different algorithms are implemented for automated heart sound classification using unsegmented phonocardiogram (PCG) signals. Support vector machine (SVM), artificial neural network (ANN) and cartesian genetic programming evolved artificial neural network (CGPANN) without the application of any segmentation algorithm has been explored in this study. The signals are first pre-processed to remove any unwanted frequencies. Both time and frequency domain features are then extracted for training the different models. The different algorithms are tested in multiple scenarios and their strengths and weaknesses are discussed. Results indicate that SVM outperforms the rest with an accuracy of 73.64%.

Keywords: pattern recognition, machine learning, computer aided diagnosis, heart sound classification, and feature extraction

Procedia PDF Downloads 260