Search results for: Aleem Mushtaq

Authors: Husnain Mushtaq, Mary Anjum, Muhammad Aleem

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The main objective of this paper is used to develop a high security in Automatic Teller Machine (ATM). In these system bankers will collect the mobile numbers from the customers and then provide a code on their mobile number. In most country existing ATM machine use the magnetic card reader. The customer is identifying by inserting an ATM card with magnetic card that hold unique information such as card number and some security limitations. By entering a personal identification number, first the customer is authenticated then will access bank account in order to make cash withdraw or other services provided by the bank. Cases of card fraud are another problem once the user’s bank card is missing and the password is stolen, or simply steal a customer’s card & PIN the criminal will draw all cash in very short time, which will being great financial losses in customer, this type of fraud has increase worldwide. So to resolve this problem we are going to provide the solution using “Mobile SMS code” and ATM “PIN code” in order to improve the verify the security of customers using ATM system and confidence in the banking area.

Keywords: PIN, inquiry, biometric, magnetic strip, iris recognition, face recognition

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Authors: Aqsa Ali, Aleem Mushtaq, Attaullah Memon, Monna

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In this paper, we present a low cost design for a smart glove that can perform sign language recognition to assist the speech impaired people. Specifically, we have designed and developed an Assistive Hand Gesture Interpreter that recognizes hand movements relevant to the American Sign Language (ASL) and translates them into text for display on a Thin-Film-Transistor Liquid Crystal Display (TFT LCD) screen as well as synthetic speech. Linear Bayes Classifiers and Multilayer Neural Networks have been used to classify 11 feature vectors obtained from the sensors on the glove into one of the 27 ASL alphabets and a predefined gesture for space. Three types of features are used; bending using six bend sensors, orientation in three dimensions using accelerometers and contacts at vital points using contact sensors. To gauge the performance of the presented design, the training database was prepared using five volunteers. The accuracy of the current version on the prepared dataset was found to be up to 99.3% for target user. The solution combines electronics, e-textile technology, sensor technology, embedded system and machine learning techniques to build a low cost wearable glove that is scrupulous, elegant and portable.

Keywords: American sign language, assistive hand gesture interpreter, human-machine interface, machine learning, sensing glove

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Authors: Manal M. Hamed, Mosad A. Ghareeb, Abdel-Aleem H. Abdel-Aleem, Amal M. Saad, Mohamed S. Abdel-Aziz, Asmaa H. Hadad

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Natural products derived from medicinal plants provide unlimited opportunities for a new medication leads because of the unmatched accessibility of chemical variation. Six compounds were isolated from the n-butanol extract of Callistemon citrinus (Family Myrtaceae), they were identified as; nepetolide (1), callislignan A (2), 6,8-dimethoxy-4,5-dimethyl-3-methyleneisochroman-1-one (3), 3-methyl-7-O-benzoyl-β-D-glucopyranoside (4), 5, 7, 3', 5'-tetrahydroxy-6, 8-di-C-methyl flavanone (5), and (2R,3R,4S,5S)-2,4-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)-3,5-dihydroxy-tetrahydropyran (6). The isolated compounds were evaluated as antioxidant and antimicrobial agents. The antioxidant activities of the compounds were determined using DPPH-radical scavenging and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) assays. The results indicated that compound (5) was most active in its capacity to scavenge free radicals in the DPPH assay [SC50 value, 4.65 ± 0.74μg/mL] compared to the standard ascorbic acid and exhibited the highest activity in the TAC assay (610.45 ± 1.67mg AAE/g compound). The pure isolates were tested for their antimicrobial activity against four pathogenic microbial strains including Staphylococcus aureus, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans. Also, the GC/MS analysis of its leaves essential oil presented nine identified compounds representing 91% of the total oil constituents. The outcomes got from this study give a reasonable justification for the medicinal uses of Callistemon citrinus plant.

Keywords: Callistemon citrinus, flavanone, antioxidant activity, antimicrobial activity, essential oil, Myrtaceae

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Authors: Naila Sher, Mushtaq Ahmed, Nadia Mushtaq, Rahmat Ali Khan

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In cancer therapy, nanoparticles (NPs) shall be applied possibly by inoculation in the veins of humans. This action will connect them with white (WBCs) and red blood cells (RBCs) in the bloodstream before they reach their main targeted cancer cells. However, possible effects of silver, gold, and silver/gold bimetallic NPs (Ag, Au, and Ag/Au BNPs) on baby hamster kidney-21 (BHK-21) cells were studied by MTT assay. Here, Ag, Au, and their Ag/Au BNPs (bimetallic nanoparticles) were synthesized by using Hippeastrum hybridum (HH) extract. These NPs were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, FT-IR, XRD, and EDX, and SEM analysis. XRD analysis conferring the crystal structure with an average size of 13.3, 10.72, and 8.34nm of Ag, Au, and Ag/Au BNPs, respectively. SEM showed that Ag, Au, and Ag/Au BNPs had irregular morphologies, with nano measures calculated sizes of 40, 30, and 20 nm respectively. EDX spectrometers confirmed the presence of elemental Ag signal of the AgNPs with 22.75%, Au signal of the AuNPs with 48.08%, Ag signal with 12%, and Au signal with 38.26% of the Ag/Au BNPs. The BHK-21cells were incubated in the existence of doxorubicin, plant extract, Ag, Au, and Ag/Au BNPs. The cytotoxic effects could be observed in a dose-dependent mode; doxorubicin and Ag/Au BNPs were more toxic than plant extract, Ag, and Au NPs. It is demonstrated that NPs interact with BHK-21cells and significantly reduce cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner. However, to reduce the potential threats of NPs further studies are recommended.

Keywords: hippeastrum hybridum, nanoparticle, BHK-21cells

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Authors: Noor Ul Huda, Mushtaq Ahmed, Nadia Mushtaq, Naila Sher, Rahmat Ali Khan

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Purpose: The green synthesis of AgNPs has been favored over chemical synthesis due to their distinctive properties such as high dispersion, surface-to-volume ratio, low toxicity, and easy preparation. In the present work, the biosynthesis of AgNPs (KE-AgNPs) was carried out in one step by using the traditionally used plant Kickxia elatine (KE) extract and then investigated its enzyme inhibiting activity against rat’s brain acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in vitro. Methods: KE-AgNPs were synthesized from 1mM AgNO₃ using KE extract and characterized by UV–spectroscopy, SEM, EDX, XRD, and FTIR analysis. Rat’s brain acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition activity was evaluated by the standard protocol. Results: UV–spectrum at 416 nm confirmed the formation of KE-AgNPs. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern presented 2θ values corresponding to the crystalline nature of KE-AgNPs with an average size of 42.47nm. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis confirmed the presence of spherical-shaped and huge density KE-AgNPs with a size of 50nm. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) suggested that the functional groups present in KE extract and on the surface of KE-AgNPs are responsible for the stability of biosynthesized NPs. Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) displayed an intense sharp peak at 3.2 keV, presenting that Ag was the chief element with 61.67%. Both KE extract and KE-AgNPs showed good and potent anti-AChE activity, with higher inhibition potential at a concentration of 175 µg/ml. Statistical analysis showed that both KEE and AgNPs exhibited non-competitive type inhibition against AChE, i.e., Vmax decreased (34.17-68.64% and 22.29- 62.10%) in the concentration-dependent mode for KEE and KE-AgNPs respectively and while Km values remained constant. Conclusions: KEE and KE-AgNPs can be considered an inhibitor of rats’ brain AChE, and the synthesis of KE-AgNPs-based drugs can be used as a cheaper and alternative option against diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Keywords: Kickxia elatine, AgNPs, brain homogenate, acetylcholinesterase, kinetics

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Authors: Shan-e-Fatima, Mushtaq Khan, Syed Imran Hussian

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Plasma arc welding technology is used for welding SS-304L with A-36. Two different optimize butt welded joints were produced by using austenitic filler alloy E-309L and with direct fusion at 45 A, 2mm/sec by keeping plasma gas flow rate at 0.5LPM. Microstructure analysis of the weld bead was carried out. The results reveal complex heterogeneous microstructure in austenitic base filler alloy sample where as full martensite was found in directly fused sample.

Keywords: fusion zone microstructure, stainless steel, low carbon steel, plasma arc welding

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Authors: M. A. Aleem, M. S. Awan

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Flat spiral coil for electromagnetic forming system has been modelled in FEMM 4.2 software. Copper strip was chosen as the material for designing the actuator coil. Relationship between height to width ratio (S-factor) of the copper strip and coil’s performance has been studied. Magnetic field intensities, eddy currents, and Lorentz force were calculated for the coils that were designed using six different 'S-factor' values (0.65, 0.75, 1.05, 1.25, 1.54 and 1.75), keeping the cross-sectional area of strip the same. Results obtained through simulation suggest that actuator coil with S-factor ~ 1 shows optimum forming performance as it exerts maximum Lorentz force (84 kN) on work piece. The same coils were fabricated and used for electromagnetic sheet forming experiments. Aluminum 6061 sheets of thickness 1.5 mm have been formed using different voltage levels of capacitor bank. Smooth forming profiles were obtained with dome heights 28, 35 and 40 mm in work piece at 800, 1150 and 1250 V respectively.

Keywords: FEM modelling, electromagnetic forming, spiral coil, Lorentz force

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Authors: Mamoona Mushtaq, Komal Meher

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The COVID-19 pandemic, a global public health crisis, has triggered anxiety and fear of death in the public, particularly among health professionals. This study aimed to assess the direct and mediated associations between death anxiety, sleep quality, and subjective well-being in doctors working during the pandemic. Another aim was tested to analyze the interactive role of workplace locality in these associations. An indirect-effect model was tested on a sample of 244 doctors working during the pandemic. Findings revealed that the association between death anxiety and subjective well-being was mediated through depression. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Keywords: death anxiety, depression, subjective well-being, working locality

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Authors: Magdy Abdel-Aleem Abdel-Ati Mayouf, Islam Al Sayed Hussein Al Sayed

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Development of tourism and hospitality faculties' graduates is a key to the future health of hospitality and tourism sectors. Meanwhile information and communication technologies (ICTs) increasingly become the driving engine for productivity improvement and business opportunities in tourism and hospitality industry. Tourism and hospitality education and training must address these developments to enhance the ability of future managers to adopt a variety of ICT tools and strategies to increase their organization's efficiency and competitiveness. Therefore, this study aims to explore the types and effectiveness of ICT training offered by faculties of tourism and hotels in Egypt, and evaluating the importance of that training from the graduate's point of view. The study targets the graduates who graduated in the present ten years from three different faculties of tourism and hotels. Results argued the types, levels and effectiveness of ICT training offered in these faculties and the extent to which training programs were appreciated by graduates working in different fields, and finally, it recommended particular practices to enhance the training efficiency and raising the perceived benefits of it for workers in tourism and hospitality fields.

Keywords: training, IT, graduated, tourism and hospitality, education

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Authors: Rabia Mushtaq, Uroosa Javaid

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It has been observed that health professionals are at higher danger of stress in light of the fact that being a specialist is physically and emotionally demanding. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between workplace stress and mental wellbeing among health professionals. Sample of 120 male and female health professionals belonging to two age groups, i.e., early adulthood and middle adulthood, was employed through purposive sampling technique. Job stress scale, mindful attention awareness scale, and Warwick Edinburgh mental wellbeing scales were used for the measurement of study variables. Results of the study indicated that job stress has a significant negative relationship with mental wellbeing among health professionals. The current study opened the door for more exploratory work on mindfulness among health professionals. Yielding outcomes helped in consolidating adapting procedures among workers to improve their mental wellbeing and lessen the job stress.

Keywords: health professionals, job stress, mental wellbeing, mindfulness

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Authors: Khadija Mushtaq, Mian Saqib Mehmood

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This paper attempts to determine the impact of leadership style and learning orientation on organizational performance in Pakistan. A sample of 158 middle managers selected from sports and surgical factories from Sialkot. The empirical estimation is based on a multiple linear regression analysis of the relationship between leadership style, learning orientation and organizational performance. Leadership style is measure through transformational leadership and transactional leadership. The transformational leadership has insignificant impact on organizational performance. The transactional leadership has positive and significant relation with organizational performance. Learning orientation also has positive and significant relation with organizational performance. Linear regression used to estimate the relation between dependent and independent variables. This study suggests top manger should prefer continuous process for improvement for any change in system rather radical change.

Keywords: transformational leadership, transactional leadership, learning orientation, organizational performance, Pakistan

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Authors: Taylor Kolody, Farkhund Iqbal, Rabia Batool, Benjamin Fung, Mohammed Hussaeni, Saiqa Aleem

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The rising threat of climate change has led to an increase in public awareness and care about our collective and individual environmental impact. A key component of this impact is our use of cars and other polluting forms of transportation, but it is often difficult for an individual to know how severe this impact is. While there are applications that offer this feedback, they require manual entry of what transportation mode was used for a given trip, which can be burdensome. In order to alleviate this shortcoming, a data from the 2016 TRIPlab datasets has been used to train a variety of machine learning models to automatically recognize the mode of transportation. The accuracy of 89.6% is achieved using single deep neural network model with Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) architecture applied directly to trip data points over 4 primary classes, namely walking, public transit, car, and bike. These results are comparable in accuracy to results achieved by others using ensemble methods and require far less computation when classifying new trips. The lack of trip context data, e.g., bus routes, bike paths, etc., and the need for only a single set of weights make this an appropriate methodology for applications hoping to reach a broad demographic and have responsive feedback.

Keywords: classification, gated recurrent unit, recurrent neural network, transportation

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Authors: Naveed Ul Hassan, Bilal Aziz, Maryam Mushtaq, Imran Ameen Khan

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Equity risk premium (ERP) is the stock return in excess of risk free return. Even though it is an essential topic of finance but still there is no common consensus upon its forecasting. For forecasting ERP, apart from the macroeconomic variables attention is devoted to technical indicators as well. For this purpose, set of 14 technical and 14 macro-economic variables is selected and all forecasts are generated based on a standard predictive regression framework, where ERP is regressed on a constant and a lag of a macroeconomic variable or technical indicator. The comparative results showed that technical indicators provide better indications about ERP estimates as compared to macro-economic variables. The relative strength of ERP predictability is also investigated by using National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) data of business cycle expansion and recessions and found that ERP predictability is more than twice for recessions as compared to expansions.

Keywords: equity risk premium, forecasting, macroeconomic indicators, technical indicators

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Authors: Hajar Aman Key Yekani, Yusra Mushtaq, Behnaz Farahani, Hamed Abdi

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This study explores associations between parental restriction and children's appetitive traits, putting to test the hypothesis that parental 'restriction' is associated with having a child with stronger food approach tendencies (food enjoyment (FE) and food over-responsiveness (FR)). The participants, from 55 nationalities, targeting 1081 parents of 5- to 11-year-old children from 7 private schools in Dubai, UAE, who completed self-reported questionnaires over the 2011-2012 school year. The questionnaire has been a tailored amalgamation of CEBQ and CFQ in order to measure the children’s appetitive traits and parental restriction, respectively. The findings of this quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional analysis confirmed the hypothesis in that 'parental restriction' was positively associated with child food responsiveness (r, 0.183), food enjoyment (r, 0.102). To conclude, as far as the figures depict, the parents controlling their children’s food intake would seemingly a reverse impact on their eating behaviour in the short term.

Keywords: parental restriction, children, eating behaviour, schools in Dubai

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Authors: Hebatullah Ali Abdel-Aleem Abdel-Hamid, Camellia Mousa Mohamed Elzean

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Knitted garments recently became a key component in wardrobes of the Egyptian woman. Many Egyptian women depend on garments made of knitted fabrics in their outer appearance because of its specific properties including flexibility. Through observation and application, it was noticed that knitwear blocks that used for knitted fabrics somehow does not fit the figures of the Egyptian women. Moreover, the pattern makers are usually confused and unable to choose the suitable blocks for different knitting fabrics taking into consideration its physical and mechanical properties. This study seeks to develop mathematical relationships for evaluation of the amount of added- or subtracted ease to Aldrich’s basic fitting blocks for some weft knitting fabrics and its fitting to the upper part of Egyptian women's bodies. To achieve this goal, 12 samples were used to evaluate fitting of Aldrich’s Basic Fitting Block to the upper part of Egyptian women's bodies. The samples were evaluated before and after alterations, through wear trials on the standard mannequins of size 48 and 56, and judged by experienced assessors using fit evaluation scale. The data obtained were statistically analyzed to identify the efficiency of the adjustments. The Aldrich’s Basic Fitting Block was selected because his method is known internationally and easy to use.

Keywords: Aldrich basic fitting block, clothing industry, knitted fabrics, pattern construction

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Authors: Neelam Rashid, Muhammad Zafar, Mushtaq Ahmad, Khafsa Malik, Syed Nasar Shah

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The present study was conducted to study the role of medicinal plants used to cure different ailments in Azad Kashmir. Various ethno medicinal surveys were carried out during 2016 to enlist the uses of plants against various ailments by rural communities of the area. Information was obtained from 60 local people including 45 males (10 traditional health practitioners) and 15 females by semi structured interviews and group discussions. 65 plant species belonging to 45 families were reported. The dominant plant habit was herbaceous (56%) while decoction was the most common method of utilization (40%). The most cited turmoil was the gastrointestinal disorders. The data obtained were analyzed using ethno medicinal indices such as FL, UV, ICF, FC, and RFC. Results revealed that various species had numerous uses in curing of diseases. So conservation of biodiversity of these medicinal plants and traditional knowledge can play important role in improving the local health conditions of rural people and modern drug discovery and development.

Keywords: medicinal plants, ailments, drug, health, traditional

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Authors: Shams Ul Khaliq, Mushtaq Zeb, Fawad Bilal, Faizan Akbar, Syed Aamir Abbas

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Self Compacting Concrete as the name implies--is the concrete requiring a very little or no vibration to fill the form homogeneously. Self Compacting Concrete (SCC) is defined by two primary properties: Ability to flow or deform under its own weight (with or without obstructions) and the ability to remain homogeneous while doing so. Flow ability is achieved by utilizing high range water reducing admixtures and segregation resistance is ensured by introducing a chemical viscosity modifying admixture (VMA) or increasing the amount of fines in the concrete. The study explores the use waste marble dust (WMD) to increase the amount of fines and hence achieve self-compatibility in an economical way, suitable for Pakistani construction industry. The study focuses on comparison of fresh properties of SCC containing varying amounts of waste marble dust (WMD) with that containing commercially available viscosity modifying admixture. The comparison is done at different dosages of super plasticizer keeping cement, water, coarse aggregate, and fine aggregate contents constant.

Keywords: self compacting concrete, waste marble dust (WMD), flow ability, segregation resistance

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Authors: Syed Rashid Hussain Shah, Sumera Syed, Nida Mushtaq

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Social media is not only acting as a medium of communication; rather it has provided a platform where customers can actually live with the brands they so dearly envy and interact with others with same interest. Organizations are making social media marketing efforts (SMME) to convert this opportunity into a meaningful experience. It may be resembled or considered as an act of branding where the notion is not only to understand the consumer behavior but also developing a strong link with them. Ultimately the quest is to influence and bend it into a mutual benefit of the stakeholders. This study investigates SMME of brands with the help of five dimensions (i.e., entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization and word of mouth). The study has found that there is no significant impact of SMME as a construct on brand equity and consumer behavior. However, few of the dimensions (i.e. customization and word of mouth), have been found to have influence on brand equity (brand association, brand image) and consumer response (brand preferences).

Keywords: social media marketing efforts (SMME), brand equity, preference, loyalty price premium, luxury brands, international

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Authors: Nizar Ahmad, Mushtaq Ahmad Jadoon, Farhat Ullah

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This study investigates the peace efforts made by Pakhtun’s traditional institution Jirga in conflict-affected communities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Data were collected through a structured interview schedule from a sample of 278 household members in four selected villages of Dir Upper and Dir Lower Districts. A Chi square test was applied to ascertain relationships between Jirga related factors with the state of peace in the study area. It was found that factors such as Jirga regularly conducted meetings (P=. 000), it inflicted punishment upon local militants (P=. 001), ex-combatants were re-integrated through Jirga (P= .000) and Jirga ordered the local the defiant to leave the community had a significant association with state of peace in the area. It is concluded that Jirga system had played a vital role in the peacebuilding process of the area through provision of support to government in peace operation and mobilizing local people for peace in the area. It is suggested that Jirga shall to be the part of peace process and government needs to provide its possible support to members of the Jirga in order to enhance their capacity of peace work.

Keywords: Jirga, peacebuilding, terrorism, traditional mechanism, conflict affect areas

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Authors: Mehvish Bilal, Navneet Singh, Jasir Mushtaq

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Water pollution puts people's health at risk, and it can also impact the ecology. For practitioners of integrated water resources management (IWRM), water quality modelling may be useful for informing decisions about pollution control (such as discharge permitting) or demand management (such as abstraction permitting). To comprehend the current pollutant load, movement of effective load movement of contaminants generates effective relation between pollutants, mathematical simulation, source, and water quality is regarded as one of the best estimating tools. The current study involves the Qual2k model, which includes manual simulation of the various physiochemical characteristics of water. To this end, various sensors could be installed for the automatic simulation of various physiochemical characteristics of water. An artificial intelligence model has been proposed for the automatic simulation of water quality parameters. Models of water quality have become an effective tool for identifying worldwide water contamination, as well as the ultimate fate and behavior of contaminants in the water environment. Water quality model research is primarily conducted in Europe and other industrialized countries in the first world, where theoretical underpinnings and practical research are prioritized.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, QUAL2K, simulation, physiochemical parameters

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Authors: Mushtaq Ahmad, Bashir Rahman, Taqweem-ul-Haq, Fazal Jalil, Aftab Ali Shah

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Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes coding for microRNAs (miRNAs) play a pivotal role in the progression of breast cancer (BC). We investigated the association of miR-146a rs2910164 G/C polymorphism with the risk of BC in the Pakistani population. The miR-146a rs2910164 polymorphism was genotyped in 300 BC-cases and 300 age- and gender-matched healthy controls using T-ARMS-PCR. Genotype and allele frequencies were calculated, and the association between genotypes and the risk of BC was calculated by odds ratios (OR) and confidence intervals (95%). A significant difference in genotypic frequencies (χ2=63.10; p ≤ 0.0001) and allelic frequencies (OR=0.3955 (0.3132-0.4993); p ≤ 0.0001) was observed between cases and controls. Furthermore, we also found that miR-146 rs2910164 CC homozygote increased the risk of breast cancer in the dominant (OR=0.2397 (0.1629-0.3526); p=0.0001; GG vs GC+CC) and recessive (OR=2.803 (1.865- 4.213); P ≤ 0.0001; CC vs GC+GG) inheritance models. In summary, miR-146a rs2910164 G/C is significantly associated with BC in the Pakistani population. To our knowledge, this is the first study that assessed MIR146a rs2910164 G > C SNP in Pakistani population. By analyzing the secondary structure of MIR146A variant, a significant structural modification was noted. Study with a larger sample size is needed to further confirm these findings.

Keywords: breast cancer, MIR146A, microRNA, SNP

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Authors: Shams Ul Khaliq, Khan Shahzada, Bashir Alam, Fawad Bilal, Mushtaq Zeb, Faizan Akbar

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Marble industry contributes its fair share in environmental deterioration, producing voluminous amounts of mud and other excess residues obtained from marble and granite processing, polluting soil, water and air. Reusing these products in other products will not just prevent our environment from polluting but also help with economy. In this research, an attempt has been made to study the expediency of waste Marble Powder (MP) in concrete production. Various laboratory tests were performed to investigate permeability, physical and mechanical properties, such as slump, compressive strength, split tensile test, etc. Concrete test samples were fabricated with varying MP content (replacing 5-30% cement), furnished from two different sources. 5% replacement of marble dust caused 6% and 12% decrease in compressive and tensile strength respectively. These parameters gradually decreased with increasing MP content up to 30%. Most optimum results were obtained with 10% replacement. Improvement in consistency and permeability were noticed. The permeability was improved with increasing MP proportion up to 10% without substantial decrease in compressive strength. Obtained results revealed that MP as an alternative to cement in concrete production is a viable option considering its economic and environment friendly implications.

Keywords: marble powder, strength, permeability, consistency, environment

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Authors: Khadija Mushtaq, Muhammad Umar

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The research aims to study the association between job satisfaction, motivation and the five factors of organizational citizenship behavior (i.e. Altruism, Conscientiousness, Sportsmanship, Courtesy and Civic virtue) among Public Sector Employees in Pakistan.In this research Structure Equation Modeling with confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the relationship between two independent and five dependent variables. Data was collected through questionnaire survey from 152 Public Servants Working in Gujrat District-Pakistan in different capacities. Stratified Random Sampling Technique was used to conduct this survey. The results of the study indicate that five factors of OCB have positive significant relation with both motivation and job satisfaction except the relationship of Civic Virtue with Motivation.The research findings implicate that factors other than motivation and job satisfaction may also affect OCB. Likewise, all the five factors of OCB may not be present in all populations. Thus, Managers must concentrate on increasing motivation and job satisfaction to increase OCB. Furthermore, the present research gives a direction to future researchers to use more independent variables (e.g. Culture, leadership, workplace environment, various job attitudes, types of motivation, etc.) on different types of populations with larger sample size in order to find the reasons behind insignificant relationship of civic virtue with Motivation in the research in hand and to generalize the tested model.

Keywords: five factors of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), motivation, job satisfaction, public sector employees in Pakistan

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Authors: Muhammad Naeem Mushtaq, Muhammad Arshad, Shahid Majeed

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Maize is known as queen of cereals because of its highest genetic yield potential and multipurpose characteristics in human being and animal diet. Maize crop visited by many major, minor, visitors and sporadic insect pests. This study was conducted during 2014 to evaluate the richness and evenness of these insect pests and their interaction with metrological conditions at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. In this experiment, two localities were selected; one was treated with pesticide and second was untreated. Maize field visited by many insect pests. Those insect pests were collected by using three collection method: sweep net, pitfall trap and plant inspection. The data was collected weekly interval from August to October and statistically analyzed by using Shannon Index which showed the results of insect pest richness and evenness. The value of Shannon Index was higher with the increase in number of species and abundance of insects. Camponotus nearcticus was most abundant in sweep net and pitfall trap method while Rhopalosiphum maidis was abundant in plant inspection method. Temperature was negatively co-relate with the insect population in all three collection methods while the relative humidity and rainfall had varying results.

Keywords: abundance, evenness, maize, richness

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Authors: Muhammad Kamran Hanif Khan, Fahad Mushtaq

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Background: In both developed and underdeveloped countries, coronary artery disease (CAD) is a serious cause of death and disability. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is becoming more prevalent in emerging countries like Pakistan due to the spread and acceptance of Western lifestyles. Material and Methods: An observational cross-sectional investigation was conducted, and data collection relied on a random cluster sampling method. The sample size for this cross-sectional study was calculated using the following factors: estimated true proportion of 17.5%, desired precision of 2%, and confidence interval of 95%. The data for this study was collected from a sample of 1387 adults. Results: The average age of those living in rural areas is 55.24 years, compared to 52.60 years for those living in urban areas. The mean fasting blood glucose of the urban participants is 105.28 mg/dL, which is higher than the mean fasting blood glucose of the rural participants, which is 102.06 mg/dL. The mean total cholesterol of the urban participants is 192.20 mg/dL, which is slightly higher than the mean total cholesterol of the rural participants, which is 191.97 mg/dL. CAD prevalence is greater in urban areas than in rural areas. ECG abnormalities prevalence is 16.1% in females compared to 12.5% in men. Conclusion: The prevalence of CAD is more common in urban areas than in rural ones for all of the measures of CAD used in the study.

Keywords: CVD prevalence, CVD risk factors, rural area, urban area

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Authors: Atifa Mushtaq, Tanweer Khaliq, Hafiz Alam Sher, Asia Farid, Anila Kanwal, Maliha Sarfraz

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The study was designed to assess the various pharmacokinetic parameters of a commercially available clarithromycin Tablet (Klaricid® 250 mg Abbot, Pakistan) in plasma sample of healthy adult female volunteers by applying a rapid, sensitive and accurate HPLC-UV analytical method. The human plasma samples were evaluated by using an isocratic High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) system of Sykam consisted of a pump with a column C18 column (250×4.6mn, 5µm) UV-detector. The mobile phase comprises of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (50 mM, pH 6.8, contained 0.7% triethylamine), methanol and acetonitrile (30:25:45, v/v/v) was delivered with injection volume of 20µL at flow rate of 1 mL/min. The detection was performed at λmax 275 nm. By applying this method, important pharmacokinetic parameters Cmax, Tmax, Area under curve (AUC), half-life (t1/2), , Volume of distribution (Vd) and Clearance (Cl) were measured. The parameters of pharmacokinetics of clarithromycin were calculated by software (APO) pharmacological analysis. Maximum plasma concentrations Cmax 2.78 ±0.33 µg/ml, time to reach maximum concentration tmax 2.82 ± 0.11 h and Area under curve AUC was 20.14 h.µg/ml. The mean ± SD values obtained for the pharmacokinetic parameters showed a significant difference in pharmacokinetic parameters observed in previous literature which emphasizes the need for dose adjustment of clarithromycin in Pakistani population.

Keywords: Pharmacokinetc, Clarothromycin, HPLC, Pakistan

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Authors: Iram Malik, Mahrukh Shaukat, Abeer Malik, Hafiz Mushtaq Ahmad

Abstract:

There has been a lot of research on cyberbullying but there is limited research on the topic of accidental cyberbullying on social media with a special focus on healthcare industry. This study emphasizes to uncover the factors that contribute to accidental cyberbullying on social media and how it affects individuals, professionals’ and organizations in health care sector. Nowadays social media is becoming a necessary part of our daily life; there is a need to look into how it is shaping our social life and behaviors displayed online. Instances of cyber bullying can have long-term repercussions due to over-sharing of information. The study used simple random sampling and the instrument of data collection was survey. A sample size of 250 healthcare professionals was chosen from the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan to examine the relationship between their attitude towards internet use, psychological distress, verbal aggression, envy, frustration, self-compassion, personality traits and accidental cyberbullying on social media. The results of the study have been encouraging. The findings show that psychological distress, aggression, envy, frustration and personality traits had direct effect on accidental cyberbullying whereas compassion, altruism lessened the effect of accidental cyberbullying behavior. It is our intent that the findings of this study could help raise awareness regarding fair use of social media, help policy makers in developing appropriate policies for avoiding cyberbullying in future.

Keywords: accidental cyberbullying, aggression, cyberbullying, frustration, social media

Procedia PDF Downloads 254

Authors: Ashfaq Khan, Aftab Khan, Mushtaq Khan, Sarem Sattar, Mohammad A Sheikh, Lin Li

Abstract:

Chip removal processes are one of key processes of the manufacturing industry where chip removal is conducted by tool inserts of exceptionally hard materials. Tungsten carbide has been extensively used as tool insert for machining processes involving chip removal processes. These hard materials are generally fabricated by single step sintering process as further modification after fabrication in these materials cannot be done easily. Advances in tool surface modification have revealed that advantages such as improved tribological properties and extended tool life can be harnessed from the same tool by texturing the tool rake surface. Moreover, it has been observed that the shape and location of the texture also influences the behavior. Although texturing offers plentiful advantages the challenge lies in the generation of textures on the tool surface. Extremely hard material such as diamond is required to process tungsten carbide. Laser is unique processing tool that does not have a physical contact with the material and thus does not wear. In this research the potential of utilizing laser for texturing of tungsten carbide to develop custom features would be studied. A parametric study of texturing of Tungsten Carbide with a femtosecond laser would be conducted to investigate the process parameters and establish the feasible processing window. The effect of fluence, scan speed and number of repetition would be viewed in detail. Moreover, the mechanism for the generation of features would also be reviewed.

Keywords: laser, texturing, femtosecond, tungsten carbide

Procedia PDF Downloads 617

Authors: Mushtaq H. Khan, Antonio Andreoni, Pallavi Roy

Abstract:

Developing countries are characterized by political settlements where formal rules are generally weakly enforced and widely violated. Conventional anti-corruption strategies that focus on improving the general enforcement of a rule of law and raising the costs of corruption facing individual public officials have typically delivered poor results in these contexts. Our alternative approach is to identify anti-corruption strategies that have a high impact and that are feasible to implement in these contexts. Our alternative approach identifies anti-corruption strategies from the bottom up. This involves identifying the characteristics of the corruption constraining particular development outcomes. By drawing on theories of rents and rent seeking, and theories of political settlements, we can assess the developmental impact of particular anti-corruption strategies and the feasibility of implementing these strategies. We argue that feasible anti-corruption in these contexts cannot be solely based on conventional anti-corruption strategies. In societies that have widespread rule violations, high-impact anti-corruption is only likely to be feasible if the overall strategy succeeds in aligning the interests and capabilities of powerful organizations at the sectoral level to support the enforcement of particular sets of rules. We examine four related strategies for changing these incentives and capabilities of critical stakeholders at the local or sectoral level, and we argue that this can provide a framework for organizing research on the impact and feasibility of anti-corruption activities in different priority areas in particular countries.

Keywords: anti-corruption, development, political settlements analysis, rule of law

Procedia PDF Downloads 369

Authors: Afshan Channa, Sameeha Aleem, Harim Mohsin

Abstract:

First rank symptoms (FRS) are considered to be pathognomic for Schizophrenia. However, FRS is not a distinctive feature of Schizophrenia. It has also been noticed in affective disorder, albeit not inclusive in diagnostic criteria. The presence of FRS in Mania leads to misdiagnosis of psychotic illness, further complicating the management and delay of appropriate treatment. FRS in Mania is associated with poor clinical and functional outcome. Its existence in the first episode of bipolar disorder may be a predictor of poor short-term outcome and decompensating course of illness. FRS in Mania is studied in west. However, the cultural divergence and detriments make it pertinent to study the frequency of FRS in affective disorder independently in Pakistan. Objective: The frequency of first rank symptoms in manic patients, who were under treatment at psychiatric services of tertiary care hospital. Method: The cross sectional study was done at psychiatric services of Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. One hundred and twenty manic patients were recruited from November 2014 to May 2015. The patients who were unable to comprehend Urdu or had comorbid psychiatric or organic disorder were excluded. FRS was assessed by administration of validated Urdu version of Present State Examination (PSE) tool. Result: The mean age of the patients was 37.62 + 12.51. The mean number of previous manic episode was 2.17 + 2.23. 11.2% males and 30.6% females had FRS. This association of first rank symptoms with gender in patients of mania was found to be significant with a p-value of 0.008. All-inclusive, 19.2% exhibited FRS in their course of illness. 43.5% had thought broadcasting, made feeling, impulses, action and somatic passivity. 39.1% had thought insertion, 30.4% had auditory perceptual distortion, and 17.4% had thought withdrawal. However, none displayed delusional perception. Conclusion: The study confirms the presence of FRS in mania in both male and female, irrespective of the duration of current manic illness or previous number of manic episodes. A substantial difference was established between both the genders. Being married had no protective effect on the presence of FRS.

Keywords: first rank symptoms, Mania, psychosis, present state examination

Procedia PDF Downloads 343