Search results for: Saba Shahid

Authors: Emmanuel Kamal Aziz Saba, Sarah Sayed El-Tawab

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The present study was conducted to assess the involvement of ulnar sensory and/or motor nerve fibers in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and whether this affects the accuracy of the median versus ulnar comparative tests. The present study included 145 CTS hands and 71 asymptomatic control hands. Clinical examination was done. The following tests were done: Sensory conduction studies: median, ulnar and dorsal ulnar cutaneous nerves; and median versus ulnar digit (D) four sensory comparative study; and motor conduction studies: median nerve, ulnar nerve and median versus ulnar motor comparative study. It was found that 17 CTS hands (11.7%) had ulnar sensory abnormalities in 17 different patients. The median versus ulnar sensory and motor comparative studies were abnormal among all these 17 CTS hands. There were significant negative correlations between median motor latency and both ulnar sensory amplitudes recording D5 and D4. In conclusion, there is ulnar sensory nerve abnormality among CTS patients. This abnormality affects the amplitude of ulnar sensory nerve action potential. This does not affect the median versus ulnar sensory and motor comparative tests accuracy for use in CTS.

Keywords: median nerve, motor comparative study, sensory comparative study, ulnar nerve

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Authors: Mohsin Ali Shaikh, Song Weiguo, Muhammad Kashan Surahio, Usman Shahid, Rehmat Karim

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This study investigated a catastrophic arson fire incident that occurred at a textile garment building in Karachi, Pakistan. Unfortunately, a catastrophic event led to the loss of 262 lives and caused 55 severe injuries. The primary objective is to analyze the aspects of the fire incident and understand the causes of arson fire disasters. The study utilized Fire Dynamic Simulation (F.D.S) was employed to simulate fire propagation, visibility, harmful gas concentration, fire temperature, and numerical results. The analysis report has determined the specific circumstances that created the unpleasant incident in the present study. The significance of the current findings lies in their potential to prevent arson fires, improve fire safety measures, and the development of safety plans in building design. The fire dynamic simulation findings can serve as a theoretical basis for the investigation of arson fires and evacuation planning in textile garment buildings.

Keywords: investigation, fire arson incident, textile garment, fire dynamic simulation (FDS)

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Authors: Saba Arif, Anam Nadeem, Roman Kalvin, Muzaffar Ali, Burhan Ali, Juntakan Taweekun

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Globally transportation sector accounts for around 25% of energy demand and nearly 62% of oil consumed. Therefore, new energy sources are required to introduce for this huge demand replenishment of depleting conventional energy sources. Currently, biofuels such as Jatropha trees as an energy carrier for transportation sector are being utilized effectively round the globe. However, climate conditions at low altitudes with an average annual temperature above 20 degrees Celsius and rainfall of 300-1000mm are considered the most suitable environment for the efficient growth of Jatropha trees. The current study is providing a theoretical survey-based analysis to investigate the effect of rate of cultivation of jatropha trees on the reduction of fuel prices and its environmental benefits. The resulted study shows that jatropha tree’s 100 kg seeds give 80kg oil and the conversion process cost is very small as 890 PKR. Moreover, the extraction of oil from Jatropha tree is tax-free compared to other fuels. The analysis proved very essential for potential assessment of Jatropha regarding future energy fuel for transportation sector at global level. Additionally, it can be very beneficial for increment in the total amount of transportation fuel in Pakistan.

Keywords: jatropha tree, environmental impact, energy contents, theoretical survey

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Authors: Shahid Imran

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'Mediatization' has influenced the politics by shaping and transforming the attitudes and practices of political actors. It is a serious challenge to democracy in today’s era. This study aims to analyze the dynamics of media politics interplay in Pakistan and the contextual factors which govern this interplay. It will also address the perceived influence of media on the practices of politicians from the perspectives of the actors. The objectives have been achieved qualitatively through Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The phenomenological data have been collected using semi-structured interviews of journalists and politicians of Pakistan. The findings depict that politics in Pakistan is more driven by media logic than political or democratic logic. Media and politics have a ‘Tom and Jerry’ relationship. Political ecology is highly media-induced: politicians strategically adopt and adapt the media logic to be in the ‘media spotlight’; journalists, on the other hands, do not practice ‘fair journalism rather a more politically parallelized. The mediatized political communication behaviours of the actors are the undermining the public service logic and affecting the spirit of democracy in Pakistan. The study offers some valued implications for media, politicians and policy makers.

Keywords: medialization, media logic, politics, political logic

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Authors: Sarah Sayed El- Tawab, Emmanuel Kamal Azix Saba

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Objectives: Somatosensory blink reflex (SBR) is an eye blink response obtained from electrical stimulation of peripheral nerves or skin area of the body. It has been studied in various neurological diseases as well as among healthy subjects in different population. We designed this study to detect SBR positivity in patients with facial palsy and patients with post facial syndrome, to relate the facial palsy severity and the presence of SBR, and to associate between trigeminal BR changes and SBR positivity in peripheral facial palsy patients. Methods: 50 patients with peripheral facial palsy and post-facial syndrome 31 age and gender matched healthy volunteers were enrolled to this study. Facial motor conduction studies, trigeminal BR, and SBR were studied in all. Results: SBR was elicited in 67.7% of normal subjects, in 68% of PFS group, and in 32% of PFP group. On the non-paralytic side SBR was found in 28% by paralyzed side stimulation and in 24% by healthy side stimulation among PFP patients. For PFS group SBR was found on the non- paralytic side in 48%. Bilateral SBR elicitability was higher than its unilateral elicitability. Conclusion: Increased brainstem interneurons excitability is not essential to generate SBR. The hypothetical sensory-motor gating mechanism is responsible for SBR generation.

Keywords: somatosensory evoked blink reflex, post facial syndrome, blink reflex, enchanced gain

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Authors: Muhammad Tayyab, Saba Saira

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It is an established fact that organizations across the globe consider employees as their assets and try to advance their well-being. However, the local firms of developing countries are mostly profit oriented and do not have much concern about their employees’ engagement or commitment. Like other developing countries, the local organizations of Pakistan are also less concerned about the well-being of their employees. Especially public sector organizations lack concern regarding engagement, satisfaction or commitment of the employees. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the impact of job recognition and job motivation on organizational commitment in the mediation role of employee engagement. The data were collected from land record officers of board of revenue, Punjab, Pakistan. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data through physically visiting land record officers and also through the internet. A total of 318 land record officers’ responses were finalized to perform data analysis. The data were analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling technique. The findings revealed that job recognition and job motivation have direct as well as indirect positive and significant impact on organizational commitment. The limitations, practical implications and future research indications are also explained.

Keywords: job motivation, job recognition, employee engagement, employee commitment, public sector, land record officers

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Authors: Ibrahim Khalil Ibrahim, Enas Mohamed Shahine, Abeer Shawky El Hadedy, Emmanuel Kamal Aziz Saba, Ghada Salah Attia Hussein

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Osteoarthritis (OA) is a multifactorial disease characterized by a progressive degradation of articular cartilage and is the leading cause of disability in elderly persons. IL-18 contributes to the destruction of cartilage and bone in the disease process of arthritis. The aim of the study was to investigate the role of IL-18 in primary knee OA patients. Serum level of IL-18 was assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 30 primary knee OA patients and compared to 20 age and gender-matched healthy volunteers as a control group. Radiographic severity of OA was assessed by Kellgren and Lawrence (KL) global scale. Pain, stiffness and functional assessment were done using Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC). OA patients had significantly higher serum IL-18 level than in control group (420.93 ± 345.4 versus 151.03 ± 144.16 pg/ml, P=0.001). Serum level of IL-18 was positively correlated with KL global scale (P=0.001). There were no statistically significant correlations between serum level of IL-18 and pain, stiffness, function subscales and total WOMAC index scores among the studied patients. In conclusions, IL-18 has a role in the pathogenesis of OA and it is positively correlated with the radiographic damage of OA.

Keywords: Interlukin-18, knee osteoarthritis, primary osteoarthritis, WOMAC scale

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Authors: Sajeeha Ansar, Asad Ali Safi, Sheikh Ziauddin, Ahmad R. Shahid, Faraz Ahsan

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The most aggressive form of brain tumor is called glioma. Glioma is kind of tumor that arises from glial tissue of the brain and occurs quite often. A fully automatic 2D-CNN model for brain tumor segmentation is presented in this paper. We performed pre-processing steps to remove noise and intensity variances using N4ITK and standard intensity correction, respectively. We used Keras open-source library with Theano as backend for fast implementation of CNN model. In addition, we used BRATS 2015 MRI dataset to evaluate our proposed model. Furthermore, we have used SimpleITK open-source library in our proposed model to analyze images. Moreover, we have extracted random 2D patches for proposed 2D-CNN model for efficient brain segmentation. Extracting 2D patched instead of 3D due to less dimensional information present in 2D which helps us in reducing computational time. Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) is used as performance measure for the evaluation of the proposed method. Our method achieved DSC score of 0.77 for complete, 0.76 for core, 0.77 for enhanced tumor regions. However, these results are comparable with methods already implemented 2D CNN architecture.

Keywords: brain tumor segmentation, convolutional neural networks, deep learning, LGG

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Authors: Sepideh Beiramipour, Hadi Haghjouei, Kourosh Qaderi, Majid Rahimpour, Mohammad M. Ahmadi, Sameh A. Kantoush

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Reservoir sedimentation is one of the main challenges by which the reservoir behind the dam is filled with sediments transferred through the river flow. Pressure flushing method is an effective way to drain the deposited sediments of the reservoirs through the bottom outlet. So far, several structural methods have been proposed to increase the efficiency of pressure flushing. The aim of this study is to increase the performance of Dendritic Bottomless Extended (DBE) structure on the efficiency of pressurized sediment flushing using submerged vanes. For this purpose, the physical model of the dam reservoir with dimensions of 7.5 m in length, 3.5 m in width, and 1.8 m in height in the hydraulic and water structures research laboratory of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman was used. In order to investigate the influence of submerged vanes on the performance of DBE structure in pressure flushing, the best arrangement and geometric parameters of the vanes were selected and combined with the DBE structure. The results showed that the submerged vanes significantly increased the performance of the DBE structure so that the volume of the sediment flushing cone with the combination of two structures increased by 3.7 times compared to the DBE structure test.

Keywords: dendritic bottomless extended structure, flushing efficiency, sedimentation, sediment flushing

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Authors: Muhamamd Shahid Farooq, Maazan Zafar, Rizawana Akhtar

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E-learning technologies are the blessings of advancements in science and technology. These facilitate the learners to get information at any place and any time by improving their self-confidence, self-efficacy and effectiveness in teaching learning process. E-learning provides an individualized learning experience for learners and remove barriers faced by students during new and creative ways of gaining information. It provides a wide range of facilities to enable the teachers and students for effective and purposeful learning. This study was conducted to explore the attitudes of university students and teachers towards e-learning working in a metropolitan university of Pakistan. The personal, institutional and technological characteristics of the teachers and students of higher education institution effect the adoption of e-learning. For this descriptive study 449 students and 35 university teachers were surveyed by using a Likert scale type questionnaire consisting of 52 statements relating to six factors "perceived usefulness, intention to adopt e-learning, ease of e-learning use, availability resources, e-learning stressors, and pressure to use e-learning". Data were analyzed by making comparisons on the basis of different demographic factors. The findings of the study show that both type of respondents have positive attitude towards e-learning. However, the male and female respondents differ in their opinion for e-learning implementation.

Keywords: e-learning, ICT, e-sources of learning, questionnaire

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Authors: Madiha Liaqat, Rehan Ahmed Khan, Shahid Kamal

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Multiple imputation with delta adjustment is a versatile and transparent technique for addressing univariate missing data in the presence of various missing mechanisms. This approach allows for the exploration of sensitivity to the missing-at-random (MAR) assumption. In this review, we outline the delta-adjustment procedure and illustrate its application for assessing the sensitivity to deviations from the MAR assumption. By examining diverse missingness scenarios and conducting sensitivity analyses, we gain valuable insights into the implications of missing data on our analyses, enhancing the reliability of our study's conclusions. In our study, we focused on assessing logPSA, a continuous biomarker in incomplete prostate cancer data, to examine the robustness of conclusions against plausible departures from the MAR assumption. We introduced several approaches for conducting sensitivity analyses, illustrating their application within the pattern mixture model (PMM) under the delta adjustment framework. This proposed approach effectively handles missing data, particularly loss to follow-up.

Keywords: loss to follow-up, incomplete response, multiple imputation, sensitivity analysis, prostate cancer

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Authors: Sehrish Iftikhar, Ahmad Ali Shahid, Kiran Nawaz, Waheed Anwar

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Discovery and development of new compounds require intense studies in chemistry, biochemistry. Numerous experiments under laboratory-, greenhouse- and field conditions can be performed to select suitable candidates and to understand their full potential. Novel fungicides are fundamental to combat plant diseases. Fusarium solani is important plant pathogen. New broad spectrum foliar fungicides against complex II were designed in this study. Complex II, namely succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), or succinate quinone oxidoreductase (SQR) is a multi-subunit enzyme at the crossroads of TCA and ETC at the inner mitochondrial membrane. The need for new and innovative fungicides is driven by resistance management, regulatory hurdles and increasing customer expectations amongst others. Fungicidal activity was assessed for the effect on mycelial growth and spore germination of the fungi using fungicide amended media assay. In mycelial growth assay compounds C10 and C6 were highly active against all the isolates. The compounds C1 and C10 were found most potent in spore germination test. It fully proved that the SDHIs designed in this paper displayed as good inhibitory effects against Fusarium solani.

Keywords: Wilt, Fusarium, SDH, antifungal

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Authors: Hamid Goharnejad, Amir Hossein Eghbali

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Recent investigations have demonstrated the global sea level rise due to climate change impacts. In this study climate changes study the effects of increasing water level in the strait of Hormuz. The probable changes of sea level rise should be investigated to employ the adaption strategies. The climatic output data of a GCM (General Circulation Model) named CGCM3 under climate change scenario of A1b and A2 were used. Among different variables simulated by this model, those of maximum correlation with sea level changes in the study region and least redundancy among themselves were selected for sea level rise prediction by using stepwise regression. One models of Discrete Wavelet artificial Neural Network (DWNN) was developed to explore the relationship between climatic variables and sea level changes. In these models, wavelet was used to disaggregate the time series of input and output data into different components and then ANN was used to relate the disaggregated components of predictors and predictands to each other. The results showed in the Shahid Rajae Station for scenario A1B sea level rise is among 64 to 75 cm and for the A2 Scenario sea level rise is among 90 to 105 cm. Furthermore the result showed a significant increase of sea level at the study region under climate change impacts, which should be incorporated in coastal areas management.

Keywords: climate change scenarios, sea-level rise, strait of Hormuz, forecasting

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Authors: Mohammad Ali Hasanzadeh, Thierry Vanelslander, Eddy Van De Voorde

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Nowadays maritime transport is a key element in international trade and global supply chain. Economies of scale in transporting goods are one of the most attractive elements of using ships. Without maritime transport, almost no globalization of economics can be imagined. Within maritime transport, ports are the interface between lands and see. Even though using ships help cargo owners to have a competitive margin but an accident in port during loading or unloading or even moving cargoes within the terminal can diminish such margin. Statistics shows that due to the high-speed notion of activities within ports, collision accidents are the most common type of accidents. To mitigate such accidents, the appropriate risk exposures have to be defined and calculate, later on risk probabilities can be determined for each type of accident, i.e. fatal, severe, moderate and minor ones. Having such risk probabilities help managers to define the effectiveness of each collision risk control option. This research defined travelled distance as main collision risk exposure in container terminals, taking all the related items into consideration, it was calculated for Shahid Rajae container terminals. Following this finding, collision risk probabilities were computed.

Keywords: collision accident, container terminal, maritime transport, risk exposure

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Authors: Shahid-ul-Islam, Faqeer Mohammad

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The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of annatto, teak and flame of the forest natural dyes on color, fastness, and antimicrobial property of protein based textile substrate. The color strength (K/S) of wool samples at various concentrations of dyes were analysed using a Reflective Spectrophotometer. The antimicrobial activity of natural dyes before and after application on wool was tested against common human pathogens Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans, by using micro-broth dilution method, disc diffusion assay and growth curve studies. The structural morphology of natural protein fibre (wool) was investigated by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Annatto and teak natural dyes proved very effective in inhibiting the microbial growth in solution phase and after application on wool and resulted in a broad beautiful spectrum of colors with exceptional fastness properties. The results encourage the search and exploitation of new plant species as source of dyes to replace toxic synthetic antimicrobial agents currently used in textile industry.

Keywords: annatto, antimicrobial agents, natural dyes, green textiles

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Authors: Emmanuel Kamal Aziz Saba, Gihan Abd El-Lateif Younis El-Tantawi, Mohammed Hamdy Zahran, Ibrahim Khalil Ibrahim, Mohammed Abd El-Salam Shehata, Hussein Al-Moghazy Sultan, Medhat Mohamed Anwar

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Examination of the external anal sphincter muscle strength of voluntary contraction is essential in initial assessment and assessment of efficacy of rehabilitation of patients with faecal incontinence (FI) and obstructed defecation (OD). The present study was conducted to evaluate the digital assessment of the external anal sphincter muscle strength of voluntary contraction by using Modified Oxford Scale (MOS) in comparison to anal manometry squeeze pressure. The present cross-sectional study included 65 patients. There were 40 patients (61.5 %) with FI and 25 patients (38.5 %) with OD. All patients were subjected to history taking, clinical examination including assessment of the external anal sphincter muscle strength of voluntary contraction by using MOS and anal manometry (mean squeeze pressure and maximal squeeze pressure). There was a statistically significant positive correlation between MOS and anal manometry squeeze pressures including mean squeeze pressure and maximal squeeze pressure among FI group and OD group. In conclusion, assessment of the external anal sphincter muscle strength of voluntary contraction by using MOS is a valid method and can substitute anal manometry assessment.

Keywords: anal manometry, external anal sphincter muscle, Modified Oxford Scale, muscle strength

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Authors: Safa'a M. Rasheed, Saba A. Gheni, Wadood T. Mohamed

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Phenolic compounds are the most carcinogenic pollutants in waste water in effluents of refineries and pulp industry. Catalytic wet air oxidation is an efficient industrial treatment process to oxidize phenolic compounds into unharmful organic compounds. Mode of flow of the fluid to be treated is a dominant factor in determining effectiveness of the catalytic process. The present study aims to obtain a mathematical model describing the conversion of phenolic compounds as a function of the process variables; mode of flow (trickling and pulsing), temperature, pressure, along with a high concentration of phenols and a platinum supported alumina catalyst. The model was validated with the results of experiments obtained in a fixed bed reactor. High pressure and temperature were employed at 8 bar and 140 °C. It has been found that conversion of phenols is highly influenced by mode of flow and the change is caused by changes occurred in hydrodynamic regime at the time of pulsing flow mode, thereby a temporal variation in wetting efficiency of platinum prevails; which in turn increases and/or decreases contact time with phenols in wastewater. The model obtained was validated with experimental results, and it is found that the model is a good agreement with the experimental results.

Keywords: wastewater, phenol, pulsing flow, wet oxidation, high pressure

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Authors: Nazmul Hussain, Saba Owais

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The paper is an effort to come across the fertility differential by religion and socio-economic characteristic by religion. Religion and Socio-economic characteristic are conceptualised as touching demography in two ways- through its theoretical content, and in terms of the socio-economic ‘characteristics’ of different religious groups. The mean number of children ever born (MCEB) is used to measure fertility. Efficient contrast of Muslims and Non-Muslims shows little difference in their theological positions on demographic issues, with the omission of their position on birth control. The present paper using data from a primary field survey of 2590 households in the Malda district of West Bengal. Older and younger cohorts of women were examined separately for assessing fertility differential. MCEB was found to be high for women with husbands employed as labourers with a low monthly income. This was true for both the cohorts, but fertility levels were much higher among the older cohort. Low MCEB was found with increasing income and for those in regular salaried jobs. The analysis shows that there is a major dissimilarity in the effects of various socio-economic aspects on the number of children-ever-born among the religious groups, suggesting that religious groups may need to be targeted differently by policy-makers in order to influence demographic decision-making.

Keywords: fertility, socio-economic differences, religion, MCEB

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Authors: Elham Zabetian Targhi, Niusha Fardnava, Saba Saghafi

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Urban resilience to Corona Virus has become a major concern for cities these days. Our country also has not been safe from the destructive effects of this virus in social, economic, physical, governance, and management dimensions; and according to official statistics, hundreds of thousands of people in Iran have been infected with this virus and tens of thousands have died so far. Therefore, to measure urban resilience to this pandemic, some criteria and sub-criteria were developed based on the authors’ documentary and field studies, and their significance or weights were determined using analytical-comparative research method using a questionnaire of paired or L-Saati comparisons from the viewpoint of experts in urban sciences and urban development using AHP hierarchical analysis in EXPERT CHOICE software. Then, designing a questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale, the satisfaction of Tehran residents with the extracted criteria and sub-criteria was measured and the correlation between the important criteria in each dimension was assessed using correlation tests in SPSS16 software. According to the obtained results of AHP analysis and the scores of each sub-criterion, the weight of all criteria was normal. In the next stage, according to the pairwise correlation tests between the important criteria in each dimension from the viewpoint of urban science experts and Tehran residents, it was concluded that the reliability of the correlation between the criteria is 99%. In all the cases, the P-value or the same significance level was less than 0.05, which indicated the significance of the pairwise relations between the variables.

Keywords: Urban Resilience, Pandemics, Corona Virus (Covid-19), Criteria.

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Authors: Shahid M. Ali, Zakiullah

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An individual feed, smooth and smart, completely new shaped, dual band microstrip patch antenna has been proposed in this manuscript. Right here three triangular shape slots are usually presented in the 3 edges on the patch and along with a small feed line has utilized another edge on the patch to find out the dual band. The antenna carries a condensed framework wherever patch is around about 8.5mm by means of 7.96mm by means of 1.905mm leading to excellent bandwidths covering 13. 15 GHz to 13. 72 GHz in addition to 16.04 GHz to 16.58GHz. The return loss(RL) decrease in -19. 00dB and will be attained in the first resonant frequency at 13. 61 GHz and -28.69dB is at second resonance frequency at 16.33GHz. The stable average peak gain that may be observed along the operating band in lower and higher frequency is actually three. 53dB in addition to 5.562dB correspondingly. The radiation designs usually are omni directional along with moderate gain within equally most of these functioning bands. Accomplishment is proven within double frequencies at 13.62GHz since downlink in addition to 16.33GHz since uplink. This kind of low and simple configuration of the proposed antenna shows simplest fabrication and make it ensure that it is adaptable for your application within instant in satellite and as well as for the wireless communication system.

Keywords: dual band, microstrip patch antenna, HFSS, Ku band, satellite

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Authors: Sajeeha Ansar, Asad Ali Safi, Sheikh Ziauddin, Ahmad R. Shahid, Faraz Ahsan

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Gliomas are most challenging and aggressive type of tumors which appear in different sizes, locations, and scattered boundaries. CNN is most efficient deep learning approach with outstanding capability of solving image analysis problems. A fully automatic deep learning based 2D-CNN model for brain tumor segmentation is presented in this paper. We used small convolution filters (3 x 3) to make architecture deeper. We increased convolutional layers for efficient learning of complex features from large dataset. We achieved better results by pushing convolutional layers up to 16 layers for HGG model. We achieved reliable and accurate results through fine-tuning among dataset and hyper-parameters. Pre-processing of this model includes generation of brain pipeline, intensity normalization, bias correction and data augmentation. We used the BRATS-2015, and Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) is used as performance measure for the evaluation of the proposed method. Our method achieved DSC score of 0.81 for complete, 0.79 for core, 0.80 for enhanced tumor regions. However, these results are comparable with methods already implemented 2D CNN architecture.

Keywords: brain tumor segmentation, convolutional neural networks, deep learning, HGG

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Authors: Saba Javed, Abdul Majeed Nadeem, Imran Qaiser, Muhammad Asif Kamran, Azka Amin

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This study is designed to determine the poverty status and determinants of income diversification in rural areas of Pakistan using cross sectional data of Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) for 2010-2011. The variables used for measuring income diversification are demographic indicators, poverty status, and income of households. Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measures show that 43.1% poor and 56.9% non-poor resided in rural areas of Pakistan. A Tobit model was employed to examine the determinants of livelihood diversification among households. The result showed that age, gender, marital status, household size and province have significant impact on income diversification. The data show that non-poor and female headed household with higher family size diversify more as compared to poor, male headed household with small size of family members. The place of residence (province used as proxy for place) also plays important role for income diversification as Sindh Province was found more diversified as compared to Punjab and Khyber Pakhtoon Kha (KPK). It is recommended to improve the ways of income diversification among rural household to reduce poverty among them. This can be done by more investment in education with universal access for poor and remote localities households.

Keywords: poverty, income diversification, rural Pakistan, Tobit regression model, FGT

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Authors: Shahid Karim, Alfredo Bautista, Kerry Lee

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The association between teachers’ beliefs and practices has been extensively studied across the levels of education. Yet, there is a lack of context-specific evidence on the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and intentions regarding their interaction with children in early childhood education settings. Given the critical role of teachers’ beliefs in their practices, the present study examined Cambodian preschool teachers’ beliefs and intentions related to their interaction with children and what factors affect the relationship. Data was collected through a self-reported Beliefs and Intentions Questionnaire (BTQ) from preschool teachers teaching at different types of preschools in Cambodia. Four hundred nine preschool teachers teaching in public, private and community schools participated in the study through an online survey administered on Qualtrics. The quantitative analysis of the data revealed that teachers’ beliefs predict their intentions in preschool. Teachers’ teaching experience, level of education and professional training moderated the relationship between their beliefs and intentions. Differences existed between the groups of teachers teaching in different types of preschools and genders. Implications of the findings related to policy and preschool teachers’ professional development are discussed.

Keywords: teacher-child interaction, teaching beliefs, teaching intentions, preschool teaching accreditations, Cambodia

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Authors: Shahid Nishat, Keith Thomas

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E-government initiatives attract substantial public investments around the world. These investments are based on the premise of digital transformation of the public services, improved efficiency and transparency, and citizen participation in the social democratic processes. However, many e-Government projects, especially in developing countries, fail to achieve their intended outcomes, and a strong disparity exists between the investments made and outcomes achieved, often referred to as e-Government paradox. Further, there is lack of research on evaluating the impacts of e-Government in terms of public value it creates, which ultimately drives usage. This study aims to address these gaps by identifying key enablers of e-Government success and by proposing a public value based framework to examine impact of e-Government services. The study will extend Delone and McLean Information System (IS) Success model by integrating Technology Readiness (TR) characteristics to develop an integrated success model. Level of analysis will be mobile government applications, and the framework will be empirically tested using quantitative methods. The research will add to the literature on e-Government success and will be beneficial for governments, especially in developing countries aspiring to improve public services through the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT).

Keywords: e-Government, IS success model, public value, technology adoption, technology readiness

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Authors: Abdul Hafeez, Shahid Adeel, Ayesha Hussain

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There are number of plants species in the universe which give the protections from different diseases and give colour for the foods and textiles. The environmental condition of the universe suggested toward the ecofriendly textiles. The aim of the paper is to analyze the influence of pre & post mordanting of alum on radiated cotton fabric with Gamma Radiation of different doses by using Ipomoea indica leaves extract. Alum used as mordant with the concentration of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10% as pre and post mordanting to observe the effect of light and colour fastness of radiated cotton. 6% of alum concentration in pre mordanting gave good colour strength 117.82 with darker in shade toward the greenish tone and in post mordanting 6% concentration gave good colour strength 102.19. The lab values show that the colour is darker in tone and gave bluish effect. Further results showed that alum gave good light and rubbing fastness on gamma radiated cotton fabric.

Keywords: Ipomoea indica, gamma radiation, alum, light fastness

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Authors: Sadaf Ilyas, Saba Riaz

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

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

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Authors: Mohsin Ali Shaikh, Song Weiguo, Muhammad Kashan Surahio, Usman Shahid, Rehmat Karim

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When the area of a structure that is threatened by a disaster affects personal safety, the effectiveness of disaster prevention, evacuation, and rescue operations can be summarized by three assessment indicators: personal safety, property preservation, and attribution of responsibility. These indicators are applicable regardless of the disaster that affects the building. People need to get out of the hazardous area and to a safe place as soon as possible because there's no other way to respond. The results of the tragedy are thus closely related to how quickly people are advised to evacuate and how quickly they are rescued. This study considers present fire prevention systems to address catastrophes and improve building safety. It proposes the methods of Prevention Level for Deployment in Advance and Spatial Transformation by Human-Machine Collaboration. We present and prototype a real-time fire protection system architecture for building disaster prevention, evacuation, and rescue operations. The design encourages the use of simulations to check the efficacy of evacuation, rescue, and disaster prevention procedures throughout the planning and design phase of the structure.

Keywords: prevention level, building information modeling, quality management system, simulated reality

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Authors: Donatella Cimini, Sergio D’ambrosio, Saba Sadiq, Chiara Schiraldi

Abstract:

Chondroitin sulfate (CS), as well as modified CS, and unsulfated chondroitin, are largely applied in research today. CS is a linear glycosaminoglycan normally present in cartilage-rich tissues and bones in the form of proteoglycans decorated with sulfate groups in different positions. CS is used as an effective non-pharmacological alternative for the treatment of osteoarthritis, and other potential applications in the biomedical field are being investigated. Some bacteria, such as E. coli K4, produce a polysaccharide that is a precursor of CS (unsulfated chondroitin). This work focused on the construction of integrative E. coli K4 recombinant strains overexpressing genes (kfoA, kfoF, pgm and galU in different combinations) involved in the biosynthesis of the nucleotide sugars necessary for polysaccharide synthesis. Strain growth and polymer production were evaluated using renewable waste materials as substrates in shake flasks and small-scale batch fermentation processes. Results demonstrated the potential to replace pure sugars with cheaper medium components to establish environmentally sustainable and cost-effective production routes for potential industrial development. In fact, although excellent fermentation results have been described so far by employing strains that naturally produce chondroitin-like polysaccharides on semi-defined media, there is still the need to reduce manufacturing costs by providing a cost-effective biotechnological alternative to currently used animal-based extraction procedures.

Keywords: E. coli K4, chondroitin, microbial cell factories, glycosaminoglycans, renewable resources

Procedia PDF Downloads 47

Authors: Mohsin Ali Shaikh, Weiguo Song, Rehmat Karim, Muhammad Kashan Surahio, Muhammad Usman Shahid

Abstract:

Fire investigations face challenges due to the complexity of fire development, and real-world accidents lack repeatability, making it difficult to apply standardized approaches. The unpredictable nature of fires and the unique conditions of each incident contribute to the complexity, requiring innovative methods and tools for effective analysis and reconstruction. This study proposes to provide the modern accident analysis model through numerical reconstruction for fire investigation in textile buildings. This method employs computer simulation to enhance the overall effectiveness of textile-building investigations. The materials and evidence collected from past incidents reconstruct fire occurrences, progressions, and catastrophic processes. The approach is demonstrated through a case study involving a tragic textile factory fire in Karachi, Pakistan, which claimed 257 lives. The reconstruction method proves invaluable for determining fire origins, assessing losses, establishing accountability, and, significantly, providing preventive insights for complex fire incidents.

Keywords: fire investigation, numerical simulation, fire safety, fire incident, textile building

Procedia PDF Downloads 43

Authors: Mohammad Shahid Jamil

Abstract:

In this study we have investigated students’ learning and satisfaction in one of the course offered in the Foundation Program at Qatar University. We implied innovative teaching methodology that emphasizes on enhancing students’ thinking skills, decision making, and problem solving skills. Some interesting results were found which can be used to further improve the teaching methodology. To make sure the full use of technology in Foundation Program at Qatar University has started implementing new ways of teaching Math course by using Blackboard as an innovative interactive tool to support standard teaching such as Discussion board, Virtual class, and Study plan in My Math Lab “MML”. In MML Study Plan is designed in such a way that the student can improve their skills wherever they face difficulties with in their Homework, Quiz or Test. Discussion board and Virtual Class are collaborative learning tools encourages students to engage outside of class time. These tools are useful to share students’ knowledge and learning experiences, promote independent and active learning and they helps students to improve their critical thinking skills through the learning process.

Keywords: blackboard, discussion board, critical thinking, active learning, independent learning, problem solving

Procedia PDF Downloads 391