Search results for: Muhammad Naseem Baig

Authors: Muhammad Naseem Baig, Abdul Qudoos Khan, Jamal Ali

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Ground deformations in deep excavations are affected by wall stiffness and pile embedment ratio. This paper presents the findings of a parametric study of a 64-ft deep excavation in mixed stiff soil conditions supported by cantilever pile wall. A series of finite element analysis has been carried out in Plaxis 2D by varying the pile embedment ratio and wall stiffness. It has been observed that maximum wall deflections decrease by increasing the embedment ratio up to 1.50; however, any further increase in pile length does not improve the performance of the wall. Similarly, increasing wall stiffness reduces the wall deformations and affects the deflection patterns of the wall. The finite element analysis results are compared with the field data of 25 case studies of cantilever walls. Analysis results fall within the range of normalized wall deflections of the 25 case studies. It has been concluded that deep excavations can be supported by cantilever walls provided the system stiffness is increased significantly.

Keywords: Excavations, support systems, wall stiffness, cantilever walls.

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Authors: Muhammad Naseem Baig, Razia Sharif

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From past many decades human beings are suffering from plethora of natural disasters. Occurrence of disasters is a frequent process; it changes conceptual myths as more and more advancement are made. Although we are living in technological era but in developing countries like Pakistan disasters are shaped by socially constructed roles. The need is to understand the most vulnerable group of society i.e. females; their issues are complex in nature because of undermined gender status in the society. There is a need to identify maximum issues regarding females and to enhance the achievement of millennium development goals (MDGs). Gender issues are of great concern all around the globe including Pakistan. Here female visibility in society is low, and also during disasters, the failure to understand the reality that concentrates on double burden including productive and reproductive care. Women have to contribute a lot in society so we need to make them more disaster resilient. For this non-structural measures like awareness, trainings and education must be carried out. In rural and in urban settings in any disaster like earthquake or flood, elements like gender perspective, their age, physical health, demographic issues contribute towards vulnerability. In Pakistan the gender issues in disasters were of less concern before 2005 earthquake and 2010 floods. Significant achievements are made after 2010 floods when gender and child cell was created to provide all facilities to women and girls. The aim of the study is to highlight all necessary facilities in a disaster to build coping mechanism in females from basic rights till advance level including education.

Keywords: Disaster resilient, Gender cell, Millennium development.

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Authors: Irfan Qadir Baig, Muhammad Sharif, Aman Ullah Khan

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This paper introduces an isolated and unique ancient language Burushaski, spoken in Hunza, Nagar, Yasin and parts of Gilgit in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. It explains the working mechanism of Multi Language Text Editor for Urdu and Burushaski. It is developed under the use of ISO/IEC 10646 Unicode standards for Urdu and Burushaski open-type fonts. It gives an ample opportunity to this regional ancient language to have a modern Information technology for its promotion and preservation. The main objective of this research paper is to help preserve the heritage of such rare languages and give smart way of automation. It also facilitates to those who are interested in undertaking research on Burushaski or keen to trace fonatic relationship between the national Urdu language and Burushaski. Since this editor covers both Burushaski and Urdu so it can play an important role to introduce Burusho linguistic culture to the world at large. Precisely, as a result of this research paper, Burushaski publication through IT means would be possible.

Keywords: Burushaski, Bri Naqsh, Unicode, Burusho, Hunza, Meshaski.

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Authors: Muhammad Naeem, Abdus Salam, Muhammad Ashraf, Muhammad Imran, Mehtab Ahmad, Muhammad Jamshed Khan, Muhammad Mazhar Ayaz, Muzaffar Ali, Arshad Ali, Memoona Qayyum Abir Ishtiaq

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The present study was designed to demonstrate the seasonal variations in physico-chemical parameters of fish farm at Govt. Nursery Unit, Muzaffargarh, Department of Fisheries Govt. of Punjab, Pakistan for a period of eight months from January to August 2008. Water samples were collected on fifteen days basis and have been analyzed for estimation of Air temperature, Water temperature, Light penetration, pH, Total dissolved oxygen, Clouds, Carbonates, Bicarbonates, Total carbonates, Total dissolved solids, Chlorides, Calcium and Hardness. Seasonal fluctuations were observed in all the physico-chemical parameters of fish farm. The overall physicochemical parameters of fish pond water remained within the tolerable range throughout the study period.

Keywords: Freshwater, Fish farm, Water quality, Seasonal variation, Chemical factor

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Authors: Muhammad Jamil Khan, Muhammad Sharif Zia, Muhammad Qasim

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Insect pests are the major source of crop damage, yield and quality reduction in Pakistan and else where in the world. Cotton crop is the most hit crop in Pakistan followed by rice and the second most important foreign exchange earning crop. A wide variety of staple, horticultural and cash crops grown, reflect serious problems of many types of insect pests. To overcome the insect pest problem, pesticide use in Pakistan has increased substantially which has now been further intensified. Pesticides worth more than billions of rupees are imported every year. This paper reviews the over all pesticide use in Pakistan in relation to pesticide prices, support price of cotton and rice, pesticide use in different provinces of Pakistan on different crops and their impact on crop productivity. The environmental pollution caused by the use of pesticides, contamination of soil and water resources and the danger associated with the disposal of their empty containers is also discussed in detail.

Keywords: Pesticide use, crop productivity, environmentalpollution

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Authors: Abdur-Rahman M. A., R. M. Mohd. Ali, R. A. I. R. Yaacob.

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In the fifteenth century, the Malacca Empire emerged as the centre of Islamic civilization in the Malay Archipelago. The history had been recorded in Sulalat Al-Salatin, an important literary source about the genealogy of all Kings in Malacca. The objective of this study was to analyze the understanding of sayings from Prophet Muhammad among Malays in Malacca during the fifteenth century through all of the hadith quoted in Sulalat Al-Salatin. This study used content analysis methodology to validate the sayings where all of them were critically analyzed and compared with the classical hadith sources from prominent Muslim scholars. As a result, only two out of the four quotations were considered as authentic sayings of Prophet Muhammad. This study also showed the importance of the palace as the centre of the Islamic education system and the role played by Muslim preachers from outside of Malacca to propagate Islam in Malacca.

Keywords: Hadith in Malay Annals, Malay Annals, SejarahMelayu, Sulalat Al-Salatin.

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Authors: Abdul Rauf, Muhammad Irfan, Muhammad Nadeem, Ishtiaq Ahmed, Hafiz Muhammad Nasir Iqbal

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Rhizopus oligosporus was used in the present study for the production of protease enzyme under SSF. Sunflower meal was used as by-product of oil industry incorporated with organic salts was employed for the production of protease enzyme. The main purpose of the present was to study different parameters of protease productivity, its yields and to optimize basal fermentation conditions. The optimal conditions found for protease production using sunflower meal as a substrate in the present study were inoculum size (1%), substrate (Sunflower meal), substrate concentration (20 g), pH (3), cultivation period (72 h), incubation temperature (35oC), substrate to diluent-s ratio (1:2) and tween 81 (1 mL). The maximum production of protease in the presence of cheaper substrate at low concentration and stability at acidic pH, these characteristics make the strain and its enzymes useful in different industry.

Keywords: Acidic protease, Rhizopus oligosporus, Mediaoptimization, Solid state Fermentation

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Authors: Muhammad Anjum Aqueel, Zaighum Abbas, Mubasshir Sohail, Muhammad Abubakar, Hafiz Khurram Shurjeel, Abu Bakar Muhammad Raza, Muhammad Afzal, Sami Ullah

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Keeping in view the increasing demand, queen of Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) was reared artificially in this experiment at varying diets including royal jelly. Larval duration, pupal duration, weight, and size of pupae were evaluated at different diets including royal jelly. Queen larvae were raised by Doo Little grafting method. Four different diets were mixed with royal jelly and applied to larvae. Fructose, sugar, yeast, and honey were provided to rearing queen larvae along with same amount of royal jelly. Larval and pupal duration were longest (6.15 and 7.5 days, respectively) at yeast and shortest on honey (5.05 and 7.02 days, respectively). Heavier and bigger pupae were recorded on yeast (168.14 mg and 1.76 cm, respectively) followed by diets having sugar and honey. Due to production of heavier and bigger pupae, yeast was considered as best artificial diet for the growing queen larvae. So, in the second part of experiment, different amounts of yeast were provided to growing larvae along with fixed amount (0.5 g) of royal jelly. Survival rates of the larvae and queen bee were 70% and 40% in the 4-g food, 86.7% and 53.3% in the 6-g food, and 76.7% and 50% in the 8-g food. Weight of adult queen bee (1.459±0.191 g) and the number of ovarioles (41.7±21.3) were highest at 8 g of food. Results of this study are helpful for bee-keepers in producing fitter queen bees.

Keywords: Apis melifera L., dietary effect, survival and development, honey bee queen.

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Authors: Fahim A., Mutahira N. Naseem

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Spam is any unwanted electronic message or material in any form posted too many people. As the world is growing as global world, social networking sites play an important role in making world global providing people from different parts of the world a platform to meet and express their views. Among different social networking sites Facebook become the leading one. With increase in usage different users start abusive use of Facebook by posting or creating ways to post spam. This paper highlights the potential spam types nowadays Facebook users’ faces. This paper also provide the reason how user become victim to spam attack. A methodology is proposed in the end discusses how to handle different types of spam.

Keywords: Artificial neural networks, Facebook spam, social networking sites, spam filter.

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Authors: Muhammad Salam, Nasir Rashid, Shah Khalid, Muhammad Raees Khan

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In this paper a modified version NXM of traditional 5X5 playfair cipher is introduced which enable the user to encrypt message of any Natural language by taking appropriate size of the matrix depending upon the size of the natural language. 5X5 matrix has the capability of storing only 26 characters of English language and unable to store characters of any language having more than 26 characters. To overcome this limitation NXM matrix is introduced which solve this limitation. In this paper a special case of Urdu language is discussed. Where # is used for completing odd pair and * is used for repeating letters.

Keywords: cryptography, decryption, encryption, playfair cipher, traditional cipher.

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Authors: Muhammad Umair Shahid, Abdul Rehman, Mudassir Mukhtar, Muhammad Nauman

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The smart antenna is the prominent technology that has become known in recent years to meet the growing demands of wireless communications. In an overcrowded atmosphere, its application is growing gradually. A methodical evaluation of the performance of Fixed Beamforming algorithms for smart antennas such as Multiple Sidelobe Canceller (MSC), Maximum Signal-to-interference ratio (MSIR) and minimum variance (MVDR) has been comprehensively presented in this paper. Simulation results show that beamforming is helpful in providing optimized response towards desired directions. MVDR beamformer provides the most optimal solution.

Keywords: Fixed weight beamforming, array pattern, signal to interference ratio, power efficiency, element spacing, array elements, optimum weight vector.

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Authors: Muhammad Naeem, Abdus Salam, Muhammad Asghar Bashir, Abir Ishtiaq, Qurat-ul-Ane Gillani and Asma Salam

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In the present study, 49 Hybrid (Catla catla ♂ x Labeo rohita ♀) were sampled from Al-Raheem Fish Hatchery, Village Ali Pure Shamali, Jhang Road, 18 Km from Muzaffar Garh using a cast net and Live fishes were transported to research laboratory. Mean percentage for water found 79.13 %, ash 6.58 %, fat 2.22 % and protein content 12.06 % in whole wet body weight. It was observed that body constituents were found increasing in the same proportion with an increase in body weight while significant proportional increase was observed with total length. However, condition factor remained insignificant (P>0.05) with body constituents.

Keywords: Hybrid fish, Body composition, Condition factor, Predictive equations

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Authors: V. I. Thajudin Ahamed, P. Dhanasekaran, A. Naseem, N. G. Karthick, T. K. Abdul Jaleel, Paul K.Joseph

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It is established that the instantaneous heart rate (HR) of healthy humans keeps on changing. Analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) has become a popular non invasive tool for assessing the activities of autonomic nervous system. Depressed HRV has been found in several disorders, like diabetes mellitus (DM) and coronary artery disease, characterised by autonomic nervous dysfunction. A new technique, which searches for pattern repeatability in a time series, is proposed specifically for the analysis of heart rate data. These set of indices, which are termed as pattern repeatability measure and pattern repeatability ratio are compared with approximate entropy and sample entropy. In our analysis, based on the method developed, it is observed that heart rate variability is significantly different for DM patients, particularly for patients with diabetic foot ulcer.

Keywords: Autonomic nervous system, diabetes mellitus, heart rate variability, pattern identification, sample entropy

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Authors: Muhammad Tahir, Muhammad H. Sayyad, Dil N. Khan, Fazal Wahab

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Herein, the organic semiconductor methyl orange (MO), is investigated for the first time for its electronic applications. For this purpose, Al/MO/n-Si heterojunction is fabricated through economical cheap and simple “drop casting” technique. The currentvoltage (I-V) measurements of the device are made at room temperature under dark conditions. The I-V characteristics of Al/MO/n-Si junction exhibits asymmetrical and rectifying behavior that confirms the formation of diode. The diode parameters such as rectification ratio (RR), turn on voltage (Vturn on), reverse saturation current (I0), ideality factor (n), barrier height ( b f ), series resistance (Rs) and shunt resistance (Rsh) are determined from I-V curves using Schottky equations. These values of these parameters are also extracted and verified by applying Cheung’s functions. The conduction mechanisms are explained from the forward bias I-V characteristics using the power law.

Keywords: Electrical properties, Organic/inorganic heterojunction diode, Methyl Orange, Cheungs Functions

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Authors: Muhammad Naeem, Asif Hussain Bhatti, Muhammad Fahad Nouman

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115 samples of Labeo calbasu ranged 8.0-17.9cm length with mean11.90±1.96 and 4.9-68.5g weight with mean 22.25±12.54 from the River Chenab, Southern Punjab, Pakistan were analyzed to investigate length-weight relationships (LWR) of fish in relation to condition factor (K). Standard length (SL), fork length (FL), head length (HL) head width (HW), body girth (BG), dorsal fin length (DFL), dorsal fin base (DFB), pectoral fin length (PcFL), pelvic fin length (PvFL) and anal fin length (AFL) are found to be highly correlated with increasing total length and wet body weight (r > 0.500). Wet body weight has positive (r=0.540) and total length has no correlation (r=0.344) with calculated Condition factor (K). The slope “b" in the relationship is 3.27 and intercepts -2.2258.

Keywords: Labeo calbasu, Length-weight relationship, Body weight, condition factor

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Authors: Muhammad Yamin Younis, Muhammad Amjad Sohail, Tawfiqur Rahman, Zaka Muhammad, Saifur Rahman Bakaul

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The performance of Advection Upstream Splitting Method AUSM schemes are evaluated against experimental flow fields at different Mach numbers and results are compared with experimental data of subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic flow fields. The turbulent model used here is SST model by Menter. The numerical predictions include lift coefficient, drag coefficient and pitching moment coefficient at different mach numbers and angle of attacks. This work describes a computational study undertaken to compute the Aerodynamic characteristics of different air vehicles configurations using a structured Navier-Stokes computational technique. The CFD code bases on the idea of upwind scheme for the convective (convective-moving) fluxes. CFD results for GLC305 airfoil and cone cylinder tail fined missile calculated on above mentioned turbulence model are compared with the available data. Wide ranges of Mach number from subsonic to hypersonic speeds are simulated and results are compared. When the computation is done by using viscous turbulence model the above mentioned coefficients have a very good agreement with the experimental values. AUSM scheme is very efficient in the regions of very high pressure gradients like shock waves and discontinuities. The AUSM versions simulate the all types of flows from lower subsonic to hypersonic flow without oscillations.

Keywords: Subsonic, supersonic, Hypersonic, AUSM+, Drag Coefficient, lift Coefficient, Pitching moment coefficient, pressure Coefficient, turbulent flow.

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Authors: Zenab Naseem, Sadia Imran

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One of the key solutions to the climate change crisis is to develop renewable energy resources, such as solar and wind power and biogas. This paper explores the socioeconomic and environmental viability of solar energy, based on a case study of the Soan Valley Development Program. Under this project, local farmers were provided solar water pumps at subsidized rates. These have been functional for the last seven years and have gained popularity among the local communities. The study measures the economic viability of using solar energy in agriculture, based on data from 36 households, of which 12 households each use diesel, electric and solar water pumps. Our findings are based on the net present value of each technology type. We also carry out a qualitative assessment of the social impact of solar water pumps relative to diesel and electric pumps. Finally, we conduct an environmental impact assessment, using the lifecycle assessment approach. All three analyses indicate that solar energy is a viable alternative to diesel and electricity.

Keywords: Alternative energy sources, pollution control adoption and costs, solar energy pumps, sustainable development.

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Authors: Muhammad Haroon Siddiqui, Muhammad Rehan Khalid

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This paper evaluates the performance of a novel algorithm for tracking of a mobile node, interms of execution time and root mean square error (RMSE). Particle Filter algorithm is used to track the mobile node, however a new technique in particle filter algorithm is also proposed to reduce the execution time. The stationary points were calculated through trilateration and finally by averaging the number of points collected for a specific time, whereas tracking is done through trilateration as well as particle filter algorithm. Wi-Fi signal is used to get initial guess of the position of mobile node in x-y coordinates system. Commercially available software “Wireless Mon" was used to read the WiFi signal strength from the WiFi card. Visual Cµ version 6 was used to interact with this software to read only the required data from the log-file generated by “Wireless Mon" software. Results are evaluated through mathematical modeling and MATLAB simulation.

Keywords: Particle Filter, Tracking, Wireless Local Area Network, WiFi, Trilateration

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Authors: Muhammad Mazhar Manzoor, Muhammad Aqeel, Abdul Sattar

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Islamic banking is one the most blossoming doctrine in economic system of the world. The Fast growing awareness about Islamic financial system has brought strong feeling to Muslims to confront the western interest-based economic cycle. The Islamic economic system is emerging as a reliable alternative to the interest based system. This study is proposed to ascertain the motivational factors encouraging people to go for Islamic banking in Pakistan. These pulsing factors are determined by generation of hypothesis that there are certain factors which are urging people to opt Islamic banking system and to see the differences in their ranking by applying Friedman test. These factors include: Economically derived factors such as stability of Islamic banks in crisis, profit and loss sharing doctrine and equity sharing etc. This study also highlights the religiously derived factors such as interest free banking, Shariah tenets and supervisory of Islamic Shariah board and sociopsychological factors.

Keywords: Islamic banking, motivational factors, religiousfactors, socio-psychological factors and economic factors

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Authors: Umair Baig, Kohei Nagai

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At highly congested reinforcement regions, which is common at beam-column joint area, clear spacing between parallel bars becomes less than maximum normal aggregate size (20mm) which has not been addressed in any design code and specifications. Limited clear spacing between parallel bars (herein after thin cover) is one of the causes which affect anchorage performance. In this study, an experimental investigation was carried out to understand anchorage performance of reinforcement in Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) and Normal Concrete (NC) at highly congested regions under uni-axial tensile loading.  Column bar was pullout whereas; beam bars were offset from column reinforcement creating thin cover as per site condition. Two different sizes of coarse aggregate were used for NC (20mm and 10mm). Strain gauges were also installed along the bar in some specimens to understand the internal stress mechanism. Test results reveal that anchorage performance is affected at highly congested reinforcement region in NC with maximum aggregate size 20mm whereas; SCC and Small Aggregate (10mm) gives better structural performance. 

Keywords: Anchorage capacity, bond, Normal Concrete, self-compacting concrete.

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

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

Keywords: Cultural challenges, emerging economy, female entrepreneurship, leadership.

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Authors: A. Khalique, T. Naseem, N. Haque, Z. Rasool

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The objective of current study was to investigate the effect of Bacillus subtilis PB6 (CloSTAT) as a probiotic in broilers. The corn-soybean based diet was divided into four treatment groups; T1 (basal diet with no probiotic and no Clostridium perfringens); T2 (basal diet challenged with C. perfringens without probiotic); T3 (basal diet challenged with C. perfringens having 0.05% probiotic); T4 (basal diet challenged with C. perfringens having 0.1% probiotic). Every treatment group had four replicates with 24 birds each. Body weight and feed intake were measured on weekly basis, while ileal bacterial count was recorded on day-28 following Clostridium perfringens challenge. The 0.1% probiotic treatment showed 7.2% increase in average feed intake (P=0.05) and 8% increase in body weight compared to T2. In 0.1% treatment body weight was 5% higher than T3 (P=0.02). It was also observed that 0.1% treatment had improved feed conversion ratio (1.77) on 6^th week. No effect of treatment was observed on mortality and ileal bacterial count. The current study indicated that 0.1% use of probiotic had positive response in C. perfringens challenged broilers.

Keywords: Bacillus subtilis PB6, antibiotic growth promoters, Clostridium perfringens, CloSTAT, broilers.

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

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

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

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Authors: Hafiz Muhammad Obaid, Bilal Wajid, Nauman Haider, Muhammad Zafrullah

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In this research article, a comprehensive analysis is performed to compare the diagnostic performance of soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) and sTfR/log ferritin index tests in the differential diagnosis of iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and anemia of chronic disease (ACD). The analysis is performed for both sTfR and sTfR/log ferritin index using a set of 11 studies. The overall odds ratios for sTfR and sTfR/log ferritin index were 36.79 and 119.32 respectively, using 95% confidence interval. The relative sensitivity, specificity. positive likelihood ratio (LR) and negative LR values for sTfR in relation to sTfR/log ferritin index were 81% vs 85%, 84% vs 93%, 6.31 vs 13.95 and 0.18 vs 0.14 respectively. The summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves are also plotted for both sTfR and sTfR/log ferritin index. The area under SROC curves for sTfR and sTfR/log ferritin index was found to be 0.9296 and 0.9825 respectively. Although both tests are useful, the sTfR/log ferritin index seems to be more effective when compared with sTfR.

Keywords: Anemia, sTfR, iron deficiency, ferritin, odds ratio, sensitivity.

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Authors: Sher Muhammad, Mirza Muhammad Waqar

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It is necessary to monitor and identify mangroves types and spatial extent near coastal areas because it plays an important role in coastal ecosystem and environmental protection. This research aims at identifying and mapping mangroves types along Karachi coast ranging from 24.79⁰ to 24.85⁰ in latitude and 66.91⁰ to 66.97⁰ in longitude using hyperspectral remote sensing data and techniques. Image acquired during February, 2012 through Hyperion sensor have been used for this research. Image pre processing includes geometric and radiometric correction followed by Minimum Noise Fraction (MNF) and Pixel Purity Index (PPI). The output of MNF and PPI has been analyzed by visualizing it in n-dimensions for end member extraction. Well distributed clusters on the n-dimensional scatter plot have been selected with the region of interest (ROI) tool as end members. These end members have been used as an input for classification techniques applied to identify and map mangroves species including Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM), Spectral Feature Fitting (SFF) and Spectral Information Diversion (SID). Only two types of mangroves namely Avicennia Marina (White Mangroves) and Avicennia germinans (Black Mangroves) have been observed throughout the study area.

Keywords: Mangrove, Hyperspectral, SAM, SFF, SID.

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

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

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

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Authors: Muhammad Rehan Usman, Muhammad Arslan Usman, Soo Young Shin

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The new era of digital communication has brought up many challenges that network operators need to overcome. The high demand of mobile data rates require improved networks, which is a challenge for the operators in terms of maintaining the quality of experience (QoE) for their consumers. In live video transmission, there is a sheer need for live surveillance of the videos in order to maintain the quality of the network. For this purpose objective algorithms are employed to monitor the quality of the videos that are transmitted over a network. In order to test these objective algorithms, subjective quality assessment of the streamed videos is required, as the human eye is the best source of perceptual assessment. In this paper we have conducted subjective evaluation of videos with varying spatial and temporal impairments. These videos were impaired with frame freezing distortions so that the impact of frame freezing on the quality of experience could be studied. We present subjective Mean Opinion Score (MOS) for these videos that can be used for fine tuning the objective algorithms for video quality assessment.

Keywords: Frame freezing, mean opinion score, objective assessment, subjective evaluation.

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Authors: Muhammad Ijaz Khan, Samina Jalali, Beenish Shahid, S. A. Shami, Muhammad Ikramullah

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In the present study, the response of Nili Ravi buffalo oocytes to recombinant human follicle stimulating hormone (rhFSH) (Organon) on meiotic maturation in vitro was examined. Oocytes were matured in vitro in medium containing either 0 or 0.05 IU/ ml rhFSH and the stage of nuclear maturation recorded after 24 hours. The percentage of oocytes in the control group undergoing germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) observed after 24 hours of culture was 29 % whereas as in rhFSH group the percentage was 10 % were at this stage (P< 0.001).Thus in the presence of rhFSH, a significantly greater number of oocytes had progressed to the more advanced stages of nuclear maturation. Indeed, the maturation of GV (Germinal Vesicle) stage oocytes to the metaphase II (M II) stage after 24 hours was significantly (P< 0.0001) increased by the addition of rhFSH (82 % VS 47 %). The percentage of degenerated oocytes after 24 hours of culture was 24 % in control group, whereas in rhFSH group the percentage was 8 % after 24 hours. Degeneration of the oocytes after 24 hours was not significantly (P = 0. 9361) decreased.

Keywords: Buffalo, in vitro, oocytes, recombinant FSH.

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Authors: Ishtiaq Ahmed, Muhammad Anjum Zia, Hafiz Muhammad Nasir Iqbal

Abstract:

The purpose of the present work was to study the production and process parameters optimization for the synthesis of cellulase from Trichoderma viride in solid state fermentation (SSF) using an agricultural wheat straw as substrates; as fungal conversion of lignocellulosic biomass for cellulase production is one among the major increasing demand for various biotechnological applications. An optimization of process parameters is a necessary step to get higher yield of product. Several kinetic parameters like pretreatment, extraction solvent, substrate concentration, initial moisture content, pH, incubation temperature and inoculum size were optimized for enhanced production of third most demanded industrially important cellulase. The maximum cellulase enzyme activity 398.10±2.43 μM/mL/min was achieved when proximally analyzed lignocellulosic substrate wheat straw inocubated at 2% HCl as pretreatment tool along with distilled water as extraction solvent, 3% substrate concentration 40% moisture content with optimum pH 5.5 at 45°C incubation temperature and 10% inoculum size.

Keywords: Cellulase, Lignocellulosic residue, Processoptimization, Proximal analysis, SSF, Trichoderma viride.

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Authors: Mohammad Amjad, Muhammad Iqbal Zafar, Ashfaq Ahmed Maan, Muhammad Tayyab Kashif

Abstract:

Obesity is an abnormal physical condition where an increased and undesirable fat accumulates in the human body. Obesity is an international phenomenon. In the present study, 12 schools were randomly selected from each district considering the areas i.e. Elite Private Schools in the private sector, Government schools in urban areas and Government schools in rural areas. Interviews were conducted with male students studying in grade 5 to grade 9 in each school. The sample size was 600 students; 300 from Faisalabad district and 300 from Rawalpindi district in Pakistan. A well-structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used for data collection. The calibrated scales were used to attain the heights and weights of the respondents. Obesity of school-going children depends on family types, family size, family history, junk food consumption, mother’s education, weekly time spent in walking, and sports facility at school levels. Academic performance, physical health and psychological health of school going children are affected with obesity. Concrete steps and policies could minimize the incidence of obesity in children in Pakistan.

Keywords: BMI, cardiovascular disease, fast food, morbidity and overweight.

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