1,332 research outputs found
Pioneers of Library Movement in Pakistan
No full textThe paper aims to describe in brief the contribution of seven leaders of Pakistan librarianship, viz. K.B. Khalifa M. Asadullah, Prof. Dr. Abdul Moid, Dr. Abdus Subuh Qasimi, Muhammad Shafi, Fazal Elahi, Khawaja Nur Elahi and S. V. Hussain. The early library developments are given for better understanding of the role of these leaders
Towards Divine Economics: Some Testable Propositions
No full textThroughout the human history, the religion has remained a fundamental feature of social construct and human behaviour. Religious orientation plays important role in shaping human perceptions about economic and non-economic activities. With few exceptions, religion has remained an un-explored area in economics. For most economists, narrative and metaphor have no place in a rational choice theory, which is a wrong belief. In fact, any approach that considers behavioural laws satisfying the criteria of objectivity, reproducibility, and refutability is scientific and falls in purview of rational choice framework. A few studies, however, do exist on economics of religion under rational choice concerning to households, groups, and entire “religious markets”. [Becker (1976); Iannaccone (1988, 1990, 1992, 1993); Mack and Leigland (1992)]. Rosenberg (1985) presents discussion of the limitations of neoclassical economic theory due to its reliance on exogenous differences in taste and preference. It is argued that these limitations cannot be circumvented by findings and theories in other disciplines (e.g., psychology), because any measurement of preferences must begin with neoclassical assumptions about rationality. The alternative to tasteendogeniety advanced by [Becker (1976)] is found to only circumvent the usual difficulties if “stable preferences” notion is interpreted as needs. Further advancement is not taking place because of the important heterogeneous variables, which have yet received little attention from economists. Such variables may be found in attitudes and values acquired by consumers in variety of social and religious environments.
Mediapipe based Preprocessed VGGFace2 Dataset
No full textVGGFace2 Dataset and Face Mesh PreprocessingIntroductionThe VGGFace2 dataset is a large-scale face recognition dataset containing over 3.31 million images of 9,131 identities, with an average of 362 images per identity. The dataset is designed to include extensive variations in pose, age, illumination, ethnicity, and profession, making it one of the most diverse and challenging face recognition datasets available. For more details, please refer to the original publication:VGGFace2: A dataset for recognizing faces across pose and age - DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.1710.08092
Preprocessing Using MediaPipe 3D Face MeshOn this dataset, we applied the MediaPipe-based 3D face mesh algorithm to accurately detect faces while removing all background elements, including hair. Our preprocessing strictly retained facial landmarks, ensuring that only the essential facial features were preserved. This approach significantly enhanced the accuracy and generalization of our model, as the model was trained exclusively on landmark-based facial data.
Training and PerformanceThe preprocessed data was utilized to train Xception model, which resulted in remarkably accurate outcomes due to the strictly landmark-based facial representation. The model demonstrated robust performance including explainable-AI, proving that eliminating unnecessary background elements contributed positively to its efficiency and reliability.
CitationIf you use this dataset or the preprocessed version in your work, please cite both of the following:
VGGFace2 Dataset:
@article{Cao2018VGGFace2, title={VGGFace2: A dataset for recognizing faces across pose and age}, author={Cao, Qiong and Shen, Li and Xie, Weidi and Parkhi, Omkar M and Zisserman, Andrew}, journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.08092}, year={2018}}
DOI: [10.48550/arXiv.1710.08092](https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1710.08092) Preprocessed Dataset using MediaPipe:@dataset{Shah2025_MediaPipe_FaceMesh, title={MediaPipe-based 3D Face Mesh Preprocessed VGGFace2 Dataset}, author={Shah, Syed Taimoor Hussain and Shah, Syed Adil Hussain and Zamir, Ammara and Qayyum, Kainat and Shah, Syed Baqir Hussain and Fatima, Syeda Maryam and Deriu, Marco Agostino}, year={2025}, doi={10.5281/zenodo.15078557}} DOI: [10.5281/zenodo.15078557](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15078557)
ContactFor any questions or further details, please feel free to contact us.Syed Taimoor Hussain ShahPolitoBIOMed Lab, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Turin, ItalyEmail: [email protected]: 0000-0002-6010-677
Pakistan: Imdad Hussain Chandio
No full textA document from Amnesty International's Urgent Action Networ
Author: Poststructuralist Discourse (and the Concerns of Intizar Hussain)
No full textThis article begins by discussing the author's intention in relation to Russian formalism and new criticism, and then proceeds to explore the ideas about the author in post-structuralist discourse. It alludes to the social, political, and philosophical aspects of the differences between Western and Urdu criticism on this matter. Intizar Hussain, an important Urdu writer, expressed reservations in this regard, so his concerns are presented alongside a detailed analysis of the views of Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault. This is done to clarify the author's concept in the words of these Western intellectuals and to elucidate the nature of the concerns raised by Urdu writer
Author: Poststructuralist Discourse (and the Concerns of Intizar Hussain)
No full textThis article begins by discussing the author's intention in relation to Russian formalism and new criticism, and then proceeds to explore the ideas about the author in post-structuralist discourse. It alludes to the social, political, and philosophical aspects of the differences between Western and Urdu criticism on this matter. Intizar Hussain, an important Urdu writer, expressed reservations in this regard, so his concerns are presented alongside a detailed analysis of the views of Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault. This is done to clarify the author's concept in the words of these Western intellectuals and to elucidate the nature of the concerns raised by Urdu writer.</p
Hydraulic simulations to evaluate and predict design and operation of the Chashma Right Bank Canal
No full textIrrigation systems / Irrigation canals / Flow control / Velocity / Canal regulation techniques / Hydraulics / Simulation models / Design / Operations / Crop-based irrigation / Distributary canals / Water delivery / Policy / Protective irrigation / Water allocation / Water requirements / Sedimentation / Water distribution / Equity / Water conveyance / Pakistan / Chashma Right Bank Canal
Biography of Dr Ishrat Hussain: IBA organises book launch ceremony
No full textThis article is about the book look launch ceremony that was held for Dr. Ishrat Husain for his biography authored by Dr. Sibtain Naqvi, Unravelling Gordian Knots – The Work and Worlds of Dr Ishrat Hussain, at The IBA City Campus. Esteemed speakers including, Dr Hussain, Dr S Akbar Zaidi, Executive Director, IBA, Dr Syed Noman ul Haq, Dean, UMT, Lahore and Sibtain Naqvi, book author, were invited to the stage
Ganpat Rai Bheel (Author Bio)
No full textGanpat Rai Bheel (39) is an organic intellectual, a columnist, translator and an Ambedkarite anti-caste activist. Bheel has published about 210 essays/articles in local newspapers in Sindhi and Urdu languages on the problem of caste among Dalits and Muslims, Dalit politics and activism, and actively defends a Dalit cause. He has also edited and got published an autobiography of Mama Faizoo (Faiz Muhammad Sheedi), an Afro-Sindhi who had been a member of several splinter local Black and Dalit associations during his lifetime. In 2016, he also translated B.R Ambedkar’s biography from Urdu to Sindhi and published it from the platform of Pakistan Dalit Adab Forum. Some of his essays have been translated in Urdu, Hindi and English. He also co-authored a Dalit Manifesto in 2016 for Dalit Sujaag Tehreek, a group of anti-caste activists who strived to the mainstream anti-caste narrative.
In addition to that, he published and edited Dalit Adab consistently from 2007 to 2018. Owing to financial constraints, Bheel could not have published Dalit Adab, and SCFP is also now almost a dormant organization. Nonetheless, he continues to influence local Dalit activism through his essays in newspapers, and social media blogging. He has also edited and published other Dalit organization’s literature such as Kolvansh, a newsletter of Pakistani Kolhi Itehad, and the newsletters of Bheel Intellectual Forum (BIF); the local caste-based associations of Dalits.
Presently, Ganpat Rai Bheel is translating the works of B.R. Ambedkar, and writing a book on ‘Being Dalit in Pakistan’ in which he mounts the critique of Sindhi nationalist politics from the Ambedkarian perspective. In his writings, Ganpat Rai draws parallels between Sindhi nationalism and Hindu nationalism and shows how the empirically existing problem of caste is buried under Ashrafiya-Savarna hegemonic ideology. No wonder, Bheel’s essays have been neglected by the dominant intellectual lobbies, and his perspective on Sindhi nationalist politics has been derided as archaic, and destructive of Sindhi national whole. The writing and publication of this book will be a great booster for local Dalit activism to negotiate issues of political representation with conviction and certitude.
Ganpat Rai is a school teacher at government school in Mithi, a town in the middle of the Thar Desert in Tharparkar, Sindh. Son of an elementary school teacher, he was born and raised in a Dalit family in a far-flung village in Tharparkar. In the mid-90s he developed an interest in politics after perceiving that oppressed castes can be redeemed from the scourge of caste through class struggle. He joined ‘Tabkati Jedojahad’, a Trotskyites’ group, and began writing for social injustice and for the rights of poor class in general. In the late 90s, he came to know about Dalit struggle through BBC radio programs and some early columns of VT Rajshekhar that were passed to him by Khursheed Qaimkhani
Ganpat Rai Bheel (Author Bio)
No full textGanpat Rai Bheel (39) is an organic intellectual, a prolific essayist, columnist, translator, and an Ambedkarite activist. Bheel writes in local newspapers in Sindhi on everyday Dalit politics. He has published about 210 essays/articles in local newspapers in Sindhi and Urdu languages on the problem of caste among Dalits and Muslims, Dalit politics and activism, and actively defends the Dalit cause.
He has also edited an autobiography of Mama Faizoo (Faiz Muhammad Sheedi), an Afro-Sindhi and a member of several splinter local Black and Dalit associations during his lifetime. In 2016, he also translated B.R Ambedkar’s biography from Urdu to Sindhi and published it with Pakistan Dalit Adab Forum. Some of his essays have been translated into Urdu, Hindi, and English. He also co-authored a Dalit Manifesto in 2016 for Dalit Sujaag Tehreek, a group of anti-caste activists who strived to the mainstream anti-caste narrative.
In addition to that, he also issues a magazine Pakistan Dalit Adab, a quarterly newsletter from the platform of Pakistan Dalit Adab Forum and Scheduled Caste Federation of Pakistan (SCFP). He published and edited Dalit Adab consistently from 2007 to 2018. Owing to financial constraints, Bheel could not have published Dalit Adab, and SCFP is also now almost a dormant organization. Nonetheless, he continues to influence local Dalit activism through his essays in newspapers, and social media blogging. He has also edited and published other Dalit organization’s literature such as Kolvansh, a newsletter of Pakistani Kolhi Itehad, and the newsletters of Bheel Intellectual Forum (BIF); the local caste-based associations of Dalits.
Presently, Ganpat Rai Bheel is translating the works of B.R. Ambedkar, and writing a book on ‘Being Dalit in Pakistan’ in which he mounts the critique of Sindhi nationalist politics from the Ambedkarian perspective. In his writings, Ganpat Rai draws parallels between Sindhi nationalism and Hindu nationalism and shows how the empirically existing problem of caste is buried under Ashrafiya-Savarna hegemonic ideology. No wonder, Bheel’s essays have been neglected by the dominant intellectual lobbies, and his perspective on Sindhi nationalist politics has been derided as archaic, and destructive of Sindhi national whole. The writing and publication of this book will be a great booster for local Dalit activism to negotiate issues of political representation with conviction and certitude
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