2,793 research outputs found
Preliminary analysis of the diet of wild boar (Sus scrofa L., 1758) in an agro-ecosystem of central Punjab, Pakistan
No full textHafeez, S., Ashfaq, M
Data for: Size at Sexual Maturity of Waved Whelk (Buccinum undatum) on the Eastern Scotian Shelf
No full textThe files contain the raw data sheets and the figures which have been used in the research. Additional data sheets, including the processed ones can be provided. Only the EXCEL has been used in the production of figures so there are no resource files (e.g. photoshop etc). Please contact Author for more detail, if other data files are required
پاکستانی رومانی افسانہ اور اشفاق احمد کا تصور ِ محبت: PAKISTANI ROMANTIC SHORT STORY AND ASHFAQ AHMAD’S CONCEPT OF LOVE
No full textRomance and romanticism has a great impact on Urdu Literature. Romantic Urdu afsana has been written before the partition of sub-continent. Many Pakistani short story writers has started their career as “Afsana Nigar” before the Pakistan came into being. After the partition of Hindustan, people were so much depressed and scattered in both sides of boarder. At that time, in Pakistan, many writers created some characters showing love and affection to console the Pakistanis in their hardest time of life. Ashfaq Ahmad, a renowned fiction and non-fiction writer of Urdu literature, is one of them. He has a mystical nature in his concepts of love. Ashfaq Ahmed has multidimensional aspects in his personality as an author. He was a short story writer, columnist, playwright, a translator, poet and played a famous character of Talqeen Shah in Radio drama. His short stories and dramas ‘collections like “ Aik Muhabbat Safo Asany” “ Subhaany Fsaney” “ Ujley Phool” “Tota Kahani” and “ Tilissim Hosh Afza” “ Aik Muhabbt So Dramay” “ Mann Chalay ka Sauda” etc. Present his philosophy of love and affection very deeply. His writings are a beautiful combination of love and Sufism and present different shapes of love. He knew well what the love is. He is a realistic writer. He presented love and affection in a very simple and pure way. This emotion makes a person a great human being, without the appropriation of religion. His philosophy of love and affection based on scarifies
Hepatitis C virus entry: role of host and viral factors
No full textAbstract not availableBaila Samreen, Saba Khaliq, Usman Ali Ashfaq, Mahwish Khan, Nadeem Afzal, Muhammad Aiman Shahzad, Sabeen Riaz, Shah Jaha
Pseudosperma quercinum Naseer & Jabeen & Ashfaq & Akbar & Hussain & Khalid 2023, sp. nov.
No full text<i>Pseudosperma quercinum</i> Naseer & Jabeen, <i>sp. nov</i>. (Figure 3 & 4) <p>MycoBank no.: MB 849661</p> <p>Etymology:—The specific epithet “quercinum ” refers to its habitat in oak forests.</p> <p> Holotype:— PAKISTAN. KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA province, Kurram district, Parachinar, 22 August 2019, <i>Arooj Naseer</i>, (holotype PC-93; LAH35232; GenBank MZ314058 for ITS; MZ314078 for LSU).</p> <p> Diagnosis:—Differs from <i>Pseudosperma umbrinellum</i> by the campanulate to conico-convex pileus with dark brown umbo and yellow-brown fibrillose streaks on creamy white context, a cylindrical stipe with fibrillose, furfuraceous, or almost flocculose apex, ellipsoid to phaseoliform (11.9 × 6.3 µm) basidiospores, and clavate to cylindrical cheilocystidia.</p> <p> Description:— <i>Basidiomata</i> medium-sized. <i>Pileus</i> 3–3.8 cm wide, campanulate to sub-conical, later conico-convex, umbonate, dark brown (7.5R 3/2) at umbo, with yellow-brown (7.5YR 4/6) fibrillose streaks on creamy white context (10Y8/2), dark brown (7.5R 3/2) patches along margins, surface fibrillose, margin striate, creamy white (10Y8/2). <i>Lamellae</i> crowded, adnexed to sinuate, first creamy white (10Y8/2), light silvery brown (10YR 7/2) when mature, edges fimbriate. <i>Lamellulae</i> alternating with lamellae. <i>Stipe</i> 4.3–5.5 × 0.6–0.8 cm, white (5B 9/2) with brown (5Y 5/4) and dark brown tinge at center, cylindrical, central, fibrillose, apex fibrillose, furfuraceous, or almost flocculose, surface dry, white flocculose, hollow, squamulose, base non bulbous and curved. <i>Odor</i> mild, sweet, like honey.</p> <p> <i>Basidiospores</i> [100/3/3] <b>(</b> 8.8–)8.9–13.8(–14.5) × (5.1–)5.6–6.9(–7.1) µm, avl × avw = 11.9 × 6.3 µm, Q = 1.5–2.1, Qav = 1.9, ellipsoid, phaseoliform, guttulate, apiculus small and indistinctive, pale brown to olive greenish in 5 % KOH, thick-walled. <i>Basidia</i> 18.4–32.3 × 8.9–12.7 µm, avl × avw = 26.9 × 10.9 µm, clavate, hyaline in 5 % KOH, thin-walled, 4-sterigmata. <i>Cheilocystidia</i> 18.8–41.6 × 9.8–25.7 µm, avl × avw = 32.2 × 16.2 µm, numerous, narrowly clavate, hyaline in 5 % KOH. <i>Pleurocystidia</i> absent. <i>Pileipellis</i> a cutis of cylindrical hyphae, 5.4–15.8 µm diam., avw = 9.8 µm, septate, branched, hyaline in 5 % KOH. <i>Stipitipellis</i> a cutis of cylindrical hyphae, 3.4–9.9 µm diam., avw = 6.9 µm, septate, branched, hyaline in 5 % KOH. <i>Clamp connections</i> present in all tissues, abundant.</p> <p> Additional materials examined:— PAKISTAN. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Swat district, Malam Jabba valley, 1950 m asl., under <i>Quercus incana</i> Roxb. [= <i>Q. oblongata</i> D. Don] in mixed coniferous forest, 10 August 2016, <i>Sana Jabeen MJ1630</i> (LAH35233!; GenBank MZ314059 for ITS; MZ314079 for LSU. Kurram district, Parachinar, 31 July 2018, <i>Arooj Naseer</i>, <i>PC61</i>; (LAH37418!; GenBank OP303370 for ITS).</p> <p> Habitat and distribution:—Solitary on rich loamy soil under <i>Quercus spp</i>. in Kurrum district and Swat district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.</p>Published as part of <i>Naseer, Arooj, Jabeen, Sana, Ashfaq, Ammara, Akbar, Mahrukh, Hussain, Syed Iftikhar & Khalid, Abdul Nasir, 2023, Pseudosperma quercinum sp. nov. (Inocybaceae) from the Himalayan forests of Pakistan, pp. 260-270 in Phytotaxa 622 (4)</i> on pages 262-267, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.622.4.3, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/10084792">http://zenodo.org/record/10084792</a>
Technical and marketing support systems for successful small and medium-size enterprises in four countries
No full textStudies of successful and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and their marketing and technical support systems were undertaken for Colombia, Indonesia, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. Three to four subsectors were examined in each country. The sample worldwide amounted to 445 firms. Mechanisms to support export marketing varied across countries and subsectors. How they varied depended greatly on whether SMEs operated within well-developed private networks. When market penetration begins, transaction costs are high and collective marketing support can be important. As markets"thicken,"initiatives by foreign buyers become more important. Generally the most effective collective marketing support was of the kind that can be provided more effectively by decentralized organizations - such as industry associations or local governments and chambers of commerce (support firms'participation in trade fairs, for example) - than by central government institutions. Private mechanisms were more important than collective mechanisms for helping firms improve their technological capability. Demand for collective mechanisms tended to be greater when technological requirements of production were complex or when the endowments of private technological networks in certain countries or industries were weak. Broad-based collective technical support facilitates the emergence of an information-rich environment for firms, and may be worth pursuing in many settings. Examples of such support include: 1) sponsoring courses in specialized topics; 2) facilitating the use of expert consultants (either directly, by making a consultant available to a broad array of firms, or indirectly, by providing financial support for the use of consultants); and 3) promoting information-sharing among firms. Countries that already have strong broad-based collective support and that are moving into technologically more advanced activities might consider"high-intensity"support, but should proceed with caution.Microfinance,Small and Medium Size Enterprises,Small Scale Enterprise,Markets and Market Access,Water Conservation,Microfinance,Private Participation in Infrastructure,Small Scale Enterprise,Access to Markets,Markets and Market Access
Author highlights social media’s dominant role in today’s world at book launch
No full textThis article covers the launching of Dr Aasim Sajjad Akhtar’s book ‘The Struggle for Hegemony in Pakistan: Fear, Desire and Revolutionary Horizons’ at IBA City camus. IBA Executive Director Dr S Akbar Zaidi, visiting faculty at IBA Abira Ashfaq, and lawyer Faisal Siddiqui, and the author all talked at the book launching panel discussion
Relative GN&C Solution to Determine Small-Scale Features and the Internal Structure of a 40 Mdiameter Asteroid
No full textPolymerization reactions and modifications of polymers by ionizing radiation
No full textIonizing radiation has become the most effective way to modify natural and synthetic polymers through crosslinking, degradation, and graft polymerization. This review will include an in-depth analysis of radiation chemistry mechanisms and the kinetics of the radiation-induced C-centered free radical, anion, and cation polymerization, and grafting. It also presents sections on radiation modifications of synthetic and natural polymers. For decades, low linear energy transfer (LLET) ionizing radiation, such as gamma rays, X-rays, and up to 10 MeV electron beams, has been the primary tool to produce many products through polymerization reactions. Photons and electrons interaction with polymers display various mechanisms. While the interactions of gamma ray and X-ray photons are mainly through the photoelectric effect, Compton scattering, and pair-production, the interactions of the high-energy electrons take place through coulombic interactions. Despite the type of radiation used on materials, photons or high energy electrons, in both cases ions and electrons are produced. The interactions between electrons and monomers takes place within less than a nanosecond. Depending on the dose rate (dose is defined as the absorbed radiation energy per unit mass), the kinetic chain length of the propagation can be controlled, hence allowing for some control over the degree of polymerization. When polymers are submitted to high-energy radiation in the bulk, contrasting behaviors are observed with a dominant effect of cross-linking or chain scission, depending on the chemical nature and physical characteristics of the material. Polymers in solution are subject to indirect effects resulting from the radiolysis of the medium. Likewise, for radiation-induced polymerization, depending on the dose rate, the free radicals generated on polymer chains can undergo various reactions, such as inter/intramolecular combination or inter/intramolecular disproportionation, b-scission. These reactions lead to structural or functional polymer modifications. In the presence of oxygen, playing on irradiation dose-rates, one can favor crosslinking reactions or promotes degradations through oxidations. The competition between the crosslinking reactions of C-centered free radicals and their reactions with oxygen is described through fundamental mechanism formalisms. The fundamentals of polymerization reactions are herein presented to meet industrial needs for various polymer materials produced or degraded by irradiation. Notably, the medical and industrial applications of polymers are endless and thus it is vital to investigate the effects of sterilization dose and dose rate on various polymers and copolymers with different molecular structures and morphologies. The presence or absence of various functional groups, degree of crystallinity, irradiation temperature, etc. all greatly affect the radiation chemistry of the irradiated polymers. Over the past decade, grafting new chemical functionalities on solid polymers by radiation-induced polymerization (also called RIG for Radiation-Induced Grafting) has been widely exploited to develop innovative materials in coherence with actual societal expectations. These novel materials respond not only to health emergencies but also to carbon-free energy needs (e.g., hydrogen fuel cells, piezoelectricity, etc.) and environmental concerns with the development of numerous specific adsorbents of chemical hazards and pollutants. The modification of polymers through RIG is durable as it covalently bonds the functional monomers. As radiation penetration depths can be varied, this technique can be used to modify polymer surface or bulk. The many parameters influencing RIG that control the yield of the grafting process are discussed in this review. These include monomer reactivity, irradiation dose, solvent, presence of inhibitor of homopolymerization, grafting temperature, etc. Today, the general knowledge of RIG can be applied to any solid polymer and may predict, to some extent, the grafting location. A special focus is on how ionizing radiation sources (ion and electron beams, UVs) may be chosen or mixed to combine both solid polymer nanostructuration and RIG. LLET ionizing radiation has also been extensively used to synthesize hydrogel and nanogel for drug delivery systems and other advanced applications. In particular, nanogels can either be produced by radiation-induced polymerization and simultaneous crosslinking of hydrophilic monomers in “nanocompartments”, i.e., within the aqueous phase of inverse micelles, or by intramolecular crosslinking of suitable water-soluble polymers. The radiolytically produced oxidizing species from water, •OH radicals, can easily abstract H-atoms from the backbone of the dissolved polymers (or can add to the unsaturated bonds) leading to the formation of C-centered radicals. These C-centered free radicals can undergo two main competitive reactions; intramolecular and intermolecular crosslinking. When produced by electron beam irradiation, higher temperatures, dose rates within the pulse, and pulse repetition rates favour intramolecular crosslinking over intermolecular crosslinking, thus enabling a better control of particle size and size distribution. For other water-soluble biopolymers such as polysaccharides, proteins, DNA and RNA, the abstraction of H atoms or the addition to the unsaturation by •OH can lead to the direct scission of the backbone, double, or single strand breaks of these polymers
Choice of Irrigation Water Management Practice Affects Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall and Its Extremes
No full textThere is an emerging understanding toward the importance of land‐atmosphere interactions in the monsoon system, but the effects of specific land and water management practices remain unclear. Here, using regional process‐based experiments, we demonstrate that monsoon precipitation is sensitive to the choice of irrigation practices in South Asia. Experiments with realistic representation of unmanaged irrigation and paddy cultivation over north‐northwest India exhibit an increase in the late season terrestrial monsoon precipitation and intensification of widespread extreme events over Central India, consistent with changes in observations. Such precipitation changes exhibit substantially different spatial patterns in experiments with a well‐managed irrigation system, indicating that increase in unmanaged irrigation might be a factor driving the observed changes in the intraseasonal monsoon characteristics. Our findings stress the need for accurate representation of irrigation practices to improve the reliability of earth system modeling over South Asia.Anjana Devanand, Maoyi Huang, Moetasim Ashfaq, Beas Barik, and Subimal Ghos
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