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The present study aimed to monitor the ambient air quality along the main road to assess risk factors to which various living and non-living things are exposed in Rahim Yar Khan, an industrial town of Southern Punjab, Pakistan. LaMotte air sampling pump was used to monitor SO2, NO2 and total oxidants concentration. GasAlert?Extreme Single-Gas Detectors were used to monitorpersonal exposure of CO, O2 and Cl2, whereas, Mini-Vol SPM sampler was used to sample PM10. Monitoring was done three times a day to assess the short-term exposure and five times a year to analyze the effect of seasonal shifts. Highest concentration of CO, SO2, NO2, total oxidants and PM10 was observed in summer season. Lowest pollution level was observed in winter season. Bus station and residential areas were the most polluted sites, whereas vegetative area was found to be the least polluted. The results indicated that vehicular movement played an important role in a gradual increase of air pollutants from morning to evening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lahore is an ancient historic city and possesses a remarkable architectural heritage. The city served as regional capital of many empires but owes much of its architectural developments to Mughal and British. The Mughals laid the physical and social framework of Lahore, while the British transformed the city into modern times by introducing new institutions and technologies. The British government, proceeding to colonize India, constructed many governmental and public building in European classical styles. However, towards the end of 19th century, they assimilated and adopted the native Indian styles in architecture leading to the development of European Indo Islamic style. This paper explores the architectural achievements of the British Executive Engineer and Architect, Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob in India who was intricately involved in the revival of traditional building crafts in Punjab, particularly, in Jeypore state (now Jaipur) in the late nineteenth century. During his tenure of three decades in India, (1867-1902), he constructed many important buildings both for the Government and the private sector. The buildings he designed were a testimony of a mixture of European and Indo Islamic features, The paper highlights his design philosophy and architectural contributions which have never been discussed in any scholarship with the major focus on Punjab, Lahore as well as Jaipur. The information has been gathered from different sources; site visits, Punjab Archives, British libraries, Annual reports on public works and his portfolio of Jaipur. This research paper will surely open up new avenues for the future researcher in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing a unified approach to deal with the conservation of historic city centers has been a great challenge in many countries. Iran, the cradle of ancient civilizations has been the center of debate regarding conservation of historic rudiments and forceful technology-driven modernization. This paper presents different policies and approaches towards urban conservation in Iran and their impact on city transformation with particular reference to Yazd city. This research employs an in-depth case study method due to its qualitative and exploratory nature. Two areas within Yazd city representing the conservation-led regeneration and physically-redevelopment approaches have been chosen. The paper analyzes the formulation process of different approaches and identifies their impact on city transformation. The paper concluded that reinforcement of institutional and administrative framework, integration of policies, reducing the role of central government and decentralization of responsibilities created a more successful path towards urban revitalization. It was recommended that the latest trend of adopting and developing an integrated approach to the conservation of historic environments can be further strengthened through the involvement of local leadership and communities of historic city centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the backdrop of recent revival of interests in developing plant based insecticides, the present study was carried out to evaluate the antitermitic properties in medicinal plant Ocimum sanctum. The toxic and repellent activity of crude extracts of inflorescence, leaf, root and stem of Ocimum sanctum in different solvents i.e., hexane, butanol, chloroform, methanol, ethyl acetate and water were studied against the termite species, H. indicola. The termite mortality was observed after 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11th day of treatments. Results revealed that after eleven days of feeding, all extracts showed moderate toxic effect, however the maximum termite mortality (84.45 ± 27.21) was observed in the ethyl acetate leaves extract and minimum mortality (43.89 ± 39.97) was observed in stem extract of water. In each extract, mortality was significantly different from control. Also the leaves extract caused more mortality, suggesting the availability of high contents of toxic materials in leaves. All extract treated filter paper had a significantly repellent effect on H. indicola. It was also revealed that maximum repellency (29.1) was in methanol root extracts while water extracts showed minimum repellency (21.3). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]