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In the present work, 0.25 wt%GNP-Ti composites were prepared through powder metallurgy route by adopting three types of mixing modes to investigate the extent of mixing on the mechanical and tribological properties. Dry ball milling, wet ball milling, and rotator mixing were independently employed to homogenize the composite constituents. Three types of composite powders obtained were subsequently sintered into composite pellets by cold compaction followed by vacuum sintering. Morphological investigation of composite powders performed by SEM revealed better homogenization of GNPs in Ti matrix for dry ball milled composite powder, whereas wet ball milled and rotator mixed composite powders showed aggregation and bundling of GNPs. Micro Vickers hardness of composites produced via dry ball milling is 4.56% and 15.7% higher than wet ball milled and rotator mixed samples, respectively. Wear test performed by pin-on-disk tribometer showed higher wear loss for wet ball milled and rotator mixed composites in comparison to dry ball milled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effect of dietary inclusion of sodium bicarbonate on production performance of caged layers during summer was studied. One hundred sixty commercial layers (24 weeks old) were purchased from a poultry farm and were reared in a group for one week (adaptation period). At the start of 25th week of age, these layers were divided into 20 experimental units/replicates (8 layers/replicate), which were further allotted to five treatment groups (4 replicate/treatment). Five diets (A, B, C, D and E) were prepared with or without addition of sodium bicarbonate. Diet A, was without sodium bicarbonate and served as control whereas, diets B, C, D, and E contained 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0% sodium bicarbonate, respectively. All the diets were iso-nitrogenous (CP 17%) and iso-caloric (ME 2700 Kcal/Kg) and were fed to the experimental birds ad libitum, for 12 weeks (26-37 weeks of age). Data on feed consumption, number of eggs produced, egg weight and egg mass laid by the birds were recorded. These data were used for the calculation of feed conversion ratios on the basis of per dozen eggs and per kg egg mass produced. Five eggs from each replicate were checked weekly for their shell thickness, yolk index, albumen index, haugh unit score, yolk pH, albumen pH, specific gravity and yolk cholesterol. The results revealed that dietary inclusion of sodium bicarbonate significantly (P<0.05) improved feed consumption, water intake, weight gain, egg production and feed efficiency of the birds. Addition of sodium bicarbonate significantly (P<0.05) increased egg weight, egg shell thickness and specific gravity of eggs produced by the birds. Yolk cholesterol was found to be the lowest in the eggs produced by the birds fed diets containing 1% NaHCO3. Whilst, pH of egg yolk and egg albumen were found to be significantly (P<0.05) higher in birds, which were fed diet containing 2% sodium bicarbonate Respiration rate and rectal temperature was found to be lowered (P<0.05) by addition of sodium bicarbonate in the diet of layers. No mortality was observed in any group throughout the experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The herein reported study was conducted to evaluate the parasitic potential of Anisopteromalus calandrae (Howard) against larvae of Callosobruchus maculatus (F.), Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) and Sitophilus oryzae (L.) while, adult pests on the food medium treated with two formulations of diatomaceous earth (DE); Marine (Celite) and fresh water (Perma Guard) as grain protectants. The DE was applied at three dose rates i.e., 200, 400 and 600 ppm, at 25°C temperature and 65% relative humidity. Mortality and emergence of adults of tested insects and parasitoid were observed after 14 and 28 days of exposure respectivly. The highest mortality of C. maculatus was 43.37% against higher dose of Perma Guard (600 ppm) while the maximum mortality of S. oryzae was recorded 39.56% on application of Celite (600 ppm). The maximum mortality of A. calandrae parasitoid was observed 66.86% in S. oryzae infested grains treated with higher dose of Perma Guard (600 ppm), while 63.81% mortality of parasitoid was observed in S. oryzae infested grains at higher dose of Celite DE (600 ppm). The Perma Guard effectively controls population of tested insect's mortality than the Celite. The highest emergence of C maculatus observed was 62.44% at lower dose of 200 ppm of Perma Guard DE while the highest emergence recorded on application of Celite was 60.66% from C. maculatus. The highest emergence of A. calandrae was 65.65% from S. oryzae at lower dose of 200 ppm of Perma Guard DE while the highest emergence of parasitoid recorded on application of Celite was found 60.66% at lower dose of 200 ppm from C maculatus. The emergence of tested insects and parasitoid increased with the decrease in dose rate of DE in most of the tested combinations. Higher dose (600 ppm) of both DE (Celite and Perma Guard) used in experiment showed mortality of tested insects and parasitoid activity of Anisopteromalus calandrae and furthermore release of A. calandrae on host insects would be adversely affected by use of diatomaceous earth product on stored grains. The experiments were carried out in laboratory of Grain Research, Training and Storage Management cell, Department of Entomology, University of Agriculture Faisalabad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concept of Islam, as a complete and comprehensive code of life has played the role of theoretical foundation and primary motivating force in the movement for Pakistan. Muslims of Indian subcontinent demanded a separate state for themselves to fashion all of the individual and collective spheres of life in accordance with teachings and commandments of Islam. They believed that Islam is more than western concept of religion, according to which religion is merely a set of beliefs and rituals. Islam has its own social, political, economic, legal, moral, judicial, educational and cultural systems and for implementation of these systems, they required an independent state. This concept has challenged and negated the dominant ideology of that time i.e. Secularism, which declares the religion; private affair of a person and negates any role of region in social, political and all of the collective spheres of life. This paper attempts to investigate Islamic nature of the idea of Pakistan and compares it with its antagonistic ideology of secularism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research study investigates the phytochemical and pharmacological importance of Bromus pectinatus. Qualitative phytochemical analysis of this plant was carried out to use standard method for the presence of various bioactive constituents. Results showed the ethanolic extract contain natural product such as steroids, alkaloids, tannins, coumarin, saponins, flavonoids and phenols. These compounds play a key role to reducing various disease and microbial inhibition. The ethanolic extract also showed the antimicrobial and antifugal activity against different pathogenic bacterial strains e.g Escherichia coli, Micrococus leutus, Protus vulgarus, and Kelebsela pneumona and three fungal strains Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus flavous, Aspergillus niger. The antioxidant assay was performed as % inhibition of DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl) free radicals. The plant extract has more antioxidant activity as compared to ascorbic acid. The maximum concentration (800µg/ml) is the most effective of all. The plant extract showed the high cytotoxicity activity against Brine shrimp. Moreover, the plant extract exhibited allelopathic effect on different growth parameters of wheat plant mostly at higher concentration. These results indicate that the BPEE have a potential broad-spectrum antimicrobial, cytotoxic, antioxidant and phytotoxic activity due to the presence of bioactive compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lymphedema is a chronic skin disease that induces tissue fibrosis (stiffness). Tissue tonometry has been used to assess skin and tissue compressibility in lymphedema, primarily in research on arm lymphedema after breast cancer. A digital tonometer, the Indurometer (Flinders and SA Biomedical Engineering, Australia), has shown excellent intra-rater reliability in young healthy people in Australia and Myanmar and was able to detect covert changes in young, asymptomatic Myanmar people infected with lymphatic filariasis. It has not been tested in overt lower-limb lymphedema. Methods and Results: The Indurometer was used in a cluster randomized trial in Bangladesh and Ethiopia to measure tissue compressibility among adults affected by moderate to severe lymphatic filariasis- or podoconiosis-related leg lymphedema. The study compared different self-care intervention and after baseline there were follow-ups at 4, 12, and 24 weeks. Three consecutive Indurometer scores were collected by two data collection teams in each country at the mid-calf of each leg. Indurometer scores were available for three timepoints in Bangladesh and four time-points in Ethiopia. An intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated for each data collection team, and a coefficient of variation (CV) was used to assess measurement agreement in moderate and severe stages of lymphedema. The intra-rater reliability among local research assistants was good to excellent in both countries at all time-points (ICC range 0.829 [95% confidence interval; CI 0.730-0.896]-0.992 [95% CI 0.989-0.995]). In Bangladesh, agreement between measures was highest among unaffected legs (range 16%-22%) and lowest in severe lymphedema (range 19%-39%). CV scores in Ethiopia showed no distinct pattern for lymphedema stage (range 15%-32%). Conclusion: The Indurometer is an inexpensive and easy-to-use device to assess skin and tissue compressibility and should be considered in clinical research on lower-limb lymphedema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]