Search

The designing, development of a software product needs lot of efforts whereas software testing is also a very challenging task but it is equally mandatory activity in order to ensure the quality of the product before shipping to customer. When it comes to the Agile model under which software builds are developed very frequently and development goes on a very high pace, software testing becomes more important and critical. Organizations following the agile methodology, encounter number of problems in formulating a software testing process unless they come up with a systematic testing approach based on right testing technique at a proper stage of the agile process. This paper addresses the relevant software testing techniques feasible at different stages of the agile process and proposes a dedicated software testing framework producing quality software products developed under agile methodology.

The definition on poverty has progressed into a multidimensional concept focusing more on socio-economic dimensions than being a mere measure of financial deprivation. Corresponding to this advancement, this study investigated the incidence of multidimensional poverty (MDP) in the Rawalpindi region of Pakistan, taking into account three dimensions, i.e. education, health and housing. Findings revealed an inconsistent declining trend of MDP over time. This inconsistency was mainly attributed to observed fluctuations in deprivation levels of education, health and housing in the region. Over time, education deprivation showed a significant net increase. Notably, the magnitude of MDP in rural areas was higher than in urban areas.

This comparative study investigated variations in food patterns across the seasons in rural Pakistan through assessing the changes in food variety, dietary diversity and calorie intake. It analyzed the situation using the primary information of 97 and 114 households surveyed in summer and winter respectively. Findings revealed a significant difference of households' food variety, dietary diversity and calorie intake across the seasons. In the winter, households' food basket was more diverse, showing 30%, 13%, and 8% rise in food variety, dietary diversity, and caloric intake, respectively, due mainly to the changes in food choices in winter. Rural households preferred to consume items from nutritious food groups (i.e., dried fruits and nuts, oilseeds, and locally preserved foods) during the severe cold weather. However, they did not substitute significantly the items from basic food groups (i.e., cereals, vegetables and legumes, tubers, and dairy products), with those belonging to nutritious groups. Based on findings, it is concluded that food variety, dietary diversity and calorie intake fluctuate across the seasons, therefore surveys of dietary patterns and calorie intake in one particular season may not be reliable, and food security status of households may not be generalized on the basis of one season survey.

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation on the behavior of Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams repaired and strengthened using Externally Bonded Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (EB-CFRP). The experimental program involved 19 static tests on 16 simply supported rectangular RC beams in which seven were tested without CFRP and 12 were wrapped with one or two layers of CFRP. Out of the 12 beams, six were first tested to failure, repaired with epoxy, then wrapped with CFRP sheets before the second and final test. The remaining six were wrapped with CFRP, while virgin, before testing. Among the objectives of this study was the analysis of the effectiveness of EB-CFRP as a strengthening method for shear strengthening of damaged RC beams and the identification of interaction between conventional shear reinforcement and the EB-CFRP strips. Analysis of test results suggests that the EB-CFRP strengthening of damaged beams repaired using epoxy injection not only helps the beams to recover but also significantly increase their shear capacity. Moreover, one layer of CFRP discrete strips improved the overall capacity of the shear-deficient beams by more than 60% and an additional layer further increased the shear capacity by another 30%. The results also confirmed that an interaction exists between steel stirrups and EB-CFRP strips when carrying the applied load. For instance, test results demonstrated that the contribution of CFRP in shear strength is affected by the quantity of steel stirrups. Finally, when compared to test results, the ACI and fib formula provided reasonable estimation of the additional shear strength contributed by the EB-CFRP discrete strips, except for the beams with moderate ratio of steel stirrups. However, Chen et al. model better estimated the EB-CFRP contribution to the shear capacity of RC beams with moderate ratio of steel stirrups.

This paper presents results from an ongoing research that is intended to study the behavior of URM walls for out-of-plane action. The effect of fiber reinforced shotcrete (FRS) as a strengthening method for the URM walls is examined. Eight URM walls were built inside a precast reinforced concrete boundary frame and strengthened with cement-based shotcrete mixes reinforced with different types of fibers. The masonry wall is 1.2x 1.2 m, and the masonry units were hollow concrete blocks (10 x 20 x 40 cm). Conventional fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) and engineered cementitious composite (ECC) were used as the strengthening layers sprayed on the surface of masonry walls. Control walls with plain shotcrete and conventional plastering mortar were also examined. Synthetic macro-fibers at dosage rate of 6 kg/m3 in FRC mix and Polyethylene micro-fibers at a dosage rate of 16 kg/m3 in ECC mix were considered in this study. The walls were placed in a carefully designed set up and tested under static central load using a hydraulic actuator with a capacity of 500 kN. The parameters recorded during testing were the applied load and out-of-plane displacement of the walls. Cracking pattern and failure modes were also monitored. The reported test results demonstrate that FRC and ECC mixes can significantly increase the out of plane strength and ductility of the URM walls.

The concept of poverty has gone beyond the monetary attributes to cover several dimensions directly influencing the level of individuals’ socio-economic status. Based on this methodological advancement, this study aims to approximate the deprivation of education, health and housing facilities to analyze the incidence of multidimensional poverty (MDP) at regional levels in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Findings revealed that the magnitude of MDP varies significantly across the regions due mainly to the variation in the deprivation levels of socio-economic aspects. Furthermore, the magnitude of MDP is higher in rural areas than urban areas in each region.

At the start of the 21st century, almost one-fifth of humanity-1.2 billion people-live on less than a dollar a day. Pakistan is confronted by a multifaceted dilemma. The major issues facing the country are poverty and income disparity, particularly among the rural segments of the society. And evidence indicates that both have worsened. The impact of poverty is particularly acute on the most vulnerable sections of the society. In the year 1990-91, 39.42 percent of the total 31.81 percent of the population below the poverty line were termed as absolute poor including 34 percent chronically and 61 percent extremely poor. During the last decade or so, nearly 2 million people are added to the clusters of extremely poor, 5 million to chronically poor, 7 million to transient poor. Thus bringing nearly 59.11 percent of the poor population out of poverty is to a certain extent easier than bringing the remaining 40.89 percent out of the poverty trap. Pakistan has witnessed a decline in the growth rate from 6.1 percent during the 1980s to 4.2 percent during the 1990s. However, the PovertyEquivalent Growth Rate (PEGR) analysis reported in this paper indicates that the pro-poor growth scenario is improving in rural Pakistan. If growthremains pro-poor in the subsequent years as it was in the year 2000-01, there is a likelihood that the growth will trickle down to the poor more thanthe non-poor. Punjab province also showed an improving trend in terms of pro-poor growth in the analysis. In order to improve PEGR, the poverty alleviation policy must be accompanied by rational income distribution.

Okun’s law postulates a negative relationship between movements of the unemployment rate and the real gross domestic product (GDP). This article investigates the link between the real GDP growth and unemployment, as described by Okun’s law. For this purpose we have used time series annual data during the period 1976 to 2010 and used unit root test, Hodrick–Prescott filter and least square method to find the relationship between GDP growth and unemployment in Pakistan. The empirical analysis shows that a rise of one percentage point of unemployment is associated with a decline of 0.36 percentage point of real GDP growth.

Background: The tremendous increase in disasters in the Middle East whether natural or man-made is unforeseen in its characters and/or catastrophic effects to the communities and infrastructure, thus making public awareness is a mandate to plan, respond and mitigate the community. Methods: We run Public Awareness program targeting non-medical university students, aiming at raising their knowledge about first aid and response during disasters by designing and conducting hands on First Aid and disaster preparedness course, pretest and post-test was done, graded from 0 to 10 for evaluation of the candidates and their level of knowledge, aiming at achieving 3 grades or above change in the candidates knowledge. Results: Of 95 candidates attended the course, 84 pre and dost were complete and included in this study. More than half of them were male (n = 55; 65%). There was a significant difference in the candidates grades in the pre and post-test, with near 95% achieved the goal and almost 90% was satisfied by the program. Discussion and conclusion: The surge in disasters over the last decades is unforeseen, in order to meet that threat national disaster plans should focus on effective disaster public awareness programs, targeting especially the most active and largest part of the community, which is university students.

The seeds of Nigella sativa have been used in folk medicine all over the world. The plant has been of interest due to its low degree of toxicity and beneficial pharmacological properties like antihypertensive, hypoglycemic, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antihistaminic, antioxidant, along with significant anti-neuplastic activities. The present clinical study was undertaken to ascertain the adjuvant effect of Nigella seeds on various clinical and biochemical parameters of metabolic syndrome. After final diagnosis and considering inclusion and exclusion criteria, one hundred and fifty nine patients were enrolled in this study. Patients were divided into two groups. In Group I (standard group), patients were advised to take simvastatin 10 mg once a day, metformin 500 mg twice a day, Enalapril 10 mg once a day, Atenolol 50 mg once a day and clopidagrel 75 mg once a day for a period of six weeks. In Group II ( Nigella seeds group), patients were advised the above standard medication plus Nigella seeds 250 mg twice daily for a period of six weeks. Blood sugar both fasting and postprandial, fasting lipid profile and different parameters of obesity were recorded before therapy and after completion of therapy. It was found that the addition of Nigella seeds provide beneficial effects in all the clinical and biochemical parameters for the adult’s treatment panel-III of metabolic disorders especially in fasting blood sugar, low density lipoproteins and high density lipoproteins. No sign of toxicity of the plant appeared in the Group II. Improvement in all other parameters like blood pressure, circumference of waist and serum triglyceride was also observed. Thus, Nigella seeds were found to be effective as an adjuvant therapy in patients of dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia. Keywords: Nigella sativa , toxicity, hyperglycemia, adjuvant, antihistaminic, antioxidant, patients

A wide variety of soil amendments like manures, compost, humic acid and bio-sorbents have been used to make nutrients available to crops as well as to protect them from toxic elements. Among soil amendments, biochar has been known to improve soil crumping, soil nutrients’ availability to plants and ultimately the yield of crops. A field experiment was conducted by using biochar prepared from Dalbergia sissoo Roxb. wood by brick batch process. Two doses of biochar were applied to soil 0 and 12 t ha-1. Fertilizer rates used in the experiments were 25% recommended doses of fertilizers (RDF), 50% RDF, 75% RDF and 100% RDF alone & with biochar applied under two factorial randomized complete block design in natural field conditions (RDF of NPK fertilizer is 120-60-60 kg ha-1) . Soil physico-chemical properties viz., bulk density, particle density, porosity, pH, electrical conductivity, organic matter, soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, available potassium, soil organic carbon, soil microbial biomass carbon and soil microbial biomass nitrogen were measured from the soil samples collected from 0-30 cm depth. All these parameters varied significantly among the treatments. A combined treatment of biochar and 50% of the recommended dose of NPK was most effective for soil conditioning. Agronomic parameters were also measured by standard methods. Due to chelation of heavy metal ions and availability of nutrients to the soil, yield of the crop may significantly increase due to cumulative treatment of fertilizer and biochar but upto a certain limit.

Climate change is a growing threat for humanity, while agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors to this impending change. This study analyses the risk associated with wheat crop (staple food) due to climatic factors and its possible impacts on food security in Pakistan. As climate changes, it effects crop productivity and has heterogeneous impacts with respect to geographical locations. This concern led us to select geographical classification of wheat farming in Pakistan. To capture risk factor for wheat production, we employed Just and Pope (1978) production function using district-level disintegrated data of area, fertilizer, yield and climatic variables (temperature and precipitation) for wheat over the period of 1984–2013. We used 20 years moving averages of monthly mean temperature and precipitation and further classified them according to the growth stages of wheat. We estimated the weather shocks and combine effect of climatic variables by variation and interaction terms, respectively. Further, we translated the impacts of vulnerability of wheat grain on per-capita availability to depict the national food security level. Our empirical findings showed that impact of variation in temperature during growing stage is highly significant and contributes in lowering the wheat yield risk, while increase in precipitation during growing and flowering stages poses high risk to wheat crop. Interaction terms of climatic variables showed non-significant risk-decreasing effect during all the three growth stages of the crop. Further, we found that average per-capita wheat grain availability is 135 kg in Pakistan, significantly higher than self-sufficiency level but highly vulnerable. Our findings suggest that there is a need to develop robust adaptation strategies to combat the risk phenomenon and to sustain and improve wheat grain production for the masses in future. Specifically, developing climate resistant cultivars and educating farmers about balance use of inputs (e.g. fertilizer and irrigation) coupled with engendering awareness about climate change could lead to secure the wheat grain production in the country.

Pesticides applications generate negative externalities for health, environment and also add up to economiccost to cotton producers. Consequently, there is an urgent need of alternative methods of pest management forenvironment friendly cotton production systems. Integrated pest management (IPM) is a right method which canreduce or minimize the use of pesticides as well as can lessen the cost. The cross-sectional data was collected fromdistrict Jhang. A random sample of 99 farmers was selected to collect the data. The main factors which influencethe adoption of IPM in cotton are age, education, farm size, farm labour, family size, progressive farmers andopinion leader farmers. The logistic regression was used to estimate the model. Three variables are significant at 5percent level of significance and two variables are significant at 10 percent level of significance. The family size andopinion leader farmer (variables) are non-significant. The Hosmer Lemeshow test value was 0.316 (Chi-square)which was non-significant indicating that overall model was correctly specified. The estimated odds ratio foreducation, farm size, family labour, progressive farmer, and opinion leader farmer were 1.49, 1.07, 11.08, 12.26and 4.27, respectively. All these factors had positive influence on the adoption of IPM technology by the magnitudeof their respective odds ratio. However, the estimated odds ratio for family size was 0.48 and for age was 0.88(both the estimated coefficient have negative signs), which suggests a negative influence on the adoption of IPM.

A Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) provides a novel non-muscular communication method via brain signals. A BCI-speller can be considered as one of the first published BCI applications and has opened the gate for many advances in the field. Although many BCI-spellers have been developed during the last few decades, to our knowledge, no reviews have described the different spellers proposed and studied in this vital field. The presented speller systems are categorized according to major BCI paradigms: P300, steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP), and motor imagery (MI). Different BCI paradigms require specific electroencephalogram (EEG) signal features and lead to the development of appropriate Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). The purpose of this review is to consolidate the most successful BCI-spellers published since 2010, while mentioning some other older systems which were built explicitly for spelling purposes. We aim to assist researchers and concerned individuals in the field by illustrating the highlights of different spellers and presenting them in one review. It is almost impossible to carry out an objective comparison between different spellers, as each has its variables, parameters, and conditions. However, the gathered information and the provided taxonomy about different BCI-spellers can be helpful, as it could identify suitable systems for first-hand users, as well as opportunities of development and learning from previous studies for BCI researchers.

Livestock rearing and its production are deemed as a lucrative economic activity which provides livelihood and sustainable growth to rural population of Gilgit Baltistan . This sector not only delivers variety of food and non-food products but also contributes in income generation and subsequently diminishes the rural poverty. The fundamental aim of this research endeavor was to assess the poverty status and its determinants for livestock growers of the study area. The primary data was gleaned from 100 respondents through interview schedule following systematic sampling procedure. Uni-dimensional poverty estimates for sampled respondents employing Foster, Greer, and Thorbecke (FGT) poverty index are incorporated as dependent variable to model the binary probability expressions through Logit. Out of Explanatory variables used in model, benefit from the livestock, age, form size and gender of household head, showed a significant but negative relationship with poverty status whereas, household size and education of household head had a insignificant influence on poverty. This study recommends, that increase in farm size and youth’s participation in livestock farming can elevate the household income. The capacity building of the livestock farmers through trainings and more women contribution in livestock sector should be encouraged to reduce poverty in the area which can play a remarkable role in sustainable economic growth.

This study analyze that influences of political stability on balance of payment and relative importance of political stability and economic freedom for healthy of balance of payment and exchange rate stability. Political stability has an important role in determination of healthy of balance of payment than economic freedom. This study focus on selected 10 Asian countries of various income levels and test the factor of political stability and economic freedom in stability of balance of payment by using a simple econometric model with various techniques. Our empirical finding shows that political stability is more important than economic freedom in stabilizing balance of payment. Stable political regime with visionary leadership leads the nations to higher level of favorable balance of payment. Political stability is playing major role than theoretical explanation to achieve surplus of balance of payment hence exchange rare stability. Surplus of trade balance, foreign direct investment and higher international reserves hence appreciation of Yuan in china mostly depends on its long term political stability under one party political system rather than pure theoretical determination of balance of payment. Attaining of political stability before economic freedom is policy implication of this study to achieve international financial stability.

Classifiers for the semi-supervised setting often combine strong supervised models with additional learning objectives to make use of unlabeled data. This results in powerful though very complex models that are hard to train and that demand additional labels for optimal parameter tuning, which are often not given when labeled data is very sparse. We here study a minimalistic multi-layer generative neural network for semi-supervised learning in a form and setting as similar to standard discriminative networks as possible. Based on normalized Poisson mixtures, we derive compact and local learning and neural activation rules. Learning and inference in the network can be scaled using standard deep learning tools for parallelized GPU implementation. With the single objective of likelihood optimization, both labeled and unlabeled data are naturally incorporated into learning. Empirical evaluations on standard benchmarks show, that for datasets with few labels the derived minimalistic network improves on all classical deep learning approaches and is competitive with their recent variants without the need of additional labels for parameter tuning. Furthermore, we find that the studied network is the best performing monolithic (`non-hybrid') system for few labels, and that it can be applied in the limit of very few labels, where no other system has been reported to operate so far.

Passive Optical Networks (PON) technology brings an evolution in the industry of Telecommunication for the provisioning of High Speed Internet (HSI) and Triple Play bundled Services that includes Voice, Data, and Video Streaming throughout the world. In Pakistan most of the service providers are offering broadband services on traditional copper OSP (Outside Plant) network since 2000. Demand for the high speed internet and broadband is increasing rapidly, it is desired with great need to migrate from traditional copper based OSP network to PON – FTTx (Fiber To The x) infrastructure. Considering the geographical requirements in Pakistan a scalable fiber network is required which can be optimized as per the user’s requirements and demands with high speed bandwidth efficiency, involving the minimum losses and with ideal capital expenditure (CAPEX). In this work a platform for migration from copper to fiber access network with a scalable and optimized PON – FTTx infrastructure in green field and dry field areas of Pakistan have been proposed using Geographic Information system (GIS). In any developing country like Pakistan having the same cultural and geographical topology, this platform can be used to migrate from copper to fiber access network to provide the PON based telecom services. The developed platform for migration from copper to PON based fiber has been studied, planned, and then simulated on a selected geographical area of Pakistan with physical execution that showed better and efficient results with reduction in capital and operational expenditures. A factual plan without ambiguities assists the operators of Pakistan to analyze/forecast bandwidth requirements of an area, optimized network planning along with the in time and efficient deployment.

Demand for food and raw materials are increasing with world population growth. To ensure food security for world’s increasing population, a great concern should be put on sustainable use of natural resources, especially fresh water resources, which is even more important for arid and semi-arid climates like Afghanistan. Low water use efficiency and bad irrigation practices are reported as main reasons, infield level, for low self-sufficiency ratio of food production in Afghanistan .Many models have been proposed and practices so far for planning and scheduling of irrigation. Some of these models rely on metrological data by calculating ETo with minimal consideration to soil properties, while some models more emphasized on soil water status and availability to plants, but not much research and emphasis have been done on detailed soil physical properties for irrigation planning and scheduling. This study focuses and deals with detailed and fundamental study of soil physical properties for irrigation planning and scheduling. The model is developed on case study of three upland fields in Mie prefecture of Japan. Characteristic of Afghanistan agriculture has been organized. In particular, the importance of upland agriculture is commentary. Current problems and challenges for upland field irrigation are described. Furthermore, the needs to focus on the soil of farmland were discussed. Discussion on the behavior of irrigation water in the soil is presented and it was noted for the mutual relationship of macro pores (for drainage) and soil matrix (for soil water retention). In addition, fundamental perspectives of irrigation planning were discussed. Detailed field investigation methods (for farmland irrigation), laboratory analysis methods (for formulate upland irrigation plan), and results for both field and lab investigation is presented. Understanding of the results was discussed among three study sites (as case study) for comparing the suitability, problems and challenges of each site for upland irrigation planning. General comprehensive discussion has been taken. The author conducted a comprehensive proposal for new approaches to the upland irrigation plan in Afghanistan. Same model detailed investigation is required to be implemented in Afghanistan and current irrigation practices have to be improved to increase food production toward food self-sufficiency., Submitted to the Division of Environmental Science and Technology For the Degree of Master of Science In the Graduate School of Science In the Graduate School of Bioresources University of Mie, Japan, 2, 194

Theoretical EMI shielding performance of few layered graphene-thermoplastic polyurethane composite is predicted based on experimental dielectric characteristics. Initially, the EMI shielding effectiveness is estimated for a range of composites based on graphene nanosheets (GNS) volume fraction (V f) at room temperature. An overall attenuation of ~2 dB is predicted at the maximum GNS concentration (0.0055 V f) mainly due to reflection phenomena as a function of frequency (25 kHz–5 MHz). The electrical network formation at 0.0055 V f GNS is evident from the predicted EMI shielding results. The 0.0055 V f GNS-TPU composite is then evaluated for an estimation of EMI shielding effectiveness at elevated temperatures. An increasing trend in EMI shielding effectiveness is predicted as a function of temperature which reaches ~80 dB (25 kHz) at 453 K. Further increase in temperature (463–473 K) takes attenuation to well above 100 dB. The GNS–GNS interaction at elevated temperatures is responsible for the huge attenuation clearly depicted by the reflection phenomena. The attenuation due to absorption phenomena is quite suppressed in the lower frequency with an increasing trend being observed around 5 MHz.

This research paper is part of an ongoing research on the behaviour of Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams retrofitted with Externally Bonded Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (EB-CFRP). A total of 5 large-scale rectangular beams, previously damaged due to shear loading, were repaired and strengthened with EB-CFRP and tested in this study. The major cracks of the damaged beams were injected with epoxy and the beams were wrapped with 2 layers of EB-CFRP discrete strips with 100mm width and 150mm center to center spacing. The beams were instrumented and tested to failure under three points loading in simply supported configuration. The measured test parameters were the beams deflection, maximum load, and the strain in the FRP strips. The failure mode was also observed. The results showed that applying EB-FRP strips increased the shear strength significantly relative to the original shear capacity of the beam. The results demonstrate that the application of EB-FRP strips used in this study is an effective repair method that can be used to repair and strengthen damaged beams.

Sparse coding is a popular approach to model natural images but has faced two main challenges: modelling low-level image components (such as edge-like structures and their occlusions) and modelling varying pixel intensities. Traditionally, images are modelled as a sparse linear superposition of dictionary elements, where the probabilistic view of this problem is that the coefficients follow a Laplace or Cauchy prior distribution. We propose a novel model that instead uses a spike-and-slab prior and nonlinear combination of components. With the prior, our model can easily represent exact zeros for e.g. the absence of an image component, such as an edge, and a distribution over non-zero pixel intensities. With the nonlinearity (the nonlinear max combination rule), the idea is to target occlusions; dictionary elements correspond to image components that can occlude each other. There are major consequences of the model assumptions made by both (non)linear approaches, thus the main goal of this paper is to isolate and highlight differences between them. Parameter optimization is analytically and computationally intractable in our model, thus as a main contribution we design an exact Gibbs sampler for efficient inference which we can apply to higher dimensional data using latent variable preselection. Results on natural and artificial occlusion-rich data with controlled forms of sparse structure show that our model can extract a sparse set of edge-like components that closely match the generating process, which we refer to as interpretable components. Furthermore, the sparseness of the solution closely follows the ground-truth number of components/edges in the images. The linear model did not learn such edge-like components with any level of sparsity. This suggests that our model can adaptively well-approximate and characterize the meaningful generation process.

This study was designed to evaluate the antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities of a compound, umbelliferone, isolated from the chloroform fraction of Potentilla evestita in animal models. When tested against acetic acid-induced noxious stimulus, it significantly prolonged pain threshold and provided 38.38% and 60.95% reduction in abdominal constriction at 5 and 10 mg/kg i.p., respectively. Post-umbelliferone injection evoked significant dose-dependent reduction in noxious stimulation with 33.65% and 58.89% pain attenuation at 5 and 10 mg/kg i.p., respectively, in the initial phase. In the late phase, it illustrated more dominant effect with 37.65% and 63.79% blockade of painful sensation. Similarly, it exhibited significant anti-inflammatory activity during various assessment times (1-5 h) with 46.28% and 66.13% amelioration after 4th of administration against induced oedema. In conclusion, umbelliferone possessed strong antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities by inhibiting both peripheral and centrally acting pain mediators.

Background This paper constitutes an important ethnobiological survey in the context of utilizing biological resources by residents of Kala Chitta hills of Pothwar region, Pakistan. The fundamental aim of this research endeavour was to catalogue and analyse the indigenous knowledge of native community about plants and animals. The study is distinctive in the sense to explore both ethnobotanical and ethnozoological aspects of indigenous culture, and exhibits novelty, being based on empirical approach of Multinomial Logit Specifications (MLS) for examining ethnobotanical and ethnozoological uses of specific plants and animals. Methods To document the ethnobiological knowledge, the survey was conducted during 2011–12 by employing a semi-structured questionnaire and thus 54 informants were interviewed. Plant and animal specimens were collected, photographed and properly identified. Distribution of plants and animals were explored by descriptive and graphical examination. MLS were further incorporated to identify the probability of occurrence of diversified utilization of plants and animals in multipurpose domains. Results Traditional uses of 91 plant and 65 animal species were reported. Data analysis revealed more medicinal use of plants and animals than all other use categories. MLS findings are also in line with these proportional configurations. They reveal that medicinal and food consumption of underground and perennial plants was more as compared to aerial and annual categories of plants. Likewise, medicinal utilization of wild animals and domestic animals were more commonly observed as food items. However, invertebrates are more in the domain of medicinal and food utilization. Also carnivores are fairly common in the use of medicine while herbivores are in the category of food consumption. Conclusion This study empirically scans a good chunk of ethnobiological knowledge and depicts its strong connection with indigenous traditions. It is important to make local residents beware of conservation status of species and authentication of this knowledge needs to be done in near future. Moreover, Statistically significant findings impart novelty in the existing literature in the field of ethnobiology. Future conservation, phytochemical and pharmacological studies are recommended on these identified plants and animals in order to use them in a more sustainable and effective way.

This study was designed to evaluate the antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities of a compound, umbelliferone, isolated from the chloroform fraction of Potentilla evestita in animal models. When tested against acetic acid-induced noxious stimulus, it significantly prolonged pain threshold and provided 38.38% and 60.95% reduction in abdominal constriction at 5 and 10 mg/kg i.p., respectively. Post-umbelliferone injection evoked significant dose-dependent reduction in noxious stimulation with 33.65% and 58.89% pain attenuation at 5 and 10 mg/kg i.p., respectively, in the initial phase. In the late phase, it illustrated more dominant effect with 37.65% and 63.79% blockade of painful sensation. Similarly, it exhibited significant anti-inflammatory activity during various assessment times (1–5 h) with 46.28% and 66.13% amelioration after 4th of administration against induced oedema. In conclusion, umbelliferone possessed strong antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities by inhibiting both peripheral and centrally acting pain mediators.