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Conflict Management has a significant impact on organizational growth. This study investigates research on various personality traits of the topmost hierarchy in any organization. The study investigates how they deal with conflicts in their organizations in order to keep the functions of the organization run smoothly. The sampling was purposely done selectively, 25 heads of various organizations in various fields were asked to inform their point of view regarding Conflict Management. Two reliable scales from reliable resources i.e., TKI (Thomas Kilman Instrument) and BFI (Big five inventory) have been used to generate the results. The data has been treated for descriptive statistics, frequencies and correlational values have been calculated. It has been found that at the top level, Collaborating and Accommodating were the most preferred style and Competing was the least preferred style in Conflict Management. Whereas in BFI the participants scored high in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. However, level of Neuroticism was observed to be extremely low in all the participants.

Silica nanoparticles (SNPs) have shown great applicability potential in a number of fields like chemical, biomedical, biotechnology, agriculture, environmental remediation and even wastewater purification. With remarkably instinctive properties like mesoporous structure, high surface area, tunable pore size/diameter, biocompatibility, modifiability and polymeric hybridizability, the SNPs are growing in their applicable potential even further. These particles are shown to be non-toxic in nature, hence safe to be used in biomedical research. Moreover, the molecular mobilizability onto the internal and external surface of the particles makes them excellent carriers for biotic and non-biotic compounds. In this respect, the present study comprehensively reviews the most important and recent applications of SNPs in a number of fields along with synthetic approaches. Moreover, despite versatile contributions, the applicable potential of SNPs is still a tip of the iceberg waiting to be exploited more, hence, the last section of the review presents the future prospects containing only few of the many gaps/research extensions regarding SNPs that need to be addressed in future work.

Compared with traditional battery and super capacitor materials, nanomaterials can significantly improve ion transport and electron conductivity. There are many features to the achievement of nanomaterials in energy storage applications. Nanomaterials development and their related processes can improve the performance based on the energy storage existing system. Current study discuss fruitful approaches and outline a roadmap for using green nanomaterials for advancement in energy storage devise. This review includes the information of the latest research being carried out on green nanomaterials and its sustainability. It also provides an overview of the latest state and proposes the future direction of the use of green nanomaterials for numerous possible applications, which are mainly used in the fields of biotechnology, agriculture, and biomedicine.

The hydrophobicity of silica and composite aerogels has enabled them to acquire applications in a variety of fields. With remarkable structural, morphological, and physiochemical properties such as high porosity, surface area, chemical stability, and selectivity, these materials have gained much attention of researchers worldwide. Moreover, the hydrophobic conduct has enabled these aerogels to adsorb substances, i.e., organic pollutants, without collapsing the pore and network structure. Hence, considering such phenomenal properties and great adsorption potential, exploiting these materials for environmental and biomedical applications is trending. The present study explores the most recent advances in synthetic approaches and resulting properties of hydrophobic silica and composite aerogels. It presents the various precursors and co-precursors used for hydrophobization and gives a comparative analysis of drying methods. Moreover, as a major focus, the work presents the recent progress where these materials have shown promising results for various environmental remediation and biomedical applications. Finally, the bottlenecks in synthesis and applicability along with future prospects are given in conclusions.

Moringa Oleifera is considered to be a natural bio-adsorbent. Unlike chemical coagulants, Moringa Oleifera seeds are environment friendly with various other advantages. The present study investigated the fluoride removal efficiency of Moringa Oleifera from water. Influence of adsorbent dose (1, 2, 4 g/L), contact time (20, 40 and 60 min) and initial fluoride concentration (2 and 5 mg/L) over removal efficiency were determined and optimized. It was found that increased adsorbent dose and contact time enhanced the removal efficiency which is in agreement with the previous studies. The highest removal of 88.1% was achieved when the adsorbent dose and contact time were optimized to 4 g/L and 60 minutes with an initial fluoride concentration of 2 mg/L. The results showed that Moringa Oleifera can be used as an environment friendly, cheap and effective bio-adsorbent for fluoride removal from aqueous solution. All the experimental facilities were provided by Bio-Fuel Lab, Energy & Environment Department, Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering, Science and Technology, Nawabshah, Pakistan. The samples were analyzed at the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), Tando Jam, Pakistan.

Silica aerogels are gaining significant importance and have attracted considerable interest due to their extraordinary properties and numerous applications. Silica aerogels are highly porous with high surface area and very low density and thermal conductivity. Usually they are prepared and synthesized via sol-gel technique, which involves making a sol containing a precursor, a solvent and a catalyst. The properties possessed by the final product depend upon numerous factors such as ratio of precursor to solvent and the drying method employed. Due to the flexibility of synthesis methods and the production of aerogels with tailored properties, silica aerogels have found numerous commercial applications and are being investigated of their suitability in several areas, such biomedical and aerospace engineering. Despite having exceptional properties, silica aerogels come with drawbacks such as brittleness and low mechanical strength, which can be resolved by fabricating composites extending the potential applications. This paper reviews the synthesis of silica aerogels via sol-gel technique, and the applications where this extraordinary material has shown promising results. The different materials used for the fabrication of composites to improve and enhance the physical and chemical properties of silica aerogels are also presented.

Due to the numerous downsides associated with the non-renewable energy sources, the global attention is increasingly diverting towards using renewable sources. Among many others, the biomass of agricultural crops is shown to be a promising non-renewable energy source, hence becoming a preferable choice to extract/synthesize value added products. In this respect, rice husk has shown its potential time and again. As an example, rice husk can be converted into ash which is already an investigated source of rich silica content, and therefore can be utilized in the relevant applications. Agricultural biomass and its waste have gravitated a significant interest of researchers around the globe due to their low reaction time and high utilization. The present review explores the novel and recent green/sustainable applications of rice husk/rice husk ash in various engineering, industrial, and other renewable energy applications. Moreover, it gives a background of agro-waste applications along with a comparative study of achievable silica from rice husk and other agro-waste sources.

In order to evaluate and validate the latest trends of power-hardware-in-loop (PHIL) test setup, the dc-dc buck converter is modelled within a real-time system where the simulation model of the converter is exported to FPGA NI PXIe with a time step of 250 ns. PHIL setup allows high flexibility, the benefit of graphical programming, and advanced investigation of the control system for a converter without any safety concern and with the possibility of testing against situations that rarely occur in the field. The LabVIEW-FPGA has been used as a prototyping environment for a digital controller with the help of OPAL-RT eHS software and NI hardware. Such collaboration enables other software such as MATLAB/Simulink, Multisim, PLECS, PSIM, and LabVIEW Co-simulation for accelerating innovative research and development. This research work presents a more efficient and effectual NI PXIE platform with at least ten times more FPGA capability. This paper highlights the hardware-software toolset’s performance and the proposed methodology by addressing regulation issues in dc-dc converters. For more satisfactory and reliable operation real-time simulation study of a dc-dc buck converter is evaluated at different parametric variations under the closed-loop PI controller. Finally, the executed model’s effectiveness for a closed loop buck converter with real DC loads is validated through the hardware-in-loop (HIL) laboratory setup.

Evolution of fintech services and the adoption of new emerging technology is what is seen in today’s world. Very few researchers have studies on the factors that affect the adoption of fintech services and how human behavior varies as technology changes. Apart from this, the advancement in mobile phones and the increase in the usage of them have increased the demand of the online financial services. In this paper the factors that have an impact of the adoption of fintech services through convenient sampling, have been considered and studied. The perceived ease of use, innovation, trust and government support were also studied. With the help of SPSS, it was concluded that each of these factors have a positive impact on the adoption of fintech services. Our model was based on TAM (technology acceptance model) and was adopted from our base article. The finding of this research can be used to make improvements in the existing fintech services and also in the development of new services.

There is a rapid growth in Higher Education Institution (HEIs) of Pakistan in couple of years. These HEIs need qualified faculty to produce quality alumni, however somehow or the other retention of quality faculty is a challenge for HEIs. This research is carried out with an endeavors to find out the causes of frequently turnover of faculty in Higher Education Institution (HEIs) in Karachi. 22 item questionnaires were used to collect the data from the faculty of renowned private sector HEIs of Karachi. For the sample of 280 Multiple Regression Analysis and Principal Component Factor Analysis were applied to interrogate the hypotheses. Results indicated that there is a significant relationship between career progression and the faculty turnover whereas Compensation & benefits and job stress have insignificant impact.

Sustainable economy of any state directly and positively affects the governance. Pakistan in last 70 years has seen many economic turf and crust. Economist as well as the responsible for the governance do show their concerns on uncertain and frequent fluctuation in Pakistan’s economy. Its high time Pakistan should have sustainable economy for the economic and social development. Sustainable economic development is a key factor which uplifts the standard of living of a common man and that also helps the state to exercise good governance effectively. The current research argues that some social and economic reforms are immediately required to have good governance in the country. Through analysis of the data endeavor would be to find the causes of economic instability and challenges for the government to impart good governance. Qualitative analysis would be carried out by collecting data available on official websites of the government institutions, international monetary agencies, interviews of the selected relevant personnel and views of the common people who are sufferers due to weak governance system in Pakistan. The bottom line is that the sustainable economic development is the key to success in the field of good governance in case of Pakistan.

Newly created state remained for couple of years then the time changed and Pakistan started growing her economic and administrative facets. However after a few decades the hazard of extremism in society started producing results in terms of unstable political system, weak institutions, feeble governance, social injustices and economic turmoil. This research analyses the reasons of emergence of extremism in Pakistani society, its growth and suggests some measures and strategies to counter it. Data is collected through sources available on official websites, literature on the subject using a questionnaire from 280 respondents residing in both rural and urban areas of Sindh province. Empirical results show that extremism has substantially affected Pakistan's social norms and values, economy and governance in terms of unemployment, poverty, high cost of security.

Heavy metal contamination is severely affecting human health and environment. These metals are known to exist naturally but the anthropogenic activities have contributed towards increasing their concentrations beyond permissible limits, which in turn have proved to be hazardous for the human health as well as environment. Various industries release the untreated wastewater containing heavy metals into the open streams, thereby creating a contaminated source affecting negatively on consumers. In order to deal with this, several materials have been researched and proposed as adsorbents to remove these contaminants. Amongst them are carbon-based materials, that have shown to be effective, efficient, and environment-friendly option for heavy metal adsorption from aqueous solutions. The present review thoroughly summarizes the recent developments of carbon-based materials, specifically in terms of their application in heavy metal removal from aqueous solutions. Moreover, it elaborates the adsorption mechanism and compares it with other technologies available for metallic removal. Similarly, various parameters affecting the adsorption using carbon-based materials and their recent regenerative strategies are presented. In the end, numerous shortcomings and discrepancies associated with carbon-based materials are given along with their future prospects that need to be addressed in the upcoming research.

Pakistan came into being as a truly democratic Islamic state, she was once a state with strong economy, stable government and policies. The golden principles of peace, liberty, and justice were preserved in its basic idea which led to the creation of an independent state. This research investigates the causes and impact of war against terrorism on Pakistan's economy, governance and social life. The data was collected through sources available on official websites, available literature were taken into consideration and by using a questionnaire from 320 respondents living in FATA area. Evidence is highlighted through tables, percentage values and graphs. Empirical results show that terrorism has substantially affected Pakistan's economy and governance in terms of unemployment, poverty, high cost of security in public and private sectors, uncertainty and high cost of doing business. Finally way forward to overcome the shortfall is suggested.

Various types of industries discharge their untreated contaminated water into the environment every year. This untreated water contains the pollutants that can negatively affect the environment and biosphere. Many methods are under practice at the moment to treat this wastewater. Among the variety of methods proposed and employed currently is the electrocoagulation (EC) method. This technique involves destabilizing the pollutants of the wastewater through the electric current flowing between the electrodes. The electrodes are mainly made of iron or aluminum. Over the past years, this technique has shown a great potential towards removal of different pollutant types from variety of wastewater. Like many other processes, the EC method is also governed and affected by various parameters such as pH, operation time, types of electrodes, and current density. It is important to keep these parameters under check and at the optimum desired value for the maximum pollutant removal. The optimum value depends upon the wastewater and the composition of the contaminants to be segregated. The present study reviews and compares the efficiency of EC with other methods in use so far. Compared to other methods, EC is shown to be energy efficient and reducing operation costs. The study also presents the challenges faced by this technique, such as electrode passivation, and the possible ways to deal with them in order to improve the overall performance effectiveness.

Modular multilevel converters (MMCs), with their inherent features and advantages over other conventional converters, have gained popularity and remain an ongoing topic of research. Many scholars have solved issues related to the operation, control, protection, and reliability of MMCs using simulation software and small hardware prototypes. We propose a novel approach for an MMC controller design with real-time systems. By utilizing a key benefit of LabVIEW Multisim co-simulation, an MMC control algorithm that can be deployed on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) was developed in LabVIEW. The complete circuit was designed in Multisim, and a co-simulation was performed to drive an MMC model. The benefit of this topology is that control algorithms can be designed in a LabVIEW FPGA and tested with the Multisim co-simulation circuit to obtain simulation results. Once the controller works and provides satisfactory results, the same algorithm can be deployed in any NI (National Instruments) FPGA-based controller, like a compact remote input/output (RIO), to control real-time MMCs designed in an NI PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation (PXI) system. This method saves time and provides flexibility for effectively designing control algorithms and implementing them in an FPGA for real-time model implementation.

The importance of good governance for stability and peace in a country cannot be ruled out especially in this era of globalization; good governance has become an important element to achieve prosperity through social and economic stability. Pakistan which is undergoing extremism and militancy for last couple of years, is also deprived of good governance. Sudden rise in extremism and militancy poses a great danger and a serious threat to the governance of Pakistan. Institutions operating to curb the peril are also directly or indirectly becoming victim of terrorist actions. Pakistani nation feels great pain seeing explosions, killings, violence, violation of law and order and series of street crimes etc. having no recess in between. An effort is made to carry out qualitative research on the presented theme, in a sequence, at initial level common understanding and prevalence of increase in militancy and violence is discussed; followed by a study on terrorist actions and terrorism is talked about while highlighting the governance's troubles in Pakistan. Data is collected through available literature's review, published official reports from the state's institutions, interviews of selected and targeted people, think tanks, experts in the relevant field and evidence from the society. The aim is to draw logical grounds for the decision makers to identify the areas to be focused on providing a respectable and reasonable life to the common citizens of Pakistan through good governance, economic stability, peace and rule of law.

Extreme utilization of pesticides for agricultural purposes increases the level of pesticide content in water. Seasonal use of pesticides can cause increased concentrations at potable water abstraction sites as a shock load, which can be difficult for conventional treatment processes to deal with. Choosing the right water treatment method to remove pesticides hangs on the nature of pesticides and the effectiveness of the technique. The focus of this review is to discuss the current developments and progress in the use of various techniques for possible removal of pesticides from wastewater. Some of these processes include advanced oxidation, adsorption, activated sludge treatment, bioreactors and membrane technologies. The solo and mixed treatment techniques have been reviewed in detail and analyzed rigorously. The utilization of hybrid disposal technologies exhibit potential for the development of innovative pesticide removal techniques. Form the process effectiveness point of view, it is very important to thoroughly analyze the composition of the influent and identify the best removal technique. Furthermore, study emphasizes on designing of water treatment plant, the decentralization of water treatment and economical approaches for removal of various types of pesticides from wastewater are discussed.

Pakistan is facing a severe energy crisis of its time with significant generation deficit in recent years. The future plan shows hydro and thermal coal generation as major contributor and Wind power to replace Thermal-oil generation in long run. This paper proposes a Super grid model for the transfer of bulk power from generation station to the load centres, which can provide efficient transmission between generation and load centres and is also adaptive to deal with variations in power from renewable generations. A dynamic simulation analysis is performed on six-terminal MTDC (Multi-Terminal High Voltage Direct Current) system VSC (Voltage Source Converter) based MTDC meshed grid with different control operations. The results show that the proposed super grid model can provide efficient transmission between generation and load centres and it is also adaptive to deal with variation in power from renewable generation.

Renewable energy sources could be the main contributor to fulfilling the world’s energy requirement. Wind energy is grabbing the world’s attention due to its abundant nature and reliability. Wind energy is a prominent renewable energy source due to its availability and higher reliability. Despite the aforementioned benefits, there are some challenges such as wind measurement and prediction due to the turbulent nature of the wind. Lidar (light detection and ranging) technology is used in wind turbines to preview the wind and act it accordingly. Wind speed along with the direction is measured by the Lidar before it reaches the wind turbine plane and the control system of the wind turbine utilizes this data for optimal results. It enhances the control system along with it optimizes the output power. This paper presents the Lidar simulation model, which previews the wind earlier than the conventional feedback method. The Lidar simulation model is prepared and implemented on the horizontal axis wind turbine. The simulation is performed in GH Bladed at a 2.0 MW wind turbine. The output results are analyzed with the former method. The power extracted, pitch angle, rotor torque obtained from the proposed methodology proves its efficacy.

Terrorists have only one narrative, to spread chaos and destruction among the innocent and ignorant Pakistanis, defame Islam and Pakistan and ultimately divide the nation and state. If they are not dealt hard they will keep on polluting the minds and society. In recent few years terrorism has damaged national security and coherence. It has added new dimension to attain political, cultural and military goals. Education comes from books, schools and life experience. Nations grow on solid foundations of education system having futuristic long term goal. Research finds that over a period of time having wide ranging scope and curriculum of schooling systems in Pakistan, society have drifted away from national and social values. Pakistani nation lacks effective education that can get them focused on one single goal and which can unite them as a single nation. They are divided into sects, languages, cultural values, political ideology etc. This study is an endeavour to find out the solution of the menace of terrorism through edification, dialogue and creating terror in the hearts of the terrorists and those who has soft corner for the terrorists. The Study is carried out in sequence; at initial level it discusses the common understanding and importance of education, followed by the need of dialogue and discussion that make the minds of common people clear regarding the destructions caused by the terrorism; and then the impact of deterrence to curb the terrorist's acts.

Drinking water quantity and quality is of the utmost importance. If the drinking water gets contaminated, it can result in severe health problems. For example, the continuous consumption of drinking water containing more than permissible amounts of fluoride can lead to bone deterioration and increased risk of bone fracture [1]. The present study was carried out to check the quality of underground water of Sukkur city. The analyzed parameters were fluoride, sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium, iron, arsenic, TDS, pH, conductivity, odor, color and taste. World Health Organization (WHO) standards were followed in present study. Underground water samples were collected from 20 different populated locations of Sukkur city. Only arsenic, pH, iron and potassium were found to be within health safe limits while the rest of the parameters exceeded the permissible standards set out by WHO. The TDS, sodium, fluoride and magnesium were over the limits at some locations.

Due to the scarcity of fossil fuels and their increasing prices, adoption of renewable resources has become inevitable. Wind energy is being recognized as a potential renewable source of bulk power generation in Pakistan, just as across the world. The wind corridor located from Hyderabad to Keti Bandar has an immense potential for power generation, with two windfarms already in operation and many more planned. A stability analysis of installed and potential Wind Turbines Generators (WTG) type needs to be performed, to analyse the impact of power injection from wind turbines on the voltage level and grid stability of the power network. This analysis can further help to identify appropriate integration location and suitable wind turbine generator for AC network support. This paper presents the analysis of network strength at the point of wind the turbine generator’s connection and a comparison of wind turbine generators to support the AC network, which will be useful for identification of suitable type of WTG for reliable operation of integrated system.