Massimo Pigliucci
Science, Religion and Culture
...my earlier paper....
Tom Gilson & Carson Weitnauer (eds), True Reason: Confronting the Irrationality of the New Atheism (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2013), 315pp, US$17.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-8254-4338-1
Reviewed by Gregory W. Dawes, Associate Professor of Philosophy
Science, Religion and Culture
...supporting our moral convictions, the reliability of the biblical accounts of Jesus’ life, and the problems posed by biblical endorsements of slavery and genocide. No review could do justice to so wide a range of issues, so my aim here is simply to offer some general reflections on the strategies employed....
Timothy Helton
In a Mirror Dimly: Anthropology and Restoring a Sense of Presence to an Empty World
...who believe religions depict webs of relationships participate in the construction of worlds supportive of whole human beings capable of more than just physical life; and they offer a hopeful corrective to modernity’s tendency to reduce its world to objects of analysis and manipulation. I support my thesis with the criticisms of anthropological conceptions and methods made by contemporary thinkers. Next, taking the work of E. B. Tylor as an example, I de...
H. Bruce Rinker
...hinking. However, the strict determinism and mechanistic assumptions inherent in the physical sciences delayed unification and, thereby, contributed inadvertently to the present-day scourges of fragmentation such as human-accelerated climate change and biodepletion. A philosophia prima is now required to repair and reunite human thought to achieve a consilient valuing as a platform for our survival. One such system of consilient valuing is presently available ...
Kathryne E. Taylor1 and Karen L. Mossman1,2*
...ex and frequently contradictory, meaning that although this protein has been implicated in a wide variety of diverse functions, the mechanisms through which it produces these effects continue to be elusive. Recent investigations into the ability of ICP0 to block the activation of antiviral signaling have revealed a potential explanation for some of this confusion – namely, that ICP0 has important functions in the cytoplasm that have been generally disreg...
Shahid Ali, Munir Khan
...wheat production in district Peshawar of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Data from 100 wheat growers were collected through multistage stratified random sampling technique during 2009-10. Stochastic frontier analysis was employed for the estimation of technical efficiency levels and its determinants. Maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) technique was applied to estimate stochastic frontier Cobb-Douglas production function to ascertain the level of technical effic...
Raja Waqar Ahmed Azad, Tahir Sarwar
...osses/efficiency in district Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu and Kash- mir. Three watercourses namely, Sarai, Derkot and Mera Dadu were selected randomly on aging basis. Watercourses Sarai, Derkot and Mera Dadu were constructed in 2000, 2006-07 and 2011, respectively. Conveyance losses in the selected watercourses were determined by inflow-outflow method, wherein the flow velocity was measured using current meter. The conveyance losses were found 13.2%, 11.8% and 7.8...
Hussein Rashid
...n easily understood conflict between Islam and free speech....
John Teehan
... general, with some, predictably, placing the blame for such hate-filled acts squarely on religion....
Frank Griffel
...ell. It is a familiar depiction of the prophet Muhammad as drawn by the caricaturist Luz, a member of Charlie Hebdo’s staff, who survived the attack on its office simply because he happened to be out at the time. For the magazine’s frequent readers the front page needed no further explanation. Foreign observers, however, did not understand so quickly and when a journalist of Slate.com asked him to explain, Luz said that the drawing is a callback to...
Gerald Misinzo1,*, Tebogo Kgotlele1, Epaphras A. Muse1, Jan Van Doorsselaere2, Mikael Berg3, and Muhammad Munir4
... 2004 in Ngorongoro district bordering Ken- ya before official confirmation of the disease in most districts of Northern Tanzania in 2008. In 2011, the presence of PPRV in goats of southern Tanzania district of Tandahimba bordering Mozambique was reported. The aim of this study was to perform molecular typing of PPRV strains that caused outbreak in Tandahimba distr...
Muhammad Zahid1*, Muhammad Salman2, Shah Alam Khan2, Alamzeb1, Inamullah Khan1
...ds. Survey of three districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa revealed the highest mean infestation in plum orchards of district Peshawar (89.60%), followed by Nowshera (75.79%) and Swat (45.42%). In peach orchards, highest mean infestation was recorded in Peshawar (88.33%), followed by Nowshera (72.77%) and Swat (53.72%). The mean infestation of 70.86% was recorded in apricot orchards in Peshawar, followed by Nowshera (62.40%) and Sw...
Nisar Ahmad1*, Inayatullah Jan2, Saif Ullah1 and Sidra Pervez1
...eat productivity in district Jhang. Furthermore, study explores the purpose of farmers for acquiring loan and major sources of credit in district Jhang. This study is based on primary data collected in 2013 from eight villages in district Jhang – Punjab, Pakistan. The district was divided into four zones and two villages were selected from each zon...
Hina Fatima1*, Muhammad Azeem Khan2
...rop in the selected district. Majority of the farmers typically utilize the last year’s crop seeds to economize the cost but this comes at another cost of loss of potential yield, which could be obtained through the use of modern varieties of seeds. Also considering the ecological conditions of the area is must before the adoption of any variety of seed, otherwise suboptimal output will be produced. Governmental check and regulation is also needed, deale...
Faheem Khan*, Muhammad Zafarullah Khan
...ugarcane yield. Two districts namely Mardan and Charsadda of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province were selected for this purpose. A multi-stage sampling method was used to draw sample of 336 sugarcane growers for the present study and an interview schedule was used to solicit responses that addressed the research objectives. The findings from the study showed that 80 percent of respondents were illiterate while the 20 percent of respondents who were literate had achie...
David F. Bradley*, Julie J. Exline, Alex Uzdavines
...ing) were not strong predictors of the characteristics nonbelievers assign to hypothetical gods. Seeing a hypothetical god as more loving, less cruel, and less distant was associated with more past positive emotional experiences with gods, less past anger at gods, less participation in explicitly nonreligious activities, and greater desire for gods to exist. Basing a hypothetical god on a previous personal image of god was associated with imagining a more lovi...
Marcus Mann
... of Faith: a scathing indictment of religion, which in his opinion, was an impetus just as effective and real as the jet engines that propelled the terrorists’ weapons of choice to their targets. The End of Faith was the first of four polemics that have come to symbolize what is now known as “The New Atheism,” a term meant to encapsulate a 21st century religious skepticism characterized by its vitriolic and unapologetic stance toward religion...
Elly Vintiadis
...the question of the conflict between science and religion is ill-posed because, properly understood, theism incorporates science since it too, just like science, requires people to seek the truth and to think critically. In order to go about showing why this
is so, Steane embarks on showing what theism is and how it offers an explanation of the world and life of which science is a part....
is so, Steane embarks on showing what theism is and how it offers an explanation of the world and life of which science is a part....
Youssef Lhor1*, Mounir Khayli1, Mohamed Bouslikhane2, Mehdi El Harrak3, Ouafaa Fassi Fihri2
Email: y.lhor@yahoo.fr
...ce of BT can be predicted by the abundance of the Culicoides species in a specified locality so that control measures
can be implemented well in time to contain the disease spread....
can be implemented well in time to contain the disease spread....
Corey McCal
...ally, to Darwin’s Victorian religiosity and the German Left Hegelians (Feuerbach and Marx in particular)....
Rehmat Ullah1*, Muhammad Zafarullah Khan1 and Kalim Ullah2
...was investigated in District Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, during year 2015. For the present study, a sample of 306 respondents was selected based on Sekaran sampling technique while using descriptive research design. Well-prepared and pre-tested interview schedule was utilized for collection of data. Descriptive statistics i.e. frequency, percentages and rank order was calculated. Chi-square test was performed to find out association among d...
Anna-Maria Andersson*, Ann-Kristin Nyman, Per Wallgren
...body levels best can predict the breeding performance of the female needs to be further evaluated....
Haq Aman Ullah1*, Aneela Zameer Durrani2, Muhammad Ijaz2 and Aqeel Javeed3
...was investigated in district Lahore of Pakistan. A total of Twenty 20 goat farms were randomly selected and out of that 40 feed samples 2 from each farm were collected in the month of April. All the samples were analysed for the determination of aflatoxin B1 by using reverse phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC. Out of total samples Aflatoxin B1 was detected in 33 feed samples, with a percent contamination rate of 83%. The level of aflatoxin B1 r...
Murtaza Ali*, Yasser Durrani and Muhammad Ayub
...>) variety grown in District Skardu, Gilgit Baltistan. After drying, mulberry fruit was stored for 150 days and evaluated for physiochemical and sensory parameters (water activity, ash content, percent acidity, pH, moisture content, reducing and non-reducing sugars, taste, texture, color and overall acceptability). Statistically minimum decrease was observed in water activity, pH, moisture content and organoleptic characters. While, stable increase was noted i...
Muhammad Siddiq1* and Hamid Ullah Shah2
...have the best quality stricture, which are more acceptable and better than other blends when mixed together that will achieve better strength as well as financial system phase....
Muhammad Ishaq and Raziuddin
...CA, σ2SCA) and predictability ratio (σ2GCA/σ2SCA>1.00) indicated that gene action was predominantly additive for days to flowering while, for the rest of the traits non additive gene action was responsible as the predictability ratio was less than unity which was further confirmed by higher values of variances of SCA than GCA. In present study for all the traits except days to flowering, non-additive gen...
Shahab e Saqib, Mokbul Morshed Ahmad, Sanaullah Panezai, Hidayatullah, Khalid Khan Khattak
...an Tehsil of Mardan District. Questionnaire was the main tool used to collect the data from farmers. The credit access ratio formula was employed that measured farmers’ access, in relative terms, to their landholdings. Likewise, credit adequacy formula was used to investigate farmers’ credit adequacy. A probit model was employed to find the important factors affecting access to credit. Results of access to credit ratio showed that small farmers had...
Aqila Shaheen
... Khan of Rawalpindi district. Amongst the soil characteristics of selected fields, pH ranged from 7.36-7.94 for surface soil (0-15 cm) and 7.49-7.94 for subsoil (30-45 cm), EC1:1 was 0.22-0.38 dSm-1 in surface soil and 0.21-0.28 dSm-1 in subsoil, CaCO3 was 1.0-9.22% in top soil and 0.28-9.67% in the subsoil and soil organic matter (OM) was 0.89-1.25% in surface soil and 0.62-1.04% in subsoil. Among soil series, Missa soil series had higher O...
Zafar Khan, Asad Sultan, Rajwali Khan, Sarzamin Khan, Imranullah and Kamran Farid
...the following three districts; Peshawar, Dir Lower and Malakand of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. In all the three districts the egg albumen was found to contain significantly higher levels of Pb, Cd and Cr as compared to egg yolk which contains significantly higher levels of essential elements (Fe, Mn and Zn). The mean concentrations of toxic heavy metals; Pb, Cd and Cr in albumen samples c...
Koksal Karadas1, Muhammad Tariq2, Mohammad Masood Tariq3* and Ecevit Eyduran4
...ess, the statistical predictive accuracy of GLM (General Linear Model), CART (Classification and Regression Tree), CHAID (Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detector), Exhaustive CHAID, and a ANN type MLP (Multilayer Perceptron) in the prediction of lactation milk yield in sheep was measured comparatively by model assessment criteria, such as R2, R2ADJUSTED, SDRATIO, CV(%), RMSE, RAE...
Ian von Hegner
...ted with the concept of dictatorship, and is defined as a type of government in which power flows from the citizens to the leaders of government, who are selected through free elections. This article argues, that if the concept of democracy is generalized to be universally applicable, then the concept of hypothetical gods’ right to rule results in dictatorship. Whereas the concepts of dict
Paul I. Ankeli, Mashood A. Raji, Haruna M. Kazeem, Moses O. Odugbo, Nendir J. Umaru, Idowu O. Fagbamila, Livinus T. Ikpa, Obinna O. Nwankiti, Issa A. Muraina, Pam D. Luka and Nicholas D. Nwankpa
...digestion with AsnI restriction enzyme further confirming the isolates. This is the first report of the isolation and molecular identification of Mmm from the ear canal of cattle in Nigeria. It is recommended that samples from the ear canal be considered when Mmm isolation is intended so as to improve the chance of recovery. ...
Mazhir Nadeem Ishaq, Li Cui Xia, Rukhsana Rasheed, Zeeshan Ahmad, Muhammad Abdullah
...ives working in two districts (Vehari and Muzzafargrah), geographically located in the southern region of Punjab province of Pakistan. The study analyzed the significance of milk marketing cooperatives by revealing and evaluating possible returns to smallholders in dairy sector. The hypothesis that milk marketing cooperatives are beneficial for milk producers was tested by surveying the cooperatives’ members. Econometric techniques to draw inferences inc...
Haidar Ali, Malik Muhammad Shafi and Himayatullah Khan
...sed on two selected districts of Peshawar and Charsadda. Four villages were studied two each from the sampled districts. Analysis showed that owners (59.31 percent off-farm employment) were performing more off-farm jobs than the tenants (50.74 percent off-farm employment) and owner-cum-tenants (41.77 percent off-farm employment). The dominancy of owners in the off-farm employment was associated to the farm holding size (up t...
Shagufta Jabeen1, Muhammad Saqlain Raja1, Sadia Saeed1, Muhammad Mobeen Zafar1, Rizwana Abdul Ghani1, Abid Mahmood1, Muhammad Fiaz2, Pakeeza Arzoo Shiaq1, Shahid Mahmood Baig3, S.M. Saqlan Naqvi1 and Ghazala Kaukab Raja1*
...text-align: justify;">Addiction to opioids including other illicit drugs is a chronic, relapsing multifactorial disorder of brain and, if left untreated, major medical, social, and economic problems arise. Drug addiction is among major health issues faced by the World including Pakistan with an alarming annual increase in heroin addicts. The study was designed to identify the socio-demogra...
Metin Duru1*, Asuman Arslan Duru1, Köksal Karadaş2, Ecevit Eyduran3, Harun Cinli4 and Mohammad Masood Tariq5
...aracteristics and to predict each of egg internal characteristics from egg external characteristics, treatment and week through CHAID analysis. A total number of eighty, 56 weeks old Hy-Line White laying hens (commercial type) of nearly similar initial body weight (1360.6±14.25 g) were assigned into 5 experimental groups (control group and 4 treatment groups) each including 16 and maintained individually in cages of 35 x 40 x 45 cm. The strongest correl...
Ai Ming Zhou1,2, Guang Wen Liang2, Ling Zeng2, Yong Yue Lu2 and Yi Juan Xu2*
...vasive ant Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) suppress ghost ants Tapinoma melanocephalum (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) through interference competition. However, relatively less testing have been done to evaluate the competition for mutual exploitation between the two ant species in the field. Here, we investigated the interference of the fire ant S. invicta on the interactions between the ghost ant T. melanocephalum ...
Robina Karim and Dawood Jan
...perhaps due to less restrictions on trade after WTO’s arrival, relative to pre-WTO period. Compared to exports, Pakistan imports’ coefficient of variation does not show significant declines; rather it appears largely static, suggesting Pakistan imports trade could not be benefited much by reductions in trade restrictions associated with the implementation of WTO in Pakistan domestic market. This stated analysis t...
Ecevit Eyduran1, Daniel Zaborski2*, Abdul Waheed3, Senol Celik4, Koksal Karadas5 and Wilhelm Grzesiak2
...orithm with the best predictive capability among classification and regression trees (CART), chi-square automatic interaction detector (CHAID), radial basis function (RBF) networks and multilayer perceptrons with one (MLP1) and two (MLP2) hidden layers in body weight (BW) prediction from selected body measurements in the indigenous Beetal goat of Pakistan. Moreover, the results obtained with the data mining algorithms were c...
Bibi Tayyaba Batool1, Aemal Tareen1, Shahjahan Shabir Ahmed1, Hira Ejaz1, Mohammad Azam Kakar1, Syed Abdul Rehman2, Mohammed Saeed1, Zafar Ahmad3, Mohammad Masood Tariq3, Mohammad Arif Awan3 and Muhammad Naeem Shahwani1*
...me primary dwelling districts of Balochistan. Our results showed that brucellosis was found 2.2% positive from Quetta district and 0.6% positive from Pishin district and bovine (TB) was found 0.60% positive from Quetta and none from Pishin district of Balochistan....
Abdul Sattar Baloch1*, Abdul Rasheed1,2, Rahmatullah Rind1, Jam Kashif Sahito1, Rehana Buriro1, Muhammad Faisal Ayoob1 and Parkash Dewani1
...rom camels of three districts of Sindh province of Pakistan. Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT), serum agglutination test (SAT) and competitive-ELISA (c-ELISA) were used as screening tests, and overall seroprevalence of brucellosis was found to be as 21%, 21% and 13% by RBPT, SAT and c-ELISA tests, respectively. Seroprevalence was higher in females (26%) than in males (16%) by RBPT and SAT tests, and also in camels less than 9 years of age (13.33%). Milk samples we...
Hira Akhter1, Bilal Aslam2*, Naveed Shahzad3, Tanzeela Farooq4, Muhammad Umer5 and Muhammad Hidayat Rasool2
...ers from Faisalabad district of Punjab, Pakistan. Overall 120 blood samples, 24 tissue samples from each organ (trachea, lung and intestine) were collected from the 12 commercial layer flocks selected randomly at the age of 35-50 weeks without any direct clinical manifestation of avian influenza. Serum collected from 120 birds was tested for antibodies against H9N2 by using Haemagglutination Inhibition assay. Calculated geometric mean titers of 5.37 revealed t...
Atta ur Rehman1, Sher Ali2 and Sajid Malik2*
...kki Marwat and Tank districts, whereas the least affinities were evident between Karak and South Waziristan Agency populations. Collectively, these results show the presence of sub-populations in lower KPK which may suggest a disturbed nature of these populations. Further studies are needed to understand the nature of differentiation between these Pashtun populations....
Hussain Ahmad1, Inamullah1, Ijaz Ali2, Tauseef Ahmad3, Muhammad Tufail4, Kabir Ahmad5 and Bibi Nazia Murtaza3,6*
...human population of district Swat. Total 300 individuals (both female and male of all ages, meeting our inclusion/exclusion criteria) with informed consent were included in the study. Blood samples were collected and brucellosis was detected by Standard Plate Agglutination Test (SPAT) and Serum Tube Agglutination Test (STAT) and later on confirmed by PCR. Disease was detected in 3.66% (11/300) individuals by SPAT and 2% (6/300) by STAT and confirmed in 2.66 % ...
Muhammad Shafiq and Tahir Maqsood
...oil. Freundlich model depicted superior fitness of the sorption (r2=0.99) statistics than Langmuir model (r2=0.75). Ten B treatments (0, 0.47, 0.81, 1.42, 1.57, 1.95, 2.35, 2.66, 3.1, 3.3 kg ha-1) were applied with recommended N, P and K doses. Boron was applied at sowing time as basal dose. The results showed that there was a positive effect of fertilizer B on grains spike-1, 1000-grain weight and grain turn out however, the vegetative growth i.e. plant heigh...
Sezgi Arman* and Sema Isisag Ucuncu
... of the intestine of convict cichlid (A. nigrofasciata) were described. In order to reveal the main histological construction, transverse sections of different parts of intestine were firstly stained with hematoxylin eosin (H-E). Sections of anterior, mid and posterior intestinal segments were also treated with different staining methods of alcian blue (AB) at pH 2.5, aldehyde fuchsin (AF), periodic acid-Schiff (PAS), KOH/PAS and PAS/AB (pH 2.5) and investigat...
Sezgi Arman* and Sema Isisag Ucuncu
... of the intestine of convict cichlid (A. nigrofasciata) were described. In order to reveal the main histological construction, transverse sections of different parts of intestine were firstly stained with hematoxylin eosin (H-E). Sections of anterior, mid and posterior intestinal segments were also treated with different staining methods of alcian blue (AB) at pH 2.5, aldehyde fuchsin (AF), periodic acid-Schiff (PAS), KOH/PAS and PAS/AB (pH 2.5) and investigat...
Ibrar Khan1,2,3,*, Sadia Qayyum2, Shehzad Ahmed2, Kashif Syed Haleem2, Mujaddad-ur-Rehman1, Guang-Lei Liu3 and Zhen-Ming Chi3
...ola F1, Penicillium restrictum F2, Penicillium rubens F8, Penicillium implicatum F10, Penicillium piceum F11, Penicillium oxalicum F12, Penicillium sumatrense F15, and Penicillium vinaceum F16. This study demonstrated that Yellow Sea can be considered as a valuable natural source of Penicillium species, which can be used for the production of medicinally important different secondary metabolites and organic acids. ...
Bahattin Cak1, Orhan Yilmaz1, Siddik Keskin2, Tahir Bayril3 and Mohammad Masood Tariq4*
...function of time and predict body weight at a specific age. We investigated the growth characteristics of Colored Mohair goat using four nonlinear growth models. Thirty (n=22 males and n=8 females) Colored Mohair kids were used. The kids were weighed at 2-week intervals from birth to 150 days. The Monomolecular, Gompertz, Richards and Three Parameter Logistic models were used. The best model was determined by considering the root mean square error, R2 % and as...
Sidra-Tul-Muntaha1, Muhammad Sagheer1*, Mansoor-ul-Hasan1 and Shahbaz Talib Sahi2
... Multan and Nankana districts of Punjab, Pakistan. Three concentrations of each plant extract (5, 10, 15 and 20%) and synthetic pyrethroids (0.01, 0.02 and 0.03%) were evaluated in this study. We observed significant results with each treatment. For both repellent and growth inhibitory effects, A. indica and deltamethrin were most efficient among plant extracts and pyrethroids respectively. At highest dose rates, more than 90% repellency was recorded with both...
Aziz-ul-Rahman, Farooq Yousaf, Naveed Anwar and Muhammad Abubakar
...eas in Muzaffargarh districts South Punjab of Pakistan. A total of 965 serum samples were collected from sheep and goat’s farms from January to December 2015 with no history of vaccination. Haemagglutination inhibition (HI) test was performed using PPRV antigen to determine antibody titres level. The overall prevalence of antibodies to PPRV in goats and sheep were 66.22% (521 samples) and 65.76% (444 samples), respectively. Sero-prevalence of anti-PPRV a...
Neelum Andaleeb and Munir Khan
... milk production in district Mardan. The aim of this study was to identify factors affecting milk production in the study area. A multistage sampling method was used to select a sample of 274 livestock farm households from 6 union councils, and a well-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the female respondents through face to face interview. Cobb-Douglas production function and cost benefit analysis were used to arrive at the main conclusion....
Nusrat Habib, Safeena Inam and Abdul Hayee Qureshi
Amjad Ali and Abbas Ullah Jan
...arried out in three districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, i.e district Mardan, Charsadda and Dera Ismail Khan. Randomly a sample size of 303 sugarcane growers was formally interviewed for crop season 2014-15 through a pretested questioners prepared on the bases of objectives of the study. Stochastic Frontier Approach (SFA) was employed for data analysis using computer software STATA. Result illustrates that technical efficiency o...
Mariano Gastón Asla
... have used this kind of fictions to analyze and defend very different arguments. Currently, this interest has not diminished. On the contrary, it has spread to other disciplines, including the natural sciences. In fact, this interest does not entail just an expansive theoretical movement, but also the development of a practical dimension, i.e. the active pursuit of life and signs of intelligence in the outer space. My goal in this article is twofold. First, in...
Muhammad Jamal Nasir, Anwar Saeed Khan, Said Alam and Saeed Akhtar
... northern border of district Charsadda, adjacent to Mohmand agency. The construction of dam was started in 2009 and was completed in 2011. It is claimed that dam will irrigate 5000 acre of land in four mouza’s of district Charsadda. Present study is an attempt to determine the impact of Palai dam on the land use and cropping pattern, crop production and revenue of mouza Qilla, Tehsil Tangi, distr<...
Muhammad Shahzad Ahmed and Dilnawaz Ahmed Gardezi
...y. A site near Bagh district (Arja) Azad Kashmir was found suitable and used for morphological evaluation, phenotypic diversity analysis and their flowering behavior sugarcane under local conditions. Two year data revealed that genotype HSF-242 showed maximum mean values for, internodes length, brix percentage and reducing sugar while S-08-FSD-19 showed maximum values for number of tillers and stem girth, whereas S-05-FSD-307 revealed maximum values for plant ...
Naushad Khan1*, Shahnaz Akhtar1, Munir Khan1, Shaista Naz2, Javeria Tanveer1 and Muhammad Kaleem3
...ize productivity in district Mardan of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. For this, a sample of 226 farmers was selected by employing multi stage sampling technique. At first stage, all the three tehsils (i.e.; Mardan, Takht Bhai and Katlang) of the district were selected. At second stage, two villages from each tehsil were randomly selected. In third stage, all the beneficiaries of ZTBL credit program for maize crop was selected...
Zaffar Malik, Moazzam Jamil, Ghulam Hassan Abassi, Muhammmad Nafees, Muhammad Rafey and Muhammad Kamran
...esion (C) and angle of friction (φ)) were studied. Results showed that amendments had improved soil physico-mechanical properties. No specific trends were observed for consistency limit, however, PI decreased for all the amendments applied and LL showed correlation with φ and TS. Significant reduction (p≤ 0.05) in the coefficient of linear extensibility (COLE) was found for all amendments and the effect of WSB and FA was more pronounced. The values ...
Zeeshan Haider, Inayatullah Jan and Waqar Akram
...xt-align: justify;">Conflicts have adverse effects on income and living conditions of populations worldwide. Keeping that in mind, this study was conducted in northwest Pakistan with the aim to identify the effect of armed conflict on income from tomato crop. The study is based on the primary data collected from two villages namely Shilozan and Pewar in Kuram Agency in the northwest of Pakistan. Data were analyzed using desc...
Muhammad Afzal1 and Murad Khan2*
... was carried out in district Lower Dir in 2015. Four tehsils were selected namely Adinzai, Balambat, Timergara and Sumerbagh on the basis of purposive sampling technique. From these tehsils, 92 farms were selected randomly from 460 poultry farms. The sample farms were categorized into three groups i.e. small, medium and large. For analysing the data, descriptive statistics and gross margin were used. The average total cost of small poultry farm was Rs. 3,10,06...
Yusuf Koc1, Ecevit Eyduran1* and Omer Akbulut2
...tudy was to evaluate predictive performances of CHAID, Exhaustive CHAID, and CART regression tree methods for different combinations of parent node: child node in the data set regarding animal science. To achieve the aim, 1884 Mengali lambs were provided for predicting weaning weight from sex (male and female), birth type (single and twin), birth year (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009), farm (Research station, Mastung, Quetta...
Eman Mahmoud El-Diasty1,Madeha Abd El-Halim Ibrahim2 and Ghada Kamal El Khalafawy2,*
...rase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was applied for identification of Candida species, Cryptococcus albidus, Saccharomyces, Trichosporn, Torulopsis and Rhodotorula. Using universal primers ITS1-5.8S-ITS4 amplified ITS region. And it yielded a unique PCR size of approximately 376-930 bp. PCR amplicons were digested with enzyme MspI and the generated bans corresponded to the predicted size.<...
Irshad Ahmad
... the target area of district Dir, Pakistan.
...
Farkhanda Manzoor1, Iram Amin2,*, Muhammad Shahid2,Samia Afzal2,Hania Ramzan1, Tahir Rehman Samiullah2 and Muhammad Idrees3
.../i>(L) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse) by using PCR. During this study, larvae of A. aegypti and A. albopictus were collected from different localities of Lahore during May to September of 2012 to 2014. RNA extracted from each mosquito larvae pool was tested by nested PCR for detection of dengue virus. Out of total 50 pools of Aedes aegypti larvae, DV-2 was the most prevalent serotype. DENV-1 was not...
Syed Fazal Baqi Kakakhel*, Asad Ullah and Abdur Rashid
.../i> Wagner 1839) in District Swat covering an area of 5337 km² in 2013. The population survey was conducted in two phases i.e. December 21-24 in Kalam and December 26-29 in Mankial valleys. Vintage point count surveys revealed that the Markhor preferred habitats in Kalam and Mankial valleys in District Swat. Among the six sub valleys of Kalam, only Shahoo and Mahodand valleys have some population of Flare-horned ...
Jehangir Khan1,2*, Inamullah Khan3, Ijaz Ali2, Aqib Iqbal2 and Muhammad Salman4
...>(57%) and Aedes albopictus (43%) adults (n=1050) and larvae (n=550). The samples were collected from four (Shuba Bazaar, Tarnab Farm, Wazir Bagh and Hayat Abad) dengue suspected locations of district Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan. A semi-nested multiplex PCR was used to amplify the cDNA of the four dengue serotypes. Six out of 35 (17.14%) adult mosquito pools were found positive for dengue virus with t...
Ali Zurwan1,*, Muhammad Moaeen-ud-Din2, Ghulam Bilal2, Zia-ur-Rehman1,2 and Muhammad Sajjad Khan1
...LES), Jahangirabad, District Khanewal were used for the present study. Persistency of lactation was determined using five indices viz. Wood, Johnson and Hansen, Mahadevan, Ludwick amd Petersen and Gajbhiye and Tripathi. Statistical model included fixed effects of period and season of calving and parity and random factors of animal. Indices values for Wood, Johnson and Hansen, Mahadevan, Ludwick and Petersen and Gajbhiye and Tripathi were 138.66, 75.68, ...
Muhammad Akbar Khan1,*, Sayyed Ghyour Abbas1, Muhammad Adeeb Babar1, Sabah Kiran1, Ayesha Riaz2 and Muhammad Akhtar1
...ir Khatoon, Chakwal district, Punjab province, Pakistan. The referred specimens comprise isolated dental elements and mandible fragments. The presence of tragulids in Dhok Bun Amir Khatoon during Middle Miocene Chinji Formation of Pakistan suggests a humid habitat with abundant cover.
...
Rashid Mahmood1,*, Waqar Ahmad1, Muhamamd Khalid Rafique1, Ghulam Sarwar1 and Anjum Shahzad2
...eds of apple. Results depicted a high population decline of Syrphids and Non-Apis bees. Syrphids were recorded as 12.65 to 13.85 per 250 flowers in 2013 but decreased in year 2014 by 7.82 to 7.88 per 250 flowers and Non-Apis bees was recorded as 6.15 to 7.59 per 250 flowers in 2013 which also decreased and recorded as 5.35 to 5.70 per 250 flowers in year 2014. The results showed the trends of increase in population of Apis mellifera and Apis cerana
Eman M. Farghaly1, Ahmed Samy1,2*, Heba Roshdy
...trofurantoin (42.9%). Strict biosecurity measures are required to reduce the incidence of mixed bacterial infection and subsequently reduce the spread of antibiotic resistance genes between bacterial spp....
Nadeem Rashid1,*, Masroor Ahmad Bajwa1, Mohammad Masood Tariq1, Tanvir Ahmad2, Majed Rafeeq1, Zafar Ahmad1, Mohammad Arif Awan1, Mohammad Ali1, Muhammad Zahid Mustafa1, Muhammad Shafee1, Asad Ulah1 and Amanullah Khan3
...n and around Quetta district. Physical properties i.e. moisture and pH were determined by oven drying and pH meter, respectively. Viable fungal count of the feed samples was estimated by using spread plate technique. Identification of fungal isolates was carried out on the basis of cultural and morphological characters by using slide culture technique. While mean moisture percentage was recorded as 5.3% with a significant difference (P<0.05), the pH ...
Shahzad Ali1,*, Heinrich Neubauer2, Falk Melzer2, Iahtasham Khan1, Shamim Akhter3,Tariq Jamil2 and Sajid Umar3
...Routine screening and strict biosecurity measures are recommended for prevention of infection in animals. Humans must consume milk after pasteurization.
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Wali Khan*, Ghazal Mumtaz, Saima Bibi and Salma Afzal
...Lower and Upper Dir districts. A total of 520 vegetable samples were collected during April to October 2016. These vegetable samples were screened for parasitic contamination. The results showed that 10.7% of the vegetables were found to be contaminated with one or more than one species of parasites. Intestinal parasites Ascaris lumbricoides 26.7%, Trichuris trichura 19.6%, Taenia saginata 25 % and Entamoeba histolytica cyst 28.5% were detected. The highest pr...
Muhammad Shahid1, Iram Amin1,*, Samia Afzal1, Zareen Fatima1, Sadia Zahid1, Usman Ashraf1 and Muhammad Idrees2
.../i>and Aedes albopictus having five serotypes 1-5 and infecting about 100 million people each year. To address dengue outbreak 2013 in Pakistan we aimed to conduct a comprehensive study at molecular level to determine the main causative serotype of 2013 DENV outbreak in Pakistan. Overall 703 serologically positive suspected patients from different major health centers of Pakistan were registered in present study of which 214 were females and 489 wer...
Tausif Ahmad1, Iahtasham Khan2, Saddaf Razzaq1, Saeed-ul-Hassan Khan1,* and Raheela Akhtar3
...nd buffaloes in the districts of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan. A total of 120 serum samples were randomly collected from buffaloes and cattle (60 per species) at Civil Veterinary Hospitals, animal markets and peri-urban livestock holdings in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Serum samples were initially screened by the Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT). RBPT positive samples were subjected to a B. abortus specific indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (i...
Irum, Akram Shah*, Sobia Wahid, Nazma Habib Khan and Qaisar Jamal
...in Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Province, Pakistan through investigating disease recurrences and Cyclops species in drinking water sources. A cross-sectional household survey was carried out using in-person questionnaire evaluation along with microscopic assessment of water samples for Cyclops species. Based on previous clinical records of dracunculiasis, five villages of Dera Ismail Khan including Kath Garh, Wanda Dost Al...
Muhammad Zafarullah Khan
...d out in all the 24 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to investigate the agricultural mechanization competencies of AEOs. Sum total of 111 AEOs were contacted for data collection. Primary data were collected from the selected sample of AEOs by mailing the questionnaires. The results showed that overwhelming majority of the respondents i.e., 88% were M.Sc degree holders. They have had an average work experience of 16 years. Significant differences were observed a...
Mohammad Salim1, Arshad Javid2,*, Faiz-ur-Rahman3, Khalid Javed Iqbal4 and FarmanUllah5
...tured from Malakand district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during a three years survey extending from June 2010 through May 2013. Mean body mass of the captured R. ferrumequinum specimens was 18.45 ± 0.35 g, head and body length was 60.11 ± 1.42 mm and forearm length was 60.01 ± 1.41 mm. Similarly, average greatest length of skull was 23.35 ± 0.20 mm while the total length of baculum of a single specimen was recorded 4.13 mm. The mean ...
Sadiq Ali* and Ijaz Ahmad Khan
...ty. Field survey of district Swabi (Peshawar Valley) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was carried out during May-June, 2013-14 to study the distribution of Parthenium weed. Five villages were selected and thirty locations were randomly selected from each village. The data revealed that the flora is predominated by parthenium weed with the highest relative density of 63.4% among all weeds, followed by Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers., Cannabis sativa L. and Chenopodium album ...
Tianzhu Chao, Huiqiang Cai, Yuxun Zhou, Kai Li* and Junhua Xiao
...ubspecies currently restricted to Shanghai, indicating the elevated risk in this cosmopolitan cities. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that M. m. musculus migrated from northern China to eastern China and that M. m. castaneus invaded from southern China. The two subspecies form a hybrid zone in eastern China. There were three major well-differentiated clades within M. m. castaneus, which were designated as CAS1, CAS2 and CAS3 and confirmed ...
Hamayun Khan1,*, Momen Khan2, Muhammad Subhan Qureshi3, Shakoor Ahmad1, Ali Gohar4, Hameed Ullah5, FarmanUllah6, Arab Hussain7, Pershotam Khatri8, Said Sajjad Ali Shah1, Hamid Rehman1 and Azmatullah Khan1
...on Unit, Harichand, District Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Collection of semen was done using artificial vagina (42°C) for three weeks. Semen was extended in egg yolk extender at various inclusion levels (0.0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75 and 1.0%) of green tea extract. Testing was consummated for quality characteristics of post-thawed spermatozoa such as motility, viability and plasma membrane integrity. The data was statistically analyzed with one-way analysis of...
Neelum Andaleeb, Munir Khan and Syed Attaullah Shah
...ey was conducted in district Mardan to determine women’s participation in livestock farming and to investigate factors affecting their participation. A multistage sampling method was used to select a sample of 274 livestock farm households from 6 rural Union Councils, and a well-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from female respondents through face to face interviews. A composite index was constructed to measure the extent of women’...
Muhammad Qadir Ahmad¹*, Farheen Ashraf Raza¹, Abdul Qayyum¹, Waqas Malik¹, Rao Wali Muhammad2, Muhammad Asif Saleem1, Amir Hamza2, Ahmad Baksh Mahar3
... correlation analysis depicted significant positive association between NL and BW. SV also revealed positive association with SI. BW showed positive association with NLB, NS and SI. LA showed positive association with NL. Path coefficient analysis was utilized to partition the direct and indirect effects of different traits on BW. Path coefficient analysis revealed positive direct effect of NS on BW. Similarly, SI illustrated positive indirect effect on BW via...
Zain-ul-Aabdin Abro1*, Naheed Baloch1, Niaz Hussain Khuhro2, Waseem Akbar Qazi2, Noor Abid Saeed3
...n cucurbit crops in district Hyderabad. The studies were carried out at two discrete localities, Jeay Shah and Dehli Farm, in three different crops i.e., bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) and ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula) using cue-lure baited traps. The male lure baited traps were arrayed at three meter height and replenished on fortnightly basis in experimentation sites. Results revealed that significantly highest (124.8...
Neenish Rana, Nosheen Ehsan, Awais Ihsan and Farrukh Jamil*
.... The sequence-based predictions suggested that the pseudogenes-derived proteins may involve in different biological functions like translation, energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism and transport and binding.
... 
Honnur Basha, Vinaya Hemannavar, B.Ramanujam, R. Rangeshwaran and S.Sriram
Screening of chilli microflora and other biocontrol agents for their antagonistic effects on Colletotrichum spp. infecting chillies
...ichum, Gliocladium, Monodictys, Mucor, Myrothecium, Penicillium, Periconia and Pithomyces. One-hundred and thirteen isolates of chilli microflora and 49 isolates of Trichoderma, 19 isolates of Bacillus sp., 34 isolates of Pseudomonas fluorescens and 29 isolates of yeasts from NBAII germplasm collection of biocontrol agents were tested for their antagonistic effect on Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and C. capsici by dual culture test. Among the isolates of chil...
Neerja Agrawal, Mukesh Srivastava, Akhilesh Tripathi and Amrendra Singh
Survey and monitoring of pests, parasites and predators of pulse crops in central and eastern Uttar Pradesh
... crops in different districts of Uttar Pradesh.Atotal of 22 districts were surveyed to record gram pod borer Helicoverpa armigera, Bihar hairy caterpillar, Spilarctia obliqua, plant hopper of Pentatomorpha group, termite Odontotermes spp, and cut worm Agrotis ipsilon in chickpea whereas Campoletis chlorlidae was recorded as natural enemy feeding on H. armigera larvae. In pigeonpea crop, mainly H. armigera, leaf webber Grapho...
M. D. Maji, N.K.Das, S. Chatterjee, A. Ghosh and A.K. Bajpai
Forecasting models of bacterial leaf spot disease of mulberry for Birbhum district of West Bengal
...rs field in Birbhum district.BLS incidence appeared in May and continued up to November. The correlation coefficient between disease severity and meteorological parameters revealed that BLS disease severity showed significant positive correlation with max & min temperatures, min relative humidity, rainfall and number of rainy days. Step down multiple regression analysis revealed that the forecasting of BLS could best be done from min temp, minimum relative...
1Bikash Ranjan Ray and 2Mrinal Kanti Dasgupta
Management of root holoparasite Aeginetia pedunculata of (Orobanchaceae), causing wilt of sugarcane by trap and catch crops
...y Sugar Mill in the districts of Nadia and Murshidabad in West Bengal. It spreads through water-and soil-borne seeds. With the objective of developing location-specific integrated management schedule of the parasite, crops, other than sugarcane, grown in the target area were evaluated for their potential as trap and catch crops of the parasite. Twelve crops, selected on the basis of germination induction test of A. pedunculata seeds on root exudates as compare...
Sitansu Pan and N. K. Mishra
Epidemiological studies on some diseases of guava (Psidium guajava L.)
...va were analysed for predictive purpose from regression equations. The simple correlation coefficient matrix showed significantly positive correlation of canker severity with maximum relative humidity at 1% level whereas, anthracnose correlated well with minimum relative humidity, temperature and number of rainy days at 5% level. The negative correlation was obtained for stem canker and dry rot with all parameters at 1% significant level. In case of Phytophtho...
Goutam Samui and Shantanu Jha
Branch gall of mango (Oligotrophus mangiferae Keiffer) its bioecology and management
...major mango growing districts of West Bengal, India. The present study had been taken up regarding the biology, population dynamics and management of this pest. Branch gall is a univoltine species. Emergence of adults from gall could be found from 2nd week of February, which continued up to 2nd week of March. Incubation, larval and pupal period lasted for 3-5 days, 315 days and 30-45 days, respectively. Eggs were laid singly throughout the young vegetative sho...
A.A. Oyerinde, P.Z. Chuwang, P.Z. and G.T. Oyerinde
Evaluation of the effects of climate change on increased in-cidence of cowpea pests in Nigeria
...limate Change (IPCC) predicts an increment in mean atmospheric temperature from 1.1 to 6.4°C toward the year 2100 with equally increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Such climatic changes could profoundly affect insect’s population on essential crops. This study was conducted during the 2010 and 2011 cropping season at the University of Abuja Teaching and Research Farm (Nigeria) in order to determine the impacts of climate change on the populat...
Rashid Pervez, Santhosh J. Eapen, S. Devasahayam and M. Dinsha
Characterization of entomopathogenic nematode, Stein-ernema carpocapsae from ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) rhizosphere in India
...ected from Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh (India). Morphological and morphometric studies identified the isolate as Stein-ernema carpocapsae. This was further confirmed by ITS-rDNA sequences analysis. Phylogenetic was constructed for studying relationship with known isolates. Pathogenic potential of the isolate of S. carpocapsae (IISR-EPN 06) on the larva of shoot borer (Conogethes punctiferalis), hairy caterpillar (Euproctis sp.) and greater wax moth (Gal...
Goutam Samui and S. Jha
Biology, seasonal incidence and management of Apsylla cistellata Bucton. on mango in West Bengal
...mportant one in the district of Malda and Murshidabad, West Bengal. Adult females of the pest had been found to lay eggs at the sides of midribs during first week to end of March. Incubation period lasted from first week of March to middle of August. Eggs hatched in the middle of August and gall formation had been found to start from first week of September. Nymphal period lasted from mid of August to end of February. Adult emergence occurred from fourth week ...
T. P. Ghosh, D. Mandal, S. Laha and M. K. Dasgupta
Dynamics and severity model in managing fungal diseases
...iniketan of Birbhum District, West Bengal, India, to study the fungal diseases of some commercial ornamentals. The leaf spot of Ficus religiosa (c.o. Alternaria sp.) is the first record. Fifteen fungal diseases have been formally described from West Bengal for the first time on these twelve ornamentals. Monthly dynamics was determined for occurrence, intensity and severity of these diseases. The diseases (referred as pathogens) that were the highest and fastes...
S. Choudhury and S. Pal
Population dynamics of mustard aphid on different Brassica cultivars under terai agro-ecological conditions of West Bengal
... factors revealed contradictory results. Except for a few instances the weather parameters showed low order of associations with aphid population. Thus, the ecological factors exhibited little impact on the population build up of mustard aphid. The degree of infestation and the rates of population change of the aphids on different Brassica cultivars seem to be governed by varietal characteristics of different germplasms. Brassica campestris varieties as a grou...
S. Pal and I. Sarkar
Pests infesting ornamental plants in hilly region of West Bengal
...found most important inflicting serious damage to Carnation, Gerbera, Gladiolus, Chrysanthemum and Straw flower. The green semilooper, Plusia orichalcea caused damage to Gerbera and Gladiolus by feeding on the leaves. The tobacco caterpillar (Spodoptera litura) was serious on Gladiolus and Anthurium. Cutworm (Agrotis segetum) damaged the seedlings of Gladiolus. Among the Coleopteran pests, the Blister beetle (Mylabris p) was the most important feeding on the f...
Zhensheng Liu1,2, Hui Gao1,2, Jiapeng Dong1, Mingming Zhang3 and Liwei Teng1,2,*
...et hypothesis, which predicts that females spend more time on feeding and that the activity synchronization of same-sex groups is higher than for mixed-sex groups. Our results support the hypothesis. Both males and females spent most of their time on feeding and moving. Feeding behavior differed significantly by sex but moving behavior did not. Activity synchronization indices of same-sex groups were higher than for mixed-groups and were highest for male group...
Bushra Niaz1,*, Tahir Zahoor1, Muhammad Atif Randhawa1 and Amer Jamil2
...ELISA reader. Results depicted that CM-Sephadex C-25 was a good cation exchanger for recovery of lactoferrin. Camel raw milk produced 2.4 mg/mL of lactoferrin. The lactoferrin isolated from camel milk exhibited promising antibacterial activity against E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Concentration of lactoferrin i.e. 4,000 ppm (4 mg/mL) showed the best results against both the pathogens. The E. coli was more susceptible to inhibit...
P.P. Ghosh*, C. Ghosh, B. Mahato, A. Chakraborty, S.K. Bhattacharya and M.K. Bhattacharjya
...ondition of Purulia district of West Bengal resulted in 20-30% yield loss every year. The present participatory action research was aimed to study the (i) adeptness of integrated module of prophylactic soil disinfection and bio-control, (ii) only prophylactic soil disinfection, and (iii) only curative soil disinfection over uprooting and destruction of diseased plants (farmers’ practice). Results indicated all the management approaches under study perfor...
P.P. Ghosh*, A. Chakraborty, S.K. Bhattacharya, C. Ghosh, B. Mahato and M.K. Bhattacharjya
...nditions of Purulia district of West Bengal.
...
Naimat Ullah Khan1,2, Muhammad Hassan Saleem1, Aneela Zameer Durrani1, Nisar Ahmad3, Ayesha Hassan1, Sultan Ayaz2, Sajid Umar4, Muhammad Luqman Sohail5,*, Muhammad Shafee6, Ikramullah Khan7, Mumtaz Ali Khan1, Azmat Ullah Khan8, Naimat Ullah Malik1 and Abdul Razzaq9
...ridium in three districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), i.e. Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Kohat. For this purpose 360 stool samples were collected from the District Headquarter Hospitals of all the three districts and were screened through microscopy. Results yielded an overall prevalence of 11.11%, with significant difference (P<0.05) among different study areas. Prevalence was hi...
Yun Wang1,*, Lei Guan1, Jiding Chen1, Yaping Kong1, Lang Si2 and Asif Shah3
...tan gazelle Procapra picticaudata, Kiang Equus kiang) and Wild Yak Bos grunniens; we suggest that the distance between the proposed route for the expressway and the present highway and railway should at least be 1500m, and ideally, it should be 2500m.
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Javeria1, Masroor Ellahi Babar2,*, Tanveer Hussain2, Rashid Saif2, Sadaf Rashid3, Hanan Sarfraz4, Abbas Ali Shah3, Muhammad Wasim1 and Muhammad Abdullah1
...d polyphin2 software predicted this polymorphism as a site broken and possibly damaging. These findings suggest that BDNF polymorphism Val66Met has some possible role in OCD development in Punjabi patients.
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