Plant Breeding and Genetics

The main component of most building materials in Malaysia is rock. All rocks are known to contain natural radionuclides such as 238 U and 232 Th series as well as 40 K. In order to estimate the radiological impact to the dweller, the level of radionuclides present in various building materials available in Malaysia were analyzed using -spectrometry. The radiation hazard indexes were calculated based on the above results. The results showed that the activity concentration of natural radionuclides 238 U, 232 Th, 40 K was between 19.0-42.2 Bq/kg, 16.5-28.8 Bq/kg and 243.3-614.2 Bq/kg, respectively. On the whole, the radionuclides concentration was still below the global average of 50 Bq/kg, 50 Bq/kg and 500 Bq/kg for 238 U, 232 Th, and 40 K, respectively. The radiation hazard indexes of the building materials were also lower than the maximum value suggested.

A comprehensive Psychometric Analysis of Role Conflict & Ambiguity (RCA) scales were performed after its distribution among 600 academic staff working in six universities of Pakistan. The reliability analysis includes calculation of Cronbach Alpha Coefficients and Inter-Items statistics, whereas validity was determined by running Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses. The reliability analysis revealed that RCA scales possessed sufficient internal consistencies, i.e. (∑α= 0.85 & r= 0.61). On the other side, Factor Analysis revealed that mean factor loadings for all items ranged up to 0.85, which resulted in three-factor model fit for role conflict and two-factor model fit for role ambiguity. The overall results confirm that RCA scales possess good psychometric properties, thus it could used for assessment of role conflict and ambiguity among academic staff in Pakistan.

Improvement of workforce quality is a major concern for the developing countries like Pakistan. Country's higher education standard determines the quality of their workforce. Developing countries are continuously experiencing different methodologies for the improvement in the higher education standards and to meet the international standards. This study provides a roadmap for improvements in the higher education quality to meet international standard. The study used Delphi approach for the processes of internationalization of higher education. A Delphi panel of 20 educationists participated in the study having minimum 15 years of experience and 3 years in any international institution of higher education. A road map for the internationalization of higher education in Pakistan has been developed from the outcomes of the Delphi panel. In addition, this study used Quality Function Deployment (QFD) as a tool for analyzing the relationship between quality factors of higher education and technical constraints of the higher education institutions. The results show that managerial support and commitment is a key to success in the internationalization of higher education.

In this article, design, performance and simulation of Wavelet based OFDM V-BLAST MIMO system has been discussed. Wavelet based OFDM technique is based upon orthonormal wavelets bases generated from Haar Quadrature Mirror Filter (QMF) bank. The BER performance of this system has been observed with three different V-BLAST detection algorithms. The three V-BLAST detection algorithms implemented in this article are: Zero Forcing (ZF), Minimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE) and QRdecomposition based V-BLAST detection algorithms.

In education sector professional developments is considered an extensively significant and recognized as an essential organizational success in both promotion changes and socioeconomic growth. The main objective of the present study is to examine the academician attitudes towards professional development, also investigates the associations between professional development and job burnout dimensions among the academicians. Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) was used for determining the burnout level among academicians and self-administered questionnaire was collected from 160 academicians working in universities of Pakistan. The results of the current study states that there is positive relationship between the attitude towards professional development and burnout dimensions. The implication of the study is important for both the administrator of the universities and for policy makers of higher education.

The fast moving world and the ever changing atmosphere in private sector organizations demand a low turnover rate for successful operations at low cost. Role conflict, job stress and issues related to work life are key determinants of turnover rate; therefore, this study has been conducted with an aim to find out the impact of above mentioned practices on turnover intention. Role conflict, job stress and work life balance are the independent variables while turnover intention is the dependent variable. Private sector banks of Pakistan have been selected as the target population and statistical analysis applied through SPSS and AMOS revealed that role conflict and job stress have a positive and significant relationship with turnover intention while insignificant relationship was found between work life balance and turnover intention. This study may prove to be a very productive one for private sector banks of Pakistan as on the basis of its findings employee turnover can be reduced.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The gut microbiota contributes to energy acquisition from food, and changes in the gut microbiome are associated with obesity. The eating habits of Saudis are much different than those of Europeans, and our objective was to compare the fecal microbiota of obese and normal weight Saudis and French. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Illumina MiSeq deep sequencing was used to test the gut microbiota of 9 normal weight and 9 obese individuals from Saudi Arabia and 16 normal weight and 12 obese individuals from France. RESULTS: Obese French possessed significantly more relative Proteobacteria (P = 0.002) and Bacteroidetes (P = 0.05) and had lower richness and biodiversity at all the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) cutoffs (P o 0.05) than normal weight French. Obese Saudis possessed significantly more Firmicutes (P = 0.001) without a difference in richness (P = 0.2) and biodiversity (P = 0.3) compared with normal weight Saudis. We found a common bacterial species core of 23 species existing in ⩾ 50% of obese and normal weight Saudis and 29 species in ⩾ 50% of obese and normal weight French. Actinomyces odontolyticus, Escherichia coli and Ruminococcus obeum were present in at least 50% of all individuals tested. French individuals had significantly higher richness and biodiversity compared with Saudis at all the OTU cutoffs (P o0.05). CONCLUSION: Microbiota differences between obese and normal weight French were not similar to those between obese and normal weight Saudis. The studies of different populations can result in contrasting data regarding the associations of the gut microbiota and obesity.

The study is based on analyzing Pakistan's individual investor by contrasting their behavior in bull market (2007 & 2010) and bear market (2008-2009).The major objective of study is to examine whether the attitude, perception and preferences towards risk, book to market valuations are different between varying market conditions. Empirical investigation is done by using data of 100 companies of different sectors for four years. Price earnings ratio, Book to market value, systematic risk, volatility and abnormal returns are used as measure of risk in six different regression models along with intercept and interactive dummies. Individual level of ownership is used as attitude towards risk. Due to some behavioral biases, Overall Individual investor attitude towards risk is similar in both market condition except a significant behavioral difference is identified between bull and bear market and such behavior is associated with Book to Market Valuation only.

This paper presents a robust controller design for attitude determination and control of small satellite which is the most important part for precise positioning and orientation of a satellite in the orbit. The position and orientation of a satellite is determined using three different sensors namely sun sensor, magnetometer and rate gyro. In order to implement the robust control, state vector is estimated though QUEST algorithm. The robustness is achieved using LQG/LTR feedback controller which is crucial for the consistent and reliable operation of the satellite. The corrective measures, which are the output of the robust controller and are needed to put the satellite back on desired track are implemented using magnetotorquer which is a set of coils in which controlled magnetic field could be induced. The interaction between the field generated in magnetometer's coils and earth's magnetic field is used to drive the satellite on the desired orbital path. The simulation results shows the effectiveness of the proposed approach for particular application.

The objective of this research study is to provide empirical evidence regarding budget deficits and stock prices. We investigate whether changes in deficits cause changes in stock prices and if so, in what direction. Annual data from 1990-2010 for Pakistan and India has been used. Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) unit root test, Johansen Cointegration Technique and Granger Causality Test has been used to find out the long run causal relationship between budget deficit and stock prices. This study suggest that high developmental expenditure in Pakistan is the reason for long term positive causal relationship between budget deficit and stock prices in case of Pakistan while in India a long term negative relationship is observed which is due to high current expenditures. Government of both countries must adopt solid tactic to improve budget deficit because stock market performance is influenced by the economic condition of a country along with some other important factors.

Does concentration ownership have any effect on firm performance? To answer this question or examine the in depth relationship between ownership structure and performance we used panel data of 100 non financial firms listed in Karachi stock exchange with a sample size of 600, from 2005 to 2010 , and analyzed that ownership concentration doesn't have any significant effect on firm performance. Concentrated ownership is negatively correlated with market performance and positively correlated with both the indicators of financial performance (return on assets & sale growth).

Oceanobacillus picturae is a strain of a moderately halophilic bacterium, first isolated from a mural painting. We demonstrate, for the first time, the culture of human Oceanobacillus picturae, strain S1 T , whose genome is described here, from a stool sample collected from a 25-year-old Saoudian healthy individual. We used a slightly modified standard culture medium adding 100 g/L of NaCl. We provide a short description of this strain including its MALDI-TOF spectrum, the main identification tool currently used in clinical microbiology. The 3,675,175 bp long genome exhibits a G + C content of 39.15 % and contains 3666 protein-coding and 157 RNA genes. The draft genome sequence of Oceanobacillus picturae has a similar size to the Oceanobacillus kimchii (respectively 3.67 Mb versus 3.83 Mb). The G + C content was higher compared with Oceanobacillus kimchii (respectively 39.15 % and 35.2 %). Oceanobacillus picturae shared almost identical number of genes (3823 genes versus 3879 genes), with a similar ratio of genes per Mb (1041 genes/Mb versus 1012 genes/Mb). The genome sequencing of Oceanobacillus picturae strain S1 isolated for the first time in a human, will be added to the 778 genome projects from the gastrointestinal tract listed by the international consortium Human Microbiome Project.

This research study is aimed to empirically investigate the relationship among the broad macro variables such as Foreign exchange reserves, foreign direct investment and nominal exchange rate in Pakistan by testing annual data set of sample size 30 over the period of 1980 to 2010. In order to investigate the stationarity of data at level or at 1 st difference, unit root test has been used. On the basis of ADF unit root test, results shows that exchange rate, FDI and foreign exchange reserves are stationary at 1st difference. For the investigation of long run relationship, Johnson co-integration is applied, the results of co-integration test shows the long run relationship among the variables. Vector error correction method is used to investigate short run association of the variables. Results suggest that nominal exchange rate have a significant positive impact on foreign exchange reserves while FDI have insignificant impact on FER.

In education sector professional developments is considered an extensively significant and recognized as an essential organizational success in both promotion changes and socioeconomic growth. The main objective of the present study is to examine the academician attitudes towards professional development, also investigates the associations between professional development and job burnout dimensions among the academicians. Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) was used for determining the burnout level among academicians and self-administered questionnaire was collected from 160 academicians working in universities of Pakistan. The results of the current study states that there is positive relationship between the attitude towards professional development and burnout dimensions. The implication of the study is important for both the administrator of the universities and for policy makers of higher education.

Accounting is regarded as one of the profession which monitors and controls the financial information within an organization. The great organizational debacles and collapses during the last decade have made the stakeholders skeptical about the role of accountants.