Producing more food with less pollution and greenhouse gas emissions is a grand challenge for the... more Producing more food with less pollution and greenhouse gas emissions is a grand challenge for the 21st century. Strategies to successfully promote win‐win outcomes for both food security and environmental health are not easy to identify. Here we comprehensively assess an ecological rice‐animal co‐culture system (RAC) (e.g., rice‐fish, rice‐duck, and rice‐crayfish) through a global meta‐analysis and identify the potential benefits of global promotion. Compared to traditional monoculture of rice or animal production, the RAC can not only reduce the demand for agricultural land areas, but also increase rice yields (+4%) as well as nitrogen use efficiency of rice (+6%). At the same time, RAC reduces nitrogen losses (−16% runoff and −13% leaching) and methane emissions (−11%), except for rice‐fish coculture systems, which are likely to increase methane emissions (+29%). Furthermore, RAC increases the net income of farmers through reducing cost of fertilizer and pesticide input and achiev...
Climate change is a global threat to food security as it causes various biotic and abiotic stress... more Climate change is a global threat to food security as it causes various biotic and abiotic stresses that adversely disturb agriculture production. With an increase in the worldwide population, the demand for food has also arisen. It is an immediate challenge for the scientific community to introduce an innovative tool to achieve food security with quality plant production and develop tolerance against abiotic stresses, specifically drought. Genetically modifications are effective and time-consuming, while biostimulants are in/organic substances with the potential to support plant development under stress conditions. This chapter focuses on the impacts of climate change on agriculture, challenges for agriculture sustainability and food security, the interrelationship between drought, climate change and food security, the potential role of biostimulants against drought, future aspects and challenges due to climate change specifically drought, and food security challenges. Various stud...
Molecular Identification of Newly Recorded Louse Columbicola tschulyschman Eichler (Phthiraptera: Philopteridae) From Saudi Arabia With a Note on Genus Columbicola spp. Phylogeny
Journal of Medical Entomology
Chewing lice comprise a large group of ectoparasites that colonize and adversely affect several d... more Chewing lice comprise a large group of ectoparasites that colonize and adversely affect several domestic and wild birds including pigeons. In Saudi Arabia, there is a lack of studies describing such ectoparasites and their infestation rates. Through this work, a new record, Columbicola, tschulyschman Eichler (C. tschulyschman Eichler) was collected from domestic pigeons (Columba livia domestica, Linnaeus). The collected C. tschulyschman Eichler was morphologically identified based on specific taxonomic keys. Mitochondrial (COI) and nuclear (EF-1α) gene fragments were used for molecular identification and phylogenetic reconstruction. In this study, the C. tschulyschman Eichler accounted for around 69.40%. To our knowledge, this is the first report of C. tschulyschman Eichler in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. To improve the tree topology and differentiate between genera, further studies should utilize the 16s rRNA.
Background: The hypocalcaemia may be a unique biochemical feature of COVID -19 that has the poten... more Background: The hypocalcaemia may be a unique biochemical feature of COVID -19 that has the potential to influence disease severity and represents a new potential therapeutic target worth testing in this clinical setting. Because COVID -19 testing has primarily focused on individuals with respiratory symptoms rather than calcium levels, Therefore the objective of current study was to determine the effect of e COVID-19 severity on Serum calcium levels. Methods: After the ethical approval, all the RT-PCR positive patients from the record of corona isolation wards of Ganga Ram hospital Lahore. Demographic details including name, age, gender, complete history & examination serum Calcium level was noted recorded al from hospital files on a predesigned proforma. To assess clinical severity of coronavirus disease, all the enrolled patients’ disease category as mild, moderate, severe & critical was note. Data was analyzed using SPSS-26. Association between age and gender between disease sev...
The current study was directed to investigate the effect of temperature and humidity on insect pe... more The current study was directed to investigate the effect of temperature and humidity on insect pest complex of cotton. This study was carried out on the farmer field of a farmer of MouzaMehraywala tehsil and district Rajanpur southern part of the Punjab, Pakistan (29.1044° N, 70.3301° E) in the month of May, 2019 to November 2019. The climatic conditions of the study site were; a Rajanpur lie on 96m above sea level Rajanpur has a desert climate. During the year, there is virtually no rainfall. The average temperature in Rajanpur is 26.0°C | 78.8°F. Precipitation here is about 205 mm / 8.1 inch per year. Our results indicate that’s the correlation of temperature (minimum and maximum), humidity (minimum and maximum), rainfall and weather condition (clear or cloud), it is clear that except temperature there is a positive correlation of jassid population. While among the relation of jassid with different factor there is very weak relation with jassid population regarding temperature (-0...
An Experimental Tool for Search-Based Mutation Testing
2018 International Conference on Frontiers of Information Technology (FIT)
Mutation testing is computationally expensive, but the computational effort can be reduced by usi... more Mutation testing is computationally expensive, but the computational effort can be reduced by using search-based testing techniques like Genetic algorithm. Genetic algorithm helps in automating test data generation process. Automatic test case generation can significantly reduce the resources required to perform software testing. Search-based mutation testing, therefore, becomes attractive for testers to fully exploit the positives of mutation testing without concerning about its computational needs. This paper presents an experimental tool for search-based mutation testing of Java programs. It is fully automated tool that supports object-oriented and structured mutation operators. The implemented tool supports four test case generation techniques. One of them is random testing and rest of the three are variants of Genetic algorithm. It is an open source freeware that can be downloaded and installed in any Java-supported platform. The tool is user-friendly and lets the user to become familiar and learn the tool with ease. We have also presented experimental results in this paper to show the effectiveness of the tool. We strongly believe this tool has got the potential to get attention of testers for experimental studies and we also encourage proposals to extend its feature-base.
A study was performed to assess the preference of fourteen mango cultivars for fruit flies and th... more A study was performed to assess the preference of fourteen mango cultivars for fruit flies and their management by bagging. So the choice of Tephritid flies to mango cultivars during fruiting phase is crucial. Fourteen different cultivars of mango viz.
Bovine Science - A Key to Sustainable Development, 2019
Emergence of the resistance in microbial population is a major threat to both animal and human he... more Emergence of the resistance in microbial population is a major threat to both animal and human health. In bovine, the development of microbial resistance is a persistent threat for health especially in the form of zoonotic pandemics due to viral and multidrug bacterial resistance. Mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance in microbes are of natural as well as acquired origin. There are half dozen molecular mechanisms identified that possibly cause the emergence and transfer of antimicrobial resistance within and between different bacterial genera. These mechanisms include degradation of the antibacterial drug by the bacterial enzymes, reduced permeability of the drug by bacteria, increased efflux of the drug, modification of drug target and use of alternative pathways by bacterial cells. Various assays viz. disk diffusion test and E-test, focusing on minimum inhibitory concentration of antimicrobials, have been employed to detect the antimicrobial resistance in microbes. The most important factor responsible for the development of multidrug resistance in bovine pathogenic microbes is irrational use of the antibiotics. Antibiotics are necessary evil, so judicious use of antibiotics, early detection of infections, vaccination, use of immune-modulators and medicinal plants or their derivatives are some of the strategies to reduce the possible emergence of antimicrobial resistance.
Potassium (K) and zinc (Zn) are mineral nutrients required for adequate plant growth, enzyme acti... more Potassium (K) and zinc (Zn) are mineral nutrients required for adequate plant growth, enzyme activation, water retention and photosynthetic activities. However, Pakistani soils are alkaline and have serious problems regarding Zn deficiency. The current study aims at finding the nutrient–nutrient interaction of K and Zn to affect maize plants’ (i) physiological processes and (ii) productivity. For this purpose, a pot experiment was conducted at the research area of the Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agricultural Science and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan. Two maize genotypes, DK-6142 (hybrid) and Neelam (non-hybrid), were used with three K fertilizer doses, i.e., 0, 60 and 100 kg ha−1 in all possible combinations with three Zn fertilizer doses, i.e., 0, 16 and 24 kg ha−1. The treatments were replicated under a completely randomized block design. The results elucidated that the combined application of K and Zn with K60 + Zn16 treatment significantly increase...
Phosphorus (P) is the second most important macronutrient and is deficient in most of the agricul... more Phosphorus (P) is the second most important macronutrient and is deficient in most of the agricultural soils based on higher retention with soil and poor recovery from the applied fertilizers. A field experiment was conducted in 2009-2012 in which different organic wastes of agricultural and industrial origin with inorganic P fertilizer to improve crop yield, P use efficiency and physic-chemical properties of soils in salt affected soils under rice-wheat cropping system. The treatments included; P at farmer practice, P on soil need basis, PoM + chemical fertilizer (1:1), MSWC + chemical fertilizer (1:1), PrM + chemical fertilizer (1:1) and FM + chemical fertilizer (1:1). Analysis showed that nutrients source significantly improved vegetative and yield attributes of rice and wheat crops. However, application of PoM + chemical fertilizer on soil need basis significantly improved the growth and yield attributes of both crops and soil physic-chemical properties than all the other treatments. The effectiveness of treatments could be arrange as PoM + chemical fertilizer on soil need basis > FM + chemical fertilizer on soil need basis > MSWC + chemical fertilizer on soil need basis > PrM + chemical fertilizer on soil need basis > P on soil need basis > P at farmer practice, respectively. In conclusion, integration of organic and chemical P fertilizer resulted in well-balanced nutrient management plan. Application of PoM + chemical fertilizer on soil need basis is recommended as an effective and economical integrated nutrient management practice enhancing productivity of rice-wheat crop and improving physical and chemical properties of salt affected soils.
New promising high yielding cotton Bt-Variety RH-647 adapted for specific agro-climatic zone
Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences, 2021
The Bt-cotton RH-647 was developed by Cotton Research Institute CRI, Khanpur has been acknowledge... more The Bt-cotton RH-647 was developed by Cotton Research Institute CRI, Khanpur has been acknowledged for its possesses superior plant characteristics and potential to yield out under harsh agro-climatic conditions of cotton productive district of Rahimyar Khan in Bahawalpur Division and southern Punjab in 2016. RH- 647 for its novel plant structure and improved fiber quality heat and drought tolerant to withstand successfully sustain yield out in harsh, highly variable hot and dry climatic conditions of and harsh seasoned. RH-647 was developed through one-way hybridization of elite parental genotypes accompanied by pedigree selection method through gene pyramiding technique for incorporation of excellent combinations of fiber traits and CLCuV disease tolerance with higher yield potential right from F1 population. The superior plant combinations were selected in F2-F6 generations were entirely based on phenotypic plant traits and progeny yield potential in field, plant shape, number of bolls per plant, average boll weight (g) and fiber quality traits over standard varieties. The single plant progenies were selected 56 sister lines were tested for Bt-gene (Cry1 Ac) were evaluated for high yielding performance for this superior cross and finally RH-647 as superior breeding line was bulked in year 2010. The strain was evaluated in Randomized Complete Block Design in preliminary yield trials (PYT) and two years in Advance Yield Trials (AYT) trials and Zonal Varietal trials for two years. The superior line 647/10 was ensued for performance in variety attestation tests as RH-647. RH-647 performed best in two years varietal trials (NCVT and PCCT and DUS) conducted for two successive growing seasons (2014–2015 and 2015–2016). RH-647 yielded out significantly compared with standard varieties MNH-886, FH-142 and CIM 602. After completion of mandatory trials in year 2016, RH-647 was approved as new Bt. cotton variety “RH-647”. RH-647 is early in maturity with high yield potential and best suited for wheat-cotton cropping pattern. It has fluffy opening and is easy to pick, strongly tolerant to CLCuV disease, high Ginning out turn GOT% (40.2%) with improved fiber traits; staple length (28.3 mm), fiber strength (4.2ug/inch) is duly capable to fulfill all industrial requisitions.
Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) is one of the major crops cultivated in tropical and sub-tropic... more Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) is one of the major crops cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical countries, and the primary purpose is to obtain raw sugar. It is an important substance for sugar and alcohol production by both the sugar and beverage industries. During cane processing, various byproducts are obtained, namely sugarcane bagasse, bagasse ash, pressmud cake, sugarcane vinasse, and spent wash. There are many challenging problems in storage, and they cause great environmental pollution. This review discusses their properties by which they can be used for cleaner agricultural and environmental sustainability. Utilization of byproducts results in value-added soil properties and crop yield. Replacing chemical fertilization with these organic natured byproducts not only minimizes the surplus usage of chemical fertilizers but is also cost-effective and an eco-friendly approach. The drawbacks of the long-term application of these byproducts in the agricultural ecosystem are no...
The fecundity and development of Callosobruchus chinensis on legumes and cereals were studied in ... more The fecundity and development of Callosobruchus chinensis on legumes and cereals were studied in vitro from April to September. The temperature during the investigation was 30.2-34°C and relative humidity was 46-61%. The data was taken at the interval of 24 hours. The highest fecundity of C. chinensis (54.40) eggs was recorded on whole black gram and the lowest fecundity (6.8) was recorded on wheat. The adult female life was non-significance here and the longest of 8.6 days on red cowpea and the shortest of 6.2 days was determined in white cowpea. The longest adult life of male (6.2 days) was recorded on mung bean and the shortest was recorded on white whole gram. The longest egg to adult period of 18 days was recorded on lentil. The highest emergence rate (85%) was recorded on lentil and the lowest (61.54%) was recorded on white crushed gram. The highest male to female ratio (5.34:1) was calculated on whole black gram, the heaviest individual of 5.0 mg was recorded on white cowpea ...
The protection of stored grains from insect pests depends upon highly toxic synthetic insecticide... more The protection of stored grains from insect pests depends upon highly toxic synthetic insecticides which cause a number of harmful effects on public health and environment. This necessitates finding eco-friendlier control measures of these stored insects pests. In this study, leaf and seed extracts of the local medicinal plant Rhazya stricta (Apocynaceae) were evaluated for toxicity and repellency to Rhyzopertha dominica (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) and Trogoderma granarium (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) under laboratory conditions. The results show an increase in mortality (%) and repellency (%) with an increase in the concentrations of the extracts. After 120 h, the leaf extract caused the highest mortality (61.10 ± 1.20 - 72.11 ± 1.25%) as compared to the seed extract (56.95 ± 3.26 - 69.50 ± 1.04) in both targeted insects. Leaf and plant extracts show maximum repellency (62.50 ± 1.73 - 47.20 ± 1.45%) in R. dominica and T. granarium at higher concentrations in comparison to lower concen...
Gender Differences in Left Ventricular Mass in Healthy Adults After Indexing for Body Size
Pakistan Heart Journal, 2013
Objective: The study was conducted to demonstrate the gender distribution of echocardiography bas... more Objective: The study was conducted to demonstrate the gender distribution of echocardiography based LV mass in healthy adults after indexing for body surface area (BSA) and height. Methodology: The study group consisted of 1137 healthy subjects on the basis of clinical assessment, electrocardiography and X-ray. LV mass values were calculated from standard parasternal long-axis M-mode echocardiographic readings. The LV mass values were then indexed for body size parameters in terms of BSA and body height.Gender based comparisons were carried out for LV mass after indexing for BSA and body height. Results: The study included 1137 adults including 53% males and 47% females. Mean body surface area was higher for males than females (1.7 ± 0.19vs 1.5 ± 0.15 m2). Mean height was higher for males (1.7 ± 0.08 vs 1.5 ± 0.06 m). Mean LV mass was 127.39 ±36.18SD in males and 104.95 ± 29.06 SD in females with P value of <0.05. Conclusion: Males have greater LV mass as compared to females inde...
Potassium and Boron Fertilization Approaches to Increase Yield and Nutritional Attributes in Maize Crop
Potassium (K) and boron (B) are two important plant nutrients, which have ability to influence th... more Potassium (K) and boron (B) are two important plant nutrients, which have ability to influence their bioavailability in soil-plant ecosystem. They may cause deficiency or may increase availability of each other. To identify their interaction, a field experiment was designed to identify interactive behaviour influencing their bioavailability, growth, yield and nutritional attributes of maize crop, using K (0, 100, 125 and 150 kg ha–) and B (0, 8 and 16 kg ha–). As compared to the control, the growth, yield and nutritional attributes were increased by combined fertilization of K and B than their sole application. Grain yield was increased to 65% with combined fertilization of K and B @125 and 16 kg ha–, respectively, with reference to control. Concentrations of K in leaf and grains were increased 253% and 322% with combined fertilization (150 Kg ha– of K and 8 Kg ha– of B). Fertilization of K and B also increased B concentration in leaf and grains by 179% (150 Kg ha– of K and 16 Kg ha...
Uploads
Papers by Amjad Bashir