A Study of Stress Factors and Their Impact on Students’ Academic Performance at University Level

The main emphasis of the study is on the academic performance and the stress management in applied science among the students of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Sindh University Campus Dadu. What is the level of stress on the academic success of the students? How does it affect their lifestyle and health? This is what the research study covers to counteract the general stress among the students. The purpose of the study is to inquire and bring light to measure and check the present stress among students of the university. While doing the research a quantitative method was applied for collecting and analyzing the data. The Questionnaires were distributed among different students for this purpose. Innumerable factors of stress were found in the results and the factors were grouped in four categories which are; -Environmental Factors, Academic Factors, and Personal Factors. In environmental factors, the stress was about the happening the fate in the future. The students were found worried about future that what would happen about their fate? How it will happen? What is about to happen? When they came into contact with the new people it raised their stress. Also the class workload was the main reason for the stress among the students regarding academic factors. When the students were experiencing the workload of the class the group of the students came under stress. The last factor was a personal factor which was mainly due to the financial problem among the students. The stress of all categories can be managed through stress management courses and doing different extracurricular activities which will help to divert the attention of the students on different occasions. This study has drawn significant conclusions and Suggests further measures for practitioners which could help other to manage stress. The limitations are also mentioned so that those who are conducting research for the similar cases can extract better results and ways of curbing stress. A survey questionnaire was designed to collect the response from students, the five-point Likert scale was used from strongly agree to strongly disagree. SPSS-21 version was used to interpret the results through different quantitative techniques like descriptive, regression, and correlation. ____________

Response of Maize Zea Mays to Auxin Producing Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria under Saline Conditions

Soil salinity is one of the most widespread agricultural problems which reduce the field and crop productivity. Salinity disturbs the hormonal balance in plants which results in poor growth. Use of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) is considered an economical and environment-friendly approach to combat salinity stress. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of PGPR on the growth, antioxidant status, physiological parameters and mineral content of maize (Zea mays) in salt affected soils. Bacterial strains were isolated from the rhizosphere of maize growing under salt affected soil conditions. These strains were screened on the basis of auxin production and their ability to withstand salinity stress. Nineteen rhizobacterial strains producing auxin were further screened for their growth promoting activity under axenic conditions at 0, 4, 8, 12 and 15 dS m-1 salinity levels. Two strains were selected after this study and their ability of growth promotion in the presence and absence of L-TRP was tested alone and in combination under salt affected pot and field conditions. Results showed that soil salinity reduced the plant growth, physiological parameters, mineral nutrient uptake and yield of maize while antioxidant activity and proline concentration was increased. Inoculation with PGPR strains under saline soils alleviated the salinity effects on the antioxidant enzymes (APX and SOD), along with those on photosynthesis, mineral content and growth in the absence and presence of L-TRP application. Dual inoculation showed better results than sole inoculation. The results of the present study highlight the significance of PGPR strains to alleviate the adverse effects of salinity stress