Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) is a notorious pest of various fields and horticultural crops worldwide. Insecticides application ultimately responsible for resistance development in H. armigera, unsafe for the environment and natural enemies of insect pests. To withstand the pesticides resistance, biological control successfully helps in reducing pest population. Bracon hebetor is a cosmopolitan species that have the ability to parasitize a wide range of lepidopteran and few coleopteran hosts. As H. armigera fed on wide host range so, quality and quantity of food nutrients provided at the time of Bracon hebetor larval development is a crucial step. The need of the current research project is to focus on which best suited semi-synthetic artificial diet of H. armigera; B. hebetor developmental parameters are good and further, how it can effectively be used under the scenario of ecological conditions after getting reared on efficient host for the control of H. armigera. So we can utilize B. hebetor as an efficient biological control agent for H. armigera management. Study objectives were to screen out the best suited artificial diet of H. armigera for the rearing of B. hebetor. Investigation of B. hebetor life history traits on most efficient hosts from the screened host species for the effective rearing of B. hebetor. Determination of the effect of temperature, relative humidity regimes and host larval densities on the life history traits of B. hebetor parasitizing H. armigera. B. hebetor parasitization, reproduction, development, fitness related traits and life table parameters were observed on different pyralids, noctuids, gelechiids and curculionids under laboratory conditions (25±2°C and 70±5%) in order to find out the most suitable host for the mass rearing and inundative release purposes to control H. armigera. Results indicated that among four semi-synthetic diets (gram, rice, wheat and corn) of H. armigera, gram flour mediated diet was responsible for good biological and developmental parameters of B. hebetor under laboratory conditions. It can be successfully used for the rearing of H. armigera as a host for good parasitism and development of B. hebetor. Though, H. armigera itself was not an excellent host for the continuous rearing of parasitoid therefore, seven different hosts (six from Lepidoptera and one Coleoptera) were utilized to screen out the suitable one. Results showed that the pyralids hosts (E. kuehniella, C. cephalonica vii and G. mellonella) gave the best results for daily fecundity, parasitoid survival to adulthood, development time and female biased sex ratio followed by H. armigera and the worst reproduction occurred on H. postica. Among the most efficient screened pyralid hosts, B. hebetor biological parameters and fitness related traits were excellent on E. kuehniella as compared to C. cephalonica. So production of good fitness traits (wing area, tibia size and dry mass), excellent biological parameters (good immature numbers and adults emergence), short egg-adult development time and changes in THCs provide a good means for the immature development of B. hebetor within the parasitized E. kuehniella for several days. Temperature relative humidity regimes and H. armigera larval densities significantly affect the biological and developmental parameters of B. hebetor. Excellent life history parameters of B. hebetor parasitizing gram diet fed H. armigera were observed at 25°C and 60% R.H. combination. Among various larval densities of H. armigera good biological parameters of B. hebetor like production of immature numbers, short egg-adult development time, survivorship and female progeny production was significantly good on five larval density of H. armigera offered for parasitization. Therefore, it is recommended that gram mediated diet is best suited for the rearing of H. armigera in order to find out the best suited temperature, humidity combination and host larval density in the field release planning and maintenance of B. hebetor population for long term field crops management to control H. armigera. On the other hand B. hebetor quality progeny production on E. kuehniella make this insect of great potential to serve as valuable material for laboratory rearing and inundative field release to control H. armigera larval populations.
آصف علی افسوس ہے کہ اس مہینہ کے شروع میں ہماری قومی و ملی جماعت کی دو ممتاز شخصیتیں ہم سے جدا ہوگئیں یعنی آصف علی مرحوم اور شفیق الرحمن مرحوم قدوائی نے انتقال کیا، یہ دونوں پرانے قومی کا رکن تھے، ملک و وطن کی انھوں نے بڑی خدمات انجام دیں اور اس کے لئے قید و بند کی مصیبتیں جھیلیں، ہندوستان کی آزادی کی جدوجہد میں ان کا نمایاں حصہ تھا، آصف علی صاحب مرحوم تو پرانے آدمی اور مشہور و ممتاز شخصیت رکھتے تھے، سیاسی ز ندگی سے پہلے بھی وہ ایک اچھے بیرسٹر تھے، اور سیاست کے میدان میں بھی ان کو نمایاں مقام حاصل تھا، اور ہندوستان کے بڑے لیڈروں میں ان کا شمار تھا، ہندوستان کی آزادی کے بعد وہ مرکزی حکومت کی وزارت، اڑیسہ کی گورنری، امریکہ اور سوئیزرلینڈ کی سفارت جیسے بڑے بڑے عہدوں پر ممتاز رہے، اور سو ئیزرلینڈ میں ہی ان کا انتقال ہوا، علمی حیثیت سے بھی وہ بڑے لائق اور ذہین وذکی تھے، اردو کے بھی ادیب تھے اور انگریزی و اردو دونوں میں ان کی تصانیف ہیں، انتقال کے وقت ۶۴، ۶۵ سال کی عمر تھی، ان کی موت سے ایک ایسی جگہ خالی ہوگئی جس کا موجودہ حالات میں پر ہونا مشکل ہے۔ (شاہ معین الدین ندوی، اپریل ۱۹۵۳ء)
Race represents a specific caste, creed and a generation of a common ancestor. It has been a source of identification among different tribes and group of people, since humankind started life on this earth. With the passage of time different races have started using their racial backgrounds as negative sentiments which created superiority and inferiority complexes among people. Concepts of chosen people aroused in different races which created great gap, differences and hate in the society. The current research work is based upon the concept of superiority in Hinduism and Judaism, which will be further reviewed in the light of Islamic teachings.
Integration of functionalized and modified nanostructures (NSs) in various biomedical applications has ushered significant research interests in recent years. The use of functionalized NSs in medicine and biomedical applications are vast and spans in areas such as diagnostics, drug delivery, therapy, antibiotic creams, and bioimaging, to name a few. The current scenario appeals towards surface modification of NSs, which can respond to the needs of biological problems. The main objective of the present work compiled in this thesis is to establish the effect of surface processing of one-dimensional (1-D) NSs on its structural, optical and electrochemical properties as stand alone and in a given biological media. The surface modifications of 1-D NS is performed by forming composites with metallic nanoparticles (NPs) and by post growth processing in a reduced and an oxidizing environment. Two different families of 1-D nanostructures were studied, one belonged to carbon nanotubes and other to oxide nanostructures. In the first section, a comprehensive study of the nanohybrids formed by multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and metallic Au and Ag-NPs is presented. Functionalization of both –COOH bond and Au-NPs on the walls of MWCNTs has induced stresses which were observed in the X-ray diffraction patterns. The diffusion of Au-NPs in the MWCNTs was clearly observed in the high resolution TEM images, which affected the D and G Raman bands of the MWCNTs significantly. E. coli attachment has modified the local charge densities of Au-NPs-MWCNTs nanohybrids which resulted in the shift of both G and D Raman bands and increased intensity ratio of two bands. This was also reflected in the blue shift of the surface plasmon modes of the Au nanoparticles attached to MWCNTs. It was also revealed that the concentration of Ag-NPs was very vital for the antibacterial activity enhancement in Ag-NPs-MWCNTs nanohybrids. The minimal inhibitory concentration (0.5 mg/ml MWCNTs and 17.5 mg/ml Ag) of Ag-NPs-MWCNTs conjugate was also determined. The charge transfer kinetics of metallic-NPs-MWCNTs nanohybrids were also characterized by modifying the surface of glassy carbon electrode (GCE) by nanohybrids. Both the potential sweep and impedance spectroscopy demonstrated that the diffusion controlled processes were involved at the surface of modified GCE. In addition, it was revealed that the nature of the processes at the surface of nanohybrids modified GCE were quasi-reversible. The highest rate constant of 0.12 s-1 was determined as the concentration of xii Au-NPs was increased in Au-NPs-MWCNTs modified GCE. Conversely, a decreased rate constant of 0.07 s-1 was observed as the concentration of Ag-NPs on the surface of Ag-NPs- MWCNTs modified GCE increased. This suggested that the Au-NPs incorporation at higher concentration in nanohybrids have facilitated fast charge transfer mechanism and slow for Ag- NPs. Finally, nanohybrids modified GCE employed in E. coli surroundings proved that the nanohybrids were efficient for the simultaneous detection of E. coli. In second section, the effect of surface modifications of 1-D ZnO-NSs grown by the vapor–solid mechanism on its antibacterial activity was highlighted. Two sets of ZnO NSs were modified separately; first by annealing in Ar environment and second in oxygen plasma processing. Annealing in Ar resulted in a compressed lattice, which was due to removal of Zn interstitials and increased O vacancies. Plasma oxidation of the ZnO-NSs caused an expansion in the lattice due to the removal of O vacancies and incorporation of excess O, confirmed by X-ray diffraction patterns. Photoluminescence spectroscopy confirmed the surface modification of ZnO-NS, as substantial variation in intensities of visible band was observed as a result of surface modifications, which were used to quantify the Zn and O defects. The antibacterial activity of the modified ZnO-NSs demonstrated that the surface modifications by Ar annealing limited the antibacterial characteristics of ZnO-NSs against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). It was then proved that the O content at the surface of the ZnO-NSs was crucial to tune the antibacterial activity against both selected gram-negative (E. coli) and gram-positive (S. aureus) bacterial species.