Cotton fibers serve as the chief raw material for the textile industry. Cost of production and requirement of high-quality products is the main challenge encountered by the textile industry in Pakistan. Fiber quality parameters that have a major impact on the textile processing include fiber length, fiber strength and fiber fineness. Efforts to improve cotton fiber quality have been underway since many years. Out of all the approaches used so far, genetic improvement in cotton through Agrobacterium mediated transformation has proved to be the most feasible and productive technique in enhancing the fiber quality of various cotton cultivars. Cotton fibers are chiefly composed of cellulose therefore, any change in the cellulose synthesis within the fiber can affect the fiber quality to a great extent. Due to this fact, this study was aimed to explore the expression of bacterial cellulose synthase (Bcs) genes, namely acsA and acsB (GenBank ID: X54676.1), under the regulation of fiber-specific promoter (GhSCFP) in a local cotton variety (CEMB-00) of Gossypium hirsutum. In silico studies were conducted to understand the structures of bacterial and cotton fiber cellulose synthase enzymes and to find compatibility and similarities among them. A number of domains were found to be highly conserved among the bacterial and cotton fiber cellulose synthases. These conserved domains were observed to be functionally essential for the process of cellulose synthesis in the bacterial cells of Gluconacetobacter xylinus as well as the cotton fiber. The 6586 bp fragment of Bcs gene cassette was isolated from the synthesized pUC57-Bcs construct through restriction digestion analysis and cloned into pCAMBIA 1301 vector under the regulation of the fiber-specific promoter. The recombinant plant expression vector, pCAMBIA-Bcs, was introduced into the local non-transgenic cotton variety of Gossypium hirsutum via shoot apex method of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation which resulted in the transformation efficiency of 1.27%. Four out of ten putative transgenic plants, which were PCR positive for both acsA and acsB genes, were selected on the basis of improved fiber quality and better growth potential to be further analyzed through the molecular and biochemical analysis in the advanced generations. Quantitative expression of the acsA and acsB genes in the T1 generation transgenic plant lines was many folds higher at 35 DPA (during the secondary cell wall synthesis phase of fiber) as compared to expression at 10 DPA (during the elongation phase of fiber). Fiber analysis of the transgenic cotton plant lines showed up to 17.52% increase in fiber length, up to 26.45% increase in fiber strength and up to 22.45% increase in the cellulose contents as compared to the control (non-transgenic) plant line. SEM analysis showed that the transgenic fibers had smoother surfaces with more number of twists as compared to the control fibers. Improvement in some of the morphological traits was also observed in the transgenic plant lines showing an increase of 28.06-32.21% in plant height, 28-40% increase in number of bolls per plant and 31.21-44.57% increase in yield per plant. Furthermore, karyotyping results obtained through FISH analysis revealed the presence of single copy number of the transgenes on the chromosome no. 11 in the transgenic plant line S-00-16 and on chromosome no. 13 in the transgenic plant line S-00-11, during the metaphase. In light of the results obtained, it can be concluded that the transformation of the acsA and acsB genes in cotton fiber resulted in enhanced fiber quality on the basis of analyses performed on a small number of T1 plants. In order to meet the high standards of the cotton fiber quality for the national textile industry, replicated experimentation is required on a larger scale before firm conclusions can be made on parameters such as yield and fiber processing quality.
پروفیسر فضل الرحمن فریدی مرحوم ۲۶؍ جولائی کے اخبار میں ڈاکٹر شرف الدین اصلاحی کے انتقال کی خبر کے ساتھ ڈاکٹر فضل الرحمن فریدی کی وفات کی بھی خبر تھی، غم دوگنا ہوگیا، دنیائے علم کی ویرانی سی ویرانی ہے، اس کیفیت خزاں میں شجر زندگی کے اوراق زرد ہوتے جاتے ہیں۔ ڈاکٹر صاحب شیراز ہند جونپور کے مردم خیز قصبہ مچھلی شہر میں پیدا ہوئے، الہ آباد اور علی گڑھ میں اعلیٰ تعلیم حاصل کی، معاشیات کے موضوع میں اختصاص کیا، پہلے مسلم یونیورسٹی اور بعد میں سعودی عرب کی ملک عبدالعزیز یونیورسٹی میں اسی کادرس دیا، اﷲ نے قلب و ذہن کو پاکیزگی بخشی، اسلام کے نظریۂ معاشیات کو عصری نظام سرمایہ داری اور قمار و سود کی گرم بازاری میں یقین و اعتماد کے ساتھ پیش کرکے اس کی بہتری اور برتری ثابت کرنا، اس دور کا فرض کفایہ تھا جس کو پورا کرنے والوں میں فریدی مرحوم کا حصہ بڑا نمایاں ہے۔ تدریس کے ساتھ انہوں نے تصنیف و تالیف کا عمل جاری رکھا، جماعت اسلامی سے متاثر تھے اسی لیے جماعت کے انگریزی ترجمان ’’ریڈینس‘‘ کی ادارت اور دوسری انتظامی ذمہ داریاں بھی وقتاً فوقتاً انجام دیتے رہے، لیکن رسالہ ’’زندگی نو‘‘ ان کے افکار و نظریات کا سب سے موثر ترجمان رہا، وہ اس کے مدیر تھے اور اشارات میں ان کی ادارتی تحریریں اشارات سے زیادہ بینات کی صورت سامنے آتی رہیں۔ خصوصاً معاشی موضوعات پر نہایت معلومات افزا ہوتیں، ان کے افکار کی تہہ میں صرف یہ جذبہ پنہاں ہوتا کہ اسلام کی معاشی تعلیمات کی برکتوں کا اندازہ کرنے کے لیے موجودہ زمانہ کا ماحول سب سے سازگار ہے لیکن ہماری معلومات صرف روایتی مذہبی تعلیمات تک محدود ہیں، آئی ایم ایف جیسے مالیاتی اداروں کو ان کے اسلوب میں بتانے کی ضرورت ہے کہ قرضوں کی...
Education has been considered of primary importance in human life. Religion and education are interrelated. A civilized society requires educational revolution in behavior of human beings. Education creates awareness about the human goals and real aim of life. This activity makes it possible to train the people in the right direction. Better education coupled with proper training makes a human being well-mannered and enables him to use his hidden qualities for the benefit of mankind, thus making him a beneficial not only for himself but also for the society. The preaching of religion depends upon the education and training. Our holy Prophet ﷺ was an ideal educationist not only of his time but also for the future generations. The Holy Prophet ﷺ being a great educationist and reformer initiated the University of Suffa in Medina when the Islamic society was in its infancy. Prophet ﷺ described the conditions, pattern and qualities of a teacher. A good teacher must be interpreted as good practitioner as well. The article deals with the moral qualities of a teacher and educationist in the light of teachings of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The discussion has made clear the aim of Islamic education which is not limited within the domain of worship or prayers. Islam is a complete code of life which emphasizes the training of human being through education.
Everyone has a distinct style of thinking and learning. Because of individual differences, the cognitive learning style of every individual is different. Cognition explains an individual''s usual mode of perceiving, thinking, remembering, or solving problem. Cognitive learning style is typically explained as a personality aspect which influences values, social interaction, and attitude. Researches have revealed that cognitive learning styles and attitude are joint contributors to behavior. This study was designed to understand, identify and compare cognitive learning styles and science related attitude of undergraduate science students, to compare science related attitudes of science students with respect to cognitive learning styles, to find relationship of cognitive learning styles with science related attitude and academic achievement, to find relationship between science related attitude and academic achievement of undergraduate science students. The population of the study consisted of all undergraduate science students of basic sciences (physics, mathematics, and bio sciences), computer sciences, and engineering sciences (electrical and computer engineering) of public and private sector universities/Degree Awarding Institutes of Islamabad. For sample selection, stratified random sampling was used. The data was collected using demographic inventory, Hidden Figure Test (SHAPES) and convergent/divergent test. A self-developed science related attitude questionnaire was used to identify student’s science related attitude. The academic results of students were obtained from the respective universities/Degree awarding institutes. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Frequency distribution, percentage, mean, and standard deviation were used for data analysis. The hypotheses were tested using Chi-Square and t-tests at 5 percent level of significance. Results were presented in tabular and graphical form. The findings revealed that Field-Dependent and convergent cognitive learning style have been found the most prevailing cognitive learning styles of science students at undergraduate level. Moreover the Field-Independent and divergent learners have more science related attitude and academic achievement than other learners. The findings also revealed that cognitive learning styles have positive relationship with science related attitude and academic achievement. It has been recommended that teachers must use varied teaching methods and provide academic and career guidance to the students so that they can be motivated to develop more positive science related attitude towards the study of science and may improve their academic achievement.