Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites produced by the species of Aspergillus, specifically Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. The aflatoxins are highly toxic, mutagenic, teratogenic and carcinogenic compounds implicating as causative agents in human hepatic and extra hepatic carcinogenesis. The present project was divided into three parts. In the first part (Study I), the chemical changes in spices and groundnuts were studied under different packaging materials and storage conditions. There was no aflatoxin was detected in all groundnut varieties and spices. Cumin, red chillies and black pepper samples stored in jute bags showed maximum moisture contents as compared to high density polyethylene (HDPE) bags. Moisture content in cumin samples also increased significantly at 85% RH. Moisture content in all the samples increased as a result of storage and humidity. The storage, humidity and packaging materials showed non-significant effect on ash, protein, fat, fiber, nitrogen free extract (NFE) and total phenolics in groundnut varieties. The total fungal count, Aspergillus count and total aflatoxin in all spices was significantly (p< 0.01) affected due to packaging material, relative humidity, storage intervals and interactions of these variables. However, low level of total aflatoxin was detected in spices as compared to groundnuts. The chemical constituents like crude protein, crude protein, crude fiber, ash and NFE differed significantly among different groundnut varieties. However, storage intervals, packaging materials and interactions between these variables non-significantly affected the proximate composition of groundnuts varieties except moisture content which was increased during storage. In study II, after 120 days of storage the contaminated samples were packed in HDPE and irradiated by gamma radiation @ 2, 4 and 6 kGy and stored at room temperature and relative humidity in paper carton box along with control (0 kGy) for 90 days. The gamma radiation showed significant effect on total fungal count and aspergillus count as compared to control. Irradiation and storage showed non-significant effect on proximate composition and total phenolics of spices. The third (Study III) comprised the use of groundnut oil in cookies as to replace normal shortening and its effect on quality attributes of cookies during two month of storage period. The physico-chemical analyses and fatty acid profile of groundnut oil was performed. The results regarding fatty acids profile of groundnut oil indicated that GNO contain low level of saturated fatty acids; myristic acid (0.04%), palmitic acid (9.85), stearic acid (2.53), arachidic acid (1.21), behenic acid (2.52) and lignoceric acid (2.42%) while higher level of un-saturated fatty acids oleic acid (55.36%), linoleic acid (26.96%) and Eicosenoic acid (1.36%.). The groundnut oil was used in cookies preparation @ 25, 50, 75 and 100 % along with control (0% groundnut oil) and packed in HDPE bags for 2 months of storage at room temperature. The cookies were evaluated for physical, chemical, sensory and storage stability analyses. The moisture content, crude protein and Thiobarbituric acid (TBA) no. of cookies significantly varied as a function of storage, where as crude fiber, ash and NFE content of cookies varied non-significantly. The width, thickness and spread factor of cookies varied significantly due to variation of groundnut oil in cookies. The results of the present investigations indicated that spices and groundnuts can be safely stored in polyethylene bags for their better quality retention. The use of radiation can be helpful for the preservation of spices and groundnuts with respect to the production of aflatoxin during storage.
Establishment of khilafah and tamkeen fil ‘ard means supremacy of the dictates of shari‘ah and socio-political justice on earth. This is one of the basic objectives and prominent messages of the Holy Quran and Seerah of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w). About khilafah and tamkeen fil ‘ard the Holy Quran expresses as: -وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنكُمْ وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَيَسْتَخْلِفَنَّهُم فِي الأَرْضِ … -الَّذِينَ إِن مَّكَّنَّاهُمْ فِي الأَرْضِ أَقَامُوا الصَّلاَةَ وَآتَوُا الزَّكَاةَ وَأَمَرُوا بِالمَعْرُوفِ وَنَهَوْا عَنِ المُنكَرِ وَلِلَّهِ عَاقِبَةُ الأُمُورِ. -هُوَ الَّذِي أَرْسَلَ رَسُولَهُ بِالْهُدَى وَدِينِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّينِ كُلِّهِ وَكَفَى بِاللَّهِ شَهِيداً. Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) proclaims: - وَاَللَّهِ لَوْ وَضَعُوا الشَّمْسَ فِي يَمِينِي وَالْقَمَرَ فِي يَسَارِي عَلَى أَنْ أَتْرُكَ هَذَا الْأَمْرَ حَتَّى يُظْهِرَهُ اللَّهُ أَوْ أَهْلِكَ فِيهِ مَا تَرَكْتُهُ. The Holy Quran and the Seerah refer to some underlying milestones on the way of religious nations to status of khalafah and tamkeen fin ‘ard. These milestones may be expressed in an order as: da‘wah [preaching], deen [practices of prophetic teachings], hijrah [migration], ma‘iyyat-ul-Allah [companionship of Allah], qital [wars], nusrat-ul-Allah [divine aid], izhar-ud-deen [domination of deen] and khilafah [inheritance of authority]. This is noteworthy that journey of khalafah and tamkeen fin ‘ard begins with da‘wah [preaching towards deen] and passing through various milestones ends up again at da‘wah, as obvious from ayat-ul-istakhlaf quoted above. Therefore, the seekers of khilafah and tamkeen fil ‘ard should strive hard and keep struggling with the work of da‘wah with dedication in all circumstances and all means as per time and place requirements in lined with the modus operandi of Prophets, particularly Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w), instead of awaiting the status of khilafah and tamkeen fil ‘ard as prerequisite to start with the work of da‘wah and establishment of deen. This paper primarily aims to elaborate the milestones of Muslim Ummah to reach to the status of khilafah and tamkeen fil ‘ard. It also cast light on the objectives of khilafah and tamkeen fil ‘ard. This work provides useful guidance to Muslim Ummah in general and Ahlud da‘wah in particular about milestones and objectives of khilafah and tamkeen fil ‘ard.
The use of different pressuremeters for in-situ soil testing is now well established. The pressuremeters, which provide high quality design parameters, are affordable on high cost projects only. Small cost projects permit the use of low cost techniques only (e.g. SPT), which often yield poor quality design parameters. Usually pressuremeters are employed for soil characterization using pre-bored or self-boring or full-displacement techniques. There was a need to develop a device in Pakistan that could be used as pre-bored as well as full-displacement pressuremeter for characterizing the alluvial soil deposits of Punjab province. Moreover, the new device should be simple, robust, cost effective and still produces parameters of high quality. This thesis describes the development of such a new in-situ testing device; namely the New Pressuremeter. Certain modifications have been made to the design of Newcastle Full-Displacement Pressuremeter (NFDPM), developed earlier by Akbar (2001) that has a radial displacement measurement system. The length of the probe of NFDPM is 420 mm (length to diameter ratio of 8.4), which creates handling problems in the field. To overcome this difficulty it was decided to reduce the length of the test section and to keep the length of the probe of the new device equal to the length of SPT split spoon sampler to get benefit from the available large SPT data. On the basis of this fact, the length of the probe of the new device was taken as 305 mm giving length to diameter ratio of 6.3. The analysis of a pressuremeter test is based on the assumption that the membrane expands as a right circular cylinder. With modifications, the new pressuremeter was developed using most of the local resources. The main body of the 48.2 mm diameter (D) probe is made of high strength stainless steel. Both ends of the main body are identical. The upper end of the probe is connected to drill rods used to push the probe into place. A pressure hose and electrical cable pass through the drill rods and are connected to the probe by a re-usable hydraulic fitting. A 45° stainless steel cone having a maximum diameter of 50.8 mm (surface area 28.5 cm 2 ) is screwed onto the base of the probe. The cone creates a cavity, which is 5% larger than the diameter of the probe. The oversize cavity helps in such a way that during installation, the friction between the membrane and the soil is almost eliminated thus ivpreventing the ends of the membrane from being pulled out of the clamping rings. This eliminates the need for a protective sheath (e.g. Chinese lantern) reducing the cost and making its assembly simpler. This device is robust and can be used in a greater variety of soil types. This device has displacement and applied pressure measurement systems and can produce stress-strain curves and unload-reload cycles. Using the new device following calibrations were carried out: • Calibration of pressure transducer • Calibration of the displacement transducer (Hall effect transducer) • Calibration for the system stiffness In situ testing was carried out at three locations of alluvial soil deposits of province of Punjab ranging from very soft to very stiff clays and loose to medium dense sands using the new device by full-displacement and pre-bored techniques. A total of 65 full scale pressuremeter tests [40 at Site-1(20 each using full-displacement and pre-bored techniques), 7 at Site-2 (all using pre-bored technique), 18 at Site-3 (9 each using full- displacement and pre-bored techniques)] were performed during this research. In situ testing with the SPT and CPT (CPT was not carried out at Site-1) was also carried out along with laboratory testing on disturbed and undisturbed samples to compare the results and validate the performance of the new pressuremeter. It is found that the soil parameters obtained using the new device as full-displacement and pre-bored pressuremeter compare well with those determined by laboratory and other in- situ testing devices. New correlations have also been proposed on the basis of test results obtained during this research work. The comparison of soil parameters determined from different sources proves the validity of the performance of the new device. However, more in-situ testing is recommended to build more confidence in the new device.