Attitude Towards Science: A Case Study of Higher Secondary Level Students of Sindh Province

This research is conducted, in order to perceive the attitude of higher secondary level students of Sindh towards science. Students (Male = 448, Female = 648) belonging to higher-secondary level (Class-XI & XII) from Hyderabad division were surveyed. Students were divided in Urban (N=455) and Rural (N=641) groups accordingly. “Test of Science Related Attitudes” known as TOSRA, initially developed by (Fraser, 1978) was adapted and translated in Urdu as well, was used as the attitude measurement instrument. Internalk consistancey was checked with Cronbach’s alpha reliability test. After pilot study the test was administrated. Significant difference of the attitude towards science across the students was noticed based on their gender and their locale. The results show that, with small effect size, male students significantly scored higher on almost all of the attitude sub-scales of TOSRA as compared to female students. Interestingly, students belonging to rural areas significantly scored higher with medium effect size on all the attitude sub-scale towards science as compare to students from urban areas.

Physical Chemical and Biological Treatment of Rice Husk to Improve its Untritive Value

Pakistan is mainly an agriculture country. Livestock is an integral part of the Agricultural economy unfortunately Livestock in Pakistan is producing for below its full potential. The main reason this poor performance is the shortage of fodder quantitatively and qualitative. Therefore, to overcome the shortage of green fodder, we have to export the conventional and nonconventional sources of feed. Pakistan is one of the major producer of rice in Asia, that’s shy rice husk which is a by-product of rice threshing process in frequently and cheaply available. In this study we study this underutilized source, by applying various treatments, evaluating their impact on husk topology and itsimpart on husk topology and its impact on ruminant feeding. In the first two experiments, the rice husk was subjected to acid, alkali, and water treatment at various temperature and concentration, we found a significant effect of temperature on rice husk (P>0.001). Whereas concentration in case of alkali treatment produced significant results (P?0.001). Topology of rice husk 4 bond specific bond vibrations was studied with the help of FT/IR and scanning electron microscopy. Electron micrographs showed swelling and even cracking of the epidermises. FT/IR results demonstrate a change in the absorbance in the polysaccharide bonding region. The third experiments deals with the enhancement of nutritive value of rice husk by SSF using Pleurotusflonda. Experiment shows significant increase in the CP and decrease in the total lignin content (P> 0001. Finally in the fourth experiment a ration having 20% differently procured husk were feeded to the small ruminant (Lohi Sheep) and the an average weekly weight gain comparable feed intake and FCR were found comparable with control. The data was analyzed using Mintab version 20:01. It is concluded that improving the quality of certain under utilized agricultural residue can minimize the feed gap in Pakistan. Rice husk is a valuable and acceptable source of fed for ruminant and there is need to educate the small farmer to break this myth.