Forage biomass is generally the most important resource for animal production in scrubby ecosystems that is rapidly being depleted due to heavy grazing over vast areas of rangelands. Overoptimistic stocking rates in Chakwal have been attributed to the leading cause of rangeland degradation. Moreover, uneven distribution of animal impact had been due to differentially preferred and quality areas in the range landscape. Deterioration in range conditions continues due to over stocking while vegetative cover and species diversity is decreasing. It is evident that successful range management and improvement requires knowledge of forage calendar, nutritional value of range plants species (both qualitative and quantitative) and forage palatability and preferences of the flock in the region. A comprehensive study was conducted to determinate the comparative nutrient value of available forage resources during the various seasons and the ability of these resources to meet the animal requirements for optimum livestock production. In the first part of study, relative species composition and seasonal biomass productivity of major forage species in three representative rangelands of District Chakwal were assessed during 2004-05. Sixty nine plant species, all native, distributed among 29 families, were recorded on the vegetation transects in four sites of each rangeland. These included 20 species of grasses, 12 of trees, 31 of shrubs and 6 of undershrubs and herbs. Plant species composition studied in three consecutive seasons indicated that average density of plants was 33165, 15848 and 17442 plants/ha in Nurpur Reserved Forest (RF), Mari Dharnal RF and Ara RF respectively. Flat areas (17971 plants/ha) and sloping areas (15763 plants/ha) were similar to each other but different as compared to nullah i beds/channels (7858 plants/ha) and exposed sandstone areas (2675 plants/ha) in Nurpur RF. In Mari Dharnal RF, flat areas (7204 plants/ha), sloping areas (6666 plants/ha) and nullah beds/channels (5835 plants/ha) were similar to each other but different as compared to exposed sandstone areas (1426 plants/ha). In Ara RF, sloping areas (8386 plants/ha) were different as compared to flat areas (6644 plants/ha) and nullah beds/channels (6680 plants/ha), which were similar to each other but different from exposed sandstone areas (1546 plants/ha). In Nurpur RF and Ara RF respectively, shrubs were greater (20309, 9694 plants/ha) as compared to grasses (12208, 7610 plants/ha) and trees (648, 138 plants/ha) while grasses (9922 plants/ha) were more as compared to trees (116 plants/ha) and shrubs (5810 plants/ha) in Mari Dharnal RF. Grass composition increased as the season advanced from fall to summer. Plant frequency varied among grasses, trees and shrubs across the three growth seasons. In winter in all the three rangelands, shrubs contributed maximum to the vegetation cover followed by trees while grasses contributed the least. In Nurpur Reserved Forest, grass cover was 2.11 and 29.52%, tree cover was 1.18 and 1.17%, and shrub cover was 1.86 and 1.87% in spring and summer 2005 respectively. In Mari Dharnal RF, grass cover was 2.34 and 38.592%, tree cover was 1.32 and 1.82%, and shrub cover was 1.75 and 0.72 % in spring and summer 2005 respectively. In Ara RF, grass cover was 3.77 and 35.68%, tree cover was 1.82 and 2.29%, and shrub cover was 1.44 and 2.2 % in spring and summer 2005 respectively. Based on the importance value (IV) of plant species, vegetation communities for each site of the rangelands across three growth seasons in Chakwal were identified, characterized and established. In all, 36 vegetation communities were recognized and described. Above ground dry forage production of grasses, trees and shrubs was recorded across the three grazing seasons under grazing field conditions. In winter 2004, maximum above ground dry forage production was recorded from shrubs and trees and the lowest from grasses in all the three rangelands. The average forage production recorded from all range sites was greater in Ara RF (168.77, 894.83, 2222.79 kg/ha) followed by Mari Dharnal RF (150.97, 368.38, 1340.86 kg/ha) and the lowest was in Nurpur RF (90.34, 355.15, 1367.23 kg/ha) for winter 2004, spring and summer 2005 respectively. Maximum forage production was recorded in flat areas followed by sloping areas and nullah beds/channels and the lowest was recorded from exposed sandstone areas in all the rangelands across the three growing seasons. Summer 2005 season was the most productive season followed by spring 2005 season whereas winter 2004 season was the least productive. The average carrying capacity (CC) differed from (107.60, 64.39, 57.26 ha/AU/Y) in winter, (27.37, 26.39, 11.96 ha/AU/Y) in spring to (7.11, 7.25, 4.38 ha/AU/Y) in summer 2005 in Nurpur RF, Mari Dharnal RF and Ara RF respectively. Among the range sites, flat areas showed greater potential in terms of carrying capacity to support animal production followed by sloping areas and nullah beds/channels whereas exposed sandstone areas exhibited lowest potential across the three seasons in all rangelands. Relative preference of range grasses and other forages (graze-able and browse- able vegetation) by grazing goats and sheep was analyzed for their preference of selection and grazing. Goats were found to prefer more browse (trees and shrubs) as compared to grasses (P < 0.01). For goats, the overall (highest to least) order of iii preference was trees>shrubs>grasses. Sheep were found to prefer more grasses as compared to shrubs and trees (P < 0.01) and the overall rank order of preference for sheep was grasses>shrub>trees (P < 0.01). The data analysis indicated that plants preferences and forage selection shifted with the progress of season from spring to summer. The preference for herbaceous species increased in spring and summer and number of bites also increased whereas the preference of browse declined in the same grazing periods with the availability of grasses. The nutritive value of grasses, shrub and trees at 3 phonological stages, revealed that mean values of dry matter (DM) percent in all plant species varied significantly from each other at three phonological stages of growth. Crude protein (CP) percent varied from 3.8 to 9.6 in grasses and from 5.36 to 24.47 in trees and shrub. Minimum CP% was observed in winter when the grasses reached maturity and maximum CP% was observed in the current growth material in spring when grasses were in vegetative stage. In trees and shrub, minimum CP% was observed in summer and maximum CP% in spring. The overall effect of three growth stages on the CP% content was highly significant. Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF) varied from 24.80 to 44.47% in grasses and from 16.90 to 82.20% in trees and shrub. Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) varied from 9.5 to 22.3% in grasses and from 11.8 to 50.1% in trees and shrub. Minimum ADF among plants was observed in winter and maximum ADF in summer. In winter, when grasses were at maturity stage, forage (herbage and browse) quality was fair. In spring and summer 2005, forage quality of tested grasses and browse were highly nutritious and profoundly supportive to livestock production.
مولانا اخلاق حسین قاسمی دہلوی؍ حکیم عزیز الرحمان مؤی؍ ڈاکٹر مقتدی حسن ازہری افسوس ہے کہ گذشتہ دنوں ہماری مجلس علم و دانش کو مولانا اخلاق حسین قاسمی دہلوی، حکیم عزیز الرحمان مؤی اور ڈاکٹر مقتدی حسن ازہری جیسی اہم شخصیتوں سے محروم ہونا پڑا، قرآن مجید اور علوم دینیہ کی تبلیغ، تفہیم اور توسیع میں ان کی خدمات لائق تحسین رہیں، دارالمصنفین سے ان حضرات کا تعلق اخلاص و تعاون کا تھا، معارف میں ان تینوں کی نگارشات آتی رہیں، افسوس ہے کہ اب ان کی جگہ لینے والے نظر نہیں آتے، اﷲ تعالیٰ ان تمام مرحومین کے حسنات کو قبول کرے اور جنت الفردوس کی نعمت سے نوازے، معارف میں ان کا ذکر تفصیل سے آنا چاہیے، آئندہ شماروں میں شاید یہ ضرورت پوری کی جاسکے۔ ( عمیر الصدیق دریابادی ندوی ، نومبر ۲۰۰۹ء)
Pakistan is the agrarian country and its last economic data shows the growth in the agriculture production. More than 60 percent population is living in rural areas of the country and is engaged with agriculture activities. While the agro based industry is linked with agriculture sector and use agriculture raw material for production of final goods. The agro based industry provides income and employment generation opportunities. Therefore, the agro based industry is beneficial for the economic development of the area. For this study the 384 sample has been selected from the district Matiari and statistical Chi square test result highlights that the agro-based industry is beneficial for the development of the rural area.
Digital revolution has made easy the production, distribution and access to the multimedia data. With certain business bene ts, arise the challenge of ownership, authentication and privacy of the data. Multimedia data can now be easily edited and reproduced, resulting in losses and secrecy concerns to the owner of the data. There is a dire need to address these issues, otherwise, the challenges and losses will outweigh the bene ts reaped from the digital age. Digital watermarking is the process of embedding an important message in the carrier (Image, Video). In wa- termarking both message and carrier are important. Watermarking can be used to verify the authenticity of the information and establish ownership of the car- rier. There are two major types of watermarking, (i) Robust (ii) Reversible. In this thesis, three new methods of watermarking are presented, to solve the problems of data hiding and content copyright/ownership protection. One method of Robust watermarking is presented, while 2 methods are developed for reversible watermark- ing of images. Reversible watermarking methods are based on new novel predictors developed for the purpose of watermarking. Therst method of reversible watermarking is based on a new D-Mean predictor. The existing image predictors, Median-edge detector (MED) and Gradient adjusted predictor (GAP) were primarily developed for image compression and were used in reversible watermarking as well. The limitation of compression predictors is the in- ability to use multi-side pixels in the prediction process. In the proposed predictor aim is to exploit local correlation of pixels by using east, west, north and south neigh- bors in the prediction process. The predictor operates around an edge-sensitivity threshold to estimate the direction of the edge. In reversible watermarking methods prediction error (PE) histogram is modeled by a Laplacian distribution. This is because of the spatial redundancy in image pixels. Signi cant improvement of the method is observed for standard images. The surge in the histogram peaks at 0 and short tail of PE for D-Mean con rms the superior performance of the proposed D-Mean predictor over MED and GAP methods. Quantitative measures of predic- tor''s performance are Mean Squared Prediction Error (MSPE) and Entropy of PE. Predictors are compared on the basis of MSPE and entropy pf PE . For all the test images D-Mean yields the least MSPE than MED and GAP. Entropy comparison of PE demonstrates the superiority of the D-Mean predictor. Overall, the average per- formance of D-Mean is also better for both MSPE and PE. The e ectiveness of the D-Mean predictor is validated by incorporation in a 2 stage reversible watermarking method. The obtained results are improved than state of the art. The second method of reversible watermarking is based on a hybrid predictor, de- signed over an enlarged 3 3 neighborhood. The embedding process is divided into four phase representation of the image which allows exploitation of larger prediction context thus enhanced prediction accuracy is obtained. To reduce image distortion at lower capacity payloads, sorting of estimated prediction errors is used, sorting is done with reference to variances of prediction context. For improvement at higher capacity payloads, adaptive embedding is used to determine whether to embed sin- gle or two bits in a given prediction error. The approach is based on decomposing the image into four non-overlapping representations. Each of these representations is watermarked in a separate phase making a total of four phases for embedding a watermark. The order of processing of each phase is exible but should be synchro- nized in encoder and decoder. For simplicity, image is scanned for each of the four phases in top-down and left-right fashion. In each scan, the candidate pixel for em- bedding are predicted using their prediction context and the errors are calculated. Histogram shifting and adaptive embedding is used to increase embedding capacity. Experiments were performed to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach in terms of low distortion in the watermarked image. A new method of Robust watermarking is also presented. The watermark embed- ding problem is modeled as a two-stage optimization problem. In therst stage Genetic algorithm (GA) is used for the selection to appropriate wavelet bands and then in the second stage, Particle swarm optimization (PSO) optimized the water- mark strength for each coe cient of the selected wavelet band. Empirical analysis is also performed for suggesting optimum choices for wavelet family and wavelet depth level for watermarking in the wavelet domain, this helps to get most out of the imperceptibility-robustness tradeoof watermarking paradigm. The proposed wa- termarking method embeds the watermark by decomposing the image using discrete wavelet packet transform. In order to achieve desirable imperceptibility choosing a particular proportion of the total number of wavelet bands without compromising on the robustness can be more useful. Once the optimal wavelet bands are found, watermark strength is optimized for the selected bands using PSO. The method is robust against common image processing attacks, i.e. medianltering, noise addi- tion, JPEG compression and frequencyltering. The dissertation also contains a comprehensive survey of reversible watermarking methods and future directions are listed for further investigations.