Benefits of seed priming can be best achieved if seed are primed in proper concentration of nutrient for optimum duration. A series of experiments were conducted in laboratory, greenhouse and field during 2008-2011 at The University of Agriculture, Peshawar to study the effect of P and Zn seed priming on germination, emergence and yield of cereals (wheat and maize). Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the optimal duration and maximal concentration of zinc (Zn) and phosphorus (P) for priming wheat and maize seed. The seeds were soaked with water through a range of durations (0, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42 and 48 h) and tested for germination. Seed soaked for 18 h resulted in higher mean germination and final germination whereas less time to 50% germination. In subsequent experiments, seeds were primed for 18 h in various concentrations of Zn (0.01%, 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2.0%, 2.5%, 3.0% and 3.5%) and P (0.1%, 0.5%, 1%, 2%, 3% and 5%) along with dry and water soaked seeds as control treatment. Less time to 50% germination and higher mean and total germination was noted for seed primed with 0.1% and 0.5% P (wheat and maize); and 0.05% and 0.1% Zn (wheat) or 0.1% and 0.5% Zn solutions (maize). Chemical analysis of the Zn- and P-primed seed of wheat and maize revealed that increasing Zn and P concentration in the priming solution caused an increase in the Zn and P concentration of the primed seed, respectively. The two maximal concentrations of Zn and P were further evaluated in subsequent pot experiment in glasshouse. Results of the pot experiment revealed that lower time to 50% emergence and higher total emergence was recorded for seed primed in 0.05% Zn (wheat) or 0.1% Zn (maize) and 0.1% P (both crops). Seedlings resulted from seed primed with high concentration of P and Zn had more P and Zn, respectively. The field experiment consisted of three priming treatments i.e. NP (no primed seeds), ZnP ( wheat seed primed in 0.05% Zn and maize in 0.1% Zn) and PP (wheat and maize seed primed in 0.1% P); two levels of P (45 and 90 kg ha-1 for wheat whereas 30 and 60 kg ha-1 for maize) and two levels of Zn (10 and 15 kg ha-1 for both crops) as soil fertilization. Dry and water soaked seeds were used as control treatment. Urea and SSP were applied to provide N and P, respectively. Results showed that priming significantly affected emergence and yield parameters. Lower days to 50% emergence and higher emergence m-2, plant height, number of tillers m-2, number of spikes/cobs m-2, grains per spike/cob, thousand grain weight, grain yield and dry matter yield were recorded for seed primed in 0.05% Zn (wheat) or 0.1% Zn (maize) along with 90 kg P ha-1 (wheat) or 60 kg P ha-1 (maize) and 15 kg Zn ha-1 as soil application followed by seed primed in 0.1% P along with the same amount of fertilizer application. Phosphorus and zinc concentration in wheat and maize seedling, leaf and grain were significantly affected by different combination of priming and soil application of fertilizer. This simple, low-cost, low-risk and easily adoptable technology is expected to possibly reduce, to some extent, fertilizer and irrigation water requirements of the crop and significantly increase grain yield which will largely benefit economy of the resource-poor farmers and the country.
نسیم سخن کی ایک جھلک تقریر ایک ایسا فن سے جس سے انسان اپنا مافی الضمیر موثر انداز میں پیش کرنے کے قابل ہوتا ہے۔ تاریخ عالم گواہ ہے کہ تقریر پر ملکہ رکھنے والے سیاست دانوں نے ملکوں کی قیادت سنبھالی اور عوام کی ذہن سازی میں اپنا کردار ادا کیا۔ سامعین سے خطاب کرنا ہر کسی کے بس کی بات نہیں۔ مبارک باد کے مستحق ہیں مولانا اکرم راشدؔ جو فنِ تقریر میں یدِ طولیٰ رکھتے ہیں۔ انھیں سیاسی علائق سے سروکار نہیں۔ اُن کے خطابات نسلِ نو کی روحانی تربیت سے متعلق ہیں۔ چوں کہ وہ درس و تدریس سے وابستہ رہے اور اب عارف والا کی ایک مسجد میں خطابت کے فرائض انجام دے رہے ہیں۔ اس لیے ان کی تقاریر کے موضوعات روحانی ، اصلاحی اور ملکی فلاح کے علم بردار ہیں۔ انھوں نے اپنے اس مجموعے نسیم سخن میں سو سے زائد موضوعات پر اپنی تقاریر جمع کر دی ہیں۔ان کے موضوعات کا دائرہ ملکِ پاکستان ،دین اسلام، نظامِ تعلیم اور فرد کی اصلاح سے لے کرسماجی مسائل تک پھیلا ہوا ہے جس سے بخوبی اندازہ لگایا جا سکتا ہے کہ وہ اپنے تہذیبی تشخص کو نسلِ نو تک منتقل کرنے کے لیے کتنے فکر مند ہیں۔ راشدؔ صاحب کا یہ مجموعہ تقریرایک طرف فرد کو ملک کا ذمہ دار شہری بنانے کا نصاب اپنے اندر سموئے ہوئے ہے تو دوسری طرف سکول کے طلبا و طالبات کے لیے تقریری مقابلہ جات کی ضرورت پوری کرتا نظر آتا ہے۔ انھوں نے اپنے اس گلدستہ تقاریر کو منفرد اور بر محل اشعار سے مزین کرنے کے ساتھ ساتھ قرآن و حدیث کے حوالوں سے جو درجہ استناد عطا کیا ہے وہ یقیناقابلِ داد ہے۔ وہ اپنی بات کی اہمیت واضح کرنے کے لیے عملی زندگی کی مثالوں کا استعمال کرتے ہیں۔...
لقد عمل الشيخ خيون آل عبيد على كسر هيبة بريطانيا في العراق من خلال إعداد خطة لقتل الحاكم البريطاني برترام توماس حاكم الشطرة يوم ذاك، لكن الأمور لم تأتِ لصالحه فقد كشفت خطته، عندما أفشى الشيخ صكبان آل علي الذي كان يشغل منصب ضابط شبانة اسرار تلك الخطة، والتي انعكست بدورها إلى تغيير مساره الذي انتهجه في مجابهة البريطانيين، وبذلك لم يلتحق الشيخ خيون آل عبيد بصفوف الثوار في هذه المرحلة، ووقف موقف المتفرج من الثورة. وتتناول هذه الدراسة موقف الشيخ خيون آل عبيد من اندلاع الثورة عام 1920. اقتضت طبيعة هذه الدراسة تقسيمها إلى مقدمة ومبحثين أساسيين وخاتمة، تناولنا في المبحث الأول دور الشيخ خيون في الحركة الوطنية قبيل اندلاع الثورة عام 1920. وخصصنا المبحث الثاني عن موقف الشيخ خيون آل عبيد من اندلاع الثورة عام 1920. واعتمدت الدراسة على مجموعة من المصادر المتنوعة وخاصة الوثائق البريطانية غير المنشورة. وكذلك الكتب العربية والمترجمة، فضلاً عن الاعتماد على الصحافة المحلية التي مثلت نبعاً غزيراً من المعلومات عن تلك الحقبة التأريخية
Small UAVs, due to their easy handling and lesser logistic support requirements are attracting lot of interest for applications ranging from military to commercial, and even for scientific data collection. In present day scenario, they are mostly used to conduct surveillance, reconnaissance, search and rescue missions for military and civilian outfits. In order to complete the assigned tasks they are usually equipped with surveillance cameras. Unlike their larger counterparts, smaller UAVs by virtue of their size cannot carry sophisticated gyro stabilized cameras. It therefore becomes important to address this shortcoming, in terms of non availability of gyro stabilization by ensuring a smoother flight even in turbulent weather to receive a stable and good quality video from UAV. Growing interest in small UAVs has motivated many equipment manufacturers to develop Off The Shelf autopilots. Being cost effective, simple, flexible and reliable, PID based autopilots are generally preferred for the purpose. Besides number of advantages, PID controllers have a limitation that they sometimes require retuning of the gains when subjected to external disturbance. UAVs perform satisfactorily if the atmospheric conditions do not change much. However, if the UAV moves to a location where the atmospheric conditions change substantially, the PID gains may require readjustment / retuning, which is a tedious job and requires numerous UAV flights; otherwise performance degradations in terms of pitching and rolling oscillations are observed. The above premise formed the basis and source of motivation for this research. It was considered that instead of going for retuning, gain scheduling or replacing the existing, conveniently available PID controller with some intricate or complex controller, a simpler, realizable and effective scheme should be adopted. The basic idea of the proposed scheme was derived from a situation in which a boy sometimes requires a bit of extra hand from his father sitting beside him, while driving through a bumpy and wavy patch of road. Father closely monitors the driving performance of his son on bumpy road and when he thinks that slight help in terms of applying an extra force by holding the steering can improve the capability of his son to negotiate the bad patch, he does so. After passing through bumpy part of road when father senses that the extra effort is no more required, he gradually removes it and his son takes over the car back again as a solo driver. Following the same analogy, the idea was conceived to propose a supervising mechanism which can act like a human pilot and can be augmented with an existing control system of a UAV for improving its performance in presence of atmospheric disturbances without going into exercise of retuning the controller gains. Our supervisory mechanism is composed of two modules, “observer module” and “correction generator module”. We developed a human thinking like logic for observer module so that it keeps monitoring the status of flight through specified inputs and outputs of the system and instructs the correction generator module to augment main controller by adding compensation commands when required i.e. in case undesired attitude error is observed. The second module for correction generation is based on Fuzzy rules, where rule set was developed using input from a UAV pilot. Effort is made to maintain a logical layout of this thesis so that the reader can be familiarized with the theoretical concepts and analysis tools related to UAVs. A small UAV with already published aerodynamic data is taken as a reference bird. In chapter two and three of this thesis detailed explanation about the formulation of its nonlinear mathematical modeling, linearization process to achieve decoupling and simplicity, conducting static and dynamic stability analysis, criteria for flying qualities assessment is given. Designing of PID controllers for attitude, altitude and heading control using linearized UAV models is covered in chapter four. Performance of designed controller is also validated by using nonlinear UAV model. Atmospheric disturbances such as wind shear and turbulence significantly influence the attitude of UAVs. Rotary moments, rolling moments, vertical and lateral wind gusts generated due to moderate to severe turbulence are simulated as atmospheric disturbance. Pitch and roll response in presence of these disturbances are presented. In chapter five the functionality of proposed scheme is discussed in detail and simulations are run to demonstrate improved pitch and roll response under atmospheric disturbance by augmenting the supervisory mechanism. Simulation results showing significant reduction in attitude errors with slight increase in control effort after augmenting the supervisory mechanism are presented. Simulations are run using linear as well as nonlinear model of UAV. Comparison of results obtained from standalone PID controller and augmented system is presented to validate the efficacy of proposed scheme Keywords; UAV Modeling, Stability analysis of UAVs, UAV autopilots, Disturbance rejection in UAVs