Tomato is one of the most demanding crops in terms of water and fertilizer inputs. To meet irrigation water demand, growers use surface and ground water resources. These resources are in decline. Realizing the importance of water, tomato yield under deficit irrigation regimes, and different Nitrogen (N) levels, was studied during 2015 and 2016 at the research farm of the University of Agriculture Peshawar, Pakistan, using factorial arrangement of randomized complete block design (RCBD). These factors were four irrigation levels; full irrigation (I0), 15% deficit (I15), 30% deficit (I30) and 45% deficit (I45); and four nitrogen doses;100% of recommended dose (120 kg ha-1) (N100), 85% of recommended dose (N85), 70% of recommended dose (N70) and 55% of recommended dose (N55). Frequency Domain Reflectometry (FDR) was used for soil moisture monitoring. Io was based on 30% of management allowed deficit. Current study results indicated that deficit irrigation (I15, I30 and I45) had significant effect (P<0.05) on plant height, number of fruits per plant, leaf area index (LAI), total yield, marketable yield, water productivity, nitrogen uptake, Potash uptake (K) and Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). Compared to I45, full irrigation enhanced, number of fruits per plant, LAI, total yield, marketable yield, N uptake, K uptake and NUE by 34, 30, 24, 25, 13, 15.5 and 24%, respectively. Water productivity was 25.8% higher for I45 compared to I0. Effect of deficit irrigation on dry-to-fresh weight ratio, days to 50% flowering, individual fruit weight and Phosphorous (P) uptake was found to be non-significant. Effect of Nitrogen doses number of fruits per plant, LAI, total yield and NUE was found to be highly significant. However, the effect on dry-to-fresh weight ratio, plant height, days to 50% flowering, individual fruit weight, marketable yield, water productivity and NPK uptake were found to be non-significant. Maximum dry-to-fresh weight ratio (0.83) was recorded for N70, maximum plant height (77.7 cm) was obtained under N85, maximum number of days to 50% flowering (42.3) were recorded for N100, highest individual fruit weight (66.6 g) was obtained in N85, while P uptake (10.2 kg ha- 1) was obtained in N85 and maximum NUE (414) was recorded for N55. Recommended dose of Nitrogen (N100) enhanced number of fruits per plant (12.6%), LAI (22.8%), total yield (8%), marketable yield (6.9%), water productivity (6.3%), N (5.3%) and K uptake (9.8%) compared to N55. Deficit irrigation increased the risk of fruit damage in tomato plants. Water productivity decreased with increasing irrigation levels. Nitrogen and potash uptake were increased with increasing irrigation levels, while phosphorous uptake was not significantly affected. Increasing irrigation and Nitrogen doses increased the risk of nitrate leaching beyond the root zone, making it unavailable for plant uptake. Full irrigation and Nitrogen (120 kg ha-1) is recommended for higher total yields, however, 45% less nitrogen can be applied through a drip irrigation system without compromising marketable yield. In areas where water is a scarce commodity, highest water productivity can be achieved with 45% deficit irrigation. Simulation of Nitrate leaching with HYDRUS-1D showed that with decreased irrigation levels below field capacity, and with the recommended dose of Nitrogen, nitrate leaching was higher than with reduced Nitrogen doses and full irrigation. Increasing irrigation levels above field capacity with recommended dose of Nitrogen showed higher nitrate leaching than increasing Nitrogen doses above recommended dose of Nitrogen and full irrigation. HYDRUS-1D can be efficiently used for nitrate leaching simulation.
آہ! پروفیسر عتیق احمد صدیقی ۱۷؍ دسمبر کو علی گڑھ مسلم یونیورسٹی کے شعبہ اردو کے سابق صدر پروفیسر عتیق احمد صدیقی نے داعی اجل کو لبیک کہا، اناﷲ وانا الیہ راجعون۔ مرحوم کا وطن دیوبند تھا، ان کی تعلیم دوسرے اداروں میں ہوئی تھی لیکن علی گڑھ تحریک اور سرسید احمد خاں مرحوم کے عاشق تھے، ان دونوں کی کشش انہیں علی گڑھ کھینچ لائی اور یونیورسٹی کے شعبہ اردو میں درس و تدریس کی خدمت پر مامور ہوئے اور ترقی کر کے پروفیسر، صدر شعبہ اردو اور آرٹس فیکلٹی کے ڈین ہوئے، وہ سر سید ہال کے پرووسٹ بھی رہے، سرسید اکیڈمی کے اڈیٹر کی حیثیت سے ان پر بعض سمینار کرائے، ایک سمینار میں مجھے بھی شرکت کا موقع بخشا، جامعہ اردو کے نایب شیخ الجامعہ ہوکر اسے بڑا فیض پہنچایا۔ عتیق صاحب نے سودا کے قصاید پر تحقیقی مقالہ لکھ کر ڈاکٹریٹ کی ڈگری حاصل کی تھی، ان کی مرتب کردہ اور ترجمہ کی ہوئی کتابوں کے نام یہ ہیں: انتخابؔ مضامین سرسید، بازیافتؔ، مراسلات سرسید، انتخابؔ الٰہی بخش معروف، انتخابؔ مضامین زمین دار، اشاریہؔ تنقید، مولاناؔ سید سلیمان ندوی (سمینار میں پڑھے گئے مضامین کا مجموعہ)، اسلامؔ اور امن عالم، اسلامؔ اکیسویں صدی میں، آخری دونوں کتابیں ترجمہ ہیں۔ قدرت نے مرحوم کو درد مند دل اور دینی مزاج عطا کیا تھا، نماز جماعت سے ادا کرتے، دہلی مسجد کے امام بھی تھے، قوم کی فلاح و بہبود اور مسلمانوں کی معاشرتی اصلاح اور تعلیمی ترقی کے بڑے آرزو مند تھے، ملازمت سے سبک دوش ہونے کے بعد علم و تعلیم کے فروغ اور اصلاح معاشرت کے لیے اپنی زندگی وقف کردی تھی، رابطہ کمیٹی یو۔پی کے اہم عہدیداروں میں تھے، اس کے معاشرتی اور تعلیمی کارواں کے ساتھ ملک کے اکثر علاقوں کا دورہ کیا، ایک بار یہ کاروان جناب...
Force Conversion is adaptation of a different religion or irreligion under duress. Some who have been forced to convert may continue, covertly with the beliefs and practices originally held, while outwardly behaving as converts. At many places the Orientalists put the statement that Islam basic purpose is to establish sovereignty throughout the globe and its primary purport deals with ‘authority’, ‘political’ and ‘economic’ matters for which it also used force for the implementation. Although it is an erroneous statement as Islam’s basic purport is religious, pure and simple; it deals with other social issues. While Islam stressed upon free will and there is no restriction in accepting other religions. As other religions are not in pure form now and Islam is being preserved by Allāh, so it teaches to submit oneself to the Will of Allāh. The early converts to Islam were the Prophet (peace be upon him) close friends Abu Bakr (may Allāh be pleased with her) and his family members in which his faithful wife Khadija (may Allāh be pleased with her), his cousin Ali were on the top, sand his slave Zayed. None of them argued and accepted Islam immediately. Among them Abu Bakr (peace be upon him) enjoyed prominent place among Arabs and with his influence five people accept Islam in which Sa’ad, Zobeir, Talha, Othman and Abd-al-Rahman who were member of prominent families. Abdul Rahman converted four people of his family. Likewise Bilal (may Allāh be pleased with her) was the first slave, ransomed by Abu Bakr (may Allāh be pleased with her). These early converts of Islam were men of piety and dignity.1
Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) has a major role in morbidity and mortality of children as well as of the elder population worldwide. Pneumococcus causes pneumonia, otitis media in addition to invasive diseases such as bacteremia and meningitis, which are collectively called pneumococcal diseases or infections. Pakistan, a country located in South Asia, is the third largest contributor in pneumococcal infections, specially ‘pneumonia’ in the world (IVAC/PATH Pneumonia and Diarrhea Progress Reports 2013-2017), it makes an ideal scenario to begin with preliminary exploring of pneumococcus characterization. Above in view, first part of the present study was designed to determine the antibiotic susceptibility and serotype distribution of the pneumococcal isolates. Further studies were undertaken for pneumococcal surface protein A gene (pspA) family/clade distribution, in-silico determination of its antigenic sites, their fusion, cloning and recombinant pilot expression study in E. coli. Thirty-eight pneumococcal strains from patients with pneumococcal disease (PD) were collected from a local hospital. Antibiotic susceptibility tests indicated that all strains were susceptible to chloramphenicol and linezolid, while 80% were resistant to gentamycin. Serotype distribution revealed that 19F was the most prevalent serotype (23.6%), while ∼80% of the strains carried pspA gene belonging to PspA family 2 and clade 3. The in-silico determined PspA fusion protein was found antigenic in the immunoblotting assay. Recent epidemiological studies reveal that biofilm support and develop most human chronic infections. Keeping this, the second part of the thesis is focused on the characteristics of pneumococcal biofilm, grown on the biotic and abiotic substrate. Antibiotic susceptibility (erythromycin, 2μg/mL) and growth pattern of pneumococcal biofilm grown on biotic (Detroit-562 cells) and abiotic substrate (Thermonox coverslips) were evaluated. Results indicated that pneumococcal biofilm grown on immobilized biotic substrate challenge erythromycin more significantly than abiotic substrate. The similar results were obtained when the study was done using a bioreactor model, more xii than ∼90% increase in biofilm formation was noted when biotic substrate was provided for growth as compared to the abiotic substrate. The epithelial cells as well as the intercellular tight junction play an important role and are involved in the control of paracellular permeability. The S. pneumoniae colonize with epithelial cell layer, disrupted epithelial cells as well as tight junction, and translocate to other body parts, that promotes the development of pneumococcal invasive diseases. The third part of the study is concentrated on the analysis of invasive property of pneumococcus, using Trans Epithelial Electrical Resistance (TEER). In this study, two different types of epithelial cells, Detroit 562 cells (pharyngeal cells) and Calu-3 cells (lung cells) were used; substantial decline in TEER was observed in the pneumococcal infected epithelial cells. Our study presented that pneumococcus invades the epithelial cells and causes damage to epithelial cell barrier with cytopathic effects. It was also observed that the invasion of pneumococcus is independent of its biofilm mass density. Previous research findings have shown an adverse association between S. pneumoniae and S. aureus, present in nasopharyngeal carriage. But these epidemiological observations have no conclusive findings. The fourth part of the study was designed to demonstrate, how S. pneumoniae opposes and eradicate S. aureus. We have confirmed in this study that TIGR4, rapidly eradicated, preformed S. aureus biofilm, including biofilm produced by MRSA strain ‘USA300’. The eradication requires physical contact between S. pneumoniae and S. aureus. The requirement of physical contact was confirmed through confocal microscopy, colocalization experiments, and experiments utilizing a transwell system to separate the two bacterial species. The physical contact-mediated eradication was found very efficient as it completely eradicated a viable lawn of S. aureus biofilm with in 2 hours.