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Among many P2P networks, BitTorent is very famous for sharing files over a network. In this chapter, we proposed modeling and simulation of the BitTorrent protocol by using a combination of agent-based and complex network-based... more
Among many P2P networks, BitTorent is very famous for sharing files over a network. In this chapter, we proposed modeling and simulation of the BitTorrent protocol by using a combination of agent-based and complex network-based approaches. The simulation results demonstrate that our proposed ABM-based BitTorrent model performedbetter. Furthermore, forABM specification, we followed two approaches, first is ODD and the second one is DREAM methodology. We presented qualitative as well as a quantitative comparison of both ODD and DREAM specification techniques. The comparative study of ODD and DREAM proved that DREAM methodology is the more useful approach for documenting an ABM not only in terms of modeling but also for replication of the models, specifically for P2P networks.
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Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) allow communication and control of the environment without the use of peripheral muscles. One of the standard BCI paradigms is based on steady state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs), brain signals induced... more
Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) allow communication and control of the environment without the use of peripheral muscles. One of the standard BCI paradigms is based on steady state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs), brain signals induced by gazing at a constantly flickering target. In this article, a VR SSVEP-based steering simulation is presented and evaluated in comparison to a standard desktop version. Three control classes were used to control the application. The experimental task was to steer a virtual vacuum robot and collect 10 dust piles (for this, at least 31 command classifications were required). Participants were instructed to complete the task twice, using a head mounted display (HMD) and the laptop screen for visual stimulation. All participants were able to complete the task in both scenarios. Mean accuracies of 98.91% and 97.48% and mean ITRs of 23.96 and 20.71 bits/min were achieved for the HMD and desktop control, respectively. On average, the number of commands needed to complete the task in the online experiment was 32.00 and 32.75, for the HMD and desktop scenario, respectively.
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Microservices architecture is a functional software design methodology that promises the redefinition of the architectural style that aims to create a single application as a suite of tiny, loosely coupled services or components, each... more
Microservices architecture is a functional software design methodology that promises the redefinition of the architectural style that aims to create a single application as a suite of tiny, loosely coupled services or components, each performing its own tasks and interacting with each other. The cloud services widely shifted from monoliths to microservices and gained the popularity for use in scalable cloud application. The usage of microservices involved intensive network communication to call number of interdependent microservices running inside the cloud nodes. It provides flexibility in the delivery of service but also increases energy usage and poor service efficiency which results in increased carbon emissions. To solve these issues, the prevailing technologies were designed for single unit monolithic cloud applications, and not tailored for the chain oriented service delivery. This study addresses the dynamic provisioning of containers and respective microservices in cloud computing environment by building rank-based profiles and using those profiles for allocation of web application’s microservices along with containers to the cloud data centers. The MicroRanker service is proposed to rank all of the participating microservices and distribute them across different nodes even before the execution of the cloud services. Further, the MicroRanker service is utilized to dynamically update the container placement due to continuous DevOps actions. The proposed solution was tested using custom built simulation environment. The achieved results showed that the distribution of containers along with respective microservices in accordance with MicroRanker service resulted in less energy consumption (i.e. between 81.6 kWh-87.7 kWh compared to 88.9 kWh-95.7 kWh) and significantly lowered the emission of carbon (i.e. between 5.92 kg-33.31 kg compared to 17.2 kg-47.35 kg) due to higher utilization of renewable energy. The use of rank-based microservices distribution also decreased response time (i.e. between 29 ms-142 ms compared to 106 ms-217 ms) due to the availability of the container along with microservice within the same data center region.
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The climate variability has affected the agriculture production all over the globe. This concern has motivated important changes in the field of research during the last decade. Climate changes are believed to have declining effects... more
The climate variability has affected the agriculture production all over the globe. This concern has motivated important changes in the field of research during the last decade. Climate changes are believed to have declining effects towards crop production in Pakistan. This study carries an empirical investigation of the effects of climate change on rice crop of Pakistan by employing Vector Auto Regression (VAR) model. Annual seasonal data of the climatic variables from 1980 to 2013 has been used. Results confirmed that rising mean maximum temperature would lead to reduction in rice production while increase in mean minimum temperature would be advantageous towards rice production. Variation in mean minimum temperature brought about seven percent increase in rice productivity as shown by Variance Decomposition. Mean precipitation and mean temperature would increase rice production but simulations scenarios for 2030 confirmed that much increase in rainfall and mean temperature in lon...
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This study has analysed the technical efficiency in wheat production in the rain-fed cropping zone of Punjab through stochastic Cobb-Douglas production frontier. It is based on the cross sectional data of the wheat crop for the crop year... more
This study has analysed the technical efficiency in wheat production in the rain-fed cropping zone of Punjab through stochastic Cobb-Douglas production frontier. It is based on the cross sectional data of the wheat crop for the crop year 200910, collected from a random sample of seventy farm households. The mean technical efficiency of wheat production was 47.1 percent in the study area. The results signify that farmers of the rain-fed zone of Punjab have a scope to increase productivity of wheat through technical efficiency improvements under the existing conditions of input-use and technology. The yield of wheat can be doubled through adoption of better practices of technology. Seed rate has contributed negatively and significantly to wheat production, indicating that there is possibility to increase wheat production by decreasing seed rate. Irrigation application to the crop has significant positive contribution to wheat production indicating that there is scope for increasing wh...
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A pot experiment was conducted to study the effects of potting media on sprouting and seedling growth of grape cuttings. Three grape varieties viz. Red globe, Thomson seedless and Crimson seedless were planted in four different growth... more
A pot experiment was conducted to study the effects of potting media on sprouting and seedling growth of grape cuttings. Three grape varieties viz. Red globe, Thomson seedless and Crimson seedless were planted in four different growth media: CS-Canal silt, CSFYM-Canal silt (75%) + FYM (25%), CSB-Canal silt (25%) + Bagasse (75%) and CSBCP-Canal silt (25%) + Bagasse (50%) + Coco peat (25%). The experiment was conducted in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) along with three replications. The results revealed that almost all observed parameters were significantly influenced by the potting media. However, grape varieties and their interaction with the potting media exhibited non-significant effect for sprouting percentage and most of the seedling related attributes of growth. Minimum days to sprouting (6.78),highest sprouting percentage (84.44), maximum rooting percentage (84.44) and maximum chlorophyll content of leaves (56.23) were observed from the cuttings planted in CSBCP. However, ...
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Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) allow users to communicate and to control their environment without the use of peripheral muscles. One of the commonly used BCI paradigms is called steady state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs). It is... more
Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) allow users to communicate and to control their environment without the use of peripheral muscles. One of the commonly used BCI paradigms is called steady state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs). It is controlled by brain signals induced through gazing at a constantly flickering light source. In this article, a VR-based SSVEP-controlled simulation is presented and evaluated, in comparison to the standard desktopbased version. Three control classes were used to control the application. The experimental task was to navigate (in first person view) through a virtual maze and reach the desired destination (the optimal path required at least 26 commands). Participants performed the task twice, using either a head mounted display (HMD), or the laptop screen, to compare the paths and investigate the spatial awareness with the HMD. During the first run, the participants needed to explore the maze (different corridors and doors on 3 levels) in order to reach t...
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A discount rate is the interest rate used in discounting future values to present values. It is the opportunity cost of capital representing the minimum rate of return to justify the investment. The market rate of interest has three... more
A discount rate is the interest rate used in discounting future values to present values. It is the opportunity cost of capital representing the minimum rate of return to justify the investment. The market rate of interest has three components: risk, inflation and real interest rate. There is not any single accepted procedure for determining the appropriate discount rate. Two comprehensive approaches are suggested: (1) Opportunity cost of capital approach, (2) Social rate of time preference approach. Theoretically opportunity cost of capital, weighted average discount rate, and the shadow price of capital are most commonly considered. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantage and practically difficult to apply. No single discount rate will be appropriate for all applications. A particular discount rate must be adjusted to particular times, locations, type of projects and methods of financing.
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he acoustic emission technique has been applied successfully for the identification, characterization, and localization of deformations in civil engineering structures. Numerous localization techniques, such as Modal Acoustic Emission,... more
he acoustic emission technique has been applied successfully for the identification, characterization, and localization of deformations in civil engineering structures. Numerous localization techniques, such as Modal Acoustic Emission, Neural Networks, Beamforming, and Triangulation methods with or without prior knowledge of wave velocity, have been presented. Several authors have conducted in-depth research in the localization of AE sources. However, existing review papers do not focus on the performance evaluation of existing source localization techniques. This paper discusses these techniques based on the number of sensors used and the geometry of the structures of interest. Furthermore, it evaluates them on the basis of their performance. At the end of this paper, a comparative analysis of existing methods has been presented based on their basic principles, key strengths, and limitations. A deep learning circular sensor cluster-based solution has the potential to provide a low-...
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Network performance monitoring holds a pivotal role in improving the overall network performance. It is essential to monitor the traffic statistics at Internet eXchange Points (IXPs) to optimize the traffic flows. The existing monitoring... more
Network performance monitoring holds a pivotal role in improving the overall network performance. It is essential to monitor the traffic statistics at Internet eXchange Points (IXPs) to optimize the traffic flows. The existing monitoring system either lacks usability or programmability. We present a Software Defined Networking (SDN) enabled and OpenFlow (OF) compatible network performance monitoring system (SDX-Manager) to improve the usability or programmability of IXP simultaneously. The proposed system integrates traditional IXP-Manager with the SDN controller and Grafana to better visualize the traffic. It provides a dashboard to the network administrator for defining rules over IXP, such as port blocking and traffic redirection. Furthermore, it facilitates the administrative tasks that include adding, modifying, and deleting the users and IXP objects (Ports, Switches). The proposed SDX-Manager is deployed and tested in a virtual and physical environment using OF enabled Allied ...
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The dynamics of any versatile poverty study necessitates some meaningful analysis including tracing the existing scenario at most disaggregated level for generating appropriate policy input. While estimating different indices of rural... more
The dynamics of any versatile poverty study necessitates some meaningful analysis including tracing the existing scenario at most disaggregated level for generating appropriate policy input. While estimating different indices of rural poverty, we have profiled the regional contribution of such statistics in Punjab province. Primary time series data was retrieved from the Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) for the period 1998-99 to 2004-05 to gauge different poverty indices at “Administrative Division Level”. Two dimensions of regional contribution of incidence of poverty have been profiled. One is reflecting the regional contribution of each division to over all incidence of poverty in Punjab. Other dimension is showing rural-urban contribution in terms of percentage to the overall poverty in each respective division. Low poverty areas are clustered in northern and central Punjab, while poverty is relatively higher in western and southern Punjab. Similarly, poverty was dete...
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Pesticides applications generate negative externalities for health, environment and also add up to economic cost to cotton producers. Consequently, there is an urgent need of alternative methods of pest management for environment friendly... more
Pesticides applications generate negative externalities for health, environment and also add up to economic cost to cotton producers. Consequently, there is an urgent need of alternative methods of pest management for environment friendly cotton production systems. Integrated pest management (IPM) is a right method which can reduce or minimize the use of pesticides as well as can lessen the cost. The cross-sectional data was collected from district Jhang. A random sample of 99 farmers was selected to collect the data. The main factors which influence the adoption of IPM in cotton are age, education, farm size, farm labour, family size, progressive farmers and opinion leader farmers. The logistic regression was used to estimate the model. Three variables are significant at 5 percent level of significance and two variables are significant at 10 percent level of significance. The family size and opinion leader farmer (variables) are non-significant. The Hosmer Lemeshow test value was 0...
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Steady state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs)-based Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) can provide hand-free human interaction with the environment. In the presented study, visual stimuli were displayed on Epson Moverio BT-200 augmented... more
Steady state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs)-based Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) can provide hand-free human interaction with the environment. In the presented study, visual stimuli were displayed on Epson Moverio BT-200 augmented reality glasses, which can be easily used in smart homes. QR codes were used to identify the devices to be controlled with the BCI. In order to simulate a real life scenario, participants were instructed to go out of the lab to get a coffee. During this task light switches, elevator and a coffee machine were controlled by focusing on SSVEP stimuli displayed on the smart glasses. An average accuracy of 85.70% was achieved, which suggests that augmented reality may be used together with SSVEP to control external devices.
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Introduction: Depression is a common mental disorder, characterized by sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite and feelings of tiredness and poor concentration. About 340... more
Introduction: Depression is a common mental disorder, characterized by sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite and feelings of tiredness and poor concentration. About 340 million people are affected worldwide and it would be the second most prevalent condition by 2020. During the past years, researchers have acknowledged a significant negative impact of depression on various consequences in patients with cardiovascular disease. Materials & Methods: This was a cross sectional descriptive study conducted in May 2015 on cardiac inpatients at Rehman Medical Institute, a tertiary care hospital of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, where the level of depression was determined by Beck Depression Scale. A total of 100 patients of various categories of cardiac diseases were recruited in this study. SPSS version 20.0 was used for data analysis. Results: Out of a total of 100 patients, 66 were male and 34 were female with a m...
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A distributed execution engine is a software systems which runs on a cluster of networked computers and presents the illusion of a single and reliable machine that provides large aggregate amount of computational and I/O performance. Each... more
A distributed execution engine is a software systems which runs on a cluster of networked computers and presents the illusion of a single and reliable machine that provides large aggregate amount of computational and I/O performance. Each machine in these networked systems is capable of handling data-dependent control flow. The computational power effectiveness of a distributed execution engine is determined by the expressiveness of the data execution model which describes the distributed computations. Distributed executed engines are attractive because they shield developers from distributed and parallel computing’s challenging aspects such as task scheduling, data synchronization, transferring data and dealing with failures in networks. A general purpose of high performance distributed execution engine for coarse-grain data parallel application is proposed which enables the developers to create easily large scale distributed application without requiring them to gain expertise on ...
Pakistan’s economy is agrarian in nature and character. Agriculture sector is the main source of income for majority of population in the country. Subsistence kind of cultivation merely allows the farmers to use high quality seeds,... more
Pakistan’s economy is agrarian in nature and character. Agriculture sector is the main source of income for majority of population in the country. Subsistence kind of cultivation merely allows the farmers to use high quality seeds, sufficient fertilizers and improved farm implements because of non-availability of credit. Small farmers are generally characterized as having low income, less saving and low capital formation. Apparently, credit seems to be the dire need of these clusters of farming community. This research endeavour is aimed to analyze the impact of credit on the income and production level of small farmers. A very little of this kind of impact assessment exercise has been made in the past particularly in barani areas. This study was confined to Rawalpindi District. Random sampling technique was used and data were randomly collected from the two different areas of Rawalpindi District. Data analysis was performed in such a way that farmers with-credit and farmers without...
There is prevalent role of livestock in rural econo my of Pakistan as is known from the fact that 30-35 million populations is raising an average holding o f 2-3 cattle/buffalo and 3-4 sheep/goat per househo ld with a contribution of... more
There is prevalent role of livestock in rural econo my of Pakistan as is known from the fact that 30-35 million populations is raising an average holding o f 2-3 cattle/buffalo and 3-4 sheep/goat per househo ld with a contribution of 35-40 percent in their income. The study aimed at finding out the net profit scen arios for livestock and their products. The final product of this resea rch endeavor is to draw policy lessons that can hel p refining the imbalances and distortions in the milk market. It w as conducted in Jhang district for estimation of ec onomics of livestock production and by using random sampling t echniques 100 respondents were selected. Data was c on size of farmer land, livestock strength, status of milk animals, sale and purchase during the year, labor cost, value of shed, health cover, concentrate cost, vete rinary cost and miscellaneous production cost. Mult iple regression and Cobb-Douglas production function wer e estimated by using Ordinary Least Squares (OL...
Selon certains modes de realisation, cette invention concerne un procede d'augmentation de la capacite de puissance reactive d'une centrale eolienne dans la commande d'une centrale eolienne. Selon un mode de realisation, ledit... more
Selon certains modes de realisation, cette invention concerne un procede d'augmentation de la capacite de puissance reactive d'une centrale eolienne dans la commande d'une centrale eolienne. Selon un mode de realisation, ledit procede comprend l'etape consistant a recevoir une demande en puissance reactive a partir d'un reseau electrique. Ledit procede comprend en outre l'etape consistant a determiner une puissance active generee par la centrale eolienne. Selon un mode de realisation, le procede comprend l'etape consistant a verifier si la demande en puissance reactive est satisfaite par la centrale eolienne en fonction de la puissance active generee par la centrale eolienne. Le procede comprend en outre l'etape consistant a commander la centrale eolienne de maniere a reduire d'une quantite de reduction la puissance active generee par la centrale eolienne quand la demande en puissance reactive n'est pas satisfaite et en reaction a un evenement...
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Murree is a thrilling hill resort of Pakistan that lies approximately between 33° to 34° North latitude and 72° 42’ to 73° 30’ East longitude. The elevation of the area ranges from 600m to 2100 m from sea level. More than 1000 visitors... more
Murree is a thrilling hill resort of Pakistan that lies approximately between 33° to 34° North latitude and 72° 42’ to 73° 30’ East longitude. The elevation of the area ranges from 600m to 2100 m from sea level. More than 1000 visitors pay their visit to this hill resort daily. It is situated about 65km North of Islamabad. This area is geographically known as “Foot hill of Himalayas”. Murree is very important location due to its forest cover mainly comprising of Chir pine and Blue pine forests; that not only provide timber, fuel wood, and other non-timber benefits to community but also serve as watershed area and a magnificent picnic spot. Eco-tourism is a multimillion enterprise in Murree. More than one million tourists visit Murree each year. The population of Murree grows up 10 times more than the local population during the hot summer spell in the country and winter season during snow fall. Most of the local people are associated directly or indirectly to this industry. In true ...
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Citrus Brown spot caused by Alternaria citri. Different control strategies should be used for management of disease and for increasing potential yield of citrus. Hence in-vitro potential of Plant extract and Silver Nano particles were... more
Citrus Brown spot caused by Alternaria citri. Different control strategies should be used for management of disease and for increasing potential yield of citrus. Hence in-vitro potential of Plant extract and Silver Nano particles were evaluated for control of Brown spot pathogen in Citrus mangroves of Pakistan. Four different plant extracts garlic, neem, mint and basil leaves extracts were used at concentration of 20%. 40% and 60 %. Their effect on radial mycelial growth was checked with reference to untreated or control petri plate. It was observed that almost all concentrations of plant extracts significantly reduce radial mycelia growth as compared to control. In all treatments of plant extracts it was observed that 60% concentration of neem extracts is effective with radial mycelia growth of 3.96 cm over control petri plate which is 7.73cm, garlic extract@ 60% gave least fungal mycelia growth 5.5cm followed by mint leaves @60% gave 3.16 cm radial growth and Basil leaves extract ...
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In this paper, our aim is to highlight the importance of attribution and emphasis on state of the art attribution process, key elements of attribution and current issues in attributions, tracking the source of data, which are based on the... more
In this paper, our aim is to highlight the importance of attribution and emphasis on state of the art attribution process, key elements of attribution and current issues in attributions, tracking the source of data, which are based on the discussion about provenance of data on the web. It also provides guidelines for organizations and individuals about the mechanism of publishing more transparent data on the web. Provenance plays an important role in terms of open data assessment and it enables to evaluate the data attributes such as quality and trustworthiness. On the basis of provenance information, the quality and completeness of open data can be assessed through data analysis.
Falls are unusual actions that cause a significant health risk among older people. The growing percentage of people of old age requires urgent development of fall detection and prevention systems. The emerging technology focuses on... more
Falls are unusual actions that cause a significant health risk among older people. The growing percentage of people of old age requires urgent development of fall detection and prevention systems. The emerging technology focuses on developing such systems to improve quality of life, especially for the elderly. A fall prevention system tries to predict and reduce the risk of falls. In contrast, a fall detection system observes the fall and generates a help notification to minimize the consequences of falls. A plethora of technical and review papers exist in the literature with a primary focus on fall detection. Similarly, several studies are relatively old, with a focus on wearables only, and use statistical and threshold-based approaches with a high false alarm rate. Therefore, this paper presents the latest research trends in fall detection and prevention systems using Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. It uses recent studies and analyzes datasets, age groups, ML algorithms, sensors...
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A new backoff scheme named Unique Backoff Algorithm (UBA) has been introduced in this paper for IEEE 802.15.6 Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). This scheme tries to eliminate the collision among nodes by assigning unique backoff... more
A new backoff scheme named Unique Backoff Algorithm (UBA) has been introduced in this paper for IEEE 802.15.6 Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). This scheme tries to eliminate the collision among nodes by assigning unique backoff values. UBA removes the large delays during transmissions between different nodes and hence increases overall system performance. Furthermore, the concept of Backup Slot ($BS$) has also been introduced in the superframe to accommodate one failure of highest priority in the current superframe. For evaluation, proposed scheme has been simulated in comparison with the Binary Exponential Backoff (BEB) using different priorities. Results show that our scheme outperforms BEB in terms of throughput and superframe efficiency.
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Metal contamination, as a consequence of anthropogenic activities, poses threat to plants and their ecosystems. Plants growing on metal-contaminated soils show severe aberration in their metabolism leading to stunted plant growth and low... more
Metal contamination, as a consequence of anthropogenic activities, poses threat to plants and their ecosystems. Plants growing on metal-contaminated soils show severe aberration in their metabolism leading to stunted plant growth and low biomass production. Recently, seed priming has enabled us to improve germination and yield on such heavy metals toxic soils by different mechanisms. Seed priming is conferring tolerance against abiotic besides biotic stresses. Different seed priming procedures like hydropriming, chemo-priming, osmopriming, redox priming, nutrio-priming, hormo-priming, and biopriming are being used under metal/metalloid stress conditions. Priming of seeds is generally done with natural or synthetic compounds before sowing of seeds. It is the simplest, easiest, and cost-effective technique for improving seed vigor and robust seedling emergence ultimately adding increments to the economy of country with high returns. Seed priming treatment effectively alleviates the negative impact of metal stress through different mechanisms. In this chapter seed priming is discussed in context of their potential for alleviation of different metal stresses. Furthermore, different mechanisms of seed priming are elaborated.
The rapid development in wireless technologies is positioning the Internet of Things (IoT) as an essential part of our daily lives. Localization is one of the most attractive applications related to IoT. In the past few years,... more
The rapid development in wireless technologies is positioning the Internet of Things (IoT) as an essential part of our daily lives. Localization is one of the most attractive applications related to IoT. In the past few years, localization has been gaining attention because of its applicability in safety, health monitoring, environment monitoring, and security. As a result, various localization-based wireless frameworks are being presented to improve such applications’ performances based on specific key performance indicators (KPIs). Therefore, this paper explores the recently proposed localization schemes in IoT. Initially, this paper explains the major KPIs of localization. After that, a thorough comparison of recently proposed localization schemes based on the KPIs is presented. The comparison includes an overview, architecture, network structure, performance parameters, and target KPIs. At the end, possible future directions are presented for the researchers working in this domain.
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The development in field of hybrid vehicles, telecommunication and energy sectors require dielectric materials having high-energy storage density with optimum thermal stability to operate in certain environment. To fulfil such requirement... more
The development in field of hybrid vehicles, telecommunication and energy sectors require dielectric materials having high-energy storage density with optimum thermal stability to operate in certain environment. To fulfil such requirement a new set of materials along the ternary solid solutions of 0.92Bi0.5(1-x)-La(x)Na0.5TiO3 -0.06Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3-0.02NaNbO3 (NB1-xLxT-BZT-NN) (x = 0, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07) were fabricated through solid-state mix oxide route. The XRD patterns analysis confirmed a structural phase transformation from rhombohedral to the tetragonal-P4bm phase when x content increased from 0 to 0.07. The SEM study revealed, dense microstructure for all ceramics accompanied by a decrease in the average grain from 1.66 μm to 1.05 μm leading to high densities for these materials with an increase in the x content. The dielectric breakdown field increased from ∼115 to 137 kV cm−1 resulting in an increase in recoverable energy density from ∼0.68 to 1.14 J cm−3 with the increase i...
The deadly waves of COVID-19 have exposed especially the food and health systems around the world. The purpose of this research study is to analyze the linkages of socio-economic factors encroaching on sustainable food systems and... more
The deadly waves of COVID-19 have exposed especially the food and health systems around the world. The purpose of this research study is to analyze the linkages of socio-economic factors encroaching on sustainable food systems and ultimately food security. Moreover, the policy twist is required to contrive a holistic and integrated approach for the formulation and implementation of workable public policies to materialize the true dream of a sustainable food system. Multinomial Logistic Regression has been applied to estimate the results. The results reveal the story that the independent variables like subsidized fertilizer availability, seeds productivity performance, changing pattern of sowing, and adaptation to climate change have a high positive and statistically significant relation with crops productivity. Moreover, inputs price volatility and changing sowing patterns have a positive and statistically significant impact on adaptation to climate change. Climate change and the cu...
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In this paper we examined different ways to inform the user of the classification progress in our online SSVEPbased BCI speller. Different user feedback was given based on the distance from the classification threshold, separately... more
In this paper we examined different ways to inform the user of the classification progress in our online SSVEPbased BCI speller. Different user feedback was given based on the distance from the classification threshold, separately calculated for each stimulus. We focused on the comparison of the accuracies and spelling times associated with each different feedback type. We tested eight different methods, one without feedback for comparison, and the two paradigms each (an increase and a decrease), for three varying parameters, during an online spelling task. The eighth method was a combination of the best performing feedback modalities. A 28 target speller was used for spelling the same word with different feedback methods. The level of comfort was assessed by the seven healthy participants, using a questionnaire. We found substantial decreases in spelling times; they were reduced to 12–77% of the no-feedback condition spelling times, for each of our subjects, with at least one of the parameters. However, this parameter, as expected, was different for each user. According to the personal fastest feedback methods, a combination of them was also used for spelling. These combined feedback methods usually resulted in a slower spelling than the individual best feedback, but still faster than without any feedback. Overall, the average spelling times with the different feedback methods were: no feedback, 95.09 s, increasing size, 62.94 s, decreasing size, 87.73 s, increasing contrast, 77.80 s, decreasing contrast, 124.37 s, increasing duty-cycle, 134.70 s, and decreasing dutycycle, 103.77 s.
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Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) based on code-modulated potentials (cVEPs) identify a target usually in the synchronous way (i.e. after a preset time period the system will produce a command output). Hence, users have only a limited... more
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) based on code-modulated potentials (cVEPs) identify a target usually in the synchronous way (i.e. after a preset time period the system will produce a command output). Hence, users have only a limited amount of time to fixate a desired target. For the practical usability of BCI spellers it is important to distinguish between intentional and unintentional fixations. In this paper we propose the use of threshold-based target identification methods for the cVEP paradigm. These methods were tested with a dictionary driven spelling application utilizing eight flashing targets. In this respect, an n-gram word prediction model was implemented. The performance of ten healthy participants was evaluated in an online experiment. All participants completed different German sentences using the cVEP BCI with a mean information transfer rate (ITR) of 31.08 bpm.
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Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) based on code-modulated visual evoked potentials can be used as hand-free communication tool for severely disabled people. In this paper we propose a filter bank design for c-VEP BCIs based on alpha, beta... more
Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) based on code-modulated visual evoked potentials can be used as hand-free communication tool for severely disabled people. In this paper we propose a filter bank design for c-VEP BCIs based on alpha, beta and gamma sub-bands. The approach was tested using a dictionary driven spelling application utilizing flexible time-windows. The graphical user interface offers word suggestions that are updated after each selection. The system was tested with 18 healthy participants. Performance of a word and a sentence spelling task was analyzed. Remarkably, in the word spelling task, all participants reached 100 % accuracy. In the sentence spelling task the mean accuracy was still extremely high (97 %). Furthermore, to assess the speed of the system, information transfer rate (ITR) and output characters per minute (OCM) were calculated. Mean ITRs of 149.3 bpm and 93.1 bpm were reached in word and sentence spelling; the mean OCM was 29.9 chars/min and 32.1 chars/min.
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Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) have been widely used for energy management in smart homes. Energy management in a smart home is a challenging task, which require efficient scheduling of appliances. The main focus of HEMS is to... more
Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) have been widely used for energy management in smart homes. Energy management in a smart home is a challenging task, which require efficient scheduling of appliances. The main focus of HEMS is to schedule the operation of appliances in such a way that it gives us optimized performance in terms of Peak to Average Ratio (PAR), Electric Cost (EC) minimization, execution time and User Comfort (UC). The Time of Use (ToU) pricing scheme is used in this paper. We used Genetic Algorithm (GA), Biogeography-based optimization (BBO) and our proposed hybrid Genetic Biogeography-based Optimization (GBBO), techniques to schedule appliances in single home and for multiple homes. Simulations are carried out using eight different appliances. The results show that GA and GBBO execute better in case of PAR reduction and EC minimization. GBBO outperforms in terms of user comfort. We calculated the UC in terms of waiting time.
Purpose of the study: This article aims to examine the economic consequences of the unprecedented crisis of COVID-19 across Pakistan's sectors. To date, the second phase of COVID-19 is underway, and the economic losses of the... more
Purpose of the study: This article aims to examine the economic consequences of the unprecedented crisis of COVID-19 across Pakistan's sectors. To date, the second phase of COVID-19 is underway, and the economic losses of the industries and the recovery plan are still underdeveloped. Methodology: This study is qualitative based. Mix method and desk review approaches are used to analyse the impact of covid-19 on the different sectors of Pakistan Main Findings: The review revealed that the pandemic had a range of negative impacts on domestic, foreign trade, health care, education, and tourism, but had a positive effect on the environment and the agriculture sector. Applications of this study: This study can be effective for the researcher to an immediate need to study each sector's economic insights further to improve crisis management policy. Novelty/Originality of this study: this research contributes to the covid-19 pandemic in the different sectors of Pakistan. It also off...
Tremendous increase in occupational multidimensional inequality has become an emerging challenge across the developing globe. Present research examines the inequality in uni-dimensional and multidimensional spectrum across different... more
Tremendous increase in occupational multidimensional inequality has become an emerging challenge across the developing globe. Present research examines the inequality in uni-dimensional and multidimensional spectrum across different occupations at provincial level in Pakistan through HIES/PSLM survey data for the years 1998–1999 and 2013–2014. The estimation of uni-dimensional inequality based upon positive and normative measures (Gini-coefficient; and Atkinson measure and Generalized Entropy Index). Analysis of multidimensional inequality employs the methodology of Araar (The hybrid multidimensional index of inequality. CIRPEE. Working Paper 09-45, 2009), while using three core dimensions i.e. health, education and housing services. Results indicate the reduction in inequality among all occupations in uni-dimensional context over the time, with the exception of self-employed group, which have experienced higher consumption inequality. The figures of multidimensional inequality identify that daily wage labor has experienced higher inequality in multidimensional context, because of having smaller income that restrict them to enjoy the basic facilities of life as compare to higher income groups associated with other professions. At the provincial level, Punjab has lower multidimensional inequality across all professions, which was mainly attributed to the fact that wider population of such provinces belong to urban areas and having good access to basic facilities and other necessities of life. Contrarely, Baluchistan has higher multidimensional inequality, mainly due to over spread rural sector along with poor access to basic facilities like as health, education & housing services.
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This study aims to draw a policy decision between public investment and public consumption by designing a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model for the economy of Pakistan which is experiencing persistent shocks that have... more
This study aims to draw a policy decision between public investment and public consumption by designing a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model for the economy of Pakistan which is experiencing persistent shocks that have stressed the growth pattern. The DSGE model has a microeconomic foundation and justifies locus critics by envisioning an artificial economy. The model is evaluated and set to best fit for data through an exercise of moment matching. Government consumption shocks and Government Investment shocks are used to trace out the behaviour of the economy. The analysis confirms that Pakistan economy could go for capital formation through public investment but it results in compromised public consumption and structural unemployment. It is further concluded that the export base and long-run public investment programs are needed to achieve sustainable development in the economy.
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Pakistan is an agrarian economy confronting both risk and uncertainty. Rural migration to urban and off-farm work is increasing in the country. Off-farm work assists in decreasing risk and uncertainty while technical efficiency is linked... more
Pakistan is an agrarian economy confronting both risk and uncertainty. Rural migration to urban and off-farm work is increasing in the country. Off-farm work assists in decreasing risk and uncertainty while technical efficiency is linked with off-farm employment. This research effort aims at investigating the underpinnings of production characteristics, risk, and efficiency across categories of rice farmers, i.e., with and without off-farm work, by developing two stochastic frontier models. Empirical results reveal that both groups of farmers are using inputs in different ways, subsequently production varies across these groups. Farmers in both the categories have common characteristics in terms of production function. Coefficient of family size is positively significant to the group of farmers having off-farm work while negatively associated to their counterparts. High temperature and prevalence of disease found risk increasing factors. Though one group is more efficient, in genera...
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Robust chaotic systems, due to their inherent properties of mixing, ergodicity, and larger chaotic parameter space, constitute a perfect candidate for cryptography. This paper reports a novel method to generate random numbers using... more
Robust chaotic systems, due to their inherent properties of mixing, ergodicity, and larger chaotic parameter space, constitute a perfect candidate for cryptography. This paper reports a novel method to generate random numbers using modified robust logistic map (MRLM). The non-smooth probability distribution function of robust logistic map (RLM) trajectories gives an un-even binary distribution in randomness test. To overcome this disadvantage in RLM, control of chaos (CoC) is proposed for smooth probability distribution function of RLM. For testing the proposed design, cryptographic random numbers generated by MRLM were vetted with National Institute of Standards and Technology statistical test suite (NIST 800-22). The results showed that proposed MRLM generates cryptographically secure random numbers (CSPRNG).
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In this research, silica nano-particles are deposited over the borosilicate glass and silicon wafer substrates by indigenously developed Aerosol impact deposition assembly using SiH4, oxygen, and helium as precursors. The coating process... more
In this research, silica nano-particles are deposited over the borosilicate glass and silicon wafer substrates by indigenously developed Aerosol impact deposition assembly using SiH4, oxygen, and helium as precursors. The coating process involves deionization of gases leading towards nucleation sites for silica in the presence of plasma, while tuning the pressure difference between reaction and deposition chamber controls the coating thickness, porosity, and refractive index. The deposited coating layer on the substrate enhanced the transmittance to 99.6% at 600 nm wavelength. The induced porous nature and the graded index of the coated layer as observed from the AFM and SEM resulted in superhydrophilic behavior with a water contact angle of near to 0°. The super-hydrophilicity of the coating contains self-cleaning properties, suggesting an improvement of the performance of solar PV modules as well.
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At the start of the 21st century, almost one-fifth of humanity-1.2 billion people-live on less than a dollar a day. Pakistan is confronted by a multifaceted dilemma. The major issues facing the country are poverty and income disparity,... more
At the start of the 21st century, almost one-fifth of humanity-1.2 billion people-live on less than a dollar a day. Pakistan is confronted by a multifaceted dilemma. The major issues facing the country are poverty and income disparity, particularly among the rural segments of the society. And evidence indicates that both have worsened. The impact of poverty is particularly acute on the most vulnerable sections of the society. In the year 1990-91, 39.42 percent of the total 31.81 percent of the population below the poverty line were termed as absolute poor including 34 percent chronically and 61 percent extremely poor. During the last decade or so, nearly 2 million people are added to the clusters of extremely poor, 5 million to chronically poor, 7 million to transient poor. Thus bringing nearly 59.11 percent of the poor population out of poverty is to a certain extent easier than bringing the remaining 40.89 percent out of the poverty trap. Pakistan has witnessed a decline in the gr...
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Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) allow humans to form a physical symbiosis with computer systems. One use case scenario of BCIs is communication by brain activity. High spelling speeds have been achieved with BCIs based on code-modulated... more
Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) allow humans to form a physical symbiosis with computer systems. One use case scenario of BCIs is communication by brain activity. High spelling speeds have been achieved with BCIs based on code-modulated visual evoked potentials (c-VEPs). Typically, the flickering stimuli are presented on a standard 60 Hz monitor. Users can find VEP-based BCIs annoying and tiring due to the perceptible flickering. This is especially the case for multi-target systems designed for maximal communication speed. Higher monitor refresh rates allow a faster flickering rate for BCI targets, and thus a more subtle visual stimulation. In this paper, user friendliness and speed of c-VEP BCIs with different monitor refresh rates (60, 120 and 200 Hz) are compared. The experiment was comprised of three sessions (each consisting of training and spelling stages), one for each tested monitor refresh rate. Performance was assessed with ITR and accuracy and user friendliness was evaluated using a questionnaire. High flickering speed is usually accompanied by poorer BCI performance. In this study, the system utilizing the 200 Hz refresh rate surprisingly competed well in terms of ITR and accuracy. Regarding user friendliness it was preferred by most users, as expected.
The dispersion of various nanofillers in the polymer matrix is a challenging problem, which limits their potential use. To overcome this problem, few-layer graphene was grafted with polyaniline to improve its dispersion in the polymer... more
The dispersion of various nanofillers in the polymer matrix is a challenging problem, which limits their potential use. To overcome this problem, few-layer graphene was grafted with polyaniline to improve its dispersion in the polymer matrix. In this work, a methodology to improve the properties of polyetherimide composites with few-layer graphene grafted with polyaniline is proposed. First, few-layer graphene (FLG) was exfoliated by liquid phase exfoliation by using N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) as a solvent. For creating defects on the surface of graphene sheets, they were treated with nitric acid. The acid treated few-layer graphene was grafted by the polyaniline (PANI) by the in-situ polymerization method. The concentration of FLG with polyaniline was varied from 0 to 5 wt%. The polyaniline grafted few-layer graphene (PANI-g-FLG) samples were then blended with polyetherimide. The composite systems displayed an insulator-to-conductor percolating transition as the filler loading increased, and the percolation thresholds were estimated to be 1.5 wt% of the FLG loading. The structural features and morphology of PANI, PANI-g-FLG, and nanocomposites were studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The mechanical properties of composites were studied by universal testing machine. The tensile strength was also improved significantly up to 57% in the three-component hybrid system as compared to PEI. Similarly, the AC conductivity of PEI has also increased seven orders of magnitude from 1.47 × 10−9 to 5.91 × 10−2 S cm−1 (at 100 HZ) in the hybrid nanocomposites by adding PANI-g-FLG containing 1.5% FLG. The dielectric constant of the PEI increased from 2.73 × 100 to 3.72 × 105 for nanocomposites at the frequency of 100 Hz. This work provides a potential design strategy for brilliant performance flexible dielectric graphene-based polymeric material.
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Climate change is the most realistic theory of this era. Sudden and drastic changes are happening on the earth and the survival of mankind is becoming questionable in the future. The plants play the key role in controlling the climate... more
Climate change is the most realistic theory of this era. Sudden and drastic changes are happening on the earth and the survival of mankind is becoming questionable in the future. The plants play the key role in controlling the climate change. The study emphasizes on role of trees in the cop up or damaging the climate of this earth, whether they are medicinal trees or economically important trees. Due to the overgrazing and intense deforestation the climate is being affected hazardously. The global warming phenomenon is occurring due to the less availability of trees and more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In total 20 plants were collected from across the Pakistan on the basis of their abundance and their key roles. Out of which seeds of eight plants were scanned through scanning electron microscope for correct authentication and importance of these medicinally important trees in mitigating the climate change. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: The role of forest sector in the climate's change mitigation. Medicinally and economically important tree species across Pakistan. By using SEM, Ultra seed sculpturing features as an authentication tool. To formulate some policies to stop or control deforestation.
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IEEE 802.15.6 is a wireless body area network (WBAN) standard proposed to facilitate the exponentially growing interest in the field of health monitoring. This standard is flexible and outlines multiple basic medium-access control (MAC)... more
IEEE 802.15.6 is a wireless body area network (WBAN) standard proposed to facilitate the exponentially growing interest in the field of health monitoring. This standard is flexible and outlines multiple basic medium-access control (MAC) protocols that are contention based and collision free to meet the WBAN quality-of-service (QoS) challenges. Typically, current research trends in WBAN MAC focus on designing a hybrid MAC that is a combination of basic MAC protocols. In this paper, we provide a first detailed survey of existing hybrid MAC protocols based on the IEEE 802.15.6, which would be useful for the related research community. First, this paper lists the design challenges of a WBAN MAC. Second, it highlights the significance of hybrid MAC protocols in meeting the design challenges while comparing them to standard MAC protocols. Third, a critical and thorough comparison of existing hybrid MAC protocols is presented in terms of network QoS and WBAN specific parameters. Finally, we identify key open research areas that are often neglected in hybrid MAC design and further propose some possible directions for future research.
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ZnO/GO (Graphene Oxide) and SAN (Styrene Acrylonitrile)/PANI (Polyaniline)/FLG (Few Layers Graphene) nanocomposite coatings were produced by solution casting and sol-gel methods, respectively, to enhance corrosion resistance of ferrous... more
ZnO/GO (Graphene Oxide) and SAN (Styrene Acrylonitrile)/PANI (Polyaniline)/FLG (Few Layers Graphene) nanocomposite coatings were produced by solution casting and sol-gel methods, respectively, to enhance corrosion resistance of ferrous based materials. Corrosive seawater and ‘produced crude oil water’ environments were selected as electrolytes for this study. Impedance and coating capacitance values obtained from Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) Alternating Current (AC technique) showed enhanced corrosion resistance of nanocomposites coatings in the corrosive environments. Tafel scan Direct Current (DC technique) was used to find the corrosion rate of nanocomposite coating. SAN/PANI/FLG coating reduced the corrosion of bare metal up to 90% in seawater whereas ZnO/GO suppressed the corrosion up to 75% having the impedance value of 100 Ω. In produced water of crude oil, SAN/PANI/FLG reduced the corrosion up to 95% while ZnO/GO suppressed the corrosion up to 10%. Hybrid com...