Growth and yield of rice as affected by transplanting dates and seedlings per hill under high temperature of Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan

Studies were initiated for two consecutive years to find out the effect of time of transplanting and seedlings hill^-l on the productivity of rice in Dera Ismail Khan district of North West Frontier Province （NWFP）, Pakistan. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with split plot arrangements. Main plots consisted of four transplanting dates viz. 20th and 27th of June and 4th and 1 lth of July while sub-plots contained 1, 2, 3 or 4 seedlings hill^-1. Among transplanting dates, June 20th planted crop gave highest paddy yield and net return with I seedling hill^-1. It explains that the use of more seedlings hill^-1 not only adds to cost but is also a mere wastage of natural resources. Based on research findings, we conclude that the use of I seedling hill^-1 is most appropriate for timely sowing otherwise 4 seedlings hill^-1 should be used to compensate for the yield gap in late transplanted rice.     

Rorty's Approach to Cultural Difference: The Conflict between Solidarity and Procedural Liberalism

Although Richard Rorty's controversial thought has been the subject of many works, there has not been much discussion about his approach to cultural difference. The purpose of this article is to examine how Rorty sees cultural differences philosophically and how he deals with them politically. For him, rationality, morality and even the scope of moral responsibility towards others are defined in terms of solidarity with a particular community and ‘ethnocentrism’, rather than in terms of a universal and metaphysically derived set of criteria. It can be argued that since language, language games and values are mainly components of culture, the latter is one of the most significant communities with which Rorty is concerned, though he is not explicit about it. Nevertheless, Rorty does not think that the moral and philosophical significance of communities, particularly cultural communities, should be reflected in politics. The main argument of the article is that there is an unresolved tension in Rorty's thought between philosophical, moral and emotional attribution of significance to communities and arguably cultural communities, and a disregard for them in the political sphere. This paves the way for outlining an approach to cultural difference that is more just and even more in harmony with Rorty's own philosophy.     

Thyroid hormones status during pregnancy in normal Iranian women

Pregnancy is associated with significant, but reversible changes in thyroid function studies, which are among the most profound seen as a result of a normal physiologic state. The present study was carried out to find out alterations in thyroid function tests in each trimester in normal pregnant women as compared to non-pregnant women in Tabriz-Iran. A case-control study designed with 229 normal pregnant women that randomly selected from the first (64 samples), the second (92 samples), and the third (73 samples) trimesters and 250 randomly selected non-pregnant healthy female controls. Age range in both groups was 16–40 years. Thyroid function tests carried out by measuring serum levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free and total thyroxin (FT₄, TT₄), and free and total triiodothyronine (FT₃, TT₃) by commercially available radio immunoassay kits. We found that mean TT₄ increased progressively during pregnancy. Our study showed increasing in serum levels of TT₃ in the second trimester and then declining during the third trimester compared with non-pregnant women. We showed that FT₄ strongly decreased during the third trimester. Free T₃ showed declining in the second and third trimesters. Mean TSH did not show significant difference in each trimester compared with non-pregnant women. The thyroid function tests in pregnancy should be interpreted against gestational age-related reference intervals to avoid mis-interpretation of thyroid function during pregnancy.     

Physicochemical characteristics of various milk samples available in Pakistan

We report physicochemical characteristics of various kinds of liquid milk commercially available in Pakistan in comparison with those of fresh natural milk from animals. Milk samples were collected from local markets at Peshawar, Pakistan,and analyzed for their physical features, including moisture, total solids, specific gravity, conductivity, viscosity and titratable acidity (lactic acid equivalent), and chemical components and macro-minerals, including total protein, casein, lactose, ash and minerals (Na, K and Mg). These items were compared with the physicochemical characteristics of the fresh natural milk samples from buffalo, cow and goat. The results were also compared with reported nutritional quality of milk from various countries and World Health Organization (WHO) standards. We found that all the physical features and chemical components of commercially available milk in Pakistan markets meet WHO's requirements, except for Na, K, Ca and Mg, which are below the standards.     

Guidance as a means for enhancing the functional operations of the Elective System at Kuwait University

In 1975/76 Kuwait University was transferred to an Elective System and initially, the article reviews the rationale and objectives of such a change. Guidance or advisement is considered a key means to achieve these objectives. The major focus of the article is an examination of several attempts to assess/evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of advisement. Recommendations for practical solutions to those problems which surround this practice are also discussed.Paper submitted to the International Consultation Conference on Career Guidance in Higher Education convened by IRTAC and Robinson College — Cambridge University, 13–17 December 1981, Robinson College, Cambridge, England.     

Application of Quality Function Deployment for the Improvement of Quality in an Engineering Department

In adopting a customer‐oriented approach to higher education, quality function deployment (QFD) is one of the total quality management techniques which can be applied for process and design improvement. Following a review of some practices in this sector, this paper outlines a QFD model in which the opinions of three groups of customers are utilized for quality planning. A developed framework for the dimensions of quality in engineering education was used in conjunction with the quality processes in a departmental quality management framework proposed by the Engineering Professors’ Council. The results from the QFD led to a strategy for prioritizing the different quality processes within a school/department.     

TS fuzzy robust L1 control for nonlinear systems with persistent bounded disturbances

In this paper, a novel technique for Takagi–Sugeno (TS) model-based robust L₁ controller design of nonlinear systems is proposed. Two synthesis methods based on quadratic and non-quadratic Lyapunov functions are considered. To design the robust stabilizing controller, a new approach for deriving sufficient conditions associated with the L₁ performance criterion in terms of strict linear matrix inequality is proposed. This novel technique results in less pre-chosen scalar design variables and calculation burden. Furthermore, deriving the controller synthesis conditions via a non-quadratic Lyapunov function (NQLF) relaxes the obtained conditions. Therefore, the proposed approaches not only efficiently minimize the effect of persistent bounded disturbance, but also are applicable for wider classes of TS systems. Furthermore, some new lemmas are proposed to facilitate strict LMI formulation and to provide more degrees of freedom. Finally, several numerical and practical examples are presented to show the merits of this paper.     

Internationalization of higher education： Challenges, strategies, policies and programs

In today＇s changing world, the idea of internationalization of higher education especially in developing countries has been deduced from globalization of education process. The international aspect of higher education is becoming increasingly important, composite, and confusing. The higher education has an effect on the society through policy-making, funding, and planning. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the meaning, definition, importance, necessity, and pre-requisites of internationalization of higher education. This paper also studies the programs and strategies of internationalization of higher education. Key challenges for the future direction of internationalization are identified in this paper.     

A cognitive TV white space-broadband power line MIMO system for indoor communication networks

Broadband power line communication (BPLC) is a promising solution to satisfy the growing data rate demands for broadband indoor communication networks. However, the BPLC transmission power spectral density (PSD) is restricted in the very high frequency (VHF) band to avoid harmful interference to the existing wireless services. In this paper, a new hybrid system is proposed utilizing BPLC and cognitive radio over TV white space (TVWS) to enhance the system capacity over BPLC in VHF, forming a VHF TVWS BPLC multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. An iterative precoding algorithm is proposed to satisfy the interference limit at the TV primary user (PU) receiver (Rx) and enhance the ergodic capacity. Moreover, a power allocation algorithm is developed for the MIMO system to achieve the maximum ergodic capacity subject to the average total power constraint and limit of interference to TV PU. Simulation results demonstrate the significant enhancement in the achieved capacity by our proposed system in the VHF band compared to both previous cognitive and hybrid BPLC systems.     

Agency,sociomateriality, and configuration work

Social informatics research offers insights into the relationship between information technologies and social contexts. However, the material roles of information technologies, and their interplay with the agentic work of social actors, have not been addressed. Drawing on a field study of 37 mobile knowledge workers, we examine the dual material roles (enabling and constraining) played by information technologies in their work practices. We also investigate how these workers exert agency by fashioning multiple information technologies into a functioning digital assemblage. Although information technologies provide consequential affordances that enable mobilization of work across spaces and times, they simultaneously present design-driven, local, organizational, and temporal technological constraints that require mobile knowledge workers to engage in “configuration work” to make information technologies function effectively. Building on a sociomaterial perspective, we further discuss the interplay of information technologies and work practices enacted by mobile knowledge workers, in which both human and technological agency are materialized.