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Indian squash ( Praecitrullus fistulosus ) crop faces heat and drought during its growth that is considered the most important abiotic stress in semi-arid areas. Seed priming with growth regulators enhances stress tolerance; hence, mitigates the adverse effects of unpredictable stresses due to adverse weather conditions. This two-year (2019 and 2020) study was conducted to infer the role of seed priming in improving heat tolerance of Indian squash (cultivar Sahavi) through improvement in physiological and antioxidant defense systems. Six treatments that included no priming (control), hydropriming, priming with indole acetic acid (IAA) at 100 mg L -1 , salicylic acid (SA) at 50 mg L -1 , ascorbic acid (AA) at 100 mg L -1 and thiourea at 500 mg L -1 each for 06 hours) were included in the study. Results revealed that priming with AA and SA significantly ( P ≤ 0.05) enhanced germination (39 and 47%), germination index (57 and 58%), plant height (23 and 22%), vine length (15 and 14%), number of fruits per plant (62%), fruit weight per plant (66 and 67%), economic yield (32%), photosynthesis rate (18 and 17%), protein content (10%), proline (23%), glycine betaine (3%), malondialdehyde content (11 and 10%) and catalase activity (24%) compared to control treatment. Furthermore, seed priming with AA and SA significantly ( P ≤ 0.05) shortened the mean germination time (25 and 28%) compared to the control. The results indicated that AA and SA had significant potential to mitigate adverse effects of heat stress in Indian squash. Findings from this study showed that seed priming with AA and SA promoted heat-stress tolerance and enhanced growth and productivity of Indian squash.

COVID-19 household transmissibility remains unclear in Pakistan. To understand the dynamics of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus disease epidemiology, this study estimated Secondary Attack Rate (SAR) among household and close contacts of index cases in Pakistan using a statistical transmission model. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using an inclusive contact tracing dataset from the provinces of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to estimate SAR. We considered the probability of an infected person transmitting the infection to close contacts regardless of residential addresses. This means that close contacts were identified irrespective of their relationship with the index case. We assessed demographic determinants of COVID-19 infectivity and transmissibility. For this purpose based on evolving evidence, and as CDC recommends fully vaccinated people get tested 5-7 days after close contact with a person with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. Therefore we followed the same procedure in the close contacts for secondary infection. During the study period from 15th May 2020 to 15th Jan 2021, a total of 339 (33.9%) index cases were studied from 1000 cases initially notified. Among close contact groups (n = 739), households were identified with an assumed mean incubation period of 8.2+4.3 days and a maximum incubation period of 15 days. SAR estimated here is among the household contacts. 117 secondary cases from 739 household contacts, with SAR 11.1% (95% CI 9.0-13.6). All together (240) SAR achieved was 32.48% (95% CI; 29.12-37.87) for symptomatic and confirmed cases. The potential risk factors for SAR identified here included; old age group (>45 years of age), male (gender), household members >5, and residency in urban areas and for index cases high age group. Overall local reproductive number (R) based on the observed household contact frequencies for index/primary cases was 0.9 (95% CI 0.47-1.21) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 1.3 (95% CI 0.73-1.56) in Punjab. SAR estimated here was high especially in the second phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. The results highlight the need to adopt rigorous preventive measures to cut the chain of viral transmission and prevent another wave of COVID-19.

Global Mobility Networks(GLOMONETs) in wireless communication permits the global roaming services that enable a user to leverage the mobile services in any foreign country. Technological growth in wireless communication is also accompanied by new security threats and challenges. A threat-proof authentication protocol in wireless communication may overcome the security flaws by allowing only legitimate users to access a particular service. Recently, Lee et al. found Mun et al. scheme vulnerable to different attacks and proposed an advanced secure scheme to overcome the security flaws. However, this article points out that Lee et al. scheme lacks user anonymity, inefficient user authentication, vulnerable to replay and DoS attacks and Lack of local password verification. Furthermore, this article presents a more robust anonymous authentication scheme to handle the threats and challenges found in Lee et al.'s protocol. The proposed protocol is formally verified with an automated tool(ProVerif). The proposed protocol has superior efficiency in comparison to the existing protocols.

DIBR-3D technology has evolved over the past few years with the demands of consumers increasing in recent times for future free-view 3D videos on their home televisions. The main issue in 3D technology is the lack of 3D content available to watch using the traditional TV systems. Although, some sophisticated devices like stereoscopic cameras have been used to fill the gap between the 3D content demand and 3D content supply. But the content generated through these sophisticated devices can not be displayed on the traditional TV systems, so there needs to be some mechanism which is inline with the traditional TV. Furthermore, the huge collection of existing 2D content should be converted to 3D using depth image-based rendering techniques. This conversion technique can highly contribute in overcoming the shortage problem of the 3D content. This paper presents a novel approach for converting 2D degraded image for DIBR 3D-TV view. This degraded or noisy/blur image is enhanced through image dehazing and Directional Filter Bank (DFB). This enhancement is necessary because of the occlusion effect or hole filling problem that occurs due to imperfect depth map. The enhanced image is then segmented into the foreground image and the background image. After the segmentation, the depth map is generated using image profiles. Moreover, Stereoscopic images are finally produced using the DIBR procedure which is based on the 2D input image and the corresponding depth map. We have verified the results of the proposed approach by comparing the results with the existing state-of-the-art techniques.

[...]that they have contributed to the Journal in recognition of the international scientific community. A CASE STUDY (355379) Vinicius Maia de Jesus, Luiz Flavio Autran Monteiro Gomes, Fernando Filardi DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14807/ijmp.v10i2.850 THE ROLE OF LOCAL FOOD PRODUCTION TO REDUCE FOOD LOSSES AND IMPROVE REGIONAL ECONOMY (380-396) Joao Gilberto Mendes dos Reis, Joäo Roberto Maiellaro, Fernando Juabre Muçouçah, Oduvaldo Vendrametto, Robson dos Santos DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14807/ijmp.v10i2.861 AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ACCEPTANCE TREATMENT ON THE REDUCTION OF DEPRESSION AMONG THE DISABLED (397-410) Abbas Ramazani, Behzad Akbari Doorbash, Naghi Kamali, Elham Yusefi DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14807/ijmp.v10i2.661 IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF \"BLACK SWANS\" IN TECHNOLOGICAL EVENTS IN BRAZIL (411-439) Moacyr Machado Cardoso Junior DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14807/ijmp.v10i2.866 MODIFIED SIGNOMIAL GEOMETRIC PROGRAMMING (MSGP) AND ITS APPLICATIONS (440-458) Wasim Akram Mandal, Sahidul Islam DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14807/ijmp.v10i2.853 ARE ACADEMIC STUDIES RELIABLE IN BRAZIL? A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH (489-498) Zeeshan Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Ahmad, Sehrish Butt DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14807/ijmp.v10i2.862 IBRAHIM'S TRIANGLE MODEL (SATISFACTION - BENEFIT - LOYALTY) FOR SYSTEMS SUCCESS MEASUREMENT (499-511) Ibrahim Eskandar Ibrahim Fadhel, Syed Zulkarnain Bin Syed Idrus, Amani Ali Elmetwaly Ali Ibrahim, Mazni Omar DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14807/ijmp.v10i2.867 ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF CEMENT INDUSTRY MANUFACTURING COMPANIES IN TEHRAN STOCK EXCHANGE USING THE FAHP TECHNIQUE AND THE TOPSIS METHOD (512-536) Sahar Omrani, Mostafa Jafari, Ali Mansori DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14807/ijmp.v10i2.859 VOLATILITY BEHAVIOR OF VIRTUAL CURRENCIES (537-547) Jéssica Gonçalves Andrade, Nilson Brandalise DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14807/ijmp.v10i2.852 ESTIMATING THE EFFECT OF BUYERS' BARGAINING POWER ON KENYAN SMALL FOOD MANUFACTURERS' INCOME (548-573) Francis Okumu Omillo DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14807/ijmp.v10i2.846 STUDY OF TIMES AND MOVEMENTS IN THE SERVICE SECTOR:

Heavy metals are toxic to plants even at low concentration, resulting in growth and total biomass reduction. Present research was intended to assess the effect of induced chromium toxicity on growth and performance of wheat varieties (Ta-Habib and Sahar) extensively growing in Peshawar region, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa surrounded by industrial area, adding 2-4 ppm Cr+3 in the form of effluents to irrigation water. The study also focused on the enhancement effect of Hydroxyl benzoic acid (HBA) foliar spray under chromium toxicity wheat plant. Highest amplitude of agronomic characteristics, germination percentage and vigor index was observed in Ta-Habib indicated tolerant variety as compared to variety Sahar which has been proved by the hyper accumulation of Cr+3 in the mentioned variety. It was reported that treatments T1 (2ppm Cr+3) and T3 (4ppm Cr+3) showed adverse effects which were mitigated by the foliar application of Hydroxyl benzoic acid (HBA).

[...]over 30 small molecule kinase inhibitors have been approved for clinical use in cancer therapy and other disease. [...]pharmacological inhibition of tyrosine kinases has been established as a clinically useful approach for the treatment of numerous types of cancer, and other diseases. Lapatinib is a small-molecule inhibitor of several tyrosine kinase receptors involved in tumor cell growth that is used in the therapy of advanced breast cancer and other solid tumors. Upon administration, nintedanib selectively binds to and inhibits vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR), platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR), and colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) tyrosine kinases, which may result in the induction of endothelial cell apoptosis, the reduction in tumor vasculature, the inhibition of tumor cell proliferation and migration, and antifibrotic activity in pulmonary fibrosis. is represented in Table 6. Ismail Khan, Zafar Iqbal, Abad Khan, Muhammad Hassan, Fazle Nasir, Abida Raza, Lateef Ahmad, Amjad Khan, Muhammad Akhlaq Mughal, A simple, rapid and sensitive RP-HPLC-UV method for the simultaneous determination of sorafenib & paclitaxel in plasma and pharmaceutical dosage forms, Application to pharmacokinetic study, J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci,2016;33(1):261-270.

This article considers the process of nominating and electing candidates to the International Court of Justice ('ICJ') during the Cold War by focusing on a specific national encounter: the views of the United Kingdom government during elections to the ICJ between 1946 and 1963. With this aim in mind, it examines internal (archival) correspondence between the UK national group and the Foreign Office, the Colonial Office and the Commonwealth Relations Office, as well as communications with other Commonwealth governments and the government of the United States. This internal correspondence reveals how the UK considered the suitability of candidates for nomination to the ICJ and how it sought to reconcile its choices with arts 2 and 9 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. The focus of the study is on the specific attributes and experiences that British officials considered essential for candidates to obtain the support of the UK government amidst a changing global legal order, when new candidates emerged from the former European colonies in Africa and Asia. It suggests that British officials were informed by a 'Cold War mindset' that distrusted candidates from countries that were considered too strongly associated with the Soviet Union.

Background Bardet‐Biedl syndrome (BBS) is characterized by a heterogeneous phenotypic spectrum of retinopathy, intellectual disability (ID), obesity, polydactyly, and kidney dysfunctions as the major clinical features. Genetic investigations have reported 21 BBS genes, the products of which are mostly located at the centrosome, basal body or the ciliary transition zone. Methods In the present genetic report, we analyzed two apparently unrelated consanguineous BBS families from Dera Ismail Khan (D.I.Khan) district, Pakistan. Genetic mapping was performed using Whole exome sequencing and Sanger sequencing. Results Whole exome sequencing identified a recently reported single base deletion NM_001033604.1:c.299delC in the fourth exon of BBS9 in both families. The identified frameshift mutation is predicted to cause premature truncation of the expressed protein (p.Ser100Leufs*24). This mutation has previously been mapped in a consanguineous Pakistani family; therefore this is the second report of this particular mutation in two additional BBS families originating from different locations. Conclusion We speculate the evolutionary significance of this mutation and assume its strong founder effect in the Khaisoori tribe of D.I.Khan. Based on these findings, we suggest developing a molecular diagnostic test that may be used for premarital and prenatal screening of families at risk of BBS. This study describes the molecular characterization of two consanguineous Pakistani families presenting with BBS syndrome. Using whole exome sequencing, we were able to map deletion mutations in BBS9. The study helped us to explore the founder effect of this mutation in Pakistani families.

Islamic Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) processes are more of being at the rudimentary stage or practiced unsystematically. It is alarming that processes like Muhtasib (Ombudsman) and Fatwa of Mufti (Expert Determination or Legal or Ruling of an Islamic Scholar) are haphazardly practiced in Nigeria. One will ordinarily expect that in a country like Nigeria with large population of Muslims, the adoption and application of these two processes should be well standardized as obtained in other jurisdictions of the world with relatively the same population with Nigeria. Thus, problem associated with these two processes in Nigeria is brought to the fore and the progress made in Malaysia with respect to Fatwa of Mufti (Legal Ruling) is shown. Likely solution is proffered based on the structured approach obtainable in a jurisdiction like Malaysia as a way to strengthen the application of Islamic ADR processes in Nigeria.