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The article aimed to investigate the mediating role of green climate and green employee empowerment on the relationship between green human resource management (GHRM) practices and sustainable performance. This research study goals to determine the impact of green recruitment & selection, green training & development, green rewards, and green performance evaluation on sustainable performance. The researchers chose the cross-sectional research design. Cronbach's alpha, exploratory factor analyses were used to verify the instruments. The results of the study revealed that proposed GHRM practices positively affect the sustainable performance. It was found that green climate and green employee empowerment act as mediators between GHRM practices and sustainable performance. This research contributes to the resource-based perspective theory, GHRM practices and sustainable performance over green climate and green employee empowerment as mediators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study was performed to determine the floristic composition and ecological characterization of the flora of tehsil Sarai Naurang. The floristic diversity of the plant consists of 143 species belonging to 47 families including 42 dicots and 5 monocots. Poaceae was the dominant family containing 18 species followed by Brassicaceae, Fabaceae, Asteraceae and Solanaceae. Therophytes were dominant class having 89 species (62.23%) followed by Microphanerophytes with 19 species (13.28%), Hemicryptophytes with 13 species (9.09%), Chamaephytes 8 species (5.59%), Geophytes 7 species (4.89%), Nanophanerophytes with 6 species (4.19%) and Megaphanerophytes with 1 species (0.69%). Leaf size of most plant species was reduced indicating an adaptation to arid climatic conditions. Nanophylls had the largest leaves, followed by Microphylls (40 species, 27.97 %), Leptophylls (34 species, 23.77 %), Mesophylls (15 species, 10.48 %), Megaphylls (2 species, 1.39 %), and Macrophylls (1 species 0.69 %). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Hepatitis B is an important public health problem in the Pakistani population and is the major cause of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. High prevalence of HBV infections has been observed especially in areas of low economic status. In spite of effective immunization programs, no significant change has been observed in the epidemiology of HBV in the rural areas of Pakistan (~67.5% of the total population) mainly due to lack of interest from government authorities and poor hygienic measures. The current study was aimed at estimating the prevalence and risk factors associated with HBV infection within internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to war against terrorism in the Malakand Division of Northern Pakistan. Methods Blood samples from 950 IDPs suspected with HBV infection (including both males and females) were collected and processed with commercial ELISA kits for HBsAg, Anti HBs, HBeAg, Anti HBe antibodies. The samples positive by ELISA were confirmed for HBV DNA by real-time PCR analysis. Results The overall prevalence of HBV observed was 21.05% of which 78.5% were males and 21.5% were females. Most confirmed HBV patients belong to the Malakand and Dir (lower) district. High-risk of infection was found in the older subjects 29.13% (46-60 years), while a lower incidence (11.97%) was observed in children aged Conclusion The present study, revealed for the first time a high degree of prevalence of HBV infection in rural areas of Northern Pakistan. The noticed prevalence is gender- and age-dependent that might be due to their high exposures to the common risk factors. To avoid the transmission of HBV infection proper awareness about the possible risk factors and extension of immunization to the rural areas are recommended.

Abstract Background Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a serious health problem in the developing countries including Pakistan. Various risk factors are responsible for the spread of this infectious disease. Prevalence of HBV infection in apparently suspected individual of Punjab province of Pakistan was analyzed during January 2008 to December 2010. Current study was aimed to investigate the epidemiology and risk factors of HBV infection. Methodology Four thousand eight hundred and ninety patients suffering from chronic liver disease were screened for the presence of HBV DNA using qualitative Real Time PCR methodology to confirm their status of infection. A predesigned standard questionnaire was filled for all the patients that included information about the possible risk factors. Results A total of 4890 ELISA positive patients were screened for Hepatitis B virus infection. Of these 3143 were positive for HBV, includes 68.15% males and 31.85% females. Male were observed to be more frequently infected as compared to the female with a positivity ratio of 2.14: 1. The rate of infection increases with the passage of time in the course of three years. Highest frequency of infection was found in the age of 21-30 was 34.93% followed by 23.83% in 31-40. Only (13.39%) were belonging to the age group 11-20 year. The rate of infection declines with increasing age as shown by age groups 41-50 (16.13%) and 51-60 (7.09%). While children aged 0-10 and very old >60 age groups were very less frequently 1.49% and 1.65% infected respectively. Important risk factors contributing to HBV spread include barber risk (23.60%), blood transfusion (4.04%), History of injection 26.19%, Reuse of syringes 26.60%, dental risk (11.20%) and surgical procedure (4.26%). Among the entire respondents trend sharing personal items was very common. History of injection, barber risk, surgery and dental procedure and reuse of syringes appear as major risk factors for the transmission. Conclusion Male were more frequently exposed to the risk factors as compared to female. Similarly the younger age group had high rate of infection as compared to the children's and the older age groups. Reuse of syringes', barber risk and History of injection were main risk identified during the present study. To lower HBV transmission rate Government should take aggressive steps towards massive awareness and vaccination programs to decrease the burden of HBV from the Punjab province of Pakistan.

Lepidopteran pests such as fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (JE Smith), and black cutworm, Agrotis ipsilon Hufnagel (both Noctuidae), are serious problems of turfgrass (Poaceae) in the USA. Several predators in turfgrass systems attack lepidopteran larvae; however, their predaceous activity is rarely recorded, as they leave hardly any evidence. Predaceous activity can be studied using clay models, an approach still rarely employed in turfgrass. Thus, assays were conducted to determine the types of impressions that common turfgrass arthropods leave on clay models simulating lepidopteran larvae. Nine impression types were characterized after exposing 16 arthropod taxa in enclosed arenas in the laboratory and one taxon in the field to two sizes of clay models, including scratches, paired marks, pricks, deep distortions, disturbed surfaces, detached segments, granulated surfaces, dents, and elongated scratches. Most arthropods produced scratches and paired marks, whereas granulated surfaces and elongated scratches were produced by only a few of the selected arthropods. To ensure that the impressions were correctly identified, non‐expert volunteers reviewed the impressions, and they were accurately identified in >85% of the responses. Video recordings of arthropod interactions were captured to determine the behavior of the arthropods during their first interaction with the clay models. Most arthropods first interacted with the terminal rather than the middle regions of the models. There were no differences between their interactions with the large or small models, and they used their mouthparts as often as their legs. Knowledge of the impression types caused by common arthropods will improve the utilization of the clay model technique for field studies in turfgrass. This could contribute to improved management of natural enemies as part of an integrated pest management approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet of Things (IoT) is an integration of various technologies to provide technological enhancements. To enforce access control on low power operated battery constrained devices is a challenging issue in IoT scenarios. Attribute-based encryption (ABE) has emerged as an access control mechanism to allow users to encrypt and decrypt data based on an attributes policy. However, to accommodate the expressiveness of policy for practical application scenarios, attributes may be repeated in a policy. For certain policies, the attributes repetition cannot be avoided even after applying the boolean optimization techniques to attain an equivalent smaller length boolean formula. For such policies, the evaluated secret shares are also multiple for repeated attributes; hence, the ciphertext computed for those irreducible policies is long and computational effort is more. To address this issue, a new CP-ABE scheme is proposed which employs our Repeated Attributes Optimization algorithm by which the Linear Secret Sharing Scheme matrix sent along with ciphertext will contain the access structure of policy including attributes appearing multiple times, but the ciphertext will only be evaluated for unique non-repeated attributes. Security and performance analysis show that the proposed construction fulfils its goals of achieving desired security with low communication overhead and computational cost for resource-constrained devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was about the assessment of fluorides (F−) in drinking water, its possible sources and threats to human health in Malakand District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The F− concentration in drinking water samples was measured by the F− meter and was found substantially high in most of the samples than the WHO limits. The cationic and anionic concentrations were found in the order of sodium (Na+) > calcium (Ca2+) > magnesium (Mg2+) > potassium (K+) and sulfates (SO42−) > bicarbonates (HCO3−) > chloride (Cl−) > F−, respectively. Among the anions, SO42− were found as dominant species in all water samples, while among cations, Na+ was the element found in excess in all water samples except in Batoo locality, where Ca2+ exceeds the Na+. As given by the Gibbs diagram, rock-water interaction was the main reason for ion distribution in the groundwater of the area. The Piper trilinear plot represented that CaMgSO4 and CaCl2 were the main water forms found in the study area. Health risk assessment, i.e. community fluorosis index, was assessed via Dean's classification, which showed that the drinking water samples were not suitable for use owing to the higher concentration of F− than recommended by WHO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the intentions of farmers' pesticide use by using expanded versions of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). We added variables such as farmers' knowledge about pesticides, moral norms, progressive farming approach, farm size, farming experience, and formal education of the farmers as additional predictors in the original TPB model. We interviewed 390 cotton farmers in Multan and used a hierarchical multiple regression modeling framework to run a series of multiple regression models (based on original and expanded versions of TPB) and found that the expanded TPB models with the addition of, (a) farmers' knowledge of pesticides (R2 change = 0.089, F change(2, 384) = 24.8, p < 0.01), (b) farmers' progressiveness (R2 change = 0.037, F change(1, 383) = 21.5, p < 0.01), and (c) socio-economic variables (R2 change = 0.032, F change(3, 380) = 6.4, p < 0.05) statistically significantly improved the explanatory power of the original TPB model. Farmers' knowledge of pesticides (β = 0.316, t = 6.320, p < 0.01), and progressive farming approach (β = 2.80, t = 5.834, p < 0.01) were the most influential variables determining pesticide use intention. Pesticide use can be optimized through improved extension services, by improving pesticide knowledge and training farmers in new farming practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollen morphology of 10 different weedy bee foraged plants belong to 10 various families from Southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were collected, identified, and studied using light microscopy (LM). The plants were Asphodelus tenuifolius, Euphorbia helioscopia, Parthenium hysterophorus, Rhazya stricta, Datura innoxia, Eruca sativa, Convolvulus arvensis, Anagallis arvensis, Galium aparine, and Anethum graveolens. Slides for light microscopic studies were prepared using materials of acetic acid, glycerin jelly and anthers of flowers. Pollen grain recorded ranged from monocolpate to hexacolporate and from psilate to echinate which were important systematic significance. Pollen size, shape, ratio of polar to equatorial diameter exine thickness, number of colpi, number of pores, equatorial diameter, polar diameter, colpus width, colpus length, spines number, length and width of spines were examined with the help of light microscopy and all these values were analyzed statistically using software SPSS. This research provides a data to the optimal utilization of bee foraged weed plants by honeybees and identification of bee flora for the beekeeping business and honey production. Results revealed that weedy melliferous flora of study area is very helpful for botanical origin, geographical origin of bee species and adulterations found in honey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]