How to earn money from social media

آجکل کے  تیز دور میں کسی سے ب مستقل رابطہ رکھنا مشکل ہوتا جا رہا ہے ، ہم ٹیکنالوجی سے قریب اور اپنو سے دور ہوتے جا رہے ہیں. اس دوری کو دور کرنے ک لئے بہت سی سوشل میڈیا ویبسیٹس بنائی گئیں جسکے نتجے میں نوجوان نسل مزید خرافات میں پھنس گئی. بہت سے نقصانات کی باوجود کچ سوشل میڈیا سائٹس اب بھی نوجوان نسل کی لئے کارآمد ہیں جو ک ناصرف انکو اپنوں سے قریب رکھتی ہیں بلکہ شاپنگ اور آن لائن کمانے کے طریقے بھی بتاتی ہیں.

 https://www.bandhob.com  ایک ایسا سوشل میڈیا پلیٹ فارم ہے جہاں نہ صرف مختلف ممالک کے لوگ ایک دوسرے سے گفتگو کر سکتے ہیں بلکہ ایک دوسرے کے رسم و رواج کے بارے میں جان کے دنیا کے امن و امان کو بہتر بنانے میں اپنا کردار ادا کر سکتے ہیں.

اسکے علاوہ بغیر کسی فیس کے اپنا اکاؤنٹ اور مختلف پیج اور گروپ بنا سکتے ہیں. یہ پیجز اور گروپس آن لائن کمانے کا ایک بہترین ذریعہ ہیں جو کے سٹوڈنٹس کو اپنا سوشل سٹیٹس بہتر بنانے میں موثر مدد فراہم کر سکتے ہیں.

  https://www.bandhob.com  پے رجسٹریشن نہایت آسان اور مفت ہے ، آپکو صرف اس لنک پر کلک کر کی signup کرنا ہے اور اسکے بعد اپنا ای میل ایڈریس دینا ہے. اس طریقے سے آپ دنیا کی مختلف حصّوں میں موجود لوگوں سے ربتے میں رہ کر اپنی زندگی اور کاروبار دونوں کو بہتر بنا سکتے ہیں.

This article refers to an international social media site Bandhob. I found this website very useful for social interactions and online earning sources. We can enter this site to boost up our business as well as to spread our word at international level. Interaction with international community can help us to build an environment of peace among different nations. We can play different games, create games, can post our pages there and can join different groups to share our products.https://www.bandhob.com/

GM crops and Pakistan

Genetically modified crops have been introduced in Pakistan since the last few decades. Many people are in favor of GM crops but there are a number of people who argue against the production and commercialization of GM crops. As everything has a dark and bright side, GM crops also has beneficial as well as harmful effects.

The Bright side

By reviewing the good and beneficial results of GM crops, we must be convinced that production of GM crops can increase the annual income from crops to a high level. Benefits of GM crops include for instance high yield of some crops, pest resistance, herbicide tolerance, production of new and high quality varieties and many more.

In March 2007, a three day workshop was organized on “innovative aspects of Biotechnology and its better awareness and dissemination” by the collaboration of ISESCO, Comstech, Pakistan Biotechnology Information Center (PABIC) and International Service of Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). The main objective of this workshop was to encourage media personals to write and disseminate importance and benefits of modern biotechnology especially GM crops. Dr Atta ur Rehman, the chairperson of Higher Education Commission explained the importance of Biotechnology in a Country’s development. Other renowned scientists were also present at the occasion.

Adapted from http://www.pakissan.com/english/advisory/biotechnology/why.not.gm.crops.shtml

Economic survey 2005-2006 showed the weak performance of agriculture because of the poor yield of two important crops; cotton and sugarcane. Pakistan’s yield per acre ranks below the average due to high costs of seed, fertilizers, and pesticides, low quality and less quantity of varieties of seeds, low level facilities of irrigation, pest attacks etc. Planning commission of Pakistan reported that Pakistan have to increase its crop yield according to the increasing growth of population.

In the past, before the arrival of modern Biotechnology, farmers had only one option to avoid pests, i.e. use of chemical pesticides. But now scientists and researchers have provided the option of GM crops which are genetically modified to have built-in pest resistance. Not only pest resistance crops have been produced but there are also such varieties which have ability to control the level of weeds in the agricultural land. The good thing is that Pakistan is adapting this technology from the past few decades.

Development of GM crops in Pakistan

Many institutions, government organizations and research centers are working on this aspect, for instance Pakistan Biotechnology Information Center (PABIC), ISAAA, National commission of Biotechnology, National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), Ayub Agriculture Research Institute, Department of Agriculture and Biotechnology of Pakistan Atomic energy commission (PAEC), and many others.

40 cases of laboratory manipulation, commercial production, and field trials of GM crops have been submitted by NIBGE to Pakistan Biosafety commission. “First Generation crops” include single gene introduction to develop pest resistance, virus control, resistance against abiotic stress such as salt, drought, and heat tolerance. One non-GM and two GM cotton varieties have been approved by National Biosafety commission. After this, second and this generation crops have been developed by the scientists and researchers of NIBGE. However third generation crops require high scientific expertise and is under process.

A new research station at Lasbella is working to increase cotton yield by controlling cotton leaf curl (CLCV) virus, in collaboration with Lasbella University of Agriculture Water and Marine Sciences.

Agriculture and Biotechnology department of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission have released approximately 85 varieties of GM crops

Table here shows the varieties released by different institutes working under PAEC.

The Dark Side

If we look at the dark side of GM crops, issues regarding health and environment come into account. Sometimes GM crops can be dangerous to health if the desired modification is reversed by some factors. Genetic modification sometimes may result into a crop variety which is more vulnerable to pests. But proper risk assessment precautions and careful use of techniques play a big role in minimizing the harmful effects to 0%.

On 7th April 2015, Minister of Climate Change, Mushahid ullah Khan stated that “Pakistan will not allow the commercialization of GM crops without a proper research and regulatory mechanism to ensure the safety of Citizens”

The minister also said that he believes that genetically modified food is a big cause of cancer and other health problems. The minister’s statement was correlated with the international health day commemorated on 7th April 2015.  WHO (World Health Organization) is taking steps to eliminate the risks related to food security under the slogan “From farm to plate, make food safe”.

Conclusion

If I summarize the whole study, it can be manifested that GM crops have both good and bad aspects, but the good aspect is dominated because there is a solution of problems related to GM crops, but there is no replacement of benefits related to them.  Scientists and researchers are working diligently to produce more and high quality varieties but they also need the support of the people and government to continue their work on high levels. People must be educated to realize the scope and importance of GM crops, and they must understand how biotechnology can increase the annual income of our country.

References:

• pakissan.com
• http://www.dawn.com/news/1174415
• http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0064879
• pabic.com.pk
• nibge.org
• http://www.paec.gov.pk

Genetically modified Human Embryo: What’s the Truth?

Few months ago, waved across the scientific community that some scientists are trying to modify human genetic material at embryo level. What was the truth behind it? Has something happened like this? Yes! This has actually been done. A group of scientists from Sun-Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou China under the supervision of Junjiu Huang claimed that they have performed a successful experiment on human embryo. A research paper was published in Journal Protein and Cell on 18 April 2015 revealing that how the Chinese scientists genetically modified human embryo.

Chinese scientists used a technique of gene editing called “CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat” to remove the diseased gene sequence. This experimentation was done on the 86 embryos collected from IVF clinics (in vitro fertilization) after endorsing that these are “non-viable” embryos and cannot result into a live birth. These embryos had the diseased gene of fatal blood disorder Beta thalassaemia. Scientists attempted to modify the diseased gene by using the technique CRISPR/Case9. The researchers said that they faced the serious complications and hurdles in the medical application of the method.

Scientists attempted to inject 86 embryos and kept them for 48 hours, because it was the enough time for embryos to grow into 8 cells each and for CRISPR/Case9 system to complete its work by replacing the missing DNA. 54 embryos were genetically tested out of 71 surviving embryos, revealing that only 28 gave the expecting results, from them only a little fraction contained the required genetic material. Huang commented on this that “If you want to do it in normal embryos, you need to close to 100%, that’s why we stopped, and we still think that its immature”.

George Daley, a stem cell biologist at Harvard medical school Boston, said that “I believe this is the first report of CRISPR/Cas9 applied to human pre-implantation embryos and as such the study is a landmark, as well as a cautionary tale” He further commented that “Their study should be a stern warning to any practitioner who thinks the technology is ready for testing to eradicate disease genes”

Two famous and high impact Journals “NATURE” and “SCIENCE” rejected to publish that paper because it is going to create a great controversy and has ignited a big ethical debate in the scientific world. Till now most of the scientists rejected this technique because it is against ethical laws. Some scientists who write in “NATURE” have grave concern and they said that genetic modification of human embryos requires a global moratorium.

If we talk in support of modifying human embryos, it’s a good technique to eradicate many genetic and inherited diseases. Another advantage is to understand and cope with the risks at embryo level. Use of this technology can bring a revolution in the genetic world by eradicating many gene disorders.

But, supporting this technique means to reject all ethical laws. There is a big risk of unexpected result and it may result into some new type of genetic disorder which will never have a cure. Huang itself pointed out that after experimentation that he and his team also found a number of surprising mutations which were introduced by CRISPR/case9 system’s actions on other parts of the genome. Genetic modification of human embryos is unethical according to both law and religion. This is unethical and will always be unethical, because the resulting human may have such type of characteristic which will not only affect that person but also the whole society. Their children and their children’s children and so on to the generations will suffer.

Science must be used for the welfare of mankind, not for the creation of new problems. Genetic modification at the embryo level and attempts to genetically modify humans is interference in the laws of nature. Scientists should stop such experiments.

The rule must be “science for humanity’ not ‘Humanity for science”.

References:

• http://www.nature.com/news/chinese-scientists-genetically-modify-human-embryos-1.17378
• http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13238-015-0153-5/fulltext.html
• http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/world-s-first-genetically-modified-human-embryo-raises-ethical-concerns
• http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/apr/23/scientists-genetically-modify-human-embryos-in-controversial-world-first

A reptile, Native to Pakistan: The Gavial

Once I visited the Lahore zoo, that time I had never seen a crocodile live, but there I saw a long snouted crocodile in a pond. I was astonished, “Oh, this crocodile is so large”, but my father told me that it is not a crocodile, it is “Gharial (Gavial)” and it belongs to the Crocodilian species. It is interesting to know that this animal founds only on Indus River Pakistan across the Gangetic Floodplain to the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar so it is also called “Indian Gavial”.

Gavial(Gavialis gangeticus) belongs to the family Gavialidae, is a long and narrow snouted animal having size 13ft to 19.7ft , the largest one is of 30ft. They live usually 40 to 60 years. An olive/grey color animal looks horrible but it is not known to attack humans, but people are advised to stay away from them because it is huge animal having weight up to 450 kgs and big jaws with sharp teeth, 54-58 teeth on upper jaw and 50-52 teeth on lower jaw. Fishes are most favorite food for gavials but the small gavials also feed on carrions.

As mentioned above, it is native to Pakistan, and usually found on the banks of River Indus, we can say that it’s the property of Pakistan but Alas, this property of our country is going towards extinction. Gavial has included in highly endangered species of Pakistan. Only 2% of this animal exists now as compared to its population many years ago. In Lahore zoo, there is only two female Gavial but no male Gavial. In 2004, some animals were exchanged between Lahore and Karachi zoo, and a male gavial was transported from Karachi to Lahore. But it was found dead after one day, so now Lahore zoo has two female gavials.

There is a high demand of gavials from private zoo and safari parks because of its beautiful skin and attractive appearance, said by an officer from wildlife department Sindh, but now they have not found any gavial from Nara and Jamrao Canal. This unique reptile is on the brink of extinction because of human predators and smugglers. Government should take steps to save this reptile by protecting it from hunters and smugglers. Wild life departments should have rights to punish hunters. There is also a need to avoid such activities which are not suitable for the survival of this unique reptile.

References:

• http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/gavial.aspx
• http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/gavial.html
• http://www.wildlifeofpakistan.com/ReptilesofPakistan/gharial.htm
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gharial

Neural Basis of Memory

The capability which sets humans apart from other animals is learning and memory. Learning is defined as a change in behavior as a result of experience, and memory is what has been learned. Language, knowledge, culture and attitude are all learned.

Iconic memory

All humans have virtually perfect graphical or photographic memory. When a visual scene and array of letters is shown to you for a moment, much accurate information about the scene is held in the memory. But this photographic memory lasts only for about one tenth of a second; most of its part is then forgotten. It is also called “iconic memory”. The word iconic is derived form the Greek word “icon” meaning “image”.

Short term memory

When you look up a new telephone number, you can remember it just long enough to dial, it will be forgotten if you do not repeat it to yourself. This is short term or immediate memory. Actually this is what your brain hold immediate awareness at a single moment. Short term memory is limited to almost 7 items held in memory for a moment. Your short term memory may be taxed beyond its limit if you have to remember some zip code or new telephone number.

Long term Memory

If you practice a new telephone number and repeat it again and again, by sometime you are able to remember it for a long period of time or sometimes you remember it permanently. This is long term memory. Some people has ability to remember telephone numbers immediately while some people always forget the numbers. This depends on person’s brain that of what things it has ability to remember for a long time.

Memory and Neurons

Neuron is the basic unit of brain; we can say that the core component of brain is neuron or nerve cell. Neuron plays a role of transmitter and transmits information to other parts via electrochemical signaling. A human’s brain has almost 100 billion neurons and each neuron is connected with 10,000other neurons and passes signals to each other via synaptic network. The specificity of neurons is that they never die and never be replaced by new ones. If some of them are lost due to some accident, they can never be replaced by new ones except some specific cases.

Structure of a typical neuron (adapted from www.human-memory.com)

Human memory capacity is estimated to be varying widely from 1 to 1000 terabytes which is more than the storage in any library in the world. A human’s memory depends on the number of neurons present, more number of neurons, more strong memory.

Scientists observed that if they provide electric impulse to a pair to neurons, a long term transmission connection is established between them, and a long-term potentiation(LTP) is created whose effect can last for long time, this helps to make a memory. The part of the brain, hippocampus controls all the memory related processes.

A recent study in March 2015 depicts that memory does not live in neuron synapses (the part of junction of two neurons), scientists said that the memory may forms when there are some permanent changes in chemical and molecular level during the transmission of signals between the neurons. And another chance of making memory is the changes in genes present in the nucleus of the brains cells.

Brain is the main part of the body and its health is necessary for the overall health. People who don’t care about their food and living styles, and keep on using excessive fast food and unhygienic food, they gradually face a loss in their memory. So take care of your brain and eat healthy food.

References

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/memories-may-not-live-in-neurons-synapses/

http://www.human-memory.net/brain_neurons.html

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/

The brain; an introduction to neuroscience by Richard F Thompson

Hypocrisy of International organizations

#FranceAttack 2015 is really a very tragic incident and condemnable terrorist attack. Man innocent people died and hundred’s are injured. But I want to ask some questions from the world, what is the value of people of Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Burma, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and some regions of Middle East? Are not they human? Why are they treated as Aliens? Why there is no international movement against terrorist attacks in these countries? I am Pakistani and I represent my Nation, I feel the problems and grieve of my nation from the core of my heart. My heart weeps whenever there is some terrorist attack on any community because the people, who die, are humans, and Islam teaches humanity.

In December 2014, The Army public school Peshawar was attacked by terrorists, there were 147 children martyred. They were innocent, they were our future, they were the shining stars of our nation, but who cares? International organizations just spoke the two lines of condemnation and then “SILENCE”. And now, 137 people died, who were enjoying their life, and terrorists didn’t care about their parents, their children and their loved ones. Terrorism has not religion but this cruel ISIS pretends to be Muslim to distort the real face of Muslims and Islam.

I request to the world, please do not discriminate, because this discrimination leads to hatred and hatred leads to the destruction of nations. Terrorism affects all of us, do not act and react like be Westerns, Europeans, Americans or French, act like “humans”. Muslims are not week, so do not take them “for granted”.

I pray to Allah to save this world from the scourge of terrorism and save every human. 

Difference between Biosafety and Biosecurity

Biosafety

Biosafety means to reduce or eliminate the exposure of laboratory workers to outside environment to potentially hazardous and infectious materials/agents/ toxins.

Biosafety is the strict adherence to standard lab practices and techniques, know-how and training, laboratory safety equipments and safety design for worker protection and infectious materials/agents/toxins.

Biosafety Vs Biosecurity

Biosafety:

1)      The term Biosafety refers to routines and techniques required to prevent unintentional exposure or contaminations of contagious or toxic biological materials.

2)      The containment principles, practices and technologies that are implemented to prevent the accidentals exposure to pathogens, toxins or their accidental release.

3)      The protection of people and environment from exposure to contagious biological material generated in lab.

4)      Poor biosafety could lead to the laboratory infections or a contamination of the environment.

5)      Biosafety aims to protect the environment and workplace.

Biosecurity

1)      The term Biosecurity refers to the routines and techniques to prevent the intentional exposure or contaminations of contagious or toxic biological materials.

2)      The systematic use of appropriate biosafety principles and practices reduces the risk of accidental exposure and paves the way for reducing the risks of valuable biological material loss, theft or misuse caused by the poor management or poor accountability and protection.

3)      Control of accidental and deliberate release of biohazardous material.

4)      Poor biosecurity may lead to theft/break-ins abuse and intentional exposure.

5)      Biosecurity aims to minimize the risk of theft, loss, intentional exposures and releases of pathogens or toxins.