A customer's next-items recommender system (NIRS) can be used to predict the purchase list of a c... more A customer's next-items recommender system (NIRS) can be used to predict the purchase list of a customer in the next visit. The recommendations made by these systems support businesses by increasing their revenue and providing a more personalized shopping experience to customers. The main objective of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of the domain to analyze the recent techniques and assist future research. The paper examined 90 selected studies to answer the research questions concerning the key aspects of NIRSs. To this end, the main contribution of the paper is that it provides detailed insight into the use of conventional and deep learning techniques, the popular datasets, and specialized metrics for developing and evaluating these systems. The study reveals that conventional machine learning techniques have been quite popular for developing NIRSs in the past. However, more recent works have mainly focused on deep learning techniques due to their enhanced ability to learn sequential and temporal information. Some of the challenges in developing NIRSs that need further investigation are related to cold start, data sparsity, and cross-domain recommendations.
The analyzed data indicated that early sown cotton (15th April) resulted in low virus attack (21.... more The analyzed data indicated that early sown cotton (15th April) resulted in low virus attack (21.06%) and enhanced seed cotton yield (1575%), together with yield components (number of bolls per plant and boll weight), and improved fiber quality (staple length and micronaire) during all the three years as compared with late sown crop (15th June). Likewise, MNH-6070 also resulted in low virus attack (45.79%) and higher seed cotton yield (117.19%), as well as yield components. Regarding fiber quality, MNH-6070 resulted in higher micronarie, while CIM-496 resulted in higher staple length. Early sowing and cotton genotype MNH-6070 also resulted in maximum ginning out turn (GOT). Nonetheless, seed cotton yield and fiber quality were both negatively affected due to late sowing (1st and 15th of June) in both cotton genotypes. In crux, early sowing enhanced seed cotton yield due to increased number of bolls per plant, boll weight and low virus attack. Similarly, cotton genotype MNH-6070 also resulted to higher seed cotton yield, GOT and more resistance against virus attack due to its better genetic makeup. In summary, cotton genotype MNH-6070 should be sown on 15th April in order to obtain maximum seed cotton yield under agro-climatic conditions of Multan, Pakistan.
Cit a tio n fo r fin al p u blis h e d ve r sio n: M e h m o o d, Abi d a n d I m r a n, M u h a ... more Cit a tio n fo r fin al p u blis h e d ve r sio n: M e h m o o d, Abi d a n d I m r a n, M u h a m m a d 2 0 2 1. Digit al s o ci al in n ov a tio n a n d civic p a r tici p a tio n: t o w a r d r e s p o n si bl e a n d incl u siv e t r a n s p o r t pl a n ni n g. E u r o p e a n Pl a n ni n g S t u di e s 2 9 (1 0) , p p. 1
The establishment of Kalonji crop in climatic condition of District Haripur was studied for high ... more The establishment of Kalonji crop in climatic condition of District Haripur was studied for high quality and production through sowing time and nitrogen application methods. This study was carried out during Rabi 2016-17 at Agricultural Research Farm University of Haripur, KPK. The study was arranged in RCBD split plot arrangement having six sowing times as main plot while three nitrogen application methods were kept in subplots replicated thrice. Sowing time and nitrogen application methods significantly influenced plant height at 1 st flower initiation, plant height at maturity, days to maturity, number of capsules plant -1 , number of seeds capsule -1 , 1000grains weight, grain yield and fixed oil content however, essential oil content were nonsignificantly affected by application methods. Crop sown on 10 th November and nitrogen application methods 50% during sowing, 25% 60 DAS and remaining 25% 90 DAS as foliar application increases the quality and production traits of Kalonji in agro-climatic conditions of District Haripur.
Fruits are considered among the most nutrient-dense cash crops around the globe. Since fruits com... more Fruits are considered among the most nutrient-dense cash crops around the globe. Since fruits come in different types, sizes, shapes, colors, and textures, the manual classification and disease identification of a large quantity of fruit is time-consuming and sluggish, requiring massive human intervention. We propose a multilevel fusion method for fruit disease identification and fruit classification that includes intensive fruit image pre-processing, customized image kernels for feature extraction with state-of-the-art (SOTA) deep methods, Gini-index-based controlled feature selection, and a hybrid ensemble method for identification and classification. We noticed certain limitations in the existing literature of adopting a single data source, in terms of limited data sizes, variability in fruit types, variability in quality, and variability in disease type. Therefore, we extensively aggregated and pre-processed multi-fruit data to simulate our proposed ensemble model on comprehensive datasets to cover both fruit classification and disease identification aspects. The multi-fruit imagery data contained regular and augmented images of fruits including apple, apricot, avocado, banana, cherry, fig, grape, guava, kiwi, mango, orange, peach, pear, pineapple, and strawberry. Similarly, we considered normal and augmented images of rotten fruits including beans (two categories), strawberries (seven categories), and tomatoes (three categories). For consistency, we normalized the images and designed an auto-labeling mechanism based on the existing image clusters to label inconsistent data to appropriate classes. Finally, we verified the auto-labeled data with a complete inspection to correctly assign it to the relevant classes. The proposed ensemble classifier outperforms all other classification methods, achieving 100% and 99% accuracy for fruit classification and disease identification. Further, we performed the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test to validate the statistical significance of the classifiers' outcomes at α = 0.05. We achieved F-values of 32.41 and 11.42 against F-critical values of 2.62 and 2.86, resulting in p-values of 0.00 (<0.05) for fruit classification and disease identification.
The increasing demand for surveillance systems has resulted in an unprecedented rise in the volum... more The increasing demand for surveillance systems has resulted in an unprecedented rise in the volume of video data being generated daily. The volume and frequency of the generation of video streams make it both impractical as well as inefficient to manually monitor them to keep track of abnormal events as they occur infrequently. To alleviate these difficulties through intelligent surveillance systems, several vision-based methods have appeared in the literature to detect abnormal events or behaviors. In this area, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have also been frequently applied due to their prevalence in the related domain of general action recognition and classification. Although the existing approaches have achieved high detection rates for specific abnormal behaviors, more inclusive methods are expected. This paper presents a CNN-based approach that efficiently detects and classifies if a video involves the abnormal human behaviors of falling, loitering, and violence within uncrowded scenes. The approach implements a two-stream architecture using two separate 3D CNNs to accept a video and an optical flow stream as input to enhance the prediction performance. After applying transfer learning, the model was trained on a specialized dataset corresponding to each abnormal behavior. The experiments have shown that the proposed approach can detect falling, loitering, and violence with an accuracy of up to 99%, 97%, and 98%, respectively. The model achieved state-of-the-art results and outperformed the existing approaches.
This paper presents an in-depth study of ChatGPT, a state-of-the-art language model that is revol... more This paper presents an in-depth study of ChatGPT, a state-of-the-art language model that is revolutionizing generative text. We provide a comprehensive analysis of its architecture, training data, and evaluation metrics and explore its advancements and enhancements over time. Additionally, we examine the capabilities and limitations of ChatGPT in natural language processing (NLP) tasks, including language translation, text summarization, and dialogue generation. Furthermore, we compare ChatGPT to other language generation models and discuss its applicability in various tasks. Our study also addresses the ethical and privacy considerations associated with ChatGPT and provides insights into mitigation strategies. Moreover, we investigate the role of ChatGPT in cyberattacks, highlighting potential security risks. Lastly, we showcase the diverse applications of ChatGPT in different industries and evaluate its performance across languages and domains. This paper offers a comprehensive exploration of ChatGPT's impact on the NLP field.
This Policy Review examines the place of Social Innovation (SI) in Research and Development proje... more This Policy Review examines the place of Social Innovation (SI) in Research and Development projects, especially those funded by the EU. It also refects on the relevance of SI and SI research in collective action, policy making and socio-political transformation in Europe and the world today. In particular, it makes suggestions on how SI research can contribute to strengthening the position of SSH in the contemporary and future European research and policy landscape.1 It thus seeks to explain how SI as a concept and a practice holds a great socio-political transformative potential, and warns against reducing the meaning of SI to mere social problem mending as a response to state and market insufciencies
The history of plants to be utilized as medicines is thousands of years old. Black cumin is one o... more The history of plants to be utilized as medicines is thousands of years old. Black cumin is one of the most widely examined plant possessing naturally occurring compounds with antimicrobial potential. Foliar application of growth stimulators is a successful strategy to enhance yield and quality in many crops. A field study was planned to apply growth stimulator like moringa leaf extract on black cumin crop grown under field conditions using RCB design with three replications. All other agronomic inputs and practices were uniform. The treatments were moringa leaf extract concentrations (10%, 20%), growth stages (40 days after sowing, 80 DAS, 120 DAS, 40 + 80 DAS, 40 + 120 DAS, 80 + 120 DAS, 40 + 80 + 120 days after sowing) and two controls unsprayed check (i.e. no moringa leaf extract, no water) and sprayed check (no moringa leaf extract + water). Application of 20% moringa leaf extract at stage-7 (40 + 80 + 120 days after sowing) had significantly increased plant height, branches pl...
International Journal of Conservation Science, 2018
Hog deer (Axis porcinus) are an endangered species in Pakistan, and there is little information a... more Hog deer (Axis porcinus) are an endangered species in Pakistan, and there is little information about their feed preference in captivity. Seven animals were offered weighed amount of feed in two seasonal binary combinations of fresh fodder and one combination of grains. The fresh seasonal fodder included Oat (Avena sativa), Lucerne (Medicago sativa), Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), and Maize (Zea mays); whereas grains included Wheat (Triticum aestivum) whole-grains and Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) seeds. Thirteen plant samples were collected from the wild habitat of Hog deer in Tunsa Barrage Wildlife Sanctuary. Plant samples from wild and captivity were analysed through proximate analysis for Crude protein, Fiber, Fat and Ash contents. The outcomes concluded that in combination C1, the hog deer preferred Oat over Lucerne (p < 0.05) with a mean percentage±standard error (Mean±SE) of 90.757±0.401 percent for Oat and 9.243±0.401 percent for Lucerne. The animals preferred Maize (p < 0.05...
Weather plays a critical void in mediating abundance of armyworms. Forecasting under such instanc... more Weather plays a critical void in mediating abundance of armyworms. Forecasting under such instances becomes fundamental for monitoring and management of this notorious pest particularly in developing countries where management cost is very high. Population data was taken from different locations of district Multan from 20062010 by Pests Warning Wing of Agriculture Department, Government of Punjab, Pakistan. Comparison of means of percent hot spots of armyworm revealed that armyworm population was at par during 2006-2010. Weather relation with Spodoptera litura F. abundance was summarized on the basis of Multivariate regression and correlation tactics. Multivariate regression analysis model unveiled coefficient of determination with armyworm abundance. Maximum temperature had significant negative impact on armyworm abundance while relative humidity had positive effect on armyworm population. Correlation analysis revealed that maximum temperature had negative correlation with armyworm...
A pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the adverse effects of drought on different okra culti... more A pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the adverse effects of drought on different okra cultivars and to identify the most suitable okra cultivar for growing in drought conditions. Five okra cultivars namely Pusa Green, Clemson, Sabz Pari, Pusa Swani and Mehak Pari were subjected to three drought levels i.e., control (100% Field capacity),50% and 25% Field Capacity (FC). Physiological parameters like fresh and dry weight of plant and plant height were recorded along with biochemical attributes such as chlorophyll content (a, b, total) carotenoids, total protein, proline content, and Membrane stability index (MSI%). Results showed that drought significantly reduced all the studied parameters and at maximum drought (25% FC) lowest values of fresh weight (12.42g), dry weight (1.22g), plant height (7.86cm), chlorophyll a (9.02mg/g FW), chlorophyll b (18.69mg/g FW), total chlorophyll (27.71mg/g FW), carotenoids (11.80mg/g FW), total protein (2.73mg/g FW),whereas maximum Proline (21.3...
Cit a tio n fo r fin al p u blis h e d ve r sio n: M e h m o o d, Abi d a n d I m r a n, M u h a ... more Cit a tio n fo r fin al p u blis h e d ve r sio n: M e h m o o d, Abi d a n d I m r a n, M u h a m m a d 2 0 2 1. Digit al s o ci al in n ov a tio n a n d civic p a r tici p a tio n: t o w a r d r e s p o n si bl e a n d incl u siv e t r a n s p o r t pl a n ni n g. E u r o p e a n Pl a n ni n g S t u di e s 2 9 (1 0) , p p. 1
Due to high temperatures in arid regions, cotton crop emergence and early establishment of seedli... more Due to high temperatures in arid regions, cotton crop emergence and early establishment of seedlings are adversely affected. Field studies were undertaken to quantify the effects of transplantation of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) seedlings during the early part of the growing season (March) and crop season (May) for potential realization of cotton productivity under the harsh weather of the southern part of Punjab province, Pakistan. Treatments, consisting of (a) two planting dates (March and May), and (b) two sowing methods (transplanting of seedlings and direct seeding), were arranged in a randomized complete-block design with four replications. Results showed that transplanting seedlings improved the productivity of cotton by 14.2% over direct seeding. Productivity was also increased substantially (34.8%) by planting during March over May sowing. The practice of planting cotton by transplanting seedlings and early sowing could be successfully adapted in areas where high temperatures coincide with the May planting and peak blooming periods in different cotton growing areas.
The current research was conducted to find out the most appropriate concentrations of six fungici... more The current research was conducted to find out the most appropriate concentrations of six fungicides for the management of sesame charcoal rot caused by Macrophomina phaseolina under lab and field conditions. The treatments viz. Antracol, Topsin-M, Mancozeb, Score, Topas, Nativo and Control with concentrations of 150, 250 and 350ppm were used with three replications under completely randomized design and randomized complete block design in Lab. and field conditions respectively. The mean colony growth of all treatments expressed that Nativo exhibited minimum colony growth of (0.93 cm) as compared to Score (1.14 cm), Topsin-M (1.42 cm), Mancozeb (1.77 cm), Antracol (2.04 cm), Topass (2.33 cm) correspondingly. The interaction between treatments and concentrations (T×C) showed that used concentrations 150 ppm, 250 ppm and 350 ppm of Nativo abundantly inhibit fungal colony growth upto 1.26 cm, 0.86 cm and 0.66 cm respectively whereas the interaction between treatments and days expresse...
Field experiment was conducted at the University of Haripur, Pakistan, to explore the role of pho... more Field experiment was conducted at the University of Haripur, Pakistan, to explore the role of photothermal units on oil contents, fatty acids profile, yield and yield traits of four sunflower hybrids viz SMH-0917, NK-S-278, SMH-0907 and Hysun-33. These sunflower hybrids were selected because the farmers of that area are mostly relying on these hybrids for sunflower production. Sunflower hybrids were sown in spring and arranged under Randomized Complete Block Design with 3 replications under field conditions. Significant variation (p 0.05%) was found among the sunflower hybrids for photothermal unit requirements for flower completion and physiological maturity. Highest photothermal unit accumulation was found in Hysun-33 followed by SMH-0917 and SMH-0907. Highest seed oil content and oil composition (linoleic and oleic acid were most abundant, whereas palmitic acid was least) was recorded in Hysun-33, SMH-0917 and SMH-0907. Overall Hysun-33, SMH-0917 and SMH-0907 performed better for...
Oestrus synchronization may be used to overcome poor oestrus expression and seasonality of breedi... more Oestrus synchronization may be used to overcome poor oestrus expression and seasonality of breeding in buffalo (Bubalus bubalis). The present work was conducted to compare the efficiency of an oestrus synchronization protocol “ovsynch” in Nili Ravi buffalo during peak (n=8) and low breeding seasons (n=11) by determining luteinizing hormone (LH) peak and progesterone (P4) rise in blood plasma using ELISA. Buffaloes were administered gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) analogue (50 μg lecirelin; day 0) followed by prostaglandinF2α (PGF2α) analogue (150 μg cloprostenol; day 7) and again GnRH analogue at 36 hours after PGF2α. Blood sampling for LH was started 12 h after PGF2α injection and done at 3 h interval up to 108 h. An animal was considered to have responded to ovsynch protocol if it showed LH peak within 48 h after PGF2α injection (and within 3-6 h after second GnRH injection) and showed a P4 concentration of >2.0 ng/ml on day 18 after the 1st GnRH injection. 87.5% animals ...
Estrus synchronization and artificial insemination of hair sheep ewes in the tropics
Theriogenology, 1999
Hair sheep ewes (St. Croix White and Barbados Blackbelly) were used to evaluate 3 methods of estr... more Hair sheep ewes (St. Croix White and Barbados Blackbelly) were used to evaluate 3 methods of estrus synchronization for use with transcervical artificial insemination (TAI). To synchronize estrus, ewes (n = 18) were treated with PGF2alpha (15 mg, im) 10 d apart, with controlled internal drug release (CIDR) devices containing 300 mg progesterone for 12 d (n = 18), or with intravaginal sponges containing 500 mg progesterone for 12 d (n = 18). On the day of the second PGF2alpha injection or at CIDR or sponge removal, sterile rams were placed with the ewes. Jugular blood samples were collected from the ewes at 6-h intervals until the time of ovulation, and daily for 16 d after estrus (Day 0). Plasma was harvested and stored at -20 degrees C until LH, and progesterone concentrations were determined by RIA. There was no difference (P&gt;0.10) in time to estrus among the CIDR-, PGF2alpha- or sponge-treated ewes. All of the ewes in the CIDR group and 94.4% of the sponge treated ewes exhibited estrus by 36 h after ram introduction, while only 72.2% of PGF2alpha-treated ewes showed signs of estrus by this time (P&lt;0.06). The time from ram introduction to ovulation was not different (P&gt;0.10) among the CIDR-, PGF2alpha- or sponge-treated ewes. The time to the preovulatory LH surge was similar (P&gt;0.10) among CIDR, PGF2alpha and sponge treated ewes. Progesterone levels through Day 16 after the synchronized estrus were not different (P&gt;0.10) among treatment groups. Hair sheep ewes (n = 23) were synchronized using PGF2alpha and bred by TAI using frozen-thawed semen 48 h after the second injection. The conception rate to TAI was 2/23 (8.7%) and produced 3 ram lambs. In a subsequent trial, 17 ewes were synchronized with CIDR devices and bred by TAI using frozen-thawed semen 48 h after CIDR removal, resulting in a conception rate of 52.9% (9/17). It is possible to synchronize estrus in hair sheep using either CIDRs, sponges or PGF2alpha. Even though there were no significant differences in the timing of ovulation or the LH surge among the treatment groups, a higher conception rate was achieved in ewes synchronized with CIDR devices during the second trial. This may reflect an increase in the skill level of the TAI technician.
Context: Model-driven code generation is being increasingly applied to enhance software developme... more Context: Model-driven code generation is being increasingly applied to enhance software development from perspectives of maintainability, extensibility and reusability. However, aspect-oriented code generation from models is an area that is currently underdeveloped. Objective: In this study we provide a survey of existing research on aspect-oriented modeling and code generation to discover current work and identify needs for future research. Method: A systematic mapping study was performed to find relevant studies. Classification schemes have been defined and the 65 selected primary studies have been classified on the basis of research focus, contribution type and research type. Results: The papers of solution proposal research type are in a majority. All together aspect-oriented modeling appears being the most focused area divided into modeling notations and process (36%) and model composition and interaction management (26%). The majority of contributions are methods. Conclusion: Aspect-oriented modeling and composition mechanisms have been significantly discussed in existing literature while more research is needed in the area of model-driven code generation. Furthermore, we have observed that previous research has frequently focused on proposing solutions and thus there is need for research that validates and evaluates the existing proposals in order to provide firm foundations for aspect-oriented model-driven code generation.
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Papers by Abid Mehmood