Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is a significant fiber crop that is contributing 7 to 10% in the GDP of Pakistan. In the production of cotton, Pakistan is ranked at 4th position among the major cotton growing countries. Various insect pests, especially sucking and chewing pests, attack cotton crop. Among the sucking pests, thrips (Thrips tabaci Lindeman) causes the most significant damage to cotton at seedling stage. Due to tremendous usage of insecticides, these pests have developed resistance against insecticides. Therefore, cultivation of resistant cotton varieties is the best tactic that can minimize the attack of thrips on this crop. In the present study, five Bt cotton varieties with different cry toxins were evaluated for their resistance/susceptible response to thrips. The cotton cultivars selected for this study were including four Bt cotton cultivars (two single and two double toxins) and one non-Bt cotton cultivar. The experiment was carried out under climatic conditions of Faisalabad, Pakistan. There was not any pronounced difference in thrips population on different Bt cotton cultivars either they were single or dual toxin gene cotton cultivars. MNH-186 and FH-141 showed decreasing trend in population of thrips with the passage of time as compared to other Bt cotton cultivars. The little variation in thrips population among the Bt cotton cultivars showed that all Bt cotton varieties had good control effect on the thrips population. Thrips population was insignificant with respect to leaf position i.e. upper, middle and lower leaves. Correlation study of thrips population with different environmental factors exhibited r values of -0.2213, 0.49837 and 0.41735 for temperature, humidity and rain fall, respectively.

The process of supervision directly impacts teachers and students in a school. The current study revolved around the comparison of instructional supervision practices carried out by the principals of APS&Cs and FGEIs in Pakistan and its impact on professional development of teachers. A quantitative approach was used to conduct the current study. Sampling was carried out through multi-stage stratified random sampling technique. The study comprised 600 teachers and 120 principals from APS&Cs and FGEIs. The data was collected through questionnaires and the reliability was .871 and .766 respectively. Statistical techniques for instance, t-test, standard deviation, and mean were used for the analysis of acquired data. The findings of the study revealed that the concept of supervision is a much broader phenomenon than inspection. Moreover, it is the duty of the heads of institutions to develop interactive, healthy, and accommodating environment for teachers. The principals need to utilize available resources in institutions in such a way that it results in overall enhancement of teaching-learning process. Moreover, the head of institutions should collaborate and guide the teachers. It would help the teachers to reinforce their competencies in field of teaching which would ultimately result in overall performance.

Background: Rapid emergence of carbapenem resistance (CR) is a health concern of pertinent importance. Epidemiological surveillance of CR at global and indigenous level (Pakistan) can help to improve infection control strategy and establish pharmacovigilance programs. This study evaluate the prevalence of clinically significant CR isolates, and its genetic variant distribution among different geographical regions of Pakistan. Methods: A meta-analysis was conducted to present the current rate of CR infections and prevalence of Metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs). The proposed subject was researched using robustic electronic databases a) PubMed b) PubMed Central® (PMC), and c) Google Scholar to identify the available literature. Thereafter, relevant data was extracted and statistical analysis was performed using STATA version 14. Result: A total of 110 relevant studies were identified with 19 meeting the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis of CR, while 22 for MBLs. Pooled rate for carbapenem resistance was determined to be 0.28 (95% CI: 0.26-0.31) with overall significant heterogeneity (I 2 =99.61%, p<0.001) and significant estimated score ES=0 (Z=22.65, p<0.001). In case of Pakistan, the overall pooled proportion of MBL producers was 0.34 (95% CI: 0.29-0.39) with overall heterogeneity significance (I 2 =99.62%, p<0.001) and respective significant ES=0 (Z=13.17, p<0.001). Conclusively, diverse variants of carbapenemases (VIM, IMP, NDM, KPC, GIM, SIM) along with other co-existing β-lactamase variants (OXA, TEM, SHV, CTX-M) have been reported across the country. However, New Delhi Metallo-β-lactamase (NDM)-variants were reported in predominant literature. Conclusion: The prevalence of CR isolates in Pakistan is alarming, associated with MBL production primarily evident from the studies. The study emphasizes the need for regular surveillance, pharmacovigilance and antibiotic stewardship programs to ensure the availability of data to the authorities for preemptive measures of infection control.