The distance education is gaining momentum all over the world. To meet the needs of growing distance patrons, the importance of libraries in distance education has been realized in the developed as well developing countries like Pakistan. In distance education, students reside far away from their teachers and university campus. The emerging clients of libraries demand the same quality of library services as the on-campus students availing the library services. The book presents the satisfaction of the distance community; teachers, tutors and students, about resources and services of Allama...

History tells that every human being
desire to foresee, comprehend and ultimately explore the
future. Multi-step ahead forecasting is a challenging
research area due to propagation of forecasting errors with
the increase of forecasting steps. Two interesting
architectures based on nearest neighbor method are
proposed. Importance of selection criteria in nearest
neighbor search plays an important role in multi-step ahead
forecasting. Effect of up-sampling of time series and
...

The study was conducted on bio-ecology and management of mango mealybug Drosicha mangiferae (Green) in mango orchards of Punjab Pakistan. It was found that the Chaunsa' cultivar was the most susceptible to mango mealybug followed by 'Fajri', 'Langra' and 'Black Chaunsa, whereas 'Dusehri' was resistant. Irrigation was the major source of flare up of the pest as viewed by the majority of the respondents. The practices like hoeing, ploughing, irrigation, removal of weeds, grease bands and insecticides were adapted by the respondents with variable results. With chemical analysis maximum...

This book provides insights into recent developments in the use of mulching in agroecosystems with emphasis on the major pros and cons. Increase in human population, climatic changes and agricultural intensification have put enormous pressure on soil and water resources. As a result, we are confronted with challenges to enhance nutrient and water use efficiencies and conserve soil organic matter without compromising crop yields and food security. Increasing the soil organic matter (SOM) via residue return increased nutrient availability and soil physical and biological properties....