In Pakistan, as in other developing countries, rural women make ample contributions to the economy through vital productive and reproductive roles. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of women’s traditional economic activities that supplement their household economy directly through earning income and indirectly through savings expenditure and to assess the factors that influence their productivity performance. For this purpose, six rural areas from Khyber, which is located in the Pukhtoonkhwah province, were chosen to represent the south, north, and the central plain regions. About 480 women responded out of 600, which were selected using a snowball sampling technique from the entire three regions. The data was collected by conducting face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs). About 68.33% respondents were illiterate, 47.71% were 31 to 40 years old, and 47.92% lived in a joint family system. Due to the strict Purdah (veil) culture, about 71.88% of the women’s economic activities were confined indoors, such as stitching; embroidery; basket and candle making; preparing pickles, jams, and squash; dairy products; apiculture; sericulture; livestock; poultry; nursery raising; and some agriculture-related off-farm activities. It was reported that the major decisions in the household are made by the male members due to the strong patriarchal norms and values. Development projects by the NGOs and the government have played a significant role to provide credit, training, and awareness that has arisen specifically in the north and the south regions. All of the women were aware of the positive effects of economic independence, but some of them also revealed the negative effects on their physical and psychological health as well as the social ties within the households and communities due to the extensive workload and time issues. The study concluded that many demographic social, cultural, religious, and economic factors negatively influence the women’s productive potential.

Six protein energy-bars (B1-B6) were prepared for Pakistani-athletes using dates, dried apricots, Cheddar-cheese and whey-protein isolate. Bars B1-B3 contained 5 g Cheddar-cheese and 13 g whey-protein isolate while quantity of dates were 74, 68 and 65 g and apricots 8, 14 and 17 g respectively. Bars B4-B6 contained 8g Cheddar-cheese and 12 g whey protein isolate while dates and apricots were same as in bars B1-B3. Bars were sealed in aluminium foil, stored at 20 ± 5 °C for 45 days to evaluate their sensory, compositional, physicochemical, microbial, textural and antioxidant properties. All bars have good sensory attributes except B6 that showed (p < 0.05) lower acceptability. The pH, water activity and microbial count decreased (p < 0.05) in all the bars. Maximum hardness was noticed in bar B1 and lowest in B6 while highest firmness was recorded in B2 and lowest in B6. The increase (p < 0.05) of total phenolic content was noticed in B6 and the highest increase of total flavonoid content was estimated in B2 at day 45, while B5 showed the highest antioxidant-activity on the 30 th day afterwards a decline was observed in all the bars. Study revealed that these bars have good sensory attributes, physical characteristics and shelf-stability and could be a healthy snack for athletes.

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This contribution develops an analytical procedure for the proximate analysis of algal biomass, using Spirulina platensis and Chlorella vulgaris as model algal samples. The procedure consists of three steps. First, thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA)-based method designed from ASTM E870-82 was employed for the proximate analysis of the two algae, at 950 °C in argon for the determination of volatile matter (VM) and fixed carbon (FC) and at 600 °C in air for estimating the ash content. Visual inspection of the resulting solid residues suggested the presence of black unburnt carbon, indicating the inapplicability of the method. Nevertheless, the contents of moisture, VM, and the sum of FC and ash in the two algae were determined in this step. In the second step, Spirulina platensis and Chlorella vulgaris were directly oxidized at 600 °C in air, in the same TGA as above, to avoid or minimize the effect of stable quaternary nitrogen formed during pyrolysis at 950 °C in the first step. While Spirulina platensis was successfully ashed in this step, the solid residue of Chlorella vulgaris was virtually black. This necessitated the third step, in which Chlorella vulgaris was ashed in the air at 600 °C in a tubular reactor, with the aid of hydrogen peroxide. Nearly complete oxidation of carbonaceous material in Chlorella vulgaris was achieved when the holding time at 600 °C was 4 h. Based on the proposed analytical procedure, the contents of VM, FC, and ash are 82.3, 10.4, and 7.3 wt %, respectively, for Spirulina platensis and 84.3, 10.4, and 5.3 wt % for Chlorella vulgaris, expressed on a dry basis.