Search results for: root cultures

Authors: Simmi Chopra

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In the last few years, there has been a surge of Autoimmune diseases that have become more like an epidemic all over the world. The reasons vary from stress, insufficient sleep, smoking, genetics, environmental pollution, adulterated foods, and a diet full of “the deadly white,” which is white sugar and white flour. Most of the people diagnosed with these diseases are given steroids, opioids, supplements, or elimination diets to manage their lives, but most of them continue suffering to varying degrees. On the other hand, Ayurveda can help manage autoimmune problems effectively. Ayurveda is a 5000 years old holistic medical system from India that has an individualistic approach where health problems are looked at from the lens of balancing body and mind and by targeting the root cause of the problem. A combination of diet and lifestyle according to Ayurvedic principles, Ayurvedic herbal formulations and Ayurvedic therapies can help in the management of autoimmune and other chronic diseases. Panchkarma, which is an intense six weeks detox method, helps balance our body and mind, and has been very effective in managing autoimmune problems. The paper will introduce the basic concepts of Ayurveda and describe the terminologies- doshas, agni and ama. The paper will discuss the importance of diet and lifestyle according to the individual’s imbalance in the three functional parameters - doshas, which govern every aspect of our body and mind, our cells and tissues. The significance of agni, which can be correlated to digestive strength and ama, which can be correlated to toxins that are formed in our body leading to health problems, will be outlined. The Ayurvedic pathophysiology of autoimmune diseases will be discussed with emphasis on Rheumatoid arthritis, Multiple sclerosis and Psoriasis. Ayurvedic management will be discussed for these autoimmune conditions. As Ayurveda is an individualistic system, one protocol will not work for everyone. Therefore, case studies with Ayurvedic protocols for the above autoimmune disease will be presented. Conclusion: Ayurveda can help in managing as well as arresting the progression of autoimmune problems. Ayurveda is an ancient medical system, is much more needed today than ever. It is a tried and tested holistic system which has been practiced for the past many generations in India.

Keywords: ayurveda, autoimmune, diseases, nutrition

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Authors: Yung-Chung Chuang

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The cultural layers of archaeological sites are mainly affected by surface land use, land cover, and root system of surface vegetation. For this reason, continuous monitoring of land use and land cover change is important for archaeological sites protection and management. However, in actual operation, on-site investigation and orthogonal photograph interpretation require a lot of time and manpower. For this reason, it is necessary to perform a good alternative for surface vegetation survey in an automated or semi-automated manner. In this study, we applied semi-automatic digital aerial survey technology and canopy characters classification with very high-resolution aerial photographs for surface vegetation interpretation of archaeological sites. The main idea is based on different landscape or forest type can easily be distinguished with canopy characters (e.g., specific texture distribution, shadow effects and gap characters) extracted by semi-automatic image classification. A novel methodology to classify the shape of canopy characters using landscape indices and multivariate statistics was also proposed. Non-hierarchical cluster analysis was used to assess the optimal number of canopy character clusters and canonical discriminant analysis was used to generate the discriminant functions for canopy character classification (seven categories). Therefore, people could easily predict the forest type and vegetation land cover by corresponding to the specific canopy character category. The results showed that the semi-automatic classification could effectively extract the canopy characters of forest and vegetation land cover. As for forest type and vegetation type prediction, the average prediction accuracy reached 80.3%~91.7% with different sizes of test frame. It represented this technology is useful for archaeological site survey, and can improve the classification efficiency and data update rate.

Keywords: digital aerial survey, canopy characters classification, archaeological sites, multivariate statistics

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Authors: E.Tskitisvili, L. Jgenti, I. Eliava, T. Tskitishvili, N. Bagathuria, M. Gigolashvili

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The fight against dangerous nematode diseases that have world economic importance requires accurate data about the prevalence of these pests. In the point of view of the International Convention on Biological Diversity, the identification of the plant invasion causing dangerous pathogen in the early stages of invasion on new territory is the most important part of the program, which aims to monitor the Bio-Agro Coenosis and Bio-Control. Citrus nematode-specific belongs to the pathogen species, which can cause epiphytotics particularly for large areas and cause irreparable damage to citrus plantations. This paper provides a brief tour of the spread of citrus nematodes on the Black Sea coast (Adjara and Abkhazia). Also the bio-ecological monitoring data to detect the potential sources of invasion for evaluating the current conditions of the citrus nematodes prevalence. Through 2006-2010, the material was gained by structural monitoring system during the citrus vegetation period on tangerines, lemon and oranges from nine points of the study area. Mature forms of Tylenchulus semipenetrans Cobb, 1913 were observed in almost all of the samples of the root system, the peak of larvae was observed in late spring and outumn. 92 forms of nematode has been detected in the rhizosphere belonging to 8 Orders: Areolaimida, Dorylaimida, Enoplida, Mononchida, Tylenshida, Monshysterida, Rhabditida, Aphelenchida, 23 families and 40 genera. 75 forms are identified as species. It is estimated the number of nematodes fauna and ecological groups. To detect possible sources of invasion we obtained additional materials in 2013-2014 from citrus plantations planted in 2011, where is planted tangerine trees introduced from Spain and Japan. The fauna of rhizosphere is identified and Tylenchulus semipenetrans Cobb, 1913 is not detected.

Keywords: Citrus nematodes, infection, bioecological monitoring, epiphytotics

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Authors: Bandana Saikia, Ashok Bhattacharyya

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Endophytic microbes and their metabolites positively impact overall plant health, which may have a potential implication in agriculture. In the present study, 177 bacterial endophytes and 57 fungal endophytes were isolated, with the highest recovery rate from tomato roots. A maximum of 112 endophytes were isolated during monsoon, followed by 64 isolates and 58 isolates isolated during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon periods, respectively, indicating the rich diversity in bacterial and fungal endophytes of tomato crops from different locations of Assam, India. Further, the endophytes were evaluated for their antagonistic potential against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici. Fungal endophytic isolate AAUTLF (Endophytic Fungi of Tomato Leaf from Assam Agricultural University, Assam, India area) and bacterial endophyte D1B (Endophytic bacteria of tomato from Dhemiji, India district) showed the highest antifungal activity against the pathogen both in vitro and in vivo. Based on 5.8 rDNA sequence analysis of fungal and 16S rDNA sequence of bacteria endophytes, the most effective fungal and bacterial isolates against FOL were identified as Trichoderma asperellum AAUTLF and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia D1B, respectively. The isolates showed an antagonistic effect against Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici in-vitro and reduced the disease index of Fusarium wilt in tomatoes by 64.4% under pot conditions. Trichoderma asperellum AAUTLF produced an antifungal compound viz., 6-pentyl-2H-pyran-2-one, which also possesses growth-promoting characteristics. The bacteria Stenotrophomonas maltophilia D1B produced antifungal compounds, including benzothiazole, oleic acid, phenylacetic acid, and 3-(Hydroxy-phenyl-methyl)-2,3-dimethyl-octan-4-one. This would be of high importance for the source of antagonistic strains and biocontrol of tomato Fusarium wilt, as well as other plant fungal diseases.

Keywords: root endophytes, Stemotrophomonas, Trichoderma, benzothiazole, 6-pentyl-2H-pyran-2-one

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Authors: Ting Kai Chia, Ruifeng Yan, Feifei Bai, Tapan Saha

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This research presents a real-world power system oscillation incident in 2022 originated by a hybrid solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind renewable energy farm with a rated capacity of approximately 300MW in Australia. The voltage and reactive power outputs recorded at the point of common coupling (PCC) oscillated at a sub-synchronous frequency region, which sustained for approximately five hours in the network. The reactive power oscillation gradually increased over time and reached a recorded maximum of approximately 250MVar peak-to-peak (from inductive to capacitive). The network service provider was not able to quickly identify the location of the oscillation source because the issue was widespread across the network. After the incident, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) concluded that the oscillation problem was caused by the incorrect setting recovery of the hybrid power plant controller (HPPC) in the voltage and reactive power control loop after a loss of communication event. The voltage controller normally outputs a reactive (Q) reference value to the Q controller which controls the Q dispatch setpoint of PV and wind plants in the hybrid farm. Meanwhile, a feed-forward (FF) configuration is used to bypass the Q controller in case there is a loss of communication. Further study found that the FF control mode was still engaged when communication was re-established, which ultimately resulted in the oscillation event. However, there was no detailed explanation of why the FF control mode can cause instability in the hybrid farm. Also, there was no duplication of the event in the simulation to analyze the root cause of the oscillation. Therefore, this research aims to model and replicate the oscillation event in a simulation environment and investigate the underlying behavior of the HPPC and the consequent oscillation mechanism during the incident. The outcome of this research will provide significant benefits to the safe operation of large-scale renewable energy generators and power networks.

Keywords: PV, oscillation, modelling, wind

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Authors: M. Varin, A. M. Dubois, R. Gadbois-Langevin, B. Chalghaf

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Good knowledge of the physical environment is essential for an integrated forest planning. This information enables better forecasting of operating costs, determination of cutting volumes, and preservation of ecologically sensitive areas. The use of satellite images in stereoscopic pairs gives the capacity to generate high precision 3D models, which are scale-adapted for harvesting operations. These models could represent an alternative to 3D LiDAR data, thanks to their advantageous cost of acquisition. The objective of the study was to assess the quality of stereo-derived canopy height models (CHM) in comparison to a traditional LiDAR CHM and ground tree-height samples. Two study sites harboring two different forest stand types (broadleaf and conifer) were analyzed using stereo pairs and tri-stereo images from the WorldView-3 satellite to calculate CHM. Acquisition of multispectral images from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was also realized on a smaller part of the broadleaf study site. Different algorithms using two softwares (PCI Geomatica and Correlator3D) with various spatial resolutions and band selections were tested to select the 3D modeling technique, which offered the best performance when compared with LiDAR. In the conifer study site, the CHM produced with Corelator3D using only the 50-cm resolution panchromatic band was the one with the smallest Root-mean-square deviation (RMSE: 1.31 m). In the broadleaf study site, the tri-stereo model provided slightly better performance, with an RMSE of 1.2 m. The tri-stereo model was also compared to the UAV, which resulted in an RMSE of 1.3 m. At individual tree level, when ground samples were compared to satellite, lidar, and UAV CHM, RMSE were 2.8, 2.0, and 2.0 m, respectively. Advanced analysis was done for all of these cases, and it has been noted that RMSE is reduced when the canopy cover is higher when shadow and slopes are lower and when clouds are distant from the analyzed site.

Keywords: very high spatial resolution, satellite imagery, WorlView-3, canopy height models, CHM, LiDAR, unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV

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Authors: Divyani Redhu, Manisha Rathaur

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India has emerged as a very lucrative market for the smartphones in a very short span of time. The number of smartphone users here is growing massively with each passing day. Also, the expansion of internet services to far corners of the nation has also given a push to the smartphone revolution in India. Millennial, also known as Generation Y or the Net Generation is the generation born between the early 1980s and mid-1990s (some definitions extending further to early 2000s). Spanning roughly over 15 years, different social classes, cultures, and continents; it is irrational to imagine that millennial have a unified identity. But still, it cannot be denied that the growing millennial population is not only young but is highly tech-savvy too. It is not just the appearance of the device that today; we call it ‘smart’. Rather, it is the numerous tasks and functions that it can perform which has led its name to evolve as that of a ‘smartphone’. From usual tasks that were earlier performed by a simple mobile phone like making calls, sending messages, clicking photographs, recording videos etc.; today, the time has come where most of our day – to – day tasks are being taken care of by our all-time companion, i.e. smartphones. From being our alarm clock to being our note-maker, from our watch to our radio, our book-reader to our reminder, smartphones are present everywhere. Smartphone has now become an essential device for particularly the millennial to communicate not only with their friends but also with their family, colleagues, and teachers. The study by the researchers would be quantitative in nature. For the same, a survey would be conducted in particularly the capital of India, i.e. Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), which is the metropolitan area covering the entire National Capital Territory of Delhi and urban areas covering states of Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The tool of the survey would be a questionnaire and the number of respondents would be 200. The results derived from the study would primarily focus on the increasing reach of smartphones in India, smartphones as technological innovation and convergent tools, smartphone usage pattern of millennial in India, most used applications by the millennial, the average time spent by them, the impact of smartphones on the personal interactions of millennial etc. Thus, talking about the smartphone technology and the millennial in India, it would not be wrong to say that the growth, as well as the potential of the smartphones in India, is still immense. Also, very few technologies have made it possible to give a global exposure to the users and smartphone, if not the only one is certainly an immensely effective one that comes to the mind in this case.

Keywords: Delhi – NCR, India, millennial, smartphone

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Authors: Hossein Rassi, Marjan Moradi Fard, Samaneh Niko

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Human papillomavirus type 16 and 18 are closely associated with the development of human cervical carcinoma, which is one of the most common causes of cancer death in women worldwide. At present, HPV type 18 accounts for about 34 % of all HPV infections in Iran and the most promising vaccine against HPV infection is based on the L1 major capsid protein. The L1 protein of HPV18 has the capacity to self-assemble into capsomers or virus-like particles (VLPs) that are non-infectious, highly immunogenic and allowing their use in vaccine production. The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris is an efficient and inexpensive expression system used to produce high levels of heterologous proteins. In this study we expressed HPV18 L1 VLPs in P. pastoris. The gene encoding the major capsid protein L1 of the high-risk HPV type 18 was isolated from Iranian patient by PCR and inserted into pTG19-T vector to obtain the recombinant expression vector pTG19-HPV18-L1. Then, the pTG19-HPV18-L1 was transformed into E. coli strain DH5α and the recombinant protein HPV18 L1 was expressed under IPTG induction in soluble form. The HPV18 L1 gene was excised from recombinant plasmid with XhoI and EcoRI enzymes and ligated into the yeast expression vector pPICZα linearized with the same enzymes, and transformed into P. pastoris. Induction and expression of HPV18 L1 protein was demonstrated by BMGY/BMMY and RT PCR. The parameters for induced cultivation for strain in P. pastoris KM71 with HPV16L1 were investigated in shaking flask cultures. After induced cultivation BMMY (pH 7.0) medium supplemented with methanol to a final concentration of 1.0% every 24 h at 37 degrees C for 96 h, the recombinant produced 78.6 mg/L of L1 protein. This work offers the possibility for the production of prophylactic vaccine for cervical carcinoma by P. pastoris for HPV-18 L1 gene. The VLP-based HPV vaccines can prevent persistent HPV18 infections and cervical cancer in Iran. The HPV-18 L1 gene was expressed successfully in E.coli, which provides necessary basis for preparing HPV-18 L1 vaccine in human. Also, HPV type 6 L1 proteins expressed in Pichia pastoris will facilitate the HPV vaccine development and structure-function study.

Keywords: Pichia pastoris, L1 virus-like particles, human papillomavirus type 18, biotechnology

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Authors: Sherly M. A., Subhankar Karmakar, Terence Chan, Christian Rau

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Floods are one of the most frequent natural disasters, causing widespread devastation, economic damage and threat to human lives. Hydrologic impacts of climate change and intensification of urbanization are two root causes of increased flood occurrences, and recent research trends are oriented towards understanding these aspects. Due to rapid urbanization, population of cities across the world has increased exponentially leading to improperly planned developments. Climate change due to natural and anthropogenic activities on our environment has resulted in spatiotemporal changes in rainfall patterns. The combined effect of both aggravates the vulnerability of urban populations to floods. In this context, an efficient and effective flood risk management with its core component as flood risk mapping is essential in prevention and mitigation of flood disasters. Urban flood risk mapping involves zoning of an urban region based on its flood risk, which depicts the spatiotemporal pattern of frequency and severity of hazards, exposure to hazards, and degree of vulnerability of the population in terms of socio-economic, environmental and infrastructural aspects. Although vulnerability is a key component of risk, its assessment and mapping is often less advanced than hazard mapping and quantification. A synergic effort from technical experts and social scientists is vital for the effectiveness of flood risk management programs. Despite an increasing volume of quality research conducted on urban flood risk, a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach towards flood risk mapping still remains neglected due to which many of the input parameters and definitions of flood risk concepts are imprecise. Thus, the objectives of this review are to introduce and precisely define the relevant input parameters, concepts and terms in urban flood risk mapping, along with its methodology, current status and limitations. The review also aims at providing thought-provoking insights to potential future researchers and flood management professionals.

Keywords: flood risk, flood hazard, flood vulnerability, flood modeling, urban flooding, urban flood risk mapping

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Authors: Adebola Adedugbe

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The challenge of post-harvest losses poses serious threats for food security in Nigeria and the north-eastern part with the country losing about $9billion annually due to postharvest losses in the sector. Post-harvest loss (PHL) is the quantitative and qualitative loss of food in various post-harvest operations. In Nigeria, post-harvest losses (PHL) have been a major challenge to food security and improved farmer’s income. In 2022, the Nigerian government had said over 30 percent of food produced by Nigerian farmers perish during post-harvest. For many in northeast Nigeria, agriculture is the predominant source of livelihood and income. The persistent communal conflicts, flood, decade-old attacks by boko haram and insurgency in this region have disrupted farming activities drastically, with farmlands becoming insecure and inaccessible as communities are forced to abandon ancestral homes, The impact of climate change is also affecting agricultural and fishing activities, leading to shortage of food supplies, acute hunger and loss of livelihood. This has continued to impact negatively on the region and country’s food production and availability making it loose billions of US dollars annually in income in this sector. The root cause of postharvest losses among others in crops, livestock and fisheries are lack of modern post-harvest equipment, chemical and lack of technologies used for combating losses. The 2019 Global Hunger Index showed Nigeria’s case was progressing from a ‘serious to alarming level’. As part of measures to address the problem of post-harvest losses experienced by farmers, the federal government of Nigeria concessioned 17 silos with 6000 metric tonne storage space to private sector to enable farmers to have access to storage facilities. This paper discusses the causes, effects and solutions in handling post-harvest losses and optimize returns on food security in northeast Nigeria.

Keywords: farmers, food security, northeast Nigeria, postharvest loss

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Authors: Marianne Simons, Sinan Kurt, Marjolein Stefens, Kai Karos, Johan Lataster

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As cultural diversity within older populations in European countries increases, the role of cultural background should be taken account of in aging studies. Bonding social capital (BSC), containing someone’s socio-emotional resources, is recognised as an important ingredient for wellbeing in old age and found to be associated with someone’s cultural background. The current study examined the association between BSC, loneliness and wellbeing in a sample including older Turkish migrants with a collectivistic cultural background and native Dutch older adults, both living in the Netherlands, characterised by an individualistic culture. A sample of 119 Turkish migrants (64.7% male; age 65-87, M(SD)=71.13(5.04) and 124 native Dutch adults (32.3% male, age 65-94, M(SD)= 71.9(5.32) filled out either an online or printed questionnaire measuring BSC, psychological, social and emotional well-being, loneliness and relevant demographic covariates. Regression analysis - including confounders age, gender, level of education, physical health and relationship - showed positive associations between BSC and respectively emotional, social and psychological well-being and a negative association with loneliness in both samples. Moderation analyses showed that these associations were significantly stronger for the Turkish older migrants than for their native peers. Measurement invariance analysis indicated partial metric invariance for the measurement of BSC and loneliness and non-invariance for wellbeing, calling for caution comparing means between samples. The results stress the importance of BSC for wellbeing of older migrants from collectivistic cultures living in individualistic countries. Previous research, shows a trend of older migrants displaying lower levels of BSC as well as associated variables, such as education, physical health, and financial income. This calls for more research of the interplay between demographic and psychosocial factors restraining mental wellbeing of older migrant populations. Measurement invariance analyses further emphasize the importance of taking cultural background into account in positive aging studies.

Keywords: positive aging, cultural background, wellbeing, social capital, loneliness

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Authors: Endalew Fufa Kufi

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Every married person aspires to be a parent regardless of the situation in which s/he lives. Such aspiration meets with reality when the destined parent is able to give adequate supports and services to his/her children, whether the latter are got by birth or through adoption. The adequacy of services parents provide their children is both enriched and tempted by the work on which they involve. On the one hand, parents need to work and earn a living in order to support their family. On the other hand, they must spend most of their time outside home to do the work, which shortens the time and might they spare to care for their children. Where the sufficiency of services parents owe their children could be ascertained by in terms of life skills, physical care and related provisions, the role of working fathers and mothers in providing such supports could be diverse across cultures and work traditions. Hence, this research deals with the investigation of working mothers’ parental practices, challenges they face in providing parental services and the implication for the future progress of the parents and their children. Target of the study will be Arsi University in Oromia Regional State of Ethiopia. Descriptive survey design in holding the research, and data for the research will be collected in the form of experiential self-report from 150 working mothers selected from the entire working women population of Colleges of Agriculture and Environmental Studies and College of Health Sciences through stratified random-sampling. Instruments of data collection will be closed and open-ended questionnaire. Complementary data will also be collected from purposively selected samples through semi-structured interview. Data for the research will be collected through questionnaire first and then through interview. Data analysis will also follow the same procedure. The collected data will systematically be organized and statistically and thematically analyzed in order to come up with indicative findings. The overarching thesis is that, working mothers in the study area bear a lot of responsibilities both at home and at work place which leave them very little time for parenting services. Unless due attention is given to the way they can spare time for their children, they are more likely to be tense between work-life and family care services, which tempt them in different directions.

Keywords: challenges, mothers, practices, university, working

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Authors: Jesryl B. Paulite, Eixer Niel V. Enesco

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Lettuce is not well known in the lowland locality in the tropical countries like Philippines. Farmers thought that this crop is not adaptable to the climate that we have in lowland. But some new varieties can tolerate warmer conditions. The massive use of pesticides in lettuce production might chronically affect human health and environment. The move of the Philippine government is toward organic. One of the organic material is vermicompost. It is an organic fertilizer that serves as soil conditioner and enhances soil fertility and promotes vigorous and healthy crop growth and Supplementation of 19-19-19+M.E. will make it better since it contains N-P-K and selected microelements to meet the nutritive requirements of the crop. The experiment was conducted at Purok 3, Brgy. Tiburcia, Kapalong, Davao del Norte from February 6, 2014 to March 4, 2014. The study was conducted to determine the effect of varying frequency application of vermicast as supplemented with 19-19-19+M.E. in lettuce. Specifically, this aimed to 1.) Identify the agronomic performance of lettuce as affected by varying frequency application of vermicast as supplemented with 19-19-19+M.E.; 2.) Assess the economic profitability of lettuce as applied with vermicast as supplemented with 19-19-19+M.E. The study was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four treatments and three replications. The treatments were as follow: T1 – Untreated, T2 - Weekly Application, T3- Bi-weekly Application, and T4- Monthly Application. The data on percent (%) mortality were transformed using square root of transformation before Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Results revealed not significant in terms of percent mortality in weekly and monthly application of the treatment having a mean of 1.76 % and 3.09 %. However, Significant differences were observed in agronomic performances such as; plant height with a mean of 10.63 cm in weekly application and 6.40 cm for the untreated, leaf width with a mean of 10.80 cm for the weekly application and 6.03 for the untreated, fresh weight with a mean of 25.67 g for the weekly application and 6.83 g for the untreated, and yield with a mean of 1,208.33 kg/ha for the weekly application and 327.08 kg/ha for the untreated, respectively. Results further exposed that profitability of lettuce in terms of Return of Production Cost (RPC) were; bi-weekly with 91.01 %, monthly with 68.20 %, weekly with 25.34 % and untreated (control) with 16.69 %.

Keywords: agronomic performance, economic profitability, vermicast, percent mortality, 19-19-19+ME

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Authors: S. Padma, D. H. Tejavathi

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Somatic embryogenesis is a remarkable illustration of the dictum of plant totipotency where developmental reconstruction of somatic cells takes place towards the embryogenic pathway. It recapitulates the morphological and developmental process that occurs in zygotic embryogenesis. S. androgynous commonly called as multivitamin plant. The leaves are consumed as green leafy vegetable by the Southeast Asian communities due to their rich nutritional profile. Despite being a good nutritional vegetable with proteins, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, it is warned for excessive intake due to the presence of alkoloid called papaverine. Papaverine at higher concentrations is toxic and leads to a syndrome called Bronchiolitis Obliterans. In the present study, morphogenetic potential of shoot tip, leaf and nodal explants of Sauropus androgynous was investigated to develop and enhance the reliable plant regeneration protocol via somatic embryogenesis. Somatic embryos were derived directly from the embryogenic callus derived from shoot tip, node and leaf cultures on Phillips and Collins (L2) medium supplemented with NAA at various concentrations ranging from 5.3 µM/l to 26.85 µM/l within two months of inoculation. Thus obtained embryos were sub cultured to modified L2 media supplemented with increased vitamin level for the further growth. Somatic embryos with well-developed cotyledons were transferred to normal and modified L2 basal medium for conversion. The plantlets thus obtained were subjected to brief acclimatization before transferring them to land. About 95% of survival rate was recorded. The augmentation process of culturing various explants through somatic embryogenesis using synthetic medium with various plant growth regulators under controlled conditions have aggrandized the commercial production of Sauropus making it easily available over the conventional propagation methods. In addition, regeneration process through somatic embryogenesis has ameliorated the development of desired character in Sauropus with low papaverine content thereby providing a valuable resource to the food and pharmaceutical industry. Based on this research, plant tissue culture techniques have shown promise for economical and convenient application in Sauropus androgynous breeding.

Keywords: L2 medium, multivitamin plant, NAA, papaverine

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Authors: Aleya Ferdausi, Meriel Jones, Anthony Halls

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The Amaryllidaceae genus Narcissus contains secondary metabolites, which are important sources of bioactive compounds such as pharmaceuticals indicating that their biological activity extends from the native plant to humans. Transcriptome analysis (RNA-seq) is an effective platform for the identification and functional characterization of candidate genes as well as to identify genes encoding uncharacterized enzymes. The biotechnological production of secondary metabolites in plant cell or organ cultures has become a tempting alternative to the extraction of whole plant material. The biochemical pathways for the production of secondary metabolites require primary metabolites to undergo a series of modifications catalyzed by enzymes such as cytochrome P450s, methyltransferases, glycosyltransferases, and acyltransferases. Differential gene expression analysis of Narcissus was obtained from two conditions, i.e. field and in vitro callus. Callus was obtained from modified MS (Murashige and Skoog) media supplemented with growth regulators and twin-scale explants from Narcissus cv. Carlton bulb. A total of 2153 differentially expressed transcripts were detected in Narcissus bulb and in vitro callus, and 78.95% of those were annotated. It showed the expression of genes involved in the biosynthesis of alkaloids were present in both conditions i.e. cytochrome P450s, O-methyltransferase (OMTs), NADP/NADPH dehydrogenases or reductases, SAM-synthetases or decarboxylases, 3-ketoacyl-CoA, acyl-CoA, cinnamoyl-CoA, cinnamate 4-hydroxylase, alcohol dehydrogenase, caffeic acid, N-methyltransferase, and NADPH-cytochrome P450s. However, cytochrome P450s and OMTs involved in the later stage of Amaryllidaceae alkaloids biosynthesis were mainly up-regulated in field samples. Whereas, the enzymes involved in initial biosynthetic pathways i.e. fructose biphosphate adolase, aminotransferases, dehydrogenases, hydroxyl methyl glutarate and glutamate synthase leading to the biosynthesis of precursors; tyrosine, phenylalanine and tryptophan for secondary metabolites were up-regulated in callus. The knowledge of probable genes involved in secondary metabolism and their regulation in different tissues will provide insight into the Narcissus plant biology related to alkaloid production.

Keywords: narcissus, callus, transcriptomics, secondary metabolites

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Authors: Raúl García de la Cruz

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In the state of Hidalgo and to the vicinity to the state of Mexico, there is a network of people who also share a valley bordered by hills with agave landscape of cacti and shared a bond of building traditions inherited from pre-Hispanic times and according to their material resources, habits and needs have been adapted in time. Weather has played an important role in the way buildings and roofs are constructed. Throughout the centuries, the population has developed very sophisticated building techniques like the flat roof, made out of a layer of earth; that is usually identified as belonging to architecture of the desert, but it can also be found in other climates, such as semi-arid and even template climates. It is an example of a constructive logic applied efficiently to various cultures proving its thermal isolation. So far it has done a review and analysis of the use of the roof in different areas, from pre-Hispanic architecture to traditional Moroccan architecture , finding great similarities in the elements of the system to be incorporated into the contemporary architecture. The rescue of a lore that dissolves with the changing environment, depends in principle on the links created towards the use of environmental resources as the anchor of the people to retain and preserve a building tradition which has viability deep league with the possibility of obtaining the raw material from the immediate environment. The objective of the research is the documentation of existing earth flat roofs in the state of Hidalgo and Mexico, as evidence of the importance of constructive system and its historical value in the area, considering its environmental, social aspects, also understanding the process of transformation of public housing at the time replaced the traditional techniques for industrial materials on a path towards urbanization. So far it has done a review and analysis of the use of the roof in different areas, from pre-Hispanic architecture to traditional Moroccan architecture, finding great similarities in the elements of the system to be incorporated into the contemporary architecture. The rescue of a lore that dissolves with the changing environment, depends in principle on the links created towards the use of environmental resources as the anchor of the people to retain and preserve a building tradition which has viability deep league with the possibility of obtaining the raw material from the immediate environment.

Keywords: earth roof, low impact building system, sustainable architecture, vernacular architecture

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Authors: S. Ben-Shabat, T. Turgeman, O. Leubinski, N. Roth-Bejerano, V. Kagan-Zur, Y. Sitrit

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The ectomycorrhizal (ECM) desert truffle Terfezia boudieri produces edible fruit bodies and forms symbiosis with its host plant Helianthemum sessiliflorum (Cistaceae) in the Negev desert of Israel. The symbiosis is vital for both partners' survival under desert conditions. Under desert habitat conditions, ECMs must form symbiosis before entering the dry season. To secure a successful encounter, in the course of evolution, both partners have responded by evolving special signals exchange that facilitates recognition. Members of the Cistaceae family serve as host plants for many important truffles. Conceivably, during evolution a common molecule present in Cistaceae plants was recruited to facilitate successful encounter with ectomycorrhizas. Arbuscular vesicular fungi (AM) are promiscuous in host preferences, in contrast, ECM fungi show specificity to host plants. Accordingly, we hypothesize that H. sessiliflorum secretes a chemotrophic-signaling, which is common to plants hosting ECM fungi belonging to the Pezizales. However, thus far no signaling molecules have been identified in ECM fungi. We developed a bioassay for chemotrophic activity. Fractionation of root exudates revealed a substance with chemotrophic activity and molecular mass of 534. Following the above concept, screening the transcriptome of Terfezia, grown under chemoattraction, discovered genes showing high homology to G proteins-coupled receptors of plant pathogens involved in positive chemotaxis and chemotaxis suppression. This study aimed to identify the active molecule using analytical methods (LC-MS, NMR etc.). This should contribute to our understanding of how ECM fungi communicate with their hosts in the rhizosphere. In line with the ability of Terfezia to form also endomycorrhizal symbiosis like AM fungi, analysis of the mechanisms may likewise be applicable to AM fungi. Developing methods to manipulate fungal growth by the chemoattractant can open new ways to improve inoculation of plants.

Keywords: chemotrophic signal, Helianthemum sessiliflorum, Terfezia boudieri, ECM

Procedia PDF Downloads 388

Authors: Biniam Tedros Kahsay, Yohannes Yebabe Tesfay

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Eritrea is a country in the East of Africa. The country is a neighbor of Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Sudan and is bordered by the Red Sea. The country declared its independence from Ethiopia in 1993. Thus, Eritrea has a lot of commonalities with the Northern Part of Ethiopia's tradition, religion, and languages. Many economists suggested that Eritrea is in a very strategic position for world trade roots and has an impact on geopolitics. This study focused on identifying the most important factor in boosting the Eritrean Economy. The paper collected big secondary data from the World Bank, International Trade and Tariff Data (WTO), East African Community (EAC), Ethiopian Statistical Agency (ESA), and the National Statistics Office (Eritrea). Economists consider economic and population growth in determining trade belts in East Africa. One of the most important Trade Belt that will potentially boost the Eritrean economy is the root of Eritrea (Massawa)->Eritea, (Asmara)->Tigray, (Humora)->Tigray, (Dansha)-> Gondar-> Gojjam-> Benshangual Gumuz => {Oromia, South Sudan}->Uganda. The estimate showed that this is one of the biggest trade roots in East Africa and has a participation of more than 150 million people. We employed various econometric analyses to predict the GDP of Eritrea, considering the future trade belts in East Africa. The result showed that the economy of Eritrea from the Trade Belt will have an elasticity estimate of 65.87% of the GDP of Ethiopia, 3.32% of the GDP of South Sudan, and 0.09% of the GDP of Uganda. The result showed that the existence of war has an elasticity of -93% to the GDP of the country. Thus, if Eritrea wants to strengthen its economy from the East African Trade Belt, the country needs to permanently avoid war in the region. Essentially, the country needs to establish a collaborative platform with the Northern part of Ethiopia (Tigray). Thus, establishing a mutual relationship with Tigray will boost the Eritrean economy. In that regard, Eritrean scholars and policymakers need to work on establishing the East African Trade Belt to boost their economy.

Keywords: Eritrea, east Africa trade belt, GDP, cointegration analysis, critical path analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 36

Authors: H. Khomri, A. Bentellis

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Since century of the Development Activities extraction and a dispersed mineral processing Toxic metals and much more contaminated vast areas occupied by what they natural outcrops. New types of metalliferous habitats are so appeared. A species that is Lygeum spartum attracted our curiosity because apart from its valuable role in desertification, it is apparently able to exclude antimony and other metals can be. This species, green leaf blades which are provided as cattle feed, would be a good subject for phytoremediation of mineral soils. The study of absorption and translocation of chromium by the Lygeum spartum in the mining region of Djebel Hamimat and the interaction soil-plant, revealed that soils of this species living in this region are alkaline, calcareous majority in their fine texture medium and saline in their minority. They have normal levels of organic matter. They are moderately rich in nitrogen. They contain total chromium content reaches a maximum of 66,80 mg Kg^(-1) and a total absence of soluble chromium. The results of the analysis of variance of the difference between bare soils and soils appear Lygeum spartum made a significant difference only for the silt and organic matter. But for the other variables analyzed this difference is not significant. Thus, this plant has only one action on the amendment, only the levels of silt and organic matter in soils. The results of the multiple regression of the chromium content of the roots according to all soil variables studied did appear that among the studied variables included in the model, only the electrical conductivity and clay occur in the explanation of contents chromium in roots. The chromium content of the aerial parts analyzed by regression based on all studied soil variables allows us to see only the variables: electrical conductivity and content of chromium in the root portion involved in the explanation of the content chromium in the aerial part.

Keywords: absorption, translocation, analysis of variance, chrome, Lygeum spartum, multiple regression, the soil variables

Procedia PDF Downloads 239

Authors: Eleni Stefanidou, Nikolaos Katsenios, Ioanna Karamichali, Aspasia Efthimiadou, Panagiotis Madesis

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The excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers has significant environmental and human health-related negative effects. In the frame of the development of sustainable agriculture practices, especially in the context of extreme environmental changes (climate change), it is important to develop alternative practices to increase productivity and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. Beneficial bacteria, such as symbiotic bacteria in legumes (rhizobia) and symbiotic or free-living Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR), which could act as "plant probiotics", can promote plant growth and significantly increase the resistance of crops under adverse environmental conditions. In this study, we explored the symbiotic relationships between Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) cultivars with different PGPR bacteria, aiming to identify the possible influence on yield and biotic-abiotic phytoprotection benefits. Transcriptomic analysis of root and whole plant samples was executed for two Vicia faba L. cultivars (Polikarpi and Solon) treated with selected PGPR bacteria (6 treatments: B. subtilis + Rhizobium-mixture, A. chroococcum + Rhizobium-mixture, B. subtilis, A. chroococcum and Rhizobium-mixture). Preliminary results indicate a significant yield (Seed weight and Total number of pods) increase in both varieties, ranging around 25%, in comparison to the control, especially for the Solon cultivar. The increase was observed for all treatments, with the B. subtilis + Rhizobium-mixture treatment being the highest performing. The correlation of the physiological and morphological data with the transcriptome analysis revealed molecular mechanisms and molecular targets underlying the observed yield increase, opening perspectives for the use of nitrogen-fixing bacteria as a natural, more ecological enhancer of legume crop productivity.

Keywords: plant probiotics, PGPR, legumes, sustainable agriculture

Procedia PDF Downloads 58

Authors: Virve Pääkkönen, Heidi M. Cuffaro, Leo Tjäderhane

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Objectives: Odontoblasts are the outermost cell layer of dental pulp and form the dentin. Importance of bacterial products, e.g. lipoteichoic acid (LTA), a cell wall component of Gram-positive bacteria and lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a cell wall component of Gram-negative bacteria, have been indicated in the pathogenesis of pulpitis. Gram-positive bacteria are more prevalent in superficial carious lesion while the amount gram-negative is higher in the deep lesions. Objective of this study was to investigate the effect of these bacterial products on inflammatory response of pulp tissue. Interleukins (IL) were of special interest. Various ILs have been observed in the dentin-pulp complex of carious tooth in vivo. Methods: Tissue culture method was used for testing the effect of LTA and LPS on human odontoblasts. Enzymatic isolation technique was used to extract living odontoblasts for cell cultures. DNA microarray and quantitative PCR (qPCR) were used to characterize the changes in the expression profile of the tissue cultured odontoblasts. Laser microdissection was used to cut healthy and affected dentin and odontoblast layer directly under carious lesion for experiments. Cytokine array detecting 80 inflammatory cytokines was used to analyze the protein content of conditioned culture media as well as dentin and odontoblasts from the carious teeth. Results: LPS caused increased gene expression IL-1α, and -8 and decrease of IL-1β, 12 , -15 and -16 after 1h treatment, while after 24h treatment decrease of IL-8, -11 and 23 mRNAs was observed. LTA treatment caused cell death in the tissue cultured odontoblasts but in in the cell culture but not in cell culture. Cytokine array revealed at least 2-fold down-regulation of IL-1β, -10 and -12 in response to LPS treatment. Cytokine array of odontoblasts of carious teeth, as well as LPS-treated tissue-cultured odontoblasts, revealed increased protein amounts of IL-16, epidermal growth factor (EGF), angiogenin and IGFBP-1 as well as decreased amount of fractalkine. In carious dentin, increased amount of IL-1β, EGF and fractalkine was observed, as well as decreased level of GRO-1 and HGF. Conclusion: LPS caused marked changes in the expression of inflammatory cytokines in odontoblasts. Similar changes were observed in the odontoblasts cut directly under the carious lesion. These results help to shed light on the inflammatory processes happening during caries.

Keywords: inflammation, interleukin, lipoteichoic acid, odontoblasts

Procedia PDF Downloads 194

Authors: Kana Matsuyanagi

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Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by a relentless pursuit of thinness and strict restriction of food. The current therapeutic approaches for AN predominantly revolve around outpatient psychotherapies, which create significant financial barriers for the majority of affected patients, hindering their access to treatment. Nonetheless, AN exhibit one of the highest mortality and relapse rates among psychological disorders, underscoring the urgent need to provide patients with an affordable self-treatment tool, enabling those unable to access conventional medical intervention to address their condition autonomously. To this end, a neurofeedback software, termed RelaxNeuron, was developed with the objective of providing an economical and portable means to aid individuals in self-managing AN. Electroencephalography (EEG) was chosen as the preferred modality for RelaxNeuron, as it aligns with the study's goal of supplying a cost-effective and convenient solution for addressing AN. The primary aim of the software is to ameliorate the negative emotional responses towards food stimuli and the accompanying aberrant eye-tracking patterns observed in AN patient, ultimately alleviating the profound fear towards food an elemental symptom and, conceivably, the fundamental etiology of AN. The core functionality of RelaxNeuron hinges on the acquisition and analysis of EEG signals, alongside an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal, to infer the user's emotional state while viewing dynamic food-related imagery on the screen. Moreover, the software quantifies the user's performance in accurately tracking the moving food image. Subsequently, these two parameters undergo further processing in the subsequent algorithm, informing the delivery of either negative or positive feedback to the user. Preliminary test results have exhibited promising outcomes, suggesting the potential advantages of employing RelaxNeuron in the treatment of AN, as evidenced by its capacity to enhance emotional regulation and attentional processing through repetitive and persistent therapeutic interventions.

Keywords: Anorexia Nervosa, fear conditioning, neurofeedback, BCI

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Authors: Jocelyn Jones, Louise Southalan, Lindey Andrews, Mandy Wilson, Emma Vieira, Jackie Oakley, Dorothy Bagshaw, Alice V. Brown, Patrick Egan, Duc Dau, Lucy Spanswick

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Working with people experiencing homelessness requires careful use of methods that support them to comfortably share their experiences. This is particularly important for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the traditional owners of Australia, who have experienced intergenerational and compounding trauma since colonisation. Aboriginal cultures regularly experience research fatigue and distrust in research’s potential for impact. They often view research as an extraction -a process of taking the knowledge that empowers the research team and its institution, rather than benefiting those being researched. Through a partnership between an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation and a university research institute, we conducted a community-driven research project with 70-90 Aboriginal people experiencing homelessness in Perth, Western Australia. The project aimed to listen to and advocate for the voices of those who are experiencing homelessness, guided by the Aboriginal community. In consultation with Aboriginal Elders, we selected methods that are considered culturally safe, including those who would prefer to express their experiences creatively. This led us to run a series of Photovoice workshops -an established method that supports people to share their experiences through photography. This method treats participants as experts and is regularly used with marginalised groups across the world. We detail our experience and lessons in using Photovoice with Aboriginal community members experiencing homelessness. This includes the ways the method needed to be moulded to community needs and driven by their individual choices, such as being dynamic in the length of time participants would spend with us, how we would introduce the method to them, and providing support workers for participants when taking photos. We also discuss lessons in establishing and retaining engagement and how the method was successful in supporting participants to comfortably share their stories. Finally, we outline the insights into homelessness that the method offered, including highlighting the difficulty experienced by participants in transitioning from homelessness to accommodation and the diversity of hopes people who have experienced homelessness have for the future.

Keywords: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, photovoice, homelessness, community-led research

Procedia PDF Downloads 80

Authors: Paulina Zavistanaviciute, Vita Krungleviciute, Elena Bartkiene

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Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are microbial supplements that increase the nutritional, therapeutic, and safety value of food and feed. Often LAB strains are incubated in an expensive commercially available de Man-Rogosa-Sharpe (MRS) medium; the cultures are centrifuged, and the cells are washing with sterile water. Potato juice and apple juice industry bio-products are industrial wastes which may constitute a source of digestible nutrients for microorganisms. Due to their low cost and good chemical composition, potato juice and apple juice production bio- products could have a potential application in LAB encapsulation. In this study, pure LAB (P. acidilactici and P. pentosaceus) were multiplied in a crushed potato juice and apple juice industry bio-products medium. Before using, bio-products were sterilized and filtered. No additives were added to mass, except apple juice industry bioproducts were diluted with sterile water (1/5; v/v). The tap of sterilised mass, and LAB cell suspension (5 mL), containing of 8.9 log10 colony-forming units (cfu) per mL of the P. acidilactici and P. pentosaceus was used to multiply the LAB for 72 h. The final colony number in the potato juice and apple juice bio- products substrate was on average 9.60 log10 cfu/g. In order to stabilize the LAB, several methods of dehydration have been tested: lyophilisation (MilrockKieffer Lane, Kingston, USA) and dehydration in spray drying system (SD-06, Keison, Great Britain). Into the spray drying system multiplied LAB in a crushed potato juice and apple juice bio-products medium was injected in peristaltic way (inlet temperature +60 °C, inlet air temperature +150° C, outgoing air temperature +80 °C, air flow 200 m3/h). After lyophilisation (-48 °C) and spray drying (+150 °C) the viable cell concentration in the fermented potato juice powder was 9.18 ± 0.09 log10 cfu/g and 9.04 ± 0.07 log10 cfu/g, respectively, and in apple mass powder 8.03 ± 0.04 log10 cfu/g and 7.03 ± 0.03 log10 cfu/g, respectively. Results indicated that during the storage (after 12 months) at room temperature (22 +/- 2 ºC) LAB count in dehydrated products was 5.18 log10 cfu/g and 7.00 log10 cfu/g (in spray dried and lyophilized potato juice powder, respectively), and 3.05 log10 cfu/g and 4.10 log10 cfu/g (in spray dried and lyophilized apple juice industry bio-products powder, respectively). According to obtained results, potato juice could be used as alternative substrate for P. acidilactici and P. pentosaceus cultivation, and by drying received powders can be used in food/feed industry as the LAB starters. Therefore, apple juice industry by- products before spray drying and lyophilisation should be modified (i. e. by using different starches) in order to improve its encapsulation.

Keywords: bio-products, encapsulation, lactic acid bacteria, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 259

Authors: Oljana Hoxhaj

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The integration process of Albania into the European family carries many difficulties. In this context, the Albanian legislator is inclined to implement in the domestic legal framework models which have been successful in other countries. Our paper aims to present an analytical and comparative approach to the health system in Albania and France, mainly focusing on citizen’s access to these services. Different standards and cultures between states, in the context of an approximate model, will be the first challenge of our paper. Over the last few years, the Albanian government has undertaken concrete reforms in this sector, aiming to transform the vision on which the previous health system was structured. In this perspective, the state fulfills not only an obligation to its citizens, but also consolidates progressive steps toward alignment with European Union standards. The necessity to undertake a genuine reform in this area has come as an exigency of society, which has permanently identified problems within this sector, considering it ineffective, out of standards, and corrupt. The inclusion of health services on the Albanian government agenda reflects its will in the function of good governance, transparency, and broadening access to the provision of quality health services in the public and private sectors. The success of any initiative in the health system consists of giving priority to patient needs. Another objective that should be in the state's consideration is to create the premise to provide a comprehensive process on whose foundations partnership and broader co-operation with beneficiary entities are established in any decision-making that is directly related to their interests. Some other important and widespread impacts on the effective realization of citizens' access to the healthcare system coincide with the construction of appropriate infrastructure, increasing the professionalism and qualification of medical staff, and the allocation of a higher budget. France has one of the most effective healthcare models in Europe. That is why we have chosen to analyze this country, aiming to highlight the advantages of this system, as well as the commitment of the French state to drafting effective health policies. In the framework of the process of harmonization of the Albanian legislation with that of the European Union, through our work, we aim to identify the space to implement the whole of these legislative innovations in the Albanian legislation.

Keywords: effective service, harmonization level, innovation, reform

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Pranay Mathur, Carlo Michelassi, Simi Karatha, Gilda Pedoto

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Industrial plant uptime is top most importance for reliable, profitable & sustainable operation. Trip and failed start has major impact on plant reliability and all plant operators focussed on efforts required to minimise the trips & failed starts. The performance of these CTQs are measured with 2 metrics, MTBT(Mean time between trips) and SR (Starting reliability). These metrics helps to identify top failure modes and identify units need more effort to improve plant reliability. Baker Hughes Trip reduction program structured to reduce these unwanted trip 1. Real time machine operational parameters remotely available and capturing the signature of malfunction including related boundary condition. 2. Real time alerting system based on analytics available remotely. 3. Remote access to trip logs and alarms from control system to identify the cause of events. 4. Continuous support to field engineers by remotely connecting with subject matter expert. 5. Live tracking of key CTQs 6. Benchmark against fleet 7. Break down to the cause of failure to component level 8. Investigate top contributor, identify design and operational root cause 9. Implement corrective and preventive action 10. Assessing effectiveness of implemented solution using reliability growth models. 11. Develop analytics for predictive maintenance With this approach , Baker Hughes team is able to support customer in achieving their Reliability Key performance Indicators for monitored units, huge cost savings for plant operators. This Presentation explains these approach while providing successful case studies, in particular where 12nos. of LNG and Pipeline operators with about 140 gas compressing line-ups has adopted these techniques and significantly reduce the number of trips and improved MTBT

Keywords: reliability, availability, sustainability, digital infrastructure, weibull, effectiveness, automation, trips, fail start

Procedia PDF Downloads 55

Authors: Pankaj Singh Rawat, Rajeew Kumar, Pradeep Ram, Priyanka Pandey

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Wheat is an important cereal crop for food security. Boosting the wheat production and productivity is the major challenge across the nation. Good quality of seed is required for maintaining optimum plant stand which ultimately increases grain yield. Ensuring a good germination is one of the key steps to ensure proper plant stand and moisture assurance during seed germination may help to speed up the germination. The tiny size of nanoparticles may help in entry of water into seed without disturbing their internal structure. Considering above, a laboratory experiment was conducted during 2012-13 at G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India. The completely randomized design was used for statistical analysis. The experiment was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the appropriate concentration of nanoparticles for seed treatment was screened. In second phase seed soaking hours of nanoparticles for better seed germination were standardized. Wheat variety UP2526 was taken as test crop. Four nanoparticles (TiO₂, ZnO, nickel and chitosan) were taken for study. The crop germination studies were done in petri dishes and standard package and practices were used to raise the seedlings. The germination studies were done by following standard procedure. In first phase of the experiment, seeds were treated with 50 and 300 ppm of nanoparticles and control was also maintained for comparison. In the second phase of experiment, seeds were soaked for 4 hours, 6 hours and 8 hours with 50 ppm nanoparticles of TiO₂, ZnO, nickel and chitosan along with control treatment to identify the soaking time for better seed germination. Experiment revealed that the application of nanoparticles help to enhance seed germination. The study revealed that seed treatment with  nanoparticles at 50 ppm concentration increases root length, shoot length, seedling length, shoot dry weight, seedling dry weight, seedling vigour index I and seedling vigour index II as compared to seed soaking at 300 ppm concentration. This experiment showed that seed soaking up to 4 hr was better as compared to 6 and 8 hrs. Seed soaking with nanoparticles specially TiO₂, ZnO, and chitosan proved to enhance germination and seedling growth indices of wheat crop.

Keywords: nanoparticles, seed germination, seed soaking, wheat

Procedia PDF Downloads 204

Authors: Manisha Bal, Remya Chinnamma Jose, B.C. Meikap

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Dust particles suspended in air are a major source of air pollution. A self-priming submerged venturi scrubber proven very effective in cases of handling nuclear power plant accidents is an efficient device to remove dust particles from the air and thus aids in pollution control. Venturi scrubbers are compact, have a simple mode of operation, no moving parts, easy to install and maintain when compared to other pollution control devices and can handle high temperatures and corrosive and flammable gases and dust particles. In the present paper, fly ash particles recognized as a high air pollutant substance emitted mostly from thermal power plants is considered as the dust particle. Its exposure through skin contact, inhalation and indigestion can lead to health risks and in severe cases can even root to lung cancer. The main focus of this study is on the removal of fly ash particles from polluted air using a self-priming venturi scrubber in submerged conditions using water as the scrubbing liquid. The venturi scrubber comprising of three sections: converging section, throat and diverging section is submerged inside a water tank. The liquid enters the throat due to the pressure difference composed of the hydrostatic pressure of the liquid and static pressure of the gas. The high velocity dust particles atomize the liquid droplets at the throat and this interaction leads to its absorption into water and thus removal of fly ash from the air. Detailed investigation on the scrubbing of fly ash has been done in this literature. Experiments were conducted at different throat gas velocities, water levels and fly ash inlet concentrations to study the fly ash removal efficiency. From the experimental results, the highest fly ash removal efficiency of 99.78% is achieved at the throat gas velocity of 58 m/s, water level of height 0.77m with fly ash inlet concentration of 0.3 x10⁻³ kg/Nm³ in the submerged condition. The effect of throat gas velocity, water level and fly ash inlet concentration on the removal efficiency has also been evaluated. Furthermore, experimental results of removal efficiency are validated with the developed empirical model.

Keywords: dust particles, fly ash, pollution control, self-priming venturi scrubber

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: Ismaila Olabisi Ogundiji, Hakeem Mayowa Olujide, Qasim Usamot

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The main reasons for site-specific management for agricultural inputs are to increase the profitability of crop production, to protect the environment and to improve products’ quality. Information about the variability of different soil attributes within a field is highly essential for the decision-making process. Lack of fast and accurate acquisition of soil characteristics remains one of the biggest limitations of precision agriculture due to being expensive and time-consuming. Adaptive sampling has been proven as an accurate and affordable sampling technique for planning within a field for site-specific management of agricultural inputs. This study employed spatial uncertainty of soil apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) estimates to identify adaptive re-survey areas in the field. The original dataset was grouped into validation and calibration groups where the calibration group was sub-grouped into three sets of different measurements pass intervals. A conditional simulation was performed on the field ECa to evaluate the ECa spatial uncertainty estimates by the use of the geostatistical technique. The grouping of high-uncertainty areas for each set was done using image segmentation in MATLAB, then, high and low area value-separate was identified. Finally, an adaptive re-survey was carried out on those areas of high-uncertainty. Adding adaptive re-surveying significantly minimized the time required for resampling whole field and resulted in ECa with minimal error. For the most spacious transect, the root mean square error (RMSE) yielded from an initial crude sampling survey was minimized after an adaptive re-survey, which was close to that value of the ECa yielded with an all-field re-survey. The estimated sampling time for the adaptive re-survey was found to be 45% lesser than that of all-field re-survey. The results indicate that designing adaptive sampling through spatial uncertainty models significantly mitigates sampling cost, and there was still conformity in the accuracy of the observations.

Keywords: soil electrical conductivity, adaptive sampling, conditional simulation, spatial uncertainty, site-specific management

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Authors: Ivanna Shubina

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Background/Objectives and Goals: Recent interest in positive psychology is reflected in a plenty of studies conducted on its basic constructs (e.g. self-esteem and happiness) in interrelation with personality features, social rules, business and technology development. The purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating role of self-esteem, exploring the relationships between self-esteem and happiness, self-esteem and locus of control (LOC). It hypothesizes that self-esteem may be interpreted as a predictor of happiness and mediator in the locus of control establishment. A plenty of various empirical studies results have been analyzed in order to collect data for this theoretical study, and some of the analysed results can be considered as arguable or incoherent. However, the majority of results indicate a strong relationship between three considered concepts: self-esteem, happiness, the locus of control. Methods: In particular, this study addresses the following broad research questions: i) Is self-esteem just an index of global happiness? ii) May happiness be possible or realizable without a healthy self-confidence and self-acceptance? iii) To what extent does self-esteem influence on the level of happiness? iv) Is high self-esteem a sufficient condition for happiness? v) Is self-esteem is a strong predictor of internal locus of control maintenance? vi) Is high self-esteem related to internal LOC, while low self-esteem to external LOC? In order to find the answers for listed questions, 60 reliable sources have been analyzed, results of what are discussed more detailed below. Expected Results/Conclusion/Contribution:It is recognized that the relationship between self-esteem, happiness, locus of control is complex: internal LOC is contributing to happiness, but it is not directly related to it; self-esteem is a powerful and important psychological factor in mental health and well-being; the feelings of being worthy and empowered are associated with significant achievements and high self-esteem; strong and appropriate self-esteem (when the discrepancy between “ideal” and “real” self is balanced) is correlated with more internal LOC (when the individual tends to believe that personal achievements depend on possessed features, vigor, and persistence). Despite the special attention paid to happiness, the locus of control and self-esteem, independently, theoretical and empirical equivocations within each literature foreclose many obvious predictions about the nature of their empirical distinction. In terms of theoretical framework, no model has achieved consensus as an ultimate theoretical background for any of the mentioned constructs. To be able to clarify the relationship between self-esteem, happiness, and locus of control more interdisciplinary studies have to take place in order to get data on heterogeneous samples, provided from various countries, cultures, and social groups.

Keywords: happiness, locus of control, self-esteem, mediation

Procedia PDF Downloads 225