Response of Different Genotypes of Faba Bean Plant to Drought Stress

Drought stress is one of the major abiotic stresses that are a threat to crop production worldwide. Drought stress impairs the plants growth and yield. Therefore, the aim of the present experiment was to select the tolerant genotype/s on the basis of moprpho-physiological and biochemical characteristics of 10 Vicia faba genotypes (Zafar 1, Zafar 2, Shebam, Makamora, Espan, Giza Blanka, Giza 3, C4, C5 and G853) under drought stress. We studied the effect of different levels of drought stress i.e., (i) normal irrigation (ii) mild stress (iii) moderate stress, and (iv) severe stress on plant height (PH) plant⁻¹, fresh weight (FW) and dry weight (DW) plant⁻¹, area leaf⁻¹, leaf relative water content (RWC), proline (Pro) content, total chlorophyll (Total Chl) content, electrolyte leakage (EL), malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) content, and activities of catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) of genotypes of faba bean. Drought stress reduced all growth parameters and Total Chl content of all genotypes. However, the deteriorating effect of drought stress on the growth performance of genotypes “C5” and “Zafar 1” were relatively low due to its better antioxidant enzymes activities (CAT, POD and SOD), and accumulation of Pro and Total Chl, and leaf RWC. In the study, genotype “C5” and “Zafar 1” were found to be relatively tolerant to drought stress and genotypes “G853” and “C4” were sensitive to drought stress.     

Organochlorine pesticides in colostrums in case of normal and preterm labor (IASI, Romania)

Assessment of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in human body is important for human health because they have weak estrogenic or antiestrogenic effects and are considered endocrine disrupters. We used colostrum of women as indicator for levels of OCPs in human body for mothers with normal and preterm labor from eastern part of Romania. Sixty- three samples of colostrum were extracted by solid-phase extraction. Analyses were carried out using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). OCPs have been detected in all samples, with p,p’-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p’-DDE) and γ-hexachlorocyclohexane (γ-HCH) being at the highest concentrations. Of the organochlorines measured in clostrum samples from women in preterm labor, median levels of DDTs (470 ng/g) and HCHs (99 ng/g) were higher than for the same compounds from women in normal labor (median of DDTs = 268 ng/g and median of HCHs = 96 ng/g). Normal labor had higher median concentrations of HCB (19.5 ng/g) versus preterm labor (14 ng/g). Statistical data show high Spearman correlation coefficients between various OCPs. We found a good correlation between α-, γ-, β- and δ- HCH isomers (p < 0.001) for both normal and preterm labor. The most abundant target compound was p,p’-DDE (median value 96 ng/g, and 137 ng/g for mother with normal and preterm labor, respectively) in all colostrum samples. The estimated daily intakes of HCHs by infants exceeded corresponding Health Canada guidelines.     

Nanocrystalline Fe‐Ni alloy/polyamide 6 composites of high mechanical performance made by ultrasound‐assisted master batch technique

The focus of this study is to improve the dispersion state of nanocrystalline (nc) Fe‐Ni particles in polyamide 6 (PA6) matrix and the filler‐matrix interfacial interactions to provide Fe‐Ni alloy/PA6 nanocomposites of remarkable mechanical performance for engineering applications. nc Fe₄₀Ni₆₀ particles were chemically synthesized. Then Fe₄₀Ni₆₀/PA6 nanocomposites of various nanofiller loading were prepared by compounding via a newly modified master batch technique called ultrasound assisted master batch (UMB), followed by injection molding (IM). Their mechanical properties, morphology and structural parameters were characterized and compared with the corresponding properties of Fe₄₀Ni₆₀/PA6 nanocomposites made by solution mixing (SM) and IM. The study reveals that the UMB process is more cost effective and time efficient, simpler and easier to scale up compared with the SM process. In addition, UMB nanocomposites exhibit superior mechanical properties and distinctive morphology compared with the corresponding SM ones. Moreover, structural analyses indicate that physical structural changes occurred in PA6 due to presence of alloy particles are affected differently by the different compounding methods, profound understanding of such phenomenon is focused throughout the article. These distinctive advantages recommend that UMB technique can be of great potential in commercial production of polymer nanocomposites (PNCs). It is concluded that the sonication of nc Fe₄₀Ni₆₀ particles in dilute polymer solution during UMB compounding, a new step that is incorporated for the first time in the master batch process, is mainly responsible for the good wetting between nanoparticles and polymer chains, strong filler‐matrix interactions and consequently the remarkable mechanical performance of UMB PNCs. POLYM. COMPOS., 35:2343–2352, 2014. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Cellular architecture of the testis of Egyptian wild boar (Sus scrofa) in young and adult age

Testicular parenchyma is split into lobules, each lobule contains convoluted seminiferous tubules surrounded by myoid cells and the interstitial tissue contains groups of Leydig cells. The seminiferous tubules are lined by two groups of cells the first one is the spermatogenic cells and the second one is Sertoli cells.     

LBMBS： A Load-Balanced Moveable Bubble Scheme for Tori Interconnection Networks

Moveable bubble flow control is an efficient technique to avoid deadlock for torus networks. However, it does not take into consideration the load balance feature. Therefore, this leads to inefficient resources utilization. Moreover, packets may be discarded due to the congestion of a network area. On the other hand, there are other algorithms that consider load balancing such as rHALB （r hop adaptive load-balanced）routing technique. Nonetheless, rHALB detects deadlock using the timeout threshold. This concept of deadlock detection may give incorrect responses in case the traffic is high. Therefore, packets are dropped although there is no deadlock. At the end, this affects the whole performance of the network. This paper proposes a new routing algorithm for tori interconnection networks, namely, the LBMBS （load-balanced moveable bubble scheme）. LBMBS integrates both concepts of moveable bubble and rHALB in order to provide at the end a load-balanced efficient deadlock-free algorithm. The protocol details are given and compared against other routing algorithms in the literature.     

Edge Computing Platform with Efficient Migration Scheme for 5G/6G Networks

Next-generation cellular networks are expected to provide users with innovative gigabits and terabits per second speeds and achieve ultra-high reliability, availability, and ultra-low latency. The requirements of such networks are the main challenges that can be handled using a range of recent technologies, including multi-access edge computing (MEC), artificial intelligence (AI), millimeter-wave communications (mmWave), and software-defined networking. Many aspects and design challenges associated with the MEC-based 5G/6G networks should be solved to ensure the required quality of service (QoS). This article considers developing a complex MEC structure for fifth and sixth-generation (5G/6G) cellular networks. Furthermore, we propose a seamless migration technique for complex edge computing structures. The developed migration scheme enables services to adapt to the required load on the radio channels. The proposed algorithm is analyzed for various use cases, and a test bench has been developed to emulate the operator’s infrastructure. The obtained results are introduced and discussed.     

Change Point Estimation in the Mean of Multivariate Linear Profiles with No Change Type Assumption via Dynamic Linear Model

Change point estimation is a useful concept that helps quality engineers to effectively search for assignable causes and improve quality of the process or product. In this paper, the maximum likelihood approach is developed to estimate change point in the mean of multivariate linear profiles in Phase II. After the change point, parameters are estimated through filtering and smoothing approaches in dynamic linear model. The proposed change point estimator can be applied without any prior knowledge about the change type against existing estimators which assume change type is known in advance. Besides, sporadic change point can be identified as well. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed estimators to estimate step, drift and monotonic, as well as sporadic changes in small to large shifts. In addition, effect of different values of the Multivariate Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (MEWMA) control chart smoothing coefficient on the performance of the proposed estimator is investigated presenting that the smoothing estimator has more uniform performance. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis and characterization of comparison shopping behavior in the mobile handset domain

In this work we characterize the session-level behavior of users on an Indian mobile phone comparison shopping website. We also correlate the popularity of handset on various news sources to its popularity on the shopping website. There are three aspects to our study: data analysis, correlation between news sources of product information and popularity of a handset, and behavior prediction. We have used KL divergence to show that a time-homogeneous Markov chain is observed when the number of clicks varies from 5 to 30. Our results depict that Markov chain model does not hold in entirety for comparison shopping setting but tells us how far the Markov chain model holds for this setting. Our analysis corroborates intuition that increasing price leads to decrease in popularity. After the strong correlation between various variables and user behavior was found, we predict the users macro (the overall sales of handset) and micro behavior (whether a user will convert or exit the site) using Markov logic networks. Our predictive model validates the intuition that past browsing behavior is an important predictor for future behavior. Methodology of combining data analysis with machine learning is, in our opinion, a new approach to the empirical study of such data sets.     

Appraisal of Agriglass in Promoting Maize Production Under Abiotic Stress Conditions

An agriglass composition containing different oxides acts as a slow release for macro and micro nutrients and was chosen to improve maize yield under most important abiotic stresses which affecting agriculture development; salinity and drought. A field experiment was performed in salt affected soil (EC =?7.5 dSm^??1) by using different water deficit rates (I1 = 100, I2 = 85 and I3 = 70% of maize water requirements). Irrigation levels were located in main plots. Every main-plot divided into six sub-plots contained glassy fertilizer treatments [F1 = 55 kg fed^?1 with 1/2 mm diameter of agriglass (fed. =?4200 m²), F2 = 55 kg fed^?1 with 1 mm diameter, F3 = 80 kg fed^?1 with 1/2 mm diameter, F4 = 80 kg fed^?1 with 1 mm diameter, F5 = Recommendations of Ministry of Agriculture and F6 = control]. The experimental results demonstrated that, ears, straw, grains and biological yields increased with increasing both water and agriglass rates. Application of agriglass as a slow release fertilizer improved yield more than mineral fertilizer. Some growth parameters, water use efficiency (IWUE), macronutrients concentration and their relations were included. Other studies on residual effect of agriglass and the annual application rates to withstand salinity and drought stress by strategic crops are required.     

Anticonvulsant Profiles of Certain New 6-Aryl-9-substituted-6,9-diazaspiro-[4.5]decane-8,10-diones and 1-Aryl-4-substituted-1,4-diazaspiro[5.5]undecane-3,5-diones

Synthesis and anticonvulsant potential of certain new 6-aryl-9-substituted-6,9-diazaspiro[4.5]decane-8,10-diones (6a–l) and 1-aryl-4-substituted-1,4-diazaspiro[5.5]undecane-3,5-diones (6m–x) are reported. The intermediates 1-[(aryl)(cyanomethyl)amino]cycloalkanecarboxamides (3a–f) were prepared via adopting Strecker synthesis on the proper cycloalkanone followed by partial hydrolysis of the obtained nitrile functionality and subsequent N-cyanomethylation. Compounds 3a–f were subjected to complete nitrile hydrolysis to give the respective carboxylic acid derivatives 4a–f which were cyclized under mild conditions to give the spiro compounds 5a–f. Ultimately, compounds 5a–f were alkylated or aralkylated to give the target compounds 6a–i and 6m–u. On the other hand, compounds 6j–l and 6v–x were synthesized from the intermediates 5a–f through alkylation, dehydration and finally tetrazole ring formation. Anticonvulsant screening of the target compounds 6a–x revealed that compound 6g showed an ED₅₀ of 0.0043 mmol/kg in the scPTZ screen, being about 14 and 214 fold more potent than the reference drugs, Phenobarbital (ED₅₀ = 0.06 mmol/kg) and Ethosuximide (ED₅₀ = 0.92 mmol/kg), respectively. Compound 6e exhibited an ED₅₀ of 0.019 mmol/kg, being about 1.8 fold more potent than that of the reference drug, Diphenylhydantoin (ED₅₀ = 0.034 mmol/kg) in the MES screen. Interestingly, all the test compounds 6a–x did not show any minimal motor impairment at the maximum administered dose in the neurotoxicity screen.