Energy inputs and crop yield relationships in greenhouse winter crop tomato production

In this study, energy use patterns and the relationship between energy inputs and yield for single crop (winter) greenhouse tomato production were examined in Antalya province, one of the most important greenhouse centres in Turkey. Data were collected using face-to-face surveys from 85 farms producing winter greenhouse tomatoes. The results indicated that the bulk of energy was consumed in fertilizer (38.22%), electricity (27.09%), manure (17.33%) and diesel-oil (13.65%). Average yield and energy consumption were calculated as 57,905.1 kg/ha and 61,434.5 MJ/ha, respectively. Results also determined an output–input ratio of 0.8 and a respective energy productivity and specific energy of 1.061 MJ/t and 0.94 kg/MJ. In addition, the Cobb Douglas production function was applied to test the relationship among different forms of energy consumption. The findings suggested that single crop tomato producers must optimize their use of indirect energy resources. Single crop producers applied an excess use of chemicals, resulting in an inverse effect on yield as well as imposing risks to natural resources and human health. This research suggested an expansion in energy use training opportunities to greenhouse farmers in the region.     

Micro- and nano-encapsulation of limonene and permethrin for mosquito repellent finishing of cotton textiles

Iranian Polymer Journal - The aim of this study was to prepare mosquito repellent textiles. To compare bio-based and synthetic mosquito repellent agents, limonene and permethrin were encapsulated...     

A Human Cellular Model for Colorectal Anastomotic Repair: The Effect of Localization and Transforming Growth Factor-β1 Treatment on Collagen Deposition and Biomarkers

Anastomotic leakage (AL) is a devastating complication after colorectal surgery, possibly due to the loss of stabilizing collagen fibers in the submucosa. Our aim was to assess the formation of collagen in the colon versus the rectum with or without transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 exposure in a human cellular model of colorectal repair. Primary fibroblasts were isolated by an explant procedure from clinically resected tissue rings during anastomosis construction in 19 consecutive colorectal patients who underwent laparoscopy. The cells, identified as fibroblasts by morphologic characteristics and flow cytometry analysis (CD90⁺), were cultured for 8 days and in 12 patients in the presence of 1 ng/mL TGF-β1. Total collagen deposition was measured colorimetrically after Sirius red staining of fixed cell layers, and type I, III, and VI collagen biosynthesis and degradation were specifically determined by the biomarkers PINP, PRO-C3, PRO-C6, and C3M in conditioned media by competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Total collagen deposition by fibroblasts from the colon and rectum did not significantly differ. TGF-β1 treatment increased PINP, PRO-C6, and total collagen deposition. Mechanistically, TGF-β1 treatment increased COL1A1 and ACTA2 (encoding α-smooth muscle actin), and decreased COL6A1 and MMP2 mRNA levels in colorectal fibroblasts. In conclusion, we found no effect of anatomic localization on collagen production by fibroblasts derived from the large intestine. TGF-β1 represents a potential therapeutic agent for the prevention of AL by increasing type I collagen synthesis and collagen deposition.     

Synthesis of quaternary piperazine methacrylate homopolymers and their antibiofilm and anti-quorum sensing effects on pathogenic bacteria

In this work, poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA, G) homopolymers with different molecular weights (5600–21,000 gmol⁻¹) were synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) method. Epoxy groups of PGMA homopolymers were converted to hydroxyl and 1-methyl piperazin residues by reacting with 1-methyl piperazine via ring-opening reaction. The obtained poly(2-hydroxy-3-methyl piperazinepropyl methacrylate) (PHMPPMA, G-P) homopolymers (from 9450 to 35,900 gmol⁻¹) were reacted with alkyl halides of different carbon chain lengths (methyl-, ethyl-, propyl-, butyl-, pentyl-iodides, hexyl bromide) and benzyl chloride (arylhalide) to form quaternary PHMPPMA homopolymers (G-QP). MIC values varied from 0.125 mg/ml to 5 mg/ml. It was found that homopolymer (1G-6QP) produced by the modification of PHMPPMA with hexyl iodide with low molecular weight had highest quorum-sensing inhibition zone ranging from 14.5 ± 0.5 mm (MIC) and 10.0 ± 0.5 mm (MIC/4) as well as best violacein inhibition 61.0 ± 2.2% (MIC) to 17.3 ± 0.6% (MIC/8). Homopolymer (1G-BzQP) produced by the modification of PHMPPMA with benzyl chloride with the lowest molecular weight had best biofilm inhibition ranging from 77.83 ± 1.60% (MIC) to 18.23 ± 0.87% (MIC/8) on S. aureus, 75.70 ± 5.20% (MIC) to 14.25 ± 1.10% (MIC/8) on E. coli and from 86.16 ± 0.83% (MIC) to 12.41 ± 0.76% (MIC/8) on C. albicans. The synthesized homopolymers can be used to combat microbial resistance and severity of infections.     

Interplay of adaptive capabilities of Halomonas sp. AAD12 under salt stress

In the present study, osmoadaptive mechanism of Halomonas sp. AAD12 was studied through analysis of changes in its proteome maps and osmolyte accumulation strategy to understand how this euryhaline microorganism masters osmotic stress of saline environments. Under salt stress, there were significant variations in the expression of proteins involved in osmoregulation, stress response, energy generation and transport. This was accompanied by an increase in proline and hydroxyectoine but a decrease in ectoine accumulation. The major osmolyte at high salinity was proline. Unexpectedly the size of the total ectoines' pool was smaller at elevated salinity. Experimental findings were then integrated with a metabolic model to get insight into carbon trafficking during osmoadaptation. Simulations predicted that the total flux through energy generating pathways, namely gluconeogenesis and the pentose phosphate pathway, was significantly lower and carbon source that entered the system as citrate was mainly diverted to osmolyte synthesis at high salinity. Overall these results suggested that the moderately halophilic Halomonas sp. AAD12 pursued a different osmoregulatory strategy than the two well known moderate halophiles, Chromohalobacter salexigens and Halobacillus halophilus. The climbing value of osmolytes such as ectoine in health care and skin care products places significant attention to halophilic microorganisms hence an understanding of the osmoadaptive mechanism and osmolyte accumulation strategy of this isolate is very valuable to be able to manipulate its metabolism towards desired goals.     

Swelling–deswelling kinetics of ionic poly(acrylamide) hydrogels and cryogels

A series of ionic poly(acrylamide) (PAAm) gels was prepared by free‐radical crosslinking copolymerization of acrylamide and N,N′‐methylenebisacrylamide in aqueous solutions. The gels were prepared both below and above the bulk freezing temperature of the polymerization solvent water, which are called as the cryogels and the hydrogels, respectively. The deswelling behavior of swollen gels in acetone as well as the reswelling behavior of the collapsed gels in water were investigated. It was shown that the cryogels respond against the external stimuli much faster than the hydrogels. The interior morphology of the cryogel networks exhibits a discontinuity and a two‐phase structure, compared to the continuous morphology of the hydrogel networks. Introduction of the ionic units in the network chains further increased the response rate of the cryogels. In contrast to these advantages of cryogels, they exhibit lower swelling capacities than the conventional hydrogels. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 319–325, 2006     

Adrenal tumor characterization on magnetic resonance images

Adrenal tumors occur on adrenal glands and are generally detected on abdominal area scans. Adrenal tumors, which are incidentally detected, release vital hormones. These types of tumors that can be malignant affect body metabolism. Both of benign and malign adrenal tumors can have a similar size, intensity, and shape, this situation may lead to wrong decision during diagnosis and characterization of tumors. Thus, biopsy is done to confirm diagnosis of tumor types. In this study, adrenal tumor characterization is handled by using magnetic resonance images. In this way, it is wanted that patient can be disentangled from one or more imaging modalities (some of them can includes X-ray) and biopsy. An adrenal tumor image set, which includes five types of adrenal tumors and has 112 benign tumors and 10 malign tumors, was used in this study. Two data sets were created from the adrenal tumor image set by manually/semiautomatically segmented adrenal tumors and feature sets of these data sets are constituted by different methods. Two-dimensional gray-level co-occurrence matrix (2D-GLCM), gray-level run-length matrix (GLRLM), and two-dimensional discrete wavelet transform (2D-DWT) methods were analyzed to reveal the most effective features on adrenal tumor characterization. Feature sets were classified in two ways: benign/malign (binary classification) and type characterization (multiclass classification). Support vector machine and artificial neural network classified feature sets. The best performance on benign/malign classification was obtained by the 2D-GLCM feature set. The best results were assessed with sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, precision, and F-score metrics and they were 99.17%, 90%, 98.4%, 99.17%, and 99.13%, respectively. The highest classification performance on type characterization was obtained by the 2D-DWT feature set as 59.62%, 96.17%, 93.19%, 54.69%, and 54.94% for sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, precision, and F-score metrics, respectively.     

The effects of ingredients on popcorn popping characteristics

Response surface methodology was used to evaluate the effects of ingredients on popcorn popping characteristics. The effects of different ingredients on the expansion volume and unpopped kernel ratio of popcorn in a conventional popper and a microwave oven were evaluated and optimized by response surface methodology. The regression models were significant and had R² value in the range of 0.919–0.956. The optimum levels of ingredients for microwave popping were 4.4% salt, 5.9% vegetable oil, 0% sodium bicarbonate and 16.4% butter, this formulation giving an expansion volume of 33.1 mL g^?1. In the case of conventional popping, the maximum expansion volume of 37.3 mL g^?1 was obtained for 3.5% salt, 6% vegetable oil, 0.10% sodium bicarbonate and 12.9% butter.