Purpose: This study assessed the bioaccumulation of metallic elements in agricultural crops which is irrigated by the surface waters of Beht and Sebou rivers.
Method: The study focused on two plants. Seven metal elements (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) were analyzed by spectrometry emission coupled plasma (ICP).
Results: The obtained results showed that the levels of Cd in irrigating water exceed the thresholds set by Moroccan standards. The concentrations of Cd and Cr in soil (0-15, 15-30 cm) are higher than those set by the AFNOR and the contents of Cd, Cr, Cu and Ni in the supports of the plants exceed normal levels which are established by Kabata-Pendias and Mukherjee. Indeed, the high absorption of certain trace elements by the tissues of the plants studied can be associated with the chemical forms of the metal in the soil matrix, the physicochemical characteristics of the soil and the nature of the plant species.
Conclusion: The bioaccumulation of identified metallic elements in plants is caused using surface waters of Sebou and Beht rivers as a source of irrigation.
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) as an important food and fuel crop is undergone breeding for novel types, and its expansion into the new environments is necessary, however the efforts become complicated for breeders as well as agronomists to select for the best performing genotype in a particular environment due to unexpected, but significant genotype x environment interaction. This study was performed to thoroughly analyse the trade-offs between the agronomic performance and stability of sorghum genotypes produced under agro ecological conditions of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Three sorghum lines i.e., G1 (S14), G2 (S22) and G3 (Jowar-86) were evaluated under eight environments which were formed by combining two sites of varying soil conditions (saline and normal soil) and were sown at four different sowing dates in order to determine the yield performance. Furthermore, AMMI analysis and GGE (generation×gene×environment) interactions were performed to identify the most stable variety for semi-arid environment. The results revealed that soil conditions significantly affect the grain yield of sorghum. The highest yield was obtained in E4 (1799 kg ha -1) under normal soil conditions and the best performing line was identified as G1. While under saline/problematic conditions E3 gave mean yield of 1530 kg ha-1 while line G1 gave 1505 kg ha-1 of yield. As far as the AMMI and GGE analysis is concerned, significant value for scores of PCAs were obtained as PC1 (61.3%) and PC2 (38.7%) while GGE analysis also gave significantly different scores for PC1 and PC2 as 86.8 and 13.2% respectively. The genotype G1 had low PC1 scores (1.59) as compared to G2 and G3 and thus it was identified as most stable genotype. The environment (E3) and (E4) were highly correlated to each and (E6), (E8) were discriminatory environments for all tested genotypes.
Purpose: Tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis is believed to have been acquired from animals especially cattle. Not one country across the globe is spared of the disease. The infection gets established through respiratory system where they are either latent or active. Depending upon the immune status or coexisting infection or other health disorders the infection may be either contained within the lungs or spread to other parts of the body. Hence rapid and accurate diagnosis is needed to initiate appropriate treatment. Sputum studies are being followed for diagnosis of tuberculosis but has few disadvantages. Xpert MTB/RIF, an automated, molecular test has been in vogue now. Biomarkers such as complete blood count, inflammatory and oxidative stress markers are being measured. Recently epigenetic markers like microRNA are being analyzed to differentiate the various presentations of tuberculosis. This review has been undertaken to understand the various diagnostic strategies being followed from the old times to the newer novel techniques.
Methods: The narrative review was undertaken by searching the original and review articles in the past 20 years. The articles were obtained by searching through various search engines. Since this was a review article ethics committee approval was not required.
Results: The traditional methods have inherent limitations of high expertise, prolonged procedure, not cost effective and require good infrastructure. Newer methods are found to be sensitive, specific, reproducible and cost effective. But require validation to be implemented into routine use.
Conclusions: Validating the new markers such as epigenetic markers – microRNAs should pave way for diagnosis and management of pulmonary TB, extrapulmonary TB, TB in HIV infected individuals, pregnant women and children. This could serve as a finger-print sort of diagnosis once validated on large scale community-based studies.
Purpose: The food supply chain (FSC) is a sequence of linkages and interdependencies that encompass a wide range of disciplines, from farms to food to consumer’s plates. Food supply chain management (FSCM) unites the major disciplines, aimed at providing an understanding of the supply chain (SC), supporting managers of the chain components, and improving the development activities of research in the SC.
Method: Narrative review was conducted using available literature on Google Scholar and Scopus database.
Results: In developing countries, many factors act as barriers to maintaining effective FSC. The potential reasons include the absence of infrastructure for cold chains and the lack of modern processing facilities that result in the highest inadequacies and losses of food and its allied products. Moreover, the whole FSC is loaded with various problems including quality and safety of products, poor SC connection, and cost-related issues. The important hindrance is “mandi systems (local word of wholesale markets)” that are entirely obsolete and ineffective in reducing food losses. Other issues include traceability problems, fair trading, technological issues, financial issues, processing, and value addition.
Conclusion: Blending new and innovative models of FSC with mandi systems can decrease food waste and losses and further improve the income of producers and processors.
Purpose: Karachi is the third most populous city globally, inhabiting over 20 million people. Its air quality is hardly ever comprehended despite ever-increasing vehicular and industrial emissions. The present paper investigates the outdoor concentrations of 10 air pollutants, viz. NO, NO2, NOx, SO2, CO, O3, CH4, methane carbon, non-methane hydrocarbons, and total hydrocarbons at three sites of the city and their relationship with meteorological parameters.
Method: All ten air pollutants were measured continuously for 24 hours at all three city sites by the Air Quality Monitoring Station, equipped with the Horiba AP-370 series, which has a built-in calibration solenoid valve for calibration simply by connecting the calibration gas. The meteorological parameters were measured simultaneously by the device installed outside the station. The data were then transferred to a computer for analysis.
Results: The results demonstrate that these pollutants severely affected the city’s air quality. The annual mean concentrations of both NO2 and SO2 exceeded the WHO guidelines at some sites. The city experiences varied concentrations of major air pollutants because three fuels, viz. diesel, gasoline, and compressed natural gas operate the motor vehicles in this conurbation. The study also correlates the air pollutants with each other and with meteorological factors. All three nitrogen oxides are related to each other at all three sites, with SO2 at Defense Housing Authority, CO at North Nazimabad, and meteorological factors at Sohrab Goth and Defense Housing Authority.
Conclusion: The higher air pollution in the city is due to the adoption of lenient vehicular emission standards. Stringent emission standards cannot be adopted because of the non-availability of low or zero sulfur fuel. Moreover, ineffective regulation of exiting standards also contributes to higher vehicular emissions in the city.
Purpose: To understand the nature of liquids the need of physico-chemical behavior of liquid mixtures or in pure form Sound velocity, viscosity and density values have been calibrated in binary and ternary system of some of the Aniline+1-alkanols with benzene, toluene, and hexane at 303K. Several theoretical models have been applied to evaluate the sound velocity values for the binary and ternary systems compared with the experimental values.
Method: The ultrasonic velocity, density and viscosity measured with ultrasonic interferometer, specific gravity bottle with Oswald’s viscometer respectively. The measured ultrasonic velocity compared with theoretical models to understand the existence of molecular interactions from models like Nomoto’ Relation, Free Length Theory, ideals mixture relation etc.
Results: NR predictions provide better closeness with test values and FLT predictions are not completely acceptable. FLT prediction is found to fail even for pure liquids. IMR predictions are more acceptable than NR, only for aniline + 1-pentanol binary and NR seem to be the best of all other systems. In binary, IMR predicted values are always lower than test values, but NR predictions are, in most cases, higher than test values. In ternary systems, especially at high mole fractions of aniline, the predicted sound velocity values (NR & IMR) are always lower than the experimentally observed values. Among the many theories considered, NR gives the best prediction of sound speed. The sequence of qualifications for predicting sound speed decreases as NR and IMR and FLT are completely invalid for all considered systems.
Conclusion: Strong molecular interaction with the structure formation increases with mole fractions. Azeotropic destruction has been found to be the most common of the compounds considered.