New Approaches to Modeling Methyl Jasmonate Effects on Pomegranate Quality during Postharvest Storage

Adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and genetic algorithm–artificial neural network (GA-ANN) models were used to predict the effect of methyl jasmonate (at three levels 0, 0.01, and 0.1 mM) and storage time (0, 14, 28, 42, 56, 70, and 84 days) on quality parameters and physiological changes of pomegranate fruits during storage. Methyl jasmonate reduced chilling injury and improved quality characteristics of pomegranates during postharvest storage. The GA-ANN and ANFIS were fed with two inputs of methyl jasmonate and storage time. The results showed that GA-ANN predictions agreed with experimental data and the GA-ANN with 14 neurons in one hidden layer can predict physiological changes and quality parameters of pomegranate (weight loss, pH, chilling injury index, ion leakage, ethylene, respiration, polyphenols, anthocyanins, and total antioxidant activity) with correlation coefficients equal to 0.87. The ANFIS model was trained by a hybrid method and agreement between experimental data and ANFIS predictions was significant (r = 0.90).     

Performance of Bangladesh indigenous rice in a weed infested field and separation of allelopathy from resource competition

This study aimed to identify the potential allelopathic indigenous rice (Oryza sativa L. ssp. indica) varieties from Bangladesh using a performance study in a weed‐infested field and to assess the extent of allelopathic interference relative to resource competition in a glasshouse experiment. Six varieties – namely, “Boterswar,” “Goria,” “Biron” and “Kartiksail” as the most allelopathic, “Hashikolmi” as weakly allelopathic and “Holoi” as nonallelopathic – were raised following a nonweed control method. The infestation levels of weed species were calculated using Simpson's Diversity Index (SDI), which ranged from 0.2 to 0.56. However, a significant correlation coefficient (0.87, P < 0.001) was obtained from these field data compared with the root inhibition percentage from the laboratory bioassay, and the “Boterswar” variety was the most allelopathic. The interactions between the allelopathic variety “Boterswar,” weakly allelopathic variety “Hashikolmi” and Echinochloa oryzicola via a target (rice)‐adjacent (E. oryzicola) cogrowth culture were determined in a hydroponic arrangement. The relative competitive intensity (RCI) and the relative neighbor effect (RNE) values showed that the crop–weed interaction was facilitation for “Boterswar” and competition for “Hashikolmi” and E. oryzicola in rice/E. oryzicola cogrowth cultures. The allelopathic effects of “Boterswar” were much higher than the resource competition in rice/E. oryzicola cogrowth cultures. The converse was observed for “Hashikolmi.” Moreover, the mineral content of E. oryzicola was severely affected by “Boterswar”/E. oryzicola cogrowth cultures’ exudate solution. Therefore, the allelopathic potential of “Boterswar” variety might be useful for developing the weed‐suppressing capacity of rice, which will likely have a significant influence on paddy weed control.     

Toxic Effect of Certain Metals Mixture on Some Physiological and Morphological Characteristics of Freshwater Algae

The toxic effect of multi metals mixture which exist simultaneously in aquatic ecosystem on natural phytoplankton assemblages (green algae, blue-green algae and diatoms) was studied. For this purpose a laboratory scale unit was designed to evaluate the effect of continuous flow metals mixture in forms if triple and penta metals in Nile water algae. Clear changes in algal biomass in terms of chlorophyll a (chl a) took place when subjected to metals combination. The rise or decline in chl a was in relation with other algal pigments (chl b, chl c, carotenoides and phenophytin), protein and carbohydrate content of algal cells. Substantial changes in phytoplankton community structure was detected and the most tolerant group was blue-green algae followed by green algae while diatoms was the most sensitive group. The most dominant species in all cases were blue-green alga Oscillatoria mougeotii and green alga Scenedesmus quadricauda. In addition clear changes in morphological shape was observed for tolerant species belonging to the three algal groups. Nile water algae has ability to remove and accumulate metals in the following order therefore Zn > Cd > Ni > Cu > Cr. In addition, phytoplankton has ability to recovered from the stress of metals when eliminated from the media and the recovered biomass was nearly equivalent to that before exposing to metals stress. The overall effect of metals mixture depending on the type and number of metals, the algal community structure and ratio between different morphological forms of algae (unicellular, colonial and filamentous).     

Methods to interpolate soil categorical variables from profile observations: Lessons from Iran

The paper compares semi-automated interpolation methods to produce soil-class maps from profile observations and by using multiple auxiliary predictors such as terrain parameters, remote sensing indices and similar. The Soil Profile Database of Iran, consisting of 4250 profiles, was used to test different soil-class interpolators. The target variables were soil texture classes and World Reference Base soil groups. The predictors were 6 terrain parameters, 11 MODIS EVI images and 17 physiographic regions (polygon map) of Iran. Four techniques were considered: (a) supervised classification using maximum likelihoods; (b) multinominal logistic regression; (c) regression-kriging on memberships; and (d) classification of taxonomic distances. The predictive capabilities were assessed using a control subset of 30% profiles and the kappa statistics as criterion. Supervised classification and multinominal logistic regression can lead to poor results if soil-classes overlap in the feature space, or if the correlation between the soil-classes and predictors is low. The two other methods have better predictive capabilities, although both are computationally more demanding. For both mapping of texture classes and soil types, the best prediction was achieved using regression-kriging of indicators/memberships (κ = 45%, κ = 54%). In all cases kappa was smaller than 60%, which can be explained by the preferential sampling plan, the poor definition of soil-classes and the high variability of soils. Steps to improve interpolation of soil-class data, by taking into account the fuzziness of classes directly on the field are further discussed.     

Nitrogen fertilizer–induced mineralization of soil organic C and N in six contrasting soils of Bangladesh

A 90‐day laboratory incubation study was carried out using six contrasting subtropical soils (calcareous, peat, saline, noncalcareous, terrace, and acid sulfate) from Bangladesh. A control treatment without nitrogen (N) application was compared with treatments where urea, ammonium sulfate (AS), and ammonium nitrate (AN) were applied at a rate of 100 mg N (kg soil)^–1. To study the effect of N fertilizers on soil carbon (C) turnover, the CO₂‐C flux was determined at nine sampling dates during the incubation, and the total loss of soil carbon (TC) was calculated. Nitrogen turnover was characterized by measuring net nitrogen mineralization (NNM) and net nitrification (NN). Simple and stepwise multiple regressions were calculated between CO₂‐C flux, TC, NNM, and NN on the one hand and selected soil properties (organic C, total N, C : N ratio, CEC, pH, clay and sand content) on the other hand. In general, CO₂‐C fluxes were clearly higher during the first 2 weeks of the incubation compared to the later phases. Soils with high pH and/or indigenous C displayed the highest CO₂‐C flux. However, soils having low C levels (i.e., calcareous and terrace soils) displayed a large relative TC loss (up to 22.3%) and the added N–induced TC loss from these soils reached a maximum of 10.6%. Loss of TC differed depending on the N treatments (urea > AS > AN >> control). Significantly higher NNM was found in the acidic soils (terrace and acid sulfate). On average, NNM after urea application was higher than for AS and AN (80.3 vs. 71.9 and 70.9 N (kg soil)^–1, respectively). However, specific interactions between N‐fertilizer form and soil type have to be taken into consideration. High pH soils displayed larger NN (75.9–98.1 mg N (kg soil)^–1) than low pH soils. Averaged over the six soils, NN after application of urea and AS (83.3 and 82.2 mg N (kg soil)^–1, respectively) was significantly higher than after application of AN (60.6 mg N (kg soil)^–1). Significant relationships were found between total CO₂ flux and certain soil properties (organic C, total N, CEC, clay and sand content). The most important soil property for NNM as well as NN was soil pH, showing a correlation coefficient of –0.33** and 0.45***, respectively. The results indicate that application of urea to acidic soils and AS to high‐pH soils could be an effective measure to improve the availability of added N for crop uptake.     

Ecological and Industrial Implications of Dynamic Seaweed-Associated Microbiota Interactions

Seaweeds are broadly distributed and represent an important source of secondary metabolites (e.g., halogenated compounds, polyphenols) eliciting various pharmacological activities and playing a relevant ecological role in the anti-epibiosis. Importantly, host (as known as basibiont such as algae)–microbe (as known as epibiont such as bacteria) interaction (as known as halobiont) is a driving force for coevolution in the marine environment. Nevertheless, halobionts may be fundamental (harmless) or detrimental (harmful) to the functioning of the host. In addition to biotic factors, abiotic factors (e.g., pH, salinity, temperature, nutrients) regulate halobionts. Spatiotemporal and functional exploration of such dynamic interactions appear crucial. Indeed, environmental stress in a constantly changing ocean may disturb complex mutualistic relations, through mechanisms involving host chemical defense strategies (e.g., secretion of secondary metabolites and antifouling chemicals by quorum sensing). It is worth mentioning that many of bioactive compounds, such as terpenoids, previously attributed to macroalgae are in fact produced or metabolized by their associated microorganisms (e.g., bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites). Eventually, recent metagenomics analyses suggest that microbes may have acquired seaweed associated genes because of increased seaweed in diets. This article retrospectively reviews pertinent studies on the spatiotemporal and functional seaweed-associated microbiota interactions which can lead to the production of bioactive compounds with high antifouling, theranostic, and biotechnological potential.     

Response of industrial hemp to Salsola kali subsp. tragus densities under organic and conventional fertilisation

A 2-year field study was conducted to determine the effects of different nutrition systems and Salsola kali subsp. tragus densities on industrial hemp yield and its components. Experiments were conducted as a split plot in a randomised complete block design with three replicates. Factors were fertilisation (poultry manure, vermicompost and nitrogen fertiliser) as the main plot and weed density (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 plants/m²) as the subplot. Results indicated that the maximum number of racemes per plant, seeds per raceme, 1000-seed weight, biomass, grain yield and harvest index (HI) of industrial hemp were obtained using vermicompost and were reduced with nitrogen fertiliser application. All measured properties in hemp plants decreased due to increasing S. kali subsp. tragus density, especially at 15 and 20 plants/m². The most significant reduction in hemp grain yield and its components was observed by increasing weed density with the application of nitrogen fertiliser. The application of vermicompost at high weed densities resulted in greater hemp grain yield and its components compared with nitrogen fertiliser. It is recommended to apply organic fertilisers, especially vermicompost at high S. kali subsp. tragus densities.     

The effects of fascioliasis on the activities of some drug-metabolizing enzymes in desert sheep liver.

Desert sheep experimentally or naturally infected with Fasciola gigantica were used to study the influence of infection on the activities of some drug-metabolizing enzymes found in the liver. The enzymes investigated were aminopyrine N-demethylase, aniline 4-hydroxylase and UDP-glucuronyltransferase. The experimental infection was confirmed histologically by detection of Fasciola eggs in faeces and by measuring the activities of sorbitol dehydrogenase (SD), glutamate dehydrogenase (GD) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in plasma during the course of the disease. Liver specimens from naturally infected sheep were obtained from the slaughter house. The activities of aminopyrine N-demethylase and aniline 4-hydroxylase were significantly decreased in sheep either naturally infected or during the acute stage of experimental fascioliasis (killed 5 weeks post-infection). The activity of UDP-glucuronyltransferase was decreased in naturally infected sheep and those killed 9 or 13 weeks post-experimental infection.     

Concentration of selected heavy metals in spices,dry fruits and plant nuts

Different spices, dry fruits and plant nuts commonly consumed in Pakistan were assayed for the heavy metals cadmium, lead, copper, zinc, iron and manganese by the potentiometric stripping analysis and AA spectrophotometry. The results revealed wide variation in heavy metal content among different biological materials. Mixed spices generally exhibited higher value for trace metals specially lead (6.6–9.2 µg/g), cadmium (0.65–1.34 µg/g), iron (142.3–285.0 µg/g) and zinc (64.2–65.8 µg/g). Dry fruits contained relatively lesser amounts of heavy metals than plant nuts. Almonds contained higher levels of lead (1.02 µg/g) and cadmium (0.24 µg/g) than other nuts and dry fruits.