Teleconnection of rainfall time series in the central Nile Basin with sea surface temperature

We investigated teleconnections of rainfall time series in the central Nile Basin (Sudan and South Sudan) with localities in the global sea surface temperature (SST) field, using monthly rainfall data from 11 gauging stations from 1960 to 1999. Annual rainfall ranged from 100 mm in the north to more than 700 mm in the south, and all stations had a strong contrast between rainy and dry seasons with rainless dry periods of several months. Rainfall time series at the stations were categorized as strongly seasonal, with precipitation concentration index exceeding 16 and seasonality index exceeding 0.9. The rainfall stations were classified into four zones on the basis of annual rainfall, seasonality, and cross-correlations among the stations. We calculated cross-correlations of interannual rainfall time series in summer (July and August) with the global SST field. For short lag times (0 or 1 month), summer rainfall in Zones I and II (northern arid regions) had significant correlations with SST over the eastern Mediterranean Sea and southern Indian Ocean, summer rainfall in Zone III (semiarid region) had significant negative correlations with SST over the Indian Ocean, and summer rainfall in Zone IV (southern wet region) had significant correlations with SST over tropical areas and the southwestern Pacific Ocean. For long lag times (3–6 months), Nile Basin summer rainfall time series had significant correlations with SST in various regions of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans but not the Pacific Ocean. Rainfall in Zones I and II had positive correlations (significance level?<?0.01) with SST south of Greenland and around the Azores Islands and negative correlations with SST south of Madagascar; rainfall in Zone III had negative correlations with SST in parts of the Indian Ocean; and rainfall in Zone IV had significant positive correlations with SST southwest of South Africa and negative correlations with SST in the southwestern Indian Ocean. In sum, rainfall in three of the zones (I, II, and IV) had significant positive and negative correlations with SST in parts of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. For each of these zones, one positive correlation and one negative correlation were selected and correlations with the time series of the difference between the two SST records were calculated. Correlations of Nile Basin rainfall with the SST differences were stronger than the original positive and negative correlations. The resulting time series of SST difference were applied to an artificial neural network to predict summer rainfall, yielding satisfactory correlation coefficients between the observed and predicted summer rainfall (r?>?0.70).     

Evaluation of Water Stress Tolerance of Soybean Using Physiological Parameters and Retrotransposon-Based Markers

Drought is one of the most important environmental stresses that severely reduce plant growth and crop productivity. This study was carried out to investigate the difference in the response of six soybean cultivars (Giza 21, 22, 35, 82, 83 and 111) under water stress and the genetic difference between these cultivars using retroelements technique. The results showed that drought stress caused reduction in morphological criteria, photosynthetic pigments, starch, phospholipids, glycolipids, pectin, cellulose and lignin in shoots of all soybean cultivars except Giza 22 and Giza 83. On the other hand, there was a considerable increase in root length, soluble sugars, proline, glycine betaine, total lipids and hemicellulose contents in the shoots of the soybean cultivars in response to water stress. The soybean cultivars Giza 22 and 83 were more drought tolerant than the other cultivars while Giza 21 and Giza 111 were the most sensitive. Inter-primer binding sites (iPBS) and inter-retrotransposon amplified polymorphism (IRAP) techniques were used to fingerprint the six soybean cultivars using a set of eight primers. The techniques successfully tagged each cultivar with specific bands and detected molecular genetic markers related to drought tolerance in soybean.     

Preparation of Polyurethane Silicon Oxide Nanomaterials as a Binder in Leather Finishing

Leather finishing processes using toxic organic solvent based produce volatile organic compounds (VOC), chronic exposure to this chemicals effect on workers' health causing many diseases especially lung cancer. So, polyurethane waterbased was synthesized for application in leather finishing instead of organic solvent based because it’s economic and safety for industry and workers. Preparation of water-based polyurethane (PU) depends on the reaction of polyethylene glycol (PEG, 300) with isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) and the reaction of IPDI-1,4-butanediol (BDO) together with dimethylolpropionic acid (DMPA), was synthesized by poly-addition polymerization reaction. PU was then modified with different amounts of silicon dioxide nanoparticles (1-5 % SiO₂), used as a binder in leather finishing. Leather coated was characterized physically, chemically and thermally by FTIR, GPC, DLS, TEM, SEM and TGA. The results revel that, water vapor permeability (WVP) of leather coated with PU modified with SiO₂ showed improvement due to the existence of SiO₂ particles which increases the interspaces of the polyurethane coating. SEM showed that when the amount of SiO₂ nanoparticles increases, there is uniform nanoparticles accumulated can be observed. EDX prove the presence of Si and O₂ elements and the formation of SiO₂ nanoparticles. Mechanical properties discussed that tensile strength; tear strength and elongation at break % increase with increase SiO₂ concentration until 3 % SiO₂ nanoparticles. TGA showed an improvement of thermal stability of coated leather modified with SiO₂. Therefore, this study succeeded in preparation of safe, ecofriendly of water-based polyurethane binders which modified with SiO₂ for using in leather finishing.     

Response of wheat growth and productivity to exogenous polyamines under lead stress

Polyamines [i.e. spermine (Spm), spermidine (Spd) and putrescine (Put)] antagonistic effects on stress imposed by 2.0 mM lead (Pb²⁺) on growth, yield and its components and changes in the osmoprotectant and endogenous Pb²⁺ concentrations, the contents of some nutrients and tissue health in wheat plants were evaluated. Under the three applied polyamine (PAs) applications, the efficiency of wheat plants to tolerate Pb²⁺ stress in terms of growth and yield characteristics was noticed to varying degrees. The enhancements in osmoprotectant concentrations and plant health [in terms of relative water content (RWC) and membrane stability index (MSI)], and reductions in electrolyte leakage (EL) and plant Pb²⁺ concentration were correlated with the reasonable growth of Pb²⁺-stressed plants and their grain yield. Results point out that, better growth and yield characteristics, MSI, RWC, leaf photosynthetic pigment and osmoprotectant concentrations, and nutrient contents were obtained with seed soaking in 0.25 mM Spm, 0.50 mM Spd or 1.0 mM Put than those generated with seed soaking in water under 2.0 mM Pb²⁺ stress. In contrast, EL and the concentration of endogenous Pb²⁺ were significantly reduced. However, the Pb²⁺-free control positively exceeded the all stressed treatments. Among all tested PAs, 1.0 mM Put showed the best results and thus is recommended, as seed soaking, for wheat to grow well under Pb²⁺ stress.     

Review of doubled haploid production in durum and common wheat through wheat × maize hybridization

Production of doubled haploids (DHs) is an important methodology to speed the process of breeding and development of mapping populations in crops. The procedure for DH production includes two major steps: haploid induction and chromosome doubling. In recent years, wide hybridization between wheat and maize has become a main approach for haploid production in wheat. In this method, the maize chromosomes are completely eliminated during the early development of the hybrid seeds after wheat spikes were pollinated with maize pollen. Numerous wheat cultivars and mapping populations have been developed using wheat–maize hybridization. In this study, we review the procedures of DH production of durum and common wheat via wide hybridization with maize, the factors which affect the efficiency of DH production, and the mechanism of selective elimination of the maize genome during the early development of the hybrid embryos. We also report a highly efficient protocol for DH production in durum and common wheat, which was established based on the optimal conditions for each of the factors that affect the efficiency of DH production.     

Relaxant effect of aqueous extract of Cistus ladaniferus on rodent intestinal contractions

The effects of the aqueous extract of Cistus ladaniferus leaves and stems were studied on the rodent isolated jejunum. The extract produced a reversible concentration dose-dependent (0.1-3 mg/ml) inhibition of the spontaneous motility of the rabbit jejunum. The inhibitory effects of the extract were not affected by pretreatment with the inhibitors of the alpha and beta adrenergic receptors yohimbine, prazosin or propranolol. The extract also inhibited K(+)-induced contractions in rabbit and rat jejunum at a similar concentration range. This result suggests that the antispasmodic action of the extract is mediated through calcium channel blockade. The results confirm the traditional use of C. ladaniferus in treating intestinal ache.     

Composition of the essential oils of Thymus and Origanum species from Algeria and their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities

The composition of the essential oils of Origanum and Thymus species restricted to Algeria and the North Africa region was determined. Antioxidant and antibacterial activities of the isolated essential oils were also determined. The oils of oregano plants were strongly characterized by p-cymene (16.8-24.9%), gamma-terpinene (16.8-24.9%), thymol (8.4-36.0%), and carvacrol (1.1-29.7%), a thymol chemotype for Origanum floribundum and a alpha-terpineol chemotype for Thymus numidicus being described for the first time. The strains of Listeria monocytogenes tested were relatively resistant to the action of essential oils of either Origanum or Thymus species. All essential oils possessed antioxidant activity, but this was dependent on the specific chemical composition and the method employed to determine such activity.     

Optimized Extraction,Preliminary Characterization and Evaluation of the in Vitro Anticancer Activity of Phlorotannin-Rich Fraction from the Brown Seaweed,Cystoseira sedoides

Brown seaweeds produce useful bioactive substances with high cosmetic and pharmacological values due to the presence of antioxidant derivatives, mainly phlorotannins (PHT), which are of particular interest. A central composite rotatable design (CCRD) with three variables (extraction time, dry material-to-solvent ratio and ethanol concentration) and two responses was performed to optimize the microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) of phlorotannins from Cystoseira sedoides using response surface methodology (RSM). Results showed that the independent variables significantly affected both phlorotannin content and the scavenging capacity. The optimum operating conditions were extraction time, 101.74 sec; dry material-to-solvent ratio, 1:10 g/mL; and ethanol extraction, 50%. Under these conditions, the predicted values of PHT content and radical scavenging activity-IC50 were close to the observed values and were 383.887 µg PGE/g Dm and 18.353 µg/mL, respectively. Characterization of the phlorotannin-rich fraction was conducted by high-performance liquid chromatography and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The evaluation of the anticancer activity against MCF-7 breast cancer cell line showed a potent activity to trigger apoptotic death in more than a half of the MCF-7 cells, with an estimated IC50 value of 78 μg/mL. In addition, this fraction induced a notable growth regression effect on 3D spheroids model in a concentration-dependent manner, with a growth rate of about 1.17, at 200 µg/mL.

Abbreviations: CCRD: Central composite rotatable design; Dm: Dry material; DMBA: 2,4-dimethoxy benzaldehyde; DMSO: Dimethyl sulfoxide; DPPH: 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl; EDTA: Ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid; FBS: Fetal bovine serum; FT-IR: Fourier transform infrared; HPLC: High-performance liquid chromatography; IC₅₀: Half-maximal inhibitory concentration; MAE: Microwave-assisted extraction; Min: minutes; PBS: Phosphate buffered saline; PGE: Phloroglucinol equivalent; PHT: Phlorotannins; PHT-SED: phlorotannins derived from Cystoseira sedoides; PI: Propidium iodide; RSA: Radical scavenging activity; RSM: Response surface methodology; Sec: seconds