Exogenous glutathione-mediated tolerance to deficit irrigation in salt-affected Capsicum frutescence (L.) plants is connected with higher antioxidant content and ionic homeostasis

As an important medicinal plant used in traditional and modern medicine, chili peppers are sensitive or moderately sensitive to drought or salt stress, respectively. Therefore, potential changes due to foliar-applied glutathione (GSH; 0, 0.4 and 0.8 mM) response on growth, yield, and physio-biochemical attributes, as well as water use efficiency (WUE) and fruit alkaloid capsaicin of chili pepper plants were investigated when grown under deficit irrigation in salt-affected soil (EC = 6.74 dS m–1). Two deficit irrigation water (DiW) regimes (80% and 60% of soil field capacity; FC) were used versus 100% of FC as a control. Both DiW treatments negatively affected growth and yield parameters, SPAD chlorophyll index, nutrient status, K+/Na+ ratio, and plant anatomical features. In contrast, osmoprotectants, ascorbate, glutathione, capsaicin, and phenolic contents, as well as WUE were increased in association with higher Na+ and Cl– contents. However, exogenously-applied GSH caused significant increases in the above-mentioned parameters along with an additional increase in osmoprotectants, antioxidants, and capsaicin contents, and a decrease in Na+ and Cl– levels compared to corresponding controls. The highest WUE, growth, and fruit yield responses were recorded at 0.8 mM GSH applied to plants under DiW at 80% FC + salinity (6.74 dS m–1). Therefore, this study suggested the use of leafy-applied GSH at 0.8 mM for satisfactory growth and yield with the highest WUE of chili pepper plants grown under salt-affected conditions with deficit irrigation

A Sensory Material Approach for Reducing Variability in Additively Manufactured Metal Parts

AbstractDespite the recent growth in interest for metal additive manufacturing (AM) in the biomedical and aerospace industries, variability in the performance, composition, and microstructure of AM parts remains a major impediment to its widespread adoption. The underlying physical mechanisms, which cause variability, as well as the scale and nature of variability are not well understood, and current methods are ineffective at capturing these details. Here, a Nickel-Titanium alloy is used as a sensory material in order to quantitatively, and rather rapidly, observe compositional and/or microstructural variability in selective laser melting manufactured parts; thereby providing a means to evaluate the role of process parameters on the variability. We perform detailed microstructural investigations using transmission electron microscopy at various locations to reveal the origins of microstructural variability in this sensory material. This approach helped reveal how reducing the distance between adjacent laser scans below a critical value greatly reduces both the in-sample and sample-to-sample variability. Microstructural investigations revealed that when the laser scan distance is wide, there is an inhomogeneity in subgrain size, precipitate distribution, and dislocation density in the microstructure, responsible for the observed variability. These results provide an important first step towards understanding the nature of variability in additively manufactured parts.</jats:p

Impact of Folic Acid in Modulating Antioxidant Activity, Osmoprotectants, Anatomical Responses, and Photosynthetic Efficiency of Plectranthus amboinicus Under Salinity Conditions

Salinity is a major threat to the sustainability of agricultural production systems. Salt stress has unfavorable implications on various plant physio-morphological and biochemical reactions, causing osmotic and ionic stress. Exogenously applied folic acid (FA) may at least provide one mechanism to evade the injurious stress effects of saline irrigation water on Plectranthus amboinicus. In this regard, two pot trials were performed during the 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 seasons in an open greenhouse of an experimental farm (29°17'N; 30°53'E) in Fayoum, Egypt. We tested four levels of saline irrigation water (SW): 34, 68, and 102 mM NaCl, plus tap water as the control = 0), combined with FA at three concentrations (25 and 50 μM, plus spray with distilled water as the control = 0). The growth parameters, biochemistry, physiology, elemental leaf status, essential oil content, and anatomical responses were assessed. Salt markedly reduced photosynthetic productivity [Fv/Fm and performance index (PI)], total chlorophyll [soil plant analysis development (SPAD)], and leaf osmoprotectant compounds, i.e., total soluble sugars (TSS), free amino acids, proline, and total phenolics, thus hampering P. amboinicus growth and essential oil yield. However, the addition of FA as a foliar spray to P. amboinicus irrigated with saline water induced increases in Fv/Fm, SPAD, and PI. These were linked with enriched stem anatomical structures, leaf osmoprotectant compounds, and enhanced leaf enzymatic activity, e.g., superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glutathione, ascorbic acid, and antioxidant content. Under salt stress, supplementation of 25 and 50 μM FA increased the growth and production of essential oil by 27.8 and 55.6%, respectively, compared with no applied FA. The highest growth characteristics and elemental leaf contents were obtained when P. amboinicus was irrigated with 0 mM saline water and treated foliarly with 50 μM of FA compared with non-treated plants. Overall, these data showed that foliar spraying with FA reduces the impact of salt stress on P. amboinicus irrigated with saline water

Soil application of effective microorganisms and nitrogen alleviates salt stress in hot pepper (Capsicum annum L.) plants

The application of effective microorganisms (EMs) and/or nitrogen (N) have a stimulating effect on plants against abiotic stress conditions. The aim of the present study was to determine the impact of the co-application of EMs and N on growth, physio-biochemical attributes, anatomical structures, nutrients acquisition, capsaicin, protein, and osmoprotectant contents, as well as the antioxidative defense system of hot pepper (Capsicum annum L.) plants. In the field trials, EMs were not applied (EMs-) or applied (EMs+) along with three N rates of 120, 150, and 180 kg unit N ha-1 (designated as N120, N150, and N180, respectively) to hot pepper plants grown in saline soils (9.6 dS m-1). The application of EMs and/or high N levels attenuated the salt-induced damages to hot pepper growth and yield. The application of EMs+ with either N150 or N180 increased the number, average weight and yield of fruits by 14.4 or 17.0%, 20.8 or 20.8% and 28.4 or 27.5%, respectively, compared to hot pepper plants treated with the recommended dose (EMs- × N150). When EMs+ was individually applied or combined with either N150 or N180, increased accumulation of capsaicin were observed by 16.7 or 20.8%, protein by 12.5 or 16.7%, proline by 19.0 or 14.3%, and total soluble sugars by 3.7 or 7.4%, respectively, in comparison with those treated with the integrative EMs- × N150. In addition, the non-enzymatic contents (ascorbate, and glutathione) and enzymatic activities (catalase, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione reductase) of the antioxidant defense systems significantly increased in hot pepper plants treated with EMs+ alone or combined with N150 or N180 under salt stress conditions. Higher accumulation of nutrients (N, P, K+, and Ca2+) along with reduced Na+ acquisition was also evidenced in response to EMs+ or/and high N levels. Most anatomical features of stems and leaves recovered in hot pepper plants grown in saline soils and supplied with EMs+ and N. The application of EMs and N is undoubtedly opening new sustainable approaches toward enhancing abiotic stress tolerance in crops (e.g. hot pepper)

Optimal spare parts management for vessel maintenance scheduling

Condition-based monitoring is used as part of predictive maintenance to collect real-time information on the healthy status of a vessel engine, which allows for a more accurate estimation of the remaining life of an engine or its parts, as well as providing a warning for a potential failure of an engine part. An engine failure results in delays and down-times in the voyage of a vessel, which translates into additional cost and penalties. This paper studies a spare part management problem for maintenance scheduling of a vessel operating on a given route that is defined by a sequence of port visits. When a warning on part failure is received, the problem decides when and to which port each part should be ordered, where the latter is also the location at which the maintenance operation would be performed. The paper describes a mathematical programming model of the problem, as well as a shortest path dynamic programming formulation for a single part which solves the problem in polynomial time complexity. Simulation results are presented in which the models are tested under different scenarios

Data for: L-PBF Process Parameters on Interior Channel Surface Roughness of As-Fabricated and Electropolished NiTi

Roughness data from L-PBF fabricated NiT

Data for: L-PBF Process Parameters on Interior Channel Surface Roughness of As-Fabricated and Electropolished NiTi

Roughness data from L-PBF fabricated NiTiTHIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Arabic translation and validation of the Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) scale

Abstract Background The Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (NOSE) scale has been developed and validated in English to overcome the controversies concerning other methods of evaluation of nasal obstruction. The scale is currently used worldwide and has been translated into several languages. The purpose of the present work was to translate the English (NOSE) scale into Arabic (A-NOSE) and to assess its validity and reliability in Arabic-speaking patients. Results The internal consistency and test-to-test reliability of the Arabic scale were statistically good. The differences between the scores of the patients and control subjects were statistically significant. Postoperative scores of the patients were significantly higher than preoperative scores. All participants completed the Arabic questionnaire easily and few of them required slight assistance. Conclusions The translated NOSE scale is easy to administer and can be a robust and usable outcome measure for patients with nasal obstruction. The translated scale is sensitive to changes in nasal airway patency and can be used in clinical practice and outcome research

Shorerise and Bar-Berm Profiles on Ocean Beaches

A beach equilibrium model is developed that treats the outer (shorerise) portion of the profile independently from that of the inner (bar-berm) portion. The two portions are matched at the breakpoint-bar. The partitioning of the profile in this way is consistent with the different forcing modes on either side of the breakpoint. This formulation utilizes beach profile data not previously available. It is shown that both portions of the profile are well fitted by curves of the form h=Ax/sup m/, where h is positive downward and x is the positive offshore coordinate. Surprisingly, the value of m approximately=0.4 is nearly the same for shorerise and bar-berm and does not change significantly with seasonal beach changes (summer/winter). The principal difference between seasonal profiles is that in winter (higher waves) the breakpoint-bar is deeper and farther offshore while the berm crest is displaced landward. Thus the changes in seasonal equilibria are manifested by simple, self-similar displacements of the bar-berm and shorerise curves as a consequence of changes in surf zone width and O(1) variations in the factor A