Insight into the effects of H2SO4 and HNO3 acidification processes on the properties of coal as an enhanced adsorbent for ciprofloxacin residuals: Steric and energetic studies

A sub-bituminous natural coal sample (R.C) was treated with sulfuric acid (S.C) and nitric acid (N.C) as modified products and enhanced adsorbents for obtaining ciprofloxacin (CFX) antibiotic residuals from water. The characterization studied demonstrates enhancement in the surface area and the incorporation of new active oxygenated, sulfur-bearing, and nitrogen-bearing chemical groups into the structure of coal samples. This was reflected in the adsorption capacities that were enhanced from 164.08 mg/g (R.C) to 489.2 mg/g and 518.5 mg/g for N.C and S.C, respectively. The impact of the acid modification processes was evaluated based on the energetic and steric properties of their adsorption systems considering the parameters of the advanced monolayer equilibrium model with one energy site. The determined occupied active sites’ density of R.C (46.32–61.44 mg/g), N.C (168.7–364.9 mg/g), and S.C (159.2–249.9 mg/g) reflects an increase in the quantities of active centers after the acid treatment processes, especially with HNO3. The higher efficiencies of the active sites of S.C to adsorb more CFX molecules (n = 2.08–2.31) than N.C (n = 1.41–2.16) illustrate its higher adsorption capacity. The energetic investigation [adsorption (˂40 kJ/mol) and Gaussian (˂8 kJ/mol) energies] suggested adsorption of CFX by N.C and S.C mainly by physical processes such as van der Waals forces, hydrogen bonding, dipole bonding, and π–π interactions. Moreover, the determined thermodynamic functions including entropy, internal energy, and free enthalpy reflect the spontaneous and endothermic uptake of CFX on the surfaces of N.C and S.C

Impacts of Poultry House Environment on Poultry Litter Bacterial Community Composition

Viral and bacterial pathogens are a significant economic concern to the US broiler industry and the ecological epicenter for poultry pathogens is the mixture of bedding material, chicken excrement and feathers that comprises the litter of a poultry house. This study used high-throughput sequencing to assess the richness and diversity of poultry litter bacterial communities, and to look for connections between these communities and the environmental characteristics of a poultry house including its history of gangrenous dermatitis (GD). Cluster analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed differences in the distribution of bacterial phylotypes between Wet and Dry litter samples and between houses. Wet litter contained greater diversity with 90% of total bacterial abundance occurring within the top 214 OTU clusters. In contrast, only 50 clusters accounted for 90% of Dry litter bacterial abundance. The sixth largest OTU cluster across all samples classified as an Arcobacter sp., an emerging human pathogen, occurring in only the Wet litter samples of a house with a modern evaporative cooling system. Ironically, the primary pathogenic clostridial and staphylococcal species associated with GD were not found in any house; however, there were thirteen 16S rRNA gene phylotypes of mostly Gram-positive phyla that were unique to GD-affected houses and primarily occurred in Wet litter samples. Overall, the poultry house environment appeared to substantially impact the composition of litter bacterial communities and may play a key role in the emergence of food-borne pathogens

Genetic Evaluation of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Genotypes at Seedling Stage for Their Tolerance to Lead

Twelve Egyptian Rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes have been used in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) experiment with three replicates to study their tolerance to lead at seedling stage Those genotypes were: Giza 177, Giza 178, Giza 179, Giza 181, Giza 182, Sakha 101, Sakha 102, Sakha 103, Sakha 104, Sakha 105, Sakha 106 and Egyptian Yasmin. Final Germination Percentage (FGP), Germination Index (GI), Root Length (RL), Shoot Length and Root/Shoot Ratio (R/S %) were estimated under different concentrations of lead. Results indicated that there were highly significant differences between studied genotypes and treatments. Mean performance for studied characters was discussed. &nbsp

Combining Ability, Heterosis and Gene Action for Grain Yield and Its Related Traits of Some WA-CMS with Tester Lines of Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

An understanding the nature and relative extent of gene actions and combining ability is useful for a breeder to develop superior rice hybrids. In this association, an attempt was made to identify good general and specific combiners for selecting better parents and better cross combinations for developing high yielding and short duration rice hybrids. Four cytoplasmic male sterile lines viz., IR69625A, IR70368A, IR58025A and IR79575A were crossed with ten elite testers, 40 hybrids along with their fourteen parents were evaluated for grain yield and its related traits at the experimental farm of Rice Research and Training Center, Sakha, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt, during the rice-growing seasons of 2018 and 2019. The differences among genotypes, parents and crosses were highly significant for all studied traits. The specific combining ability (SCA) played the major role in determining inheritance traits, revealing that the largest part of the total genetic variability associated with most traits was a result of non-additive gene action. The parental line, IR58025A was demonstrated as a great general combiner for grain yield per plant and most of yield components and therefore could be utilized in future breeding programs to improve grain yield. HHZ12-SAL8-Y1-SAL1, HHZ5-Y7-Y2-SUB1 and HUA564 were seen as a good general combiner among testers for grain yield per plant and some studied traits. Four crosses, namely IR58025A / HHZ8-SAL9-DT2-Y2, IR70368A / WEED TOLERANT RICE1, IR70368A / HHZ12-SAL8-Y1-SAL1 and IR70368A / HHZ5-Y7-Y2-SUB1 exhibited significantly good specific combining ability effects for grain yield per plant. Hence, it can be seen that non-additive genetic effects are controlling the inheritance of the studied traits and indicated that selection for the traits inherited with this manner should be performed in the further generations.</jats:p

Insight into the effects of H2SO4 and HNO3 acidification processes on the properties of coal as an enhanced adsorbent for ciprofloxacin residuals: Steric and energetic studies

A sub-bituminous natural coal sample (R.C) was treated with sulfuric acid (S.C) and nitric acid (N.C) as modified products and enhanced adsorbents for obtaining ciprofloxacin (CFX) antibiotic residuals from water. The characterization studied demonstrates enhancement in the surface area and the incorporation of new active oxygenated, sulfur-bearing, and nitrogen-bearing chemical groups into the structure of coal samples. This was reflected in the adsorption capacities that were enhanced from 164.08 mg/g (R.C) to 489.2 mg/g and 518.5 mg/g for N.C and S.C, respectively. The impact of the acid modification processes was evaluated based on the energetic and steric properties of their adsorption systems considering the parameters of the advanced monolayer equilibrium model with one energy site. The determined occupied active sites’ density of R.C (46.32–61.44 mg/g), N.C (168.7–364.9 mg/g), and S.C (159.2–249.9 mg/g) reflects an increase in the quantities of active centers after the acid treatment processes, especially with HNO3. The higher efficiencies of the active sites of S.C to adsorb more CFX molecules (n = 2.08–2.31) than N.C (n = 1.41–2.16) illustrate its higher adsorption capacity. The energetic investigation [adsorption (˂40 kJ/mol) and Gaussian (˂8 kJ/mol) energies] suggested adsorption of CFX by N.C and S.C mainly by physical processes such as van der Waals forces, hydrogen bonding, dipole bonding, and π–π interactions. Moreover, the determined thermodynamic functions including entropy, internal energy, and free enthalpy reflect the spontaneous and endothermic uptake of CFX on the surfaces of N.C and S.C.</jats:p