DEVELOPMENT OF VOLATILE COMPOUNDS OF AVOCADO AND CASIMIROA DURING FRUIT MATURATION

Avocado fruits (Persea americana Mill) cv. Fuerte and white sapote (Casimiroa edulis) cv. Rotaceae cultivated in Egypt were collected at different maturity stages:green mature,commercial ripe and over ripe stages. The headspace volatiles of each maturity stage was isolated and subjected to gas chromatography- mass spectrometric analy-sis. A total of 43 components were identified in avocado aroma including; terpenes (15), esters (8), aldehydes (8), alcohols (6), ketones (2), thiazoles (l), pyridines (1), toluene and acetic acid, where as 18 compounds were, identified in casimiroa aro-ma, they contained (4) esters, (6) alcohols, (4) aldehydes, (3) terpenes and (1) ketone. Ethanol (Z)-3- hexenol and (E)-2- hexenal were the major constituents in green and ripe fruits of avocado whereas they decreased at the final stage of matu-ration. Over ripe avocado fruits had the highest content of esters (ethyl ethanoate, ethyl acetate and methyl propanoate) and terpenoides especially d-limonene and z-nerolidol. Esters and alcohols comprised more than 85% of the total concentra-tion of volatiles in casimiroa fruits during three stages of maturation. The highest content of ethyl butanoate (sweet and fruity aroma) and ethanol revealed the most prominent effect on consumer acceptability of the cosimiroa flavour attributes. It is obvious that maturation of the fruits was associ-ated with remarkable changes in the volatiles that mainly affect their flavour

Uterine Artery Occlusion for Treatment of Symptomatic Uterine Myomas

Both laparoscopic occlusion and superselective embolization of the uterine artery for symptomatic uterine leiomyomata improved clinical symptoms in the majority of patients

A phase II study of high-dose celecoxib and metronomic 'low-dose' cyclophosphamide and methotrexate in patients with relapsed and refractory lymphoma

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVESRelapsed, histologically aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) has a poor prognosis; relapsed patients who do not respond to second line therapy or are unfit for BMT have a worse prognosis. Angiogenesis is increased in aggressive NHL and could be targeted by selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibition and metronomic chemotherapy. We assessed the toxicity of metronomic chemotherapy and the response and progression-free survival in patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).PATIENTS AND METHODSWe prospectively studied 41 patients with a diagnosis of relapsed and/or refractory DLBCL who may have received any number of preceding therapies (as long as one included an anthracycline) and were not candidates for bone marrow transplantation. They received oral cyclophosphamide (50mg every day), oral methotrexate (2.5mg 4 times/week) and high-dose oral celecoxib (400mg twice daily) until there was disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.RESULTSAll 41 patients (median age, 56 years) were evaluable for toxicity and response, with a median follow up of 9.1months (range, 4-35 months). At relapse, 51.2% had a high international prognostic index. The treatment protocol was well tolerated with no major toxicities. The most common toxicities were fatigue (61%), nausea (22%), neutropenia (19.5%), and anemia (22%). In 31.7% there was a partial response and 48.8% had stable disease. Progression-free survival was 12 months. The median response duration was 10 months.CONCLUSIONSWe conclude that metronomic chemotherapy can be used for patients with relapsed and or refractory DLBCL with reasonable outcome and acceptable toxicity. Standard approaches such as hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and chemo-immunotherapy combinations should be explored prior to a decision on metronomic chemotherapy

Coapplication of effective microorganisms and nanomagnesium boosts the agronomic, physio-biochemical, osmolytes, and antioxidants defenses against salt stress in Ipomoea batatas

The application of bio- and nanofertilizers are undoubtedly opening new sustainable approaches toward enhancing abiotic stress tolerance in crops. In this study, we evaluated the application of effective microorganisms (EMs) of five groups belonging to photosynthetic bacteria, lactic acid bacteria, yeast, actinobacteria, and fermenting fungi combined with magnesium oxide (MgO) nanoparticles (MgO-NP) on the growth and productivity of sweet potato plants grown in salt-affected soils. In two field experiments carried out in 2020 and 2021, we tested the impacts of EMs using two treatments (with vs. without EMs as soil drench) coupled with three foliar applications of MgO-NP (0, 50, and 100 μg ml–1 of MgO, representing MgO-NP0, MgO-NP50, and MgO-NP100, respectively). In our efforts to investigate the EMs:MgO-NP effects, the performance (growth and yield), nutrient acquisition, and physio-biochemical attributes of sweet potatoes grown in salt-affected soil (7.56 dS m–1) were assessed. Our results revealed that salinity stress significantly reduced the growth parameters, yield traits, photosynthetic pigment content (chlorophylls a and b, and carotenoids), cell membrane stability, relative water content, and nutrient acquisition of sweet potatoes. However, the EMs+ and/or MgO-NP-treated plants showed high tolerance to salt stress, specifically with a relatively superior increase when any of the biostimulants were combined. The application of EMs and/or MgO-NP improved osmotic stress tolerance by increasing the relative water content and membrane integrity. These positive responses owed to increase the osmolytes level (proline, free amino acids, and soluble sugars) and antioxidative compounds (non-enzymatic concentration, enzymatic activities, phenolic acid, and carotenoids). We also noticed that soil salinity significantly increased the Na+ content, whereas EMS+ and/or MgO-NP-treated plants exhibited lower Na+ concentration and increased K+ concentration and K+/Na+ ratio. These improvements contributed to increasing the photosynthetic pigments, growth, and yield under salinity stress. The integrative application of EMs and MgO-NP showed higher efficacy bypassing all single treatments. Our findings indicated the potential of coapplying EMs and MgO-NP for future use in attenuating salt-induced damage beneficially promoting crop performance

Compuestos volátiles de queso Domiati fabricado de

Buffaloe's milk was manufactured to Domiati cheese with different fat content in the cheese milk (1%, 3.5% and 7%). Results obtained during the ripening period revealed that the low fat cheese (Karish) is not able to long period storage, while half cream cheese had a good quality and flavour along the ripening period. The full cream cheese did not exceed the first month of ripening, then it deteriorated. The main components found were acrolein (propenal), heptanal, acetone, butan-2 one, ethanol, butan-2 ol, 2-methylpropan- 1-ol, 3-methyl butan-1-ol, ethyl propionate, propyl propionate, pentane and octane. Methyl mercaptan, methyl thiopropionate, and dimethyl trisulfide together with propyl butyrate, were existed in the samples which are characterized as bad cheese samples. Most of the previous compounds were developed after 1 month of ripening period.La leche de búfalo fue procesada para obtener queso Domiati con diferente contenido graso en la cuajada (1%, 3.5% y 7%). Los resultados obtenidos durante el período de maduración revelaron que el queso con bajo contenido en grasa (Karish) no permite un largo período de almacenamiento, mientras que el queso con un contenido medio en grasa tuvo una buena calidad y flavor durante el período de maduración. El queso con alto contenido graso no duró más que el primer mes de maduración, deteriorándose posteriormente. Los principales componentes encontrados fueron acroleína (propenal), heptanal, acetona, butan-2-ona, etanol, butan-2-ol, 2- metil-propan-1-ol, 3 metil butan-1-ol, propionato de etilo, propionate de propilo, pentano y octano. Metil mercaptol, tiopropionato de metilo y trisulfuro de dimetilo Junto con butirato de propilo se encontraron en muestras que fueron caracterizadas como muestras de quesos malos. La mayoría de los compuestos anteriores se produjeron después de un mes de período de maduración

Interactive effects of soil salinity and water table depth on soil properties and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) production

Soil salinity and water table are the most prevalent and widespread problems limiting crop productivity in irrigated agriculture. Our experiment aims to evaluate the effect of soil salinity and water table on some soil properties, growth, and yield of sorghum (variety Giza 15) grown along two successive seasons. Nine different sites were chosen, representing three levels of soil salinity (i.e. ECe < 4, 4-8 and 8-16 dS m-1). For each salinity level three water table were selected (i.e. shallow ≈ 55 cm, medium ≈ 80 cm and deep ≈ 120 cm). Results revealed that there are main considerable effects of salinity and water table on some soil properties. Increasing of salinity caused significant decreases in plant growth, weight of 1000 grains (g), protein content% and  seed yield (t/ha) which decreased by 36.98%, 32.27%, 20.45%, 29.95 % and 57.46% respectively, when salinity increased from S1  to S3. On the other hand, decreasing of water table lead to improvement in all mentioned soil properties and plant growth. The results indicated that need to maintain low or moderate salinity and deep water table, which is essential for producing high sorghum grain yield with satisfactory quality

An improved design of a fully automated multiple output micropotentiometer

This paper describes in details a new design of a fully automated multiple output micropotentiometer (?pot). A prototype has been built at the National Institute for Standards (NIS), Egypt to establish this highly improved AC voltage source in the millivolt range. The new device offers three different outputs covering a wide frequency range from only one outlet. This valuably supports the precise sourcing ranges of low AC voltage at NIS. The design and the operation theory of this prototype have been discussed in details. An automatic calibration technique has been introduced through specially designed software using the LabVIEW program to enhance the calibration technique and to reduce the uncertainty contributions. Relative small AC-DC differences of our prototype in the three output ranges are fairly verified. The expanded uncertainties of the calibration results for the three output ranges have been faithfully estimated. However, further work is needed to achieve the optimum performance of this new device

Temperature effects on the electrical performance of large area multicrystalline silicon solar cells using the current shunt measuring technique

The temperature effects on the electrical performance of a large area multicrystalline silicon solar cell with back-contact technology have been studied in a desert area under ambient conditions using the current shunt measuring technique. Therefore, most of the problems encountered with traditional measuring techniques are avoided. The temperature dependency of the current shunt from 5ºC up to 50ºC has been investigated. Its temperature coefficient proves to be negligible which means that the temperature dependency of the solar cell is completely independent of the current shunt. The solar module installed in a tilted position at the optimum angle of the location, has been tested in two different seasons (winter and summer). The obtained solar cell short circuit current, open circuit voltage and output power are correlated with the measured incident radiation in both seasons and all results are discussed

Parameter extraction of solar photovoltaic models using queuing search optimization and differential evolution[Formula presented]

Given the photovoltaic (PV) model's multi-model and nonlinear properties, extracting its parameters is a difficult problem to solve. Furthermore, because of the features of the problem, the algorithms that are used to solve it are subject to becoming stuck in local optima. Nonetheless, proper estimation of the parameters is essential due to the large impact they have on the performance of the PV system in terms of current and energy production. Moreover, the majority of the previously proposed algorithms have satisfactory results for determining PV model parameters. However, for precision and robustness, they generally use a lot of computational resources, such as the quantity of fitness assessments. For alleviating the previous problems, in this paper, an improved queuing search optimization (QSO) algorithm dependent on the differential evolution (DE) technique and bound-constraint amendment procedure, which is called IQSODE, has been presented to efficiently extract the PV parameter values for various PV models. The DE algorithm is applied to each solution generated by the QSO algorithm in order to increase population diversity. IQSODE is tested against other state-of-the-art algorithms. The practical and statistical findings show that IQSODE outperforms other methods in extracting parameters from PV models such as single diode, double diode, and photovoltaic module models. Also, the performance of the proposed algorithm is assessed utilizing two practical manufacturer's datasheets (TFST40 and MCSM55). Statistically, the IQSODE outperforms other state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of convergence speed, reliability, and accuracy. Thus, the presented method is deemed to be a viable solution for PV model parameter extraction