Relationship between Photosynthetic Rate and Stomatal Conductance, Intercellular CO2 Concentration, Transpiration Rate, Vapour Pressure Deficit and Photosynthetically Active Radiation in Sweet Corn (Zea mays)

Corn plantation is number three largest plantation crops nowadays in Malaysia. Thus the reproductive process is critical to ensure the corn yield. Photosynthesis activities is one of the major elements which can be measured the corn plantation reproductive process during plantation. Through this photosynthesis activities, we can plan what is the best time to apply the corn plantation nutrients along the corn plantation until harvesting process. In the beginning of this study, the seeds were planted at a distance of 10 cm both between plants and rows. A total of eight subplots of 2.2 meter long, 60 cm wide and 30 cm high were prepared as Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). The photosynthesis activities was measured at day 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 around 9:00 am in the morning and 4:00 pm in the evening. Three uniform plants, one from each replicate were selected and the same leaf were sampled throughout the experiment. As a results, after day 30 and above, as an average, even the stomatal conductance still maintain opened, the other parameters such as intercellular CO2 concentration, transpiration rate, vapour pressure deficit base on leaf temperature and phosynthetically active radiation is going to decrease until the harvesting date. The energy for photosynthesis activity for vegetative process is valid start from early plantation until day 30. After day 30, it diverted to the photosynthesis activity to reproductive process to produce corn cobs

Application of beneficial microorganisms on agriculture

Food crisis has increasingly become a main issue discussed worldwide. In addition with the recent fuel price increase and the depletion of oil resources, there is a call for bio-fuel as an alternative, which further competes with food production in the agricultural sector. A sustainable agriculture development is needed to mitigate these issues. The ultimate goal of sustainable agriculture according to the National Research Council of USA is to develop farming systems that are productive, profitable, energyconserving, environmentally-sound, conserving of natural resources, and that ensure food safety and quality. Natural farming may provide a good alternative to solve the issues. The concepts and practices of natural farming make use of a consortium of beneficial microorganisms to improve soil health have originated from Han Kyu Cho and the Korean Natural Farming Association (KNFA) more than 30 years ago. However, this knowledge has only come into the English language in the last one to two decades. The practice is very similar to the technology of effective microorganisms (EM) originated by Professor Teruo Higa, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan [1, 2, 6]. EM consists of predominant populations of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts, and smaller numbers of photosynthetic bacteria, actinomycetes and other types of organisms that can be applied as microbial inoculants to increase the microbial diversity of soils and plants. EM shifts the soil microbiological equilibrium in ways that can improve soil quality, soil health, and hence the growth, yield, and quality of the crops. Indeed, soil quality is the key to a sustainable agriculture [6]. Beneficial microorganisms and indigenous microorganisms (IMO) generally refer to a large group of naturally occurring and often unknown or ill-defined microorganisms that interact favorably in soils and with plants to render beneficial effects which are sometimes difficult to predict. While EM usually denotes specific mixed cultures of known, beneficial microorganisms that are being used effectively as microbial inoculants that could exist naturally in soil or added as microbial inoculants to soil where they can improve soil quality, enhance crop production and create a more sustainable agriculture and environment [6]. Upon inoculation of beneficial microorganisms to the soil, they can function as biocontrol agents by controlling or suppressing soil-borne plant pathogens through their competitive and antagonistic activities. However, the use of mixed cultures in this approach has been criticized because it is difficult to demonstrate conclusively which microorganisms are responsible for the observed effects, how the introduced microorganisms interact with the indigenous species, and how these new associations affect the soil plant environment. Thus, the use of mixed cultures of beneficial micro-organisms as soil inoculants to enhance the growth, health, yield, and quality of crops has not gained widespread acceptance by the agricultural research establishment because conclusive scientific proof is often lacking [6]. Natural farming which relies on IMO is considered a type of organic farming. As opposed to conventional farming, organic farming does not use any agrochemicals as fertilizers or pesticides. Instead bio-fertilizers and traditional composting of animal or plant manures are used to provide nutrients for the plants. Therefore, it is a low-input but sustainable cropping system, enabling the natural roles of micro-organism to maintain soil fertility and bio-control of plant pathogens [3,4]. In Malaysia, application of IMO in natural farming has been actively adopted by farmers in at least three states since 2001 through the Asian Productivity Organization [4]. However, some of the local technologies only depend on farm testing and lack scientific results [5]. Thus, it suggested conducting research to verify efficiency and dosage of the products before they are marketed. For example, germination test and soil fertility test could be conducted and data should be interpreted using statistical analysis. Microbial diversity can also be determined using scientific methods such as fatty acid profiling, DNA microarray and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Apart of application on soil and plant, EM have also been widely applied on animal farmland to improve the management of environmental issues such as to reduce the stinky smell due to animal waste and the number of flies; and also to promote the production of organic fertilizer from animal and plant waste. Application of EM to the feed and drinks of the chickens has also been reported to improve the overall health of the animal [23]. The following sections described the case studies where EM was applied to provide improved growth and yield of the maize plants; as well as to improve the quality of meat and to lower the mortality among the Japanese quails

The effect of homogeneous catalyst for the degradation of sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate in water by means of ultrasonic irradiation

Linear Alkylbenzene Sulfonate (LAS) is a major anionic surfactant used widely in industrial detergents and the production of household products throughout the world because of its effectiveness. Its presence in wastewaters may cause environmental concern. Ultrasound has proven to be a very useful tool in enhancing the reaction rates in a variety of reacting systems. Additionally, it has successfully increased and enhanced the removal and destruction of volatile compounds in aqueous solution. The aim of this research is to study the treatment of synthetic aqueous solutions containing a commercial Linear Alkylbenzene Sulfonate (LAS), namely Sodium Dodecylbenzene Sulfonate (SDBS), by means of ultrasound irradiation. The possibility of coupling ultrasound with a suitable oxidation catalyst to improve treatment efficiency will also be investigated. HPLC, TOC, COD and pH analyses will be carried out to investigate the effect of degradation of SDBS. In this research, SDBS degradation with three different treatments (US alone, US with H2O2and US with Fenton reagent) was investigated. All treatment presented in this research were performed in triplicate by using sonication bath at 30 °C, 40 kHz , 500 W and sonication time of 120 min. From the discussion, by using the US + Fenton treatment appears to be the highest in terms of % TOC removal which is 67% and followed by the others two treatment which is US + H2O2 and US alone treatment have been achieved at 55% and 12%. It was found that the main degradation of SDBS proceeds via a reaction with OH radicals and since SDBS is anionic surfactant of negligible volatility. The initial degradation rate (d[SDBS]/dt, within the first 30 min) increases by using the US + Fenton treatment which is 0.68 M/min followed by US + H2O2 and US alone were achieved at 0.52 M/min and 0.44 M/min respectively

The benefits and limitations of methods development in solid phase extraction: mini review

Over recent years, there has been an explosive growth of sample preparation techniques. Sample preparation is in most cases meant to be the isolation online or offline concentration of some components of interest or target analytes. Solid phase extraction (SPE) is a very popular technique nowadays in sample preparation. The principal is quite similar with liquid- liquid extraction (LLE) which involves partition of solutes between two phases. But, there are some differences between them and some benefits and limitations of difference types of SPE technique like presented in this paper

Silage without supplementation: problems, advantages and lactic acid bacteria green approach

This article review started with some techniques which can indicate the quality of silage such as sensory evaluations (contour of bunker face, color and odor), chemical compositions (moisture, crude protein, soluble protein, ammonia nitrogen, acid detergent insoluble nitrogen, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, fermentation profiles and mould counts and mycotoxin concentrations) and physical characteristics (pH, temperature and particle size). But, most effective indicator is the nutritions quality. It was a key factor to reduce the production cost of feeding of ruminants. There are a lots of nutrients losses especially protein content of forage during fermentations. Lots of losses have been occured during aerobic phase and feedout. Most of the value of protein degradation rate is around 0.5-1.0% per day which gives bad performance especially at the end of fermentation result. There are two chemical process occurs which are Maillard reaction and acid hydrolysis of hemicellulose which both can effect silage quality especially the nutrient loss through degradation and utilization. Lactic acid is preferred to be dominant over other silage fermentation acids because it has a lower dissociation constant (Ka=3.86) which can be major organic acid responsible for decreasing silage pH. Lactic acid bacteria application so-called as green application will give 20 gram of lactic acid production per kilogram compare to control that resulted almost neal lactic acid. This acidic condition will help to stabilize the silage through green low pH condition instead of apply chemical like strong acid which give negative impact and in the same time can reduce the nutrient loss along fermentation and storage

Survival of encapsulated probiotics through spray drying and non-refrigerated storage for animal feeds application

The objective of this study is to verify potential of various types of microorganisms during spray drying and non-refrigerated storage that can be enhanced substantially by selecting suitable protective colloids. Four selected probiotics tested are Lactbacillus plantarum B13 and B18, which are the bacteria probiotics and Kluyveromyces lactis and Saccharomyces blouradii, non-bacteria probiotics. Two levels of experiment occur starting with formulation study of encapsulation agent followed by the viability study of different probiotics after spray dry and two weeks nonrefrigerated storage. The formulation of 30% of gum Arabic, 15% of gelatin and 45% of coconut oil can homogenize well at least for two hours and can produce acceptable dried product (below 4% of moisture content) at low outlet temperature (70? -75?). K. lactis, S. blouradii gives 2.57% and 2.4% of viability percentage after spray drying process and 25.84% and 2.04% after two weeks nonrefrigerated storage respectively. The colonies of non-probiotics bacteria after both conditions are between 1010 and 106 cfu/mL which is among the accepted level for industrial application. However, the survival of probiotics in a spray-dried form during non-refrigerated storage is higher at low of moisture content compared to others

Biohydrogen production from pineapple biomass residue using immobilized co-culture of clostridium sporogenes and enterobacter aerogenes

In this study, the co-culture bacteria of Clostridium sporogenes and Enterobacter aerogenes were immobilized onto two different support materials: loofah sponge and activated carbon (AC) sponge. Both immobilized co-cultures were used in the batch fermentation of pineapple residues for biohydrogen production. The performance of both immobilized loofah and AC sponge was compared with free cell (FC) co-culture in terms of biohydrogen cumulative production and production rate within 48 hr fermentation time. It was found that the immobilized co-culture on AC sponge produced the highest rate of biohydrogen of 35.9 mmol/hr/Lsubstrate compared to loofah and FC co-culture after 24 hr fermentation. However, in terms of preservation of biohydrogen production rate, loofah as a support showed better consistency in terms of performance for 48 hr fermentation time compared to AC. This study also showed that the pH of substrate has a relation to the optical density (OD600) reduction of the bacteria, which could affect biohydrogen production rate

Removal of silica from rice straw by using alkaline hydrogen peroxide solution in a fixed bed column

This paper investigates the efficiency of alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP) solution to remove silica from rice straw in a fixed-bed column. Characterization of rice straw was performed by using Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The experiments were operated with different bed heights (12 and 7 cm), influent H2O2 concentrations (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 %) using constant flow rates (2 mL/min) in order to obtain experimental breakthrough curves. The maximum silica removal was observed 3.0575 mg/g at 8% of AHP influent concentration at 12 cm bed depth. To evaluate the column performance, Adams-Bohart model and Thomas model were used. To analyzed the Adams- Bohart and Thomas model parameter the value of rate constant decreases with increase of influent concentration, but increases with increasing the bed depth

Kinetic analysis of biohydrogen formation using immobilized hydrogen-producing bacteria on activated carbon sponge from pineapple residues

Pineapple residues are one of potential biomass feedstock for biohydrogen production. The most convenient way to produce biohydrogen from pineapple residual is through fermentation proses. The process is environmentally friendly and consumes low energy, but generally the process has low yield production. Various strategies can be used to increase production, including the use of immobilized cells in fermentation. The performance of the process can be explained as realistically as possible by the appropriate kinetic model. In this work, a kinetic analysis on fermentative biohydrogen production using different hydrogenproducing bacteria immobilized onto activated carbon sponge has been performed. The performance of cumulative and biohydrogen production rate were assessed using modified Gompertz equation via Excel solver application. All fermentation processes were carried out at a condition of initial pH 7 and temperature of 32 ± 1°C, with 30% v/v inoculum of working volume in batch process. Three different hydrogen-producing bacteria were used, namely Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes and Clostridium sporogenes, were immobilized onto activated carbon sponge and in free cell form as comparison. Based on best fitting curve results on the cumulative biohydrogen production, it was found that modified Gompertz equation were fitted well with all the experimental results of all regression values, R2 were greater than 0.9. This study also presented that E. aerogenes and C. sporogenes able to produce better result compared to E.coli in term of production of biohydrogen The modified Gompertz equation would be useful for further analysis of biohydrogen production performance of selected hydrogen-producing bacteria culture immobilized onto activated sponge from pineapple residues