Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) seeds as unconventional nutritional source

The composition of roselle seed from oil, protein, ash, fiber, fatty acids and amino acids was determined and compared in three cultivars in order to use it as an unconventional nutritional source. Aswan cv. occupies the highest significant rank in protein (31.51), oil (23.70) and fiber (4.87%) contents. Aswan and Sewa cvs. had the highest significant unsaturated fatty acid composition, especially oleic and linoleic acids, with oleic acid having values of 36.22 and 33.34% and linoleic acid, 14.95 and 15.10% values. Protein of Aswan cv. had the highest significant values of seven essential amino acids and four non-essential amino acids, especially lysine and phenylalanine.Key words: Amino acids, fatty acids, nutrition, oil, protein, roselle, unconventional crops

Effect of Marginal-Quality Irrigation on Accumulation of some Heavy Metals (Mn, Pb, and Zn) in TypicTorripsamment Soils and Food Crops

Lack of active sorption sites in sandy soils renders metals added by irrigation water more labile and increases their soil-to-plant transfer. Thus, this study investigated the long-term impacts of irrigation using sewage effluents and contaminated groundwater on metal accumulations in TypicTorripsamment soils, and edible parts of food crops. Nine sites in El-Gabal El-Asfar farm, south-eastern to the Nile Delta of Egypt, were selected. At each site, irrigation water, soil (0-30 cm), and the crop's edible part were sampled in triplicates and analyzed for Mn, Pb, and Zn. Results revealed significant (p < 0.05) differences in metal concentrations among water sources. Thus, constant irrigation caused significant spatial variations in total and available metal contents in soils. Total contents of Pb (in four sites) and Zn (in all sites) exceed the lithosphere range, while the available contents of the three metals exceeded the safe limits in all soils. The index of geo-accumulation indicated no Mn pollution but showed elevated pollution risks for Pb and Zn. The three metals showed high availability ratios, proving the effect of light soil texture. The multivariate statistical analysis indicated that Mn and Zn had similar geochemical behaviors in soils. Metal contents in all crop's edible parts surpassed the safe limits. The bioaccumulation factor (BAF) was less than 1.0 for Mn and Zn but higher than 1.0 for Pb. The highest BAFs occurred in cabbage leaves, indicating the phytoextraction potential of this species. Sufficient water treatment and proper remediation techniques are recommended to alleviate metal accumulation in food crops and their transfer via the food chain

Synthesis and biological assessment of new benzothiazolopyridine and benzothiazolyl- triazole derivatives as antioxidant and antibacterial agents

ABSTRACT. A novel series of benzothiazolopyridine derivatives was synthesized via interaction of -2-(benzothiazol-2-yl)-3-(4-chlorophenyl)acrylonitrile (2) with a diverse of commercially available reagents (indandione, thiobarbituric acid, and malononitrile). Moreover, a novel group of benzothiazole linked substituted 1,2,3-triazole derivatives were synthesized by exploring the chemical behavior of 5-benzothiazolyl-2-(4-chlorophenyl)-triazol-4-amine through refluxing in glacial acetic acid, condensation with phthalic anhydride, and cyanoacetylation reactions. All newly synthetized compounds have been tested for their antioxidant and antibacterial activities compared with ascorbic acid and Ampicillin as reference drugs, respectively. The benzothiazolo- pyridopyrimidine compound 6 was found the most potent antioxidant agent with IC50 = 0.015 mg/mL compared to the results of ascorbic acid (IC50 = 0.022 mg/mL). The investigated compounds showed no antibacterial properties against Gram-negative bacterial species, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli. Benzothiazolopyridine derivative 5 displayed the best growth inhibition against Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus with inhibition zones 24 and 20 mm, respectively.   KEY WORDS: Benzothiazole, Pyridobenzothiazole, 1,2,3-Triazole, Naphtharidine, Antioxidant   Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2022, 36(2), 451-463.                                                              DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v36i2.17                                                     &nbsp

An efficient framework for adequacy evaluation through extraction of rare load curtailment events in composite power systems

With the growing robustness of modern power systems, the occurrence of load curtailment events is becoming lower. Hence, the simulation of these events constitutes a challenge in adequacy indices assessment. Due to the rarity of the load curtailment events, the standard Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) estimator of adequacy indices is not practical. Therefore, a framework based on the enhanced cross-entropy-based importance sampling (ECE-IS) method is introduced in this paper for computing the adequacy indices. The framework comprises two stages. Using the proposed ECE-IS method, the first stage’s purpose is to identify the samples or states of the nodal generation and load that are greatly significant to the adequacy indices estimators. In the second stage, the density of the input variables’ conditional on the load curtailment domain obtained by the first stage are used to compute the nodal and system adequacy indices. The performance of the ECE-IS method is verified through a comparison with the standard MCS method and the recent techniques of rare events simulation in literature. The results confirm that the proposed method develops an accurate estimation for the nodal and system adequacy indices (loss of load probability (LOLP), expected power not supplied (EPNS)) with appropriate convergence value and low computation time

Integrating Pre-Earthquake Signatures From Different Precursor Tools

Potential earthquake precursors include, among others, electromagnetic fields, gas emissions, Land Surface Temperature (LST), Sea Surface Temperature (SST), and Surface Air Temperature (SAT) anomalies. These observables have been individually studied, before earthquakes, by many researchers. The ionospheric studies concerning earthquakes (EQs) using magnetic data from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are increasingly being used to detect ionospheric anomalies before large EQs. Also, LST, SST, and SAT values retrieved from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra and Aqua satellites and Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA-2) are considered as physical precursors before EQs. In this work, we jointly analyze magnetic, MODIS, and MERRA-2 data in space and time around the epicenters before the selected EQs in Mexico, Japan, Chile, and Indonesia. Our analyses present interesting findings where anomalies in temperature and magnetic field, preceding the considered EQs, are confirmed through different methods. Particularly, we utilize the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) for analyzing magnetic data over the designated EQs regions. We use the magnetic data acquired by Swarm satellites in the top side ionosphere along with MODIS and MERRA-2. Five case studies are described to prove the effectiveness of our analyses. Precursory anomalies were observed using these methods in different anomalous days from the considered four regions of interest around the epicenter. It is concluded that these methods could be effective and reliable in detecting anomalies preceding the upcoming EQs

Design and Analysis of Circular Polarized Two-Port MIMO Antennas with Various Antenna Element Orientations

This article presents the circularly polarized antenna operating over 28 GHz mm-wave applications. The suggested antenna has compact size, simple geometry, wideband, high gain, and offers circular polarization. Afterward, two-port MIMO antenna are designed to get Left Hand Circular Polarization (LHCP) and Right-Hand Circular Polarization (RHCP). Four different cases are adopted to construct two-port MIMO antenna of suggested antenna. In case 1, both of the elements are placed parallel to each other; in the second case, the element is parallel but the radiating patch of second antenna element are rotated by 180°. In the third case, the second antenna element is placed orthogonally to the first antenna element. In the final case, the antenna is parallel but placed in the opposite end of substrate material. The S-parameters, axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) gain, and radiation efficiency are studied and compared in all these cases. The two MIMO systems of all cases are designed by using Roger RT/Duroid 6002 with thickness of 0.79 mm. The overall size of two-port MIMO antennas is 20.5 mm × 12 mm × 0.79 mm. The MIMO configuration of the suggested CP antenna offers wideband, low mutual coupling, wide ARBW, high gain, and high radiation efficiency. The hardware prototype of all cases is fabricated to verify the predicated results. Moreover, the comparison of suggested two-port MIMO antenna is also performed with already published work, which show the quality of suggested work in terms of various performance parameters over them

Applying an internal transcribed spacer as a single molecular marker to differentiate between Tetraselmis and Chlorella species

In the realm of applied phycology, algal physiology, and biochemistry publications, the absence of proper identification and documentation of microalgae is a common concern. This poses a significant challenge for non-specialists who struggle to identify numerous eukaryotic microalgae. However, a promising solution lies in employing an appropriate DNA barcoding technique and establishing comprehensive databases of reference sequences. To address this issue, we conducted a study focusing on the molecular characterization and strain identification of Tetraselmis and Chlorella species, utilizing the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) barcode approach. By analyzing the full nuclear ITS region through the Sanger sequencing approach, we obtained ITS barcodes that were subsequently compared with other ITS sequences of various Tetraselmis and Chlorella species. To ensure the reliability of our identification procedure, we conducted a meticulous comparison of the DNA alignment, constructed a phylogenetic tree, and determined the percentage of identical nucleotides. The findings of our study reveal the significant value of the ITS genomic region as a tool for distinguishing and identifying morphologically similar chlorophyta. Moreover, our results demonstrate that both the ITS1 and ITS2 regions are capable of effectively discriminating isolates from one another; however, ITS2 is preferred due to its greater intraspecific variation. These results underscore the indispensability of employing ITS barcoding in microalgae identification, highlighting the limitations of relying solely on morphological characterization

Microscopic and molecular detection of piroplasms among sheep in Upper Egypt

IntroductionBlood parasites pose a significant threat to livestock production in southern Egypt, yet there is a scarcity of information regarding their circulation and epidemiology in sheep in this region. This study aimed to investigate the seroprevalence of blood parasite infections in sheep in Assiut governorate, Upper Egypt.MethodsA total of 400 blood samples were collected from sheep of varying ages and genders. The preliminary screening for the presence of piroplasms, mainly Babesia and Theileria spp., via microscopic examination, followed by investigation of the potential risk factors linked with the exposure to infection. Moreover, molecular identification of both parasites on some of positive samples was performed using PCR targeting Babesia 18S rRNA and Theileria annulata Tams1 gene.ResultsThe microscopic examination revealed that among the examined sheep, there was an overall prevalence of blood parasites at 44% (176 out of 400), with Babesia spp. observed in 14% (56 out of 400) and Theileria spp. in 30% (120 out of 400). Furthermore, the infection rate was non-significantly higher in young animals (50%) compared to adults (38.5%) (P = 0.246). Male sheep exhibited a significantly higher vulnerability to both parasites' infection (63.3%) compared to females (35.7%) (P = 0.011). Interestingly, the prevalence of both blood parasites was significantly higher during the cold season (66.1%) compared to the hot season (15.9%) (P = < 0.001). The molecular analysis identified the presence of Babesia ovis and Theileria annulata among a subsample of the positive sheep's bloods films. The identified species were recorded in the GenBank™ databases and assigned specific accession numbers (OQ360720 and OQ360719 for B. ovis), and (OP991838 for T. annulata).ConclusionsTaken together, this study confirms a high prevalence of piroplasmosis and offers epidemiological and molecular insights into blood parasites in sheep from Upper Egypt, highlighting the importance of detecting these parasites in various hosts and their competent vectors (ticks)