In vitro and in vivo biocontrol performance of Trichoderma harzianum Rifai on Ganoderma boninense Pat. related to pathogenicity on oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.)

Ganoderma boninense, causes basal stem rot disease in oil palm, which leads to severe losses to the palm oil industry. The antagonistic effect of Trichoderma harzianum on G. boninense (a causal pathogen for oil palm) was tested by in vitro and in vivo studies. T. harzianum inhibited the mycelia growth of G. boninense on in vitro plate assay experiment and in vivo on the glass house grown oil palm plants. During the in vivo experiment, at first time point after one month, G. boninense development was found in oil palm root tissues in control plants whereas in T. harzianum treated plants no disease symptoms were observed until at the end of the experiment. It is a broad spectrum approach to use T. harzianum to control G. boninense infection of oil palm

Efficiency of ganciclovir ophthalmic gel of 0.15% in treatment of acute adenoviral keratconojunctivities

Background: Adenoviral eye infection is contagious, self-limiting, causing symptoms like burning, pain, photophobia, and tearing. Diagnosis is clinical; existing treatments lack consistency. Ganciclovir, a selective and less toxic antiviral, shows promise for inhibiting viral DNA synthesis. The primary objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of topical 0.15% Ganciclovir gel in treating adenoviral keratoconjunctivitis, focusing on symptom and sign improvement during the follow-up period. Methods: A study at the National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital included 40 adenoviral keratoconjunctivitis patients diagnosed by cornea specialists. Symptoms were scored on a 0-3 scale during a 6-week follow-up. Patients were randomly assigned to group 1 (0.15% ganciclovir) or group 2 (artificial tear control). Data included history and ophthalmic exams. Statistical analyses used SPSS version 13.0 with p<0.05 significance, employing unpaired t-tests and chi-square tests. Results: A study with 40 adenoviral keratoconjunctivitis patients assessed Ganciclovir 0.15% ophthalmic gel efficacy. No age difference between groups was observed. Most patients were male (82.5%), spanning different economic classes. Symptom variations included more foreign body sensation in group 1 and increased watering in group 2. Group 1 exhibited faster symptom improvement over 6 weeks, while group 2 had a slower decline. Both groups experienced complications, but group 1 showed faster recovery, suggesting Ganciclovir's potential efficacy in treating adenoviral keratoconjunctivitis. Conclusions: In summary, the study confirms the effectiveness of 0.15% Ganciclovir gel in treating acute adenoviral keratoconjunctivitis, showing statistically significant and rapid improvement in signs and symptoms

Comparison of outcome between suture and suture-less surgery following pterygium excision and conjunctival autograft

Background: A pterygium, known as surfer's eye, is a raised, wedge-shaped growth of the conjunctiva that extends onto the cornea, the outer layer of the eye. Aim was to compare the safety, efficacy and outcome of suture less technique with suture of conjunctival autograft in the management of pterygium. Methods: This study was carried out in the department of ophthalmology, Sir Salimullah medical college and Mitford hospital, Dhaka. Study period was July 2019 to June 2020. Subjects for this study were divided into two groups, forty patients were enrolled in each group of the study population. Group I (control) comprised the subjects in whom suture was used following pterygium excision and conjunctival autograft and group II (experimental) comprised the subjects in whom no suture was used following pterygium excision and conjunctival autograft. Results: In group I, 20% were 20-29 years old, 30% were 30-39, 27.5% were 40-49, and 22.5% were over 50, with 77.5% being male and 22.5% female. In group II, 22.5% were 20-29 years old, 27.5% were 30-39, 30% were 40-49, and 20% were over 50, with 72.5% being male and 27.5% female. The most common symptom was "foreign body sensation" in both groups. In group I, 5% experienced partial graft dehiscence, 2.5% a conjunctival cyst, 10% hyperemia, and 17.5% visual improvement. In group II, 2.5% had partial graft dehiscence, 2.5% hyperemia, and 22.5% visual improvement. Neither group had graft retraction or recurrence. Conclusions: Postoperative presentation like hyperemia was significantly less in experimental group. Incidence of post-operative complications like graft dehiscence and conjunctival cyst were comparatively less frequent in suture less technique. Thus, suture less technique following pterygium excision and conjunctival autograft is a safer and less complicated than sutured technique

Effectiveness of different phytohormones on grain filling and yield of rice (Oryza sativa L.) under drought stress

Drought is a major limiting factor affecting rice yield and productivity all over the world, including Malaysia. To induce drought resistance, there is an increasing interest in using different phytohormones for field crop production considering its efficiency, feasibility, cost and labour-effectiveness. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate effectiveness of five different phytohormone treatments as Vita-Grow Plus (commercial phytohormones product), epibrassinolide, spermine, pyroligneous acid and without any of those or control including three times of application (single spray at 35 days after sowing, DAS; double spray at 35 and 55 DAS and triple spray at 35, 55 and 85 DAS) on growth and yield parameters of rice (Oryza sativa L.). Drought stress was exposed by regulating irrigation schedule. It was observed that all applied growth regulators have more or less progressive effect on rice growth and productivity. Both epibrassinolide and spermine application caused highest grain filling and spermine application highest (66.4%) grain yield. Considering yield components and grain yield, double spray of phytohormones was best. Therefore, two times spray (35 and 55 DAS) of spermine could be suggested for rice cultivation in the drought affected areas of Malaysia or other areas in the tropical region with similar ecologies

An Analytic Hierarchy Process for~Student Motivation

International audienceThis paper presents an application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to evaluate student motivation in a university setting. The aim is to identify and prioritize factors affecting student motivation, including academic, personal, and environmental factors. The results of the AHP analysis provide insight into the relative importance of these factors and can be used to inform decisions about designing educational programs and interventions to enhance student motivation. The study demonstrates the usefulness of the AHP as a tool for addressing complex decision-making problems in education and offers a framework for future research on student motivation. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd

Interactive effects of gibberellic acid (GA3) and salt stress on growth, biochemical parameters and ion accumulation of two rice (Oryza sativa L.) varieties differing in salt tolerance

Exogenous application of different plant growth regulators has raised some concern for improving quality and quantity of yield in different crops especially under unfavourable conditions. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an important crop in the world and salinity is one the main abiotic stress factor affecting its productivity. To determine genotypic and ontogenetic variations of different physiological activities including water and nutrient uptake during salinity and effectiveness of exogenous GA3 application on those parameters, two different rice varieties (Pokkali and MR219) were cultivated under controlled environment using five different salinity levels (0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 mM NaCl) and with or without application of GA3 (150 ppm foliar spray). A remarkable reduction in grain yield (even no grain formation at higher salt concentration) in both rice varieties was observed during our observation. Rice variety MR219 was less competitive than Pokkali under salinity while exogenous application of GA3 is useful to mitigate salinity stress in rice as it increased different yield components and yield (8.7% in MR219 and 16.7% in Pokkali). Considering the trends of growth reduction due to salinity and progressive impact of exogenous GA3 application on different morphological, physiological and biochemical activities, it can be stated that application of GA3 is useful to mitigate salinity stress and its effectiveness is more active to salt tolerant varieties

Strength development in fine-grained paddy field soil by lime addition

Due to high population density, the people of Bangladesh are building houses and the government is establishing infrastructure (such as roads, flyovers, bridges) on agricultural land that pose significant settlement issues. Consequently, such development works require prior improvement of the soft soil or improvement during construction to restrict post-construction failures. Soil stabilization, a conventionally used ground improvement method, is often utilized to alter engineering properties of fine-grained soil such as strength, stability, permeability, weathering resistance, etc. to maintain the required construction criteria. Moreover, the addition of lime in the soil is demonstrated to markedly reduce the hydraulic conductivity, which will prevent the vertical movement of pore water. With this in mind, in the current study an attempt has been undertaken to increase the strength of fine-grained soil of agricultural land by adding commercially available hydrated lime, which may in the future be used as foundation material. For this purpose, lime was added at various percentages (0–12%) by weight to soil collected from a paddy field. The study noted the collected soils as being inorganic silts of high plasticity or organic clays of medium to high plasticity. Unconfined compression tests were conducted on cylindrical mold prepared specimens with clayey soil in the presence of lime, and all specimens were cured for 3–90 days for strength development. The study revealed 7% added lime as the optimum content, with the corresponding unconfined compressive strength (UCS) observed to be 344 kPa and 356 kPa at the end of 28 days and 90 days, respectively. The evolution of unconfined compressive strength was higher in hotter and more alkaline environments

Diagnosis of Malaria using Double Hidden Layer Extreme Learning Machine Algorithm with CNN Feature Extraction and Parasite Inflator

10.13039/501100003725-National Research Foundation of Korea-Grant Korean Government (Ministry of Science and ICT) (Grant Number: NRF-2020R1A2B5B02002478)Peer reviewedPublisher PD