Women in fisheries in the European Union

Role of women, Fisheries, Europe,

Effect of Irrigation and Potash Levels on Keeping Quality of Potato

Irrigation and fertilizer are the most dominating factors, in deciding the keeping quality of potato. It is, therefore, essential to formulate the efficient, reliable and economically viable irrigation management strategy with the use of potassium nutrient in order to produce better keeping quality. The investigation comprising four levels of irrigation (25, 30, 35 and 40 mm CPE (Cumulative pan evaporation) and four levels of potash (0, 100, 125 and 150 kg/ha) was carried out at Research Farm of the Department of Vegetable Science, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, (Haryana) Hisar, India during two years to find out the optimum level of irrigation and potash for obtaining higher yield of potatoes with better keeping quality at ambient room temperature. The potato variety used for the investigation was Kufri Bahar. The treatments were laid out in a split plot design with three replications. The increasing levels of irrigation and potash showed significant improvement in keeping quality parameters of potato. Likewise, the values for physiological loss in weight and decay loss of potato tubers (%) at 15, 30, 45 and 60 days after harvest were the lowest with irrigation level 40 mm CPE and application of potash @ 150 kg/ha. The two years results suggest that the irrigation level 40 mm CPE along with potash @ 150 kg/ha has shown the best treatment combination for the storage of potato at ambient room temperature under semiarid conditions of Hisar (Haryana)

Investigation of the Properties of Acid- Contaminated Sediment and its Effect on Contaminant Mobility

The Savannah River Site (SRS), is a hazardous waste management facility responsible for nuclear storage and remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater. Underground vitrified clay pipes were used to transport acid radioactive effluents to the basins and allowed to evaporate and seep into the underlying soil. Over time the acidic nature of the basin influent caused mobilization of metals and radionuclides resulting in localized groundwater contaminant plumes. The main objective of this study is to assess the impact of prolonged contact between soil and the acidic waste stream and more specifically, the change in specific surface area and pore distribution of the soil. These parameters are known to affect a substrate’s ability to retain metals. Batch kinetic experiments were conducted by bringing in contact soil samples from the SRS F/H Area with nitric acid, pH 2.5, in polypropylene vials. Every day an aliquot was isolated from the supernatant, diluted 1:10 with 1% nitric acid and analysis for Al, Si and Fe was performed by means of Inductively Coupled Plasma- Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). These elements can be traced back to soil’s composition of kaolinite and goethite. Preliminary results indicate that the concentration of Al, Fe and Si in the supernatant as a function of time follows an identical pattern: the concentration gradually increases up to 11 ppm for Al and Si and 7 ppm for Fe. Al and Si concentrations were higher since kaolinite is present in the soil in higher concentrations than goethite. Future work will include the determination of the specific surface area and pore distribution of soil isolated at different time intervals. These properties will be correlated to the soil’s capacity to retain U(VI) during sorption experiments

Diversity Oriented Synthesis, Characterization and Anti-Cancer Activity of Killer Peptide Nucleolipid Bioconjugates

The killer peptide sequence D-(KLAKLAK)2 has been originally designed and developed as an antibacterial agent. Despite having excellent cytotoxicity towards bacteria, this sequence maintains low cell cytotoxity in malignant mammalian cell types such as cancer. The chemical basis for its selectivity has been attributed to its poly(cationic) amphiphilic nature, which facilitates cell permeability across the negatively charged bacterial membrane, but with limited permeability across the zwitterionic membrane of mammalian cells. The positively charged D-(KLAKLAK)2 sequence has been found to accumulate on the surface of the mitochondria causing dissipation of the negatively charged mitochondrial membrane potential. This charge disruption results in membrane lysis and the secretion of cell death markers that ultimately lead to programmed cell death. In order to overcome the limited activity of the D-(KLAKLAK)2 sequence in malignant tumor cell types, we proposed that chemically robust and structurally pre-organized amphiphilic nucleolipids would function to enhance cell permeability and mitochondria localization in tumors, resulting in potent and long-lasting anti-cancer effects. In this study, thymidine-derived nucleolipids were rationally designed to contain 3’-lipid appendages and a reactive 5’-carboxy group. A diversity oriented synthesis approach featuring a reductive amination procedure was developed for making a small library of amphiphilic nucleolipids. Solid phase bioconjugation coupled the nucleolipids with the pro-apoptotic D-(KLAKLAK)2 sequence for exploring structure-activity relationships. The peptide nucleolipid conjugates were found to self-assemble into amphiphilic nanoparticle formulations that promoted anti-cancer activity in a selected panel of cancer cells. This thesis will serve to highlight the most important findings towards the development of peptide-nucleolipid conjugates that effectively serve as potent anti-cancer agents