The Regulation of Ion Homeostasis, Growth, and Biomass Allocation in Date Palm Ex Vitro Plants Depends on the Level of Water Salinity

The date palm, a central plant in the fragile oasis ecosystem, is considered one of the fruit species most tolerant to salt stress. However, the tolerance mechanisms involved are yet to be addressed and their evaluation until now was mainly based on heterogenous plant material such as seedlings or limited to in vitro experiment conditions. For these reasons, we propose to deepen our knowledge of the morphological and physiological responses to salt stress using acclimated ex vitro plants resulting from the propagation of a single genotype. The plants were irrigated with 0, 150, 300, or 450 mM NaCl solutions for four months. Our results showed that the influence of water salinity on growth and ion-homeostasis regulation was very dependent on stress levels. The 150 mM NaCl concentration was found to improve dry biomass by about 35%, but at higher salt concentrations (300 and 450 mM) it decreased by 40–65%. The shoot:root dry mass ratio decreased significantly at the 150 mM NaCl water concentration and then increased with increasing water salt concentration. The leaf:root ratio for Na+ and Cl− decreased significantly with increasing water salinity up to a concentration of 300 mM NaCl, and then stabilized with similar values for 300 mM and 450 mM NaCl. In contrast to Na+ and Cl−, leaf K+ content was significantly higher in the leaf than in the root for all salt treatments. Unlike Na+ and K+, Cl− was expelled to the surface of leaves in response to increased water salinity. Overall, date palm plants appear to be more capable of excluding Cl− than Na+ and of changing biomass allocation according to salt-stress level, and their leaves and roots both appear to play an important role in this tolerance strategy.All authors are funded through the Small Research group project from the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University under research grant number (R.G.P.1/295/43).Peer reviewe

MIMO intelligent-PID controller design for half car system based on model free control technique

A novel decoupled Multi-Input-Multi-Output Model Free Control strategy is presented in this paper to improve the performance of an active suspension system implemented on a half car model. To damp vibrations generated by road excitation, an algebraic online compensator was integrated in the structure of a classical PID controller to avoid the impact of unpredictable disturbances. The key element of the proposed technique is a non-asymptotic observer that can avoid the use of statistical conventional techniques. Furthermore, the advantage of easy implementation is achieved where only two accelerometers are sufficient and adequate. A comparison with classical PID and LQR is provided to demonstrate the improvement made by the proposed scheme

Mathematical methodology for optimization of the clamping forces accounting for workpiece vibratory behaviour

This paper addresses the problem of determining the minimum clamping forces that ensure the dynamic fixturing stability. The clamping force optimization problem is formulated as a bi-level nonlinear programming problem and solved using a computational intelligence technique called particle swarm optimization (PSO). Indeed, we present an innovative simulation methodology that is able to study the effects of fixture-workpiece system dynamics and the continuously change due to material removal on fixturing stability and the minimum required clamping forces during machining. The dynamic behaviour of the fixtured workpiece subjected to time-and space-varying machining loads is simulated using a forced vibration model based on the regenerative vibrations of the cutter and workpiece excited by the dynamic cutting forces. Indeed, Material removal significantly affects the fixture-workpiece system dynamics and subsequently the minimum clamping forces required for achieving fixturing dynamic stability

PRODUCTION OF XANTHAN GUM FROM XANTHOMONAS CAMPESTRIS NRRL B-1459 BY FERMENTATION OF DATE JUICE PALM BY-PRODUCTS (PHOENIX DACTYLIFERA L.)

In this work, we studied the possibility to use date juice for xanthan gum production by Xanthomonas campestris NRRL B-1459. The results showed that this strain has a high ability to metabolize date juice. The data on optimization of physiological conditions of fermentation, pH, temperature, inoculum's size, glucose and nitrogen concentration showed that the maximum xanthan yield of 24.5 g/L was obtained from 60 g/L glucose, 3 g/L ammonium sulphate when batch fermentation was carried with 5% inoculum's size at pH 7, 28C, 48 h, on a rotary orbital shaker at 180 rpm. The polysaccharide purified by high performance liquid chromatography and analyzed by thin layer chromatography contained glucose, glucoronic acid and mannose. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Agri-food by-products rich in sugars may be used to produce high added value food ingredients such as xanthan gum. No work has studied the production of this polysaccharide from date. This study is focused on given value addition to date by-product (hard texture) by production of xanthan gum. The effect of several parameters (pH, temperature, inoculum's size, agitation speed, nitrogen source and carbon concentration) on production yield was investigated

Optimisation of xanthan gum production by palm date (Phoenix dactylifera L.) juice by-products using response surface methodology

The present study was undertaken investigate and optimise the possibility of xanthan gum production by Xanthomonas campestris NRRL B-1459 in batch experiments on date palm juice by-products. Using an experimental Response Surface Methodology complemented with a Central Composite Orthogonal Design, three major independent variables (date juice carbon source, nitrogen source and temperature) were evaluated for their individual and interactive effects on biomass and xanthan gum production. The optimal conditions selected were: 84.68 g/l for carbon source, 2.7 g/l for nitrogen source, and 30.1 degrees C for temperature. The experimental value obtained for xanthan production under these conditions was about 43.35 g/l, which was close to the 42.96 g/l value predicted by the model. Higher yields of biomass production could be obtained at 46.68 g/l for carbon source, 4.58 g/l for nitrogen source and 30 degrees C for temperature. The maximum value obtained for biomass production was 3.35 g/l, which was higher than the 2.98 g/l value predicted by the model. The xanthan formed was subjected to HPLC and TLC analyses and its molecular weight as well as pyruvate content were identified. The findings indicated that this polysaccharide contained glucose, glucoronic acid and mannose. Overall, the date palm juice by-products presented in the current study seem to exhibit promising properties that can open new pathways for the production of efficient and cost-effective xanthan gum. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved