Investigating Nano-Titanium Dioxide on the Morphological and Biochemical Characteristics of Some Strawberry Cultivars under Hydroponic Cultivation Conditions

Introduction  Today, in the commercial production of strawberries, short day cultivars  are used due to having large fruits of desirable quality. Among  the short  day cultivars available in Iranare Camarosa, Atabaki, Gaviota, Queen Aliza, Paros and McDonance, which can be cultivated at greenhouse. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles are one of the metal oxides that exist in three forms of rutile, brookite and anatase, which affect growth, enzymatic activity and photosynthesis. Reported titanium nano dioxide in the highest concentration used (11.5 mg/l) increases fruit formation  percentage, leaf chlorophyll content, vitamin C content, fruit  ripening index, fresh and dry weight of roots and shoots and yield of strawberries. In another study, it was shown that titanium dioxide treatment under drought stress can increase photosynthetic pigments, total soluble solids, vitamin C, phenol, flavonoid, anthocyanin, and antioxidant activity, and it also improved plant performance. increase the strawberry cultivar Ventana compared to the control treatment. In a research found that spraying titanium increases the biomass, fertility and quality of peach fruit. It has alsow been showed that the pomegranate size of flowers and fruits increased with using titanium nano dioxide, and this can increase the quantity and quality of Alberta peach cultivar. Foliar application of titanium nano dioxide in cucumber has been reported to increase photosynthesis  and  phenolic content  and reduce lipid peroxidation. In a research, it was shown that titanium dioxide nanoparticles increased photosynthesis rate, water conductivity and transpiration rate in tomato leaves. Despite the effect of titanium dioxide nanoparticles on the quantitative and qualitative improvement of some agricultural products, the researches conducted on strawberry plants were not complete or were only conducted on a specific variety. Therefore, with the aim of investigating and comparing the morphological and biochemical traits of some commercial strawberry cultivars under the effect of foliar spraying with titanium­dioxide, the above research was conducted.   Materials and Methods  This research was conducted to investigate the effect of nano titanium dioxide foliar spraying on four strawberry cultivars in the hydroponic greenhouse of the Department of Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in 2020-2021. Experimental treatments included 4 levels of titanium nano dioxide (0, 5, 10 and 20 mg/l) and 4 strawberry cultivars (Sabrina, Paros, Gaviota and Camarosa) with 4 replications. The research was done in a factorial manner based on a completely random design. JMP 8 software was used to perform variance analysis and compare the averages of the measured traits. Means were compared using Tukey test at 5% probability level and graphs were drawn using Excel 2010 software. Results and Discussion  According to the tables of mutual effects of titanium dioxide nano treatments and varieties, it can be found that the application of titanium dioxide nanoparticles had a positive effect on the desired characteristics in all four studied strawberry varieties. So that the application of different levels of titanium dioxide nano particles causes a significant increase in quantitative traits (number of leaves, leaf area, root length, fresh and dry weight of aerial and root parts, photosynthetic pigments) The yield-dependent traits compared to the control plants were found in strawberry-strawberry cultivars. Nano titanium dioxide had an effect in increasing the number of fruits and vegetative traits of all investigated cultivars, in such a way that, on the one hand, with a balanced increase in vegetative growth, and on the other hand, improving the efficiency of photosynthesis and absorption through the roots and increasing the percentage of fruit formation. , increased the yield per plant. Also, sprinkling of titanium nanoparticles on all levels caused a significant increase in juice pH, TSS, TA, vitamin C, anthocyanin, total phenol, flavonoid and in general qualitative traits compared to the control. In the treatment of nano titanium dioxide, especially at the level of 10 mg/liter, better results were observed. Conclusion According to the results, the use of Paros and Gaviota cultivars is recommended to farmers and agricultural researchers due to its high yield and good quality

Interpretation and power : a study of contemporary reformist trends in muslim societies andtheir relationship to UN standards of human rigths

This study focuses on the issues of politics and power in contemporary Muslim societies. It is a study of the reformist trends in contemporary Muslim societies, and Islam s relation with politics and human rights is viewed from this perspective. The starting point for the discussion in this paper is the fact that UN standards of human rights are violated by most of the governments of contemporary Muslim societies. Neither in theory, as manifested through the various Islamic schemes for human rights (Mayer 1995), nor in practice do contemporary Muslim societies adhere adequately to the standards of human rights. Given this, the question is 'why is that so?' and 'what can be done to improve the situation?' The study compares the theory of the Sudanese professor An-Na´im with that of Ayatollah Khomeini. Neither one of these persons denies the fact that the Islamic law is in conflict with UN standards of human rights. Both persons are declared Muslims, and both justify their theories by using Islamic argumentation, and yet their views are diametrically opposed to each other. Comparing these two extremes, this study tries to throw some light on the question of the relationship between Islam and human rights. It also tries to explore the feasible sets of political regimes or traditions that may enjoy stable majority support in contemporary Muslim societies in the future. Chapter 2 gives a compact presentation of the Islamic law (the Shari´a) and the points of its conflicts with UN standards of human rights. This chapter suggests that The Shari´a conflicts with UN standards of human rights with regards to the status of individuals before the law, as it discriminates against women, non-Muslims and Muslims who convert to other religions. Furthermore, being a pre-modern law, the Shari´a recognises slavery. The Shari´a also conflicts with the standards of human rights with regards to its penal law and legal procedures, since it legalises torture and inhuman punishments, and it violates the individual s entitlement to equal access to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal. Chapter 3 presents a systematic analysis of the contemporary reformist trends in Muslim societies. This general analysis should help understanding An-Na´im and Khomeini in a broader context of Islamic reformism. The contemporary reformist trends are divided into six categories according to the object, the means, the agent and the orientation of reform. These trends are: the secularist, the conservative, the fundamentalist, the neo-traditionalist, the reformist and the modernist. Chapter 4 presents a systematic analysis of An-Na´im s reform theory that is introduced through his famous book Towards Islamic Reformation (1990). For An-Na´im Islam is sacred, but capable of development and transformation through time without this incurring a violation of its spirit. An-Na´im represents a drastic reform of the Islamic law (the Shari´a) in accordance with UN standards of human rights. Chapter 5 presents Ayatollah Khomeini as a paradigm of Islamic fundamentalism and a counterpart to the reform theory of An-Na´im. For Khomeini Islam is a sacred, unchanging and eternally determined body of rules. He disregards UN standards of human rights. Chapter 6 discusses the principle points of agreement and/or disagreement between An-Na´im and Khomeini. There are two important points of overlapping between Khomeini and An-Na´im: neither one of them is secularist; both of them claim universal validity to their principles (none of them are cultural- relativist). But these points of similarity prove, at a deeper level of analysis, to constitute rather the deep ideological disagreement between the two persons. Chapter 7 turns back to the classification scheme presented in chapter 3, and tries modestly to explore the feasible sets of political regimes or reformist trends that may enjoy stable majority support in present-day Muslim societies. This study suggests that the feasible sets of political regimes or models that may gain stable majority support in contemporary Muslim societies is to be found somewhere between the positions of Khomeini and An-Na´im. Stable majority support can only be achieved by political regimes or approaches that conform to the international standards of human rights and the native cultural tradition of the society concerned. Secular regimes fail to gain stable majority support because they do not have roots in the cultural and religious traditions of Muslim societies. Another reason for their failure is while they modernise their societies, they do not democratise them. Thus the population feels politically marginalized and without a voice. The modernisation schemes implemented by secular regimes also bring about socio-economic inequality together with cultural and religious alienation. This developmental crisis is presented as the main cause of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in contemporary Muslim societies. With growing socio-economic inequality and cultural alienation, Muslim populations are inclined to see the secularist formulas as the problem. Fundamentalist regimes fail to gain stable majority support because they ignore the civic and political rights of their populations. This causes political dissatisfaction among people that gradually increases and in time becomes a popular movement demanding freedom and the enjoyment of civic and political rights. Fundamentalist regimes also have proven to be unable to solve socio-economic problems in their countries, and this failure increases political demands for changes in the political system. This study suggests that regimes which really share some of the political power with the traditional Ulama have greater chance for gaining stability in the long term. Jordan provides a good example for such a regime. The Jordanian regime has proved to be more stable and less oppressive than many other contemporary Muslim regimes. This example should however not lead to a simplistic generalisation that the collaboration and cooperation with the Ulama would always produce a more stable and more liberal regime. If a regime, which follows a policy of cooperation and collaboration with the Ulama, wants to comply with human rights standards, it should always check the Ulama s position in the government less they get the upper hand and impose the Shari´a. A firm ground for the application of human rights standards in Muslim societies would however require a profound modernisation of (the law of) Islam

Biochemical changes in barberries during adventitious root formation: the role of indole-3-butyric acid and hydrogen peroxide

Peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase (PPO), phenolic compounds and total sugars (TS) were investigated during root formation in cuttings of Berberis vulgaris var. asperma (BVA) and Berberis thunbergii var. atropurpurea (BTA) treated with indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and IBA+H2O2. Rooting was observed on BTA cuttings but not on BVA cuttings. The BTA cuttings treated with IBA and IBA+H2O2 showed higher rooting percentages, number of roots, and root length over the control. Those treated with IBA+H2O2 recorded the lowest peroxidase activity after planting. BTA cuttings treated with IBA+H2O2 showed the highest peroxidase activity at 50 d after planting; BVA cuttings under different treatments showed no significant difference for peroxidase activity at planting time or up to 80 d after planting. PPO activity for the BTA cuttings in the control treatment was lower than for other treatments during root formation. The cuttings in the IBA and IBA+H2O2 treatments showed increased PPO activity from 0 to 50 d after planting and a slight decrease in PPO activity from 60 to 80 d after planting. PPO activity for the BVA cuttings was significantly lower than for BTA during root formation. The BTA cuttings treated with IBA and IBA+H2O2 showed the highest phenolic compound content during root formation. The BVA cuttings displayed higher TS than BTA during the initial stage of root formation. A comparison of the anatomical structure of easy-to-root and difficult-to-root cuttings indicated that physical inhibitors did not affect the rooting capacity of BVA

Intermolecular Interactions between TNAZ and H 2 O: a DFT Study

Abstract: All of the possible TNAZ/H2O complexes (1, 2 and 3), as well as the uncomplexed form, were fully optimized with the density functional method. Complex 3 was the most stable, with the largest corrected intermolecular interaction energy. Charge redistribution mainly occurs on the adjacent N-O...H atoms of the submolecules. Strong hydrogen bonds predominantly contribute to the interaction energies. It is energetically and thermodynamically unfavourable for TNAZ to bind with H 2O and to form any stable complexes at room temperature

The Effect of Foliar Application of Salicylic acid and Thiamine on the Biochimical Characteristics of Gerbera jamesonii cv. Pink elegance

Gerbera is one of the ten important cut flowers in terms of production and consumption in the world and Iran. In this research effects of foliar application of salicylic acid and thiamine on biochemical characteristics of gerbera flower were investigated. This experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with four replications in the greenhouse commercial of the Golazin Maghsoud Company. Treatments were included of municipal water (control), salicylic acid 75 and 150 µM and thiamine 250 and 500 µM. Foliar application was performed with interval of two weeks in two stages. The results showed that the treatments had a significant effect on biochemical characteristics of gerbera. The greatest amount of chlorophyll a (36.6 µg/g Fw), b (17.27µg/g Fw) and total chlorophyll content (61.17 µg/g Fw) were related to Thiamine 250 µM and the highest level of carotenoids content 7.87 (µg/g Fw) was related to Thiamine 500 µM. The most reducing sugars content (181.51 mg/g Fw) reported in 75 µM salicylic acid. The highest activity of catalase and peroxidase enzyme (94.5 and 70.7 unit enzyme per minute in gram fresh weight, respectively) were related to 75 and 150 µM salicylic acid. Thus, salicylic acid and thiamine increased photosynthetic pigments, antioxidant enzyme activities

Effect of drought stress and paclobutrazol- treated seeds on physiological response of festuca arundinacea L. master and lolium perenne L. barrage

To study interaction between drought stress and pachlobutrazol as treated seeds before planting, seeds of Festuca arundinacea L. Master and Lolium perenne L. Barrage were soaked with 0, 20, 30 and 40 mg.L-1 paclobutrazol for 24 h on shaker during imbibitions stage of seed germination. Treated seeds were sowed in the pots. After 102 days, when the seedlings well established, drought stress was applied in 50% field capacity (FC), 25% FC and well-watered. Interaction effect of Paclobutrazol × drought stress × cultivar was significant on relative water content (RWC). Drought stress increased electrolyte leakage whereas the highest concentration of paclobutrazol reduced EL. The highest total chlorophyll content was observed in Master at wellwatered however at 25% FC in Barrage the lowest chlorophyll content is resulted. Paclobutrazol 40 mgL-1 was the highest total chlorophyll content. Festuca arundinacea L. Master at 25% FC Was the highest proline content. All paclobutrazol concentrations in Festuca arundinacea L. Master resulted higher proline content. Paclobutrazol 20 mgL-1 at 25% FC had higher shoot dry weight. The highest root dry weight resulted in Barrage at well-watered with 30 mgL-1 paclobutrazol. Root length was the highest in well-watered and lower in 25% FC

Effect of Gibberellic Acid under Deficit Irrigation on Physicochemical and Shelf Life Attributes of Pomegranate Fruit (cv. Shahvar)

Introduction: Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) belonging to the family Punicaceae, native to subtropical regions of Iran and adapted to arid or semi arid climates with mild winters. Pomegranate is fairly drought tolerant but requires regular irrigation to produce high yield and fruit weight. Large parts of Iran within the boundaries of central deserts (Dasht-e-kavir and Kavir-e-Loot) have arid or semi-arid conditions which make them suitable for pomegranate production. However drought crisis and water resources restriction are very serious in these areas. Materials and Methods: This experiment was conducted on 7-year old pomegranate cv. Shahvar trees from 2013 to 2014 in Torbat-e-Heydarieh, Razavi Khorasan, Iran. Irrigation treatments and Gibberellic acid application were used in Completely Randomized Split-Plot Design with four replications. Irrigation treatments included [1-control: 100% of estimated crop evapotranspiration (Etc) 2-Sustained deficit irrigation (SDI): watering was constantly used at 50%Etc, and 3-Regulated deficit irrigation (RDI): not watering was imposed until fruit set and then irrigation was applied same as control]. Foliar application of Gibberellic acid was done with two concentrations (0 and 150 ppm) at early May and September. Precipitation and pan evaporation (Ep) was recorded by weather station that located at 15 km distance from the studied orchard. Daily crop reference evapotranspiration (ETo) was estimated by penman-monteith equation. Trees were drip-irrigated by two lateral lines parallel to the tree row and four emitters that each one delivers 4 liters per hour. Fruit weight and numbers, tree production (yield), peel, arils and juice percent and finally fruit cracking of each treatment were determined at ordinary harvest time in late of October. Some uniform and intact fruits per treatment transferred to cold storage (T= 5 ◦C, RH= 85-90%). After storage period the fruits transfered to shelf life condition (7 days at 20 ◦C and RH= 65-70%) to evaluate physiochemical traits at 2 different storage periods (9 and 18 weeks). Weight loss and chilling index were determined during 3 weeks intervals of storage. Weight loss was evaluated by a gravimetric method and results were expressed as percent of initial fresh weight. Chilling index was quantified by 5 point scale of fruit husk injury: (1: without disorder, 2: slight disorder signs 3: moderate signs 4: severe signs and 5: unmarketable). Results and Discussion: In present research the effects of deficit irrigation treatments on all the measured attributes was significant at harvest time (p≤ 0.01). But Gibberellic acid spray had significant effect only on Fruit weight, juice percent and fruit cracking disorder. Likewise, deficit irrigation and Gibberellic acid interaction showed significant difference for fruit weight and cracking disorder. The results indicated that fruit weight, total yield and fruit juice in regulated deficit irrigation increased by 39.6, 17.1 and 16.6 percent in compare with control, respectively. Fruit numbers in control trees (108.3) was more than sustained (93.6) and regulated (87) deficit irrigation. It is possible that sustained (SDI) and regulated (RDI) deficit irrigation have decreased sprouting growth and consequently second or third waves of pomegranate flowers that forming on these shoots was lower by water restricting. Pomegranate peel percent in studied deficit irrigation strategies were less than control and naturally aril percent was more in these treatments. In other hand, the highest fruit cracking (9.1%) and lowest fruit weight (205.8 g) occurred in sustained deficit irrigation. However Gibberellic acid application could increase fruit weight and alleviate cracking disorder. The results of cold storage experiment showed that maturity index, antioxidant activity, total anthocyanin and chilling index improved by Sustained deficit irrigation. Variations of ripening index during cold storage occurred because of sugar conversion, not the changes of organic acids content. Indeed, rate of starch degradation to simple carbohydrates in fruits increase under drought condition. Probability drought in deficit irrigation treatments as an oxidative stress motivates antioxidant system and consequently increases chilling resistance in pomegranate fruits. Preharvest Gibberellic acid application amended weight loss and increased total anthocyanin and antioxidant activity during cold storage. Conclusions: On the base of this study it seems that using of some deficit irrigation strategies have acceptable consequences on pomegranate fruit production at conditions of water resources restriction. Likewise Gibberellic acid application on trees that were subjected by deficit irrigations ameliorates the adverse effects of drought stress

Production and Growing Regions

The pomegranate, Punica granatum L., is one of the oldest known edible fruits and is associated with the ancient civilizations of the Middle East. This is the first comprehensive book covering the botany, production, processing, health and industrial uses of the pomegranate. The cultivation of this fruit for fresh consumption, juice production and medicinal purposes has expanded more than tenfold over the past 20 years. Presenting a review of pomegranate growing, from a scientific and horticultural perspective, this book provides information on how to increase yields and improve short- and medium-term grower profitability and sustainability. It covers: practices to mitigate pests, diseases and abiotic stresses; yield-based nutrition management; cultural practices for cultivars with horticultural traits such as earliness, high yield, improved taste, soft seeds, disease resistance, and low splitting and sunscald rates; increasing crop diversity to aid crop security; and composition, food uses and medicinal uses. This book is essential literature for researchers in horticulture, for growers and for those involved in the pomegranate industry