Microbial Community, Functioning, and Its Relationship with Heavy Metals in an Urban Brownfield

The ubiquity of urban brownfields presents a challenge for environmental managers for managing degraded ecosystems that are in close contact with human habitation. Presence of metal contaminants in brownfields further complicate the matters as it cannot be degraded and hence pose a high risk to human and environmental health, and well-being of the local community. However, previous studies indicate that management and restoration of brownfields are possible through the use of low input longer term and sustainable remediation approaches. These sustainable approaches include the use of plants, fungi, and bacteria to increase soil function and mitigate risks from the contaminants. To improve soil function at brownfields, a thorough understanding of their microbial community composition and their responses to metal contamination is required. This understanding is even more critical in brownfields because each brownfield is different from one another. Brownfields differ not only in contaminants but also soil types and climatic context. Therefore, for any restoration and reclamation efforts in brownfields to materialize, it is essential to study the microbial community composition and understand how they respond to contaminants. Against this backdrop, this dissertation explores the potential of gentle remediation option by understanding the relationship between the microbial community composition and function at Liberty State Park, a unique urban brownfield. LSP is a unique site because of the abundant growth of under-story and over-story vegetation since its abandonment five decades ago. Since vegetation at this site has flourished well, it provides an opportunity to learn more about this ecosystem, which is in the process of natural restoration. We characterized the microbial community, analyzed phosphatase activity, and quantified the metal contamination. Further, we examined the relationship soil heavy metal concentrations, microbial community, soil organic carbon content, bacterial density, and extracellular phosphatase activity as a proxy of ecosystem functioning. We also investigated the relative importance of biotic factors (inoculum) and abiotic factors (soil base) on the extracellular enzymatic activities in a reciprocal microbial inoculation experiment. To this end, we cross-inoculated microbial communities between two heavy metal-contaminated soils, with high and low extracellular enzyme activities, respectively. We measured extracellular phosphatase activity, a proxy for soil function, after self- and cross-inoculation of microbial communities into sterilized soils. We also analyzed the microbial community composition and explored its relationship with phosphatase activity. Finally, we studied the effect of bioaugmentation in chromium spiked, autoclaved soil on plant productivity and soil enzyme function. We also examined the translocation of metal from the soil system to belowground biomass and aboveground biomass. We also analyzed the phosphatase activity to investigate the relationship between soil function and plant-microbe interaction. The dissertation sheds light on the composition and functioning of urban brownfield soils. A deeper understanding of these unique ecosystems can mediate successful remediation, restoration and urban sustainability

CERTAIN RESULTS OF RICCI-YAMABE SOLITONS ON (LCS)N(LCS)_N-MANIFOLDS

The goal of this paper is to characterize Lorentzian concircular structure manifolds (briefly, $(LCS)_n$-manifolds) admitting Ricci-Yamabe solitons. It is shown that an $(LCS)_n$-manifold which admits the Ricci-Yamabe soliton becomes flat when the soliton is steady. Next, we construct a $3$-dimensional and $5$-dimensional $(LCS)_n$-manifold satisfying the result. Also, the expression for the scalar $\lambda$ on an $(LCS)_n$-manifold admitting conformal Ricci-Yamabe soliton is obtained. Lastly, we extend our study to $\eta-$Ricci-Yamabe soliton on a conformally flat $(LCS)_n$ $(n\geq4)$ manifold in which we have shown the condition when the soliton is shrinking, steady and expanding with $\xi$ being a torse forming vector field

ON THE GEOMETRIC STRUCTURES OF GENERALIZED (k,μ)(k,\mu)-SPACE FORMS

In this paper, the geometric structures of generalized $(k,\mu)$-space forms and their quasi-umbilical hypersurface are analyzed. First $\xi$-$Q$ and conformally flat generalized $(k,\mu)$-space form are investigated and shown that a conformally flat generalized $(k,\mu)$-space form is Sasakian. Next, we prove that a generalized $(k,\mu)$-space form satisfying Ricci pseudosymmetry and $Q$-Ricci pseudosymmetry conditions is $\eta$-Einstein. We obtain the condition under which a quasi-umbilical hypersurface of a generalized $(k,\mu)$-space form is a generalized quasi Einstein hypersurface. Also $\xi$-sectional curvature of a quasi-umbilical hypersurface of generalized $(k,\mu)$-space form is obtained. Finally, the results obtained are verified by constructing an example of 3-dimensional generalized $(k,\mu)$-space form

Boron in crop production from soil to plant system: A review

The deficiency of boron is spreading rapidly in Indian soils. Boron deficiency in crops is more widespread than deficiency of any other essential micronutrient. However, imbalanced or excess use of boron fertilizers found to impose negative impact on crops due to very narrow range of boron deficiency and toxicity in soil and plants which increases production cost also. Therefore, optimized boron fertilizer supply in boron deficient soils is important in order to attain normal crop growth, yield and high-quality produce.  It this review the role of boron in crop production, its deficiency in crop plants has been discussed

Tetrahydro-dibenzo[a,d] Annulene-5, 11-Dihydrazone and Magnesium Oxide Used to Control the Corrosion of Aluminium in Chloride Ions Environment

Chloride ions interact with aluminium in marine atmosphere to form corrosion cell. Due to this corrosion reaction occurs on their surface, aluminium is oxidized into Al3+. The corrosion reaction accelerates deterioration in metal and it produces galvanic, pitting, stress, crevice, intergranular corrosion. Chloride ions decrease internal and external strength of aluminium metal. It is a very important metal so used in different appliances for e.g. road, water, air transports, housing, railways and other fields. Nanocoating and electrospray techniques used to check the corrosion of aluminium metal. For nanocoating and electrospray materials applied tetrahydro-dibenzo[a,d] [7] annulene-5, 11-dihydrazone and MgO. Both materials formed composite barrier and developed a passive surface for Cl- ions. This barrier reduced the corrosion rate of aluminium. Nozzle spray and chemical vapour deposition technique used for coating process. The corrosion rate of metal was determined by gravimetric method. Corrosion potential and current density were calculated by potentiostat. The composite barrier formation was confirmed by activation energy, heat of adsorption, free energy, enthalpy and entropy. These thermal parameters were obtained by Arrhenius equation, Langmuir isotherm and Transition state equation. The adsorption of tetrahydro-dibenzo[a,d] [7] annulene-5,11-dihydrazone and MgO electrospray on aluminium surface was depicted by Langmuir, Frundlich and Temkin isotherm. The results of surface coverage area and coating efficiency were noticed that both materials were mitigated the corrosion rate of aluminium in chloride ions environmen

ON A TYPE OF SEMI-GENERALIZED RECURRENT P-SASAKIAN MANIFOLDS

In the present paper we study some geometrical properties of semi-generalized recurrent P-Sasakian manifolds

Evaluation of the Plant Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.)'s Pharmacological and Therapeutic Significance

Research on novel compounds with less hazardous side effects and greater potency is underway, and more focus is being placed on medicinal plants as a means of treating the aforementioned issues. Drug candidates made from medicinal plants have been identified.. The globe uses The plant-based carbohydrate a sweetener which has therapeutic qualities as well as nutritional, therapeutic, and industrial relevance. The rebaudiana plant's leaves are often referred as as as from honey leaves, and candies, and sweets