Features of the influence of copper nanoparticles and copper oxide on the formation of barley crop

In addition to modern methods of agricultural technology, currently the achievements of selection and genetics are widely used, as well as modern nanotechnology and nanomaterials, to improve food production. One of the forms of biologically active nanomaterials is metal nanopowders and their derivatives. The application is carried out in minimal doses that can significantly reduce costs in agricultural production. Improving the yield and quality of crops by optimizing nutrition and plant protection using nanotechnology and nanomaterials will solve not only the problems of increasing the yield and quality of farmed products, but also environmental problems. The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of copper and copper oxide nanoparticles on the formation of a barley crop. Under the conditions of a lysimetric experiment, the effect of presowing treatment of spring barley seeds by nanoparticles of copper and copper oxide on the growth and development of plants, yield, and their nutritional value was studied. The used nanoparticles have the following characteristics: Cu - 40–60 nm, phase composition: Cu - 100%; CuO - 40–60 nm, phase composition: CuO - 100%. A suspension of nanoparticles was obtained by dispersion by ultrasound in an aqueous solution. Nanopowders of copper and copper oxide in the solution contained 0.01 g per hectare seed rate. Barley seeds were soaked 30 minutes before sowing in double distilled water (control variant), as well as in a suspension of nanoparticles. Presowing treatment of barley seeds by Cu nanoparticles contributed to the intensification of growth processes, as well as an increase in green mass. The use of copper nanoparticles contributed to an increase in grain yield by 17.3% compared with the control, while there was no decrease in nutritional value: metabolic energy, feed units, digested protein. Based on the research results, it is preferable to use copper nanoparticles in comparison with copper oxide nanoparticles to obtain a higher barley yield

The productivity of spring barley when using cobalt nanoparticles and liquid-phase biological product

Received: February 6th, 2021 ; Accepted: April 14th, 2021 ; Published: August 3rd, 2021 ; Correspondence: [email protected] purpose of this research is to study the effect of growth activators on the yield and quality of spring barley products. For the most complete disclosure of the potential yield of spring barley against the background of the application of minimal doses of organic fertilizers, cobalt nanoparticles were used, as well as a liquid-phase biological product (LPBP) in various combinations (NPСо, Compost, Compost + NPСо, Compost+ LPBP 1%, Compost+ LPBP 2%, Compost+ LPBP 1%+ NPСо, Compost+ LPBP 2%+ NPСо). The size of cobalt nanoparticles was 40–60 nm, the phase composition - Cо - 100%. A suspension of nanoparticles was obtained by dispersing with ultrasound in an aqueous solution in accordance with the requirements of the technical conditions. LPBP is a dark brown liquid with a specific odor, pH = 6.5–7.5, contains N, C, P, K, Ca, Mg, tryptophan, microorganisms. Cobalt nanopowder in solution contained 0.01 g per hectare seeding rate (20 mg L -1 ), LPBP concentration was 1% and 2%. Compost was used as an organic fertilizer; it consisted of 90% of cattle manure and 10% of poultry manure at a dose of 20 t ha-1 . The seeds were soaked 30 minutes before sowing in double distilled water, in a suspension of nanoparticles and LPBP in accordance with the experimental options. The analysis of the results of the research has shown that the studied preparations have a stimulating effect, contribute to an increase in resistance to suboptimal weather conditions, an increase in productivity and product quality. It was noted that the best indicators were obtained with joint pre-sowing treatment of seed material by cobalt nanoparticles with 1% solution of a liquid-phase biological product. Thus, there was an activation of growth processes, the yield increased by 35%, the content of crude protein - by 20.9%, digestible protein - by 10.9%, and crude fat - by 78.8%

Comparative analysis of the use of biostimulants on the main types of soil

Received: February 6th, 2020 ; Accepted: April 14th, 2021 ; Published: May 13th, 2021 ; Correspondence: [email protected] plant requires certain physiological conditions for normal and productive development. The determining vital factor is the nutritional status of the soil and the environment. At present, the biologization of agriculture is becoming increasingly important. The use of biostimulants is one of the rapidly developing areas in the world practice of crop production and, in the cultivation of agricultural crops, contributes to the production of environmentally friendly products and the improvement of the environment.Such substances can be metal nanoparticles, as well as preparations with a high level of biogenicity, nutritional value and physiology,they are used to improve the growth and development of plants, as well as to activate soil-microbiological processes, which is a liquid-phase biological product (LPBP). The purpose of this work is to identify the effectiveness of the use of a liquid-phase biological product and cobalt nanoparticles in pre-sowing seed treatment against the background of a minimum dose of organic fertilizers, the effect on the productivity and quality indicators of green mass when growing a grass mixture with over-sowing oats on three main types of soil: sod-podzolic, gray forest and black soil.Used cobalt nanoparticles have the following characteristics 40–60 nm, phase composition - Co - 100%. A suspension of nanoparticles was obtained by dispersing with ultrasound in an aqueous solution. LPBP is a dark brown liquid with a specific odor, pH =6.5–7.5, contains N, C, P, K, Ca, Mg, tryptophan, microorganisms. Cobalt nanopowder in solution contained 0.01 g per hectare seeding rate; LPBP concentration was 1%. The seeds were soaked 30 min before sowing in double distilled water (control), in a suspension of nanoparticles and LPBP. The research was carried out according to generally accepted methods. Presowing seed treatment in combination with organic fertilizers in minimal doses provided an increase in yield on soddy-podzolic soil - by 5.69–21.71%, gray forest soil - 2.64–7.50%, black soil - 9.18–18.28%, while no decrease in nutritional value was observed: metabolizable energy, feed units, digestible protein. It is noted that the use of cobalt nanoparticles leads to an increase in the carotene content

Using reference materials of blast furnace slag, steelmaking slag, converter slag and fused fluxes when developing a procedure for analysis of slag-forming mixtures using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry

Introduction. Slag-forming mixtures play an important role in obtaining metal without non-metallic inclusions. Required properties of slag-forming mixtures (SFMs) directly depend on their chemical composition, that is why control of individual component content in a mixture is an important stage in the technological chain of metallurgical production. At the present time, it is a common practice to use inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES for analyzing SFMs, requiring sample preparation by alloying with alkali fluxes, which makes it impossible to determine potassium and sodium oxides in a sample. That is why it is necessary to work out a procedure for simultaneous determination of calcium, silicon, magnesium, aluminium, potassium, and sodium oxides by the method of ICP-AES, which would include quantitative transferring of all components into a solution. For that purpose, it is suggested to use microwave digestion of samples in autoclaves.The purpose was to develop a procedure for simultaneous determination of specified components of SFMs using ICP-AES after transferring the sample into a solution in an autoclave under conditions of microwave heating, and to certify it reference materials of slag and fluxes.Materials and methods. Compositional analysis of slag-forming mixtures was conducted using an atomic emission spectrometer with inductively coupled plasma «iCAP 6500 Duo»; sample digestion was conducted with the use of the microwave system «ETHOS PLUS». The following brands of SFMs were chosen as research objects: Melubir 9563 and Accutherm ST-SP/235AL4D; AlsifluxGS-C7; SRCP015, SRCP173P. For calibrating the spectrometer and controlling correctness of determining the specified components, the following reference materials were used: reference materials of blast furnace slag, steelmaking slag, converter slag, and fused fluxes, which have close chemical composition.Research results. An ICP-AES analysis procedure has been developed for calibrating the spectrometer and controlling correctness of determining CaO, SiO2 , MgO, Al2 O3 , K2 O, Na2 O in reference materials of blast furnace slag, steelmaking slag, converter slag and fused fluxes, which allows to establish target components of SFMs quickly and reliably

Paraneoplastic polyneuropathy associated with ovarian cancer

Clinical observation of a patient with a paraneoplastic polyneuropathy, associated with ovarian cancer, is presented. A feature of this case is its relative rarity. Stages of development of neurological disorders in combination with laboratory diagnostics data led to the need for oncological search, which resulted in the detection of ovarian cancer. Te histological diagnosis is confrmed by immunohistochemical method. Malignant tumor was detected one year afer the appearance of the frst signs of sensory polyneuropathy, which confrms the paraneoplastic nature of neurological disorders. A timely treatment for a malignant tumor can lead to the stabilization of neurological symptoms

First mock-up of the CBM STS module based on a new assembly concept

A molecular dynamics model has been developed to investigate the effect of the crystallographic orientation on the material deformation behaviors in nano- indentation/scratching of BCC iron. Two cases with different substrate orientations have been simulated. The orientations along x, y and z direction are [001], [100] and [010] for Case I and [111], [-1-12] and [1-10] for Case II, respectively. Case I and Case II exhibit different deformation patterns in the substrate. During indentation, the pile-up can be observed in Case I, but not in Case II. During scratching the pile-up ahead of the movement of the indenter has been enlarged in Case I, while a chip with the disordered atoms is generated in Case II. It has been found that Case I has both higher hardness and larger coefficient of friction. The ratios of the hardness and the coefficient of friction between cases I and II are nearly 2. The reason is attributed to the different crystallographic orientations used in both cases

Microbial β-glucosidases from cow rumen metagenome enhance the saccharification of lignocellulose in combination with commercial cellulase cocktail

Background A complete saccharification of plant polymers is the critical step in the efficient production of bio-alcohols. Beta-glucosidases acting in the degradation of intermediate gluco-oligosaccharides produced by cellulases limit the yield of the final product. Results In the present work, we have identified and then successfully cloned, expressed, purified and characterised 4 highly active beta-glucosidases from fibre-adherent microbial community from the cow rumen. The enzymes were most active at temperatures 45–55°C and pH 4.0-7.0 and exhibited high affinity and activity towards synthetic substrates such as p-nitrophenyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside (p NPbetaG) and p NP-beta-cellobiose, as well as to natural cello-oligosaccharides ranging from cellobiose to cellopentaose. The apparent capability of the most active beta-glucosidase, herein named LAB25g2, was tested for its ability to improve, at low dosage (31.25 units g-1 dry biomass, using p NPbetaG as substrate), the hydrolysis of pre-treated corn stover (dry matter content of 20%; 350 g glucan kg-1 dry biomass) in combination with a beta-glucosidase-deficient commercial Trichoderma reseei cellulase cocktail (5 units g-1 dry biomass in the basis of p NPbetaG). LAB25g2 increased the final hydrolysis yield by a factor of 20% (44.5 ± 1.7% vs. 34.5 ± 1.5% in control conditions) after 96–120 h as compared to control reactions in its absence or in the presence of other commercial beta-glucosidase preparations. The high stability (half-life higher than 5 days at 50°C and pH 5.2) and 2–38000 fold higher (as compared with reported beta-glucosidases) activity towards cello-oligosaccharides may account for its performance in supplementation assays. Conclusions The results suggest that beta-glucosidases from yet uncultured bacteria from animal digestomes may be of a potential interest for biotechnological processes related to the effective bio-ethanol production in combination with low dosage of commercial cellulases

Diversity of hydrolases from hydrothermal vent sediments of the Levante Bay, Vulcano Island (Aeolian archipelago) identified by activity-based metagenomics and biochemical characterization of new esterases and an arabinopyranosidase

A metagenomic fosmid expression library established from environmental DNA (eDNA) from the shallow hot vent sediment sample collected from the Levante Bay, Vulcano Island (Aeolian archipelago) was established in Escherichia coli. Using activity-based screening assays, we have assessed 9600 fosmid clones corresponding to approximately 350 Mbp of the cloned eDNA, for the lipases/esterases/lactamases, haloalkane and haloacid dehalogenases, and glycoside hydrolases. Thirty-four positive fosmid clones were selected from the total of 120 positive hits and sequenced to yield ca. 1360 kbp of high-quality assemblies. Fosmid inserts were attributed to the members of ten bacterial phyla, including Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Acidobateria, Firmicutes, Verrucomicrobia, Chloroflexi, Spirochaetes, Thermotogae, Armatimonadetes, and Planctomycetes. Of ca. 200 proteins with high biotechnological potential identified therein, we have characterized in detail three distinct α/β-hydrolases (LIPESV12_9, LIPESV12_24, LIPESV12_26) and one new α-arabinopyranosidase (GLV12_5). All LIPESV12 enzymes revealed distinct substrate specificities tested against 43 structurally diverse esters and 4 p-nitrophenol carboxyl esters. Of 16 different glycosides tested, the GLV12_5 hydrolysed only p-nitrophenol-α-(L)-arabinopyranose with a high specific activity of about 2.7 kU/mg protein. Most of the α/β-hydrolases were thermophilic and revealed a high tolerance to, and high activities in the presence of, numerous heavy metal ions. Among them, the LIPESV12_24 was the best temperature-adapted, retaining its activity after 40 min of incubation at 90 °C. Furthermore, enzymes were active in organic solvents (e.g., >30% methanol). Both LIPESV12_24 and LIPESV12_26 had the GXSXG pentapeptides and the catalytic triads Ser-Asp-His typical to the representatives of carboxylesterases of EC 3.1.1.1