Effect of soybean/proso millet intercropping combined with bio-fertilizer on accumulation of essential elements in grain

Intercropping, as sustainable agricultural practice effectively uses environmental resources, affecting the nutritive quality of crops by modifying the concentration of macro- and microelements in grain. In order to improve the availability of nutrients from the soil, bio-fertilizers could also be used successfully in elements management. A field experiment was conducted with soybean (var. Selena) and proso millet (var. Biserka) to examine the integrated influence of intercropping and bio-fertilizer on Ca, Mg, S, Fe and Zn accumulation in grain. Mono-crops (T1 - soybean, T2 - millet), as well as tree planting patterns of intercrop, including alternating rows of soybean and proso millet (T3), alternating strips of two rows of soybean and two rows of millet (T4) and alternating strips of two rows of soybean and four rows of millet (T5), were set up in 2018 and 2020. The same combinations, as subplots, were treated with bio-fertilizer Coveron (C) (containing mycorrhizal fungi, Trichoderma and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria). After harvest, grains were dried and milled and preparation of samples was performed using wet digestion procedure with HClO4 + HNO3. The concentration of Ca, Mg and S were determined by ICP-OES, while Fe and Zn concentration was measured on ICP-MS. Results showed that Coveron reduced S concentration in soybean grain, while the status of other elements mainly remained unchanged. In terms of intercropping, soybean from T5 combination had a significantly higher level of Fe in comparison to T1 and T3, and higher but not significantly than T4, emphasizing alternating strips as more effective for accumulation of this element in grain. Combination T3 + C provided the highest accumulation of Ca, while T5 + C significantly raised Fe concentration. In terms of proso millet, bio-fertilizer expressed a greater impact on Ca, Fe and Zn by increasing their concentration. On the other side, all intercrop combinations expressed a positive impact on Fe concentration and simultaneously reduced Zn concentration. When mutual influence is considered, T4 + C significantly increased Ca and Fe values, while T2 + C increased Zn value, pointing positive effect of integrated and sustainable agricultural practices on an accumulation of essential elements in a grain of proso millet. In conclusion, different intercrop combinations combined with bio-fertilizer could be successfully used to improve the nutritional quality of soybean and millet grains in terms of sustainable food production, but further investigations are required to highlight other aspects of potentially enhanced nutritional quality

Some Properties of R\'{e}nyi Entropy over Countably Infinite Alphabets

In this paper we study certain properties of R\'{e}nyi entropy functionals $H_\alpha(\mathcal{P})$ on the space of probability distributions over $\mathbb{Z}_+$. Primarily, continuity and convergence issues are addressed. Some properties shown parallel those known in the finite alphabet case, while others illustrate a quite different behaviour of R\'enyi entropy in the infinite case. In particular, it is shown that, for any distribution $\mathcal P$ and any $r\in[0,\infty]$, there exists a sequence of distributions $\mathcal{P}_n$ converging to $\mathcal{P}$ with respect to the total variation distance, such that $\lim_{n\to\infty}\lim_{\alpha\to{1+}} H_\alpha(\mathcal{P}_n) = \lim_{\alpha\to{1+}}\lim_{n\to\infty} H_\alpha(\mathcal{P}_n) + r$.Comment: 13 pages (single-column

Assessment of atmospheric distribution of polychlorinated biphenyls and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons using polyparameter model

Results of partial or total destruction of industrial plants, military targets, infrastructure, uncontrolled fires and explosions during the conflict period from 1991 to 1999, at the area of Western Balkans, were large amounts of hazardous organic matter that have been generated and emitted in the environment. In order to assess gas/particle partition of seven EPA polychlorinated biphenyls and sixteen EPA polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, twenty air samples have been collected at six urban, industrial and highly contaminated localities in Vojvodina. Hi-Vol methodology has been used for collecting ambiental air samples, that simultaneously collects gaseous and particulate phase with polyurethane foam filters (PUF) and glass fiber filters (GFF). PUF and GFF filters have been analyzed, and concentration levels of gaseous PCBs and PAHs molecules in gaseous and particulate phase were obtained, converted and expressed through fraction of individual compounds sorbed onto particulate phase of the sample, in total detected quantity. Experimentally gained gas/particle partitioning values of PCBs and PAHs molecules have been compared with PP-LFER model estimated values. Significant deviation has been noticed during comparative analysis of estimated polyparameter model values for complete set of seven PCBs congeners. Much better agreement of experimental and estimated values is for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, especially for molecules with four rings. These results are in a good correlation with literature data where polyparameter model has been used for predicting gas/particle partition of studied group of organic molecules