Effects of nitrogen source, rate and foliar application on some leaf mineral nutrient contents and yield of “Sinnari” sweet oranges (Citrus sinensis L.) in the River Nile State, Sudan

      Sweet orange production in the Sudan is characterized by low yield and poor fruit quality. This research was aimed at determining the effects of nitrogen source, rate and foliar application on some leaf mineral nutrient content and yield of “Sinnari” sweet oranges in  the River Nile State during 2010/11 and 2011/12. Nitrogen sources were urea (100%), sheep manure (SM) (100%), or a combination of them (50% each), beside Wuxal foliar fertilizer. Nitrogen rates were 0, 43 and 86 kg N/ha. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replicates and 2 trees/plot. Results showed that nitrogen sources and rates were effective in increasing leaf nitrogen content and the highest values were obtained by the application of 86 kg N/ha using urea (100%) or a combination of urea and sheep manure. Application of Wuxal foliar fertilizer resulted in a significant increase of Zn and Fe leaf contents and total yield. Nitrogen source had significant effects on yield components and total yield. The highest values were obtained by a combination of urea and sheep manure or 100% urea, and the lowest values were recorded for 100% sheep manure. Nitrogen rate of 86 kg N/ha resulted in the highest yield components and total yield. It is recommended to fertilize sweet orange trees in the River Nile State with a combination of urea and sheep manure at the rate of 86 kg N/ha (12.4 kg SM/tree and 0.5 kg urea/tree) in addition to Wuxal foliar fertilizer

Current status of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L.) orchards in the River Nile State, Sudan

ABSTRAC     Production of sweet oranges in the Sudan does not cover domestic needs and sweet oranges are currently imported from Egypt, Iran and South Africa to satisfy the increasing demand. Hence, there is a need to investigate factors involved in the decline of sweet orange trees in one of the most important States for orange production in the Sudan. This research aims to study and evaluate different agronomic practices contributing to the prevailing sweet orange performance in the River Nile State, Sudan. A questionnaire and interviews with 120 sweet orange growers from Ketiab, Zeidab and Gandato citrus projects indicated that 75.8% of the farmers have orchards less than 2.9 ha. Low yielding cultivars such as “Sinnari”, the local selection (Baladi), Hamlin and Nori 16 dominate in the areas, 96.7% of the trees were budded on sour orange rootstocks, 85.8% of the seedlings were budded in private nurseries using bud wood collected from non-certified mother trees from private orchards. All sweet oranges were grown with other fruit species in 100% of the orchards, 80.8% used flat surface irrigation. There is no fixed fertilizer program. The type and quantity of chemical and organic fertilizers varied with different growers. No foliar fertilizers were used and nutrient deficiencies of Zn, Fe and Mn were observed in most orchards. Extension services for citrus production are highly needed for improvement of yield and quality of sweet oranges in the River Nile Stat

Nitric Oxide Synthase Encapsulation in Liposomes: A Potential Delivery Platform to (Nitric Oxide)-Deficient Targets

Nitric oxide (NO) is a freely diffusible, gaseous free radical, associated with many physiological and pathological processes: such as neuronal signaling, immune response and inflammatory response. In mammalian organisms, NO is produced from L-arginine in an NADPH-dependent reaction catalyzed by a family of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) enzymes. Typically, large NO fluctuations in biological systems under/over a critical limit is associated with problems that range from transient dysfunctions to severe chronic disease states. In this regard, we explore the development of a potential delivery and release method of nitric oxide to NO-deficient sites using liposomes as vehicles. Liposomes have already been used as effective nano-carriers. In this short communication, we report on the preparation and characterization of liposomes carrying a recombinant NOS enzyme. We report on the efficacy of using liposomes to carry NOS enzymes, and on the extent of preservation of native NOS structure and function. In addition to the characterization of liposome stability and recovery of enzymatic activity after encapsulation in liposomes, we also measured the NO production upon NOS stimulation. The NO release was monitored with a nitric oxide ultrasensitive electrochemical microsensor placed near NOS-carrying liposomes. This method of NOS-carrying liposomes shows the promise of potential development as a platform for targeted NO-delivery

Gain Enhancement of a Microstrip Patch Antenna Using a Reflecting Layer

A low profile, unidirectional, dual layer, and narrow bandwidth microstrip patch antenna is designed to resonate at 2.45 GHz. The proposed antenna is suitable for specific applications, such as security and military systems, which require a narrow bandwidth and a small antenna size. This work is mainly focused on increasing the gain as well as reducing the size of the unidirectional patch antenna. The proposed antenna is simulated and measured. According to the simulated and measured results, it is shown that the unidirectional antenna has a higher gain and a higher front to back ratio (F/B) than the bidirectional one. This is achieved by using a second flame retardant layer (FR-4), coated with an annealed copper of 0.035 mm at both sides, with an air gap of 0.04λ0 as a reflector. A gain of 5.2 dB with directivity of 7.6 dBi, F/B of 9.5 dB, and −18 dB return losses (S11) are achieved through the use of a dual substrate layer of FR-4 with a relative permittivity of 4.3 and a thickness of 1.6 mm. The proposed dual layer microstrip patch antenna has an impedance bandwidth of 2% and the designed antenna shows very low complexity during fabrication

Benchmarking the SHL Recognition Challenge with classical and deep-learning pipelines

In this paper we, as part of the Sussex-Huawei Locomotion-Transportation (SHL) Recognition Challenge organizing team, present reference recognition performance obtained by applying various classical and deep-learning classifiers to the testing dataset. We aim to recognize eight modes of transportation (Still, Walk, Run, Bike, Bus, Car, Train, Subway) from smartphone inertial sensors: accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer. The classical classifiers include naive Bayesian, decision tree, random forest, K-nearest neighbour and support vector machine, while the deep-learning classifiers include fully-connected and convolutional deep neural networks. We feed different types of input to the classifier, including hand-crafted features, raw sensor data in the time domain, and in the frequency domain. We employ a post-processing scheme to improve the recognition performance. Results show that convolutional neural network operating on frequency domain raw data achieves the best performance among all the classifiers

Colorectal carcinoma associated with schistosomiasis: a possible causal relationship

The association between schistosomiasis and colorectal malignancy has long been suggested in the literature, but it is not uniformly accepted. In the Far East, considerable evidence supports an etiological link between Schistosoma japonicum and colorectal cancer. However, the available data regarding the role of Schistosoma mansoni in colorectal carcinogenesis are conflicting and most often do not show causality. We report on a patient with sigmoid colonic cancer coexisting with schistosomiasis, and we provide a comprehensive review of the literature regarding the epidemiology and pathobiology of this association

Elevation of serum soluble E-selectin and VCAM-1 in severe asthma.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the significance of circulating adhesion molecules associated with leucocyte-endothelial cell interactions in asthma, serum levels of soluble E (sE)-selectin, soluble P (sP)-selectin, soluble L (sL)-selectin, and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) were measured in mild, moderate and severe asthma. METHOD: Serum levels of sE-selectin, sP-selectin, sL-selectin, and sVCAM-1 were measured in 32 women with asthma and 30 healthy donors using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. Twenty patients were suffering from severe asthma, and 12 from mild/moderate asthma. RESULTS: Serum sE-selectin and sVCAM-1 levels from patients with asthma were significantly higher than those observed in healthy donors (p < 0.01). The levels of sP-selectin were the same as those of controls. The level of sE-selectin exhibited an important increase in the severe asthmatic patients compared with mild/moderate asthma (p < 0.01). The sVCAM-1 level was increased in severe asthma when compared with healthy controls. There was no correlation between the levels of soluble selectins and the age of the patients. A significant correlation was found between sE-selectin and sVCAM-1 levels. CONCLUSION: These data indicate that circulating soluble forms of the selectins may have different kinetics during the clinical course of asthma, suggesting that they may reflect different inflammatory pathways in severe asthma. Both sVCAM-1 and sE-selectin may be useful immunological markers for monitoring disease activity in asthma

Rumen fermentation pattern and blood metabolites of lambs from three breeds reared on pasture or feedlot

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Histopathological Features of Whipple Pancreaticoduodenectomy in Sudan: A Single-center Experience

Background: Periampullary tumors (PATs) are rare and Whipple pancreaticoduodenectomy is the commonest surgical approach for its management. The aim of this study was to analyze the histopathological features of Whipple-resected periampullary tumors in Sudanese patients.Methods: This retrospective descriptive study included 62 cases of Whipple resection seen in a center in Khartoum, Sudan from January 2016 to June 2021. The specimens were assessed for nine features of the tumor: site of the tumor (whether within the periampullary region), size of the tumor, histological type of the tumor, grade, perineural invasion, lymph vascular invasion, surgical margin status, lymph node metastasis status, and the pathological stage (pTNM).Results: In total, 62 cases, 40 (64.5%) males and 22 (35.5%) females, were included. Age ranged from 20 to 90 years with a mean age of 56.08 years (±12.98 SD). Of the 62 cases, 58 were malignant (93.5%), while 4 cases were benign (6.5%). The pancreas was the commonest site for malignant tumors (53.4%), followed by the ampulla (24.1%), duodenum (15.5%), and distal common bile duct tumors (DCBD) (7%). The maximum tumor size was 8 cm, and the number of lymph nodes resected ranged from 3 to 33. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs) showed the highest percentage of perineural (62.1%) and lymphovascular (55.2%) invasions, and a positive margin was seen in four cases. The most common tumor stage was pT3pN1pMx.Conclusion: PATs in the Sudanese population showed histological diversity regarding subtyping, grading, and staging. Further studies involving molecular prognostic features will support improving patient management. Keywords: periampullary tumors; Whipple pancreaticoduodenectomy; resection; histological features; Suda