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The study was conducted in ten calcareous soil locations at Nineveh provenance / northern Iraq depending on three satellite images Landsat 7 TM have been taken in 2005, 2007 and 2010 which calculated the values of vegetation indices (VI, NDVI, SAVI,).These locations are lies between two coordinates Longitude 43°11− 27=, 43°30− 26= E and latitude 36°27 −18=, 36°32 −46= N. In order to determine the role of land uses on pedogenic Properties and then formation and development of calcareous soils. Figure (1). The results of the interpretation of satellite image using unsupervised classification method to the existence of (9) classes in study area for the Land uses. this results of directed with field visit results were merged with each other to the presence of minor differences with the fact where the classes became (6) which it was a best than other classifications, The Results of unsupervised Classification at other locations showed increase in green spaces distribution for the Image captured in 2005 (Class 1), which amounted (49.36) km2, while it was less for (class2) representing grazing land in the same year amounting to (23:30) km2. Then followed by 2010 image which the green space was (31.53) km2, while the class1 amounted (14.39) km2 for the image captured in 2007, but these mentioned recently observed in an increase in the space that represents the land undeveloped for grazing (Class 2) which reached (45.11) km2 table (3).

Edaphic factors such as salinity, sodicity, and drought adversely affect crop productivity, either alone or in combination. Despite soil sodicity being reported as an increasing problem worldwide, limited efforts have been made to address this issue. In the present study, we aimed to generate rice with tolerance to sodicity in conjunction with tolerance to salinity and drought. Using a fusion gene from E. coli coding for trehalose-6-phosphate synthase/phosphatase (TPSP) under the control of an ABA-inducible promoter, we generated marker-free, high-yielding transgenic rice (in the IR64 background) that can tolerate high pH (~9.9), high EC (~10.0 dS m–1), and severe drought (30–35% soil moisture content). The transgenic plants retained higher relative water content (RWC), chlorophyll content, K⁺/Na⁺ ratio, stomatal conductance, and photosynthetic efficiency compared to the wild-type under these stresses. Positive correlations between trehalose overproduction and high-yield parameters were observed under drought, saline, and sodic conditions. Metabolic profiling using GC-MS indicated that overproduction of trehalose in leaves differently modulated other metabolic switches, leading to significant changes in the levels of sugars, amino acids, and organic acids in transgenic plants under control and stress conditions. Our findings reveal a novel potential technological solution to tackle multiple stresses under changing climatic conditions.

Cytoskeleton plays a vital role in stress tolerance; however, involvement of intermediate filaments (IFs) in such a response remains elusive in crop plants. This study provides clear evidence about the unique involvement of IFs in cellular protection against abiotic stress in rice. Transcript abundance of Oryza sativa intermediate filament ( OsIF) encoding gene showed 2–10 fold up-regulation under different abiotic stress. Overexpression of OsIF in transgenic rice enhanced tolerance to salinity and heat stress, while its knock-down (KD) rendered plants more sensitive thereby indicating the role of IFs in promoting survival under stress. Seeds of OsIF overexpression rice germinated normally in the presence of high salt, showed better growth, maintained chloroplast ultrastructure and favourable K + /Na + ratio than the wild type (WT) and KD plants. Analysis of photosynthesis and chlorophyll a fluorescence data suggested better performance of both photosystem I and II in the OsIF overexpression rice under salinity stress as compared to the WT and KD. Under salinity and high temperature stress, OsIF overexpressing plants could maintain significantly high yield, while the WT and KD plants could not. Further, metabolite profiling revealed a 2–4 fold higher accumulation of proline and trehalose in OsIF overexpressing rice than WT, under salinity stress.

Saffron is one of the most expensive spices of the world. Since this spice is triploid and meiosis is unusual, it cannot reproduce sexually like other plants; rather, it is propagated vegetatively via an underground corm, which can withstand a long dry dormant period before sprouting. Thus, corms are indispensable to saffron propagation. To identify and analyse signature metabolites associated with the ‘dormancy-sprouting’ process, non-targeted GC-MS was performed at different stages of corm development. Comparative metabolite profiling reflected dissimilar profiles among the stages as portrayed by differential cluster patterns of metabolites in the PCA and PLS-DA analysis. Correlation analysis revealed the interdependencies of individual metabolites and metabolic pathway. At the onset of stage 2, characterized by the initiation and differentiation of leaf primordia, a shift from dormancy to active metabolism occurred as derived from the increased abundance of sugars and other metabolites involved in the tricarboxylic acid cycle, glycolytic, amino acid and fatty acid pathways. These changes contribute to sprouting and vegetative growth of the corm. The present study provides new insights into saffron corm composition and metabolite changes associated with various stages of corm development and may pave the way for achieving agronomical improvements in this economically important spice.

Fertilizer is a resource-intensive, hard-to-abate industry that provides crucial support to sustain agricultural production. This study estimates the technical efficiency (TE) of the Indian fertilizer-producing firms over the years 2009 to 2019. We use the input distance function under the production function farmwork to find potential input reduction to produce a certain output level. We further examine potential determinants of TE, such as age, ownership, and innovation. We use Greene's ( 2005 ) 'true fixed effect' and 'true random effect' to isolate inefficiency effectively from fixed effects. The results demonstrate a notable scope for improvement in TE, with a potential increase of up to 30% for half of the firms. There are substantial differences across firms where the bottom 25 percent of samples have less than 60 percent TE. TE slightly declined, particularly in the case of state-owned firms (SOEs), whereas privately owned firms have greater TE than SOEs. Better financial performance and R&D activity positively influence TE, while experienced firms have better TE. Hence, the results support resource-based theory, which argues that firms with better resources and capabilities achieve greater efficiency. Effective government policies should be implemented to boost firms' capacity for innovation and TE to meet the country's future fertilizer needs.

Objective: To find the association between sports injuries and entry level body mass index in young athletes. Study Design: Case Control Study. Place and Duration of Study: Different Sports Academies of Abbottabad, Pakistan from Sep 2021 to Aug 2022. Methodology: Newly inducted young athletes, aged between 19 – 23 years, were included in the study. Record of the athletes was explored to note their entry level BMI, along with the personal and medical history. Those who got sports injuries during first three months of training were labeled as cases. Those athletes who remained injury free but otherwise were similar to cases in all aspects were labeled as controls. Controls were selected at Case: Control ratio of 1:2. BMI was divided into five categories. Results: A total of 1302 male participants were included in this study. Out of these, 434 participants (0.33%) had received sports injuries (cases), whereas the remaining 868 participants (0.66%) were injury free (controls). A strong association of sports injuries was observed with lower entry level BMI, in the cases (p-value=0.02). Furthermore, 40(87%) of the cases belonged to Category 1 (BMI <18 Kg/m2) while 164 (80.4%) were within Category 2(BMI =18.1-18.4 Kg/m2). The lowest percentage of sports injuries i.e. 8.3% (22 participants) was observed in Cat 4 (BMI = 23.1-24.9 Kg/m2). Conclusion: The study provides scientific evidence of association of sports injuries with lower entry level BMI. It implies that sports injuries can be prevented by revising selection standards of ...

Stability and shelf life of commodities are crucial aspect in product development in the field of pharmaceutics, food, and other consumer goods. In today's world, non-adherent bandages are essential for reducing the pain and discomfort of people after surgery. In the present study, Cydonia oblonga mucilage was used to prepare non-adherent wound dressing and its stability is determined by thermal analysis by using advanced isoconversional method. Isoconversional method is used to determine kinetic triplet including activation energy, pre-exponential factor and mechanism of thermal degradation. The prepared dressings were subjected to thermal analysis. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the degradation of wound dressing occurs at 225°C - 400°C. Thus, the dressing was found to be stable up to wide ranges of temperature. Kinetics of thermal degradation was also studied by model-free isoconversional analysis. Activation energy, pre-exponential factor and decomposition mechanism model was determined by Starink method. The average activation energy of Cydonia oblonga wound dressing with and without drug was 111 kJ mol-1and 103 kJ mol-1 respectively and the pre-exponential factor values are 236751615 s-1 and 49975394 s-1 respectively. The wound dressing shows a distinct behavior of decomposition. Decomposition of wound dressing with drug followed two-dimensional diffusion mechanism model and wound dressing without drug followed three-dimensional diffusion mechanism. The value of kinetic parameters of wound dressing shows that both dressings with and without drug are stable but if these are compared with one another then with drug wound dressing is more stable as its activation energy is high.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

Intensive breeding programs have increased rice yields, strongly contributing to increasing global food security during the post‐green revolution period. However, rice productivity has reached a yield barrier where further yield improvement is restricted by inadequate information on the association of yield components, and morphological and physiological traits with yield. We conducted a field experiment to evaluate (i) the contribution of morphological and physiological traits to yield and (ii) quantify the trade‐off effect between the yield components in rice, using a mini‐core collection of 362 rice genotypes comprising geographically distinct landraces and breeding lines. Our data point towards multiscale coordination of physiological and morphological traits associated with yield and biomass. Considerable trait variations across the genotypes in yield ranging from 0.5 to 78.5 g hill−1 and harvest index ranging from 0.7% to 60.7% highlight enormous diversity in rice across the globe. The natural elimination of trade‐off between yield components revealed the possibility to enhance rice yield in modern cultivars. Furthermore, our study demonstrated that genotypes with larger sink sizes could fix more carbon to achieve a higher yield. We propose that the knowledge thus generated in this study can be helpful for (a) trait‐based modeling and pyramiding alleles in rice‐breeding programs and (b) assisting breeders and physiologists in their efforts to improve crop productivity under a changing climate, thus harnessing the potential for sustainable productivity gains. The present field‐based study utilizes a mini‐core collection of 362 rice genotypes comprising geographically distinct landraces and breeding lines. Our data point towards multi‐scale coordination of physiological and morphological traits associated with yield and biomass in rice. Considerable trait variations across the genotypes in yield and harvest index highlight enormous diversity in rice across the globe. The natural elimination of trade‐off between yield components revealed the possibility to enhance rice yield in modern cultivars. Our study demonstrated that genotypes with larger sink sizes could fix more carbon to achieve a higher yield.