Owing to the remarkable antimicrobial potential of these materials, research into the possible use of nanomaterials as alternatives to fungicides in sustainable agriculture is increasingly ...progressing. Here, we investigated the potential antifungal properties of chitosan-decorated copper oxide nanocomposite (CH@CuO NPs) to control gray mold diseases of tomato caused by
throughout in vitro and in vivo trials. The nanocomposite CH@CuO NPs were chemically prepared, and size and shape were determined using Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). The chemical functional groups responsible for the interaction of the CH NPs with the CuO NPs were detected using the Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometry. The TEM images confirmed that CH NPs have a thin and semitransparent network shape, while CuO NPs were spherically shaped. Furthermore, the nanocomposite CH@CuO NPs ex-habited an irregular shape. The size of CH NPs, CuO NPs and CH@CuO NPs as measured through TEM, were approximately 18.28 ± 2.4 nm, 19.34 ± 2.1 nm, and 32.74 ± 2.3 nm, respectively. The antifungal activity of CH@CuO NPs was tested at three concentrations of 50, 100 and 250 mg/L and the fungicide Teldor 50% SC was applied at recommended dose 1.5 mL/L. In vitro experiments revealed that CH@CuO NPs at different concentrations significantly inhibited the reproductive growth process of
by suppressing the development of hyphae, spore germination and formation of sclerotia. Interestingly, a significant control efficacy of CH@CuO NPs against tomato gray mold was observed particularly at concentrations 100 and 250 mg/L on both detached leaves (100%) as well as the whole tomato plants (100%) when compared to the conventional chemical fungicide Teldor 50% SC (97%). In addition, the tested concentration 100 mg/L improved to be sufficient to guarantee a complete reduction in the disease's severity (100%) to tomato fruits from gray mold without any morphological toxicity. In comparison, tomato plants treated with the recommended dose 1.5 mL/L of Teldor 50% SC ensured disease reduction up to 80%. Conclusively, this research enhances the concept of agro-nanotechnology by presenting how a nano materials-based fungicide could be used to protect tomato plants from gray mold under greenhouse conditions and during the postharvest stage.
Lignin, a naturally occurring biopolymer, is produced primarily as a waste product by the pulp and paper industries and burned to produce electricity. Lignin-based nano- and microcarriers found in ...plants are promising biodegradable drug delivery platforms. Here, we highlight a few characteristics of a potential antifungal nanocomposite consisting of carbon nanoparticles (C-NPs) with a defined size and shape containing lignin nanoparticles (L-NPs). Spectroscopic and microscopic studies verified that the lignin-loaded carbon nanoparticles (L-CNPs) were successfully prepared. Under in vitro and in vivo conditions, the antifungal activity of L-CNPs at various doses was effectively tested against a wild strain of
that causes maize stalk rot disease. In comparison to the commercial fungicide, Ridomil Gold SL (2%), L-CNPs introduced beneficial effects in the earliest stages of maize development (seed germination and radicle length). Additionally, L-CNP treatments promoted positive effects on maize seedlings, with a significant increment in the level of carotenoid, anthocyanin, and chlorophyll pigments for particular treatments. Finally, the soluble protein content displayed a favorable trend in response to particular dosages. Most importantly, treatments with L-CNPs at 100 and 500 mg/L significantly reduced stalk rot disease by 86% and 81%, respectively, compared to treatments with the chemical fungicide, which reduced the disease by 79%. These consequences are substantial considering the essential cellular function carried out by these special natural-based compounds. Finally, the intravenous L-CNPs treatments in both male and female mice that affected the clinical applications and toxicological assessments are explained. The results of this study suggest that L-CNPs are of high interest as biodegradable delivery vehicles and can be used to stimulate favorable biological responses in maize when administered in the recommended dosages, contributing to the idea of agro-nanotechnology by demonstrating their unique qualities as a cost-effective alternative compared to conventional commercial fungicides and environmentally benign nanopesticides for long-term plant protection.
Pyrroles and its fused forms possess antimicrobial activities, they can easily interact with biomolecules of living systems. A series of substituted pyrroles, and its fused pyrimidines and triazines ...forms have been synthesised, all newly synthesised compound structures were confirmed by spectroscopic analysis. Generally, the compounds inhibited growth of some important human pathogens, the best effect was given by: 2a, 3c, 4d on Gram-positive bacteria and was higher on yeast (C. albicans), by 5c on Gram-negative bacteria and by 5a then 3c on filamentous fungi (A. fumigatus and F. oxysporum). Such results present good antibacterial and antifungal potential candidates to help overcome the global problem of antibiotic resistance and opportunistic infections outbreak. Compound 3c gave the best anti-phytopathogenic effect at a 50-fold lower concentration than Kocide 2000, introducing a safe commercial candidate for agricultural use. The effect of the compounds on DNA was monitored to detect the mode of action.
•An unconventional GR-ACO-LS-STS for short text summarization it is proposed.•The mechanism relies on graph coloring mixed with Ant colony optimization and local search.•The mechanism was found more ...efficient than the other traditional algorithms.
Due to the increasing popularity of contents of social media platforms, the number of posts and messages is steadily increasing. A huge amount of data is generated daily as an outcome of the interactions between fans of the networking platforms. It becomes extremely troublesome to find the most relevant, interactive information for the subscribers. The aim of this work is to enable the users to get a powerful brief of comments without reading the entire list. This paper opens up a new field of short text summarization (STS) predicated on a hybrid ant colony optimization coming with a mechanism of local search, called ACO-LS-STS, to produce an optimal or near-optimal summary. Initially, the graph coloring algorithm, called GC-ISTS, was employed before to shrink the solution area of ants to small sets. Evidently, the main purpose of using the GC algorithm is to make the search process more facilitated, faster and prevents the ants from falling into the local optimum. First, the dissimilar comments are assembled together into the same color, at the same time preserving the information ratio as for an original list of comment. Subsequently, activating the ACO-LS-STS algorithm, which is a novel technique concerning the extraction of the most interactive comments from each color in a parallel form. At the end, the best summary is picked from the best color. This problem is formalized as an optimization problem utilizing GC and ACO-LS to generate the optimal solution. Eventually, the proposed algorithm was evaluated and tested over a collection of Facebook messages with their associated comments. Indeed, it was found that the proposed algorithm has an ability to capture a good solution that is guaranteed to be near optimal and had realized notable performance in comparison with traditional document summarization algorithms.
User-contributed comments (UCC) are one of the signs of the social media. Due to the high popularity of social media, it becomes already exceedingly difficult to find the most relevant, interactive ...information for the users. The motivation behind this work is the fact that users may interest to get an efficacious brief understanding of comments without reading the entire comments. This paper opens up an unconventional field of comment's summarization predicated on Ant colony optimization mixed with Jensen–Shannon divergence (ACO-JSD). ACO-JSD is a proposed novel technique concerning the extraction the most interactive comments from the huge amount of concise comment's perspectives. This problem is unfastened utilizing ACO to generate the optimal solution. Moreover, the JSD model is employed to ensure a summary could capture the essence of the original comments. First, an acyclic semi-graph has been constructed under two constraints: (1) the longest comments will be isolated from the graph, (2) The more similarity between two comments, the greater the chance that mutual connectivity is eliminated. Next, a feasible solution is constructed to select the high-quality summarization. Finally, the proposed algorithm has been evaluated over a collection of Facebook posts with their associated comments and an excellent performance in comparison with traditional document summarization algorithms was obtained. Accordingly, the computational results show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, as well as its ability to find a good summary that is guaranteed to be near-optimal.
Owing to the remarkable antimicrobial potential of these materials, research into the possible use of nanomaterials as alternatives to fungicides in sustainable agriculture is increasingly ...progressing. Here, we investigated the potential antifungal properties of chitosan-decorated copper oxide nanocomposite (CH@CuO NPs) to control gray mold diseases of tomato caused by Botrytis cinerea throughout in vitro and in vivo trials. The nanocomposite CH@CuO NPs were chemically prepared, and size and shape were determined using Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). The chemical functional groups responsible for the interaction of the CH NPs with the CuO NPs were detected using the Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometry. The TEM images confirmed that CH NPs have a thin and semitransparent network shape, while CuO NPs were spherically shaped. Furthermore, the nanocomposite CH@CuO NPs ex-habited an irregular shape. The size of CH NPs, CuO NPs and CH@CuO NPs as measured through TEM, were approximately 18.28 ± 2.4 nm, 19.34 ± 2.1 nm, and 32.74 ± 2.3 nm, respectively. The antifungal activity of CH@CuO NPs was tested at three concentrations of 50, 100 and 250 mg/L and the fungicide Teldor 50% SC was applied at recommended dose 1.5 mL/L. In vitro experiments revealed that CH@CuO NPs at different concentrations significantly inhibited the reproductive growth process of B. cinerea by suppressing the development of hyphae, spore germination and formation of sclerotia. Interestingly, a significant control efficacy of CH@CuO NPs against tomato gray mold was observed particularly at concentrations 100 and 250 mg/L on both detached leaves (100%) as well as the whole tomato plants (100%) when compared to the conventional chemical fungicide Teldor 50% SC (97%). In addition, the tested concentration 100 mg/L improved to be sufficient to guarantee a complete reduction in the disease's severity (100%) to tomato fruits from gray mold without any morphological toxicity. In comparison, tomato plants treated with the recommended dose 1.5 mL/L of Teldor 50% SC ensured disease reduction up to 80%. Conclusively, this research enhances the concept of agro-nanotechnology by presenting how a nano materials-based fungicide could be used to protect tomato plants from gray mold under greenhouse conditions and during the postharvest stage.
Purpose
Increased height after total knee replacement surgery (TKR) may offer patients higher satisfaction as well as the quality of life. Therefore, in this paper, we aim to document the changes in ...leg length after TKR in patients with severe bilateral deformities.
Methods
The data of 61 patients were collected from the Egyptian Community Arthroplasty Register; of them, 21 patients had unilateral TKR while 40 had bilateral simultaneous TKR. The patterns of changes in height of 101 osteoarthritic knees were followed up for 1 year after having TKR. All patients had standing leg X-rays, before and after surgery, to document the length of the femur and tibia before and after TKR. Correlations were assessed using the two-sample
t
-test.
Results
The sample was mostly females (56/61, 91.8%). The distribution of the operated side was nearly equal (right knee was 47/101, 46.5%). The overall average leg length difference was 5.4 (SD = 2.3); for the unilateral group, the average was 4.6 (SD = 2.6); and for the bilateral group, the average was 5.6 (SD = 2.3),
p
= 0.119. We found that leg length may differ according to the varus deformity angle (
p
< 0.001) as well as fixed flexion deformity (
p
< 0.001).
Conclusions
Leg length increased significantly 1 year after TKR. However, there is not enough evidence to suggest that the bilateral group had a greater height increase when compared to the unilateral group.
Lignin, a naturally occurring biopolymer, is produced primarily as a waste product by the pulp and paper industries and burned to produce electricity. Lignin-based nano- and microcarriers found in ...plants are promising biodegradable drug delivery platforms. Here, we highlight a few characteristics of a potential antifungal nanocomposite consisting of carbon nanoparticles (C-NPs) with a defined size and shape containing lignin nanoparticles (L-NPs). Spectroscopic and microscopic studies verified that the lignin-loaded carbon nanoparticles (L-CNPs) were successfully prepared. Under in vitro and in vivo conditions, the antifungal activity of L-CNPs at various doses was effectively tested against a wild strain of F. verticillioides that causes maize stalk rot disease. In comparison to the commercial fungicide, Ridomil Gold SL (2%), L-CNPs introduced beneficial effects in the earliest stages of maize development (seed germination and radicle length). Additionally, L-CNP treatments promoted positive effects on maize seedlings, with a significant increment in the level of carotenoid, anthocyanin, and chlorophyll pigments for particular treatments. Finally, the soluble protein content displayed a favorable trend in response to particular dosages. Most importantly, treatments with L-CNPs at 100 and 500 mg/L significantly reduced stalk rot disease by 86% and 81%, respectively, compared to treatments with the chemical fungicide, which reduced the disease by 79%. These consequences are substantial considering the essential cellular function carried out by these special natural-based compounds. Finally, the intravenous L-CNPs treatments in both male and female mice that affected the clinical applications and toxicological assessments are explained. The results of this study suggest that L-CNPs are of high interest as biodegradable delivery vehicles and can be used to stimulate favorable biological responses in maize when administered in the recommended dosages, contributing to the idea of agro-nanotechnology by demonstrating their unique qualities as a cost-effective alternative compared to conventional commercial fungicides and environmentally benign nanopesticides for long-term plant protection.