Arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis and abiotic stress in plants: A review

Arafat Abdel Hamed Abdel Latef,Abeer Hashem,Saiema Rasool,Elsayed Fathi Abd_Allah,Alqarawi A.A,Dilfuza Egamberdieva,Sumira Jan,Naser A. Anjum,Parvaiz Ahmad 한국식물학회 2016 Journal of Plant Biology Vol.59 No.5

Abiotic stresses (such as salinity, drought, cold, heat, mineral deficiency and metals/metalloids) have become major threats to the global agricultural production. These stresses in isolation and/or combination control plant growth, development and productivity by causing physiological disorders, ion toxicity, and hormonal and nutritional imbalances. Some soil microorganisms like arbuscular mycorhizal fungi (AMF) inhabit the rhizosphere and develop a symbiotic relationship with the roots of most plant species. AMF can significantly improve resistance of host plants to varied biotic and abiotic stresses. Taking into account recent literature, this paper: (a) overviews major abiotic stresses and introduces the arbuscular mycorrhizae symbiosis (b) appraises the role and underlying major mechanisms of AMF in plant tolerance to major abiotic stresses including salinity, drought, temperature regimes (cold and heat), nutrient-deficiency, and metal/metalloids; (c) discusses major molecular mechanisms potentially involved in AMF-mediated plant-abiotic stress tolerance; and finally (d) highlights major aspects for future work in the current direction.

A Vehicular License Plate Recognition Framework For Skewed Images

( M. Y. Arafat ),( A. S. M. Khairuddin ),( R. Paramesran ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2018 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.12 No.11

Vehicular license plate (LP) recognition system has risen as a significant field of research recently because various explorations are currently being conducted by the researchers to cope with the challenges of LPs which include different illumination and angular situations. This research focused on restricted conditions such as using image of only one vehicle, stationary background, no angular adjustment of the skewed images. A real time vehicular LP recognition scheme is proposed for the skewed images for detection, segmentation and recognition of LP. In this research, a polar co-ordinate transformation procedure is implemented to adjust the skewed vehicular images. Besides that, window scanning procedure is utilized for the candidate localization that is based on the texture characteristics of the image. Then, connected component analysis (CCA) is implemented to the binary image for character segmentation where the pixels get connected in an eight-point neighbourhood process. Finally, optical character recognition is implemented for the recognition of the characters. For measuring the performance of this experiment, 300 skewed images of different illumination conditions with various tilt angles have been tested. The results show that proposed method able to achieve accuracy of 96.3% in localizing, 95.4% in segmenting and 94.2% in recognizing the LPs with an average localization time of 0.52s.

Development of effectively costed and performant novel cation exchange ceramic nanocomposite membrane based sulfonated PVA for direct borohydride fuel cells

Marwa H. Gouda,Noha A. Elessawy,Arafat Toghan 한국공업화학회 2021 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.100 No.-

A direct borohydride fuel cell (DBFC) is a type of low temperature fuel cell, and to commercialize this typeof fuel cell, it requires efficient and inexpensive proton exchange membranes. In this study, a binarypolymer blend is formulated from inexpensive and ecofriendly polymers such as iota carrageenan (IC)and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). Zirconiam phosphate (ZrPO4) was synthesized from a simple impregnation— calcination method and later embedded as a doping agent into the polymeric matrix with percentage(1–7.5) wt.%. The novel nanocomposite membranes were evaluated by TGA, DSC, FTIR, XRD and SEM. Theoxidative stability and tensile strength of the obtained membranes were enhanced and achieved resultsbetter than those of Nafion117 due to an increase in the number of hydrogen bonds formed between thepolymer functional groups and oxygen functional groups of ZrPO4with increasing doping concentration. In addition, the borohydride permeability of the membranes decreased with increasing ZrPO4weightpercentage, while the ionic conductivity and power density increased to 25.5 mS cm 1 and 66 mW cm 2,respectively, for membrane with 5 wt.% of ZrPO4. The fabricated membrane with the optimum properties(PVA/IC/ZrPO45) can be efficient as a proton exchange membrane towards the development of greenand low cost DBFCs.

Hepatobiliary diseases in buffalo (Bubalus bubalis): clinical, laboratory, and ultrasonographic findings

Arafat Khalphallah,Nasr-Eldin M. Aref,Ashraf M. Abu-Seida,Enas Elmeligy,Sara A. Bayoumi,Al-lethie A. Al-lethie,Doaa Salman 대한수의학회 2018 Journal of Veterinary Science Vol.19 No.4

This study describes ultrasonographic observations of five hepatobiliary diseases in buffalo (Bubalus bubalis). Fifty buffalo, including 20 clinically normal and 30 hepatobiliary diseased buffalo were enrolled in the study. Complete clinical, radiographic and ultrasonographic examinations and laboratory analyses were conducted. Focal parenchymal lesions including liver abscess (n = 12) and hepatic cyst (n = 6), diffuse parenchymal lesion (hepatobiliary cirrhosis, n = 5) and obstruction of hepatobiliary passages including cholestasis (n = 4), and hepatocholelithiasis (n = 3) were successfully imaged by ultrasonography. Hepatic abscess imaged as a hypoechoic to echogenic circumscribed mass of various diameters with a distinct echogenic capsule. Hepatic cyst imaged as a pear-shaped sac with a bright echogenic margin, anechoic content, and distal acoustic enhancement. In hepatobiliary fibrosis, the liver showed linear bands of increasing echogenicity with less distinct imaging of the portal vasculature. Cholestasis was imaged as dilatation of the gallbladder (GB) with wall thickening and homogeneous or heterogeneous contents. Hepatocholelithiasis imaged as an echoic structure within the hepatic parenchyma, or within and around the GB and bile duct, with more echogenicity of the hepatic parenchyma than normal. Ultrasonography can be an efficient rapid, noninvasive tool for screening of common hepatobiliary diseases in buffalo under field conditions.

Kinetics and thermodynamic characteristics of cadmium(II) sorption from water using procaine hydrochloride physically impregnated polyurethane foam

M.S. El-Shahawi,H. Alwael,A. Arafat,A.A. Al-Sibaai,A.S. Bashammakh,E.A. Al-Harbi 한국공업화학회 2015 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.28 No.-

A fast and selective method for cadmium(II) removal from water by procaine hydrochloride (PQ+ Cl )immobilized polyurethane foam (PUFs) sorbent was developed. The method was based upon formationof [CdI4] 2aq in the test aqueous KI solution and subsequent extraction by PQ+ Cl treated PUFs. Thesorption of Cd2+ ions followed first order equation with an overall rate constant of 0.132 0.033 min 1. The values of DH and DS were 41.54 0.9 kJ mol 1 and 144.58 3.1 J mol 1 K 1, respectively with acorrelation factor of 0.998. The thermodynamic parameters (DH, DS and DG) suggest that the sorption wasspontaneous and exothermic process. The negative value of DS provides indication of moderate sorption of[CdI4]2 ion associate and ordering of the ionic charges without compensatory disordering of the sorbedspecies onto the sorbent. Cadmium(II) sorption is mainly dominated by absorption related to ‘‘solventextraction’’ and an added component for ‘‘surface adsorption’’. PQ+ Cl treated PUFs packed column was alsotested for preconcentration of trace concentrations of cadmium(II) species in various water samples. Theretained Cd species were successfully recovered with dilute HNO3 (1.0 mol L 1) and subsequently analyzedby ICP–OES. Thus, the proposed sorbent packed column provides efficient removal of traces of cadmium(II)ions from water samples. The method could be extended for preconcentrate of trace and ultra trace cadmiumspecies from large samples onto PUF packed column and subsequently analyzed. Indeed, the developedmethod could be satisfactorily applied to the determination of trace Cd ions in natural water.

Ionic liquid functionalized graphene oxide for the adsorption of Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions from saline aqueous feed

Botagoz Zhuman,Hadil Abu Khalifeh,Ioannis Zuburtikudis,Mahendra Kumar,Hassan A. Arafat,Enas Nashef 한국화학공학회 2023 Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol.40 No.5

The development of an efficient adsorbent for removal of Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions using ionic liquid (IL) (1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium amino acetate) functionalized graphene oxide (GO) (IL-GO) is reported. The formation of IL-GO adsorbent was confirmed by FTIR, Raman, TGA, TEM and SEM-EDX analysis. The loading of IL within the IL-GO adsorbent was found to be 39 wt%. A minimum amount of IL (∼2%) leached from IL-GO after continuous stirring in DI water for 24 h. The IL-GO adsorbent exhibited high adsorption capacity towards Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions and stable recovery without cross-contamination of the feed water. The structural integrity of IL-GO was preserved after functionalization and adsorption of Ca2+ and Mg2+ from aqueous solution. Adsorption kinetics results show that the adsorption rates of Ca2+ and Mg2+ follow a pseudo second-order kinetic model. Moreover, the adsorption data of both Ca2+ and Mg2+ on IL-GO is well fitted using the Langmuir isotherm, implying that active sites for adsorption are homogeneously distributed on the IL-GO surface. IL-GO adsorbent shows promise in the removal of Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions from saline water, as part of a pretreatment process in reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plants, to control the inorganic fouling of RO membranes. Finally, since the adsorption capacity of IL-GO for Ca2+ and Mg2+ has been found to be much greater than that for Na+, the developed adsorbent could be a very good candidate for the separation of monovalent and divalent cations from an aqueous feed.

Mass transfer analysis of ultrafiltration using spacers based on triply periodic minimal surfaces: Effects of spacer design, directionality and voidage

Sreedhar, Nurshaun,Thomas, Navya,Al-Ketan, Oraib,Rowshan, Reza,Hernandez, Hector H.,Abu Al-Rub, Rashid K.,Arafat, Hassan A. Elsevier 2018 Journal of membrane science Vol.561 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>An ideal feed spacer balances high flux and low pressure drop while minimizing fouling. In this work, several feed spacer with complex triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) geometries were designed and fabricated using additive manufacturing (AM) processing. AM technology was employed to vary the voidage and directionality of the spacers. The fabricated spacers were tested to determine their impact on mass transfer, pressure drop and critical flux in a flat-sheet ultrafiltration (UF) setup for protein separation in aqueous medium. Dimensionless numbers analysis was conducted with dextran filtration, while critical flux was determined via the flux-stepping method by filtration of bovine serum albumin (BSA). All the tested TPMS spacers displayed an increase in mass transfer compared to a commercial spacer design, with the Gyroid spacer (84% voidage) exhibiting a 67% increase in Sherwood number. The Gyroid design also showed an 8% improvement in critical flux. Modification of the spacer voidage and direction also showed significant influence on performance. By increasing the voidage of the Gyroid spacer from 84% to 90%, we observe a 97% increase in Sherwood Number and an 18% decrease in Power number, compared to commercial spacer. The findings of this study show the advantages of TPMS architectures as candidates for spacer design in UF.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Spacers based on triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS) were made. </LI> <LI> Mass transfer study of TPMS spacers in ultrafiltration. </LI> <LI> Modification of directionality and porosity of TPMS spacers evaluated. </LI> <LI> Spacer with gradually changing porosity fabricated and tested. </LI> <LI> Superior critical flux using some TPMS architectures compared to commercial design. </LI> </UL> </P>