Grain yield and correlated traits of bread wheat lines: Implications for yield improvement.

Global wheat yields are suffering due to differences in regional climatic conditions and soil fertility. Plant breeders are continuously working to improve the yield per unit area of wheat crop through selecting superior lines as parents. The screening and field evaluation of available lines allow the selection of superior ones and subsequently improved varieties. Therefore, heritable distinctions among 33 bread wheat lines for yield and related attributes were assessed under field conditions. The experiment included thirty lines and three check varieties. Data relating to different plant characteristics was collected at maturity. Significant differences were recorded for yield and related traits of tested wheat lines and check varieties. Wheat lines V6, V12 and V20 proved better with reduced number of days to reach anthesis and other desirable traits compared to check varieties. Days to start heading had strong correlation with spike length and number of spikelets spike-1. Flag leaf area had positive relationship with peduncle length and yield related traits. The 1000-garin weight and grain yield were also correlated with each other. It is concluded that V6, V10 and V20 proved better for all studied traits than the rest of the lines. Therefore, these lines could be used in wheat breeding program as parents to improve yield.

Boosting photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline under visible light over hierarchical carbon nitride microrods with carbon vacancies.

Graphitic carbon nitride is considered as one of the promising photocatalysts for pollution elimination from wastewater. Manipulating the microstructure of carbon nitride remains a challengeable task, which is essential for improving light absorption, separating photogenerated carrier and creating reactive sites. Herein, a carbon vacancy modified hierarchical carbon nitride microrod (CN1.5) has been prepared templated from a melamine-NH2OH·HCl complex. The hierarchical microrods are demonstrated to be comprised of interconnected nanosheets with rich carbon vacancies, which endows it with high specific surface area, enhanced light utilization efficiency, available reactive sites, improved charge carrier separation and numerous mass-transport channels. The resultant photocatalyst CN1.5 exhibits an excellent photodegradation efficiency of 87.9% towards tetracycline under visible light irradiation. The remarkable apparent rate constant of 4.91 × 10-2 min-1 is 7.3 times higher than that of bulk CN. In addition, the degradation pathways are deduced base on the observation of degradation intermediates generating in the photocatalytic process. Mechanism investigation indicates that the major contribution for photodegradation is attributed to ·O2-, 1O2 and H2O2 species. This work provides new insights into advancing carbon nitride's microstructure to improve photocatalytic degradation performance for highly efficient antibiotic removal and environment remediation.

Toxic effects of some insecticides, herbicides, and plant essential oils against Tribolium confusum Jacquelin du val (Insecta: Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae).

Cereals are staple food for many countries and are grown on millions of hectares of land, but much of the harvest is wasted due to losses by pests. To minimize these losses, many pesticides are used which are damaging to the environment and human health. There are debates to get rid of these chemicals but they are still in use at large scale. An alternative control strategy for insect pests in storage houses is the use of botanicals. In this study, four plant essential oils, two plant extracts, two herbicides, and two insecticides were used against Tribolium confusum and the comparison of toxicity was made by calculating LC50 and LT50 values. LC50 values were higher for abamectin (2.09-10.23 mg/L) and cypermethrin (3.41-11.78 mg/L) insecticides followed by neem essential oil (7.39-19.24 mg/L) and citrus extract (10.14-24.50 mg/L). However, LC50 values were maximum in case of jaman plant extract (22.38-176.42 mg/L) followed by two herbicides, Logran (19.66-39.72 mg/L) and Topik (29.09-47.67 mg/L) However, LC50 values were higher for topic herbicide (24.098 ppm) and jaman essential oil (16.383 ppm) after four days of treatment. Abamectin and cypermethrin insecticides, neem essential oil and citrus plant extract also killed adults of T. confusum quicker as compared other essential oils, extracts and herbicides. Results revealed that botanical formulations being environmentally safe could be used instead of highly hazardous pesticides for stored products' pests. This study also elaborates the non-host toxicity of herbicides commonly applied in our agroecosystem.

Integration of CdS particles into sodium alginate aerogel with enhanced photocatalytic performance.

In the present work, CdS nanoparticles were integrated into sodium alginate aerogel matrix through a facile method. The CdS particles were successfully incorporated into the network of sodium alginate and highly distributed. Moreover, the accessibility of pore structures of sodium alginate was well-preserved. The resulting hybrid aerogels demonstrated high photocatalytic ability towards Cr (VI) reduction. SA/CdS-2 (mass ratio SA: CdS = 1:2) exhibited the highest reduction efficiency of Cr (VI), which could reduce the concentration of Cr (VI) to 0 mg/L after 60 min illumination. A probably adsorption-photoreduction mechanism was proposed and discussed in detail. The aerogels had excellent reusability and recyclability, avoiding secondary pollution. This work holds a promise to design and fabrication of CdS particles into three-dimensional aerogel network.

Hybrid BiOBr/UiO-66-NH2 composite with enhanced visible-light driven photocatalytic activity toward RhB dye degradation.

Metal-organic framework (MOFs) based composites have received more research interest for photocatalytic applications during recent years. In this work, a highly active, visible light photocatalyst BiOBr/UiO-66-NH2 hybrid composite was successfully prepared by introducing various amounts of UiO-66-NH2 with BiOBr through a co-precipitation method. The composites were applied for the photocatalytic degradation of RhB (rhodamine B) dye. The developed BiOBr/UiO-66-NH2 composites exhibited higher photocatalytic activity than the pristine material. In RhB degradation experiments the hybrid composite with 15 wt% of UiO-66-NH2 shows degradation efficiency conversion of 83% within two hours under visible light irradiation. The high photodegradation efficiency of BUN-15 could be ascribed to efficient interfacial charge transfer at the heterojunction and the synergistic effect between BiOBr/UiO-66-NH2. In addition, an active species trapping experiment confirmed that photo-generated hole+ and O2 - radicals are the major species involved in RhB degradation under visible light.

Disintegrants combination: development and optimization of a cefadroxil fast disintegrating tablet.

Fast Disintegrating Tablets (FDTs) is a rapidly growing dosage form preferred for special population (pediatric, geriatric and psychotic patients). It is also developed with the aim of improving bioavailability and patient compliance. During the present study, cefadroxil fast disintegrating tablets formulations (n=9) were designed and optimized by central composite design with two independent variables (croscarmellose and crospovidone) using design expert® software. The effects of independent variables on formulation properties such as friability, hardness, in vitro dispersion and disintegration were assessed by drawing response surface graphs with design expert® software. Tablets were assessed for pharmacopeial and non-pharmacopeial parameters to ensure the quality of compressed tablets. Among all formulations, F3, F8 and F9 have shown better results. The formulation F9 containing 15mg croscarmellose and 33.075mg crospovidone showed good pharmacotechnical attributes as well as shelf life. F 9 showed improved dissolution with t90% of> 2 min and will lead to better bioavailability.

Design and evaluation of a new formulation of enalapril maleate tablet.

Enalapril maleate, one of the Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor is effective in the treatment of hypertension. Enalapril maleate is selected for the present study. The aim of this study was to develop a new formulation of Enalapril maleate tablet and its comparative evaluation with other formulations of Enalapril maleate tablet that are listed in the local index of registered pharmaceutical products. To accomplish this task, a new formulation of Enalapril maleate tablet has been developed by direct compression method. All formulation tablets with 5mg potency were selected and the new formulation tablets were also developed with 5mg potency. For new formulation as well as for six available formulations of Enalapril maleate tablets, various pharmaceutical parameters namely weight variation, thickness, hardness test; friability test, disintegration test, dissolution test and pharmaceutical assay were performed in accordance with United States Pharmacopeias (USP). The results of all the above tests were within the specified limits as mentioned in USP, whereas hardness test results for two formulations were deviated from the specified limits. It is concluded that direct compression can be used as an alternate method for the manufacture of Enalapril maleate tablet.