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The acidic soils of western Newfoundland require liming for successful production of most crops. Locally sourced paper mill waste wood ash (WA) and paper sludge (SL) have potential as cheaper alternatives to limestone (LIME). Two greenhouse experiments evaluated WA and SL as liming and soil conditioning amendments for annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) production. At 55 days after seeding, soil pH in WA (6.2 and 6.3) and wood ash and paper sludge (WASL) (6.0 and 6.3) were not different from that in LIME (6.0 and 6.5) for Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. However, pH in SL was 0.4 and 0.3 points lower than in LIME. Compared to LIME, WA, SL, and WASL produced 31%–52% and 57%–74% greater biomass yield in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. N uptake was greater in WA (60 and 129 kg N ha−1) and WASL (51 and 97 kg N ha−1) compared to LIME (40 and 85 kg N ha−1), in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. SL did not differ from LIME in Experiment 1, but reduced N uptake by 57% in Experiment 2. The results show significant potential of WA as an alternative amendment for liming and yield improvement of annual ryegrass grown in NL podzolic soils. However, SL has limited potential due to the risk of increasing N immobilization and residual soil mineral N when growing conditions are limiting. Combining SL with WA or biochar seemed to alleviate these risks. Overall, the adoption of these amendments for field production systems warrants serious consideration, following supplemental field studies to determine optimal application rates and timing. The podzolic soils of Newfoundland have low pH and fertility, hence require liming.Locally sourced wastes, such as paper mill wood ash (WA) and sludge (SL), could be used as liming and nutrient sources.WA was equivalent to limestone (LIME) in improving and sustaining optimal soil pH.WA produced 52% and 74% greater annual ryegrass yield than conventional LIME application in podzolic soils.

This study was carried out to analyze the effects of biogenic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on physiological, biochemical, and enzymatic attributes of rice plants against Aspergillus flavus. The plant-based AgNPs were synthesized by using the aqueous extract of Moringa oleiferaleaves. The characterization of AgNPs was accomplished through UV-visible spectrophotometry, SEM, and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, which confirmed that the nanoparticles are crystalline and are less than 100 nm in size. The exogenous applications of different concentrations of AgNPs (25, 50, 75, and 100 mg/L) on rice plants in field experiments were used to control the proliferation of A. flavus. The effects of biosynthesized AgNPs were evaluated for physiological (relative water content, membrane stability index, and chlorophyll content), nonenzymatic metabolites (total phenolic, total flavonoid, proline, soluble sugar, and protein contents), and enzymatic metabolites (superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and catalase) in rice plants under biotic stress, and 50 mg/L concentration of AgNPs was found to be effective to elicit biochemical modifications to reduce biotic stress. The 50 mg/L concentration of AgNPs was also effective in controlling the proliferation of fungal pathogen. The applications of AgNPs reduced the biotic stress by decreasing the production level of osmolytes, enzymatic, and nonenzymatic compounds but significantly increased the protein content.

ABSTRACTMountains greatly affect the climate of an area because of differences in altitude, latitude, topography and continental position which provide special ecogeographic habitats to diverse plant species having different systematic and pharmacological attributes. The present investigation aimed to explore the ethnomedicinal formulations used by the native hill people living on the Murree and Kotli Sattian situated 50 Km away from the capital Islamabad. An ethnobotanical survey led to the collection of 21 plant families and 34 species distributed among 30 genera. Fabaceae (12%), Plantaginaceae (12%), Rosaceae (9%) and Apocynaceae (9%) were the most common families, accounting for 42% of the reported medicinal plant species of the area. During this investigation, 63% of the collected plant species were used only in ethnopharmacological formulations. The use of extracts (57%) and oral (60%) administration of the drugs prepared from different parts of the plants, especially leaves (23%), were the most common. 526 URs (use reports) were collected and diseases were assorted into 25 major categories. In general, 21 URs were collected against each disease category and 15 URs against each reported plant species. Digestive disorders, respiratory ailments, skin issues along with joint and muscular pains were found prevailing among the hill people, which shows a direct relationship with the climate of the area. The results of this study show that the hills of the Murree and Kotli Sattian are endowed with a high biodiversity and occupants of the hills use a large array of plants to treat their diseases.

Release of cargo molecules from cell-like nanocarriers can be achieved by chemical perturbations, including changes to pH and redox state and viaoptical modulation of membrane properties. However, little is known about the kinetics or products of vesicle breakdown due to limitations in real-time imaging at nanometer length scales. Using a library of 12 single–single type photocleavable amphiphilic Janus dendrimers, we developed a self-assembling light-responsive dendrimersome vesicle platform. A photocleavable ortho-nitrobenzyl inserted between the hydrophobic and hydrophilic dendrons of amphiphilic Janus dendrimers allowed for photocleavage and disassembly of their supramolecular assemblies. Distinct methods used to self-assemble amphiphilic Janus dendrimers produced either nanometer size small unilamellar vesicles or micron size giant multilamellar and onion-like dendrimersomes. In situobservation of giant photosensitive dendrimersomes viaconfocal microscopy elucidated rapid morphological transitions that accompany vesicle breakdown upon 405 nm laser illumination. Giant dendrimersomes displayed light-induced cleavage, disassembling and reassembling into much smaller vesicles at millisecond time scales. Additionally, photocleavable vesicles demonstrated rapid release of molecular and macromolecular cargos. These results guided our design of multilamellar particles to photorelease surface-attached proteins, photoinduce cargo recruitment, and photoconvert vesicle morphology. Real-time characterization of the breakdown and reassembly of lamellar structures provides insights on partial cargo retention and informs the design of versatile, optically regulated carriers for applications in nanoscience and synthetic biology.

The present study was aimed to biosynthesize selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) and assess their foliar applications to improve the growth of wheat plants under controlled irrigation and drought stress. Bud aqueous extract of Allium sativumL. was used as a reducing and stabilizing agent of SeNPs followed by their optical and morphological characterization by using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared, and energy dispersive X-ray analysis. Various concentrations of SeNPs (10, 20, 30, and 40 mg/L) were applied exogenously to drought-tolerant (V1) and drought-susceptible (V2) wheat varieties at the trifoliate stage. Under the positive control conditions, plants were irrigated with 450 mL of water/pot (100% field capacity); and under water-deficit environment, plants were irrigated with 160 mL of water/pot (35% field capacity). Remarkable increase in plant height, shoot length, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight, root length, root fresh weight, root dry weight, leaf area, leaf number, and leaf length has been observed when 30 mg/L concentration of SeNPs was used. However, the plant morphological parameters decreased gradually at higher concentrations (40 mg/L) in both selected wheat varieties. Therefore, 30 mg/L concentration of SeNPs was found most preferable to enhance the growth of selected wheat varieties under normal and water-deficient conditions.