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Abstract Salinity and freshwater scarcity are significant challenges affecting agriculture production worldwide. Sustaining food production in arid and semi-arid regions requires innovative, efficient, and low-cost technologies. Integrated aqua-vegeculture systems (IAVS) are promising technologies for cultivating vegetable crops and rearing fish and in a closed-loop system. The system utilizes fish effluents as crop fertilizers and recycles water for increased productivity. Hence, the current study aimed to investigate the response and productivity of kale (Brassica oleracea L.) grown at different brackish water salinities in an IAVS. The greenhouse experiment followed a completely randomized design with three salinity variants (i.e., 3000, 6000, and 9000 ppm) and control (freshwater, 400 ppm) with four replicates per treatment. The study results indicated that kale grown in a greenhouse could tolerate salinity levels of up to 6000 ppm without significantly compromising the plants’ growth, yield, and nutritional composition of leaves. Likewise, rearing Oreochromis niloticus at high water salinities did not negatively impact the water quality and the growth performance, survival, and feed utilization of fish. Overall, cultivating kale and rearing O. niloticus in IAVS in water salinities reaching up to 6000 ppm could be a sustainable agricultural strategy to increase food production in regions affected by freshwater scarcity.

Relatively little is known about the first hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells to arrive in the fetal bone marrow. Here they characterize the frequency, function, and molecular identity of fetal BM HSPCs and their bone marrow niche, and show that most BM HSPCs have little hematopoietic function until birth.

Abstract Pathogenic bacteria cause disease outbreaks and threaten human health, prompting the research on advanced detection assays. Herein, we developed a selective molecular imprinted aptasensor for sensitive and prompt quantitation of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteria. The aptasensor was constructed by immobilization of aptamer on gold nanoparticles modified magnetic nanoparticles (apt-AuNPs@ Fe3O4). A functional monomer (o-phenylenediamine, o-phen) was electro-polymerized on the surface of the as-synthesized nanocomposite in the presence of a template (S. aureus). After removing S. aureus, the formed imprinted sites were available to extract pathogenic bacteria from complicated matrices. The surface morphology of the as-fabricated nanocomposites was characterized using different spectroscopic and electrochemical methods. Moreover, we thoroughly evaluated factors affecting the synthesis and determination procedures. The molecular imprinted aptasensor exhibited a wide linear range of 101–107 CFU mL−1 with a Limit of Detection, LOD (signal to noise = 3) of 1 CFU mL−1. The aptasensor detected S. aureus in milk, conduit water, and apple juice samples with good recoveries % and satisfactory relative standard deviations (RSDs %) values.

Abstract This study investigated the utilization of fish effluents as irrigation water and nutrient sources to close the crop yield gap and increase Swiss chard productivity in a closed-loop sandponics system. The experiment was operated using desalinated water from a Reverse Osmosis plant. The study followed a completely randomized design with four variants, i.e., an aquaponic system (T1) and three sandponics systems; October (T2), Benu Suef (T3) and Fayoum (T4). Results indicated that T2 and T4 significantly recorded the highest plant heights in all cuts. The number of leaves per plant decreased with the increase in cut number. Leaf area and chlorophyll was significantly different between the treatments. T1 significantly had low biomass yields in cuts one and two, almost 40% less than T3 and T4. The various systems efficiently minimized water consumption ranging from 1.5 to 1.96 L/m2/day. The crop protein content ranged from 11.84 to 18.72 mg/100 g dry weight. Mineral composition in cut one was significantly higher compared to cuts two and three. The study recommends a novel technique for increasing crop production using fish effluents under sandponics systems while increasing water and fertilizer efficiency to close the crop yield gap.