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Pear is one of the most important pome fruits in the world fruit market with a high nutritional value. This study was performed to determine the phenolic compounds and some chemical properties of the flesh and peel of 12 Asian and European pears. Chlorogenic acid and rutin were found the important phenolic compounds in the peel which were measured using HPLC. Fruit titratable acidity (TA), total soluble solids (TSS), firmness, color, nutrient elements, and total phenol contents were measured across the various cultivars. Potassium was the most abundant nutrient, followed by nitrogen and calcium, respectively. As the total phenol increased, so did the amount of rutin. Principal components analysis (PCA) of all data showed that European and Asian pear cultivars were categorized and placed into two distinct groups. In general, the different European and Asian pear studied cultivars were different in terms of most of the studied biochemical traits, and significant relationships were observed between some traits.
 

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In the last decades, increasing petroleum prices, diminishing oil resources, incessant fluctuations in the oil prices and concerns about global shortage of energy resources have boosted research on production and commercialization of biofuels, e.g., ethanol and butanol, obtained from renewable resources. Besides its application as a fuel, butanol has found numerous industrial applications for the production of plasticizers, lacquers, coatings, detergents, and brake fluids. Biobutanol, together with acetone and ethanol, can be produced in industrial scale by a process called Acetone Butanol Ethanol (ABE) fermentation in anaerobic condition using Clostridium acetobutylicum bacterium. The nature of the carbohydrate and nutrients in the fermentation can affect the ratio of solvents obtained in the ABE fermentation process. In this research, influence of various nutrients and glucose concentrations on the production of butanol by this bacterium was investigated. Results showed that presence of biotin, thiamine, para-amino-benzoic acid, and yeast extract as well as several ions including Mg, Fe, Mn, phosphate, and ammonium acetate in the culture medium is essential for the production of butanol by C. acetobutylicum. Lacks of these compounds in the medium significantly reduced the production of solvents, in spite of the growth of the bacterium .also optimum concentration of glucose was 40g/l for maximum production solvent .In this concentration, maximum solvent concentration was achieved 10.5 g/l and maximum butanol concentration was achieved 6.7g/l with yield of 26.25%.

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Most areas of the world where rainfall is limiting are characterized by low agricultural output and, ironically, high population growth rates that generate increased food de-mand. Arid and semi-arid regions permit a range of vegetative biomass production, from rainfed crops to native pasture, and sparse steppe shrubs to true desert. Given the harsh climatic conditions in areas such as West Asia-North Africa, where less than 10% of the land area is amenable to rainfed cropping, soil resources are fragile and cropping condi-tions precarious. Yet with appropriate manipulation of soil fertility and crop management within a systems context, including breeding of improved cultivars, conservation tillage, and rotations, substantial production increases can occur at the farmer's level. While irri-gation has increased considerably in the past few decades, having a major impact on crop yields, surface and ground water sources remain limited. Applied research specific to the region has shown that crop output can be considerably enhanced with adequate nutrition, most of which has to be added as commercial fertilizer. The substantial yield increases that have taken place in several countries of the region have been attributed to three fac-tors: water, fertilizers, and improved varieties. Technologies that potentially produce such high yield increases include identification of nutrient stresses and taking corrective action, and, where appropriate, adapting the plant to the soil conditions. If managed properly, innovative cropping systems to overcome these constraints can improve rather than de-grade soil conditions. Regardless of the advances in biotechnology, crop adaptation, and integrated cropping systems, chemical fertilizers will, in future, play an even greater role in the nutrition of both rainfed and irrigated crops in Mediterranean agriculture. Crop nutrition research will have to keep pace with agronomic developments. The future chal-lenge in soil fertility-crop nutrition lies as much in overcoming obstacles to technology transfer as in the generation of new knowledge. This selective review is based mainly on the author’s research experiences in the field of soil fertility and crop nutrition in the WANA region for the past 32 years. It seeks to highlight research developments within the context of the region's crop production constraints, culminating in a perspective on future research challenges within the framework of cooperation between international in-stitutions and the region’s national research and development programs.

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Total energy, protein content and digestibility, antinutritional factors, and total and extractable minerals of normal sorghum (Type II) and four newly developed lines of sorghum (Eri-1, SHK-ABA-4, SHK-ABA-6 and SHK-ABA-10.) were studied before and after fermentation. Phytic acid and Tanin contents of raw flour of the normal sorghum were, respectively, 41.73 mg 100 g-1 and 170.54 mg 100 g-1, while the same values for the four lines ranged from 16.07 to 38.64 mg 100 g-1 and from 31.90 to 184.25 mg 100 g-1, respectively. Polyphenols content of raw flour of the normal sorghum was 604.56 mg 100 g-1, exceeding the values found for the four lines in the range of 476.46 to 544.44 mg 100 g- 1. According to our results, fermentation of normal sorghum flour and that of the new lines significantly (P
0.05) decreased the antinutritional factors i.e. phytate, tannins, and polyphenols. The total energy of raw flour of the normal sorghum was 369.87 Kcal 100 g-1 while it ranged from 367.23 to 372.57 Kcal 100 g-1 for the new lines. In all cases, this energy slightly decreased after fermentation. Protein digestibility of normal sorghum was 22.60% and, for the new lines, it ranged from 37.00 to 57.19%. After fermentation, protein digestibility and the total and extractable Ca, P, and Fe increased significantly (P
0.05) for all genotypes studied.

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We assessed the size and composition of the soil seed bank and above-ground vegetation in 52 relevés representing a range of habitats within an old- growth, temperate deciduous forest at Hyrcanian region, northern Iran. We identified 63 taxa in the seed bank, with an average density of 4202 seeds/spores per m2 by seedling emergence method. Hypericum androsaemum, Cardamine impatiens, and Rubus hyrcanus, with Athyrium flix- femina and Pteris cretica as two ferns, were the most abundant species in the seed bank and spore bank that made up to 92 % of the seeds/spores recorded in the soil seed bank. Totally, 107 species were recorded in the vegetation and soil seed bank of the study site, of which 33 % were common in both seed bank and vegetation and 26 % and 41 % were found only in the seed bank or in the vegetation, respectively. The dominant tree species with many woody understory species found in the above- ground vegetation were absent from the persistent soil seed bank. Jaccard’s similarity coefficient revealed that the correspondence between the species in the vegetation and the same species in the seed bank were consistently low (average of 24.3%) based on presence/absence data. Yates- corrected c 2 test showed that sites present significant differences (P<0.001) in seed bank and vegetation species composition. DCA ordination of the above-ground vegetation and soil seed bank flora displays a clear pattern, with two distinct groups on the basis of the above-ground vegetation and soil seed bank floristic data. Our results explain the low similarity between soil seed bank and vegetation of the Darkola oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) forest only to a limited extent, but confirm that most of the species of the above-ground vegetation do not depend on the persistent soil seed bank. Therefore, it may be concluded that the persistent soil seed bank is not capable of restoring the extant vegetation of the studied site.

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The effects of banana continuous cropping on soil quality and chemical properties and crop yield were investigated under continuous cropping for 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 15 years in Hainan province, China. The results indicated that the contents of total N, total K, available K, NH₄-N, exchangeable Ca, and available Cu tended to increase, while total organic C (TOC), available S, and available Zn tended to decrease with the increase of continuous cropping years at the four sampling stages. The contents of exchangeable Mg and available Fe and Mn were higher in the 3, 5, 7, and 10 years than in the 1 and 15 years at the four sampling stages. The values of pH, the contents of total P and available P decreased from 1 to 5 years and increased from 7 to 15 years at most of the sampling stages. Overall, average banana yield increased from 1 to 3 years and decreased afterwards. In conclusion, banana continuous cropping deteriorated soil quality as evidenced by increase of soil acidity, decrease of total organic C, accumulation of N, P, K, Ca and Cu, deficiency of Mg, S, Fe, Mn, and Zn and accompanying decline in banana yield. In order to improve the soil environment and sustain higher productivity under continuous-banana cropping system, application of balanced rate of fertilizers is of considerable importance.

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Zinc has previously been reported to alleviate salinity stress in plants. In this study, we monitored various biomass and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters to determine the optimum zinc sulfate concentration that can be used as foliar spray to alleviate salinity stress in Glycine soja. The plants subjected to a series of salinity levels (NaCl concentration of 0, 100, 200, and 300 mmol L^-1), applied via the nutrient solution, were sprayed with different concentrations of zinc sulfate (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 µmol L^-1). The results showed that the biomass and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters of seedlings were significantly affected by salt stress (P < 0.05). However, zinc sulfate sprays helped the plants to cope with the stress condition. The zinc sulfate concentrations that helped G. soja to cope with the salinity stress of 100, 200, and 300 mmol L^-1 were 15 to 20, 15 to 20, and 10 to 20 µmol L^-1, respectively. Lower zinc concentration was ineffective in alleviating stress and higher zinc concentration inhibited plant growth because of toxicological damage to plants. The zinc sulfate spray of 15 µmol L^-1 was found to be the most appropriate at all salinity stress levels. The growth measurements such as true leaves part and dry weight of total seedlings were in agreement with the chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, indicating a visible enhancement of leaf photosynthetic activity at 10-20 µmol L^-1 zinc concentrations.

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To study the effect of different fertilizing systems on macro and micro nutrients uptake by annual medic (Medicago scutellata cv. Robinson) an experiment was conducted under dry farming and irrigated conditions at two research stations (Sararood Dryland Agricultural Research Institute and Soil Fertility Research Station in Mahidasht) during 2009 growing season. The experimental treatments consisted of the two experimental sites with different climatic conditions and cultural systems (dry farming and irrigated systems), while the fertilizer treatments consisted of the control (no fertilizer), chemical fertilizer, biological fertilizer, and different combinations of chemical and biological fertilizing systems. The results showed that, in both irrigated and dry farming conditions, all fertilizing treatments increased macro- and micro-nutrients uptake over the control. The highest concentration of nutrient elements such as Nitrogen (3.82%), Potassium, (4.16 mg kg^-1), Iron (495 mg kg^-1) and Cu (60.8 mg kg^-1) were observed in integrated fertilizing treatments i.e. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria+Triple superphosphate. Application of integrated fertilizing treatments not only decreased the chemical fertilizer application (consequently, reducing the environmental pollutions), but it also enhanced forage quality in terms of higher macro- and micro-nutrients concentrations. According to the results of this study, it could be concluded that integrated fertilizing systems may be more efficient in dry farming agro-ecosystems than in irrigated systems. 

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Mill flower is one of the by-products that is produced in significant volumes. Mill flour is often mixed with mill ash from bagasse baking, which together forms the bulk of mill waste in sugar factories for disposal. Low levels of nutrients and high humidity make mill flour a dilute source of nutrients, and the demand for mill flour as a valuable material is higher from farmers and biotechnology companies, which leads to the accumulation of mill mud in most factories. The obvious use of mill mud is its use in sugarcane fields. As a result, the continued use of high-rate mill mud and ash, without proper knowledge of soil conditions and crop needs, has caused much concern in recent years. The risk of over-fertilization and heavy metal contamination on sugarcane fields and concerns about the off-site effects of leakage into waterways have raised questions about the excessive use of mill mud in industry. In this regard, this study examines the issues related to the responsible management of mill flowers produced in sugar or sucrose factories from sugarcane (a case study of sugarcane factories in southern Iran) and its cost-effectiveness in a wider range of farms away from mills. Reported as a means to minimize environmental hazards. Thus, the estimated size of food resources in the mill produced by Farabi and Dehkhoda sugarcane companies is 7300 tons of nitrogen and 4500 tons of phosphorus per year. This represents 60% of the 7700 tonnes of phosphorus estimated as fertilizer on sugarcane fields in 1400.