Heavy metals are one of the factors that pollute the environment and significantly affect soil fertility, plant physiology, development, and productivity. The tolerance of plants to toxicity depends on the species and tissue, element type, and duration of exposure to stress. Some special signal molecules such as nitric oxide (NO), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), beneficial ions, hyperaccumulating plants, stress hormones, nanoparticles, organic compounds, and microbial applications can be recommended to alleviate the stress effects caused by toxic heavy metals in plants. Induction of other promising techniques like seed priming, active involvement of plant growth regulator, use of osmoprotectants, successful plant microbes’ crosstalk and recent utilization of nanoparticles are worth using strategies in mitigation of heavy metal stress in plants. These practices effectively regulate the activities of antioxidant enzymes for the alleviation of stress in plants, creditably improving the plant tolerance via preserving cell homeostasis and amending the adversative effects of heavy metal stress in plants. These inventive strategies offer an enriched understanding of how to boost crop productivity under heavy metal stress in order to decrease the risk to global food security.

This study aimed to determine whether the addition of diluent to fresh semen before injection affects the number of spermatozoa entering the spermatheca of the instrumentally inseminated queens. The queens reared by the grafting method were introduced into mating nucs one day before adult emergence. When 7-day old, the queens were allocated into four groups for the following instrumental insemination treatments. The queens in group 1 and group 3 were inseminated with 4 µl and 8 µl fresh semen, respectively (FS - 4 µl and FS - 8 µl). In group 2, the queens were inseminated with 4 µl fresh semen diluted 1-fold with NaCl solution (DS - 8 µl). In group 4, the queens were inseminated with 8 µl fresh semen diluted 1-fold with NaCl solution (DS - 16 µl). Each queen was dissected after the onset of oviposition for counting the number of spermatozoa in the spermatheca. There was not a significant difference in spermatozoa number between queens inseminated with 4 µl FS (2.57 million) and 8 µl DS (2.68 million). The queens inseminated with 16 µl DS (3.51 million) had fewer spermatozoa than the queens inseminated with 8 µl FS (4.46 million). The queens inseminated with 16 µl DS had more spermatozoa (3.51 million) than the queens inseminated with 4 µl FS (2.57 million, and 8 µl DS (2.68 million). The results revealed that the addition of 1-fold diluent to 4 µl fresh semen did not alter the number of spermatozoa. In contrast, adding 1-fold diluent to 8 µl fresh semen adversely affected the number of spermatozoa entering the spermatheca.

The study aimed was to determine the best nonlinear function describing the growth stages of the Japanese quail breed. To this aim, growth functions such as exponential, logistic, von Bertalanffy, Brody, and Gompertz were used as nonlinear functions is used in the description of the body weight-age relationship of male and female Japanese quails. The Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) data mining algorithm was applied to the individual growth parameters obtained from the determined as the best fit model, and the relationship between sex and growth parameters with it has been revealed. The study dataset was 1267 body weight-age records collected from the hatching to the 6th week of age of 181 Japanese quails consisting of 90 females and 91 males. Each model was applied separately for both males and females. Model fit criteria such as coefficient of determination (R2), adjusted coefficient of determination (R2adj), Akaike's information criterion (AIC), and Bayes information criterion (BIC) were used to evaluate the performances of the growth functions used individually. All the statistical analyses were made by the R package program. The growth curve models were ranked in the form of Logistic > Gompertz > von Bertalanffy > Brody > Exponential according to the goodness of fit criteria. The most suitable model among the non-linear models in terms of performance was logistic. When the relationship between the growth curve parameters and body weight of the logistic model was explained with the MARS algorithm, the goodness of fit criteria showed that the obtained MARS model showed reliable performance. In addition, Pearson’s correlation coefficient between real and estimated body weight was found quite strong for the MARS algorithm (r=0.935). The results showed that the MARS algorithm can be presented as a good reference for breeders to establish breed standards and selection strategies for Japanese quails in growth parameters for breeding purposes.

A corn dryer prototype was manufactured for Mexican small-scale farmers in order to avoid them paying fines for corn with a high-moisture content when selling their corn on to stores. The dryer comprised two large boxes perforated by round holes and containing stainless steel trays subjected to a hot air temperature of 45°C within the batch. The accumulated grain in both boxes was 200 mm and the airflow rate were 0.56 m3 s-1. The corn ears layer was of 80 mm of depth in each of the boxes. The airflow rate was 0.34 m3 s-1. Within eight hours, we sampled corn grain in nine points of each box and found that the mean corn grain moisture content was reduced from 30.36% to 10.47% for box 1 whereas for box 2 it was reduced until 14.72%. The fuel consumption for drying was 0.55 kg h-1 of kerosene. In Box1, the exponential regression model for corn grain moisture content had an R² of 0.9143 whereas Box 2 exponential regression model had an R² was of 0.6642. In Box 1, the exponential regression model for corn ear moisture content had an R² of 0.9616 whereas Box 2 had an R² was of 0.9400. Both models for corn cob moisture content had an R² of 0.9639. Two-layer corn dryers can be used to harness gas or fuel energy to speed up drying for storage.

The increase in salinization in agricultural lands adversely affects crop production. In particular, yield and quality losses occur in many vegetables such as lettuce, which are grown and consumed in every season. Realizing these losses in crop production, more careful fertilization and agricultural practices should be done. Yedikule lettuce seeds were used in the study to draw attention to these negative aspects. The study, which was carried out for two years, was designed with 0, 50, 100 and 150 mmol doses of salt according to a randomized parcel design with three replications and four pots in each replicate. Each 2-liter pot was filled with a 2:1 ratio of peat: perlite mixture and the study was carried out with 2 lettuces in each pot. As a result of the study, when the plant weight data of the first year and the second year are examined, it is seen that the weight loss of lettuce plants and damage to the plants increase when the salt doses increase. It was observed that the highest plant weight loss occurred at 150 mmol salt dose. Membrane damage index in lettuce leaves was observed to increase as the salt dose increased. It was observed that the leaf water rate decreased with increasing salt doses. Membrane damage index and leaf water content of lettuce plants were more negatively affected at 150 mmol of salt in both years. Potassium, calcium and magnesium contents in lettuce leaves were statistically decreased due to increasing salt doses in both years, while sodium content increased with increasing salt doses and the highest sodium content was observed at 150 mmol dose in both years. As seen in these results, increasing salt doses reduce the nutrient content and plant weight in lettuce plants and cause physiological damage to the plant, resulting in yield and quality loss.

The gastrointestinal parasitic infestation seems to have a substantial economic impact on the entire livestock production industry. Because of the parasites' environmental appropriateness, numerous domestic animals in Bangladesh are particularly susceptible to the infestation; however, the extent to which people are aware of the potential risk factors is debatable. Therefore, the current meta-analysis' objective is to determine the precise understanding of potential risk variables and the impact of climatological variations on five important gastrointestinal parasites: Paramphistomum species, Strongyloides species, Trichuris species, Schistosoma species, and Moneizia species. Four globally recognized databases, including Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, and Google Scholar were screened to choose the studies published in English language from 2000 to 2020. Finally, 29 studies were selected for further analysis and recorded the maximum prevalence in Paramphistomum species (26%; 95% CI: 19-33), followed by Strongyloides species (9%, 95% CI: 5-12), Trichuris species (10%, 95% CI: 4-17), Schistosoma species (19%, 95% CI: 7-31), and Moneizia species (8%, 95% CI: 5-10); besides the overall prevalence was noted as 15% (95% CI: 11-18). Furthermore, subgroup analysis revealed that parasite infestation was most prevalent in females (21%) and the elderly animal population (14%) and the summer season (26%). To sum up, the current meta-analysis visualized the epidemiological risk factors with the overall incidence of five major parasite infestations in livestock animals in Bangladesh; hence, the government and shareholders may employ it as proof before launching any control programs or improving farmers' awareness.

World trade in agricultural products, tends to increase. Turkey is among the countries in foreign trade advantages with its agricultural potential. As one of the most important tomato producer countries, monitoring of developments in the world tomatoes trade is extremely important for Turkey. The aim of this study was to evaluate Turkey’s position in world tomato trade. The developments of tomato foreign trade between Turkey and importer countries were analysed using Trade Intensity Analysis Method. Turkey supplied %75 of total tomato exports to Russia. Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Israel are important markets for tomato export. The epidemic (Covid-19 virus) has also been reflected in the international trade balances in tomato production. Giving importance to Turkey’s political relations and to boost its exports by providing market diversity, it is important for the sustainability of tomato exports. In this context, market researches should be conducted specially to find and entrance into new markets. Besides the fresh tomato, the activities for the export of tomato paste and canned tomato should be implemented.

This study aims to determine the characteristics of young farmers and their businesses that benefit from and cannot benefit from young farmer support in the Mediterranean Region and determine the factors that affect the benefit of young farmer project support. In 2016, a survey was conducted with all 160 producers who benefited from young farmer support, and a survey was conducted with 56 producers who applied for young farmer project support but could not benefit from it to make comparisons between groups. The tendency of farmers to benefit from the young farmer support project was determined using artificial neural networks and logistic regression analysis. It was determined that the majority of the producers who received support only made animal production and mixed production (livetock production and vegetable production), while the majority of the producers who did not receive support made only plant production. With both analysis methods, it was determined that the most critical variables that affect the benefit of young farmer project support are the type of activity, the share of non-agricultural income in total income, the number of farmers in the family, the education period, the status of having non-agricultural income and family size. The total correct classification rate was found to be 87.04% in the logistic regression analysis and 91.20% in the artificial neural network analysis, and it was seen that the classification percentages obtained by both methods were quite close to each other.

This study focused on the determination of secondary metabolites to an evaluation of the biological activity of Elaeocarpus variabilis Zmarzty fruit extract, an endemic medicinal plant. Their total Phenolic, tannin, flavonoids, alkaloids and saponins contents were quantified and their antioxidant activity, determined by DPPH, total antioxidant, ABTS, FRAP and Fe2+ chelating activity. The ethyl acetate extract exhibited the highest radical scavenging activity. The most relevant contents in total phenolics (Gallic Acid Equivalent mg/g), tannin (Gallic Acid Equivalent mg/g), total flavonoids (Rutin equivalent mg/g), total alkaloids (Quinine equivalent mg/g), and total saponin (Diosgenin equivalent mg/g) were observed. Significant correlations were established between antioxidant activity and secondary metabolites. Though the in vitro anti-diabetic activity was carried out using -amylase and -glucosidase inhibition, this indicates that the absorption and digestion of carbohydrates would probably reduce the blood glucose levels and hence help the management of type-2 diabetes. The ethyl acetate extract exhibited the potential of anticancer activity on human HT-29 colon cancer cell line IC50 values (30.0 ± 1.0) the valuable activity that compared to doxorubicin (17.0 ± 0.5). While this is the first study concerning extract from E. variabilis, our findings highlighted the richness’ in flavonoids of those extracts and their amazing potential as a source of antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and anticancer agents.

In the current study, thermal degradation and thermodynamic properties of ascorbic acid, total phenolic content, and antioxidant activity of convective dried kiwi fruits were investigated. To determine kinetic model describing thermal degradation of these parameters, zero order, first order, fractional conversion and Weibull model were used. Weibull model gave the best fitting to thermal degradation of these parameters. Moreover, the rate constant of the thermal degradation reaction increased with the increment in drying temperatures, meaning that these degradation reactions were temperature dependent. On the other hand, total phenolic content had the lowest activation energy and ∆H value indicating the lowest thermal stability in comparison to others. The degradation reactions endothermically occurred during drying process. Additionally, it was seen that the reason for the higher degradation rate at higher temperatures as the absolute values of ∆S increased. It is important to evaluate thermal degradation of bioactive compounds for the design of the thermal processes. This study will be beneficial for the convective drying process design due to these results.