The study was carried out  at  Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University to assess the effect of two of algae species (Arthrospira platensis and Nannochloropsis gaditana) on growth performance of monosex  tilapia fish (Oreochromis niloticus), fish were fed on a basal diet supplemented with 0,3,5,7% of each algae. To perform seven experimental treatments were assigned in three replicates each. The experiment was designated as follows:  (T1) control (without algae), (T2) basal diet supplemented with 3% spirulina (spiru 3), (T3) basal diet supplemented with 5% spirulina (spiru 5), (T4) basal diet supplemented with 7% spirulina (spiru 7), (T5) basal diet supplemented with 3% Nannochloropsis (nanno 3), (T6) basal diet supplemented with 5% Nannochloropsis (nanno 5) and (T7) basal diet supplemented with 7% Nannochloropsis  (nanno 7). Experimental tanks were a part of closed recirculating system, where almost constant environmental conditions were kept throughout the experimental period. Twenty-one quadrate fiber glass tanks with 108-liter water capacity were stocked with 15 fish per tank. The individual initial body weight (2.7 g) was recorded at the beginning of the experiment. All fish in each tank was weighed every two weeks during the whole experimental period. The fish were fed the experimental diet for 95 days Results indicated that nanno 5 treatment had higher significant trend (P<0.05) final body weight (FBW), average weight  gain (AWG) and average daily gain (ADG) compared with the other experimental treatments. The best specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and feed efficiency ratio (FER) were found in nanno 7. Also, it was observed that spiru 7 have a high significant difference (P<0.05) in protein efficiency ratio (PER) and protein productive value (PPV). On the other hand, the results showed that the lowest AWG, ADG and (FER) appeared in spiru 7%. No mortality in nanno7 and spiru 7. Finally, using of nano 5% or spiru 7% enhance growth performance and feeding in tilapia fish.

In this study, Two field experiments were conducted in Ourabi operation Farm, Cairo-Ismaellia desert road at Kalubia Governorate. The experiment was carried out during the two seasons of  2013/2014 and 2015/2016, to investigate the effect of  plant growth regulator (Mepiquat chloride) with three different potassium fertilizers sources [chemical potassium (KC), foliar potassium (KF) and rock potassium (KR)] on growth development and total yield in potato plants (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Spunta) . Chemical potassium (control) with / without Mepiquat chloride achieved better plant height, no. of stem and leaf area/plant. Rock potassium with mepiquat chloride  obtained the highest productivity of fresh and dry weights, total tuber yield and yield components  (weight of tubers, size of tubers, diameter of tubers and number of tubers) following by foliar potassium with mepiquat chloride  compared with control treatment.

The objective of this study was to follow up the growth performance and gonads development of sex reversed male Nile tilapia. Fish fed commercial diet contained 30% crude protein at a rate of 3% of the biomass and 10 fish were randomly taken biweekly during the experimental period (16 weeks). Growth performance, feed utilization and survival rate were calculated. Histological examination of the gonads was done every two weeks to follow the growth and development of the gonads. Results showed positive interactions between growth parameters and reproductive development during different periods of fish productive cycle. Histological examination illustrated that during early ages, testicular sections of mono sex male’s tilapia had abnormal architecture with deterioration of germinative tissue. Despite abnormal testis texture, fish started spermatogenesis, a step toward puberty when their body weight reached 29.16g. As fish reached 4-5 months, male start to recover their testes normal structures and at age of 5.5-6 months, testicular sections appeared normally as pointed out by firmed testicular lobules, existence of all germ cell types and the intensively stored spermatozoa in testicular lumen and testicular ducts, confirming the full maturity of males. Based on the obtained results, it can clearly conclude that there is a relationship between age, body weight and development of sexual glands. It has also been shown that the hormonal treatment of tilapia seeds in the early stages for production of mono sex (all males) leads to a marked deterioration in the testes structure, continues near the fish enters the sexual maturity. At a later age, males can overcome this deterioration, restore the histological  structure of the testes and achieve full sexual maturity at the age around from 5.5 to 6 months.

Two pot experiments were conducted on the 17th and 11th of march during 2015 and 2016 growth seasons respectively at the greenhouse, Dept. Agric. Botany, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Shoubra El-Kheima, Egypt to investigate the impact of drought stress on some growth, biochemical and anatomical parameters of Thymus vulgaris L. Plants were exposed to two different irrigation levels: 70-80% and 30-40% of water holding capacity (WHC) as well-irrigated and drought stressed plants respectively. The results indicated that all investigated growth parameters and leaf photosynthetic pigments were decreased significantly by exposing to drought stress. There were significant increase in the concentration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as indicated by measuring of H2O2 and malondialdehyde (MDA). A similar trend was observed in respect to osmolytes including proline, total soluble sugars and free amino acids. Also, drought stress increased significantly total soluble phenols and the specific activity of Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) and Polyphenol oxidase (PPO), whereas, no significant differences were detected in peroxidase (POD). The anatomical examination showed that there were several significant changes associated with water limited supply in the stem and leaf of plants.

A field experiment was conducted on sandy soil at Ismailia Governorate. The aim of the present study is to improve the productivity of salts affected sandy soil by treat it with different rates of bentonite, chicken manure and their combination. Soil application rates were bentonite (1, 2.5 and 5 %), chicken manure (5, 10 and 15 ton/fed) and their combination (2.5% bentonite with each of 5, 10 and 15 ton /fed chicken manure) were mixed in the upper soil layer (0-15 cm soil depth) and their effects on some soil physical properties and crop productivity of fennel plant (Foeniculum Vulgare Mill.) were investigated during the winter season of 2018. The results revealed that, all studied treatments were significantly decreased of soil bulk density compare to control. The applications of bentonite 1, 2.5 and 5% lead to, reduction of the value of soil bulk density by 4.17, 5.95 and 10.71%. In addition, the applications of chicken manure 5, 10 and 15 ton/fed, lead to reduction of the value of soil bulk density by 8.93, 11.31 and 14.88 %. Also, application of 2.5% bentonite combined with each of 5, 10 and 15 ton/fed chicken manure, lead to reduction of the value of soil bulk density by 11.31, 15.48 and 17.86% as compared with control, respectively. Data indicated also that there are an increase in the percentages of retained moisture in the soil at all treatments under study. Bentonite and chicken manure individually or combined being higher with increasing the applied rate of bentonite and/or chicken manure. Also the application rates of bentonite 1, 2.5 and 5% lead to, increasing the values of water-holding pores (WHP) with 6.87, 8.05 and 10.55%. In addition, WHP values increased to 9.21, 10.43 and 11.27% with the application of chicken manure 5, 10 and 15 ton/fed. Also, data refer that WHP increased to 12.03, 12.81 and 14.11% by application rate of 2.5% bentonite combined with each of 5, 10 and 15 ton/fed chicken manure, as compared with control, respectively. The values of water infiltration rates (cm/h), were affected by different soil applications and can be arranged in the following ascending order: 2.5% bentonite + 15 ton/fed chicken manure < 5% bentonite < 2.5% bentonite + 10 ton/fed chicken manure < 2.5% bentonite < 15 ton/fed chicken manure < 2.5% bentonite + 5 ton/fed chicken manure < 10 ton/fed chicken manure < 5 ton/fed chicken manure < 1% bentonite < control. The water use efficiency values, affected by different soil application can be arranged in the following descending order: 2.5% bentonite + 15 ton/fed chicken manure > 2.5% bentonite + 10 ton/fed chicken manure > 2.5% bentonite + 5 ton/fed chicken manure > 15 ton/fed chicken manure > 10 ton/fed chicken manure > 5 ton/fed chicken manure > 5% bentonite > 2.5% bentonite > 1% bentonite > control. ‎

Hyperuricemia (elevated serum levels of uric acid) is a key risk factor for the development of gout, and has been linked to renal dysfunction, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Hyperuricemia was induced by oxonic acid (uricase inhibitor) in experimental rats to evaluate the protective effect of alcoholic extracts from parsley shoots, celery seeds and fig leaves. The rats were divided into 6 groups, and the first one served as a normal control group. Three groups of rats were given various plant extracts (celery, parsley and fig) by oral administration using a stomach tube at a dose of 250 mg/kg. A positive control group of rats was administered orally the hypouricemic drug, allopurinol (xanthine oxidase inhibitor) at a dose of 100 mg/kg. A negative control group did not receive any plant extracts or drugs. The various plant extracts and the drug were administered for the rats every day for 9 days. On the 10th day, all groups except the normal control received a single dose of oxonic acid (250 mg/kg) by intraperitoneal injection to induce hyperuricemia. After two hours of hyperuricemia induction by oxonic acid injection, blood samples were collected from all rat groups. The protective effects of various plant extracts were monitored through measurement of uric acid and other blood biochemical analyses for the rats as well as assay of xanthine oxidase enzyme in liver tissues. The data indicated a significant (P<0.05) increase in the levels of uric acid, urea, creatinine and potassium, and a significant (P<0.05) decrease in the levels of total calcium in serum of hyperuricemic rats (negative control) compared to the normal control group. These results indicated that oxonic acid caused hyperuricemia and renal dysfunction in the nega tive control group. The protective effects of various plant extracts were established by appearance the levels of uric acid and other kidney function tests near to their normal values which appeared in the normal control group. The different plant extracts exhibited protective effects against hyperuricemia in variant efficacies compared to allopurinol. These efficacies were in the following order: fig > allopurinol > celery ≈ parsley. Comparatively, the different plant extracts exhibited inhibitory effects on the activity of liver xanthine oxidase enzyme in variant efficacies compared to allopurinol. These efficacies were in the following order: allopurinol > fig > celery ≈ parsley. It can be noticed that fig extract was the most effective treatment against hyperuricemia while allopurinol was the strongest inhibitor against xanthine oxidase activity.

The impact of climate on crop production has vital importance. Climate variables affect the different crops during different stages of the growth and the development. This research aims to study the environmental factors affecting the growth and production of barley (Hordeum Sp., Gramineae) in a hydroponic system, to provide information to farmers and decision makers by using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Model for production prediction. Multilayer feed-forward ANN (fully connected) was used in supervised manner and the training method was the back-propagation algorithm by using MATLAB program. The inputs in the ANN model of barley were: seeds density (kg/m2), lighting duration (h/day), light intensity (Lux), temperature (cº), relative humidity (%) and growing period (days). The outputs were: plant length (cm), yield (kg/m2), protein (%), dry matter (%), and conversion factor. Results revealed that the optimal configuration for the ANN model consisted of four layers (6-25-30-5). The hidden layers had 25 and 30 nodes in the first and second hidden layers respectively for the ANN model. Hyperbolic tangent transfer function was employed in hidden and output layers of the ANN model. The learning rate and the momentum parameter were 0.005 and 0.9 respectively for the ANN model. Iterations were 10000 epochs during training process for the ANN model. The results showed that the variation between target and predicted outputs was small while the correlation coefficient (R) was 0.99. Also, the results revealed that the major parameters affecting on all the outputs were seeds density and the duration of the lighting followed by the other factors i.e. temperature (cº), relative humidity (%), growing period (days) and light intensity (Lux). Seeds density has a higher percent relative importance, on yield, plant length, protein (%), DM (%) and conversion factor equal to 22.8%, 24%, 25%, 24% and 22.8% respectively. The developed ANN model was beneficial tool for barley production prediction. The barley yield prediction could be helpful for farmers, decision makers and planning to manage their crop better by providing a series of recommendations about crops planting and clarifying its impact on changes to these factors under the study in order to avoid losses and reach the best benefit (maximization of yield).

Jerusalem artichoke (JA) family (Asterceae) is a perennial species known for its tubers rich in inulin, a valuable source of fructose for diabetics.This study aimed to establish an applicable protocol for calli induction and production from different explants of Jerusalem artichoke (Balady, Fuza and Alba) cultivars. For this purpose; leaf, stem and root explants derived from in vitro growing plantlets were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS medium) augmented with different combinations of benzyl adenine (BA) and naphthalenacetic acid (NAA).The highest percentage of calli induction (100%) was recorded with all tested media except MS free growth regulators medium and MS fortified with 1mg L-1 BA. On the other hand, the maximum value of calli fresh weight was obtained by culturing stem explants on MS supplemented with 1 mg L-1 BA + 2 mg L-1 NAA for all cultivars. NAA for all cultivars. Moreover and concerning calli growth dynamic for each cultivar, the recorded data clearly showed that gradually increase in calli fresh weights by week reaching the maximum value at eighth week for all used explants cultured on the best medium for calli initiation. The results proved that Balady cultivar recorded the best results for calli induction and production compared with Fuza and Alba cultivars. In the same context, stem explant was the superior explant when it compared with root and leaf explants for all examined cultivars. Moreover and concerning calli growth dynamic for each cultivar, the recorded data clearly showed that gradually increase in calli fresh weights by week reaching the maximum value at eighth week for all used explants cultured on the best medium for calli initiation. The results proved that Balady cultivar recorded the best results for calli induction and production compared with Fuza and Alba cultivars. In the same context, stem explant was the superior explant when it compared with root and leaf explants for all examined cultivars. MS medium fortified with 1 mg L-1 BA + 2 mg L-1 NAA was the most suitable medium compared to the other tested media for inducing calli and to enhance calli production from stem explant for all cultivars.

This research study was carried out in the plant tissue culture laboratory of the Agricultural Botany Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Shoubra El-khaima, Cairo, Egypt. Experiments were executed for the duration of two consecutive years 2017 and 2018 on chicory plant. Chicory (Cichorium intybus L.), which belongs to Asteraceae family, is considered as an important medicinal plant due to the presence of many bioactive substances such flavonoids, phenolic compounds, alkaloids, steroids, terpenoids, including( coumarines, cichoriin, esculetin, inulin, sesquiterpene lactones, chicoric acid, caffeic acid and some vitamins). In this research in vitro experiments were carried out using full strength Murashige and Skoog basal medium (MS) supplemented with different combinations of two plant growth regulators; Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) including two concentrations (0.5 – 2.0 mg/l) and Naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) comprising four concentrations (0.5 – 2.0 – 3.0 – 5.0 mg/l). An abaxially (lower side) leaf explants (square pieces 0.5 × 0.5 cm) which were taken from 20 days old aseptic chicory seedlings were inoculated to (MS) surface. Initially, chicory seeds were aseptically germinated on half-strength MS medium, after surface sterilization by 70 % (v/v) ethanol for 60 seconds then soaking in 10 % Clorox (0.5% sodium hypochlorite NaOCl) for 10 min to produce the aseptic chicory seedlings which were the source of true leaf explants used in this research study. Total phenolic compounds and flavonoids content were extracted from six-week C. intybus friable callus produced under both light and dark in vitro culture conditions inside a growth chamber incubation room where temperature was adjusted at 25oC ±1. Total phenolic compounds and flavonoids were determined by spectrophotometric methods. The highest values for their contents were from chicory calli when MS callus induction medium was supplemented with 2 mg/l NAA under total dark condition when compared with the other remaining growth regulator treatment combinations and alternative light regime conditions.