Soil characteristics' degradation had been considered as one of the most important problems that face the agricultural development processes under arid and semi-arid conditions due to non-suitability of the applied technologies and techniques, attributed to management considerations. Consequently, higher crop yield and quality reduction had been occurred due to the degradation of the plant healthy media (soil). Therefore, the goal of this investigation was to monitor the change detection of some soil physical and hydrophysical characteristics under sprinkler irrigated agriculture. However, the terminal objectives were to evaluate and monitor some soil characteristics changes (soil bulk density, hydraulic conductivity and soil penetration resistance) under different mode of action of sprinkler types (rotating and impact sprinkler) and corresponding nozzle sizes (small and large sizes). Hereby, field experiments were carried out for two seasons (2006 and 2007) in the Desert Experimental Farm of Faculty of Agriculture, AinShamsUniversity which is located at El-Bustan region, Behaira Governorate. Results revealed that soil characteristics were highly affected with the sprinkler mode of action and corresponding nozzle sizes. However, a power function proportion of soil penetration resistance with respect to applied rotating and impact sprinkler types and corresponding small and large nozzle sizes, had been observed and analyzed. Therefore, data analysis speculated that, selection of the appropriate sprinkler types under diverse field conditions and situations such as: crop type and design criteria of sprinkler irrigation systems, have to be considered for good agricultural development processes under Egyptian newly reclaimed regions.

undesirable, depending on the application for which the yarn is being used. Hairy yarns provide good heat retention and a softer hand (feel) for finished fabrics, and except for a few special cases, when it is an excessive degree of hairiness, yarn hairiness is an undesirable property in yarn and can cause serious problems in both yarn production and in subsequent textile processes.      This search was carried out to investigate the most important fiber properties i.e. short fiber content (SFC w %), maturity ratio, micronaire value, uniformity index (UI %), fiber length (UHM) and fiber strength (g/tex) which correlated with yarn hairiness and also their relative contributions in yarn hairiness under study by using four Egyptian cotton varieties during season 2008, namely; Giza88, Giza86, Giza80 and Giza90 spun into carded ring and compact yarns at twist multiplier 3.6 and two  into counts according to the following: ring yarns were processed to carded yarns Ne 50 and 60. Compact yarns were also processed to carded yarns at the same counts. The most important results were: 1-  Yarns manufactured by the carded ring spinning frame are characterized by higher hairiness mean values in all studied varieties in comparison with those of carded compact frame. 2-   The correlation coefficients have positive signs and are very high between hairiness in yarns and short fiber content (SFC w %), on the contrary the correlation coefficients have negative signs being high or very high between maturity ratio, micronaire value, uniformity index (UI %), fiber length (UHM) and fiber strength (g/tex) and yarn hairiness in all varieties. 3-  Stepwise regression procedure was employed to determine the most effective independent variables which make the maximum contributions to the coefficient of determination (R²). The rate of improvement in yarn hairiness index due to decrease short fiber content (the larger the share of fibers in the shorter length the higher is the hairiness index), increase fiber strength (more mature fiber) and increasing fiber length (the larger the share of the fibers in longer length the lower is the hairiness index

The chemical composition of 350 samples from camel's colostrum and milk in United Arab Emirates were studied. Results of colostrum showed 6.19 for pH, 1.041g/ml for density, 3.1% for fat, 4.95% for protein, 4.4% for lactose, 12.88% for total solids, 10.55% for non fat total solids, 1.11% for ash, 87% for moisture .For ma-ture milk, data were 6.6 for pH, 0.133% for acidi-ty, 1.028g/ml for density, 3.2% for fat, 2.4% for protein, 4.6% for lactose, 11% for total solids, 7.88% for non-fat total solids, 0.88% for ash, and 88.9% for moisture. The minerals contents in camel colostrum were (mg/100mg) as follows: 103 for calcium, 15.4 for magnesium, 14.0 for sodium, 128 for potassium, 0.25 for iron, 0.17 for copper and 43.4 for inorganic phosphate. Elements in mature camel milk were (mg/100mg) as fol-lows: 74.67 for calcium, 3.4 for magnesium, 42.36 for sodium, 136.64 for potassium, 0.18 for iron, 0.04 for copper, 0.02 for manganese, 0.3 for zinc and 38.4 for phosphorus.

Activity of commercially and purified essential oils of aloes, anise, black cumin, caraway, carna-tion, cumin, fennel, garlic, jojoba, lavender, onion, rue and thyme were tested against growth of Pseudomonas syringae pv. lachrymans, caused bacterial angular leaf spot disease of cucumber, in vitro and in vivo. Three essential oils had an inhib-itory effect, based on the determination of the min-imum inhibitory concentrations (MICs 0.25-2.0%). Carnation, fennel and thyme were inhibito-ry at MIC 0.5%. The three mentioned oils showed considerable variation in the inhibitory effect by the disk diffusion method, though the recognized similarity in fumigation treatments. The greatest activity was recorded with thyme (18mm) followed by carnation (15 mm) while fennel showed the low-est effect (9mm). Soaking cucumber seeds of differ-ent cultivars in 2% emulsified oils for a period rang-ing from 0.25 to 4 hours significantly decreased the percentage of germination. Shorter duration of seed soaking, 0.25 to 0.5 hours, showed lower deleterious effect on germination and fennel oil showed greater harmful effect. In greenhouse experiments, the three oils significantly controlled the disease incidence compared to the check treatment, being more pro-nounced for thyme oil followed by fennel and carna-tion oils. Analysis of the essential oils in concern showed eugenol, dieugenol, linolenic acid, methyl chavicol (estragol), anisole and thymol, as an active ingredients.

The experiments were conducted in two suc-cessive seasons (2004 - 2005) on Washington Na-vel orange fruits to study the effect of cold storage conditions on reducing postharvest losses and im-proving keeping quality for the export mar-ket.Fruit samples were obtained from El–Fayoum governorate, Egypt and treated with vapor gard (VG) 2%, calcium chloride (CaCl2) 4% or vapor gard 2% + calcium chloride 4%. Fruits were stored at 2 or 8 ºC for 60 days and the last group was stored at 2 ºC for 30 days and transferred to be stored at 8ºC for another 30 days at R.H. 85-90%.The results revealed that during storage fruits treated with Vapor gard (2%) alone or with calci-um chloride (4%) + Vapor gard (2%) had been in good quality as well as it caused a pronounced increase in peel color and fruit firmness, while fruit weight loss and juice percentage were de-creased. In addition, it caused a significant in-crease in ascorbic acid, total sugar and calcium concentration, but there is no significant effect in T.S.S. / acid ratio. While, free amino acid, total soluble phenols and free proline concentrations were decreased. Furthermore, the fruits storaged at 2º + 8ºC caused a pronounced increase in fruit firmness, while fruit weight losses, juice percent-age and peel color were decreased. Also, it caused a pronounced decrease in T.S.S. / acid ratio, total sugar, total free amino acid, total soluble phenols and free proline concentrations, but there is no significant effect on calcium concentration. In addition, there is an increase in ascorbic acid con-centration. Generally, the results revealed that Vapor gard either alone or combired with calcium chloride dipping treatments and stored at 2º + 8ºC had better results in improving fruit quality and decreasing total fruit losses compared with control or calcium chloride treatment alone at other stor-age temperatures and this was also accompanied by changes in various metabolic and physiological processes of orange fruits.

A collection of 12 varieties of broad bean (Vicia faba L.) was studied. This was curried out to see the variation of phenolic compounds (tannins) and proteins of the seeds of Vicia faba L.   This study gave the following results - At  the  biochemical level; according to our results one observed a high content in proteins within the species of Vicia faba L.   - The electrophoresis of total proteins confirmed the richness of proteins of Vicia faba L [albumins (67 kDa), Globulins, Vicilline (50 kDa)]. - Finally the phytochemical analysis (phenolic compounds) allowed us to confirm the richness of the colored seeds in phenolic compounds (condensed tannins) "949 T (183±9.66), Aquadulce (132.19±1.53)". The effect of time (the factor of the environment) inflates on the coloring of the seeds (oxidation) and on the polymerization of tannins.

A recombinant strain of Escherichia coli harboring a plasmid containing the Bacillus thuringiensis δ-endotoxin synthesis gene, was tested for its efficacy to synthesize δ-endotoxin, in a complex medium containing sucrose and yeast extract. Also, the recombinant E. coli strain was tested for its efficacy against the 2nd instars of Spodoptera littoralis. The recombinant strain of E. coli showed a good activity against the 2nd instars of S. littoralis, the mortality was 70 % after 7 days at room temperature. A high cell biomass (8.8gL-1) and δ-endotoxin concentration (6.8 mg L-1), were obtained by the shake flask culture (100 ml medium/250 ml flask, at 200 rpm), of the recombinant E. coli in modified MR medium containing sucrose (20g/L), as carbon source and yeast extract as nitrogen source, in the presence of CaCO3, K2HPO4, MgSO4, FeSO4 and ZnSO4 as mineral salts. The best pH values for cell biomass production and endotoxin production were 7.0 and 7.5, respectively. The corresponding figures for the best temperature were 37oC and 30oC, respectively. The use of some byproducts such as black-strap molasses, corn-steep liquor and cheese whey, as an alternative for carbon and nitrogen sources of medium, were found to enhance the cell growth but showed no effect on endotoxin production.

Ageratum houstonianum Mill and Tagetes erecta L. (Asteraceae) were subjected to hydrodis-tillation as well as the stepwise extraction with organic solvents. Crude extracts and the hydrodis-tilled essential oils (E.O) were bioevaluated against two phytopathogenic fungi Rhizoctonia solani and Phytophthora megasperma in vitro. The volatile fraction from both plants showed a good antifungal activity towards the tested fungi, EC50s were 91 and 1369 ppm for R. solani and 84 and 1571 ppm for P. megasperma with Ageratum essential oil (E.O) and Tagetes E.O, respectively. But generally; Ageratum E.O was found to be more effective in reducing mycelium growth of R. solani and P. megasperma (EC50 = 91 and 84 ppm respectively) than Tagetes E.O. Chemical compo-sition of Tagetes E.O and Ageratum E.O; fractions F1 (solid) and F2 (liquid) fractions were investi-gated by GC-MS analysis. Interestingly, heterocy-clic benzopyrane compound (Precocene II) was only component which has been detected in Ager-atum E.O fraction F1. Precocene II seems to be the fungitoxic active components in Ageratum E.O and its fractions. However, monoterpenic hydro-carbons were correlated with the fungitoxic effect of Tagetes E.O. In the green house experiments, Tagetes E.O and Ageratum E.O fraction F1 showed a clear selectivity towards tested patho-gens; Rhizoctonia solanii and Phytophthora megasperma. Ageratum E.O; fractions F1 was found to be much more fungitoxic activity than Tagetes E.O. Tagetes E.O and Ageratum E.O frac-tions F1 were controlled the 90.91% of Root-Rot disease in bean caused by Phytophthora megasperma, while the percentage of disease con-trol was only 36.36% for Rhizoctonia solani.

In this study, the essential oils of rosemary and sage were used to improve cake by two methods either addition or spraying at different concentra-tion on cup cake after 30 min. from baking. The components of essential oils were identified using Gas Chromatography (GC). These oils were eval-uated for inhibitory effect against some pathogenic bacteria especially that may contaminate cake dur-ing handling and storage periods. The effect of these oils at different levels and methods on the sensory characteristics of the produced cake was studied. The results showed that the addition of essential oil of rosemary or sage to cake formula at 1% level increased the acceptability of cakes. While when the rosemary or sage oil sprayed on the cup cake crust after 30 min. of baking at 0.06% or 0.18% level, resulted in a higher over all acceptability scores compared with the other lev-els and cake control. During the storage periods of cakes, using 1.5 % level of rosemary or 0.5% of sage oil added to the formula level resulted in a good acceptability after four and two weeks re-spectively, of storage periods. By using 0.06% concentrations of sage oil sprayed on cup cake crust after 30 min. of baking, the cake had accept-ed during the four weeks of storage periods. Mold growth appeared after 19 and 28 days due to addi-tion of 1% either rosemary or sage oils to the cake formula Meanwhile, the essential oils sprayed at level of 0.12 % of both, the mold appeared after 29 and 33 days for rosemary and sage respective-ly. Also by using the essential oils of rosemary or sage as spray on cake layers, most of bacterial strains and mold-yeast were not detected during the storage periods of cake at room temperature (25 – 30oC). The inhibition of growth of Salmonel-la and E-Coli was noted at 30 μl /disk of rosemary oil and 40 μl /disk for inhibition growth of Bacil-lus Cereus. While the inhibition growth of Salmo-nella, Staph aureus and E-Coli were observed at 40μl /disk of sage oil and at 50 μl/ disk for inhibi-tion growth of Bacillus Cereus.

In seeking economic production of microbial cellulose, the available and low cost commercial kombucha starter, contains mainly Acetobacter xylinum and Saccharomyces sp., were used under static condition. The best medium composition was black tea extract (1.0 g /100 ml H2O), sucrose (20%) and corn steep liquor, CSL (1%) at 26-28oC for 10 days. The cellulose yield (1.3 g /100 ml) and productive rate (1.3 X 10-3 g / day /ml) were higher than some reported values. Addition of folic acid or its building block p-aminobenzoic acid at additive concentrations 0.20% led to dou-bling the yield (2.37 and 2.43 g / 100 ml culture respectively) and the productive rate (2.37 X 10-3 and 2.43 X 10-3 g / day / ml respectively). Scan-ning electron micrograph showed the structure of the produced microbial cellulose fibrils without any microbial flora after treatment with 1% NaOH.