Sorting and classification of fruits are the main problem specially for Superiorand King Ruby varieties which represent more than 50% of grape production inEgypt. A usual procedure to carry out this task is based on human visual inspectionconsidering general fruit attributes like color, size, shape, firmness and sugar contentof grape cluster. Color contains important information about fruit status and in somecases it is decisive for fruit quality differences. This paper provides a new techniqueto investigate the applicability of color classification, sugar content and firmness ofgrape. Standard RGB color chart, artificial neural network and a potential of nearinfrared(NIR) reflectance as a means for nondestructive measurements of grapefirmness and sugar content were used. NIR spectral data were collected from the twovarieties of grape in the spectral region between 800 nm and 1700 nm. Statisticalmodels were developed using the partial least square method to predict the firmnessand sugar content of grape. The models gave relatively good predictions of thefirmness of both Superior and King Ruby, with corresponding r values of 0.80 and0.65. The NIR models gave excellent prediction for grape sugar content with valuesof 0.71 % and 0.65 % Brix for Superior and King Ruby, respectively.

The toxicological effect of two pesticides, pyriproxyfen and abamectin were eva-luated on third instar larvae of the cotton leafworm, Spodoptera littoralis (Boisd.). According to the estimated toxicity values, i.e. LC50, LC90 and slope values, the chemical abamectin showed that it was slightly more toxic than pyriproxyfen. The effect of these two insecticides, at the determined LC50 and LC25 values on the di-gestive physiology of treated larvae, as indicated by some nutritional indices was conducted. Obtained results demonstrated that pyriproxyfen and abamectin caused a significance reduction in growth of treated larvae as depicted by larval weight gain Also, a significant decrease was found in the efficiency of ingested food to body matter and efficiency of conversion of digested food to body matter as compared to untreated insects. These effects were generally more evident when abemectin was used. The two tested compound also caused histological changes in the midgut of treated larvae, in form of disruption in the columnar epithelium cells and stretching leading to tearing in the peritrophic membrane. This observation might explain the impairment in nutritional indices in treated larvae as compared to the control.

A kairomone from adult Cydia pomonella L. scales is an important factor in the host recognition and searching behaviour process of Trichogramma cacoeciae Mar-chal and Trichogramma dendrolimi Matsumura. The Trichogramma spp. used the chemicals from the host eggs for orientation to host and increased their parasitism. The females of T. cacoeciae*, T. dendrolimi** and T. dendrolimi*** contacted the unwashed host eggs significantly longer than the washed eggs. Washing the codling moth eggs with hexan significantly reduced the parasitism of all the tested Tricho-gramma strains compared to unwashed eggs. The treated apple trees with wing scales of C. pomonella had significant influence on the parasitism compared to un-treated trees. The percentage parasitism of codling moth eggs on the treated trees (31.6%) was significantly higher than on the untreated trees (19.3%).

North Carolina Design III was used to estimate gene effects in bread wheat crosses. Twelve Egyptian bread wheat genotypes i.e. Sakha 69, Sakha 8, Gemmeiza 1, Gemmeiza 3, Gemmeiza 7, Giza 160, , Giza 162, Giza 164, Giza 165, Sids 1, Sids 3 and Sids  4, each was crossed back to testers, high performing (Gemmeiza 9) and low performing parent (Sakha 92) during three winter successive seasons i.e. 2002/2003, 2003/2004 and 2004/2005, to study; heading date (days) plant height (cm), flag leaf length (cm) flag leaf width (cm), flag leaf area (cm)2, extrusion length (cm), number of spikelets/spike, spike grain weight (g.), number of spikes/plant, number of grains/spike, 1000-grain weight (g.) and grain yield/plant (g.) characters. Results indicated that epistasis played great role in the inheritance of all studied characters except number of spikes/plant. Additive(D)and dominance(H) genetic variances were significant in all studied characters except number of spikes/plant and number of grains/spike. The additive genetic variance was more than dominance for heading date, plant height, flag leaf length, flag leaf width, extrusion length, spike length and 1000- grain weight. The ratio of (H./D) 0.5 was less than one for these characters but for the remaining characters the dominance genetic variance was more than additive. The values of(F) indicated that dominance was unidirectional for flag leaf length and flag leaf area, whereas it was ambidirectional for the remaining characters Prediction results revealed that it could be possible to derive reasonable proportion of new recombinants which are falling out side parental range for heading date, flag leaf length, flag leaf width, spike length, number of spikelets/spike, number of spikes/plant, 1000- grain weight and grain yield/plant. Genetic correlation indicated that additive, dominance and epistasis gene effects controlling grain yield/plant and spike grain weight, number of spikes/plant, number of grains/spike, 1000- grain weight, were signifant, suggesting common genetic pool or pleiotropy. Thus, selection based on additive genetic correlation indicated that indirect selection via, spike grain weight, number of spikes/plant, number of grains/spike and 1000- grain weight would be effective and enhance its importance as selection criteria .

Two field experiments were performed at Sids Agriculture Farm Research Station, Bani Swif Governorate during 2003 and 2004 seasons, to study the suitability of different tillage treatments, i.e. chisel plough two and three passes at 10, 15 and 20cm depths and intercropping patterns of maize and soybean i.e. two ridges of maize : two ridges of soybean (2:2) and two ridges of maize : four ridges of soybean (2:4) on water consumption, growth characters, yield and quality of maize (cv. T.W.C. 310) intercropped with soybean (cv. Clark). The results indicated that using chisel plough 3 passes decreased the value of mean weight diameter (M.W.D) by 33.00%, 27.92% and 31.87% as compared when using chisel plough 2 passes for 10, 15 and 20cm depths respectively. On other hand, yield and quality of maize, as well as, yield and quality of soybean were significantly increased by using tillage with chisel plough 3 passes. Both yield of maize and soybean per feddan. in pure stand were always higher than those within any intercrop combination, these results were true in both seasons. The data also revealed that maize yield in (2:2) pattern and using chisel plough 3 passes at 15cm depth gave the highest yield whereas, the highest yield of soybean per feddan was obtained when soybean plants grown in (2:4) pattern with 3 passes of chisel plough at15cm depth. On other hand the highest values of water use efficiency (W.U.E) in the two seasons were recorded when (2:4) pattern was applied and using chisel plough 3 passes at15cm depth The highest values of land equivalent ratio (LER) in the two seasons were 1.54 and 1.53 respectively   when (2:4 ) pattern was applied.

An experiment was conducted for two summer seasons (2000 and 2001) to study the effect of nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilizers on performance of rainfed pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) grown on clay loam soil at University of Zalingei site, Western Darfour states, Sudan. The experimental design used was spilt-plot design with five replications. Four nitrogen treatments (0, 30, 60 and 80 kg N/ha) and four phosphorus treatments (0, 15, 30 and 60 kg P/ha) were used. Nitrogen treatments were assigned to the main plots and phosphorus levels were allotted to the sub-plots. Urea (46% N) and triple superphosphate (48% P2O5) were used as sources of nitrogen and phosphorus, respectively. Phosphorus treatments were applied at sowing, whereas nitrogen fertilizer was split into two equal doses, one was added four days after emergence and the second was three weeks after sowing.  Results of the experiments showed that application of nitrogen increased the plant height over the control. The increments were in range of 5.7% - 16.1%. Leaf area index (LAI), grain and stover yields were significantly affected by nitrogen application. The increments over control were in the range of 39% - 92.3%, 10.1% - 112.7% and 34.1% - 126.9% for LAI, grain yield and stover yield, respectively. Regarding phosphorus, the results revealed that phosphorus addition had a significant effect on plant height, LAI, grain and stover yields. The increments over control ranged from 2.4% - 11.3%, 6.3% - 17.9%, 6.7% - 24.6% and 6.8% - 35.4% for plant height, LAI, grain and stover yields, respectively. The interaction between nitrogen and phosphorus had a significant effect only on LAI and plant height at the sixth week measurement in the first and second seasons, respectively. The tallest plants were obtained from 3N × 3P treatment whereas the greatest LAI was obtained by 3N × 2P treatment

A promising cotton inbred line characterized by high yielding ability, earliness in maturity and better fiber quality was developed via pedigree selection from the subsequent segregating generations of a cross between the two long-staple cvs.; Giza 89 and Giza 86 by the Cotton Breeding Section of the Cotton Research Institute. The purpose of this investigation aimed at assessment of the superiority of the physical and fine structural properties of the promising line derived from the cross (Giza 89 x Giza 86) over its parents. The results indicated that: -  The promising line surpassed its parents in upper half mean length, uniformity index, fiber strength, fiber elongation, micronaire value, maturity ratio, hair weight, dry fiber ribbon width, swollen fiber diameter, convolution number / cm., reversals number/ cm. and yarn strength. - There were highly significant positive correlations between upper half mean length, uniformity index, convolution number/cm., fiber bundle strength and yarn strength. - Highly significant negative correlations exhisted between dry fiber ribbon width, swollen fiber diameter, reversals number and bundle strength.   The promising line is now under propagation for growing as a commercial cultivar and would replace both parents in their growing areas.

Black cumin is one of the important medicinal plant and well known to flok remedy. Balady, Sori and Turki cultivars belong to black cumin are variated in chemical composition and antiviral activity. The results reflected significant heritability between the three cultivars in length and number of capsule per plant and number of branches per plant, while non-significant values of plant height, number of locules capsule, and seed yield per plant. Eight fatty acids methyl esters were detected in seeds of three cultivars by GLC. It was found change quantitatively of fatty acid between three cultivars. SDS-PAGA showed change qualitatively of poly peptides content accompanying three cultivars. A similarity of about 90% was found between Balady and Sori cultivars in relation to heritability. Water seed extracts, in vitro reduced ToMV infectivity to 6.73; 6.78 and 5.08% of Balady, Sori and Turki respectively. Four hours post and pre ToMV inoculation were most sensitive period to ToMV replication for three cultivars. On the other hand, the antiviral event changed in conformation and chemical structure of virion, coat protein and nucleic acid of ToMV with black cumin seed extract by spectroscopy. Balady, Sori and Turki; black cumin  cultivars were varieted based on heritiability, chemical composition according to fatty acid GLC and polypeptide fraction SDS-PAGE analysis as well as antiviral activities against tomato mosaic tobamovirus.

Surgical site infection (SSI) remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients. A total of 254 bacterial isolates were collected from 303 surgical specimens which were isolated from 92 males (53.2%) and 81 females (46.8%), their mean ages were 39.6±16.05 years (ranged from 1 month to 74 years). These isolates were identified as Staphylococcus aureus,Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonasaeruginosa and commensal Gram+ve and Gram-ve bacteria. The most effective antibiotics were imipenem while ampicillin and penicillin G (First and second generation of b-Lactam) showed much lower activity against all types of bacterial strains. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of  imipenem determined by E-test were 0.047- 0.064 , 0.125, 0.19, 0.25 and 0.75mg/ml against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia  coli, Proteus vulgaris, Klebsiellapneumoniae  and Pseudomonas aeruginosa  respectively.

Twenty nine actinomycetes isolates were isolated from Burullos Lake and characterized taxonomically for 62 phenotypic traits including morphological; biochemical, nutritional, substrate utilization and anti-microbial activities.  The results were analyzed by numerical techniques using the simple matching coefficient (SSM) and UPGMA clustering. At 54% similarity level, the majority of the isolates were grouped into six phena (A, B, C, D, E and F). Only two isolates were grouped separately and formed two single clusters at the same level of similarity. A representative isolate from each phenon was identified. The isolates were found to be Streptoverticillum morookaense, Nocardia brasiliensis, Streptomyces alanosinicus, Streptomyces globosus and Streptomyces gancidicus