Petroleum products are complex mixtures of hundreds of hydrocarbon compounds. Petroleum has been recognized as a potential environmental contaminant. This research was undertaken to evaluate the effect of petroleum hydrocarbon on soil characteristics and seeds germination in arid lands. Results indicated that bulk density and real density of the polluted samples are relatively higher and lower respectively then the corresponding values of the unpolluted soils. Percent ages of the clay fraction obtained with and without removing the cementing agents showed high and low values for % clay fraction respectively. Low calcium carbonate content was found in the polluted samples as a result of solubilization effects of the petroleum products on calcium carbonate particles. ECe values were very high in the polluted samples (ECe = 28.6 - 82.5 dS/m) and very low in the unpolluted samples (ECe = 2.75 - 2.79 dS/m). Soluble calcium and sulphat ions were the dominant ions in the saturation extract of unpolluted soil samples. Organic matter contents were high (4.94%) in the polluted soil and Low in the unpolluted soil (0.54%). Soil polluted with hydrocarbon was very high (7.13-7.5%) in the unpolluted soil and very low (0.63-0.71%) in the polluted soil. Total elemental contents shows that the most important metals with regard to potential hazards in the contaminated soils, are Cr, Pb, and Ni. Other heavy metals indicated low to medium concentration either in petroleum polluted or the non polluted soils. The concentration of toxic elements in the tested soils could be derived from petroleum pollution and/or from it's chemical weathering particularly under the relatively low pH of the polluted soils. Results indicated no barley seed emergence after 14 days in the polluted soil even after several leaching to alleviate the high level of salt concentrations in the polluted soil. The data reflect the serious effects of petroleum products on the deterioration of soil characteristics which reflected on the emergence of barley seeds.

The red palm weevil (RPW) Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is the most destructive pest of date palm Phoenix dactylifera L. in Middle East particularly in ArabGulf countries. Distribution of RPW infestations in relation to some factors was studied in date palm farms in Qatif Governorate, EasternSaudi Arabia. For these studies, 80 farms containing over 11000 date-palm trees were inspected. A scale for grading the infestation severity was developed. Numerical, but not statistical differences were in infestation levels with RPW, were found among farms due to their location (desert or oasis), irrigation system (dripping or flooding), intercropping (with or without) and pruning condition (pruned or unpruned). However, too small farms (less than 100 palm trees/farm) or too large farms (over 1000 trees) were highly infested while farms of 400-800 trees/farm were the least infested. Over 42% of infestations were concentrated at or below the soil surface. Light or surface infestations formed 45% while severe or deep infestations formed 19% of total infestations. Trees of 5-10 years old were the most infested while trees over 15 years were the least infested.

In order to produce neutral protease from Streptomyces microflavus, it was cultivated in basal medium containing soluble starch, potassium nitrate, dipotassium hydrogen phosphate, magnesium sulphate, sodium chloride, calcium carbonate and ferrous sulphate. Protease production increased with decreasing the ratio of culture broth to vessel volume 1:5 and shaking at 150 rpm. Protease production was low when pH was < 5 or > 9. The productivity of protease decreased sharply when the incubation temperature increased from 30 to 450C. The maximum yield of protease was obtained at the third day of incubation. Soluble starch and yeast extract were the best carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively. Supplementation with calcium carbonate enhanced protease production. In addition, the dipotassium hydrogen phosphate was the best phosphorous source. Para chloromercuribenzoic acid and phenyl methylsulfonylfloride had significant inhibitory effect on protease production.

The honey dew moth Cryptoblabes gnidiella Milliere is one of the most important insect pests of stored garlic. Data revealed that, Egyptian (Baladi) cultivar was the least susceptible to attacke by this insect . After four months of storage, the infestation percentages were 21.68% for Egyptian (Balady) cultivar as compared to 32.39% for Sids 40, 44.88% for American and 70.99% for Chinese cultivar. The oil content of the four garlic cultivars were measured along four months of storage. Data showed that the four cultivars were differed significantly in this respect. The highest weight of volatile oils, 436.8 mg/100g was fined in the Egyptian cultivar whereas the Chinese cultivar had 340.6 mg/100g. The correlation coefficients “r” values showed highly significant and negative relationship between infestation percentages and volatile oils weight (mg) . The main components of the volatile oils of the tested four garlic cultivars were separated by GC- MS analysis. Nine sulfur compounds were separated and identified, the major compound was Diallyl trisulfide (i.e. 49.82, 46.23, 46.17 and 44.89%) for Egyptian, Sids 40, Chinese and American cultivars, respectively. Allyl methyl trisulfide ranged from 11.40 to 23.15%. On the other hand percentage of total soluble solids (TSS%) for the four cultivars were almost the same trend during the storage period extended for four months or slightly increased. These data indicate the importance of the type and quantity of volatile oils and its component in protection of stored garlic from infestation by C. gnidiella.

ABSTRACT   Two induced mutant strains, obtained from the fungus Penicillium funiculosum after UV treatments, were used for protoplast fusion. These mutants (12 and 18) were selected according to their dextranase activity and stability. Seven fusants having dextranase over-yield than their parental strain were obtained. The best dextranase producing fusant (No. 2) was selected for further studies. Dextranase was purified from cell-free culture of fusant 2 by consecutive column chromatography using Q-sepharose FF, Superose 12 prep. grade 60/600 and Mono Q-FPLC. The purification was estimated by SDS-PAGE as well as isoelectric focusing. Four dextranase components (I, II, III and IV) were separated with an estimated molecular weights of 67 kDa. The pI of the all components were found to be around 3.0 as estimated by gel electrophoresis using both broad and low pI calibration protein kits. The dxetranase components showed pH and optimum temperature of 5 and 55oC, respectively. Dextran was the sole carbon source for dextranase production by the dextranase components. The effect of the dextranase components on different types of dextrans were also studied.

The seeds of six different species of common pulses were examined as hosts of  two bruchid beetles, Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) and C. chinensis L. under controlled conditions of  30±2ºC  and 65±5% R.H. Deposited eggs, Hatched eggs, numbers and weights of emerged adults and also the total developmental period from the deposited eggs to adults emergence were estimated. Results obtained indicated thatcowpea seeds were the most favorable for feeding the two tested bruchid beetles, followed by faba bean seeds, while insect infestation was not observed on common bean and soybean seeds for either bruchid species.Results also revealedthat C.maculatus deposited more eggs on all tested leguminous seeds and gave more emerged adults with heavier weights than C. chinensis.

The effect of incorporation of barley whole meal (BWM) whether in ice milk (IM) as skim milk powder (SMP) substitute, in tomato soup (ST) as modified starch substitute and in Egyptian kishk (EK) as wheat flour substitute on their properties was studied. The obtained results reveal that, the substitution with BWM was associated with increases in the fiber, β-glucan, K and Mg contents in all products studied. Whereas, the protein and ash contents increased in ST samples. The freezing point of IM mixes heightened and the specific gravity lowered by BWM addition instead of SMP.  In spite of the stabilizer (CMC) level, the overrun % decreased by substitution of SMP with BWM but the melting resistance increased. Rheologically, the 50% replacement SMP with BWM achieved remarkable increase in the rheological response of IM samples especially in the presence of 0.1% CMC.  At the same time, the replacing of modified starch by 200% of BWM in ST samples resulted in increasing the shear stress value and led to a mix behavior of thixotropy and rheopectic in ST samples. Although the partial or fully replacement of wheat flour with BWM led to reduction in the thixotropy area in EK samples. Organoleptically, IM and EK with 50% BWM and ST with 200% BWM substituted gained the highest sensory scores especially in the absence of CMC in IM samples.

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.

Anthocyanins derived from red cabbage were extracted, and identified by using HPLC. These pigments are used as alternative natural red colorants in some processed foods i.e.; hard candy; jelly and ice sherbets. They are also effect of using as natural antioxidant on sunflower oil. Red cabbage has 90.5 mg anthocyanin /100 gm on fresh weights. Where the major constituents were cyaniding-3-diglucoside-5-glucoside (80%) and cyanidin 3, 5 diglucoside (20%) with HPLC. The best carrier for red cabbage anthocyanin pigment was found to be dextrin followed by cellulose, soluble starch and glucose respectively. On the other hand, color and higher pigment stability of anthocyanin derived from red cabbage were in acidic condition at pH ranged between 1.0 to 4.0 and in temperatures ranged between 40 to 80ºC. Meanwhile, the degradation of anthocyanin being 10% of total pigments after 180 min at 100ºC. Antioxidant activities of red cabbage anthocyanin were assessed by determining peroxide value on sunflower oil during 7 days at 60ºC. Sunflower oil contained 200 ppm red cabbage extract showed lower peroxide value being (9.92) than using 200 ppm synthetic antioxidant (BHT) (10.12) meq/Kg. Analysis of variance for sensory evaluation of prepared hard candy, jelly and ice sherbets indicated that, hard candy, jelly contained 0.10% and ice sherbets contained 0.20% red cabbage anthocyanin pigments revealed the highest score of color, taste, odor and overall acceptability similar with synthetic color (carmine).

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