This study, conducted over 56 days from November 3 to December 29, 2024, examined the effects of thermal manipulation during late incubation on hatching traits, chick quality, and post-hatch performance in Ross 308 broilers. The work began at Almiass's private hatchery and continued at Sulaymaniyah University's College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences. The study involved 750 eggs across five groups. Until day 18, all eggs were incubated at 37.5°C with 60–65% humidity. From days 19–21, one control and four thermally manipulated groups continued at 37.5°C and 70–75% humidity, with TM groups exposed to 6-hour daily cycles at varying temperatures (36.5°C, 35.5°C, 38.5°C, and 39.5°C) before returning to the baseline. Key parameters assessed included hatchability, embryonic mortality, chick quality, growth, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, and carcass traits. Higher incubation temperatures—especially 39.5°C—reduced hatch time but negatively affected hatchability and increased late embryonic mortality. Two indicators of chick quality were observed: the chick length was greater in the T0 group compared to the T4 group, while the T4 group exhibited a higher malformation rate than the T0 group. Even though the feed intake of all TM groups was significantly higher than that of the control, the 35.5°C group gained the most body weight after hatching. There were no appreciable changes in either the production index or the cumulative FCR. While the percentages of thighs and wings were the same, the 39.5°C group's breast output rose. Overall, TM had an impact on a few hatching and performance parameters.

Soil microbiome engineering, a frontier within sustainable agriculture, involves the manipulation as well as stewardship of soil microbial communities to improve crop productivity, restore soil health and address climate-related challenges. This review critically synthesizes recent advances in microbial inoculants, as well as engineered synthetic communities with host-mediated genetic strategies aimed at improving plant performance in fluctuating environments. Recent developments in synthetic microbial consortia design demonstrate enhanced colonization efficiency and synergistic interactions that surpass single-strain inoculants, multi-strain communities showing yield improvements across diverse agroecosystems. Special emphasis is placed on mechanisms, cost–benefit considerations, and case studies demonstrating agronomic and ecological potential across different cropping systems. This discussion also covers environmental, economic, policy factors plus opportunities and lasting issues like biosafety fears, rules, farmer uptake. Soil microbiome engineering combines perceptions from multi-omics, digital technologies, and synthetic biology providing scalable solutions for nutrient management, disease suppression, and stress resilience. Key bottlenecks are field-to-lab translation gaps, economic scalability, identified in this type of review. Academics, regulators, and industry are guided toward responsibly embedding microbiome engineering into global food systems with future research pathways that are also outlined.

The field experiment was carried out during the rabi season of 2021–22 at the College of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, Anand Agricultural University, Godhra. to evaluate the effect of pulse drip irrigation and different lateral spacing on the growth, yield, and water productivity of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). A split-plot design was adopted with four pulse irrigation levels—continuous flow (P1), two pulses (P2), three pulses (P3), and four pulses (P4)—and three lateral spacings: 0.6 m (S1), 0.8 m (S2), and 1.0 m (S3), replicated three times. The experiment used 16 mm laterals with 0.4 m emitter spacing and a discharge rate of 4 lph. Irrigation was scheduled at an IW/CPE ratio of 0.8 at four-day intervals. The high-yielding wheat variety GW 496 was selected, sown on November 28, 2021, at a seed rate of 120 kg ha-1 using a seed-cum-fertilizer drill. The recommended fertilizer dose of 120:60:60 kg N: P: K per hectare was applied, with half the nitrogen and the full phosphorus and potash given as a basal dose. The results revealed that both pulse frequency and lateral spacing significantly influenced wheat growth and yield parameters. The highest plant height (70.5 cm), number of effective tillers (62.5 m-1), grains per spike (51.2), and grain yield (4228 kg ha-1) were recorded under P4, while P1 recorded the lowest. Among lateral spacings, S1 produced the highest grain yield (3913 kg/ha) and water productivity. The combined treatment P4S1 (four pulses with 0.6 m spacing) achieved the best overall performance, with a grain yield of 4854 kg ha-1, straw yield of 5163 kg ha-1 and a maximum benefit-cost ratio of 2.84. hence offering a sustainable and economically viable practice for enhancing wheat productivity in the water-scarce regions of Gujarat.

Abstract In order to know plant response to experimental treatments, this experiment was carried out in fruit shade of Department of Horticulture and Landscape Engineering at Research Station B - College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences - University of Baghdad, for 2022 season on two-year-old of “Ahmer” apricot cultivar. 72 homogeneous transplants were brought in their vegetative group to implement experiment on them. Factors of study experiment included tryptophan spray at four concentrations; water only (T 0 ), 50 mg.L −1 (T 50 ), 100 mg.L −1 (T 100 ) and 200 mg.L −1 (T 200 ) and three levels of green tea extract spray, without spraying (G 0 ), 250 mg.L −1 (G 250 ) and 500 mg.L −1 (G 500 ). A factorial experiment was conducted within (RCBD) with three replicates (two transplants per experimental unit), thus number of transplants included in experiment was 72 transplants. Experimental results showed that tryptophan spray at 200 mg.L −1 (T 200 ) gave highest increased in plant height, increased in shoot length, leaf area, leaves number, leaves chlorophyll content, leaves carbohydrates content, leaf N, K and Fe content of 9.75 mm, 29.79 cm, 19.19 cm and 23.43 cm 2 , 336.2 leaf.tansplant −1 , 30.48 mg. g −1 fresh weight and 8.62 %, 1.79 %, 1.52 % and 176.4 mg.kg −1 , respectively. Green tea extract spray (G 500 ) greatly outperformed other treatments in terms of average increases in stem diameter, plant height, shoot length, leaf area, leaves number, leaves chlorophyll and carbohydrates content, leaf N, K and Fe content, as it gave 9.02 mm, 26.38 cm, 17.82 cm and 20.77 cm 2 , 339.6 leaf.tansplant −1 , 28.93 mg. g −1 fresh weight and 8.79 %, 1.79 %, 1.52 % and 176.4 mg.kg −1 , respectively. Interactions between tryptophan and green tea extract spray had a major impact, particularly when interaction treatment (T 200 G 500 ).

Abstract A field experiment was conducted during the winter season 2024-2025 at the research stations affiliated with the College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences / University of Baghdad / Al-Jadriya, to evaluate the effectiveness of Limitless herbicide and compare it with the aqueous extract of nettle ( Urtica dioica L.) leaves and manual hoeing on associated weeds and their effect on yield and yield components of wheat cultivar (Buhooth 22), aimed at reducing environmental pollution and achieving sustainable development goals. The experiment was conducted according to a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications, where the control treatments included: T1- One hoeing 50 days after planting. T2- One hoeing 50 days after planting + Limitless herbicide at a rate of 400 g ha −1 T3- One hoeing 50 days after planting + nettle extract at a spray rate of 18 L ha −1 . T4- Limitless herbicide at a rate of 400 g ha −1 . T5- Half dose of herbicide + half dose of extract. T6- Weedy treatment. T7- Weed-free treatment. The results showed significant superiority of all control treatments compared to the control treatment T6 in all studied traits. Treatment T2 emerged as the most efficient treatment after the weed-free treatment (T7), recording the lowest weed density (26.67 plants m −2 ), with a control percentage of 81.74%, the lowest dry weight of weeds at 32.97 g m −2 , the highest inhibition percentage of 89.85%, and the highest grain yield of 2.479 t ha −1 . Meanwhile, nettle extract treatments ( Urtica dioica L.) showed very promising results, as treatment T3 achieved results comparable to treatment T2, with a grain yield of 2.350 t ha −1 . Treatment T5 also gave a grain yield of 2.285 t ha −1 . These results may be attributed to the allelopathic effect of phenolic compounds in nettle extract, which inhibited weed growth, positively reflecting on yield components such as spike number and 1000-grain weight. The research concludes that the intensity of weed competition is a decisive factor limiting wheat productivity, and that implementing control programs combining mechanical, chemical, and biological control is the most effective approach for increasing grain yield. The results also confirm the great potential for using nettle extract as a promising environmental alternative that contributes to reducing the use of chemical herbicides and achieving sustainable agriculture.

Russian Federation, Chief Researcher of the Laboratory of Technologies and Machines for Sowing and Harvesting Grain and Seeds in Breeding and Seed Production at the Federal Scientific Agroengineering Center VIM, and a member of the editorial board of the "Tractors and Agricultural Machinery" journal Eduard V. Zhalnin passed away. Eduard V. Zhalnin made a significant contribution to the development and advancement of priority areas of agricultural engineering science and technology, including the scientific discipline of "Agricultural Mechanics." He specialized in developing concepts and forecasts for the development of mechanization in grain harvesting. He was the author of hundreds of scientific papers, patents, and methodological developments. As an active member of the editorial board and reviewer for the journal, Eduard V. Zhalnin contributed to the development of the scientific level of the publication.

Groundnut is the major oilseed crop in India, and it plays a major role in bridging the Vegetable oil deficit in the country. Groundnuts in India are available throughout the year due to a two-crop cycle, harvested in March and October. This paper aims to perform an evaluation of the developed power-operated groundnut thresher. The prototype was conceived and fabricated through a collaborative effort between the S.V. College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology and Research Station, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (IGKV). The design process involved detailed analysis of the mechanical requirements for effective threshing, material selection for major components and dimensional optimisation to achieve efficient separation with minimal grain loss or damage. The results show that cylinder speed had the most pronounced effect on threshing efficiency, followed by concave clearance and feed rate. At the lowest cylinder speed (23.5 m/s), the threshing efficiency ranged from 97.00% to 99.10%. An increase in cylinder speed to 27.5 m/s improved threshing efficiency to a range of 98.30% to 99.40%, while the highest cylinder speed of 31.5 m/s yielded the best performance, with efficiencies ranging from 98.80% to 99.70%. Overall, the maximum threshing efficiency (99.70%) was achieved at 31.5 m/s cylinder speed, 15 mm concave clearance, and 7800 kg/h feed rate. This combination provided the optimal balance between impact intensity, contact area, and material flow. Therefore, fine-tuning airflow and drum speed parameters is essential to achieve a balance between high cleaning efficiency and minimal pod loss, ensuring efficient and economical groundnut threshing performance.

The intensification of agricultural production is increasing environmental pollution in rural areas. A significant contribution to air pollution in this respect comes from the combustion of fuel by tractor engines that drive agricultural machinery and equipment. The most important pollutants from this source, which have a negative impact on the atmosphere as well as on human health, include diazotium oxide (N2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and carbon monoxide (CO). Determining emissions is not an easy matter, if only because of their great diversity in terms of age, operating time, technical condition, as well as the type of operations performed, agrotechnical procedures. The paper attempts to estimate the emission of pollutants from fuel combustion by agricultural tractor engines in West Pomeranian Voivodeship. The basic source of energy on farms is the energy from the combustion of conventional fuels – mainly diesel – by engines of tractors and machines enabling the majority of field work to be carried out. The most common engines used in these tractors are diesel engines, mainly turbocharged with direct injection (DI). On the basis of the developed load cycle, data from the Central Register of Vehicles and Drivers database and laboratory tests, spatial maps of emissions of individual toxic components of exhaust gases were obtained in all the districts of the region. Analysis of the results showed, among other things, that the Gryfice district is the most heavily burdened with these pollutants and the Police district the least.

Research is presented on solving a pressing problem in agricultural engineering: the development of an energy-efficient onboard system for the automatic detection of phytopathological plant diseases using computer vision and deep learning methods. The study was conducted in the context of the growing need for intelligent agricultural monitoring technologies capable of functioning in field conditions with limited computing resources. The object of the study is wheat crops examined in the agricultural landscapes of the Republic of Bashkortostan in various phases of vegetation. The scientific novelty lies in the construction of a modified neural network detector architecture based on a lightweight version of YOLO, including low-cost convolutional blocks GhostConv and MBConv, attention modules SE and CBAM, as well as a multi-level feature aggregation structure BiFPN with an additional output P2 to increase sensitivity to small-scale disease symptoms. Unlike the basic YOLOv5s architecture, the proposed solution is optimized for operation on NavQ Plus, Jetson TX2, and Raspberry Pi 4 computing modules. The model was trained on a sample of 7,500 images manually labeled by agricultural specialists for brown and yellow rust. To validate the performance, key metrics were used: Precision, Recall, F1-score, average IoU, FPS, and power efficiency (FPS/W). The experimental results showed the following achievements: F1-score up to 0.978, IoU up to 0.82, processing speed up to 16.8 FPS and power efficiency of 2.7 FPS/W on the NavQ Plus platform. A comparative analysis with the YOLOv5s baseline model confirmed the superiority of the proposed architecture across all key parameters. The developed model can serve as the foundation for building intelligent precision farming solutions, enabling early disease detection and adaptive application of crop protection products with minimal energy and computational costs.

For molecular farming and crop improvement, chloroplast transformation has emerged as a compelling alternative to nuclear genetic modification. In this review we will discuss the biology of plastid genomes, highlighting their polyploidy, prokaryotic transcriptional organization, and maternal inheritance, all of which support high-level, stable, and contained transgene expression. Key components of transformation vectors, including homologous recombination sites and selectable markers, are detailed, alongside strategies for multigene operon construction. The article evaluates delivery methods, primarily biolistics and PEG-mediated protoplast transformation, while addressing technical barriers such as low regeneration efficiency in non model and monocot species. Applications are discussed in tobacco and food crops, with examples ranging from vaccine production to stress tolerance and pest resistance. Limitations such as transformation efficiency, species specificity, and regulatory hurdles are critically assessed. Recent advances in base editing, synthetic biology toolkits, and marker-free systems offer potential pathways toward broader adoption. The review concludes that while chloroplast biotechnology holds clear advantages in expression control and biosafety, further innovation in transformation protocols and genome editing delivery is essential for its practical deployment in diverse crops. This synthesis provides a framework for ongoing research aimed at overcoming the technical and regulatory constraints that currently limit widespread use of chloroplast engineering in agriculture.

Green nanotechnology offers scalable, low-emission solutions to address climate change, particularly within agriculture, energy, and environmental systems. This review explores its potential to enhance climate-resilient agriculture, focusing on peanut cultivation and decentralized energy access in vulnerable, rural regions. Key applications include solar-powered irrigation, nano-enhanced rural infrastructure, and the valorization of peanut shell biomass for sustainable bioenergy production. Advanced nanomaterials, such as quantum dots, perovskites, and magnetic nanoparticles, are examined for their role in improving energy reliability, postharvest preservation, and farming efficiency in off-grid areas. Special emphasis is placed on green synthesis methods and the use of nanocatalysts for bioethanol and biodiesel production, supporting low-carbon development goals. The review synthesizes interdisciplinary research from nanomaterials, renewable energy, and agricultural engineering to provide a systems-level perspective on addressing agricultural challenges through nanoinnovations. However, barriers remain, including inconsistent nanomaterial synthesis, limited rural deployment, and weak policy integration. Overcoming these challenges requires the development of field-ready, safe-by-design technologies and deployment strategies customized to local needs. Future research should prioritize scalable implementation and strong regulatory frameworks. This review contributes to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2, 7, 9, and 13 by advancing integrated food, energy, and water security through climate-smart nanotechnologies. Stakeholders are encouraged to invest in pilot projects and foster cross-sector collaboration to accelerate real-world adoption.

Aim of the Study: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of nanoparticle addition and substrate pretreatment on the biogas yield and quality of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB) under mesophilic temperature conditions (30–40°C). Study Design: A laboratory-scale, multi-treatment batch experimental design was adopted using five 2.5-liter anaerobic digesters labeled A–E. The design allowed direct comparison of inoculum, substrate, pretreatment, and nanoparticle combinations under identical mesophilic conditions. Place and Duration of the Study: The study was conducted at the Power and Machinery Laboratory, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Nigeria, over a four-weeks digestion period between June and August 2025. Methodology: OPEFB was collected, air-dried, and subjected to thermal (boiling at 100°C for 30 minutes) and chemical (1% NaOH for 24 hours) pretreatments. Five digesters were prepared: A (inoculum only), B (inoculum + untreated OPEFB), C (inoculum + pretreated OPEFB), D (inoculum + untreated OPEFB + Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles), and E (inoculum + pretreated OPEFB + Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles). Iron oxide nanoparticles (1 g/L) were introduced to enhance microbial activity. Biogas volume was determined by water displacement, while CH₄, CO₂, H₂, and H₂S contents were analyzed using a gas analyzer. Results: Pretreatment and nanoparticle addition significantly improved biogas yield and methane concentration. Methane content increased from 55–60% (untreated) to 75–78% (pretreated + nanoparticles), while CO₂ decreased to about 25%. The integrated treatment enhanced cumulative biogas yield by 40% over the control, and the Modified Gompertz model (R² = 0.94) best described the kinetics. Conclusion: The study concludes that combining Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles with thermal–chemical pretreatment enhances OPEFB biodegradability, accelerates digestion, and improves methane quality. This integrated approach provides an efficient, eco-friendly pathway for converting oil palm waste into renewable energy, supporting sustainable waste management and energy security.

University extension acts as a bridge between the university and society, valuing popular knowledge and promoting social transformation through participatory practices. This study analyzed the role of extension as a transforming agent during the VIII Academic Week of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, which brought together students, professors, professionals and companies in the agricultural sector in lectures, technical visits and integrative activities. The analysis of the extension actions revealed that the event favored dialog, the exchange of experiences and the strengthening of partnerships with companies, aligning with SDGs 2, 4 and 17 of the 2030 Agenda. It is concluded that extension, integrated with academic events, expands the social impact of the university and reinforces the union between teaching, research and extension in regional development.

As a result of population growth, globalization, wars, natural disasters and the climate crisis that has become more evident, it is seen that the problems related to food have reached a point that cannot be ignored. Until now, food problems have mostly been studied in fields such as food engineering, agricultural engineering and medicine. Studies in the field of planning, on the other hand, have mostly been limited to rural areas, and this problem has been discussed much less through urban areas and urbanization paradigms. Considering the current urbanization rates and planning paradigms, discussing the food problem through urban areas and producing solutions in these areas by the planning discipline can develop systemic solutions. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to filter the food literature through the planning framework and explore alternative solution areas. In accordance with the purpose of the study, some concepts have been examined hierarchically within the framework of urbanization and planning, while others have been excluded. The conceptual flow has followed both a chronological order and a deductive method in which one concept points to another concept. Therefore, the study follows a descriptive research method and looks for practical clues. As an auxiliary source, bibliometric analysis has been a quantitative method frequently used in the methodology. The concept sets that emerged from the bibliometric analysis were guided by the role of planning to examine the qualitative and structural dimension of the food problem. The role of the planning discipline in the conceptual flow centered on food safety, food security and food sovereignty has been examined, and food sovereignty, with which the relationship is more strongly established, has been scrutinized. Food sovereignty has come to the fore with the social justice dimension of planning and has been seen as more potential in producing planning policies. In the concluding section, a comparative conceptual analysis of the three concepts is made through the approach, main objectives, fields of action, key institutions, food - related policies, actors and concerns. The relationship between food sovereignty, which is seen to have stronger ties to planning, and the instrumental and qualitative dimensions of planning is revealed. Even the marginalization criticisms against food sovereignty have been seen to have a certain scope in planning. It is inevitable that qualitative and empirical studies will accelerate against the current and potential food crises in the current economic system, which is prone to crises. Although there is a lack of food issues in the literature, which has so far been associated with the rural dimension of planning, it is expected that food sovereignty, as a new area of discussion in planning, will also be discussed in urban areas, which host a large part of the population, and point to solution areas.

Impact of second gas power plant in South Baghdad, near University of Baghdad, on soil and plant contamination at university site with some heavy metals (Ni, Pb, and Cd) resulting from gases, smoke, and volatile vapors was studied. Soil samples and samples of cultivated plants and growing trees were taken at the university at a distance of 250 and 500 meters from the center of station in four directions. Soil samples were also taken from sites covering most of university area and at different distances with a depth of 0-30 cm. Comparative samples were also taken within a distance of 1-2 km from station with three replicates. Results indicated the following: 1-Concentrations of total and available Lead, Cadmium, and Nickel in soil of University of Baghdad varied at different sites depending on their proximity or distance from second South Baghdad Gas Power Plant for generating electrical power and their location relative to the main street at university. Highest concentration of total Lead was found in a site in front of Faculty of Science building near main street, 27.72 mg kg-1, for Cadmium 57.50 mg kg-1 at site inside Faculty of Agricultural Engineering Sciences research station in front of college deanship located 1000 m to north of e station, total Nickel 148.00 mg kg-1 at site next to station’s garage, which is 250 m to south of station. concentrations of elements in plant, they reached for Lead, 5.10 mg kg-1 dry matter in sites in front of Faculty of Political Science, next to the research station of Faculty of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, near sanitary landfill area, and at a distance of 250 m, for Cadmium, 2.26 mg kg-1 dry matter in sites inside research station of Faculty of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, in front of Deanship building, for Nickel, 2.90 mg kg-1 dry matter in site next to private garage in the station, which is 250 m away. 2- Concentrations of total and available Lead in soil and plants did not exceed the internationally permissible limits, therefore soil and plants are not contaminated with Lead. All soils and plants are considered contaminated with Ccadmium, as they exceeded internationally permissible limits for this element in soil and plants. Concentrations of total Nickel in soil exceeded the internationally permissible limits, therefore soil is considered contaminated with Nickel,while Nickel concentrations in plants did not exceed internationally permissible limits, therefore plants are not contaminated with Nickel. This study highlights the necessity of continuous monitoring and adopting phytoremediation or soil management practices to reduce heavy metal accumulation around the power plant.

This article presents the results of an analysis and research on the state of the agricultural engineering service, as well as an analysis of the Strategy for the Development of Agricultural Machinery in Russia through 2030 from the perspective of its effectiveness in providing the Russian agro-industrial complex with the required quantity of agricultural machinery.

Abstract – This research explores the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and modern farming techniques, specifically focusing on Precision Agriculture and its potential to transform traditional crop management practices for 21st-century food security challenges. Within this broad domain, our work concentrates on leveraging deep neural networks and computer vision to diagnose plant diseases from images, bringing together expertise from machine learning, digital imaging, plant pathology, and agricultural engineering to develop practical diagnostic tools for field use. The urgency of this research is underscored by the devastating reality that plant diseases cause approximately 30-33% of global crop losses annually, while traditional expert-based visual inspection methods remain slow, expensive, subjective, and often detect problems too late to prevent significant damage. Current deep learning approaches, despite achieving impressive accuracy, face critical limitations including high computational costs, demanding hardware requirements, lack of interpretability in decision-making processes, insufficient labeled data for rare diseases, high variability in field conditions, and the inability to provide real-time diagnostics without cloud connectivity. To address these challenges, this survey advocates for compact convolutional architectures such as MobileNetV2 and EfficientNetB0 that can be deployed on low-power devices while maintaining diagnostic accuracy.. Key Words: Precision Agriculture, Deep Learning (DL), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), Lightweight Architectures (MobileNetV2, EfficientNetB0), Explainable AI (XAI), LIME, Transfer Learning, Feature Engineering, Image Segmentation, Edge Computing, Mobile Deployment.

This study was conducted at the Animal Farm of the College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Baghdad during the period from 22/1/2022 to 2/4/2022. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of leptin gene polymorphism on the weight gain, digestibility and rumen fermentations of Awassi lambs. Forty Awassi lambs were selected at age 4-5 months, with an initial weight mean of 25.4 kg, and distributed randomly in individual pens. The results showed that there were three variations in SNP (G>A), GG, GA and AA it was 66.67, 30.56 and 2.7%, respectively, and the differences between them were highly significant (P≤0.01). No significant differences of leptin gene polymorphism were noticed on the percentage of volatile fatty acids (acetic, propionic and butyric) as well as on the percentage of ammonia nitrogen at all times (0,3 and 6 hours). There were highly significant differences (P≤0.01) in pH of the rumen fluid in GG variations at the times of 0 and 6 hours compared with GA it was 6.78 ± 0.03 and 6.76 ± 0.02, respectively. The results also showed that there were no significant differences in the leptin gene polymorphism on digestibility and weight gain. It can be concluded that the study of genetic variations of leptin gene had no effect on the performance of Awassi lambs.

This study was aimed to investigate effect of phosphorus, silicon, and citric acid on anatomical traits of pepper, This research was conducted at research stations, College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Baghdad, Jadiriyah Campus, during 2021-2022 season. The study employed factorial experiment within randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replicates. The first factor included three levels of phosphorus (p) ( 0, 160, and 320 kg Ha-1 P2O5), the second factor included three levels of potassium silicate (s) ( 0, 75, and 100 kg Ha-1), while the third factor included four levels of citric acid (c ) ( 0, 2, 4, and 6 kg Ha-1). The results revealed that the P3S2C3 treatment had a significant increase in lateral root diameter (10.10 mm), P1S3C4 increased epidermis root thickness (30.93 µm), P3S3C2 led to increased root vascular bundle and stem,leaf cuticle thickness (284.9 µm, 6.63 µm, and 5.63 µm, respectively), the P1S2C4 treatment exhibited increased stem vascular bundle thickness (279.9 µm), The P1S2C2 showed increases in mesophyll thickness (106.03 µm), The P2S3C showed increases in leaf area (631.3 dcm2 plant-1) and P3S3C4 showed increases yield of plant (3.48 kg plant-1).

Associate Professor Tomoki Kurasawa, based at Ehime University’s Graduate School of Agriculture, is pioneering research into water quality management in subsurface dams, with a particular focus on the mass transport mechanisms in soil-rock mixed media such as Ryukyu limestone. Subsurface dams, which utilise underground aquifers without requiring surface structures, offer sustainable water resource solutions. However, water retention can lead to quality deterioration due to pollutant accumulation. Kurasawa’s research explores the unique properties of Ryukyu limestone, a sedimentary rock with high porosity and permeability, revealing it to be a complex mixture of soil and rock–a material type with limited academic understanding. By combining high-resolution X‐ray CT imaging and advanced particle recognition algorithms, Kurasawa seeks to model microstructural pore networks and enhance understanding of how fluids and contaminants move through these materials. His work integrates field investigations, including borehole dilution testing and porosity analysis, with sophisticated laboratory simulations, bridging microscale phenomena with macroscale water management objectives. This research not only supports the design and sustainability of subsurface dams in Japan but may also inform the viability of such infrastructure globally. Beyond his scientific pursuits, Kurasawa is committed to raising awareness and interest in geotechnical and agricultural civil engineering among younger generations. By linking research to societal challenges and embracing cutting-edge technologies, he promotes the field’s relevance in addressing environmental and disaster-prevention needs. His efforts highlight the vital role of multidisciplinary research in tackling the complex interactions between natural materials and human water usage.