Open Conditions Research Articles

Dissipation behavior, residue distribution, and exposure risk assessment of tebufenpyrad and milbemectin acaricides in strawberries under open field conditions.

Strawberries are a favorite fruit for most people, but the residues of pesticides on strawberries might be risky to human health. Tebufenpyrad and milbemectin are broad-spectrum acaricides with insecticide properties authorized for use on strawberries in Egypt. As a result, it is crucial to investigate their residues in the final product to ensure customers' safety. Consequently, field trials were conducted following the Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) to study the dissipation rate and terminal residues of tebufenpyrad and milbemectin on strawberries. Tebufenpyrad and milbemectin residues in strawberries declined due to first-order decayprocess, showing significant degradation (88.5% and 94.7%, respectively) after 14days. Risk assessment studywas carried out by comparing the national estimated daily intake (NEDI) tothe acceptable daily intake (ADI). The results demonstrated that the dietary risk posedby the residues of tebufenpyrad and milbemectin in strawberry fruits was acceptable for consumers. It is envisaged that the current study's findings would support the safe application of tebufenpyrad and milbemectin to strawberries and perhaps other crops in Egypt and other countries with similar climatic conditions.

Detection of Gate Valve Leaks through the Analysis Fractal Characteristics of Acoustic Signal

This paper considers the possibility of using monofractal and multifractal analysis of acoustic signals to detect water leaks through gate valves. Detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) and multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA) were used. Experimental studies were conducted on a ½-inch nominal diameter wedge valve, which was fitted to a ¾-inch nominal diameter steel pipeline. The water leak was simulated by opening the valve. The resulting leakage rates for different valve opening conditions were 5.3, 10.5, 14, 16.8, and 20 L per minute (L/min). The Hurst exponent for acoustic signals in a hermetically sealed valve is at the same level as a deterministic signal, while the width of the multifractal spectrum closely matches that of a monofractal process. When a leak occurs, turbulent flow pulsations appear, and with small leak sizes, the acoustic signals become anticorrelated with a high degree of multifractality. As the leakage increases, the Hurst exponent also increases and the width of the multifractal spectrum decreases. The main contributor to the multifractal structure of leak signals is small, noise-like fluctuations. The analysis of acoustic signals using the DFA and MF-DFA methods enables determining the extent of water leakage through a non-sealed gate valve. The results of the experimental studies are in agreement with the numerical simulations. Using the Ansys Fluent software (v. 19.2), the frequencies of flow vortices at different positions of gate valve were calculated. The k-ω SST turbulence model was employed for calculations. The calculations were conducted in a transient formulation of the problem. It was found that as the leakage decreases, the areas with a higher turbulence eddy frequency increase. An increase in the frequency of turbulent fluctuations leads to enhanced energy dissipation. Some of the energy from ordered processes is converted into the energy of disordered processes.

Love wave propagation in a trigonal piezoelectric material layer of 32 crystal class

This paper analytically investigates the propagation characteristics of Love waves in a 32 trigonal piezoelectric layer resting on an elastic substrate. The governing electromechanical equations are derived and dispersion equations are obtained for two electrically open and short conditions. For a numerical study, a structure consisting of an α-quartz layer bonded onto a diamond substrate is considered. The influence of electrical boundary conditions on the mechanical and electrical responses is presented and discussed. The numerical results of dispersion curves indicate that phase velocities of all modes initiate at the shear wave velocity of the substrate and the phase velocity of the first mode approaches the velocity of the Bleustein–Gulyaev (BG) wave at high wavenumbers. Despite hexagonal piezoelectric material, the real and imaginary parts of the response mode shapes do not have identical distribution in a structure containing a piezoelectric material of crystal class 32. In addition, the present study provides a theoretical foundation for the design and application of surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices.

Cucumber under Controlled Environment Polyhouse: A Step Forward to Enhance Farmers Income

Present study was conducted to see profitability of cucumber crop when grown under polyhouse. Controlled environment crops have greater consistency and production is more reliable than uncontrolled open field crops. Technology is used to manage and manipulate the growing conditions to reduce uncertainty and optimise crop growth. Particularly, cucumber crop was uneconomical when grown under open field conditions due to its climate sensitiveness. Present study was conducted in cucumber which was being cultivated in environment-controlled poly house. The cost return analysis showed that the total cost of cultivation per 1000 m2 area was Rs. 307746 with an output value of Rs.888960 resulted in Benefit Cost Ratio of 2.89. As the poly house involves initial establishment costs besides maintenance costs every year. This component was amortized to be included in Total Fixed Cost component (TFC) of cost analysis. Similarly, the bed prepared for cucumber sowing also amortized as it lasts for five years once prepared. As most of the farmers were facing initial capital issues for establishing polyhouse, majority of farming fraternity till unable tap the full benefits of cucumber crop. By utilizing the policies of government, cucumber cultivation under poly house is economically beneficial.

Deformation of vegetated channel bed under ice-covered flow conditions

A common feature of cold regions is the presence of ice cover on water surface. In the presence of vegetation in the channel bed which is normally leafless in winter, interaction between river ice and vegetated channel bed becomes very complex. In the present study, the impacts of ice cover and submerged leafless vegetation on channel bed deformation and flow resistance have been investigated based on 144 experiments conducted in a large-scale outdoor flume. The independent variables associated with the maximum scour depth around vegetation elements have been assessed and equations have been developed. Results indicate that the most important variable affecting the maximum scour depth around vegetation under ice-covered flow conditions is the ratio of the ice cover roughness to the bed roughness (ni/nb). However, under open channel flow conditions, the flow Froude number is the most important variable influencing the maximum scour depth. The methods based on the law of the wall provide reliable Manning's coefficient for both smooth and rough ice covers in the presence of submerged vegetation in the channel bed. As the vegetation density increases, the size of scour holes becomes smaller. With the increase in vegetation density, the median grain size of the armour layer in scour holes decreases correspondingly. When vegetation elements are placed in a staggered configuration, the median grain size of the armour layer in scour holes is less than that of squared configuration of vegetation elements. Regardless of the roughness of ice cover on water surface and the grain size of sediment in the bed, the maximum depth of scour holes always occurs at the upstream front face of each vegetation element. Under the rough ice-covered flow condition, the maximum depth of scour holes is more than that under the smooth ice-covered and open flow conditions.

Additive manufacturing of scalable jet impingement and radial taper enhancements for improved flow boiling performance

Additive manufacturing (AM) offers a unique route to improve flow boiling heat transfer by enabling the fabrication of complex fluidic devices. In this study, two types of advanced jet impingement designs were additively manufactured and tested in subcooled flow boiling with 20 °C of subcooling. The first design is an in-line extended nozzle jet impingement manifold with nozzles off angle to the flow direction that extend towards the heated surface in order to decrease pressure drop and reduce viscous dissipation. The influence of jet velocity was explored and the optimal 3 nozzle design achieved a critical heat flux (CHF) of 191 W/cm2 and heat transfer coefficient (HTC) of 42.1 kW/m2K at a pressure drop of 3.4 kPa. This represents a 78% increase in CHF and 64% increase in HTC compared to open flow conditions. Following this, a second more complex design was created combining jet impingement, tapered flow paths, radial flow, and intricate fluidic routing to further improve heat transfer. This complex design would be extremely difficult to manufacture without additive techniques and resulted in a CHF of 375 W/cm2 and HTC of 74.2 W/m2K at a pressure drop of 3.5 kPa at a flow rate of 300 mL/min. This represented a 250% and 189% increase in CHF and HTC respectively over open channel flow conditions at a low pressure drop. These designs are easily scalable, and represent a new class of “on surface” flow boiling jet impingement enhancement techniques enabled through the use of additive manufacturing of polymeric materials.

Full-scale experiments on smoke movement in a two-story detached house with two horizontal openings at the lower-floor ceiling

This paper conducted full-scale experiments to investigate transient burning characteristics inside a two-story detached house, which had a double-pitched roof and covered an area of 14.2 m×6.5 m. Two horizontal openings, formed by a staircase and an atrium, connected the lower floor with the upper floor. By changing the heat release rates (HRRs) and locations of the fire source, as well as the opening conditions, smoke movement and filling process were addressed, and flame shapes and temperature evolutions inside the building were presented. Based on the heat transfer analysis, it was indicated that the two horizontal openings play a significant role on smoke movement and filling process. When the burner was placed between the two openings, there was a constant upward flow through the atrium opening to the upper floor due to its lower flow resistance. While gas flow inside the staircase can be both downward and upward, caused by the competition between the inertia and thermal buoyancy, as well as the air supply to the fire source. When the burner was placed under the atrium opening, there was a steady circulation of smoke with an upward flow through this opening, and a downward flow through the other. Smoke movement was accompanied by both the transverse diffusion and the settling process. An equation was derived to estimate the smoke filling time inside the building. The calculation results demonstrate that downward flow through the staircase may lead to a decrease in the smoke filling rate in the later stage of fire on the upper floor.

Insight into a traditional culinary practice: Late-stage addition of spiny coriander (Eryngium foetidum L.) in Indian cooking system

Spiny coriander (Eryngium foetidum L.) is a food flavouring herb with strong coriander-like odour. The leaves are traditionally used for flavouring the curries, boiled items, soups in Indian subcontinent and added during the final stage of cooking. The current study aimed to validate this traditional culinary knowledge on the addition of spiny coriander leaves and provide a scientific insight into this practice. To pursue the objective, fresh leaves were subjected to simulated open and close-vessel cooking conditions in Clevenger-type apparatus and pressure cooker, respectively. An extensive loss (∼43 %) in volatile flavours occurred after 30 min of open-vessel boiling and similarly for close-vessel process (∼39 %). However, the volatile composition, exclusively dominated by fatty aldehydes, especially trans-2-dodecenal (>70 %) remained practically unaltered throughout this process; rejecting the possibility of considerable transformation or degradation. Thus, boiling process during cooking promoted the loss of aromatic flavours through evaporation and justified the late-stage addition of spiny coriander to preserve its key flavours.

Spatial Analysis of Environmental Factors in the Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever Incident at Soe City District

Introduction: In 2022, there was a large increase in cases resulting in extraordinary events cases in the TTS district with the number 226 cases. Half of the percentage of outbreak cases that occurred in Soe City with a number of cases is 134 cases. Spatial analysis can be used to see patterns of disease distribution in certain areas.Methods: This research is a type of descriptive research with a case study approach. This descriptive research was carried out using a survey method where there was no intervention on variables but simply observing natural phenomena or looking for relationships between these phenomena and other variables.Results:  The research of dengue case data is divided into univariate analysis and spatial analysis, for example, classification, buffering and Moran index. Environmental factors in the form of the existence and condition of water reservoirs with dengue fever incidents can be seen in data related to the number of water reservoirs used by the community which are left open and the number is >3, making it easier for mosquitoes to breed. In the Spatial Classification Analysis, Nonohonis Village has the highest level of risk, but Autocorrelation Analysis states that the Oekefan area has larger cluster points than Nonohonis Village. Furthermore, environmental factors include the existence and condition of dug wells. at a depth of ≤15m with open conditions makes it easier for mosquitoes to breed. Apart from that, based on the buffer data above, it can be seen that at a radius of <100m it is 3 times larger than a radius of 100 to 300m and 2.7 times larger than a radius of 300m to 500m. Environmental factors include the existence and condition of waste water drainage channels (SPAL) with dengue fever incidents. Based on the buffer data above, it can be seen that at a radius of <100m it is 0.6 times greater than the radius from 100 to 300m and 0.8 times greater than the radius from 300m to 500m.Conclusion: It is necessary to control mosquito breeding in water reservoirs and dug wells through education regarding malaria risk factors in Soe City.

The Relationship between Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) and Cognitive Function with The Performance of qEEG Examination in First Year Medical Students

Introductions: Medical students are required to lifelong learning.  Electroencephalog-raphy is a neuroscience tool that can be used to record brain wave activity related to a person’s cognitive function. Objective: This study was conducted to see the relationship between self-regulated learning and cognitive function with quantitative electroencepha-logram (qEEG) parameters. Methods: This study used an observa-tional analytic approach to assess self-regulated learning and cog-nitive function using the MSLQ and MoCA-INA questionnaires. qEEG recording to see brain wave activity was done when the eyes were open and closed and seen in alpha and beta waves. The sam-ple of this study amounted to 32 respondents who were willing to carry out each research procedure.  Results: The study findings reveal a significant correlation between SRL and qEEG parameters. In the open-eye condition, such a correla-tion exists in the frontal and central regions with regard to alpha waves (P = 0.046 and P = 0.047). In contrast, in the closed-eye condition, it exists in the occipital, central, and parietal regions with alpha waves (P = 0.005, P = 0.021, and P = 0.049) and the central region with beta waves (P = 0.030). There is a significant correla-tion between cognitive function and qEEG parameters observed in both open and closed-eye conditions within the frontal region beta waves (P = 0.024, P = 0.044, and P = 0.021). Conclusions: There is a relationship between SRL and cognitive function with alpha and beta wave activity on qEEG recording.

FPGA-Based Implementation of a Digital Insulin-Glucose Regulator for Type 2 Diabetic Patients

This paper reports on the hardware implementation of a digital insulin-glucose regulator for type 2 diabetic patients by using a Field Programmable Gate Array board. For a real time-control of the patient insulin concentration, the insulin-regulator needs to measure only his blood glucose concentration. With respect to other reported solutions using general-purpose programmable hardware’s, the proposed insulin-glucose regulator allows to design a software-free, fully-hardware architecture of the system here described in detail. A prototype has been developed so to validate its functionality in the following two operating modes: (i) in the open loop condition for which only the insulin-glucose regulator is operating; (ii) in the closed loop condition for which the insulin-glucose regulator acting as an artificial pancreas is connected to a population of one hundred virtual patients individuated by employing a comprehensive theoretical model recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the pre-clinical validation of glucose control strategies. These virtual patients present the same trend of the variation of the glucose concentration achieving different maximum and minimum values of glucose concentrations when eating a meal. The paper presents and discusses the experimental results by comparing them with those ones obtained by implementing the theoretical model through numerical simulations performed in SIMULINK. Relative errors lower than ±1% have been achieved by performing this comparison so demonstrating a very high accuracy of the proposed insulin-glucose regulator digital system. The implemented hardware solution of the digital controller can process the input data related to the glucose concentration of each virtual patient in about 1.1 μs with an estimated power consumption of about 36 mW. These achievements open the way for further investigations on digital architectures for glucose regulators to be integrated in VLSI as System-on-Chips and/or Lab-on-Chips for portable, wearable, and implantable solutions in real biomedical applications.

Open Water Swimming in Elite Triathletes: Physiological and Biomechanical Determinants.

This study aimed (i) to analyze the 1500 m open water swimming performance, (ii) to examine the associations between physiological and biomechanical variables with swimming performance, and (iii) to determine which variables can predict swimming performance in triathletes. Fourteen elite triathletes (23.4±3.8 y) performed a 1500 m test in open water swimming conditions. Swimming performance was assessed using World Aquatics Points Scoring, and data were obtained from the 1500 m open water swimming test. Heart rate, end-exercise oxygen uptake (EE˙VO2) and blood lactate concentrations were measured. The initial 250 m of the 1500 m swimming test presented the highest values of biomechanical variables in males (i. e. swimming speed, stroke rate (SR), length (SL), index (SI)). A decrease in SL was observed in the last 250 m in both sexes. Positive association were found between EE˙VO2 (r=0.513; p=0.030), swimming speed (r=0.873; p<0.001) and SI (r=0.704; p=0.002) with swimming performance. In contrast, time constant of the oxygen uptake (r=-0.500; p=0.034) and buoy-turn times (r=-0.525; p=0.027) were negatively associated with performance. SI was the main predictor (R 2=0.495) of open water swimming performance in triathletes. In conclusion, triathletes and coaches must conduct open water training sessions to maximize SI (i. e. swimming efficiency).

Manganese-Catalyzed 5-Endo-trig Oxygenative Cyclization of α,β-Unsaturated Oximes under Air and Ambient Conditions for the Synthesis of 4,5-Dihydroisoxazoles.

The stereoselective 5-endo-trig oxygenative cyclization of α,β-unsaturated oximes was achieved using molecular oxygen (O2) and a manganese catalyst. Several 4-hydroxy-4,5-dihydroisoxazoles were obtained in high yields by directly incorporating O2 from the atmosphere (eliminating the necessity for a pure oxygen environment) and using an unprecedentedly low loading of Mn(acac)3 (as little as 0.020 mol %) without additional additives. Because of its desirable features, such as operational simplicity, inexpensive catalyst, mild reaction conditions (open flask conditions at room temperature), and broad substrate compatibility, this novel reaction provides an attractive synthetic approach to producing 4-hydroxy-4,5-dihydroisoxazoles.

A self-stimulating system based on a polyhydroxyalkanoates coupled induction mechanism and its applications for Halomonas

Inducible gene expression systems are vital tools for synthetic biology. This study focused on a microbial polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) related inducible expression system, namely, the regulation mechanism of PHA synthesis associated protein PhaR and PhaP1 in Halomonas bluephagenesis which has employed to enhance PHA synthesis under open unsterile conditions. H. bluephagenesis strains ZS19 and ZS49 with one and two copies of the PHA synthesis system (PphaP1*-phaAB) were constructed based on the PHA self-stimulating synthesis mechanism. When grown in a 7-L bioreactor, H. bluephagenesis ZS19 and ZS49 were grown to 97.4 g/L and 89.6 g/L containing 76.3% and 77.1% PHA in the cell dry weights (CDW), with productivity of 2.06 g/L/h and 2.16 g/L/h, respectively. Compared with its control, their CDW, PHB percent and productivity increased by 20.4% and 10.8%, 13.5% and 14.7 %, and 36.4 % and 43.0 %, respectively. Furthermore, H. bluephagenesis ZS97, engineered with an elongated morphology induced by the PHA-mediated PhaR-phaP1 regulatory system, exhibited a 10 % increase in cell dry weight and a morphology approximately 10 times longer than the wild-type strain, allowing easy separation from the culture broth via centrifugation.

A small autonomous field robot for strawberry harvesting

This paper presents the subsystem descriptions and testing of a small robotic platform intended to harvest strawberries that are grown on elevated beds in open field conditions. Agricultural robots can assist in the optimization of farm resources and help solve issues related to increasing farm costs and labor shortages. Monolithic, large size harvesters are already in development; however, they are susceptible to single-point-of-failure and lack the flexibility to adapt to varying field conditions and farm sizes. The proposed robotic harvester covers one row at a time and features a Delta arm configuration manipulator with a five-finger structure as the end-effector to individually pick strawberries. A deep neural network-based vision subsystem using a YOLOv4 model was adopted, which was configured to detect small objects and to locate and classify strawberries into five stages of maturity. During experiments on a commercial farm, the proposed platform, including vision, manipulation, and overbed navigation and control subsystems, achieved an overall success rate of 71.7% for five environment scenarios, with a minimum of 37.5% (the most complicated scenario) and a maximum of 94.0% (the easiest scenario). The average harvesting speed of the system was 7.5 s per strawberry.

Influence of Different Growing Conditions on Growth Parameters of Banana Varieties

Banana is one of the most widely consumed and economically important fruit crop in the world. It is the second most important fruit crop in India after the mango with respect to area. The present experiment investigates the growth and physiological parameters like pseudostem height, pseudostem girth, leaf length, leaf width, leaf area, number of functional leaves, total number of leaves per plant, days taken for phyllochron, chlorophyll content and stomatal conductance in different banana varieties under different growing conditions over a two year research period (2021 – 2022 and 2022 – 2023) at MHREC, UHS, Bagalkot, India. The experiment consisted of six treatments (T1- G1V1 – Ney Poovan under net house condition, T2 – G1V2 – Grand Naine under net house condition, T3 – G1V3 – Rajapuri under net house condition, T4 – G2V1 – Ney Poovan under open field condition, T5 – G2V2 – Grand Naine under open field condition, T6 – G2V3 – Rajapuri under open field condition) laid out in FRCBD with 4 replications. Results revealed that growth parameters such as the highest pseudostem girth, leaf length, leaf breadth, leaf area, number of functional leaves, total number of leaves per plant and chlorophyll content was found to be highest in banana variety Grand Naine grown under net house condition. Whereas, the days taken for phyllochron and stomatal conductance was recorded minimum in Grand Naine under net house conditions.

Succession and seasonality drive tropical butterfly assembly after an extreme hurricane

AbstractThe composition and biodiversity of insect community assemblages are mediated by a complex set of biotic and abiotic factors. Among these factors are forest structure and atmospheric variables (like temperature and humidity), which are heavily influenced by frequent hurricane activity in the Caribbean. Despite this, changes in Caribbean insect assemblages as forests recover from hurricane disturbance are poorly documented. Butterflies represent a charismatic model taxon in biodiversity and conservation, and are thus an ideal subject for exemplifying these shifts in insect abundances and diversity across ecological succession. Here, we monitored butterfly communities in two Puerto Rican forests differing in structure (i.e., canopy height, tree size) to assess butterfly diversity, abundances, and community level wing traits (size and color) over 1 year, beginning 6 months after Hurricane Maria. Monthly sampling over the course of 1 year revealed no relationships between abundances and canopy openness or humidity; instead, species abundances fluctuated seasonally and were nonlinearly correlated with temperature. In contrast, wing size and color were linearly correlated with abiotic variables. Specifically, wings were larger in cooler and more open conditions. Wing color saturation and brightness were negatively correlated with humidity. Our results suggest that, first, a functional approach may provide better insight into the factors mediating species responses to disturbances. Second, further disentangling abundance seasonality from impacts of extreme disturbances necessitates long‐term monitoring.Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.

Establishment of low-cost production platforms of polyhydroxyalkanoate bioplastics from Halomonas cupida J9.

Microbial production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) is greatly restricted by high production cost arising from high-temperature sterilization and expensive carbon sources. In this study, a low-cost PHA production platform was established from Halomonas cupida J9. First, a marker-less genome-editing system was developed in H. cupida J9. Subsequently, H. cupida J9 was engineered to efficiently utilize xylose for PHA biosynthesis by introducing a new xylose metabolism module and blocking xylonate production. The engineered strain J9UΔxylD-P8xylA has the highest PHA yield (2.81 g/L) obtained by Halomonas with xylose as the sole carbon source so far. This is the first report on the production of short- and medium-chain-length (SCL-co-MCL) PHA from xylose by Halomonas. Interestingly, J9UΔxylD-P8xylA was capable of efficiently utilizing glucose and xylose as co-carbon sources for PHA production. Furthermore, fed-batch fermentation of J9UΔxylD-P8xylA coupled to a glucose/xylose co-feeding strategy reached up to 12.57 g/L PHA in a 5-L bioreactor under open and unsterile condition. Utilization of corn straw hydrolysate as the carbon source by J9UΔxylD-P8xylA reached 7.0 g/L cell dry weight (CDW) and 2.45 g/L PHA in an open fermentation. In summary, unsterile production in combination with inexpensive feedstock highlights the potential of the engineered strain for the low-cost production of PHA from lignocellulose-rich agriculture waste.

Impact of Micronutrients and Plant Growth Regulators on Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) Growth, Yield and Quality

The present research work conducted to find out the effect of plant growth regulators and micronutrients on growth, yield, and quality of Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) under open field condition. The experiment was designed in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replicates. The experiment was conducted on Horticulture farm at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University; Dhaka, Bangladesh from July 2022 to June 2023. The experimental treatments included three levels of PGR i.e. No PGR, 200 ppm gibberellic acid (GA3) and 100 ppm Naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and three levels of micronutrients i.e.no micronutrients, 200 ppm Boron and 200 ppm Zn. The treatments had a substantial effect on growth, yield, and quality of Brinjal. GA3 treated plants performed better than NAA and no PGR treated plants and Zn produced higher yields and quality than Boron and no micronutrients treated plants in most of the parameters. Considering treatment combination of PGR and micronutrients, plant height, leaf area (471.33 cm2), SPAD value (52.95), number of flowers plant-1 (65.33), number of fruits plant-1 (58.38), yield plant-1  (3312.8g), lipid (0.35%) were observed highest from the treatment combination of 200 ppm GA3 with 200 ppm Zinc whereas dry weight of whole plant (158.80 g), individual fruit weight (67.33g) and  fiber (12.28%) were observed from the treatment combination of 100 ppm NAA with 200 ppm zinc but in case of number of branch (14.00) and Ash (8.44%) were observed  from the treatment of 100 ppm NAA application . Maximum parameter showed lowest value under no treatment combination. This study suggests that foliar application of GA3 with micronutrients such as Zinc during flowering stage of eggplant is the most effective strategy for improving the nutritional quality of Brinjal fruits and increasing crop yields, both of which will help to reduce micronutrient malnutrition and hunger worldwide.

Phenylalanine treatment induces tomato resistance to Tuta absoluta via increased accumulation of benzenoid/phenylpropanoid volatiles serving as defense signals.

Tuta absoluta ("leafminer"), is a major pest of tomato crops worldwide. Controlling this insect is difficult due to its efficient infestation, rapid proliferation, and resilience to changing weather conditions. Furthermore, chemical pesticides have only a short-term effect due to rapid development of T. absoluta strains. Here, we show that a variety of tomato cultivars, treated with external phenylalanine solutions exhibit high resistance to T. absoluta, under both greenhouse and open field conditions, at different locations. A large-scale metabolomic study revealed that tomato leaves absorb and metabolize externally given Phe efficiently, resulting in a change in their volatile profile, and repellence of T. absoluta moths. The change in the volatile profile is due to an increase in three phenylalanine-derived benzenoid phenylpropanoid volatiles (BPVs), benzaldehyde, phenylacetaldehyde, and 2-phenylethanol. This treatment had no effect on terpenes and green leaf volatiles, known to contribute to the fight against insects. Phe-treated plants also increased the resistance of neighboring non-treated plants. RNAseq analysis of the neighboring non-treated plants revealed an exclusive upregulation of genes, with enrichment of genes related to the plant immune response system. Exposure of tomato plants to either benzaldehyde, phenylacetaldehyde, or 2-phenylethanol, resulted in induction of genes related to the plant immune system that were also induced due to neighboring Phe-treated plants. We suggest a novel role of phenylalanine-derived BPVs as mediators of plant-insect interactions, acting as inducers of the plant defense mechanisms.