Study of the impact of Oum Azza landfill leachates on the environment of Rabat – Morocco
Abstract— The problem of solid household waste has arisen with great sharpness in recent decades. In particular, the management of leachates and the neutralization of their environmental impacts. The need for Morocco to meet the environmental challenge and put itself in logic of sustainable development has led to an awareness of this issue and the promulgation of the new law 28-00 on waste management and their elimination.
The objective of this research work is the characterization of the organic and mineral load of leachate from the Oum Azza landfill and the evaluation of its environmental impacts on the city of Rabat. For this a campaign of 24 samples was undertaken in 2011.
The physicochemical characterization of leachates has revealed that these liquid discharges are:
- Very high in organic matter with mean MES = 470mg / L; Average BOD5 = 5522 mg of O2 / L and COD = 12626 mg / L;
- Very charged in mineral matter expressed in terms of electrical Conductivity (mean = 33969 μs / cm);
- Have an average temperature of 24.5 ° C and a pH of 8;
- A chloride concentration of 4289 mg / L;
- Average sodium levels in the order of 3049 mg / L;
- Average total nitrogen levels of 4090 mg / L and ammonia in the order of 3207 mg / L;
- Average level of phosphates of the order of 35 mg / L;
- Average sulphates levels of 35 mg / L.
The Rabat landfill represents a real nuisance for health and the environment because of the toxic characteristics of pollutants and bad odors. It is therefore essential to treat these liquid discharges and install a WWTP to mitigate the environmental impact of leachate.
Keywords— Oum Azza discharge, leachates, physicochemistry, Pollution, Impacts, Odors, Rabat, Morocco.
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Analysis of enterprise relationships in food industry cluster based on niche theory
Abstract— In recent years, the Chinese government and local governments in China at all levels actively promote the construction of food industry cluster Demonstration Park. Many problems accompanied with the continuous development of industrial clusters, such as the proliferation of homogeneous enterprises and products, the lack of organic links and symbiosis relationship among enterprises, resource depletion and environmental degradation, triggering niche overlap and vicious competition. All these phenomenon leads to industry cluster an acute shortage power of competitive and innovation. In this paper, we take the livestock and poultry industry cluster as the research object, use niche theory to analyze enterprise niche inclusion, overlap and separation relationships. As well as through the neutral theory in the equilibrium state to explain the cluster of enterprises in the competition, cooperation and symbiotic relationship.
Keywords— Niche Theory, Food Industry Cluster, Neutral Theory, Competition, Cooperation.
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Improved grey clustering method in risk zonation of mountain flash flood disaster
Abstract— Flash floods are considered one of the worst weather-related natural disasters. Flash floods are dangerous because they are sudden and highly unpredictable. Identification of the locations of high-risk areas has a major effect on the improvement of flash flood disaster control and prevention. Earlier work conducted on flood disaster risk zonation was commonly based on Digital Elevation Mode (DEM) data and statistical yearbook data and used an index, such as rainfall, topography, slope, or river distribution, with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method to determine the weighting. In this method, the final regional risk map was created by using ArcGIS map algebra superposition. In the present study, an improved gray clustering method is put forward to improve the comprehensive evaluation of the risk of mountain flash flood disasters by constructing the exponential whitening function and by using the information entropy weight method, which produces results that are more accurate and more reliable than those of the traditional method. This improved method can make full use of the limited information available, improving not only the resolution but also the influence of the subjective method, and produces more objective and accurate evaluation results. We obtain the risk degree by combining the information entropy weight and improved whitening function approaches in a gray clustering methodology. Additionally, a method is applied to develop models for mapping the risk grade in zones of 1436 towns and counties in Hubei Province with remotely sensed (RS) data and the ArcGIS platform. The results show that the improved approach is useful for rapidly assessing flash flood hazard and vulnerability and for completing risk assessments in mountain areas.
Keywords— improved gray clustering method, whitening function, information entropy, flood disaster risk, evaluation, zonation.
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Soil Erosion Risk Assessment Using GIS Based USLE Model for Soil and Water Conservation Planning in Somodo Watershed, South West Ethiopia
Abstract— Soil erosion is natural phenomena and is modified by biophysical environment comprising soil, climate, terrain, ground cover and their interactions. Due to different factors, it is difficult to make watershed management successful in all areas at one time. Because of this, prioritization of sub watershed is very important for soil conservation planning and implementation. In Somodo watershed more than five years different soil and water conservation technologies were implemented and satisfactory result was not recorded. In this aspect, it is important to consider further watershed management planning., This study therefore investigated soil erosion risk assessment using GIS and USLE model for soil and water conservation in Somodo watershed southwestern Ethiopia with the aim of estimating soil erosion rate and identify soil erosion hot pot areas through prioritization of sub watershed in Somodo watershed by the help of GIS based USLE model. Both primary and secondary data sources were used for model input. These data were computed at a grid level with 30*30m resolution and then overlaid to generate mean annual soil loss by the help of raster calculator in Arc GIS tool. Results of the study showed that, the mean annual soil loss of the watershed was 18.69 ton ha-1 year-1 ranging from 0 to 131.21. More than 75% of the watershed have soil loss greater than 20 ton ha-1 year-1 and only 25% of the area have soil loss less than 10 ton ha-1 year-1.On the bases of mean annual soil loss SW-4, SW-6 and SW-7 were under slight (0-10 ton ha-1 year-1) erosion severity level, while the remaining SW-2, SW-3 and SW-8 were under moderate (10-20 ton ha-1 year-1) level. And SW-1 was in high (20-30 ton ha-1 year-1) erosion severity level, where as SW-5 and SW-9 were found in very high (>30 ton ha-1 year-1) erosion severity level. Since large area of the watershed has soil loss more than tolerable level (11 ton ha-1 year-1) attention should be given to identify erosion hot spot areas to minimize the on-site and off-site problems. Therefore, the study suggested that for effective watershed management and soil conservation planning, these sub-watershed priorities should be used in the watershed.
Keywords— Soil loss, GIS, USLE, Hot spot and prioritization.
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Chemical Constituents of Essential Oil and Cytotoxic Activity of Ducrosia asadi Alva. from Iran
Abstract— Hydro distillated oil of the aerial parts of Ducrosia assadi Alva. (Umbelliferae ) , has been analyzed by GC/MS with two different capillary columns, HP-5MS and HP-Wax. Thirty-four compounds were identified, 94.3% of the total oils. The concentration of citronellol, chrysanthenyl acetate, decanoic acid, decanol and linalool was high in analysis of the oil with both columns . Cytotoxic activity studied on two human cancer cell lines (LS180 and MCF-7) represented moderate cytotoxic activity.
Keywords— Ducrosia assadi, Umbelliferae, essential oil, citronellol, Chrysanthenyl acetate.
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Effect of salinity on the physiological and biochemical responses of neem
Abstract— The present study was conducted to evaluate the plant growth, physiological and biochemical changes of neem under different salinity levels (4, 8, 10 and 12 dS/m) which have multipurpose use in agroforestry. Growth parameters, photosynthetic pigments, carbohydrate, proline and total phenol were investigated 30, 60, 90 and 120 days after treatment imposition. The results revealed that salinity caused significant differences in all the growth parameters and the maximum reduction were observed when plants were exposed to high salinity (12 dS/m) level and minimum were in control treatments. It was found that total dry matter and relative water content were reduced 72% and 40% in 12 dS/m compared to control plants at 120 DATI, respectively. By increasing saliniy 0 to 12 dS/m, the chlorophyll (the photosynthetic pigment) and carbohydrate (the photosynthetic product) content decreased, but increased the level of proline (an amino acid) and total phenol content (an antioxidant) in different days. The highest accumulation of free proline and total phenol content was recorded in 10 dS/m treatment and it was 77% and 59% greater than control plant, respectively. These findings suggest that though growth and biochemical parameters of neem were affected by salt stress, but all the plants survived in different salinity levels. Among all different salinity levels, neem can performed better up to 10 dS/m salinity level could be due to better antioxidant system of neem to cope up with oxidative damage to stressed plants.
Keywords— Chlorophyll, growth, medicinal plant, neem, salinity.
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Impact of Biofertilizers on Crop Seeds
Abstract— A laboratory experiments were conducted during the year of 2012-2014 at Annamalai University of cuddalore district under irrigated conditions to formulate site –specific nutrient management and efficiency of treatments known by comparing with rice, sunflower and black gram seeds. And the treatments includes control, 10%, 5%, 2.5% and 1% vermicompost, 10%, 5%, 2.5% and 1% phosphobacteria, 10%, 5%, 2.5% and 1% azospirillum. And the above treatments are applied to all the three seeds ie, rice, sunflower, black gram. The numbers of seeds used for the experiment are 50 seeds of paddy, 20 seeds of black gram and 10 seeds of sunflower. Highest values for plant biomass root and shoot length was noticed in 10 % all the treatments.
Keywords— Sunflower, Nutrient management, plant biomass, root and shoot length.
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Chloroplasts and Mitochondria: Similarities and Differences
Abstract— Eukaryotic cells contain two organelles originally derived from endosymbiotic bacteria: mitochondria and plastids (only plants). In eukaryotes, (owner mitochondria and chloroplast) ATP synthase complex is located in the inner membrane of mitochondria, and thylakoids membrane of chloroplast. ATP synthesis utilization and provision of both ADP and Pi need to be fine – tuned for optimal ATP synthase activity. Mitochondria and chloroplast have their DNA. The vast majority of mitochondrial and plastid proteins are encoded in the nucleus, synthesized by cytosolic ribosomes and subsequently imported into the organelles via active protein transport systems.
Keywords— ATP synthesis, Chlororplast, Mitochondria, Protein targeting.
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Metabolomics Analysis on Antifungal Activities Produced by Penicillium oxalicum T3.3 Grown on Different Types of Carbon Sources
Abstract—In-vitro antagonist tests such as disc diffusion and minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) were conducted against C. gloeosporioides. 1H-NMR coupled with multivariate statistical analysis was carried out to identify possible compounds produced. Glucose crude extract exhibited the highest percent inhibition of radial growth (PIRG) with 75% and the lowest MIC value with 78 µg mL-1. For metabolomics, different metabolites produced were clustered according to the carbon sources used and gave a representative impression of the metabolites produced by P. oxalicum T3.3. The study has shown the potential of using a combination of 1H-NMR spectroscopy and multivariate statistical analysis and their correlation with MIC in differentiating the effect of carbon sources used based on the identification of possible metabolites contributing to their differences. Findings from this work may potentially provide the basis for further studies on both antimicrobial activities against plant pathogen and elucidation of the metabolite compounds produced by P. oxalicum T3.3.
Keywords—Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, metabolomics, Partial Least Square (PLS), Penicillium oxalicum.
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Pretreatment with 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) reduced the flower abscission in Phaleonopsis cut orchid
Abstract—Phaleonopsis cut orchids were pretreated for 6 hours at 25 °C with or without 1-MCP. Treated cut orchids were exposed to 800 ppm of 1- methylcyclopropane (1-MCP). Then, all cut flowers were treated with ethylene for 15 hours and after that were held in flask containing flower food individually at 25 °C to follow abscission. It was observed that, 20–30% of the floral buds and flowers abscised within 4 days in untreated sample. However, in treated sample, the 1-MCP pretreatment reduced the bud and petal abscission and the cut orchids were still maintained acceptable until day 7 before starting to abscise between 10-14 days of storage period. Result also showed that the ethylene production was inhibited and ACC oxidase activity was decreased in samples treated with 1-MCP. Thus, 1-MCP pretreatments prolong the shelf life of cut orchids from 4 days in control up to 10 days in treated samples, both displayed in 25 °C.
Keywords—ornamental, ACC oxidase activity, ethylene production, quality, shelf life.