Open Access Research Paper

The earth suffers from many environmental problems which need to be tackled at the individual level, requiring individuals to develop that awareness which will guide them to become environmentally supportive. The study endeavored to determine the significant relationship between the level of awareness and practices among Filipino college students on solid waste management. It employed a descriptive correlational research design with 150 randomly sampled students. Using the adopted standardized survey instrument surfacing the level of awareness of solid waste management of students and their practices. Gathered data were analyzed and interpreted using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study showed that the students are aware of the solid waste management. Most of them were aware of the policies and management of SWM but relatively not aware of their roles as students in the implementation of SWM. The students also have good practices in solid waste management in terms of properly disposing of, recycling, and reusing but moderately practice proper segregation and reducing. Results of the inferential statistics revealed that the level of awareness of the students influenced their practices on proper segregation, reduce, and recycling but no influence to their practices on solid waste management in terms of reuse and disposal. Present findings can be a basis for policy development on SWM implementation in the campus level.

In this work, we tried to determine the influence of the environment on the content of the main primary metabolites in Tamarix sp. in different areas of the arid region of Khenchela located in the Algerian East where different species of this genus of the Tamaricaceae family represent a remarkable adaptation, where we recorded rather variable values according to the environment. The dosage of chlorophylls (a+b) gave values ranging from 10.05 (µg/g MF) for the site of Guerat El Taref, 10.78(µg/g MF), for the site of Ouazerne 19.02 (µg/g MF), for the site of Oued El Arab. The determination of total sugars gave 0.178 (µg/g MF) for the site of Guerat El Taref, 0.182 µg/g MF) for the site of Ouazerne and 0.184 µg/g MF) for the site of Oued El Arab. The results of the proline and total protein assay followed the same fluctuation with the lowest values in the Guerat El Taref site, the average values in the Ouazerne site and the highest values in the Oued El Arab site. On the other hand, the DNA and RNA quantification gave a high value of 10.85 (µmol/g MS) for Guerat El Taref, 5.62(µmol/g MS) for the site of Oued El Arab and the lowest value that is 1.79(µmol/g MS) for the site of Ouazerne. Statistical analysis by one-way analysis of variance revealed a significant link between environment and the synthesis of these secondary metabolites as an adaptation strategy adopted by Tamarix.

The ethnomedicinal exploration was conducted in the area of Hangrai which falls in Tehsil Balakot of District Mansehra. Balakot is located between 34°33′N 73°21′E Latitude and 34°33′N 73°21′E Longitude. It is the gateway to Kaghan valley of the Northern Pakistan. The study area harbors rich ethnobotanical resources being the part of Western Himalaya. Extensive field visits were made in the study area during years 2015 and 2016. Data was collected from aboriginal peoples by questionnaire method comprising of open-ended and close-ended interviews. Three hundred informants (180 male and 120 female) were interviewed for various medicinal uses of plants. A total of 143 plant species belonging to 70 families were recorded which were used as medicinally by the local rural inhabitants. Habit wise categorization of plants showed 73.33% herbs, 16% trees and 10.66% shrubs. This study first time not only revealed unique ethnomedicinal uses of plants but also side effects of traditional herbal remedies. Furthermore this study will help to discover novel drugs from medicinal plants and it will also set guidelines for conservation of local flora.

The present investigation was conducted to evaluate the amount of heavy metals from River Siran at Khaki site Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The chosenheavy metals were Zn, Cu, Cd, Pb, Cr and Mn correspondingly. In the current survey,the concentration of heavy metals examined were Zn 1.14-1.85 ppm; Cu 1.04-1.25 ppm; Cd 0.02-1.35 ppm; Pb 0.05-1.27 ppm; Cr 0.04-0.16 ppm and Mn 0.06-0.08 ppm respectively. In the present research Cu, Cd, Pb and Cr were found above the permissible ranges while Zn 1.13-1.88 and Mn 0.01-0.04 were lies within the permissible limits.

This study, which takes stock of the known carbohydrate metabolic effects of oral contraception in order to propose practical conduct, was conducted in the Public Universities of Côte d’Ivoire. A total of 1485 female students were randomly selected. Among the students surveyed from the six Universities, 400 came from Felix Houphouët Boigny University, 243 from Nangui Abrogoua University and 211 were from Jean Lorougnon Guédé University. Those from the University of Man numbered 57 people and the students from the Universities Alassane Ouattara and Péléforon Gon were respectively 343 and 231. The sampling showed that five types of pills were used by the students, namely Pregnon, Levo-BD, Norlevo, Confiance and Stédiril. Among these pills, Pregnon was the most used pill, while Norlevo was the least used. This article also showed that all female students using oral contraception had normal blood sugar levels. And the use of the type of oral contraception depends on age, level of education and number of children.

The appropriate proportion of male and female parents that give a highest number of juveniles is a major concern in tilapia culture Sarotherodon melanotheron due to the oral incubation by males. A study of the ratio “number of males to number of females” on fingerlings production has been performed in order to determine the optimal ratio for S. melanotheron. Five ratios were tested : R1 (1 male to 2 females), R2 (1 male to 3 females), R3 (2 males to 2 females), R4 (2 males to 4 females) and R5 (2 males to 6 females). The experimental device consists of five concrete tanks (1m x 1m x 60cm) filled to 2/3, about 0.17m3 of water. The fish are fed three times a day with a diet containing 35% crude protein. Once a week, the fertilized eggs are collected and incubated in a tank. The hatching rate and larval growth are followed. The experiment was duplicated and lasted 6 weeks to harvest eggs and 40 days to track the growth of larvae. The results show that the number of egg laying is significantly different from a ratio to each other (p ˂ 0.05) and increases with the number of males and females. The highest number of egg laying is obtained with R5 ratio “2 males to 6 females” that seems best for the mass production of juveniles of S. melanotheron. These results provide a basis for the intensive production of S. melanotheron for the aquaculture development in lagoon.

The main objective of this study is to investigate the chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the essential oil of Artemisia herba-alba Asso. of southern Algeria. Essential oil of Artemisia herba-alba Asso was extracted by hydrodistillation, and their chemical composition was identified by GC/MS Antioxidant activity of essential oil, has been done by using DPPH assay. The antimicrobial activity of essential oil was realised by the agar disc diffusion method. The essential oil extracted from the aerial parts by hydrodistillation was analysed by GC/MS. 39 constituents, representing 99.3% of the oil, were identified, of which the major ones, Thujone (12,759 %), Camphor (7,751%), Eacalyptol (4,525%), Isoborneol (1,119%). IC50 values observed for DPPH essay were 20,27 ±0,767 mg/ml. On the other hand, this oil was found effective against all tested strains; this activity ranged from 15.67±1.53 mm with Listeria innocua CIP 74915. These results provided evidence that the studied plant might indeed be a potential source of natural antioxidant and antimicrobial agents.

The rainforest, which contains more than half of the overall species diversity, is under increasing anthropogenic pressure. One of the consequences of this disappearance is the transformation of the forest landscape into a fragments of forest. This is the case of the forest relic located within the Nangui Abrogoua University. However, this forest is subject to strong anthropogenic pressures which through poaching, uncontrolled takeoffs of natural resources and some agricultural clearing. To assess the plant species diversity in this relic forest, plots, linear and itinerant surveys were conducted in this forest. To cover for the plots method, the Nangui Abrogoua Forest has been divided into 110 squares of 10 m by side. Linear method consists in counting all the points of contact of the vegetation along an imaginary vertical line, placed in an equidistant way along a graduated ribbon. The standard length of transect is 200 meters. To get a more accurate estimation of species richness and composition, additional species were added thanks to itinerant prospection. At the end of the study; we will have respectively 75 71 and 77 species divided between 65 62 and 73 genres and 36 34 38 families for Block I, Block II and Block III. At the level of the families of the whole forest, the results on the floristic wealth indicate to us that the richest families in the Blocks are Rubiaceae (Block I), Apocynaceae (Block II) and Euphorbiaceae (Block III). The study showed that many human activities are threatening the integrity of the three blocks.

The present panel of work was conducted to investigate intra-specific genetic variability among Snake bean landraces. Genetic variation is considered as a basic feature to plants breeding and makes it viable to choose plants with appropriate traits. The methods to study genetic variation are morphological traits and SDS-PAGE. For this purpose, seeds of 40 landraces were collected. The morphometric parameters include both qualitative and quantitative traits. In 4 qualitative parameters significant level of variation was observed in seed shape, seed color and pod pigmentation except legume colour. For 11 quantitative traits descriptive statistics analysis done in which 100 seed weight show maximum coefficient of variance CV (0.37%) followed by pod length (0.32%), While minimum coefficient of variance showed by internode length (0.10%) followed by plant height 0.16% and seed length (0.18%). In comparative correlation, the plant height show highly positive correlation with plant biomass (.705**), seed per pod (.464**) and pod length (.362*), while highly negative correlation obtained with leaf length (-.335*).The protein profile of 40 snake bean landraces tested through SDS-PAGE shown 15 reproducible bands. High level of variation was observed in band B14 (0.93%), followed by B11 (0.80%), B15 (0.78%) B12 (0.75%), B13 (0.75%), B1 (0.65%), B5 (0.50%) and B8 (0.50%). Similarly low level of variation was noted in B3 (0.15%) followed by B4 (0.33%), B10 (0.38%), B6 (0.40%), B2 (0.45%), B7 (0.48%) and B9 (0.50%). The entire bands show polymorphism. All the traits show outmost level of divergence which is advantageous for further improvement of best variety.

The present study was carried out to analyze the compositional and microbiological quality of Orud/Khurud. A total of thirty locally produced Orud/Khurud samples (~1 kg each), ten samples from each of goat and sheep milk purchased from five districts (Chaghi, Chaman, Kharan, Mastung and Noshki) of Balochistan, were evaluated for moisture, fat, protein, casein, mineral/ash and total viable count (TVC), thermoduric count (TDC), thermophilic spore count (TPSC), Enterobacteraceae count (EBC) and yeasts and moulds count (YMC). Moisture (5.05±0.35%), protein (44.60±1.63%) and casein (37.46±1.19%) contents of sheep milk Orud/Khurud were not significantly different (p>0.05) from goat milk Orud/Khurud (5.47±0.31, 41.91±2.02 and 36.56±1.60%, respectively). While fat and mineral/ash contents of sheep milk Orud/Khurud (4.21±0.43%) and (14.34±0.63%) were remarkably different (P0.05) from goat milk Orud/Khurud ( 3.7×103±1.6×102 , 5.0×101 ±0.75×101, 5.1×101 ± 0.82× 101, 4.3×101 ±0.60×101 and 4.7×101 ±0.60×101 cfu g-1, respectively). The overall average concentration of TVC (3.9×103 ±1.8×102 cfu g-1) in Orud/Khurud was recovered lower (12.7 folds) compared to Pakistan Standard Institution (PSI) and/or Indian Standard Institution (ISI) (5.0×104 cfu/g) and the overall average count of TD, (4.9×101 ±0.50×101 cfu g-1), TPS (5.0×101 ±0.53×101 cfu g-1), EBC (4.2×101±0.43×101 cfu g-1) and YM (4.6×102±0.35×101) were also detected lower (-2.04 folds), (-2 folds), (-2.38 folds) and (-2.17 folds) compared to ISI standards, respectively. The results conclude that chemical components in both types of Orud/Khurud were dense with a higher amount and could be a rich source of human nutrition. Moreover, the results of the microbiological examination showed the quality of Orud/Khurud within the acceptable limit.

Biological control agents (BCA) are important as some establish symbiosis with plants hence controlling plant diseases, improving plant nutrients uptake and water absorption. Use of BCA in soil borne disease management is not fully harnessed and is also faced with inconsistencies in developing their formulations. We therefore investigated the use of arbuscular mycorrhiza fungus (AMF), Glomus intraradices, and Trichoderma harzianum (T-22) against soilborne pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Lycopersici (Fol) in tomato. G. intraradices isolate 510 held on expanded clay as carrier material was incorporated into the substrate during germination of tomato seeds and at the transplanting stage. T-22 inoculum was also initiated from potato dextrose agar and inoculated at each transplanting stage, while Fol was applied through drenching. To test the possible synergistic effects, AMF and T-22 were applied in combination under varying niches. Results showed that application of AMF and T-22 together had significant reduction (30.5% p