The location for these new plantings or nursery would only be considered a safe place if the distance of the range, deter-mined for each genetic material, was respected between the old plantations and the new ones.By comparing data on the disease incidence and the number of diseased plants, total and per area among the genetic the disease was strongly expanded on the farm. Moreover, the disease initially spread in it, thus demonstrating its susceptibility to disease. Table 7 shows a comparative summary of the genetic material with the main statistical and geostatistical parameters analyzed.One of the main problems that appear in intensive monocropping systems, where the same cultivation is repeated continuously over time in the same plot, is the rise of soil-borne diseases . In crops such as strawberries, the high incidence of these diseases has led to a widespread use of soil disinfection practices. In this sense, fumigation of the soil with methyl bromide has been relied on to avoid the attack of pathogens in these crops. However, this practice has been prohibited due to its environmental risks . Until now, dazomet, metam sodium and metam potassium  were soil fumigants authorised in the Andalusian Integrated Production Regulations for strawberry, raspberry and blackberry. However, they did not pass the uniform principles established by Regulation  No. 1107/2009 in a recent revision. Hence, the authorisation for its use was cancelled by the General Directorate of Health of Agricultural Production. Also, 1,3 dichloropropene and chloropicrin, or their mixtures, are subject to the concession of exceptional uses by crop, area and problem. Furthermore, this concession is currently subject to various appeals. Therefore, with the current regulatory situation, and except for temporary authorisations, farmers lack chemical alternatives for soil disinfestation, which can compromise the productivity of these crops and their economic viability, in cases of high infestations by soil pathogens . In order to reduce the negative effects of soil-borne diseases for certain crops, a significant increase in production has been observed in soilless and hydroponic systems, which allow a greater control of plant health regardless of soil quality, while required nutrients are provided to plants with fertigation . By using a hydroponic system, a controlled amount of water and nutrients lead to high growth rates , reducing at the same time the chemical inputs . However, the change from soil-based production to hydroponic systems could lead to a significant risk of the occurrence of other pathogens especially adapted to aquatic environments, among which the Fusarium, Pythium and Phytophthora species stand out, since they could be easily spread through the recirculating fertiliser solution.

Particularly, the last two species,mobile grow system formerly considered chromista and currently classified in the Phylum Oomycota, have a superior advantage in liquid media because they present zoospores that facilitate the development of infection of new hosts within minutes . Phytophthora cactorum is a soil-borne pathogen that affects numerous herbaceous and woody species. In strawberry crops, it causes crown rot, loss of production, and plant death. The incidence of this disease has been observed also in soilless crops, introduced by infected runner plants and cold-stored plants or contaminated irrigation water . Fusarium oxysporum is a fungus that is widespread in different types of soil, presenting some pathogenic strains that affect many important crops around the world, causing significant economic loss since infected plants often collapse and die . Some studies have been carried out to identify the plant growth media that are most suppressive against the attacks of pathogenic F. oxysporum isolates . However, despite the ease of dispersion described above for some diseases in aqueous media, a lower incidence has been reported in closed hydroponic circuits. This could be related to microbiological activity and modulated by the type of substrate used and the plant species as a driving factor of the microflora and the hydroponic system . In the review by Stouvenakers et al. , the antagonistic microorganisms responsible for suppressive effects in hydroponic systems were grouped in the following categories: 1) competition for nutrients and niches; 2) parasitism; 3) antibiosis and 4) induction of disease resistance in plants. Trying to improve the sustainability of productions and to adjust to the paradigm of the circular economy, aquaponic systems have emerged as an interesting alternative to hydroponic systems. Aquaponic culture consists of a form of agriculture that combines aquaculture and hydroponics, where there is a recirculation of water through both subsystems, taking advantage of the metabolic waste of fish that serves as a nutrient for plants . In these systems, both circuits can be connected in a single loop, in coupled systems, where water continuously flows from one to the other , or in multiple loops, in decoupled systems, where flow goes just in one direction, from fish tanks to hydroponic beds . With this synergistic combination, savings in fertilisers and water are achieved, while reducing potential polluting discharges from both systems. Commercial large-scale aquaponics facilities are usually designed as decoupled systems, which is a great advantage in terms of management, since it is possible to modify the concentrations of nutrients, temperature and the pH of the water to adjust the values required by the plants without affecting the fish.

The fact that there is no water flow from hydroponic to aquaculture circuits also allows the applying of phytosanitary treatments, facilitating the cure of potential emerging diseases . On the contrary, in coupled aquaponic systems, which are commonly utilised in small-scale facilities, the use of pesticides to control plant diseases is not appropriate as they may affect fish or biofilter bacteria. Recent articles raise an interesting hypothesis about a natural protective action of aquaculture or aquaponic effluents against plant pathogens during in vitro tests . This phenomenon seems to be related to the presence of antagonistic microorganisms or inhibitory compounds in fish water.In the case of aquaponics, the presence of dissolved or suspended organic matter could also play an important role in the suppressiveness of some diseases, since it can modulate a microbial ecosystem which is less favourable for plant pathogens. This organic matter in the water comes not only from uneaten food debris and fish faeces, but also from organic plant growth media, root exudates and plant residues . The results of international surveys on aquaponics production developed in the USA  and Europe  have confirmed a lack of knowledge of producers about plant health and the incidence of plant diseases in the studied systems, as was reported by Stouvenakers et al. . Precisely, one of the challenges of aquaponic farming systems is related to disease control since pathogens can affect both fish and plants . For instance, an outbreak of Fusarium incarnatum, a grass fungus, could cause severe gill damage and even death to black tiger shrimps . Therefore, it is crucial to contribute to increasing knowledge in order to achieve the ideal conditions to improve the suppressive effect of aquaponic systems. Until now, there has been just one bibliographic reference comparing the suppressive effects in pure hydroponic systems and in aquaponic systems . However, this was carried out using small raft boxes with 4 lettuce plants to test the suppressiveness of Pythium aphanidermatum. Therefore, it could be very useful to determine the potential improvements against diseases achieved in the real conditions of aquaponic systems in relation to hydroponic production. For this reason, mobile vertical rack the following study is proposed. Its main goal is to compare the suppressive effects of these two culture systems for two pathosystems: P. cactorum –strawberry- and F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici – tomato.

As far as we know, this is the first time that the severities of two diseases in two crops have been compared between a hydroponic and an aquaponic system in real settings using systems under identical environmental conditions. This is essential to determine what fraction of the suppressive effect that has been referenced in the scientific literature is due to the presence of fish. Four blocks were determined in order to have four replications. Each of them included a hydroponic and an aquaponic system and their location within the block was decided randomly . A Nutrient Film Technique  system was used both for the hydroponic and aquaponic production of strawberry and tomato. To do so, 3 m long PVC pipes  were used, each of which had 28 holes  where the plants were inserted. The pipes were levelled with a 1% slope in order to allow the proper circulation of water. A thin water layer  was maintained inside the pipes, so the roots were in contact with the water but a correct aeration was ensured. In order to study the dynamics of disease transmission along the lines, each NFT channel was divided into four zones: 0, for the inoculated plants, and 1, 2 and 3 for the zones corresponding to increasing distances from the diseased plants . In the hydroponic systems, the nutrient solution was pumped by means of a 4000 L h− 1 submerged pump  from a 60 L sump into the NFT pipe, regulating the flow to the hydroponic line with a stopcock and pouring back to the sump. The aquaponic system was composed of a 250 L fish tank  sequentially connected to two smaller tanks  which acted as a clarifier and a biofilter, discharging fish effluents to the sump of the hydroponic subsystem, identical to the one described above. A stopcock on one of the extremes of a “T” fitting connected to the pump was used for sending 80% of the water from the biofilter back to the fish tank and the remaining 20% of the water to the NFT pipe. Again, the water was collected at the end of the pipe and returned to the sump. The water used for the experiment was obtained from the public network and dechlorinated by aerating it for 48 h prior to recharging the tanks. The fish used in this trial came from the university’s aquaponic facilities, located in a nearby greenhouse, where they were initially housed in an IBC tank similar to the models proposed by the FAO for small-scale aquaponics. At the beginning of both trials, 14–15 fish  were selected in order to achieve a total biomass of approximately 2.0 kg. The fish were placed in a container of 70 L provided with an aerator for each of the 4 aquaponic lines.

In order to acclimate the animals to the new environment, water from the destination tank was added to the fish container every 5 min, for a total time of 30 min. Once the pH and temperature values were close to those required, the fish were taken out with a net and placed in the new aquaponic tanks.The fish were fed twice a day with 24.4% protein feed by using the pond stick method.The daily amount of food applied in each tank was calculated as 2% of the total fish weight. This amount will result in a contribution of around 1.14 g of ammonia to the water . For the hydroponic culture, a Hoagland solution  was used to weekly refill the collector tanks. In the aquaponic systems, 0.3 L of chelated iron solution  was directly added to the clarifier tank  every fortnight.The plants were sprayed twice a week with 1% potassium sulphate to avoid possible deficiencies. When the plants started showing manganese deficiencies, they were sprayed with 1% manganese sulphate once a week. The maximum and minimum water temperature was measured twice a week with a Naterial® digital floating thermometer that worked with solar energy. The electrical conductivity was weekly monitored with an EC-Metro Basic 30 conductivity meter and the pH with a Hanna HI5221 pH meter. When the pH exceeded 7.5, citric acid at 1% was added in order to regain values between 6.5 and 7 for both the aquaponic and the hydroponic systems. The nitrate concentration was measured once a week by means of a Merck Millipore RQFlex reflectometer with a Reflectoquant test strip reader. For the first test, four isolates of P. cactorum  obtained from affected plants in Huelva  were selected for inoculation.

Soils with pH values > 6.5 are not amenable to treatment for commercial tea growing. Therefore, the main objectives of this research were 1) to assess the chemical properties and nutrient status of tea soils, and 2) to encourage the organic farming system for long term fertility of soil.The sampling sites were selected for collecting the samples in organic tea gardens at Panchaghar namely as Kazi & Kazi Tea Estate. And for the experiments of evaluation and comparison, the selected ordinary tea gardens as secondary data were Zareen Tea Estate, Nurjahan Tea Estate and Malnichara Tea Estate in Sylhet and Moulovibazar districts. Zareen Tea Estate  started in 1932 AD in Moulovibazar district. It covers about 276 ha of land. Its elevation is 18m. The land is medium flat. Temperature varies from 23˚C to 30˚C. The average rainfall is medium that is 3286 mm. Vegetation is mainly tea, shade trees of various species, rubber, eucalyptus, pineapples, lemons, bamboo, grasses, etc. The people are mainly day labors and tea labors. Nurjahan Tea Estate  started in 1879 AD in Moulovibazar district. Its elevator is 20 m. The land area is 298 ha. The land is high flat. Temperature ranges from 23˚C to 33˚C. The average rainfall is high that is 3556 mm. Vegetation is mainly tea, Albizzia adorattissima, rubber, eucalyptus, pineapples, bamboo, grasses and lemons. Malnichara Tea Estate  was started in 1854 AD. It is occupied by 1017 ha of land area. The elevation of this garden is 24 m. The land is mainly tillah. The temperature ranges from 23˚C to 34˚C. The average rainfall is 3300 mm that means high rainfall. The vegetation is similar to the above gardens. Kazi & Kazi Tea Estate  is the one and only organic tea garden in Bangladesh. It is situated in Panchaghar district. It was started in 2000 AD. The area of this garden is 1679 ha. The elevation is about 85 m from the sea level. The land is relatively high flat plain. Temperature varies from 25˚C to 35˚C. Average rain fall is low that is 1100 mm. Vegetation is mainly tea, besides Albizzia Lebeck, Albizzia adarattissima, various types of bushes and grasses are availablehere. Most of the peoples are day labors, the rest of the people are involved in various occupations.Soil samples were collected from the soil profiles are 0 – 5, 5 – 10, 10 – 15, 15 – 20 inch from Kazi & Kazi Tea Estate during 12th October to 18th November, 2018. Three pits were dug in each of the tea estates and 4 soil samples were collected from each depth of the profile. All of the soil samples of respective depth were well mixed and composite samples were prepared. They were brought to the laboratory and air-dried ground and sieved at 2 mm sieve.

The ground samples were kept in a plastic bottle and preserved in the laboratory till chemical analysis. The following parameters of the soil were determined.Soil sample was collected from tea gardens and air dried for several days in a clean room avoiding direct sunlight and dust,nft growing system after air drying, larger aggregates were broken by gentle hammering and then mixed thoroughly to make it a composite sample into soil pedology laboratory at Khulna University, Bangladesh. Dry roots, grasses and other particulate materials were discarded from the soil sample and then it was used for different investigations. 1 kg of the composite soil sample was ground into 4 particulars and screened to pass through 2 mm sieve. This sample was kept in plastic containers for chemical analysis and labeled properly.pH is an important parameter for tea cultivation. The pH values of the soils of the Tea estates were presented in Table 1. The pH values of the soils of different tea estates were around 4.5 in all depths of the profile. Such low pH might be due to the leaching of the base materials from the profiles by heavy rainwater in these hilly regions. This pH and the topographic conditions of the tea estates seem to be ideal for tea cultivation.Further the statistical analysis showed that there was nosignificant difference among tea ordinary estates but there was a significant difference among the depths of the profiles. But the pH value is much higher in Kazi & Kazi organic tea estate in compared to other ordinary tea estates.The available P & Fe was determined and results were presented in Table 2. Approximate amount of available P & Fe was found in the soils of all tea estates. The mineralogy of the soils might be responsible for such phenomena. The statistical evaluation of the results for available Phosphorus of the investigated soils did not differ significantly from each other in available Phosphorus contents. However, P was uniformly distributed in different depth of soil profile. Furthermore, there was no significant difference among tea estates but there was a significant difference among the depths of the profiles.Organic carbon, Organic matter, and total N contents at different depths of the soil profile of 4 tea estates were presented in Table 4. The organic matter contents of the soils of ordinary tea estates were generally low but enrich of Kazi & Kazi organic tea estate in the soil profiles influencing the contents of soil nitrogen. Organic matter content decreased with increasing depth of soil profile. In addition, cation exchange capacity and interrelated parameter to organic matter exhibit a similar trend like organic matter. The ANOVA tests showed that there was no significant difference in %OC of the tea estates, while a significant difference exists within the soil profiles. Furthermore, the statistical analysis of the results showed that there was a difference in organic matter contents between organic tea estates and ordinary tea estate as well as in the different depth of the soil profiles. From the results further showedthat OC and N were the highest in the topsoils of the sampling locations and then declined with depth. The soil consisting of less than 0.1% N is considered poor for tea cultivation.

In general, dementia needs to be addressed by various researchers to reduce the risk of morbidity and progression. And dementia was regarded as one of the lifestyle-related diseases, and it is estimated that about 10% of MCI  progresses to dementia in one year. Active and passive horticultural therapy technique has the characteristic that true communication can be easily constructed because it can improve the euphoria of the treated side. Many elderly people refrained from going out because the announcement of a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 epidemic called for refraining from going out. As a result, not only the amount of activity has decreased, but also the interaction with neighbors, relatives and acquaintances, and the use of welfare facilities for the elderly have decreased, and it is possible that social isolation has progressed. This tendency was particularly strong in the elderly living alone, and it had been reported that the risk of depression increases due to refraining from going out. A study of 20 European countries found that the number of people infected with COVID-19, and the number of deaths were negatively correlated with the average vitamin D levels in those countries. According to a report from the Philippines, COVID-19 became more severe in cases with a vitamin D concentration of less than 30 ng/mL, whereas it was mostly mild in cases with a vitamin D concentration of 30 ng/mL or more. It was presumed that the risk of dementia progression increases as the new lifestyle of isolation continues.Then, psychogeriatric medical care often takes time. Therefore, not only the care of the psychological conditions of the elderly person, but also the care of the medical person or family caregiver side is important. Multi-sensory stimulation is beneficial to a wide variety of conditions typical of geriatric patients and changes appeared in muscle tension, skin conductance and pulse that correlate with reduced blood pressure. In other words, engaging in horticultural activities may help improve the stability of the mind and generally facilitate a much broader and more positive attitude. It has been suggested that loneliness, especially emotional loneliness, is an important risk factor for the development of dementia in the general elderly in Japan. And the dynamics of the senses play an important role beyond mere reason and sensibility in people’s lives. The hand care therapy  included in the horticultural therapy which is the alternative medicine that utilized a plant, or its essential oil is utilized in various application scenes. In recent studies, HCT which was not active horticultural therapy but uses plant components as a passive horticultural therapy or aromatherapy technique, was expecting applicable to patients with early and severe dementia that cannot apply active horticultural therapy. On the other hand, dementia was regarded as one of the lifestyle-related diseases, and it is estimated that about 10% of MCI  progresses to dementia in one-year. From the perspective of preventing the conversion from MCI to dementia, the effectiveness of HCT was applied to cognitive impairment, iADL, and senile depression during the period from I  to VII . In the results, nft hydroponic system the use of HCT was shown to be effective in preventing dementia and MCI illness and slowing progression. However, in Japan, the number of elderly people who do not provide long-term care or outpatient rehabilitation has increased since March 2020, when the COVID 19 pandemics occurred.

Nine members of Group A  in this study suspended the use of welfare facilities for the elderly for more than 3 months. Seven of them resumed use of welfare facilities for the elderly from June to July 2020, and two stopped using the facilities. Continuing from the previous study, the elderly in this study lived in A city, with a population of about 160,000, 31.8% of those 65 years old or over and 16.1% of those 75 years old or over, which was the average region in Japan. The elderly people studied are those of Group A  in the previous study. Group E consisted of 4 women and 3 men, was a community-dwelling elderly person in an age of 82.0 ± 10.8 years, and the average degree of care required as of August 2020  were of 2.2 ± 0.7. Group F consisted of 11 women and 4 men and were an elderly person in an age of 84.7 ± 7.1 years, and a degree of care required of 2.1 ± 0.5. The elderly people studied are those of Group A . However, in Japan, the number of elderly people who do not provide long-term care or outpatient rehabilitation has increased since March 2020, when the COVID 19 pandemics occurred. The target elderly welfare facilities were not closed, but weekly HCT activities were suspended from March to July 2020 and resumed in August 2020. Nine members of Group A in this study suspended the use of welfare facilities for the elderly for more than 3 months. Seven of them resumed use of welfare facilities for the elderly from June to July 2020, and two stopped using the facilities. Therefore, these 7 people were designated as Group E, and the other 15 elderly people of Group A who continued to use the facility were designated as Group F. Group E consisted of 4 women 3 men, was an age of 82.0 ± 10.8 years, and the average degree of care required as of August 2020  were of 2.2 ± 0.7. Group F consisted of 11 women 4 men and was an elderly person in an age of 84.7 ± 7.1 years, and a degree of care required of 2.1 ± 0.5. All hand care treatments were handled by hand care therapists certified by the Japan Society of Phyto-therapy. Hand care therapists also included occupational therapy students. Furthermore, all evaluations were performed by occupational therapists. HCT is a touch care that sits in front of the subject, values relaxed breathing, and gently touches while building a relationship of trust with the other party. The study design is shown in Figure 1. We recruited 320 participants community-dwelling adults aged 70 years or older with memory problems.

The microorganisms responsible for the contamination of watering water and market garden products are generally Enterobacteriaceae. Indeed, K. pneumoniae and Pseudomonas spp. are components of the commensal flora of the mucous membranes and upper respiratory tract. They are widely found in the environment . Strains of K. pneumoniae are some important pathogens, and they are often the cause of nosocomial pneumonia , septicaemia , urinary infections , infections of wounds , infections in the intensive care unit  and neonatal septicemia. They are also major opportunistic pathogens, especially in immune-suppressed individuals. Meanwhile, Pseudomonas spp. are opportunistic pathogens that often invade host tissues and cause infection and bacteremia in immune-suppressed hosts. However, there are some antibiotics that destroy these Enterobacteriaceae. Only Enterobacteriaceae microorganisms have generally developed various strategies to change the potential for action of these molecules. Resistance to extended-spectrum cephalosporins in the family of Enterobacteriaceae has commonly been associated with the expression of extended-spectrum TEM and SHV β-lactamases . Ten  variants of the CTX-M-type β-lactamases have been described in various enterobacterial species. It therefore appears necessary to evaluate the risks of microbial pollution from watering water in vegetable products and horticultural products and consider the importance and ever-growing place of these products in the diet of the population of Benin. This study was undertaken in this light and is designed to characterize the strains of K. pneumoniae and fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. producing β-lactamase inhibitors and identify contaminated market garden products and watering water. The results show that most of these products are consumed directly at Cotonou in Benin; this study was also conducted to assess and to limit the health risks associated with consumption of these products and restrict non-antibiotic prescription.In the rainy season, the four types of market garden products sampled are contaminated. Thus, for fluorescent Pseudomonas spp., great nightshade is the most contaminated, at a rate of 28%. It is followed by lettuce , cabbage  and finally carrots that are contaminated by fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. .

Lettuce is the most contaminated with K. pneumoniae ; it is followed by great nightshade  and cabbage ; carrots are not contaminated with K. pneumoniae. The difference of contamination proportions is significant. Among the different studied market garden products,flood and drain table and according to the two seasons, carrots are less contaminated than four leafy vegetables  and Figure 1. This result can be explained by the fact that the carrot is a root vegetable in which the edible part is underground. So, it is less exposed to the watering water. Allydice-Francis and Brown showed that lettuce and carrots are the two vegetables mainly associated with P. aeruginosa contamination. Only K. pneumoniae and fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. contamination can be through already-contaminated soils and dirty irrigation water infiltration, because it is recognized that wastewater transports almost all pathogens  contained in the feces . It is also established that excreta containing pathogens can survive for a long time in the water, soil and plants. Bacterial and viral pathogens can survive on cantaloupe, lettuce and pepper. However, it has been found that, although this contamination occurs by direct contamination of food, the accumulation rates of the strains varies. This observation was made because the variability of the rate of contamination is comparable with the rate from the work of. Considering the three types of water surveyed, well and drilling water are the ones most contaminated by fluorescent Pseudomonas spp., at a rate of 25%; drawing water is not contaminated by fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. However, pool water is the one most contaminated by K. pneumoniae, at a rate of 17%, followed by well and drilling water that is contaminated by K. pneumoniae at a rate of 13%. The difference of contamination proportions is not significant. In the rainy season, lettuce is the most contaminated by K. pneumoniae and fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. strains ; it is followed by great nightshade and cabbage. In the dry season, great nightshade is the most contaminated by K. pneumoniae and fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. strains; it is followed by cabbage and lettuce. These observations may find explanation in the morphology of these products and the type of crop. Indeed, asserted that the contamination would be staining direct food at the level of vegetable leaf , taking into account the large contact surface, and in the cabbage andcarrot at the same time. The root of vegetables that is in the leaves that close forming a crown, would be a conducive environment for the development of bacteria such as K. pneumoniae and fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. With regard to great nightshade and lettuce, they have broader leaves, providing a larger surface area for increased contamination by K. pneumoniae and fluorescent Pseudomonas spp.

In general, vegetables are more contaminated in the rainy season than in the dry season. This observation can explain the presence of water runoff in the rainy season that will drain, directly or indirectly, the feces and all microbes that contain garbage to garden products as supported by. Similar observations were made by in their study on lettuce contamination by E. coli. During the dry season, a variation of rate of contamination is observed depending on the site. Thus, the site in Cadjehoun is the most contaminated one, whereas the site in Akpakpa is the least contaminated one. On the site in Cadjehoun, analyzed vegetable products are contaminated at 4% and 67%, respectively, with K. pneumoniae and fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. at the same site, watering water analyzed is contaminated with K. pneumoniae at 17% and 33% by fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. As for the site in Akpakpa, all watering water is not contaminated, while the vegetable products are contaminated at 6% by fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. The difference of contamination proportions is significant. During the rainy season, the results are based on the analysis of the vegetable products. Thus, on the site in Cadjehoun, the contamination rate is 11% for each of the two types of strains. The Site of Akpakpa seems to be the most contaminated one this season, with a rate of contamination of 4% and 25%, respectively, for K. pneumoniae and fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. Meanwhile, the site of Houéyiho-Barrier is contaminated by fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. at a rate of 13%. The difference in proportions is significant.The susceptibility results of fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. strains to antibiotics show that they are resistant to the vast majority of the tested antibiotics. The rates of resistance to the trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazol and ciprofloxacin are, respectively, 82% and 8%. This result is comparable to the 83% and 7% rates observed by. Tobramycin resistance is 47%; this rate is higher than the one found by , who found a rate of resistance to tobramycin of 34.4%. In this study, all of the strains of K. pneumoniae and fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. were not resistant to imipenem. The fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. isolated from fresh vegetables by are not resistant to imipenem . This result demonstrates that imipenem would remain the most active molecule on K. pneumoniae and fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. This rate is lower than the one found by in Tunisia who have found 19.6% resistance to imipenem. Indeed,studied the emergency risk of resistance associated with piperacillin, ceftazidime, ciprofloxacin and imipenem observed by a variable emergency risk, with maximum resistance to imipenem . For K. pneumoniae, this rate is comparable to the 0.4% observed by in the food sector and confirmed by the 0% to 2% rate of resistance observed by in their study of some patients hospitalized in Europe and in the United States of America. However, this rate is different from the 16% observed by in Cameroon on clinical strains and the 10% observed by in America in the same field. Thus, the difference can be explained by the origin of the involved strains, although the strains have acquired resistance against antibiotics. This resistance is due to improper and uncontrolled use of antibiotics.

This high rate of resistance in this study could be explained by the misuse of the antibiotics by the population in our country.On the other hand, the strains come from the food raw materials that have not yet faced the misuse of antibiotics.Intracranial tumors of a certain size range  are often treated with single-fraction stereotactic radiosurgery , in which a rapid dose fall-off to spare normal tissues is achieved by using multiple beam directions and a high degree of collimation. The Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion system , for example, has 192 high-activity Cobalt-60 sources that can be collimated to a single focus, capable of delivering a highly focal and conformal ablative radiation dose with a rapid dose fall-off toward surrounding healthy tissue. With spatial uncertainties of about 0.35 mm, the Perfexion system has an average agreement of 0.1 – 1.6 mm for substantial isodose lines and uncertainties in target localization of up to 1.3 mm for cases involving multiple brain metastases. For maximum accuracy, SRS delivered with this system requires use of a minimally invasive frame that is rigidly mounted onto the patient’s skull. In contrast to single-session SRS, fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery , in which radiation is delivered in 3 – 5 large fractions, is an attractive option for larger intracranial tumors or skull base tumors because the single-fraction dose required for tumor control often exceeds the tolerance of adjacent critical neuro-optic structures. Delivery of FSRS with the GK is facilitated by the use of an alternative to the head frame, in which the patient’s head position is fixed by means of a customized vacuum-assisted mouthpiece . Another means of delivering FSRS is with advanced linear accelerators , such as the TrueBeam STx . LINACs have the advantages of sub-millimeter precision, a fully integratedvolumetric imaging system, rolling bench high-dose-rate delivery, motion management techniques, and high-definition  multi-leaf collimation. Use of volumetric modulated arc therapy  on LINACs also permits continuous delivery of radiation, which can significantly reduce treatment time. A third means of delivering FSRS is by proton beam therapy. The unique dosimetric characteristic of protons can minimize the dose to normal tissue distal to the tumor relative to that from high-energy photons and can be used for FSRS of head and neck tumors. Recent advances in proton radiation delivery involving spot scanning or intensity-modulated proton therapy enable sufficiently conformal plans to treat head and neck tumors. For this purpose, IMPT has the potential to capture the “best of both worlds” by limiting the high-dose region beyond the tumor while also limiting the low dose bath, i.e. exposure of surrounding tissues to low-dose radiation. Treatment for a subset of head and neck tumors, i.e. those at the skull base, or larger intracranial tumors is uniquely challenging because of the strict constraints on nearby critical structures. Here, we extracted treatment plans from patients with skull-base or intracranial tumors treated with FSRS, used them to generate plans for VMAT and IMPT, and compared the quality of the three sets of treatment plans.We first identified 9 patients who had received FSRS with GKE  from February 2013 to January 2015 at a single institution .

Treatment in all cases had been directed to a single isocenter/target, and the median prescription dose was 24 Gy delivered in 3 daily fractions. The GK treatment plans were generated under magnetic resonance imaging  or computerized tomography  guidance and were obtained within a week before the first treatment session. Plans for GK therapy with the Extend system  had been generated by a combination of inverse planning and forward planning by a team of radiation oncologists, neurosurgeons, and physicists using the Leksell Gamma Plan 10.1.1 . After the mouth piece assisted frame was placed, the patient was transported to the simulation CT scanner and a setup verification CT scan was acquired. That scan was then fused to the treatment-planning image to verify the consistency of setup by using the Extend system’s repositioning tools. GKE treatment plans included a 2-mm margin around the tumor to form the planning target volume .From each GKE plan, a VMAT plan was generated using a Pinnacle treatment planning system  on a TrueBeam STx LINAC using 6-MV photons and high-definition multi-leaf collimators. PTVs and organs at risk  were defined on the GKE plan and digitally transferred to Pinnacle using the DICOM-RT protocol for VMAT planning.

Nowadays, the impact of agricultural inputs on the environment, especially in surface and groundwater resources is a critical aspect of current and future agricultural practices. At the same time, the economic sustainability of modern farming demands an ever more efficient use of agricultural inputs. In addition, the potential challenges imposed by climate change on agricultural production are also a major concern. As a consequence, in recent years, many organizations such as The United Nations are promoting the concept of Climate-Smart Agriculture as agriculture that sustainably increases productivity, enhances adaptation through increasing resilience, enhances mitigation through reducing or removing greenhouse gases  where and when possible, and enhances achievement of national food security and development goals. In order to achieve agricultural systems that are socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable, it is imperative that water resources and other agricultural inputs are used efficiently. This will require the development and adoption among growers of affordable and effective precision agricultural and irrigation technologies to enable farmers to apply water and other inputs when, where, and in the amount needed to increase profits and protect the environment. Soil moisture sensing is one of the technologies farmers can adopt to properly schedule irrigation, which has been shown to potentially increase profits while protecting the environment. Although many systems are commercially available for soil moisture monitoring, a number of factors still limit their adoption for irrigation scheduling among commercial growers. Consequently, irrigation scheduling decisions in most commercial farming operations are still based on “the condition of the crop”.

For example, found that around 95% of growers in South Carolina used “the condition of the crop” to decide when to irrigate, which exceeded the national average of around 80%. The factthat most farmers are basing irrigation scheduling decisions mainly on “the condition of the crop” could potentially create considerable production, profitability, and environmental problems. In recent years, however, there has been considerable development in open-source electronics, wireless data communication and Internet-Of-Things technologies that provide opportunities for making soil moisture sensing technologies more accessible and more affordable for commercial growers. Our objective in this study was,indoor garden therefore, to develop and test an affordable wireless communication system for monitoring soil moisture using Decagon EC-5 sensors.The new system was developed to measure soil volumetric water content  from four depths using Decagon EC-5 sensors. The EC-5 sensors were selected for this study because of their affordability and because they had been tested in previous lab and field studies and have been shown to have a fast response that linearly relates to VWC. The EC-5 sensors measure VWC by measuring the dielectric constant of the media using capacitance/frequency domain technology. They need 2.5 – 3.6 VDC  as input and their output voltage is proportional to the VWC and to the input voltage. The sensors were designed to work in the temperature range of −40˚C to +50˚C, requiring a measurement time of 10 ms. Several commercial data loggers are capable of sampling and recording data from the Decagon EC-5 sensors. A portable manual readout  is also available from the manufacturer to manually read the EC-5 sensors. A laboratory calibration experiment was conducted to be able to convert the output of the Decagon EC-5 sensors to VWC . Calibrations equations were derived by correlating the outputs of the sensors measured using the microcontroller against the readings measured with the ProCheck readout. Measurements were taken with four Decagon EC-5 sensors covering a wide range of VWC, from air-dried to saturated soil. The sensors were read using both the microcontroller and ProCheck, with the sensors exposed to six different media. These media included air, water, and four soil samples with different water contents. The soil samples included an air-dried soil, a saturated soil, and two moist soils with different water contents. Each of the four soil samples was first placed in a large container, water was added as needed, the sample was vigorously mixed to obtain a uniform water content, and placed in a 400 mL beaker . In this process, knowing the amount of water added to the soil was not critical, since the target was just to create a range of water contents among the four soil samples, and it was already known from previous work that the sensor’s output was linearly related to changes in VWC.The four sensors were first connected to the micro-controller and readings were taken by alternatively immersing each sensor into the appropriate media.

The sensors were then disconnected from the micro-controller and readings were taken using the ProCheck manual readout. This calibration process was possible since the Decagon EC-5 sensors respond almost instantaneously to changes in soil water status in contact with the sensor, and there is no need to allow for the readings to stabilize for a long time.Women are more susceptible to depression postpartum . The incidence and prevalence of postpartum depression are about 10%, respectively . Many women who have postpartum depression often hesitate to consult a specialist due to the difficulty of going to the hospital with an infant or having trouble with medication while breastfeeding . Postpartum depression, if left untreated, may increase the risk of severe or chronic illness  and may lead to child neglect , so measures are needed to reduce the physical and psychological burden on mothers after childbirth. There are many efforts to improve postpartum depression . Much of the support for postpartum mothers comes in the form of attending support events held at support centers and other agencies. If mothers themselves are reluctant to go out, or if their homes are too far away from the support center, they may feel too lazy to go out with their infants and toddlers; the support they get will not reach them if they are not willing to do so. Postpartum women with infants can feel more comfortable taking care of themselves if they have ways to take care of their moods at home right away, before their mood swings and stress levels worsen. We focused on horticultural activity as a way to care for ourselves at home.However, the effects of horticultural activity on postpartum women who are susceptible to significant temporary stress have not studied. This study was an exploratory study to determine what psychological changes postpartum women felt through gardening by asking them to fill out an open-ended questionnaire about how they felt through horticultural activity.The present study was an exploratory pilot study. The Research Ethics Committee of Iwate Medical University approved all procedures. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants. The Helsinki Declaration performed all procedures. This study recruited 15 women  of about one year after childbirth. The women had no experience in the habitual horticultural activity. They planted and nurtured plants, weeded, and gathered the flowers they grew in their horticultural activities. This activity was guided by a facilitator with experience in horticultural activities. The women asked to fill in their free description after the horticultural activity. Text mining was used as data analysis, and the analysis software used KH Coder 3 . First, the components were extracted by text mining to check the frequency distribution of occurrence.

The constructs were counted above the threshold of 2 . Next, a stratified cluster analysis was performed to attempt to organize the categories that comprise it. Additionally, to summarize the frequency of occurrence of extracted words and the relationship between extracted words, a co-occurrence network diagram was drawn. The co-occurrence network diagram shows the strength of co-occurrence between words with similar patterns. The circles’ size indicates the frequency of the words, and the distance of the lines connecting the circles indicates the depth of the association. In the present analysis, the Jaccard coefficient was used to calculate the co-occurrence relation, which indicates the association’s strength, and the analysis was conducted with the minimum number of occurrences of the extracted words as two and the number of drawings as 75.A stratified cluster analysis before the activity is shown in Figure 1. The analysis results showed that the descriptions are divided into six categories of time and plants in life: emotional experiences with plants, active involvement with plants, hydroponic farming growing flowers, enjoyment of touching the soil, and everyday emotions. The results of the stratified cluster analysis after the activity are shown in Figure 2. The analysis revealed five categories of emotional experiences related to flowers, feeling, active engagement with plants, movements, and parenting similarities. Figure 3 shows the co-occurrence network diagram of the first free-standing. The co-occurrence network diagram shows six subgraphs before the onset of horticultural activity. The first group includes extraction words such as “increase”, “bloom”, “water”, “time”, “color”, and “green”, which can be summarized as related to the horticultural activity itself. Similarly, the word connections extracted for each group revealed that the second and third groups could be grouped into “feelings of touching the soil” and “visual experience of plants”. The co-occurrence network diagram of the post-activity descriptions is shown in Figure 4. The co-occurrence network diagram after the horticultural activity shows four subgraphs. The first group containing the most frequently occurring extraction words contains the keywords “flower” and “bloom”, which can be summarized as “flowers”. Similarly, looking at the connections between the words extracted for each group, it was found that the second group can be summarized as “an emotional experience through plants”. Other groupings were “parenting” and “visual experience of plants”.This study was an exploratory study using text mining to examine how postpartum women’s moods changed before and after engaging in the horticultural activity. Consequently, before the start of gardening activity, phrases related to theplants themselves were heavily used, but after the horticultural activity, phrases related to the positive emotional experience through the plants were increasingly used.

In the present study, the most frequent word that frequently appeared before horticultural activities was “growing” , and it was clear that they had an image of growing plants. The next most frequently occurring words were “flower”  and “plant” , which were common nouns for plants. On the other hand, the word that appeared most frequently after horticultural activities was “flower” , which was a common noun that indicated familiarity with flowers and the next most common words that appeared were “growing” and “fun” , indicating active involvement and emotional experience. There has been no study of the extraction of emotional experiences using text mining for horticultural activity. As a close area of study, Koga and Iwasaki examine the healing effects of greenery using text mining . In their study, they asked to write freely about their green usage patterns and their emotional experiences, and text mining was used to extract frequent words. As a result, the most frequent word was “flower”, followed by “looking”, and most respondents were familiar with flowers and had many visual experiences with plants . In the case of our study participants, they had no daily gardening experience, and the words that came up before they started horticultural activity were words to describe “growing” and the plants themselves. By engaging in horticultural activity, not only words related to plants such as “flower” and “growing” and “bloom” but also words such as “fun” and “think” were increased in number, indicating that positive emotions were increased by horticultural activity. Regarding the co-occurrence network of the present study, before the horticultural activity, the groupings were “horticultural activity itself”, “feeling of touching the soil”, and “visual experience of plants”. Free descriptions also indicated that before horticultural activities, “It’s good to have more greenery in my life” and “I try my best to water the plants”. The statements “I enjoy touching the soil” and “touching the soil makes me feel calm” extracted that touching the soil was healing to them. After the horticultural activity, they were grouped as “flowers”, “emotional experience through plants”, “parenting”, and “visual experience of plants”. Slightly different from before the horticultural activity, many felt happy and joyful when the flowers were bloom, as in “it feels good to have flowers in bloom” and “it’s fun to see the flowers bloom one after another”.

In current mainstream agricultural practice, more than half of the applied chemical N fertiliser in cropping systems can be lost to the environment, and this problem has been classified as a pressing global issue. In addition, chemical fertilisers that are currently the primary source of fertilisers rely on limited natural resources such as petroleum, phosphate rock, and potassium salts. The unavoidable depletion of these products will lead to problems for farmers, including interrupted availability and increasing costs. Organic nutrients have gained much interest in the recent decade for their positive roles in plant nutrition and in generating healthy soils. With the recognition of the importance of organic nutrients and the detrimental effect of chemical fertilisers when applied in excess, modern agriculture is progressing to reduce the use of chemical fertilisers, compensating it with organic fertilisers. Several studies have shown the beneficial effects that this practice has on soil chemical-biological properties and crop yields. To maximise the efficiency of this system, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria  have great potential. For example, the addition of PGPR to soils amended with a mixture of 50% organic and 50% chemical N fertiliser increases the growth of Kikuyu grass , leading to yield similar to 100% chemical N fertiliser. Importantly, the presence of PGPR also reduced N loss by 95% relative to full chemical fertiliser treatment. To further demonstrate the benefit of using PGPR to support organic and chemical fertilisers mixture in agriculture, we tested this combination on another plant, sugarcane , in glasshouse and field trials. Sugarcane is a global industrial-scale crop, grown in over 110 countries worldwide, and is one of the most important plants for sugar, biomaterials, and renewable energy production.

Sugarcane seedlings were grown in the glasshouse  on soils containing two different kinds of fertiliser. The first is “Soil Mate” from MitrPhol Sugar Corporation consisting of a combination  of chemical fertiliser and organic fertiliser . The second is EcoNPK, an organic-chemical fertiliser from Sustainable Organic Solutions Pty Ltd. All treatments received the same N application rate  in the absence  or presence of PGPR  coated on a mineral carrier in an application of 10 g  per pot . Each pot contained one sugarcane seedling,tall pot stand and each treatment consisted of 12 replicates. Plants were grown for 8.5 months. We observed that the application of SOS3 PGPR enhances plant growth, sett number, and sugar yield in both fertilisers treatments . In the Soil Mate treatment, PGPR increased the weight by 22%, the sett’s number by 13%, and the sucrose yield by 22% . In the EcoNPK treatment, PGPR increased the weight by 33%, the sett’s number by 36%, and the sucrose yield by 32% . To validate the glasshouse results, we tested sugarcane in the field following commercial standard practices . Sugarcane was grown using two types of fertiliser combination, the first corresponding to Soil Mate , and the second consisting of a mixture of Soil Mate and EcoNPK . In the latter, the addition of 50% of Soil Mate was necessary to compensate for the low NPK levels in EcoNPK . Compared to most other crops, sugarcane requires high amounts of NPK which could not be practically sustained by EcoNPK alone in large-scale fields. All treatments received the same N application rate , in the absence  or presence of 15 kg ofmineral carrier coated with SOS3 . Sugarcane was grown for nine months. The plot size was 6400 m2 . The field trial showed similar results to the glasshouse experiment. The addition of PGPR to the Soil Mate treatment led to an increase of sugarcane  and sucrose yield , and its addition to the 1/2Soil Mate + EcoNPK treatment increased sugarcane and sucrose yields by 13%  and 17% , respectively . Our present study on sugarcane, in accordance with the previous research made on Kikuyu grass, strongly suggests that the use of PGPR along with a combination of organic and chemical fertilisers can offer a viable avenue in agriculture. The nutrient use efficiency is the main target of nutrient management to control fertiliser losses, which otherwise causes significant economic damage and severely pollutes the environment via leaching, runoff and volatilisation etc.. PGPR appears to be complementary to the use of organic fertilisers, through the enhancement of organic nutrient acquisition and assimilation by the plant . Notably, this combination has also the potential to increase soil health due to the application of organic matter content, which plays a vital role for soil physical, chemical and biological properties. The use of PGPR in sustainable agriculture has received much interest in the past decade due to their beneficial effects such as productions of phytohormones, nitrogen fixation, iron sequestration, phosphorus solubilisation, and alleviation of plant biotic and abiotic stress conditions .

However, it’s known that the efficacy of PGPR differs widely, with reported benefits ranging from none to considerable. This variability is caused by environmental factors and specific host interactions, limiting its application for agriculture. In conclusion, the addition of PGPR to the combined use of inorganic and organic has potential implications for agricultural sectors seeking innovative ways to achieve improved nutrient value without harming the environment. The future research needs to verify this system in field measurements at different spatial and temporal scales with different crops. In addition, research should focus on optimising the application techniques to maximise the efficiency of inoculation with PGPR. Soil as a complex system is an important part of environment. It acts as a reactor where many different processes between organic and inorganic phases occur. Soil biodiversity, representing the variety of living organisms belowground, is an important soil health indicator. In general, soil biodiversity is directly influencing the main soil property, which is soil fertility. In 1989, the World Wide Fund for Nature defined biodiversity as “the wealth of life on Earth, millions of plants, animals and microorganisms, including the genes they contain, and as complex ecosystems that create the environment”. Biodiversity is affected by altitude, climate, relief, water availability, bedrock, soil but also human intervention. Biodiversity is represented at three basic levels as genetic , generic  and ecosystem . It is a very sensitive system highly dependent on its individual components, and disruption of one of them can lead to the extinction of a number of other components. This negative tendency can be observed also in soil. Biodiversity in agricultural land in Europe is threatened. Amount and the diversity of animal species is declining significantly. It is the result of the number of causes. Among the most striking are the intensification of agricultural production, the use of pesticides, the ploughing of field boundaries and the cultivation of monocultures in large areas. Since 1990, populations of birds and meadow butterflies—which are a good indicator of changes—have fallen by more than 30% . Biodiversity contributes to enhanced ecosystems, such as ecosystem stability and productivity, and improved nutrition and human health.

The higher the soil biodiversity, the better the soil fertility. Conservation and/or increasing soil fertility is extremely important because soil is a key element of the agroecosystem. Its biological activity, which is related to the processes occurring therein, can be greatly affected by anthropogenic interventions. In plenty of works it is also stated that in agricultural areas, conventional intensive farming practices have led to a significant decline in the biological diversity of soils. It is caused by the use of fertilisers as well as pesticides. Excess of especially N fertilisers induces decrease of plant’s metabolites, which contribute to the stability of soil structure, thus the stability of soil aggregates is decreased together with elimination of soil metabolites. Pesticides have negative effect on soil micro and macrofauna, e.g. earthworms. Many biochemical reactions in this environment are dependent or influenced by the presence of soil enzymes. The soil enzymatic activity reflects the activity of microorganisms, controls the release of plant nutrients and the growth of microorganisms. Enzymes can be used as indicators of soil quality. Soil sustainability can be evaluated using enzyme activities and can give also direct information concerning soil biodiversity. Higher organisms like earthworms represent also soil biodiversity indicators. Earthworms constitute a significant share of soil organisms and, owing to their activity in soil, 25 liter pot are referred to as “ecosystem engineers” . The activities of earthworms have significant effects on various ecosystem functions such as soil structure, nutrient cycling processes, decomposition of organic matter. Lumbricidae contribute to the development of specific soil properties by improving its structure and increasing the field capacity. Earthworms influence soil structure by creating burrows, by bringing litter into the soil, fragmenting it and mixing it with humus and mineral soil, by homogenizing the soil. Christensen and Mather showed that earthworm number and biomass reflect both; natural soil parameters, e.g. sand content on one side and agricultural practices on the other side. They react very sensitively to soil degradation or sanation. Cultivation technologies, which lead to the increase of soil microbial activity and occurrence of earthworms, can be considered as good agricultural practices. As stated in the research of The Can Caesar-TonThat, the proportion of soil aggregating Gram-negative bacteria, represented predominantly by pseudomonads and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, was higher under irrigated no-till type of soil cultivation for barley in comparison to the other soil cultivation managements.

Amount of soil aggregating bacteria was the lowest in conventional soil cultivation practices under irrigation, lower than in soils without irrigation. From these results, it is clear that the type of soil cultivation has higher effect on the amount of bacteria contributing to the stability of soil structure than application or omitting of irrigation. Main reasons for cultivation technologies development can be divided into the economical, ecological and technological. Economical reasons evaluate mainly savings of work and energy, reducing workload, lowering staffing and increased machine performance. Ecological reasons are complex and they are focused on climate change mitigation, soil structure restoration and soil degradation prevention and/or sanation. They contribute directly to soil biodiversity conservation and/or improvement. Humankind at present time came to the progressive conclusions concerning preservation of nature. It is not possible to exploit natural resources in a non-safety and sustainable way anymore, otherwise we will destroy ourselves. Several environmental movements at political and/or societal level started, e.g. Agenda 2030 at global level. One of the newest at European level is the new Biodiversity Strategy to 2030 with the title “Bringing nature back into our lives” . Concerning soil, the new biodiversity initiative opened the public discussion about new Soil strategy, which is its part. This initiative will update the current strategy  to address soil degradation and preserve land resources aiming to achieve land degradation neutrality—LDN. Our research has ambition to contribute to the efforts to improve the focus on soil from purely economic views also to the environmental and sustainable ones. Good agricultural practises and organic farming provides practical conditions for farmers to use their soils in sustainable way and in a way, which cannot only preserve soil properties but also improve them from economical as well as environmental point of view.The soil cultivation is provided in spirals and individual fields have circle shape. This cultivation is based on low soil surface disintegration without turning the soil layers and without heavy machinery and artificial fertilizers. It is realized by a rotating arm fixed in the middle of the field.It is possible to fix interchangeable tools that can serve as a spade, rotary tiller, and seeder or for drip irrigation. The circular fields are located side by side and one working arm can be easily moved to an adjacent field. On this farm, vegetables are cultivated. According to World Reference Base for Soil Resources, WRB, 2014 , studied soil belongs to soils with little or no profile differentiation. Soil type is calcaric Fluvisol. According to the texture, soil is medium heavy. Coefficient of soil structure is higher in the soil from Agrokruh in the whole profile in comparison with soil with traditional cultivation. In varies according to the depth; from 1.8 for Agrokruh in the depth 0 – 20 cm, 2.3 in 20 – 40 cm to 5 in the depth 40 – 60 cm. For conventional cultivation it is: 1.6 in the depth 0 – 20 cm, 0.9 in 20 – 40 cm to the 1.7 in the depth of 40 – 60 cm.

The wealth of knowledge from the indigenous agroforestry practitioners provides the level and depth knowledge that has developed over centuries among the indigenous people. Agroforestry has played and is still playing a key role in the conservation and management of land resources in a sustainable way. Agroforestry ecosystems harbour a variety of life forms functioning together which in turn provide the services that enable the wellbeing of humanity and other life forms. Agroforestry, the integration of trees in agricultural activities has the capacity to increase soil fertility, nutrient recycling, reduce evaporation, and reduce land degradation from erosion, carbon sequestration and improvement of water quality. These benefits will have an impact and environmental benefits contribution at the farm scale, local and regional levels. Agroforestry practices in general will help to maintain the wellbeing of societies at all levels. Agroforestry practices are also believed to contribute for the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations in various ways. The practices have helped to fight hunger by the deployment of agroforestry based soil fertility and land management methods. The average proportion of the food insecure world population has decreased from 37% to 18%, and the availability of food has enhanced in the developing world. Trees have also a magnificent contribution in fixing nitrogen that can increase agricultural productivity. Many of the rural poor are able to generate income through the production of trees which has created the enabling environment for ease of access to health services and nutritional sources. Agroforestry practices have also contributed a lot in the protection of watershed services and maximize the production systems.

The role of agroforestry on current Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations through climate change adaptation and mitigation is getting explicit. No single approach of food security will be productive without the ecological and economic contribution of trees. It requires the integrated approach of sustainable land use models in order to lift up the living standards of the wider agriculture based portion of the world population. Agroforestry is a proven model of integrated sustainable land use system which can enhance agricultural productivity and production in a low input and in an ecological and economically feasible way in the effort of enhancing food security sustainably. Indigenous agroforestry has been and still is a dominant land use practice in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Regional State of Ethiopia by forming the major component of the farming system. The region is known for its diverse and immense biodiversity resources that contributed for healthy ecosystem functions, sustainable livelihoods development and enhanced food security status of the region. The Government of Ethiopia Climate Resilient Green Economy Strategy also outlines the integration of agroforestry systems in to forage legumes, croplands, expansion of green energy sources, forest and biodiversity conservation are believed to ensure the sustained development of the indigenous agroforestry practices of the country. This will also develop and enhance the country’s contribution towards the global efforts of global mitigation of greenhouse gases whilst it helps to ensure the inclusive growth by improving the resilience of the poorer communities towards the effects of climate change. Lante Kebele of Arba Minch Zuriya district is known for its immense and rich indigenous agroforestry practices and biodiversity resources in the area. This study was, therefore, dutch buckets system held in Lante in order to explore the indigenous agroforestry practices so that the knowledge and practices of the locality can be conserved and scaled up in other parts of the country and beyond.The general model of agroforestry practices considers shrubs, crops, perennials, trees, livestock, etc. as a basic element to it. Hence, agroforestry systems can be categorized as silvopastoral , agrisilvicultural  and agrosilvopastoral . Each system can be composed of different agroforestry practices that can be practiced in a particular location or region where there will be environmental, biological and economic linkages and interactions within the different tree and non-tree elements of the system. The agroforestry practices on the other hand can also indicate the specific land resources management activities in spatial and temporal arrangements. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation had defined agroforestry as “a collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody perennials  are deliberately used on the same landmanagement units as agricultural crops and/or animals, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence.

Agroforestry can also be defined as a dynamic, ecologically based, natural resource management system that, through the integration of trees on farms and in the agricultural landscape, diversifies and sustains production for increased social, economic and environmental benefits for land users at all levels”.Agroforestry systems and practices are providing various ecosystem services and environmental benefits that have local and regional importance. The benefits of agroforestry practices also can have an economic dimension since it helps to maximize agricultural production by reducing soil erosion, water and organic matter losses. Through organic matter development and maintenance, the practices can increase microbial activities which can help nutrient recycling which can increase the fertility of soil under agricultural production. This can also improve the physio-chemical characteristics of the soil which can result for a better infiltration potential of the soil. They do have also an important role in reducing acidification and salinization related soil toxicities. As many of the indigenous communities are highly reliant on indigenous medicines extracted from trees, the practices have played and are playing a significant role in maintaining the health of communities in a productive way. In line with this, planting of trees in crop lands is also known to reduce insect pest and disease infestation. Nitrogen fixing trees can also increase agricultural production and thereof reduced cost for agricultural inputs. The Government of Canada Agriculture and Agro-food Agency mentioned as agroforestry practices are essential resources to combat climate because of their role in sequestering carbon and other greenhouse gases. It estimated as a mature poplar tree can help to sequester 266 kgs of carbon and a white spruce tree will sequester 143 kgs of carbon. It is also worthy to note that these figures doesn’t include the amount of carbon which will be stored in the roots below the ground that could amount 50% – 75% of the total stored on the other parts of the tree above the ground. These figures do not include the carbon stored in the roots, which may be equal to 50 to 75 per cent of the carbon stored above ground. Apart from this, agroforestry practices are also known to increase the biodiversity resource potentials. In particular, since they provide shelter and food, they are known to support the existence of wildlife.Lante, the study area is one of the localities in Arba Minch Zuriya district of GamoGofa Zone which is located in the Southern Nations and Nationalities Peoples’ Regional State of Ethiopia. Situated in the Great Rift Valley region, the district is located about 505 km south west of Addis Ababa. The district has a total of 29 Kebeles . Agro ecologically 4 kebeles are highlands, 15 kebeles at mid altitude and the rest 10 are found in the low land zone with a rainfall amount of 800 mm – 1200 mm per annum. The temperature also ranges from 16˚C – 37˚C. There are two cropping seasons, namely, Belg , Meher . Lante being one of the Kebeles located in the lowland areas has a total population of about 7479 . The Kebele has an average altitudinal range of 1175 – 1267 meter above sea level. Lante is also bordering with Lake Abaya which has a great contribution towards its potential for agroforestry and other agricultural activities.

Semi-structured interviews with the local inhabitants and ground truthing observations were deployed as data collect instruments. Secondary sources of information such as literatures and reports were also reviewed. Discussions were also held with the concerned Government officials. A total of 62 community members  and 6 concerned government staff participated in the interview process. The different aspects of agroforestry such as the types of indigenous agroforestry practices, the perception towards the practices, threats, opportunities, etc. were explored during the discussions. Then data was transcribed and analyzed by making use of descriptive statistics on excel sheet and through content analysis.Indigenous agroforestry practices form the livelihoods history of Southern Ethiopia. It is a widely practiced activity in the region and that has helped the region to remain green while the rest of the country’s woody vegetation is being degraded substantially. In the South it is not uncommon to see about ten different types of trees in the backyard of the smallholder farmers, mostly dominated by multipurpose species which have nutritional, economic and economic importance. Mango trees, Enset , Moringa, Papaya, etc. are among to mention . According to the respondents,dutch buckets as of very recent during the ‘Derg’ regime, the establishment of the socialist system based Producer’s Cooperatives  also contributed a lot for the growth and expansion of agroforestry practices in the area. This is mainly because of the fact that, during that regime each individual household was allowed to own a very small area of land at their backyard for their private use as a result of the communalism of resources ideology that was strategized at that time. This phenomenon has forced farmers to stock and combine different species of trees which are of different use and livestock in that allowable plot of backyard land so as to supplement the food and other demands of the household.In the southern region of Ethiopia in general and Lante Kebele in particular home gardens are the widely practiced indigenous agroforestry activities. It is very common to observe multipurpose trees, fruit trees, and vegetables along with livestock in the backyard of many households. In this practice trees like Moringa are widely planted as they supplement the household’s major source of meal throughout the year. Fruits like Mango, Papaya, Lemon, False banana , Orange, Avocado and Banana are also serving as sources of supplementary food and income generation opportunities. The smallholder farmers also plant Sugarcanes which is also another important source of cash for the household needs . Vegetables such as capsicum, cabbage and sweet potatoes are also widely practiced as they form the major source of food in the community. In addition to this, cattle, chicken, donkeys, goats and sheep are reared in the backyard and the free gazing system of the locality.The households also make use of live-fences made of bushes, Jatropha and other trees like Eucalyptus . Other trees such as Ficus and Olive species are also grown in the backyard since they serve as medicinal plants. This practice has helped the smallholder farmers to maintain the local agro-ecology while they also managed to get nutritional sources of food within their own holdings.

One elder when asked about the importance of agroforestry he mentioned “… it is like my savings in a bank, I can get edible items of different types whenever I need it!”. In times of rainfall and water shortage, the trees will always be able to provide edible fruits since they will be able to get moisture from the underground water. Thus, agroforestry has played to cope up with disaster by building the resilience of the community in times of drought and rain failure. Based on the coping mechanism potentials of agroforestry and modern agriculture, the lion’s share of the respondents showed their preference to continue agroforestry practices than field crops production. Some, however, also preferred the field crops production since they considered harvesting a reasonable amount of produce in a specific period of time as an advantage .This practice is mainly carried out on farmlands. Ground truthing of this practice revealed as the intercropping activities have a tangible impact in maintaining soil organic matter, reduced evaporation from the soil surface as a result of the leaf fall mulch, shelter for shade loving plants such as coffee and also serves as shade for humans whenever working in the farm. The trees are believed to create conducive microclimate for the proper development of the undergrowth as they will be serving as windbreak and reducing the heat effects of the tropics overhead sun. The leaf fall which will stay on the surface also serves to lower down the devastating effects of rainfall drop splash and erosion.

With COMSOL Multiphysics the users can easily extend models for one type of physics into multiphysics models that solve coupled physics phenomena. The user can access the power of COMSOL Multiphysics as a standalone product  through a flexible Graphical User Interface  or by COMSOL Java API, a Java-based interface. In the COMSOL Java API, models are accessed through the model object, which contains all algorithms and data structures for a COMSOL model. The COMSOL Desktop also uses the model object to represent a model. This means that the model object and the COMSOL Desktop behavior are virtually identical but the model object through COMSOL Java API allows more flexibility and to overcome shortcomings of the COMSOL Desktop in customizing a specific problem of interest. Methods on a model object are used to create, modify, and access the model. The model object provides a large number of methods, including methods for setting up and running sequences of operations to create geometry, meshes, and for solving the model. The top-level methods just return references that support further methods. At a certain level the methods perform actions, such as adding data to the model object, performing computations, or returning data. Thus, there is a potential to use COMSOL Java API in customizing a specific problem of interest such as the hydrological process of a soakaway rain garden. In Section 3.0, the important inner details on modeling a soak-away rain garden using COMSOL Java API is presented. In Section 4.0, the graphical user interface that is used to collect the user specific inputs, which are used inside the code  written using COMSOL Java API, of a soak-away rain garden is presented.Once the inner details were implemented taking into account the codes discussed in Sections 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4, using COMSOL JAVA API, a graphical user interface was developed as shown in Figure 4. The interface permits the users to specify the dimensions of the soak-away rain garden, specify the model parameters, input the time series of the stormwater runoff, define the simulation period, define the meshing size, visualize the simulated results, and modify the default options.

As shown in Figure 4, the section for “Garden Dimension” allows the users to input the dimensions of the soak-away rain garden. The width, length, depth of filter media , ponding depth , and depth to ground water table that is defined from bottom of the filter media, are specified in meters. These values and some model generated intermediate values,nft hydroponic which are based on these values, are used as JAVA variables at the appropriate places as discussed in Section 3.1. The section for “Model Parameters” allows the users to input the model parameters of the soak-away rain garden. In this section of the interface, the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the filter media , which describes the ease with which water can move through pore spaces, saturated hydraulic conductivity of the in-situ soil , porosity of the filter media and porosity of the in-situ soil are specified. These parameter values are used by the modeled physics, which is the Richards’ equation, as discussed in Section 3.2. In addition, the user specified saturated hydraulic conductivities for filter media and in-situ soil are used to compute the saturated hydraulic conductivities in X, Y and Z-axis directions if a proportional an-isotropic tensor is specified through the preferences menu. The section for “Runoff Data” allows the users to input the stormwater runoff to the soakaway rain garden. The “Open” dialog box, which becomes visible when the “Open” button is clicked, allows the users to locate the time series data of the stormwater runoff. The time series data is a “tab” delimited text file that has the required data in two columns. The first column represents the time of the observation in seconds at equal intervals and the second column represents the runoff values in m3 /s. Often times, the time series of stormwater runoff  is obtained from a design hyetograph which is the time distribution of rainfall during a storm using a model  that uses the rainfall-runoff algorithm. The time series of stormwater runoff data is used to set the boundary condition as discussed in Section 3.4. The section for “Simulation Period” allows the user to input the start and end time of the simulation. The inputs are specified in seconds. The time step of the simulation is computed based on the user specified time series of stormwater runoff data. As mentioned previously, the stormwater runoff data should be at equal intervals. The section for “Mesh Size” allows the users to split the domains into smaller sub-domains. As shown in Figure 4, the “simulation” button allows the users to perform the simulation. The model performs the simulation based on the user specified inputs that are discussed so far and any additional inputs specified through the preferences menu.

The preferences menu allows the users to change some of the default settings that are used during the simulation. As an example, the preferences menu allows the users to change the proportional tensor of saturated hydraulic conductivities for filter media and in-situ soil. The successful execution of the model allows the users to visualize the simulation result such as hydraulic head, ponding depth: time series of the ponded water during the simulation period, overflow rate: time series of the overflow during the simulation period, vertical ex-filtration: time series of the water soaked away through bottom, horizontal ex-filtration: time series of the water soaked away through sides.The design of soak-away rain gardens involves water quality. Thus, the establishment of a design hyetograph for the design of soak-away rain gardens, specifically, requires data on intensity-duration-frequency  values for relatively frequent storms such as 3-month ARIs that carry up to 90% of the total load on annual basis. As underscored in the literature, to date, there are few methods available for the establishment of design hyetographs using IDF data. In this paper, the alternating block method, which represents an event of a selected return period both for the selected duration of the event and for any period within this selected duration, is used in developing a design hyetograph from an IDF relationship of Singapore. A storm duration of 720 min was considered. Considering an event of 720 min of the 3-month ARIs, a design hyetograph for 3-month ARIs built-up using this method represents a 3-month ARI event both for the 720 min total duration and for any period  within this duration centered on the maximum block. The design hyetograph produced by this method specifies the rainfall depth occurring in n successive time intervals of duration Δt over a total duration of 720 min = nΔt. Duration Δt is often determined by the finest resolution of the hydrological model that is used to generate the design hydrograph, the time distribution of discharge. The hyetograph to represent a 3-month ARI event of 720 min duration is shown in Figure 5 for a duration  of 6 min which is the finest resolution of MUSIC  model which was used to generate the hydrographs for different urbanized  catchment sizes varied from 100 to 250 m2 . The time series of stormwater hydrograph was used to set the boundary condition as discussed in Section 3.4. To understand the variation of horizontal ex-filtration with the in-situ hydraulic conductivity and the surface area of the soak-away rain garden , the simulation was carried out for different values of in-situ hydraulic conductivity and the surface area of the soak-away rain garden . The insitu hydraulic conductivity was varied from 10 mm/hr to 50 mm/hr, typical range in Singapore.

The surface area of the soak-away rain garden  was varied from 6% to 15%. The width and the length of the soak-away rain garden were assumed to be of the same size. The saturated hydraulic conductivity of the filter media was set to 200 mm/hr, the maximum value expected in Singapore. The depth to groundwater table was set to 0.5 m.In catchment hydrology, in practice it is not feasible to measure a desired hydrological variable for every possible hydrological condition mainly due to financial constraints. This limitation, among others, has promoted the application of mathematical models, whose basic principle is the process of solving physical problems by appropriate simplification of reality, in the field of catchment hydrology, specifically in ground and surface water hydrology, to solve many hydrological problems. Hydrological process, such as overflow volume, average vertical ex-filtration rate and horizontal flow coefficient, of a soak-away rain garden, is one of those hydrological problems. Soak-away rain gardens, nft system shallow, landscaped depressions commonly located in parking lots or within small pockets in residential areas, receive stormwater runoff, attenuate surface water and enable it to percolate into the surrounding ground. As catchments become urbanized due to population growth, the impervious surfaces created by buildings and pavements cause rainwater to flow quickly over the landscape. To mitigate the adverse impact of urbanization such as increased flooding and depleted groundwater recharge around the world, several best management practices, in other words, green infrastructures, have been practiced, and soak-away rain garden is one of them. Despite the rapid acceptance of soak-away rain gardens throughout the world by water managers and land-use planners, detailed hydrologic performance information and related hydrologic design guidelines of soak-away rain gardens are not currently available for many regions including Singapore. On the other hand, to have a rapid assessment of soak-away rain gardens on a range of potential hydrologic conditions , detailed hydrologic performance information and related hydrologic design guidelines of soak-away rain gardens from model simulation results need to be rendered into easy to use look-up charts or hydrologic design charts that are specific for local conditions. However, it is not feasible to model for every possible hydrological condition due to resource constraints and the continuous nature of those possible hydrological conditions. Therefore, a need exists to extrapolate and interpolate information from the available model simulation results. In addition, there is also a need to assess the likely hydrological impact of future system response. Therefore, it is the objective of this study to establish regression equations on hydrological processes, specifically on overflow volume, average vertical ex-filtration rate and horizontal flow coefficient, of a soak-away rain garden, based on simulated results of a mathematical model using COMSOL Multiphysics under the possible hydrological conditions.

To solve flow in variably saturated porous media, it is necessary that appropriate boundary conditions are specified. From a mathematical standpoint, the application of boundary conditions ensures that the solutions to the problems are self-consistent. In this study, the following boundary conditions are identified as appropriate. As shown in Figure 2, which represents the frontal view of cut-plane  A-A of Figure 1, the top surface of the rain garden is a rainfall-runoff boundary, a non-steady-state flow condition typical of urban stormwater runoff. The external side boundaries do not allow water to flow in or out of the area of influence, implying that the chosen area is large enough that it does not affect the flow performance around the rain garden. The bottom boundary of the area of influence is specified by a hydraulic head corresponding to an assumed groundwater table level. When water starts to pond, the boundary condition at the top surface of the rain garden becomes a hydraulic boundary. Therefore, there is a need to be able to switch the top surface of the rain garden from flow to hydraulic head. The switching was done using COMSOL Java API, a Java-based interface. The initial condition was set to hydrostatic condition. In other words, above groundwater table, the suction is equal to the distance above groundwater table.To understand the relationship between the dependent variable, overflow volume, and the independent variables, as shown in Figure 4, the graph of overflow volume versus the surface area of the soak-away rain garden  was plotted. The overflow volume is expressed as a % of total runoff volume. For this graph, the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the filter media and the depth to groundwater table were set to 100 mm/hr and 0.5 m, respectively. The graph also shows the variation with the saturated hydraulic conductivities of the in-situ soil. The saturated hydraulic conductivity of the in-situ soil varies from 10 mm/hr to 50 mm/hr.

Increasingly, today zoos also focus on the reproduction of endangered species such as crane, crocodile, monkeys etc.; zoo scientists devote to improving their reproductive potential of these creatures. In educational race the Kano Zoo can be seen from the number of individuals, schools, associations and researchers that visited zoo on the basic studies. Primary, science clubs, nursery to university rank the zoo’s educational purpose. In zoos people may learn to understand nature and the importance of conservation of wildlife. Presently, natural settings are continually destroyed; this causes a serious education in wild-life population. The first public animal collections opened in major European cities such as Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam, London and Berlin during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In most cases, these gardens were established by private zoological scientists that believed their collections would provide scientific interest, natural history instruction and cultural improvement for their cities’ growing bourgeoisie. The zoological society of Philadelphia opening was delayed or postponed because of civil war that occurred within that period, though it was later opened in 1874. The Cincinnati zoological garden debated one year later, drawing its inspiration from the festive animals’ parks of Germany. Both institutions embraced the twin goals of instruction and recreation and proclaimed themselves to be civic institutions of the highest order, allied with the libraries, concert halls, museums and other cultural attractions. In most American cities, zoos developed not as philanthropic endeavors but rather as adjusts to municipal parks departments [4]. New York’s central park menagerie appeared in the early 1860s, partly as a result of public donations of animals to the city.

Chicago’s Lincoln Park had its own zoo in 1868, as the first habitant of a pair of swans coming from the central park menagerie. By the end of the nineteenth century, over twenty American cities had opened their own municipal zoos; most of them opened free to the public. The store of zoos which reflected the past, present and future of the animals especially valuable on collecting and display of zoo animals reported that zoo served as an entertainment and educational centre, and people of all ages enjoyed visiting zoos, because of the joy of seeing different species of animals. Zoos provide more than recreation, and they also help keep people aware of the beauties of nature and the need to preserve wild and lectures for schooling children and other groups. In most large zoos, youngsters can pet and perhaps even feed some animals. On the other hand, zoos served as scientific research, for example, zoologies learned much about animal habit and diseases by studying them in zoos. Studies of animals living in zoo, together with examination of those that have died have provided zoologist with information about the structure and function of animal bodies. Keeping wildlife animals in captivity brings visitors from different parts of the world for different purposes such as to provide sources of recreation in the city, to provide biological specimen, flood and drain table to constitute a learning resources for secondary schools, colleges and universities. It also provides employment and generates revenue. Wildlife conservation in zoo and game reserve provides sources of protein revenue, esthetics recreation, education and scientific value. The captive animals’ propagation is one way of encouraging growth of depleted wildlife species population and so properly planned programme of zoo establishment and development is considered as one of the effective methods for conservation wildlife.

Educational environment study and the conservation of the environment have become a subject of major importance all over the world, not only from the point of view of preventing pollution, but also from the point of conserving water supplies by protecting water shed, conserving soil, vegetarian and fauna. Conservation zoos can provide an important facility for research at both pure and applied levels, in both the field and the laboratory in colleges and universities. According to zoos maintain over 500,000 individuals of terrestrial vertebrates, representing 3000 species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.Zoo is a center of entertainment, because people of all ages, students from various institutions enjoyed visiting the zoos. They delighted in viewing creatures of the beauties of nature and the need to preserve wildlife. This agreed with the result obtained in this project, this is because different visitors in the zoo maintained that they are enjoying the zoo, more especially to those who cannot afford to visit the game reserve or parks as shown in the Table 6. So zoological garden contributed a lot by giving people the opportunity to marvel and appreciation of the nature in the condition. Zoos offer educational tours and lectures fro schooling of different students from various level of education. And it stated that zoo served as a scientific research, example zoological laboratories. There are justified with this project shown in Table 7 and Table 8 because many researchers agreed that zoo is a center of research and various learners  learn much about the animals’ habits and diseases by studying them in the zoo. Zoo serve as an entertainment and educational centre, also in the course of this research, that is the contribution of zoological garden to tertiary institutions, the questionnaire interviewed were used in the collection of data, based on the finding, it was observed that zoo is an educational centre.

Keeping wildlife animals in captivity brings visitors from outside to see semi natural environment to provide sources of recreation in the city, to provide biological specimen, to constitute a learning resources schools colleges and universities. It is also provides employment and generates revenues, while in this research work it was observed that zoo is an economic value and recreational interest. Wildlife conservation is zoo and game reserve provides sources of protein, revenue, esthetics recreations, education and scientific value but in this research work, it was observed that zoo is a wildlife conservation centre. Primary functions of zoos curators is to make the visit a learning experience while based on the finding, it was observed that zoo is also research centre. It should be noted that based on the result/findings of this project, it was observed that the following were the contributions of zoological garden to tertiary institutions. As an educational centre , research centre, wildlife, conservation, economic value. The result also indicates that people from various work of life verified the zoo. Some recommendations were also made for further studies as well as guide against the establishment of a zoo.The marshes in Iraq referred to as the “Garden of Eden” are located within the southern part of Iraq, which are created by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers system . The area is characterized by its very tow slope where it ranges from 4 to 8 cm/km within the Euphrates and Tigris respectively which caused the two rivers to split and meander. The area stretches between double deltas, the inner delta produced by Hillah-Hindiyah on the Euphrates and Sghatt alGharaf on the Tigris, and a marine delta created by the Karun and Marunjerrahi river system.The area represents a unique ecosystem providing local inhabitants with an essential source of habitat and livelihoods, and it has played a vital role in the economic and social advancement of the people of Iraq. In addition, they represent national heritage and ecological area. The area was considered as the largest wetland in the world and the greatest in western Asia. Furthermore, it is considered one of the eleven non-marine wetland areas in the world with Endemic Bird Area status. This area was inhabited since the dawn of civilization about 6000 years BP.

Sometimes the inhabitants of the area are called “Ma’dan” and they are supposed to be descendants of Sumerians. Most of the inhabitants are semi-nomadic; their settlements are located at the edges of the marshes or on artificial islands, their houses are usually built of reed and mud, and Water buffalos are very important for the Marsh Arabs existence . The buffalos are fed on young reed shoots, and they provide them with milk, butter, yogurt, as well as energy and crop fertilizer in the form of fuel and manure. In addition,fishing, hunting and growing rice are the other complimentary things in the life of the marsh Arabs. The marsh dwellers were isolated until the 1970s. Reed covers large areas of the marshes while the vegetation in the mud flats is usually Carex and Juncus spp., Scripus brachyceras. In the fresh water lakes, the aquatic vegetation dominates . After 2003, the new Iraqi government started an attempt to restore the marshes. In this paper, the possibility of restoring the marshes is discussed.Most of the researchers attribute the climate change and sea level changes were the main factors that caused the development of the marshes and controlling its water quality. About 18,000 years ago, during the last glacial period, the sea level was below its present level by 120 – 130 m; this means that the gulf area was dry and the rivers were directly flowing to the gulf of Oman.The river was cutting about −26 to −30 m into the Mesopotiaman plain. Most probably there were no marshes at that period. Later about 9000 years ago on ward, rolling bench there was a transgression of the sea where water reached Basra area. Then it reached Al Amarah and An Nasiriyah areas about 7000 to 6000 years ago . This period known as the great flood period. It was reported that the rise of sea level was relatively fast at this period [16]. This period was followed by semiarid climate that caused regression of the sea level. At this period, the marshes were formed. Following that period, the area passed through an arid climate till the current time.

Marine fauna was found in Hammar formation  about −2.7 to −5.8 m below soil surface, and this indicates that the sea level at that period reached Amrah. Above Hammar formation, the sediments are of fluvial nature that were deposited in the shallow northern region of the Gulf leading to the progression of the delta toward the southeast . This changed the nature of the area from the brackish lagoon to fresh water within the formed delta area. Within Hammar marsh and the area east of Qurna-Basra, number of archeological sites were discovered that indicated that during the second and first millennium indicating, the Gulf shoreline was further south. The southern limit of the Mesopotamian delta was very near its present limit during Hellenistic period. During that period, the sea level was about 1 m lower than its present level. Following this period, no major events took place apart from the Tigris River followed the Gharaf bed into the Euphrates forming a very big marsh 370 km long and 90 km wide during the seventh century.Generally, the area is characterized by dry hot summer that extends from June to September and mild wet winter that extends from October to May reflecting continental to subtropical climate. Annual precipitation increases from southwest to the northeast . The average annual rainfall in the area ranges from 42 to 185 mm. The long term average annual rainfall within the marshland at the rainy period is between 40 to 60 days, and the probability of intensive rainfall  is only 25% – 27%. It is note worthy to mention that October to May, have a relatively low precipitation where the maximum precipitation takes place during December, January to March. Al Amarah, Al Basrah and Al Nasiriyah stations show an average annual precipitation of 185.42, 152.4 and 109.22 mm respectively. The average annual temperature is ranging between 22.2˚C and 27.2˚C in the marshland area and it reaches more than 500˚C during summer and sometimes drop below zero during winter . The absolute maximum and minimum are 49˚C and −2.2˚C – 2.8˚C respectively.

In another study, the immersion of the roots of strawberries  in H2O2 increased plant growth, the concentration of photosynthetic pigments, the relative water content in leaves and antioxidant activity . For the previous cases, the exposure of H2O2 in roots increased the resistance of the plants to salinity stress. In another study, the addition of 10 mM H2O2 induced nitric oxide production in Mung Bean. However, previous investigations did not determine the nutritional profile. Plant nutrition studies are carried out using methods that require chemical extraction to determine an element , such as total N   and organic C. Equipment such as plasma spectrometry , or atomic absorption spectroscopy, several elements are analyzed at the same time in plant nutrition.We suggest that multielemental microanalysis by SEM/EDS is the adequate, fast, and precise tool for the determination of nutrients in plant tissue. Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry  is an elemental microanalysis technique widely applied across a broad range of the physical and biological sciences, engineering, technology, and forensic investigations. Electron-excited characteristic X-ray peaks provide identification and quantification for all elements of the periodic table, with the exceptions of H, He, and Li. The previous technique has been used in plant tissue for nutritional diagnosis, to confirm deficiency symptoms or optimal nutritional ranges, in addition, to identify the accumulation of metals in different organs of the plant. In order to evaluate the precision and reliability of the SEM/EDS in the relative content of nutrients. It was experimentally simulated the development of theseedlings under two conditions. Semi-indeterminate growth tomato seedlings Pony Express were exposed hydroponically to different levels of Ca, to see changes in the concentration of nutrients, growth and biomass. As well as the immersion of tomato roots in H2O2 for 8 hours and find out if it affected the characteristics of the roots and elemental content, root, and leaves. And evaluate the differences in growth, biomass and elemental analysis in each organ of the seedlings using SEM coupled to EDS.Once the first experiment is evaluated, and before preparing and adding the Hoagland solution with the different concentrations of Ca.

To each tray, containing distilled water was added 10 mM hydrogen peroxide  and temporarily left for 8 hours with the oxygenation system with tomato seedlings. Subsequently, the Hoagland solution was renewed with calcium concentrations. Seven days later, the growth variables were measured: stem diameter, SPAD value, root length and seedling length. Fresh and dried root, stem and leaf biomass.Once the samples of the treatments with Ca levels and peroxide treatments have been quantified. The processing of the samples was developed according to those described by García-Gaytán et al.  and Bautista et al. : the total fresh biomass was quantified, the it was introduced in an oven  at 60˚C for 72 hours. The resulting dry biomass weight was milled Osterizer blender. The samples, once ground, vertical grow rack were put into capsules for a micro-grinding process. The micro-grinding was carried out in a team  for 9.0 minutes. To obtain a pellet of the particles of the micro-grinding, the sample was subjected to a hydraulic press  at 20 tons of pressure. The resulting tablet was placed in an aluminum mold. The relative content was determined in a scanning electron microscope , equipped with energy-dispersive spectroscopy. The value of the elementary composition corresponds to the average of three replicates between the treatments. The statistical analysis showed that the immersion of roots in peroxide in a period of 8 hours had no effect on the variable root length, stem diameter, chlorophyll content, fresh root biomass and fresh stem biomass . There were statistically significant differences in seedling height, with the 25 mM Ca treatment, the increase was 19.75% compared to the control. There were statistically significant differences for the fresh biomass of leaves with 100 mM Ca, the increase was 60.80% compared to the control . There were no statistically significant differences for the variables of dry biomass of leaf, stem, and root. Astudy by Souri and Dehnavard  on 17-week-old tomato plants found that Ca nitrate significantly affected plant height, leaf area, and number of lateral roots compared to urea, and sulfate of ammonium.When the roots are exposed to peroxide and then restored in nutrient solution, it was shown that those with 25 mM Ca, carbon in leaves increased by 1.46% compared to the control and by 7.33% compared to the treatment with 50 mM Ca . There were no statistically significant differences for O and N. The statistical analysis showed that with 50 mM of Ca in the NS, the concentration of P and K in leaf tissue increased by 44.11% and 29.85% compared to the control .

The Ca concentration in the leaf increased with the 100 mM Ca treatment by 41.29% compared to the control , and higher by 29.35% compared to the Ca concentration in the treatment without peroxide immersion . There were no significant differences for Mg and Cl between treatments. The S and Fe in leaf tissue was significantly higher in the control treatment by 56.14% and 8.33% compared to the treatment with 100 mM Ca . The values in tomato roots once exposed to peroxide and its reconditioning to NS are shown in Table 4. The multielemental microanalysis detected 10 nutrients in the root . The statistical analysis showed that there were no significant statistical differences for C, O, N, P, and S. The root control treatment presented significant statistical differences for K and Cl, as it was higher by 47.61% and 55% with respect to the treatment with 100 mM Ca . The statistical analysis showed that with 100 mM of Ca in the NS, the Ca and Mg in the root increased by 83.48% and 40.47% .Cocks Comb  is an annual growing up to 30 – 90 cm in height. Its inflorescence looks like a spike. The flowers are yellow, pink, red, and purple in color. They are very durable and can be dried and used as dry flower bunch for winter . Cockscombs are propagated by the seeds . It is highly heliotrope and despite it is drought resistant, keeping soil moisture in hot sunny days can help the production of good flowers . Cockscombs are affected by soil salinity in arid and semi-arid regions due to high temperatures and evaporation and low precipitation. Salinity reduces water potential in root zone by reducing available water potential on the one hand and some ions leave toxic impacts on plants’ physiological and biochemical processes on the other hand. Both phenomena disrupt the uptake of the nutrients by the roots, and finally, reduce plants’ growth. Salinity susceptibility of plants  varies at different growth stages . Grime and Campbell  stated that most plants show the highest susceptibility to salinity stress at germination and flowering stages, whereas suggesting seed germination stage as the most susceptible stage . Seed germination percentage and rate are among the most effective factors in salinity stress conditions. One adverse impact of salinity on plants is the reduction of photosynthetic activity that results in the loss of chlorophyll, CO2 uptake, and photosynthetic capacity . Germination percentage and rate are the most important factors among seed germination parameters that are affected by salinity stress . Grime and Campbell  stated that plants are the most susceptible to salinity stress at seed germination and early seedling growth . Edward and Bison  reported that the presence of certain ions and their effect on membrane permeability and germination-related enzymatic activity may accelerate germination under salinity stress . There are various strategies to cope with the negative impacts of stresses. Seed priming is a method to reduce the adverse effects of stresses like salinity  , and to induce initial resistance to environmental stresses. As well, seed priming is a pre-germination physiological method to improve the seed yield and help quicker and more uniform germination .

The examination of the effect of different priming treatments on the germination of watermelon seeds under osmotic and thermal stresses revealed the loss of mean germination time and the increase in final germination of the seeds hydro-primed and primed with potassium nitrate as compared to control . In another study, priming with potassium nitrate improved the germination of the sunflower seeds in salinity stress and hydropriming had the most favorable influence on radicle and plumule growth . As salinity stress was intensified,vertical grow table the sunflower seeds primed with potassium nitrate and sodium chloride exhibited higher emergence rate than the unprimed seeds . Today, the saline lands are growing by improper management and other related activities. As previous studies have shown, seed priming can be a good managerial approach to improve plant growth under environmental stresses, especially soil and irrigation water salinity.Potassium nitrate is a widely used chemical for germination enhancement. The 0.1% and 0.2% solutions are common in conventional germination trials and have been recommended by AOSA and ISTA for the germination trial on most species . The present study aimed at examining the influence of different treatments of salinity and potassium nitrate on germination parameters of Cocks Comb  seeds and determining their salinity resistance.As the salinity is intensified and the electrical conductivity of the solution is increased from control to 12 dS, germination percentage is lost . According to Fenando et al. , the increase in salinity resulted in the loss of germination of Chenopodium quinona . In addition, Rajabi and Poustini  reported that 0 and 3 dS·m−1 salinities were significant different in terms of germination percentage and that the stress caused ion toxicity and the loss of germination . The loss of germination percentage and rate by higher salinity can be related to the excessive presence of cations and anions that, beside causing toxicity, reduce water potential because of their solubility in water, so that despite the existence of water in the environment, their reactionary capacity is occupied by the ions and so, plants cannot uptake them, facing a kind of water deficiency . In Rajabi and Poustini  and Khaleghi and Moallemi , higher salinity and EC decreased root length. Overall, the loss of germination and seedling growth under higher concentrations of salts in the medium is related the physico-chemical effects or toxic-osmotic consequences of the minerals contained in saline solution. In fact, as osmotic pressure is increased by higher salinity of the medium, seed imbibitions are disrupted on the one hand, and higher concentration of anions and cations in the medium becomes toxic to seeds, hindering their germination. Furthermore, the negative impacts of salinity on membrane permeability, cell division, protein synthesis, and enzymatic activity extends mean germination time and reduces germination speed and radicle elongation .

In a study on Aragania spinosa, significant differences were found among salinity levels in germination rate, radicle length, and dry weight and as salinity concentration was increased, germination time was not affected; rather, germination rate, root length, and radicle dry weight were decreased . Also, relatively numerous studies on different plants have shown that higher salinity results in the loss of plumule and radicle length and dry weight as compared to control . The increase in salinity level under in vitro conditions was associated with the loss of germination percentage of all priming treatments, so that 4 dS·m−1 salinity resulted in lower germination percentage in control, hydroprimed seeds and seeds primed with 3 and 6 g·l−1 KNO3 than no salinity by 34%, 14% and 10% . Higher germination percentage and emergence of primed seeds under salinity conditions are related to the fulfillment of some germination processes during seed priming including imbibitions and the synthesis of nucleic acids  which shortens germination time and then, seeds would need shorter time for germination that unprimed seeds under salinity conditions. Furthermore, mean germination time and emergence are important factors in improving emergence percentage of primed seeds under stress conditions as compared to control  seeds. It has been suggested that faster exit of radicle and plumule from primed seeds is caused by more efficient water uptake and metabolic activity during germination  and that higher water uptake capability of primed seeds vs. unprimed seeds influences germination percentage and rate positively . Also, accelerated germination of primed seeds can be related to higher cell division rate in these seeds  and the stimulation of some metabolic activities engaged in the first phase of germination .

At university level, the action of volunteer students from the Faculty of Agronomy, UBA, as trainers in organizing and monitoring the production of home gardens in peri-urban settlements Escobar  stands out. Horticulturists belong to a low socioeconomic status and women play an important role in managing the orchards. The feminization of labor is an important factor, and training by university stakeholders has allowed convert them in protagonists and organizers in the neighborhoods. This can be seen in Feminist Anthropology and Gender, within what is known as the feminization of agriculture, especially in cases of intensive production. Women often take responsibility for family support and accept training and organizational tasks with pride and dedication . Student employment is a part of everyday life in a lot of countries in Europe. Students are often working within the institutions as tutors or student staff. At least here is a responsibility for the institution to give equal chances for women and men. Recruiting procedures should stick to the aim of reaching an equal number of male and female student staff in the institution. This is extremely important in positions, where jobs as student staff give an opportunity for further employment in the institution and an academic career . The fact of having to deal with a job in the real world is a complex moment for recent graduates, who sometimes doubt their real capacity to cope with a changing landscape.The signals of the employment system are complex, but many experts and stakeholders agree in the main directions for higher education: greater attention to generic competencies, social skills and personality development, prepare students for the growing globalization, using means beyond classroom teaching . Higher education must be well informed of the expectations of the outside world and respond to the need to prepare students for indeterminate future job tasks, new forms of employment, and to contribute to innovation in society.

The skills needed for particular position are constantly evolving so it must prepare graduates to be “trainable at work”. It should strengthen the professional nature of higher education programs, with general skills of students, especially in scenarios in which future training needs may still be unknown . Sustainable development involves new systems of thought,dutch bucket hydroponic which requires creativity and critical thinking. That is why plans to implement a methodology entrepreneur “role playing” which allows a search to develop a solution to a practical problem, approaching it from the point of view intellectual and emotional, with a technique of deliberate thought based on the separation of different types of thought and emotions are considered essential to the ability to think. This type of work is related to brain structure: the existence of the neocortex, rational brain, and the limbic system, also called midbrain portion of the brain immediately below the cerebral cortex. In humans, these are the centers of emotion, this is where the different emotions are processed. The methodology  is based on separate different aspects of thinking: information, emotion, negative-logical thoughts, optimism, creativity and control. This methodology has been applied in a graduate class in Environmental Management . It is an alternative to the western system of discussion, by creating roles for participants. Hats colors representing different types of thought to the participants, and there is a clear definition of the rules. The organization of work involved the following proposed sequence of hats: white -yellow -black -green -red -blue . The “Six Thinking Hats” allowed driving thought, expressing different opinions, deviate from the usual roles at any meeting and lead people to think in different ways on a given topic. This might be a desirable approach in the case of a group to study the environmental impact of a project, to discover positive and negative aspects on the environment, and propose a contingency plan.It is necessary for new professionals to adopt independent positions, no static patterns, their integration in inter-disciplinary teams, to search for the answer to a problem that is usually not unique, offering original and innovative alternatives. This work is very useful in graduate programs in those involved are graduates of various disciplines, such as in the Specialization in Environmental Management in Agrifood Systems, where different professional interact: agronomists, lawyers, economists, environmental scientists, graduates in landscape science, biochemists, graduates in food science. Real scenarios are proposed and carried out in groups: environmental impact assessments in high-impact productions, as feedlots or agribusiness as chicken slaughterhouse. Also asLike many African countries’ economies, Zambia’s economy has continued to be predominantly agriculture based.

According to the country’s Central Statistical Office , of the 56 percent who live in the rural areas , 97.4 percent are directly engaged in agriculture for their livelihood1 . With unemployment at about 50 percent, agriculture is the only potential source of income within the informal sector employing about 85 percent of the 3.4 million people in the labour force . The sector mainly consists of smallholder farmers who make up about 52 percent of the country’s farmers and contribute about 80 percent of the nation’s staple food, maize . However, despite their aggregate contribution to the nation’s staple food supply and gross domestic product , smallholder farmers still account for over a third of the nation’s hungry and poor . Several factors have been cited for the low welfare levels among smallholder farmers including concentration on low-market value staples, low education levels, low productivity, poor health conditions, lack of market access and credit facilities, poor infrastructure and lack of productive assets . Nevertheless, evidence has shown that those who produce high-value export commodities earn relatively higher incomes than their counterparts who mainly produce cereals . For instance, although Zambia’s total agricultural production largely consists of cereals, high value agricultural exports make a significant contribution of 40 percent annually to total agricultural output . In addition,  reveal that despite the overconcentration on cereal production, high-value fresh produce accounts for about 39 percent of total household income among producing households. The sub-sector has also been characterized by a steady growth over the past two decades, mainly in response to the government’s significant support and private investment. In 2006, non-traditional sessments of carcinogenic risk of inhaling heavy metals are discussed.agricultural exports increased by about 25 percent over the previous year, recording earnings of more than USD 650 million . Zambia’s non-traditional exports have included sugar, cotton lint, horticulture, soya beans and other primary agricultural produce with textile, engineering products, cement and handcrafts being the other products . Other significant export products are fertilizers, hydrated lime, coal, tea, maize, skin leather, asbestos pipes/sheets, groundnuts, mushrooms, fresh eggs and day old chicks, paper, aluminium wires and cables, sorghum, clothing and blankets . Of the agricultural commodities, export horticulture, consisting mainly of cut flowers and fresh vegetables, earned the highest foreign exchange over the period 1990-2010 . However, unlike other agricultural exports, export horticulture has declined sharply after reaching the peak in 2006, exhibiting high volatility in both production and export volumes .  reveal that the share of export horticulture to total non-traditional exports has declined from 11.1 percent in 2003 to about 1.2 percent in 2009 representing a 64 percent  reduction in the industry’s income. This identifies the need to understand the major determinants of the industry’s growth and contribution to the nation’s export earnings. A number of studies have considered the impact of export horticulture on poverty in Africa. A national survey by  in Zambia has shown that smallholders who produce fresh produce are more likely to move out of poverty compared to their counterparts who mostly produce cereals. The study found farmers who sold horticultural products earning annual mean per capita incomes of USD 183 compared to USD 139 for non-sellers. Similarly,  in Kenya found that households involved in export horticulture were better off, particularly in rural areas.

They further contend that enabling more households to participate in the sector could reduce poverty substantially. A similar result was found by  in Senegal, who also argued that the sub-sector could cut regional poverty by 12 percent and extreme poverty by half. Furthermore, since the industry is highly labour intensive, horticulture production has been proposed as a pro-poor development strategy in many African countries . In Zambia, the sub-sector is believed to be among the government’s poverty reduction programs in agriculture that can substantially reduce poverty . According to Medina-Smith , dutch buckets system countries that have relied on outward oriented development strategies have done better over the medium and long term than inward-looking ones. For agriculture-based economies like Zambia’s, such an outward oriented development strategy implies development of traditional agricultural exports and diversification into non-traditional exports of different price elasticities . However, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on the drivers of export hor- ticulture and producers’ responsiveness to changes in price and non-price incentives. A better understanding of the factors affecting horticultural export performance is central in crafting informed decisions and interventions. Most studies have focused on characterizing domestic horticulture supply and value chains, and have not provided information on the important determinants of export horticulture in Zambia . According to , deficiencies in information and analysis have led to policy and market failures in developing countries. The study reported in this paper uses annual time series data from 1990 to 2010 and error correction models to identify determinants of Zambia’s flower exports. Overall, the results suggest that in addition to the determinants of production, flower exports are equally determined by policies that affect a country’s trade position. Particularly, the results imply that programs, policies and practices that promote trade are clearly required and important ingredient for both farmer export decisions and the competitiveness of the industry. In the rest of the paper, we first review export horticultural production and export trends in Section 2, followed by a discussion of the determinants of agricultural exports in Section 3. Empirical methods and data sources are presented in Section 4, followed by results and conclusions in Sections 5 and 6. Zambia has been exporting horticultural products since the early 1980s. The industry was launched by comercial farmers, who needed foreign currency to import equipment for their main activities, beef, dairy and cereal production . However, the industry only expanded rapidly in the 1990s and early 2000s due largely to an increase in the number of producers, raising export volumes of vegetables and flowers from USD 6 million in 1994 to over USD 33 million in 2001 when the sector employed about 10,000 people . This rapid growth was mainly due to the support of the European Investment Bank  through the Export Development Project  which provided long-term credit to some investors and cold storage facilities at airports that allowed producers to import the necessary but locally unavailable inputs, often under subsidized air freight charges .

At its peak in 2006, the horticulture industry employed over 12,000 people of whom more than 50 percent were women widely engaged in growing and packaging stages of the value chain . At that point the industry was generating annual earnings in excess of USD 50 million . During the same time, about 95 percent of the domestically produced fresh produce was exported to the EU, with the UK, the Netherlands and Germany, among others, as the main destinations . Small quantities were exported to South Africa, Australia and the Far East . Most of these gains have, however, been lost during the past seven years mainly due to the collapse in 2004 of the largest horticultural export company, Agriflora . The bankruptcy of Agriflora not only deprived smallholder farmers who participated under contract with the horticultural firm of reliable income, transport logistics, and technical support but also caused most of them to stop production . This development led to a reduction in the number of people that were employed at every stage in the chain from 16,000 to about 5000, causing output and exports to reduce. In addition, the industry has continued to face other challenges such as exchange rate fluctuations , high air freight costs due to high cost of aviation fuel in the country  and high operating costs that exceed levels observed in most other countries in the region .