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Adaptation to a repeated restraint stress schedule was monitored in ethanol-treated and control rats. A single episode of 2 h restraint decreased food intake in both control and ethanol-treated rats. The decreases in control rats were not observed following the 5th daily restraint of 2 h/day, suggesting that adaptation has occurred. Ethanol-treated rats, however, exhibited decreased food intake even after 5th daily restraint of 2 h/day. Ethanol administration decreased weekly but not daily cumulative food intake in unrestrained rats. Food intakes of ethanol-treated and control restrained rats were comparable following 1st-3rd daily restraints, but were smaller in ethanol-treated rats following the 4th and 5th daily restraints. Open-field ambulatory activities monitored 24 h after the 5th daily restraint on the 6th day were comparable in control restrained and unrestrained rats. Ethanol-treated and control unrestrained rats also exhibited comparable ambulation, but ethanol-treated rats exhibited smaller activity than control restrained or ethanol-treated unrestrained rats. Fluid intakes of ethanol and control rats were comparable during the 2 weeks of ethanol administration, but daily restraint schedule decreased ethanol intake. The findings show adaptation to repeated restraint in control rats and inability of ethanol-treated rats to adapt in the stress schedule. These findings imply that excessive alcohol consumption may impair adaptation to stress and thus conceivably precipitate depression.

The energy crisis and increasing fossil fuel prices due to increasing demands, controlled supplies, and global political unrest have adversely affected agricultural productivity and farm profitability across the globe and Pakistan is not an exception. To cope with this issue of energy deficiency in agriculture, the best alternate strategy is to take advantage of biomass and solid waste potential. In low-income countries such as Pakistan, the greenhouse heating system mostly relies on fossil fuels such as diesel, gasoline, and LPG. Farmers are reluctant to adopt greenhouse farming due to the continuously rising prices of the fossil fuels. To reduce reliance on fossil fuel energy, the objective of this study was to utilize biomass from crop residues to develop an efficient and economical biomass furnace that could heat greenhouses to protect the crop from seasonal temperature effects. Modifications made to the biomass furnace, such as the incorporation of insulation around the walls of the furnace, providing turbulators in fire tubes, and a secondary heat exchanger (heat recovery system) in the chimney, have increased the thermal efficiency of the biomass furnace by about 21.7%. A drastic reduction in hazardous elements of flue gases was observed due to the addition of a water scrubber smoke filter in the exit line of the flue. The efficiency of the biomass furnace ranged from 50.42% to 54.18%, whereas the heating efficiency of the diesel-fired heater was 71.19%. On the basis of the equal heating value of the fuels, the unit material and operating costs of the biomass furnace for wood, cotton stalks, corn cobs, and cow dung were USD 2.04, 1.86, 1.78, and 2.00 respectively against USD 4.67/h for the diesel heater. The capital and operating costs of the biomass furnace were about 50% and 43.7% of the diesel heater respectively, resulting in a seasonal saving of about 1573 USD. The produced smoke was tested as environmental friendly under the prescribed limits of the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS), which shows potential for its large-scale adoption and wider applications.

Sustainable food supply has gained considerable consumer concern due to the high percentage of spoilage microorganisms. Food industries need to expand advanced technologies that can maintain the nutritive content of foods, enhance the bio-availability of bioactive compounds, provide environmental and economic sustainability, and fulfill consumers’ requirements of sensory characteristics. Heat treatment negatively affects food samples’ nutritional and sensory properties as bioactives are sensitive to high-temperature processing. The need arises for non-thermal processes to reduce food losses, and sustainable developments in preservation, nutritional security, and food safety are crucial parameters for the upcoming era. Non-thermal processes have been successfully approved because they increase food quality, reduce water utilization, decrease emissions, improve energy efficiency, assure clean labeling, and utilize by-products from waste food. These processes include pulsed electric field (PEF), sonication, high-pressure processing (HPP), cold plasma, and pulsed light. This review describes the use of HPP in various processes for sustainable food processing. The influence of this technique on microbial, physicochemical, and nutritional properties of foods for sustainable food supply is discussed. This approach also emphasizes the limitations of this emerging technique. HPP has been successfully analyzed to meet the global requirements. A limited global food source must have a balanced approach to the raw content, water, energy, and nutrient content. HPP showed positive results in reducing microbial spoilage and, at the same time, retains the nutritional value. HPP technology meets the essential requirements for sustainable and clean labeled food production. It requires limited resources to produce nutritionally suitable foods for consumers’ health.

Land use and climate change always induce significant changes in various parameters of the hydrologic cycle (e.g., surface runoff, infiltration, evapotranspiration). The Wadi El-Assiuti downstream area in the Eastern Desert of Egypt is one of the most promising areas for development that is suffering from insufficient water availability and inadequate water quality for different purposes. The main goal of this research is to evaluate the changes in groundwater quality, land use, and climate in association with geology and flooding during three periods within the years 1997–2019 in the downstream portion of Wadi El-Assiuti in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, using spatiotemporal variation associated with groundwater hydrochemical analysis and GIS techniques. About 133 groundwater samples were collected to examine groundwater quality changes over time. Different groundwater quality indices were calculated, and the results show that TDS levels of groundwater in the study area ranged between 1080–2780 mg/L, 672–4564 mg/L, and 811–6084 mg/L, while SAR levels varied within 6.15–15.34, 1.83–28.87, and 1.43–30.57 for the years 1997, 2007, and 2019, respectively. Both RSBC and SSP values exhibited significantly increasing trends over time. KR values were within 1.36–4.06 in 1997, 0.58–14.09 in 2007, and 0.35–14.92 in 2019; MAR values were within 6.9–45.2 in 1997, 20.79–71.5 in 2007, and 17.71–75.81 in 2019; and PI values were within 60.16–83 in 1997, 45.56–101.03 in 2007, and 42.51–148.88 in 2019. Across the entire study area, ongoing land use changes increased from 1.1% in 1997 to 4.1% in 2019. Findings pointed to the significant contribution of the deep Nubian Sandstone Aquifer to the groundwater aquifer at Wadi El-Assiuti through fractures and deep faults. Given the climatic conditions from 1997–2019, these changes may have affected water quality in shallow aquifers, especially with increasing evaporation. Realizing the spatiotemporal variation of the aquifer recharge system, land use development, and climate change clearly would help in water resource management. This study revealed that flooding events, deep-seated geologic structures, and land use development associated with human activities have the highest impact on groundwater quality.

The food and agricultural industries have numerous practical advantages to be gained from the use of cold plasma technology. This paper attempts to showcase the possible uses of cold plasma in the food sector, while also highlighting the most recent developments and market trends. The efficiency of cold plasma in enhancing food products’ quality and shelf life has been demonstrated in several investigations. This review has concentrated on current research into how this technology affects various food chain production stages. Cold plasma has become a cutting-edge non-thermal technique that can be used to ensure food safety. The precise mechanism underlying the effectiveness of cold plasma is still unclear. Understanding these mechanisms and potential elements that can restrict or increase their effectiveness and results is crucial to further enhancing and implementing cold plasma treatment in food processing. The main objective of this review is to investigate the use of plasma, its exceptional characteristics, and its advantages in safe, sustainable food production. In particular, this review summarizes recent studies on the use of cold plasma for microorganisms and pesticides treatment, compiling them and discussing their content. As reported in the literature, a critical point has also been reviewed about some diverse plasma configurations. A comparative study of the efficacy of cold plasma in environmental applications (microorganisms/pesticides) has also been reviewed from the literature.

Agriculture is the largest sector of Pakistan’s economy, contributing almost 22% to the GDP and employing almost 45% of the total labor force. The two largest food crops, wheat and rice, contribute 3.1% and 1.4% to the GDP, respectively. The objective of this research was to calculate the energy return on investment (EROI) of these crops on a national scale from 1999 to 2009 to understand the size of various energy inputs and to discuss their contributions to the energy output. Energy inputs accounted for within the cropping systems included seed, fertilizer, pesticide, human labor, tractor diesel, irrigation pump electricity and diesel, the transport of fertilizer and pesticide, and the embodied energy of tractors and irrigation pumps. The largest per-hectare energy inputs to wheat were nitrogen fertilizer (52.6%), seed (17.9%), and tractor diesel (9.1%). For rice, the largest per-hectare energy inputs were nitrogen fertilizer (32%), tube well diesel (19.8%), and pesticide (17.6%). The EROI of wheat showed a gradual downward trend between 2000 and 2006 of 21.3%. The trend was erratic thereafter. Overall, it ranged from 2.7 to 3.4 with an average of 2.9 over the 11-year study period. The overall trend was fairly consistent compared to that of rice which ranged between 3.1 and 4.9, and averaged 3.9. Rice’s EROI dipped sharply in 2002, was erratic, and remained below four until 2007. It rose sharply after that. As energy inputs increased, wheat outputs increased, but rice outputs decreased slightly. Rice responded to inputs with greater output and an increase in EROI. The same was not true for wheat, which showed little change in EROI in the face of increasing inputs. This suggests that additional investments of energy in rice production are not improving yields but for wheat, these investments are still generating benefits. The analysis shows quantitatively how fossil energy is a key driver of the Pakistani agricultural system as it traces direct and indirect energy inputs to two major food crops.

Institutional linkages and information flow between agricultural organizations play a critical role in addressing sustainability issues and promoting agrarian innovation. The aim of this study was to evaluate institutional relations and information between the various actors within the agricultural knowledge and information system (AKIS). The study focused on eight actors within the AKIS in Dakahlia governorate of Egypt, namely policy, extension, research, agricultural cooperatives, higher education, secondary education, credit, and the private sector. Thus, the survey sample included 11 representatives of each actor with 88 respondents. Data were collected by a standardized questionnaire distributed online. The graph theoretical technique was used for the quantitative assessment of information flow and institutional linkages established among actors. The findings indicated that agricultural extension ranked first about their real cause and effect on the rest of the system, having a value of 7.95. Two critical information pathways within the AKIS sustained innovation outcomes: (1) higher education–extension–agricultural cooperatives, (2) research–extension–agricultural cooperatives. The results also revealed that agricultural cooperatives ranked second after the extension component on the extent of supplying information to other members in the AKIS, with a value of 4.8. In contrast, the highest component received information from other components (7.6). By analyzing institutional linkages and information flow, this article gives insights to policymakers on the mechanisms that still need to be strengthened and the information gaps between actors to address the challenges of sustainable rural development.