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Two field experiments were conducted during the two successive winter seasons of 2020-2021 and 2021-
2022 on the experimental farm belonging to the Central Laboratory for Agricultural Climate, Agricultural
Research Center, Giza Governorate, and Egypt. The study comprised three irrigation levels (50, 75, and 100%
of estimated water requirement based on climatic data) and four soil cover treatments namely transparent
polyethylene mulch (PE), rice straw (RS), date palm fiber wastes (DPf) and control (bare soil). Hot pepper
seeds (Capsicum annuum L.), Super Noura F1 hybrid. Hot pepper transplants were cultivated in the field in
the first week of September for both seasons. The main results show that using 100% water level led to
increased vegetative and yield of hot pepper during both seasons followed by using 75% while deficit
irrigation gave the lowest hot pepper growth and yield. Using 75% water level gave the highest water use
efficiency. Using PE mulch led to increasing the soil temperature during the growth season followed by rice
straw mulch whereas the date palm fiber wastes mulch decrease soil temperature during both seasons.
Moreover, PE treatment led to an increase in the growth and yield of hot pepper during both seasons. Control
treatment combined with a 50% water level decreased the growth and productivity of hot pepper during the
two seasons.

Background Sudangrass (Sorghum sudanense) is a major biomass producer for livestock feed and biofuel in many countries. It has a wide range of adaptations for growing on marginal lands under biotic and abiotic stresses. The immature inflorescence is an explant with high embryogenic competence and is frequently used to regenerate different sorghum cultivars. Caffeic acid O-methyl transferase (COMT) is a key enzyme in the lignin biosynthesis pathway, which limits ruminant digestion of forage cell walls and is a crucial barrier in the conversion of plant biomass to bioethanol. Genome editing by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutagenesis without a transgenic footprint will accelerate the
improvement and facilitate regulatory approval and commercialization of biotech crops.

Under sandy soil conditions, increasing the efficiency of potassium (K) fertilizers is considered to be a major limiting factor for improving the productivity and quality of fruit crops. In this context, utilizing nanotechnology has emerged as a novel technique to increase the efficiency of K applications. In our study, two field trials were conducted, in two consecutive seasons (2019/2020 and 2020/2021), to compare the effects of nano-chitosan loaded with K as a foliar treatment with those of conventional soil applications of K on plant growth, yield, and quality of strawberry plants grown in sandy soil. Strawberry plants were treated with 12 different treatments, which were replicated three times in a randomized complete block design in each growing season. Potassium sulfate (K2SO4, 48% K2O) was applied to the soil at a rate of 150.0 kg acre?1 (recommended rate, 100%). Meanwhile, the spraying of nano-chitosan loaded with K was applied at 1000 mg L?1 as a control. In addition, K2SO4 was applied either individually or in combination at the rate of 112.5 or 75.0 kg acre?1 with four nano-chitosan-K dosages (250, 500, 750, and 1000 mg L?1). After harvesting, soil samples were collected and prepared to determine K fractions. As well, plant samples were collected to determine the vegetative growth parameters and the foliage content of NPK and chlorophyll. Eventually, the yield traits and quality parameters were evaluated. A principal component analysis was conducted to determine the interrelationships of the treatments’ averages and their effects on yield components and quality traits. A combined analysis was performed for the two studied seasons and the values were the mean of six replications. The results indicated that the application of common K fertilizer (150.0 kg K2SO4 acre?1) resulted in the maximum increase in soluble and exchangeable K in the soil, which was comparable to those observed with 112.5 kg K2SO4 acre?1 + 1000 mg L?1 nano-chitosan-K and 112.5 K2SO4 acre?1 + 750 mg L?1 nano-chitosan-K. The total yield, marketable yield, and fruit firmness were all significantly increased by the latter two treatments compared to the control group. Furthermore, plots treated with 112.5 kg K2SO4 acre?1 + 1000 mg L?1 nano-chitosan-K significantly increased the total soluble solids, vitamin C levels, acidity, total sugar, and anthocyanin levels in strawberry fruits. In conclusion, under sandy soil conditions, the utilization of nanoparticles could be an indispensable tool for manipulating fertilization management when cultivating strawberries. The K status of the soil was improved by applying 75% of the recommended dose of mineral K in combination with 1000 or 750 mg L?1 of nano-chitosan-K, without compromising strawberry yield or quality.

The blister beetles Meloe proscarabaeus Linnaeus, 1758 (Coleoptera: Meloidae), is a
dangerous pest that threatens the agriculture of faba bean fields in El-Farafra Oasis,
New Valley Governorate. In this study, an evaluation of the efficiency of different
pit-fall trap colors for capturing adults of the blister beetles has been performed in
faba bean (Vicia faba L.) fields. The experiment revealed that the green and red
traps showed the highest number of captured beetles during the 2020 and 2021
seasons, which was highly significant to other traps’ colors. On the other hand,
black, blue, gray, white, and yellow traps showed insignificant differences in the
number of captured beetles. Concerning the sex of trapped beetles; it could be
highlighted that the green trap attracted more female beetles than males with
significant differences. Inversely, the red color trap attracted more males than
females with significant differences. Approximately 40% of the captured beetle
population was recorded in March, while only 11% were trapped in April. A Green
pit-fall trap could be deemed a new estimating assay to suppress M. proscarabaeus
adults in faba bean fields since the color trap variation affected the number of
captured beetles. Therefore, color traps can be relied upon as an effective method
in controlling beetles without the number of beetles reaching the limit of economic
damage and in a manner that is safe for the environment.

Egypt faces wheat insecurity due to the limited cropped area of agricultural lands and the limited horizontal expansion disproportionate to the population increase. The issue of food security, crop consumption rates, and self-sufficiency is considered one of the most important problems facing countries that seek to improve sustainable agriculture and economic development to eliminate poverty or hunger. This research aims to use data mining classification techniques and decision tree algorithms to predict the food security status of strategic agricultural crops (e.g., wheat) as an Agro intelligence technique. Also, the outputs and extracted information from the prediction process will help decision-makers to take an appropriate decision to improve the self-sufficiency rate of wheat, especially in epidemic crises and hard times such as COVID-19, political, and economic disturbances. On the other hand, the research investigates the patterns of wheat production and consumption for the Egyptian population from 2005 to 2020. This research presents a methodology to predict the food security status of strategic agricultural crops through the case study of wheat in Egypt. The proposed model predicts the food security status of wheat with an accuracy of 92.3% to determine the self-sufficiency ratio of wheat in Egypt during the years from 2015 to 2020. Also, it identifies the factors affecting the food security status of wheat in Egypt, their impact on determining and improving the food security state and its rate of self-sufficiency.

Horizontal agricultural expansion is one of the most important pillars of
the national economy in Egypt, so the country makes strenuous efforts
to make optimal use of agricultural resources, and despite these efforts,
the climate prevents it
.Recently, global warming has increased and
climate change is expected to worsen the frequency, intensity, and
impacts of some types of extreme weather events that affected mango
productivity during the last years, which led to a decrease in
productivity by about 37%, with a value of financial losses amounting
to 4.8 billion pounds in 2021.Therefore, the research aims to estimate
the impact of extreme weather on mango productivity during the last
three years (2021-2019) at four studied governorates representing 75%
of the total area of mango in Egypt. The Fixed Effect Cross of Panel
Data Model was adopted as the appropriate model, to illustrate the
impact of the phenomena on the productivity of mangoes. The results
show that there is a statistical significance and a negative effect for both
the minimum and maximum temperatures, as productivity decreases by
about 1.05%, and 1.79% with an increase in each of the minimum and
maximum temperatures by 1%, respectively. The negative impact has
been shown on the governorates of Buhaira and Ismailia. Also, the
individual effect was studied for each month,it was found that there was
a statistically significant negative effect of the minimum and maximum
temperatures for the months of flowering and fruiting.

Abstract: The most dangerous insect pest of planted date palm trees in numerous countries is the red palm
weevil (RPW) Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Oliv.) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). Current work aimed to evaluate
the effect of (RPW) infestation on some biochemical characteristics of infested date palm cultivars defensive
oxidation enzymes, Peroxidase, Polyphenol oxidase enzyme activity and photosynthetic pigments content
Chlorophyll a and b in infested date palm cultivars from three governorates, Giza, El Beheira and New Valley
compared to healthy (non infested) date palm from the same cultivars. Obtained results indicated that the
infestation of RPW to different date palm cultivars affected oxidative enzymes, peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase
activities and pigments, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b contents of the infested cultivars. Data showed
significant increase in peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase activities of infested date palm cultivars (Zagloul,
Siwi and Bartamoda) with red palm weevil compared to healthy date palm of the same cultivar. While, the
obtained results of chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b recorded significant decrease for the tested cultivars
(Zagloul, Siwi and Bartamoda) compared to the healthy date palm of each cultivar. Through these results, it can
be concluded that the infestation with RPW to various date palm cultivars, whether the fresh, semi dry and dry
cultivars represented by Zaghloul, Siwi and Bartamoda, respectively led to a significant increase in the activity
of some defensive enzymes peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase activities in the infested date palm, cultivars
at the same time, there is a decrease in the level of pigments, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b of infested palms
compared to healthy date palm from each cultivar separately.

Abstract: One of the most significant fruits in the Middle East is the date palm. Dates are vulnerable to
infestation by a variety of pests, including, Fiorinia date scale, Fiorinia phoenicis Balachowsky (Hemiptera-
Diaspididae), which infests the palm fronds and sucks the sap and the infestation extends to the date fruits in
the case of severe infestation and leads to making the fruits unacceptable for consumption. This experiment
aimed to study the population density of date palm scale F. phoenicis on three different date palm cultivars,
they represent the three main groups of date palm cultivars in Egypt to determine the proper time to be
controlled and evaluation of some pesticides and their alternatives. Furthermore, the levels of several chemical
substances (including total phenols, proline, total indoles, amino acids, total protein, peroxidase, polyphenol
oxidase, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b) in the leaves of both infested and healthy tested date palm cultivars
were quantified. The difference in the anatomical structure of the leaflet was also studied in the three tested
palm cultivars. The results showed that the population density of the F. phoenicis recorded three peaks of the
three insect stages for each year of the two studied years 2021/2022 and 2022/2023. The three peaks resulted
in three overlapping generations during each year of the two studied years as follows: early summer, late
summer and fall generations. The results also showed that there was no significant difference between the
insect population in the two years of the study, while there were significant differences between the insects
population on the tested date palm cultivars, where the Siwi cultivar recorded the highest number, followed
by the Bartamoda cultivar and then the lowest number of insects was the Samani cultivar. Obtained pest
dynamics over the three date palm cultivars showed as three intervals of activity per year regardless palm
cultivar. Effect of maximum, minimum temperature and % RH was evaluated over each interval (as partial
regression) as well as plant ages (as third degree of polynomial) were determined. Both models were significant
with superiority to plant age model. The results of the control experiment on the most affected date palm
cultivar, Siwi showed that average reduction rate for the three checks after 2 , 4 and 6 weeks, in case of the
mixture of (New oil 95% EC + Kimithrene 25% SC) showed the highest efficiency in reducing the insects
population with an average of 88.58%, followed by Palmito gold 25% EC with an average of 81.43%, then
Admiral with an average of 80.89%, while the effect of the moderate reduction of the insect population of the
pesticides Kemithrene 25% SC, New oil 95% EC and Prev-AM 6% (W/V) with averages of 76.74, 75.02 and
73.78% respectively, it had the least effect on reducing the number of Fresh oil 95% EC with an average of
65.23%. F. phoenicis' responses to the tested treatments at various life stages revealed that the nymphal stage
was the most vulnerable, followed by adults and gravid females. Obtained data indicated that the infested date
palm tree leaves contained high significant quantity of proline, total phenols, peroxidase and polyphenol
oxidase in leaves, whereas total indoles, amino acids, total protein, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b contents

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is related to the family Arecaceae, which is considered one of the most ancient economically cultivated crops. Mainly, it is grown in the arid regions of the Middle East and North Africa. The crucial matter in maintaining the diverse number of date palm cultivars in Egypt is its biodiversity conservation of it. In order to progress programs and cultivar characterization and conservation to combat genetic erosion, we must estimate the genetic variability and right date palm cultivar identification this is the important point to present a comprehensive investigation for Egyptian date palm genome variations and develop novel DNA markers (SNPs and indels) in four date palm cultivars using SOLiD sequencing.

Neurexin1 gene is essential for formulating synaptic cell adhesion to establish synapses. In a previous work, 38 SNPs in Neurexin1 recoded in mental disorder patients have been collected. Five computational prediction tools have been used to predict the effect of SNPs on protein function and stability. Only four SNPs in Neurexin1? have deleterious prediction results from at least four tools. The current work aims to use molecular dynamic simulation (MD) to study the effects of the four mutations on Neurexin1? both on the whole protein as well as identifying affected domains by mutations. A protein model that consists of five domains out of six domains in the real protein was used; missing residues were added, and model was tested for quality. The MD experiment has last for 1.5 ?s where four parameters have been used for studying the whole protein in addition to three more parameters for the domain analysis. The whole protein study has shown that two mutations E427I for Autism and R525C for non-syndromic intellectual disability (NSID) have distinctive behavior across the four used parameters. Domain study has confirmed the previous results where the five domains of R525C have acted differently from wild type (WT), while E427I has acted differently for four domains from wild type. The other two mutations D104H and G379E have three domains that only acted differently from wild type. The fourth domain of all mutations has an obvious distinctive behavior from wild type. Further study of E427I and R525C mutations can lead to better understanding of autism and NSID.