Current climate change is projected to have significant effects on temperature and precipitation profiles, increasing the incidence and severity of drought. Drought is the single largest abiotic stress factor leading to reduced crop yields. Given the large share of water use in the agriculture sector and very low efficiency in this sector, selection and development of the new strategies to impr...

Desertification is currently a major concern, and vast regions have already been devastated in the arid zones of many countries. Combined application of cyanobacteria with soil fixing chemicals is a novel method of restoring desertified areas. Three cyanobacteria, Nostoc sp. Vaucher ex Bornet & Flahault, Phormidium sp. Kützing ex Gomont and Scytonema arcangeli Bornet ex Flahault were isolated a...

BACKGROUND Superabsorbent hydrogels show a large potential in a wide array of applications due to their unique properties. Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) is a commercially available water-soluble cellulose derivative of major interest in the hydrogel synthesis. High-energy irradiation allows the chemical crosslinking without the use of crosslinking agents, while the introduction of other natural ...

Most concrete currently used in pavement is based on Portland cement (PC), being responsible for 8-10% of total CO 2 emission. Moreover, external pavements are subjected to exposure classes XF4 and XD3 which related corrosion freeze-thaw. Freeze-thaw resistance an important durability property concrete, especially that the de-icing salts. This study was designed explore freeze-thaw mass scaling...

today, environment protection and safe crop production are very important. the management of soil elements by bio-fertilizers is considered as important point for sustainable agriculture. mode of action of fertilizers is very different in drought stress conditions. to evaluate biological fertilizers (agrohumic, nitroxin, superabsorbent and vermicompost) and compare them with current chemical fe...

A novel pH-responsive superabsorbent hydrogel based on gelatin was prepared through crosslinking copolymerization of poly (acrylic acid) and poly (itaconic acid). The copolymerization conditions including monomers, initiator, gelatin and crosslinker concentration, reaction temperature, and neutralization percent were systematically optimized to achieve a hydrogel with swelling capacity as high ...