Seed priming with zinc oxide nanoparticles downplayed ultrastructural damage and improved photosynthetic apparatus in maize under cobalt stress.

In this era of rapid industrialization and modernization, contamination of the environment with heavy metals from natural and anthropogenic sources without proper disposal treatment is a global concern. Huge amounts of toxic heavy metals (HM) released through industrial, agricultural, and military practices into the environment lead to pernicious effects on soils, water, and air. Deposited toxic HM beyond certain permissible limits is producing an obnoxious effect not only on the soil but also on human and animal health. Application of physical and chemical processes for HM remediation is expensive, laborious, and non-sustainable. Under metal stress, soil microbes have developed various mechanisms to cope with metal toxicity. They can accumulate, alter, or detoxify HM. Therefore, the exploitation of microbes acquiring metal detoxifying traits in addition to plant beneficial attributes make the metal remediation process eco-friendly and cost-effective. Plant–microbe interactions aiming at HM stress may provide a new way to existing phytoremediation and rhizoremediation uses. This review includes a brief insight into heavy metal pollution, their effect on plant biology, and metal-microbe association and highlights the various mechanisms of microbes mediated heavy metal detoxification in plants.

An Insight into Microbes Mediated Heavy Metal Detoxification in Plants: a Review

Neuro-intelligent mappings of hybrid hydro-nanofluid Al2O3–Cu–H2O model in porous medium over rotating disk with viscous dissolution and Joule heating

The present study is related to design a novel multi-fractional multi-singular Lane–Emden model (MFMS-LEM) by keeping the ideas of the literature LEM and by extension of the work of doubly singular multi-fractional LEM. This mathematical novel MFMS-LEM is numerically treated by applying the fractional Meyer neuro-evolution intelligent solver (FMNEICS). The optimization is performed using the mutual heuristics of fractional Mayer wavelet neural networks (FMW-NN), the global search aptitude of genetic algorithms (GAs) and interior-point algorithm (IPA), i.e., FMW-NN-GAIPA. The derivation steps, details of the singular points, fractional terms, shape factors and singular points are also provided. The modeling strength of MW-NN is implemented to characterize the novel model in the sagacity of mean squared error of objective function and network optimization is performed with the integrated capability of GAIPA. The authentication, perfection and verification of FMNEICS is checked for three diverse cases of the novel model which are conventional via relative studies through the reference solutions based on accuracy, stability, robustness and convergence procedures. Furthermore, the explanations via the statistical measures validate the value of the designed stochastic solver FMW-NN-GAIPA.

Solution of novel multi-fractional multi-singular Lane–Emden model using the designed FMNEICS

Valley and spin polarized quantized spin dependent photonic shifts in topological silicene

Soil with heavy metals contamination, mainly lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and chromium (Cr) is a progressively worldwide alarming environmental problem. Recently, biochar has been used as a soil amendment to remediate contaminated soils, but little work has been done to compare with other organic amendments like compost. We investigated biochar and compost's comparative effect on Pb, Cd, and Cr immobilization in soil, photosynthesis, and growth of maize plants. Ten kg soil was placed in pots and were spiked with Pb, Cd, and Cr at concentrations 20, 10, 20 mg kg−1. The biochar and compost treatments included 0, 0.5, 1, 2, and 4% were separately applied to the soil. The crop from pots was harvested after 60 days. The results show that the highest reduction of AB-DTPA extractable Pb, Cd, and Cr in soil was 79%, 61% and 78% with 4% biochar, followed by 61%, 43% and 60% with 4% compost compared to the control, respectively. Similarly, the highest reduction in shoot Pb, Cd, and Cr concentration was 71%, 63% and 78%with 4% biochar, followed by 50%, 50% and 71% with 4% compost than the control, respectively. The maximum increase in shoot and dry root weight, total chlorophyll contents, and gas exchange characteristics were recorded with 4% biochar, followed by 4% compost than the control. The maximum increase in soil organic matter and total nitrogen (N) was recorded at 4% biochar application while available phosphorus and potassium in the soil at 4% compost application. It is concluded that both biochar and compost decreased heavy metals availability in the soil, reducing toxicity in the plant. However, biochar was most effective in reducing heavy metals content in soil and plant compared to compost. In the future, more low-cost, eco-friendly soil remediation methods should be developed for better soil health and plant productivity.

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Muhammad Mudassir

Papers

Heavy metals immobilization and improvement in maize (Zea mays L.) growth amended with biochar and compost.