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A field study was conducted to evaluate the agronomic response of eight isolines of cv. Clark on a clay loam soil (at Karaj-Iran, 35048´) to four plant population densities of 11.3, 18.5, 68.5, and 103.4 plants per square metre. Significant yield increase was obtained as a result of higher plant density. Differences among the cv. Clark isolines were significant (p<0.05). Yield components such as numbers of branches, pods, and seeds per plant decreased linearly as population density increased. Adjustments in pods and seeds per plant resulted from altered branches per plant. The isolines which exhibit profuse branching (e.g. E1E2E3, E1e2E3, E1E2 e3) were capable of optimising yield when planted at low densities. The second dynamic factor that aided yield compensation by plant population density was greater total dry matter partitioning, which resulted in a significantly greater harvest index at the lower compared with the higher plant density. The results indicated that total biomass and crop growth rate were the major elements explaining the reduced yield compensation factors at higher plant population density. Plotting the fitted seed yield values against the number of dominant alleles showed the effect of the maturity genes on the response of seed yield to plant density.

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The effect of replacement of dietary soybean meal with broad bean flour on rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) with average weight of 12.5 ± 0.09 g in 4 levels (15, 30, 45 and 60%) during 7 weeks trial was examined. The results showed that substitution of soybean meal up to 30% replacement) did not have any negative impact on fish growth performance. However, significant difference in red blood cells count and hematocrit percent were found between the experimental groups and the control (P<0.05).The highest amount of red blood cells (2.03± 0.23) and hematocrit (44.3±1.52) were observed in group of 15% replacement. Also, the results of blood biochemical parameters showed that cholesterol, total protein, albumin and globulin levels in experimental groups did not significantly differ between the control and other groups. The highest level of glucose (139.04±22.2) and triglyceride (323.54±11.8) were observed in the control group, but no significantly different (P>0.05) from 15% replacement. This study showed that up to 30% fish meal replacement with broad bean flour in the diet of rainbow trout had no negative impact on the growth performance, blood factors and survival of fish.

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On the basis of preliminary in vitro screening tests, a competent strain of Pantoea agglomerans ENA1 (P. agg. ENA1) recovered from soybean nodule was evaluated for its antagonistic activity against Macrophomina phaseolina causal agent of charcoal rot of soybean. The results of various in vitro assays showed that P. agg. ENA1 is capable of exerting strong antagonistic effect against M. phaseolina inhibiting its mycelial growth up to 89% as compared to control. The results showed a significant reduction of the disease as measured in host-plant weight increase, reduced microsclerotial coverage of the host tissues and decreased population of the pathogen in soil. Soils treated with the antagonist in presence of the pathogen resulted in 40% increase in aerial fresh weight and 63% decrease in root and stem surface covered by microsclerotia as compared with control. Furthermore, a significant decrease in the pathogen population ranging from 73 to 76% was observed in sterile and non-sterile soils, respectively. P. agg. ENA1 is suggested as a potent biocontrol agentthat provides excellent rhizosphere colonization and control of M. phaseolina    

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       Vegetable oils contain a little amount of phospholipids or phosphatides and in soybean oil compared with other oils usually more phosphatides exists. In the oil refining process , phosphatides exert adverse effects on the quantity and quality of the oil and their presence in the oil distributed in supermarkets could also create undesirable effects during consumption. If, however, phosphatides are extracted properly from the oil, they could have valuable applications such as emulsification in many food systems.Five varieties of soybean cultivated in Iran ( Sahar, Williams, Gorgan, Simes and Hill) were selected for this investigation. Hexane could be used to extract oil and phosphatides but the output of the extracted phosphatides is low. This is due to the polar nature of phosphatides which does not allow these compounds to be completely dissolved in a non-polar solvent like hexane. In fact, the proper solvent for this purpose is a mixture of chloroform and methanol, but such a solvent is expensive and its recovery is costly as well. Thus, a kind of hexane, containing some polar compounds and manufactured in Iran was used for the extraction of oil. With this solvent and relatively severe conditions for the extraction, the amount of the extracted phosphatides increased to 1.72% . Considering that the phosphatides^, constituents could affect the process of their separation from the oil and also their functional characteristics, the amounts of individual phophatides form each varieties were determined. The results indicated statistical significant difference among different varieties (P< 0.05). Although, for fatty acid composition, relatively considerable difference was observed among oils from different varieties, this difference was less on the fatty acid composition of their phosphatides.

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In this work, the effect of type and concentration of some sweeteners (sucrose, glucose, fructose, aspartame, acesulfame k and neotame) on the rheological properties of locust bean gum solutions in model system include sweeteners and hydrocolloid has been investigated . Two level of sweetener concentrations were used (10, 20% w/v for sucrose, glucose, fructose, and 0.1, 0.2% w/v for aspartame, acesulfame k, and 0.001, 0.002% w/v for neotame). The rheological properties were measured by oscillatory rheometer (model MCR-300). The results showed that the effect of sweeteners on rheological properties of locust bean gum depend on type and concentration of sweeteners. In these concentrations, the synthetic sweeteners had no effect on rheological properties of locust bean gum solution.

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Rust caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi Syd. is a major constraint to soybean product in Asia. Early detection and possibilities of controlling plant diseases by the integration of several image processing methods has been the subject of extensive research. The main contribution of this paper is to present different methodologies for quantitatively detecting soybean rust at each stage of disease development, identify disease even before specific symptoms become visible and grade based on percentage of disease severity. Severity of rust infection levels at each stage of disease development was observed for 25 days on soybean leaf. Then color distribution and pixel relationship in rust infected leaf image was calculated based on global and local features for quantifying rust severity. Further, rust disease was categorized into grades based on infection severity levels and percentage disease index (PDI) was calculated. The maximum PDI of 95.5 was observed at 25^th day and minimum PDI of 0.2 was observed at 6^th day.  

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Field experiment was conducted at the agricultural experiment station of Shiraz Uni-versity at Kushkak in 1996 to quantify the competitive ability of pinto beans (Phaselus vulgaris L. var. Daneshjou) with a naturally occurring population of weeds. An attempt was made to increase the competitive ability of the plants by altering row and plant spac-ings. An uncontrolled population of weeds reduced pinto bean yields by 75%. The ability of plants to reduce weed dry weight was further enhanced in medium and narrow rows compared to wide rows. Row and plant spacing combinations which maximized leaf area index when grown under weedy conditions also had significantly less weed dry weight. However, row and plant spacings did not reduce weed density. A significant negative cor-relation was observed between weed dry weight with leaf area index and final yield of pinto bean. For each kg ha-1 increase in weed dry weight, the corresponding pinto bean yield loss averaged 260 g ha-1. Season-long weed competition significantly reduced total number of pods per plant, number of seed per plant, and 100-seed weight.

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The objectives of this study were to investigate the potential of faba bean protein isolate (FPI) in preparation of an edible film and to determine the effects of film forming solution pH and plasticizer concentration on film properties. So film samples were prepared in three different pH levels (7, 9 and 12) and plasticizer concentrations (40, 50 & 60% w/w protein isolate). Results showed that increasing of pH improved mechanical properties (tensile strength and elongation) and solubility of films but caused water vapor permeability (WVP) and lightness of films to decrease. Plasticizer concentration did not affect WVP over the studied range. Elongation and solubility of films increased and tensile strength decreased by increasing of plasticizer content of film forming solutions. The lowest WVP and the highest tensile strength was observed at pH 12 and 40% (w/w of FPI ) glycerol concentration.

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In recent years, biological control has become a promising and ecologically friendly alternative to chemical control in the management of soil-borne plant diseases and several biological control agents have been introduced as potential bio-fungicides. The aim of this study was to investigate different biological control agent consortia against Rhizoctonia solani root rot disease of common bean. Bacillus pumilus INR7, Trichoderma harzianum and Rhizophagus intraradices were used individually or in combination. There were two application methods: simultaneous application of biocontrol agents with the plant pathogen, and pre-inoculation of biocontrol agents one month before the pathogen. Treatments containing B.pumilus INR7 were the best treatments for suppression of the disease in the simultaneous application method, where B. pumilus INR7 + T. harzianumreduced the disease up to 54%. However, in pre-inoculation method T. harzianum alone was the only treatment that reduced disease severity up to 49% compared to the infected control; other treatments did not haveany significant effect on disease severity. In current study, combination of T. harzianum and R. intraradices was unable to decrease disease severity and improve plant growth. This phenomenon was common in both simultaneous and pre-inoculation experiments. However, results showed that B. pumilus INR7 and R. intraradices were compatible with each other. Their combination not only decreased the disease, but also improved the dry weight of common bean in both application methods. Our results revealed that B. pumilus INR7 had positive interaction with T. harzianum. This combination increased their ability to suppress root rot disease and improve plant health, significantly. Overall, combinations of biocontrol agents have good potential to be applied in modern agriculture, but such combinations need to be checkedin advance for their compatibility in greenhouse and field experiments.

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  In the present study the effects of extract from the peels of Ramus potato variety as a natural antioxidant in refined soybean oil were investigated using the Schaal oven and Rancimat methods. Phenolic antioxidants of potato peels were extracted by two different solvent extraction methods (Solvent with methanol and ultrasound-assisted method with different solvents including methanol, ethanol, hexane, acetone and water ). The total phenolic compounds were determined according to the Folin–Ciocalteu method. Maximum amount of extract was obtained with water, followed by methanol and ethanol but maximum amount of phenolics was obtained                                                            with methanol, followed by water and ethanol by ultrasound method. Sonication improved the total phenolic compounds of the potato peel extract and shortened the extraction times.                                                                                                   After 16 days storage at 63°C,soy bean oil containing 200, 800, 1600, and 2400 ppm of  methanolic extract of potato peels, attained lower peroxide values (PV , 42.67 , 37.35 , 24.65 and 19.09 meq/kg, respectively) than the control sample (PV , 64.08 meq/kg ) indicating strong antioxidant activity. Oils treated with 200 ppm of BHA, BHT and TBHQ attaind PVs of 33.20 , 28.88 and 9.96 meq/kg, respectively, after 16 days storage at 63°C. Also, results Rancimat (at 90,120,150°C) showed that potato peel extract, at concentrations of 1600 and 2400 ppm exhibited strong antioxidant activity which was almost equal to synthetic antioxidants (BHA & BHT).                                                                                                                                                     

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In comparison with traditional extraction methods, aqueous enzymatic extraction of oil from oilseeds is a recent clean technology. This paper reports work performed at laboratory scale to extract soybean oil by aqueous enzymatic extraction method. In the present work the influence of enzymes concentration, extraction time, dilution ratio, particle size and 3 interactions in the final yield are evaluated and process parameters have been optimized by Taguchi method.16 extraction experiments carried out, statistical analysis showed that particle size was the most significant variable in oil extraction. Themaximal oil extraction yield was 61.42%.

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An experiment was conducted to reevaluate the digestible lysine requirement of Arian male broilers by comparing the performance of chicks fed different levels of cottonseed meal (CSM) on a total amino acid (AA) versus a digestible AA basis. Four hundred and thirty two (432) Arian male broiler chicks were allotted to 18 treatments with four repli-cates of six chicks each in a completely randomized block design in a factorial arrange-ment with two factors (two levels of digestible lysine  nine different diets). The first of the eighteen treatments was the corn and soybean meal control diet based on previously de-termined digestible lysine requirement for maximum body weight gain. Diets 2 to 5 con-tained 5, 10, 15 or 20% CSM, respectively and were formulated to contain levels of total AA equivalent to those in the first treatment. Diets 6 to 9 contained the same levels of CSM as diets 2 to 5 but the diets were formulated to be equal in digestible AA content to the first treatment. Treatments 10 to 18 were the same as treatments 1 to 9, but on the ba-sis of determined digestible lysine requirement for maximum feed efficiency. Formulating diets containing CSM on a digestible AA basis resulted in an improvement in chick per-formance compared to those formulated on a total AA basis (P<0.01). The lessening of chick performance with diets formulated on a total AA basis compared to a digestible AA basis, indicated that the previously determined digestible lysine requirement for the Arian broiler strain may be correct.

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This study aims to elucidate the relationship between the larval armyworm Spodoptera litura F. population density (0, 2, 4, and 6 per plant) with leaf damage level and yield loss in three soybean varieties, Anjasmoro, Argomulyo, and Grobogan. S. litura larvae were introduced both in the plant’s vegetative phase (20 and 30 days after planting) and its generative phase. This research used a split-plot design with the varieties as the main plots and the larval population as the subplot, with five replications. The results showed that the highest leafdamage was in the Anjasmoro, 6.5% to 8.87% in the vegetative phase and 6.95-7.81% in the generative phase. Meanwhile, Argomulyo had 5.96% to 6.68% and 5.78% to 6.39% of damage in both phases, and Grobogan was less susceptible, with 5.90% to 5.98% and 5.28% to 6.17% at the vegetative phase and generative phase, respectively. The highest decline in seed yield was in Argomulyo (0.81% and 0.79% in the vegetative and generative phase) and the lowest was Anjasmoro (0.66% and 0.64% in the vegetative and generative phase). For the population density, the highest level of soybean varieties seed yield loss in South Sulawesi was with 6 larvae per plant, which was at 23.44% in the vegetative phase and 23.48% in the generative phase. Among the varieties, the highest of seed yield loss was with Argomulyo (14.93%) and the lowest at Anjasmoro (11.30%). It can be concluded that the relationship between the S. litura larvae population density and the decrease of seed yield is quite strong (90.2% to 96.4% for vegetative phase and 94.8% to 96.4% for generative phase).

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Production of high volume of sludge is an important problem in wastewater treatment plants that necessitates approach of a proper economical and environmental management method. Chemical conditioning is used for increasing sludge dewater-ability and its volume reduction. Researchers have shown that use of natural compounds have environmental superiority over chemical ones. Therefore, in this research the effect of three food wastes including starch, white bean and pomegranate skin extract on the sludge dewatering capability in lab scale batch system was investigated. From the results, pomegranate skin extract in optimum pH of 4 and concentration of 1000 ppm gave the best efficiency. In this case, the amount of TTF, sludge cake humidity, volume of filtered water in 10 second, sludge volume reduction and turbidity were 10 seconds, 88.31 percent, 50 ml, 25.55 percent and 24 FAU, respectively.

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Environmental variables, including soil water content (SWC), act as constraints on crop growth and productivity. Therefore, open air (E0), perforated (E1) and non-perforated (E2) plastic housings were used with well-watered (W0), moderately-watered (W1) and water-stressed (W2) bush bean plants to explore the relationships between water-use efficiency (WUE), carbon isotope discrimination (Δ) and isotopic composition (δp), leaf assimilation rate (A) and leaf Kjeldahl nitrogen (N) under diverse environments. The CO2 concentration and air carbon isotopic composition (δa) varied with the environment. The δa values were reduced by about 0.8  10-3 and 3.8  10-3 in E1 and E2, respectively, compared with that in E0. SWC significantly affected WUE, Δ, δp in both E0 and E1 but not in E2. The decoupling of plants from the outside atmosphere might have contributed in maintaining the above quantities almost constant in E2. The Δ-value increased by about 2.2  10-3 in E0 and 1.7  10-3 in E1 compared with E2. Water stress reduced the Δ-value by about 1.1  10-3in both E0 and E1. WUE and Δ were significantly correlated in E0 and E1 (r = - 0.72, and - 0.75, respectively) whereas there was no definite relationship between WUE and Δ in E2 indicating that stomatal conductance was almost independent of SWC. The N-content had little effect on Δ. Leaf N significantly increased in water-stressed plants depending upon the time of harvest and the environment. The mean leaf assimila-tion rate was significantly higher in E0 than in either E1 or E2.

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The spiders of the genus Trichopelma Simon, 1888 present in Cuba, are revised. Currently, the genus Trichopelma comprises 22 known species distributed in the Caribbean, and Central and the upper region of South America. Cuba currently hosts five valid species and, in this study, the descriptions of seven new species distributed throughout the island are presented: T. baracoense sp. nov. (♂♀, Guantanamo prov.), T. cheguevarai sp. nov. (♂, Ciego de Ávila prov.), T. citma sp. nov. (♀, Granma prov.), T. fidelcastroi sp. nov. (♂♀, Holguín prov.), T. granmense sp. nov. (♂♀, Granma prov.), T. rudloffi sp. nov. (♂♀, Holguín prov.) and T. soroense sp. nov. (♂♀, Artemisa prov.). Based on morphological characters, a cladistic analysis was performed, revealing the phylogenetic position of the new species compared to the species previously described. Based on this phylogeny, morphological characters and close proximity in distribution, T. banksia Özdikmen & Demir, 2012 syn. n., is proposed as a junior synonym of T. cubanum (Simon, 1903). The genus Thalerommata Ausserer, 1871 is reported from Cuba for the first time, with the description of T. anae sp. nov. (♂, Sancti Spíritus prov.).

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Beans are major feed crops belonging to the family Leguminosae, representing one of the most consumed legumes in Iran. Root rot diseases account for high yield losses in bean crops annually, driving the need to identify causative pathogenic agents. During the cropping season of 2019, samples were collected from rhizosphere and infected plant tissues in Khomein county. Of the total 80 purified isolates, 19 fungal isolates were selected for morphological and molecular identification studies. Fusarium equiseti, Fusarium acuminatum, and Macrophomina phaseolina were isolated from the infected crown and root tissues. Their pathogenicity on bean cultivars (Yaghout, Dorsa, and Koosha) is reported for the first time from Markazi province. However, the pathogenicity of fifteen saprophytic and pathogenic fungi species that are isolated from the rhizosphere needs to be confirmed in further studies. Disease symptoms were found to be more severe on pinto beans than red and white beans. In all cases, molecular studies using ITS and tef genomic region confirmed the morphological results. Briefly, these fungal species are introduced as bean root rot causal agents in Khoemin county, which needs to be considered in upcoming breeding programs.

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Soybean mosaic virus (SMV) which belongs to the virus family Potyviridae, causes a disease in soybean that is present in soybean-growing areas of the world, and is widely distributed in northern Iran. Detection of SMV is very important for disease management. In the present study several serological and molecular (nucleic acid- based) methods of rapid virus detection were compared. Serological studies including DAS- ELISA, DAC-ELISA, TPIA and DIBA were optimized and compared to identify the virus by using a polyclonal antibody. Among the serological methods, TPIA and DIBA are simple and TPIA is rapidly and easily applicable in the field. However, TPIA was found to be preferable. TPIA is time-saving, not requiring conventional sap extraction and also nitrocellulose membranes used for printing can be used in the field and stored for a long time or transported to other laboratory to be processed. RT-PCR and Immunocapture RT-PCR (IC-RT-PCR) were performed as molecular methods for detecting SMV using a pair of primers designed to amplify a fragment in the coding region of the SMV coat protein. To extract total RNA for RT-PCR, two methods including RNAWIZ and phenol-chloroform were used. A part of the coat protein genome of SMV was converted to cDNA using a reverse transcription (RT) reaction. For IC-RT-PCR method, virus partial purification was carried out by solid-phase (0.2 ml microfuge tube) adsorbed polyclonal antibody, and then the RT reaction was carried out in the tube. In both methods cDNAs were amplified by PCR. Both methods amplified the expected fragment in virus-infected plants. Whereas RT-PCR requires total RNA extraction, ICRT- PCR do not have total RNA extraction problems. Our findings suggest that TPIA and IC- RT- PCR can be routinely used for SMV detection, with high efficiency.