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journal-basic-applied-scien

Assessment of Drinking Water Quality Status and its Impact on Health in Tandojam City
Pages
363-369Creative Commons License

Arslan Mumtaz, Muhammad Saffar Mirjat, Hafeez ur Rehman Mangio and Aashifa Soomro

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6000/1927-5129.2017.13.60

Published: 21 June 2017

Abstract: Unsafe drinking water is one of the major concerns in developing countries. The southern Sindh is province of Pakistan that adjoins the Arabian Sea coast where the drinking water quality is deteriorating due to unrefined urban waste and excessive use of agro-chemicals. Present study aimed to assess the quality of ground water source and to compare it with WHO standards. Water borne diseases associated with drinking it in the vicinity Tandojam city were identified. Water from ground water source was sampled at selected locations in the study area. The samples were collected mostly from pumped waters. The samples were analyzed for physico-chemical properties in order to identify the quality problems and suggest safe source for drinking purpose. Findings revealed that the ground water quality in Muzaffrabad colony is deteriorating. The situation was much worse in Muzaffrabad colony, Jam Ghar and Mir colony with high TDS and salty taste, respectively at few sampling locations. In addition, laboratory analysis of the water quality parameters revealed the detail of variation in the groundwater. TDS, hardness, sodium (Na), chloride (Cl) and magnesium (Mg) etc. were considerably beyond the WHO permissible limits. The poor quality of the water has created different waterborne diseases like cholera, diarrhea etc. Moreover, the samples of SAU Colony and Amar Town showed that the water quality of these areas was within acceptable limits according to WHO standards and was suitable for the purpose of drinking.

Keywords: Drinking water quality, physico-chemical parameters, Tandojam city, waterborne diseases, WHO standards.

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journal-basic-applied-scien

Effects of Fe-Doping on the Structural and Magnetic Properties of Indium Oxide Nanoparticles Synthesized by Bottom up Technique
Pages
370-374Creative Commons License

M. Naeem, K. Kamran, S. Qaseem, S. Rizwan Ali and S. Imran Ali

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6000/1927-5129.2017.13.61

Published: 21 June 2017

Abstract: We study Fe doped In2O3 nanoparticles (NPs) from structural and magnetic point of view. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveal cubic bixbyite structure for both pure and Fe doped samples thereby confirming successful incorporation of Fe in host In2O3 lattice. Average crystallite size of pure and Fe doped (5% and 10%) In2O3 as calculated by Scherer’s formula shows slight increase from 21 nm for pure to 27 nm for the sample with 10% Fe content. The Williamson Hall (WH) method was also utilized to further determine crystallite size and Fe induced strain in In2O3 lattice. The crystallite sizes by WH plot are found to be 18 nm (for undoped), 22 nm (for 5% Fe) and 24 nm (for 10% Fe). These values are in good agreement with TEM results. Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) indicates the existence of some oxygen vacancies in Fe doped In2O3 samples. Magnetic measurements show that all Fe doped In2O3 NPs exhibit typical ferromagnetic hysteresis loop with saturation magnetization Ms increasing with increasing Fe concentration. Temperature dependence of field cooled (FC) and zero field cooled (ZFC) magnetizations show no divergence and transition from ferromagnetism to paramagnetism in the temperature range of 5 to 300 K. This evidences a robust room-temperature-ferromagnetism (RTFM) in these NPs. The RTFM of our samples is attributed to the presence of oxygen vacancies in our samples.

Keywords: DMS, nanoparticles, defect states, magnetic property, X-ray diffraction.

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journal-basic-applied-scien

A Comparative Kinetic Study of Free and Immobilized Urease on Commercial and Glutaraldehyde Activated Cotton
Pages
321-325Creative Commons License

M.M. Yousaf and Umer Nasar

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6000/1927-5129.2017.13.53

Published: 19 June 2017

Abstract: Urease was immobilized on commercial cotton and commercial cotton activated with glutaraldehyde. The kinetic of urea hydrolysis by free and immobilized urease was studied as a function of pH, temperature and time of hydrolysis. High concentration of ammonia was released at pH 10.0 for free enzyme (0.097 mg/mL) and urease immobilized on cotton (0.092 mg/mL) and pH 4.0 for enzyme, immobilized on activated commercial cotton (0.083 mg/mL). High concentration of ammonia was released at 30 °C for free enzyme (0.006 mg/mL), 25 °C for urease immobilized on cotton (0.043 mg/mL) and urease immobilized on cotton activated with glutaraldehyde (0.015 mg/mL). High concentration of ammonia was released after 10 minutes for free enzyme (0.0016 mg/mL), 60 minutes for inactivated (0.043 mg/mL) and for activated cotton (0.015 mg/ml). The result show that immobilized urease is less effective than the free enzyme and is more active in acid medium than the basic medium.

Keywords: Urease, cotton, immobilization, glutaraldehyde, hydrolysis.

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journal-basic-applied-scien

Response of Conjunctive Use of Fresh and Saline Water on Growth and Biomass of Cotton Genotypes
Pages
326-334Creative Commons License

A.W. Gandahi, Aftab Kubar, Mohammad Saleem Sarki, Naheed Talpur and Mehtab Gandahi

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6000/1927-5129.2017.13.54

Published: 19 June 2017

Abstract: A pot experiment was conducted to study the effects of conjunctive use of saline and fresh water on the growth and biomass of cotton crop and to observe varietal variability for salinity tolerance and ion contents of cotton genotypes. Four cotton genotypes (Sindh-1, BT-121, CRISS-494, CRISS-588) were irrigated with four treatments, C1 (control+ tape water), C2 (EC 4.0 dS m-1, throughout growth period), ( (six irrigation with C2 + six irrigation with C1), C3 (EC 8.0 dS m-1, throughout growth period), (six irrigation C1+ six irrigation C3), (six irrigation C3+ six irrigation C1), C4 (EC 12.0 dS m-1, throughout growth period), (six irrigation C1+ six irrigation C4). The results showed that highest fresh biomass, plant height, number of leaves plant-1, number of bolls and boll weight was obtained in the treatment where tape water was used. Whereas, these parameters were decrease significantly with the increasing salinity levels from 4 to 12 dS m-1 and when saline water was applied continuously throughout growth period. The cotton genotypes Sindh-1 and Bt-21 performed well under conjunctive use of saline and fresh water with maximum values in compare to genotypes CRIS 494 and 588. The Na+ and Cl- accumulation in cotton leaves and in soil significantly increased with rising EC levels of irrigation water. However, Na+ and Cl- contents were found more in CRIS 494 and CRIS 588 than Sindh-1 and Bt1. It is concluded that Sindh-1 and Bt-121 may be cultivated in saline areas with alternate irrigation.

Keywords: Saline water, conjunctive use, Cotton genotypes growth.

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