Category: Natural Environment

Introduction

This assignment attempts to discuss the evolution and assess the effects of the current population of the world on our natural resources and the environment in general. These effects would be further dug deep to uncover the underlying spectrum of root causes – ranging from technology to education – that directly or indirectly led to the present observable situation. A range of plausible solutions would be outlined to counter and mitigate the causes and make this world a better place for current as well as future generations to come.

Background of the current population of the world

Humanity is believed to be one large family since Adam and Eve (as per Abrahamic religions) were the first man and woman on the face of this earth. The procreation process that was incepted from them has led to the present world population of around 7.7 billion according to United Nations(Nations, 2019), but this surge was not steady over time. The population multiplied to reach 1 billion over a period of 200,000 years but took only 200 years to reach to 7 billion (History, 2016).

The evolution of modern human beings started in Africa, and it wasn’t until 100,000 years ago that they began moving out of the continent and spreading across different parts of the world. They learned to adapt to different living conditions in their new habitats and took up subsistence farming for survival. However, the onset of agricultural activities necessitated more helping hands and it caused the reproduction rates to pick up. The studies claim that, following this first boom in population, the number of people living in AD 1 was approximately 170 million (History, 2016).

The first few continents inhabited by the migrating modern humans were Europe (Southern region) and Asia (Middle East, South Asia and the Far East). At that time, the Roman empire and the Hans dynasty were the only two prominent groups in the world. It was because of the discovery of the Silk Road by the nomadic caravans that inter-continental interactions became possible. Years passed and some Africans relocated to central America where the Maya civilization came into existence. It was followed by the emergence of Islam in the middle east and subsequently, the Mongol empire in central Asia. What is surprising to note is that even after increased human mobility, a larger chunk of the world’s population was concentrated in the same parts of Europe and Asia.

The greater shift in the world’s invasion and occupancy was witnessed when different European nations, primarily including Spanish, Portuguese, French and British, began the race to colonize the world in order to control sea routes, increase international trade and gain might. This resulted in people discovering and relocating to uncharted territories and evening out of population density across the globe. But one thing that did not change throughout the last 200,00 years was the fact that the population kept multiplying uncontrollably to the present level of 7.7 billion approximately.

The effects and causes of the current world’s population

The recent massive population growth in the last two centuries has intensified the pressure on finite earth’s resources and put the world’s sustainability with respect to population in danger. The non-renewable natural resources are depleting fast and make it imperative for us to bring the skyrocketing population under control. This alarming situation also warrants world organizations and the entire human race to be cognizant of the imminent perils that could ensue if no collective action is taken to contain them.

The million-dollar question right now is, will population growth destroy our way of life or is it just an ungrounded, panicking prophecy? There also lies an irony in the fact that the causes of the population are also the effects of the population. The following subsections discuss each of them in detail:

Uninhibited births

According to Worldometers, there have been total of 38,942,700 births and 16,339,464 deaths as of April 11th, 2019 since the start of the year (Worldometers, 2019). This means that 22,603,236 people (on net basis) were added to the world’s population; this can be interpreted as an addition to the world’s population on an average rate of 203,633 people per day or 141 people per minute. With every passing minute, 141 more people would be claiming their share in the finite world’s resources. This is the root cause of a phenomenon known as overpopulation which is drawing increasing attention from concerned authorities.

Technology

With improving health technology and advanced medicines owing to increased investment in medical research, both infant mortality and death rates have plummeted sharply. This means more newborn babies survive nowadays and less people die every day because of greater longevity. Although, it is undoubtedly a good development as well as a remarkable achievement for scientists, but it is also a matter of concern since the world’s natural resources are not able to cope with the ever-increasing pressure of the population. This issue of overpopulation will perpetuate as a result and affect many more people.

Moreover, technology has also increased in the way that it can help infertile couples have babies. This treatment is popularly known as ‘fertility’ treatment. As more people are surviving and more babies are being born due to technology and new effective medicines, it can be conveniently concluded that this trend of increasing birth rates and declining death rate would continue in the future too.

Poverty and the lack of family planning

Families living in poverty tend to have more children. This is because the government, primarily in a welfare state, gives the family a certain amount of money (assistance) per child. Contrary to the intended objective of providing financial help, it has a completely opposite effect where families see this benefit as ‘more children = more money. This defeats the entire purpose of using the money for improving overall family health and quality of life.

Some religions also do not discourage having more children, and this further increases the number of children born in practicing families. More helping hands are obviously preferred as they would become breadwinners for the family. Some families take pride in having more sons so they do not shy away from reproducing often.

Immigration

Overpopulation happens in many parts of the world, but it is more evident in developed countries. People living in developing countries are likely to move to places like the USA, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, etc. because they have the best medical facilities, security, education and employment. However, this can easily snowball into mass migration which would result in overcrowded slums and megacities in different parts of the world. It would also expedite rural-urban migration and further aggravate the menace of mass migration.

The major problem arises when the megacities do not have the infrastructure to support the influx of immigrants since this instant and abrupt pouring in of people was not anticipated by the urban planners. From transportation to sanitation, everything is affected, and the aftereffects are suffered by all the urban dwellers.

Depletion of resources and growing competition

The earth can only produce a certain amount of food and water. As more people are born each year, there are less resources for everyone. This effect also causes conflicts between developing countries because they need resources for their people.

Essentially, overpopulation, if not addressed, leads to diseases (or epidemics), pollution, chaos, and violence over energy, water, and food. It alters the behavior and conscience of the human species in such a way that it finds itself focusing on self-sustenance only, without any regard for fellow human beings. People sacrifice mutual trust, compassion and cooperation on the altar of self-centeredness, selfishness and cynicism. Even if the government intervenes to ration declining food supplies, people would perceive discrimination.

Degradation of environment

As the world’s population rises, there is an overuse of coal, oil and natural gas. More vehicles are brought onto the roads, thus contributing to air pollution and posing threat to the environment. The unprecedented amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is another cause of global warming and climatic change, which have become major environmental problems in the last few decades.

To meet the demand and consumption requirements of an incessantly growing population, Chlorofluorocarbons are used in the manufacturing industries and their unchecked emittance into the environment is causing as well as further depleting the ozone layer of our planet. In order to create more jobs, more factories would be installed so the problem of environmental degradation would inevitably persist.

Rise in unemployment

When a country becomes overpopulated, there are not be enough jobs for everyone. Since everyone cannot get a job, it would inevitably lead people to steal for supporting their families. This would create unrest in society and be another cause of lower mental health due to stress. The frustrating problem of unemployment would result in higher instances of crime and eventually, the law and order situation of a country would worsen. People would feel insecure since their lives and properties would always be at risk.

High cost of living/poverty

When there are more people and less resources, the cost of living will rise. The prices for food, shelter and healthcare will be more expensive. This means people must pay more to survive. If they choose to pay more, inflation would rise. With rising inflation, people would have less purchasing power and become poorer and more frustrated. If the cycle of inflation perpetuates itself, it will cause many people to live in poverty or below the poverty line.

Lack of space or housing

As the population grows, there is less space for houses to be built. This can cause some people to be homeless. If not addressed on a timely basis, homelessness will lead to poor quality of living and increased crime rates. Countryside and agricultural lands would have to be cleared up in the suburbs of urban cities to provide accommodation to homeless people. As a result, the total world’s area covered with forests would shrink.

Less learning in classrooms

More people mean more children in a single classroom. Overpopulation makes classrooms more crowded and means less learning takes place since no one-on-one teaching happens. The problem arises when the new generation is left incompetent to enter the workforce and work successfully. Without proper education, one cannot achieve full potential, realize self-actualization, and perform to the best of their capabilities.

Some positive effects of today’s population on the world

Though overpopulation is never perceived in a positive light, but there are certainly undeniable advantages that can be derived from it:

• More population offers more business opportunities and a larger target market to cater to their needs and sell products to.
• With a larger population, the tax revenue collected by the government is also higher
• More people have more diverse cultures and it adds to cultural tolerance, communal love and peace.
• More brains generate more ideas, so effective agricultural, industrial, and medical innovation is more likely.
• With more labor force, economic output increases, and the advantages of higher GDP do trickle down to the masses in one way or the other.

A look at some plausible solutions

Education

By educating people, we can help them to understand the effects of overpopulation. We also need to teach children/people about safe sex. Awareness sessions must be conducted regarding contraception and the educational literature must be tailored for different age levels. Safe sex education must be imparted since school so that unwanted teenage pregnancies can also be controlled.

Birth control

To stabilize the world’s population, the number of children a family can have must be limited. For example, China put in place a 1-child policy which meant each couple could only have one child. Similarly, India introduced a policy whereby couples having more than two children could not apply for government jobs. Since government jobs are preferred over corporate jobs and deemed highly prestigious in India, it acts as a deterrent and disincentivizes couples to exceed this limit.

Steps mentioned above to manage the birth rate would not require relocation. However, these policies might cause an unbalanced gender rate and increase either forced abortions or rates of abandoning female babies. Governments may also ponder over giving tax rate incentives to those families who keep the number of children low.

Relocation

Relocation to and exploration of new places would help people find other suitable places to live peacefully while gaining more resources and space advantages. There would be less people to claim a share in the natural resources of that area, which means one wouldn’t have to change their lifestyles. However, there is no certainty that another suitable home would be found and even if it was, the standard of living might not stay the same or get better.

Is there any hope?

In the middle of last century, population growth reached an unprecedented rate, and it was then that the legend of overpopulation was born, which proposed that the poor would procreate endlessly and overrun the developed world. However, to understand it, the ‘4-stage population demographic theory’ by Frank W. Notestein comes in handy.

Under this theory, stage 1 (‘pre-transition) is characterized by high birth rates and high fluctuating death rates. Stage 2 (‘early transition) is dominated by falling death rates with stable birth rates, thus leading to population growth. Stage 3 (‘late transition) leads to decelerating population growth owing to declining birth rates. Stage 4 (‘post-transition) involves both low birth and low death rates, thus population growth is negligible or starts going into decline (UNFPA, 2019).

Taking 19th-century Europe as an example of stage 1, it was worse off than a developing region suffering from poor sanitation, poor diet and poor medicine. A lot of people were born but most of them died so the population hardly grew. Women would have over five to six children since they expected only one or two of them to survive and reach adulthood.

However, the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the UK brought drastic changes in their living conditions. People became workers from peasants. Mass manufacturing of goods made them widely available. Science flourished and helped advance transportation, communication and medicine. The role of women in society shifted and paved way for their emancipation. In the process, the middle class also emerged with raised standards of living and health care. Hence, stage 2 was followed by the Industrial Revolution and it provided people with food supplies, hygiene and medicine. Consequently, death rates started declining and there was a population explosion.

The wheels of stage 3 were also set in motion. Women started conceiving less children and population growth slowed down eventually. A balance emerged when fewer people were dying and fewer children were born so the death rate and birth rate became stable. Britain had reached the fourth stage of the demographic transition.

A perspective on South Asia

If we talk about South Asia where 24.81% of the world’s population lives (Worldometers, Population of Southern Asia, 2019), and population density is also really high, there’s still some hope that this region is entering stage 3. Though the results won’t be achieved overnight, it can safely be assumed that the recent decline in the number of children per family is a positive development in the journey to creating a sustainable world.

Conclusion

There exists a dichotomy between developed and underdeveloped countries when it comes to the population of the world. The western countries are surely better off whereas the developing countries are still grappling with the problem of overpopulation. However, there is a global consensus on limiting population growth to have more resources available for everyone and less conflict. There will be less people living in poverty and the cost of living will also decrease. More space and homes would be available for everyone and our earth will be less populated. An increasing number of people will have enough jobs and our future generations would be better educated. If these objectives can be achieved, there will not remain any doubts regarding the world’s population sustainability.

Bibliography

1. History, A. M. (2016, November 4). Human Population Through Time. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE
2. Nations, U. (2019, April 11). World Population: Past, Present, and Future. Retrieved from Worldometers: http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/#ref-1
3. UNFPA. (2019, April 11). PAPP101 – S01: Demography on the world stage. Retrieved from PAPP: http://papp.iussp.org/sessions/papp101_s01/PAPP101_s01_090_010.html
4. Worldometers. (2019, April 11). The population of Southern Asia. Retrieved from Worldometers: http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/southern-asia-population/
5. Worldometers. (2019, April 11). Worldometers. Retrieved from Worldometers: http://www.worldometers.info/

Ban smoking at all eateries.

Nowadays smoking become more common in Malaysia, example on the streets, in the restaurants, everywhere have smokers around us. Although a lot of countries will publicize “Smoking is harmful for health”, is also because smoking ban in Malaysia is not strong. It cause more and more second hand smokers. At the point here, the policy of smoking ban in Malaysia has been improving and reforming. The past of Ministry Health, only listed the government buildings, air-conditioned restaurants, public transports and also the park is listed as non smoking area.

On 2018, from month of October, this rule officially implemented. However smokers think that this rule is unreasonable which the Ministry of Health did not take any action towards smoking, and also neglect this rule. Due to smokers that are indifferent, Ministry of Health on 17 December 2018 will officially announced on 1st of January 2019 all domestic restaurants include operation in open air will be completely banned, onlookers will be punished as it should be.

Ministry of Health Lee Wen Cai said, all restaurants must request to set up a smoking area, yet Ministry of Health rejected this request. The operator must operate on their own restaurant business and also paste the non smoking sign on the restaurant billboards, the offenders will be fine RM2500. The size of the billboards cannot less than 40 cm high and 50 cm width. All restaurants are not allowed to set up a smoking area, smokers only can smoke 10 meters away from the restaurant.

The operator is not allowed to provide the smoking facility, such as ashtrays. The offenders will be fine not less than RM3000 or will be imprisoned not less than six months, or will punish both. Smokers who violate the rules will be fine not less than RM10000, will be imprisoned not less than two years or will punish both. Electronic cigarette and hookah in the non smoking area will also be dealt with penalty unless it can be proved that electronic cigarette and hookahs don’t have nicotine and tobacco in it, otherwise action will be taken. Regarding to this rule in the first six months, Ministry of Health will send a warning first and also education. If the smokers are still smoking, the law enforcement officer can directly fine you.

Why do people want to smoke? About this question, scientifically they don’t have the right answer for smoking. However, one of the main reasons maybe it is hookahs may have contain nicotine and also it may let the smokers to be exciting and calm themselves. This two distinct have special effects in it. Smoking may bring some benefits to people, scent of the tobacco products can bring pleasure to the people, maybe it’s one of the interpretation. Furthermore, smoking can release stress, increase attention and intervene other people mood is the main cause of why people smoke. That’s why a lot of people will choose to smoke to numb themselves or escape from reality that gave them the stress.

Why smoking is affected by the people around you? The people around you is from family, friends, staffs, TV drama program etc. Due to family used to smoke, children will have driven by curiosity and try to smoke. Maybe some children can’t stand the friends provocation and embarrassment so that they will want to smoke. Due to people who just start working, they need to socialized with customers, and also they can’t reject or push away the customers request if not will cause them to integrate within this environment. Just because of socializing with the society and must smoke. The first time meeting, offer cigarette to another person is representing respect and courtesy to others, it is possible to shorten the people heart and the distance. Some people might imitate people smoking from TV drama program. They will think it is cool to smoke, but actually it is not.

People always think that smoking is the best way to release stress, but actually it is not. Smoking is bad for health. Maybe is because family have some financial conditions and brought them up some stress. For the children, might be having some stress through studies, environment, family problems, single family, reorganized family and also the last but not least the child might be an orphan so that they have some negative thoughts in their mind and make them want to smoke. For the adults that just start working, they will feel confused is because they can’t find the sense of direction. Also because they can’t find a job and since they don’t have financial ability. They will feel lost so they think smoking can just escape from reality for awhile.

People always think that smoking is cool, they like to show off to their friends or other people. In order to just show themselves in front of others. People who smoke, they will think their appearance is charming and also very attractive. For people who smoke, they think smoking can cover their emotional feelings. In awkward and stressful situations, people will just show off some of their smoking tricks just want to attract other people attentions.

Everyone has good and bad habits. Most people in the current society have bad habits of smoking. Although they all know that smoking can endanger their health, they still go to smoke, which is really puzzling. Although we can see the ‘No Smoking’ sign in many places, even the words ‘Smoking is harmful to health’ can be seen on the cigarette case, but people are not paying attention to smoking. Then do they really realize that smoking really causes great harm to the human body, and the harm of smoking is not only as simple as poisoning.

Human blood contains hemoglobin. People who have studied biology know that hemoglobin can bind or separate from oxygen. However, few people know that it can also bind to carbon monoxide, and it has a strong binding ability, which is 200-300 times that of oxygen. The combination is not easy to separate, and people who inhale a large amount of carbon monoxide will die due to lack of oxygen and suffocation. This is the cause of gas poisoning (gas contains carbon monoxide). Symptoms of poisoning occur in humans with a total concentration of carbon monoxide in 0.02 percentage of air for two hours. Cigarette smoke contains hundreds of toxic and harmful substances, including carbon monoxide.

In addition to carbon monoxide, cigarettes also contain nicotine and benzopyrene, which contains a strong carcinogen, dioxin. Some people have used experiments with mice: the smoke of 60 cigarettes is concentrated and the mice are inhaled. As a result, the mice are suffocated and died of poisoning. Some people soaked 400 cigarettes of tobacco in the water. After the water turned black, the water contained in it was evaporated and a lot of black tar was deposited on the bottom of the pot. In addition to tar, these black substances also contain hundreds of harmful substances such as the highly toxic substance nicotine.

Smoking accelerates the heart rate, increasing the risk of high blood pressure and vascular occlusion, leading to heart attacks and strokes. The risk of stroke in smokers is 2 to 3.5 times that of non-smokers; if both smoking and high blood pressure are present, the risk of stroke increases by nearly 20 times. Women who are taking birth control pills will increase the risk of developing blood clots and heart disease.

A large number of studies have shown that the incidence of lung cancer in smokers is 20 to 25 times higher than that of the average person, and is positively correlated with the amount of smoking and the length of smoking. Cigarettes burning smoke contain more than a thousand kinds of chemicals, among which the identified carcinogens are 3, 4 – benzopyrene, nicotine, tar and etc. In addition, the radioactive elements 210, carbon – 14, arsenic, nickel, etc also have carcinogenic effects. By reducing the tar content or adding a filter to change the carcinogenic components of tobacco, the histological type of lung cancer can also be changed, which proves that smoking is closely related to the occurrence of lung cancer. When nicotine is inhaled into the human body, it will have adverse effects on tissues such as the heart and blood vessels, causing the sympathetic nerves to be abnormally excited, causing the blood vessels to contract, and the heart has to accelerate, so the blood pressure is also increased. Some scholars have done such a report. If only one or two cigarettes are smoked, the index of blood pressure will change. If a few dozens of packs are taken in a year, the accumulation of such a few decades will definitely have adverse effects.

With further scientific research, smoking will multiply the ‘oxidative stress’ reaction, produce more free radicals to damage body organs and tissues, aggravate the insulin resistance response, weaken the immune system of the human body, and accelerate the organs and tissues of the human body. Aging (oxidized). Smoking promotes the deterioration and development of oxidative stress diseases such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, gout, etc., so patients with oxidative stress diseases must be absolutely banned from smoking while being treated.

Oral Cancer

Oral cancer refers to the gradual mutation of healthy cells in the oral cavity and can occur in a variety of ways. According to the American Society of Oral Cancer, a large proportion of people with oral cancer diagnosed each year are caused by smoking. A study by the University of California showed that 8 out of 10 oral cancer patients were smokers. Whenever inhalation, harmful chemicals in tobacco smoke must pass through the mouth and throat before going to the lungs. With prolonged repeated exposure, these chemicals can cause changes in the mouth of the mouth, leading to oral cancer. Despite this, oral cancer is still a preventable disease. Quitting smoking, removing other high-risk behaviors and visiting dentists regularly for routine oral examinations can prevent oral cancer in the future.

Periodontal (gum) disease

Periodontal disease (infection of the gums and bones around the teeth) is caused by the massive accumulation of harmful bacteria in the mouth, which can lead to the loss of teeth but harmful bacteria are not the only cause of gum disease. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that smokers are more than twice as likely to suffer from gum disease as non-smokers. Smoking can impede the immune system, making it difficult for the body to fight gum infections. In the case of periodontal disease treatment, smokers may not be able to achieve the same successful results as non-smokers because smoking makes the gums difficult to heal.

Bad breath and tooth stains

According to the American Dental Association (ADA) Oral Health website, in addition to being more susceptible to oral cancer and gum disease, smoking can also affect people’s taste and smell, as well as prolong the recovery time after tooth extraction or other dental treatment. In addition, tar in cigarette smoke can also contaminate the teeth, causing bad breath problems and discoloring the tongue. Professional scaling cleaning at the dental clinic is a great way to remove these stains.

Second-hand smoke can be fatal. Passive smoking smoke can also cause serious diseases such as lung cancer and other malignant tumors, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart and cerebrovascular diseases, increasing the risk of coronary heart disease in non-smokers by 25% to 30%, and increasing lung cancer risk by 20% to 30%. Second-hand smoke can also cause sudden death syndrome, otitis media and low birth weight, especially for pregnant women, babies and children. In addition, second-hand smoke contains a variety of second-hand smoke that can quickly stimulate and harm the respiratory mucosa. Compounds, therefore, even short-term exposure can cause upper respiratory tract damage, trigger frequent attacks of asthma; increase blood viscosity, damage the intima of the blood vessels, cause insufficient blood supply to the coronary arteries, and increase the risk of heart attack.

Polluted environment

Furthermore, smoking indoors, ash scattered, polluting the air, who is victimized at the scene. Smoking outside, cigarettes everywhere, destroying the cleanliness and sanitation of the environment. Therefore, no matter where you smoke, it is polluting the environment. This has reduced the productivity of the country and caused the mental and economic pain and burden of the deceased’s family.

Destroy resources

Many land for growing tobacco cannot be used for other purpose at the same time. This also causes the reduction of other agricultural products. The packaging of cigarettes and the drying of tobacco leaves require wood, and deforestation is used for its use. This not only wastes resources, but also worsen the loss of water and soil in the upper reaches of the river. It has destroyed the entire environment and deepened the extent of the disaster caused by droughts and floods.

Causing fire

Smoking is one of the important causes of human fires. The burning of cigarette butts can lead to burning of houses, explosions in factories and fires in forests, causing major losses in life, property and natural resources, and these losses should be avoided. As long as you don’t smoke, you can avoid many fires.

Wasting money

Smoking is addictive, smoking is increasing, and the cost of smoking is increasing. Over time, this has become a big expense. The money that can be used for the right way, such as increasing nutrition, adding clothing, and spending on education, must be reduced, and even abandoned. It is also worse for the farmers, workers or the poor to cause greater economic pressure and physical damage, which is even worse.

The environment is a constant topic for a lot of kinds of people in the world. The debate on the environment is only growing due to advances in technology and more coverage about the environment on social media and news outlets. This leads to people’s environmental ‘worldviews’, or simply how people think we should use the environment and how it should affect us. Some people have no idea what they think about the environment but that is not such a bad thing. People that believe all life has value and will help in efforts to prevent extinctions tend to believe in the life/earth-centric worldview. People that believe that the environment should be used in favor of humans and that it should only benefit us fall under the anthropocentric worldview. There are also worldviews based off the Bible and using the environment for how God says we should (biblical worldview). I will be diving into my beliefs on the environment and how I feel we should use the resources we are given in the environment.

My worldview comes from my background. Specifically, how I was raised and where I grew up. My worldview is a mixture of a biblical worldview and a life/earth-centric worldview. Working on a farm has built a trust that I have with the animals that makes me feel connected to them and obligated to help them live their best life in any way I can. As much as human relationships are important, the balance of having animals in the world is just as important to me. Then comes in the biblical aspect of my worldview. I was raised going to church on Sundays and really had a grasp on what Christianity is in my teenage years. God wants man to thrive in this world, but he does not want to do it at the expense of the other living creatures in the world. In Genesis 1:28 God says, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth”. To me, God is telling us to responsibly handle animals in a way in which they can thrive a long with us. I believe he is saying that a balance is important and that protecting the environment allows the animals to live a healthy life as well. Humans can be the top priority, but it should not be the only thing on the list. The environment is valuable to me because God created it. God knew that man would evolve over time and that technology would become a factor. As the technological age advances there are ways where we can create a balance between economic growth and environment stability. Using resources more wisely like cutting down on the usage of exhaustible resources and finding ways to eliminate harmful emissions that are put into the environment. When new buildings are being built for technology in the environment, using tradeoffs and win-win solutions help create a balance in the environment without depleting it helps balance things out.

When I talk about my worldview to other people, I get asked about the threats that can harm the environment. ‘What threats are most important to you?’, then there are the questions of, ‘What environmental threats are not a big problem?’. Any ‘threat’ to the environment is important to me. There are some threats that are bigger to me and ones that I think can help the world in a bigger way than others. For example, illegal fishing is a problem in our country and around the world. Catching fish that are not allowed to be caught or fishing ‘out of season’ can hurt the ecosystem because it can affect the predators of the fish and can cause problems for the whole ecosystem. I think pollution hurts the overall ecosystem more than illegal fishing does because of how it affects us as well as the ecosystem. While children make up 10% of the world’s population, over 40% of them end up with a disease of some sort and around three million deaths occur to children under the age of five according to the Blacksmith Institute’s article about the worst pollution problems in the world. Pollution kills over one million sea birds per year and over one-hundred thousand sea mammals. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, over sixty percent of species reside in the water and that fact causes a problem with how an ecosystem operates and the organisms that live in it. An example would be companies dumping wastes into a body of water. This ends up contaminating the water which leads to the death of aquatic species. This also causes problems for us as less than one percent of freshwater is accessible due to pollution. This could become even more challenging as the demand for water is expected to grow by over thirty percent by 2050. Another problem with pollution in the waters is how it reaches the soil in some areas. If the bodies of water are contaminated (whether with wastes or pesticides) it can affect the soil around the areas in which they are located, which can harm the consumers that eat around these parts of water. Remember that seventy-one percent of the earth’s surface is made up of water so that is a lot of contamination around the world. Climate change is another environmental issue that is finally getting national attention but needs to be seriously addressed. Preventing paper use, recycling, being more energy efficient, using compost bins, etc. all can help prevent global warming. This is a big issue because it is melting glaciers which is leading to an increase in sea level. Habitat destruction is another problem that is an effect of pollution and climate change. Building roads and making room for houses is a continuing trend in the tearing down habitats. Habitat destruction affects the animals and causes them to transition to other areas or some cannot make the transition and just die from the destruction. It also causes problems with climate change because of the lack of trees (forests being able to absorb carbon dioxide).

These problems in the paragraph above could ultimately lead to our world becoming a place that is not safe to live in within the next hundred years. It honestly only takes some common sense to not let these things happen. Throw trash away the right way, be avid about recycling and reusing items, and find ways to be energy efficient. That also means being more efficient with how we use technology. The environment is important just like technology and doing what is right with both the environment and technology will create a balance that helps the world. This is ultimately why I have questions about mankind dominating the environment. Because are we even running the environment or is it the desire for technology? Yani Saloh is a worker for Wetlands International of Indonesia and he believes that the government needs to do their best to eliminate greenhouse gases and force companies to reduce emissions that are put out into the environment. The areas that are deforested and drained are known as ‘dry areas’ and lead to respiratory disorders. Saloh believes that by 2035 around fifty percent of children in dry areas could have some sort of respiratory disorder. Technology is not a bad thing at all, but we are so caught up with it right now that it is causing problems in our country. Technology should be used in ways to help the environment out, not to find ways to destroy it. Without people at the top that can make laws and regulations, people will continue to take advantage of the environment in a bad way. The problem with how the environment works is that mankind does run it and is going to be the only thing that can run it, so we must fix it. It is ultimately up to us to take care of our environment or it could eventually cause problems that were not thought of many years ago.

This pretty much sums up my argument on how I think about our environment. I am a big supporter of the environment and value what it has to offer to me. I also believe God created the environment so that we as humans could enjoy it and cherish it instead of destroying it. God wants us to evolve as humans but also wants us to watch out for the animals so that they can evolve and flourish as well. Making the environment flourish gives us better air to breathe, allows animals to live in the ecosystem that they were made to live in, and to protect our oceans from becoming the local trash dump. My mix of the life/earth-centric worldview and the biblical worldview gives me a real feel of a genuine respect for the environment. I hope to make people around me feel more obligated to show that respect to our environment as well not because of me, but because God made everything that exists in his image. He would have never created the environment if he did not want us to take care of it. What are we going to do about it? That’s the question that needs to be answered.

A destruction of surroundings due to mining. It has a vary of advantages and dangers that affects the surroundings and the lives of each human being in the Philippines.

Mining is the method of digging mines to obtain minerals, metals, and jewels that serves as the livelihood to every and every human being. It provides human beings some of the belongings favored for present day civilization, however it can lead to environmental harm. Some are opposite and based totally definitely in reality on opposition to horrific mining practices and others dislike mining in general. Humans desire a large fluctuate of natural belongings to create the merchandise modern-day day civilization needs. While choice sorts of energy are turning into larger worthwhile, most of the areas need coal, natural gas, and uranium to furnish energy. Similarly, oil is indispensable for powering motors and the transportation industry. Mining approves human beings to use these resources.

Mining is one of the types of property that Filipinos usually choose to live in. A mine is a pit of tunnel whereby a miner used to dig in getting minerals such as coal, gold, and diamonds are taken. According to Josephine C. Maguad, Senior Environmental Management Specialist of EMB- Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), mining is an employment for financial expand in a certain country, it makes higher moreover the earnings for the miners, as suitable as for the authority’s fund, it is a grant of livelihood for the humans round a positive area, the social enhancement for the local and one-of-a-kind stakeholders and in the large community. She moreover referred to that it may also select out to additionally severely alternate into different uses, used for herbal resources, can alter and for enhancement for the area, in addition, it is for the rehabilitation to lift limit decrease returned healthful situation of the soil after they used it. The humans spherical the neighborhood pick also to plant accelerated bushes for renewable sources and for the carbon dioxide. So, at the furnish up of each mining, there will be the opportunity of gaining higher dietary nutritional vitamins from the soil. There are a lot of benefits of mining that furnish to the lives of every and every person. It is a little bit unfamiliar to these human beings who are new about this matter. But it helps a lot to the financial make bigger of the Philippines as to the unique stakeholders all over the country. It is except a doubt a stepping stone to faster earnings. It is an improvement for the nearby barring a doubt the quickly out-growth of resources. She in addition referred to about the negativity of mining such as it decreases the natural useful resource that is furnished by means of capability of capability of nature, if it is irresponsible and have mismanagement in mining, there is additionally a probability of air pollution in land, air, and water.

It is best in the Republic Act (RA) 7942 rules or the Philippine Mining Act that speaks about the environmental act in land, air, and water if a single man or female is irresponsible and now no longer retaining the increase of herbal resources. Mining indeed has a lot of dangers that may choose to set off the catastrophe that is very rampant in the country. Just like each and each time there is landslides and floods that softens the soil in the mountainous part. The miners themselves need to take risks so that they ought to prolong their private households and aid them out to survive. Just like if there is an earthquake, the lives of the miners will be in hazard due to the truth there is the chance that the regional will be destroyed and broken down that may moreover favor to lead to death. It is a be counted of taking risks and a be counted of wish for them due to the reality in some areas it is the extremely correct way to uplift their private lives as precise as for their family.

According to a search for of rappler.com, representatives from the mining location expressed their reservations about the layout to declare eight provinces as mining-free zones in the path of a Senate hearing. These areas are: Cagayan de Oro City, Catanduanes, Nueva Vizcaya, Eastern Samar, Nueva Ecija, Biliran, Davao City, and Second District of Sorsogon. Chamber of Mines of the Philippines vice president for policy Ronald Recidoro cited that banning mining from these areas will “set a horrible precedent” for the Philippine authorities and additionally delivered that mineral property are limited, finite and do no longer show off up everywhere. They are established in without a doubt a few blessed provinces. This deprives the countrywide authorities of the danger to decorate a US brilliant industrialization plan. Around 65% of the Philippines can’t be mined beneath ultra-modern reformatory recommendations and authorities’ orders in spite of the massive plausible of the United States of the us as a source of minerals. Meanwhile, mining is horrible to the environment then again Representative Carlos Padilla of the lone district of Nueva Vizcaya is prioritizing the agriculture over the mining.

There are a variety advantages and dangers of mining in the Philippines that has special aspects and makes use of which can profits the neighborhood in the society. In conclusion, mining ought to be furnish up so that the destruction of the surroundings will be limit and the lives of the subsequent technological information will be saved, extra fun and preserve.

Abstract

Plants play a significant role in human life. Plants area unit helpful for manufacturing oxygen(O2) by taking the carbon dioxide(CO2) that is free by humans by the method of chemical change. The chemical {process| chemical change| chemical action} process is principally applied by leaves. The diseases that cause plants area unit on leaves because of the microorganism, fungi, etc. The identification of the sickness in time and see for the answer is that the task to any human by watching the plant all the time. Within recent days the experience is needed for the identification of the sickness. But now, by the employment of digital Image process techniques in MATLAB by Multiclass SVM classifier {we can |we will| we area unit able to} determine the various varieties of diseases that are plagued by the plants. This paper proposes a way to spot the diseases mistreatment completely different steps that’s image acquisition and image segmentation to spot the affected region mistreatment k-means agglomeration. Classify the sickness employing a multiclass SVM technique. This method is with the accuracy is concerning ninety-eight.

Introduction

As we tend to all recognize that plant area units most significant in our life. As humans get several diseases constant on that plants additionally get several diseases. The identification of the sickness and giving the correct chemical is a vital task for any farmer. For the identification of sickness the continual watching of the plant is needed. Once one thing happens to the leaf we’ve got to travel for an experience to sight it. The sickness that gets to the plants might seem like one; however it’s going to be another. 2 or additional sickness might have constant symptoms however the prevalence of 1 disease is over the opposite one. The knowledgeable can come back and appearance at the leaf and he might imagine it of 1 sickness and he suggests to spray one style of pesticides to eradicate it, however, it had been of another sort. As a result of several diseases might have constant symptoms that occur because of micro organism, fungi, etc. Here we tend to discuss few diseases like microorganism blight, leaf smut, a brown spot in rice crops as a result of these diseases occur most likely.

Literature Survey

Some papers area unit describing the detection of plant disease mistreatment varied ways varied implementations like preprocessing, sweetening, feature extraction with the assistance of those ways we can realize the sickness. The most distinction between the sooner work and our work the most factor is accuracy compare to earlier work.

In the previous works the given input image that is., [1] RGB is reborn to black and white and OTSU segmentation is employed however in our work, we have a tendency to here converts RGB to HSI (hue, saturation, intensity) and also the image is increased by increasing the distinction by this we can get the precise space of sickness and affected half and also the sickness get detected. coming back to a different work [2] RGB is reborn to grayscale and also the sickness isn’t known properly and by changing it to HSI the unhealthy half is known then the segmentation is finished by k-mean agglomeration technique and have extraction is finished by GLCM(gray level co-occurrence matrix). This however we tend to finish our work. By our technique the sickness is classed.

Classification

The binary classifier that makes use of the hyper-plane that is additionally referred to as the choice boundary between 2 of the categories is named a Support Vector Machine (SVM). a number of the issues of pattern recognition like texture classification build the use of SVM. Mapping of nonlinear {input information| input file| computer file} to the linear data provides sensible classification in high dimensional area in SVM. The marginal distance is maximized between completely different categories by SVM. completely different kernels area unit wont to divide the categories. SVM could be a binary classifier that determines the hyperplane in dividing 2 categories. The boundary is maximized between the hyperplane and also the 2 categories. The samples that area unit nearest to the margin are hand-picked in deciding the hyperplane area unit referred to as support vectors

Linear SVM

The on top of the figure shows the thought of a support vector machine. Multiclass classification will be used for classifying one to 1 or one to several. Classification is performed by considering a bigger range of support vectors of the coaching samples. the quality type of SVM was meant for two-class issues. However, in real-life things, it’s typically necessary to separate over 2 categories at constant time.

Conclusions

Nowadays the technology is increasing day to day so that with the help of digital image processing techniques to detect the plant disease and help farmers to get a good natural yield and help the people for healthy food. Using present technology like HD cameras and Drones etc we get the images with high resolution. Detecting the right disease at the initial stage& usage of exact pesticide with less amount and can get the natural yield. Using high-resolution images give better result with good efficiency. By using this methodology farmers are more benefited by yielding natural crops. Hereby we conclude that using proper pesticides at the right time gives good yielding to farmers.

REFERENCES

1. DR.S.BHUVANA, KAVIYA BHARATHI B, KOUSIGA P, RAKSHANA SELVI S, Leaf detection using clustering optimization and multi-class classifier VOL-17,2018
2. A.SANTHOSH, K.SARAVANA KUMAR, P.SRAVANAKUMAR, S.VIMALRAJ, R.SARANYA, Detection of leaf diseases and classifying them using multiclass SVM, VOL-06, 2019,e-ISSN:2395-0056, ISSN:2395:0072
3. POOJA KULINAVAR, VIDYA I.HADIMANI, Classification of leaf disease based on multi-class SVM classifier, VOL-3,2017, INTERNATION JOURNAL OF ADVANCE RESEARCH, IDEAS AND INNOVATION IN TECHNOLOGY, ISSN:2454-132X

Introduction

Encouraging as many students to study botany is becoming a major priority for universities across our globe. The Royal Society of Biology have highlighted the lack of plant based teaching in current tertiary education [1]. Out of a total of 130 UK universities only 22 offer any sort of plant/botany based degree as of October 2018. The Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University have given report upon the fact that universities are failing to develop adequate research led education for students [2]. Since then much has been written on the subject of research led education, its importance and value [3] [4]. In the last 10 years there has been emphasis placed on the necessity to swap traditional lab practicals with novel interactive ones that engage students in the discovery process as well as cutting edge research[5] [6]. There are no doubt numerous challenges in implementing “inquiry based learning”. One such obstacle is the poor selection of tested procedures suitable for larger introductory labs within tertiary education specifically plant based teaching. Another obstacle educator’s face within universities is the vast range of prior exposure students have had while under secondary education. There is no doubt that students are less likely to be interested in botanic biology in comparison to other topics taught with Biological sciences due to the lack of previous teaching in the subject [7]. With so many backgrounds and such diverging experience in undergrad students in relation to botany it’s hard to find a “one fits all” practical class that would benefit students and ignite an interest in plant studies. Based on these facts its clear to see that the current feeling among students and teachers alike surrounding the topic of plant based teaching is a negative one. The aim of this literature review is to compile and explore work that has already been done to combat this problem and suggest a range of potential practical based classes for lecturers to introduce within tertiary education, as well as explore a few areas that have been beneficial in aiding practical based teaching.

Discussion

Before we converge our review into looking exclusively at potential plant based teaching methods suitable for implication I want to look at two specific methods that support lab based teaching in other subjects, implemented by other universities that could be applied to practical plant based teaching.

• The use of Computer based learning to aid practical based teaching:

The University of Bristol implemented a project called “ChemLabS”. It introduced an online interactive practical lab manual that helped their undergraduates prepare a competent knowledge of their upcoming chemistry lab classes. With the combination of interactive elements as well explanatory video clips students were able to observe and practise the techniques they would be using thus giving them confidence in the use of the equipment used in the protocol as well as the understanding the science behind the practical. The manual also gave educators the ability to test students on their knowledge prior to and post lab class. A “PlantLabS” equivalent of this initiative would be a very beneficial addition to most if not all universities curriculum [8].

• The use of “Turning point technologies” in providing novel and engaging quizzes for practical classes:

Jensen in 1996 conducted a study into how quizzes can be used to establish an effective learning environment within the laboratory [9]. This was before the technology known as turning point handsets had been developed. Quinn in 2017 did a study called, “clickers in the classroom” which looked into the use of interactive quizzes in a practical environment. Her results showed that the students found these quizzes useful in the following areas. Firstly they allowed the students to test their knowledge gained from the session and the formative assessment provided the students the opportunity to learn from mistakes and consolidate their knowledge of the subject. Secondly “the clickers” allowed the students to engage with the practical session material. One student commented saying that the use of the post practical quiz made them actively learn the material while completing the practical class. Thirdly the anonymous nature of the quiz was preferred as opposed to raising their hands in front of class members. Lastly students commented on how the interactive in class quiz allowed them to identify gap in their knowledge [10]. Implication of these quiz elements to plant based teaching by lecturers across all levels of tertiary education would surely help stimulate a greater interest in a subject that seems to currently be dubbed as “boring by many students”.

Combining and integrating these novel methods with plant based practical teachings we are about to look at will no doubt be a massive improvement on current plant based protocols. Let’s look successful methods currently being implemented by other educators within plant based tertiary education.

An overview of the course structure that they introduced can be found in the link provided, created by the staff involved (Course overview). It gives a useful week by week description of lecture material, tutorials and laboratory sessions.

In the lectures they “introduced structured interactive read-think-discuss-learn-review format”. This meant that their students were engaging with their textbooks and online resources, peers and the academic staff. This approach was majorly influenced by the work of Mazur and Crouch into peer instruction models and their benefits [12] [13]. The students were asked to complete focused questions relating to their upcoming lectures, this allowed busy lecturers to donate more of their time to other areas which proved to be invaluable. When the course had ran a while the educators commented on the significant improvement in oral answers given by students in lectures and the confidence this gave the students in verbal participation within class. The weekly tutorials given served as a perfect bridge between the theory taught and the skills required in the practical based elements and their write ups.

Then after several weeks of in depth material taught in lectures students formed groups of up to 4 for the practical elements of the course. The link provided here gives you a tabulated overview of their laboratory classes (Lab class structures). The Arabidopsis thaliana was chosen with good reason as it has a very short life cycle (approx. six weeks from germination stage until a mature seed is formed) as well as an easily accessible, non transgenic mutant, small, fully mapped genome which is ideal for use by practical classes. Students were given the opportunity over the course of the module to identify differences both morphologically and physiologically in specific traits and get a better appreciation of the overall life cycle of the plant.

As far as assessment goes it’s typically the part students dread and find tedious write ups a major “turn off” for many subjects. This “plant detective” programme split the assessment up into different areas so that students were tested in a diversity of methods and given incentive to engage at each stage of the semester. The pre practical quizzes accounted for 10% while key assessment task in the form of a theory exam accounted for 50%. The students had a presentation to give to peers worth 10% followed by an individual write up worth the remaining 30%. Then bonus marks of +/- 5% can be awarded for additional useful contributions throughout, (giving opportunity for hard working students to be rewarded). Marks are then normalized to total 100%.

The results for this programme showed an overwhelming success. A number of students commented the following [14];

• “[Despite] having not studied plants in any depth previously, I was still quickly able to get up to speed …I found myself interested enough to start reading …outside of study hours”
• “I learned more from the labs in this course than all the other labs from my other courses combined”
• “The labs actually felt like doing real “science,” and were definitely more satisfying than other lab practicals I have done”

The results were compiled usefully into the following figure by the staff involved in implementing the programme [14].

This paper was particularly interesting in that it addressed two of the problems facing plant based teaching which I outlined in the introduction. 1) The high school students were taught material related to plant genetics and, molecular biology that weren’t on their syllabus thus broadening student’s exposure to the subject prior to entry into tertiary education. 2) The undergraduates from “Wake Forest University” were given the opportunity to learn themselves in a novel way by helping others with the subject of plant biology. It’s a well-known fact that being able to teach something successfully to another person is evidence of one’s understanding of the subject. The potential for rapport with local schools and boosting enrolment levels from within the locality is an exciting one for any university thinking of implementing such a scheme.

The service learning defined by this university as “pedagogical method that integrates community service with required course activities to enhance student’s attainment of course specific learning objectives”. This “service learning” programme aligns closest with Bringle and Hatchers idea of the process which can be read at [16]. In this service learning programme all the material taught to peers was done by non-experts during student’s class time and was a compulsory element of the course. The aim was to stimulated high school student interest in studying science specifically plant based studies.

Over the course of 350 million years, plants and insects have coevolved to counter each other’s defensive strategies. A variety of physical and biochemical mechanisms are used almost intuitively to help plants deter herbivorous pests. Chemical signals and compounds emitted by plants can be exploited by herbivores, predators and parasitoids to locate resources. In this review, we will look at the ways plants interact with their herbivore counterparts. We will also delve into how science is using herbivore signaling and compounds as a natural form of pesticide.

INTRODUCTION

Adaptations evolved by plants, improve their survival and reproductive success by reducing herbivore impact. The earliest land plants can be found dated back in the fossil record at 450 million years (Erlich and Raven, 1964). The appearance of angiosperms, or flowering plants, in the Cretaceous Period lead to an explosive expansion of insect diversity. In response, plants developed surveillance systems to recognize the herbivorous pests. Induced reactions can be stimulated by touch, encouraging the production of secondary plant metabolites that influence changes in growth, behavior and survival.

PHYSICAL DEFENSE: SPECIALIZED ORGANS AND TISSUES

All plant tissues come equipped with structural barriers that limit the attachment and invasion of pathogens. The primary cell wall provides structural support and regulates turgor pressure (Keegstra, 2010). Structural fibers including cellulose, microfibrils, and cross-linking glycans contained in the wall enhance support function. This function shifts a bit in the presence of a pathogen, where the wall will thicken to provide additional strength. During a microbial attack, plants deposit callose between the cell membrane and cell wall. Papillae composed of callose deposits impede cellular penetration at the site of infection. Plants cells also have specialized receptors that signal an alarm in the presence of a pathogen. Elicitor compounds found in the saliva of herbivorous insects bind with receptors imbedded in the cell wall, initializing an oxidative catalyst reaction. Digestive enzymes are released, damaging the invading organisms.

Highly specialized cells including idioblasts, sclerenchyma cells, pigmented cells, and stinging cells, further refine plant defense approach. Toxic chemicals or sharp crystals contained in idioblast cells tear apart the mouthparts of feeding herbivores. Sclerenchyma cells, found in fruit of pears and apples, have highly lignified cellular walls that form bundles of fortified tissue (Zhang et al, 2017). Bitter-tasting compounds found in pigmented cells make plant parts undesirable to eat, Stinging cells imbedded in the waxy cuticle of some weedy species, break off upon contact depositing irritating toxins. Some cells of this variety contain prostaglandins, used to further amplify the pain response. This diverse armory of defensive structurse allow plants to persist while under constant attack.

BIOCHEMICAL DEFENSE

Plant chemical defense compounds can be divided into two main categories, primary and secondary metabolites. Structural compounds such as proteins, sugars, nucleic acids, and amino acids are categorized as primary metabolites. Secondary metabolites are not directly involved in major metabolic processes. When triggered, these compounds may be applied to either quantitative or qualitative defense (Yang et al, 2018). Qualitative metabolites are small toxic molecules, found throughout the tissues of young leaves and buds. These toxins interfere with herbivore metabolism and are reaction specific. They can be rapidly created with little energetic investment and are not dosage dependent. Non-adaptive generalist herbivores are impacted the greatest by this group of compounds. In contrast, quantitative defense compounds are present in high concentrations and are equally as effective against specialist and generalist herbivores (Kushalappa, Yogendra, & Karre, 2016). Energetic investment is much larger in this group due to the extended formation and transport time required.

Defense compounds can be further divided into large chemical groups. Nitrogen containing alkaloids are bitter in taste and include nicotine, caffeine, cocaine and morphine. High levels of caffeine produced by coffee seedlings inhibit the germination of seeds in close proximity. This inhibition of growth to optimize space and resources is known as allelopathy (Berton, Yang and Weston, 2003). Phenolics are another large compound produced primarily through shikimic acid and malonic acid pathways (Bhattacharya, Stood, & Citovsky 2010). These compounds are generally used for stress protection and play an important role in plant development and structural support.

ARTIFICIAL APPLICATIONS OF PLANT DEFENSE

The interactions between plants and herbivores help to determine overall productivity in vegetation. Worldwide, the number of domesticated crop plants is estimated at 2500 species. Consumption by foliage, sap and root feeding insects have reduced net plant productivity by 20 percent globally (Agrawal, 2011). Crop loss attributed to pests, weeds and disease is estimated even higher at an astonishing 40 percent. A decrease in energy directed towards growth often comes consequently, usually as an overall decrease in plant mass and fitness. Selecting genes that increase resilience and provide resistance to herbivore attack will increase overall yield and production. Understanding the mechanisms behind physical defense, plant persistence and herbivore induced volatiles allow scientists to alter plants in a way that benefits the agriculture community.

One of the most difficult herbivorous insects to control on cultivated plants are aphids, from the superfamily Aphidoidea (Nalam, Loius and Shaw. 2019) Members of this group are specialists, feeding on the phloem of plants. The number of species in existence is estimated at 4000, with 250 labeled as highly destructive. As an r-selective species, aphids have a high reproductive output, with a short generation time. The decline of host plant fitness triggers the production of winged morphs, allowing them to disperse over large areas.

Exploitation of insect defense mechanisms and compounds may be the key to chemical free plant defense. Previous studies have performed successful trials in the expression of insect defense traits in crop plants (Bruce et al, 2015). The manipulation of pheromones and compounds is a sustainable pest management strategy the would reduce the use of broad-spectrum pesticides and the need for seasonal pesticide application.

PHYSICAL DEFENSE MECHANISMS

Physical plant defense structures impede herbivory by preventing consumption or attachment. Bark, waxy cuticles, thorns and spines provide the first line of defense against herbivore attack. Thorns and spines, in particular, are located on the leaves or stems of the host plant. Upon ingestion, these structures damage the mouth parts and internal structures of the herbivore. If these structures are compromised by mechanical damage, plants may employ the use of secondary metabolites and induce volatiles. In addition to defensive structures, plants may employ biotic defensive strategies. The tree selected for this study provides food and/or shelter for potential predators. In exchange, predators are given protection (Calixto, Lange, and Del-Claro, 2015). Extrafloral nectaries produce a sweet liquid containing sugars, lipids, amino acids, alkaloids, phenols and volatile organic compounds. This nectar attracts several arthropods predators, including ants. Past research suggests that the presence of ants on foliage increases defense against herbivores (Lange and Del-Claro, 2014).

In my primary article, the authors explore the effect of the three most evident defenses found in the leaves of Qualea multiflora (Vochysiaceae) during foliar sprouting (Calixto, Lange and Del-Claro, 2015). The presence of trichomes, foliar toughness and the activity of extrafloral nectaries were examined to quantify the impact on foliar sprouting. Foliar herbivory at each leaf stage was also recorded. Combined, this data would aid the authors in determining whether biotic and abiotic plant defense against herbivores operate both independently and in conjunction with one another. To support their hypothesis, Calixto and colleagues formulated four questions, 1) do these defenses vary during leaf development, 2) what the period of peak activity of each type of defense is, 3) do peak effectiveness of defenses overlap, and 4) does leaf area loss caused by herbivores vary depending on leaf age.

Qualea multiflora (Vochysiaceae) is one of the most abundant trees inhabiting the Brazilian savannah (Appolinario and Schiavini, 2018). Data was collected on Q. multiflora from October 2010 to January 2011, in the Ecological Reserve of the Clube Caca e Pesca Itororo De Uberlandia, MG Brazil. eExtrafloral nectaries in the leaf petiole, non-glandular trichomes in the leaf blade, and the attraction of ants to it’s extrafloral nectaries, made this species a strong candidate for the authors’ study.

To gather data on defense and herbivory, the authors tagged 19 Q. multiflora individuals carrying the same selected traits. All tagged plants showed signs of stem resprouting and had a height of 3 m. The first 3 leaf producing branches were tagged on each plant and then collected in December. Leaves were put in categorizes from 1 to 5, with 1 having the newest growth and 5 having the oldest growth. Manual counters were then used to count the number of trichimes in the medial region of the abaxial leaf surface near to midrib. Leaves were photographed and measurements were taken representing lost foliar area. The dimensions of each leaf were also taken. Extrafloral necataries were accounted for by observing the presence or absence of bland necrosis in the branches.

Productivity of EFNs was quantified by scoring thres distinct branches from nine plants and evaluateing them daily.

A second paper on the topic H. perezi infection in blue crab populations investigates how size and molt stage influence the susceptibility and timing of disease transmission (Lycett, Chung and Pitula, 2018). Seasonal shifts in H. perezi prevalence have been linked to other external factors such as pH, temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen (Lycett and Pitula, 2017). Openings in the carapace during molting may leave young crabs vulnerable to infection. Lycett and colleagues (2018) sought out to determine if the rate and prevalence of infection observed in young crabs during seasonal peaks could be distinguished from other size classes.

In conclusion, Lycett (2018) determines that all size classes can harbor a range of infection, with larger crabs exhibiting higher rates of parasitic proliferation and disease progression. Juvenile crabs showed an increased prevalence of disease in the fall months, whereas medium crabs were more vulnerable to infection in the summer months.

ABSTRACT

In the Current era, rapid urbanization, industrialization, and declining forest which are ultimately leading to a global climate changes. The huge scale of lessening of forestation for firewood, building, paper products, textile and many other applications are gradually imposing a serious negative impact on the environment. Inherently, it has limit application due to the presences of hemicellulose and lignin. Therefore, this studies shows benefit of bacterial cellulose alternative in the near future. As it possess several important and unique properties than plant cellulose such as high purity, higher absorptivity, greater mechanical strength, higher degree of polymerization & crystallization, In-situ mold ability, biodegradability, biocompatibility and many others. Furthermore, this review suggest that should be investigate a potent cellulose producer to develop an economically viable process for large scale production of bacterial cellulose so it can bear out at least some of the cellulosic requirements

INTRODUCTION

Biopolymers” are natural polymers which consist of monomeric subunits covalently linked in living organism. (Klemm 2004). Naturally, derivatives of biopolymers are assorted, plentiful and essential to life. (Tina 2001; Steinbuchel and Rhee, 2005). Widely, biopolymers are carry out vital roles which are preservation and expression of genetic information, catalysis of reactions, storing of elements such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients, and defense against biological or harmful or environmental factors. Also, act as feelers of biotic and abiotic factors, communiqué with living and non-living matter and structural components of the cells and tissues. (Steinbuchel, 2003 ; Steinbuchel and Doi, 2005).

Cellulose is of great economic importance globally (Siqueira et al., 2010; Fu et al., 2013). Mostly, the world’s economy depending on artificial cellulose with molecular formula C6H10O5) n, However, in plant cellulose content 90 % of cotton and that of wood is 40 – 50 %. These are most important resources for all cellulose products such as paper, textiles, construction materials, cardboard, as well as cellulose derivative as cellophane, rayon, and cellulose acetate (Saxena and Brown, 2005; Peng et al., 2011).Conventionally, the demand of cellulose comes across by cotton and wood, which cover nearly 90% and 50% cellulose respectively. But, due to the presences of lignin and hemicellulose it has assured complications and disadvantages with usage of plant cellulose to achieving elementary necessities in many industrial processes. Moreover, the plant resources cannot tolerate growing demand for cellulose necessities because of fast diminishing forest resources, decreased agricultural land and other environmental concerns. Also naturally, difficulty in removal of hemicellulose and lignin from the cellulose, edges to applications (Brown, 2004). However, gradually raising deforestation by harvesting plant cellulose, which are influences to ecological balances. Therefore, necessitates for finding alternative for plant cellulose which are free from difficulties for deforestation. Due to the respect of lessening deforestation for cellulose, Bacterial cellulose are most viable and substitute to plant cellulose and free from lignin and hemicellulose, higher degree of polymerization, machine-driven capacity, high level of crystallnity high purity, amazing water absorbing capacity, in-situ mold ability, biodegradability and biocompatibility (Iguchi et al., 2000; Brown, 2004; Torres et al., 2012).

The fibrils of bacterial cellulose are higher thinner than plant cellulose (; Czaja et al., 2007a; Chawla et al., 2009; Cherian et al.,2013). Novel features of bacterial cellulose are absorptivity and strength, due to these properties it has emerged as a versatile biopolymer in multi industries such as food, textile, paper, cosmetics, and audio products in medical field. (Brown et al 1992; White and Brown et al 1989). In Biomedical science, Bacterial cellulose has been natural candidate for many applications such as wound dressing materials, micro vessel and micro nerve during surgery, also used as a soft tissue substitution material for urology, gynecology, otolaryngology, maxilla-facial or plastic surgery. (Czaja 2007b).

However, some bacteria can produce cellulose where its industrial uses are possible .which belongs to Axetobacer, Agrobacterium, Rhizobium, Pseudomonas and Sarcina and Acetobacter xylinum is a most common efficient cellulose producer in the presences of oxygen and glucose (Chawla 2009) because this bacterium is a non-photosynthetic organism which depends can procure glucose, glycerol, or other organic substrates from others and that can convert into pure cellulose (Brown 1976).

However, the few products are known to be available like, bacterial cellulose gel, a health tonic, which used to clean whole alimentary canal and washes out faeces from our body and bacterial cellulose act as facial masks which can be used for skin and body care (www.alibaba.com) , audio speaker diaphragms by using bacterial cellulose (Yamanaka 1994) and Nata de Coco, is also known and used as a dessert or diet food in Philippines (Ng and Shyu, 2004).

But still there are lack of efficient cellulose producers, low yields, high cost and inefficient large scale processes.

CONCLUSION

The necessities of prevent forest and environmental pollution due the rapid industrialization, declining forests and global climate changes, by producing bacterial cellulose and it offers a wide range of applications, where plant cellulose can hardly be used. Because it has a unique property which possesses to solve the problems associated with the use of plant cellulose. Also, bacterial cellulose may be of superior quality having more durability and efficiency than plant.

Instead of plant cellulose, bacterial cellulose is considerable to industrial importance due to varies unique properties are high purity, high mechanical strength, amazing water absorbing capacity, in-situ mold ability, biodegradability and biocompatibility. By virtue of these unique properties of bacterial cellulose were found various practices in industrial sectors like healthcare, food, cosmetics, paper, textile and etc. In addition, producing of cellulose from microbes are more eco-friendly, prevents deforestation end environmental pollution. However, at present, the scarcity of potent cellulose producer/s has low yields, expensive and lacks of efficient scale up procedures are the hurdles in the commercialization of this important biopolymer.

However, applications of biopolymers are reliant on cost and scale of production. In future, must be investigating to develop an economically viable process for large scale production of bacterial cellulose so it can bear out at least some of the cellulosic requirements instead of using plant cellulose. Still, have question on bacterial cellulose can play with traditional cellulose sources this cannot be answered until commercial scale up and fermentation development become mature.

Thus, realizing the immense importance of bacterial cellulose and with a view to search a potent cellulose producer and to develop an efficient commercially viable process for cellulose production,

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Plant communication: the big question

Plants can communicate too. They can detect other plants next to or around them and respond accordingly. They can do this by a number of ways, one way is secreting certain chemicals into the soil to affect how their neighbouring plants grow and behave, depending on how crowded they find their neighbourhood to be. As plants can’t simply run away, they have acquired a number of strategies to help them cope with their neighbours. They can detect other plants surrounding them in a number of ways, such as using signals like far-red light reflection where the photoreceptors in the plant can detect both red and near infra-red light. Plants rely on direct sunlight for photosynthesis, which is the most important chemical reaction in plants needed for producing carbohydrates from inorganic substrates, which is vital for survival. This direct sunlight is abundant in red-light, whereas light can be reflected from other plants around them and this causes it to be less red and more far-red. This can cause a major decrease in the rate in growth of the surrounding plants, which is much less useful than the rich red-light of direct sunlight which encourages fast growth, being more beneficial for survival (Devlin, 2015). Plants produce chemical signals to manipulate their environment, and they can share those signals with each other plants through the air or the soil. The ability of plants to inhibit or encourage growth of their roots or leaves when detecting either members of the same species or different can be explained by the plant needing its own space.

Background: previous research

A large number of observations show that plants can detect each other at root-level, which is likely controlled by chemicals emitted through the roots. Research by Barto et al. (2012) suggests the signals that are emitted by the plant below the ground may be conducted by physical contact of the root hairs or tips. Competition between plants may involve a negative interaction, thereby causing reduced growth or reduced survival of its neighbours. Plants that are growing together in close proximity may depend upon the same nutrients in the soil and therefore these interactions can cause them to adapt. This ensures they have a better survival advantage over others, where the resources of either light or nutrients in the soil are limited. (Casper and Jackson, 1997). Plants may also be able to recognise their own species from strangers using kin recognition, and this suggests that roots can sense when other roots are in close proximity and is also vital in altering the growth of the plant root to beat its competitors (Dudley and File (2007). Kin recognition of other species is said to occur by different mechanisms compared to that of the same species. It was found during a study by Crepy and Casal (2014) that in Arbidopsis, photosensor receptors can differentiate between the different light signals emitted by plants of both the same and different species, allowing the plant to alter the placing of its leaf to decrease the competition for light. The communication by plants belowground in the soil is guided by the trading of substances discharged by one plant and detected by another. For two species that are existing in close proximity, plants may firstly detect and perhaps recognise their neighbours which will then commence allelopathic interference to control both inter or extra-specific interactions. These two processes become hand in hand when one or more plants are coexisting and are interacting together. A study by Meiners et al. (2012) found that this pattern may come to the surface through the production and consequential release of signalling chemicals in the soil, which in turn prompt the all-important production of the defensive allelochemicals that neighbouring plants are detecting. Ideally, the chemicals used in the signalling would be familiar to the fewest possible competitors, however the manufacture of allelochemicals may be produced even when there are no neighbours nearby, misusing valuable resources required for by the plant.

Additions to the field

Writing in Nature Communications, Kong et al. (2018) aimed to investigate how plants communicate belowground, which is an area of plant communication research where there are still many unanswered questions. They focused on assessing how wheat detected and responded to 100 other species of plant by underground signalling and found that wheat can detect the presence of their neighbours both heterospecific and conspecific and responds to heterospecific neighbours by the increase of allelochemical production. It was also noticed that two specific chemicals, (-)-loliolide and jasmonic acid were present in the roots of a diverse range of species that were included in the study, and these two chemicals are able to trigger allelochemical production by wheat, perhaps suggesting that these two root-secreted chemicals may be the key signals involved in plant neighbour detection, which remained poorly defined before this study was carried out. It could also mean that they may be the universal mediators of plant neighbour interactions in the soil. Biochemical responses could be related to which neighbour is coexisting with them and could be detected and controlled through the presence of detection cues. The results of this study could suggest that other plants, as well as wheat, can hinder the growth of their neighbours by producing secondary metabolites in response to the biotic and abiotic factors in the surrounding environment. By noticing the presence of (-)-loliolide and jasmonic acid in the roots of a variety of species included in the study, it adds to the current field by helping us understand plant neighbour behaviour and the response strategies that some may use to aid growth and survival.

What now?

Now that chemicals involved in neighbour detection and response have been identified, this opens up the door for further studies on the behaviour of the chemicals in the soil involved and its molecular constitution. This could lead to new perspectives into how plants sense other plants. In the study by Kong et al. (2018) there was no specific response found to (-)-loliolide or jasmonic acid, or a common way that different species behaved once detecting it. The potential of how the signalling chemical leads to responses to other plant systems also needs to be understood, to test if they respond in a similar way. It is likely that there may be more signalling mechanisms involved in the soil that could be contributing to plant-plant responses.

Abstract

The diseases of plants caused by viruses are always in main concern for researchers because they reduced the yield and quality of food grains or horticultural products like fruits, vegetables and flowers which will leads a major economic loss of agricultural stakeholders. Presently there is no direct control strategy for viral infection in plants. Advancement in technology leads a novel approach which uses peptide aptamers for controlling plant virus. This technology is effective because the peptide aptamers are specific and binds directly with the capsid protein (CP), nucleoproteins (N) and movement proteins (MP) and affect viral replication machinery of plant virus. In this chapter, we reviewed the about role of peptide aptamers for inhibiting the viral infection in plants.

Introduction

The ever increasing population increases the demands food security at global level for food quality and quantity. But the challenges of climate change leads to the condition of drought in some region while heavy rainfall in other parts of the world and appearance of more new insects or new viruses and new strains. This imbalance the ecological sustainability and cause various type of pathogen infection to the food crops due to fungi, bacteria and viruses. Plant viruses are small pathogens which utilize the host machinery for replication and generation of progeny. The top ten plant viruses are Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) belongs to genus Tobamovirus cause disease in Tobacco, tomato, and other Solanaceae, Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) belongs to genus Tospovirus cause disease in Over 1000 species in 85 families, including many vegetables, peanuts and tobacco, Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) belongs to genus Begomovirus cause disease in mostly tomato and other Solanaceae and African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV) cause disease in Cassava, Nicotiana and Datura which belongs to genus Begomovirus, Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) belongs to genus Cucumuvirus cause disease in Cucumbers, squash, melons, peppers, beans, tomatoes, carrots, celery, lettuce, spinach, various weeds and many ornamental plants, Potato virus Y (PVY) cause disease in pepper, potato, tobacco, tomato, some ornamental plants and many weeds and Plum pox virus (PPV) cause disease in Stone fruits including peaches, apricots, plums, nectarines, almonds and sweet and sour cherries belongs to genus Potyvirus, Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) belongs to genus Caulimovirus cause disease in Arabidopsis thaliana, Brassica spp., Raphanus spp. and other species of Brassicaceae and Resedaceae, Brome mosaic virus (BMV) belongs to genus Bromovirus cause disease in Mainly monocots such as barley and others in the grass family and Potato virus X (PVX) belongs to genus Potexvirus cause disease in Potato and other Solanaceae.

The knowledge of pathogen is a determining factor for accurate diagnosis and control of any disease. The need of time is searching and developing the new and eco-sustainable strategies for viral diseases to protect the food crops from the commercial loss of farmers and other stakeholders (Mendoza-Figueroa et al., 2014). Presently there are various strategies for protection and removal of the phyto-pathogens like use of pesticide, RNA interference, Antisense technology, transgenic approaches. While the viral disease are not possible to control by chemicals. Thus, viral diseases are controlled by implementing different strategies like rotation of crop, pathogen-free plant production through tissue culture and though integrated vector management. The traditional breeding technique which take long time and limits of resistance genes is also useful for developing the virus resistant varieties of food crops by exploiting the naturally resistance genes (R genes) in some lines. The resistance genes for viral infection are modified by genetic engineering and used for developing transgenic plants which are resistance against virus.

Alternative methods for plant virus control are use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi which improve yield and resistance by providing natural defense in plant (Maffei et al., 2013) and another one is the use of small molecules such as peptides aptamers plays a major role in controlling the viral infection in plants as they are target specific which interfere the replication or gene expressing mechanism of virus. The peptide aptamers are capable to functions in solution as well as under extracellular and intracellular conditions. Thus, it emerged as new potent method of controlling viral diseases efficiency and specificity with wide range of applicability in plant pathology (Mendoza-Figueroa et al., 2014, 2018). In this chapter, we reviewed the about role of peptide aptamers for inhibiting the viral infection in plants

Plant defense Mechanism

The infection of virus in plants is restricted by various mechanism viz. hormone-mediated defence mechanism, protein degradation, regulation of metabolism, gene silencing and immune receptor signalling (Incarbone and Dunoyer, 2013). A two-level detection system which involves plasma membrane-localized and intracellular immune receptors for activating plant defences against invaders involves as innate immunity (Dodds and Rathjen, 2010; Zipfel, 2014). In the first level of defence, PTI is mediated by surface-localized pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), which detect and recognize PAMPs (Bohm et al., 2014; Macho and Zipfel, 2014). The second level, ETI, involves intracellular immune receptors, designated as resistance proteins (R), which recognize – directly or indirectly – virulence effectors secreted by the pathogens into the host intracellular environment (Briddon and Stanley 2009, Shepherd et al., 2009).

Plant Viral Diseases Controlling Tool: Aptamers

Different strategies for controlling plant virus do not have high levels of resistance due to specificity (Shepherd et al., 2009). The reverse genetics approach by modifying the genome promise the application of Peptide aptamers for broad spectrum resistance against virus in plants. In this approach these aptamers obstruct the function of given gene product after which phenotype is determined (Gong et al., 2014, Rudolph et al., 2003; Lopez-Ochoa et al., 2006) and bioreceptors in bioassays (Yang et al., 2014). There are only few reports on the use of peptide aptamers in this regard which required further confirmation. In general, peptide aptamers appear to act by interfering with protein-protein interactions and blocking the target protein function, such as viral DNA replication, assembly of viral replication complexes and protein complex binding to nucleic acids (Figure-1) (Colombo et al., 2015).

Aptamers attach to molecular targets of proteins, nucleic acids, and even cells, tissues and organisms and can be modified totally in a test tube by chemical synthesis, having sought after storage properties with no immunogenicity in therapeutic applications. Additionally, due to highly complex and refined molecular identified characters, aptamers are competent of attaching tightly and precisely to small molecules with multimeric structures and can inhibit proteins’ biological functions. Aptamers of proteins inside cells are set to interfere with other protein interactions and have a peptide loop joined to a protamerse in scaffolds. Reports on peptides aptamers with antiviral activity are based in the interaction of peptides derivates of common binding microdomain in Nucleoprotein of Tosporvirus as peptides targets, and a library of peptides derivates from other places in N protein of Tospovirus. Results of these study show antiviral activity in Nicotiana benthamiana transgenic plants, peptides that closers interaction, decrease symptoms and viral RNA (Rudolph et al., 2003). Similarly, in another report, transgenic tomato lines expressing peptide aptamers A22 or A64 that bind to Geminivirus replication proteins, exhibited resistant to diverse geminiviruses viz., tomato yellow leaf curl virus or tomato mottle virus (Reyes et al., 2013). Therefore, the peptide aptamer approach can also be expanded to other viral diseases for engineering plants with enhanced resistance.

Scientists developed a method based on aptamers utilizing a highly conserved Replication initiator Protein (ReP/AL1) which required for their replication. In a study using yeast two-hybrid assay discovered that peptides Trx -A22 and A64 were able to strongly bind the Rep/AL1 proteins of nine different viruses (Reyes et al., 2013). These nine Rep/AL1 proteins of the three major genera of the geminivirus family which infect cassava, maize, cotton and vegetables lead major losses. More than 100 geminivirus species cause infection in tomato plants. These were transformed with the Trx-A22 and Trx-A64 peptide aptamers, under the control of the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus (CaMV) E35S constitutive promoter with a duplicated enhancer region. The transgenic lines were infected with either TYLCV or tomato mottle virus (ToMoV) and displayed reduced symptoms and decreased viral DNA loads, further supporting the usage of peptide aptamers as a very promising strategy to enhance crop plant viral resistance (Acero et al., 2011).

A peptide of globulins protein, AmPep1 having antiviral activity which is obtained from amaranth seeds (Amaranthus hypochondriacus). This peptide binds with the origin of replication site (OriRep) of TYLCV and hinders viral replication results in reduction of disease symptoms in Nicotiana benthamiana. It is the direct control of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) using a peptide from enzymatic digested 11S amaranth globulin without generation of transgenic lines (Mendoza-Figueroa et al., 2018).

Future Scenario

Promising solution of economic losses in food crops is provided by aptamers technology which has broad-spectrum resistance against viral diseases. Conventional breeding approaches combining with the peptide aptamers would be a very powerful strategy to combat new virus species or new variants. RNA inference (RNAi) is homology-dependent and works only with closely related viruses which generate transgenic resistance against plant viruses (Shepherd et al., 2009). The peptide aptamers pairing with RNAi removes the limitations of RNAi while maintaining established resistance to closely related viruses.

The Nucleoproteins and Replication proteins of plant viruses have been used to interfere with peptide aptamers. Now it required to expand for other viral proteins using the peptide aptamer approach and processes to enhance the resistance phenotype in important crops. In future more efficient and specific library should be developed and maintained for aptamers peptide. In addition to the advantages of this technology, also challenges the secondary effects on plant cell which are often observed after expression of complete viral protein. Microbial and fungal infections can also be controlled by peptide aptamer technology (Acero et al., 2011).

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