An experiment was conducted to evaluate egg quality and ultrastuctural measurements of eggshell using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) in 2 lines (selected and control) of Japanese quail. A selection program was applied over 22 consecutive generations for higher egg production and lower broken egg percentage. The results revealed that the females of the selected line produced significantly (P < 0.01) higher egg mass compared to that of the control line. Also, the selection procedure significantly improved feed conversion ratio. The eggshells of the selected line had a higher breaking strength compared to those of the control line, although there was no difference between them in shell thickness. Significantly higher wet (P < 0.01) and dry (P < 0.05) eggshell percentages were found in the selected line. In general, the eggshells of the selected line had a lower total score (good) of ultrastructural evaluation compared to the control line. According to scanning electron microscope data, the incidence of certain structural variants was more common in eggshells of the control line suggesting poor shell strength. The incidence of alignment was more prevalent in control eggshells compared to selected ones, suggesting lower resistance to breakage. Late fusion and large interstitial spaces of the palisade layer indicating decreased resistance to fracture were observed in control eggshells. It could be concluded that the improvement eggshell quality may be caused by the long-term selection for lower cracked and broken egg rates from generation to generation.

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Two varieties of Egyptian rice (Oryza sativa L.) namely Sakha 101 (Japonica) and Giza 182 (Indica) were employed in this study. Rice grains were stored for 9 months in three types of bags (polyethylene, polyethylene plus carton and polystyrene cup) at room temperature. The work to be described here was performed to figure out the best materials raw, parboiled and for packaging quick cooking rice grains in order to keep the physical and technological properties of the aforementioned rice. The results of this study can be summarized as follows: the physical properties of brown and white rice were varied from one variety to another. The water uptake and sedimentation values of brown, white and quick cooking of both raw and parboiled rice at 77 o C and 82 o C were varied according to of the tested rice varieties. In general, quick cooking white rice of Sakha 101 variety had the highest values of water uptake at both 77 o C and 82 o C as compared with those found in the other samples. On contrary, sedimentation value at 77 o C and 82 o C was decreased as affected by the previous mentioned conditions. Furthermore, the quick cooking white rice of the two tested varieties (Sakha 101 and Giza 182) had the highest values of alkali spreading values compared to the other rice samples. Generally, alkalispreading values decreased after subjecting the two mentioned rice varieties to parboiling process. In addition, the alkali spreading values remain, without significant changes as a results of using different packaging materials or storage period. Quick cooking parboiled brown rice of Giza 182 variety had the lowest gel consistency in comparing to the other rice samples. However, parboiling and storage for 9 months at 25 + 2 o C led to decrease in the viscosity of rice flour. Dealing with data presented in this study it can be concluded that storage of rice grains in polyethylene plus carton at room temperature was superior compared to those of polyethylene ad polystyrene cup in terms of maintaining storage stability, which in turn play an active role for improving the export of Egyptian rice over-seas, hence, increase the national income and finally develop the Egyptian economy. PE: Polyethylene PE + C: Polyethylene plus carton PSC: polystyrene cup. ** Each value was an average of three determinations. * Values followed by the same letter in column are not significantly different at P < 0.05

Imbalanced mineral nutrition and scant information about nitrogen (N) in plants may result in reduction in sorghum morpho-physiological activities. However, farmers use higher or lower fertilizer doses regarding sorghum growth and yield. This study was undertaken to determine the response of sorghum morpho-physiological activities to different rates of nitrogen (N) during two growing seasons of 2017 and 2018. The treatments were consisted of a factorial combination of three N levels (N1 = 0 kg N ha− 1, N2 = 150 Kg N ha− 1, and N3 = 300 kg N ha− 1) and two varieties (V1 = CFSH30, and V2 = Siyong 3180). Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Our results found that N application (N2 and N3) significantly increased plant growth and morpho-physiological activities; leaf length increased by 2.7–8.9%, leaf width by 0.4–4.5%, plant height by 27.8–20.5%, Specific leaf weight by 4.2–10.9%, leaf weight by 18.4–17.4%, and protein contents by 39.5–117.0% compared to N1. Interestingly, higher rates of N reduced number of plants m− 2 by 42.4–24.8% but increased number of plants m− 2 weight kg− 1 by 11.6–62.8%. Moreover, compared with control, N enhanced CAT activity by 92.8-131.9%, SOD by 81.2–84.5%, and POD by 43.6–52.8% in 2017 and 2018. This study indicated that N3 significantly performed best among all treatments during the two growing seasons particularly in case of V1. Moreover, we also concluded that V1 performed better in terms of producing higher leaf width, plant height, specific leaf weight, stem weight, number of plants m2 (weight/kg− 1), protein contents, and antioxidant enzymes activity as compared to V2.