Heavy metals are very toxic and soil contaminated with sewage sludge urgently need remediation in order to avoid related health hazards. Phytoremediation is a low cost and reliable technique to remediate heavy metal contamination. However phytoremediation using timber species was rarely reported and its efficiency was questionable. A field study was conducted to examine the efficiency of two timber species namely Acacia mangium and Melaleuca cajuputi in phytoextraction of Zn, Cu and Cd from contaminated soil. Two hundred of A. mangium and M. cajuputi were planted on sewage sludge disposal site and the growth was recorded for 12 months before at the end total biomass of each species was determined. Results show in 12 months, about 72 and 4 t ha −1 of aboveground biomass can be produced by A. mangium and M. cajuputi, respectively. Both species show potential for phytoremediation, however A. mangium is more efficient compared to M. cajuputi where efficiency of A. mangium to remove Zn was 24.4, 6.2 for Cu and 9.5% for Cd. As for M. cajuputi the efficiency was 1.3, 0.3 and 0.14% for Zn, Cu and Cd, respectively. It is projected that A. mangium require 5, 17 and 20 years to remove 79.82 kg ha −1 of Zn, 46.94 kg ha −1 of Cu and 2.33 kg ha −1 of Cd, respectively.

The time and emissions during cold starting were investigated at cold and hot temperatures (i. e., – 10°C, 0 °C, 25°C and 50 °C). The effect of injection timing (IT) on these factors was also studied at four ITs before top dead centre (BTDC) i. e., (12 , 15 , 20 and 23 BTDC). The results were compared with engine operation at 17 BTDC (factory IT). Sunflower vegetable oil and yellow grease were used as raw materials to prepare bio diesel fuels through transesterification. B20 (20% sunflower oil biodiesel+80% diesel) and W20 (20% yellow grease biodiesel+80% diesel), together with neat conventional Iraqi diesel fuel, were used to analyse engine startability and emissions under cold and hot starting conditions. Results indicated that adding biofuel affects the engine starting response and that the starting time stabilises at high starting temperatures. At a low starting temperature (i. e.,–10 °C), hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations increase significantly. At moderate and high starting temperatures, the oxygen content in the biofuel blend plays a dominant role in reducing the HC and CO concentrations. Smoke opacity has increased notably for the biodiesel blends at low starting temperatures but has decreased significantly at moderate and high starting temperatures. Both biofuel blends emit higher levels of nitrogen oxide than the neat diesel fuel. Noise increases at low starting temperatures, thereby indicating rough combustion.

Problem statement: In spite of the importance of marital satisfaction in couple relation, there is a little research in the Iranian context that examined the relationship between background factors and marital satisfaction. Thus, this study examined the relationship between duration of marriage, number of children, years of education and family income with female marital satisfaction. Approach: The study was carried out among a sample of 337 wives in Shiraz City, Iran. The Kansas Marital Satisfaction (KMS) was used to measure marital satisfaction. The study employed correlations test to determine the relationships between duration of marriage, number of children, years of education and family income with marital satisfaction. Results: The study found that there were no significant relationships between duration of marriage and family income and marital satisfaction. There was a negative significant relationship between respondents’ age and number of children and marital satisfaction. There was a positive significant relationship between respondents’ years of education and marital satisfaction. The Multivariate Regression Analysis was used to answer the last objective. The analysis showed that the predictor variable, women age, was found to be significant in explaining the observed variation in marital satisfaction (DV). Conclusion: Generally, the final model has explained 4% of total observed variance to marital satisfaction

In 2011, total marine capture landings in Peninsular Malaysia decreased by 3.9% which amounted to 1,373,105 tonnes as compared to 1,428,881 tonnes in 2010. The decline is connected to marine pollution which mainly comes from land based sources. Coastal forests play an important role affecting the marine ecosystem health and need to be conserved as a buffer to minimize pollution input into marine ecosystem. Heath forest, a type of coastal forest that receives less attention compared to mangroves, also has similar role. Melaleuca cajuputi that dominates heath forest has high potential as a phytoremediator of heavy metals and also has high economic values. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the potential of this species to extract heavy metals namely Zn and Cd from soil. Four levels of treatment were prepared where the test media was mixed with different amounts of sewage sludge (v/v) namely; T1 (control-soil only), T2 (30% sludge +70% soil), T3 (50% sludge + 50% soil) and T4 (70% sludge + 30% soil). After 90 days of experimental period, the accumulation of Zn was found to be high in the roots (137.19 mg kg^-1), followed by the leaves (135.0 mg kg^-1) and stems (102.24 mg kg^-1). As for Cd the highest concentration was in the roots (2.05 mg kg^-1), stems (1.78 mg kg^-1) and leaves (1.66 mg kg^-1). The species Transfer Factor (TF) values in the greenhouse experiment were > 1 but the Bio-Concentration Factor (BCF) values are≤ 1. This result shows that M. cajuputi is tolerant to Zn and Cd toxicity (low BCF) but able to transfer these elements (high TF) to the shoots for removal by leaf fall or by harvesting the shoots. In addition, the accumulation of Zn and Cd were high in the roots which suggests that Zn and Cd were efficiently immobilized (in the roots) from entering the marine ecosystem

Four clonal oil palm materials namely AVROS, Yangambi, La Me and NIFOR and two DxP hybrid Yangambi, grown on terraced and unterraced fields were subjected to irrigated and non-irrigated conditions. There were significant differences in all leaf nutrient concentrations for all the planting materials for both terrain and irrigation conditions. For nonirrigated palms, most of the leaf nutrients were higher than the irrigated palms, especially K and Mg concentrations. Most of the leaf nutrient concentrations in palms grown on undulating area were also high, especially for leaf Mg and K concentrations. Leaf K concentration for DxP hybrid Yangambi-DQ8 was consistently lower than AVROS-A122 by almost 15-20% in all the growing conditions. In contrast, the leaf K contents for Yangambi-DQ8 and Yangambi-Y103 were comparable to that of AVROS-A122 and these three planting materials produced the highest oil yields. In view of future high current fertilizer cost, selecting oil palm genotypes that are able to produce good oil yields on low fertilizer inputs and giving consistent leaf nutrition need to be given consideration.