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There is a need to develop new maize (Zea mays L.) breeding methodologies for the easier screening of quantitative traits that are largely influenced by the environment. Molecular laboratories initially intended to work with these challenging and economically important traits but have targeted genetically simple traits instead, often not a challenge to breeders. Root systems are important components of drought tolerance in maize genotypes. Phenotyping maize root systems without destroying experimental plots, however, is challenging. Our goal was to develop a nondestructive screening methodology for short‐season drought tolerance through BRACE, an index including root traits. Hybrids that represent a unique short‐season diverse maize sample were tested in eight water‐stressed and well‐watered environments, along with control commercial checks in 2013 and 2014. Short‐season drought tolerant hybrids were best for brace root count and spread width and root lodging resistance. We propose BRACE as a method for high throughput maize phenotyping leading to improvement in drought tolerance. Phenotyping of root traits associated with BRACE is simple, nondestructive, and can be performed in less than 2 min plot−1. BRACE could be a reliable method for large‐scale high throughput phenotyping of segregating generations for cultivar development under controlled drought stress environments in maize breeding programs. Validation of this method and further complimentary research across genetic materials is encouraged.

Remediation of heavy metal-contaminated soils has been drawing our attention toward it for quite some time now and a need for developing new methods toward reclamation has come up as the need of the hour. Conventional methods of heavy metal-contaminated soil remediation have been in use for decades and have shown great results, but they have their own setbacks. The chemical and physical techniques when used singularly generally generate by-products (toxic sludge or pollutants) and are not cost-effective, while the biological process is very slow and time-consuming. Hence to overcome them, an amalgamation of two or more techniques is being used. In view of the facts, new methods of biosorption, nanoremediation as well as microbial fuel cell techniques have been developed, which utilize the metabolic activities of microorganisms for bioremediation purpose. These are cost-effective and efficient methods of remediation, which are now becoming an integral part of all environmental and bioresource technology. In this contribution, we have highlighted various augmentations in physical, chemical, and biological methods for the remediation of heavy metal-contaminated soils, weighing up their pros and cons. Further, we have discussed the amalgamation of the above techniques such as physiochemical and physiobiological methods with recent literature for the removal of heavy metals from the contaminated soils. These combinations have showed synergetic effects with a many fold increase in removal efficiency of heavy metals along with economic feasibility.

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The objective of this work was to investigate degradation and mineralization of model compound 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) using advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). This work focused on the degradation of 4-CP by UV and organic oxidants, such as peroxy acetic acid (PAA), p-nitrobenzoic acid (PNBA), and methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP), in combination. It was observed that maximum degradation of 4-CP by organic oxidants occurred within the first 10 min. PAA was found to be the best oxidant of all the organic oxidants used. Experiments were also conducted with varying concentration of PAA. Experimental results demonstrated that UV/PAA facilitated 98% removal/mineralization of 4-CP. Mineralization studies were taken up by chloride ion determination and chemical oxygen demand (COD) measurement. The chloride ion concentration was observed to decrease progressively which indicated degradation and mineralization of 4-CP. The COD declined gradually when PAA and MEKP were used as oxidants. The reactions were also followed by HPLC and GC-MS analysis for residual concentration and identification of intermediates and degradation products, respectively. The degraded compound was identified as 4-methyl-3-penten-2-one.

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