Green manufacturing is increasingly becoming popular, especially in lubricant manufacturing, as more environmentally friendly substitutes for mineral base oil and synthetic additives are being found among plant extracts and progress in methodologies for extraction and synthesis is being made. It has been observed that some of the important performance characteristics need enhancement, of which nanoparticle addition has been noted as one of the effective solutions. However, the concentration of the addictive that would optimised the performance characteristics of interest remains a contending area of research. The research was out to find how the concentration of green synthesized aluminum oxide nanoparticles in nano lubricants formed from selected vegetable oils influences friction and wear. A bottom-up green synthesis approach was adopted to synthesize aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) from aluminum nitrate (Al(NO₃)₃) precursor in the presence of a plant-based reducing agent—Ipomoea pes-caprae. The synthesized Al₂O₃ nanoparticles were characterized using TEM and XRD and found to be mostly of spherical shape of sizes 44.73 nm. Al₂O₃ nanoparticles at different concentrations—0.1 wt%, 0.3 wt%, 0.5 wt%, 0.7 wt%, and 1.0 wt%—were used as additives to castor, jatropha, and palm kernel oils to formulate nano lubricants and tested alternately on a ball-on-aluminum (SAE 332) and low-carbon steel Disc Tribometer. All the vegetable-based oil nano lubricants showed a significant decrease in the coefficient of friction (CoF) and wear rate with Ball-on-(aluminum SAE 332) disc tribometer up to 0.5wt% of the nanoparticle: the best performances (e_COF = 92.29; e_WR = 79.53) came from Al₂O₃-castor oil nano lubricant and Al₂O₃-palm kernel oil; afterwards, they started to increase. However, the performance indices displayed irregular behaviour for both COF and Wear Rate (WR) when tested on a ball-on-low-carbon steel Disc Tribometer.

Broad-spectrum antibiotics, such as tetracyclines, are used to treat and manage a range of infectious disorders. Since the kidneys are the primary organs responsible for excreting tetracyclines, clinicians should refrain from prescribing them to patients who have renal failure. Tetracyclines are one of the clinical waste products of today. One of the biggest problems in the field of pollution of the environment today is the persistence of different pharmaceutical residues, drug residues, pesticides, and metal ion species of the new-generation pollutants in surfaces and groundwater. In the present work, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)-CuO nanoparticles (CMC-CuO NPs) were synthesized using CuO NPs within different amounts of CMC (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 g) at 85 °C. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by XRD, FT IR, SEM, and TG-DTA analysis. According to XRD and SEM, the crystallize size and morphology influenced the dosage of CMC. FT-IR analysis confines the layer of CMC to the CuO nanoparticle surface. TG-DTA results indicated that the CMC content of CMC-CuO NPs was between the range of 69% and 75% by weight. The effects of some parameters such as initial concentration, pH, adsorbent dosage, and contact time on the adsorption of tetracycline from aqueous model solutions on CMC-CuO NPs were investigated with batch studies. It was found that the removal of tetracycline was obtained about 80% with optimized parameters of 10 mg/L concentration, 180 min contact time, 5 pH, and 0.3 g/25 mL dose. The synthesized CMC-CuO NPs nanocomposite may be a promising material for the removal of tetracycline in environmental pollution and toxicology.

Antioxidants are derivatives of vitamin C or beta-carotene that prevent reactions stimulated by oxygen, peroxides, or free radicals, thus reducing the oxidative stress. They have found their way into many uses in treating several human diseases and reducing the risk of developing diseases like cancer. In view of this property, the present study was focussed in identifying several plants possessing antioxidative properties and which were also conserved in the ex-situ park of CSIR – Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Dhanbad, India. Fifteen medicinal plants including herbs, shrubs and grasses are reported in this paper, and a collective insight has been presented about their antioxidant properties and the present state of their pharmacological applications. The specific chemical constituents abundant in the leaves, roots, stems, seeds and fruits of each of these plants have also been dealt with. To report a few antioxidant pharmacological preparations from Ayurvedic literature are Vimang, Maharishi Amrit Kalash (MAK4, MAK5), Maharishi Ayurved (MA631, MA47), MA Raja’s Cup, MA Student Rasayana and MA Ladies Rasayana. This review has been attempted to enhance the importance of the plants which are generally being neglected, so that it can used by the local people in rural areas for their cultivation and it will also pave the pathway for their subsequent future use in medicinal and research industry for drug formulation.

In order to scientifically evaluate the germplasm resources of Momordica charantia in southern China, the diversity, correlation and cluster analysis were carried out on the main botanical characters of 56 Momordica charantia varieties, such as melon length, melon transverse diameter, single melon weight, internode length, stem diameter, leaf length and leaf width. The results showed that the variation coefficients of 7 agronomic characters of 56 Momordica charantia varieties ranged from 8.81% to 19.44%, the average variation coefficient was 14.21%, the maximum variation coefficient of single melon weight was 19.44%, and the minimum variation coefficient of melon cross diameter was 8.81%. The correlation analysis showed that there were correlations among the agronomic traits. The positive correlation coefficient between leaf length and leaf width was up to 0.978, and the negative correlation coefficient between single melon weight and internode length was up to 0.451. The 56 varieties were divided into 3 groups by cluster analysis, of which 92.86% of the materials were concentrated in the first and second groups, and there were only 4 materials in the third group. The results can provide a reference for the cultivation, utilization and genetic improvement of Momordica charantia resources in southern China.

Using the Intercultural Competence and Inclusion in Education Scale (ICIES), this study examines variations in intercultural competence and inclusion between mainstream and multiethnic high schools. The sample consisted of 384 high school students, aged 17 to 18, from both rural and urban areas in Western Romania, enrolled in grades 11 and 12. The ICIES demonstrated strong reliability, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.721. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three distinct dimensions: Intercultural opportunities and activities, Comfort in diverse settings, and Cultural reflection and values. Independent samples t-tests identified significant differences between mainstream and multiethnic schools across several items, with students in multiethnic schools reporting higher levels of intercultural competence and inclusion. These findings highlight the critical role of multicultural educational settings in fostering students' cultural awareness and inclusive attitudes. This study provides actionable insights for enhancing multicultural education practices and policies, including teacher training programs, inclusive curricula, and extracurricular initiatives that promote intercultural engagement and reduce intergroup biases.

Cucumber Variety ‘Drite L108’ (Cucumis sativus L. Cv. Derit L108) was selected as the test material. In the solar greenhouse, different days (1, 3, 5, 7, 9 d) of light (PAR < 200 µmol·m^-2·s^-1) and normal light conditions were designed with shading nets to observe the growth indexes of cucumber plants and the changes of antioxidant enzyme activities in leaves. The results showed that: (1) continuous low light increased the SPAD (relative chlorophyll) value of cucumber leaves and decreased the net photosynthetic rate. The longer the continuous low light days are, the smaller the net photosynthetic rate of cucumber leaves and the worse the photosynthetic recovery ability would be. (2) The plant height, stem diameter and leaf area per plant were lower than CK, and the above indexes could not return to the normal level after 9 days of normal light recovery; the yield and marketability of cucumber fruit decreased under continuous low illumination. (3) The activities of SOD (superoxide dismutase) and POD (peroxidase) in cucumber leaves increased, the activities of CAT (catalase) first increased and then decreased, and the content of MDA (malondialdehyde) continued to increase. The longer the days of continuous light keep, the more seriously the cucumber leaves were damaged by membrane lipid peroxidation. After continuous light for more than 7 days, the metabolic function of cucumber leaves was difficult to recover to the normal level.