The most crucial factor in producing papaya seedlings successfully is seed germination. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of seed priming with growing media on seed germination and seedling growth of papaya from October to December 2022. The experimental treatments included three seed priming treatments: T₀ = control (no seed priming treatments), T₁ = GA₃ (100 ppm), and T₂ = KNO₃ (1%), and four growing media, viz., M₁ = soil + vermicompost (1:1), M₂ = soil + cowdung (1:1), M₃ = soil + cocopeat + vermicompost (1:1:1), and M₄ = soil + cocopeat + cowdung (1:1:1). The treatments showed a significant effect on different parameters such as germination percentage, days to germination, survival percentage, chlorophyll content, seed vigor index, shoot, and root length. GA₃ treated seedlings performed better than non-GA₃-treated seedlings. Among the growing media, M₃ showed the best for seed germination and other growth attributes compared to other growing media. In terms of interaction effects, T₁M₃ showed the highest performance for germination percentage (84.33%), survival percentage (91.0%), and chlorophyll content (44.26%). T₁M₃ also showed the highest seed vigor index, shoot and root growth, and plant biomass. As a result, the combination of GA₃ and growing media containing soil + cocopeat + vermicompost was shown to be the most favorable for papaya seed germination and seedling growth.

Apple farming is a new production venture across the North Shewa Zone. Its production, harvest, postharvest handling, and marketing status are not well known. This study was conducted to assess the above-lined situations across the district. Four representative locations, Asabahir, Tsigereda, Tengego, and Godnamamas were selected based on their apple production status. Then, a total of 88 respondents were randomly selected and interviewed by a structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics of percentage, standard deviation, and chi-square tests. A larger percentage of farmers are male (82.9%), in their active production age (41.7%), and produce apples in their backyard (85.25%). The agronomic management of fertilization, pruning, training, and plant spacing deviate from the recommended practices of apple farming. Whereas varietal distribution, irrigation, and post-harvest treatments are better practiced. Loss of fruits by fruit drops and discrimination on the market due to small fruit size are serious problems across the locations. Regarding apple farming, the farmers think of it as a productive venture and got a better price per kg and single fruit sale. They sell mainly in local collectors (60.2%) and nearby cities. As for institutional support, the farmers got apple seedlings, training, and capacity buildings by Agriculture Offices and NGOs, even if the farmers are still in higher need of better support. Therefore, it can be concluded that if not outwaited by poor tree management, destructive product transportation, and higher loss of fruits from trees and in the market, the attitude of the farmers can be capitalized in better production of apples.

This work aimed to evaluate the effects of using three different substrates in the semi-hydroponic culture of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) using two different nutrient solutions. A first trial was performed with a nutrient solution rich in macronutrients and micronutrients suitable for lettuce culture, and a second trial with a nutrient solution with pretreated wastewater from effluents of a cheese factory. The experimental design was in randomized blocks with three repetitions and three substrates were used: perlite, coconut fiber, and expanded clay, in both trials. The following parameters were observed: number of leaves, diameter of the cabbage, fresh and dry weight of the aerial part, chlorophyll index and mineral composition of the lettuce. For the first trial, the highest result for the number of leaves (20 leaves), fresh weight (142.0 g) and dry weight (7.2 g) of the aerial part was obtained in the plants growing on perlite. In the second trial, the highest result for the number of leaves (28 leaves), diameter of cabbage (26.7 cm), fresh weight (118.8 g) and dry weight (9.5 g) of the aerial part were achieved by the plants that were grown in coconut fiber. The nutrient solutions were analyzed after each irrigation cycle to verify the possibility of their discharge into the environment. Several parameters were analyzed: pH, conductivity, redox potential, nitrates, nitrites, ammoniacal nitrogen, chlorides, hardness, calcium, phosphates, sodium, potassium, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and magnesium. Ammoniacal nitrogen was found to be the only nutrient that can limits the discharge of nutrient solutions into the environment. It was also proven that the plants, besides obtaining the nutrients necessary for their development in the semi-hydroponic system with the nutrient solution with pre-treated residual water, also functioned as a purification system, allowing the said nutrient solution to be discharged into the environment at the end of each cycle.

To deal with problems of traditional geographic information collection, such as low real-time, poor authenticity of the data, and unclear description of detailed areas, a design scheme of remote sensing-based geographic information system is proposed. The system mainly consists of information collection, imaging processing, data storage management, scene control and data transmission module. By use of remote sensing technology, the reflected and radiated electromagnetic waves of the target area are collected from a long distance to form an image, and the hue–intensity–saturation (HIS) transformation method is used to enhance the image definition. Weighted fusion algorithm is adopted to process the details of the image. The spatial database stores and manages the text and image data respectively, and establishes the attribute self-correlation mechanism to render the ground objects in the picture with SketchUp software. Finally, using RS422 protocol to transmit information can achieve the effect of multi-purpose, and enhance the anti-interference of the system. The experimental results show that the practical experience of the proposed system is excellent, the geographic information image presented is clear, and the edge details are clearly visible, which can provide users with effective geographic information data.

An image adaptive noise reduction enhancement algorithm based on NSCT is proposed to perform image restoration preprocessing on the defocused image obtained under the microscope. Defocused images acquired under micro-nano scale optical microscopy, usually with inconspicuous details, edges and contours, affect the accuracy of subsequent observation tasks. Due to its multi-scale and multi-directionality, the NSCT transform has superior transform functions and can obtain more textures and edges of images. Combined with the characteristics of micro-nanoscale optical defocus images, the NSCT inverse transform is performed on all sub-bands to reconstruct the image. Finally, the experimental results of the standard 500 nm scale grid, conductive probe and triangular probe show that the proposed algorithm has a better image enhancement effect and significantly improves the quality of out-of-focus images.