ARPN Journal of Agricultural and Biological Science       ISSN 1990-6145
   
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ARPN Journal of Agricultural and Biological Science                              July 2018 | Vol. 13  No. 7
 
Title:

The effect of pesticides used in conventional and organic farming on the microbial flora

Author (s):

Hikmet Katırcıoğlu, Sema Çetin, Dürdane Kaya and Semra Mirici

Abstract:

In this study, Basudin 60 EM, Cupravit OB 21 and Dursban 4 of synthetic pesticides widely used in agriculture, bordeaux mixture of natural pesticides and Componion of biologic pesticides was investigated the effect on the bacteria isolated from microbial flora. In this context it was aimed to compare the effect of pesticides used in conventional and organic farming on microbial flora. The changes of metabolic activity was demonstrated according tothe effects of pesticides in the microbial flora. The leaf and soil samples obtained elaborately from the same station, Bacillus cereus DY6, Micrococcus yunnanensis DT1 and Bacillus tequilensis DT2 were selected as indicator strains. The changes in antibiotic susceptibility and generation time as metabolic activity of these microorganisms and genetic modifications that creates on indicator strain were investigated. As a result, it was determined that pesticides used in applications of organic farming changed metabolic activities of the bacteriaas much as conventional applications. It has been found that especially bordeaux mixture as a natural pesticide used in Turkey causes genetic modifications.

 
       
 
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Title:

Usability Evaluation of Public Sector Hospital Websites of Pakistan

Author (s):

Mahmood Ashraf, Muhammad Usman and Thabit Sabbah

Abstract:

The hospital website should be easy to use and understandable by patients and general public. A hospital website equipped with usability standards can reduce gap between patients themselves and improve user satisfaction level significantly. As more people are turning towards Internet for seeking health information, therefore, health-care websites containing relevant and useful health contents is need of the day. The current study is a part of research which aims to understand and highlight usability issues and propose design rules for developers to produce hospital websites of Pakistan in accordance with usability standards. Four public sector hospitals operational in Pakistan were evaluated with the objective to identify usability issues. These issues have been used to form design rules. Twenty-six participants took part in the study to perform user tasks. Data collected was through questionnaire and direct observation techniques. Average scores calculated against each website and usability component to analyze data. 28.37% responses were “Agree” and 19.55% users remained neutral about the usability of websites revealing a margin of improvement in the websites usability. This study is expected to provide useful insights for website developers to develop more usable hospital websites. The results reveal that public sector hospital lack in specific patient oriented designs. Research findings are aligned with the past researches on the adaptation of usability standards for hospital website development.

 
       
 
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