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Context Soil salinity mitigation with nanoparticles enriched biochar (Bc) can be a better strategy to resolve the uprising threat against food security. Aim The present study was designed to prepare silicon nanoparticles enriched biochar (Si-En-Bc) and zinc nanoparticles enriched biochar (Zn-En-Bc), which may not only reduced the toxic effects of NaCl stress on initial growth of radish crop but also improved its physiology and defensive mechanism. Method Seeds were germinated in pots with six treatments under normal and NaCl stress, (100 mM NaCl), Zn-En-Bc (1% w/w), and Si-En-Bc (1% w/w). Twenty days old seedlings were harvested and their fresh weight and various germination and biochemical parameters were tested. Key results A significant reduction in malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) contents was observed with Si-En-Bc + NaCl relative to NaCl stress. It might be due to the significant increase in the antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) (42%), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) (38.7%), catalase (CAT) (30.9%) and shoot phenolics (59%) with Si-En-Bc + NaCl over NaCl stress. Application of Zn-En-Bc also caused a maximum increase in root and shoot Zn concentration (76.8 and 54.9%, respectively) under NaCl stress. Conclusions Hence, Si-En-Bc proved to be the best treatment for the radish plant to complete its early growth stage under NaCl stress while Zn-En-Bc not only compensated NaCl stress but also enhanced Zn availability. Implications This study implies that Si-En-Bc or Zn-En-Bc should be applied to the salt affected soil before the crop sowing so seedling can grow under the ameliorative effects of applied amendments. Also, Si-En-Bc or Zn-En-Bc should be tested on a degraded soils at larage scale such as field level.

Low back pain is a major health problem resulting in psychosocial and physical disability. The prevalence of LBP and risk of recurrence is rising due to the sedentary life style, poor postural awareness and short term oriented intervention plans. It is the need of the time to design one or more exercise plans that can improve pain and functional disability and prevent recurrence of symptoms in patients with mechanical low back pain. Objective: The objective of this study is to compare the effects of core stability exercises and endurance training on the pain and functional disability in the population having mechanical low back pain. Materials and Methods: It was a quasi-experimental study with 74 patients with chronic low back pain, divided equally in two groups containing 37 patients each. Both groups were treated with baseline of moist heat pack in combination with interferential. Group A was treated with core stability exercises and group B was treated with endurance training for five times a week.  Pre and post treatment scores were compared with NPRS for intensity of pain and Oswestry Disability Index for functional disability scores. Results: Data was analysis by SPSS.25 on 74 patients. In type of pain, about 79% of patients were suffering from moderate and severe type of pain while there were only 21% of patients who came with mild pain in both groups. Independent t-test was applied for changes between the group on NPRS scale, the results shows significant results with p<0.05. In core stability group the difference between pretreatment and post treatment was 6.08 to 1.4 and in stability group the difference was 6.13 to 1.10. Endurance training exercises on ODI, there was no one with severe disability, and 94.6 %were with minimal disability and only 5.4 % were with moderate disability.  It shows that endurance training exercises were better than stability exercises. Conclusion: It is concluded that endurance training has more clinical difference on outcome measures of NPRS and ODI as compared to core stability exercises in patients with mechanical low back pain.