SOUTHERN JOURNAL OF SCIENCES

Background: Scientific conferences play a vital role in knowledge exchange and collaboration across disciplines. Building on the success of its 2022 inaugural event, the Second Southern Science Conference (SSCON 2024) aimed to expand international scientific collaboration while addressing contemporary challenges in sustainability and research methodology. Aims: To evaluate the effectiveness of a hybrid conference format in facilitating global scientific collaboration and to showcase cutting-edge research across multiple disciplines, with particular emphasis on sustainability and technological innovation in Latin America. Methods: The conference implemented a hybrid format combining in-person and virtual attendance. Over three days, 38 lectures were presented by renowned researchers, covering key topics including materials science, environmental sustainability, chemical processes, and regional development. Participation metrics and collaboration patterns were analyzed to assess the conference's impact. Results: The conference achieved significant participation with 242 contributing authors from 13 countries across four continents. Notable research presentations included advances in laser surface modification techniques, geotechnology applications in biofuel production, sustainable silica synthesis from biomass, and green valorization of tropical seeds. The conference produced 66 approved papers, with most involving 2-5 collaborators. Discussion: The hybrid format proved effective in removing geographical barriers and promoting global engagement. The strong representation from Latin American institutions highlighted the region's growing influence in international scientific discourse. Key research presentations demonstrated innovative approaches to sustainability challenges, particularly in waste utilization and environmental technology. Conclusion: SSCON 2024 successfully evolved from its predecessor, demonstrating the effectiveness of hybrid conferencing in fostering international scientific collaboration. The conference established itself as a vital platform for knowledge exchange, particularly in sustainability and technological innovation, while identifying areas for future improvement such as extended submission timelines and permanent management structures.

Today, salinity stress causes extensive damage to crops, and high soil salinity is one of the limiting factors for crop yields. A practical approach to lessen the negative effect of salinity stress is to use mineral nutrition methods such as spraying plants with silicone. To investigate and compare the effect of silicon and silicon nano-chelate on the wheat plant resistance (Shiroodi cultivar) to salinity stress, a factorial experiment was designed and conducted in a completely randomized design with five replications under hydroponic conditions. Experimental treatments included concentrations of 0 and 2 mmol/L silicon, 0 and 0.424 g/L silicon nano-chelate, 0 and 150 mmol/L sodium chloride, and their interaction. The growth and physiological indices showed that salinity stress decreasing effect on shoot dry weight, root fresh weight, catalase activity, and ascorbate peroxidase. These increases indicate the activation of the plant defense system against salinity stress conditions. The results also showed that silicon nano-chelate treatment under salinity stress reduced dry and fresh weights of roots and shoots. These two compounds additionally influenced the content of catalase activity, ascorbate peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase content in shoots. Simultaneously, the silicon and silicon nano-chelate treatment under salinity stress reduced the dry and fresh weight of roots and shoots, catalase activity, and ascorbate peroxidase. Therefore, the results obtained in this study generally showed that silicon under salinity stress increased plant growth and positively affected the activity of its antioxidant system. But silicon nano-chelate not only did not improve plant performance but also reduced its growth.

Pruning methods can primarily affect grape production at various levels. Of the commonly affected features by pruning, the number of bunches has known to have a significant effect on the relation between the functions of assimilate sources and sinks. Further, fruitfulness can significantly be negatively influenced by shading. In this study, we aim to study the impact of 4, 6 and 8 buds per cane with pruning intensity as light, moderate and severely pruned and their interaction in the course two consecutive years, 2017 and 2018 in ‘Sahebi’ and ‘Halagho’ (both seeded red table grape cultivars). In 2018, lightly pruned ‘Halagho’ and having 8 buds per cane increased number of bunches by 54.00, which had the highest value. Results showed that there is apical buds bear more fruit by comparison to the buds with vegetative nature, 1 to 4 first buds. Based upon the outcomes of this study, it could be concluded that due to the stresses imposed by the pruning of the vines, therefore, the chemical compounds increases in order alleviate the negative aftermaths . In 2018, whole berry antioxidant activity in both cultivars was significantly lessened, and this decline was higher in ‘Saahebi’. The number of bunches was increased by increasing cane length or bud load/cane. Overall, the pruning program has an impactful role in bunch number as well as antioxidant activity and in the long-run on accumulated reserves, which makes choosing and applying a specific pruning method undeniably important. Thus, emphasize the importance of further research in this field.