In Indian Ayurvedic system of medicine the leaf of Ghritkumari (Lat: Aloe vera; Fam: Liliaceae ) has been extensively used as a cathartic agent to treat severe stomach constipation. In order to develop reliable quality control marker for quality evaluation and to check the commercial samples of Aloe vera for authenticity and purity, its detailed chemical and HPTLC analysis has been done. The ca...

The allocation and recognition of cotton leaf diseases are of the major importance as they have a cogent and momentous impact on quality and production of cotton. This paper presents a modus operandi for automatic classification of cotton leaf diseases through feature extraction of leaf symptoms from digital images. Otsu’s segmentation method is used for extracting color and shape features. Sup...

A total of 240 Japanese quail chicks (1 d old) were used in a 42-d trial to study the effects of Artichoke leaf powder and vitamin E on growth performance and meat quality. This experiment was performed as a completely randomized design with 4 replicates of 15 quails in each, using a 4×2 factorial arrangement with diet and gender as the main effects. Four dietary treatments were formulated by a...

The effects of leaf toughness, trichome characteristics, nutrient and water availability, and secondary chemistry on diet selection by the leafcutting ant Atta cephalotes were determined using individuals of 49 woody plant species from a tropical deciduous forest in Costa Rica. The palatability of plants was measured by presenting whole leaves to leafcutting ant foragers on trails and counting ...

Along with changes in morphology in the course of maturation, leaves of Hevea brasiliensis become more resistant to leaf diseases, including the South American Leaf Blight (SALB), a devastating fungal disease of this economically important tree species. To understand the underlying mechanisms of this defense, and to identify the candidate genes involved, we sequenced the Hevea leaf transcriptom...

sulfur (s) is an essential macronutrient influencing plant growth, nutrient efficiency, quality and health of agricultural crops. the purpose of this research was to study the effects of s rates and sources on growth and fruit quality of apple (malus domestica l.) trees of ‘golden delicious’ at west azerbaijan, iran. experiment was conducted during four seasons (2003-2007), using a factorial ra...

We investigate the sensitivity of various physics and planning SmartArc parameters to generate single and partial arc VMAT plans with equivalent or better plan quality as IMRT. Patients previously treated with step-and-shoot IMRT for several treatment sites were replanned using SmartArc. These treatment sites included head and neck, prostate, lung, and spine. Effect of various physics and plann...

Most nutrient enrichment studies in aquatic systems have focused on autotrophic food webs in systems where primary producers dominate the resource base. We tested the heterotrophic response to longterm nutrient enrichment in a forested, headwater stream. Our study design consisted of 2 years of pretreatment data in a reference and treatment stream and 2 years of continuous nitrogen (N) + phosph...

Recently much attention has been paid by horticulturists to light-emitting diodes as a new source of economical and spectral-selective light. The reason is mainly coming from their versatility in handling and mounting, long working time, wattage use efficiency and lower heat production. In this study we examined their potential in promoting seed germination and producing quality flower seedling...

Leaf litter decomposability is an important effect trait for ecosystem functioning. However, it is unknown how this effect trait evolved through plant history as a leaf 'afterlife' integrator of the evolution of multiple underlying traits upon which adaptive selection must have acted. Did decomposability evolve in a Brownian fashion without any constraints? Was evolution rapid at first and then...