The conventional understanding of the role of the seed coat is that it provides a protective layer for the developing zygote. Recent data show that the picture is more nuanced. The seed coat certainly represents a first line of defense against adverse external factors, but it also acts as channel for transmitting environmental cues to the interior of the seed. The latter function primes the see...

Understanding variation in SW (seed weigh) is of major importance in understanding SY (seed yield) variation. The objective of this study was to determine factors such as SN (seed number) per unit area, SFD (seed filling duration) and SFR (seed filling rate) and temperature, LAI (leaf area index), LAD (leaf area duration), above-ground dry matter, CGR (crop growth rate), leaf dry matter re...

Environmental conditions during seed maturation influence germination, but the genetic basis of maternal environmental effects on germination is virtually unknown. Using single and multiple mutants of phytochromes, it is shown here that different phytochromes contributed to germination differently, depending on seed-maturation conditions. Arabidopsis thaliana wild-type seeds that were matured u...

Herein, we sought to explore the contribution of cellulose biosynthesis to the shape and morphogenesis of hexagonal seed coat cells in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Consistent with seed preferential expression of CELLULOSE SYNTHASE9 (CESA9), null mutations in CESA9 caused no change in cellulose content in leaves or stems, but caused a 25% reduction in seeds. Compositional studies of cesa9...

PURPOSE Prostate cancer is among the most common non-cutaneous neoplasms affecting renal transplant recipients (RTRs). Available treatments including radical prostatectomy and external beam radiotherapy carry a risk of damage to the transplanted kidney, ureters, or bladder. We assessed the safety and efficacy of Iodine-125 ((125)I) prostate seed brachytherapy as an alternative to surgery and ra...

The ecological function of animal seed dispersal depends on species interactions and can be affected by drivers such as the management interventions applied to protected areas. This study was conducted in two protected areas in the Monte Desert: a fenced reserve with grazing exclusion and absence of large native mammals (the Man and Biosphere Ñacuñán Reserve; FR) and an unfenced reserve with lo...

Seed dispersal is a fundamental process in plant ecology and is of critical importance for the restoration of tropical communities. The lands of the Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge (CRNWR), formerly under agriculture, were abandoned in the 1970s and colonized mainly by non-native tree species of degraded pastures. Here we described the seed rain under the most common native and non-native tr...

For maximizing influence spread in a social network, given a certain budget on the number of seed nodes, we investigate the effects of selecting and activating the seed nodes in multiple phases. In particular, we formulate an appropriate objective function for two-phase influence maximization under the independent cascade model, investigate its properties, and propose algorithms for determining...

Seed Throwing Optimization is an easy to implement probabilistic metaheuristic for multimodal function optimization with roots in hill climbing and the evolutionary computation like technique Harmony Search. It is a randomized Gradient Ascent with multiple initial states and the possibility to limit exploration to only paths which have shown potential. In this paper, the speed of convergence of...