Plant development involves the elimination of cell organelles, protoplasts, tissues and organs. Programmed cell death is a process aimed at the removal of redundant, misplaced or damaged cells and maintenance of multicellular organisms. In contrast to the relatively well-described cell death pathway in animals, often referred to as apoptosis, mechanisms and regulation of plant programmed cell d...

In arid ecosystems, variation in precipitation causes broad-scale spatial heterogeneity in soil moisture, but differences in soil texture, development, and plant cover can also create substantial local soil moisture heterogeneity. The boundary between inland desert sand dunes and adjacent desert habitats exhibits abrupt changes in soil and vegetation characteristics that may be associated with ...

The 'phosphorus problem' has recently received strong interest with two distinct strands of importance. The first is that too much phosphorus (P) is entering into waste water, creating a significant economic and ecological problem. Secondly, while agricultural demand for phosphate fertilizer is increasing to maintain crop yields, rock phosphate reserves are rapidly declining. Unravelling the me...

Atmospheric [CO2] has increased substantially in recent decades and will continue to do so, whereas the availability of phosphorus (P) is limited and unlikely to increase in the future. P is a non-renewable resource, and it is essential to every form of life. P is a key plant nutrient controlling the responsiveness of photosynthesis to [CO2]. Increases in [CO2] typically results in increased bi...

The solar photovoltaic (PV) energy is one of the most promising sources of energy, which has attracted many interests. Itis potentially the largest source of energy in the world and is capable to mitigategreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions significantly in comparison with fossil fuels.Location optimization of solar plants can play a vital role to rise the efficiency and performance of the solar PV s...

the main objectives of this paper are measuring the technical efficiency of iranian thermal power plants and investigating the determinants of technical efficiency levels in these plants. stochastic nonparametric envelopment data (stoned) method applied to plant-level data over a period of thirteen years from 1999 to 2011. this is the first comprehensive analysis (to our knowledge) of technical...

The only way to test the ability of concrete plants to produce high quality concrete is to test their final products. Also, the process of testing and controlling concrete quality is time consuming and expensive. In this regard, having a quick, cheap and efficient way to predict the readiness of concrete plants to produce high quality concrete is very valuable. In this paper, a probabilistic mu...

P recision engineering of eukaryotic organisms requires efficient techniques for homology-based replacement of an endogenous gene by an introduced gene, a process termed gene targeting (GT). Because foreign DNA is preferentially integrated by nonhomologous recombination in plants and animals, special strategies are needed to increase the frequency and facilitate the detection of GT. Developing ...