Measuring fruit morphology and color traits of vegetable and fruit crops in an objective and reproducible way is important for detailed phenotypic analyses of these traits. Tomato Analyzer (TA) is a software program that measures 37 attributes related to two-dimensional shape in a semi-automatic and reproducible manner. Many of these attributes, such as angles at the distal and proximal ends of...

In this paper, we consider a model of phosphorus uptake by plant roots, governed by a quasilinear parabolic equation. We first study the well-posedness of the associated Cauchy problem. Then, we consider a shape optimization problem: how to deform the shape of the root in order to increase phosphorus uptake. Finally, we give some numerical results of the shape optimization process.

objective: the genus trichoderma comprises a great number of fungal strains that act as biological control agents, the antagonistic properties of which are based on the activation of multiple mechanisms. methods: trichoderma strains exert biocontrol against fungal phytopathogens either indirectly, by competing for nutrients and space, modifying the environmental conditions, or promoting plant g...

Pavement cells (PCs) are the most frequently occurring cell type in the leaf epidermis and play important roles in leaf growth and function. In many plant species, PCs form highly complex jigsaw-puzzle-shaped cells with interlocking lobes. Understanding of their development is of high interest for plant science research because of their importance for leaf growth and hence for plant fitness and...

The shape and function of plant cells are often highly interdependent. The puzzle-shaped cells that appear in the epidermis of many plants are a striking example of a complex cell shape, however their functional benefit has remained elusive. We propose that these intricate forms provide an effective strategy to reduce mechanical stress in the cell wall of the epidermis. When tissue-level growth...

In this paper, we propose a method to estimate 3D shape of deformable plastic tapes from multiple camera images. In this method, the tape is modeled as serial connection of multiple rectangular plates, where the size of each plate is previously known and node angles of between plates represent the shape of the object. The node angles of the object are estimated by 2D silhouette shapes taken in ...

Plant cells in tissues experience mechanical stress not only as a result of high turgor, but also through interaction with their neighbors. Cells can expand at different rates and in different directions from neighbors with which they share a cell wall. This in connection with specific tissue shapes and properties of the cell wall material can lead to intricate stress patterns throughout the ti...

a microgravity survey was conducted for detecting the sink-holes at site of a power plant. pits, man-made tunnels and canals were considered as topographical effects and were corrected. to show the capability of the method two sites in a power plant have been surveyed for existing areas which can be affected by sink-holes overnight. ground shakes due to the running facilities were also preventi...

An understanding of how the degree of phylogenetic relatedness influences the ecological similarity among species is crucial to inferring the mechanisms governing the assembly of communities. We evaluated the relative importance of spider phylogenetic relationships and ecological niche (plant morphological variables) to the variation in spider body size and shape by comparing spiders at differe...