Castillo-Aguilar C de la C¹, JJ Zúñiga-Aguilar², AA Guzmán-Antonio², R Garruña³

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.86, pp. 199-204, 2017, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2017.86.199

Abstract The Habanero pepper (Capsicum chinense) is intensively cultivated in the Yucatan peninsula, México. Because of adverse environmental conditions, it required seeding in germination trays, from which six-week-old seedlings were transplanted to the soil. Adequate nursing and fertilization programmes were made to improve health and vigour before seedlings transplanting. During seed germination, we investigated the effects of inoculation with four plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) on growth, nutrient uptake and gas exchange of 8-week-old Capsicum chinense plants. Inoculation was made with Pseudomonas sp. -P61-, Pseudomonas sp. -A46-, Bacillus pumillus -R44-, and Paenibacillus polymyxa-BSP1.1-. The BSP1.1 strain produced the highest increase in… More >

Iqbal A¹, MA Iqbal¹, A Iqbal¹, Z Aslam¹, M Maqsood¹, Z Ahmad², N Akbar¹, HZ Khan¹, RN Abbas¹, RD Khan¹, G Abbas¹, M Faisal¹

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.86, pp. 84-88, 2017, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2017.86.084

Abstract Seed inoculation with bacterial species has the potential to increase yield and agro-qualitative attributes of forage crops. This study determined the response of forage maize to three plant growth promoting rhizobacteria [PGPR1 (Azotobacter chroococcum), PGPR2 (Pseudomonas flourescens) and PGPR3 (Bacillus megaterium)] inoculated individually and in different combinations (PGPR1+2, PGPR1+3, PGPR2+3 and PGPR1+2+3). A non-inoculated treatment was kept as a control. We used a completely randomized block design with four replicates. The PGPR1+2+3 treatment showed an outstanding performance by improving yield attributes, green forage yield, dry matter biomass, crude protein and total ash. The same treatment gave the lowest More >

Mirleau-Thebaud V^1,2, J Dayde¹, JD Scheiner^1,3,4

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.86, pp. 53-67, 2017, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2017.86.053

Abstract Soil compaction represents an important issue in the actual context of agricultural system sustainability. Research on the various developments of root systems under tillage has been explored for many crops, whether for the biomass area or the underground, but very little concerns Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.). The objectives of the study were to understand the impact of soil tillage and of the induced mechanically compacted soil on: i) sunflower’s root system architecture, ii) biomass area iii) production. Two complementary experiments were realized in the south of France (France’s main sunflower production area). In both experiments, increased More >

Amafabia, Daerefa-a Mitsheal¹, Montalvão, Diogo², David-West, Opukuro¹, Haritos, George¹

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring, Vol.11, No.2, pp. 91-147, 2017, DOI:10.3970/sdhm.2017.011.091

Abstract Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is the process of collecting, interpreting and analysing data from structures in order to determine its health status and the remaining life span. Composite materials have been extensively use in recent years in several industries with the aim at reducing the total weight of structures while improving their mechanical properties. However, composite materials are prone to develop damage when subjected to low to medium impacts (i.e. 1-10 m/s and 11-30 m/s respectively). Hence, the need to use SHM techniques to detect damage at the incipient initiation in composite materials is of… More >

Róger Moya^*, Lucia Fallas-Valverde, Alexander Berrocal, Dawa Méndez-Álvarez

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.5, No.3-4, pp. 208-219, 2017, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634111

Abstract This study evaluated the durability in terms of decay and mechanical resistance of thermally modified (TM) wood of Tectona grandis and Gmelina arborea treated at 160, 180, 200 and 220 °C. The TM wood of both species treated above 200 °C and 180 °C respectively presents lower weight loss (WL) after 300 days exposure in field and accelerated testing. It was also found that in field testing over 180 °C, the module of elasticity (MOE) and module of rupture (MOR) of the exposed and unexposed stakes of TM wood were not affected. Accelerated tests showed More >

Felipe Orozco^1‡, Brian Alfaro-González^1‡, Yendry Corrales Ureña¹, Karolina Villalobos¹, Angie Sanchez¹, Francisco Bravo¹, José Roberto Vega¹, Orlando Argüello-Miranda^1†*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.5, No.3-4, pp. 199-207, 2017, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634110

Abstract As an outcome of millions of years of evolution, biological systems have developed different methods to interact with their surroundings. Many of these adaptations, such as secretions, light-interacting surfaces, biochemical active compounds, and many other survival strategies, are phenomena occurring at the nanometric scale. In this review, we describe how extracellular nanometric structures are responsible for manipulating energy and matter, creating some of the emergent properties of life. Iridescent colors in birds’ feathers, the manipulation of wettability of insects’ exoskeletons, the adhesive properties of nanopatterned secretions and the ability to polarize light are examples of More >

Louis C. Muller^1*, Sanette Marx¹, Hermanus C.M. Vosloo²

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 67-80, 2017, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2016.634130

Abstract This work reports a study of polyol synthesis through liquefaction of technical lignins in crude glycerol by means of 1H and 31P NMR spectroscopy. The polyols are intended for preparation of polyurethane foam; thus, it is important to know how different lignin types as well as crude glycerol influence and contribute to the final polyol hydroxyl contents. Polyols prepared from organosolv lignin, kraft lignin and lignosulphonate had hydroxyl numbers suitable for rigid foam of 435, 515 and 529 mgKOH/g, respectively. The polyols differed in composition with glycerol, showing significant variation. During liquefaction the glycerol content More >

Siddesha H¹, Manjunath N Hegde²

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring, Vol.11, No.1, pp. 17-41, 2017, DOI:10.3970/sdhm.2017.012.017

Abstract This paper describes the damage detection in framed structures due to the vertical support settlement and rotation of footing bases. The damage detection procedure proposed by Nobahari and Seyedpoor (2013) is used to detect the damage in the members of the frame. In the present study, instead of using the flexibility matrix (referred here as original flexibility matrix) method, the generalized flexibility matrix is used in the same algorithm and the results are compared. The algorithm uses flexibility matrix and strain energy concept to detect the damage in the members. The behaviour of the frame More >

Yan Cai^1,1, Zhiyong Li^1,2,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.14, No.2, pp. 59-81, 2017, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2017.014.057

Abstract To investigate the dynamic changes of solid tumor and neo-vasculature in response to chemotherapeutic agent, we proposed a multi-discipline three-dimensional mathematical model by coupling tumor growth, angiogenesis, vessel remodelling, microcirculation and drug delivery. The tumor growth is described by the cell automaton model, in which three cell phenotypes (proliferating cell, quiescent cell and necrotic cell) are assumed to reflect the dynamics of tumor progress. A 3D tree-like architecture network with different orders for vessel diameter is generated as pre-existing vasculature in host tissue. The chemical substances including oxygen, vascular endothelial growth factor, extra-cellular matrix and… More >

Chengsheng Yuan^1,2,3, Xinting Li³, Q. M. Jonathan Wu³, Jin Li^4,5, Xingming Sun^1,2

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.53, No.4, pp. 357-372, 2017, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2017.053.357

Abstract Fingerprint-spoofing attack often occurs when imposters gain access illegally by using artificial fingerprints, which are made of common fingerprint materials, such as silicon, latex, etc. Thus, to protect our privacy, many fingerprint liveness detection methods are put forward to discriminate fake or true fingerprint. Current work on liveness detection for fingerprint images is focused on the construction of complex handcrafted features, but these methods normally destroy or lose spatial information between pixels. Different from existing methods, convolutional neural network (CNN) can generate high-level semantic representations by learning and concatenating low-level edge and shape features from… More >