Martínez-Corral¹ L, E Martínez-Rubín², F Flores-García¹, GC Castellanos², AR Juárez², MJD López³

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.78, pp. 43-47, 2009, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2009.78.043

Abstract The increasing demand of alfalfa crop production in the Lagunera Region has caused the search of new alternatives to the conventional methods of nutritional and hydric evaluation of alfalfa, where costs and time are optimized. The use of a machine vision system for computerized visual recognition of the crop hydric and/or nutritional stress implies the analysis and processing of certain characteristics, such as color, shape and object dimensions from a digital image. Due to the fact that identification parameters are closely related, it is necessary to compile information from specialists, foliar analysis, mathematical morphology and alfalfa crop deficiency photographs. The… More >

Torres¹ YA, MA Long², SM Zalba¹

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.77, pp. 225-240, 2008, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2008.77.225

Abstract The objective of this work is to contribute to the biology of Pavonia cymbalaria A. St. Hil & Naudin (Malvaceae), a native species of the Southern mountains of Buenos Aires Province. This knowledge will contribute to (1) promote its use as an ornamental species, (2) its conservation and (3) stimulate the interest and public valuation of mountain systems biodiversity. Seven populations of P. cymbalaria were selected. Two of them were growing under Pinus halepensis forests to characterize different environments were the herbaceous species is growing in the wild. Environmental characteristics immediately associated to six individuals of the species were studied… More >

Castañón-Nájera² G, L Latournerie-Moreno³, M Mendoza-Elos⁴, A Vargas-López⁵, H Cárdenas-Morales⁶

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.77, pp. 189-202, 2008, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2008.77.189

Abstract A morphological characterization in situ of Capsicum spp was made in 13 localities in the state of Tabasco, México, during 2004 and 2005. The objective was to sample and identify different morphotypes of chilli pepper which grow under wild and cultivated conditions. Eleven chilli pepper morphotypes were found. Most of them were wild (Amashito, Corazón de pollo, Muela, Garbanzo, Garbanzo raro and Desconocido) and corresponded to C. annuum. Another morphotype was half wild (Picopaloma) and corresponded to C. frutescens. The remaining morphotypes corresponded to C. annuum and C. chinenese. Data were analyzed with multivariate statistics. Principal component analysis (PCA) indicated… More >

Massuh Y^1,2, LE Torres¹, SF Ocaño¹, P Bruentti¹, AG Chaves¹, JA Zygadlo², MS Ojeda¹

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.86, pp. 214-223, 2017, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2017.86.214

Abstract Tagetes minuta L. (Asteraceae) is an annual herb that is of great interest due to the bioactive properties of its essential oil (EO) and its industrial use. In Argentina, 0.5 tons/year of EO are obtained from wild populations and commercialized with a value of 80-120 US$/kg. The introduction of the species in culture, and the initiation of a process of domestication, selection and breeding material aimed at generating higher yields and quality of EO as an alternative to wild collection. The goal of this work was to generate a population with a broad genetic base to obtain high phenotypic variability,… More >

C. Ross Ethier^1,*, Dillon M. Brown¹, Erica Landis², Machelle T. Pardue^1,2,3

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 61-63, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07377

Abstract Myopia, or near-sightedness, is a common ocular condition in which the eye elongates excessively. Development of myopia is associated with, and thought to be facilitated by, changes in the biomechanical properties of the sclera (the white part of the eye). We characterized scleral biomechanics in a mouse model of myopia using unconfirmed compression testing and biphasic theory to extract scleral permeability, in- plane scleral tensile modulus, and through-plane scleral compressive modulus. We find that myopia reduces in-plane tensile modulus and permeability, consistent with scleral tissue remodeling. Such biomechanical outcome measures may offer advantages over more traditional assessments of myopia-associated changes… More >

Sevan Goenezen^1,*, Ping Luo¹, Baik Jin Kim¹, Maulik Kotecha¹, Yue Mei^2,3

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 46-48, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07348

Abstract It is well known that the mechanical properties of tissues may vary spatially due to changing tissue types or due to inherent tissue disease. For example, the biomechanical properties are known to vary throughout blood vessels [1]. Diseases such as cancers may also lead to locally altered mechanical properties, thus allow a preliminary diagnosis via finger palpation. Quantifying the mechanical property distribution of tissues for a given constitutive equation will allow to characterize the biomechanical response of tissues. This may help to 1) predict disease progression, 2) diagnose diseases that alter the biomechanics of the tissue, e.g., skin cancers, breast… More >

Yue Mei^1,2,3, Stephane Avril^3,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 44-44, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07034

Abstract Characterizing regional variations of material properties in soft tissues is essential for biomedical engineering and clinical medicine, including but not limited to cancerous disease detection and patient-specific surgical planning of cardiovascular diseases. Identification of nonhomogeneous material property distribution usually requires solving inverse problems in nonlinear elasticity. Generally, inverse algorithms can be categorized into two groups: iterative inversion and direct inversion. In direct inversion, the material property distribution of soft tissues is estimated directly from the equilibrium equations, while the inverse problem is posed as an optimization problem in iterative inversion. In this presentation, we compare the performance of one direct… More >

Yifan Yin¹, Chunliu He¹, Biao Xu², Zhiyong Li^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.1, pp. 57-57, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.05732

Abstract The tissue composition and morphological structure of atherosclerotic plaques determine its stability or vulnerability. Intravascular optical coherence tomography (IVOCT) has rapidly become the method of choice for assessing the pathology of the coronary arterial wall in vivo due to its superior resolution. However, in clinical practice, the analysis of plaque composition of OCT images mainly relies on the interpretation of images by well-trained experts, which is a time-consuming, labor-intensive procedure and it is also subjective. The purpose of this study is to use the Convolutional neural network (CNN) method to automatically extract the best feature information from the OCT images… More >

Zhi Zhang¹, Jianhua Tong^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.1, pp. 43-43, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.05721

Abstract Diabetes is a major risk factor to cause macrovascular diseases and plays a pivotal role in aortic wall remodeling. However, the effects of diabetes on elastic properties of aortas remain largely unknown. Thirty adult rabbits (1.6-2.2 kg) were collected and the type I diabetic rabbit model was induced by injection of alloxan. A total of 15 control and 15 diabetic rabbit (abdominal) aortas were harvested. Uniaxial and biaxial tensile tests were performed to measure ultimate tensile strength and to characterize biaxial mechanical behaviors of the aortas. A material model was fitted to the biaxial experimental data to obtain constitutive parameters.… More >

S.L. MARUÑAK^*, L. LEIVA^**, M.E. GARCIA DENEGRI^*, P. TEIBLER^*, O. ACOSTA DE PÉREZ^*

BIOCELL, Vol.31, No.3, pp. 355-364, 2007, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2007.31.355

Abstract A phospholipase A₂ has been isolated from Bothrops jararacussu venom from snakes that inhabit the northeast region of Argentina. The present study describes in vivo and in vitro biological activities of phospholipase A₂ from B. jararacussu as well as isolation details of its. Venom was obtained by milking of adult snakes which were housing in wood reptile cages of varying dimensions in heated (20–30ºC) rooms. Snakes received a weekly diet of mice and water was available ad libitum for drinking and soaking. The enzyme was purified by gel filtration on a Sephadex G-75 column followed by ion exchange chromatography on… More >