Kinetics of zinc uptake and anatomy of roots and leaves of coffee trees as affected by zinc nutrition

Zinc (Zn) uptake kinetics and root and leaf anatomy were studied in coffee trees grown in nutrient solutions with or without Zn. Leaves and roots were sampled and cuts were made in the medium part of the leaves and in root tips and observed under an optical microscope. Plants grown without Zn showed an increase in root and in root stele diameter. There was also an increase in epidermis thickness and in the cross-sectional area of the cortex and stele due to Zn deficiency, but the diameter of xylem vessels was decreased. An increase in root cortex and stele diameter provided for an increased surface for nutrient uptake. Accordingly, C(min) was decreased from 13.8 to 3.4 mu mol L(-1) and V(max) increased from 0.50 to 2.1 mu mol cm(-2) h(-1) .

On the existence of infinite heteroclinic cycles in polynomial systems and its dynamic consequences

In this work we consider the dynamic consequences of the existence of infinite heteroclinic cycle in planar polynomial vector fields, which is a trajectory connecting two saddle points at infinity. It is stated that, although the saddles which form the cycle belong to infinity, for certain types of nonautonomous perturbations the perturbed system may present a complex dynamic behavior of the solutions in a finite part of the phase plane, due to the existence of tangencies and transversal intersections of their stable and unstable manifolds. This phenomenon might be called the chaos arising from infinity. The global study at infinity is made via the Poincare Compactification and the argument used to prove the statement is the Birkhoff-Smale Theorem. (c) 2004 WILEY-NCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

On the number of critical periods for planar polynomial systems

In this paper we get some lower bounds for the number of critical periods of families of centers which are perturbations of the linear one. We give a method which lets us prove that there are planar polynomial centers of degree l with at least 2[(l - 2)/2] critical periods as well as study concrete families of potential, reversible and Lienard centers. This last case is studied in more detail and we prove that the number of critical periods obtained with our approach does not. increases with the order of the perturbation. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In Vitro Evaluation of the Genotoxic Activity and Apoptosis Induction of the Extracts of Roots and Leaves from the Medicinal Plant Coccoloba mollis (Polygonaceae)

Coccoloba mollis (Family Polygonaceae) is a medicinal plant popularly used in cases of memory loss, stress, insomnia, anemia, impaired vision, and sexual impotence, but the scientific literature, to date, lacks studies on the biological effects of this species, particularly with regard to cytotoxicity and induction of DNA damage. The aim of the present study was to assess in vitro (in hepatic HTC cells) ethanolic extracts of the roots and leaves of C. mollis for cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and induction of apoptosis. For these evaluations the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) cytotoxicity assay, comet assay, micronucleus test with cytokinesis block, and an in situ test for detection of apoptotic cells with acridine orange staining were used. The results showed that the extract obtained from the roots of C. mollis is more cytotoxic than that obtained from the leaves and that the reduction in cell viability observed in the MTT assay was a result, at least in part, from the induction of apoptosis. Both extracts induced DNA damage at a concentration of 20 mu g/mL in the comet assay, but no genotoxicity was detected with any of the treatments carried out in the micronucleus test.

Transcription factors expressed in soybean roots under drought stress

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Changes in pH at the dentin surface in roots obturated with calcium hydroxide pastes

The purpose of this study was to determine the pH, after defined periods of time, in cavities prepared in the facial surface of the cervical, middle, and apical regions of roots obturated with calcium hydroxide pastes. Root canal instrumentation was performed on 40 recently extracted, single-rooted human teeth. Cavities 1.5 mm in diameter and 0.75 mm in depth were prepared in the cervical, middle, and apical regions of the facial surface of each root. Teeth were randomly divided into four groups. One group was left unobturated and served as a control. The three remaining groups were obturated with either aqueous calcium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide mixed with camphorated monochlorophenol, or Pulpdent pastes. Access cavities and apical foramina were closed with Cavit. Each tooth was stored individually in a vial containing unbuffered isotonic saline. pH at the surface was measured in the cervical, middle, and apical cavities at 0 and 3, 7, 14, 21, 28, 45, 60, 90, and 120 days. Results indicate that hydroxyl ions derived from calcium hydroxide pastes diffused through root dentin at all regions over the experimental period of 120 days. The pattern of pH change at the tooth surface was similar in all regions of the root, regardless of the type of calcium hydroxide paste used. This was a rapid rise in pH from a control value of pH 7.6, to greater than pH 9.5 by 3 days, followed by a small decline to pH 9.0 over the next 18 days, before finally rising and remaining at, or above pH 10.0 for the remainder of the experimental period. Pulpdent paste in the apical region was the only exception in this pattern, producing a pH rise nearly one full unit below the other pastes, pH 9.3. These results indicate that, for all pastes tested, a high pH is maintained at the root surface for at least 120 days. Copyright © 1996 by The American Association of Endodontists.

Carbohydrate and lipid status in soybean roots influenced by ferulic acid uptake

The objective of this research was to investigate how the allelochemical ferulic acid affects the carbohydrate and lipid contents of soybean roots cultivated in nutrient culture. The results presented revealed that ferulic acid has significant effects on carbohydrates by the increase in xylose, fructose and sucrose and decrease in glucose, after 24 h treatment of roots. Ferulic acid increased the contents of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids of the polar and non-polar lipid fractions. The results may contribute as additional data to explain allelopathic effects caused by ferulic acid.

An extremal nonnegative sine polynomial

For any positive integer n, the sine polynomials that are nonnegative in [0, π] and which have the maximal derivative at the origin are determined in an explicit form. Associated cosine polynomials Kn (θ) are constructed in such a way that {Kn(θ)} is a summability kernel. Thus, for each Pi 1 ≤ P ≤ ∞ and for any 27π-periodic function f ∈ Lp [-π, π], the sequence of convolutions Kn * f is proved to converge to f in Lp[-ππ]. The pointwise and almost everywhere convergences are also consequences of our construction.

Landau and Kolmogoroff type polynomial inequalities II

Let 0 < j < m ≤ n. Kolmogoroff type inequalities of the form ∥f(j)∥2 ≤ A∥f(m)∥ 2 + B∥f∥2 which hold for algebraic polynomials of degree n are established. Here the norm is defined by ∫ f2(x)dμ(x), where dμ(x) is any distribution associated with the Jacobi, Laguerre or Bessel orthogonal polynomials. In particular we characterize completely the positive constants A and B, for which the Landau weighted polynomial inequalities ∥f′∥ 2 ≤ A∥f″∥2 + B∥f∥ 2 hold. © Dynamic Publishers, Inc.

Fractional polynomial response surface models

Second-order polynomial models have been used extensively to approximate the relationship between a response variable and several continuous factors. However, sometimes polynomial models do not adequately describe the important features of the response surface. This article describes the use of fractional polynomial models. It is shown how the models can be fitted, an appropriate model selected, and inference conducted. Polynomial and fractional polynomial models are fitted to two published datasets, illustrating that sometimes the fractional polynomial can give as good a fit to the data and much more plausible behavior between the design points than the polynomial model. © 2005 American Statistical Association and the International Biometric Society.

2,3,4,6-Tetra-O-(3-nitropropanoyl)-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, a new antimicrobial from the roots of Heteropteris aphrodisiaca

A new 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-(3-nitropropanoyl)-O-β-D-glucopyranoside anomer was isolated from the roots of Heteropteris aphrodisiaca and characterized by spectroscopic methods. Activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Candida albicans, C. parapsilosis, C. krusei, and C. tropicalis was demonstrated.

The social roots of United States protectionism

Includes bibliography