Fruit abscission as a response to herbivory is well-documented in many plant species, but its effect on further damage by mobile herbivores that survive fruit abscission is relatively unstudied. Physalis plants (Solanaceae) abscise fruit containing feeding larvae of their main frugivore, Heliothis subflexa Guenée (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), a specialist moth. We tested the ability of H. subflexa ...

background and objectives: pseudomonas aeruginosa is a gram-negative, aerobic bacterium found in water and soil. it is a normal flora in skin and gastrointestinal tract of human beings. p. aeruginosa as an opportunistic pathogen involved in nosocomial infections having multiple pathogenic factors and shows high rate of resistance to different antibiotics. the aim of this study was to identify t...

Signaling events affecting thymic selection of un-manipulated polyclonal natural CD25(+)foxp3(+) regulatory T cells (nTreg) have not been established ex vivo. Here, we report a higher frequency of phosphorylated STAT-5 (pSTAT-5) in nTreg cells in the adult murine thymus and to a lesser extent in the periphery, compared to other CD4(+)CD8(-) subsets. In the neonatal thymus, the numbers of pSTAT-...

Recently, considerable attention has been focused on thymus-derived CD4 regulatory T cells that constitutively express CD25 and have a contact-dependent, cytokine-independent mechanism in vitro. However, peripheral CD4 and CD8 T cells can also be induced to become regulatory T cells. Here we review our studies using the combination of IL-2 and transforming growth factor (TGF) to generate regula...

The drought- and thermo-tolerant Quercus pubescens, a tree species growing on both acidic and calcareous soils in the sub-Mediterranean region, was exposed to soil drought (-60% to -80% soil water content) and air warming (+1.2 °C daytime temperature), singly and in combination. The experiment was conducted on two natural forest soils with similar texture but different pH (acidic and calcareous...

Here, we identify fetal bone marrow (BM)-derived CD34hiCD45RAhiCD7+ hematopoietic progenitors as thymus-colonizing cells. This population, virtually absent from the fetal liver (FL), emerges in the BM by development weeks 8-9, where it accumulates throughout the second trimester, to finally decline around birth. Based on phenotypic, molecular, and functional criteria, we demonstrate that CD34hi...

Germination represents a fundamental stage of plant life highly responsive to change of environmental conditions. Low germination percent and seedling establishment are basic problems in saline regions. One of the sensitive stages of plants to salinity is the germination stage. This study was conducted using a factorial experiment with three factors such as species with two levels (Thymus vulga...

Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens Mazei ex H. de Lebaie), one of the most commonly used species in China, is a strong and stiff material. In this paper, the manufacturing process for glued bamboo laminate (GBL) is presented. The mechanical properties of GBL (compression strength, bending, tension, and shearing) were tested. Results indicated that the mechanical properties of GBL were signifi...

Podophyllotoxins represent an important and unique position among natural products. They serve as the starting material for the semi-synthetic anticancer drugs etopside and teniposide, so considerable attention has focused on the availability of these aryltetralin lignans. Linum is one of the genera, with some reports on the presence of podophyllotoxin and related compounds, such as L. album, L...