Introduction: Multileaf collimator (MLC) is state of the art among the radiation field shaping systems for conformal radiotherapy techniques. Some advantages of this system are as follow: reduction of treatment time, higher precision in conforming the radiation field to the projection of the target volume and lowering the chance of errors made by technologists. The purpose of this research was ...

BACKGROUND Fungal endophytes inhabit symptomless, living tissues of all major plant lineages to form one of earth's most prevalent groups of symbionts. Many reproduce from senesced and/or decomposing leaves and can produce extracellular leaf-degrading enzymes, blurring the line between symbiotrophy and saprotrophy. To better understand the endophyte-saprotroph continuum we compared fungal commu...

The goal of this study was to compare the feeding rates of Balloniscus sellowii on leaves of different decomposition stages according to their phenolic and flavonoid content. Leaves from the visually most abundant plants were offered to isopods collected from the same source site. Schinus terebinthifolius,the plant species consumed at the highest rate, was used to verify feeding rates at differ...

The absorption of (59)Fe(3+) by the leaves of various plant species was studied. Stomata were found to play a major role in foliar absorption when leaves were totally submerged in treatment solutions, and a correlation was found to exist between stomatal area and absorption. Day treated leaves absorbed much more than did night treated leaves. The use of a surfactant markedly increased absorptio...

Although there is a great wealth of data supporting the occurrence of simultaneous synthesis and breakdown of storage carbohydrate in many organisms, previous 13CO2 pulse-chase based studies indicated that starch degradation does not operate in illuminated Arabidopsis leaves. Here we show that leaves of gwd, sex4, bam4, bam1/bam3 and amy3/isa3/lda starch breakdown mutants accumulate higher leve...

A possible implication of the plastid NADH-plastoquinone-oxidoreductase (Ndh) complex in the response against ozone-mediated oxidative stress in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) leaves was investigated. After a 4 h treatment, exposure of barley seedlings to moderate ozone concentrations produced leaf-age-dependent increases in lipid peroxidation, peroxidase, and Ndh complex activities in the thylako...

Eighty-seven methanol extracts of medicinal plants, most of them are currently used in Vietnamese oriental medicine, were screened for NF-κB inhibitory activity. Seven methanol extracts showed strong to moderate inhibitory activity. These include the extracts of Crinum latifolium (leaves), Evodia rutaecarpa (fruits), Polygonum cuspidatum (rhizoma), Perilla ocymoides (leaves), Rubia cordifolia (...

We evaluated the effect of leaves of native and exotic tree species on the feeding activity and performance of the larvae of Triplectides gracilis, a typical caddisfly shredder in Atlantic Forest streams. Leaves of four native species that differ in chemistry and toughness (Hoffmannia dusenii, Miconia chartacea, Myrcia lineata and Styrax pohlii) and the exotic Eucalyptus globulus were used to d...

Twenty-five aphids of three different species, Brevicoryne brassicae L, Myzus persicae Schulzer, and Rhopalosiphum padi L(Hemiptera: Aphididae) were each allowed to infest leaves of a young plant of their respective host plant species for 4 days, except that the oldest expanded leaf (the 'systemic' leaf) was kept free of aphids. Each preinfested plant thus had two types of leaves, local leaves ...