Environmental factors affecting flower development may limit the yields of fruiting crops worldwide. In temperate regions, chilling temperatures during flower development can compromise fruit production, but their negative effects vary depending on the differing susceptibilities of each developmental stage. The cultivated strawberry (Fragaria× ananassa Duch.) is widely grown worldwide but finan...

Francisella tularensis is disseminated in nature by biting arthropods such as mosquitoes. The relationship between mosquitoes and F. tularensis in nature is highly ambiguous, due in part to the fact that mosquitoes have caused significant tularemia outbreaks despite being classified as a mechanical vector of F. tularensis. One possible explanation for mosquitoes being a prominent, yet mechanica...

Flower pollination algorithm (FP) is a new nature-inspired algorithm, based on the characteristics of flowering plants. Combining with the features of flower pollination algorithm, an improved simulated annealing algorithm is proposed in this paper (FPSA). It can improve the speed of annealing. The initial state of simulated annealing and new solutions are generated by flower pollination. There...

Flowers and fruits are often vividly colored. An obvious explanation for fruit and flower pigmentation is that it serves to attract animal mutualists. However, decades of research has produced equivocal support for the hypothesis that animals are the primary selection pressure acting on the color of plant reproductive structures. Exciting new research into geographic variation in flower colors ...

Infestation by blueberry gall midge, Dasineura oxycoccana Johnson, is common in northern highbush blueberries, but its effects on crop productivity are unknown. We examined whether infestation by blueberry gall midge reduces flower bud production when compared with uninfested shoots, and how infestation at different times affects the crop response. From the fall of 2009 to the spring of 2011, t...

Birds are important pollinators, but the evolutionary history of ornithophily (bird pollination) is poorly known. Here, we report a skeleton of the avian taxon Pumiliornis from the middle Eocene of Messel in Germany with preserved stomach contents containing numerous pollen grains of an eudicotyledonous angiosperm. The skeletal morphology of Pumiliornis is in agreement with this bird having bee...

Flower color is one of the most important features of ornamental plants. Its development and regulation are influenced by many internal and external factors. Therefore, understanding the mechanism of color development and its regulation provides an important theoretical basis and premise for the cultivation and improvement of new color varieties of ornamental plants. This paper outlines the fun...

The present study investigates the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the major bioactive constituents of medicinally important plant Taraxacum officinale in its aqueous and methanol extract of root, stem and flower. Saponins, flavonoids, alkaloids, phenols were highly concentrated in the stem, root and flower, with the higher concentration of flavonoids in the flower extracts. Phenols an...

In this work labeling of planar graphs is taken up which involves labeling the p vertices, the q edges and the f internal faces such that the weights of the faces form an arithmetic progression with common difference d. If d = 0, then the planar graph is said to have an Inner Magic labeling; and if d = 0, then it is Inner Antimagic labeling. Some new kinds of graphs have been developed which ha...

Mutations in the AGAMOUS (AG) gene cause transformations in two adjacent whorls of the Arabidopsis flower. Petals develop in the third floral whorl rather than the normal stamens, and the cells that would normally develop into the fourth whorl gynoecium behave as if they constituted an ag flower primordium. Early in flower development, AG RNA is evenly distributed throughout third and fourth wh...