The objective of this study was to compare physiological and psychological relaxation by assessing heart rate variability (HRV), prefrontal cortex activity, and subjective indexes while subjects performed a task with and without foliage plants. In a crossover experimental design, 24 university students performed a task transferring pots with and without a foliage plant for 3 min. HRV and oxyhem...

Foliage penetrating (FOPEN) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems are capable of producing images of targets concealed under a foliage canopy. The quality and interpretability of these images, however, is generally limited by dense foliage clutter and by fundamental foliage-induced image degradation. Use of a polarimetric SAR to provide multiple polarization channels can mitigate these effects...

Laricobius nigrinus Fender (Coleoptera: Derodontidae) is a specialist predator of the hemlock woolly adelgid, Adelges tsugae Annand (Hemiptera: Adelgidae), native to the Pacific Northwest. It has been introduced into the eastern United States for biological control of exotic hemlock woolly adelgid populations that threaten native hemlock. The possible role of olfactory cues in host finding by t...

The effect of ozone (03) on ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/ oxygenase (Rubisco) activity and quantity and net photosynthesis in greenhouse-grown Solanum tuberosum L. cv 'Norland' foliage was studied in relation to oxidant-induced premature senescence. Plants, 26 days old, were exposed to 0.06 to 0.08 microliters per liter 03 from 1000 to 1600 hours for 4 days in a controlled environment cham...

Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO(2)) have been increasing steadily over the last century. Plants grown under elevated CO(2) experience physiological changes that influence their suitability as food. Previous studies have found increased insect herbivory on plants grown under elevated CO(2). To determine effects of consuming foliage of soybean (Glycine max) grown under elevated CO(2) on ...

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of normal CO2 level (350ppm) and elevated concentration (700ppm) on growth and competitive ability of millet and soybean against pigweed and lambsquaters. The plants were planted as mono and multicultural to study interand intra-specific competition in the greenhouse. Root and shoot dry weights and chlorophyll value was measured at the end o...

The objective of this study was to determine the contribution of a plant’s foliage to the total plant’s hydrodynamic drag. Experiments were conducted in a laboratory flume using samples of vegetation with different physical forms and biomechanical properties: Branches of pine Pinus sylvestris and ivy stipes Glechoma hederacea . The drag force was measured directly using a strain gauge technique...

We render tree foliage levels of detail (LODs) using a new adaptation of billboard clouds. Our contributions are a simple and efficient billboard cloud creation algorithm designed specifically for tree foliage, and a method for smooth transitions between LODs. The cloud creation algorithm performs stochastic search to find a set of billboards that approximate the base mesh. Billboard clouds off...

The growth of trees and other plants occurs through the interactive combination of photosynthesis and carbon (and other nutrient) assimilation. Photosynthesis enables the production of carbohydrate that can then be used in growing foliage, whereby photosynthesis is enabled. We construct a mathematical model of carbon uptake and storage, which allows the prediction of the growth dynamics of tree...

The late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans can attack both potato foliage and tubers. When inoculated with P. infestans, foliage of nontransformed 'Russet Burbank' (WT) develops late blight disease while that of transgenic 'Russet Burbank' line SP2211 (+RB) does not. We compared the foliar transcriptome responses of these two lines to P. infestans inoculation using an RNA-seq approach. A t...