BACKGROUND Traditional agro-systems in arid areas are a bulwark for preserving soil stability and fertility, in the sight of "reverse desertification". Nevertheless, the impact of desert farming practices on the diversity and abundance of the plant associated microbiome is poorly characterized, including its functional role in supporting plant development under drought stress. METHODOLOGY/PRI...

Knowledge of the structure-property-function relationship of humic substances (HSs) is key for understanding their role in soil. Despite progress, studies on this topic are still under discussion. We analyzed 37 humic fractions with respect to their isotopic composition, structural characteristics, and properties responsible for stimulating plant root parameters. We showed that regardless of th...

In this paper we compare two real root isolation methods using Descartes’ Rule of Signs: the Interval Bisection method, and the Continued Fractions method. We present some time-saving improvements to both methods. Comparing computation times we conclude that the Continued Fractions method works much faster save for the case of very many very large roots.

BACKGROUND Panax ginseng (i.e., ginseng) root is extensively used in traditional oriental medicine. It is a modern pharmaceutical reagent for preventing various human diseases such as cancer. Ginsenosides-the major active components of ginseng-exhibit immunomodulatory effects. However, the mechanism and function underlying such effects are not fully elucidated, especially in human monocytes and...

Present work reports the biological activities of P. hysterophorus leaf, stem, flower, and root. Dried samples were sequentially extracted with many solvents. Hexane (HX), benzene (BZ), and chloroform (CH) extracts of leaf showed considerable antibacterial activity against Streptococcus mutans (MTCC 497), Proteus vulgaris (MTCC 7299), and Salmonella typhi (MTCC 3917). Flower extracts exhibited ...

We present algorithmic, complexity and implementation results concerning real root isolation of integer univariate polynomials using the continued fraction expansion of real algebraic numbers. One motivation is to explain the method’s good performance in practice. We derive an expected complexity bound of ÕB(d + d4τ2), where d is the polynomial degree and τ bounds the coefficient bit size, usin...

Two different fractions of manganese were found in the maize plant root apoplasm (intercellular space containing cell walls) after soaking the roots in MnCl2 solutions (concentration range 0.01-10 mmol.l-1): (a) an Mn2+ fraction in the water free space (WFS) which gave a characteristic six-line spectrum, and (b) an immobilized fraction that gave no detectable ESR spectrum. Both fractions affect...

Square Root Palindromes ................................... 1 Sigma Quest .......................................................... 6 Decimal Fractions ................................................ 9 Designing Weavable Color Patterns ............... 12 Polygraphic Substitution .................................. 17 Programming Tips ............................................. 20 What’s Comi...

We consider the problem of isolating the real roots of a square-free polynomial with integer coefficients using (variants of) the continued fraction algorithm (CF). We introduce a novel way to compute a lower bound on the positive real roots of univariate polynomials. This allows us to derive a worst case bound of ÕB(d + dτ + dτ) for isolating the real roots of a polynomial with integer coeffic...