Samples of apricot pits at 7.61, 12.45, 18.21 and 25.15% (wet basis) moisture contents in the three directions (along length, width and thickness) were subjected to impact energy ranged from 0.2 to 1.1 J using an impact test apparatus. Data obtained on the quantity of fully cracked and unbroken kernel, fully cracked but broken kernel and uncracked pits were used in the computation of the pits c...

Sludge management is considered a difficult and challenging task priority of environmental policy. This study evaluates the transformation anaerobic sludge agroindustrial wastes (cow manure, mixtures) directly to compost using Eisenia fetida earthworms (vermicomposting) in relation quality; moreover, it investigates effects different compositions on vermicompost physicochemical properties. In p...

To better understand the use of mortality pits by wildlife and possible pathogen dissemination from the resulting wildlife contact in these areas, we used 8 camera traps on 4 mortality pits in Colorado from June to December 2014 to create a species inventory and establish use estimates for those species. We observed 43 species visiting (in or near) the mortality pits during 1,168 total camera t...

Bordered pits play an important role in permitting water flow among adjacent tracheary elements in flowering plants. Variation in the bordered pit structure is suggested to be adaptive in optimally balancing the conflict between hydraulic efficiency (conductivity) and safety from air entry at the pit membrane (air seeding). The possible function of vestured pits, which are bordered pits with pr...

The fundamental mechanisms by which receptors once targeted for endocytosis are found in coated pits is an important yet unresolved question. Specifically, are activated receptors simply trapped on encountering preexisting coated pits, subsequently being rapidly internalized? Or do the receptors themselves, by active recruitment, gather soluble coat and cytosolic components and initiate the rap...

In polarized epithelial MDCK cells, all known endogenous endocytic receptors are found on the basolateral domain. The influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) which is normally sorted to the apical plasma membrane, can be converted to a basolateral protein by specific mutations in its short cytoplasmic domain that also create internalization signals. For some of these mutations, sorting to the basola...

Growing high-quality crystals is a bottleneck in the determination of protein structures by x-ray diffraction. Experiments find that materials with a disordered pitted surface seed the growth of protein crystals. Here we report computer simulations of rapid crystal nucleation in nanoscale pits. Nucleation is rapid, as the crystal forms in pits that have filled with liquid via capillary condensa...