In an attempt to understand the initial stage of seed imbibition-the wetting stage-we have examined water binding in dry soybean cotyledon tissue using water sorption isotherm curves. The sorption isotherms show three levels of water affinity: a region of strongly bound water at moisture contents below 8%, a region of weakly bound water at moisture contents between 8 and 24%, and a region of ve...

A candidate reference method is described for coupled sodium-water determination based on ion-exchange sodium separation from the serum matrix followed by gravimetry as Na2SO4, and serum water determination by means of microwave evaporation. For sera with normal sodium and water contents, the mean relative standard deviation is 0.6% (0.8 mmol/l). Mean inaccuracy for the coupled sodium-water det...

At physiological conditions, a majority of biomolecules (e.g., amino acids, peptides and proteins) exist predominantly in the zwitterionic form that usually decides the biological functions. However, zwitterionic amino acids are not geometrically stable in gas phase and this seriously hampers the understanding of their structures, properties and biological functions. To this end, one of the rec...

Although aerobic methane (CH4) release from plants leads to an intense scientific and public controversy in the recent years, the potential functions of endogenous CH4 production in plants are still largely unknown. Here, we reported that polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced osmotic stress significantly increased CH4 production and soluble sugar contents in maize (Zea mays L.) root tissues. These ...

Water stress is one of the main factors of severe damage and limitation of plant production in Iran. The paper reports a pot experiment conducted by using a factorial experiment based on a completely randomized design with three replications (each replication composed of four pots) to compare the physiological and biochemical characteristics of two varieties of tuberose (double- and single-flow...

Experimental investigations of the neural substrate of consciousness typically take one of two paths, studying (1) contents or (2) levels of consciousness. It seems obvious to most that these two "paths" are interrelated, yet much less obvious how. This paper gives one suggestion to grasp the interrelation, arguing that conscious levels are determined by conscious contents in a very specific wa...

the water relations play a fundamental role in seed comprehension of biology. in order to describe the process of drying and the effect on water activity, which controls biological change in storage, a sound knowledge of the relationship between equilibrium moisture content (emc) and water activity/equilibrium relative humidity (erh) is essential. the relationship between the total moisture con...