background: the primary objective of this study was to determine the association between risk factors and the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorder (msd) among auto repair mechanics in klang valley, malaysia. methods: overall, 191 mechanics from eight auto repair centers in klang valley, malaysia were stratified sampling as participants of this study. a modified version of the general standard...

Many insects which gather nectar or pollen exhibit flower constancy, a learned fidelity to a particular species of plant. Recent studies suggest that foraging insects may use a perceptual mechanism akin to a search image to detect flowers, in a manner analogous to the way that predators search for prey. This has emerged as an alternative (but not mutually exclusive) explanation for flower const...

The Caricaceae is a small family of tropical trees and herbs in which most species are dioecious. In the present study, we extend our previous work on dioecy in the Caricaceae, characterising the morphological variation in sexual expression in flowers of the dioecious tree Jacaratia mexicana. We found that, in J. mexicana, female plants produce only pistillate flowers, while male plants are sex...

The abscission of Alstroemeria petals is the serious problem at the industry of cut flowers of this plant. In this study, cut Alstroemeria cv. Bridal flowers were pulsed with solutions containing natural essential oil carvacrol, gibberellic acid and benzyladenine (50 and 100 mg L-1), -5-sulfosalicylic acid (1 and 1.5 mM) and sucrose (5 and 10%) for 24 hours. The distilled water was used as cont...

Floral color changes and retention of old flowers are frequently combined phenomena restricted to the floral guide or single flowers in few-flowered inflorescences. They are thought to increase the attractiveness over long distances and to direct nearby pollinators toward the rewarding flowers. In Tibouchina pulchra, a massively flowering tree, the whole flower changes its color during anthesis...

In this Quick Guide, Johnson introduces the reader to carrion flowers, which evolved to mimic rotting flesh. This adaptation attracts insects that facilitate pollination.

The production of seed by both selfing and outcrossing, or mixed mating, may be selected for under conditions of variable pollinator availability. Seed production was examined following experimental manipulations of perfect and pistillate flowers of the gynomonoecious plant Silene noctiflora. Style excision experiments in a greenhouse demonstrated that autonomous selfing occurs in the perfect f...

One of the unifying theories of plant biology is that the variety of plant forms are simply different modifications of a common growth plan. Different permutations of a few key features of plant growth can generate a bewildering array of seemingly distinct forms. There is perhaps no better illustration of this than the comparison of a flower and a shoot. The idea that these two apparently diffe...

There is evidence to indicate that parts of the Walls of Jerusalem National Park have been glaciated on two occasions. No evidence of earlier glaciations has been found, although at least two older periods of glaciation have been demonstrated in adjacent areas. During the last glaciation, the Rowallan Glaciation, there was an incomplete ice cover and a large ice window, centred on the West Wall...

Matches between the bills of hummingbirds and the flowers they visit have been interpreted as examples of coadaptation and feeding specialization. Observations of birds feeding at flowers longer or shorter than their bills combined with a lack of experimental evidence for foraging trade-offs, however, fail to support these interpretations. We addressed these inconsistencies by considering a sel...