Set Of Seeds Research Articles

Production of omega 3-rich oils from underutilized chia seeds. Comparison between supercritical fluid and pressurized liquid extraction methods

Chia seeds constitute a promising source of α-linolenic acid (ALA). In the present work, an underutilized and cheaper set of chia seeds, which were discarded after the harvest according to quality criteria - named in this work as low oil content seeds (LOCS) - have been evaluated as a potential source for obtaining PUFA-enriched oils against the commonly studied high-quality chia seeds denoted as high oil content seeds (HOCS) in this study. Two efficient and environmental friendly techniques, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and pressurized liquid extraction (PLE), were evaluated to optimize the extraction process of chia oil. At 60 °C, by using pressurized food-grade ethanol, recoveries close to 100% were achieved from both sets of seeds in a short extraction time (10 min). By using SFE, the greatest oil extraction yield (>95%) was attained at the highest pressure and temperature conditions (45 MPa and 60 °C) after 240 min. At the early stage of SFE extraction, both LOCS and HOCS exhibited a similar kinetic behavior, reaching oil extraction rates of 0.59 g oil/min and 0.64 g oil/min, respectively. No differences were found between the fatty acid profile of the oils extracted from LOCS and HOCS both by PLE and SFE. ALA and linoleic acid (LA) concentrations ranged between 65‐68% and 17–23% respectively, and a predominance of high molecular weight triglycerides (≥ CN50), was found in all extracted oils. In conclusion, LOCS might constitute a new suitable raw material for the production of ALA-enriched oils. Concerning the extraction methods assayed, the oil was almost entirely recovered by both PLE and SFE at the used conditions.

An Efficient and Adaptive Method for Overlapping Community Detection in Real‐World Networks

In real-world networks, nodes may belong to more than one community simultaneously. Overlapping community detection in complex networks is a challenging task. An adaptive overlapping community detection method based on seed selection and expansion is proposed. Depending on the restrictions on the seed selection stage, a set of seeds is generated without specified set size. The personalized PageRank algorithm is used to evaluate the community for seed expansion. The uncovered nodes could be adaptively allocated to the appropriate clusters. A thorough comparison between the proposed method and other overlapping community detection methods considered is provided to indicate the effectiveness of the former. The experimental results demonstrate that the presented method is effective.

Suppression Attack Against Multicast Protocol in Low Power and Lossy Networks: Analysis and Defenses.

With increasingly prevalent wireless sensors and devices, low power and lossy networks (LLNs) play an essential role in the realization of ubiquitous computing and communication infrastructure, which, in turn, leads to enhanced data accessibility and availability. A multicast protocol for LLNs (MPL), has been standardized to provide both efficient and reliable multicast communication. Due to the shared wireless medium, lack of tamper resistance, and inherent resource constraints, MPL-based LLNs are undoubtedly vulnerable to various Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks. In this paper, we propose a heuristic-based detection scheme, called HED, against the suppression attack in MPL-based LLNs, where a malicious node multicasts a series of spoof data messages with continuous sequence numbers to prevent normal nodes from accepting valid data messages and cause them to delete cached data messages. In the HED, each node maintains an increment rate of the minimum sequence number in the Seed Set to detect the potential malicious node by comparing the recent increment of sequence numbers with the heuristically calculated increment threshold of sequence numbers. We evaluate the proposed scheme through extensive simulation experiments using OMNeT++ and compare its performance with original MPL with and without adversary, respectively. The simulation results show high detection rate and packet reception rate but low false detection rate, and indicate that the proposed scheme is a potentially viable approach against the suppression attack in MPL-based LLNs.

Structure of micromycete complex of feed crops in the forest steppe of Western Siberia

The article highlights the experimental results on the structure of micromycete complex of feed crops seeds in the forest-steppe of Western Siberia. The researchers investigated more than 50 sets of seeds of different soya varieties (Glycine hispida), chick-pea (Cicer arietinum), spring rape (Brassica napus), red clover (Trifolium pratense) and lupine (Lupínus polyphyllus). The authors observed that micromycete complex contains a lot of seed infections in the mafic hyphomycetes of the genus Alternaria (average of 15.8–52.3 %) and Cladosporium (5,7–38,0 %), less common were Fusarium fungi and fungi. The distinguished fungi contained smaller number of Pythium, Botrytis, Verticillium, Rhizoctonia, Curvularia, Peronospora, Stemphylium, Ascochyta, Trichotecium and Corynespora. The article reveals the features of the structure of micromycetes complex on the lupine seeds. The seed material was strongly infected by Colletotrichum lupini (Bondar) Nirenberg, Feiler & Hagedorn (from 37.5 to 62.5%, depends on the variety), which strongly damaged the crops during the growing season (the disease development index varied from 30 to 100 %). The concentration of Fusarium fungi on the seeds of all crops varied from 2.6 to 15.4%; the authors observed the dominating species as F. oxysporum, F. oxysporum var. orthoceras, F. solani, F. solani var. argillaceum, F. sambucinum, F. sambucinum. var. minus, F. gibbosum, F. avenaceum, F. sporotrichiella var. poae. The authors found out that fungi (species of Penicillium, Aspergillus, etc.) is more extracted from the seeds in humid years like 2015, compared with more droughty years like 2016 and 2017. They were mostly observed in the rape seeds (20,2%) and chick-pea (15.8 %). The results of the phytoexpertise show that the problem of contamination of fodder crops by pathogens and the saprophytic mycoflora leads to bed quality of forage crops and seed germination. This problem is very urgent and relevant in, the conditions of forest-steppe of Western Siberia. The high level of seed infection indicates the necessity to strong following the procedure of storage and pre-treatment of seeds with chemical or biological agents.

Selection for high quality pepper seeds by machine vision and classifiers

This research aimed to improve selection of pepper seeds for separating high-quality seeds from low-quality seeds. Past research has shown that seed vigor is significantly related to the seed color and size, thus several physical features were identified as candidate predictors of high seed quality. Image recognition software was used to automate recognition of seed feature quality using 400 kernels of pepper cultivar 101. In addition, binary logistic regression and a neural network were applied to determine models with high predictive value of seed germination. Single-kernel germination tests were conducted to validate the predictive value of the identified features. The best predictors of seed vigor were determined by the highest correlation observed between the physical features and the subsequent fresh weight of seedlings that germinated from the 400 seeds. Correlation analysis showed that fresh weight was significantly positively correlated with eight physical features: three color features (R, a*, brightness), width, length, projected area, and single-kernel density, and weight. In contrast, fresh weight significantly negatively correlated with the feature of hue. In analyses of two of the highest correlating single features, germination percentage increased from 59.3 to 71.8% when a*≥3, and selection rate peaked at 57.8%. Germination percentage increased from 59.3 to 79.4%, and the selection rate reached 76.8%, when single-kernel weight ≥0.0064 g. The most effective model was based on a multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network, consisting of 15 physical traits as variables, and a stability calculated as 99.4%. Germination percentage in a calibration set of seeds was 79.1% and the selection rate was 90.0%. These results indicated that the model was effective in predicting seed germination based on physical features and could be used as a guide for quality control in seed selection. Automated systems based on machine vision and model classifiers can contribute to reducing the costs and labor required in the selection of pepper seeds.

How long do seeds of the invasive tree, Ailanthus altissima remain viable?

The non-native invasive tree, Ailanthus altissima is an increasing threat to the diversity and health of temperate forests. Female trees are prolific producers of wind-dispersed seeds. It is not known if Ailanthus seeds remain viable in natural growing conditions beyond two years. We collected Ailanthus seeds from eleven sources in fall 2010 and incubated outdoors in either mixed oak leaf litter or mineral soil (10 cm depth) for five years to assess seed viability. Each May sets of seeds were retrieved, counted and sown in a greenhouse to measure germination. Initially germination rates averaged 87%, however in year 5 (2016), germination rates of seeds incubated outdoors in oak leaf litter, fell to 1.9%, while those incubated in mineral soil averaged 75%. Germination rates of soil-incubated seeds ranged from 48 to 95% among the eleven seed sources after five years. These findings demonstrate that the common practice to eliminate Ailanthus seed sources two years prior to a timber harvest is insufficient to deplete its seed bank. We propose that managers remove seed sources at minimum of six years in advance of a scheduled timber harvest. Ideally, it would be most advantageous to incorporate removal of females Ailanthus as a routine management practice.

Does perianth colour affect the seed germination of two desert shrubs under different storage periods and conditions?

Haloxylon salicornicum and Salsola vermiculata (Amaranthaceae) are two perennial shrubs producing fruits with differently coloured perianths (yellow vs pink) on separate individuals. To test the impact of different storage periods (four, eight and twelve months) and temperature conditions (freezing, room temperature and natural field temperatures) on the seed germination of the two seed categories, germination tests were carried out on both species.For both species, collected from wild plants in the Arabian desert (Qatar), seed germination was tested under two photoperiods (light 12/12; dark 24 hours) at 20/30°C for winged (intact) and de‐winged seeds. For each species, all the considered factors (perianth colour, wing presence, photoperiod, storage period and storage conditions) had significant effects on seed germination (p < 0.001), while the interactions among factors varied in their level of significance depending on the species.In both species, yellow seeds germinated considerably better than the pink ones, the presence of wings slowed the germination, and both storage period and temperature conditions highly influenced their germination ability. Our results indicate that seeds from different perianth colours have different germination strategies to delay their germination and distribute the species through time by escaping germination time by imposing some kind of after‐ripening or seed dormancy. The variation in storage time and storage conditions might help in extending their germination period, where one set of seeds germinate immediately, and the other set of seeds becomes dormant and thus contributes to the formation of a soil seed bank for the long‐term recruitment of seedlings. This study highlights an ecological advantageous strategy for these two species growing in the unpredictable desert habitat.

Simulating network intervention strategies: Implications for adoption of behaviour

AbstractThis study uses simulation over real and artificial networks to compare the eventual adoption outcomes of network interventions, operationalized as idealized contagion processes with different sets of seeds. While the performance depends on the details of both the network and behaviour adoption mechanisms, interventions with seeds that are central to the network are more effective than random selection in the majority of simulations, with faster or more complete adoption throughout the network. These results provide additional theoretical justification for utilizing relevant network information in the design of public health behavior interventions.

Realizability of graphs as triangle cover contact graphs

Let S={p1,p2,…,pn} be a set of pairwise disjoint geometric objects of some type and let C={c1,c2,…,cn} be a set of closed objects of some type with the property that each element in C covers exactly one element in S and any two elements in C can intersect only on their boundaries. We call an element in S a seed and an element in C a cover. A cover contact graph (CCG) consists of a set of vertices and a set of edges where each of the vertex corresponds to each of the covers and each edge corresponds to a connection between two covers if and only if they touch at their boundaries. A triangle cover contact graph (TCCG) is a cover contact graph whose cover elements are triangles. In this paper, we show that every Halin graph has a realization as a TCCG on a given set of collinear seeds. We introduce a new class of graphs which we call super-Halin graphs. We also show that the classes super-Halin graphs, cubic planar Hamiltonian graphs and a×b grid graphs have realizations as TCCGs on collinear seeds. We also show that some non-planar graphs have planar realizations as TCCGs. Every complete graph and clique-3 graph have realizations as TCCGs on any given set of seeds. Note that only trees and cycles are known to be realizable as CCGs and outerplanar graphs are known to be realizable as TCCGs.

Overlapping and differential roles of plasma membrane calcium ATPases in Arabidopsis growth and environmental responses.

Plant cells have multiple plasma membrane (PM)-localized calcium ATPases (ACAs) pumping calcium ions out of the cytosol. Although the involvement of some of these ACAs in plant growth and immunity has been reported, their individual and combined functions have not been fully examined. Here, we analysed the effects of single and combined mutations of four ACA genes, ACA8, ACA10, ACA12, and ACA13, in a number of processes. We found that these four genes had both overlapping and differential involvements in vegetative growth, inflorescence growth, seeds setting, disease resistance and stomatal movement. Disruption of any of these four genes reduces seed setting, indicating their contribution to the overall fitness of the plants. While ACA10 and ACA8 play major roles in vegetative growth and immunity, ACA13 and ACA12 are also involved in these processes especially when the function of ACA10 and/or ACA8 is compromised. The loss of ACA13 and ACA10 function in combination with a reduction in function of ACA8 leads to seedling death at bolting, revealing the essential role of their collective function in plant growth. Taken together, this study indicates a highly tuned calcium system involving these PM-localized calcium pumps in plant growth and environmental responses.

The effects of sodium azide on seed germination and seedling growth of chili pepper (Capsicum annum L. cv. Landung)

This study was aimed to determine the effects of sodium azide on the performance of chili pepper. Dry seeds from pure lines of chili pepper cv. Landung were used in this experiment. Each set containing 50 seeds was placed in nylon fishner bags, washed in flowing water and soaked in distilled water for four hours. After soaking, four sets of seeds were dabbed dry with tissue paper and were treated for two hours at 30 0C in appropriate solution of 0, 0.10, 0.20, 0.40, 0.80, 1.60 mM sodium azide with phosphate buffer at pH 3. After treatment, the seeds were germinated in plastic boxes containing sterilized sand and kept under laboratory condition by supplied with water everyday. The seeds for M1 germination percentage, seedling height, plant height and number of leaves were recorded 30 days and 60 days after treatment, respectively. Seeds which radicle emerged were considered germinated, the seedling and plant height were measured from the tip of primary root to the base of the first leaf pair, and the number of leaves were counted for only fully expanded leaves. A completely randomized block design in four replicates was used throughout the experiment. Data obtained were analysed for range, mean, standard of deviation, and percent of control using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 software. It was concluded that different doses of sodium azide influenced the performances of chili pepper cv. Landung. Very low doses of sodium azide (0-1.60 mM) might be used to study the improvement of chili pepper diversity.

Effect of Decortication and Heat pretreatment on Oil content extracted from Safflower Seeds variety PBNS-12

Sustainable development has improved the quality of life associate with requirement, production and processing of agricultural belongings among other things. Processing aim is to improve quality and concentration of products with their nutritional value influencing its cost also. Safflower oil is a value added product of safflower seeds which have biotechnological importance in the field of food and pharmaceutical industry. The presence of antinutritional factors (ANFs) like tannin, phytate and phenolic glucosides reduce the qualitative value of safflower seed oil. Different processing methodologies like boiling (temperature based pretreatment), decortications have been employed to reduce level of ANFs in safflower seeds. In our study, combinatorial effects of boiling and decortications have been employed to improve oil content in safflower seeds by reducing level of tannin. The boiling pretreatment was done with two sets of seed samples i.e. corticated and decorticated seeds. Each set was divided into four portions i.e. B10, B20, B30 and C. Samples B10, B20 and B30 were heated for 10 min, 20 min and 30 min respectively at 800C, while sample C served as the control for the experiment. The results showed an enhancement in percentage oil content by 1.16 fold and reduction in tannin content by 0.78 fold from B10 to B30 in corticated and decorticated set of seeds after boiling treatment. The combinatorial pretreatment methods using decortication with boiling treatment increase two fold oil content and 1.12 fold reduction in tannin content than control corticated

On triangle cover contact graphs

Let S={p1,p2,…,pn} be a set of pairwise disjoint geometric objects of some type in a 2D plane and let C={c1,c2,…,cn} be a set of closed objects of some type in the same plane with the property that each element in C covers exactly one element in S and any two elements in C are interior-disjoint. We call an element in S a seed and an element in C a cover. A cover contact graph (CCG) has a vertex for each element of C and an edge between two vertices whenever the corresponding cover elements touch. It is known how to construct, for any given point seed set, a disk or triangle cover whose contact graph is 1- or 2-connected but the problem of deciding whether a k-connected CCG can be constructed or not for k>2 is still unsolved. A triangle cover contact graph (TCCG) is a cover contact graph whose cover elements are triangles. In this paper, we give algorithms to construct a 3-connected TCCG and a 4-connected TCCG for a given set of point seeds. We also show that any connected outerplanar graph has a realization as a TCCG on a given set of collinear point seeds. Note that, under this restriction, only trees and cycles are known to be realizable as CCG.

Set of tuples expansion by example with reliability

PurposeThis paper aims to focus on the design of algorithms and techniques for an effective set expansion. A tool that finds and extracts candidate sets of tuples from the World Wide Web was designed and implemented. For instance, when a given user provides <Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesian Rupiah>, <China, Beijing, Yuan Renminbi>, <Canada, Ottawa, Canadian Dollar> as seeds, our system returns tuples composed of countries with their corresponding capital cities and currency names constructed from content extracted from Web pages retrieved.Design/methodology/approachThe seeds are used to query a search engine and to retrieve relevant Web pages. The seeds are also used to infer wrappers from the retrieved pages. The wrappers, in turn, are used to extract candidates. The Web pages, wrappers, seeds and candidates, as well as their relationships, are vertices and edges of a heterogeneous graph. Several options for ranking candidates from PageRank to truth finding algorithms were evaluated and compared. Remarkably, all vertices are ranked, thus providing an integrated approach to not only answer direct set expansion questions but also find the most relevant pages to expand a given set of seeds.FindingsThe experimental results show that leveraging the truth finding algorithm can indeed improve the level of confidence in the extracted candidates and the sources.Originality/valueCurrent approaches on set expansion mostly support sets of atomic data expansion. This idea can be extended to the sets of tuples and extract relation instances from the Web given a handful set of tuple seeds. A truth finding algorithm is also incorporated into the approach and it is shown that it can improve the confidence level in the ranking of both candidates and sources in set of tuples expansion.

How Complex Contagions Spread Quickly in Preferential Attachment Models and Other Time-Evolving Networks

The $k$ -complex contagion model is a social contagion model which describes the diffusion of behaviors in networks where the successful adoption of a behavior requires influence from multiple contacts. It has been argued that complex contagions better model behavioral changes such as adoption of new beliefs, fashion trends or expensive technology innovations. A contagion in this model starts from a set of initially infected seeds and progresses in rounds. In any round any node with at least $k>1$ infected neighbors becomes infected. Previous work on $k$ -complex contagions was focused on networks with uniform degree distributions. However, many real-world network topologies have non-uniform degree distribution and evolve over time. We analyze the spreading rate of a $k$ -complex contagion in a general family of time-evolving networks which includes the preferential attachment (PA) model. We prove that if the initial seeds are chosen as the $k$ earliest nodes in a network of this family, a $k$ -complex contagion covers the entire network of $n$ nodes in $O(\log n)$ rounds with high probability (w.h.p). We prove that the choice of the seeds is crucial: in the PA model, even if a much larger number of seeds are chosen uniformly randomly , the contagion stops prematurely w.h.p. Although the earliest nodes in a PA model are likely to have high degrees, it is actually the evolutionary graph structure of such models that facilitates fast spreading of complex contagions. The general family of time-evolving graphs with this property even contains networks without a power law degree distribution. Finally, we prove that when a $k$ -complex contagion starts from an arbitrary set of initial seeds on a general graph, determining if the number of infected vertices is above a given threshold is ${\mathbf {P}}$ -complete. Thus, one cannot hope to categorize all the settings in which $k$ -complex contagions percolate in a graph.

Foliar application of calcium and kinetin on soybean at reproductive stage

ABSTRACTWe characterized the pollination and fecundation times in soybean flowers and evaluated the effects of kinetin and calcium applications on physiological and productive traits of soybean plants during the reproductive stage. The anatomical study of flowers of eight soybean cultivars showed that fecundation occurred in closed flowers with visible petals, which presented embryo in the first cell divisions. These results indicate that fertilizers and growth regulation applications should be performed before flower opening, which is different from the current recommendation. Foliar applications of kinetin and calcium between the floral bud and full flowering stages did not affect carbon dioxide (CO2) assimilation, yield components and final yield. The results obtained in this research showed the lack of viability of foliar application of calcium and kinetin in order to increase pod set and number of seeds per plant in soybean crop.

Maximizing the Influence and Profit in Social Networks

Influence maximization problem is to find a set of seeds in social networks such that the cascade influence is maximized. Traditional models assume that all nodes are willing to spread the influence once they are influenced, and they ignore the disparity between influence and profit of a product. In this paper, by considering the role that price plays in viral marketing, we propose price related (PR) frame that contains PR-I and PR-L models for classic independent cascade and linear threshold models, respectively, which is a pioneer work. Two pricing strategies are designed, one is binary pricing (BYC), in which the seeds are offered free samples. The other is panoramic pricing (PAP), in which the seeds are offered different discounts. Furthermore, we find that influence and profit are like two sides of the coin, high price hinders the influence propagation and to enlarge the influence some sacrifice on profit is inevitable. Based on this observation under PR frame, by adopting a parameter to denote the decision maker’s preference toward influence and profit, we propose balanced influence and profit (BIP) maximization problem. We prove the NP-hardness of BIP maximization under PR-I and PR-L model. Unlike influence maximization, the BIP objective function is not monotone. Despite the nonmonotony, we show BIP objective function is submodular under certain conditions. Two unbudgeted greedy algorithms separately, named algorithm of BYC and algorithm of PAP are devised. We conduct extensive simulations on real world data sets, test the effectiveness of our proposed parameters, compare the algorithms’ performances, and evaluate the superiority of our algorithms over existing ones.

Modeling of the polymerization of linear monomers in the presence of multifunctional units

A rigorous model is developed to predict the configurations of the branched polymers formed by the copolymerization of linear monomers in the presence of multifunctional branching units. Conventional studies on the configuration of branched polymers generally consider the statistical properties of the growth of only one element or polymerization from one component (e.g., dendrimers, hyperbranched, and hypergrafted polymers from ABm or ABC-type monomers). This study considers combinations of several types of linear and branched elements and the simultaneous aggregation of branched element-branched element and monomer-monomer elements. The proposed method is based on a new conceptual model that splits a multifunctional unit into a set of seeds with each functional group, assembling the branched elements after the independent propagation of each seed. Accordingly, the propagation steps of each element are described as dynamic balance equations in terms of the moments of the number chain length distribution. Analysis of the simulation of a batch sulfonated poly(aryl ether ketone) copolymerization process with trifunctional units is performed with the proposed model. The simulation results show that the proposed model reflects the characteristics of real copolymerization processes.

Drying on the germination and vigor of Crataeva tapia L. seeds

ABSTRACT: Crataeva tapia L. is a fruit native to the Brazilian savanna, the Caatinga, and is used in the production of soft drinks and other beverages. Given the importance of this species and the lack of knowledge about its seeds, this research aimed to evaluate the physiological quality of C. tapia L. seeds subjected to different environments and drying periods. Seeds were dried for the following time periods: 0 (no drying), 24, 48, 72, 96, and 120 hours, in the laboratory environment (25°C and 90% RH) and in a greenhouse (30°C and 80% RH). After the drying period, seeds from each of the treatments were used for determining the water content, germination, and vigor (using tests for emergence, first count of germination and emergence, rate of germination and emergence, length, and seedling dry weight). The experimental design was completely randomized and a factorial 2×6 scheme (local environment × drying periods) was used with four replicate sets of seeds. The data were subjected to analysis of variance and polynomial regression using quadratic models. The germination and seed vigor reduced as the drying periods increased. For optimum results, the seeds of C. tapia L. must be dried in the laboratory for a period of 48 hours. In addition, their desiccation resistance was classified as intermediate.

Laccase-13 Regulates Seed Setting Rate by Affecting Hydrogen Peroxide Dynamics and Mitochondrial Integrity in Rice.

Seed setting rate is one of the most important components of rice grain yield. To date, only several genes regulating setting rate have been identified in plant. In this study, we showed that laccase-13 (OsLAC13), a member of laccase family genes which are known for their roles in modulating phenylpropanoid pathway and secondary lignification in cell wall, exerts a regulatory function in rice seed setting rate. OsLAC13 expressed in anthers and promotes hydrogen peroxide production both in vitro and in the filaments and anther connectives. Knock-out of OsLAC13 showed significantly increased seed setting rate, while overexpression of this gene exhibited induced mitochondrial damage and suppressed sugar transportation in anthers, which in turn affected seed setting rate. OsLAC13 also induced H2O2 production and mitochondrial damage in the root tip cells which caused the lethal phenotype. We also showed that high abundant of OsmiR397, the suppressor of OsLAC13 mRNA, increased the seed setting rate of rice plants, and restrains H2O2 accumulation in roots during oxidative stress. Our results suggested a novel regulatory role of OsLAC13 gene in regulating seed setting rate by affecting H2O2 dynamics and mitochondrial integrity in rice.