A green roofing substrate brick comprises a water-permeable fabric box having an open top, and a solidified and non-compressed substrate in the box. The substrate comprises a water storage and drainage medium, and a binder solidifying the water storage and drainage medium.

The invention discloses environment-controlling fibers, method manufacturing the same and fabrics using the same, which adopts polyolefin material, optoelectronic material, thermoelectric material, piezoelectric material and catalyst material, to make fibers and fabric by melting, mixing, drawing and weaving. The fabrics are used in all kinds of environmental control products or for organic agriculture. To use green energy such as solar light energy, solar thermal energy, wind energy, hydro energy, geothermal energy and other renewable energy to stimulate the function of the special material within the fibers, so that the fabrics can remove pollutants in the environment and produce self-purification function to achieve the purpose of improving the environmental conditions or promote plant growth.

This invention disclosure relates to novel maize starch. The starch can be made from the newly developed waxy sugary-2 double-mutant maize that has low activity of Granule Bound Starch Synthase I (GBSSI), which results in low amylose level. The starch from newly developed waxy sugary-2 double-mutant is freeze-thaw stable and has high viscosity. In comparison with the starch of the existing waxy sugary-2 double-mutant maize, the new waxy sugary-2 double-mutant maize starch showed, inter alia, improved pasting profile, starch granule integrity, larger starch granule size, and higher viscosity.

A method and system of improving the growth of plants belonging to the family Solanaceae by providing a plant nutrient solution about the plant roots and a gas mixture circulating about the plant shoot; by selecting the gas mixture and plant nutrient solution temperature independently of the other; and providing a plant nutrient solution to gas mixture temperature differential of approximately at least approximately 10° F. during different phases of plant development. The method and system improves plant development to improve a desired plant organ for industrial, scientific, and medical purposes. A method of improving the growth and development of Solanaceae plants by providing a shoot-to-root temperature differential to treat or prevent infection by a plant pathogen and/or infestation by pests.

A method of hydroponic growing of plants comprising hydroponically growing the plants in the presence of a controlled release hydroponic fertilizer composition. The hydroponic fertilizer composition comprises a polymerically coated controlled release fertilization nutrient formulation which further comprises micronutrients and optionally chelated iron.

A soil reinforcement membrane that promotes grass, plant, and vegetation growth in a variety of temperatures and geographic locations and increases water retention. The soil reinforcement membrane is flexible enough to be placed on a variety of landscapes and promotes growth in a variety of soils. The soil reinforcement membrane consists of an upper layer and a lower layer with a cultivating compound dispersed uniformly between the two layers.

An example plant monitoring system can include sensors connected to a horticultural monitor. The sensors can measure the soil, the environment, individual plant characteristics, etc. At least one horticultural monitor can send sensor data to a local beacon. The local beacon can then receive the data and send it to cloud resources which can process the data. The cloud resources can determine the health of the plant and monitor its development. A user can track this health and development using an interaction device.

A noninvasive method of source-sink regulation in rice belongs to the technical field of rice production. In this method, the source-sink relationship is regulated by a rice sterile line and its identical type of maintaining line being subjected to mixed-planting and insulated pollination, or sowing and transplanting at different times and insulated pollination, so as to construct rice plant samples with gradient difference of source-sink levels. The present invention is a kind of native, natural noninvasive method of source-sink regulation, which could broaden the traditional thinking of source-sink theoretical research, especially overcome the deficiency in conventional methods such as leaf-cutting, spikelet-thinning that lead to physical injury or physiological interference. The method provides a brand new approach and solution for thoroughly investigating source-sink relationship in rice, wheat, maize and other crops, and will play an important role in enriching crop source-sink theory and also promoting the development of the related disciplines.

To provide a program which assists a user so that an arrangement of plants arranged by the user is more appropriate. A program for causing a computer to function as: a layout acquisition unit configured to acquire arrangement information of plants arranged on a landscape by a user; a vegetation information acquisition unit configured to acquire vegetation information relating to influences exerted by the respective plants on each other; and a validity evaluation unit configured to evaluate validity of an arrangement of the plants indicated by the arrangement information, based on the vegetation information.

The present technology relates to an information processing device, an information processing method, and a program for aiding ecosystem utilization.

A relationship graph including nodes and links, the relationship graph indicating a relationship between species with a criterion being information other than the species, the relationship being obtained from a database having the species associated with the other information is obtained, and the relationship graph is displayed. The present technology can be applied in a case where information for aiding ecosystem utilization is provided, for example.