Light climates strongly influence plant architecture and mass allocation. Using the metamer concept, we quantitatively described branching architecture and growth of Chenopodium album plants grown solitarily or in a dense stand. Metamer is a unit of plant construction that is composed of an internode and the upper node with a leaf and a subtended axillary bud. The number of metamers on the main-axis stem increased with plant growth, but did not differ between solitary and densestand plants. Solitary plants had shorter thicker internodes with branches larger in size and number than the plant in the dense stand. Leaf area on the main stem was not different. Larger leaf area in solitary plants was due to a larger number of leaves on branches. Leaf mass per area (LMA) was higher in solitary plants. It did not significantly differ between the main axis and branches in solitary plants, whereas in the dense stand it was smaller on branches. Dry mass was allocated most to leaves in solitary plants and to stems in the dense stand in vegetative growth. Reproductive allocation was not significantly different. Branch/main stem mass ratio was higher in solitary than dense-stand plants, and leaf/stem mass ratio higher in branches than in the main axis. Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) (dry mass growth per unit N uptake) was higher and light use efficiency (LUE) (dry mass growth per unit light interception) was lower in the plant grown solitarily than in the dense stand.

Rice noodle is Malaysia's popular main dish prepared by rice flour. This is one of the most common Asian noodles in Southeast Asia in particular. Traditionally, rice noodle is made of strong amylose, long grain rice. Rice noodle is typically made using two primary methods; sheeting of dough to develop flat rice noodle locally known as rice noodle and extruding to develop rice vermicelli. Thick noodle sheets turn the cutting rolls onto noodle strands before being served as fresh rice noodle. Rice noodle has a high moisture content which makes it very perishable and susceptible to degradation due to microbial growth within several days (Ahmed, Qazi, Li, & Ullah, 2016). The drying process is introduced as a strategy in extending the shelf life of rice noodle whereby the moisture content declines from 40% to less than 12.5% in drying noodle without compromising the quality. Dehydration is a dynamic method that requires into consideration the specific mass and heat transfer system in the drying product. The diffusion gradient between the vapor pressure

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Iron solubilization in mangrove soils associated with polyphenols leached out from leaf-litter can improve iron bioavailability. In this context, the leaf-removing process by mangrove crabs would increase reacting frequency of the polyphenols in mangrove leaves with iron in the soils. In this study, we investigated ecological roles of a leaf-removing crab, Neosarmatium smithi, on the iron solubilization process. After the fallen leaves carried by the crabs to their burrows and eaten by them, polyphenols may be remained in their feces. If so, contact of polyphenols in the feces with mangrove soils could promote elution of dissolved iron from the soils. In order to demonstrate this hypothesis, we firstly surveyed the appearance ratio of the black part in crab burrows and measured total phenolic content in feces of N. smithi as well as in the black part soil. Then, we examined influences of the crab feces on dissolved iron elution from mangrove soils. As the results, the appearance ratio of the black part in the burrow was 67 % and the phenolic content in the feces, the black part, and the yellow part in crab burrows were 9.93, 0.49, and 0.12 mg g 1 , respectively. Dissolved iron content in the solution (soil water extract from feces) was 0.65 g g 1 and this content was 4.5 times higher than the control (soil distilled water). We suggest that the polyphenols remained in the feces affect to solubilize insoluble forms of iron by iron reduction and chelating properties.