This review deals with the adaptive mechanisms that plants can implement to cope with the challenge of salt stress. Plants tolerant to NaCl implement a series of adaptations to acclimate to salinity, ...including morphological, physiological and biochemical changes. These changes include increases in the root/canopy ratio and in the chlorophyll content in addition to changes in the leaf anatomy that ultimately lead to preventing leaf ion toxicity, thus maintaining the water status in order to limit water loss and protect the photosynthesis process. Furthermore, we deal with the effect of salt stress on photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence and some of the mechanisms thought to protect the photosynthetic machinery, including the xanthophyll cycle, photorespiration pathway, and water-water cycle. Finally, we also provide an updated discussion on salt-induced oxidative stress at the subcellular level and its effect on the antioxidant machinery in both salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive plants. The aim is to extend our understanding of how salinity may affect the physiological characteristics of plants.
•Phytoremediation capacity of J. curcas was tested using soils from gold mining areas.•This plant species has good ability to tolerate and accumulate Hg from polluted soils.•Biomass accumulation ...decreased when Hg concentration increased.•J. curcas is a promising species to remediate mercury-contaminated soils.
Jatropha curcas plants species were tested to evaluate their phytoremediation capacity in soils contaminated by different levels of mercury. The experimental treatments consisted of four levels of mercury concentrations in the soil – T0, T1, T5, and T10 (0, 1, 5, and 10μg Hg per g soil, respectively). The total mercury content absorbed by the different plant tissues (roots, stems and leaves) was determined during four months of exposure. The growth behavior, mercury accumulation, translocation (TF) and bioconcentration (BCF) factors were determined. The different tissues in J. curcas can be classified in order of decreasing accumulation Hg as follows: roots>leaves>stems. The highest cumulative absorption of the metal occurred between the second and third month of exposure. Maximum TF was detected during the second month and ranged from 0.79 to 1.04 for the different mercury concentrations. Values of BCF ranged from 0.21 to 1.43. Soils with T1 showed significantly higher BCF (1.43) followed by T10 (1.32) and T5 (0.91), all of them at the fourth month. On the other hand TFs were low (range 0.10–0.26) at the en of the experiment. The maximum reduction of biomass (16.3%) occurred for T10 (10μg Hg g−1). In sum, J. curcas species showed high BCFs and low TFs, and their use could be a promising approach to remediating mercury-contaminated soils.
B lymphocytes are recognized for their crucial role in the adaptive immunity since they represent the only leukocyte lineage capable of differentiating into Ab‐secreting cells. However, it has been ...demonstrated that these lymphocytes can exert several Ab‐independent functions, including engulfing and processing Ags for presentation to T cells, secreting soluble mediators, providing co‐stimulatory signals, and even participating in lymphoid tissues development. Beyond that, several reports claiming the existence of multiple B cell subsets contributing directly to innate immune responses have appeared. These “innate‐like” B lymphocytes, whose phenotype, development pathways, tissue distribution, and functions are in most cases notoriously different from those of conventional B cells, are crucial to early protective responses against pathogens by exerting “crossover” defensive strategies that blur the established boundaries of innate and adaptive branches of immunity. Examples of these mechanisms include the rapid secretion of the polyspecific natural Abs, increased susceptibility to innate receptors‐mediated activation, cytokine secretion, downstream priming of other innate cells, usage of specific variable immunoglobulin gene‐segments, and other features. As these new insights emerge, it is becoming preponderant to redefine the functionality of B cells beyond their classical adaptive‐immune tasks.
Beyond conventional populations, B cell compartment comprises several subsets developing “innate‐like” functions, implicated in early protection against pathogens mediated by different mechanisms besides antibody secretion.
Broken business Hernandez, José R
2018/01/01, 2018, 2019, 2018-12-10
eBook
How to prevent corporate scandals and fix good companies that do wrong The news media is replete with stories of corporate scandal, corruption and misdeeds. The need for effective crisis management ...and corporate governance strategies has never been greater. Broken Business explains why corporate scandals happen, what to do when scandals arise in your company, and how to prevent their future occurrence. Offering real-world anecdotes and solutions, this book details how corporations can mitigate the risk of scandal, reform corporate image and install structures to create a more ethical and profitable company. This insightful resource dispels common misconceptions of corporate misconduct and its causes through fascinating research into human nature, and compelling storytelling that demonstrates fundamental flaws in corporate culture. Author José Hernandez draws on decades of experience working with high-profile global corporations to present seven essential steps for transforming a company, including building a better culture, more effective compliance systems and re-focusing the strategy. This book allows you to: * Examine current and highly publicized cases of corporate scandal and their impact on corporate credibility * Employ practical methods to rehabilitate your corporation's public image * Implement managerial frameworks to quickly address cases of misconduct * Promote a culture of compliance and integrity to encourage good conduct in your corporate environment At its core, this book is a simple, engaging "how to" guide that offers practical advice on institutionalizing integrity in any organization. Broken Business: Seven Steps to Reform Good Companies Gone Bad is an essential text for leaders seeking a concise review at how things can go wrong, how to deal with scandal fallout and how to ultimately become a better company.
High-harmonic generation is a universal response of matter to strong femtosecond laser fields, coherently upconverting light to much shorter wavelengths. Optimizing the conversion of laser light into ...soft x-rays typically demands a trade-off between two competing factors. Because of reduced quantum diffusion of the radiating electron wave function, the emission from each species is highest when a short-wavelength ultraviolet driving laser is used. However, phase matching–the constructive addition of x-ray waves from a large number of atoms–favors longer-wavelength mid-infrared lasers. We identified a regime of high-harmonic generation driven by 40-cycle ultraviolet lasers in waveguides that can generate bright beams in the soft x-ray region of the spectrum, up to photon energies of 280 electron volts. Surprisingly, the high ultraviolet refractive indices of both neutral atoms and ions enabled effective phase matching, even in a multiply ionized plasma. We observed harmonics with very narrow linewidths, while calculations show that the x-rays emerge as nearly time-bandwidth-limited pulse trains of ~100 attoseconds.
Following the outbreak of COVID-19, governments took unprecedented measures to curb the spread of the virus. Public participation in decisions regarding (the relaxation of) these measures has been ...notably absent, despite being recommended in the literature. Here, as one of the exceptions, we report the results of 30,000 citizens advising the government on eight different possibilities for relaxing lockdown measures in the Netherlands. By making use of the novel method Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE), participants were asked to recommend which out of the eight options they prefer to be relaxed. Participants received information regarding the societal impacts of each relaxation option, such as the impact of the option on the healthcare system. The results of the PVE informed policymakers about people's preferences regarding (the impacts of) the relaxation options. For instance, we established that participants assign an equal value to a reduction of 100 deaths among citizens younger than 70 years and a reduction of 168 deaths among citizens older than 70 years. We show how these preferences can be used to rank options in terms of desirability. Citizens advised to relax lockdown measures, but not to the point at which the healthcare system becomes heavily overloaded. We found wide support for prioritising the re-opening of contact professions. Conversely, participants disfavoured options to relax restrictions for specific groups of citizens as they found it important that decisions lead to "unity" and not to "division". 80% of the participants state that PVE is a good method to let citizens participate in government decision-making on relaxing lockdown measures. Participants felt that they could express a nuanced opinion, communicate arguments, and appreciated the opportunity to evaluate relaxation options in comparison to each other while being informed about the consequences of each option. This increased their awareness of the dilemmas the government faces.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Traditional manufacturing industries are currently immersed in an automation process, integrating new techniques and tools, driven by the demands from producers to improve the manufacturing process ...as well as the working conditions of employees. For the footwear industry, bonding is a key operation in the manufacturing process where the outsole is assembled onto the lasted shoe. However, in this operation, workers are often subjected to hazardous substances (i.e., organic solvents) and perform repetitive tasks with limited added value. Against this background, this paper describes the results of a research project, whose aim was to obtain the maximum benefit from different technologies analyzed, such as collaborative robotics, artificial vision and multirobot control, for the manipulation of flexible/deformable objects. The main result of this project is a robotic workcell for shoe bonding that has been introduced in the production line to fully automate the operation. This workcell integrates three collaborative robots, one for (hot melt) adhesive application and another two, with two-finger electric grippers, to carry out the bonding synchronously. Different vision systems have also been embedded to conduct the various processes involved. The entire operation is controlled and coordinated through ROS (Robot Operating System). The key findings of this research showcase the automation of a process traditionally undertaken by humans. In this novel approach, two robots collaborate to manipulate flexible objects, liberating the operator from engaging in repetitive, non-value-added tasks and the handling of hazardous substances.
This study examines frequency volatility spillovers, connectedness and the nonlinear dependence between the European emission allowance (EUA) prices and renewable energy indices. For this purpose, we ...use a time-scale spillover index and different copula functions. The results show a dominance of short-term volatility spillovers between carbon prices and renewable energy indices over their long-term counterpart. More importantly, the spillover strength is high between carbon prices and both S&P clean energy and wind energy indices in the short term. Meanwhile, a strong spillover is most pronounced between the clean energy indices and the carbon price in the long term. Furthermore, the carbon price is predominantly the receiver of spillovers from the clean energy indices irrespective of the time horizon. Using dynamic copula, we show positive and dynamic dependence between the carbon prices and both clean and solar indices, whereas an asymmetric tail dependence between carbon prices and renewables, technology and wind indices.
•Connectedness spillovers and nonlinear dependence between EUA price and clean/renewable energy indices are explored.•Time-frequency spillover index and time-varying parameter copula approaches are employed.•Connectedness spillovers between EUA price and renewable energy indices are stronger in the short term.•In the short term, the S&P Global Clean Energy and Global Wind Energy indices most strongly spillover on the EUA price.•EUA price is symmetrically related, i.e., in the centre and in the tails, with the renewable energy indices.
Abstract
Stagonospora nodorum blotch (SNB) is an economically important wheat disease caused by the necrotrophic fungus
Parastagonospora nodorum
. SNB resistance in wheat is controlled by several ...quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Thus, identifying novel resistance/susceptibility QTLs is crucial for continuous improvement of the SNB resistance. Here, the hard winter wheat association mapping panel (HWWAMP) comprising accessions from breeding programs in the Great Plains region of the US, was evaluated for SNB resistance and necrotrophic effectors (NEs) sensitivity at the seedling stage. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed to identify single‐nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers associated with SNB resistance and effectors sensitivity. We found seven significant associations for SNB resistance/susceptibility distributed over chromosomes 1B, 2AL, 2DS, 4AL, 5BL, 6BS, and 7AL. Two new QTLs for SNB resistance/susceptibility at the seedling stage were identified on chromosomes 6BS and 7AL, whereas five QTLs previously reported in diverse germplasms were validated. Allele stacking analysis at seven QTLs explained the additive and complex nature of SNB resistance. We identified accessions (‘Pioneer-2180’ and ‘Shocker’) with favorable alleles at five of the seven identified loci, exhibiting a high level of resistance against SNB. Further, GWAS for sensitivity to NEs uncovered significant associations for SnToxA and SnTox3, co-locating with previously identified host sensitivity genes (
Tsn1
and
Snn3
). Candidate region analysis for SNB resistance revealed 35 genes of putative interest with plant defense response-related functions. The QTLs identified and validated in this study could be easily employed in breeding programs using the associated markers to enhance the SNB resistance in hard winter wheat.
To assess the role of the health consequences of maternal overweight and obesity at the start of pregnancy on gestational pathologies, delivery and newborn characteristics.
A cohort of pregnant women ...(n = 6.558) having delivered at the Maternal & Child University Hospital of Gran Canaria (HUMIGC) in 2008 has been studied. Outcomes were compared using multivariate analyses controlling for confounding variables.
Compared to normoweight, overweight and obese women have greater risks of gestational diabetes mellitus (RR = 2.13 (95% CI: 1.52-2.98) and (RR = 2.85 (95% CI: 2.01-4.04), gestational hypertension (RR = 2.01 (95% CI: 1.27-3.19) and (RR = 4.79 (95% CI: 3.13-7.32) and preeclampsia (RR = 3.16 (95% CI: 1.12-8.91) and (RR = 8.80 (95% CI: 3.46-22.40). Obese women have also more frequently oligodramnios (RR = 2.02 (95% CI: 1.25-3.27), polyhydramnios. (RR = 1.76 (95% CI: 1.03-2.99), tearing (RR = 1.24 (95% CI: 1.05-1.46) and a lower risk of induced deliveries (RR = 0.83 (95% CI: 0.72-0.95). Both groups have more frequently caesarean section (RR = 1.36 (95% CI: 1.14-1.63) and (RR = 1.84 (95% CI: 1.53-2.22) and manual placenta extraction (RR = 1.65 (95% CI: 1.28-2.11) and (RR = 1.77 (95% CI: 1.35-2.33). Newborns from overweight and obese women have higher weight (p<0.001) and a greater risk of being macrosomic (RR = 2.00 (95% CI: 1.56-2.56) and (RR = 2.74 (95% CI: 2.12-3.54). Finally, neonates from obese mother have a higher risk of being admitted to special care units (RR = 1.34 (95% CI: 1.01-1.77). Apgar 1 min was significantly higher in newborns from normoweight mothers: 8.65 (95% CI: 8.62-8.69) than from overweight: 8.56 (95% CI: 8.50-8.61) or obese mothers: 8.48 (95% CI: 8.41-8.54).
Obesity and overweight status at the beginning of pregnancy increase the adverse outcomes of the pregnancy. It is important to promote the normalization of bodyweight in those women who intend to get pregnant and to provide appropriate advice to the obese women of the risks of obesity at the start of the pregnancy.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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