Plants prevent dehydration by coating their aerial, primary organs with waxes. Wax compositions frequently differ between species, organs, and developmental stages, probably to balance limiting ...nonstomatal water loss with various other ecophysiological roles of surface waxes. To establish structure-function relationships, we quantified the composition and transpiration barrier properties of the gl1 mutant leaf waxes of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) to the necessary spatial resolution. The waxes coating the upper and lower leaf surfaces had distinct compositions. Moreover, within the adaxial wax, the epicuticular layer contained more wax and a higher relative quantity of alkanes, whereas the intracuticular wax had a higher percentage of alcohols. The wax formed a barrier against nonstomatal water loss, where the outer layer contributed twice as much resistance as the inner layer. Based on this detailed description of Arabidopsis leaf waxes, structure-function relationships can now be established by manipulating one cuticle component and assessing the effect on cuticle functions. Next, we ectopically expressed the triterpenoid synthase gene AtLUP4 (for lupeol synthase4 or β-amyrin synthase) to compare water loss with and without added cuticular triterpenoids in Arabidopsis leaf waxes. β-Amyrin accumulated solely in the intracuticular wax, constituting up to 4% of this wax layer, without other concomitant changes of wax composition. This triterpenoid accumulation caused a significant reduction in the water barrier effectiveness of the intracuticular wax.
Abstract
Employing day-to-day wind conditions as an identification strategy, we explore the consequences of the 420 US drone strikes in Pakistan between 2006 and 2016. Results suggest that drone ...strikes encourage terrorism over the upcoming days and weeks, causing up to 19% of all terror attacks with more than 3,000 terror deaths in Pakistan during that period. Studying a leading Pakistani newspaper, we identify a polarised response to drone strikes as negative emotions and anger, but also positive emotions, in drone-related articles increase. Finally, anti-US protests and online searches exhibiting radical Islamist concepts increase as a consequence of drone strikes.
The protective wax coating on plant surfaces has long been considered to be non-uniform in composition at a subcellular scale. In recent years, direct evidence has started to accumulate showing ...quantitative compositional differences between the epicuticular wax (i.e. wax exterior to cutin that can be mechanically peeled off) and intracuticular wax (i.e. wax residing within the mechanically resistant layer of cutin) layers in particular. This review provides a first synthesis of the results acquired for all the species investigated to date in order to assign chemical information directly to cuticle substructures, together with an overview of the methods used and a discussion of possible mechanisms and biological functions. The development of methods to probe the wax for z-direction heterogeneity began with differential solvent extractions. Further research employing mechanical wax removal by adhesives permitted the separation and analysis of the epicuticular and intracuticular wax. In wild-type plants, the intracuticular (1-30 μg cm⁻²) plus the epicuticular wax (5-30 μg cm⁻²) combined to a total of 8-40 μg cm⁻². Cyclic wax constituents, such as triterpenoids and alkylresorcinols, preferentially or entirely accumulate within the intracuticular layer. Within the very-long-chain aliphatic wax components, primary alcohols tend to accumulate to higher percentages in the intracuticular wax layer, while free fatty acids and alkanes in many cases accumulate in the epicuticular layer. Compounds with different chain lengths are typically distributed evenly between the layers. The mechanism causing the fractionation remains to be elucidated but it seems plausible that it involves, at least in part, spontaneous partitioning due to the physico-chemical properties of the wax compounds and interactions with the intracuticular polymers. The arrangement of compounds probably directly influences cuticular functions.
Many people, especially low-income consumers, do not successfully follow dietary recommendations to eat more whole grains and less fat and added sugar. The food environment may have a significant ...impact on the choice by low-income consumers to eat healthier foods, as both the availability and price of healthier food items may limit their ability to eat a healthier diet. We investigated the cost and availability of a standard market basket of foods, and a healthier basket that included low-fat meat and dairy and whole grain products.
Market-basket surveys were conducted in 25 stores in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Stores were selected from neighborhoods that were varied by income and surveyed three times from September 2003 to June 2004. The average cost of a standard market basket (based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Thrifty Food Plan TFP) and a healthier market basket was calculated from these prices and compared using a standard
t-test to determine if they were significantly different from each other. The analysis was conducted in 2005.
In neighborhoods served by smaller grocery stores, access to whole-grain products, low-fat cheeses, and ground meat with <10% fat is limited. Among all items that were unavailable, 64% were in small grocery stores. For the 2-week shopping list, the average TFP market-basket cost was $194, and the healthier market-basket cost was $230. The average cost of the healthier market basket was more expensive by $36 due to higher costs of whole grains, lean ground beef, and skinless poultry. The higher cost of the healthier basket is equal to about 35% to 40% of low-income consumers’ food budgets of $2410 a year.
The lack of availability in small grocery stores located in low-income neighborhoods, and the higher cost of the healthier market basket may be a deterrent to eating healthier among very low-income consumers. Public policies should take the food environment into account in order to develop successful strategies to encourage the consumption of healthier foods.
In this study, 14 solid-fuel household cook stove and fuel combinations, including 10 stoves and four fuels, were tested for performance and pollutant emissions using a WBT (Water Boiling Test) ...protocol. Results from the testing showed that some stoves currently used in the field have improved fuel efficiency and lower pollutant emissions compared with traditional cooking methods. Stoves with smaller-mass components exposed to the heat of fuel combustion tended to take lesser time to boil, have better fuel efficiency, and lower pollutant emissions. The challenge is to design stoves with smaller-mass components that also have acceptable durability, affordable cost, and meet user needs. Results from this study provide stove performance and emissions information to practitioners disseminating stove technology in the field. This information may be useful for improving the design of existing stoves and for developing new stove designs. Comparison of results between laboratories shows that results can be replicated between labs when the same stove and fuel are tested using the WBT protocol. Recommendations were provided to improve the ability to replicate results between labs. Implications of better solid-fuel cook stoves are improved human health, reduced fuel use, reduced deforestation, and reduced global climate change.
Hans Sedlmayr - a central figure of the Second Vienna School of Art History - is highly debated, mostly for the following reasons: the problematic scholarly character of his interpretation theory and ...practice, moreover his condemnation of modernity, and, last but not least, his approval of Nazism. Despite this high level of attention within art historiography, important questions remain. One of them derives from the fact that Sedlmayr's methodological writings of the 1920s - in contrast to his later ones - have been appreciated as sound (especially by Ian Versiegen) and are generally separated from the method of 'structural analysis' as he developed it in the early 1930s. Scholars have repeatedly described a shift in Sedlmayr's writings of the 1930s. E.g. Versiegen even wrote of 'two Sedlmayr's, a short-lived, cosmopolitan Sedlmayr, and a later, diagnostic and hermeneutic Sedlmayr'; and according to Frederick J. Schwartz Sedlmayr falls 'from phenomenology into farce'. On the other hand the earliest decade of Sedlmayr's existence as an art historian, that is the 1920s, has been described as a 'grey area'. An important question thus is: How do Sedlmayr's early writings relate to the later ones? Apart from that it has been stated that Sedlmayr's adherence to Nazism stood in contrast with his Catholicism. While Hans Aurenhammer has tried to solve this problem by relating him to a group of Catholic Nationals active in Austria at the time, this short classification seems too rough to be satisfactory. Moreover, Aurenhammer himself noted that there is still a discrepancy here. Evonne Levy highlighted that it was 'still not entirely clear to what extent pre-1938 Sedlmayr was driving a political agenda'. By concluding with the statement 'to continue to pose these questions is the main point', she also insisted on a desideratum. Ian Versiegen came to the belief that Sedlmayr adhered to 'a Leninized "dictatorship of the proletariat'" and could be classified as a 'National Bolshevist'. However, this classification is mainly based on Ernst Gombrich's late retrospective recording of a hearsay that Sedlmayr had shown leftist tendencies when he returned from the First World War,· and on the fact that Sedlmayr apparently was not wealthy and therefore 'needed to make a living'. This seems rather unspecific. The second and third questions that currently still arise, are hence: What is the exact nature of his political orientation? And: Are his art historical writings driven by a political agenda? The paper at hand proposes answers that are gained from a comparison of writings by Sedlmayr and the authors suggested here as his sources. Its focus are philosophical premises that these authors as well as Sedlmayr need to presuppose in order to maintain their theories.In what follows it is argued that Sedlmayr's political orientation and his art historical writings cannot be separated from one another, as they both are closely linked to an unnamed, yet identifiable source, even from their beginnings. This source is, as this article tries to show, the Viennese professor Othmar Spann, along with his own source Franz von Baader and his pupil Johannes Sauter.
The paper states that a main source of Sedlmayr’s methodological as well as political thinking has largely been overlooked. It argues that Viennese philosopher and sociologist Othmar Spann, along ...with his own main source, romanticist theologian Franz von Baader as well as Spann’s pupil, the Viennese university teacher Johannes Sauter, were central to Sedlmayr’s art history as well as to his ideological orientation. This is concluded from a comparison of their texts and their biographical data. This approach entails a new reading of Sedlmayr’s early writings and proposes an answer to the question, whether they are related to his political behaviour in the Nazi era.
A Survey on Cross‐Virtuality Analytics Fröhler, B.; Anthes, C.; Pointecker, F. ...
Computer graphics forum,
February 2022, Letnik:
41, Številka:
1
Journal Article
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Cross‐virtuality analytics (XVA) is a novel field of research within immersive analytics and visual analytics. A broad range of heterogeneous devices across the reality–virtuality continuum, along ...with respective visual metaphors and analysis techniques, are currently becoming available. The goal of XVA is to enable visual analytics that use transitional and collaborative interfaces to seamlessly integrate different devices and support multiple users. In this work, we take a closer look at XVA and analyse the existing body of work for an overview of its current state. We classify the related literature regarding ways of establishing cross‐virtuality by interconnecting different stages in the reality–virtuality continuum, as well as techniques for transitioning and collaborating between the different stages. We provide insights into visualization and interaction techniques employed in current XVA systems. We report on ways of evaluating such systems, and analyse the domains where such systems are becoming available. Finally, we discuss open challenges in XVA, giving directions for future research.
In Cross‐virtuality analytics, a novel field of research within immersive analytics and visual analytics, transitional and collaborative interfaces are used to seamlessly integrate different devices and support multiple users. The image shows example systems in this area from ongoing work by the authors.
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