Kosteletzkya pentacarpos: A Potential Halophyte Candidate for Phytoremediation in the Meta(loid)s Polluted Saline Soils

Kosteletzkya pentacarpos (L.) Ledebour is a perennial facultative halophyte species from the Malvacea family that grows in coastal areas with high amounts of salt. The tolerance of K. pentacarpos to the high concentration of salt (0.5–1.5% salinity range of coastal saline land) has been widely studied for decades. Nowadays, with the dramatic development of the economy and urbanization, in addition to the salt, the accumulation of mate(loid)s in coastal soil is increasing, which is threatening the survival of halophyte species as well as the balance of wetland ecosystems. Recently, the capacity of K. pentacarpos to cope with either single heavy metal stress or a combination of multiple meta(loid) toxicities was studied. Hence, this review focused on summarizing the physiological and biochemical behaviors of K. pentacarpos that has been simultaneously exposed to the combination of several meta(loid) toxicities. How the salt accumulated by K. pentacarpos impacts the response to meta(loid) stress was discussed. We conclude that as a potential candidate for phytoremediation, K. pentacarpos was able to cope with various environmental constrains such as multiple meta(loid) stresses due to its relative tolerance to meta(loid) toxicity.

The Ideology Factor and Individual Disengagements from the Muslim Brotherhood

Since 2011, there has been a growing wave of individuals leaving Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, and many of them have opted for documented publicity by writing autobiographies narrating their whole journey. This article explores the ideological components of the disengagement process on the basis of a frame analysis of these writings. It seeks to understand how individuals acted against some of the meanings central to the Brotherhood’s ideological character and influence. They construct sets of meanings negating or renegotiating those long fixated, sanctified and ineluctable parts of the group’s ideology. The process of meaning making is situated within the Arab Spring where the Brotherhood’s dominant ideology also suffered from ruptures, incongruence or dissonance. For example, many exiters realized that the group’s ideology is not ‘evolutionary’ enough to align with a ‘revolutionary’ moment in Egypt’s history, and it thus failed to provide them with a sense of meaning regarding the dramatically changing world around them. The disillusionment goes beyond a battle of textually-situated meanings between the Brotherhood and its disgruntled members during the process of their departure from it. It appertains to a context of new resources and opportunities made available to exiters to resist, challenge, and even falsify the dominant ideology without incurring heavy losses or harsh penalties often meted out by the group against its ‘dissidents’. The agency of exiters, i.e., their capacity to act against the group’s ideology or manifest their rebellion against its elements, is also enabled by the state’s relative tolerance towards the exiters, a degree of social assimilation inside Egypt, internal ideological and organizational divisions inside the Brotherhood and geographical re-spatialization.

Same-Sex Marriage in Japan: Prospects for Change

This article examines why Japan is a prominent exception to the global trend towards recognition of same-sex marriage and evaluates the prospects for change. It does so through an analysis of five cases brought on Valentine's Day – 14 February 2019. Unlike many jurisdictions where religious opposition to same-sex relationships has been intense and sometimes violent, Japan has a history of relative tolerance towards LGBT individuals. Nonetheless, despite the creation of civil partnership ordinances in some localities, national legislation seems unlikely, and a group of lawyers filed suit in five district courts across Japan. The litigation was brought under the State Redress Act and is based on tort rather than directly on constitutional doctrine. It claims that marriage equality is constitutionally required and that the failure of the government to recognize same-sex marriage constitutes a tort that has harmed the LGB plaintiffs and entitles them to compensation. This article analyzes the nature of the cause of action founded on the State Redress Act, and examines the arguments, which are based more on the plaintiffs’ suffering than on their desire for self-expression. Subsequently, it presents and evaluates the possible outcomes

A column-and-constraint generation algorithm for two-stage stochastic programming problems

This paper presents a column-and-constraint generation algorithm for two-stage stochastic programming problems. A distinctive feature of the algorithm is that it does not assume fixed recourse and as a consequence the values and dimensions of the recourse matrix can be uncertain. The proposed algorithm contains multi-cut (partial) Benders decomposition and the deterministic equivalent model as special cases and can be used to trade-off computational speed and memory requirements. The algorithm outperforms multi-cut (partial) Benders decomposition in computational time and the deterministic equivalent model in memory requirements for a maintenance location routing problem. In addition, for instances with a large number of scenarios, the algorithm outperforms the deterministic equivalent model in both computational time and memory requirements. Furthermore, we present an adaptive relative tolerance for instances for which the solution time of the master problem is the bottleneck and the slave problems can be solved relatively efficiently. The adaptive relative tolerance is large in early iterations and converges to zero for the final iteration(s) of the algorithm. The combination of this relative adaptive tolerance with the proposed algorithm decreases the computational time of our instances even further.

Different Nitro-Oxidative Response of Odontarrhena lesbiaca Plants from Geographically Separated Habitats to Excess Nickel

Odontarrhena lesbiaca is an endemic species to the serpentine soils of Lesbos Island (Greece). As a nickel (Ni) hyperaccumulator, it possesses an exceptional Ni tolerance; and it can accumulate up to 0.2–2.4% Ni of its leaves’ dry weight. In our study, O. lesbiaca seeds from two geographically separated study sites (Ampeliko and Loutra) were germinated and grown on control and Ni-containing (3000 mg/kg) soil in a rhizotron system. Ni excess induced significant Ni uptake and translocation in both O. lesbiaca ecotypes and affected their root architecture differently: plants from the Ampeliko site proved to be more tolerant; since their root growth was less inhibited compared to plants originated from the Loutra site. In the roots of the Ampeliko ecotype nitric oxide (NO) was being accumulated, while the degree of protein tyrosine nitration decreased; suggesting that NO in this case acts as a signaling molecule. Moreover, the detected decrease in protein tyrosine nitration may serve as an indicator of this ecotype’s better relative tolerance compared to the more sensitive plants originated from Loutra. Results suggest that Ni hypertolerance and the ability of hyperaccumulation might be connected to the plants’ capability of maintaining their nitrosative balance; yet, relatively little is known about the relationship between excess Ni, tolerance mechanisms and the balance of reactive nitrogen species in plants so far.

A study on the mechanism reduction and evaluation of biodiesel with the change of mechanism reduction factors

This study aims to confirm the effect of changing the various factors with the directed relation graph error propagation–based methods and to adopt a new approach of the mechanism evaluation in the reduction of biodiesel mechanism. The factors considered in this study were a threshold value, target species, ambient conditions, and the evaluation formula consists of the reduction rates and the maximum error rate of ignition delay to objectively compare the skeletal mechanisms generated under different conditions. For a threshold value, the automatic mechanism reduction process was used to select the appropriate threshold value by applying the relative tolerance and absolute tolerance; so relative tolerance and absolute tolerance represent the factor of the threshold value. Also, the seven steps of mechanism reduction process consist of directed relation graph error propagation, directed relation graph error propagation with sensitivity analysis, peak concentration analysis, full species sensitivity analysis, and A-factor modification. As a result of the mechanism reduction, different relative tolerance and absolute tolerance values should be applied to each step to select the appropriate threshold value. For target species, considering polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon species as target species shows higher efficiency of mechanism reduction. Also, considering the negative temperature coefficient region as ambient conditions helps the mechanism be reduced efficiently than a wide range of ambient conditions. Finally, the reduced mechanism which had 247 species and 1129 reactions was generated, and the maximum error rate of ignition delay was about 30%. For the applicability of three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics and verification of the reduced mechanism, the compression ignition engine simulation was performed. As a result of three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics, the predicted cylinder pressure, rate of heat release, indicated mean effective pressure, and power were similar to the experimental results. However, the results of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emissions did not match the experimental results.

White Christian Nationalism and Relative Political Tolerance for Racists

Recent studies demonstrate that white Americans who adhere to “Christian nationalism”―an ideology that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity and American civic life―tend to hold authoritarian, exclusionary, and overtly prejudicial attitudes, particularly regarding ethno-racial minorities. We use data from the 1996 and 2014 General Social Surveys and consider relative political tolerance toward old-fashioned racists (i.e., persons who believe black Americans are genetically inferior) compared to other historically stigmatized groups, including anti-religionists, communists, militarists, and homosexuals. Viewing Christian identity as essential to American civic belonging is among the strongest predictors of whites’ being politically intolerant of all stigmatized groups, racists included. However, when we examine relative tolerance toward racists compared to other stigmatized groups, white Christian nationalists show greater tolerance than other whites. This effect is distinct from personal religiosity which is associated with lower relative tolerance toward racists. Additionally, we find both time and gender moderate the association between white Christian nationalism and relative tolerance toward racists. Findings ultimately demonstrate that white Americans who adhere to Christian nationalism exhibit authoritarian tendencies―expressing lower tolerance for all groups considered―while making greater relative allowance for old-fashioned racists, who may be allies in the task of social control and coercion.

Relative Tolerance of Three Morphotypes of the Anastrepha fraterculus Complex (Diptera: Tephritidae) to Cold Phytosanitary Treatment

The Anastrepha fraterculus (Wiedemann) complex is currently comprised of at least eight morphotypes, including several that are likely to be described as new species. It is critical to evaluate whether the morphotypes differ in tolerance to phytosanitary treatments. Temperatures from 0 to 3°C are used as a phytosanitary treatment for some commodities exported from the region and at risk of infestation by the A. fraterculus complex. Description of A. fraterculus morphotypes as new species could result in the annulation of phytosanitary treatment schedules for the new species. This study compared the relative cold tolerance of five populations from three morphotypes of the A. fraterculus complex: Andean, Peruvian, and Brazilian-1. Both a laboratory and wild strain of the Brazilian-1 morphotype were studied. Differences in mortality of third instars of the five A. fraterculus populations reared on nectarines were observed only with short treatment durations at temperatures ranging from 1.38 ± 0.04°C to 1.51 ± 0.08°C (mean ± SEM). Estimated times to achieve the LT99.99682 (probit 9) showed that Brazilian-1 wild, Brazilian-1 laboratory, and Cusco population were the most cold tolerant, followed by Andean and Peruvian, the least cold tolerant morphotype (i.e., Brazilian-1 wild = Brazilian-1 laboratory = Cusco population > Andean > Peruvian). These findings suggest that the current cold treatment schedules of 15 d at ≤ 1.11°C and 17 d at ≤ 1.67°C can be applied as cold treatments to any potential new species that may arise from the A. fraterculus complex.