Phytohormones Trigger Drought Tolerance in Crop Plants: Outlook and Future Perspectives

In the past and present, human activities have been involved in triggering global warming, causing drought stresses that affect animals and plants. Plants are more defenseless against drought stress; and therefore, plant development and productive output are decreased. To decrease the effect of drought stress on plants, it is crucial to establish a plant feedback mechanism of resistance to drought. The drought reflex mechanisms include the physical stature physiology and biochemical, cellular, and molecular-based processes. Briefly, improving the root system, leaf structure, osmotic-balance, comparative water contents and stomatal adjustment are considered as most prominent features against drought resistance in crop plants. In addition, the signal transduction pathway and reactive clearance of oxygen are crucial mechanisms for coping with drought stress via calcium and phytohormones such as abscisic acid, salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, auxin, gibberellin, ethylene, brassinosteroids and peptide molecules. Furthermore, microorganisms, such as fungal and bacterial organisms, play a vital role in increasing resistance against drought stress in plants. The number of characteristic loci, transgenic methods and the application of exogenous substances [nitric oxide, (C28H48O6) 24-epibrassinolide, proline, and glycine betaine] are also equally important for enhancing the drought resistance of plants. In a nutshell, the current review will mainly focus on the role of phytohormones and related mechanisms involved in drought tolerance in various crop plants.

Memory bias for social hierarchical information is modulated by perceived social rank

Hierarchies pervade human society, characterizing its members along diverse dimensions ranging from their abilities or skills in a particular domain to their economic status or physical stature. One intriguing aspect of the centrality of hierarchies, relative to egalitarian constructs, is that hierarchically-organized social information appears to be remembered more easily than non-hierarchically-organized information. However, it is not yet clear how one’s social rank within a hierarchy influences processing. In a pre-registered study with 66 healthy participants, we examined memory recall for hierarchical information when participants themselves were positioned higher in the hierarchy versus lower in the hierarchy, both relative to an egalitarian control condition. The results replicate previous work showing that hierarchical information is memorized faster relative to the egalitarian control. Importantly, this effect was modulated by the participant’s position within the hierarchy, with higher-positioned participants memorizing information faster than lower-positioned participants. This study provides new evidence about the interaction of perceptions of one’s own social status with memory for social hierarchical information.

The Potential Nutrition-, Physical- and Health-Related Benefits of Cow’s Milk for Primary-School Aged Children

Cow’s milk is a naturally nutrient-dense foodstuff. A significant source of many essential nutrients, its inclusion as a component of a healthy balanced diet has been long recommended. Beyond milk’s nutritional value, an increasing body of evidence illustrates cow’s milk may confer numerous benefits related to health. Evidence from adult populations suggests that cow’s milk may have a role in overall dietary quality, appetite control, hydration and cognitive function. Although evidence is limited compared to the adult literature, these benefits may be echoed in recent paediatric studies. This article, therefore, reviews the scientific literature to provide an evidence-based evaluation of the associated health benefits of cow’s milk consumption in primary-school aged children (4-11 years). We focus on seven key areas related to nutrition and health comprising nutritional status, hydration, dental and bone health, physical stature, cognitive function, and appetite control. The evidence consistently demonstrates cow’s milk (plain and flavoured) improves nutritional status in primary-school aged children. With some confidence, cow’s milk also appears beneficial for hydration, dental and bone health and beneficial to neutral concerning physical stature and appetite. Due to conflicting studies, reaching a conclusion has proven difficult concerning cow’s milk and cognitive function therefore a level of caution should be exercised when interpreting these results. All areas, however, would benefit from further robust investigation, especially in free-living school settings, to verify conclusions. Nonetheless, when the nutritional-, physical- and health-related impact of cow’s milk avoidance is considered, the evidence highlights the importance of increasing cow’s milk consumption.

Evaluation of Incorporation of Universal Design Parameters in the Planning Approval Process of Kisumu Main Bus Terminus

Consideration of the normate template by designers usually leads to the production of living spaces that fail to meet most of the spatial requirements of would-be users. This phenomenon arises due to the fact that the normate template keeps a walking and fleshy body at the centre of thinking about design. As a result, the template fails to consider additional space requirements for bodies that use technologies to navigate space. In order to sustain itself, the normate template relies upon the impression that normates are normal, average, and majority bodies. When built-up spaces block out potential users, then the viewpoint which is reinforced is that certain spaces are meant only for those who are “privileged” to use these spaces independently. The presence of accessible spaces on the other hand confirms that designers hold that built environments should serve all potential users regardless of physical stature. Universal Design thereby provides a platform for making the weakest person in society strong through design. Embracement of a Universal Design perspective therefore becomes a stepping stone in the provision of public spaces that are accessible to all- regardless of physical stature. This study, therefore, evaluated the incorporation of Universal Design parameters in the design process of public spaces in Kisumu City. The study established that Universal Design requirements are usually executed only on new constructions. There is a need, therefore for major renovations to take place in buildings open to the public that are not necessarily classified as “new” constructions.

Clarifications of a Puzzle: The Decline in Nutritional Status at the Onset of Modern Economic Growth in the United States

Bodenhom, Guinnane, and Mroz (2017) are critical of anthropometric research using based on non-random samples. Declining height trends in military and prison data, they argue, are artifacts of negative selection during favorable labor market conditions. We study height trends in the United States in the antebellum decades, which coincided with the onset of modem economic growth. We find that neither the historical evidence nor their own statistical analysis support their views. The decline in physical stature in the decades before the Civil War was real, as Zimran (2019) has also shown.

Knowing savagery: Australia and the anatomy of race

When Australia was circumnavigated by Europeans in 1801–02, French and British natural historians were unsure how to describe the Indigenous peoples who inhabited the land they charted and catalogued. Ideas of race and of savagery were freely deployed by both British and French, but a discursive shift was underway. While the concept of savagery had long been understood to apply to categories of human populations deemed to be in want of more historically advanced ‘civilisation’, the application of this term in the late 18th and early 19th centuries was increasingly being correlated with the emerging terminology of racial characteristics. The terminology of race was still remarkably fluid, and did not always imply fixed physical or mental endowments or racial hierarchies. Nonetheless, by means of this concept, natural historians began to conceptualise humanity as subject not only to historical gradations, but also to the environmental and climatic variations thought to determine race. This in turn meant that the degree of savagery or civilisation of different peoples could be understood through new criteria that enabled physical classification, in particular by reference to skin colour, hair, facial characteristics, skull morphology, or physical stature: the archetypal criteria of race. While race did not replace the language of savagery, in the early years of the 19th century savagery was re-inscribed by race.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS AND SPATIAL CONVERGENCE OF BIOLOGICAL WELL-BEING: THE CASE OF COLOMBIA, 1920–1990

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the relationship between the physical stature of Colombians born during the 20thcentury and several socio-economic and demographic variables. Using a dataset of more than 225,000 individuals built with information from judicial background certificates, we found a sustained growth of the average height of women and men during the 20thcentury. The results show significant differences in stature according to gender, level of education, occupation, and place and date of birth. Similarly, health conditions and access to aqueducts significantly affect height. We found that departmental average height disparities decreased and the gap across regions closed throughout the century.

THE PHYSICAL STATURE OF MEN IN 19TH-CENTURY CHILE: ANOTHER CASE OF STAGNATION DURING AN EXPORT BOOM

This article provides the first series of adult male height for 19th-century Chile. Our aim was not only to assess the trends indicated by height during this period, but also the relationship between stature and both GDP per capita and exports. Having analysed our data, our primary conclusion is that there was a reduction in height for cohorts born in the 1850s and 1860s with respect to cohorts born between 1820 and 1840. Height stagnated thereafter, with small to no improvement towards the end of the 19th century, in line with other Latin American countries for which there is comparable evidence. The increase in per capita GDP and exports during the second half of the century did not result in better biological welfare, as was the case in other Latin American countries during similar export booms.