Heat Stress Targeting Individual Organs Reveals the Central Role of Roots and Crowns in Rice Stress Responses

Inter-organ communication and the heat stress (HS; 45°C, 6 h) responses of organs exposed and not directly exposed to HS were evaluated in rice (Oryza sativa) by comparing the impact of HS applied either to whole plants, or only to shoots or roots. Whole-plant HS reduced photosynthetic activity (Fv/Fm and QY_Lss), but this effect was alleviated by prior acclimation (37°C, 2 h). Dynamics of HSFA2d, HSP90.2, HSP90.3, and SIG5 expression revealed high protection of crowns and roots. Additionally, HSP26.2 was strongly expressed in leaves. Whole-plant HS increased levels of jasmonic acid (JA) and cytokinin cis-zeatin in leaves, while up-regulating auxin indole-3-acetic acid and down-regulating trans-zeatin in leaves and crowns. Ascorbate peroxidase activity and expression of alternative oxidases (AOX) increased in leaves and crowns. HS targeted to leaves elevated levels of JA in roots, cis-zeatin in crowns, and ascorbate peroxidase activity in crowns and roots. HS targeted to roots increased levels of abscisic acid and auxin in leaves and crowns, cis-zeatin in leaves, and JA in crowns, while reducing trans-zeatin levels. The weaker protection of leaves reflects the growth strategy of rice. HS treatment of individual organs induced changes in phytohormone levels and antioxidant enzyme activity in non-exposed organs, in order to enhance plant stress tolerance.

Up-Fuse: International growth of an Egyptian eco-friendly social enterprise

Learning outcomes The case is meant as a way for students to develop ideas related to the challenges facing environmental eco-friendly social enterprises that sell their products in a country like Egypt where consumers are way behind considering the value of their products. In response to these challenges, students learn to evaluate the company status quo by analyzing its weaknesses, strengths and opportunities to grow and expand geographically to a new market. Students also learn about the growth expansion strategies and internationalization modes, options and associated barriers. Accordingly, they can plan the marketing strategies associated with entering this new market for up-cycled products. Objective 1: Analyze the international geographical growth alternative for an enterprise that improves its scalability applying weaknesses, strengths, threats and opportunities analysis. Objective 2: Propose a strategic plan for growth and scalability. Objective 3: Discuss the various modes of doing business in foreign countries. Recommend an internationalization mode for a social enterprise to explore in a new market. Objective 4: Assess the possible barriers associated with internationalization modes and how to overcome them. Objective 5: Propose marketing strategies for an eco-friendly enterprise to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness in the international host market. Other topics that might be discussed in this case include consumer behavior toward environmentally friendly products. Pricing challenges faced by ecologically friendly firms in developing countries. Case overview/synopsis Rania and Yara were inspired by Germany’s approach to waste reduction, particularly plastic bags. In 2017, after winning several competitions and awards, Up-Fuse was officially established as a social enterprise. The entrepreneurs faced great challenges selling sustainable products made of plastic waste to Egyptian consumers. Egyptian consumers were not fully aware of the value of eco-friendly products which presented a great challenge for Up-Fuse to grow and sell their products in Egypt. After shifting its pricing strategy and expanding beyond the local recycled product markets, Up-Fuse further faced fierce competition from well-established local and international brands with larger market shares. Thus, most of Up-Fuse’s sales were generated from expats and foreigners. In response to local obstacles and limitations, Rania began to consider targeting international markets. Rania thought it was the opportune time to drive growth through geographic expansion. After all, in 2020, Up-Fuse had some minor success when the co-founders experimented with exporting their products to the US market. Rania’s co-founder Yara, on the other hand, felt that the enterprise was not yet ready to enter a new market and it would be wiser to emphasize growth in the local Egyptian market. The co-founders were torn between two growth strategies. On one hand, they faced intense local competition for their products. On the other, expanding by entering a new market came with many challenges. Which growth strategy should Up-Fuse adopt? How could Up-Fuse determine which market to penetrate? What were the possible scalability challenges they faced by entering a new market? How could Up-Fuse reach and increase their international customer base abroad? What was the best marketing strategy for their products? Complexity academic level This case would be appropriate for graduate students enrolled in marketing, consumer behavior, international marketing, international business and social entrepreneurship courses. This case is written at a graduate level and would also be appropriate for use in customized or short programs. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CCS 5: International Business.

Impact of Information Communication Technology Strategies on Learning Effectiveness

Transnational higher education is a multinational growth strategy requiring a foreign direct investment to establish a university or a campus in a new country and, if possible, to use articulation agreements with credible partners to increase domestic enrolment. Due to the potential international student learning style differences, we hypothesized there may be difficulties teaching Information Communication Technology (ICT) courses in transnational strategies due to the student origin or domestic campus location. The purpose of this study was to examine if student learning was effective within ICT graduate courses at an accredited sub-Saharan Africa-based university implementing the transnational education strategy. We found student learning was effective, but paradoxically, some factors indicated unusual results. Learning impact was higher when students disregarded the learning objectives, which we were able to explain theoretically. Conversely, learning impact was higher for many students who avoided tutoring, which we also rationalized.

Enhancement of light field disparity maps by reducing the silhouette effect and plane noise

During the last decade, there has been an increasing number of applications dealing with multidimensional visual information, either for 3D object representation or feature extraction purposes. In this context, recent advances in light field technology, have been driving research efforts in disparity estimation methods. Among the existing ones, those based on the structure tensor have emerged as very promising to estimate disparity maps from Epipolar Plane Images. However, this approach is known to have two intrinsic limitations: (i) silhouette enlargement and (ii) irregularity of surface normal maps as computed from the estimated disparity. To address these problems, this work proposes a new method for improving disparity maps obtained from the structure-tensor approach by enhancing the silhouette and reducing the noise of planar surfaces in light fields. An edge-based approach is initially used for silhouette improvement through refinement of the estimated disparity values around object edges. Then, a plane detection algorithm, based on a seed growth strategy, is used to estimate planar regions, which in turn are used to guide correction of erroneous disparity values detected in object boundaries. The proposed algorithm shows an average improvement of 98.3% in terms of median angle error for plane surfaces, when compared to regular structure-tensor-based methods, outperforming state-of-the-art methods. The proposed framework also presents very competitive results, in terms of mean square error between disparity maps and their ground truth, when compared with their counterparts.

Superhydrophobic and elastic silica/polyimide aerogel based on double confinement growth strategy of the co-sol system

Polyimide (PI) aerogels with high thermal stability and low thermal conductivity can be used in the field of high temperature insulation. However, the super-hydrophilicity of PI aerogel will cause the...

One-pot synthesis of Au-based nanocrystals via a platinum group metal anions controlled growth strategy in citrate medium

The platinum group metals (PGM, Pd, Pt, Ir, etc.) possess unique chemical and physical properties, the properties often vary dramatically with their size, morphology, crystal structure, phase and composition. However,...

Healthcare and Cyber Physical Systems

In several facets of our daily lives, including how people access and receive healthcare services, the revolutionary trend of Industry 4.0 has been introduced. The fundamental innovative structures of smart healthcare galaxies are mounting in dimensions as well as density when we change in the direction of Healthcare Industry 4.0. Aimed at creation Healthcare Industry 4.0 significant enormous, composed information are accurately treated. As per requirements in place system offer helpful knowledge in addition recommendation. Nowadays we are going into the period of imaginative specialized arrangements. These arrangements assume a significant job in the development of the country like Cyber Physical System (CPS). Cyber Physical System is using in healthcare. Today's world-wide major issues of healthcare is coronavirus disease covid-19. This study emphases on the forthcoming growth commands beneath the Industries 4.0 and highpoint precise the growth strategy of healthcare. Moreover, the security and privacy of Cyber Physical System are discussed for secure CPS System.

Improved Production of HIV-1 Subtype C Protease from Transgenic E. Coli

Background: Human Immunodeficiency Virus 1 (HIV-1) subtype C is responsible for the majority of infections of patients in Southern Africa. The HIV protease is a primary target for the development of highly efficient anti-retroviral pharmaceuticals because of its pivotal role in the maturation of the virus in the host cell. For target validation of novel HIV protease inhibitors, there is a need for the availability of an abundance of this protease. Objective: This study reports an optimized method to produce HIV-1 protease derived from HIV-1 subtype C. Methods: It involves the use of a transgenic E. coli strain that overexpresses the native form of the enzyme via inclusion bodies. A stringent method for the isolation, purification, and renaturation resulted in the production of highly pure active HIV-1 protease. In order to facilitate an increase in protease yields, an optimized growth strategy was developed. In this regard, a chemically defined medium with lower glucose content and devoid of essential amino acids of the TCA cycle was used as an alternative to the widely used nutrient-rich Luria Bertani (LB) medium. Results: Results indicated an increase in protease yield up to twice the amount, thereby making this medium an attractive alternative for increasing biomass and HIV protease production for future research. Conclusion: An optimized method for HIV-1 protease derived from HIV-1 subtype C production using chemically defined media was established. This was achieved using a known method to isolate and purify the enzyme with the use of a specialized feeding strategy.

Od dyrektyw w sprawie jakości powietrza do Europejskiego Zielonego Ładu

In Poland, the problem of air pollution has not been given due attention for a long time. As a consequence, Poland is classified as one of the countries with the highest level of air pollution in Europe. Due to the fact that the problem is of a transboundary nature, air quality policy constitutes an important element of the EU’s supranational policy. The aim of the article is to analyze the impact of the EU policy on counteracting the problem of air pollution by Poland and to assess whether the problem can be effectively solved thanks to the implementation of the new growth strategy – the European Green Deal. The research results show that Poland’s membership in the EU has had the greatest impact on the process of building public awareness of the threat posed by air pollution. Despite the generally low effectiveness of the policy pursued so far, the new EU growth strategy (together with the financial instruments supporting its implementation) offers a real opportunity to significantly reduce the level of air pollution in Poland.