Elements of the science of botany, as established by Linnaeus; with examples to illustrate the classes and orders of his system.

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The roots of economic challenges facing Egypt in the aftermath of the 25th January revolution. Jean Monnet Occasional Paper No. 9/2014

Introduction. Since the 25th of January 2011 revolution the Egyptian economy has been suffering on all fronts. Almost all the economic indicators have been pointing towards a deteriorating situation, and in many cases have reached the trough. Yet, the economy is still surviving. This is mainly due to the unprecedented support of some of Arab Gulf countries, whose unconditional aid has helped to mitigate the deteriorating economic conditions. The economic challenges facing Egypt have been exacerbated after the 20th of January revolution mainly because of the deteriorating political and security conditions which have interrupted the functioning of the economy. Yet, this is not to say that revolution has caused these challenges. In fact, the challenges that the Egyptian has been facing have deep roots in its socio-political-economic context, which this paper aims to explain. The revolution and its aftermath have brought to the forefront challenges which have always been mitigated by short-term solutions that never dealt seriously with their roots. Moreover, the revolution has brought additional problems associated with the macroeconomic imbalances. As a result, the challenges became more complex especially in light of the need to balance the social and economic aspects. The paper proceeds as follows; in section one we pinpoint the main challenges faced by Egypt where we identify the symptoms and causes of such challenges. In section two we discuss the roots of such challenges. Finally, we conclude and provide our understanding of how Egypt is expected to face its challenges in the near future.

Preventing collapse in Ukraine: The EU should finance the grass roots directly. CEPS Commentary, 10 December 2014

With the aim of averting the total collapse of the Ukrainian economy, Daniel Gros and Steven Blockmans urge the EU to ​offer a minimum of macro-financial assistance to improve governance, fight corruption and harmonise laws with the EU acquis, while beefing up financing channelled directly to the grass roots.

The systemic roots of Russia’s recession. Bruegel Policy Contribution ISSUE 2015/15, OCTOBER 2015

The Russian economy grew rapidly between 2000 and 2007, but growth decelerated after the 2008-09 global financial crisis, and since mid-2014 Russia has moved into recession. A number of short-term factors have caused recession: lower oil prices, the conflict with Ukraine, European Union and United States sanctions against Russia and Russian counter-sanctions. However Russia's negative output trends have deeper structural and institutional roots. They can be tracked back about a decade to when previous market-reform policies started to be reversed in favour of dirigisme, leading to further deterioration of the business and investment climate. • Russia must address its short-term problems, but in the medium-to-long term it must deal with its fundamental structural and institutional disadvantages: oil and commodity dependence and an unfriendly business and investment climate underpinned by poor governance. Compared to many other commodity producers, Russia is better placed to diversify its economy, mostly due to its excellent human capital. Ruble depreciation makes this task easier

Amino acid transport in plants

Amino acids are transported between different organs through both xylem and phloem. This redistribution of nitrogen and carbon requires the activity of amino acid transporters in the plasma membrane. In addition, amino acids can be taken up directly by the roots. Amino acid transport has been well characterized in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and functional complementation has served as an excellent tool for identifying and characterizing amino acid transporters from plants. The transporters from yeast and plants are related and can be grouped into two large superfamilies. Based on substrate specificity and affinity, as well as expression patterns in plants, different functions have been assigned to some of the individual transporters. Plant mutants for amino acid transporter genes are now being used to study the physiological functions of many of the cloned genes.

Knock-out of Arabidopsis metal transporter gene IRT1 results in iron deficiency accompanied by cell differentiation defects

IRT1 and IRT2 are members of the Arabidopsis ZIP metal transporter family that are specifically induced by iron deprivation in roots and act as heterologous suppressors of yeast mutations inhibiting iron and zinc uptake. Although IRT1 and IRT2 are thought to perform redundant functions as root-specific metal transporters, insertional inactivation of the IRT1 gene alone results in typical symptoms of iron deficiency causing severe leaf chlorosis and lethality in soil. The irt1 mutation is characterized by specific developmental defects, including a drastic reduction of chloroplast thylakoid stacking into grana and lack of palisade parenchyma differentiation in leaves, reduced number of vascular bundles in stems, and irregular patterns of enlarged endodermal and cortex cells in roots. Pulse labeling with 59Fe through the root system shows that the irt1 mutation reduces iron accumulation in the shoots. Short-term labeling with 65Zn reveals no alteration in spatial distribution of zinc, but indicates a lower level of zinc accumulation. In comparison to wild-type, the irt1 mutant responds to iron and zinc deprivation by altered expression of certain zinc and iron transporter genes, which results in the activation of ZIP1 in shoots, reduction of ZIP2 transcript levels in roots, and enhanced expression of IRT2 in roots. These data support the conclusion that IRT1 is an essential metal transporter required for proper development and regulation of iron and zinc homeostasis in Arabidopsis.

Dynamic Precision Phenotyping Reveals Mechanism of Crop Tolerance to Root Herbivory

The western corn rootworm (WCR) is a major pest of maize that is well adapted to most crop management strategies. Breeding for tolerance is a promising alternative to combat WCR, but is currently constrained by a lack of physiological understanding and phenotyping tools. We developed dynamic precision phenotyping approaches using carbon-11 with positron emission tomography, root autoradiography and radiometabolite flux analysis to understand maize tolerance to WCR. Our results reveal that WCR attack induces specific patterns of lateral root growth which are associated with a shift in auxin biosynthesis from indole-3-pyruvic acid to indole-3-acetonitrile. WCR attack also increases transport of newly synthesized amino acids to the roots, including the accumulation of glutamine. Finally, the regrowth zones of WCR attacked roots show an increase in glutamine turnover which strongly correlates with the induction of indole-3-acetonitrile-dependent auxin biosynthesis. In summary, our findings identify local changes in the auxin flux network as a promising marker for induced WCR tolerance.

Frozen flowers. March 1952 [Dr. Elzada Clover and botany students]

On negative sleeve: Dr. Elzada Clover, associate professor of botany, (second from right) distributes frozen water lily buds to botany students at the U of M. Students are (left and right) Mrs. Benson Murray, N.Y.; Oka Nichols, Crawfordsville, Ind.; and Nancy Pridmore, Oxford, Mich. Frozen flowers are kept in regular cardboard containers with transparent tops

War within man : a psychological enquiry into the roots of destructiveness /

Mode of access: Internet.

The gardeners labyrinth, or, A new art of gardening : wherein is laid down new and rare inventions and secrets of gardening not heretofore known : for sowing, planting, and setting all manner of roots, herbs, and flowers, both for the use of the kitchen garden, and a garden of pleasure ... /

"Reprinted for the first time since the edition dated 1652, from the copy now owned by Mrs. Rosetta E. Clarkson."--T.p. verso.

Winter botany : a companion volume to the author's Plant materials of decorative gardening /

Mode of access: Internet.

Winter botany ...

A companion volume to the author's Plant materials of decorative gardening.

The economic botany of the Kiowa Indians, as it relates to the history of the tribe,

Mode of access: Internet.