Effect of colchicine and amiprophos-methyl on the production of in vitro doubled haploid onion plants and correlation assessment between ploidy level and stomatal size

Doubled haploid onion (Allium cepa L.) plants allow the production of completely homozygous lines for a later production of hybrids. The haploid plants are normally produced using in vitro gynogenesis. The obtained haploid plantlets must be treated with different agents for doubling chromosomes. It is necessary to adjust the concentration and the length of treatment of the doubling agent. In this case, the effect of 250 and 500 mg.L-1 colchicine and 15.2; 30 and 60 mg.L- 1 amiprophos-methyl during 24 and 48 h was assessed over the rate of onion haploid plantlets chromosome doubling. The best duplication treatment was 250 mg.L-1 colchicine for 48 h, which yielded 100% of doubled haploid plants. On the other hand, a positive correlation resulted from the ploidy level and stomatal size, and a negative correlation between the level of ploidy and stomatal density. Significant differences between the stomatal length, width and density in haploid and doubled haploid plantlets were observed. An economical and quick method to test ploidy level in onion plantlets is proposed through the measurement of stomatal size and density.

Robust trends of landscape dynamics in the Arctic Lena Delta with temporally dense Landsat time-series stacks, with links to GeoTIFFs

Arctic permafrost landscapes are among the most vulnerable and dynamic landscapes globally, but due to their extent and remoteness most of the landscape changes remain unnoticed. In order to detect disturbances in these areas we developed an automated processing chain for the calculation and analysis of robust trends of key land surface indicators based on the full record of available Landsat TM, ETM +, and OLI data. The methodology was applied to the ~ 29,000 km**2 Lena Delta in Northeast Siberia, where robust trend parameters (slope, confidence intervals of the slope, and intercept) were calculated for Tasseled Cap Greenness, Wetness and Brightness, NDVI, and NDWI, and NDMI based on 204 Landsat scenes for the observation period between 1999 and 2014. The resulting datasets revealed regional greening trends within the Lena Delta with several localized hot-spots of change, particularly in the vicinity of the main river channels. With a 30-m spatial resolution various permafrost-thaw related processes and disturbances, such as thermokarst lake expansion and drainage, fluvial erosion, and coastal changes were detected within the Lena Delta region, many of which have not been noticed or described before. Such hotspots of permafrost change exhibit significantly different trend parameters compared to non-disturbed areas. The processed dataset, which is made freely available through the data archive PANGAEA, will be a useful resource for further process specific analysis by researchers and land managers. With the high level of automation and the use of the freely available Landsat archive data, the workflow is scalable and transferrable to other regions, which should enable the comparison of land surface changes in different permafrost affected regions and help to understand and quantify permafrost landscape dynamics.

Larval development of the barnacle Amphibalanus improvisus responds variably but robustly to near-future ocean acidification

Increasing atmospheric CO2 decreases seawater pH in a phenomenon known as ocean acidification. In two separate experiments we found that larval development of the barnacle Amphibalanus (Balanus) improvisus was not significantly affected by the level of reduced pH that has been projected for the next 150 years. After 3 and 6 days of incubation, we found no consistent effects of reduced pH on developmental speed or larval size at pH 7.8 compared with the control pH of 8.1. After 10 days of incubation, there were no net changes in survival or overall development of larvae raised at pH 7.8 or 7.6 compared with the control pH of 8.0. In all cases, however, there was significant variation in responses between replicate batches (parental genotypes) of larvae, with some batches responding positively to reduced pH. Our results suggest that the non-calcifying larval stages of A. improvisus are generally tolerant to near-future levels of ocean acidification. This result is in line with findings for other barnacle species and suggests that barnacles do not show the greater sensitivity to ocean acidification in early life history reported for other invertebrate species. Substantial genetic variability in response to low pH may confer adaptive benefits under future ocean acidification.

More Is Not Always Better: An Experimental Individual-Level Validation of the Randomized Response Technique and the Crosswise Model

Social desirability and the fear of sanctions can deter survey respondents from responding truthfully to sensitive questions. Self-reports on norm breaking behavior such as shoplifting, non-voting, or tax evasion may therefore be subject to considerable misreporting. To mitigate such misreporting, various indirect techniques for asking sensitive questions, such as the randomized response technique (RRT), have been proposed in the literature. In our study, we evaluate the viability of several variants of the RRT, including the recently proposed crosswise-model RRT, by comparing respondents’ self-reports on cheating in dice games to actual cheating behavior, thereby distinguishing between false negatives (underreporting) and false positives (overreporting). The study has been implemented as an online survey on Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 6,505). Our results indicate that the forced-response RRT and the unrelated-question RRT, as implemented in our survey, fail to reduce the level of misreporting compared to conventional direct questioning. For the crosswise-model RRT, we do observe a reduction of false negatives (that is, an increase in the proportion of cheaters who admit having cheated). At the same time, however, there is an increase in false positives (that is, an increase in non-cheaters who falsely admit having cheated). Overall, our findings suggest that none of the implemented sensitive questions techniques substantially outperforms direct questioning. Furthermore, our study demonstrates the importance of distinguishing false negatives and false positives when evaluating the validity of sensitive question techniques.

The VLT/NaCo large program to probe the occurrence of exoplanets and brown dwarfs at wide orbits II. Survey description, results, and performances

Context. Young, nearby stars are ideal targets for direct imaging searches for giant planets and brown dwarf companions. After the first-imaged planet discoveries, vast efforts have been devoted to the statistical analysis of the occurence and orbital distributions of giant planets and brown dwarf companions at wide (>= 5-6 AU) orbits. Aims. In anticipation of the VLT/SPHERE planet-imager, guaranteed-time programs, we have conducted a preparatory survey of 86 stars between 2009 and 2013 to identify new faint comoving companions to ultimately analyze the occurence of giant planets and brown dwarf companions at wide (10-2000 AU) orbits around young, solar-type stars. Methods. We used NaCo at VLT to explore the occurrence rate of giant planets and brown dwarfs between typically 0.1 and 8 ''. Diffraction-limited observations in H-band combined with angular differential imaging enabled us to reach primary star-companion brightness ratios as small as 10(-6) at 1.5 ''. Repeated observations at several epochs enabled us to discriminate comoving companions from background objects. Results. During our survey, twelve systems were resolved as new binaries, including the discovery of a new white dwarf companion to the star HD8049. Around 34 stars, at least one companion candidate was detected in the observed field of view. More than 400 faint sources were detected; 90% of them were in four crowded fields. With the exception of HD8049 B, we did not identify any new comoving companions. The survey also led to spatially resolved images of the thin debris disk around HD61005 that have been published earlier. Finally, considering the survey detection limits, we derive a preliminary upper limit on the frequency of giant planets for the semi-major axes of [10, 2000] AU: typically less than 15% between 100 and 500 AU and less than 10% between 50 and 500 AU for exoplanets that are more massive than 5 M-Jup and 10 M-Jup respectively, if we consider a uniform input distribution and a confidence level of 95%. Conclusions. The results from this survey agree with earlier programs emphasizing that massive, gas giant companions on wide orbits around solar-type stars are rare. These results will be part of a broader analysis of a total of similar to 210 young, solar-type stars to bring further statistical constraints for theoretical models of planetary formation and evolution.

New measures of FTA liberalization level

This paper proposes new measures of the liberalization level of free trade agreements (FTAs). Our measures take three issues into account. First, in order to identify the differences in FTA liberalization level over time, we compute the annual liberalization level rather than the level during the whole period. Second, our measure includes information on tariff margins, i.e. the difference between FTA rates and most favoured nation rates. Third, the restrictiveness of rules of origin (RoOs) is also taken into account in order to penalize the liberalization level of products with more restrictive RoOs. In this paper, we compute such measures of FTA liberalization level for three FTAs in Thailand.

Development of a 3-Dimensional Mathematical Collision Risk Model Based on Recorded Aircraft Trajectories to Estimate the Safety Level in High Density En-Route Airspaces

Como en todos los medios de transporte, la seguridad en los viajes en avión es de primordial importancia. Con los aumentos de tráfico aéreo previstos en Europa para la próxima década, es evidente que el riesgo de accidentes necesita ser evaluado y monitorizado cuidadosamente de forma continúa. La Tesis presente tiene como objetivo el desarrollo de un modelo de riesgo de colisión exhaustivo como método para evaluar el nivel de seguridad en ruta del espacio aéreo europeo, considerando todos los factores de influencia. La mayor limitación en el desarrollo de metodologías y herramientas de monitorización adecuadas para evaluar el nivel de seguridad en espacios de ruta europeos, donde los controladores aéreos monitorizan el tráfico aéreo mediante la vigilancia radar y proporcionan instrucciones tácticas a las aeronaves, reside en la estimación del riesgo operacional. Hoy en día, la estimación del riesgo operacional está basada normalmente en reportes de incidentes proporcionados por el proveedor de servicios de navegación aérea (ANSP). Esta Tesis propone un nuevo e innovador enfoque para evaluar el nivel de seguridad basado exclusivamente en el procesamiento y análisis trazas radar. La metodología propuesta ha sido diseñada para complementar la información recogida en las bases de datos de accidentes e incidentes, mediante la provisión de información robusta de los factores de tráfico aéreo y métricas de seguridad inferidas del análisis automático en profundidad de todos los eventos de proximidad. La metodología 3-D CRM se ha implementado en un prototipo desarrollado en MATLAB © para analizar automáticamente las trazas radar y planes de vuelo registrados por los Sistemas de Procesamiento de Datos Radar (RDP) e identificar y analizar todos los eventos de proximidad (conflictos, conflictos potenciales y colisiones potenciales) en un periodo de tiempo y volumen del espacio aéreo. Actualmente, el prototipo 3-D CRM está siendo adaptado e integrado en la herramienta de monitorización de prestaciones de Aena (PERSEO) para complementar las bases de accidentes e incidentes ATM y mejorar la monitorización y proporcionar evidencias de los niveles de seguridad. ABSTRACT As with all forms of transport, the safety of air travel is of paramount importance. With the projected increases in European air traffic in the next decade and beyond, it is clear that the risk of accidents needs to be assessed and carefully monitored on a continuing basis. The present thesis is aimed at the development of a comprehensive collision risk model as a method of assessing the European en-route risk, due to all causes and across all dimensions within the airspace. The major constraint in developing appropriate monitoring methodologies and tools to assess the level of safety in en-route airspaces where controllers monitor air traffic by means of radar surveillance and provide aircraft with tactical instructions lies in the estimation of the operational risk. The operational risk estimate normally relies on incident reports provided by the air navigation service providers (ANSPs). This thesis proposes a new and innovative approach to assessing aircraft safety level based exclusively upon the process and analysis of radar tracks. The proposed methodology has been designed to complement the information collected in the accident and incident databases, thereby providing robust information on air traffic factors and safety metrics inferred from the in depth assessment of proximate events. The 3-D CRM methodology is implemented in a prototype tool in MATLAB © in order to automatically analyze recorded aircraft tracks and flight plan data from the Radar Data Processing systems (RDP) and identify and analyze all proximate events (conflicts, potential conflicts and potential collisions) within a time span and a given volume of airspace. Currently, the 3D-CRM prototype is been adapted and integrated in AENA’S Performance Monitoring Tool (PERSEO) to complement the information provided by the ATM accident and incident databases and to enhance monitoring and providing evidence of levels of safety.

Organizational determinants of substantive sustainability reporting practices: the role of company-level fit

As sustainability reporting (SR) practices have being increasingly adopted by corporations over the last twenty years, most of the existing literature on SR has stressed the role of external determinants (such as institutional and stakeholder pressures) in explaining this uptake. However, given that recent evidence points to a broader range of motives and uses (both external and internal) of SR, we contend that its role within company-level activities deserves greater academic attention. In order to address this research gap, this paper seeks to provide a more detailed examination of the organizational characteristics acting as drivers and/or barriers of SR integration within corporate sustainability practices at the company-level. More specifically, we suggest that substantive SR implementation can be predicted by assessing the level of fit between the organization and the SR framework being adopted. Building on this hypothesis, our theoretical model defines three forms of fit (technical, cultural and political) and identifies organizational characteristics associated to each of these fits. Finally, implications for academic research, businesses and policy-makers are derived.

Symbolic vs substantive sustainability reporting: examining the role of company-level characteristics

As sustainability reporting (SR) practices have being increasingly adopted by corporations over the last twenty years, most of the existing literature on SR has stressed the role of external determinants (such as institutional and stakeholder pressures) in explaining this uptake. However, given that recent evidence points to a broader range of motives and uses (both external and internal) of SR, we contend that its role within company-level activities deserves greater academic attention. In order to address this research gap, this paper seeks to provide a more integrated perspective of both institutional and efficiency explanations of SR dynamics, as well as to highlight the role of company-level characteristics in explaining its contribution to sustainability management practices. More specifically, we suggest that substantive SR implementation can be predicted by assessing the level of fit between the organization and the SR framework being adopted. Building on this idea, our theoretical model defines three forms of fit (technical, cultural and political) and identifies organizational characteristics associated to each of these fits. Finally, implications for academic research, businesses and policy-makers are derived.

Infrequent Translation of a Nonsense Codon Is Sufficient to Decrease mRNA Level

In many organisms nonsense mutations decrease the level of mRNA. In the case of mammalian cells, it is still controversial whether translation is required for this nonsense-mediated RNA decrease (NMD). Although previous analyzes have shown that conditions that impede translation termination at nonsense codons also prevent NMD, the residual level of termination was unknown in these experiments. Moreover, the conditions used to impede termination might also have interfered with NMD in other ways. Because of these uncertainties, we have tested the effects of limiting translation of a nonsense codon in a different way, using two mutations in the immunoglobulin μ heavy chain gene. For this purpose we exploited an exceptional nonsense mutation at codon 3, which efficiently terminates translation but nonetheless maintains a high level of μ mRNA. We have shown 1) that translation of Ter462 in the double mutant occurs at only ∼4% the normal frequency, and 2) that Ter462 in cis with Ter3 can induce NMD. That is, translation of Ter462 at this low (4%) frequency is sufficient to induce NMD.

High fat diet-induced hyperglycemia: prevention by low level expression of a glucose transporter (GLUT4) minigene in transgenic mice.

High-fat intake leading to obesity contributes to the development of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM, type 2). Similarly, mice fed a high-fat (safflower oil) diet develop defective glycemic control, hyperglycemia, and obesity. To assess the effect of a modest increase in the expression of GLUT4 (the insulin-responsive glucose transporter) on impaired glycemic control caused by fat feeding, transgenic mice harboring a GLUT4 minigene were fed a high-fat diet. Low-level tissue-specific (heart, skeletal muscle, and adipose tissue) expression of the GLUT4 minigene in transgenic mice prevented the impairment of glycemic control and accompanying hyperglycemia, but not obesity, caused by fat feeding. Thus, a small increase (< or = 2-fold) in the tissue level of GLUT4 prevents a primary symptom of the diabetic state in a mouse model, suggesting a possible target for intervention in the treatment of NIDDM.

Social determinants and health effects of low and high severity intimate partner violence

PURPOSE: We sought to analyze whether the sociodemographic profile of battered women varies according to the level of severity of intimate partner violence (IPV), and to identify possible associations between IPV and different health problems taking into account the severity of these acts. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 8,974 women (18-70 years) attending primary healthcare centers in Spain (2006-2007) was performed. A compound index was calculated based on frequency, types (physical, psychological, or both), and duration of IPV. Descriptive and multivariate procedures using logistic regression models were fitted. RESULTS: Women affected by low severity IPV and those affected by high severity IPV were found to have a similar sociodemographic profile. However, divorced women (odds ratio [OR], 8.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.2-20.3), those without tangible support (OR, 6.6; 95% CI, 3.3-13.2), and retired women (OR, 2.7; 95% CI, 1.2-6.0) were more likely to report high severity IPV. Women experiencing high severity IPV were also more likely to suffer from poor health than were those who experienced low severity IPV. CONCLUSIONS: The distribution of low and high severity IPV seems to be influenced by the social characteristics of the women involved and may be an important indicator for estimating health effects. This evidence may contribute to the design of more effective interventions.

The Revision of the Insurance Mediation Rules at EU Level and its Impact on Consumer Protection

The European Commission has put forward a new proposal for a directive on insurance mediation which should provide for significant changes in practices of selling insurance products and guarantee enhanced level of consumer protection. This proposal accompanies other regulatory initiatives in the insurance sector, all of them pursuing three main objectives: firstly, a strengthened insurance supervision with convergent supervisory standards at EU level; secondly, a better risk management of insurance companies; and thirdly a greater protection of policyholders. All these initiatives contribute to the EU programme on consumer protection and herald a new approach to EU insurance regulation and supervision. However, while the new supervisory rules are a direct response to the financial crisis and shortcomings of crossborder cooperation between national supervisors, the plans for the revision of insurance mediation rules were conceived much earlier due to scandals with mis-selling of insurance products in the United States and some EU Member States. This article will focus entirely on the Commission’s initiative in the consumer mediation area and the aspects of insurance supervision and risk management will be dealt with in separate articles.

‘Neutral, native-like or authentic’ : Investigating attitudes and beliefs of expanding circle speakers of English

The status of English as the language of international communication is by now well-established. However, in the past 16 years, research has tried to emphasize the fact that the English spoken in international contact situations and between people with other first languages than English has different needs than the English spoken locally amongst native speakers, resulting in the emergence of English as a lingua franca (ELF) as a scholarly field. However, the impact of findings in ELF has so far only led to a moderate shift in English language teaching. Especially in expanding circle countries, where ELF should have the biggest impact, change is only gradually becoming palpable. Accent and pronunciation, as one of the biggest factors on both identity and mutual intelligibility (Jenkins 2000; 2007) are at the root of discussion. The scope of this study is therefore to examine accent choices and the extent to which native speaker ideology informs the preferences of ten speakers of ELF and 27 German natives with experience in international communication. Both ethnographical and sociolinguistic methods, as well as auditory analysis have been applied and conducted. The auditory analysis of six variables in the recorded speech production of the ten speakers suggests that there is no significant preference of one norm-giving variety over the other. Rather, speakers tend to mix-and-match General American- and Standard Southern British English-like features in their pronunciation. When reporting their accent ideals, the idea of a ‘neutral’ English accent is mentioned by four participants. Neutral accents seem to have been understood as ‘unmarked accents’. Expressed beliefs on their own English pronunciation show a comparatively high level of reflection on and confidence in their own production. Results from a rating task and a survey given to 27 German participants reveal attitudes that are more negatively stacked. While Germans reported openness towards NNS (non-native speaker) accents and showed awareness of the priority of intelligibility over accent choice in both their own and others’ pronunciation, they still largely reported NS accent preference. The ratings of the production from ten ELF speakers confirmed this and showed that ‘neutral’ is equated with native-like. In the light of these findings, issues are discussed that ultimately relate to the influence of NS Englishes, identity and the development of English as an international language.

Adherence to a Bronchiolitis Clinical Pathway is Associated with Decreased Length of Stay and Costs

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06