A matter of control or identity? Family firms' environmental reporting decisions along the corporate life cycle

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this recordBuilding on the socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective, this study explores environmental disclosure (ED) practices in family firms and investigates whether the firm's life cycle stage plays a moderating role in these practices. We focus on two dimensions of the SEW: family control and influence and family identity. To the extent that different types of family‐controlled firms have different reporting behaviors based on their primary SEW dimension, they will undertake the ED strategies that allow them to preserve their SEW. Using a sample of listed firms from the Milan Stock Exchange, we show that family firms for which the family control and influence SEW dimension is most salient provide less environmental information than non‐family firms and that this effect is weakened along the family firm's life cycle. Our findings also indicate that middle‐aged family firms, where the family identity dimension prevails, provide more ED than do non‐family firms. Our study contributes to knowledge about how the socioemotional endowment affects family firms' reporting behavior

Iodine Enhances the Nutritional Value but Not the Tolerance of Lettuce to NaCl

Positive stress or essential and nonessential elements can improve nutritive values (biofortification) of edible plants. In the present study, we evaluate (i) the effect of moderate salinity on lettuce biofortification, evaluated as nutritional bioactive compound accumulation, and (ii) the role of iodine in enhancing salt tolerance by increasing photorespiration and the content of antioxidants in lettuce. Physiological (gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence emission) and biochemical (photosynthetic pigment and bioactive compound) analyses were performed on lettuce plants grown under moderate salinity (50 mM NaCl alone or 50 mM NaCl in combination with iodine, KIO3). Our results show that NaCl + iodine treatment improves the nutritional value of lettuce in terms of bioactive compounds acting as antioxidants. More specifically, iodine enhances the accumulation of photosynthetic pigments and polyphenols, such as anthocyanins, under salt but does not improve the salt tolerance. Our findings indicate that iodine application under moderate salinity could be a valid strategy in plant biofortification by improving nutritional bioactive compound accumulation, thus exercising functional effects on human health

Photo-Protective Mechanisms and the Role of Poly (ADP-Ribose) Polymerase Activity in a Facultative CAM Plant Exposed to Long-Term Water Deprivation

The Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) pathway helps plants to alleviate the oxidative stress under drought, but the shift to CAM-idling may expose plants to the overproduction of reactive oxygen species causing cell damages. The facultative CAM species Portulacaria afra L., was subjected to long-term water deprivation to assess the photo-protective strategies and the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) activity during water stress and plant capability to recover from the stress. Measurements of titratable acidity, chlorophyll fluorescence emission, and antioxidant activity were performed during the stress and rewatering. Under water deprivation, plants shifted from C3 to CAM metabolism, reaching the CAM-idling status at the end of the stress period. The daily variation of the titratable acidity and PARP activity increased at the beginning of stress and declined with stress progression, reaching the lowest value at the end of stress treatment. H2 O2 content, superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT) activities increased with the severity of water stress. The photochemical processes remained high during the entire stress period indicating the presence of alternative sinks to CO2 fixation. The elevated activity of catalase under severe water stress suggests the occurrence of photorespiration in sustaining the photosynthetic electron transport under CAM-idling condition. The overall data indicate that scavenger enzymes, photorespiration and PARP activity modulation contribute to the strong resistance of P. afra to severe water stress, preserving the functioning of photosynthetic apparatus and ensuring plant recovery with rewatering

Output-only identification of rigid body motions of floating structures: a case study

In order to identify rigid body motions of floating offshore structures, output-only techniques are very useful for developing low-cost intermediate-scale experimental activities directly into the sea, instead of wave tanks. A crucial parameter, however, is the length of the response records used as input for the identification process, since short records may result in significant loss of accuracy, while long ones may be incompatible with the assumption of stationarity of the sea state. This work presents a sensitivity study conducted on a numerical model of a spar structure, identified by means of Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition method. An overview on the efficiency of the method is given for various lengths of response record, along with practical indications on the minimum values acceptable

Small bodies science with the Twinkle space telescope

© 2019 Society of PhotoOptical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Twinkle is an upcoming 0.45-m space-based telescope equipped with a visible and two near-infrared spectrometers covering the spectral range 0.4 to 4.5 μm with a resolving power R 250 (λ 2.42 μm). We explore Twinkle's capabilities for small bodies science and find that, given Twinkle's sensitivity, pointing stability, and spectral range, the mission can observe a large number of small bodies. The sensitivity of Twinkle is calculated and compared to the flux from an object of a given visible magnitude. The number, and brightness, of asteroids and comets that enter Twinkle's field of regard is studied over three time periods of up to a decade. We find that, over a decade, several thousand asteroids enter Twinkle's field of regard with a brightness and nonsidereal rate that will allow Twinkle to characterize them at the instrumentation's native resolution with SNR > 100. Hundreds of comets can also be observed. Therefore, Twinkle offers researchers the opportunity to contribute significantly to the field of Solar System small bodies research

On intermediate-scale open-sea experiments on floating offshore structures: Feasibility and application on a spar support for offshore wind turbines

Experimental investigation of floating structures represents the most direct way for achieving their dynamic identification and it is particularly valuable for relatively new concepts, such as floating supports for offshore wind turbines, in order to fully understand their dynamic behaviour. Traditional experimental campaigns on floating structures are carried out at small scale, in indoor laboratories, equipped with wave and wind generation facilities. This article presents the results of an open-sea experimental activity on a 1:30 scale model of the OC3-Hywind spar, in parked rotor conditions, carried out at the Natural Ocean Engineering Laboratory (NOEL) of Reggio Calabria (Italy). The aim of the experiment is two-fold. Firstly, it aims to assess the feasibility of low-cost, intermediate-scale, open-sea activities on offshore structures, which are proposed to substitute or complement the traditional indoor activities in ocean basins. Secondly, it provides useful experimental data on damping properties of spar support structures for offshore wind turbines, with respect to heave, roll and pitch degrees of freedom. It is proven that the proposed approach may overcome some limitations of traditional small-scale activities, namely high costs and small scale, and allows to enhance the fidelity of the experimental data currently available in literature for spar floating supports for offshore wind turbines

Manipulation of light quality is an effective tool to regulate photosynthetic capacity and fruit antioxidant properties of Solanum lycopersicum L. cv. ‘Microtom’ in a controlled environment

Light quality plays an essential role in setting plant structural and functional traits, including antioxidant compounds. This paper aimed to assess how manipulating the light spectrum during growth may regulate the photosynthetic activity and fruit bioactive compound synthesis in Solanum lycopersicum L. cv. ‘Microtom’ to improve plant physiological performance and fruit nutritional value. Plants were cultivated under three light quality regimes: red-green-blue LEDs (RGB), red-blue LEDs (RB) and white fluorescent lamps (FL), from sowing to fruit ripening. Leaf functional traits, photosynthetic efficiency, Rubisco and D1 protein expression, and antioxidant production in fruits were analyzed. Compared to FL, RGB and RB regimes reduced height and increased leaf number and specific leaf area, enhancing plant dwarf growth. The RGB regime improved photosynthesis and stomatal conductance despite lower biomass, favoring Rubisco synthesis and carboxylation rate than RB and FL regimes. The RB light produced plants with fewer flowers and fruits with a lower ascorbic acid amount but the highest polyphenol content, antioxidant capacity and SOD and CAT activities. Our data indicate that the high percentage of the green wavelength in the RGB regime promoted photosynthesis and reduced plant reproductive capacity compared to FL and RB. Conversely, the RB regime was the best in favoring the production of health-promoting compounds in tomato berries

Stomatitis and vR-TkI: a review of current literature in 4369 patients

the following review was performed to answer to the question \u201cWhat is the rate of incidence of oral stomatitis in patients treated with VegF tKis?\u201

Comparative Studies on Different Citrus Cultivars: A Revaluation of Waste Mandarin Components

Peel, pulp and seed extracts of three mandarin varieties, namely Phlegraean mandarin (Citrus reticulata), Kumquat (Citrus japonica), and Clementine (Citrus clementina) were compared and characterised in terms of photosynthetic pigment content, total polyphenols amount, antioxidant activity and vitamin C to assess the amount of functional compounds for each cultivar. The highest polyphenols content was found in the Phlegraean mandarin, especially in peel and seeds, whereas Kumquat exhibited the highest polyphenols amount in the pulp. The antioxidant activity was higher in the peel of Phlegraean mandarin and clementine compared to Kumquat, which showed the highest value in the pulp. The antioxidant activity peaked in the seeds of Phlegraean mandarin. The vitamin C in the Phlegraean mandarin was the highest in all parts of the fruit, especially in the seeds. Total chlorophyll content was comparable in the peel of different cultivars, in the pulp the highest amount was found in clementine, whereas kumquat seeds showed the greatest values. As regards total carotenoids, peel and pulp of clementine exhibited higher values than the other two cultivars, whereas the kumquat seeds were the richest in carotenoids. Among the analysed cultivars Phlegraean mandarin may be considered the most promising as a source of polyphenols and antioxidants, compared to the clementine and Kumquat, especially for the functional molecules found in the seeds. Moreover, regardless of cultivars this study also highlights important properties in the parts of the fruit generally considered wastes