El oxímoron de la protección temporal perpetua: Sirios en Turquía

The crisis in Syria has entered its fifth year, becoming a protracted conflict in international conflict terminology. Based on figures compiled by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as of March 16, 2016, there were 4.8 million registered Syrians in the neighboring countries of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Data provided by the Directorate General of Migration Management (DGMM) in Turkey show that as of March 24, 2016, 2.75 million, or 57 % of the people mentioned above, were registered in Turkey. While 10 percent of the Syrians in Turkey were living in camps, the rest were dispersed in various Turkish cities. Three cities—Şanlıurfa, Istanbul, and Hatay— host more Syrians combined (1.2 million) than the entire European continent, where the total Syrian asylum applications were 935,008 for the period between April 2011 and January 2016.publisher versio

Loss of function mutation of the Rapid Alkalinization Factor (RALF1)-like peptide in the dandelion Taraxacum koksaghyz entails a high-biomass taproot phenotype

The Russian dandelion (Taraxacum koksaghyz) is a promising source of inulin and natural rubber because large amounts of both feedstocks can be extracted from its roots. However, the domestication of T. koksaghyz requires the development of stable agronomic traits such as higher yields of inulin and natural rubber, a higher root biomass, and an agronomically preferable root morphology which is more suitable for cultivation and harvesting. Arabidopsis thaliana Rapid Alkalinisation Factor 1 (RALF1) has been shown to suppress root growth. We identified the T. koksaghyz orthologue TkRALF-like 1 and knocked out the corresponding gene (TkRALFL1) using the CRISPR/Cas9 system to determine its impact on root morphology, biomass, and inulin and natural rubber yields. The TkRALFL1 knockout lines more frequently developed a taproot phenotype which is easier to cultivate and harvest, as well as a higher root biomass and greater yields of both inulin and natural rubber. The TkRALFL1 gene could therefore be suitable as a genetic marker to support the breeding of profitable new dandelion varieties with improved agronomic traits. To our knowledge, this is the first study addressing the root system of T. koksaghyz to enhance the agronomic performance

Naturkautschuk aus Russischem Löwenzahn: Grundlage für die Erschaffung eines neuen, biobasierten Industriezweigs

Naturkautschuk ist ein essenzieller Bestandteil hochwertigen Gummis, wie er etwa für Autoreifen benötigt wird. Bisher deckt den ständig steigenden Bedarf ausschließlich der tropische Kautschukbaum, dessen Anbau aber zunehmend ökologische Probleme verursacht. Am Fraunhofer-Institut für Molekularbiologie und Angewandte Oekologie IME wollte man diese heikle Monokultur-Situation auflösen. Aus Wildsorten des Russischen Löwenzahns, der ebenso hochwertigen Naturkautschuk erzeugt, züchteten die Forschenden mittels DNA-Markern hochproduktive Sorten. Darüber hinaus etablierten sie ein preiswertes, effizientes Verfahren der Extraktion. Hohe Industrieerträge des Projekts zeigen das Interesse der Wirtschaft, ganz abgesehen von den politischen und ökologischen Vorteilen, einen neuen produzierenden Industriezweig in gemäßigten Breiten nachhaltig zu etablieren

The private and fiscal returns to schooling in the European Union

El pdf del artículo es el documento de trabajo publicado con el titulo The private and fiscal returns to schooling and the effect of public policies on private incentives to invest in education: a general framework and some results for the EU.We present estimates of the private and fiscal returns to schooling in 14 European Union countries. Estimates of the private returns to post-compulsory formal education take into account the effects of schooling on wages and employment probabilities and allow for academic failure rates, the direct and opportunity costs of education, and the impact of personal taxes, social security contributions, and unemployment and pension benefits on lifetime earnings. Estimates of fiscal returns capture the long-term effects of a marginal increase in average educational attainment on public finances under conditions that approximate general equilibrium. (JEL: I20, J31, H60).This paper is part of a research project financed by the European Fund for Regional Development and Fundación Caixa Galicia. Additional financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science through project SEJ 2005-06357 is also gratefully acknowledged.Peer reviewe

Формоутворення великопрогонових світлопрозорих металевих конструкцій покриття

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) possesses an unusually high degree of disease resistance. As this plant exhibits high polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity and PPO have been implicated in resistance against pests and pathogens, we analyzed the potential involvement of five PPO isoenzymes in the resistance of dandelion against Botrytis cinerea and Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. Only one PPO (ppo-2) was induced during infection, and ppo-2 promoter and beta-gincuronidase marker gene fusions revealed strong induction of the gene surrounding lesions induced by B. cinerea. Specific RNAi silencing reduced ppo-2 expression only, and concomitantly increased plant susceptibility to P. syringae pv. tomato. At 4 days postinoculation, P syringae pv. tomato populations were strongly increased in the ppo-2 RNAi lines compared with wild-type plants. When the dandelion ppo-2 gene was expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana, a plant having no PPO gene, active protein was formed and protein extracts of the transgenic plants exhibited substrate-dependent antimicrobial activity against P. syringae pv. tomato. These results clearly indicate a strong contribution of a specific, single PPO isoform to disease resistance. Therefore, we propose that specific PPO isoenzymes be included in a new family of pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins

Establishment of an ex vivo laticifer cell suspension culture from Taraxacum brevicorniculatum as a production system for cis-isoprene

Laticifers are highly specialized plant cells that produce latex enriched with secondary metabolites. The articulated laticifers of Taraxacum brevicorniculatum synthesize natural rubber, an industrially-valuable composite biopolymer comprising >95% high-molecular-weight (HMW) poly(cis-1,4-isoprene). Here we present a proof-of-concept approach for the cultivation of cell suspension cultures exclusively containing laticifers. We transformed T. brevicorniculatum plants with a plasmid conferring laticifer-specific hygromycin resistance. Transgenic callus tissue was used to induce a cell suspension culture under antibiotic selection to favor laticifer growth. The cultured cells appeared laticiferous in terms of morphology and expressed laticifer-specific genes. Confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed intracellular lipid accumulation in vesicle-like structures. Nuclear magnetic resonance and diffusion ordered spectroscopy indicated the presence of mid-length poly(cis-1,4 -isoprene) chains but no high HMW natural rubber in the cells. Precursor feeding with mevalonolactone increased the accumulation of poly(cis-1,4-isoprene) by 17-fold, reaching a concentration of 2.7 mg/g dry weight. Our approach could lead to the development of a production platform for the efficient conversion of isopentenyl diphosphate into poly(cis-1,4-isoprene) in an optimized cell suspension culture system. The apparent absence of HMW natural rubber is discussed in terms of our current knowledge of rubber biosynthesis

St. John's Daily Star, 1921-02-08

The St. John's Daily Star was published daily except Sunday between 17 April 1915 - 23 July 1921

Kinetics and modeling of cell growth for potential anthocyanin induction in cultures of Taraxacum officinale G.H. Weber ex Wiggers (Dandelion) in vitro

Background: Taraxacum officinale G.H. Weber ex Wiggers is a wild plant used in folk medicine to treat several diseases owing to bioactive secondary metabolites present in its tissue. The accumulation of such molecules in plant cells can occur as a response against abiotic stress, but these metabolites are often deposited in low concentrations. For this reason, the use of a biotechnological approach to improve the yields of technologically interesting bioactive compounds such as anthocyanins is a compelling option. This work focuses on investigating the potential of in vitro T. officinale cultures as an anthocyanin source. Results: To demonstrate the suitability of anthocyanin induction and accumulation in calluses under specific conditions, anthocyanin was induced in the T. officinale callus. A specific medium of 5.5% sucrose supplemented with 6-benzylaminopurine /1-naphthaleneacetic acid in a 10:1 ratio was used to produce an anthocyanin yield of 1.23 mg g-1 fw. An in vitro dandelion callus line was established from this experiment. Five mathematical models were then used to objectively and predictably explain the growth of anthocyanin-induced calluses from T. officinale. Of these models, the Richards model offered the most suitable representation of anthocyanin callus growth in a solid medium and permitted the calculation of the corresponding kinetic parameters. Conclusions: The findings demonstrate the potential of an in vitro anthocyanin-induced callus line from T. officinale as an industrial anthocyanin source