Nuclear knowledge and nuclear anxiety: A cross-cultural investigation

Based on survey responses of 1,115 male and female secondary school, college, and university students in North Carolina, California, England, and Western Australia, this study explored the relationship between the students' knowledge of nuclear weapons (“nuclear knowledge”) and (a) anxiety about nuclear war, (b) expectations about conditions in the aftermath of a nuclear attack, and (c) various attitudes about nuclear weapons. No consistent relationship was found between nuclear knowledge and nuclear anxiety for any of the samples. A consistent relationship existed between nuclear knowledge and expectations about the aftermath of a nuclear attack: In each group, those who knew more were more likely to be pessimistic about the conditions in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. Although there were significant relationships between nuclear knowledge and various attitudes about nuclear weapons, the magnitude and the direction of these relationships varied from group to group

Biotechnology approaches to overcome biotic and abiotic stress constraints in legumes

Biotic and abiotic stresses cause significant yield losses in legumes and can significantly affect their productivity. Biotechnology tools such as marker-assisted breeding, tissue culture, in vitro mutagenesis and genetic transformation can contribute to solve or reduce some of these constraints. However, only limited success has been achieved so far. The emergence of “omic” technologies and the establishment of model legume plants such as Medicago truncatula and Lotus japonicus are promising strategies for understanding the molecular genetic basis of stress resistance, which is an important bottleneck for molecular breeding. Understanding the mechanisms that regulate the expression of stress-related genes is a fundamental issue in plant biology and will be necessary for the genetic improvement of legumes. In this review, we describe the current status of biotechnology approaches in relation to biotic and abiotic stresses in legumes and how these useful tools could be used to improve resistance to important constraints affecting legume crops.E. Prats is funded by an European Marie Curie Reintegration Grant, N. Rispail by (FP5) Eufaba project. Our work in this area is supported by Spanish CICYT project AGL-2002-03248 and European Union project FP6-2002-FOOD-1-506223. K. Singh’s work in this area is supported in part by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) in Australia.Peer reviewe