Effect of increasing salinity on growth and mineral composition of wheat varieties and role of sodium exclusion capacity in salt tolerance mechanisms

A few wheat varieties including two Japanese wheat varieties were evaluated for their salt tolerance at seeding stage, their behavior to increasing salinity levels and role of Na exclusion capacity in salt tolerance mechanisms. The wheat varieties were grown in nutrient solution and subjected to 0 (control), 25,75 and 125 mM NaCl salinity levels for 7 days. Although the shoot growth was reduced while Na contents were increased progressively with increasing salinity in all varieties, the varieties were quite different in their response. Salt tolerant va rieties maintained less reduction in their root and shoot growth and better water relations in their shoots than salt sensitive varieties under saline conditions. The wheat varieties were quite different in their Na exclusion capacity. Poor growth in salt sensitive varieties might be due to higher accumulation of Na in their shoots resulting from low Na exclusion capacity of roots, higher Na transport to shoot and/or inferior compartmentation capability

Advocacy journalism and climate justice in a Global Southern country

Being among the world’s most affected countries by climate change, Pakistan is facing a variety of cases of climate injustice committed by internal and external drivers. Waisbord’s referred “Advocate-journalist” model carries a good potential to advocate these injustices to stimulate democratic dialogue among the audience that eventually pushes leadership to make eco-friendly policies. This study critically analyses advocacy journalism coverage of cases of local and regional climate injustice in the editorial contents of mainstream Pakistani newspapers by using the quantitative content analysis method. Results reveal that selected newspapers gave inappropriate coverage to climate injustice issues both in quantity and quality. Besides muddled local and regional climate injustice issues’ priorities, editorialists also excessively recommended dirty energy solutions to the policymakers. The final analysis suggests that the findings of climate and energy-related scientific studies were not being reflected in the advocacy journalism contents as well. This failure of “advocate-journalist” model to perform its normative role of potentially advocating the cases of climate injustice with compelling scientific evidence seems to attribute to the political economy of the press or editorial inattention. As a way out of this journalistic lack, Waisbord’s endorsed “civic advocacy” groups must intervene to plug the loopholes

The separate or the combined effect of hypoxia and salinity on growth and ionic relations of four wheat varieties

To evaluate hypoxic-salinity tolerance in wheat varieties, three Japanese varieties (Nourin-61, Chikugo Izumi and Shirasagi Komugi, relatively salt tolerant) and one Pakistani variety (Blue Silver, relatively salt sensitive) were grown under control, hypoxia, saline and hypoxic-saline conditions. The results suggested that relatively hypoxia and salt tolerant variety Nourin-61 was capable of producing the highest relative shoot yield under combined stress conditions. On the other hand, relatively sensitive variety to both hypoxia and salinity conditions, could not withstand harmful effects of combined stress. A more close correlation of plant growth characters between salinity and hypoxic-salinity than hypoxia and hypoxic-salinity indicated that varieties with higher salt tolerance would suffer less than varieties with higher hypoxia tolerance under combined stress conditions. And the balance of Na/K ratio in shoot tissues seems to be the major evaluation factor as the tolerant variety when salinity and hypoxia stress occur together

Distribution of Mineral Ions in Root and Leaf Tissues and Their Role in Salt Tolerance of Wheat Varieties under Saline Conditions

The distribution on Ca, K, Na and Cl in root and leaves was studied in salt tolerant variety (Chikugo Izumi) and salt sensitive variety (PB-81) of wheat under saline conditions. The plants grown in 5% Hoagland's nutrient solution were subjected to 100 mM NaCl salinity for one week before observation with scanning electron microscope and analysis of selected samples with X-ray microanalyzer. Root growth was not affected in salt tolerant variety but reduced significantly in salt sensitive variety. Shoot growth was reduced in both varieties but much higher in salt sensitive variety. Salinity increased accumulation of Na and Cl in all root cells including vascular cells in salt sensitive variety. Salt tolerant variety not only reduced uptake of Na and Cl under saline conditions but also restricted their accumulation in cortex maintaining vascular cells relatively free of these ions. Salt sensitive variety failed to block transport of Na and Cl from root to leaves leading to much accumulation of these ions in leaves under salinity sterss

Ethnic newspaper industry in Pakistan and impacts of corporate ownership

During the Indian independence movement, the Urdu-language ethnic newspapers played a significant role in instigating resistance against colonial authorities within local communities. However, later on, Urdu journalism underwent a transformation, shifting from the ‘advocate-journalist’ model to one dominated by corporate ownership in Pakistan. These commercial agents have faced criticism for using journalism as a shield for their other businesses, yet their presence has profoundly impacted current newspaper practices in various ways. Our case study of the Daily Express reveals that this newspaper, by implementing innovative journalism, technological advancements and efficient management practices, has influenced both preceding and subsequent Urdu dailies, transforming Pakistani newspapers into a modern print media industry. Despite these advancements, the impacts of corporate concerns also include a lack of adequate coverage on various human development issues and science-related topics, posing risks to the attractiveness of such papers for the reading public

Climate Change Journalism in Pakistan: Ethical Deliberations

In the 21st century, research on climate journalism has received exponential growth globally. However, the media’s ethical role in covering climate change has not sufficiently been explored enough. In this chapter, we provide a broad overview of climate change journalism in Pakistan, the role of stakeholders that are directly involved in this crisis, and further highlighted the need to follow the UNESCO-led ethical principles and deliberations by the local climate journalism. We conclude that though a great deal of attention has been paid by the local scholars and scientists to highlight different dimensions of climate emergency, however, the findings of such research has been scant in the climate and environmental journalism practices of the country. Finally, we proposed that being as an important stakeholder, the local mass media should not only adopt UNESCO’s climate ethics but also persuade all other stakeholders to adhere to its guidelines and, eventually, influence the environmental policymaking process

Recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen and anionic phospholipids share a binding region in the fifth domain of β2-glycoprotein I (apolipoprotein H)

AbstractHuman β2-glycoprotein I (β2GPI) binds to recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen (rHBsAg), but the location of the binding domain on β2GPI is unknown. It has been suggested that the lipid rather than the protein moiety of rHBsAg binds to β2GPI. Since β2GPI binds to anionic phospholipids (PL) through its lipid-binding region in the fifth domain of β2GPI, we predicted that this lipid-binding region may also be involved in binding rHBsAg. In this study, we examined rHBsAg binding to two naturally occurring mutants of β2GPI, Cys306Gly and Trp316Ser, or evolutionarily conserved hydrophobic amino acid sequence, Leu313-Ala314-Phe315 in the fifth domain of β2GPI. The two naturally occurring mutations and two mutagenized amino acids, Leu313Gly or Phe315Ser, disrupted the binding of recombinant β2GPI (rβ2GPI) to both rHBsAg and cardiolipin (CL), an anionic PL. These results suggest that rHBsAg and CL share the same region in the fifth domain of β2GPI. Credence to this conclusion was further provided by competitive ELISA, where CL-bound rβ2GPI was incubated with increasing amounts of rHBsAg. As expected, pre-incubation of rβ2GPI with CL precluded binding to rHBsAg, indicating that CL and rHBsAg bind to the same region on β2GPI. Our data provide evidence that the lipid (PL) rather than the protein moiety of rHBsAg binds to β2GPI and that this binding region is located in the fifth domain of β2GPI, which also binds to anionic PL

Crisis communication for public organizations: Examining Pakistan Railways\u27 use of information technology and social media for image repair

This study examines the induction of information technology and the use of image-repair focused crisis response strategies on social media by Pakistan Railways amid a recent crisis. A mix-method based content analysis (i.e., qualitative and quantitative) to investigate whether and if so, how Pakistan Railways used Benoit\u27s suggested image restoration strategies on social media to repair its image among customers and in print media. Our results show that Pakistan Railways predominantly used reducing the offensiveness of event (40%), followed by corrective action (34.6%), evasion of responsibility (10.6%), denial (8%) and mortification (6.4%) strategies, respectively. In addition, the use of image-repair focused crisis response strategies significantly varied by social media platform. An analysis of the publics\u27 emotions found in their online comments reveals that, during the course of the organizational crisis communication, negative public emotions gradually subsided into ambivalent ones; and contrary to a highly negative newspaper coverage tone in the beginning of the crisis, the introduction of the Twitter handle has associated with more positive media coverage afterward. Theoretical and practical implications, especially the need for advancing social-mediated crisis response effectiveness in developing countries, are discussed