Impact of water stress on plant water relations, growth and mycorhization of Acacia tortilis ssp. raddiana: Interactions of the stress severity and duration, and the AM fungal species.

Mycorrhizae are commonly reported to improve drought resistance of the host plant. Investigating factors controlling the plant-resistance strategy to water stress can however lead to a suitable management of mycorrhizal plants under drought. Here, we focused on the impact of interactions of the AM fungal species and water stress severity and duration on mycorrhizal Acacia tortilis ssp. raddiana in terms of plant growth, mycorhization and water relations. We used three Glomus species, which were G. mosseae, G. deserticola and G. intraradices. We applied three watering regimes that were maximum water holding non-stress regime, mild-severe water stress and severe water stress. Measurements were performed at four stage durations named pre-drought (one day before applying water stress), early-drought (30 days after applying water stress), mid-drought (60 days after applying water stress), and late-drought (90 days after applying water stress). Under maximum water holding regime, G. mosseae was more infective than G. deserticola and G. intraradices, but differences were not significantly different (P < 0.05). Predawn water potential was analogous for both mycorrhizal and control treatments whilst midday water potential was lower for control than for AMF treatments. Under mild and late drought, G. deserticola and G. intraradices were more infective than G. mosseae. Plants inoculated with G. intraradices had the highest predawn water potential and MWP. Mid-morning and midday stomatal conductance were similar and higher in seedlings inoculated with G. deserticola and G. intraradices. Under severe and late drought, infectivity was comparable and higher for both G. deserticola and G. intraradices. However, plants inoculated with G. intraradices displayed the highest growth, midday water potential, stomatal conductance and relative water content. Seedlings inoculated with G. mosseae and the controls had lost their leaves at -4 MPa water potential. Difference between Glomus species in the host response to water stress seemed to be related to the severity and duration of the stress. On the whole, inoculation of A. tortilis ssp. raddiana with G. intraradices resulted in increased plant growth and improved water status under severe and long-lasting drought, relative to G. deserticola and G. mosseae

Can net photosynthesis and water relations provide a clue on the forest decline of Quercus suber in North Tunisia?

Net photosynthesis, sap flow density (SFD) and water use efficiency (WUE) were measured in a Quercus suber forest in north Tunisia in an attempt to explain the forest decline. In general, sap flow was positively related to light intensity and water loss, indicating that high light intensities can increase the SFD up to the saturation point in the cork oak. CO2 assimilation of cork oak in this region was light intensity-dependent. Cork oak showed a general increase in photosynthetic rates with increasing light intensity up to the light saturation point. Increased radiation probably increased the photosynthesis and growth above ground in this area, whereas the below-ground soil had insufficient moisture for uptake through the roots because the high light intensity and temperature induced high evapotranspiration.Key words: Decline, evaportranspiration, light intensity, Quercus suber, sap flow density, water use efficiency

A preliminary screening and characterization of suitable acids for sandstone matrix acidizing technique: a comprehensive review

Matrix acidizing is a broadly developed technique in sandstone stimulation to improve the permeability and porosity of a bottom-hole well. The most popular acid used is mud acid (HF–HCl). It is a mixture of hydrofluoric acid and hydrochloric acid. However, one of the conventional problems in sandstone acidizing is that mud acid faces significant issues at high temperature such as rapid rate of reaction, resulting in early acid consumption. This downside has given a negative impact to sandstone acidizing as it will result in not only permeability reduction, but can even extend to acid treatment failure. So, the aim of this study is to provide a preliminary screening and comparison of different acids based on the literature to optimize the acid selection, and targeting various temperatures of sandstone environment. This paper has comprehensively reviewed the experimental works using different acids to understand the chemical reactions and transport properties of acid in sandstone environment. The results obtained indicated that fluoroboric acid (HBF4) could be useful in enhancing the sandstone acidizing process, although more studies are still required to consolidate this conclusion. HBF4 is well known as a low damaging acid for sandstone acidizing due to its slow hydrolytic reaction to produce HF. This would allow deeper penetration of the acid into the sandstone formation at a slower rate, resulting in higher porosity and permeability enhancement. Nevertheless, little is known about the effective temperature working range for a successful treatment. Considering the pros and cons of different acids, particularly those which are associated with HF and HBF4, it is recommended to perform a comprehensive analysis to determine the optimum temperature range and effective working window for sandstone acidizing before treatment operation. Prior to sandstone acid stimulation, it is essential to predict the feasibility of acid selected by integrating the effects of temperature, acid concentration and injection rate. Therefore, this manuscript has thrown light into the research significance of further studies

From Isotropic to Anisotropic Side Chain Representations: Comparison of Three Models for Residue Contact Estimation

The criterion to determine residue contact is a fundamental problem in deriving knowledge-based mean-force potential energy calculations for protein structures. A frequently used criterion is to require the side chain center-to-center distance or the -to- atom distance to be within a pre-determined cutoff distance. However, the spatially anisotropic nature of the side chain determines that it is challenging to identify the contact pairs. This study compares three side chain contact models: the Atom Distance criteria (ADC) model, the Isotropic Sphere Side chain (ISS) model and the Anisotropic Ellipsoid Side chain (AES) model using 424 high resolution protein structures in the Protein Data Bank. The results indicate that the ADC model is the most accurate and ISS is the worst. The AES model eliminates about 95% of the incorrectly counted contact-pairs in the ISS model. Algorithm analysis shows that AES model is the most computational intensive while ADC model has moderate computational cost. We derived a dataset of the mis-estimated contact pairs by AES model. The most misjudged pairs are Arg-Glu, Arg-Asp and Arg-Tyr. Such a dataset can be useful for developing the improved AES model by incorporating the pair-specific information for the cutoff distance

Laparoscopy in management of appendicitis in high-, middle-, and low-income countries: a multicenter, prospective, cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Appendicitis is the most common abdominal surgical emergency worldwide. Differences between high- and low-income settings in the availability of laparoscopic appendectomy, alternative management choices, and outcomes are poorly described. The aim was to identify variation in surgical management and outcomes of appendicitis within low-, middle-, and high-Human Development Index (HDI) countries worldwide. METHODS: This is a multicenter, international prospective cohort study. Consecutive sampling of patients undergoing emergency appendectomy over 6 months was conducted. Follow-up lasted 30 days. RESULTS: 4546 patients from 52 countries underwent appendectomy (2499 high-, 1540 middle-, and 507 low-HDI groups). Surgical site infection (SSI) rates were higher in low-HDI (OR 2.57, 95% CI 1.33-4.99, p = 0.005) but not middle-HDI countries (OR 1.38, 95% CI 0.76-2.52, p = 0.291), compared with high-HDI countries after adjustment. A laparoscopic approach was common in high-HDI countries (1693/2499, 67.7%), but infrequent in low-HDI (41/507, 8.1%) and middle-HDI (132/1540, 8.6%) groups. After accounting for case-mix, laparoscopy was still associated with fewer overall complications (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.42-0.71, p < 0.001) and SSIs (OR 0.22, 95% CI 0.14-0.33, p < 0.001). In propensity-score matched groups within low-/middle-HDI countries, laparoscopy was still associated with fewer overall complications (OR 0.23 95% CI 0.11-0.44) and SSI (OR 0.21 95% CI 0.09-0.45). CONCLUSION: A laparoscopic approach is associated with better outcomes and availability appears to differ by country HDI. Despite the profound clinical, operational, and financial barriers to its widespread introduction, laparoscopy could significantly improve outcomes for patients in low-resource environments. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT02179112

Search for Dark Matter and Supersymmetry with a Compressed Mass Spectrum in the Vector Boson Fusion Topology in Proton-Proton Collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Precise determination of the mass of the Higgs boson and tests of compatibility of its couplings with the standard model predictions using proton collisions at 7 and 8 TeV

Peer reviewe