Foliar water uptake: a common water acquisition strategy for plants of the redwood forest

Evaluations of plant water use in ecosystems around the world reveal a shared capacity by many different species to absorb rain, dew, or fog water directly into their leaves or plant crowns. This mode of water uptake provides an important water subsidy that relieves foliar water stress. Our study provides the first comparative evaluation of foliar uptake capacity among the dominant plant taxa from the coast redwood ecosystem of California where crown-wetting events by summertime fog frequently occur during an otherwise drought-prone season. Previous research demonstrated that the dominant overstory tree species, Sequoia sempervirens, takes up fog water by both its roots (via drip from the crown to the soil) and directly through its leaf surfaces. The present study adds to these early findings and shows that 80% of the dominant species from the redwood forest exhibit this foliar uptake water acquisition strategy. The plants studied include canopy trees, understory ferns, and shrubs. Our results also show that foliar uptake provides direct hydration to leaves, increasing leaf water content by 2–11%. In addition, 60% of redwood forest species investigated demonstrate nocturnal stomatal conductance to water vapor. Such findings indicate that even species unable to absorb water directly into their foliage may still receive indirect benefits from nocturnal leaf wetting through suppressed transpiration. For these species, leaf-wetting events enhance the efficacy of nighttime re-equilibration with available soil water and therefore also increase pre-dawn leaf water potentials

Trans-specialization understanding in international technology alliances: The influence of cultural distance

In the information age, the firm's performance hinges on combining partners' specialist knowledge to achieve value co-creation. Combining knowledge from different specialties could be a costly process in the international technology alliances (ITAs) context. We argue that the combination of different specializations requires the development of "trans-specialization understanding" (TSU) instead of the internalization of partners' specialist knowledge. This article examines the extent to which inter-firm governance in ITAs shapes TSU, and whether the development of TSU is endangered by cultural distance. We hypothesize that relational governance, product modularity, and cultural distance influence TSU development, which in turn influences firm performance. We collected data from 110 non-equity ITAs between software and hardware firms participating in the mobile device sector. We analyzed the data using partial least squares path modeling. Our findings suggest that TSU largely depends on product modularity and relational governance in alliances. However, while cultural distance negatively moderates the path from relational governance to TSU, it has no effect on the relationship between product modularity and TSU. Based on this, we conclude that product modularity can substitute for relational governance when strong relational norms are not well-developed in international alliances. Thus cultural distance does not invariably amount to a liability in ITAs

Rebranding mergers: How attitudes influence consumer choices?

In the context of a merger or an acquisition, the management of corporate identity – in particular of corporate brand names and logos – assumes a critical role. The purpose of this article is to provide a better understanding of the corporate brand redeployment decision, considering the reactions of one important stakeholder group – consumers. This study develops a typology of the various corporate identity structures that could be assumed in the context of a brand merger, and analyses how consumers’ attitudes towards the corporate brands influences their preferences regarding the different branding strategies. Results suggest that the preference for a monolithic redeployment strategy, suggested in previous studies, is only clearly supported when one of the partners in the merger is a weak partner. When the merger involves two familiar brands, there is a tendency among consumers to combine elements of both brands’ identity. Finally, it is concluded that the affective and behavioural dimension of attitude towards the brand has a significant influence on consumers’ preferences

Web-Based Tools for Polypharmacology Prediction

Drug promiscuity or polypharmacology is the ability of small molecules to interact with multiple protein targets simultaneously. In drug discovery, understanding the polypharmacology of potential drug molecules is crucial to improve their efficacy and safety, and to discover the new therapeutic potentials of existing drugs. Over the past decade, several computational methods have been developed to study the polypharmacology of small molecules, many of which are available as Web services. In this chapter, we review some of these Web tools focusing on ligand based approaches. We highlight in particular our recently developed polypharmacology browser (PPB) and its application for finding the side targets of a new inhibitor of the TRPV6 calcium channel