The endoplasmic reticulum in plant immunity and cell death

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a highly dynamic organelle in eukaryotic cells and a major production site of proteins destined for vacuoles, the plasma membrane, or apoplast in plants. At the ER, these secreted proteins undergo multiple processing steps, which are supervised and conducted by the ER quality control system. Notably, processing of secreted proteins can considerably elevate under stress conditions and exceed ER folding capacities. The resulting accumulation of unfolded proteins is defined as ER stress. The efficiency of cells to re-establish proper ER function is crucial for stress adaptation. Besides delivering proteins directly antagonizing and resolving stress conditions, the ER monitors synthesis of immune receptors. This indicates the significance of the ER for the establishment and function of the plant immune system. Recent studies point out the fragility of the entire system and highlight the ER as initiator of programed cell death (PCD) in plants as was reported for vertebrates. This review summarizes current knowledge on the impact of the ER on immune and PCD signaling. Understanding the integration of stress signals by the ER bears a considerable potential to optimize development and to enhance stress resistance of plants

Making the Grade

With its July 2015 announcement of the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program, the U.S. Department of Education ushered in what could be a new era of expanded opportunities for postsecondary education in our nation's prisons. The Second Chance Pell Pilot makes students incarcerated in state and federal prisons eligible for need-based financial aid in a limited number of authorized sites—meaning postsecondary education is likely to become a reality for an increased number of the more than 1.5 million people in prisons nationwide.Research shows that—among other benefits to individuals, families, communities, and prisons—incarcerated people who participate in prison education programs are 43 percent less likely to recidivate than those who do not. This report offers lessons from the field on the implementation of these programs in corrections settings across the country

World-Historical Gazetteer

This project will advance work toward creation of a world-historical gazetteer that will provide comprehensive databases of places throughout the world since 1500 CE, including attention to the range of attributes known for each place. To satisfy the needs of all the large-scale historical data resources now being created, there is need for such a comprehensive and general gazetteer system. The convening of a two-day workshop, including leading figures who have developed gazetteers and the datasets in which they are incorporated, will bring about a research design for this world-historical gazetteer system, which can then be implemented in subsequent work. Four small research tasks concerning services, standards, and content will bring immediate advance toward implementation. The project is organized by the Collaborative for Historical Information and Analysis (CHIA), which has a record in sustaining collaborations for large-scale humanities work

The realities of living on welfare are significantly different from government and media characterisations

Ruth Patrick considers the extent to which there is a (mis)match between government and media rhetoric and the lived experiences of those directly affected by welfare reform. Her research demonstrates the very hard ‘work’ which ‘getting by’ on benefits entails, ‘work’ which serves to counter characterisations of claimants as passive and inactive. She argues that attending to the lived experiences of welfare reform is critical in helping us to understand the day-to-day realities of ‘getting by’ in contemporary Britain

Inaccurate, exploitative, and very popular: the problem with ‘Poverty Porn’

With politicians, media, and much of public opinion already framing welfare as a problem, what is the impact of television shows that claim to ‘expose’ the daily lives of claimants? Ruth Patrick draws on her latest book to explain the mismatch between such portrayals and claimants’ realities. She writes that while some of Britain’s poorest are being exploited for entertainment, the impact of those portrayals is anything but entertaining

Stream Pollution

This paper discusses the various ways in which aquatic organisms may be of use in solving problems associated with waste disposal. Since many state and federal laws set forth that nothing may be discharged that is deleterious to aquatic life, the most expedient way to determine the effect of an effluent is to study the aquatic organisms themselves. In every river that has not been adversely affected by pollution there is a great variety of aquatic life. These organisms do not represent a great mass of living things, but rather they are organized into an intricately balance systems, often referred to as a food chain of biodynamic cycles

The cost of living crisis shows how much inequality matters, and how it affects everyday life

Ruth Patrick writes that two crises, COVID and the spike in the cost of living, have hit the most vulnerable especially hard. She describes a project in which parents and carers living in poverty from across the UK came together online, offering one another peer support, documenting their experiences in diaries, and sharing ideas for a better future

Wetlands: A potentially significant source of atmospheric methyl bromide and methyl chloride

Tropospheric methyl bromide (CH3Br) and methyl chloride (CH3Cl) are significant sources of ozone (O3) destroying halogens to the stratosphere. Their O3 depletion potential (ODP) can be determined from atmospheric lifetimes and therefore their atmospheric budgets, both of which are out of balance with known sink terms larger than identified sources. We have discovered a new source of CH3Br and CH3Cl emissions to the atmosphere at two wetland sites in the Northeastern United States. We have reason to believe that these compounds are biologically produced in situ. Our measurements indicate that the global annual flux of CH3Br and CH3Cl from wetlands could be as high as 4.6 Gg yr−1 Of CH3Br and 48 Gg yr−1 of CH3Cl. These are preliminary estimates based on measurements made during the end of the 1998 growing season, a time period of decreased emissions of other trace gases such as methane (CH4)

A controlled study of hostile-helpless states of mind among borderline and dysthymic women

The aim of this study was to determine whether women with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are more likely than those with dysthymia to manifest contradictory Hostile-Helpless (HH) states of mind. A reliable rater blind to diagnosis evaluated features of such mental representations in transcripts of Adult Attachment Interviews from 12 women with BPD and 11 women with dysthymia of similar socioeconomic status (SES), all awaiting psychotherapy. In keeping with three hierarchical (non-independent) a priori predictions regarding the mental representations of women with BPD, the results were that (a) all those with BPD, compared with half the group with dysthymia, displayed HH states of mind; (b) those with BPD manifested a significantly higher frequency of globally devaluing representations; and (c) they exhibited a strong trend toward identifying with the devalued hostile caregiver (58% BPD vs. 18% dysthymic). In addition, significantly more BPD than dysthymic patients made reference to controlling behavior towards attachment figures in childhood. These findings offer fresh insights into the nature of BPD and extend previous evidence concerning affected individuals' patterns of thinking and feeling about childhood attachment figures