Aerobic fermentation during tobacco pollen development

In vegetative organs of plants, the metabolic switch from respiration to fermentation is dictated by oxygen availability. The two genes dedicated to ethanolic fermentation, pyruvate decarboxylase and alcohol dehydrogenase, are induced by oxygen deprivation and the gene products are active under oxygen stress. In pollen, these two genes are expressed in a stage-specific manner and transcripts accumulate to high levels, irrespective of oxygen availability. We have examined the expression pattern of pyruvate decarboxylase and alcohol dehydrogenase at the protein level in developing pollen and show that the active proteins are localized to the gametophytic tissue and begin to accumulate at microspore mitosis. A flux through the ethanolic fermentation pathway could already be detected very early in pollen development, occurring in all stages from premeiotic buds to mature pollen. This flux was primarily controlled not by oxygen availability, but rather by sugar supply. At a high rate of sugar metabolism, respiration and fermentation took place concurrently in developing and germinating pollen. We propose that aerobic fermentation provides a shunt from pyruvate to acetyl-CoA to accommodate the increased demand for energy and biosynthetic intermediates during pollen development and germination. A possible undesirable side-effect is the potential accumulation of toxic acetaldehyde. Our results support a model for cms-T-type male sterility in maize, in which degeneration of the tapetum is caused by the toxic effects of acetaldehyde on mitochondria weakened by the presence of the URF13 protei

Taming the ‘trolls’ : major public projects in the making

Major projects are not yet sufficiently understood, and practices in project governance and project management do not yet reflect the current state of knowledge of large, complex projects. In an attempt to understand the reasons, the authors therefore investigated the latest relevant findings documented in three countries: the UK, Norway, and the Netherlands. Their examination of the effect of implementing governance frameworks for public projects in these countries indicates that efforts to improve major projects are giving rewards: Even if complex public projects, the ‘trolls’, become more challenging, efforts to ‘tame’ them are improving. The results of the study show that project planning has improved and cost overruns are reduced. However, recent observations indicate that the effect may wear off remarkably quickly. Hence, the need for continuous improvement and change is prominent. There are fundamental limitations in the use of formal systems as they cannot detect all problems and there are limitations to humans' ability in terms of optimism bias that cannot be eliminated

Effects of meteorological factors on epidemic malaria in Ethiopia: a statistical modelling approach based on theoretical reasoning.

This study was conducted to quantify the association between meteorological variables and incidence of Plasmodium falciparum in areas with unstable malaria transmission in Ethiopia. We used morbidity data pertaining to microscopically confirmed cases reported from 35 sites throughout Ethiopia over a period of approximately 6-7 years. A model was developed reflecting biological relationships between meteorological and morbidity variables. A model that included rainfall 2 and 3 months earlier, mean minimum temperature of the previous month and P. falciparum case incidence during the previous month was fitted to morbidity data from the various areas. The model produced similar percentages of over-estimation (19.7% of predictions exceeded twice the observed values) and under-estimation (18.6%, were less than half the observed values). Inclusion of maximum temperature did not improve the model. The model performed better in areas with relatively high or low incidence (>85% of the total variance explained) than those with moderate incidence (55-85% of the total variance explained). The study indicated that a dynamic immunity mechanism is needed in a prediction model. The potential usefulness and drawbacks of the modelling approach in studying the weather-malaria relationship are discussed, including a need for mechanisms that can adequately handle temporal variations in immunity to malaria

Unlocking project success: The crucial role of interpersonal skills in project management

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Effective governance of projects: A mainstay of good public investment

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Front-End Project Governance: Choice of Project Concept and Decision-Making– An International Perspective

The demand for new investment projects is increasing; however, the preparation of a large number of those projects has had practical problems and the relevant systems and processes have been criticized. According to recent publications, a lack of problem analysis, lack of alternatives, contested information/misinformation, and many pitfalls in the decisionmaking process are among the main causes for concern. Following on from this, improving the front-end project governance processes and systems has been the subject of increased attention as it may be seen as a requirement for the success of investment: by increasing the effectiveness of a project governance system, it will be possible to select and implement the right project concepts and make optimal decisions. However, achieving effective project governance and control has so far proved to be a challenge but important. With this in mind, this thesis aims to increase the understanding of the front-end governance of public investment projects by exploring the experiences of different countries, and to contribute knowledge within the evolving debates on what to do to develop effective governance frameworks. The thesis looks at project governance processes and systems of three countries (the Netherlands, Norway and Ethiopia), aims to put forward good experiences through comparison and also hopes to answer the following questions: How do project governance systems and processes in these countries function to select project concepts and make decisions? What good experiences exist to improve the mechanism of choosing a right project concept and for making optimal decisions? To answer these questions I have collected data from the three countries in person, primarily through interviews, questionnaires and case studies, as well as reviewing a range of secondary resources, namely documentation and scientific literature. Findings of the research indicate that the Netherlands and Norway have made efforts to improve the effectiveness of their front-end project governance systems. Both countries have tried to develop contemporary processes, procedures and project governance structures that aim to develop the right project concepts; have developed stage gates for the quality assurance process; and have established go/no go approvals. In these countries, many reforms have been introduced: more attention has been given to identifying the needs and priorities of stakeholders; obligatory requirements have been developed to search for alternative concepts; and ex-ante evaluation criteria have been identified and adopted. On the other hand, due to a positive economic outlook, Ethiopia is planning and implementing ambitious investment projects. There have been achievements in this regard but the findings of this research indicate that there are significant problems that are associated with the front-end project governance system of the country. The project governance systems and processes of the Netherlands, Norway and Ethiopia have some similar features but needless to say they have differences too. This research provides project governance experiences of the three countries. In these experiences, regardless of them being good or bad, there can be lessons other countries can learn from. The good experiences that are identified in this study include: the Dutch experience to involve as many participants as possible in the early phase; the efforts to integrate different policy issues horizontally and vertically in the project preparation process; the use of IT infrastructure to get feedback from stakeholders; and the Norwegian system of outsourcing the review of project initiative documents to independent consultants. In general, this study shows some similarities and some differences in the project preparation and decision-making processes, procedures and systems of the three countries. Expanding similar research to other countries is possible and can be an opportunity to learn from differences. In addition to this, I suggest that developing a system to translate the lessons into action and to track whether the designed effect has come as planned can be useful to improve the effectiveness of project governance system.PhD i bygg, anlegg og transportPhD in Civil and Transport Engineerin

Assessment of Vaccination Coverage of Sheep and Goat using Retrospective Data in Woreda Raya Alamata

A retrospective study using data of the record of the veterinary clinic of Alamata Woreda with the objective of assessment vaccine coverage in the area was conducted from May to June 2014. The data indicated that there was vaccination program for ovine pasteurellosis, sheep and goat pox, pestides petites ruminits and anthrax. The vaccination coverage in the area was very minimal and did not cover the whole livestock population. This might be the reason for the re-occurrence of the disease in different years. Hence, use of high quality and effective vaccines to cover a large number of livestock is essential for the disease mitigation in the area.Keywords: Anthrax, Pasteurellosis, Pest ides petites ruminits, Pox vaccine, Alamata, Tigray, Ethiopia

A genome-wide association study on lodging resistant related traits in the Ethiopian germplasm collections of teff

鳥取大学博士(農学)thesi

Tnt1 retrotransposon tagging of STF in Medicago truncatula reveals tight coordination of metabolic, hormonal and developmental signals during leaf morphogenesis

Tnt1 (transposable element if Nicotiana tabaccum cell type 1) is one of the very few active LTR retrotransposons used for gene tagging in plants. In the model legume Medicago truncatula, Tnt1 has been effectively used as a gene knock-out tool to generate several very useful mutants. stenofolia (stf) is such a mutant identified by Tnt1 insertion in a WUSCHEL-like homeobox transcription factor. STF is required for blade outgrowth, leaf vascular patterning and female reproductive organ development in barrel medic and woodland tobacco. Using transcript profiling and metabolite analysis, we uncovered that mutant leaves are compromised in steady-state levels of multiple phytohormones, sugar metabolites and derivatives including flavonoids and polyamines. In the lam1 mutant (caused by deletion of the STF ortholog in Nicotiana sylvestris), while glucose, fructose, mannose, galactose, myo-inositol and aromatic aminoacids are dramatically reduced, sucrose is comparable to wild-type levels, and glutamine, proline, putrescine, nicotine and sorbitol are highly increased. We demonstrated that both stf and lam1 mutants accumulate reduced levels of free auxin and ABA in their leaves, and ectopic expression of STF in tobacco leads to auxin and cytokinin overproduction phenotypes including formation of tumors on the roots and crown. These data suggest that STF mediated integration of metabolic and hormonal signals are required for lateral organ morphogenesis and elaboration

Evaluation of two new-generation global soil databases for macro-scale hydrological modelling in Norway

Lack of national soil property maps limits the studies of soil moisture (SM) dynamics in Norway. One alternative is to apply the global soil data as input for macro-scale hydrological modelling, but the quality of these data is still unknown. The objectives of this study are 1) to evaluate two recent global soil databases (Wise30sec and SoilGrids) in comparison with data from local soil profiles; 2) to evaluate which database supports better model performance in terms of river discharge and SM for three macro-scale catchments in Norway and 3) to suggest criteria for the selection of soil data for models with different complexity. The global soil databases were evaluated in three steps: 1) the global soil data are compared directly with the Norwegian forest soil profiles; 2) the simulated discharge based on the two global soil databases is compared with observations and 3) the simulated SM is compared with three global SM products. Two hydrological models were applied to simulate discharge and SM: the Soil and Water Integrated Model (SWIM) and the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model. The comparison with data from local soil profiles shows that SoilGrids has smaller mean errors than Wise30sec, especially for upper soil layers, but both soil databases have large root mean squared errors and poor correlations. SWIM generally performs better in terms of discharge using SoilGrids than using Wise30sec and the simulated SM has higher correlations with the SM products. In contrast, the VIC model is less sensitive to soil input data and the simulated SM using Wise30sec is higher correlated with the SM products than using SoilGrids. Based on the results, we conclude that the global soil databases can provide reasonable soil property information at coarse resolutions and large areas. The selection of soil input data should depend on the characteristics of both models and study areas.publishedVersio