Management of Phytophthora cinnamomi for biodiversity conservation in Australia: Part 2. National best practice guidelines

Disease in natural ecosystems of Australia, caused by the introduced plant pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi, is listed as a key threatening process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). The Act requires the Australian Government to prepare and implement a threat abatement plan for nationally coordinated action to mitigate the harm caused by P. cinnamomi to Australian species, particularly threatened flora, fauna and ecological communities. The .National Threat Abatement Plan for Dieback Caused by the Root-Rot Fungus Phytophthora cinnamomi. (NTAP) was released in 2001 (Environment Australia, 2001). The NTAP is designed to promote a common understanding of the national threat P. cinnamomi poses to biodiversity in Australia. This project, funded by the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage (DEH), is one of the most significant actions to be implemented from the NTAP to date. The project has two major components: * to review current management approaches and identify benchmarks for best practice * the development of risk assessment criteria and a system for prioritising management of assets that are or could be threatened by P. cinnamomi. The project outputs are presented in a four-part document entitled Management of Phytophthora cinnamomi for Biodiversity Conservation in Australia: Part 1 - A Review of Current Management Part 2 - National Best Practice Guidelines Part 3 - Risk Assessment for Threats to Ecosystems, Species and Communities: A Review Part 4 - Risk Assessment Models for Species, Ecological Communities and Areas. A model of best practice was developed which encompasses all the components necessary for an informed and integrated approach to P. cinnamomi management, from strategic through to on-ground management. The current document (Part 1 . A Review of Current Management) thoroughly reviews the approaches to P. cinnamomi management in Australia within the context of the best practice model

Kidogo: Addressing the Childcare Needs of Low-Income Families in East Africa

In this white paper, authors Jill Howard, Fiona Wilson, and E. Hachemi Aliouche explore how Kidogo, an innovative East African social enterprise, is harnessing the power of social sector franchising. By discussing Kidogo’s combination of best-practice early childhood Centres of Excellence with a social franchising method that supports the quality improvement and growth of local childcare micro-businesses, the authors provide insight into Kidogo’s expansion and success and look forward to the future of the organization

Providing Clean Energy Solutions to India’s Bottom of the Pyramid Population

Despite a scheme launched by the Indian government in 2017 that has declared achieving close to 100 percent electrification in the country, studies have shown that only 65 percent of rural enterprises in India report having electricity grid connection. While millions of households have been positively impacted by access to electricity, small businesses and smallholder farmers (those with holdings of less than 2 acres) in rural India have been left out of the equation or receive very unreliable power supply. Byproducts of the energy poverty experienced by India’s Bottom of the Pyramid population include an enormous carbon footprint produced by the use of traditional fossil fuels such as diesel and kerosene, and economic stagnation as a result of the agrarian crisis in India. Working to address each of these challenges is Oorja Development Solutions, a social enterprise established in 2016 with a mission to “substantially and cost-effectively scale last-mile distribution of integrated energy solutions to revitalize the agrarian economy, alleviate poverty, and fight climate change in rural India.” In this white paper, authors Jill Howard, Fiona Wilson, and E. Hachemi Aliouche discuss Oorja Development Solutions’ creation as well as the business model by which it operates. While Oorja does not currently have any franchisees, this case study explores why the company has considered implementing a franchising system as well as the reasons why it is not currently moving forward with the model. By also detailing the ingredients to Oorja’s success and opportunities for future growth, this case study aims to provide insight into a successful social enterprise as well as the logic for choosing whether or not to execute a social sector franchising system

Recommendations for Safe Separation Distances from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) Using a Heat-Flux-Based Analytical Approach (Abridged)

The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) was requested to provide computational modeling to support the establishment of a safe separation distance surrounding the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The two major objectives of the study were 1) establish a methodology based on thermal flux to determine safe separation distances from the Kennedy Space Center's (KSC's) Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) with large numbers of solid propellant boosters containing hazard division 1.3 classification propellants, in case of inadvertent ignition; and 2) apply this methodology to the consideration of housing eight 5-segment solid propellant boosters in the VAB. The results of the study are contained in this report

Bilingualism in the family and child well-being: A scoping review

© The Author(s) 2020. Aims and objectives: The aim of this scoping review is to investigate the association between bilingualism in the family and child subjective well-being, by reviewing the literature to identify key themes to date and remaining questions for future research. Methodology: Scopus, Web of Knowledge, ERIC, Psych Articles and PsychInfo were searched systematically between September and October 2018, and after title, abstract and full-text screening, 17 of the initial 1433 articles were included in this review. Data and analysis: Each study was coded for the discipline from which it emerged, the language combination studied, the measures of well-being and language proficiency it used, the geographical location of the study and the number of participants. Data on the link between bilingualism and well-being was extracted from each study. Findings and conclusion: Two main themes were identified: ‘The effect of language proficiency on family relationships’ and ‘The acculturation of parents and children as mediated by language’. Across studies, there was significant heterogeneity in definition of concepts and a diverse range of measures employed. In addition, the studies identified suggest a positive link between minority language maintenance and child well-being, and a positive influence of bilingualism, rather than knowledge of only the home or the majority language. However, the directionality of these relationships will need to be investigated in future research. Originality: This is the first scoping review conducted systematically to explore the link between bilingualism in the family and child well-being internationally. It builds on previous work such as a narrative review which examined this association in the European context.The idea for this review emerged from a series of stakeholder workshops which were supported by an ESRC Impact Acceleration Account grant entitled “Multilingualism for wellbeing: defining routes to impact among community language learners” (GNAG/064) and the production of this review was supported by a grant from the Cambridge University Language Sciences Incubator Fund entitled “Multilingualism and subjective wellbeing in the family: a systematic review” (U.GN.GNDB.AHAO.ERKZ)

Plastid osmotic stress influences cell differentiation at the plant shoot apex

The balance between proliferation and differentiation in the plant shoot apical meristem is controlled by regulatory loops involving the phytohormone cytokinin and stem cell identity genes. Concurrently, cellular differentiation in the developing shoot is coordinated with the environmental and developmental status of plastids within those cells. Here, we employ an Arabidopsis thaliana mutant exhibiting constitutive plastid osmotic stress to investigate the molecular and genetic pathways connecting plastid osmotic stress with cell differentiation at the shoot apex. msl2 msl3 mutants exhibit dramatically enlarged and deformed plastids in the shoot apical meristem, and develop a mass of callus tissue at the shoot apex. Callus production in this mutant requires the cytokinin receptor AHK2 and is characterized by increased cytokinin levels, downregulation of cytokinin signaling inhibitors ARR7 and ARR15, and induction of the stem cell identity gene WUSCHEL. Furthermore, plastid stress-induced apical callus production requires elevated plastidic reactive oxygen species, ABA biosynthesis, the retrograde signaling protein GUN1, and ABI4. These results are consistent with a model wherein the cytokinin/WUS pathway and retrograde signaling control cell differentiation at the shoot apex

The impact of selective genotyping on the response to selection using single-step genomic best linear unbiased prediction

Across the majority livestock species, routinely collected genomic and pedigree information has been incorporated into evaluations using single-step methods. As a result, strategies that reduce genotyping costs without reducing the response to selection are important as they could have substantial economic impacts on breeding programs. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to investigate the impact of selectively genotyping selection candidates on the selection response using simulation. Populations were simulated to mimic the genome and population structure of a swine and cattle population undergoing selection on an index comprised of the estimated breeding values (EBV) for 2 genetically correlated quantitative traits. Ten generations were generated and genotyping began generation 7. Two phenotyping scenarios were simulated that assumed the first trait was recorded early in life on all individuals and the second trait was recorded on all versus a random subset of the individuals. The EBV were generated from a bivariate animal model. Multiple genotyping scenarios were generated that ranged from not genotyping any selection candidates, a proportion of the selection candidates based on either their index value or chosen at random, and genotyping all selection candidates. An interim index value was utilized to decide who to genotype for the selective genotype strategy. The interim value assumed only the first trait was observed and the only genotypic information available was on animals in previous generations. Within each genotyping scenario 25 replicates were generated. Within each genotyping scenario the mean response per generation and the degree to which EBV were inflated/deflated was calculated. Across both species and phenotyping strategies, the plateau of diminishing returns was observed when 60% of the selection candidates with the largest index values were genotyped. When randomly genotyping selection candidates, either 80 or 100% of the selection candidates needed to be genotyped for there not to be a reduction in the index response. Across both populations, no differences in the degree that EBV were inflated/deflated for either trait 1 or 2 were observed between nongenotyped and genotyped animals. The current study has shown that animals can be selectively genotyped in order to optimize the response to selection as a function of the cost to conduct a breeding program using single-step genomic best linear unbiased prediction