Drought and heat stress are a global concern affecting crop productivity. The current study investigated the daily shoot and root length growth of 48 elite African sorghum genotypes and two commonly grown check varieties in response to heat and drought stresses applied individually and in combination at the early (7-day-old) and late (21-day-old) seedling stages. Genotype, stress, and their interaction significantly affected root and shoot length at both stages. Our findings indicated that the combined stresses suppressed daily shoot length growth at both stages. Drought, heat, and combined stresses equally suppressed daily root length growth during the early seedling growth stage, and drought applied separately showed the highest negative effect on root length at the late seedling stage. In general, the stress treatments showed the utmost negative effects in daily shoot and root length growth at early seedling stage than the late stage. Heat stress induced the highest relative growth reduction of 78% in hypocotyl length followed by combined stresses at 77.6% and 70.8% for drought stress. The average hypocotyl length changes ranged between 0.37 and 2.31 mm per day at early seedling stage. Root length daily growth was reduced by 69.1% under combined stress, 67.6% under heat stress, and 63.3% under drought stress at early seedling stage. Root length changes ranged between 0.35 and 2.96 mm per day at early seedling stage. At late seedling stage, the highest relative daily growth reduction was observed in shoot length (36.6%) under combined stresses while drought stress induced the highest relative daily root length reduction of 10.8%. The average shoot length changes ranged between 5.1 and 8.1 mm per day at late seedling stage while root length changes ranged between 2.7 and 3.5 mm. In reference to the independent genotypic effects, genotype IS13904 displayed the highest performance in hypocotyl and root length growth at the early seedling stage. At the late seedling stage, genotypes IS6994 and NPGRC1478 showed tolerance to at least two of the assessed stress conditions in terms of daily root length growth. Genotypes IS30164, IS30015, and IS9567 showed similar resistance in shoot growth. The overall analysis of both shoot and root daily length growth at both seedling stages revealed the resistance of genotypes NPGRC1478 and IS30164 to drought stress applied separately and combined stressors. The identified sorghum genotypes can be used as potential donors towards tolerance to combined stresses at both seedling stages and are recommended for utilization in hot and dry agroecologies of sub-Saharan Africa due to their potential vigour in early establishment.

The payoff in the Chow–Robbins coin-tossing game is the proportion of heads when you stop. Stopping to maximize expectation was addressed by Chow and Robbins (1965), who proved there exist integers ${k_n}$ such that it is optimal to stop at n tosses when heads minus tails is ${k_n}$. Finding ${k_n}$ was unsolved except for finitely many cases by computer. We prove an $o(n^{-1/4})$ estimate of the stopping boundary of Dvoretsky (1967), which then proves ${k_n} = \left\lceil {\alpha \sqrt n \,\, - 1/2\,\, + \,\,\frac{{\left( { - 2\zeta (\! -1/2)} \right)\sqrt \alpha }}{{\sqrt \pi }}{n^{ - 1/4}}} \right\rceil $ except for n in a set of density asymptotic to 0, at a power law rate. Here, $\alpha$ is the Shepp–Walker constant from the Brownian motion analog, and $\zeta$ is Riemann’s zeta function. An $n^{ - 1/4}$ dependence was conjectured by Christensen and Fischer (2022). Our proof uses moments involving Catalan and Shapiro Catalan triangle numbers which appear in a tree resulting from backward induction, and a generalized backward induction principle. It was motivated by an idea of Häggström and Wästlund (2013) to use backward induction of upper and lower Value bounds from a horizon, which they used numerically to settle a few cases. Christensen and Fischer, with much better bounds, settled many more cases. We use Skorohod’s embedding to get simple upper and lower bounds from the Brownian analog; our upper bound is the one found by Christensen and Fischer in another way. We use them first for yet many more examples and a conjecture, then algebraically in the tree, with feedback to get much sharper Value bounds near the border, and analytic results. Also, we give a formula that gives the exact optimal stop rule for all n up to about a third of a billion; it uses the analytic result plus terms arrived at empirically.

The Immigration Assessment Authority (‘IAA’) provides the final merits review mechanism for people seeking asylum by boat in Australia. For fast-track applicants, the outcome of IAA review is incredibly significant, with consequences ranging from resettlement in Australia, removal to an applicant’s country of origin or indefinite immigration detention in harsh conditions. Eight years since its introduction, this article asks whether the IAA has realised the goal of promoting efficient review whilst meeting other important administrative objectives. The article takes a novel approach, applying a pre-formulated theory of administrative justice to analyse whether the IAA has balanced administrative justice properties. In so doing, this article offers a unique lens to critically reflect on the role of the IAA and whether, once its mandate is ended, this new model of review should be abandoned or revived for future merits review of asylum claims.

The mechanism of boron uptake by clays, especially illitic clays, and the factors which control such uptake have long been debated issues. In an attempt to answer some of the questions of the controversy, three illites were treated in solutions containing boron. In the study, boron concentration, salinity, temperature, and time were varied independently over rather wide ranges.

For the illites studied, irreversible uptake of boron was increased by increasing boron concentration, salt concentration, temperature, and time of treatment. The amount of boron which was fixed also varied with the type of illite treated. The amount of fixation was controlled primarily by the specific surface area of the clay and also by the crystallinity, K content, and/or amount of mixed-layer material (“frayed-edge” development?), and apparently was independent of the original boron content of the clay.

A two-step mechanism is proposed for boron fixation by illite, consisting of rapid chemical adsorption of the tetrahedral B(OH)4− anion at the “frayed-edge” of the illite flake followed by much slower diffusion of boron into the tetrahedral part of the structure.

One of the critical growth and development stages that is vulnerable to drought and heat stress even in hardy staple crops is germination. Sorghum is a critically essential, resilient, and diverse crop that displays genotypic variations in its ability to withstand such harsh conditions, limiting crop stand and ultimately leading to yield losses. Therefore, the goal of this study was to evaluate the performance of 50 high potential genotypes of African sorghum, including landraces, breeding lines and check varieties to simulated drought and heat stress at germination stage. The study used a split plot arrangement for temperature treatments, laid in a completely randomized design with three replications. Final germination percentage, mean germination time, germination index and coefficient variation of germination time (CVt) were determined. Data was subjected to generalized linear model, principal component analysis, hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis and principal coordinate analysis to determine statistical differences in genotypes and visualize groups of genotypes according to their overall performance in assessed germination parameters. Drought stress and supra-optimal temperatures suppressed and delayed germination. The genotypes were grouped into six distinct clusters based on their performance. Genotypes NPGRC1593, NPGRC1782, NPGRC1476 and IS224426 performed exceptionally well under both stressors and outperformed check varieties in almost all parameters assessed. To improve crop establishment and increase agricultural yields, breeding and crop improvement programs should focus on genotypes that can withstand both stresses.

Imagine a student reading Odysseus’ Cretan tale at Odyssey 19.172–84. When faced by a string of unfamiliar names – in addition to ‘native Cretans’, there are Achaeans, Cydonians and Dorians, as well as the individuals Minos, Deucalion, Idomeneus and the speaker, Aethon (Odysseus in disguise) –, they use their digital edition to find out more about each of these people and their places of origin. A personal name opens an online encyclopaedia entry, while clicking on a place launches an emerging world beyond the single text – an online atlas that provides information about the place's toponymy, form and exact location as well as links to other resources (textual and archaeological, ancient and modern) about this place, including those to which our student has contributed. The year? 2023 (Figure 1).1

Grazielanthus is a monotypic, dioecious and microendemic plant genus of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Its only species, Grazielanthus arkeocarpus, is categorized as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and comprises only one small population, in the Poço das Antas Biological Reserve, Rio de Janeiro State. Collaborative activities have been developed since 2013 to implement in situ and ex situ conservation actions for this species. Successful in situ planting has increased the number of individuals in its natural population. Ex situ conservation efforts have resulted in the cultivation of the species in two Brazilian living plant collections, and this will soon increase to three collections.

Knowledge-based systems and their ontologies evolve due to different reasons. Ontology evolution is the adaptation of an ontology and the propagation of these changes to dependent artifacts such as queries and other ontologies. Besides identifying basic/simple changes, it is imperative to identify complex changes between two versions of the same ontology to make this adaptation possible. There are many definitions of complex changes applied to ontologies in the literature. However, their specifications across works vary both in formalization and textual description. Some works also use different terminologies to refer to a change, while others use the same vocabulary to refer to distinct changes. Therefore, there is a lack of a unified list of complex changes. The main goals of this paper are: (i) present the primary documents that identify complex changes; (ii) provide critical analyses about the set of the complex changes proposed in the literature and the documents mentioning them; (iii) provide a unified list of complex changes mapping different sets of complex changes proposed by several authors; (iv) present a classification for those complex changes; and (v) describe some open directions of the area. The mappings between the complex changes provide a mechanism to relate and compare different proposals. The unified list is thus a reference for the complex changes published in the literature. It may assist the development of tools to identify changes between two versions of the same ontology and enable the adaptation of artifacts that depend on the evolved ontology.

Most research on protests has been conducted in peaceful societies, whereas we know far less about contentious collective action in postwar contexts. To fill this gap, we offer a theory that perceived ethnic grievances related to group security and group status are particularly likely to generate protest mobilization in postwar societies. To test this theory and alternative hypotheses, we investigate trends in protest behavior in postwar Kosovo using an original protest event dataset and existing survey data. We find that protest behavior in postwar Kosovo is significantly shaped by perceived ethnic grievances: the majority of protest grievances center around group security and group status concerns. Protests about economic justice or good governance demands are significantly rarer. Using data from existing surveys, we also investigate the determinants of variation in individual protest participation. Our analysis reveals that perceived ethnic discrimination is strongly associated with individual protest participation in Kosovo.

Encyclopedias, with their Pretensions to Comprehensive or Universal knowledge, are by their very nature audacious undertakings. That such exercises in intellectual hubris sometimes fail is not surprising; it is more astonishing how well some of them accomplish their goal. As evidenced by the volumes published to date, the Encyclopaedia Iranica is clearly another such success in the making. One way to appreciate its achievement is to take stock of its place within the encyclopedic tradition by examining the story of its inception and preparation, its vision and purpose, and its general features and strengths as an encyclopedia.

Commercial chiral stationary phases (CSPs) are based mainly on polysaccharides supported on silica; however, the pharmaceutical industry shows a special interest on chiral separations, exhibiting high financial investment in the development of new CSPs. These can be structured by a new optically active compound or different support. Thus, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are crystalline materials that arise with great potential for support, due to its high porosity, the strong intermolecular force between the metal and the ligand selectivity, and high adsorption capacity. Interested in this, this work proposes a new CSP using the metal–organic structure ZIF-8 (Basolite Z1200) due to its high mechanical stability. To this end, it is proposed the modification of the ZIF-8 with the optically active compound, tris-3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate amylose. Through characterization textural, structural, and physicochemical performed, it is possible to confirm the synthesis of the chiral compound (amylose carbamate), as well as the functionalization of the metal–organic structure with tris-3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate amylose (ZIF-8-PEI-CA). In addition, as a validation technique, HPLC can detect the presence of enantiomers present in the racemic mixture of Troger bases.