Effects of high-temperature stress (HTS) and PEG-induced water stress (WS), applied separately or in combination, on the functional activity and ultrastructure of the photosynthetic apparatus (PSA) of maize (Zea mays L.) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) plants were investigated. In maize plant tissues WS provoked the decrease in RWC by 10.9 %, HTS by 7.0 %, and after simultaneous application of the both treatments the decrease was 32.7 % in comparison with control plants. Similar but more expressed changes were observed in sunflower plants. Sunflower was more sensitive to these stresses. Net photosynthetic rate decreased significantly after all treatments, more in sunflower. In mesophyll chloroplasts after separately applied WS and HTS the number of grana and thylakoids was reduced and electron-transparent spaces appeared. At combined stress (WS+HTS) granal and stromal thylakoids were considerably affected and chloroplast envelope in many of them was partially disrupted. and I. Dekov, T. Tsonev, I. Yordanov.
Two-month-old seedlings of Sophora davidii were subjected to a randomized complete block design with three water (80, 40, and 20 % of water field capacity, i.e. FC80, FC40, and FC20) and three N supply [N0: 0, Nl: 92 and Nh: 184 mg(N) kg-1(soil)] regimes. Water stress produced decreased leaf area (LA) and photosynthetic pigment contents, inhibited photosynthetic efficiency, and induced photodamage in photosystem 2 (PS2), but increased specific leaf area (SLA). The decreased net photosynthetic rate (PN) under medium water stress (FC40) compared to control (FC80) might result from stomatal limitations, but the decreased PN under severe water deficit (FC20) might be attributed to non-stomatal limitations. On the other hand, N supply could improve photosynthetic capacity by increasing LA and photosynthetic pigment contents, and enhancing photosynthetic efficiency under water deficit. Moreover, N supply did a little in alleviating photodamages to PS2 caused by water stress. Hence water stress was the primary limitation in photosynthetic processes of S. davidii seedlings, while the photosynthetic characters of seedlings exhibited positive responses to N supply. Appropriate N supply is recommended to improve photosynthetic efficiency and alleviate photodamage under water stress. and F. Z. Wu ... [et al.].
a1_Soil water deficit is a major limitation to agricultural productivity in arid regions. Leaf photosynthesis can quickly recover after rewatering and remains at a higher level for a longer period, thus increasing crop yield and water-use efficiency (WUE). We tested our hypothesis that leaf photosynthesis and root activity of water-stressed cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) plants could quickly recover after rewatering at a certain growth stage and it should not influence a cotton yield but increase WUE. Treatments in this study included two degrees of water stress: mild water stress (V1) and moderate water stress (V2) imposed at one of four cotton growth stages [i.e., S1 (from the full budding to early flowering stage), S2 (from early flowering to full flowering), S3 (from full flowering to full bolling), and S4 (from full bolling to boll-opening)]. The soil water content before and after the water stress was the same as that in the control treatment (CK, 70-75% of field capacity). Water deficit significantly reduced the leaf water potential, net photosynthetic rate, and stomatal conductance in cotton. The extent of the decline was greater in S2V2 treatment compared to others. Water deficit also reduced root activity, but the extent of inhibition varied in dependence on soil depth and duration. When plants were subjected to S1V1, the root activity in the 20-100 cm depth recovered rapidly and even exceeded CK one day after rewatering. An overcompensation response was observed for both photosynthesis and aboveground dry mass within one to three days after rewatering. Compared with the CK, S1V1 showed no significant effect on the yield but it increased total WUE and irrigation WUE., a2_These results suggest that even a short-term water stress during the S1, S2 and S4 stages mitigated, with respect to the root activity, the negative effect of drought and enhanced leaf photosynthesis compensatory effects of rewatering in order to increase cotton WUE with drip irrigation under mulch in arid areas., H. H. Luo, Y. L. Zhang, W. F. Zhang., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
In Leymus chinensis, mild water stress (soil moisture 60-65 % of field capacity) had no significant effects on nitrogen metabolism, photosynthesis, and chlorophyll fluorescence. Severe water stress (35-40 %) significantly decreased the activities of nitrate reductase, glutamine synthetase, and glutamate dehydrogenase, net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, maximal efficiency of photosystem 2 photochemistry (Fv/Fm), actual quantum yield, and photochemical quenching, but increased the endopeptidase activity and malondialdehyde contents. The adverse effects on photosynthesis and N metabolism were markedly greater in reproductive shoots than in vegetative shoots. and Z. Z. Xu, G. S. Zhou.
Chlorophyll (Chl) content, dry mass, relative water content (RWC), leaf mass per area (LMA), proline (Pro) content, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) activity, PN-PAR response curves and gas exchange were studied to determine the effects of water stress on photosynthetic activity, dry mass partitioning and metabolic changes in four provenances of neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss). The results indicated that provenance differences existed in the adaptation response to water stress that included changes to growth strategies coupled with ecophysiological and metabolic adjustments. As water stress increased, stomatal conductance (gs), net photosynthetic rate (PN), transpiration rate (E), and leaf RWC decreased while LMA increased in all provenances. Dry mass was reduced in droughted plants and the percentage increased in dry mass allocated to roots, and enzyme activities of SOD and POD were highest in neem originating from Kalyani (KA) provenance and lowest in neem originating from New Dehli (ND) provenance. In contrast, water stress increased MDA content least in KA and most in ND. Furthermore, neem originating from ND also had the greatest decrease in Chl a/b ratio while the ratio was least affected in neem originating from KA. These findings suggest neem originating from KA may have more drought resistance than neem originating from ND. The data from PN-PAR response curves are less clear. While these curves showed that drought stress increased compensation irradiance (Ic) and dark respiration (RD) and decreased saturation irradiance (Is) and maximum net photosynthetic rate (Pmax), the extent of decline in P max was provenance dependent. P max under non-waterlimiting conditions was higher in neem originating from Jodhpur (MA) (about 14 μmol m-2 s-1) than in the other three provenances (all about 10 μmol m-2 s-1), but mild water stress had minimal effect on Pmax of these three provenances whereas Pmax of MA provenance declined to 10 μmol m-2 s-1, i.e. a similar value. However, under severe water stress P max of MA and KA provenances had declined to 40% of non-stressed values (about 6 and 4 μmol m-2 s-1, respectively) whereas the decline in Pmax of neem originating from Kulapachta (KU) and ND provenances was about 50% of nonstressed values (about 5 μmol m-2 s-1). These data suggest the PN responses of KU and ND provenances are most tolerant, and KA and MA least tolerant to increasing water stress, but also suggest MA provenance could be the most desired under both non-water-limiting and water-limiting conditions due to highest Pmax in all conditions. and Y. X. Zheng ... [et al.].
To evaluate the preclinical efficacy and safety of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) rapidly expanded in growth medium for clinical use with human se rum and recombinant growth factors, we conducted a controlled, randomized trial of plasma clots with hMSC vs. plasma clots only in critical segmental femoral defects in rnu/rnu immunodeficient rats. X-ray, microCT and histomorphometrical evaluation were pe rformed at 8 and 16 weeks. MSC were obtained from healthy volunteers and patients with lymphoid malignancy. Human MSC survived in the defect for the entire duration of the trial. MSC from healthy volunteers, in contrast to hMSC from cancer patients, significantly improved bone healing at 8, but not 16 weeks. However, at 16 weeks, hMSC significantly improved vasculogenesis in residual defect. We conclude that hMSC from healthy donors significantly contributed to the healing of bone defects at 8 weeks and to the vascularisation of residual connective tissue for up to 16 weeks. We found the administration of hMSC to be safe, as no adverse reaction to human cells at the site of implantation and no evidence of migration of hMSC to distant organs was detected., R. Pytlík, C. Rentsch, T. Soukup, L. Novotný, B. Rentsch, V. Kanderová, H. Rychtrmocová, M. Kalmárová, D. Stehlík, M. Trněný, O. Slanař., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a beneficial mathematical programming method to measure relative efficiencies. In conventional DEA models, Decision Making Units (DMUs) are usually considered as black boxes. Also, the efficiency of DMUs is evaluated in the presence of the specified inputs and outputs. Nevertheless, in real-world applications, there are situations in which the performance of multi-stage processes like supply chains with forward and reverse flows must be measured such that some of the intervening factors, called proportional dual-role factors, are presented that one part of each proportional dual-role factor plays the input role and the other plays the output role. To address this issue, the current study proposes radial and non-radial DEA models for evaluating the overall and stage efficiencies of the closed-loop supply chains when there are proportional dual-role factors. To illustrate, a proportional dual-role factor is divided into portions of the input of the first stage and the output of the second stage such that the optimal overall and stage efficiency scores of closed-loop supply chain are obtained. A case study is used to illustrate the proposed approach. The experimental results obtained from real world data show the convincing performance of our proposed method.
A good knowledge of hydraulic characteristics, particularly the retention curves, of the applied materials is necessary when studying the efficiency of a capillary barrier or numerically simulating flow of water in its layers. The main difficulties of their measurements originate in the fact that the coarse-grained soils of capillary barriers come from the state of residual moisture to the state of saturation within relatively small interval of pressure head. Hence, it is necessary to carry out the measurements in very fine steps of pressure head. Four materials of two capillary barriers are investigated in this paper. The tension apparatus according to Havlíček and Myslivec was used to measure their retention curves. Both branches of retention curves were measured in order to obtain data suitable for taking hysteresis into account. The method is described and the results are presented. Subsequently, the hydraulic characteristics of the materials are determined and their impact to the capillary barriers efficiency is investigated. The barriers were compared from the viewpoint of their efficiency using the measured data and tipping trough measurements made elsewhere. Explanation of the found differences was suggested and the effect of hysteresis was discussed., Dagmar Trpkošová and Jiří Mls., and Obsahuje bibliografii