Life history traits are considered key indicators of plant invasibility. Among them, the germination behavior of seeds is of major relevance because it is influenced by environmental factors of invaded ecosystem. Here, we investigated how seed traits and seed tolerance to environmental factors on seed germination of Calotropis procera vary depending on the invaded ecosystems in northeastern Bra...

We explore the possibility of tracing routes of dense waters toward and within the ocean abyss by the use of an extended set of observed physical and biochemical parameters. To this purpose, we employ mercury, isotopic oxygen, biopolymeric carbon and its constituents, together with indicators of microbial activity and bacterial diversity found in bottom waters of the Eastern Mediterranean. In t...

The objectives of this work were (1) to screen large collection of bean genotypes for salinity responses and (2) to identify the best traits for screening the bean germplasm in tolerance to salt stress. Sixty-four bean genotypes were subjected to 125 mM NaCl. Plants were grown in hydroponic growing medium in greenhouse. The screening was carried out at early growing stage (25 days old plant). I...

OBJECTIVE To position the concept of sustainability within the context of food security. DESIGN An overview of the interrelationships between food security and sustainability based on a non-systematic literature review and informed discussions based principally on a quasi-historical approach from meetings and reports. SETTING International and global food security and nutrition. RESULTS T...

OBJECTIVE To investigate inequalities in personal health conditions and in the utilization of healthcare services according in relation to the individual's status in the labor market. METHODS This study was based on 39,925 males aged 15 to 64 years living in 10 Brazilian metropolitan regions, who took part in the 1998 National Household Survey. They were classified as formal labor, informal l...

BACKGROUND Recently, quality is a serious concern in development of organizations. There are various indicators to assess quality and the purpose of this study was to identify the main indicators for quality measurement of Iranian health centers. METHODS This qualitative study was conducted in three stages: first, review of the literature was performed to identify different indicators for qua...

BACKGROUND Because soil salinity is a major abiotic constraint affecting crop yield, much research has been conducted to develop plants with improved salinity tolerance. Salinity stress impacts many aspects of a plant's physiology, making it difficult to study in toto Instead, it is more tractable to dissect the plant's response into traits that are hypothesized to be involved in the overall to...

Contemporary agriculture is facing new challenges with the increasing population and demand for food on Earth and the decrease in crop productivity due to abiotic stresses such as water deficit, high salinity, and extreme fluctuations of temperatures. The knowledge of plant stress responses, though widely extended in recent years, is still unable to provide efficient strategies for improvement ...

Current understanding of species capacities to respond climate change is limited by the amount information available about intraspecific variation in responses. Therefore, we quantified between- and within- population larval performance (survival, development, growth metamorphosis) shore crab Carcinus maenas response key environmental drivers (temperature, salinity) 2 populations from regions w...