Ethnicity,State Violence,and Neo‐Liberal Transitions in Post‐Communist Bulgaria

State socialist nationalization policies in the 1980s severely impacted the ethnic Turkish and Muslim regions of Bulgaria, while neo‐liberal economic strategies have subsequently further deepened their economic crisis. This paper focuses on the ways in which policies of regional economic marginalization, cultural assimilation, and population expulsion have deeply marked the people and places of the Kurdajli region of southeastern Bulgaria. The paper shows how mass unemployment arose quickly after 1989 as a result of the closure of branch‐plants, and assesses the role of social networks and non‐capitalist economic practices in the Muslim communities during this period of economic immiseration. The paper shows how these legacies of state policy and social practice have provided flexible opportunities for the resurgence of apparel assembly for export, referred to locally as ‘Klondike capitalism’. The paper concludes with a discussion of the extent to which the history of violence has influenced the processes of internationalization in the region, and how we are to think about the relationship between regional mass unemployment and sectorally specific industrial revitalization.     

E‐commerce,Transportation, and Economic Geography

ABSTRACT This paper explores possible ways in which growth in Internet retailing (e‐retailing) may affect the spatial distribution of economic activities. After a brief overview of e‐retailing, a categorization of possible spatial impacts is introduced. These include impacts on the retail industry, such as substitution of e‐retail for brick‐and‐mortar retail, impacts on transportation, such as substitution of freight transportation for personal transportation in goods delivery, and pervasive impacts that affect the whole economy. The latter category includes uniform delivered pricing, spatial leveling of accessibility, and marketing strategies that target individuals rather than regions. The question of whether e‐retailing and brick‐and‐mortar retailing are truly substitutes is taken up in the next section, along with potential implications of multi‐channel retailing. The final section of the paper defines some critical research directions.     

Urban–Rural Differences in Internet Usage,e‐Commerce,and e‐Banking: Evidence from Italy

ABSTRACT By reducing the cost of performing isolated economic activities in remote areas, information technology might serve as a substitute for urban agglomeration. The paper assesses this hypothesis using data on Italian households' usage of the Internet, e‐commerce, and e‐banking. The results do not support the argument that the Internet reduces the role of distance. Internet usage is much more frequent among urban consumers than among their non‐urban counterparts. The use of e‐commerce is basically unaffected by the size of the city where the household lives. Geographically remote consumers are discouraged from purchasing goods by the fact that they cannot inspect them beforehand. Leisure activities and cultural items (i.e., books, CDs, and tickets for museums and theaters) are the only goods and services for which e‐commerce is used more in isolated areas. Finally, e‐banking bears no relationship to city size. In choosing a bank, non‐urban customers give more importance to personal acquaintance than do urban clients, partly because bank account holders in remote areas are more likely to have taken out a loan from their bank.     

Metabolic fingerprinting of water‐stressed soybean cultivars by gas chromatography,near‐infrared and UV‐visible spectroscopy combined with chemometrics

Aiming to assess the impact of water deficit on agronomic, photosynthetic and biochemical parameters of two soybean cultivars during reproductive stage, soybean plants were subjected to three gravimetric humidity levels. Water deficit decreased the leaf relative water content, leaf dry matter content, dried pod weight, grain weight, chlorophyll activity, linolenic acid, pentadecanoid and palmitoleic acid, and increased stearic, lauric, linoleic, myristic, oleic, palmitic and tricosanoic acids. Reactive oxygen species production and lipid peroxidation were accompanied by the activation of antioxidant defence system. Changes in aliphatic hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons, methyl, methylene, aromatic amine, polysaccharides, phenolics, carotenoids, proteins, C‐H aryl group, alkyl alcohols, polyamide, amide, ethers and esters, primary amide, N‐H secondary amine were observed. Principal component analysis and network correlations revealed dried shoot weight, malondihaldeyde, phenolics, proline, guaiacol peroxidase, stearic, tricosanoic, linoleic, oleic, palmitic, myristic and lauric acids as the most important variables related to water deficit. Cultivar CV5959 was most tolerant than CV 5909. Despite the important variables found in this study, further research in data integration is needed for better understanding of the potential bio‐markers of water deficit and future development of its signalling pathways.     

Antioxidative Response of Quinoa Exposed to Iso‐Osmotic,Ionic and Non‐Ionic Salt Stress

Antioxidants play an important role in adapting plants to abiotic stress by detoxifying reactive oxygen species (ROS). Involvement of antioxidant enzymes in abiotic stress tolerance of highly stress‐tolerant quinoa was studied in a climatic chamber at 6 mOsm (milliosmolar) ionic (300 mm NaCl) and non‐ionic (600 mm mannitol) salts combined with increasing levels of potassium K1 and K2 (6, 12 mm ), respectively. Fifteen days of salt treatment (both ionic and non‐ionic) decreased plant growth (shoot and root fresh weight), stomatal conductance and chlorophyll content index. Furthermore, both forms of salt stress increased the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase and peroxidase up to 2.33‐, 3.98‐, 4.78‐ and 5.55‐folds, respectively, compared to no salt treatment, whereas membrane stability index decreased corresponding to increase in lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde), with salt treatments compared to non‐stressed plants. However, no significant effect of potassium and salt treatments has been noticed on the maximal photochemical efficiency of PSII. The results suggested that enhanced antioxidant enzymes activity under salt stress could be one of the factors responsible for abiotic stress tolerance in quinoa.     

Forage and Food Legumes in a Multi‐Year,Wheat‐Based Rotation Under Drought‐Stressed Conditions in Northern Syria’s Medium Rainfall Zone

Long‐term crop rotation trials were designed to assess sustainability of alternatives to traditional fallow and monocropping. The trial described here (6 years) involved wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in rotation with lentil (Lens culinaris L.), forage vetch (Vicia sativa), pasture medic (Medicago spp.), fallow and watermelon (Citrullus vulgaris). Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) was compared with wheat for an additional 2 years. Cereal grain and straw yields were highest with fallow and watermelon followed by vetch, lentil and medic; the latter showed no differential effect of variable grazing intensity. Fertilizer N increased yields except in the low‐rainfall years (less than 250 mm). Barley out‐yielded wheat in terms of grain, but not straw. Medic yielded highest in dry matter, whereas lentil produced highest seed yield. Despite the difficulty of assessing crop and animal‐oriented rotations because of non‐commonality of outputs, economic considerations are foremost, but other benefits of rotations (soil quality, water‐use relations) are also relevant to the overall assessment of cereal‐based Mediterranean rotations. The study suggested barley rather than wheat as the desired cereal in rotation with legumes in this marginal‐rainfall (350 mm) environment and provided support for the viability of vetch and lentil in the cropping system. Given the importance of sheep in the region’s farming system, vetch is likely to have a major role in crop rotations.     

Marker‐assisted breeding of Pi‐1 and Piz‐5 genes imparting resistance to rice blast in PRR78, restorer line of Pusa RH‐10 Basmati rice hybrid

Rice blast, caused by fungus Magnaporthe grisea, is a serious disease causing considerable economic damage worldwide. Best way to overcome disease is to breed for disease‐resistant cultivars/parental lines of hybrids. Pusa RH10, first aromatic, fine‐grain rice hybrid released and cultivated extensively in India. Hybrid and its parental lines, Pusa 6A and PRR78, are highly susceptible to blast. CO39 pyramid carrying two dominant, broad‐spectrum blast‐resistance genes, viz. Pi‐1 and Piz‐5, used as a donor parent to introgress these genes into PRR78 using marker‐assisted backcrossing (MABC). Microsatellite markers RM5926 and AP5659‐5 tightly linked to Pi‐1 and Piz‐5 genes, respectively, were used for foreground selection to derive introgression lines. Further, these lines were evaluated for agronomic performance, disease reaction and cooking quality traits along with PRR78. Most of the improved lines were on par with PRR78 for all traits evaluated except gelatinization temperature. Recurrent parent genome percentage (RPG) study also revealed similarity of these lines with PRR78. Hybrids derived using improved PRR78 lines were superior over Pusa RH10 in terms of yield.     

Drought responses of above‐ground and below‐ground characteristics in warm‐season turfgrass

Water shortages have become more chronic as periodic droughts prolong and water demand for urban and agricultural use increases. Plant drought responses involve coordinated mechanisms in both above‐ and below‐ground systems, yet most studies lack comparisons of root and canopy responses under water scarcity and recovery. This is particularly true of research focused on warm‐season turfgrasses in sandy soils with extremely low water holding capacity. To address the lack of examination of coordinated stress and recovery responses, this study compared the above‐ and below‐ground plant responses during a dry‐down period of 21 days and recovery among four warm‐season turfgrass species in the field. Canopy drought responses and recovery were quantified using digital image analysis. In situ root images were captured using a minirhizotron camera system. Common bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.] endured the entire drought period without losing 50% green cover while other species lost 50% green cover in 11–34 days predicted from the regression. The interspecific differences in drought resistance were mainly due to root characteristics. Other drought mechanisms appear to be responsible for differences identified in drought resistance between “Zeon” and “Taccoa Green” manilagrass [Zoysia matrella (L.) Merr.]. Recovery was delayed for up to 2 weeks in the second year, warranting further evaluation for turfgrass persistence under long‐term drought. Three‐week drought posed no threat to the survival of zoysiagrass. Species and genotypic variations were found in achieving full post‐recovery, which can be used to develop water conservation strategies and to adjust consumer expectations.     

Behind the Pan‐European Convergence Path: The Role of Innovation,Specialisation and Socio‐economic Factors

The paper analyses the determinants of regional disparities in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and their evolution over time in the enlarged European Union (EU). With reference to the literature it groups EU regions on the basis of three different factors—specialisation, socio‐economic features, and innovation. It then analyses regional disparities in per capita GDP (EU‐relative and country‐relative) across groups over 2004–2011 using both non‐parametric tools and traditional regression analysis with spatial effects. The paper finds that EU‐wide convergence actually conceals growing divergence across old member regions and within new members. Coming to the factors that lie at the heart of regional disparities, country factors lose importance for newcomers but become more important for older members, notwithstanding longstanding integration. Socio‐economic factors and innovation instead become increasingly important for all areas, socio‐economic factors lying at the heart of within‐country differences and innovation more of those between regions. Finally, specialisation appears to have a lower explanatory power.     

The restorer gene for soybean M‐type cytoplasmic male sterility,Rf‐m,is located in a PPR gene‐rich region on chromosome 16

Over the past decade, M‐type cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) line W931A and a variety of restorer lines have been exploited for the release of hybrid seeds in soybean (Glycine max). However, the identities of restorer genes in the nuclei of soybean restorer lines are still unclear. In this study, we analysed the inheritance pattern of restorer locus Rf‐m from restorer line WR016 and constructed a high‐resolution map of this locus. Results showed that Rf‐m in WR016 is a monogenic dominant gene located within a 162.4‐kb region on chromosome 16, which is flanked on each side by new developed simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers GmSSR1602 and GmSSR1610 at a distance of 0.11 and 0.25 cM, respectively. Nineteen open reading frames (ORFs) were predicted in this region. Of these, seven genes arranged in tandem on chromosome 16 encode pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins, which is similar to other reported restorer loci in plants. These results lay a solid foundation for map‐based cloning of the Rf‐m gene and will be helpful for marker‐assisted selection of elite CMS restorer lines.