Plant Concept Research Articles

Correlation of the L-mode density limit with edge collisionality

Abstract The ``density limit'' is one of the fundamental bounds on tokamak operating space, and is commonly estimated via the empirical Greenwald scaling. This limit has garnered renewed interest in recent years as it has become clear that ITER and many tokamak pilot plant concepts must operate near or above the widely-used Greenwald limit to achieve their objectives. Evidence has also grown that the Greenwald scaling - in its remarkable simplicity - may not capture the full complexity of the disruptive density limit. In this study, we assemble a multi-machine database to quantify the effectiveness of the Greenwald limit as a predictor of the L-mode density limit and identify alternative stability metrics. We find that a two-parameter dimensionless boundary in the plasma edge, $\nu_{*\rm, edge}^{\rm limit} = 3.0 \beta_{T,{\rm edge}}^{-0.4}$, achieves significantly higher accuracy (true negative rate of 97.7\% at a true positive rate of 95\%) than the Greenwald limit (true negative rate 86.1\% at a true positive rate of 95\%) across a multi-machine dataset including metal- and carbon-wall tokamaks (AUG, C-Mod, DIII-D, and TCV). The collisionality boundary presented here can be applied for density limit avoidance in current devices and in ITER, where it can be measured and responded to in real time.

A Conceptual Analysis of Occurrences: Implications for the Identity, Mereology and Representation of Occurrence Instances in Biodiversity Data Exchange

The Darwin Core standard (Darwin Core Maintenance Group 2021) defines occurrences as “An existence of an Organism at a particular place at a particular time.” Setting aside the fact that the term “organism” has a technical definition in Darwin Core, the concept of plants and animals, or biological individuals in general, occurring in particular places at particular times, is part of our ordinary, everyday experience of the world around us. While this informal understanding of an occurrence is straightforward and useful, standardizing the information content and use of a corresponding term for computational biodiversity knowledge engineering requires a rigorous specification of the relations that exist between occurrence instances and when these relations actually hold. The ontogenetic occurrence of a biological individual can be defined as the spatiotemporal region occupied by the biological individual during its ontogeny (Fig. 1) where a spatiotemporal region is to be understood as the trajectory of a 3-dimensional spatial region as it changes through time. An instance of an occurrence as defined in Darwin Core can then be interpreted as a certain segment of an ontogenetic occurrence and vice versa. This interpretation extrapolates to groups of biological individuals. For a group of individuals, the spatial region would be aggregated by the individual regions of space occupied by the individuals in the group. This interpretation of occurrences allows expression of the underlying semantic structure of commonplace statements about an occurrence in a uniform way, invoking the spatiotemporal regions occupied by the biological individuals observed. An important consequence of conceptualizing occurrences as segments of the ontogenetic occurrence of an individual is that these entities can be arbitrarily segmented or aggregated by segmenting or aggregating the corresponding spatiotemporal regions. The result of any such operation would be valid instances of an occurrence. Regarding the identity of occurrence instances, this model has a clear reading: occurrences are identical if and only if they correspond to the same spatiotemporal region occupied by the same individual or individuals. Data about occurrences can and will usually only be approximate, which reflects both methodological limitations as well as pragmatic considerations regarding the use cases for the desired data. Therefore, information about the kind of approximation, about the observation methodology and contextual biological knowledge are instrumental to the analysis and integration of occurrence data. In many cases, the observed biological individuals remain anonymous, which leads to raw data that is routinely aggregated for groups of individuals. This may present challenges when additional data about individuals is to be shared. An occurrence concept anchored on the level of a biological individual, with a clear way to aggregate data for groups of individuals, may be helpful for indicating ways to handle such data consistently.

Phytoestrogens Therapy for Osteoporosis Treatment Using Indonesian Medicinal Plants: A Brief Review

A problematic bone remodeling cycle is known to produce more osteoclasts than osteoblasts, making bones more fragile and this condition shows osteoporosis. In this context, estrogen deficiency in the human body is associated with the regulation of osteoporosis. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the knowledge about basic concepts of bone, osteoporosis, phytoestrogens, and Indonesian medicinal plants for osteoporosis treatment. Data were obtained from literature on various databases including Science Direct, Wiley Online Library, Scopus, Pubmed, and Google Scholar. Adequate therapy is needed to increase estrogen content and an effective approach is to consume medicinal plants that contain phytoestrogens, which have identical structure and activity to human estrogen (17β-estradiol). The results showed that there were observations comprising in vitro, in vivo, and in silico studies on 18 Indonesian medicinal plants as antiosteoporosis treatments. The Leguminosae or Fabaceae family, which has a significant amount of isoflavones (the primary group of phytoestrogens) was found to dominate as an antiosteoporosis agent. Therefore, the development of phytoestrogens therapy from Indonesian medicinal plants must be implemented for the future treatment of osteoporosis.

CRITERIA FOR ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TRANSPORT POWER PLANTS DECARBONISATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT

The directions of restoration and further development of the energy sector in Ukraine are considered in accordance with power plants with internal combustion engines, taking into account the widespread implementation of the Sustainable Development concept, which allows solving existing modern social, economic and environmental problems. For Ukraine, taking into account the economic opportunities and selected priorities for the chosen path of development, it is necessary at this time to choose gradual and specific directions to implement the Sustainable Development concept. The most priority areas of practical implementation of the concept are determined and it is indicated that the effectiveness of this implementation is associated with the development of the industry on the basis of the fourth and fifth industrial revolutions (Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0). One of the main tasks in solving the problems of the concept is to ensure the environmental component. Notwithstanding the noted progress in improving the environmental efficiency of internal combustion engines, further attention needs to be paid to the task of spreading the introduction of “green energy”, i.e. decarbonisation – reducing greenhouse gas emissions into the environment (CO2). The issue of decarbonisation in the future should be given the greatest attention both in the development and in the manufacture and operation of engines. It is shown that the assessment of the impact of CO2 emitted with the exhaust gases of internal combustion engines into the environment is carried out taking into account the model of operation of engines and the justification of the introduced adjustments. A new criterion is proposed, which is called: “ICE criterion of environmental thermal pollution”, which is proposed for use in studies to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of decarbonisation strategies in all modes of transport at implementation of the Sustainable Development concept in global transport power plants. A method for determining the efficiency of physical and chemical processes of mixture formation and combustion in internal combustion engine cylinders is proposed when using hybrid fuel with “green hydrogen” as its component, which allows determining the dependence of hydrogen influence on the level of engines effective performance and formation of harmful emissions in exhaust gases.

Managing the heat: In-Vessel Components.

The Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) programme aims to deliver a first-of-a-kind fusion prototype powerplant (SPP). The SPP plasma places extreme heat, particle and structural loads onto the plasma-facing components (PFCs) of the divertor, limiters and inboard and outboard sections of the first wall. The PFCs must manage the heat and particle loads and wider powerplant requirements relating to safety, net power generation, tritium breeding and plant availability. To enable STEP PFC concepts to be identified that satisfy these wide-ranging requirements, an iterative design ('Decide & Iterate') methodology has been used to synchronize a prioritized set of decisions, within the fast-paced, iterative, whole plant concept design schedule. This paper details the 'Decide and Iterate' methodology and explains how it has enabled the identification of the SPP PFC concepts. These include innovative PFC solutions such as a helium-cooled discrete and panel limiter design to increase tritium breeding while providing sufficient coverage and enabling individual limiter replacement; the integration of the outboard first wall with the breeding zone to enhance fuel self-sufficiency and power generation; and the use of heavy water (D2O) within the inboard first wall and divertor PFCs to increase tritium breeding within the outboard breeding zone. This article is part of the theme issue 'Delivering Fusion Energy - The Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP)'.

Conceptual design of a modular EC heating system for EU-DEMO

The European DEMO (EU-DEMO) reactor studies within EUROfusion aim to develop a fusion power plant concept. The large tokamak device needs an auxiliary heating power which, at the present stage, is provided by the Electron Cyclotron (EC) heating system with up to 130 MW foreseen to reach different regions of plasma for heating, suppression of instabilities and the possibility to support ramp-up and ramp-down phases. The present conceptual design of the system is based on 2 MW coaxial-cavity gyrotron sources, a transmission line (TL) using both circular corrugated waveguides and quasi-optical evacuated multi-beam TLs, and mirror antennas located in the Equatorial Port. In order to create a modular system, the sources are grouped in ‘clusters’, whose powers are combined in the quasi-optical TL, up to the tokamak building, where they are split and routed as single waveguides. In the launcher, they are combined together again on the launching mirrors, to save space for the apertures in the Breeding Blanket. The present EC heating system has a certain flexibility to adapt to changing design guidelines. The development status of the system is presented.

Concept and role of immunomodulatory medicinal plants used in Ayurvedic health care system

The statement “prevention is better than cure” and its applications is not a new for Ayurvedic health care system. The statement defines the aim and objectives of Ayurvedic health care system in a nutshell “swasthasya swasthya rakshanam aaturasya vikara prashamanam”. The immune system is certainly considered one of our most discreet biological systems withinside the body. Immunizations may be obtained by us actively or passively. Active immunization includes stimulating with an antigen to generate immunological defenses against a destiny exposure, rather than passive vaccination, which includes administering antibodies to someone who has already been exposed to an antigen. Both plant and animal sources produce immunomodulatory effects to boost the body’s immunological reactivity against infections by engaging the non-specific immune system. Herbal immunomodulators are substances that either activate or suppress innate and adaptive immune responses in the body. Different ailments including allergies, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, and other infectious disorders are caused by immune system failure. Therefore, regulating the many infectious illnesses requires significant immune response modification. Global scientific study is currently focused on how various medicinal plant components might alter the immune system. Numerous Indian and “Rasayana” and medicinal plants may have immunomodulatory characteristics. Some of these plants are Tinospora cordifolia, Morus alba, Acacia catechu, Allium sativum, and Mangifera indica. There are many more that are still undiscovered and offer space for greater study.

Harmonized control framework for integrated hybrid microgrid and virtual power plant operation

This paper presents a novel approach in the realm of electric vehicle (EV) applications and renewable energy-based distributed generation (RE-DG) by proposing a unified DC/AC hybrid microgrid (HMG) system tailored for poultry farms. The system aims to streamline design complexity, minimize component requirements, and champion sustainability by seamlessly integrating wind and solar photovoltaic (PV)-based DGs. An innovative EV-based virtual power plant (VPP) concept is introduced to mitigate power intermittency and eliminate the need for energy storage and extra charging stations. To ensure synchronized operation, a Harmonized Control Framework (HCF) is devised, capable of managing both grid-following and grid-forming operations while adapting to dynamic conditions and non-linear loads. Rigorous software and real-time Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing demonstrate the proposed microgrid's exceptional power transfer capabilities, improved harmonic performance, rapid settling times, and superior voltage/frequency regulation compared to the conventional double-stage synchronous frame (DD-SRF) control approach.

The new layout and regulation of the ‘pulsating’ power conversion system of EU DEMO WCLL for an effective and safe control of pulse-dwell transitions and increase in plant efficiency

EUROFUSION DEMO is a Fusion Power Plant concept under assessment, based on Tokamak technology. Regarding the Balance of Plant definition, particular effort has been posed to the design of the Power Conversion System (PCS), thermally coupled to the Primary Heat Transport System. Several architectures of the PCS have been assessed, and the present work is focused on the PCS, based on the Rankine Cycle technology and equipped with a Small Energy Storage System (ESS) operated with Molten Salt. A new Energy Map has been released in 2021, revealing uncertainties on the thermal power deposited on the different in-Vacuum Vessel components (i.e. Breeding Blanket, Divertor, Limiters and Vacuum Vessel) and rejected to the coolant of related cooling circuits. This fact leads to several (12) possible operating scenarios. The following treatment will be analyzed the 2022 PCS Small ESS concept design review, performed by the industry with the main aim to align the new layout with the updated thermal inputs and its comparison with the preliminary design developed in 2018. Design novelties will be highlighted, especially those that dealt with improving the cycle control, robustness, safety of the operation and efficiency. The outcomes of the transient analysis will be shown and compared, to verify the mechanical and thermal stress during the DEMO period (pulse/dwell). Finally, a performance and efficiency analysis of the 2022 PCS layout is also presented and compared to 2018 configuration.

Hyperfine interactions of paramagnetic radiation-induced defect centres in advanced ceramic breeder pebbles

Advanced ceramic breeder (ACB) pebbles consisting of 65 mol% lithium orthosilicate (Li4SiO4) and 35 mol% lithium metatitanate (Li2TiO3) are developed for tritium breeding in the European Union’s (EU) helium cooled pebble bed (HCPB) breeder blanket concept of the demonstration fusion power plant (DEMO). Electron-nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) spectroscopy is a powerful and widely used magnetic resonance technique that combines aspects of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). In the present work, ENDOR spectroscopy was applied to investigate hyperfine (HF) interactions of paramagnetic radiation-induced defect centres (containing unpaired electrons) in the biphasic ACB pebbles after irradiation with 10 MeV accelerated electrons. To separate individual EPR signals of the formed and accumulated paramagnetic centres, isochronal annealing of the irradiated ACB pebbles followed by EPR spectra measurements at X- and Q-microwave frequency bands at room and low temperature were performed. Afterwards, X-band ENDOR spectra at low temperature were recorded for selected EPR signals to reveal HF interactions between the unpaired electron spins with the spins of magnetic 7Li and 1H isotope nuclei. The g-factor and HF coupling values determined from EPR and ENDOR spectra simulations provide novel insights into the local structure of paramagnetic hole- and electron-type centres in the irradiated ACB pebbles.

The effect of the scientific harvest strategy on the achievement of students in the Life Sciences Department To understand plant concepts and develop their analytical thinking

يهدف البحث التعرف على اثر استراتيجية الحصاد العلمي في تحصيل طلبة قسم علوم الحياة للمفاهيم النباتية وتنمية تفكيرهم التحليلي ولتحقيق هدفا البحث وضع الباحث الفرضيتين الصفرية في عينة مؤلفة من (117)طالبا وطالبة في ثلاثة مجاميع (ABC) من طلبة قسم علوم الحياة / المرحلة الرابعة في مقرر مادة فسلجة النبات وقسم الباحث هذه المجاميع الثلاثة الى مجموعتين احدهما طلبة المجموعة التجريبية درست وفق استراتيجة الحصاد العلمي والاخرى طلبة المجموعة الضابطة التي درست وفق الطريقة الاعتيادية (المحاضرة الجامعية )لتدريس مادة فسلجة النبات كما واعتمد الباحث لقياس التفكير التحليلي اختبارا جاهزا اعده المهداوي وكاظم 2023مؤلف من 40فقرة واعد اختبارا تحصيليا للمفاهيم النباتية من نوع الاختيار من متعدد بلغت عدد فقراته من 25 فقرة ووضع اهدافا سلوكية ضمن مستويات بلوم للاهداف السلوكية بلغت 180هدفا سلوكيا واعد 24خطة تدريسية لمجموعتي طلبة البحث واستمرت التجربة ثلاثة اشهر وبعد انتهاء تطبيق التجربة طبق الباحث اداتي البحث في الاختبارين البعديين التفكير التحليلي والاختبار التحصيلي للمفاهيم النباتية وصحح نتائج الطلبة على استجابات الاختبارين واستعمل الباحث الوسائل الاحصائية لمعالجة البيانات الحاصلة للبحث فاظهرت نتائج البحث تفوق طلبة المجموعة التجريبية التي درست وفق استراتيجية الحصاد المعرفي في الاختبار التحصيلي للمفاهيم النباتية وتفكيرهم التحليلي في مقرر مادة فسلجة النبات ووضع الباحث بعض التوصيات في تدريب الطلبة في الكليات التربوية للعلوم الصرفة على استخدام الاستراتيجات الحديثة في تدريس المواد العلمية والمقترحات اجراء دراسات تربوية تتناول موضوعات اخرى لتطبيق هذه الاستراتيجية ونتائجها في اجراءات البحث .

Когнитивная фитонимическая метафора как средство описания внешности человека в русской и китайской лингвокультурах

The article deals with the cognitive phytonymic metaphor, which forms the plant code in Russian and Chinese linguocultures. A cognitive metaphor, i.e. conceptual metaphor (G. Lakoff, M. Johnson), establishes stable correspondences between the source and the target domains, which are fixed in a linguoculture. This paper investigates the cognitive phytonymic metaphor as a way of interpreting and cognizing reality and, at the same time, as one of the most effective means of creating and representing a linguistic worldview. Considering phytonyms and the plant concepts they are naming as the source domain and the person as the target domain, the cognitive phytonymic metaphor activates a metaphorical mapping that reflects the plant code of culture as part of the coordinate system of linguocultures. The significance of analysing the cognitive mechanisms of the phytonymic metaphor lies in revealing the commonality and individuality of the national linguistic consciousness and values of the two peoples, embodied in the fragments of their linguistic worldviews. The study aimed to identify the characteristic features of the perception of the plant world by members of the Russian and Chinese national linguocultural communities. To achieve this aim, the following tasks were solved: firstly, phytonyms in the two linguocultures were studied as a means of describing a person’s external characteristics; secondly, based on phytomorphisms, a comparative analysis was performed of the cognitive mechanisms of the phytonymic metaphor in Russian and Chinese linguistic worldviews; thirdly, factors contributing to the emergence of differences between cognitive phytonymic metaphors in the two linguocultures were identified. The research concludes that, in most cases, when comparing phytonymic metaphors in the two linguocultures one will find discrepancies, including asymmetry and nonequivalence. Such factors as geographical environment, religion, history, national culture, way of thinking and hierarchy of peoples’ values can have a great influence on the formation of differences between cognitive phytonymic metaphors in the two linguocultures.

Plant Nutrition Monitoring System for Water Spinach Based on Internet of Things

The concept of plants using a hydroponic system has been widely used. Currently, the weakness in the management of the hydroponic system is the difficulty in managing the nutritional needs of plants. Nutrition is the main requirement for plants with the concept of a hydroponic system. In this research, a system will be proposed that can monitor the nutritional needs of hydroponic plants with a concentration of water spinach plants. The use of internet of things technology is proposed to be able to monitor in real time. With the existence of a monitoring system in real time, it can make it easier to monitor and control the nutritional needs of kangkong plants using a smartphone.

Fungal Necrotrophic Interaction: A Case Study of Seed Immune Response to a Seed-Borne Pathogen

Seeds play a vital role in the perpetuation of plant species, both in natural environments and agriculture. However, they often face challenges from biotic stresses, such as seed-borne pathogenic fungi. The transgenerational transmission of these seed-borne fungi, along with their dissemination during seed commercialization, can contribute to the emergence of global epidemic diseases, resulting in substantial economic losses. Despite the recognized impact of seed-borne pathogens on agriculture, our understanding of seed–pathogen interactions remains limited. This review establishes parallels between the current state of knowledge regarding seed responses to pathogen interactions and well-established plant defense models, primarily derived from typical physiological conditions observed during leaf infections. Examining fragmented results from various pathosystems, this review seeks to offer a comprehensive overview of our current understanding of interactions during seed development and germination. The necrotrophic interactions in Brassicaceae are described using recent transcriptomic and genetic studies focused on the Arabidopsis/Alternaria pathosystem, which illustrates original response pathways in germinating seeds that markedly differ from the general concept of plant–pathogen interactions. The co-existence of regulatory mechanisms affecting both seed resistance and susceptibility, potentially promoting fungal colonization, is examined. The vulnerable response during germination emerges as a crucial consideration in the context of sustainable plant health management in agriculture.

Program Edukasi Energi Terbarukan Sebagai Alternatif Teknologi Ramah Lingkungan di MTS Negeri 1 Mataram

Global warming and the environmental impacts of fossil fuels are very important to understand, especially for the younger generation, including students. Geographically, MTs Negeri 1 Mataram is located in the Mataram city area with a distance of approximately 1 kilometer from the Mataram University campus, which is the place of duty for the team carrying out this service. The method for implementing this service is through socialization and education about the basic concepts of solar power plants, how they work, and their environmental and social benefits through various stages including presentations, discussions, practical demonstrations of PLTS modules, and assessing student understanding through post-tests. and pre-test. Practice demonstration of PLTS modules. Evaluation of the 20 students who took part in this activity showed an increase in their awareness regarding the importance of PLTS in sustainable energy and environmental conservation, because the average post-test and pre-test score was above 83. This is expected to encourage active participation of students in supporting renewable energy in the future

Feasible operation region estimation of virtual power plant considering heterogeneity and uncertainty of distributed energy resources

The concept of the virtual power plant (VPP) has attracted extensive attention due to its distinguished capability of integrating various types of distributed energy resources (DERs). Defining the feasible operation region (FOR) is a crucial prerequisite for VPP's participation in the provision of power system services. However, considering the heterogeneity and uncertainty of DERs, it is always a challenging task to calculate the accurate FOR of VPP. In this paper, we propose a novel internal resource aggregation approach to estimate the FOR of VPP. The design of the proposed aggregation model consists of two stages. In the first stage, all the operational constraints of various DERs at the same node are expressed with a unified polytope form, and then these constraints are aggregated into one single polytope operation constraint by the computational geometry method. In the second stage, based on the aggregated polytope operation constraint at each node, combined with the dynamic line rating (DLR) and network constraints, a data-driven distributionally robust FOR estimation problem is formulated to determine the boundaries of the FOR. Numerical experiments have been conducted to validate the feasibility and superiority of the proposed approach and its applicability in handling multi-period FOR estimation.

Maximizing EV profit and grid stability through Virtual Power Plant considering V2G

The electrification of transportation through the widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) has raised substantial concerns within the realm of power grid operations. This concern predominantly stems from the elevated electricity demand brought about by the surging population of EVs, consequently exerting strain on the power grid infrastructure which can be reduced with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology integration. To address this issue, this paper delves further into the realm of grid integration by introducing a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) concept to enhance the synergy between EVs and power grid. This study aims to compare different realistic objectives, ranging from total active power loss and voltage drop minimization to EV profit maximization and then optimize the balance between the distribution grid power quality and VPP profit through bi-level modeling. The presented model is devised as mixed-integer quadratically constrained programming (MIQCP) and incorporates Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN) based forecasting to handle the uncertain behavior of the residential loads using historical data. The experiments are conducted in IEEE 33-Bus and real-world 240-Bus distribution networks. The results indicate that enabling bidirectional power flow between the grid and VPP can yield significant profits for EV users while only marginally impacting the active power loss, approximately around 5%. This validation underscores how V2G not only presents various advantages for power system operators but also benefits EV users simultaneously.

Virtual Power Plant’s Optimal Scheduling Strategy in Day-Ahead and Balancing Markets Considering Reserve Provision Model of Energy Storage System

In recent years, with the rapid increase in renewable energy sources (RESs), a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) concept has been developed to integrate many small-scale RESs, energy storage systems (ESSs), and customers into a unified agent in the electricity market. Optimal coordination among resources within the VPP will overcome their disadvantages and enable them to participate in both energy and balancing markets. This study considers a VPP as an active agent in reserve provision with an upward reserve capacity contract pre-signed in the balancing capacity (BC) market. Based on the BC contract’s requirements and the forecasted data of RESs and demand, a two-stage stochastic optimization model is presented to determine the VPP’s optimal scheduling in the day-ahead (DA) and balancing energy (BE) markets. The probability of reserve activation in the BE market is considered in this model. The ESS’s reserve provision model is proposed so as not to affect its schedule in the DA market. The proposed optimal scheduling model is applied to a test VPP system; then, the effects of the BC contract and the probability of reserve activation on the VPP’s trading schedule are analyzed. The results show that the proposed model has practical significance.

Decentralized production concepts for bio-based polymers - implications for supply chains, costs, and the carbon footprint

This paper presents a multi-dimensional evaluation of decentralized production networks based on modular production plants. The main objective of this evaluation is to examine the effects of different degrees of decentralization in production networks of the chemical industry. Using the production of a biopolymer as an example, the study includes strategic supply chain planning by agent-based simulations, economic evaluation by calculation of net present values and environmental assessment by calculation of carbon footprints. By allowing for dynamic reconfiguration of the decentralized networks over time, it is shown that mobile, modular plant concepts are beneficial to reduce supply chain expenses. Transportation efforts resulting from strategic supply chain planning are reduced by 40 % with increasing degree of decentralization. The profitability of the decentralized networks is dominated by the costs for the production processes themselves as capital and operational expenditures allocate to >50 % of the total costs. Product prices of 3000 to 5500 €2020 per ton are necessary to reach profitability of the decentralized production networks. Regarding the environmental assessment, the carbon footprint of the supply chain accounts for <3 % of the total emissions, which are dominated by the provision of process heat that accounts for 46 to 68 % of the total emissions. Carbon footprint of the decentral production networks can be significantly reduced by a systematic electrification of 90 % of the process heat demand.

Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay pathway in plants under stress: general gene regulatory mechanism and advances.

Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay in eukaryotes is vital to cellular homeostasis. Further knowledge of its putative role in plant RNA metabolism under stress is pivotal to developing fitness-optimizing strategies. Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD), part of the mRNA surveillance pathway, is an evolutionarily conserved form of gene regulation in all living organisms. Degradation of mRNA-bearing premature termination codons and regulation of physiological RNA levels highlight NMD's role in shaping the cellular transcriptome. Initially regarded as purely a tool for cellular RNA quality control, NMD is now considered to mediate various aspects of plant developmental processes and responses to environmental changes. Here we offer a basic understanding of NMD in eukaryotes by explaining the concept of premature termination codon recognition and NMD complex formation. We also provide a detailed overview of the NMD mechanism and its role in gene regulation. The potential role of effectors, including ABCE1, in ribosome recycling during the translation process is also explained. Recent reports of alternatively spliced variants of corresponding genes targeted by NMD inArabidopsis thalianaare provided in tabular format. Detailed figures are also provided to clarify the NMD concept in plants. In particular, accumulating evidence shows that NMD can serve as a novel alternative strategy for genetic manipulation and can help design RNA-based therapies to combat stress in plants. A key point of emphasis is its function as a gene regulatory mechanism as well as its dynamic regulation by environmental and developmental factors. Overall, a detailed molecular understanding of the NMD mechanism can lead to further diverse applications, such as improving cellular homeostasis in living organisms.