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The genome sequence of the diploid and highly homozygous Vitis vinifera genotype PN40024 serves as the reference for many grapevine studies. Despite several improvements to the PN40024 genome assembly, its current version PN12X.v2 is quite fragmented and only represents the haploid state of the genome with mixed haplotypes. In fact, being nearly homozygous, this genome contains several heterozygous regions that are yet to be resolved. Taking the opportunity of improvements that long-read sequencing technologies offer to fully discriminate haplotype sequences, an improved version of the reference, called PN40024.v4, was generated. Through incorporating long genomic sequencing reads to the assembly, the continuity of the 12X.v2 scaffolds was highly increased with a total number decreasing from 2,059 to 640 and a reduction in N bases of 88%. Additionally, the full alternative haplotype sequence was built for the first time, the chromosome anchoring was improved and the number of unplaced scaffolds was reduced by half. To obtain a high-quality gene annotation that outperforms previous versions, a liftover approach was complemented with an optimized annotation workflow for Vitis. Integration of the gene reference catalogue and its manual curation have also assisted in improving the annotation, while defining the most reliable estimation of 35,230 genes to date. Finally, we demonstrated that PN40024 resulted from 9 selfings of cv. “Helfensteiner” (cross of cv. “Pinot noir” and “Schiava grossa”) instead of a single “Pinot noir”. These advances will help maintain the PN40024 genome as a gold-standard reference, also contributing toward the eventual elaboration of the grapevine pangenome.

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have become central to the administration of foreign aid during the last 30 years. Initially confined to the field of human rights and humanitarian aid, NGOs are now increasingly solicited for propagating fundamental concepts of Western civilization in cultures that have so far only adopted its trappings: Western ideas of liberty, liberalism, democracy, constitutionalism, free market, the rule of law. This ethnographic project discusses how the ideological and financial support the U.S.-led West provided in Yugoslavia for building and organizing civil society was used to convince the Yugoslav people to trust the Western model calling for the sovereignty of the market. It also documents how this ideological aid fits in with the U.S. government foreign policy with regard to Serbia. This research project is built on a brief immersion of the author in the NGO sector of Belgrade and Pristina and on a series of interviews conducted in Serbia, right before the NATO bombing, with leading NGOs and funders executives from, for example, Médecins Sans Frontières, Women in Black, USAID, or the Soros Open Society Institute as well as with key local political figures including present Yugoslav President, Vojislav Kostunica.

The genome sequence assembly of the diploid and highly homozygous V.vinifera genotype PN40024 serves as the reference for many grapevine studies. Despite several improvements of the PN40024 genome assembly, its current version PN12X.v2 is quite fragmented and only represents the haploid state of the genome with mixed haplotypes. In fact, despite the PN40024 genome is nearly homozygous, it still contains various heterozygous regions. Taking the opportunity of the improvements that long-read sequencing technologies offer to fully discriminate haplotype sequences and considering that several Vitis sp. genomes have recently been assembled with these approaches, an improved version of the reference, called PN40024.v4, was generated. Through incorporating long genomic sequencing reads to the assembly, the continuity of the 12X.v2 scaffolds was highly increased. The number of scaffolds decreased from 2,059 to 640 and the number of N bases was reduced by 88%. Additionally, the full alternative haplotype sequence was built for the first time, the chromosome anchoring was improved and the amount of unplaced scaffolds were reduced by half. To obtain a high-quality gene annotation that outperforms previous versions, a liftover approach was complemented with an optimized annotation workflow for Vitis. Integration of the gene reference catalogue and its manual curation have also assisted in improving the annotation, while defining the most reliable estimation to date of 35,230 genes. Finally, we demonstrate that PN40024 resulted from selfings of cv. ′Helfensteiner′ (cross of cv. ′Pinot noir′ and ′Schiava grossa′) instead of a single ′Pinot noir′. These advances will help maintaining the PN40024 genome as a gold-standard reference also contributing in the eventual elaboration of the grapevine pangenome.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.

Several tools, both financial and cultural, are timidly being introduced to help us define the criteria for a green product; the aim is to aid consumers to consume more wisely and to induce industries to produce \"green.\" These tools include eco - taxes, full - cost pricing, environmental balance sheets and eco - labels, and advice on green consumption. Full - cost pricing is thus a tool that makes it possible to take into account the needs of consumers as they relate to the needs of the environment; it is an entirely separate concept from the eco - tax. While the eco - tax is supposed to guide consumers toward more environmentally sound choices within the same range of products, full - cost pricing applies to all products. Further, the eco - tax is intended to be phased out, while full - cost pricing will only become more widespread. Take the environmental cost of the car. It is built with finite resources. Iron, aluminium, copper lead, platinum and zinc must all be mined and processed, using up large amounts of energy and causing environmental degradation near the mines. Plastics, rubber and glass are also needed, using up more fossil fuels. The materials must then be transported to the factory. The factory will need more energy, and also land and building materials. Roads must be then built with aggregates, gravel and tarmac, involving more mining, transport and energy. And the roads destroy agricultural land, wildlife habitats and houses. Producing petrol to run the cars involves exploring for oil. But oil must be drilled, refined and transported, causing environmental damage from oil spills, the building of roads and pipelines into wilderness areas, and the emission of fumes from the refineries. Finally, a network of petrol stations must be built.