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Adverse environmental conditions due to climate change, combined with declining soil fertility, threaten food security. Modern agriculture is facing a pressing situation where novel strategies must be developed for sustainable food production and security. Biostimulants, conceptually defined as non-nutrient substances or microorganisms with the ability to promote plant growth and health, represent the potential to provide sustainable and economically favorable solutions that could introduce novel approaches to improve agricultural practices and crop productivity. Current knowledge and phenotypic observations suggest that biostimulants potentially function in regulating and modifying physiological processes in plants to promote growth, alleviate stresses, and improve quality and yield. However, to successfully develop novel biostimulant-based formulations and programs, understanding biostimulant-plant interactions, at molecular, cellular and physiological levels, is a prerequisite. Metabolomics, a multidisciplinary omics science, offers unique opportunities to predictively decode the mode of action of biostimulants on crop plants, and identify signatory markers of biostimulant action. Thus, this review intends to highlight the current scientific efforts and knowledge gaps in biostimulant research and industry, in context of plant growth promotion and stress responses. The review firstly revisits models that have been elucidated to describe the molecular machinery employed by plants in coping with environmental stresses. Furthermore, current definitions, claims and applications of plant biostimulants are pointed out, also indicating the lack of biological basis to accurately postulate the mechanisms of action of plant biostimulants. The review articulates briefly key aspects in the metabolomics workflow and the (potential) applications of this multidisciplinary omics science in the biostimulant industry.

In this work, carbonaceous deposits on spent HTFT catalysts were investigated. This research was required in order to better understand the observed loss in productivity observed in the industrial reactors, with the aim of improving the economy of the HTFT process. A host of complementary techniques were employed to systematically determine the composition of a typical catalyst recovered from a reactor. Spent HTFT catalysts are comprised of magnetite and a mixture of iron carbides as well as adsorbed hydrocarbon products (soft carbon) and hard carbon. Reaction initiates at the particle surface and along the promoter-rich grain boundaries toward the core of the grains. A partially reacted particle would therefore have a core-shell structure, with magnetite representing the unreacted region of the catalyst. The reacted region consists of a porous carbonaceous matrix with soft carbon and carbide crystallites nestled in this matrix. The hard carbonaceous species is a mixture of polymeric carbon and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The particle structure is linked to the sample preparation method and an alternative method yielding catalyst particle with uniformly distributed promoter elements could be beneficial. Investigating carbonaceous species is a complex process, and development of a fresh methodology would aid in the quest for insight into the nature of carbonaceous species in various systems. A new approach which entails a combination of the traditional techniques combined with MALDI-TOF MS enabled a deeper investigation. Additional aspects such as the molecular weight distributions along with known information about crystallinity and morphology of the catalyst provide a comprehensive study of carbonaceous material. Polymeric carbon and very large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons constitute hard carbon and can be observed with minimal sample preparation procedures. The evolution of the HTFT catalysts was investigated as a function of time-on-stream. This enabled us to study the effects of increasing amounts of hard carbon on the activity and the chemical and physical properties of the catalysts. The catalyst activity was found to decrease with increasing hard carbon content, although the effect of carbon deposition cannot be distinguished from phase transformation (oxidation) which occurs simultaneously. A method to quantify the amount of hard carbon, which progressively builds up on the catalyst, was demonstrated. This required a great deal of method development, which provides a platform for future investigations of these catalysts. Importantly, it allows predictions of the amounts of carbon that will be deposited after a certain reaction time. This allows more efficient regulation of catalyst replacement. The production of fine carbon-rich particles in the industrial reactor poses a major problem in the process. Carbon deposition leads to an increase in particle diameter with time on-stream. Permissible levels of hard carbon were identified, beyond which the mechanical strength of the catalyst particles deteriorate. This leads to break-up of the particles and therefore fines formation. The surface area and pore volume generally increase with progressive deposition of hard carbon, while the bulk density of the catalyst material exhibits a linear decrease with carbon build-up. A mechanism is proposed for hard carbon formation which apparently occurs through the dissociative adsorption of CO to form a carbon monolayer. This is followed by polymerisation of the carbon atoms. Meta-stable interstitial carbides are formed at the iron-carbon interface. Owing to a carbon concentration gradient between the top of the surface and the bottom of the metal or carbide particle, carbon diffusion across the crystal (carbide decomposition) and grows as a PAH molecule lifting the iron carbide away from the particle. As this corrosion process is intrinsic to iron-based catalysts, a catalyst that contains sulphur is proposed for future development.

Patterson discusses her process of coming to grips with the death of her infant daughter by caring for a hospice baby.

Most minimum wage employees are young, single, comparatively less educated, and most likely working in the food service industry. However, a growing number of senior citizens returning to the work force are paid minimum wage, the federal study of census data found. Minimum wage for workers younger than 18 is 50 cents less than the standard rate. Waitresses, waiters and others who receive tips still face a substantially lower hourly wage. The current minimum wage for workers getting tips is $3.09. On Jan. 1 it will increase to $3.30. More than 500 University of Illinois students make minimum wage at campus jobs. Combine those jobs with nearly 200 other minimum- wage university positions, and the increase will cost nearly $3 million a year at U of I's three campuses.