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\"Midsized companies are often overlooked by Wall Street and mainstream media outlets, though they are an integral part of national economics. Thus it's important for national economic success to have a thriving midsized company sector. But that is not easy to do, largely because the factors that throttle growth of midsized companies can be quite different than those of their smaller and larger business brethren. Some of these factors are well known, but others can creep up on management teams and go almost unnoticed until it's too late. Drawing upon his own experience and interviews with more than 99 companies, author Robert Sher runs through seven \"silent growth killers\" that plague midsized companies which, if not addressed, eventually cripple growth. Mighty Midsized Companies offers clear, tangible, actionable advice about dealing with these killers and growing despite them. \"-- Provided by publisher.

Growth is a widely used term in plant science and ecology, but it can have different meanings depending on the context and the spatiotemporal scale of analysis. At the meristem level, growth is associated with the production of cells and initiation of new organs. At the organ or plant scale and over short time periods, growth is often used synonymously with tissue expansion, while over longer time periods the increase in biomass is a common metric. At even larger temporal and spatial scales, growth is mostly described as net primary production. Here, we first address the question 'what is growth?'. We propose a general framework to distinguish between the different facets of growth, and the corresponding physiological processes, environmental drivers and mathematical formalisms. Based on these different definitions, we then review how plant growth can be measured and analysed at different organisational, spatial and temporal scales. We conclude by discussing why gaining a better understanding of the different facets of plant growth is essential to disentangle genetic and environmental effects on the phenotype, and to uncover the causalities around source or sink limitations of plant growth.

Fluctuations in light intensity and temperature lead to periods of asynchrony between carbon (C) supply by photosynthesis and C demand by the plant organs. Storage and remobilization of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) are important processes that allow plants to buffer these fluctuations. We aimed to test the hypothesis that C storage and remobilization can buffer the effects of temperature and light fluctuations on growth of tomato plants. Tomato plants were grown at temperature amplitudes of 3 or 10°C (deviation around the mean of 22°C) combined with integration periods (IP) of 2 or 10 days. Temperature and light were applied in Phase (high temperature simultaneously with high light intensity, (400 μmol m –2 s –1 ), low temperature simultaneously with low light intensity (200 μmol m –2 s –1 ) or in Antiphase (high temperature with low light intensity, low temperature with high light intensity). A control treatment with constant temperature (22°C) and a constant light intensity (300 μmol m –2 s –1 ) was also applied. After 20 days all treatments had received the same temperature and light integral. Differences in final structural dry weight were relatively small, while NSC concentrations were highly dynamic and followed changes of light and temperature (a positive correlation with decreasing temperature and increasing light intensity). High temperature and low light intensity lead to depletion of the NSC pool, but NSC level never dropped below 8% of the plant weight and this fraction was not mobilizable. Our results suggest that growing plants under fluctuating conditions do not necessarily have detrimental effects on plant growth and may improve biomass production in plants. These findings highlight the importance in the NSC pool dynamics to buffer fluctuations of light and temperature on plant structural growth.

Background and AimsThe impact of a fruit tree's architecture on its performance is still under debate, especially with regard to the definition of varietal ideotypes and the selection of architectural traits in breeding programmes. This study aimed at providing proof that a modelling approach can contribute to this debate, by using in silico exploration of different combinations of traits and their consequences on light interception, here considered as one of the key parameters to optimize fruit tree production.MethodsThe variability of organ geometrical traits, previously described in a bi-parental population, was used to simulate 1- to 5-year-old apple trees (Malus × domestica). Branching sequences along trunks observed during the first year of growth of the same hybrid trees were used to initiate the simulations, and hidden semi-Markov chains previously parameterized were used in subsequent years. Tree total leaf area (TLA) and silhouette to total area ratio (STAR) values were estimated, and a sensitivity analysis was performed, based on a metamodelling approach and a generalized additive model (GAM), to analyse the relative impact of organ geometry and lateral shoot types on STAR.Keys ResultsA larger increase over years in TLA mean and variance was generated by varying branching along trunks than by varying organ geometry, whereas the inverse was observed for STAR, where mean values stabilized from year 3 to year 5. The internode length and leaf area had the highest impact on STAR, whereas long sylleptic shoots had a more significant effect than proleptic shoots. Although the GAM did not account for interactions, the additive effects of the geometrical factors explained >90% of STAR variation, but much less in the case of branching factors.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that the proposed modelling approach could contribute to screening architectural traits and their relative impact on tree performance, here viewed through light interception. Even though trait combinations and antagonism will need further investigation, the approach opens up new perspectives for breeding and genetic selection to be assisted by varietal ideotype definition.

Compensatory growth is an organism's reaction to buffer deviations from targeted trajectories. We explored the compensatory patterns of juvenile brown trout under field and laboratory conditions. Divergence of size and condition trajectories was induced by manipulating food levels in the laboratory and then releasing the trout into a river. In the stream, the length trajectories of food-restricted and control fish were parallel, but food-restricted fish exhibited partial compensation for mass and rapid recovery of condition. A laboratory experiment on similar sized fish did not provide evidence for compensatory growth in length or mass. In contrast, data matched the compensatory patterns shown in the stream: length trajectories were parallel and the convergence of mass trajectories ceased as soon as food-restricted fish recovered condition to the level of controls. These results show that (i) brown trout did not compensate for depression in structural growth and (ii) mass recovery was targeted to reinstate condition or energy reserves, but not size at a given age. This does not support the common view that compensatory growth can be a general response to growth depression. Rather, compensation in other salmonids could be related to size thresholds associated with developmental switches at the onset of sexual maturation and migration.

The quantitative correlation of counterion-affinity to aqueous hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HDAB, cationic micelles/nanoparticles) and the counterion-induced HDAB micellar growth, in the presence of different amounts of poly(ethylene glycol hexadecyl ether) (C16E20, nonionic surfactant), was achieved by the use of a semi-empirical kinetic (SEK) method. The values of the ratio of cationic HDAB, as well as mixed HDAB–C16E20, micellar binding constants of X and Br, KX/KBr (= KXBr or RXBr) for X = 4-ClC6H4CO2-, were obtained by the SEK method. The concentration range (0.006–0.015 M) of pure HDAB was found to have no influence on the values of KXBr or RXBr. These observations were also recorded upon addition of a nonionic surfactant, C16E20, in an aqueous solution of HDAB. The mean value of KXBr or RXBr obtained in the presence of pure HDAB (KXBr or RXBr = 50.3) is 2.3 times larger than that in the presence of mixed HDAB–C16E20 (mKXBr or mRXBr = 21.7). From rheometric measurements of aqueous HDA+/4-ClC6H4CO2- with 0.015 M HDAB, single symmetric maxima (at both 25 and 35 °C) were obtained at [4-ClC6H4CO2Na] = 0.03 M. This is evidence for the existence of wormlike micelles/nanoparticles. However, the absence of a maximum in rheometric data for aqueous HDA+/C16E20/4-ClC6H4CO2- with 0.015 M HDAB and 0.006 M C16E20 at various [4-ClC6H4CO2Na] revealed the existence of spherical micelles.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Modellers often define growth as the development of plant structures from endogenous resources, thus making a distinction between structural (WS) and total (W) dry biomass, the latter being the sum of WS and the weight of storage compounds. In this study, short-term C and N reserves were characterized experimentally (forms, organ distribution, time changes) in relation to light and nutrition signals, and organ structural growth in response to reserve levels was evaluated. METHODS: Tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum) were grown hydroponically in a growth room with a 12-h photoperiod and an adequate supply of NO₃⁻ (3 mol m⁻³). Three experiments were carried out 18 d after sowing: [NO₃⁻] was either maintained at 3 mol m⁻³, changed to 0·02 mol m⁻³ or to 0 mol m⁻³. Plants were sampled periodically throughout the light/dark cycles over 24-48 h. Organ WS was calculated from W together with the amount of different compounds that act as C and N resources, i.e. non-structural carbohydrates and carboxylates, nitrate and free amino acids. KEY RESULTS: With adequate nutrition, carbohydrates accumulated in leaves during light periods, when photosynthesis exceeded growth needs, but decreased at night when these sugars are the main source of C for growth. At the end of the night, carbohydrates were still high enough to fuel full-rate growth, as WS increased at a near constant rate throughout the light/dark cycle. When nitrate levels were restricted, C reserves increased, but [NO₃⁻] decreased progressively in stems, which contain most of the plant N reserves, and rapidly in leaves and roots. This resulted in a rapid restriction of structural growth. CONCLUSIONS: Periodic darkness did not restrict growth because sufficient carbohydrate reserves accumulated during the light period. Structural growth, however, was very responsive to NO₃⁻ nutrition, because N reserves were mostly located in stems, which have limited nitrate reduction capacity.

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the growth and structural changes of fishery industry in the Indonesian economy.   Theoretical framework: The growth of the fishery industry output and the exchange rate of Indonesian fishermen has increase, indicating that there has been a structural change in this industry.   Design/methodology/approach: Structural growth and change are analyzed from the perspective of inputs and outputs of the fishery industry, which include: (1) growth and structural changes of the fishery industry from the demand side; (2) growth and changes in the structure of domestic and imported inputs used by the fishery sector; and (3) fishery industry interlinkage.   Findings: By employing Input-Output analysis on 8 table series along 1975-2010 of Indonesian economy, this study shows that Indonesian fishery industry is growing year by year, with improved domestic sectoral support and decrease import dependence, as well as analysis of structural changes related to economic growth in very different circumstances of the 1970s and 2000s.   Research, Practical & Social implications: The research provides valuable insights into the structural changes and growth of the Indonesian fishery sector over a period of 35 years. This analysis can inform future research on the fishery sector in Indonesia and other similar contexts. The research findings can inform government policies and decision-making related to the fishery sector in Indonesia. The growth of the fishery sector can have a positive impact on the employment and income of people working in the sector, and in the communities dependent on the sector.    Originality/value: This study finds that some technology coefficients (direct input coefficient) of fisheries sectors have declining trends, implying that direct backward linkage of fisheries on these industries becomes weakening. These fisheries supporting input among others are: trade, fishery, manufacture of transport equipment and its repair, road transportation.

Adolescence is a common time for initiation of alcohol use and development of alcohol use disorders. The present study investigates neuroanatomical predictors for trajectories of future alcohol use based on a novel voxel-wise whole-brain structural equation modeling framework. In 1814 healthy adolescents of the IMAGEN sample, the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) was acquired at three measurement occasions across five years. Based on a two-part latent growth curve model, we conducted whole-brain analyses on structural MRI data at age 14, predicting change in alcohol use score over time. Higher grey-matter volumes in the caudate nucleus and the left cerebellum at age 14 years were predictive of stronger increase in alcohol use score over 5 years. The study is the first to demonstrate the feasibility of running separate voxel-wise structural equation models thereby opening new avenues for data analysis in brain imaging. Puberty is a time of transformation. Physical changes in the body occur alongside changes in personality and behaviour. Compared to children, adolescents tend to be risk-takers and novelty-seekers. They crave new sensations and experiences, as well as social interaction with their peers. It is around puberty that many people try alcohol for the first time. But it is not clear why people differ in their drinking habits, and why a small minority of young adults go on to become dependent on alcohol. Part of the answer may lie in changes in the brain. Differences in the size and structure of brain regions contribute to differences in behaviour between individuals. During adolescence, the brain undergoes extensive re-modelling. It forms new connections, while also pruning away connections that are unused. Could differences in brain structure at puberty lead to differences in alcohol consumption in early adulthood? Kühn et al. scanned the brains of about 1,800 healthy adolescents at the age of 14 and then again at 19 (within the context of the IMAGEN study). At three time points, the teenagers also filled in questionnaires about their use of alcohol. Two areas of the brain – the caudate nucleus and the left cerebellum – were larger at age 14 in teenagers who would increase their alcohol consumption by age 19. The larger the areas at age 14, the bigger the increase in alcohol consumption over time. Notably, there was no relationship between the size of either brain area at the age of 14 and how much alcohol the individuals drank at the same age. These results may help us to understand why some young adults develop harmful drinking habits, whereas most do not. The findings are part of a large and complex picture. Other factors, such as social influences, also shape alcohol consumption. However, the findings of Kühn et al. suggest that differences in brain structure may make some individuals more likely to increase how much alcohol they drink than others. Understanding these biological differences could help researchers to develop measures to prevent addiction in young adults.

• Here we present a functional-structural plant model that integrates the growth of metamers into a growing, three-dimensional tree structure, and study the effects of different constraints and strategies on tree performance in different canopies. • The tree is a three-dimensional system of connected metamers, and growth is defined by the flush probability of metamers. Tree growth was simulated for different canopy light environments. • The result suggest that: the constraints result in an exponential, logistic and decay phase; a mono-layered-leaf crown results from self-shading in a closed canopy; a strong apical control results in slender trees like tall stature species; the interaction between weak apical control and light response results in a crown architecture and performance known from short stature species in closed forest; correlated leaf traits explain interspecific differences in growth, survival and adult stature. • The model successfully unravels the interaction effects of different constraints and strategies on tree growth in different canopy light environments.