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Hugo Chvez, military officer turned left-wing revolutionary, was one of the most important Latin American leaders of the twenty-first century. This book tells the story of his life up to his election as president in 1998. Throughout this riveting and historically important account of his early years, Chvez's energy and charisma shine through. As a young man, he awakens gradually to the reality of his country-where huge inequalities persist and the majority of citizens live in indescribable poverty-and decides to act. He gives a fascinating description of growing up in Barinas, his years in the Military Academy, his long-planned military conspiracy-the most significant in the history of Venezuela and perhaps of Latin America-which led to his unsuccessful coup attempt of 1992, and eventually to his popular electoral victory in 1998. His collaborator on this book is Ignacio Ramonet, the famous French journalist (and editor for many years of Le Monde diplomatique), who undertook a similar task with Fidel Castro (Fidel Castro: My Life).
It is 2053. We are halfway into the bioengineering century. Miraculous medical advances have extended life spans for some but the correlation between health and wealth, existing even at the turn of the century, has become so extreme that many in the United States cannot afford full medical coverage. Periodic terrorist attacks are the aftermath of three wars in the Middle East. These problems and others have poisoned the body politic. A small group of well-meaning government and industry leaders, who believed they had the right answers to these problems, came together twenty years earlier to ensure that they would stay in power as long as possible. This novel is about how that plan goes terri...
Sustainable Life on Land, the fifteenth UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 15), calls for the protection, restoration and promotion of the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems. Among others, it requires societies to sustainably manage forests, halt and reverse land degradation, combat desertification, and halt biodiversity loss. Despite the fact that protection of terrestrial ecosystems is on the rise worldwide and forest loss has slowed, the recent IPBES report concluded that “nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history”. Consequently, the United Nations General Assembly recently declared 2021–2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. There is no dou...
Genetic transformation of plants has revolutionized both basic and applied plant research. Plant molecular biology and physiology benefit from this power fool, as well as biotechnology. This book is a review of some of the most significant achievements that plant transformation has brought to the fields of Agrobacterium biology, crop improvement and, flower, fruit and tree amelioration. Also, it examines their impact on molecular farming, phytoremediation and RNAi tools.
This book describes the current state of international grape genomics, with a focus on the latest findings, tools and strategies employed in genome sequencing and analysis, and genetic mapping of important agronomic traits. It also discusses how these are having a direct impact on outcomes for grape breeders and the international grape research community. While V. vinifera is a model species, it is not always appreciated that its cultivation usually requires the use of other Vitis species as rootstocks. The book discusses genetic diversity within the Vitis genus, the available genetic resources for breeding, and the available genomic resources for other Vitis species. Grapes (Vitis vinifera ...
Biotic stress can increase or reduce a plant's susceptibility to specific pathogens. A wide range of plant pathogens, i.e., viruses, bacteria, and fungi causing diseases, modulate different elements of plant defense mechanisms responses that influence disease and the physiological state of host plants. Nevertheless, plant hosts are not static and defenseless. Plants have developed active and dynamic complex defense mechanisms to protect themselves against different pathogenic stressors. Plants' defense mechanisms consist of multi-elements and can be determined by pre-formed, natural barriers or inducible defense responses directly activated upon detection of a pathogen. The inducible respons...
Several efforts have been made in developing strategies to supply the enzyme market, as well as in reducing its costs. It includes the selection of an appropriate enzyme source and the optimization of enzyme properties and secretion. Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes (CAZymes) are industrially relevant biocatalysts that are capable of degrading plant cell wall biomass. The most important secreted enzymes related to plant cell wall decomposition are cellulases, hemicellulases, and auxiliary enzymes. These enzymes have been applied in the hydrolysis of plant biomass for the production of second-generation (2G) ethanol and several other high added value products. One of the bottlenecks for 2G ethanol...
Much of the debate about development in the past decade pitted proponents of unfettered markets against advocates of developmental states. Yet, in many developing countries what best explains variations in economic performance is not markets or states but rather the character of relations between business and government. The studies in Business and the State in Developing Countries identify a range of close, collaborative relations between bureaucrats and capitalists that enhance elements of economic performance and defy conventional expectations that such relations lead ineluctably to rent-seeking, corruption, and collusion. All based on extensive field research, the essays contrast collaborative and collusive relations in a wide range of developing countries, mostly in Latin America and Asia, and isolate the conditions under which collaboration is most likely to emerge and survive. The contributors highlight the crucial roles played by capable bureaucracies and strong business associations.
Prunus is one of the most important genera of fruit. It includes peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, and other stone fruits. This book discusses breeding, germplasm, fruit tree physiology, pruning, production, and nutritional studies of the Prunus species. It includes two sections on “Molecular and Breeding Studies and Germplasm Diversity in Prunus Species” and “Physiological and Nutritional Studies on Prunus Species.”