Search for: All records

Abstract Plant vacuolar transporters, particularly CAX (Cation/H⁺Exchangers) responsible for Ca²⁺/H⁺exchange on the vacuole tonoplast, play a central role in governing cellular pH, ion balance, nutrient storage, metal accumulation, and stress responses. Furthermore, CAX variants have been employed to enhance the calcium content of crops, contributing to biofortification efforts. Recent research has uncovered the broader significance of these transporters in plant signal transduction and element partitioning. The use of genetically encoded Ca²⁺sensors has begun to highlight the crucial role of CAX isoforms in generating cytosolic Ca²⁺signals, underscoring their function as pivotal hubs in diverse environmental and developmental signalling networks. Interestingly, it has been observed that the loss of CAX function can be advantageous in specific stress conditions, both for biotic and abiotic stressors. Determining the optimal timing and approach for modulating the expression of CAX is a critical concern. In the future, strategically manipulating the temporal loss of CAX function in agriculturally important crops holds promise to bolster plant immunity, enhance cold tolerance, and fortify resilience against one of agriculture's most significant challenges, namely flooding. 

This study investigates the relationships of learner background variables of adult English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) learners and a mobile App designed to promote pronunciation skills targeting features known to contribute to intelligibility. Recruited from free evening classes for English learners, 34 adult ESOL learners of mixed ESOL learning experiences, ages, lengths of residency, and first languages (L1s) completed six phoneme pair lessons on a mobile App along with a background questionnaire and technology acceptance survey (Venkatesh et al., 2012). A series of Linear Mixed-Effect Model (LMEM) analyses were performed on learner background variables, technology acceptance, learner effort, and accuracy. The results found a minimal relationship between age, technology acceptance, and effort (7.68%) but a moderate to large relationship between age, technology acceptance and accuracy of consonants (39.70%) and vowels (64.26%). The implications are that learner use of mobile devices for L2 pronunciation training is moderated by various learner-related factors and the findings offer supportive evidence for designing mobile-based applications for a wide variety of backgrounds.