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Aluminum‐dependent stoppage of root growth requires the DNA damage response (DDR) pathway including the p53‐like transcription factor SUPPRESSOR OF GAMMA RADIATION 1 (SOG1), which promotes terminal differentiation of the root tip in response to Al dependent cell death. Transcriptomic analyses identified Al‐induced SOG1‐regulated targets as candidate mediators of this growth arrest. Analysis of these factors either as loss‐of‐function mutants or by overexpression in theals3‐1background shows ERF115, which is a key transcription factor that in other scenarios is rate‐limiting for damaged stem cell replenishment, instead participates in transition from an actively growing root to one that has terminally differentiated in response to Al toxicity. This is supported by a loss‐of‐functionerf115mutant raising the threshold of Al required to promote terminal differentiation of Al hypersensitiveals3‐1. Consistent with its key role in stoppage of root growth, a putativeERF115barley ortholog is also upregulated following Al exposure, suggesting a conserved role for this ATR‐dependent pathway in Al response. In contrast to other DNA damage agents, these results show that ERF115 and likely related family members are important determinants of terminal differentiation of the root tip following Al exposure and central outputs of the SOG1‐mediated pathway in Al response.

 

The primary theory of software engineering is that an organiza- tion’s Policies and Processes influence the quality of its Products. We call this the PPP Theory. Although empirical software engineer- ing research has grown common, it is unclear whether researchers are trying to evaluate the PPP Theory. To assess this, we analyzed half (33) of the empirical works published over the last two years in three prominent software engineering conferences. In this sample, 70% focus on policies/processes or products, not both. Only 33% provided measurements relating policy/process and products. We make four recommendations: (1) Use PPP Theory in study design; (2) Study feedback relationships; (3) Diversify the studied feed- forward relationships; and (4) Disentangle policy and process. Let us remember that research results are in the context of, and with respect to, the relationship between software products, processes, and policies. 

Traditionally, prototype hardware is built for validation testing to ensure battery systems design changes meet vehicle-level requirements, which is expensive both in cost and time. Virtual engineering (VE) of battery systems for electric vehicle (EV) propulsion offers a reduced-cost alternative to the traditional development process and uses multi-scale modeling to virtually probe the impact of design changes in a particular part on the overall performance of the system. This allows for rapid iteration over multiple design spaces, without committing to build hardware. This perspective article discusses current trends in VE for EV applications and proposes improvements to accelerate EV adoption.