text:
1 - 10 March 2013
1 March: Awards: NBCC winners - F-AF Translation Prize finalists - OCM Bocas longlist | Happy Moscow review
2 March: Independent Foreign Fiction Prize longlist | Finnish (tiny) boom ! | 'Literary' agents in ... China | March issues of online periodicals | Profiles: Jurji Zaydan - Ruth Rendell
3 March: 'Translating or transcending' | A.B.Yehoshua on The Retrospective
4 March: Publishing in ... Uganda | Lauren Beukes profile | Spring Quarterly Conversation | The Tuner of Silences review
5 March: Best Translated Book Award longlist | Windham Campbell Prizes announced | The VIDA numbers | The Child review
6 March: Three percent ? 4.59% ? Not so fast ... | Nobel Prize in Literature 2013 - the first clues | Metro review
7 March: �tonnants Voyageurs-Brazzaville report | Schwob.nl | The Scream review
8 March: New Vessel Press | I Love Manchester United | Publishing in ... South Korea | David Cohen Prize | Marilynne Robinson Q & A
9 March: Sayed Kashua profile | Men and women in fiction
10 March: Ruth Rendell profile | There Once Lived a Girl who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, and He Hanged Himself review
10 March 2013 - Sunday
Ruth Rendell profile
There Once Lived a Girl who Seduced Her Sister's Husband [...] review
In the Independent on Sunday Andrew Wilson finds an Open and shut case: Is Ruth Rendell finally ready to open up about her puzzling personal life ?
There Once Lived a Girl who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, and He Hanged Himself review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of a career-spanning collection of Love Stories by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, There Once Lived a Girl who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, and He Hanged Himself.
This is one of several works in translation recently published as a paperback original in the US by Penguin (Gerbrand Bakker's Ten White Geese is another), and they seemed to have managed quite a decent Internet/weblog publicity-effort with it (and it even got reviewed in the generally translated-literature-phobic The New York Times Book Review). This seems an obvious paperback original candidate, and it's good to see it seems to have caught on a bit (and that, for example, the NYTBR did not shy away from coverage).
9 March 2013 - Saturday
Sayed Kashua profile | Men and women in fiction
Sayed Kashua profile
In The Independent Boyd Tonkin finds Parallel lives in a tragicomic mirror: Novelist Sayed Kashua is trampling every barrier, as 'The Palestinian Israeli novelist writes in Hebrew and scripts Israel's top-rated, taboo-busting sitcom.'
The only Kashua title under review at the complete review is his Second Person Singular.
Men and women in fiction
At his Sapping Attention weblog Ben Schmidt looks at 'Digital Humanities: Using tools from the 1990s to answer questions from the 1960s about 19th century America.' One tool is the awesome bookworm, which is a fun tool to play with, and most recently he used it to consider Canonic authors and the pronouns that they used.
Nineteenth century authors, mainly, and only extending a bit into the twentieth (relying on out of copyright data), but still a fascinating glimpse of the ratio of he to she in the work of many authors.
8 March 2013 - Friday
New Vessel Press | I Love Manchester United | Publishing in ... South Korea
David Cohen Prize | Marilynne Robinson Q & A
This is exciting: a new publisher of translated fiction with a good-looking list coming out later this year: New Vessel Press.
I'm looking forward to seeing these -- a nice selection (including a Moldavian novel !).
I Love Manchester United
A novel titled I Love Manchester United probably wouldn't raise eyebrows in the UK or even the US -- but when the title is actually من منچستر یونایتد را دوست دارم ('I love Man U' in Persian) and the author is Mehdi Yazdani-Khorram it gets a bit more interesting.
The Cheshmeh publicity page gives limited insight -- and apparently it's only in (small) part a footballing novel -- but still: I want to see this. And fortunately maybe I will: as the Tehran Times reports, Iranian novel I Love Manchester United being translated into Turkish, and they also note: "I Love Manchester United will also appear in English and Italian in the near future".
Not that I'm holding my breath or anything -- but I'll certainly be keeping my eyes out for it.
Publishing in ... South Korea
It's a similar story in many places, but this report, from what had seemed to be a fairly bookish place, is pretty troubling: as Kim Tong-hyung reports in The Korea Times, apparently For the local book market, it's apocalypse now, as:
A report from Statistics Korea Monday showed that book consumption -- measured by the sales of hardcovers, paperbacks and magazines -- hit a new low last year with the average spending of households sinking below 20,000 won (about $18.44).
All sorts of terrible numbers here, such as:
New books released by publishers decreased by a staggering 20 percent in 2012. The online purchases of books pulled back for the first time since the statistics agency started keeping track of electronic commerce activity in 2001.
Yes, even e-book sales are already in decline there !
According to separate data from the Korean Publishers Association (KPA), publishers introduced 39,767 new books last year and printed and published 86.97 million copies. It was the first time since 2000 that less than 100 million copies of new books were published over a full year.
The number of bookstores was counted at 5,683 in 1994, but reduced to 2,247 in 2003 and 1,752 in 2011
Not great trends here .....
David Cohen Prize
They've announced that Hilary Mantel wins David Cohen Prize for Literature 2013.
This £40,000 is probably the major British author (as opposed to book) prize; it's unclear whether there are any literary prizes left for Mantel to win.
Marilynne Robinson Q & A
In The New York Times Book Review this Sunday the Q & A has Marilynne Robinson: By the Book -- and one of her responses helps explain, I think, why I've never really warmed to her and her work (though obviously the whole religiosity-thing doesn't help either):
What's your favorite literary genre ? Any guilty pleasures ?
Oddly enough, my favorite genre is not fiction.
Always disappointing to hear. (I know it's unrealistic to expect everyone to venerate fiction to the extent I do, but I can't help but hope that at least for people who occasionally write fiction it would also be their be-all and end-all.)
7 March 2013 - Thursday
�tonnants Voyageurs-Brazzaville report | Schwob.nl
The Scream review
�tonnants Voyageurs-Brazzaville report
At The New Yorker's Page-Turner weblog Siddhartha Mitter offers Terror Across The River: Letter From a Congo Literary Festival, reporting on the recent Étonnants Voyageurs festival in Brazzaville, which included the likes of Emmanuel Johnny Mad Dog Dongala and Alain Broken Glass Mabanckou.
Schwob.nl
At English PEN Emma Cleaves reports that Schwob project to seek out 'the truffles of world literature', as: "European Union awards the Schwob.nl project €200,000 to fund a European portal for the best unknown books of world literature".
As the official site has it:
Schwob.nl is a showcase website for these forgotten or undiscovered books. Schwob is created by translators into and out of Dutch, foreign publishers and editors, researchers, readers and critics.
And now, as Cleaves reports:
Schwob is now about to start operating at a European level. The Dutch Foundation for Literature will cooperate with literature foundations and partners in six other countries: Catalonia (Institut Ramon Llull), Finland (Finnish Literature Exchange), France (European Society of Authors), Poland (Polish Book Institute), Belgium (Flemish Literature Fund) and the UK (Wales Literature Exchange).
The partners will work together on the selection, distribution and promotion of 'Schwob titles' -- the truffles of world literature; exceptional but hard to find or undiscovered modern classics that whet the appetite.
Sounds pretty good, and €200,000 is certainly a hell of a lot of money to play with (by comparison: the complete review's annual budget is considerably less than 1 per cent of that ... sigh).
They already have a few titles up at the still-all-Dutch site, including several under review at the complete review: Tun-Huang by Inoue Yasushi, Niels Lyhne by Jens Peter Jacobsen, and Border Town by Shen Congwen -- and I certainly approve of some of the other choices (Karl Philipp Moritz, Bolesław Prus ...).
I'm very curious to see what develops here.
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Laurent Graff's The Scream -- and, yes, the Munch painting does figure in it.
6 March 2013 - Wednesday
Three percent ? 4.59% ? Not so fast ...
Nobel Prize in Literature 2013 - the first clues | Metro review
As longtime readers may have noticed, I essentially never refer to the 'statistic' that only three per cent of all fiction published in the US is translated; I've heard the anecdotal evidence, but that's all it's always seemed to me; I've never seen any numbers that would really convince me it's anything more than the most ballpark of estimates. The Three Percent Translation Database offers the best documentation of what fiction and poetry is published in (first) translation in the US in any given year, but without a corresponding measure of total comparable publications doesn't yield any useful percentages either.
Now Literature Across Frontiers has taken a closer look at UK and Irish publications to try determine the numbers there. The resulting study, Three percent ? Publishing data and statistics on translated literature in the United Kingdom and Ireland (warning ! dreaded pdf format !), by Jasmine Donahaye offers some insight -- but ultimately does little more than demonstrate how hard the hard numbers are to come by.
The findings "reveal a steady growth of translated titles" (between 2000 and 2008, the time period studied), and that may be accurate. But as to the actual numbers and percentages -- oh, no, no, no. I already dread how folks are going to irresponsibly claim that: "approximately 2.5% of all publications and 4.5% of fiction, poetry, drama (literature) are translations".
That is what the raw numbers might show -- but, boy, are those numbers raw.
By far the most useful part of this study is the section on: "proposed mechanisms for change", suggesting how data may better be presented and collected -- and, yes, metadata issues are a major issue.
As to what this study counted: well, admirably, they include the BNB Literary Translations Bibliography 2000_2005_2008 (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) -- the titles of all the books they count. And here, very easy for all to see, is the rub. Or rather: the very many rubs.
In the report they note several caveats, including:
Another potential problem is that hardback and paperback editions of the same title will appear as two publications, and some titles that appear in the record as 'intention to publish' may not in the end have been published. Also challenging is the matter of place of publication.
But, in fact, it's so much worse than that. So horrendously much worse.
Even a cursory examination shows there are a large number of titles of dubious value -- many that should not have been counted at all, or must be categorized with care. So many that they call any and all 'conclusions' into doubt.
- First off, there are a number of titles that are not translations into English at all: Moses Isegawa's Abyssinian Chronicles was admittedly first published in Dutch, but it was translated into Dutch; the 2000 UK publication is of the English original, not a translation from the Dutch.
- I'm not familiar with the book, by it seems obvious that the many mentions of Michael Rosen's We're Going on a Bear Hunt, listed in multiple languages, is again not a translation into English, but rather are bilingual editions (in various languages) of Rosen's originally-written-in-English kiddie-book. Not really what we're looking for.
- There are an incredible number of titles listed twice -- the first instance comes just ten titles in, Aḥmad Ibrāhīm Faqīh's Gazelles and other plays, and it just goes on and on and on. (And, yes, these clearly were counted separately for percentage-determining purposes.)
- There are an incredible -- really incredible -- number of new editions of previously published work included here. We're not talking new translations, we're just talking new editions of previously published translations -- some only a year or two earlier, some much, much earlier. Don't believe me ? Scroll down near the end and check out how many of those 2008 Turgenev translations are credited to ... Constance Garnett. (Many of these new editions of old work are also readily identifiable because a second, earlier copyright date is acknowledged.)
While there may be some argument for new (i.e. re-) translations being counted -- though note that these are explicitly excluded from the Three Percent Database -- there is not much good reason for including new editions of old translations; yes, it gives some idea of how popular books in translation are, but still ..... (I do note that every god damned republication of a Jane Austen novel also counts as a "new book" in those grossly inflated annual books-published lists (the ones against which the percentage of translated titles is, perforce, measured) -- it is a problem how to properly deal with all these.)
- There are an awful lot of children's books here, inflating totals. And pretty basic ones, too -- do we really want to count Philippe Corentin's 30-page picture book Splosh ! in trying to figure out how much literary fiction is being translated ? (And I remind you of Michael Rosen -- one the most-represented authors on the list .....)
- Plays are also included. Nothing against plays, but that's a pretty separate category (and yes, I'd love to see poetry separated out too).
These are my findings after scrolling more or less randomly through this bibliography for less than an hour -- and I can come to no other conclusion than that it is irresponsible to draw the conclusions they did about how many literary works in translation were published in 2000, 2005, and 2008 from this. With a little teasing -- weeding out those duplicates, those kids' books, etc. -- the data can yield better results -- it is a great foundation -- but no one should claim 4.5 or whatever per cent of UK/Irish literary publications were translated .....
This bibliography is actually a great starting point (though there are also issues of what isn't listed here -- I note, for example, two 2005 volumes from the Clay Sanskrit Library (NYU Press) are listed, but the several additional titles that came out in 2008 are missed), but it needs a lot more work than was performed on it to yield any truly useful data (weeding out duplicates would seem to be the minimum; as the totals in the language tables in the report proper show, not even that was done).
Honestly, the way this subject (and the data) is treated (i.e. manhandled) drives me nuts. I'm seriously considering applying for an NEA (or NEH ?) grant to do a proper count and study .....
Meanwhile, do me a favor and do not spread the oh so wrong word that 4.5 or whatever percent of all UK/Irish literary titles are translations. (Don't say it's three percent either .....)
Nobel Prize in Literature 2013 - the first clues
At his Att vara ständig weblog Swedish Academy point-man Peter Englund offers a few tiny clues about Årets långa lista -- this year's longlist for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
For one, there are the number of nominations: 195 eligible names were submitted, of which 48 are first-timers -- roughly in keeping with recent totals (last year: 210 names, of which 46 were new).
Rather disappointingly, only five previous laureates took advantage of their privilege of being allowed to nominate an author; I count (hastily, so maybe I'm off by one or two) twenty living laureates, so that's a pretty poor response rate.
Here's where it gets interesting, however: he mentions that there had been an increased effort to solicit nominations from US-based academics (was it Harold Bloom who nominated Mo Yan ... ?) -- and this year they made a special effort to ask Africa-based academics. Will that have an affect on who got nominated ? Put someone like Ayi Kwei Armah into play ? And does that include the Maghreb universities -- which, despite the Arab Spring, may well still be dominated by some rather reactionary literary thinking ?
Metro review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A Story of Cairo by Magdy El Shafee, his comic-book, Metro.
5 March 2013 - Tuesday
Best Translated Book Award longlist | Windham Campbell Prizes announced
The VIDA numbers | The Child review
Best Translated Book Award longlist
The twenty-five title strong longlist for the Best Translated Book Award has now been announced.
The longlisted titles are:
Atlas by Dung Kai-Cheung
Autoportrait by Edouard Levé
Awakening to the Great Sleep of War by Gert Jonke
Basti by Intizar Husain
A Breath of Life by Clarice Lispector
The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi
Dublinesque by Enrique Vila-Matas
Happy Moscow by Andrey Platonov
The Hunger Angel by Herta Müller
Island of Second Sight by Albert Vigoleis Thelen
Joseph Walser's Machine by Gonçalo M. Tavares
Kite by Dominique Eddé
The Lair by Norman Manea
Maidenhair by Mikhail Shishkin
Mama Leone by Miljenko Jergovic
The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq
Satantango by Krasznahorkai László
My Father's Book by Urs Windmer
My Struggle: Book One by Karl Ove Knausgaard
The Planets by Sergio Chejfec
Prehistoric Times by Eric Chevillard
Transit by Abdourahman A. Waberi
Traveler of the Century by Andrés Neuman
We, The Children of Cats by Hoshino Tomoyuki
With the Animals by Noëlle Revaz
One note: before you start complaining about what was outrageously overlooked, check that the book in question was actually eligible -- the 2012 Translation Database at Three Percent is slightly out of date, but pretty much corresponds to the titles that could be considered.
Observations: as Chad Post tallied: nineteen different countries and thirteen different languages are represented -- but only four women (authors). While the (sixteen-title-strong) Independent Foreign Fiction Prize includes no translation from the German, the BTBA has four titles; the IFFP has two translations from the French, the BTBA six. On the whole, the geographic spread (for what that's worth ...) is pretty impressive -- though there's only one title from Africa. The obvious major gaping hole is that there are no titles translated from the Arabic (but there is one translated from the Persian, and one from the Urdu).
Notable authors missing from the BTBA list include a whole slew of Nobel laureates: Mario Vargas Llosa, Orhan Pamuk, Mo Yan, and José Saramago all had eligible titles, but Herta Müller is the only one to make the list.
Other notable titles missing are Laurent Binet's HHhH, Marie NDiaye's Three Strong Women, either of the two eligible César Aira titles, Claudio Magris' Blindly, Per Petterson's It's Fine by Me, and Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend.
I was a judge for the BTBA -- but to give you an idea of the limited influence each individual has: we each named our top ten, and the top vote-getters made for sixteen longlisted titles, with each of us then naming one additional title for the final spots -- and only six of my top ten were among the top sixteen vote-getters; the one additional spot I could fill still meant that only seven of my top ten made the list .....
Among other titles that didn't make the longlist which I would have liked to see (but which I didn't necessarily vote for in my top ten) are also:
Death Sentences by Kawamata Chiaki
The Last of the Vostyachs by Diego Marani -- maybe the biggest oversight on the list (but fortunately IFFP-longlisted)
The Museum of Abandoned Secrets by Oksana Zabuzhko
Mathematics: by Jacques Roubaud
The Neighborhood by Gonçalo M. Tavares -- very different from the Tavares that did make the longlist, but a lot of fun
The Thief by Nakamura Fuminori -- seemed the likeliest (and most deserving) crime/thriller candidate this year ....
Why the Child is Cooking in the Polenta by Aglaja Veteranyi -- it recently won the Schlegel-Tieck Prize for translation from the German
Meanwhile, it's also amusing to compare the actual list to my predictions from last year -- which weren't half-bad.
Since I'm still judging I won't tip my hand regarding favorites (though my reviews, where available, certainly give you some sense of what I'll be supporting and what I probably won't ...).
The shortlist will be announced 10 April, and the winner on 4 May.
Windham Campbell Prizes announced
I mentioned being intrigued by the Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes last week, and now they've announced the nine recipients of the prize. (As noted last time, they still really have to work on their PR: there was no print-mention of the winners on the official site last I checked (twelve hours after the press release was released at variuous sites), and the video announcement has two whole minutes of dead air time before the announcement begins .....)
You can find the press release here.
Fifty-nine English-writing writers were nominated (without their knowledge) for the prize that pays $150,000 each, and:
The recipients, who range in age from 33 to 87, are James Salter, Zoë Wicomb, and Tom McCarthy in fiction; Naomi Wallace, Stephen Adly Guirgis, and Tarell Alvin McCraney in drama; and Jonny Steinberg, Adina Hoffman and Jeremy Scahill in nonfiction.
The only author under review at the complete review is Tom McCarthy; several of his books are under review, including Remainder.
The VIDA numbers
VIDA: Women in Literary Arts have now published The Count 2012, tallying how many (or rather, how few) reviews/bylines/authors reviewed in a variety of prominent publications were female. As in previous years, a decidedly male slant is far too prevalent (and as in previous year, The New Republic really stands out: only 10.23 per cent of book reviews were by females, and only 16.67 per cent of books reviewed were by female authors.)
As frequently noted, I've considered How Sexist are We ? at the complete review, and I'm afraid the numbers continue to be bad (and it comes as a slight relief that at least the review added yesterday was of a book written by a woman). As also previously noted, the focus on books in translation helps skew results here -- considerably more male-authored books are translated than female-authored ones (though the gap narrows with more recent publications).
Of course, the demographics hereabouts are far from any norm anyway: less than ten per cent of the last sixty titles reviewed were originally written in English, for example.
The Child review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Pascale Kramer's The Child.
Publishing in ... Uganda | Lauren Beukes profile
Spring Quarterly Conversation | The Tuner of Silences review
Publishing in ... Uganda
In The Independent (Uganda) Yusuf Serunkuma presents "the best titles -- published not only in Uganda, but also anywhere, by a Ugandan as the best books of the year 2012", in One man's reading list.
While that is, of course, of some interest, the really jaw-dropping detail is that:
Excluding schoolbooks, about 20 books are published in Uganda every year all genres combined; that is politics, histories, autobiographies and biographies, works of fiction such as novels and collections of short stories, and poetry.
Twenty !
Lauren Beukes profile
In the Mail & Guardian Ashraf Jamal profiles Lauren Beukes: At the forefront of the global invasion.
Zoo City is under review at the complete review, and I'm very much looking forward to The Shining Girls (pre-order your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk).
Spring Quarterly Conversation
The Spring, 2013 issue of the Quarterly Conversation is now available online, with lots of pieces of interest.
The Tuner of Silences review
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Mia Couto's The Tuner of Silences.
3 March 2013 - Sunday
'Translating or transcending' | A.B.Yehoshua on The Retrospective
'Translating or transcending'
In The Hindu Mariam Karim-Ahlawat finds 'Translation creates empathy and understanding between cultures, but only when we are ready to acknowledge and value the differences', in Translating or transcending.
A.B.Yehoshua on The Retrospective
In the Wall Street Journal A.B.Yehoshua introduces his new novel, The Retrospective, with The Limits of Imagination.
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize longlist | Finnish (tiny) boom !
'Literary' agents in ... China | March issues of online periodicals
Profiles: Jurji Zaydan - Ruth Rendell
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize longlist
Next week the 25-title-strong longlist for the (US) Best Translated Book Award (I'm one of the judges) will be announced, and it's always fun to compare that with the (UK) Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, which has now announced its longlist -- not at the official site, yet, last I checked, but Boyd Tonkin spills the beans in his The Week in Books column in The Independent, in From Syria to Colombia, and Albanian to Afrikaans, enjoy a global feast.
Several of the titles are under review at the complete review; the complete list (with review-links, where applicable):
Black Bazaar by Alain Mabanckou
Bundu by Chris Barnard
Cold Sea Stories by Paweł Huelle
A Death in the Family by Karl Ove Knausgaard
The Detour by Gerbrand Bakker
The Fall of the Stone City by Ismail Kadare
HHhH by Laurent Binet
In Praise of Hatred by Khaled Khalifa
The Last of the Vostyachs by Diego Marani
The Murder of Halland by Pia Juul
Silent House by Orhan Pamuk
The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Traveller of the Century by Andrés Neuman
Trieste by Daša Drndić
Observations: it's a very male-dominated list -- and doesn't manage to look farther east than Turkey/Syria (there's nothing from the Chinese, Japanese, or Korean). Nothing from the Russian either, and among the languages from which the most is translated into English it's noteworthy that there are only two titles from the French, and none from German. [No doubt there are similar odd lacunae in the BTBA list; I'm just saying .....]
There is a bit of overlap with the BTBA longlist (sorry, you'll have to wait until next week to find out how much), but a lot of these titles weren't considered for the BTBA because they haven't been published in the US yet (the Bakker, Barnard, Huelle, Kadare, and Vásquez will all only be considered for next year's BTBA, for example, and several others don't seem to have any US publisher/distributor yet).
Overall it's a solid list, with a couple of titles I love.
Finnish (tiny) boom !
Via Books from Finland I learn of Lola Rogers' piece, Finnish Literature in English: A Tiny Boom at the Finnish-English Literary Translation Cooperative -- and the first thing I have to ask is how did I not know there was a Finnish-English Literary Translation Coöperative ?
Anyway, Rogers notes that:
The number of works of Finnish literature published in English is perhaps too small to make any firm claims about statistical trends, but it seems to be experiencing a tiny but definite boom. From 1992-2002, there were fewer than 20 English translations of Finnish novels published abroad. From 2002 to the present, there were at least 34. This increase is due largely to the new availability of qualified translators.
Okay, three titles a year still seems like way too few, but, yeah, any increase (especially in direct, as opposed to second-hand, translation) is welcome.
'Literary' agents in ... China
In China Daily Mei Jia offers an appropriately muddled and confused article claiming Literary agents open new chapter in China.
There's Nobel laureate Mo Yan announcing that: "his daughter Guan Xiaoxiao has full rights to represent him in copyright talks and any other negotiations on cooperation" -- though maybe that doesn't extend globally, as Andrew Wylie still lists him as a client .....
Then there's:
Chen Liming, president of Beijing Genuine and Profound Culture Development Corp, who has been offering literary agent-like services to top Chinese writers including Mo and Mai Jia, known for his spy and detective novels.
(Personally, I think representation by them is worth it just for the name alone -- who could ask for more than: 'Genuine and Profound Culture Development' from their representative ?)
Of course Chen does have a problem:
Chen said a big block in front of him is the lack of talent.
Thank god China is still a nicely unsequestered statist place -- so:
Yilin's Liu suggests government support in the budding period of literary agents.
But what will they do in the rotting period sure to follow if these folks actually get their claws into the field and establish themselves as pseudo-vital ?
March issues of online periodicals
Among the March issues of online periodicals now available is Words without Borders' Spain's Great Untranslated-themed issue -- which also includes some 'Writing from Syria' -- and the March issue of Open Letters Monthly.
Profile: Jurji Zaydan
At Qantara.de M. Lynx Qualey profiles historical novel-writer Jurji Zaidan (Zaydan), in Educating and Entertaining the Public.
The only Zaydan title under review at the complete review is Tree of Pearls, Queen of Egypt, but I'd love to have a look at more.
Profile: Ruth Rendell
In The Guardian Alison Flood profiles Ruth Rendell: a life in writing.
None of her books are under review at the complete review, but I've read close to two dozen and almost always found her to offer reliably good entertainment.
Awards: NBCC winners - F-AF Translation Prize finalists - OCM Bocas longlist
Happy Moscow review
Award: NBCC winners
Yesterday the National Book Critics Circle announced the winners of the 2012 NBCC Awards -- usually one of the more reliable American literary prizes.
None of the winning titles are under review at the complete review (though I do expect to get to Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights, by Marina Warner); Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain won in the fiction category.
Award: F-AF Translation Prize finalists
They've announced the French-American Foundation Translation Prize Finalists, five each in fiction and in non.
Three of the fiction finalists are under review at the complete review:
No One by Gwenaëlle Aubry
Award: OCM Bocas longlist
They've announced the longlist for the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, ten titles in three categories (fiction, non, and poetry), representing six Caribbean countries.
One heavyweight among the nominees: Junot Díaz.
The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Soviet author Andrey Platonov's Happy Moscow, now out in a revised translation from New York Review Books.
previous entries (21 - 28 February 2013)


We've had a fantastic start to the Spring term with more opportunities than ever before. Take a look at some of the exciting things coming up!
At the beginning of January we held our very first YC Open Taster Day at TR2. Throughout the day, we held taster workshops in Acting, Dance, Design and Playwriting for anyone aged 5 – 26. It was great to see some regular YC members as well as new faces. Over 150 young people came in total to find out about all the opportunities on offer with the Young Company. We will be holding another YC Open Taster Day in September, we'll keep you posted with all the up to date information!
If you would like to come along for a taster in any of these groups in the second half of term places are still available. Give Dani a call on 01752 230375 or email dani.golding@theatreroyal.com or to book call Box Office 01752 267222.
There's still time to take part this term. No experience is needed; you don't even need to consider yourself good at writing or spelling! This group is all about techniques to get you on your way to writing plays.
No experience is necessary! Click here for more information.
The Young Company are working hard in preparation for their tour of Zero For The Young Dudes to schools in Plymouth in March. The inmates at a bizarre summer camp are plotting a revolution. Or has it already happened? Spending a day watching their schedule of exercise, lessons and meals, a long history of unrest and injustice lies hidden, and as the day wears on, a violent future looms large on the horizon.
Theatre trips- The Airborne Dance groups will be going to see Danza Contemporanea De Cuba later this term.
No Man's Land: Christmas 1914 – Make a Play in a Day took place on Sunday 5th February at TR2. Young Company and non-Young Company members came together for a whole day to help Peter Kyrke-Smith tell a truly unique story, set in No Man's Land, WWI. The group did a terrific job combining script, movement and song!
Easter workshops now on sale…. Monday 10th April – Thursday 13th April QUACK?! THE MUSICAL For ages 5-7 and ARMADA AHOY! For ages 8-11.
RADA will be visiting us this month to hold a Technical Taster workshop for young people aged 16 – 20. This session is designed to give young people the chance to find out about RADA's Technical Theatre and Stage Management course at RADA. More info can be found here.
During Easter we will be hosting our first short play festival in the Lab.PlayLAB will feature performances from the Young Company, People's Company and Our Space. There's still time to audition for the Young Company short play – apply here!


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Home › 2016 Election › BUSTED! 'Sick' McElhaney caught playing hooky from Oakland council meeting
BUSTED! 'Sick' McElhaney caught playing hooky from Oakland council meeting
By Steven Tavares on October 19, 2016 • ( 5 )
Oakland Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney
is becoming her own worst nightmare for re-election.
OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL |
ELECTION 2016 |
A much-anticipated fundraiser for New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker hosted by Rep. Barbara Lee was held Tuesday night at the Oakland Marriott–just a few blocks from a session of the Oakland City Council. For Oakland Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney the question of how to spend her Tuesday night was apparently easy–she called in sick for work. Then was inexplicably caught in the act of playing hooky from the council meeting.
The incident is undoubtedly one of the most embarrassing moments in recent East Bay political history after East Bay Express reporter Darwin BondGraham posted video and photos of McElhaney, elegantly dressed in white, hobnobbing at the soiree while the council meeting was still in session.
McElhaney even started coughing when she saw me taking photos. #oakmtg pic.twitter.com/hnOAhhntTT
— Darwin BondGraham (@DarwinBondGraha) October 19, 2016
Just left Oakland City Council and walked into the Marriott and guess who's here. The sick council prez. #oakmtg pic.twitter.com/OMETKWmm0i
McElhaney is currently embroiled in a long-simmering ethics scandal, in addition, to facing recent calls by some councilmembers to schedule a censure hearing for her transgressions. The past two Rules Committee meetings have been canceled by McElhaney in an effort to avoid scheduling censure proceedings. Councilmembers Desley Brooks and Anne Campbell Washington said Tuesday night they will try again at the next rules meeting on Thursday morning. McElhaney later rushed back to City Hall for the remainder of the council meeting.
In the meantime, McElhaney is suddenly facing a growing threat to her re-election next month from community activist and first-time candidate Noni Session. It's a scenario few could have imagined a month ago as support in McElhaney's District 3 begins to show signs of cracking.
For instance, the tip about McElhaney's whereabouts was delivered during public comment by Oakland Post publisher Paul Cobb, whose community newspaper has been increasingly critical of McElhaney. The East Bay Express also excoriated McElhaney last week while endorsing her opponent.
One significant political group that has stuck by McElhaney's side is the Alameda County Democratic Party. During its endorsement of her campaign last month, some members lashed out at the grand jury report that slammed McElhaney for using her political influence on behalf of a personal matter involving a property next to her home. Some central committee members said the process by which the grand jury chooses cases is biased toward minorities.
‹ Ro Khanna's old pal comes to legal defense of former campaign manager
McElhaney's potential censure hearing gets pushed to after the election ›
Categories: 2016 Election, Alameda County grand jury, Code of Ethics, Cory Booker, East Bay Express, fundraiser, Lynette McElhaney, Marriott Hotel, Noni Session, Oakland City Council, Paul Cobb, rules committee
By MW:
Rather than condemning McElhaney for refusing to do the job that she is being paid to do, instead by not showing up for work we should probably double her pay.
While I m not personally familiar with McElhaney, however most of our politicians are such extreme scumbags, parasites, bloodsucking leeches, and professional pathological liars, that therefore we should be delighted at every single instance they do not show up for work.
For instance a number of years ago I worked for a corporation that had a particular employee who totally screwed up virtually everything he touched. That organization would have been many times better off if it had paid that guy to stay home and to never come to work.
wiseoldsnail
good catch . but i'm not a tiny bit surprised
What a bitch!
won't matter. Im. not a fan of McElhaney but she will still be reelected. Her chances are not in jeopardy. wishful thinking, not analysis
Another person who lies. She needs to be fined and repay an money that was given to her for the meeting claimed sick at. They should show this article at the council meeting.
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Inglés (pdf)
Scientia Agropecuaria vol.12 no.1 Trujillo ene-mar 2021
http://dx.doi.org/10.17268/sci.agropecu.2021.005
Nano-fertilizer prevents environmental pollution and improves physiological traits of wheat grown under drought stress conditions
Naimeh Astaneh1 *
Foroud Bazrafshan1
Mahdi Zare1
Bahram Amiri1
Abdollah Bahrani2
1Department of Agriculture, Firouzabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Firouzabad. Iran.
2Department of Agriculture, Ramhormoz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ramhormoz. Iran.
Nano fertilizers offer benefits in nutrition management through their strong potential to increase nutrient use efficiency. Traditional fertilizers are not only costly for the producer but may be harmful to humans and the environment. Furthermore, nano fertilizers may also be used for enhancing abiotic stress tolerance. This study was performed on the evaluation of nano chelated nitrogen and urea fertilizers on the physiological characteristics of wheat under drought stress conditions. Experiments were carried out in two locations in Fars province, Iran. The experimental design was performed as a split-split plot in RCBD design. The first factor included irrigation treatments (normal and withholding irrigation at the flowering stage), sub factor was nitrogen treatment (0, 37, 74 and 110 k g.ha-1) in the form of Urea fertilizer, and sub-sub factor was nitrogen (0, 14, 27 and 41 kg.ha-1) in the form of nano chelated nitrogen fertilizer. Studied traits were RWC, Ion Leakage, Protein, Phosphorus and Potassium content, Remobilization and photosynthesis rate. According to the analysis of variances, stress, nitrogen (urea) and nano chelated nitrogen had significant effects on all studied traits. Mean comparisons showed that drought stress led to 13% reduction in RWC, 21% Ion Leakage, 26% Protein, 13% Phosphorus and 26% Potassium content, 22% Remobilization and 69% photosynthesis rate compared to normal irrigation. In conclusion Application of 41 kg.ha-1 nano chelated nitrogen fertilizer in comparison with urea led to increase 4% in Rwc, 3% Ion leakage, 52% protein, 26% phosphor, 6% potassium, 6% Remobilization and 21% photosynthesis rate compared to control, respectively.
Keywords: nano fertilizers; nano-nitrogen; environmental pollution; drought stress; wheat; physiological traits; conventional fertilizer
Nano fertilizer, the most important field of agriculture has been to the attention of the soil scientists as well as the environmentalists due to its capability to increase yield, improve soil fertility, reduce pollution and make a favorable environment for microorganisms.
Among mineral nutrients, nitrogen is the first and foremost nutrient required for crop plants as it is a vital structural constituent of many proteins and enzymes chlorophyll, Rubisco, nucleic acids, some hormones and thus N fertilization is an essential agronomic management practice to enhance the crop productivity and plays a significant role during the vegetative growth of crops (Ata-Ul-Karim et al., 2016); but unfortunately, nitrogen is lost through the processes of nitrate leaching, de-nitrification and ammonia volatilization and runoff to surface and ground water and so induces economic losses and environmental pollution.
Nano fertilizers in boosting nutrients uptake and nutrients use efficiency, reducing losses through leaching and gaseous emissions along with reducing the risk of nutrient toxicity for ensuring food security achieved through higher productivity and economic turnouts by practicing the sustainable farming practices (Iqbal, 2020).
Abid et al. (2016) reported that nitrogen nutrition improves the potential of wheat to alleviate the effects of drought stress during vegetative growth periods. The leaves are a sink for N during the vegetative stage and, afterwards, this N is remobilized for use in the developing seeds. Much of this remobilization occurs during senescence where N is transported mainly via amino acids. Up to 80% of grain N contents are derived from leaves in wheat (Kichey et al., 2007).
Water limitations accompanied by low N is the main constraint to wheat yield and has widely been reported to affect the leaf water relations, Chl fluorescence and photosynthetic processes leading to the restricted plant growth rate, early senescence, reduced grain filling duration (GFD) with limited grain weight and poor crop productivity (Madani et al., 2010; Mobasser et al., 2014).
An adequate assessment of the impacts of drought stress under different N levels on the physiological activities and yield attributes can provide the valuable insights for wheat cultivation under drought stress (Teixeira et al., 2014).
Efficient nitrogen nutrition has the potential to alleviate drought stress in crops by maintaining metabolic activities even at low tissue water potential. Wang et al. (2018) reported that nitrogen fertilization improved water-use efficiency of winter wheat through increasing water use during vegetative rather than grain filling. Wu suggested that nutrient application has the potential to mitigate the drastic effects of water stress on Moso bamboo by improving photosynthetic rate, water-use efficiency, and increasing membrane integrity.
Noaema et al. (2020) indicated that spraying by Boron and Potassium nanoparticles with highest concentration of 8 m. L-1, showed a significant increase in many features of growth and yield of Wheat.
The results of spraying the liquid nano NPK fertilizers on wheat compared with the control treatment showed increases in grains yield (48.99%), protein percentage (27.24%), gluten ratio in flour (58.45%) and flag leaf area (38.69%), nitrogen (19.37%), phosphorus (44.11%) and potassium (12.03%) (Burhan & Al-hassan, 2019).
Although, the application of micronutrient fertilizers nanoparticles that mostly were sprayed with water has been indicated to improve the growth conditions, and has increased the crop yield in the previous studies (Abdel-Motagally & El-Zohri, 2018; Rastogi et al., 2019; Ali et al., 2019; Ahmadian et al., 2021 ) but according to the review of the literature there are limited studies about the application of macronutrient nano-fertilizers like nano chelated nitrogen with irrigation water in the wheat farms under deficit-water stress condition. Thus, In the present study we compared the effects of different N levels of nano chelated nitrogen, which is synthetized based on novel Nano chelating technology, with urea and the aim of this study was to investigate whether nutrition nitrogen supply in the form of a nanostructure can improve the drought tolerance of wheat and also the Assessment impact of nitrogen nanostructure in the absorption of protein phosphorus potassium by wheat plant and the extent of assimilating remobilization and current photosynthesis rate under dry conditions.
Experiments were carried out in two locations including Khodayan (52 ˚ 20' E, 29˚ 8 ' N) and Nasrabad (52˚ 64' E and 29˚ 58' N), Fars province, Iran. Table 1 shows some physicochemical properties of the soil at 0 to 30 cm.
Experimental design was performed as a split-split plot in RCBD design. The first factor included irrigation treatments (normal and withholding irrigation at flowering stage), sub factor was nitrogen treatment (0, 37, 74 and 110 kg.ha-1) in the form of urea, and sub-sub factor was nitrogen (0, 14, 27 and 41 kg.ha-1) in the form of nano chelated nitrogen. The doses of urea and nano chelated nitrogen fertilizer were 80, 160 and 240 kg/ha which above mentioned doses are the doses of nitrogen element in the fertilizers that are calculated based on this data: Urea has 46% nitrogen and nano nitrogen chelated fertilizer contains 17% nitrogen.
Table 1 Some physicochemical properties of the soil at 0 to 30 cm
Khodayan Nasrabad
Ec (dS/m) 1.2 1.3
pH 7.6 7.4
OM% 2.4 2.2
C 1.65 1.63
P (ppm) 13 15
K (ppm) 370 380
Mn (ppm) 4 3.7
Fe (ppm) 7.5 7.7
Clay % 34.86 36.75
Silt % 47.23 47.55
Sand% 17.9 15.7
N (kg/ha) 18.6 21.21
The field was as fallow in the last year. Field operation was done according to usual regional methods (plow, disc, land leveling and furrow). Fertilizer levels were determined after soil analysis (Table 1). Each plot contained 6 rows with 4 meters length and 0.2 m distance, with a constant density of 450 plants per square meter. In the stem extension stage of wheat, weeds chemical control were carried out using Granstar herbicide (for the control of grassy weeds) and Puma super (for broadleaf weeds).
some properties measured such as leaf area, RWC, K, N and P content, remobilization and photosynthesis rate.
Relative water content was determined according to Schonfeld et al. (1998) by soaking leaf sample (0.5 g) in 100 ml of distilled water at 4 °C in the dark for 24 h. The turgid leaves were quickly blotted dry prior to the turgid weight measurement. Dry weight of leaves was determined after oven-drying at 70 °C for 48 h. RWC was calculated according to Smart & Bingham (1974), using the following equation: RWC = [fresh weight- dry weight/ turgid weight - dry weight] × 100
Leaf membrane damage was determined by recording of electrolyte leakage (EL) as described by Valentovic et al. (2006) with a few modifications. Plant material (0.5 g) washed with deionized water was placed in tubes with 20 ml of deionized water and incubated for 24 h at 25 °C. Subsequently, the electrical conductivity of the solution (L1) was measured. Samples were then autoclaved at 120 °C for 20 min and the final conductivity (L2) was measured after equilibration at 25 °C. The EL was defined as follows: EL (%) = (L1/L2) × 100
Phosphorus measured by colorimetric method, since phosphorus forms a yellow complex with the introduction of molybdate vanadate, we can read up to 450 nm at wavelength. Grain subsamples from each treatment were collected for determining grain P concentration. The subsamples were dried in a forced air oven at 66 °C, ground to pass a 140 mesh sieve (100 mm), and analyzed for total P using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (PerkinElmer, Waltham, MA) after a wet acid digestion (Chapman & Pratt, 1961).
Measurement of potassium was determined by the flame photometer (UK, 410 model, Sherwood) method (Munns et al., 2010) And protein by the standard macro-Kjeldahl procedure. This method (Kjeldahl, 1883) is used worldwide as the standard for analyzing nitrogen and protein content in food. Typical analyses are protein in corn, barley wheat, and seeds.
Sample preparation and analysis
During a period of anthesis and maturity, plants were sampled. Dry matter changes of these parts-expressed as the sample means-before and after anthesis were then calculated. Positive differences between dry matter at two successive stages were attributed to the storage of assimilates and negative values to remobilization to the grains (Cox et al., 1986;Papakosta & Gagianas, 1991; Arduini et al., 2006):
Dry matter remobilization (mg per shoot) = (dry matter at anthesis stage in the organ) - (dry matter at maturity stage in the same organ).
Current photosynthesis rate = Contribution of reserves of assimilate to grain (%)/GY (mg/plant)
Contribution of reserves of assimilate to grain (%) = (Dry matter remobilized/ grain dry matter accumulation between day 24 and maturity) x 100.
Data were analyzed using the general linear model (GLM) procedure of the statistical analysis system, SAS software. When analysis of variance showed significant treatment effects, Duncan's multiple range tests were applied to compare the means at p < 0.05.
RWC and Ion leakage
According to analysis of variances it was founded that interaction effects between Location* Drought Stress* Urea* Nano showed significant effect at 5% statistically level on RWC and Ion leakage (Table 1).
Stress treatment caused a significant decrease in the leaf RWC and increase in electrolyte leakage compared with control and recovered conditions According to mean comparisons, drought stress led to 13 reduction in RWC and 21% increase in ion leakage compared to normal irrigation, respectively.
Application of 37, 74 and 110 kg.ha-1 urea led to 3, 7 and 16% increase in RWC and 14, 21 and 24% decrease in ion leakage compared to control, respectively. Mostly In the drought stressed plots, nitrogen supply increased RWC and decrease ion leakage. Application of 14, 27 and 41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer led to 15, 21 and 37% increase in RWC and 15, 22 and 29% the reduction of ion leakage compared to control, respectively. In relation to interaction between stress, urea and nano fertilizer on RWC, it was found that at normal and stress condition the highest mean of RWC (78 and 69%, respectively) were obtained by 110 kg.ha-1 urea and 41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer and interaction between stress, urea and nano fertilizer in ion leakage showed that at normal condition and stress condition the lowest mean of ion leakage (28% and 32%) were obtained by 110 kg.ha-1 urea and 41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer.
The ability of the plant to survive in severe water deficits depends on its ability (ion leakage) to restrict water loss through the leaf epidermis after the stomata have attained minimum aperture (El Jaafari, 2000). Shangguan et al. (2000) showed nitrogen nutrition and water stress had effects on leaf photosynthetic gas exchange and water use efficiency in winter wheat. According to results of Wu et al. (2008), appropriate or low N supply, therefore, would be recommended to stimulate growth, enhance WUE, alleviate drought stress, and consequently contribute to S. davidii seedling establishment under dry condition, but excess N supply should be avoided. Loss of membrane integrity was reported with the increase of electrolyte leakage under drought stress (Fan et al., 1994).
In drought stress, cell growth is adversely affected by the water loss, and this causes the cells to remain small (Zlatev, & Lidon, 2012). Moreover, reduction in cell growth leads to a decrease in cell wall synthesis and many plants accumulate some solutes in the cell in response to drought stress (Mahajan & Tuteja, 2005; Assaha et al., 2016; Saravia et al., 2016). The increase in the number of intracellular solutes is very important in keeping cell water. Sugars, amino acids and many ions especially K+ are considered as solutes effective in osmotic adjustment (Kacar et al., 2006; Ozen & Onay, 2007).
Protein, phosphorus and potassium
According to analysis of variances it was founded that interaction effects between Location* Drought Stress* Urea* Nano, on Phosphorus and Location*nano, drought stress* nano treatments on Protein and urea*nano Location*nano drought stress* nano treatments on Protein and on Potassium had significant effects at 5% statistically level. And location*nano had significant effects on potassium at 1% statistically level (Table 1).
According to mean comparisons, drought stress led to 26% increase in Protein content compared to normal irrigation. Application of 37, 74 and 110 kg.ha-1 urea led to 4, 10 and 17% increase in Protein content and application of 14, 27 and 41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer led to 33, 54 and 69% increase compared to control. In relation to interaction between stress, urea and nano fertilizer, it was found that at normal and stress condition the highest mean of Protein content were obtained by 41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer in drought condition it seemed that Drought stress and nano-nitrogen fertilizer increased the amount of protein in wheat.
Table 2 Comparison of the performance of conventional urea and nano nitrogen fertilizers in the studied physiological traits
Proteins are compounds of fundamental importance for all functions in the cell (Sara et al., 2012). In this regard, the declared impaired protein synthesis accompanied with a reduction in the plant growth and the crop yield under water stress condition which is due to the reduced number of polysomal complexes in tissues with lower water content (kabiri et al., 2014). In addition, the generation of ROS caused the oxidation of amino acids and could burst the protein structure under drought stress. However, a significant relationship was observed among total proteins and grain yield of wheat under rain-fed conditions (Farshadfar et al., 2008). On the other hand, an increase in shoot proteins of the wheat plants cultivated under water stress condition was observed (Noman et al., 2018).
The drought stress-induced proteins allow plants to make biochemical and structural adjustments that enable plants to cope with the stress (Al-jebory et al., 2012).
The presence of proline is one of the common traits in most of the cereals under drought (Gurumurthy et al., 2019). Wheat plants accumulate proline than the other osmoregulators, especially in leaves because of the increasing collapse of proteins with an immediate decline in its synthesis during the grain filling stage under water deficit (Nazarli et al., 2011). It is osmotically active, controls storage of useful N, and plays a major part in membrane stability. It also helps by scavenging free radicals and buffering cellular redox potential which helps wheat plants to combat abiotic stresses. As a signaling controller molecule, it initiates many mechanisms that help in adaptation to drought (Marci et al., 2013).
According to mean comparisons, drought stress led to 13 reduction in Phosphorus content compared to normal irrigation. Application of 37, 74 and 110 kg.ha-1 urea led to 17%, 35% and 54% increase in phosphorus content and application of 14, 27 and 41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer led to 26%, 58% and 80% increase compared to control. In relation to interaction between stress, urea and nano fertilizer, it was found that at normal and stress condition the highest mean of Protein content were obtained by (110,74) kg.ha-1 urea and 41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer.
According to mean comparisons, drought stress led to 26 reduction in Potassium content compared to normal irrigation. Application of 37, 74 and 110 kg.ha-1 urea led to 11%, 18% and 27% increase in Potassium content and application of 14, 27 and 41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer led to 11%, 25% and 38% increase compared to control. In relation to interaction between stress, urea and nano fertilizer, it was found that at normal and stress condition the highest mean of Protein content were obtained by 110 kg.ha-1 urea and 14,27,41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer by 74 kg.ha-1 urea and 27,41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer.
Nanoparticles record significantly higher uptake owing to free passage from nano sized pores and by molecular transporters as well as root exudates. Nanoparticles also utilize various ion channels which lead to higher nutrient uptake by crop plants. Within the plant, nanoparticles may pass through plasmodesmata that results in effective delivery on nutrients to sink sites (Iqbal, 2020).
Remobilization and current photosynthesis rate
According to analysis of variances it was founded that Interaction between Location* Drought Stress*Urea*Nano had significant effect on remobilization and photo-synthesis rate at 5% statistically level (Table 1).
According to mean comparisons, drought stress led to 22% increase in remobilization and 69% reduction in photosynthesis rate compared to normal irrigation. Application of 74 and 110 kg.ha-1 urea led to 6% increase in remobilization and 22% and 34% photosynthesis rate compared to control.
Application of 37, 74 and 110 kg.ha-1 urea led to 23%, 51% and 63% increase in Remobilization and application of 14, 27 and 41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer led to 21%, 50% and 73% increase compared to control. Application of 37, 74 and 110 kg.ha-1 urea led to 5%, 1% and 3% increase in photo-synthesis rate and application of 14, 27 and 41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer led to 16%, 30% and 55% increase compared to control.
In relation to interaction between stress, urea and nano fertilizer, it was found that at drought condition the highest mean of remobilization (178.50 g/m2) were obtained by 110 kg.ha-1 urea and 41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer and 74 kg.ha-1 urea and 41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer (166.50 g/m2) and in normal condition (155.33 g/g.m2). At stress condition the highest mean of photosynthesis rate (382.50, 419.33, 421.50 g/m2) was obtained by (37,74,110) kg.ha-1 urea and 41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer. The highest mean of photosynthesis rate in stress conditions (141.83 g/g.m2) was obtained by 110 kg.ha-1 urea and 41 kg.ha-1 nano fertilizer.
Table 5 Mean analysis of physiological trait of wheat under drought stress conditions
ns, **,*: no significant and significant at p≤ 0.01, p ≤ 0.05 respectively.
Table 6 Means comparison of physiological trait of wheat under drought stress conditions
Different letters indicating significant difference at p < 0.05.
In cereals the growth of seeds is supported by the transportation of assimilates to some extent That these stock materials are mostly reserves in the stem before flowering stage and It is called Remobilization. Under drought stress current photosynthesis decreased and the role of remobilization increased during the grain filling in some genotypes for example in that research mobilized dry matter content and remobilization percentage from shoot to grain under water deficit were (11.2%) greater than those under well watering condition (Ehdaie et al., 2008).
Seed filling rate in plants is mainly dependent on two carbon resources (1) currently synthesized assimilates from photosynthesis, and (2) carbohydrate (assimilates) reserves translocated to the seed from vegetative tissue in leaves and stem. Usually, drought and heat stress during seed filling causes early senescence and reduces seed-filling duration and enhances assimilate remobilization from the source to sink. These results agree with the results of (Plaut et al., 2004; Yang & Zhang, 2006)
Overall, these results showed that all traits were affected by drought stress and application of nitrogen to some extent can reduce negative effects of stress on yield traits and using of nano-nitrogen fertilizer in lower levels not only prevents environmental and groundwater pollution but also plays an important role in enhancing the performance of various physiological traits.
According to the problem of environmental pollution and hunger dilemma of the growing population of the world, it seems that the use of nano-fertilizers can not only reduce environmental pollution, eutrophication, pollution of groundwater and diseases caused by overusing of conventional fertilizers, but also due to smaller particle diameters, with more penetration into the roots and leaves of plants can improve the physiological traits and yield of crops. Therefore, it is recommended to replace nano-fertilizers with conventional fertilizers, especially in sandy soils due to the possibility of more leaching of conventional urea fertilizer and groundwater pollution.
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Received: July 21, 2020; Accepted: January 09, 2021
* Corresponding author: naimehastaneh@gmail.com (N. Astaneh)


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text:
More Than a Game: Life Lessons from Philadelphia's Sports Communities
by Shorr-Parks, Eliot; Parks, Steve
Publisher: Temple Univ Pr
More Than a Game: Life Lessons from Philadelphia's Sports Communities > ISBN13: 9780984042906
Anyone who has sat at the "Vet," watched a pick-up game, or played catch in the yard, knows that sports is more than a game in Philadelphia-it's a commitment to hard work, a belief in community values, and a tradition of never giving up.Told through the personal experiences of professional athletes, community leaders, and everyday players, More Than a Game captures how sports build character and communities with each hit of the ball, catch of a touchdown pass, or dunk of the basketball. Among those featured are Carlos Ruiz, Chris Pronger, Sonny Hill, Angelo Cataldi, Leonard Weaver, Rita Sloan Green, Ruben Amaro, Jr., Joe Banner, Alyson Goodner, Gary Cobb, Jim Ellis, Mayor Michael Nutter, Nicholas Bradley, Governor Edward Rendell, and Rami Ibrahim. The perfect gift for the aspiring athlete, the community coach, or the supportive parent.Eliot Shorr-Parks, a graduate of Temple University, is Associate Editor of New City Community Press. More Than a Game is his first book. He is currently working on a project focused on Philadelphia football. You can read his coverage of Eagles football on BuzzonBroad.com. He is a life-long Philadelphia resident.Steve Parks is an Associate Professor of Writing at Syracuse University and founder of New City Community Press (newcitycommunitypress.com). His previous books include Gravyland: Writing Beyond the Curriculum in the City of Brotherly Love and Class Politics: The Movement for a Students' Right to Their Own Language. He lives in Philadelphia with his family.
Acknowledgements p. x
Introduction p. 1
Mayor of Philadelphia The Philly Fan Wants You to Put Yourself Out There p. 9
Swimmer I Can Remember SeeingJack JohnsonJohnson, Jack p. 15
Sports Fan It Cost a Quarter to Get In, Maybe Cheaper p. 23
Lacrosse Coach Talent Has No Color p. 31
Hockey Fan Somewhere in the Late 50's, There was an NHL Game On p. 41
94 Wip Morning Show Host I'm Positive the Red Sox Killed my Father p. 51
Sled Hockey I Looked Up.... But Didn't See Him p. 59
Former Governor of Pennsylvania The Shoeshine Guy and the President of the Bank Can Both Have the Same Strong Opiniòn p. 67
Espn Mike and Mike Show Are You Willing to Do This? Are You Willing to Sacrifice? p. 73
Hockey Fan I looked up to athletes like the Broad Street Bullies because they knew how to handle danger. They responded by taking care of business p. 79
Philadelphia Phillies At Those Moments, I Would Think of My Dad p. 87
Sports Journalist When I was Six Years Old, The Game was Always On For Me to Watch with My Dad p. 93
Muay Thai World Champion They See the Image of a True Palestinian, a True Muslim p. 99
Philadelphia Flyers If Talent Won Every Time, What Would Be the Point of Working? p. 111
Philadelphia Eagles An Education is Something They are Always Going to Have p. 119
Football Player I'm Not Quitting. You Know, 'Cause I'm No Punk p. 127
PDR Swimming Some Kid From the Other Team Got on the Microphone and Said, 'Stop the Music, There's a White Girl on the Floor' p. 135
Philadelphia Flyers I Think the Camaraderie of the Team is What Got Us Through that Year p. 143
Philadelphia Eagles That's What God Teaches Us ù To Continue to Press On p. 151
Coach, PDR Swim Team And If We are Going to be PDR Swimming, Then We are Going to Represent the City p. 159
Philadelphia Eagles I Think We Can Try to Use Sports Teams to Reflect the Values and Attitudes... We Have as Citizens p. 167
Football Coach There Were "A " Students, Corner Students p. 177
Basketball Coach We're Going to Play Hard, Come to Practice - No B.S. p. 185
Baseball Commissioner Understanding Mt. Airy Baseball is Understanding Mt. Airy p. 193
Philadelphia Phillies Mt.Airy Baseball Player, Philadelphia Phillies No. 1 Draft Choice p. 201
Sonny Hill League Education Gives You the Opportunity to Get to Where You Want to Go Over the Long Period p. 203
Philadelphia Phillies Getting There is One Thing, Staying There is Another p. 223
Philadelphia Phillies I Knew with One More Pitch, We Were World Champions p. 233
Sports Fan It's Easy to Play When You Know it's 20,000 Against Five, You Know What I Mean? p. 239
Baseball Fan Rained Out at the Ballgame p. 247
About the Editors p. 250
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.
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I was planning on writing this blog a few weeks ago, when as far as I'm concerned, Summer 2012 officially came to an end. The date? August 8. The reason? I picked up a 12-pack of BLUE MOON Brewing Company's "Brewmaster's Autumn Sampler." If Fall Beer is Here - Summer is over. At least that's what I told myself.


UK employers have expressed their shock following First Secretary of State George Osborne's announcement of a new hourly minimum wage of £7.20 (HK$87).
Unlike in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea, which offer similar minimum wage for employees, only workers aged 25 or above in the UK will benefit from the minimum wage – or what Osborne calls the national living wage.
In the UK, people of different ages are offered different minimum pay, workers age between 18 to 20 get no less than £5.13, (HK$60), aged 21 above gets no less than £6.5 (HK$78). The £7.20 for workers aged 25 is a newly added category, it is expected to come into effect in April next year.
Osborne said he hoped that by 2020 workers would enjoy a basic hourly rate of £9 ($109) an hour.
With increasing public pressure on government to close the wealth gap, many countries had proposed to increase the minimum wage.
In Singapore, the opposing Workers' Party is promoting a "phased rollout" of a national minimum wage starting at S$1,000 a month and the amount will be increased gradually over a period "of a few years" to S$1,250.
Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced last month the minimum hourly wage in Japan was raised by ¥18 from the previous year to ¥798.
In Hong Kong, workers saw their minimum wage increase to from HK30 to HK$32.5 this May with workers in the cleaning, security and restaurant sectors benefiting the most.
The rationale behind the UK minimum wage policy is to encourage less educated young people to find employment. UK university graduates tend to make more than the minimum wage, so the policy is aimed to benefit grassroot workers.
If people across different age groups get the same pay, employers will definitely prefer to hire experienced workers and young people who are looking to get grassroot jobs will be denied opportunities. Getting younger workers to take less will make them more attractive to employers.
The situation is similar in Hong Kong where less educated young people are struggling to find employment – the unemployment rate among individuals age between 15 to 19 is 15.2% way higher than the city's average of 3.3%.
Whether the city should follow the UK policies is up for debate, but offering different minimum wages for people of different age group is certainly something to look into.


Mexico is a fascinating and vibrant country, a colourful land steeped in history, myth and legend.
This was the home of the ancient Aztec, Toltec and Maya civilisations, whose great pyramids rival those of Egypt. It was also landfall for the first of the Spanish Conquistadors as they searched for the fabled Cities of Gold.
Today, Mexico is a modern and welcoming country, far removed from our stereotypic image of Hollywood Westerns full of cacti, tequila and banditos wearing oversize sombreros and moustaches! Indeed it is a beautiful country of many contrasts, from the hot cacti-filled deserts so favoured by moviemakers, to the lush tropical rainforests of the south.
Monarch butterflies in the central highlands & bird watching in the Sierra Madre cloudforests.
Baja California has long been described as the Galapagos of Mexico. From the Pacific-pounded shores of its western coastline round to the sheltered blue waters of the Sea of Cortez, this 1,285-kilometre peninsula (one of the worlds longest) is home to a diversity of wildlife that could easily rival Darwins more famous islands over 1,600 kilometres to the south.
Flocks of Magnificent Frigatebirds soar overhead, while lines of Brown Pelicans and Brants Cormorants file over the seas surface, and hundreds of sea lions rest on isolated rocky islands.
"I recommend our 'Baja California & Sea of Cortez' whale watching holiday for its memorable, close-up encounters with Grey Whales as well as a huge variety of other cetaceans."