This article situates international expatriate schools in their cultural and political economy by drawing attention to the tensions between a cosmopolitan educational ethos and processes of social, economic and legal enclavement. Based on extensive multi-sited ethnographic research in the international school sector, we show how cosmopolitan claims of openness mirror a relative closure and ‘offshore-like’ enclavement. To do so, we build upon the notions of modularity and extractivism, which we use as heuristics to analyse social and spatial practices of defining boundaries. Gazing beyond the main foundational myth of international schools, we first outline their concomitant extractive roots. Second, we shed light on the conditions of international teachers’ circulation worldwide. Third, we examine the territorial entanglements and disentanglements that characterise international schools. Finally, we investigate the tensions induced by a cosmopolitan educational ethos whose discourse of inclusion is inevitably paired with practices of exclusion. Anthropologists have long studied foundational myths, as they are instrumental in shedding light on the various identification processes and boundary-making practices enacted within social groups. In the field of international schooling, whose epistemic community beliefs and group-making practices are the focus of this article, two competing narratives are generally used to explain the origin and global spread of international schools – understood here as schools that provide an international and portable curriculum geared towards global citizenship see : 183–6. In this article, we draw on the historical linkages between international schools and extractive industries to propose an alternative reading of the development and educational trajectories of these schools. In doing so, however, we do not seek to replace the narrative rooted in educational internationalism with one stemming from expatriation policies of oil and mining companies. We acknowledge that the origins of and causes for the global rise in international education are manifold. For instance, the historical expansion of international curricula has been well documented as lying at the crossroads between idealist and pedagogical projects and coupled with the pragmatic requirements of increasingly mobile upper-class families . The conliteral extraction and extraction in the expanded sense’ . Field research involved either short visits or immersion stays lasting several weeks or months (in six schools). We also attended job fairs (for prospective teachers) in London and Toronto and school fairs (for prospective parents) where dozens of international schools marketed themselves to attract teachers and students. In addition, we conducted 86 interviews with teachers we met in person  and online (teachers located worldwide).The article begins with a brief conceptualisation of international expatriate schools as modular enclaves. Then, after clarifying the official and alternative myths of origin and their respective linkages to cosmopolitan and extractive epistemologies, the first section focuses on the continuities between the extraction sector and international schools. We build on the case of Shell’s Piasau school in Malaysia to draw a parallel between the spatial-temporal order of extractive enclaves and the trajectories of international schools. From there, we expand on how international teachers experience this form of schooling and show how their adherence to cosmopolitan ideals facilitates their professional mobility across enclaves worldwide. In the second part, we interrogate the continuities between international schools and ‘extraction in an expanded sense’, thereby expanding the concept of modularity to other expatriate international schools. In doing so, we address the work of entanglement and disentanglement that mediates the relations between these schools and their local contexts, namely the architectural, legal and ideological dis/entanglements required to make international schools modular. over the past 20 years has gone hand in hand with an increase in the number of multinational corporations that have established their domicile in the country. For instance, the five major businesses in terms of revenue are extractive and commodity trading companies  and a large percentage of their staff are expatriates. These businesses have specific requirements regarding employee mobility and consequently regarding the schooling of their employees’ children. Moreover, in addition to nurturing corporate culture and values  first opened. The establishment of the school is generally portrayed as being located at the conjunction of two main endeavours: first, as an initiative of civil servants’ families in Geneva and New York wishing to provide their children with a portable curriculum and to promote peace and intercultural understanding across borders ; second,Beyond this narrative, several authors have indicated that the roots of this expanding phenomenon are manifold and include aspects such as US industrial corporate interests promoting post-war economic liberalism ; pragmatThere is, however, another myth about the origins of international schools circulating in global recruitment platforms. According to As Shell’s head of Education Services explained in a public interview in 2012 , the PiaRigZone  or Shell school (Dutch), were rebranded ‘international’ to accommodate the greater diversity of their employees, a change that was made along with the adoption of the IB curriculum, which replaced the formerly used French or Dutch national curricula.After a series of changes in her personal life, Sheila decided to ‘go further international’ and attended an international teaching job fair in London in the hopes of finding a new job abroad. There she received offers from schools in Dubai, Florence, Kampala and Houston – with three of the four possible destinations being oil extraction and business centres. Her job offers were in fact representative of the recruiting schools’ locations more broadly. For instance, at two other job fairs we attended, 29 out of 39 and 33 out of 51 schools were in countries with extraction-based economies such as Nigeria, the UAE, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Colombia, Egypt, Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan, while the remaining ones were mostly located in offshore-like jurisdictions and business hubs in Switzerland, Singapore, Monaco, Honk Kong, Luxembourg, the Bahamas or London. Sheila opted for the job in Kampala, where she had been told that Total was preparing to hire expatriate employees for its new operations that would soon begin in Lake Albert. In her view, teaching in an African country – which she believed would represent larger socio-cultural differences – would be most valued for future positions in international schools and would thus boost her employability – or what Given the very low degree of regulation in this sector, many teachers’ trajectories are far from being as smooth as Sheila’s, and they are often marked by a high degree of precarity . Our intTo understand how this being at home in the world is facilitated in the field of international schools, we now draw on the notion of modularity that characterises these extractive projects. Indeed, from our ethnographic work at international job fairs, it appears that school recruiters highlight a strikingly similar set of advantages, albeit in a variety of configurations, to promote their schools, irrespective of location. The work package, including salary and in-kind benefits, the touristic appeal of the location and the quality of the school infrastructure were repeatedly broadcast to attract prospective teachers. In Sheila’s case, all the schools that offered her a position presented extremely similar features, aside from their location. This, to paraphrase  as well as the Geneva-based companies Trafigura, Vitol, Mercuria, Cargill or Gunvor, which cover most of the international school fees of their employees’ children. This model of corporate-sponsored international schools can also be found in new territories of capital absorption such as China, currently the main market for international schools  , provide schools , as wellAs part of the infrastructure that underpins the circulation of capital across these different spaces, international schools must have a modular design, allowing them to share enough features for teachers and students to navigate movement across them smoothly, while also enabling them to become established in their local environment. In the following sections, we identify three areas of entanglement and disentanglement at stake in making international schools modular: architectural, legal, and ideological dis/entanglements. While the resulting enclave model was initially set up for extraction operations, it became institutionalised as a standard feature and a marker of internationalism beyond such settings. Consequently, although the notion of modularity was originally developed to describe operations of extraction, we use it in an extended sense to address the dis/entanglements which are characteristic of international schools for expatriate children.We have a bar, a supermarket, sport facilities, all within the school complex. So you can enjoy the local food and local culture if you wish, but you can also get everything you are used to, just like in the UK.As one of the school directors we met in London stated: ‘Parents want to see the same standards and the same offer wherever they live.’ Indeed, the sameness of the schooling environment regardless of the specific local context is an important selection criterion and one that is visible at international school fairs (for prospective families) as well as at international job fairs (for prospective teachers). Parents are familiar with abstract representations of what an international school should provide and look like. They want their children to have everything they need at school, and they want the school structures to be the same, irrespective of the country in which the school is located. Teachers, too, expect the same standards of infrastructure both at school and at home – housing being often provided by the employer within the school compound – wherever they work. In the presentation of the Kampala school chosen by Sheila during a job fair, the director explained the following to the audience of job-seeking teachers:For the schools, this implies mainly two aspects of architectural design that are comparable to what Physical separation then follows a logic of ‘immunity’ that, according to What all these measures have in common is that they belong to a set of tools, including architectural and bioprotective systems, that serve to replicate an abstract and standardised model of the international school in any possible location so as to meet so-called ‘international standards’. An additional common feature among all the efforts deployed to realise a shared vision of sameness across schools worldwide is that their inevitable physical location in a national and local territory requires continual legal work to guarantee operations while nonetheless preserving selective forms of disentanglement.While schooling is historically a core prerogative of the state and a central mechanism of nation-building, most traditional international schools nowadays have their roots in the corporate world and rightly disavow any claim of being the offshoot of a national project. Consequently, schools often have to negotiate their legal relationship with the ‘host country’ – a term ironically inherited from the vocabulary of international investment law that regulates the relationship between states and foreign companies, most notably mining corporations  – with rThe provision of a non-national curriculum by international schools repeatedly constitutes one such legal exception vis-à-vis the control of school curricula that states have historically exercised to shape the nation’s future citizens and workers . In someLegal exceptions, however, are not restricted to curricular issues: foreign teachers, too, are often granted special status, allowing them to circumvent national regulations governing the teaching labour market. In China, for instance, where the teaching profession is otherwise reserved for Chinese nationals, teachers hired by international schools can obtain a work visa (Z visa), provided that they are native English speakers and have a teaching qualification as well as two years of experience. As we observed, global recruitment platforms act as an intermediary to facilitate these administrative processes.The enclave dynamics described above may appear to be in stark contradiction to the cosmopolitan ideals and so-called ‘international-mindedness’ promoted in international schools and continually evoked in reference to the official foundational myth of Ecolint in Geneva. However, rather than being a contradiction, we suggest that it is precisely these cosmopolitan ideals that enable the articulation of the abstract model of the international school in the highly diverse contexts in which it is replicated and recontextualised. While the insistence on international-mindedness obviously relates to the Ecolint foundational myth, expanded notions of extractivism and frontier thinking also arise in teaching practices, which manifest a more discreet reference to the Shell myth.In teaching practices, for example, the dominant use of English as a language of instruction is upheld as a necessary means to communicate transculturally on the global stage. Nevertheless, English is also complemented by at least one other language, often the local idiom, which represents a symbolic entanglement with the geographical location of the school. Real or imagined, the relationship between the global and local levels is continuously performed in the schools, thereby evoking an external Other as a backdrop against which cosmopolitanism is constructed. Abstract ideas of ‘the local’ are exemplified in three sets of imagined identities: the individual, alleged ‘multiculturality’ of the student body; the ‘culture of the host country’; and the variety of ‘cultures’ deemed traditional and broadly grouped within the Global South and for which international schools enact interconnectedness through charities and philanthropic engagements.This ‘intercultural context’ is performed daily in othering practices across the three realms mentioned above: students, host country and traditional cultures. First, schools daily celebrate the alleged diversity of the student body. Children are consistently referred to in reference to their nationality, a practice that becomes evident in everyday tasks such as having students draw pictures of their family under their country’s national flag, locate their country of origin on a map, or wear folkloric clothes on international days. Then, the so-called ‘host country’ is also misrepresented through over-simplification in an essentialised cultural context, notably through tourist excursions organised for children and their families. Finally, most schools are engaged in philanthropic projects that primarily serve to enact a cosmopolitan stance. In some of the most affluent schools, children are given the opportunity to travel to countries that are considered safe, yet poor enough to embody a certain image of the Global South, for instance, Thailand or Tanzania. There, international schools often sponsor development-aid-like projects – for example, constructing a school – in which their students are invited to participate. As we have shown elsewhere , such enMaybe we are at a similar inflection point, a moment where we might be opening up a new world that will change the lives of our descendants in a way that is comparable to the way the lives of the descendants of Columbus have been changed.As The scientist then presented asteroid mining to the students as a new economic horizon and a technological-scientific challenge, drawing on colonial terminology in the process: ‘We are going to find these resources and once we do, we open up the opportunity to colonise our new world.’This talk is an extreme illustration of a conception of the world (and beyond) that consists of a set of endless frontiers waiting to be discovered, conquered, exploited – with the social and environmental damage caused in this process having to be remediated at some future date. Such frontier thinking is in fact quite similar to the CSR-inspired endeavours discussed earlier: they construct distant local populations at best as objects of development; otherwise, they are simply targets of compensation measures enacted at expanding extractive frontiers.By paying attention to an alternative genealogy of international education, one that locates the schools’ roots in extractive industries, we were able to foreground the functional role that a modular form of schooling plays in fostering the mobility of expatriate employees across enclaves at expanding extractive frontiers. Despite the salience of this alternative origin, however, the official myth of the International School of Geneva remains central to understanding the rise of international schools, especially with regard to the ways in which abstract cosmopolitan ideals are recontextualised by means of selective entanglements with the local environment. As such, the articulation of the extractive and cosmopolitan epistemologies represented by each separate foundational myth is what helps to better account for the specificity of international expatriate schools.It should be stated that we have no intention to posit that international schools have a hidden agenda for training future mining executives. Nevertheless, and while we acknowledge the multiple causes of international schools’ expansion and have highlighted some of the features this type of schooling shares with the extraction sector, our argument stresses how the cosmopolitan project of international schooling draws on techniques of modularity that have long-standing roots in the extraction business. The significance of this historical legacy ultimately appears to align cosmopolitan values with a frontier worldview in a broad sense. As Another aspect the two competing myths on the birth of international schools and their respective epistemologies share is that both narratives continuously play on logics of abstraction and re-contextualisation. The form of cosmopolitanism through which international schools conceive ‘the world as one’  fosters While the overall picture outlined here is not meant to provide a single, unequivocal interpretation of the worldwide expansion of international schools, by shedding light on some neglected historical roots and continuities between foundational myths, we seek to provide nuance to, and to further complicate, the official discourse circulated in international schools. In doing so, we hope to contribute to better situating certain international ‘expatriate’ schools in their cultural and political economy by drawing attention to the articulation of, and tensions between, a cosmopolitan educational ethos and the extractive-like enclaves of international schools.


GhSUS2) was shown to be involved in the antagonism between ABA and GA. GhSUS2 was upregulated by ABA and downregulated by GA. The increase in the transcript level of GhSUS2 coincided with the development of corm/cormels. Silencing of GhSUS2 repressed corm development and starch accumulation. In conclusion, we propose that GhSUS2, an essential enzyme in sucrose degradation, is differentially regulated by ABA and GA and controls corm development in Gladiolus.Understanding corm development in flower bulbs is of importance for securing the quality of cut flowers and propagation of commercial stocks. Gladiolus is one of the most popular bulb plants worldwide. Its corm development is characterized by starch accumulation. Previous research has shown that phytohormones ) are involved in tuber development. However, the relationship between abscisic acid (ABA)/GA and starch during corm development remains unclear. To gain deeper insights into the biological process of corm development, we performed a detailed anatomical characterization of different stages of corm development and analyzed phytohormone levels. Our study showed that corm development is linked to hormones (ABA and GA) and carbohydrates (sucrose and starch). Exogenous hormone treatment and silencing of endogenous hormone biosynthesis genes indicated that ABA positively regulates corm development, while GA acts as an antagonist of ABA function. A sucrose synthase gene ( Fritillaria spp.), and decorations for gardens . To date, the development of storage organs is poorly understood, except for potato. For wild potato species, tuberization is regulated by environmental factors, such as ambient temperature, photoperiod, and nitrogen2. Tuberization is stimulated under short-day conditions and promoted by low night temperatures1. Under long-day or high-temperature conditions, inhibition of tuberization is mediated by the CONSTANTS/FLOWERING LOCUS T (CO/FT) protein4. In hydroponically cultivated potatoes, tuberization is induced by withdrawing nitrogen from the nutrient solution, indicating that nitrogen has an inhibitory effect on tuberization5. In the context of phytohormones, GA dominates tuberization6. The GA level decreases when the stolon tip starts to swell, and excess GA inhibits the transition from stolon to tuber8. GA metabolism genes (StGA20ox1 and StGA3ox2) have been shown to be involved in tuberization10. Cytokinins and jasmonic acid (JA) positively induce tuberization12. Aside from insights into the regulation of tuberization in potato, the physiological and molecular mechanisms of storage organ development in other species are poorly studied. Recently, by transcriptome and physiological analyses, a GA inhibitor was shown to stimulate the shoot-to-bulblet transition of lily in vivo, and starch was found to be a fundamental compound in this process13. However, direct genetic evidence of the role of hormones in bulb development remains elusive.A storage organ is a portion of a plant specifically modified as a reserve of energy or water. This is an evolutionary strategy that maintains plant survival and propagation from generation to generation. The storage organs of geophytes are often found underground and are modified from the root, leaf, stem, or hypocotyl. They include bulbs, tubers, corms, rhizomes, and root tubers. Storage organs serve as sources of food , commercial goods  and unloaded in nonphotosynthetic organs  where sucrose is converted to starch for long-term storage in amyloplasts. Upon arriving in sink organs, sucrose is transported into sink cells via transporters or plasmodesmata19. In the cytosol, sucrose can be hydrolyzed by cytosolic invertase (CIN) to fructose and glucose or cleaved by sucrose synthase (SUS) to fructose and uridine diphosphate glucose (UDP-G). In the latter pathway, UDP-G can be further transformed to adenosine diphosphate glucose (ADP-G) by UGPase and AGPase20. ADP-G is the main substrate for starch biosynthesis in angiosperms. The glucosyl moiety is added to existing glucan chains by starch synthases17. Starch synthesis is regulated by phytohormones. In maize and potato, GA inhibits starch accumulation, while its inhibitor (chlorocholine chloride) significantly increases starch content22. In rice internodes, overexpression of ethylene receptors (ETHYLENE RESPONSE2/ETR3) induces the accumulation of starch granules23.As the principal carbohydrate in storage organs, starch plays crucial roles in the development of storage organs, such as tubers and seeds24. UDP-G is used to biosynthesize starch or cellulose in plants25. Selective phosphorylation of sucrose synthase isoforms results in enhanced sucrose degradation26. SUS promotes vegetative growth, early flowering, plant biomass accumulation, and the response to low oxygen29. Moreover, SUS decomposes sucrose in sink organs, generating a sucrose gradient flow from source to sink, i.e., the flow provides pressure for the transport of sucrose from the phloem to the sink and ensures the continuous supply of sucrose to the sink in potato. Reducing SUS activity in potato results in reduced tuber dry weight and a lower content of starch30.SUS is a glycosyltransferase that catalyzes the reversible transfer of a glucosyl moiety between fructose and UDP-G17. Therefore, it is worthwhile to study the role of starch in the development of storage organs in nonmodel plants. Gladiolus is one of the most widely planted geophytes worldwide, and its corm is the only plant stock and propagation tissue used for commercial cultivation. Corm degradation, which leads to decreased cut flower production and propagation yield, is one of the most severe problems in Gladiolus cultivation. The gladiolus corm is a specialized underground organ consisting of an enlarged stem axis with distinct nodes and internodes and enclosed by dry, scale-like leaves (tunics). A new corm is generated each growing season over the mother corm. Meanwhile, cormels are produced at the tips of branched stolons that develop from buds located at the base of the new corm31. Corm development is tightly related to carbohydrates. During the rapid expansion of corm and cormels, starch and sugar levels increased sharply32. Recently, we have shown that induction of starch metabolic genes  stimulates corm development and cormel numbers34. Additionally, JA could promote corm expansion, and the expression pattern of GhLOX1 (LIPOXYGENASE), a key JA biosynthesis gene, coincides with corm development35. Whether other hormones participate in corm development and how hormones regulate carbohydrates in corms are still not clear.Although much is known about sink organs in model plants, it has become clear that research on model plants alone will not provide adequate information for the improvement of starch accumulation in all plant species. Indeed, factors controlling starch metabolism differ among species and organs3 level decreases. Interestingly, exogenous ABA promotes corm weight and cormel numbers, and GA3 represses the stolon-to-cormel transition. Furthermore, decreasing the ABA level in the corm by silencing GhNCED dramatically inhibited starch accumulation and the expansion of corms, which was the opposite of the phenotype observed in GhGA20ox-silenced corms. We show that GhSUS2 expression is induced by ABA but inhibited by GA3. GhSUS2 is expressed mainly in sink organs (corms and cormels) and upregulated during corm development. Silencing GhSUS2 in corms impairs corm development. Hence, we propose that ABA and GA play antagonistic roles in corm development by differentially regulating GhSUS2 expression and starch synthesis in Gladiolus.Here, we show that the levels of starch and endogenous ABA increase sharply during the transition from stolon to cormel, while the GAEarly cormel development in Gladiolus can be divided into 5 stages Fig. : stolonsNext, we analyzed the starch and sucrose levels at the different developmental stages. The levels of both starch and sucrose were low in stolons but increased gradually in cormels from stage II to V Fig. .36, we quantified phytohormone levels during cormel development. When corms formed at the tips of cormels (transition from I to II), the endogenous ABA level increased sharply, while the GA3 level decreased . Usually, cormels are largely formed at 14 WAP. After 6 weeks of treatment, plants under ABA treatment had larger mother corms -silenced corms , a key enzyme in ABA biosynthesis in Gladiolus cormels, led to reduced ABA content Fig. , increasent Fig.  and earlves Fig.  and led ves Fig. . Conversrms Fig. ; Fig. S1rms Fig. . The suc39. Moreover, SUSy is essential for sink strength, especially in starch-accumulating organs19. To identify corm-expressed GhSUSs, we screened our cormel transcriptome database40. We found six unigenes expressed in cormels, of which GlaUn069031 was the most abundant  and rice (OsSUS2), so we named it GhSUS2  and in different organs. GhSUS2 was highly expressed in sink organs (corms and cormels), and its expression level gradually increased with cormel development , developed until 26 WAP, and dried at room temperature for 4 additional weeks. The expression level of GhSUS2 closely matched the level of sucrose accumulation in cormels . A green fluorescence signal of GFP-GhSUS2 was observed in the cytosol 47. However, the link between ABA and starch at this developmental stage is less well understood. Here, we found that ABA plays a positive role in corm development and cormel development. While ABA promotes starch synthesis by upregulating GhSUS2 expression, GA has the opposite effect. Furthermore, we showed that starch synthesis positively regulates corm development. We propose that ABA promotes the development of corms in Gladiolus by increasing starch synthesis through upregulation of GhSUS2, while GA has the opposite effect  before the end of each life cycle. Transcriptome analysis in potato and Lilium suggests that sucrose and starch metabolism is involved in the tuberization and the shoot-to-bulblet transition50. However, GA does not always function as an antagonistic hormone to ABA, e.g., GA inhibits corm dormancy release in the early stage of Gladiolus dormancy release, which is similar to the role of ABA51. Here, we provide evidence that ABA and GA antagonize corm development in Gladiolus: (i) during the transition from stolon to cormel, ABA production was induced and GA production was decreased  in potato caused GA-defective phenotypes and significantly increased the number and weight of the tubers obtained, suggesting that ABA/GA cross-talk may be involved in tuberization6. Although potato tuberization is regulated by the crosstalk between ABA and GA, the effects of ABA are always mediated by a change in the levels of GA, which is ultimately the master regulator of tuberization55. Previously, JA was reported to promote corm expansion in Gladiolus35, suggesting that the effects of hormones may be species dependent.ABA and GA are two classic hormones in plants that antagonistically regulate several plant developmental processes, including seed maturation, seed dormancy and germination, primary root growth, and flowering timesed Fig. ; (iii) sent Fig. . NotablyGhNCED is most abundant in the stolon at the flowering/blooming stage when corms start to emerge37. This is in agreement with the fact that during the cormel transition, the levels of ABA and starch sharply increased  and starch synthesis 62. SUS is the primary active enzyme involved in the breakdown of sucrose in sink organs, enhancement of sink strength, and active growth of sink organs19. SUS is highly expressed in storage organs such as seeds, fruits, and taproots and is often positively correlated with starch content and fruit size65. In potato, reducing SUS by an antisense technique markedly decreased the starch content and tuber yield63. Here, we found that GhSUS2 is localized in the cytosol and that the expression of GhSUS2 is positively related to the early developmental stage of cormels and starch accumulation  were sampled at 10 WAP. For exogenous hormone treatment, uniform corms (6 cm in circumference and 3.0–3.8 g) from plants at 10 WAP were irrigated with ABA , GA3 , or water (the control) every 3 days. The plants were lifted after six weeks of treatment. Three biological replicates were examined . For counting cormels, the expanded stolons, which were empty inside and not real cormels, were not included.The Gladiolus cultivar ‘Rose Supreme’ was planted in the Science Research Garden at China Agricultural University. For tracking corm development, stolons and cormels (69.Gladiolus corms or stolons (50 mg) were ground in powder by liquid nitrogen. The extraction and quantification of starch, glucose, and sucrose were performed as described by Fan et al.37. d6-ABA and d2-GA3 were used as internal standards. The extracts were analyzed by HPLC-MS/MS70. Three biological replicates were examined.Gladiolus corms or stolons were collected (50 mg) and ground to a powder with liquid nitrogen. The extraction procedure was performed as described by Wu et al.71. Paraffin sections (8 μm) were obtained using a slicing machine. The slides were stained with PAS72 and photographed by a light microscope . Sugars were stained in red by PAS.Gladiolus corms and stolons were fixed in formalin-aceto-alcohol (FAA) solution. The dehydration and embedding procedures were performed according to a previously published protocolGhSUS2, GhNCED, or GhGA20ox) by VIGS was performed as described by Zhong et al.73 with some modifications. Briefly, a 200–500 base pair (bp) fragment specific to the target gene was generated and cloned into the pTRV2 vector  ethanesulfonic acid (pH 5.6)) to a final OD600 of 1.8. Equal volumes of TRV1 and TRV2 (the control), as well as the TRV1 and TRV2 target genes, were mixed together and kept in the dark for 3 h at 25 °C before vacuum infiltration. Corms were submerged in infiltration buffer and infiltrated under 0.9 MPa for 30 min. Ultimately, the corms were planted in pots and grown in a green chamber at 22 °C under 16/8 h light/dark for four months.Silencing of the target gene (2O and stained with Lugol’s solution  for 10 min. Finally, the stained leaves were rinsed with ddH2O for 15 min33.Gladiolus leaves were submerged in 75% (v/v) ethanol at 80 °C until chlorophyll was eliminated. Then, the leaves were washed with ddHTM real-time PCR system with the Takara qRT-PCR kit. The Gladiolus actin gene acted as the reference gene45. The PCR procedures used were based on the manufacturer’s instructions. All primers are listed in Table -ΔΔT method74.Total RNA from Gladiolus samples was extracted using the Tiangen RNA Extraction Reagent Kit  and reverse transcribed with the M-MLV Reverse Transcriptase Kit . Approximately 400 ng of cDNA was used as the template for qRT-PCR and analyzed by using the Applied Biosystems StepOnePlusGhSUS2 was cloned into pCAMBIA1300-GFP with the SalI and KpnI restriction sites (pSuper: GFP-GhSUS2). Both the fusion construct (GFP-GhSUS2) and the control  were transiently transformed into onion epidermal cells by particle bombardment. After incubation at 25 °C in the dark overnight, the cells were visualized using confocal microscopy .The coding sequence of .69. The supernatants were used for the determination of cytosolic invertase activity as described by Wang et al.75. SUS activity assays, in the direction of sucrose breakdown, were carried out as described by Wang et al.76. Starch synthase activity was measured using the Soluble Starch Synthase Activity Assay Kit .Gladiolus corms were extracted by grinding tissue in liquid nitrogen before adding 1 ml of extraction buffer . The extraction procedures were performed as described by Fan et alSupplementary tables and figures


Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology , which was first released in March 2016, has gone from strength to strength in 2021. This journal provides a forum for research studies on functional morphology and kinesiology and the regulatory functions of movement. JFMK meets the growing demand for high-quality, peer-reviewed international journals. As an open access journal, JFMK has the benefits of being accessible to all readers and having high visibility, and supplies Digital Object Identifier (DOI), ORCID, and CrossRef information to all researchers. We are indexed in Scopus (Elsevier’s abstract and citation database), PubMed, PMC, DOAJ , Scilit , Google Scholar, World Health Organization Hinari, FSTA—Food Science and Technology Abstracts (IFIS) and the Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers (NSD). Our full texts are archived in CLOCKSS , e-Helvetica , and J-Gate (Informatics India). The JFMK was covered by SCImago Journal Rank with a 1.7 Citescore, reaching Q2 in the following research fields: Anatomy, Histology, Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy, Rehabilitation and Rheumatology.In 2021, The CiteScoreTracker 2021 score of our journal in Scopus in 2021 was 2.7, higher than the previous year, demonstrating the growth in citations of our journal. We hope to be included in Web of Science in the near future. JFMK is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). To verify the originality of content submitted to our journals, we use iThenticate to check submissions against previous publications. MDPI works with Publons to provide reviewers with credit for their work. In addition, MDPI Scitations Alert lets authors know about new publications in their research field. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology has experienced a fruitful year [https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jfmk/stats, accessed on 14 December 2021. The journal publishes articles focusing on molecular, cellular, tissue, system and the whole body responses to a broad range of physical activities. Furthermore, the journal provides a forum for analysis of the structure, function, development, and evolution of the cells and tissues of the musculoskeletal system and associated clinical disorders. Thanks to continuous support from our Editorial Board, authors, reviewers, and editorial staff, the ful year ,2,3,4, aJournal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology receives more manuscripts than it is able to publish, and the decision as to which papers are accepted or rejected is a difficult one. This decision is based on several factors, including originality, experimental design, scientific quality, data interpretation, clarity, and the quality of the written English, in order to continually to maintain the high standards of our journal.Indeed, the number of published manuscripts has increased from 88 in its 2020 volume to 98 in 2021. We rejected 29.30% of contributions to ensure publications in our journal remained of high quality. The In 2021, various Special Issues were organized and set up thanks to the huge support of our editors. They include the following: “Exercise Evaluation and Prescription-2nd Edition”, edited by Prof. Dr. Cristina Cortis, Dr. Andrea Fusco and Prof. Dr. Carl Foster ; “Role oIn 2021, seven distinguished scientists joined the Editorial Board: Dr. Gerwin Alexander Bernhardt ; Prof. Dr. Carl Foster ; Dr. Felix Strollo ; Prof. Dr. Vítor P. Lopes ; Dr. Diego Minciacchi ; Dr. Steven J. Coles ; Prof. Dr. Tibor Hortobagyi , reaching a total of 81 Editorial Board members, 7 Advisory Board members, and the Editor-in-Chief.Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology are published in full open access format. 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Follow up planned papers from Editorial Board members;JFMK among scholars;Contact international conferences recommended by the Editor-in-Chief or by Editorial Board members and establish media partnerships with them to increase the visibility of Communicate with Editorial Board members more frequently and seek their input and expertise for journal development;Share high-quality papers through social media  and increase online readership;Reduce the processing time of each submitted manuscript;Have publications indexed by the Emerging Sources Citation Index (Web of Science), EMBASE (Elsevier) and Web of Science—Clarivate;Improve Citescore in the SCImago Journal Rank for kinesiology-related sections such as Anatomy, Histology, Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy, Rehabilitation and Rheumatology;Achieve our first Impact Factor released by the Clarivate Analytics;JFMK Best Paper Award and the JFMK Travel Grant Award for our authors;Host the Garner support from sponsors so our editors can participate in international conferences and disseminate our journal.In order to achieve this target and lay a strong foundation for publications in 2022 and application for indexing, we have made the following plans:Since 2021, MDPI has included the Academic Editor’s name on published articles, where they have accepted that manuscript after full peer-review. 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Hu sheep. Seventy-two Hu lambs with similar initial body weight  were randomly assigned to four treatments, with 18 lambs per group. The four experimental diets have identical starch contents but with different starch sources as 100% starch from corn (BS-0), 33% starch from barley and 67% starch from corn (BS-33), 67% starch form barley and 33% starch from corn (BS-67), and 100% starch from barley (BS-100). All lambs were reared in individual units and fed high-concentrate diets (85% concentrate in diets based on dry matter [DM]). The experimental period included 7 days for adaptation and 63 days for data collection. Sixteen ruminal cannulated Hu sheep were divided into 4 groups and received the four experimental diets to determine the dynamics of ruminal pH. The average daily gain (ADG), and BW gain of lambs linearly decreased (p < 0.05), whereas the feed to gain ratio linearly increased (p < 0.05) with increasing dietary proportions of BS. Digestibility of DM, organic matter, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, starch, and gross energy (GE) decreased (p < 0.05) with increasing dietary BS contents. Ruminal mean pH decreased (p < 0.05) with increasing proportions of dietary BS, accompanied with linearly increased (p < 0.05) time and area of ruminal pH below 5.80 or 5.60. Increasing dietary proportions of BS linearly decreased (p < 0.05) the molar proportion of acetate, but linearly increased (p < 0.05) the molar proportion of propionate. Sheep of the BS-0 and BS-33 treatments had a less (p < 0.05) relative abundance of Selenomonas ruminantium than that of sheep of the BS-67 treatment, but a greater (p < 0.05) relative abundance of Ruminococcus albus than that of sheep of the BS-100 treatment (p < 0.05). In conclusion, feeding a high-concentrate corn-based diet for fattening Hu sheep improved the performance and rumen fermentation parameters when compared to the barley-based diet.The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effects of substituting corn starch (CS) with barley starch (BS) on the growth performance, nutrient digestion, rumen fermentation, and bacterial community of fattening  Using cereal grain to increase the dietary starch contents is a commonly used strategy to improve the performance and feed efficiency of sheep , dairy cThe barley grain that has a high content of crude protein (CP) but lower metabolize energy (90% of corn grain) than corn is commonly used for the substitution of corn. Surber et al.  found thThe combination of grain sources differing in the rates of ruminal fermentation may affect the growth performance of ruminants. Haddad and Nasr  found thHu sheep. In addition, we also intended to find out a feasible combination of corn and barley for fattening sheep production based on the performance and economic consideration.In the present study, we hypothesized that the substitution of CS with BS could decrease the ruminal pH and change the bacterial community of rumen, which might affect the nutrients digestibility and performance of fattening All procedures were approved by the guidelines formulated by the Biological Studies Animal Care and Use Committee of Gansu Province, China (2005–12).Hu lambs of 3 months of age with similar initial BW (29.70 ± 1.70 kg) were randomly assigned into four treatments (18 lambs per treatment). The four experimental diets had identical starch content  but varied in the percentage of CS replaced by BS, and were: 100% starch from corn (BS-0), 33% starch from barley and 67% starch from corn (BS-33), 67% starch from barley and 33% starch from corn (BS-67), and 100% starch from barley (BS-100). The experimental diets were offered as pelleted total mixed ration, the cereal grains of which were grounded through 4 mm sieve before pelleting the diet, and the formulation and chemical composition of the experimental diets were shown in ad libitum, and had free access to water. The experiment lasted 70 days, with 7 days for diet adaptation and 63 days for data collection.Seventy-two male Hu sheep from each treatment were selected randomly to determine apparent nutrient digestibility, with 2 days for adaptation and 4 days for sample collection. Feces samples were collected from the rectum of sheep at 0700 and 1700 h every day and were dried at 65°C and grounded through 1 mm screen. Approximately 25 g of fresh fecal were placed in a brown bottle and added 10% HCl immediately to save the nitrogen.The amount of feed offered  and refused were recorded to calculate the dry matter intake (DMI) every 21 days. All lambs were weighed before morning feeding on day 1 and day 63 of the fattening period to calculate ADG, and feed to gain ratio (F/G). Feed and orts samples were collected every 21 days and mixed to determine the chemical composition. During days 51–57, 6 3-N, and lactic acid. After filtration, 4 ml of rumen fluid was mixed with 1 ml 25% metaphosphoric acid to determine the VFA. Rumen contents were mixed thoroughly and stored at −80°C for the bacterial DNA extraction.On day 64, 10 sheep from each treatment were euthanized to collecting rumen contents after 3 h feeding in the morning. Rumen fluids were collected and filtered through 4 layers of cheesecloth and, with the filtrates divided into three portions in 10-ml sterile tubes and stored at −20°C for the determination of volatile fatty acids (VFA), NHThe DM, OM, ether extract , and CP  of feed, orts, and fecal samples were analyzed according to the procedures described by AOAC . The NDF3-N in the rumen fluid was analyzed following the method of Zhang et al.  with a 30 m × 0.32 mm × 0.25 μm silica capillary column  as described by Zhang et al. , using cg et al. .Rumen content samples were thawed, and 200 mg of each sample were used to extract the total microbial genomic DNA using an E.Z.N.A. Stool DNA kit , following the instruction of manufacturer. The obtained bacterial DNA samples were used as templates for the quantitative real-time PCR. Primers used in the current study were based on published literatures . RelativHu sheep were divided into four groups  to measure the rumen dynamic changes of ruminal pH. The experiment included 27 days . The ruminal pH of each sheep was continuously monitored for 96 h from day 22 (0700 h) to day 26 (0700 h), using an industrial electrode  with a pH transmitter . Data were recorded by a paperless recorder , as described in detail by Li et al.  with diet as the main effect. The results of performance, nutrient digestibility, rumen fermentation parameters, rumen bacterial number, and ruminal pH data were presented as the means with their standard errors. The linear and quadratic effects of dietary BS among treatments were analyzed using polynomial regression. The comparison of different groups was performed by one-way ANOVA, followed by Duncan's p = 0.09) with increasing dietary BS; while the BW gain (BWG) linearly decreased (p < 0.05), with lower BWG (p < 0.05) during the experimental period in BS-100 than that in BS-0 and BS-33 (p < 0.05) with increasing dietary BS contents leading to a linearly increase (p < 0.05) for F/G. Therefore, lower (p < 0.05) ADG but greater (p < 0.05) F/G was observed in BS-100 than that in BS-0, which had similar BWG, ADG, and F/G with BS-33 and BS-67.The final BW of sheep had a tendency leading to a linear decrease (nd BS-33  The DMI p < 0.05) with increasing dietary BS proportions, whereas the digestibility of CP was not affected (p > 0.10) (p > 0.10) in the digestibility of DM, OM, and starch among BS-0, BS-33, and BS-67, which were greater than that in BS-100. The digestibility of CP was not affected (p > 0.05) by dietary BS contents. The digestibility of NDF, ADF, and GE and the digestive energy of feed were the greatest (p < 0.05) in BS-0, intermediate in BS-33 and BS-67, and the lowest in BS-100.The apparent total tract digestibility of DM, OM, NDF, ADF, starch, and GE of feed linearly declined ( > 0.10) . There w3-N, and lactic acid, as well as the molar ratios of isobutyrate, isovalerate, and valerate were not affected (p > 0.10) by the dietary BS proportions (p < 0.05) while the molar proportion of propionate linearly increased (p < 0.05) with increasing dietary BS contents, so that a linearly decreased (p < 0.05) ratio of acetate to propionate (A:P). The molar proportion of acetate and A:P in BS-0 and BS-33 was greater (p < 0.05) than those in BS-67 and BS-100, whereas, opposite results were observed for propionate. The molar proportion of butyrate tended (0.05 < p < 0.10) to be lower in BS-67 and BS-100 than in BS-33.The concentration of VFA, NHportions . The molp < 0.10) the amount of ruminal Prevotella brevis, Ruminococcus flavefaciens, Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens, and total bacteria  and decreased (p < 0.05) linearly, respectively, with increasing dietary BS proportions. The relative abundance of Selenomonas ruminantium in BS-67 was greater (p < 0.05) than that in BS-0 and BS-67; while the amount of Ruminococcus albus in BS-100 was lower (p < 0.05) than that in BS-0 and BS-33. The relative abundance of Fibrobacter succinogenes quadratically (p < 0.05) changed with diet BS proportion, with the relative abundance of Fibrobacter succinogenes tends (0.05 < p < 0.10) to be lower in BS-67 than in BS-0 and BS-100.The quantitative PCR analysis showed that the BS levels did not affect (bacteria . The relp < 0.05) with increasing the diet BS content proportions, with lower value in BS-100 than that in BS-0 and BS-33; however, the maximum (Max) and minimum (Min) pH value were not affected by the dietary BS proportion (p < 0.05) linearly as the dietary BS proportion increased. The time and area of ruminal pH below 5.8 in the BS-100 and BS-67 were higher than that in the BS-0 group and had no difference with the BS-33 group (p < 0.05). The time and area of ruminal pH below 5.6 in the BS-100 group were greater (p < 0.05) than that in the BS-0, BS-33, and BS-67 groups (p < 0.05).The ruminal mean pH linearly decreased . The reason for decreased starch digestibility in BS-100 could be the sharply reduced ruminal pH, resulting in subacute rumen acidosis in the lambs, which thereby limited starch degradation in rumen and intestine  was similar among treatments. However, the fermentation pattern was different greatly for diets mainly containing CS and BS, with fermentation switched from acetate to propionate as the dietary BS contents increased. These results agreed with Li et al. , who obsopionate  in BS-67opionate . This waopionate . In our Ruminococcus albus. However, the dietary treatments did not affect the amount of ruminal Ruminococcus flavefaciens, Fibrobacter succinogenes, and Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens. These results are different from those results of Khafipour et al. .XM collected the sample, analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript. WZ, TR, ZZ, TG, FaL, and LG collected the sample. FeL presented the idea of this manuscript, supported the funding, analyzed the conclusions, and revised the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32072754), and the Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province, China (20JR10RA299).The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.


Interaction and miscibility between starch and chitosan were proven through the peaks shifting to a lower wavenumber in FTIR and a reduction of crystallinity in XRD. TGA results suggested the chitosan-reinforced starch-based bioplastic possessed reasonable thermal stability under 290 °C. Enhancement in water resistance of chitosan-incorporated starch-based bioplastic film was evidenced with a water uptake of 251% as compared to a 302% registered by the pure starch-based bioplastic film. In addition, the fact that the chitosan-reinforced starch-based bioplastic film degraded to 52.1% of its initial weight after 28 days suggests it is a more sustainable alternative than the petroleum-based plastics.Bioplastic has been perceived as a promising candidate to replace petroleum-based plastics due to its environment-friendly and biodegradable characteristics. This study presents the chitosan reinforced starch-based bioplastic film prepared by the solution casting and evaporation method. The effects of processing parameters, i.e., starch concentration, glycerol loading, process temperature and chitosan loading on mechanical properties were examined. Optimum tensile strength of 5.19 MPa and elongation at break of 44.6% were obtained under the combined reaction conditions of 5 wt.% starch concentration, 40 wt.% glycerol loading, 20 wt.% chitosan loading and at a process temperature of 70 °C. From the artificial neural network (ANN) modeling, the coefficient of determination (R Petroleum-based plastics have constituted major parts of our daily life, ranging from bottled drinks, household appliances and toys to food packaging. The reasons for plastics having such popular usage are due to their high strength, low cost and light-weight as well as their thermal and chemical insulating properties ,2. HowevBioplastics’ renewable nature is associated with constituents that are derived from plants such as starch, cellulose and lignin or from animal-derived casein, protein and lipid . BioplasIn starch-based bioplastic film fabrication, plasticizer can be used to overcome film brittleness caused by the high intermolecular forces ,14. The The properties of pure starch-based bioplastic film could also be enhanced by blending it with other polymers such as chitosan with its hydrophobic nature ,20. ChitCorn starch powder was procured from Thye Huat Chan Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia. Glycerol (99.5% purity) was procured from Friendemann Schmidt. Acetic acid  and chitosan  were purchased from Merck and Sigma-Aldrich, respectively. Laboratory-formulated distilled water was used throughout the experiments. All the chemicals were used as received, without further purification.w/w) of 10:8–40:8 was added into a 250 mL beaker containing 100 mL distilled water in a form of suspension to avoid agglomeration. The starch solution was homogenized at 250 rpm and heated at 60 °C for 15 min. Glycerol of varying weight percentages (40 wt.%–80 wt.% based on weight of starch only) was added into the starch solution and subjected to different process temperatures (65 °C–90 °C) until it was gelatinized. For the addition of varying chitosan loading (0 wt.%–20 wt.% of starch), chitosan was dispersed in aqueous solution of 1 v/v% acetic acid. Upon completion of the reaction, 15 g of starch mixture or starch-chitosan mixture was poured into a square container with dimension of 10 cm × 10 cm. The mixture was then dried in a heating oven at 60 °C for 24 h. The film was peeled off and stored in a desiccator with a sealed plastic bag prior to thickness measurement and further testing. The final thickness of each film was measured and was in the range of 0.11 ± 0.02 mm. The effects of fabrication parameters, including starch concentration, glycerol loading, process temperature and chitosan loading towards the mechanical properties of corn starch bioplastic film were investigated using the one factor at a time method. Each experiment was conducted in triplicates to ensure the data reproducibility. The reported values were the average of the individual runs, with errors within an acceptable range of 5%. The pure starch-based and chitosan-reinforced starch-based bioplastic films with the optimum tensile strength were then subjected to water uptake and biodegradation tests to further characterize the bioplastic properties.The solution casting and evaporation method was adopted for bioplastic film preparation in this study. The formulation was modified from the work of Salehudin et al. . A schemThe ANN model was developed using MATLAB Version 7.10 R2010a software . In this study, the hyperbolic tangent sigmoid transfer function (tansig) was used for the input layer to the hidden layer and the linear transfer function (purelin) was used from the hidden layer to the output layer. Once the mean squared error (MSE) reached the minimum value and the average correlation coefficient (R) was close or equal to 1, the training of ANN model was terminated.2) according to Equation (1) [2 value indicated higher accuracy for the developed model.n is the number of experimental data, while biy is the experimental tensile strength/elongation at break, piy is the predicted tensile strength/elongation at break and my is the average value of the tensile strength/elongation at break obtained from the experiments.The performance of the ANN model was measured statistically based on the coefficient of determination (Rtion (1) . GeneralThe mechanical properties of bioplastic film such as tensile strength and elongation at break were determined using Universal Testing Machine  interfaced with computer operating Trapezium software. Measurements were performed with load cell of 500 N, crosshead speed of 5 mm/min and grip separation of 30 mm. Three readings were taken from three random places of each film, measuring 7 cm × 1 cm. The average values from three measurements were reported.−1 with 32 scans at a resolution of 4 cm−1.FTIR spectra of pure starch-based and chitosan-reinforced starch-based bioplastic films were recorded using FTIR spectrometer operating in attenuated total reflectance (ATR) mode by positioning the measuring probe directly on the film surface  to compare the functional groups and chemical bonds between the films. FTIR spectra of corn starch and chitosan powders were also acquired by placing the samples on the test area. All the samples were scanned at a frequency range of 4000–450 cmXRD patterns were recorded using an X-ray diffractometer  equipped with CuKα radiation, operating at 40 kV and 14 mA. All the samples were measured at room temperature over the angular range 3–90° (2θ) at a step size of 0.02° in continuous mode.Thermal behaviors of pure starch-based and chitosan-reinforced starch-based bioplastic films were characterized by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). This thermal decomposition analysis was performed by using a thermogravimetric analyzer . A bioplastic film of around 5 mg was placed in a platinum pan and heated from ambient temperature to a final temperature of 900 °C at a heating rate of 20 °C/min with nitrogen flow rate of 50 mL/min ,32.The water uptake test was modified from the study of Maulida and Tarigan  and Wu . BioplasBioplastic samples with the dimension 2 cm × 2 cm were buried in compost soil purchased from a local plant nursery at ±3 cm depth and left for 28 days with weekly sampling being performed. The buried samples were cleaned of soil and weighed. The biodegradation test was conducted at room temperature with relative humidity of 40–50%. The weight loss of the bioplastics was calculated using Equation (3) . Three rp < 0.05).Statistical analysis was performed on OriginPro 2018 software . One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey test was performed to compare the mean values at the significance level of 5% (p < 0.05) and so did the elongation at break, indicating a substantial drop from 53.6% to 41.6% (p < 0.05) with the addition of starch concentration from 2.5 wt.% to 7.5 wt.%. The significant decrement of 75.8% in tensile strength could be explained by the increase in amylopectin content as the starch concentration increased. The branched structure of amylopectin created a distance between the polymer chains resulting in weaker hydrogen bonds between them [The effects of starch concentration on the mechanical properties that were evaluated by fixing a glycerol amount of 2 g and a process temperature of 70 °C without incorporation of chitosan are presented in een them ,34. Theseen them .To gain an insightful overview of the starch synthesized bioplastic film and the effects on its mechanical properties, gelatinized duration required and appearance of film at diverse starch concentrations are presented in w/w) of 20:8 to 20:16) on the mechanical properties of the synthesized bioplastic film, the results in p < 0.05). This could be reflected from the significant increase of 24.6% (from 51.5% to 76.1%) in the elongation at break value within the investigated range of glycerol loading. Higher glycerol loading provides greater free-movement space for the glycerol molecules to slip between the amylose-amylopectin chains. This weakens the interaction between the polymer in preventing the formation of rigid structures, while softening the polymer matrix, simultaneously [Glycerol was used as a plasticizer to synthesize bioplastic in the present study to reduce the film brittleness by reducing the intermolecular forces between polymer chains, while increasing their mobility to produce a more elastic and flexible film . From thaneously . The samaneously  and Santaneously  in the fp < 0.05). The temperature increased from 65 °C to 70 °C had induced gelatinization by producing a film that is free of air bubbles, which can be observed from p < 0.05). The declining of tensile strength at higher process temperature might be caused by the weakening of intermolecular bonds in starch as excessive heating breaks the glycosidic bonds (bonds between monomers) in amylose [Temperature always exerts an effect on reaction. Preliminary study indicated that process temperature below 65 °C did not successfully produce a film. To elucidate the temperature effect on the fabrication of bioplastic, temperatures ranging from 65 °C to 90 °C were applied to the bioplastic solution and their effects on the mechanical properties of the bioplastic film are shown in  amylose . Amylose amylose ,41. A re amylose .p < 0.05) [Moreover, elongation at break increased with increasing process temperature. The highest investigation temperature of 90 °C gave rise to the longest elongation at break of 71.0%. At lower process temperature, the molecules in the polymer matrix are closely packed with lower kinetic energy. Thus, small free volume is present within the polymer matrix and the movement of the molecules are somewhat restricted. As the process temperature increases, the higher kinetic and thermal energies imparted to the polymer molecules could trigger more intense vibrations and generate more free volumes available for larger molecular chain rotation in the solution . This su < 0.05) ,43. Furt < 0.05)  also repw/w) of 20:8:0 to 20:8:1) on the mechanical properties of bioplastic film are shown in p < 0.05). Further increase in the chitosan loading to 20 wt.% resulted in the tensile strength increasing to 5.19 MPa (p < 0.05). The reinforcement in the tensile strength could be attributed to the presence of more hydrogen bonds between NH3+ of the chitosan and OH− of the corn starch. The amino groups (NH2) from chitosan were protonated to NH3+ in the acetic acid solution, while the orderly arranged crystalline structure of starch molecules was disrupted during the gelatinization process, resulting in the OH− groups being exposed to form hydrogen bonds with NH3+ of the chitosan. Hence, chemical bonds of the bioplastic film were stronger and harder to be broken [p > 0.05). Pure starch-based bioplastic film had elongation at break of 51.5%, whereas the chitosan-incorporated starch-based bioplastic film had elongation at break of 47.9% with 5 wt.% chitosan loading. When the chitosan loading was increased to 20 wt.%, the lowest elongation at break of 44.6% was obtained and similar results were reported by Hasan and Rahmayani [The effects of chitosan loading  and 1570.59 cm−1, which was assigned to amide II (C–N stretching and C–N–H bending vibrations) [−1 and 2926.23 cm−1 were associated with O–H and –CH2 stretching vibrations, respectively, [−1 and 1411.63 cm−1 were, respectively, assigned to the O–H bending of water and CH2 groups [−1 in which the peaks at 1150.46 cm−1 and 1077.95 cm−1 were associated to stretching vibration of C–O in C–O–H groups, while the bands at 1015.68 cm−1 and 995.09 cm−1 were attributed to C–O in C–O–C groups [FTIR spectra of pure starch-based bioplastic film and chitosan-reinforced starch-based bioplastic films are compared with the spectra of corn starch and chitosan powders as shown in ctively, . Chitosarations) . In the ctively, . The ban2 groups . The typC groups ,52.−1 to 1643.04 cm−1 and 1570.59 cm−1 to 1563.18 cm−1, respectively. The findings illustrated the interactions between hydroxyl groups of starch and amino groups of chitosan, which had promoted the compatibility of starch and chitosan [−1) and chitosan (3293.29 cm−1) were shifted to 3276.45 cm−1. This shift revealed the formation of inter- and intra-molecular hydrogen bonding between starch and chitosan [Changes in FTIR spectrum were observed after chitosan was added to the starch-based bioplastic film. As compared with the chitosan powder, the amide I and amide II characteristic peaks of chitosan in the spectra of chitosan-reinforced starch-based bioplastic film were shifted from 1647.44 cmchitosan . Furtherchitosan . Increaschitosan . profile . When ch profile ,53,57. TThe TGA and derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) profiles of pure starch-based and chitosan-reinforced starch-based bioplastic films are shown in From the DTG curve as shown in Water uptake capability of bioplastic film is directly related to its hydrophilic nature . The watThe percentage weight losses of pure starch-based and chitosan-reinforced starch-based bioplastic films are displayed in Chitosan-reinforced starch-based bioplastic film was successfully prepared through the solution casting and evaporation method. This study described the effects of various parameters in attaining the optimum tensile strength of bioplastic film, and also confirmed the relationship between starch concentration and process temperature with the gelatinized duration. Higher starch concentration and process temperature would shorten the gelatinized duration and negatively affect the tensile strength. Using the hydrophobic nature of chitosan as a reinforcement agent not only could help to enhance the tensile strength, but also could improve the water resistance of starch-based bioplastic film. Although chitosan-reinforced starch-based bioplastic film could only be subjected to application below 290 °C, which was lower than pure starch-based bioplastic film (316 °C), it exhibited more than 50% faster biodegradability property, which will be greener for the environment.This study has also laid the foundation in developing similar types of biodegradable chitosan-reinforced starch-based bioplastic film, which could be used to replace petroleum-based plastics. The formulation of composition based on corn starch as a matrix would also be beneficial in designing a more complete experimental study using starch derived from other agricultural waste. Although the present study demonstrated that the mechanical properties of bioplastic film were affected by the starch concentration, the relationship between the starch concentration and the mechanical properties of the bioplastic films is still not conclusive. Therefore, more empirical studies are required to refine and improve the reported findings.


Marine Drugs [Marine Drugs is now Q1 in the three Scopus categories “Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics”, “Pharmaceutical Science”, and “Drug Discovery”. Marine Drugs is also Q1 in the WoS JCR category “Chemistry, Medicinal” and in the newly reached category “Pharmacology & Pharmacy”.In recent weeks, Scopus and Journal Citation Reports (JCR)/Science Edition  have released the bibliometric parameters CiteScore and Impact Factor, respectively. In both cases, ne Drugs  has expeThese great outcomes are certainly due to the high quality of experimental manuscripts and reviews that our Authors submit to the journal and to the invaluable help and support from the Editorial Board Members, coordinated through the careful scrutiny of the Associate Editors . However, the process and performance of the journal are dependent upon the activity of the Editorial Office, an efficient team working hard to maintain the relationships with Authors, Reviewers and Editors. These are crucial factors for obtaining results such as a median time from submission to first decision of 11.7 days . Marine Drugs is one of the “oldest” MDPI journals). The inaugural issue of Marine Drugs was released in November 2003 and the first article [Marine Drugs—A New International Journal”, was authored by Dr. Shu-Kun Lin and Dr. Derek J. McPhee. Prof. Dr. Hua-Shi Guan of the Ocean University of China, Qingdao, was the founding Editor-in-Chief and directed the journal for 2 years, obtaining coverage by Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and, later, by PubMed. Two German scholars led the journal from 2005 to 2013 , profoundly shaping the journal profile, recruiting prestigious Associate Editors, and receiving high impact factors (3.978 in 2013). In the following 4-year term (2014–2018), the journal was led by my predecessor Prof. Dr. Alejandro M. Mayer, to whom I am profoundly indebted for offering me the Associate Editor position. Under Mayer’s leadership, the journal gained further prestige and impact, sponsored important conferences, and collaborated with societies in the field. The highest Impact Factor of the journal history comes almost 20 years after its launch (My efforts in recent years have been devoted to updating the journal with regard to recent trends in marine research, expanding its aims and scopes, and hosting several papers on new subject areas such as marine chemical ecology research to inspire marine drug discovery as well as the use of biomaterials of marine origin and marine-derived ingredients for cosmeceuticals, nutraceuticals, and nutritional supplements, etc.Marine Drugs looks forward to your continuous input and contributions.It is now time to look into the future, identify further development strategies, and work to shape a journal that remains the reference forum for the publication of high-quality papers in the fascinating and rapidly changing area of marine-derived metabolites.


From the outset, the founders of the Society for General Microbiology  intended to launch a journal. The journal was a key resource for promoting their vision of microbiology as a coherent and wide-ranging scientific discipline. They would soon come to realise that it was also key to financing the new Society and to carrying its message to colleagues worldwide.First they had to get the Society itself up and running. Many of the founders had worked directly or indirectly on the second congress of the International Society for Microbiology, held in London in 1936 – the bacteriologist John Ledingham, for example, had been President of the congress and Ralph St John-Brooks had been Secretary-General. Others were clustered around the Lister Institute for Preventive Medicine in Elstree, other medical settings, various commercial laboratories, or the Society of Agricultural Bacteriologists (SAB). That 1936 congress was, in Sid Elsdon’s assessmentThe outbreak of war naturally disrupted progress. The next occasion when ideas about the future development of the discipline could be discussed with a relatively large number of those involved was not until September 1943, at the annual conference of the SAB. The SAB was worried about its long-term future. One option appeared to be turning itself into the learned society for this wider vision of microbiology. However, influential figures such as Ledingham and St John-Brooks felt that the SAB, with its roots firmly in the world of dairying, would be too narrow a starting point, and that a wholly new body would be more likely to deliver the wider vision. Marjory Stephenson, at her ‘forceful best’ in Sid Elsdon’s recollection, persuasively argued the case for building a new society around microbiology as a whole rather than around bacteriology, so that it could include ‘parasitologists and those studying yeasts, fungi and protozoa’ [The upshot of that AGM was that Leslie Allen, newly elected President of the SAB, was deputed by the SAB to explore the possibilities of forming a new society with St John-Brooks . Together they set about the delicate process of building consensus. As a first step, they convened a meeting on 16 November 1943The subcommitteeThe subcommittee was clear that the new Society, and its journal, should focus on the fundamental aspects of microbiology. As a concession, it accepted the case for including papers in applied areas where there was no suitable English journal, provided always that they contained results of ‘general scientific interest’.Leslie Allen reported these developments to the SAB in January 1944. He explained that extensive consultations had confirmed support for a society dealing with the more fundamental aspects of microbiology. He defined these aspects as ‘the biology of bacteria, viruses, micro-fungi, protozoa, and microscopic algae’, with the study of these entities to include ‘taxonomy, systematics, dissociation, variation, physiology , and the study of germicides, nutrition, and ecology’. The proposed society would not challenge the SAB or similar societies within their own existing spheres. The SAB welcomed these moves and, in a parallel initiative, broadened its own scope, and its name, from Agricultural Bacteriologists to the more wide-ranging Society for Applied Bacteriology, an approximate analogue in the applied sphere of the Society for General Microbiology .The subcommittee, then led by Ashley Miles, set about the business of establishing formal contacts with existing learned societies that might be affected by its plans, and developing a list of potential original members, to an initial total of about 250. It also had the fun of drafting formal rules for the Society. All these were debated, tweaked and approved by the full committeeThe full committee met again on 25 May 1944 to review progress and to agree a slate of initial office-holders; but it did not at that stage address the matter of who would edit the journal. Given his leadership role among British microbiologists, John Ledingham would have been the obvious choice for the inaugural presidency, but had already effectively ruled himself out. Allen and St John-Brooks therefore wrote to David Keilin, who declined through pressure of work; then to Marjory Stephenson, who declined because she felt she was not the most suitable person, though she did later accept a subsequent invitation; and finally to Alexander Fleming, who accepted. The inaugural meeting, originally scheduled for 29 September 1944, was postponed till 16 February 1945 to allow time to get all the arrangements in place. The Second World War, after all, was still in full swing, London was subject to frequent heavy air-raids and flying bombs, and ‘the difficulties of travelling resulting from evacuation and the movement of troops’The Journal of General Microbiology’; but the post of Editor still remained unfilled. A major problem for the intended journal was wartime restrictions on the availability of paper, which effectively put stop to such new initiativesThe formal rules approved at the inaugural meeting in February 1945 included a commitment ‘as soon as practicable to issue a journal known as Muriel Robertson told Allen and St John-Brooks that, in guiding the embryonic Society to its starting point they ‘had done a noble and arduous piece of work, and we should all be grateful to you’. ‘Praise from her is praise indeed!’ wrote St John-Brooks to Allen . Their reward at the inaugural meeting was to be voted in as Joint Secretaries, so that the arduous work could continue.Leslie Allen (1903–64) and the older Ralph St John-Brooks (1884–1963) became good friends through their shared experience in getting the Society off the ground. The fact that they happened to live near each other during the key period was a big help. It was natural that they should be appointed as the first Joint Secretaries of the new Society when it was formally launched in February 1945.In July 1946, St John-Brooks stepped back on medical advice from his role as Joint Secretary , to be succeeded by Kits van Heyningen. In November 1946 he was made the Society’s first Honorary Member, which came as ‘a tremendous but very agreeable surprise’. Towards the end of that year he also retired from his long-standing role as Curator of the National Collection of Type Cultures at the Lister Institute. He then had stints at the American Type Culture Collection in Washington and the equivalent Swiss body at Lausanne.Allen wrote warmly to him in 1946 recalling fondly ‘the long fireside chats we used to have in the evenings when the project was taking shape’. ‘I feel we did a great work together’, he added. ‘The success of the new Society shows how much can be accomplished quietly by a few men of good will who work for a common aim, and who do not have to protect their personalities from the public gaze by putting on cloaks of prestige, or aggressiveness, or shyness, which make people misunderstand them. One wonders how much could be accomplished in a similar way in international affairs.’ Indeed!Allen, then Chief Microbiologist at the DSIR Water Pollution Research Laboratory, retired from his role as Joint Secretary of the Society in March 1948, citing pressure of other commitments, to be succeeded by JG Davis.Journal of General Microbiology (JGM), but himself died before it was published; his own obituary was written by the Society’s inaugural Treasurer, Bill Bunker.St John-Brooks enjoyed sending Allen food parcels from America in 1947, which arrived safely, to their mutual relief. Allen would eventually write St John-Brooks’ obituary for the The Society’s newly elected CouncilIn February 1946, Council also, finally, addressed the issue of the Editor. It decided, pragmatically if a bit confusingly, to have two Joint Editors ‘of equal status’, one for ‘chemical’ papers and one for ‘biological’ papersCouncil elected Gabe Knight ahead of Marjory Stephenson’s former research student Donald WoodsMuriel Robertson had, in November 1943, prepared a briefing on other people’s experiences in launching new learned societies and new journals, in which she commented: ‘The Editor must be hardworking and intelligent but also have some sufficient serpentine wisdom’. Beginnings, she noted, were easy: the real challenge was dealing with loss of momentum after the initial enthusiasm had worn off. Gabe Knight himself clearly had both the serpentine wisdom and the stamina required: he served as the most senior Editor until 1970, longer than anyone in the journal’s history.The Editors and Associate Editors functioned mostly as a loose group of individuals rather than as a Board. They held formal meetings at the Linnean Society’s comfortable premises in Burlington House in September 1946, and again in December 1949, to go over various practical matters, but their plan to meet annually after that did not last long: in 1970 John Postgate was complaining that the Board had met only once in the previous 14 years. Ainsworth stepped down from his role in 1951; Miles moved to being an Associate Editor in 1951 and served in that capacity, with five of the original Associate Editors, until 1960; Gibson stayed on till 1969; and Knight outlasted them all. From 1951 to 1970, Arthur Standfast was the second Joint Editor.The administrative office for the journal was established initially at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, where Ashley Miles was then Deputy Director and had access to secretarial support. At that early stage, the Society of course had no paid staff, but Council agreed in December 1946 that Miles’s secretary at NIMR could be paid an honorarium of £10 for each issue of the journal. The office moved to Standfast’s Department at Elstree, and his ‘indefatigable’ secretary Linda Peerless , when heA notice advertising the new journal mentioned the ambition of getting the first issue of the journal published before the end of 1946, and called for papers on both specialised and general topics within the Society’s scopeIn November 1946, Council had the first of very many detailed discussions about the finances of the journal. Its costs greatly outweighed all other Society expenditure, so any miscalculation would have very serious consequences. On the other hand, Council quickly discovered that its profitability would make it the dominant source of Society income, outstripping members’ subscriptions by a considerable margin. Either way, finance would loom large in all policy discussions about the journal. At this early stage, the decision was simply to accept an element of advertising in the journal to mitigate any potential losses.The caution about finance was understandable, indeed the only responsible course of action. But the journal proved to be a financial success from the outset. With the Society’s membership already approaching 600 and CUP estimating ‘trade’ sales  of 350, the print run of the first issue was originally set at 1000. Allen got that increased to 1200, and the same for the second and third issues. The three issues of volume one (1947), with a total of 39 papers, cost the Society about £500 net ; the three issues of volume two (1948), also with 39 papers, cost under £200 net because of increased sales. The print run for volume three (1949) was pushed up to 1500 after increased paper supplies had been secured. By 1955 the print run was 2750 (121 papers in six issues), and 4000  in 1959. Already by the end of 1949, the journal had secured 500 external (i.e. non-member) subscriptions [Three individuals essentially ran JGM for its first 24 years. The longest-serving was Gabe Knight, who, with Ashley Miles, got it off the ground from 1946 onwards. Miles stepped down in 1951 and was succeeded by Arthur Standfast. Knight and Standfast both retired in 1970, and were elected Honorary Members of the Society in recognition of their long and effective service.Staphylococcus aureus [Knight’s research was mainly on bacterial growth physiology, and he published important work on the nutritional requirements of bacteria including aureus . His resMiles, ‘essentially a medical microbiologist of the classical type’, started in medicine and then held posts in bacteriology and pathology before taking the Chair in Bacteriology at University College Hospital in 1937 . This waStandfast (1905–90) joined the Elstree Laboratories of the Lister Institute in 1945, working on the preparation and study of bacterial vaccines (based on annual reports of the Lister Institute. Muriel Robertson was working in protozoology at the Institute when he arrived. At first Standfast seems to have been a one-man band, but he was gradually able to build up a team and came to serve as Head of the Bacterial Vaccine Department for 26 years, until his retirement in 1972. For the whole of this period his research was mainly on pertussis, cholera, typhoid and tetanus vaccines, and he organised their commercial production at Elstree.Given the Society’s origins and aspirations, it was inevitable that the disciplinary distribution of the papers published in its journal should attract close attention. Analyses presented at successive AGMs highlighted the fact that the bacteriological heritage of the Society was fading too slowly, to the occasional frustration of the Editors. Already at the September 1947 AGM, Ashley Miles remarked: ‘The Editors realise that the subjects covered so far do not represent all branches of microbiology, but hope that appropriate papers from all disciplines will be submitted to make the Journal more representative of general microbiology’. A few months later, in March 1948, Gabe Knight reiterated the message: ‘The Editors are aware that the Journal does not yet fully reflect in a balanced way all the different disciplines which the Society was formed to help unify. The remedy lies in the hands of the members’. And Ashley Miles again in April 1949: ‘The Society will notice that bacteriological papers still predominate. … The attainment of the desirable end of making the Journal more representative of general microbiology … lay in the hands of Members of the Society’.These messages about the ‘great preponderance of bacteriological papers’ continued year after year. Finally, at the 1954 AGM, there was a slight change of tone: ‘The distribution of papers in 1953 showed an increase over 1952 in papers in Microbial Genetics, Mycology and Viruses, which the Editors feel is a good sign’. But only a slight change. By the 1956 AGM progress had stalled, and the Editors commented languidly: ‘It would seem that the Society gets the journal it writes, if not the journal it deserves’. But it was at least attracting about a third of its papers from outside the UK: ‘The journal can hardly be accused of being too insular’.Microbiology, it was not giving up on its mission but rather signalling that the message had been accepted and no longer needed to be spelt out. But that’s another story.Yet the project to embed the distinct discipline of microbiology in the consciousness of the British scientific community did succeed over time. Academic appointments, university departments, undergraduate courses did gradually come to reflect that recognition. By 1994, when the journal dropped the word ‘general’ from its name and graduated to plain