The current study empirically tests a financial well-being (FWB) model built on financial socialization (FS) and early childhood consumer experience (ECCE). The current study was conducted based on primary data obtained through structured questionnaires. By using a convenient sampling technique, data were collected from 1,500 respondents from Pakistan. Results advocated that childhood experiences directly affect the FWB in adults. In addition, FS agents, such as parents, have direct and indirect effects on the FWB in adults. Findings revealed that financial coping behaviors mediate the relationship among FS agents, such as parents, students, and the FWB. Surprisingly, FS agent peers do not impact adult FWBs. The study concluded that FWB could be improved by socializing with parents and teachers and using childhood experiences. Considering the importance of the role of parents and teachers, they should discuss financial issues with children. Policymakers should work to provide some opportunities for children so that they can practice and gain experience. Improving the quality of life has been an area of interest among social scientists for the last few decades, which can be improved by improving well-being  can affect the FWB. FS is the acquisition and evolution of beliefs, capabilities, aspirations, standards, behaviors, and activities facilitating individual well-being and financial viability. Although FS is essential to understand the financial behavior among young adults, only a few scholars studied the FS process from young adults' perspectives. Given the lack of empirical and qualitative data, understanding of these behaviors is often overlooked Rea, . PreviouDanes and Yang  indicateEmpirical studies on the FWB demonstrated the significance of ECCE in explaining FWB. ECCE has a lasting effect on the financial actions of adults , peers (FSPE), and teachers (FST), and ECCEs on FWB. However, along with these factors, the proper management of finances requires some life skills  are strategies that are taken in response to problems. Coping is an ongoing process of adaptation in life. In addition, coping can be a reactive coping to deal with current problems and prevent future problems or proactive copying to attain future goals . However, the country cannot gain from this youth because of political instability, bad financial conditions, inadequate health and educational systems, rising unemployment rates, and a high population growth rate. According to a UNDP study released recently, Pakistan is rated 152nd out of 189 nations in the Human Development Index. Unemployed people are more likely to suffer from mental health issues, such as depression, than employed ones. All these affect one's quality of life, and one method to improve quality of life is to increase adults' FWB. The government of Pakistan is also trying to improve the quality of life by improving the well-being of adults  population, sampling, and collection of data, (b) questionnaire design, and (c) statistical model.This research focuses on a population of up to 40 years of age belonging to Pakistan. Respondents involved people that were younger than 40 years of age and engaged in some earning practice. Typically, before going into the 1940s, citizens strive to establish long-lasting and enduring ties with other people, finalize their careers, select their professions, and most notably, start to handle their families and lives. The researchers applied this condition to assess the exact situation of the FWB. The unit of analysis is individuals. The researcher applied the sampling technique because data collection from the whole population is time-consuming, so sampling is a good choice for the researcher ” created by Prawitz et al. . This inIn the current study, the researcher assessed FS using the Financial Social Learning Opportunities (FSLO) method produced by the researcher   is used to evaluate the theoretical model. The method of PLS path modeling is similar to structural equation modeling (SEM). A special variant of SEM-based on variance is the PLS path modeling technique, whereas conventional SEM is a covariance-based technique. As both approaches have unique applications, these methods cannot be used alternatively. When the goal is to test a hypothesis where all relations between variables are predefined, SEM is preferred, whereas the PLS modeling technique is used when discovering new connections that are not predefined  ratio is used to test the validity of discriminants. The value of HTMT to suggest discriminant validity should be <0.9  has a favorable and statistically meaningful impact on FWB. This result indicates that, with the improvement in the FSP, the FWB will be improved. We will hold our H1a study hypothesis that the FSP has a major impact on the FWB.The coefficients was determined by following  showed that FSPE has a negative but statistically insignificant effect on the FWB of the adults. The negative sign of the coefficient showed that, as the value of FSPE increases, the value of FWB decreases, but this relationship is statistically insignificant. Based on the results, we can conclude that FSPE does not affect the FWB of adults. Hence, the researcher found no support for H1b.Statics related to FSPE  shows that FST has a positive but statistically insignificant effect on the adults' FWB in Pakistan. Hence, the researchers found no support for H1c. To sum up all the statistics related to H1c, we can conclude that FS has a partial effect on the FWB, as only FSP was relevant to the FWB. The study results revealed that only socialization with parents significantly affects FWB among all FS agents. Hence, the researcher found partial support for H1c.The results also revealed that FST  has a significant effect on the FWB. This result confirms that with ECCEs, the value of FWB increases. Hence, the results of the study supported H2.H2 was that ECCE affects FWB. b = 0.063, t = 4.258, and p < 0.01. The statistics related to the indirect effect of FCB between FSP and FWB have a significant indirect effect. FCB's mediation effect coefficient between FSP and FWB is b = 3.63 and p < 0.001, which confirms that the mediation effect is statistically significant. The analysis of VAF shows that FCB partially mediates the relationship between FSP and FWB. Based on the results, we can conclude that FCB mediates the relationship between FSP and FWB of Pakistan's young adults. Hence, we will accept H3a.H3 was that FCB mediates the impact of FSP, FSPE, FST, and FWB. b = 0.012, t = 1.149, p > 0.1) shows that FCB has no indirect effect on the relationship between FSPE and FWB. The Sobel test  also confirms that FSPE does not affect FSPE and FWB's relationship. Hence, the researchers found no support for H3b.The coefficient of indirect effect of FSPE  confirms the positive and statistically significant indirect of the FCB on the relationship between FST and FWB. Furthermore, the Sobel test  shows the mediating effect of FCB on FST and FWB's relationship. The analysis of VAF confirms that FCB partially mediates the relationship between FST and FWB. Hence, the researcher accepts H3c. Overall, the present study provided partial support H3.For the indirect effect of FCB, the coefficient value  confirms the indirect effect of FCB on the relationship between ECCE and FWB. The Sobel test  reveals that the FCB's mediation effect on the relationship between ECCE and FWB is statistically insignificant. Hence, the researchers found no support for H4.H4 was that FCB mediates the relationship between ECCE and FWB. The indirect effect from The present research aims to establish and evaluate a conceptual model of FWB while focusing on FS and ECCE. This research is among the few early studies investigating the connection among FS, ECCE, and FWB. The findings of the study provided support to our theoretical model. The theories of FS, lifespan growth, and expected actions formed the foundation for the theoretical model of the analysis.The present study supported the notation that we can improve the FWB of adults through the FS process and childhood consumer experiences. Contrary to previous studies . The participants provided their written, informed consent to participate in this study.JS provided technical assistance, actively participated in all the steps followed in this study, helped in conceptualization, and improving this draft. SU was involved in all the steps and procedures followed in this study, conceptualization, reviewing the literature, finalizing research methodology, data collection and analysis, and writing and reviewing the original draft. XZ, SD, and FS played an important role in facilitating data collection, completing this project, most importantly, and in improving the quality of the present draft. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.The authors of the present study admiringly acknowledge the financial support of the National Natural Science Funding (Grant Number: 71904065) and the High Talent Research Program by Jiangsu University (17JDG005).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.


We noticed transverse grooves on the nails of a psoriasis vulgaris patient being treated with ixekizumab. The indentation might have appeared during the period when the effective concentration of ixekizumab was low and psoriasis activity in the nail matrix had increased shortly before the monthly dose. We noticed transverse grooves on the nails of a psoriasis vulgaris patient being treated with ixekizumab. The indentation might have appeared during the period when the effective concentration of ixekizumab was low and psoriasis activity in the nail matrix had increased shortly before the monthly dose. A 47‐year‐old man with a history of psoriasis vulgaris for 15 years was treated using ixekizumab, a selective humanized neutralizing monoclonal antibody against IL‐17A. The eruption was well controlled, and arthropathy did not occur. We prescribed 80 mg of Ixekizumab as a monthly self‐administered dose. We noted three transverse grooves on the patient's left middle fingernail at one consultation (Figure None declared.KY and MK cared for the patient, wrote the original and final manuscript. We all revised the manuscript.The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The patient provided written informed consent to publish the case, including the publication of images. The paper is exempt from ethics committee approval as only one case was reported.Written consent for publication was obtained from the patient.


Recent times have seen growing calls for considerations of justice to be given a greater role in international taxation. The main driver of these calls are distributive concerns, although agreement is still missing as to what this means both in principle and in practice. This article asks whether it is the task of international tax law at all to implement principles of distributive justice beyond the national context and gives an overview of how the ‘global justice debate’ in contemporary political philosophy bears on this question. When it comes to distributive duties with respect to taxing rights, it is crucial to differentiate between the collective and the individual level. Absent a robust assumption of a benevolent and capable government on the recipient side, the reallocation of taxing rights from state to state does not necessarily help when it comes to fulfilling duties of justice towards individuals. There seems to be agreement that the international tax order needs profound reform, that the rules governing international taxation need to be adapted not in a piecemeal, but in a systemic fashion to increased levels of global economic integration, taxpayer as well as capital mobility and new types of business models. Various arguments have been brought forward regarding the principles that such reforms should follow, and the specific changes that are necessary to arrive at a new international tax order worthy of the name. Besides the common mantra that the international distribution of taxing rights should be (more) closely aligned with the creation of economic value, we increasingly hear calls that the international community should strive for ‘more justice’ in the international tax system, particularly with a view to the outcomes it produces for developing countries.Proponents of this approach often base their claim on drastic inequalities in the global distribution of resources and life chances, and on the role that international taxation could—and arguably should—play in remedying this situation by enabling a redistribution of resources towards less affluent parts of the world.distributive justice, under a duty to agree to a rearrangement of taxing rightsof distributive justice with respect to a particular allocation of taxing rights between states are difficult to defend. Section 6 briefly sketches alternatives to conceptualising the need for reforms in international tax law as a matter of duties of distributive justice, before section 7 provides a conclusion.Strengthening considerations of justice in the set of objectives that guide international tax policy is a goal that leaves ample room for interpretation.instrument for (re)distributing resources and taxes as the object of distribution in an international setting.Considering the many ways in which distributive justice may be understood as a normative principle of international tax law, it may help to first differentiate between taxation as a political prima facie plausible but difficult to spell out in detail. On the expenditure side, the question is how the available resources and benefits are to be distributed. Criteria such as equality, individual merit or need may be considered as decisive factors here.The instrumental dimension has so far been addressed mainly in the context of national tax justice, but in principle applies to the international or global level as well. We can discuss the equitable design of a distributive scheme in a meaningful way even if we do not define the group of relevant actors on both the revenue and expenditure sides by national affiliation, but rather by looking beyond national borders. With regard to the genuinely international context that involves taxes as the object of a distributive scheme, the debate’s focus has been on the international allocation of taxing rights pertaining to the profits of multinational enterprises. As a contribution to this debate, the following sections refer primarily to the taxation of multinational enterprises, although the philosophical arguments advanced here are not limited to this context. The distributional effects of a social scheme that involves the pooling of resources can be assessed only by looking at its overall consequences on both the revenue and the expenditure side, not through a short-sighted perspective on only one of the two sides, or on only one type of tax on the revenue side, such as the income tax.A second differentiation that is worth mentioning here is the one between reasons that speak for or against the  redistribution of resources in general and the comparative advantages and disadvantages of several instrumental ways of going about such redistribution.Normative questions of a different nature arise with respect to taxes not in their instrumental role as giving effect to (re)distributive policies, but as an object of distribution themselves.For the first question, international taxation currently relies on ‘economic allegiance’: profits generated across national borders are only subject to tax where a sufficiently robust economic connection can be established. However, the territorial nexus criterion offers no guidance on how to distribute the ‘tax cake’ among all those who have legitimate demands on a piece.This perspective is structurally different from the view of taxes as a political instrument. The distributive scheme described above is a three-pole scenario: in addition to the revenue side and the expenditure, there is some form of superior authority that determines both the scope and mechanics of redistribution, and ideally ensures stable practical implementation. Here, however, we are dealing with a bipolar relationship: in essence, we are looking at states as actors who have to find agreement on a particular division of the ‘tax cake’ at hand.The opposing positions in the current philosophical debate about the correct understanding of justice in the political context differ significantly as to which relationships are governed by principles of justice at all.Positions on the theoretical spectrum of political justice can be further differentiated by the content that the ensuing duties are taken to have and the ideal of a just state on which they are based: for some, the overarching objective that is to be achieved by redistributing resources is ultimately some form of equality,Based on these differentiations, the most important positions of the multi-faceted ‘global justice’ debate in political philosophy are very briefly presented below. The discussion is limited to the dimension of socio-economic distributive justice and its realisation through the redistribution of scarce resources in an international context.The following sections are devoted to three groups of philosophical theories that provide different answers to the questions outlined above and have decisively shaped the discussion on the scope of distributive duties in recent decades. The starting point are forms of contemporary contractualism (A), followed by cosmopolitan approaches (B) and so-called political theories of justice (C).A Theory of Justice.Even the briefest description of contemporary theories of justice cannot ignore John Rawls’s polis. Parties of the moral relationship to which principles of justice apply are primarily the state with its institutions on the one hand and its citizens on the other.Like many of its historical predecessors, the Rawlsian theory of justice is political, in that the frame of reference for the justice of a social order is always a kind of The international order, as the term already suggests, is historically based on a network of interstate relationships as reflected by a web of international agreements. In a Rawlsian world, in addition to the domestic framework on the first level, we have the international community on the second level, with nation states as key actors. This two-level model is characterised by normative pluralism: the criteria for a good order in the national and international context are not identical; genuine principles of distributive justice are only applicable within the national framework. It is this normative pluralism that the cosmopolitan critique of Rawls’s theory is based upon.Early representatives of moral cosmopolitanism, such as Charles Beitz and Thomas Pogge, have argued for the application of the two principles of justice to the international context as well.prima facie plausible: how can it be that the freedoms, rights and life chances of individuals are what create moral duties towards them, but at the same time the responsibilities to guarantee these freedoms and rights depend on the national affiliation of the individuals concerned? For Pogge, the nationality of a person is merely another morally irrelevant ‘deep contingency’,per se cannot legitimise an unequal distribution of resources. The moral contingency of citizenship results, as Ayelet Shachar aptly describes it, from ‘archaic mechanisms of its attribution depending on the birth of a human being’.From a theoretical point of view, the critique is Moderate cosmopolitans such as Beitz and—at least in his early writings—Pogge base their arguments on the central importance of a social ‘basic structure’ as a normative basis of distributive duties. They accept the premise that distributive duties according to the difference principle can only result from a sufficiently robust interactive relation between the parties involved, but deny that this relation can only exist within a state. Unlike Rawls, they regard such a basis as already existing beyond national borders. According to this line of argument, the relevant social context is the world society of all people that has formed in the course of global political and economic integration and exhibits a sufficient degree of robustness. The institutions of international trade in particular, such as the WTO, World Bank and OECD, are cited as signs of how advanced, diverse and stable co-operation relations and economic interdependencies across national borders have become.What these positions have in common is the premise that certain types of institutions or rule-based practices can trigger distributive duties among their participants.Rawls himself expressly refused a cosmopolitan interpretation of his theory of justice.non sequitur to conclude from the existence of universal rights that the obligation to realise these rights falls on everyone’s shoulders in exactly the same way.Statist positions are theories according to which the state is a privileged forum as far as justice is concerned. Under the heading of a cultural or liberal nationalism, distributive duties are derived from a form of pre-political solidarityRepresentatives of a cultural nationalism are not so much concerned with limiting the scope of application of distributive justice to the national as opposed to the global context. They do, however, run into problems distinguishing fellow citizenship from common membership in other, spatially and numerically far less comprehensive groups, such as religious communities, some of which exhibit a significantly higher degree of cultural integration and a stronger ‘sense of a “we” that shares a common fate’.A statist argument of a different kind corresponds well with Rawlsian principles of justice. Thomas Nagel has pointed out that such principles must not be viewed in isolation from their overall political function: in the end, they contribute to the justification of the state’s monopoly on the use of force.Nagel spells out his position in two arguments. First, following Thomas Hobbes, he emphasises the connection between justice and sovereignty: duties of justice depend on an enforcement mechanism that only a sovereign can guarantee—without a legal system supported by a state monopoly of force, coordination of behaviour and stability of expectations within a large group of people cannot be achieved.Nagel’s position deserves to be described as a political theory of justice in the narrower sense because it postulates not only any kind of institutional solidarity, but membership of a sovereign state as an indispensable prerequisite for duties of distributive justice. A ‘pre-institutional’ understanding of justice as a universal ideal of interpersonal relationships, as it is found at the core of radically cosmopolitan theories, is misguided. Against this background,At least for the time being, this means that without an international legal system with a quasi-state monopoly on the use of force outside individual states, there is no basis at all for the application of distributive justice as a political ideal.What does the philosophical discussion presented above mean for the legal rules that govern international taxation?The current architecture of international taxation is based on statist premises.One strategy for identifying reform options for the international tax system is purely instrumental and first involves the assessment of distributional outcomes that can in some way be causally linked to the international tax regime that is currently in place. Comparing this current state of affairs with a situation characterised by ideal distributive justice , the variance between the two worlds demonstrates a concrete need for redistribution to the benefit of some at the expense of other people or political units—depending on who is regarded as the relevant moral subjects and thus party to the justice relation. Seen from this instrumental angle, it makes sense to inquire which particular ‘screws’ in the current system might need adjustment and in which direction in order to bring us closer to the ideal result.A question of immense practical importance is whether the acceptance of some form of moral cosmopolitanism would entail a commitment to some form of legal cosmopolitanism as well. Does recognition of the global nature of our redistributive duties require a structural counterpart in the international legal order, in this case in international tax law? The answer to this question has far-reaching implications for who is responsible for managing mandated redistribution. In the statist picture, these are the nation states themselves; from a legal cosmopolitan perspective, a reallocation of taxing rights and administrative responsibilities to the supranational level is inevitable.The following paragraphs deal with two different ways in which global justice in the sense of moderate cosmopolitanism could be achieved: first, ideas from the philosophical literature that go hand in hand with radical structural reforms, especially with regard to the allocation of taxing rights; and second, possibilities of realising global justice without fundamentally changing the current multi-level system of international tax law.In addition to the philosophical justification of universal duties of justice, Pogge has focused his work on practical strategies and political instruments that could be used to mitigate the drastically unequal distribution of resources and life chances across the globe that we see today.Pogge is not primarily concerned with international taxation; nevertheless, taxation in one form or another plays an important role in his and other cosmopolitans’ instrumental considerations. According to Pogge’s much debated proposal of a so-called ‘global commodity dividend’,A similar proposal is a global health fund financed by wealthy countries, designed to increase incentives for pharmaceutical companies to develop medicines to combat poverty-related diseases.Shachar derives an argument for a ‘birthright privilege levy’ from the morally arbitrary status of being a citizen of a socio-economically privileged state. In the context of current citizenship law, citizenship status is conceived analogously to an inherited bundle of rights, in particular in terms of access rights to resources and life chances.Further ideas and proposals aim at the protection and financing of global public goods, such as climate and environmental protection as the objectives of a ‘carbon tax’ on the consumption of fossil energy sources and the emission of greenhouse gases. It is in this category that the long-debated financial transaction tax belongs,trias of income, capital and consumption and to finance global redistributive schemes are the questions of how such schemes should be organised, who should be responsible for tax collection and who should be entitled to decide on the use of the funds thereby generated.Inextricably linked with the debate on which particular tax bases could be used to add regulatory precision to the traditional Prima facie, it seems inconsistent to conceptualise duties of justice without recourse to the nation state, but at the same time to fall back on the political instruments of the nation state in enforcing the fulfilment of these duties, in particular domestic tax law and tax administration as a collection apparatus supported by a monopoly on the use of force.From a cosmopolitan perspective, it is not only the result in terms of a certain distribution of relevant resources that matters, but also the path towards such a distribution. It is therefore unsurprising that cosmopolitan literature often advocates the ideal solution of at least partial supranationalisation or even globalisation of taxation itself. A call, for instance, for the establishment of an ‘International Tax Organisation’ is quite common, or for the transfer of taxing rights to existing international or supranational organisations such as the EU, OECD, WTO or UN.Apart from the enormous political obstacles that would have to be overcome in building the supranational institutions necessary for effective tax collection, the question arises as to whether the advocacy of moral cosmopolitanism requires such a structural transformation at all. In other words: does moral cosmopolitanism commit us to legal cosmopolitanism, especially with regard to taxation?The strongest arguments against such a commitment are pragmatic in nature. The advantages of specialisation and division of labour speak in favour of leaving the responsibility for the revenue side of a global redistributive mechanism at the state level.If we ignore the possibility of a  supranationalisation of taxing rights, either because it is regarded as politically unfeasible or because of doubts about effective enforceability, what options are available in order to achieve more distributive justice on a global scale within the current structural framework of international taxation?Some ideas for how global redistribution could be achieved do not fall into the category of tax policy as strictly understood. The demand for more transparency is one of the most prominent proposals, especially in accounting for international trade in raw materials, in order to counteract the ‘siphoning’ of national resources by corruption and tax avoidance.The tax policy debate that deals with the ‘how to redistribute’The structural reforms to the current system that are on the table currently as an outcome of the OECD’s BEPS project may initiate a paradigmatic shift in how taxing rights are allocated internationally.requirement of justice that can be broken down into duties of justice of some states to fulfil corresponding rights of other states.This section returns to the initial question of whether a valid argument can be made that a (re)allocation of taxing rights at the expense of some states to the benefit of others is a A philosophical argument in favour of a requirement of justice to redistribute taxing rights among states can take two forms: it can be based either on an account of collective rights and responsibilities that qualifies states as proper moral agents capable of a relationship of justice on the collective level itselfIn the political context, justice is commonly conceptualised as a relational term, as an ideal quality of the relationship between moral agents.According to this understanding, the demands of justice determine the normative responsibilities we have to one another.A theory of justice that is able to provide guidance in political debates such as the one about content and scope of (re)distributive duties in international taxation must answer the following questions: what are the preconditions for moral agency and responsibility? Consequently, what types of entities can be bearers of moral duties? Whose rights do these duties correspond to? Who are the moral agents that matter on the beneficiary side? Are both sides linked in the sense that moral agency is the prerequisite for both rights and responsibilities alike?Variations in the answers to these questions cut across the different groups of theories in the global justice debate that were presented above, which is why these issues are presented as a separate matter here. The structure of moral relationships has far-reaching implications for the debate about justice in international taxation as any claims that are made in terms of who owes what to whom must, to be convincing, be in line with who potentially is in a relationship of rights and duties of justice at all.Most moral theory operates upon a traditional conception of individual agency that leads to individual rights and responsibilities. Rights are commonly conceptualised as protecting the choices or the well-being (or both) of individuals, with reference to their moral status and capability of moral agency.In the political context in general, however, and in the tax context in particular, we are rarely confronted with identifiable causal chains that link particular individuals to particular states of the world. When speaking about distributive justice within states and across state borders, we are dealing with large social collectives. However, the claims that we make regarding rights and duties of justice that individuals have towards each other cannot simply be transposed from the individual to the collective level.qua groups responsible for remedying a situation that is morally unacceptable.Sometimes we thus encounter a ‘responsibility shortfall’:If we accept the idea of collective responsibility in principle, the implications we can draw from it depend on two issues: what criteria must social groups meet in order to qualify for some form of collective responsibility? And how, if at all, does collective responsibility translate into individual responsibility and vice versa?One influential account of collective responsibility is based upon the existence of a sufficiently robust mechanism of centralised decision making.international level. It would only establish that on the ‘giving’ side it could be states, as collectives, that bear a duty to redistribute.recipient side it would be other states, as collectives, that would have a claim of justice to be given a larger part of a particular tax cake. Showing that states and their governing bodies in which deprived individuals live are the correct recipients of efforts to discharge collective remedial responsibilities crucially depends on a collective conception of rights as well.Even if we can form a convincing account of collective responsibility, however, the following problem remains: a convincing account of collective responsibility alone would not suffice to establish duties of justice to redistribute taxing rights  on the of their own.The debate about which—if any—collective entities are proper candidates for bearers of rights has become known under the heading ‘group rights’. This debate has similarities to the one concerning collective responsibility, in that part of it is about the conditions that collective entities must meet in order to qualify as right holders, whatever the right may be. This is an ontological debate about the moral status of different types of groups that has paved the way for a ‘corporate conception’ of group rights. Here again, degrees of integration and institutionalised forms of collective decision making are among the candidates for features that justify treating them as moral agents capable of having rights In order to avoid these ontological problems, the ‘collective conception’ offers a different view of group rights as more than a simple aggregate of individual rights, but less than or different from rights that could only be borne by a collective with quasi-personal qualities. The most influential defence of the collective conception has been presented by Joseph Raz, who acknowledges group rights under the condition (among others) that they relate to an ‘interest of individuals as members of a group in a public good and the right is a right to that public good because it serves their interest as members of the group’.Neither the corporate nor the collective conception of group rights can avoid a type of criticism that refers not to the contentious assumptions we would have to make about what kind of entities groups are, but to the negative consequences acknowledging group rights may have for the content and protection of individual rights. The argument here is that group rights may have the potential to oppress individual rights, both those of people who belong to the group in question and those of people who do not. It is difficult to see how not to fall into an aggregative framework, where the interests of the many may amount to a collectively held right that is in conflict with the individual rights of others that have less weight, particularly when group rights are understood along the lines of the collective conception. Resolving such tensions and conflicts in favour of group rights, and using them as reasons to infringe individual rights, is difficult to reconcile with a commitment to honour the ‘separateness of persons’.qua states in international relations at all;The problems discussed here do not support the conclusion that there are no collective moral rights of states per se that have, as a matter of justice, a right to a certain share of taxing rights vis-à-vis other states requires a convincing conception of group rights that encompasses taxing rights as well.Arguing that it would be states An individual right to taxing rights does not make much sense in the first place, since taxation is not an individual, but a necessarily collective enterprise. We can make sense of individual rights to a certain share of socio-economic resources, of being granted access to the means of subsistence, and the revenue generated by a certain share of taxing rights borne by a political unit to which individuals belong typically has implications for the resources they have access to. The international tax justice debate, however, oscillates between the socio-economic rights of individuals and the collective duties of states to honour these rights with the help of reforms in international tax law.vis-à-vis the recipient state as the relevant moral subject are simply presupposed. This, however, does not sit well with the methodological individualism of cosmopolitan theories. The intuitive force of cosmopolitan theories crucially depends on their core assumption that it is people’s status as individual human beings who are capable of moral agency that forms the basis for duties of distributive justice towards them and that calls for a reason to draw limits to such duties according to criteria such as membership of a political community are, from a moral standpoint, seemingly arbitrary. So, at least if cosmopolitanism’s appeal is invoked to justify a call for extending the moral perspective beyond national confines, holding that the relations between states themselves are governed by the same principles of distributive justice as between individuals is prima facie surprising. Interestingly, the cosmopolitan literature is divided and at times opaque about whether the monist claim that justice means the same and requires the same both nationally and internationally is a claim about the relationship between individuals or between groups—such as states—or some combination of both.Often, duties of distributive justice that exist directly Missing in this debate is a connection between the individual and the collective level, a coherent argument as to how exactly the moral rights of individuals would give rise to a moral claim of their state towards another state regarding the substantive design of the international tax system.within the  collective that would hold them? This would depend on the kind of access that individual members of the group would have to such rights and on how they would benefit from an international rearrangement that leaves their group with more extensive taxing rights. Non-rivalrous and non-exclusive individual access to taxing rights themselves is hard to see at all, given the nature of taxation as a public capacity. In order to provide a link between taxing rights and group members, we must look to the fiscal consequences of those rights, to the revenue that would actually result from those rights and their extension by international rearrangement. With respect to these resources and the indirect sense in which group members would enjoy access to the taxing rights that have led to their availability, the familiar classification as public or private goods makes perfect sense. The focus then lies on the particular use of whatever additional revenue results from a rearrangement of taxing rights in the beneficiary state . If the classification of taxing rights as public goods depends on the resulting revenue consequently being used to fund public goods to which the group’s members have non-rivalrous and non-exclusive access, the argument for a group’s right to enjoy more extensive taxing rights vis-à-vis another group survives only in stump form, if at all. Funding public goods is hardly the only use of tax revenue. Funding redistribution of resources within the group already blurs the picture, as access to the revenue thus used would fail the criterion of non-exclusivity.Even if we set aside the objections that have been brought forward particularly against the collective conceptions of group rights, another obstacle remains on the way to treating taxing rights as one particular instance of such collective rights. This has to do with the content that group rights could have according to the Razian conception: the conditions under which a sharing of interests among individuals could be the basis for a genuine group right refer to those interests being directed at some form of public good, such as collective self-determination. The range of group rights that can be justified in this way is, according to Raz, from the beginning substantively limited to public goods. Seen from an international tax perspective, justifying a Razian group right to share the right to tax income and profit to a certain extent would require conceptualising taxing rights as a public good. Bearing in mind the standard criteria for public goods , taxing rights do not present themselves as a natural candidate. Assuming that multiple taxation is to be avoided, more extensive taxing rights of one political unit would diminish the taxing rights of other political units; seen globally, a right to tax particular kinds of income and profit is both a rivalrous and an exclusive good. But what about the internal perspective: can taxing rights be classified as public goods Taken together, these obstacles call for a departure from the idea that rearranging taxing rights can be justified as a genuine duty of justice on the international level. Going back to the morally less problematic individual level, however, we would need an additional argument as to why duties of justice towards individuals are adequately discharged by a certain form or reform of international taxation as a collective enterprise.vis-à-vis individual citizens could be used to improve the life chances of individual non-citizens who would otherwise lack the resources needed to lead a minimally decent life, such as using tax revenue to finance foreign aid and development aid.Could we bypass the group rights problem and still arrive at a duty of justice to redistribute taxing rights internationally, ie from one state to another? Without any contentious assumptions about the moral status of groups, instrumental reasons may speak for involving states as collective agents in a certain mechanism of resource allocation. In terms of practical organisation, this may simply be the most effective way of discharging duties of justice towards individuals. The instrumental argument, however, crucially depends on the assumption of a benevolent and capable government on the part of the recipient state that ‘passes on’ tax revenue to its constituents, either by direct transfer or by making use of it in a way that increases people’s well-being. But when it comes to compensating for resource inequality among individuals, the transfer of taxing rights to states and the governments responsible for ensuring their life chances does not make sense under all circumstances.This is not the place to give an adequate account of the controversial debate about the causes of global poverty and inequality, in particular the relationship between unfavourable starting conditions and political versus individual responsibilities, and to compare the ways of combating them.assuming the resulting revenues were appropriately spent.’Interestingly, cosmopolitan calls for rearrangements in the international tax arena at times acknowledge that they must rely on the benevolent government assumption, but at the same time treat it as an unproblematic detail: ‘Clearly massive reductions in existing human rights deficits could be achieved by allowing poor countries to collect reasonable taxes from MNCs and from their own most affluent nationals, The upshot of these observations is that it is difficult to combine the structure of our moral relationships and the state of the world as it is, partitioned into states that cannot all simply be assumed to cater most effectively to their citizens’ well-being, into an argument for a reform of international taxation that leaves more taxing rights and thus more revenue to some states than others. Collective rights are difficult to defend, and without them we run into the problems of the instrumental argument.Where does this leave us? The challenges that collective rights and responsibilities come with do not mean that the collective level cannot play any role in giving practical effect to moral obligations that reach across national boundaries, or that international taxation has no role to play in this endeavour. After all, taxing rights can only be distributed and redistributed on an international, and therefore collective, level. As a matter of political experience, the instrumental argument in favour of utilising the taxing rights channel for resource redistribution with a view to individuals as recipients may still hold in some—or even many—contexts. Still, from a theoretical perspective, the individual and collective levels must be distinguished: duties of distributive justice that hold between individuals cannot simply be assumed to hold between collectives or between collectives and individuals. Caution is required here, given the fact that even if it may be desirable that governments act as ‘trustees of humanity’,international duties of distributive tax justice are difficult to construe does not, of course, mean that the international context is a realm in which no moral principles operate at all.The conclusion that genuinely In the global justice debate, one of the main issues is whether a requirement to redistribute has its roots in duties of humanitarian assistance to people in need, interpersonal duties to establish global distributive justice or obligations of good conduct and fairness between states as members of an international order based on principles of equal standing, fairness and co-operation.From a tax point of view, we must ask ourselves: what difference does it make? After all, any type of redistribution or aid, no matter what it is called or how it is justified, must be financed.Further differences relate to the specific content of what actions duties of justice require from us. Duties of distributive justice are more far-reaching than duties of humanitarian assistance, which refer to the global provision of a certain minimum socio-economic standard for all people and do not include a genuinely egalitarian component.In addition, genuine duties of justice are considered strongerThe qualification of a resource transfer as either the discharge of a distributive duty or humanitarian aid also has a symbolic-expressive component that should not be underestimated.Speaking of international tax cakes that should be distributed fairly may be shortsighted. When it comes to individuals’ well-being and life chances, what matters is not only or primarily the division of tax cakes of whatever size , but the whole meal that is the world economy and the gains it generates that are inevitably distributed somehow. This meal has many courses, shaped by many legal regimes: international trade arrangements, environmental treaties, the protection of intellectual property and so forth. All of these regimes affect the overall distributive outcome, which brings us back to the initial differentiation between whether and how to redistribute, ie between the reasons to redistribute resources globally at all and the specific instrumental ways to achieve the task.Acknowledging that the international tax regime is only one of the many nuts and bolts of a whole body of rules that shape the distributive outcomes of the global economy prompts the question: if there is a bigger picture to be seen here, what does that mean for the ‘international tax justice’ debate? Is it an appropriate endeavour at all to come up with specific principles of distributive justice that should guide international tax policy?In light of the difficulties that accompany the instrumental argument for a redistribution of taxing rights, international taxation should not be overwhelmed with expectations as to its suitability for the task of compensating for global inequality and poverty. This is not to call into question the undisputed need to find a solution to these problems. While a comprehensive, globally coordinated reform might be the preferred scenario, there is little reason to hope for its political feasibility. Of all the other instruments that could be part of second-, third- and fourth-best strategies, international tax law is one. The discussion here was limited to problems of moral suitability from one particular angle; practical suitability and potential obstacles to an effective implementation of redistributive aims via a reform of the international tax system have not been the focus here. Giving due treatment to international taxation in a comprehensive global trade justice debate would require attention to both types of suitability.If we are willing to recognise considerations of justice—along with other criteria such as efficiency and administrability—as legitimate design principles for international tax policy, it is inevitable to reflect on the specific content of these principles of justice and to take account of controversial issues. Otherwise, theoretical considerations as well as their practical implications will remain vague, and for this reason alone run the risk of having little political and legal impact.distributive justice, thereby calling into question approaches that see international tax policy as faced with this task under this particular heading. This does not mean, of course, that any political decision or agreement to utilise tax policy in this way would be incoherent or necessarily ineffective. It also does not mean that arguments based on other accounts of justice could not succeed. In particular, the critical argument advanced here does not affect the claim that procedural justice requires strengthening the inclusivity of the international tax framework so as to give less affluent states a stronger voice at the bargaining table than they have had in the past.The previous sections have cast doubt on whether a coherent argument can be made that reliance on international taxation as a policy instrument in order to alleviate global inequality is a matter of The main argument of this article, however, is that although the theories of distributive justice presented here differ in terms of the overall redistribution of resources they require, none of them necessarily lead to distributive duties among states to reallocate taxing rights amongst one another. The differentiation between the interpersonal and the international level as regards the parties to a relationship governed by principles of distributive justice is not merely a terminological issue, but has significant implications for tax policy: considering the difficulties with construing genuinely collective rights of states with respect to taxing rights and absent a robust assumption of a benevolent and capable government on the recipient side, the reallocation of taxing rights from state to state does not necessarily help when it comes to fulfilling duties of justice towards individuals. The conceptual reasoning behind this conclusion is that distributive justice as it pertains to  tax policy is adequately understood as leading to interpersonal relations of claims and duties.


Starch is a natural polysaccharide for which the technological quality depends on the genetic basis of the plant and the environmental conditions of the cultivation. Growing plants under cover without soil has many advantages for controlling the above-mentioned conditions. The present research focuses on determining the effect of under cover hydroponic potato cultivation on the physicochemical properties of accumulated potato starch (PS). The plants were grown in the hydroponic system, with  and without recirculation nutrient solution . The reference sample was PS isolated from plants grown in a tunnel in containers filled with mineral soil (SO). The influence of the cultivation method on the elemental composition of the starch molecules was noted. The cultivation method also influenced the protein and amylose content of the PS. Considering the chromatic parameters, PS-GH and PS-FT were brighter and whiter, with a tinge of blue, than PS-SO. PS-SO was also characterized by the largest average diameters of granules, while PS-GH had the lowest crystallinity. PS-SO showed a better resistance to the combined action of elevated temperature and shear force. There was a slight variation in the gelatinization temperature values. Additionally, significant differences for enthalpy and the retrogradation ratio were observed. The cultivation method did not influence the glass transition and melting. Starch is the main reserve material of the higher plants and at the same time it is the most important carbohydrate in the human diet. The constant, high demand for starch is a result of its versatile applications in various industries, especially in the food industry. Starch greatly imparts textural properties to many food products and has industrial applications as a thickener, stabilizer, gelling agent, filler, water-retaining agent and even as an adhesive. The physicochemical and functional properties of aqueous starch systems and their uniqueness in various applications, differ depending on the botanical origin of this biopolymer. The main sources of starch for industrial production are maize , wheat, potato and cassava .In terms of technology, potato starch (PS) is considered the best, which is related to its physicochemical properties. This uniqueness results from the large size of its granules, relatively long chains of amylose (AM) and amylopectin (AP), the presence of ester-bound phosphate groups in the AP molecule, the ability to exchange some cations with a corresponding effect on the viscosity and the ability to form thick viscoelastic gels after heating and then cooling ,3. This However, there are significant differences between the physicochemical properties of potato starch obtained from different potato tuber varieties . Many puIn many cases, these influences are greater than the varietal differences or even the differences between the species, which are reflected in the quality of the raw material and as a consequence in the quality of the product. These factors are difficult to control in field conditions due to the unpredictable weather conditions . The infThe use of soilless methods of growing vegetables in foil tunnels and greenhouses has become more and more popular. Compared to the conventional cultivation in soil, hydroponic cultivation ensures the faster growth and development of plants resulting in higher yields. Plants from such cultivations are of a high quality with good post-harvest durability. In addition, they are characterized by a higher health, because due to the specificity of the cultivation, they are free from pests and soil borne diseases .Little information has been published so far on potato growth in soilless systems, although the research indicates that hydroponic systems, especially the Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) and aeroponics, have a potential commercial applications in the potato industry for certified seed production .The literature on the subject contains several data documenting the possibility of growing potatoes in hydroponic systems ,26. TheyAn important aspect of hydroponic potato cultivation is its use for the cultivation/selection of new varieties and, e.g., for biogenerative life support systems .Due to the fact that the physicochemical properties of starch, which constitutes about 17–21% of the fresh potato tubers mass, determine the quality and direction of the technological application of both the tubers and the biopolymer itself, an attempt is made to determine the impact of the hydroponic cultivation conditions of potato plants, and on the chemical composition and physical properties of starch isolated from such tubers.The starch mineral composition can be of decisive importance for its industrial application, because the degree of phosphorylation determines the physicochemical properties of the polymer ,32,33. MThe non-carbohydrate compound found in relatively high amounts in the PS was phosphorus. Its high content in the PS is desirable in order to obtain a high viscosity paste . The conThe PS contained natural metal cations bound by ionic forces to the phosphate ester groups. The level of divalent cations, such as calcium and magnesium, has a significant influence on the pasting properties of starch, possibly by ionically cross-linking the starch phosphate esters ,35,36,43The content of calcium in potato starch varied widely, from 21.89 to 98.41 mg/kg . These vThe content of magnesium ions in the studied starches ranges from 46.26 to 73.54 mg/kg , which i+, Na+) ranged from 524.35 to 920.05 mg/kg and from 6.62 to 25.02 mg/kg, respectively  on their accumulation in the starch granules was also visible. In the closed system (GH), the content of potassium ions was higher, and in the case of the sodium ions, it was lower than in the open system without nutrient recirculation (FT). According to the literature data [+) and the sodium ion (Na+) in plants during root uptake. Since the uptake of potassium from nutrients is much easier than from soil, the K versus Na interaction in soil is weaker than in nutrients. Divalent ions and potassium are antagonistic. The high content and easy uptake of potassium in hydroponics weakens the uptake of Ca2+ and Mg2+. These conclusions also confirm the results obtained for the molar fraction of mineral elements  content. Due to the very low lipid content of potato starches, the observed AM content values are equivalent to both the amount of apparent amylose and the amount of total amylose. In the PS samples tested, the AM content ranged from 26.18% to 27.82% , which iThe low protein  content of the investigated starches, ranging from 0.26 g/100 g to 0.33 g/100 g , indicatColor is one of the most important visual quality parameters for both raw materials and products prepared on their basis. The color of the raw material can provide information on the chemical composition of the product, and thus determine its suitability for processing. Moreover, its variation confirms changes that occur in the structure or chemical composition of the raw material or product during processing or storage.The results of the color measurements of the tested potato starch samples are presented in The change in the plant cultivation system from soil to soilless is significantly reflected in the color a* (greenness to redness) and b* (blueness to yellowness) parameters . For theFrom the color parameters L*, a* and b*, the total different color ΔE  was calcThe hydroponic cultivation also causes a noticeable decrease in the saturation of the potato starch color, as evidenced by the chroma C* value . AdditioIt should be emphasized that all the aspects related to the chromatic attributes of the tested starches confirmed the influence of the type of applied potato plant cultivation method—its change from soil to hydroponic. The starch samples obtained from the tubers grown in soil are darker and grayer with red and yellow tones, compared to the other samples, which can be concluded from the lower values of the L* parameter and higher values of the a*, b*, C* and WI indices.Potato starch exhibits a unimodal PSD, and among the granules can be observed a fraction of small-spherical granules and large-ellipsoidal ones. Since the structure and size of the starch granules can influence the physical properties of starch ,55,56, iA significant correlation was observed between the content of the large granule fraction (>70 µm) and the content of calcium, magnesium and sodium (positive) and potassium and phosphorus (negative). The last correlation that related the phosphorus content vs. large granules size content, was also observed by Sikora et al. .The temperature dependence of the WBC, SP and S parameters obtained for the analyzed PS samples is presented in The WBC was influenced by both the temperature and cultivation method. At each measurement temperature, SO had the highest WBC values. The increment of the WBC values between the lowest and the highest measurement temperature was 74.14 and 68.26 g/100 g for GH and FT, respectively, compared to 75.81 g/100 g for SO. The increase in the WBC values with the increasing temperature can be due to gelatinization, which breaks the weak associative bonds in the amorphous region of the starch granules and allows for increased hydration . The WBCp < 0.05). At 80 °C, the differences in the SP of the tested starch samples was relatively low, but still it was statistically significant. At the other temperatures, the swelling power of the SO was higher than that of the other samples.The SP indicates the interaction between the amorphous and crystalline region of the starch granules. At the pasting temperature, the starch granules have limited swelling properties and therefore only a small amount of starch is dissolved, but at a higher temperature there is an increase in the SP value and a large amount of starch leaks out . The higBy analyzing the obtained results, it was noted that the calcium content was positively correlated with the swelling power at all temperatures, which can be explained by the across-linking of starch chains by covalent bounds created by this divalent ion. A similar observation was made by other authors  (therefoSolubility (S) is the measure of the amount of solutes that were washed out of the starch granules when measuring their swelling ability. The starch solubility increased with the increasing temperature. At high temperatures, an increase in the S value indicates an increase in the amount of solute amylopectin, the amount of which increases dramatically when the granules are ruptured . The solFor all the investigated parameters , a statistical difference was recorded between the I and II cultivation year .The results of the pasting properties of 5% potato starch suspensions in water are presented in This parameter was affected by the cultivation method, but not by the year of cultivation. The peak viscosity (PV) was varied significantly among the samples, with the lowest values attained by samples grown in soil (SO average 612 BU) and the highest values were attained by the samples grown in the foil tunnel , clearly indicating the importance of the growing method. Additionally, the differences were spotted for the PVt (time needed to reach PV) and PVT (temperature at PV) parameters, and the lowest values were observed for FT starches, which were characterized by a sharp increase in viscosity followed by a dramatic decrease in it . Due to the presence of a covalently bound phosphorus moiety , the PS In this research, that a well-known correlation between a phosphorus content and starch paste viscosity was observed ,41,48,54peak and s, and the lowest r Vpeak can be identified with PV, but they were generally slightly lower than the corresponding PV values, with the exception for SO I and II starches. Another parameter applied in this model, r, was the time needed to reach half of the Vpeak value, and the highest values were observed for SO starches, indicating a rather slow swelling of the granules, whereas the lowest values were calculated for the rapid viscosity growth observed for the FT samples.As previously mentioned, the pasting of FT starches was characterized by a rapid growth of viscosity at the first stage of this phenomenon, which was reflected by the appropriate parameters of the logistic model , namely The last, dimensionless parameter of the model (s) is related to granular swelling. As can be observed for slowly developing viscosity SO starches, the value is almost half that of the GH, and over two times lower than for the FT starches.Starches subjected to the combined action of elevated temperature and shear forces, decreased their viscosity during the holding period, which was manifested by appropriate MV (minimum viscosity), BD (breakdown), BD% and HPSI (hot paste stability index) values. This drop in viscosity was related to the disintegration of swollen starch granules, and can describe the resistance of swollen starch granules against extreme conditions. It was particularly noticeable for FT starches, where a dramatic decrease in viscosity was observed. On the other hand, other starches were characterized by a rather low viscosity drop , and by the relatively high stability of viscosity during holding at elevated temperatures  and then, as a result of cooling (and the creation of hydrogen bonds), an increase in viscosity was observed of up to TV (from 848 to 1375 BU). This increase in viscosity is described as a setback (SB), and could be related to the starch retrogradation. The SB% values obtained in this research varied from 36.4 (SO-I) to 48.1% (FT-I). The calculated SB% (based on literature data) for the potato starches varied from 11.8 to 24.5 ,64.The functional properties of starch make it one of the most widely used raw materials in the food industry. Its technological potential can be further enhanced by various modifications or the addition of nutrients, which affect the physical and functional properties of a given product. Among the many characteristic properties of starch, one of the most important is the phenomenon of pasting and the subsequent retrogradation of starch. Starch pasting occurs during many food processing operations and has a significant impact on the properties of the resulting products. Starch granules, as a result of water absorption at elevated temperatures, swell and disintegrate, releasing AM, which is poorly soluble in water, and AP. The pasting temperature and the process itself depend mainly on starch type and the amount of available water. The obtained starch pastes and gels are subjected to the retrogradation process. The effect of this phenomenon is the transition of biopolymers from a form of paste into a partially ordered form, and the formation of a crystalline network. During this process, water molecules are expelled from the biopolymer network as a result of the reduction in intermolecular spaces. This leads to structural changes during storage, resulting in the increased turbidity of pastes and gels, increased gel stiffness, syneresis, as well as bread staling.Pg and TEg did the samples slightly differ, which indicated a different course of the gelatinization process, probably related to a significant difference in the SP values, especially at higher temperatures. The values of all the temperatures analyzed were relatively high and were at or above the upper limits of the values reported in the literature for PS [The results of the thermodynamic analysis of starch gelatinization and retrogradation are presented in e for PS ,63. The e for PS ,63.As the starch paste cools, AM forms double helixes composed of 40–70 glucose molecules and AP forms crystalline structures ,63. ThisOr) ranged from 44.6 °C to 50.13 °C and depended on the method of cultivation. The two samples from hydroponic cultivation (GH and FT) did not differ from each other. The peak temperature (TPr) value did not differ, while a similar relationship was observed for the end of the transformation (TEr) as for the beginning (TOr), but the variation was slightly smaller. Significant differences were found for the enthalpy of retrogradation.The values  obtained with DSC  characteg), a property extremely important from the point of view of the transformations occurring in food, plays a crucial role. It characterizes the change in mobility of the water contained in food products and is related to the interactions between the water molecules and macromolecules of other food components. The values of the temperatures characterizing the phenomenon of vitreous transition and the subsequent melting peak are summarized in Samples from conventional cultivation (SO) were not different from the GH sample, while both were significantly different from the FT one. A similar relationship was characterized by the degree of retrogradation (R%). This indicated, on the one hand, the similarity between traditional and hydroponic cultivation, and on the other hand, it indicated the significant effect of the recirculation of the nutrient solution on the PS properties and its behavior during the retrogradation process. The stability of starch and its products strongly depends on their composition and parameters characterizing the storage site (relative humidity and temperature) ,71. When1 space group) [The crystallinity of starch granules can reveal important information about the internal structure and the type of amylose chains distribution within the granules. There are two distinct crystalline polymorphic forms: the A-type (B2 space group) , mostly e group) ,74, obsee group) ). In oure group) ,76. The e group) . The resSolanum tuberosum L.) cv. ‘Vineta’. The plants were grown in two-year experiments in the spring season under cover at the Faculty of Biotechnology and Horticulture at the University of Agriculture in Krakow. The cultivation was carried out in three systems. The first one included hydroponic cultivation using the Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) system, with a nutrient solution recirculation (closed system) in a greenhouse (GH); the second was the hydroponic cultivation of NFT without the recirculation of the nutrient solution (open system) in a foil tunnel (FT); and the third (as reference sample) was cultivation in containers filled with mineral soil (SO) in a foil tunnel.Potato starch (PS) was extracted from the tubers of potato  of the caliber of 35–55 mm were applied. Both NFT experiments consisted of 3 replications with 10 plants in each replicate.3 medium container, facilitating potato cultivation in recirculation hydroponics.The details of hydroponic potato cultivation in a greenhouse are presented in our earlier publication . The potIn a foil tunnel, potato plants were grown in gutters filled with perlite. The supply of water and nutrients to the cultivation gutters was carried out with the help of the nutrient solution administered with the drip system. The frequency of nutrient solution feeding was regulated on the basis of the observation of moisture in the subsoil mats.In both hydroponic experiments, the composition of the nutrient solution was adjusted to the growth phase of the plants. Two types of nutrient solution were applied: the first one in the phase of vegetative growth, and the second one in the period of flowering and tuberization. The composition of both nutrients was presented elsewhere ,78. In bThe soil cultivation experiment (SO) consisted of 5 replications (30 plant containers). Containers with dimensions of 60 × 40 × 20 cm were filled with mineral soil classified as light dusty clay with a grain size composition: 35% sand, 28% dust and 37% clay, with an average content of organic matter at the level of 2.76%. According to the method  most comThe method described by Singh and Singh , with slDry matter (g/100 g) and the ash content (g/100 g) were determined according to the AOAC method .The starch apparent amylose content (g/100 g) was determined using the iodine spectrophotometric method described by Morrison and Laignelet  using a The total nitrogen and protein content (N × 6.25) were determined by the Kjeldahl method according to the AOAC standard . Digesti3 [The total content of phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium was determined by emission spectrophotometry using the ICP-OES Prodigy spectrophotometer , after microwave mineralization of the samples in 65% super pure HNO3 . For Ca,3 . The L*,L*—lightness ;a*—a color parameter ranging from green (−a*) to red (a*);b*—a color parameter ranging from blue (−b*) to yellow (b*).The quantitative color parameter is the chroma C*, determined from the equation below (Equation (1)):The color difference between starch from the hydroponic cultivations (GH and FT) and starch from soil cultivation (SO) was expressed as the total color difference ΔE*ab. This parameter was computed as the Euclidean distance between two points in the three-dimensional space defined by L*, a* and b* using the following equation (Equation (2)):Whiteness index is a parameter linking together all the previously mentioned parameters into a single indicator. According to Rhim et al. , it indiThe particle size distribution (PSD) of the potato starch granules was calculated by means of video enhanced microscopy (VEM) applying image analysis .3 of distilled water) was heated at the indicated temperature in a water bath during 1 h with constant agitation, followed by a rapid cooling to room temperature and centrifugation at 2103× g for 15 min. The formed precipitate was weighed and calculated as the SP value. The supernatant was dried on a dish, weighed and the S was determined.Water binding capacity, swelling power and starch solubility in water at 60, 70, 80 and 90 °C was measured according to Richter et al. . Starch w/w) of water-based starch dispersion was pasted using the following temperature program: the initial temperature was 45 °C, heating up to 95 °C, holding for 10 min, cooling down to 25 °C and holding for another 10 min. Both the heating and cooling rates were set as 4.5 °C /min, and the measuring cylinder was rotating at 150 rpm [peak—peak viscosity, r—the time that gives rise to 50% of peak viscosity and s—starch coefficient.Starch pasting properties were performed as previously described by Berski et al. , using a 150 rpm ,69. The  150 rpm . The folThe thermal properties of starch gelatinization were obtained using a differential scanning calorimeter, DSC 204F1 Phoenix . DSC measurements were made under a nitrogen atmosphere. An empty aluminum pan was used as the reference sample. The calorimeter was calibrated with a multi-point method .Og), peak (TPg) and end (TEg), and also gelatinization enthalpy (∆Hg). Afterwards, the cooling sample was stored at 4 ± 1°C for one day. Retrogradation was measured by reheating the sample pan under the same conditions as for gelatinization. Then, the onset (TOr), peak (TPr), end (TEr) temperature retrogradation and enthalpy (∆Hr) were evaluated. The degree of retrogradation was calculated as the ratio of gelatinization and retrogradation enthalpies [Starch gelatinization and retrogradation was investigated by heating up the water–starch dispersion (3:1) in an aluminum pan within the temperatures range of 25–100 °C, with a heating rate of 10°C/min. Based on the obtained thermograms, the following results were calculated: the onset gelatinization temperature , middle (TMIDgt), inversion (TINVgt) and end (TEgt) of the transformation were determined. Additionally, the melting peak was characterized by evaluating the onset temperature (TOm), peak (TPm) and conclusion (TEm), as well as melting enthalpy (∆Hm) [The glass transition temperature was determined, according to Kowalski et al. (2019), with temperature modifications by heating the starch in aluminum pans (~15 mg) in two steps. The initial step involved heating up the sample to 120 °C (10 °C/min), then cooling to 0 °C (10 °C/min) and re-heating to 250 °C (10 °C/min). The glass transition temperatures were determined on the basis of the second scan, and the onset temperatures (Tpy (∆Hm) .The wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) characterization of the starch samples was performed with a PANalytical X’Pert PRO MPD diffractometer  equipped with Cu X-ray tube (λ Cu-Kα = 1.5419 Å). The powder pattern of starch was collected in a 3−60° 2θ range in reflection mode.p < 0.05.All analyses were performed in at least duplicate/triplicate, and all data were given on a db basis. The obtained results were subjected to the two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using Statistica 10.0 PL. For determining the significance between the means, the Tukey test was used. The significance was declared at The physicochemical properties of starch are strongly dependent not only on the genetic determinants of the plant that is the source of the polymer , but also on the environmental conditions under which the plants are grown  and the applied agrotechnical treatment . The conducted research proved that the soilless potato cultivation method  also influenced the quality of the accumulated starch. Additionally, the effect of the applied hydroponic system (with/without nutrient solution recirculation) was also noted. The obtained results indicate that the hydroponic cultivation of plants improved the accumulation of phosphorus in starch, which was an element desired from the technological point of view. The content of the divalent ions  and potassium in starch extracted from the tubers of plants grown in both NFT systems (GH and FT) was significantly lower than in SO starch. For the sodium ions, an inverse relationship was noted. The effect of the type of hydroponic system (open/closed) on the elemental composition of starch was also demonstrated.The study also confirmed that the cation content was relatively higher in the PS with higher phosphorus levels. The cultivation method also affected the protein and amylose content of the PS. Our results confirmed that the ratio of AM to PS was a relatively constant characteristic of the botanical variety of the plant, but could be modified by cultivation.Potatoes grown in soil were able to synthesize granules with the largest average diameter, while for FT, starch was the smallest.The method of plant cultivation also influenced parameters, such as WBC, SP and S. Over the temperature range studied, the starch from hydroponically grown plants had a smaller increase in WBC than SO. Additionally, the swelling power (at most temperatures) and solubility (at the highest temperature) of SO were higher than the other samples.Cultivation modifies the values of starch pasting process parameters, such as PV, PVt and PVT. The starch paste from soil cultivation showed very good resistance to elevated temperatures, as evidenced by the low BD values and high HPSI values.Little variation was found in the values of gelatinization temperatures with respect to the method of cultivation. Significant differences were found for enthalpy and degree of retrogradation. The samples from the soil cultivation method did not differ from the GH sample, while both significantly differed from the FT sample. This indicated, on the one hand, the similarity between traditional and hydroponic cultivation, and, on the other hand, it indicated the significant effect of the recirculation of the nutrient solution on the properties of starch and its behavior during the retrogradation process. In the case of the vitreous transition phenomenon and subsequent melting, no statistically significant differentiation among the samples was found.According to the literature data, all the analyzed PS samples belong to the crystalline polymorphic forms of B-type, and the starches obtained from the potatoes grown in a greenhouse (PS-GH) are characterized by the highest crystallinity.All aspects related to the chromatic parameters of the investigated starches confirmed the influence of the type of potato cultivation method applied. The starch samples obtained from the tubers grown in the soil (SO) were darker, grayer with a shade of red and yellow compared to the other samples (FT and GH), as could be seen from the lower values of the L* parameter and the higher values of the a*, b*, C* and WI indices.


Correction to: Chromosome Res (2020) 28:111–12710.1007/s10577-020-09628-z


Numerical methods are widely used in structural analysis problems. In the cases of the most complex and practical problems, they are often the only way to obtain solutions, as analytical methods prove ineffective. The motivation for this paper was the desire to extend the scope of numerical methods to cover the problems of creating constitutive models of structural materials. The aim of this research was to develop a matrix or numerical discrete constitutive model of materials. It presents the general assumptions of the developed method for modeling the physical properties of materials. The matrix model is only useful with an appropriate numerical algorithm. Such an algorithm was created and described in this paper. Based on its findings, computer software was developed to perform numerical simulations. Presented calculation examples confirmed the effectiveness of the developed method to create constitutive matrix models of various typical materials, such as steel, but also, e.g., hyper-elastic materials. It also presents the usefulness of constitutive matrix models for simulations of simple stress states and analyses of structural elements such as reinforced concrete. All presented examples involved the physical nonlinearity of the materials. It is proved that the developed matrix constitutive model of materials is efficient and quite versatile. In complex analyses of structures made of nonlinear materials, it can be used as an effective alternative to classical constitutive or analytical models based on elementary mathematical functions. Structural materials used in the construction industry feature a number of parameters that are important primarily in terms of material strength and structure mechanics, but also in terms of other parameters related to, for example, building physics. One of the basic parameters is the material stiffness that is necessary to determine displacements and forces in structural systems.Basic construction materials (steel and concrete in particular) behave in a non-linear way through the whole operating range. This means that their stiffness changes along with the increase of strain and stress. In the process of designing steel structures, the amount of stress or strain is limited to a certain acceptable level. This level is related to material specification  or it is a defined arbitrary limit. This approach means that steel structures almost always operate in constant stiffness range and it is justified to assume the constant material stiffness in static calculations. The situation is completely different in case of reinforced concrete structures. Here, cracks occur very quickly  in the tensile zones of concrete cross-sections. As a result, tensile stresses in the cross-sections of bent reinforced concrete structural elements are mainly transferred with reinforcement bars, and compressive stresses are mainly transferred with concrete. When internal forces increase, concrete or steel becomes plasticized, i.e., it behaves in a non-linear way. Yet, most static analyses of reinforced concrete structures are carried out in a simplified way, assuming that the geometric characteristics of cross-sections correspond to an uncracked concrete cross-section (without any reinforcement). This primarily applies to engineering calculations. It leads to displacement values even several times lower compared to the values experienced in real life. In statically indeterminable systems, significant errors also appear in the results of internal forces.The simulation of actual behavior of reinforced concrete requires non-linear calculations. Such analyses have been carried out for decades, but have also recently been the subject of many research studies. For example, Dudziak  presenteMany researchers have been involved in the modeling of hyper-elastic materials. Rubber and rubber-filled compounds are best examples of such materials. Hyper-elastic materials can experience large elastic strains and behave non-linearly in the entire operating range. Therefore, correct modeling of constitutive relations is essential for the analysis of stresses and displacements that are produced under loads. Many review and comparison articles have been created on models of hyper-elastic constitutive materials  and non-linear models of hyper-elastic constitutive materials and their utilization. In some cases, the cyclic load of the system that usually generates a hysteretic response is taken under consideration  relation is usually the basis for determining the material stiffness. The stiffness determined this way is a function of one independent variable, i.e., stress or strain. This paper proposes to treat stiffness as a function of two variables: stress and strain. This description of stiffness allows us to include more information about the material, e.g., partial history of previous strain or strain states.The first part of this paper presents general assumptions for the description of stiffness using matrices and discusses the numerical algorithm to use stiffness matrices for analyses of the displacement and strain of a structure under load. The second part contains calculation examples and some possibilities of describing stiffness using a matrix are presented. The summary of the paper outlines the possible development of the presented concept and potential fields of its use.The motivation for this paper was an interest in numerical methods and a desire to broaden their application scope in order to create alternative constitutive models of building materials. The main objective of this paper was to present the developed method for modeling the physical characteristics of materials. It is a discrete, matrix-described model. An appropriate numerical algorithm was developed to demonstrate the model effectiveness and some application examples. It was used in the presented calculation examples. The developed method of creating numerical constitutive models is alternative to classical, analytical approaches. No similar approach presented in this paper has been found in the scientific literature. Matrix modeling of constitutive features of materials has both advantages and limitations, compared to classical approaches. It has a potential for researchers involved in nonlinear structural analysis, e.g., made of hyper-elastic materials.In order to improve the commonly used approach to describe the properties of building materials, the concept of describing the coefficient of elasticity Function In The graphical interpretation of Young’s tangential moduli for the primary load cycle is shown with solid blue arrows pointing upwards, and for the unload and secondary load cycles—with red dashed arrows pointing downwards. Arrow directions are tangential to possible Matrix values describe the following relations:The Stiffness matrices created according to discussed principles are used later in this paper.Stiffness matrices contain tabular values of tangential moduli and are therefore suitable for use primarily in incremental methods of solving non-linear issues. In this case, two basic calculation problems arise. The first one is to determine the value of the Young modulus at any point outside the nodes. The second problem is related to the determination of the modulus value in a given calculation step (including increment).A node should be understood as a point defined with a pair of values Taking into account the markings shown in As presented in When determining the elasticity modulus in a given calculation step, it is assumed that the value of stress increase Let us assume that stiffness matrix, point The basic elements of a calculation algorithm to use the stiffness matrix are very simple, and based on elementary mathematical operations. However, the algorithm simplicity should be considered as its advantage.For each node of the discretized structure:The first part was limited to the presentation of simulation examples of relatively simple sample tests made of an abstract elastic–plastic material. These tests are the axial tensile stress bar test, cyclic tensile and relief stress bar test, and the tensile stress bar test with relief, compression and another relief stage. During the second part, the tension of three bars connected with a rigid beam was simulated and the reinforced concrete beam was calculated.For the purpose of the presented simulations, a hypothetical material was adopted, the Young’s modulus of which is described with the values of dimensionless deformations The first analyzed issue is relatively simple. Its solution is to be used primarily to study the course of the 2. The bar material is described with matrices (11) and (12). Tension is static and continues until a tensile force of 105kN is reached.It is assumed that a bar that is stretched has a length To solve the issue of the tensile bar simulation, the algorithm discussed in the previous chapter was used. The algorithm was the basis for a computer program written in the Scilab environment. The selection of the step see  was carrThe graph based on the simulation is shown in The graph presented in Based on experimental data, it is quite simple to create a suitable stiffness matrix. This will be presented in the next example.Case 1The following example shows the results of stiffness matrix calibration. It was created manually by introducing subsequent corrections in the matrix values and observing the obtained effects. Let us assume that the tensile bar test produced the Values in the The vectors X, Y and the Values in the Case 2In the second example, the same actions were performed as before, assuming the following set of base data:These are the experimental data read from Figure 6b in the paper .In this case, stiffness is described with the following vectorsThe graph shown in In both examples, material stiffness matrices were developed to reproduce hypothetical laboratory tensile sample tests of different materials with high accuracy . It should be noted that there were different increments between the values of In both cases, the values in vectors This example shows a simulation of the tension and relief stress test of the bar. The subject of the analysis will be exactly the same bar that is made of the same material as in example A . This tiIn this case, only the The graph obtained in The graph shown in In the presented example, after the sample material exceeded certain deformation limits (0.07 in this case), the matrix was multiplied by This example shows the simulation of a tensile sample test described in example A  with a fThe simulation required to extend the stiffness matrix. First, the vectors were expanded: As it can be seen in The next analyzed issue is related to the tension of the system of three connected bars shown in The bars have the same length L and the distances between them are constant and are indicated as a. It is assumed that the upper fastening position of each bar . The sum of forces equation of the analyzed case is as follows:The equation of the sum of force moments related to any point on bar no. 2 results in the following relation:The last relation on the assumed geometry of the system is in the form of the following:Assuming that As in previous examples, the equation system was solved using the incremental method with a previously described computational algorithm implemented in the proprietary program created in the Scilab environment. The stiffness of the bar material is described with 2, 2, 2. It was assumed that the whole system is weightless and that there were no stresses in the bars before the start of applying the load.A cycle consisting of a load phase until the P force reaches 3.5 MN and a load relief phase were assumed. The following length L = 2.0 m and bar cross-section areas are assumed: Calculation results are shown in Graphs in Obtained solutions  met the equations of the solved equation system;The presented example differs from the previous ones as its solution required solving a system of non-linear equations. Based on the achieved results, it was concluded that:Indicated observations prove the correctness of the algorithm and the usefulness of the stiffness matrix for solving non-linear systems that are statically indeterminable.The last example is the most complex and, at the same time, features the most reference for practical aspects. It refers to bending of a double-span reinforced concrete beam shown in standard  DistanceIn this case, the stiffness matrices of two considered beam cross-sections (with different reinforcement) were built first. The algorithm for determining the stiffness of reinforced concrete bend cross-sections was used, which was defined in the paper . It usesThe Section stiffness with the reinforcement of 8 Ø20 is described with vectorsThe −1), 2). The Vectors The problem was solved with the finite difference method and the incremental algorithm incorporating stiffness matrices that was discussed earlier and used in previous problems. The beam undergone discretization assuming a digitizing range of 0.1 m. One load cycle for the beam and the subsequent relief was assumed. Maximum load value of The displacement (deflection) graph obtained during specific steps  is shown in The other graphs Figure 23 show onlFrom the achieved results, it can be observed that the beam did not return to its original shape after load relief. The system is statically indeterminable and therefore non-zero internal forces in the beam also remained.In the presented example, there were different values of bending moments and curvatures in individual cross-sections. The most significant plastic rotation of cross sections occurred at beam start and end . The fact that plastic joints were formed only in the most stressed sections is typical for bar structures. The plasticization of the outermost sections is indicated by large value jumps at these locations seen in High compatibility of both graphs can be seen in The analyzed beam was previously solved in study . Calculaained in . Having The purpose of this paper was to present the developed matrix constitutive model of structural materials. The main assumptions of this method and the numerical algorithm to allow for its efficient use were presented in In Examples C and D show simulations of tension, relief, and compression of a sample in axial compressive stress. Obtained simulation results confirm the high versatility of the method as well as the ease of adaptations. In example E, a degradation model was built by introducing a coefficient that depends on strain history, but a similar effect could be obtained by modifying the stiffness matrix accordingly. In Example D, the stiffness matrix was modified to easily account for compressive stresses. The simulation of the tensile processes of the sample resulted in a graph in the form of an exactly closed hysteresis loop, which confirms that the method is correct and accurate.Examples E and F deal with the analysis of statically indeterminate systems. In these cases, the calculation algorithms shown in ined see , which iAn important advantage of the developed matrix description of material properties is the dependence of the stiffness function on two variables, stress The matrix description of materials ensures many more possibilities than those presented in this paper. In particular, it is possible to introduce more variables on which the described parameters will depend. This is explained in Time-consuming calibration of the stiffness matrix that requires supervision by experienced and dedicated researchers,Application limitation to nonlinear issues (using this method in linear problems is possible but inefficient),The need to adapt the incremental method parameters of given problem solution to the distribution of characteristic points in vectors The developed method of describing material properties is alternative to classical constitutive models of constitutive materials. It has both advantages (described above) and limitations related to classical models. These limitations include:Areas of further planned research and activities to improve the method include, among others, the algorithm development for automated calibration of the stiffness matrix. This will enable a quick creation of accurate stiffness matrices based on basic data, e.g., laboratory test results.Potential areas of application of the method include the analysis of structures made of hyper-elastic materials and structures connected with the ground. The ground behaves in a non-linear and complex way, which is difficult to describe using mathematical expressions, so writing down its properties in the form of a stiffness matrix should give good results. Due to the possibility of direct referencing the stiffness matrix with the results of material laboratory tests, it is possible to apply the method when analyzing structures made of new materials or for which no verified analytical constitutive models exist.The concept of matrix description of material properties presented in this paper is an original approach to the creation of nonlinear constitutive models. The distinguishing feature of this concept is the exclusive use of numerical description (in the form of one or more matrices) and taking into account the dependence of the stiffness parameter on at least two variables. The developed method offers the accurate description of the material behavior, at the cost of its workload. The computational examples presented in the paper, incorporating the developed numerical algorithm, confirmed the effectiveness and accuracy of the method. It is primarily developed for the description and analysis of nonlinear materials. In particular, it is suitable for the description of materials where effective analytical constitutive models have not been developed. The proposed approach offers great adaptability for describing different types of materials as well as for the analysis of a variety of structural analysis issues. Stiffness matrices can be used in conjunction with numerical structural analysis methods such as the finite difference method or the finite element method.