I study detailed data from eleven automobile assembly plants. These data display considerable cross-plant heterogeneity in production scheduling. To explain the observed heterogeneity, I solve a dynamic programming model. When desired production is below the plant's minimum e$cient scale, non-convexities induce production bunching; the plant uses less than full capital utilization on average an...

Global population increases and climate change pose a challenge to worldwide crop production. There is a need to intensify agricultural production in a sustainable manner and to find solutions to combat abiotic stress, pathogens, and pests. Plants are associated with complex microbiomes, which have an ability to promote plant growth and stress tolerance, support plant nutrition, and antagonize ...

Nitrogen is essential for both vegetative and generative stages of plant growth. Nitrogen efficiency is related to plant growth, production cost, and fertilizer residue. Azolla has the ability to increase nitrogen fixation from the atmosphere. Thus, Azolla cultivation in paddy field is one strategy for improving nitrogen fertilizer efficiency and increasing plant vegetative and generative growt...

Natural or synthetic elicitors can affect plant physiology by stimulating direct and indirect defence responses to herbivores. For example, increased production of plant secondary metabolites, a direct response, can negatively affect herbivore survival, development and fecundity. Indirect responses include increased emission of plant volatiles that influence herbivore and natural enemy behaviou...

Transgenic plants present enormous potential as a cost-effective and safe platform for large-scale production of vaccines and other therapeutic proteins. A number of different technologies are under development for the production of pharmaceutical proteins from plant tissues. One method used to express high levels of protein in plants involves the employment of plant virus expression vectors. P...

lead and zinc production is one of the main predisposing factors of excessive greenhouse gases emissions, air pollution and water consumption. in this paper, the environmental problems of lead and zinc production in calcimin plant are expressed and life cycle assessment of this plant is assessed. the data regarding the amount of induced global warming and pollution, acidification, and depletion...

plant cell cultures could be used as an important tool for biochemical production, ranging from natural pigments to pharmaceutical products. anthocyanin is affected by a variety of factors. light, an important plant environmental factor, influences the anthocyanin production in vegetative plant tissues. here, we have investigated the influence of the blue laser-diode (bld) and red laser-he ne (...