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A new product is being developed by a multinational firm for personal asthma management that the patient can wear as an ambulatory device. This device will provide guidance and support for the prevention of exacerbations, the major cause of asthma attacks. However, introducing a device to the medical market is a long multistage and expensive process due to regulatory and reimbursement requirements. The firm desires to target initial niche markets for a subset of this product. This may be a better approach than bearing the high expense for the one time effort of only entering the medical market. Several initial niche markets appear attractive. These include: home care, asthma management, fitness/lifestyle, wellness, and hospital care. The question is, “Which one is more attractive?” By formulating this decision problem as a hierarchical decision model (HDM) with the different niche markets as the alternatives and selecting various levels of criteria we were able to address this question. An expert panel consisting of the firm׳s executive and operational management, subject matter experts, and external industry analysts was selected to obtain its collective judgments. The results representing the expert panel׳s judgment indicated that asthma management and home care markets were most attractive and the other three were given less relative importance. Intermediate results were also of interest, such as the relative importance of: market, financial, product, and corporate alignment objectives; regions within the market objectives; and decision elements that contributed to both financial and product objectives.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) can have multiple impacts on phytohormone production and nutrient uptake to improve plant growth. Co-inoculation of AMF and PGPB can mitigate the effects of salinity in plants. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of co-inoculation of AMF (Glomus etunicatum) and Methylobacterium oryzaeCBMB20 to alleviate salt stress and improve maize growth. Single and co-inoculation of AMF and M. oryzaeCBMB20 significantly increased dry biomass, AMF root colonization, and nutrient accumulation in maize plants under salt stress. The proline content and Na uptake were significantly reduced in co-inoculation of AMF and M. oryzaeCBMB20. In addition, co-inoculation of AMF and M. oryzaeCBMB20 (soil) showed higher AMF density and AMF colonization compared to single AMF treatment. Among all treatments, co-inoculation of AMF and M. oryzaeCBMB20 (soil) was more effective to ameliorate salt stress and improve plant growth. These results demonstrate that co-inoculation of AMF and M. oryzaeCBMB20 (soil application) may be an effective alternative to enhance plant growth under salinity stress.

Amelioration of salt stress effect on canola seed germination was investigated using 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase-producing plant growth promoting halotolerant bacteria. NaCl at 120 mM concentration reduced canola seed germination by 50 %. The inoculation of ACC deaminase-producing halotolerant Brevibacterium epidermidisRS15 and Bacillus aryabhattaiRS341 at 120 mM NaCl significantly increased the seed germination with decreased seed ACC content. Notably, the hydrolytic enzymes activities like amylase, invertase, and protease also increased due to inoculation of RS15 and RS341 compared to uninoculated salt stress imposed germinating canola seeds. Ethylene emission of salt stress exposed eight-day-old canola seedlings was reduced by 35.4 and 41.1 % compared to uninoculated salt stressed control due to respective inoculation of RS341 and RS15. The amelioration of salt stress inhibitory effect on the canola seed germination was attributed to the inoculation of ACC deaminase-producing halotolerant bacteria modulating ethylene emission and inducing hydrolytic enzymes.

The use of plant growth promoting bacteria as bioinoculant to alleviate salt stress is a sustainable and eco-friendly approach in agriculture. However, the maintenance of the bacterial population in the soil for longer period is a major concern. In the present study, chitosan-immobilized aggregated Methylobacterium oryzaeCBMB20 was used as a bioinoculant to improve tomato plant (Solanum lycopersicumMill.) growth under salt stress. The chitosan-immobilized aggregated M. oryzaeCBMB20 was able to enhance plant dry weight, nutrient uptake (N, P, K and Mg2+), photosynthetic efficiency and decrease electrolyte leakage under salt stress conditions. The oxidative stress exerted by elevated levels of salt stress was also alleviated by the formulated bioinoculant, as it up-regulated the antioxidant enzyme activities and enhanced the accumulation of proline which acts as an osmolyte. The chitosan-immobilized aggregated M. oryzaeCBMB20 was able to decrease the excess Na+influx into the plant cells and subsequently decreasing the Na+/K+ratio to improve tomato plant growth under salt stress conditions. Therefore, it is proposed that the chitosan-immobilized aggregated M. oryzaeCBMB20 could be used as a bioinoculant to promote the plant growth under salt stress conditions.