WHAT SHOULD BE THE ROLE OF RESOURCE STEWARDSHIP IN FUTURE FARM POLICY?

Agricultural and Food Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

THE PROMISE AND PERIL OF TECHNICAL SERVICE PROVIDERS

Agribusiness,

A REGIONAL BAN OF ALACHLOR AND ATRAZINE IN SOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA: THE ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS

Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy,

PUBLIC ACQUISITION OF RIGHTS TO USE FARM CHEMICALS: POSSIBLE COSTS AND IMPACTS

Crop Production/Industries,

Multiple domestications of asian rice

In their recent Correspondence about our study showingthat there were three origins of Asian rice2, Huang and Han suggest that the methodology that we used to infer multiple domestications was flawed as it did not take account of the strong genetic bottleneck in japonica

Workplace-Based Practicum: Enabling Expansive Practices

Effective pre-service teacher education integrates theoretical and practical knowledge. One means of integration is practicum in a school workplace. In a time of variable approaches to, and models of, practicum, we outline an innovative model of school immersion as part of a teacher preparation program. We apply Fuller and Unwin’s (2004) expansive and restrictive conceptual framework of workplace learning to a case study of an immersive practicum experience to discuss themes of participation, personal development and institutional arrangements in relation to school-based practicum. Enablers and constraints are identified for our immersion model of workplace-based practicum. Based on the data analysis a number of implications for structuring an expansive practicum learning experience are outlined

Cytoadherence and virulence - the case of Plasmodium knowlesi malaria.

BACKGROUND: Cytoadherence of infected red blood cells to brain endothelium is causally implicated in malarial coma, one of the severe manifestations of falciparum malaria. Cytoadherence is mediated by specific binding of variant parasite antigens, expressed on the surface of infected erythrocytes, to endothelial receptors including, ICAM-1, VCAM and CD36. In fatal cases of severe falciparum malaria with coma, blood vessels in the brain are characteristically congested with infected erythrocytes. Brain sections from a fatal case of knowlesi malaria, but without coma, were similarly congested with infected erythrocytes. The objective of this study was to determine the binding phenotype of Plasmodium knowlesi infected human erythrocytes to recombinant human ICAM-1, VCAM and CD36. METHODS: Five patients with PCR-confirmed P. knowlesi malaria were recruited into the study with consent between April and August 2010. Pre-treatment venous blood was washed and cultured ex vivo to increase the proportion of schizont-infected erythrocytes. Cultured blood was seeded into Petri dishes with triplicate areas coated with ICAM-1, VCAM and CD36. Following incubation at 37°C for one hour the dishes were washed and the number of infected erythrocytes bound/mm2 to PBS control areas and to recombinant human ICAM-1 VCAM and CD36 coated areas were recorded. Each assay was performed in duplicate. Assay performance was monitored with the Plasmodium falciparum clone HB3. RESULTS: Blood samples were cultured ex vivo for up to 14.5 h (mean 11.3 ± 1.9 h) to increase the relative proportion of mature trophozoite and schizont-infected red blood cells to at least 50% (mean 65.8 ± 17.51%). Three (60%) isolates bound significantly to ICAM-1 and VCAM, one (20%) isolate bound to VCAM and none of the five bound significantly to CD36. CONCLUSIONS: Plasmodium knowlesi infected erythrocytes from human subjects bind in a specific but variable manner to the inducible endothelial receptors ICAM-1 and VCAM. Binding to the constitutively-expressed endothelial receptor CD36 was not detected. Further work will be required to define the pathological consequences of these interactions

Geologic setting and trace metal chemistry of the Arapien Shale and Twist Gulch Formation, Central Utah

The Arapien Shale and Twist Gulch Formation of Jurassic age were studied as possible future sources of economic concentrations of base- and precious-metals. Copper, lead, zinc, and silver contents were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Lead and zinc are slightly enriched when compared to other shales and mean crustal abundances, whereas copper concentrations were slightly lower. Silver was not detected in any of the samples. Two types of metal enrichment were found: 1) a syngenetic (sabkha-type) copper enrichment expressed as interstitially deposited metal sulfides, and; 2) an epigenetic enrichment as veinlets and disseminations of chalcocite, malachite, and azurite. The latter mineralization perhaps is related to normal faulting in the area studied, The importance of the Arapien Shale and Twist Gulch Formation as a future source of metals may lie with the syngenetically enriched segments associated with evaporite beds. This association may represent a Jurassic sabkha environment. The association encountered in the present study does not contain economic concentrations of copper. However, it may indicate that larger associations may be present in these formations.No embarg

Neurogenesis Deep Learning

Neural machine learning methods, such as deep neural networks (DNN), have achieved remarkable success in a number of complex data processing tasks. These methods have arguably had their strongest impact on tasks such as image and audio processing - data processing domains in which humans have long held clear advantages over conventional algorithms. In contrast to biological neural systems, which are capable of learning continuously, deep artificial networks have a limited ability for incorporating new information in an already trained network. As a result, methods for continuous learning are potentially highly impactful in enabling the application of deep networks to dynamic data sets. Here, inspired by the process of adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus, we explore the potential for adding new neurons to deep layers of artificial neural networks in order to facilitate their acquisition of novel information while preserving previously trained data representations. Our results on the MNIST handwritten digit dataset and the NIST SD 19 dataset, which includes lower and upper case letters and digits, demonstrate that neurogenesis is well suited for addressing the stability-plasticity dilemma that has long challenged adaptive machine learning algorithms.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, Accepted to 2017 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN 2017

The Washington University MultiMedia eXplorer

The Washington University MultiMedia eXplorer (MMX) is a complete, host-independent multimedia system capable of transmitting and receiving JPEG-compressed video, CD-quality audio, and high-resolution radiographic images over the Washington University broadband ATM network. If the host is equipped with an ATM interface card, normal network traffic is supported via T and Y connections. The MMX consists of an ATMizer and three multimedia subsystems. The ATMizer implements the host interface, the interface to the ATM network, and the interface to the three multimdeia channels. This paper describes the architecture of the MMX, the software used with the system, and the applications which have been developed to demonstrate the capability of broadband ATM networks for multimedia applications