Effects of Foliar Fertilization and Fungicide Applications on Yield and Grade of Peanuts (Arachis Hypogaea L.)

Agronom

Permeability Modification Using a Reactive Alkaline-Soluble Biopolymer

Polymer injection has been used in reservoirs to alleviate contrasting permeability zones to enhance oil recovery (EOR). Polymer technology relies mainly on the use of polyacrylamides cross-linked by a hazardous metal or organic. Contemporary polymer plugging has investigated the stimulation of in-situ microorganisms to produce polymers (Jenneman et. al., 2000) and the use of biocatalysts to trigger gelling (Bailey et. al., 2000). The use of biological polymers are advantageous in that they can block high permeability areas, are environmentally friendly, and have potential to form reversible gels without the use of hazardous cross-linkers. Recent efforts have produced a reactive alkaline-soluble biopolymer from Agrobacterium species ATCC # 31749 that gels upon decreasing the pH of the polymeric solution. Microbial polymers are of interest due to their potential cost savings, compared to conventional use of synthetic chemical polymers. Numerous microorganisms are known to produce extracellular polysaccharides. One microbiological polymer of interest is curdlan, â - (1, 3) glucan, which has demonstrated gelling properties by a reduction in pH. The focus of this study was to determine the impact an alkaline-soluble biopolymer can have on sandstone permeability

Evaluating the End-User Experience of Private Browsing Mode

Nowadays, all major web browsers have a private browsing mode. However, the mode's benefits and limitations are not particularly understood. Through the use of survey studies, prior work has found that most users are either unaware of private browsing or do not use it. Further, those who do use private browsing generally have misconceptions about what protection it provides. However, prior work has not investigated \emph{why} users misunderstand the benefits and limitations of private browsing. In this work, we do so by designing and conducting a three-part study: (1) an analytical approach combining cognitive walkthrough and heuristic evaluation to inspect the user interface of private mode in different browsers; (2) a qualitative, interview-based study to explore users' mental models of private browsing and its security goals; (3) a participatory design study to investigate why existing browser disclosures, the in-browser explanations of private browsing mode, do not communicate the security goals of private browsing to users. Participants critiqued the browser disclosures of three web browsers: Brave, Firefox, and Google Chrome, and then designed new ones. We find that the user interface of private mode in different web browsers violates several well-established design guidelines and heuristics. Further, most participants had incorrect mental models of private browsing, influencing their understanding and usage of private mode. Additionally, we find that existing browser disclosures are not only vague, but also misleading. None of the three studied browser disclosures communicates or explains the primary security goal of private browsing. Drawing from the results of our user study, we extract a set of design recommendations that we encourage browser designers to validate, in order to design more effective and informative browser disclosures related to private mode

Earnings Management: The Effect of Ex Ante Earnings Expectations

Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Potential health impacts of heavy metals on HIV-infected population in USA.

Noninfectious comorbidities such as cardiovascular diseases have become increasingly prevalent and occur earlier in life in persons with HIV infection. Despite the emerging body of literature linking environmental exposures to chronic disease outcomes in the general population, the impacts of environmental exposures have received little attention in HIV-infected population. The aim of this study is to investigate whether individuals living with HIV have elevated prevalence of heavy metals compared to non-HIV infected individuals in United States. We used the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2010 to compare exposures to heavy metals including cadmium, lead, and total mercury in HIV infected and non-HIV infected subjects. In this cross-sectional study, we found that HIV-infected individuals had higher concentrations of all heavy metals than the non-HIV infected group. In a multivariate linear regression model, HIV status was significantly associated with increased blood cadmium (p=0.03) after adjusting for age, sex, race, education, poverty income ratio, and smoking. However, HIV status was not statistically associated with lead or mercury levels after adjusting for the same covariates. Our findings suggest that HIV-infected patients might be significantly more exposed to cadmium compared to non-HIV infected individuals which could contribute to higher prevalence of chronic diseases among HIV-infected subjects. Further research is warranted to identify sources of exposure and to understand more about specific health outcomes

Reverberation Mapping of the Kepler-Field AGN KA1858+4850

KA1858+4850 is a narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy at redshift 0.078 and is among the brightest active galaxies monitored by the Kepler mission. We have carried out a reverberation mapping campaign designed to measure the broad-line region size and estimate the mass of the black hole in this galaxy. We obtained 74 epochs of spectroscopic data using the Kast Spectrograph at the Lick 3-m telescope from February to November of 2012, and obtained complementary V-band images from five other ground-based telescopes. We measured the H-beta light curve lag with respect to the V-band continuum light curve using both cross-correlation techniques (CCF) and continuum light curve variability modeling with the JAVELIN method, and found rest-frame lags of lag_CCF = 13.53 (+2.03, -2.32) days and lag_JAVELIN = 13.15 (+1.08, -1.00) days. The H-beta root-mean-square line profile has a width of sigma_line = 770 +/- 49 km/s. Combining these two results and assuming a virial scale factor of f = 5.13, we obtained a virial estimate of M_BH = 8.06 (+1.59, -1.72) x 10^6 M_sun for the mass of the central black hole and an Eddington ratio of L/L_Edd ~ 0.2. We also obtained consistent but slightly shorter emission-line lags with respect to the Kepler light curve. Thanks to the Kepler mission, the light curve of KA1858+4850 has among the highest cadences and signal-to-noise ratios ever measured for an active galactic nucleus; thus, our black hole mass measurement will serve as a reference point for relations between black hole mass and continuum variability characteristics in active galactic nuclei

JWST Near-Infrared Detectors: Latest Test Results

The James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared-optimized space telescope being developed by NASA for launch in 2013, will utilize cutting-edge detector technology in its investigation of fundamental questions in astrophysics. JWST's near infrared spectrograph, NIRSpec utilizes two 2048 x 2048 HdCdTe arrays with Sidecar ASIC readout electronics developed by Teledyne to provide spectral coverage from 0.6 microns to 5 microns. We present recent test and calibration results for the NIRSpec flight arrays as well as data processing routines for noise reduction and cosmic ray rejection

Proceedings of the Third Annual Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank: A Review of Emerging Issues and Technologies

The proceedings of the 3rd Annual Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank summarize the most contemporary clinical, electrophysiological, imaging, and computational work on DBS for the treatment of neurological and neuropsychiatric disease. Significant innovations of the past year are emphasized. The Think Tank\u27s contributors represent a unique multidisciplinary ensemble of expert neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuropsychologists, psychiatrists, scientists, engineers, and members of industry. Presentations and discussions covered a broad range of topics, including policy and advocacy considerations for the future of DBS, connectomic approaches to DBS targeting, developments in electrophysiology and related strides toward responsive DBS systems, and recent developments in sensor and device technologies

Liposomal vaccines incorporating molecular adjuvants and intrastructural T-cell help promote the immunogenicity of HIV membrane-proximal external region peptides

An HIV vaccine capable of inducing high and durable levels of broadly neutralizing antibodies has thus far proven elusive. A promising antigen is the membrane-proximal external region (MPER) from gp41, a segment of the viral envelope recognized by a number of broadly neutralizing antibodies. Though an attractive vaccine target due to the linear nature of the epitope and its highly conserved sequence, MPER peptides are poorly immunogenic and may require display on membranes to achieve a physiological conformation matching the native virus. Here we systematically explored how the structure and composition of liposomes displaying MPER peptides impacts the strength and durability of humoral responses to this antigen as well as helper T-cell responses in mice. Administration of MPER peptides anchored to the surface of liposomes induced MPER-specific antibodies whereas MPER administered in oil-based emulsion adjuvants or alum did not, even when combined with Toll-like receptor agonists. High-titer IgG responses to liposomal MPER required the inclusion of molecular adjuvants such as monophosphoryl lipid A. Anti-MPER humoral responses were further enhanced by incorporating high-Tm lipids in the vesicle bilayer and optimizing the MPER density to a mean distance of ∼10–15 nm between peptides on the liposomes' surfaces. Encapsulation of helper epitopes within the vesicles allowed efficient “intrastructural” T-cell help, which promoted IgG responses to MPER while minimizing competing B-cell responses against the helper sequence. These results define several key properties of liposome formulations that promote durable, high-titer antibody responses against MPER peptides, which will be a prerequisite for a successful MPER-targeting vaccine.Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationNational Institutes of Health (U.S.) (AI091693