Equipment for Application of Granular Pesticides

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Using Low Pressure Sprayers

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Free-riding on liquidity

Do financial market participants free-ride on liquidity? To address this question, we construct a dynamic general equilibrium model where agents face idiosyncratic preference and technology shocks. A secondary financial market allows agents to adjust their portfolio of liquid and illiquid assets in response to these shocks. The opportunity to do so reduces the demand for the liquid asset and, hence, its value. The optimal policy response is to restrict (but not eliminate) access to the secondary financial market. The reason for this result is that the portfolio choice exhibits a pecuniary externality: An agent does not take into account that by holding more of the liquid asset, he not only acquires additional insurance but also marginally increases the value of the liquid asset which improves insurance to other market participants.Monetary policy, liquidity, financial markets

Arriving on a Different Planet: Navigating College and Employer Expectations while on the Autism Spectrum

This workshop explores the process of entering college and then the work force from the perspective of someone who is on the Autism Spectrum. From your child learning to be an independent individual on the college scene (joining clubs, making friends, and in other social situations) and succeeding in his or her college classrooms. We will also be exploring what it is like to enter the work force after leaving college and how someone who is on the Autism Spectrum looks for work and how she or he learns to work in a new environment. Topics include getting your outfit ready for work, getting along with their coworkers and boss, and giving good customer service in one’s own profession. We will also be exploring how parents of autistic children can learn to incrementally step back to allow their children to independently learn what the world has offer adults in college and in a work environment. Sam will also discuss how he personally overcame such challenges as a young adult on the Autism Spectrum, providing a fresh understanding of what it’s like to be a young adult on the Autism Spectrum, and inspire others to let autistic people grab hold of their own lives and thrive

Temperature dependent removal of sodium chloride (NaCl) from synthetic nitrified urine

Urine is the source of the major part of plant nutrients in municipal wastewater. Therefore, full nutrient recovery from source-separated urine is an attractive option for both treating wastewater and gaining a valuable fertilizer product. Full nutrient recovery can be achieved by first stabilizing collected urine by nitrification and then concentrating the urine by distillation. Since concentrations of all salts in urine increase with increasing removal of water also the sodium chloride (NaCl) content is high in the end. There are two problems related to NaCl, the first being the synergistic decomposition of ammonium nitrate by chloride and the second being soil salinity and sodicity related problems when applying the product as fertilizer. Solubility experiments using synthetic nitrified urine were carried out in the temperature range between 40 and 90°C. The synthetic urine solution contained seven inorganic ions at constant composition (NH4+ , Na+, K+ // NO3- , SO4-- , PO4--- , Cl- - H2O) and different water contents in order to determine the achievable extend of NaCl removal. The aim was to find the conditions, at which a maximal amount of sodium chloride can be removed with minimal loss of other nutrients, especially nitrogen. The underlying hypothesis was, that the solubility of ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) shows a much stronger temperature dependence compared to NaCl and therefore selective NaCl removal can be achieved at elevated temperatures. The analysis of the solids showed, that mainly Cl-, SO4-- , Na- and to a lower extend NH4+ were present. At higher temperatures, more Cl- relative to NH+4 was present in the solids. At 40°C, only NH4Cl was found while for all temperatures above 60°C no NH4+ was observed at similar water contents. The maximal removal of sodium chloride was achieved at a water content of 7.1 % and was around 50 %. Na+ removal was as high as 33 %. Nitrogen losses as NH4Cl precipitate were around 11 %, while basically no potassium or phosphate was lost. It was concluded, that selective removal of NaCl is possible at elevated temperatures. The maximal removal of Cl-, however, might not be sufficient to affect ammonium nitrate decomposition significantly. With regard to soil salinization, the achieved NaCl removal might well have a relevant impact. In order to rationalize results, two numerical models for electrolyte solutions, Pitzer and extended Uniquac, were applied. Both models could only give rough estimates for concentrations, at which crystallization started, as well as for the identities of solid phases. This result might be due to various reason, one being the very high ionic strengths in the nitrified urine system. Some preliminary results for full nitrification using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) were obtained, and this process alternative circumventing the problem of ammonium nitrate decomposition is discussed. Future investigations should focus on the following topics: the applicability of the results for synthetic urine on real urine; the effect of varying nitrogen contents in urine on NaCl removal; the mechanisms responsible for the loss of nitrogen during collection and storage of urine; full nitrification as an alternative process; further development of numerical models for electrolyte solutions at high ionic strengths

Recipe for IBD: can we use food to control inflammatory bowel disease?

The mucosal immune system and the microbiota in the intestinal tract have recently been shown to play a key role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Both of these can be influenced by food. Thus, we propose dietary intervention as a therapeutic option for IBD. In this review, we discuss the interaction of the intestinal mucosal immune system and the intestinal microbiota in the context of IBD. In addition, we discuss the impact of food components on immune responses in IBD. Finally, we address the current evidence of how this interaction (i.e., immune system–microbiota) can be modulated by food components, pre/probiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) and how these approaches can support intestinal homeostasis. By gathering the vast amount of literature available on the impact of food on IBD, we aim to distinguish between scientifically sound data and theories, which have not been included in this review

Government Misconduct and Convicting the Innocent: The Role of Prosecutors, Police and Other Law Enforcement

This is a report about the role of official misconduct in the conviction of innocent people. We discuss cases that are listed in the National Registry of Exonerations, an ongoing online archive that includes all known exonerations in the United States since 1989, 2,663 as of this writing. This Report describes official misconduct in the first 2,400 exonerations in the Registry, those posted by February 27, 2019. In general, we classify a case as an “exoneration” if a person who was convicted of a crime is officially and completely cleared based on new evidence of innocence. The Report is limited to misconduct by government officials that contributed to the false convictions of defendants who were later exonerated—misconduct that distorts the evidence used to determine guilt or innocence. Concretely, that means misconduct that produces unreliable, misleading or false evidence of guilt, or that conceals, distorts or undercuts true evidence of innocence

Influence of drugs and comorbidity on serum potassium in 15 000 consecutive hospital admissions

Background. Drug trials often exclude subjects with relevant comorbidity or comedication. Nevertheless, after approval, these drugs will be prescribed to a much broader collective. Our goal was to quantify the impact of drugs and comorbidity on serum potassium in unselected patients admitted to the hospital. Methods. This was a retrospective pharmacoepidemiologic study in 15 000 consecutive patients admitted to the medical department of the Kantonsspital St. Gallen, a 700-bed tertiary hospital in eastern Switzerland. Patients with ‘haemolytic' plasma and patients on dialysis or with an estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) <10 mL/min/1.73 m2 were excluded. For the remaining 14 146 patients, drug history on admission, age, sex, body weight, physical findings, comorbidity (ICD-10 diagnoses) and laboratory information (potassium and creatinine) were extracted from electronic sources. Results. Estimated GFR was the strongest predictor of serum potassium (P < 0.0001). Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, cyclosporine, loop diuretics and potassium-sparing diuretics all showed a significant effect modification with decreasing GFR (P < 0.001). Similarly, in patients with liver cirrhosis a significantly stronger effect on potassium was found for angiotensin receptor blockers, betablockers and loop diuretics (P < 0.01). Several significant drug-drug interactions were identified. Diabetes, male sex, older age, lower blood pressure and higher body weight were all independently associated with higher serum potassium levels (P < 0.001). The model explained 14% of the variation of serum potassium. Conclusions. The effects of various drugs on serum potassium are highly influenced by comorbidity and comedication. Although the presented model cannot be used to predict potassium in individual patients, we demonstrate that clinical databases could evolve as a powerful tool for industry-independent analysis of postmarketing drug safet