2,703 research outputs found
Harvest Method, Cultivar, and Time of Swathing Effects on Yield and Oil Content of Winter Canola
Producers want to achieve the highest yield and oil content possible using either swathing or direct cutting to harvest winter canola. Multi-year experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of harvest method (swathing versus direct cutting) and cultivar on seed moisture, yield, and oil content; and to evaluate the effects of swathing timing on yield and oil content. The harvest method experiments were conducted for two seasons at the Redd Foundation Field near Partridge, KS. The time of swathing experiments were conducted for two seasons near Manhattan, KS. In 2016 and 2017, harvest method had a significant effect on seed moisture, yield, and oil content. Swathing produced seed with lower moisture content and greater yield, but direct cutting produced seed with the highest oil content. Cultivars differed in their response to yield depending on the harvest method used. Some cultivars responded positively to swathing, others responded positively to direct cutting, and some showed no response to harvest method. Time of swathing had a significant effect on yield and oil content. As a rule, as seed color change progressed, yield and oil content increased. All swathing treatments had greater yield than direct cutting except when swathing was done at green seed. Seed from direct cutting had significantly greater oil content than seed from all swathing treatments. Both swathing and direct cutting can be used effecĀtively to harvest winter canola
Market Dependency as Boundary for Solidarity
Der Beitrag untersucht Grenzlinien der SolidaritƤt. Er betrachtet, wie in Krisensituationen UnterstĆ¼tzungsbedarfe fĆ¼r jene soziale Gruppen verhandelt werden, die in etablierten SolidaritƤtsdiskursen in eine DeutungslĆ¼cke fallen. Untersuchungsgegenstand bildet die ƶffentliche Verhandlung von SolidaritƤt mit SoloselbststƤndigen zu Beginn der Coronapandemie. GestĆ¼tzt auf Auswertungen von 21 qualitativen Interviews und ein Textkorpus mit 2428 Zeitungsartikeln zeichnen wir den Diskurs um Soforthilfe nach. Mittels einer Kombination aus strukturierender Inhaltsanalyse und Textmining zeigen wir auf, dass die Deutungsfigur der MarktabhƤngigkeit von SoloselbststƤndigen in dieser Krisenzeit dazu dient, die HilfsbedĆ¼rftigkeit der Gruppe zu identifizieren (soziale Grenzziehung), aber auch die Ausgestaltung der Hilfe kontrovers zu diskutieren (substanzielle Grenzziehung). Wir zeigen, wie sich SolidaritƤtsnormen im Diskursverlauf konfigurieren und dabei MarktabhƤngigkeit als relevante Grenze fĆ¼r SolidaritƤt freigeben, diese aber nur zeitlich begrenzt wirksam bleibt.This article asks how boundaries of solidarity are constructed. From a sociological perspective, solo self-employed workers, who are both employees and entrepreneurs, fall into a collective interpretation gap in the discourse on solidarity. However, this changes at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on the analyses of 21 qualitative interviews and a text corpus of 2428 newspaper articles, we trace the public discourse on āSoforthilfe.ā Using a combination of structuring content analysis and text mining, we show that the market dependency of the solo self-employed serves to identify the groupās need for financial support (social boundary), but also to controversially discuss the design of this support (substantive boundary). We show how norms of solidarity are configured throughout the discourse, releasing market dependence as a relevant boundary for solidarity ā at least temporarily
Surface Grafting of Poly(L-glutamates). 3. Block Copolymerization
This paper describes for the first time the synthesis of surface-grafted AB-block copolypeptides, consisting of poly(Ī³-benzyl L-glutamate) (PBLG) as the A-block and poly(Ī³-methyl L-glutamate) (PMLG) as the B-block. Immobilized primary amine groups of (Ī³-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APS) on silicon wafers initiated the ring-opening polymerization of N-carboxyanhydrides of glutamic acid esters (NCAs). After removal of the BLG-NCA monomer solution after a certain reaction time, the amine end groups of the formed PBLG blocks acted as initiators for the second monomers. This method provides the possibility of making layered structures of surface-grafted block copolymers with tuned properties. Ellipsometry and small-angle X-ray reflection (SAXR) measurements revealed the thickness of the polypeptide layers ranging from 45-100 Ć
of the first block to 140-270 Ć
for the total block copolypeptides. The chemical composition of the blocks was determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In addition, Fourier transform infrared transmission spectroscopy (FT-IR) revealed that the polypeptide main chains of both blocks consisted of pure R-helices. The average orientation of the helices ranging from 22-42Ā° with respect to the substrate within the first block to 31-35Ā° in the second block could be derived with FT-IR as well.
Increasing Dominance - the Role of Advertising, Pricing and Product Design
Despite the empirical relevance of advertising strategies in concentrated markets, the economics literature is largely silent on the effect of persuasive advertising
strategies on pricing, market structure and increasing (or decreasing) dominance. In a simple model of persuasive advertising and pricing with differentiated goods,
we analyze the interdependencies between ex-ante asymmetries in consumer appeal, advertising and prices. Products with larger initial appeal to consumers will
be advertised more heavily but priced at a higher level - that is, advertising and price discounts are strategic substitutes for products with asymmetric initial appeal.
We find that the escalating effect of advertising dominates the moderating effect of pricing so that post-competition market shares are more asymmetric than pre-competition differences in consumer appeal. We further find that collusive advertising (but competitive pricing) generates the same market outcomes, and that network effects lead to even more extreme market outcomes, both directly and via
the effect on advertising
Urinary ATP as an indicator of infection and inflammation of the urinary tract in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms
BACKGROUND:
Adenosine-5'-triphosphate (ATP) is a neurotransmitter and inflammatory cytokine implicated in the pathophysiology of lower urinary tract disease. ATP additionally reflects microbial biomass thus has potential as a surrogate marker of urinary tract infection (UTI). The optimum clinical sampling method for ATP urinalysis has not been established. We tested the potential of urinary ATP in the assessment of lower urinary tract symptoms, infection and inflammation, and validated sampling methods for clinical practice.
METHODS:
A prospective, blinded, cross-sectional observational study of adult patients presenting with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and asymptomatic controls, was conducted between October 2009 and October 2012. Urinary ATP was assayed by a luciferin-luciferase method, pyuria counted by microscopy of fresh unspun urine and symptoms assessed using validated questionnaires. The sample collection, storage and processing methods were also validated.
RESULTS:
75 controls and 340 patients with LUTS were grouped as without pyuria (n = 100), pyuria 1-9 wbc ?l(-1) (n = 120) and pyuria ?10 wbc ?l(-1) (n = 120). Urinary ATP was higher in association with female gender, voiding symptoms, pyuria greater than 10 wbc ?l(-1) and negative MSU culture. ROC curve analysis showed no evidence of diagnostic test potential. The urinary ATP signal decayed with storage at 23Ā°C but was prevented by immediate freezing at ??-20Ā°C, without boric acid preservative and without the need to centrifuge urine prior to freezing.
CONCLUSIONS:
Urinary ATP may have a role as a research tool but is unconvincing as a surrogate, clinical diagnostic marker
Conceptualizing Communication Capital for a Changing Environment
With rapidly evolving technologies, boundaries between traditional modes of communication have blurred, creating an environment that scholars still describe from viewpoints as researchers in interpersonal, organizational or mass communication. This manuscript looks at the social capital literature and argues for conceptualizing ācommunication capitalā to help understand the impact of communication phenomena in a changing environment. The literature has treated interpersonal communication variables as components of social capital and mass communication variables as factors affecting social capital, but scholars long ago recognized their reinforcing nature, leading us to develop a concept of communication capital merging symbolic activity across domains in its potential for impacting civic engagement, defined as persistent communication patterns that facilitate social problem solving in the community. Analysis of survey data shows that 4 dimensions of communication capital explain variance in civic engagement beyond that accounted for by traditional measures of social capital, media use, neighborhood communication, and efficacy
Plants or bacteria? 130 years of mixed imprints in Lake Baldegg sediments (Switzerland), as revealed by compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) and biomarker analysis
Soil erosion and associated sediment transfer are among the major causes of
aquatic ecosystem and surface water quality impairment. Through land use and
agricultural practices, human activities modify the soil erosive risk and the
catchment connectivity, becoming a key factor of sediment dynamics. Hence,
restoration and management plans of water bodies can only be efficient if the
sediment sources and the proportion attributable to different land uses are
identified. According to this aim, we applied two approaches, namely compound-specific
isotope analysis (CSIA) of long-chain fatty acids (FAs) and triterpenoid
biomarker analysis, to a eutrophic lake, Lake Baldegg, and its agriculturally used
catchment (Switzerland). Soils reflecting the five main land uses of the
catchment (arable lands, temporary and permanent grasslands, mixed forests,
orchards) were subjected to CSIA. The compound-specific stable isotope
Ī“13C signatures clearly discriminate between potential grasslands
(permanent and temporary) and forest sources. Signatures of agricultural land
and orchards fall in between. The soil signal was compared to the isotopic
signature of a lake sediment sequence covering ca. 130Ā years (before 1885 to
2009). The recent lake samples (1940 to 2009, with the exception of 1964 to
1972) fall into the soil isotopic signature polygon and indicate an important
contribution of the forests, which might be explained by (1)Ā the location of
the forests on steep slopes, resulting in a higher connectivity of the
forests to the lake, and/or (2)Ā potential direct inputs of trees and shrubs
growing along the rivers feeding the lake and around the lake. However, the
lake sediment samples older than 1940 lie outside the source soils' polygon,
as a result of FA contribution from a not yet identified source, most likely
produced by an in situ aquatic source, either algae, bacteria or
other microorganisms or an ex-site historic source from wetland soils and
plants (e.g. Sphagnum species). Despite the overprint of the yet
unknown source on the historic isotopic signal of the lake sediments,
land use and catchment history are clearly reflected in the CSIA results,
with isotopic shifts being synchronous with changes in the catchment, land use
and eutrophication history. The investigated highly specific biomarkers were
not detected in the lake sediment, even though they were present in the soils.
However, two trimethyltetrahydrochrysenes (TTHCs), natural diagenetic
products of pentacyclic triterpenoids, were found in the lake sediments.
Their origin is attributed to the in situ microbial degradation of
some of the triterpenoids. While the need to apportion sediment sources is
especially crucial in eutrophic systems, our study stresses the importance of
exercising caution with CSIA and triterpenoid biomarkers in such environments,
where the active metabolism of bacteria might mask the original terrestrial
isotopic signals.</p
An exploratory study on the factorsĀ affectingĀ the mental health and well-beingĀ of frontline workers in homeless services
A randomised controlled trial to explore attitudes to routine scale and polish and compare manual versus ultrasonic scaling in the general dental service in Scotland [ISRCTN99609795]
BACKGROUND: To investigate, within general dental practice, patients' and vocational dental practitioners' (VDP) attitudes towards the benefits and costs of a simple scale and polish and to compare the experience of using manual versus ultrasonic instruments to scale teeth. METHODS: 28 VDPs and 420 patients participated. Patients were randomly allocated to either group. Patients' and VDPs' attitudes towards, and experience of, the scale and polish were elicited by means of self-administered questionnaires. RESULTS: The majority of patients (99%) believed a scale and polish was beneficial. VDPs considered ultrasonic treatment to be appropriate on significantly more occasions than they did for manual scale and polish (P < 0.001). Patient discomfort: with ultrasonic scaling 69.2% felt 'a little uncomfortable' or worse compared with 60% of those undergoing manual treatment (P = 0.072). VDPs considered treatment charges were appropriate for 77% of patients. CONCLUSION: Routine scaling and polishing is considered beneficial by both patients and vocational trainees. The majority of patients, regardless of treatment method, experience some degree of discomfort when undergoing a scale and polish. VDPs showed a preference for the ultrasonic treatment method
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