The challenge to democracy VIII. The machine and democracy

The subject of modern industrialism presents itself as an especially significant subject to explore in connection with the many-sided challenge to democracy inasmuch as it is the peculiar dominating force in the economic life of our time. Travel to Europe or to Asia or to the uttermost parts of the earth and you will discover that if not the belching smokestacks o f the factory then at least mechanical implements and other products of the factory are in use among the people for their happiness or their misery. It is here in the complicated realm of material necessities and of wealth, the realm of economic life, that the strongest mainsprings of human action lie, and it is in economic disorder that the gravest political disorders of our society are generated

Cation Movements during Dehydration and NO2 Desorption in a Ba-Y,FAU Zeolite: An in Situ Time-Resolved X-ray Diffraction Study

Synchrotron-based in situ time-resolved X-ray diffraction and Rietveld analysis were used to probe the interactions between Ba-Y,FAU zeolite frameworks and H2O or NO2 molecules. These results provide information about the migration of the Ba2+ cations in the zeolite framework during dehydration and during NO2 adsorption/desorption processes in a water-free zeolite. In the hydrated structure, water molecules form four double rings of hexagonal icelike clusters [(H2O)(6)] in the 12 ring openings of the supercage. These water rings interact with the cations and the zeolite framework through four cation/water clusters centered over the four six-membered rings of the supercage (site II). Interpenetrating tetrahedral water clusters [(H2O)(4)] and tetrahedral Ba cation clusters are observed in the sodalite cage. Consistent with the reported FT-IR results, three different ionic NOx species (NO+, NO+-NO2, and NO3-) are observed following NO2 adsorption by the dehydrated Ba Y,FAU zeolite. The structure of the water and the NOx species are correlated with the interactions between the adsorbates, the cations, and the framework The population of Ba2+ ions at different cationic positions strongly depends on the amount of bound water or NOx species. Both dehydration and NO2 adsorption/desorption result in facile migration of Ba2+ ions among the different cationic positions. Data obtained in this work have provided direct evidence for the Ba2+ cation migration to accommodate the binding of gas molecules. This important feature may play a pivotal role in the strong binding of NO2 to Ba-Y,FAU zeolite, a prerequisite for high catalytic activity in lean NOx reduction catalysis.close1

Effects of Ceftiofur and Chlortetracycline on the Resistomes of Feedlot Cattle

Treatment of food-producing animals with antimicrobial drugs (AMD) is controversial because of concerns regarding promotion of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). To investigate this concern, resistance genes in metagenomic bovine fecal samples during a clinical trial were analyzed to assess the impacts of treatment on beef feedlot cattle resistomes. Four groups of cattle were exposed, using a 2-by-2 factorial design, to different regimens of antimicrobial treatment. Injections of ceftiofur crystalline-free acid (a third-generation cephalosporin) were used to treat all cattle in treatment pens or only a single animal, and either chlortetracycline was included in the feed of all cattle in a pen or the feed was untreated. On days 0 and 26, respectively, pre- and posttrial fecal samples were collected, and resistance genes were characterized using shotgun metagenomics. Treatment with ceftiofur was not associated with changes to β-lactam resistance genes. However, cattle fed chlortetracycline had a significant increase in relative abundance of tetracycline resistance genes. There was also an increase of an AMR class not administered during the study, which is a possible indicator of coselection of resistance genes. Samples analyzed in this study had previously been evaluated by culture characterization (Escherichia coli and Salmonella) and quantitative PCR (qPCR) of metagenomic fecal DNA, which allowed comparison of results with this study. In the majority of samples, genes that were selectively enriched through culture and qPCR were not identified through shotgun metagenomic sequencing in this study, suggesting that changes previously documented did not reflect changes affecting the majority of bacterial genetic elements found in the predominant fecal resistome.IMPORTANCE Despite significant concerns about public health implications of AMR in relation to use of AMD in food animals, there are many unknowns about the long- and short-term impact of common uses of AMD for treatment, control, and prevention of disease. Additionally, questions commonly arise regarding how to best measure and quantify AMR genes in relation to public health risks and how to determine which genes are most important. These data provide an introductory view of the utility of using shotgun metagenomic sequencing data as an outcome for clinical trials evaluating the impact of using AMD in food animals