Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett: Money Talks, Matching Funds Provision Walks

Money’s influence on politics has posed a problem for many jurisdictions. Arizona tried to combat this issue in part through the “matching funds” provision of its Clean Elections Act. This provision was part of a larger campaign-financing scheme; it allowed for additional campaign money to go to publicly financed candidates when the expenditures of their privately financed opponents and other independent groups collectively exceeded the initial funding that the state had provided to the publicly financed candidates. In Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett, the U.S. Supreme Court held that this matching funds provision violated the First Amendment. This Comment examines the Court’s ruling and argues that the Court’s disregard of empirical evidence, narrowing of the acceptable compelling state interests, and prioritization of individual speech over societal interests could lead to unprincipled decisions in the field of campaign finance and could cause campaign-finance deregulation. It further argues that the decision’s myopic analytic approach could bring about the piecemeal invalidation of intricate public-financing schemes and adversely impact policy decisions

Detecting the adulteration in apple vinegar using olfactory machine coupled PCA and ANN methods

Nowadays, the number of food adulteration cases is increasing sharply for reasons such as population growth, increasing demand and profitability of suppliers. Mixing apple vinegar with white vinegar and acetic acid are the most common methods of cheating on the market in Iran. In this study, an electrical olfactory system was used to detect pure apple vinegar from acetic acid and white vinegar. The data obtained from the sensors were analyzed by PCA and ANN methods after preprocessing. Based on the results, TGS822 and MQ136 sensors showed the highest response to odor of samples of vinegar mixed with acetic acid and white vinegar, respectively. Also, the confusion matrix obtained from ANN analysis for different levels of adulteration with acetic acid and white vinegar showed correct classification rate of 93.3% and 94.7%, respectively

Assessing fat and aquaculture feed recyclable from chicken wastes of poultry slaughterhouse in Bojnoord, North Khorasan Province, Iran

The rapid growth of poultry industry has caused large amounts of chicken wastes that must be recycled regarding environmental and economic concerns. This study aimed to assess the fat and aquaculture feed producible from chicken wastes in the Bojnoord poultry slaughterhouse, Iran. The chicken wastes including fatty tissue, viscera, and coccygeal were sampled at three different periods in 2016. Fat samples were analyzed by gas chromatography for determining the fatty acid (FA) profile. The degreased wastes then were used for producing aquaculture feed pellets once in combination with flour and once in mix with poultry by-product meal (PBM). The pellets were tested for physicochemical properties. Averagely, 58.9% of the fatty tissue, 14.5% of the viscera, and 30.4% of the coccygeal were recycled as fat content. Totally, 109368 kg-fat/year was extractable from chicken wastes. The oleic, palmitic, stearic, and palmitoleic represented more than 80% of the total FA content. 67.41% and 67.16% of FA composition was unsaturated and composed of cis-isomers, respectively. The iodine value (IV) and saponification value (SV) were 58.7 g iodine/100 g oil and 156.12 mg KOH/g oil, respectively. The content of moisture, protein, fat, fiber, and ash in the feed composed of degreased chicken wastes and PBM was 7.8, 41.2, 34, 0.9, and 4.4%, respectively. The fat obtained from chicken wastes was suitable for non-edible consumption. Combining degreased wastes with PBM resulted in protein-rich aquaculture feed. This study showed the economic and health benefits of separating components of the poultry slaughterhouse wastes and the possibility of producing aquaculture feed containing suitable micronutrients from these wastes

Evaluating the shear bond strength of enamel and dentin with or without etching: a comparative study between dimethacrylate-based and silorane-based adhesives

Background: Silorane-based composites and their specific self-etch adhesive were introduced to conquest the polymerization shrinkage of methacrylate-based composites. It has been shown that additional etching of enamel and dentin can improve the bond strength of self-etch methacrylate-based adhesives but this claim is not apparent about silorane-based adhesives. Our objective was to compare the shear bond strength (SBS) of enamel and dentin between silorane-based adhesive resin and a methacrylate-based resin with or without additional etching. Material and Methods: 40 sound human premolars were prepared and divided into two groups: 1- Filtek P60 composite and Clearfil SE Bond adhesive; 2- Filtek P90 composite and Silorane adhesive. Each group divided into two subgroups: with or without additional etching. For additional etching, 37% acid phosphoric was applied before bonding procedure. A cylinder of the composite was bonded to the surface. After 24 hours storage and 500 thermo cycling between 5-55°C, shear bond strength was assessed with the cross head speed of 0.5 mm/min. Then, bonded surfaces were observed under stereomicroscope to determine the failure mode. Data were analyzed with two-way ANOVA and Fischer exact test. Results: Shear bond strength of Filtek P60 composite was significantly higher than Filtek P90 composite both in enamel and dentin surfaces ( p <0.05). However, additional etching had no significant effect on shear bond strength in enamel or dentin for each of the composites ( p >0.05). There was no interaction between composite type and additional etching ( p >0.05). Failure pattern was mainly adhesive and no significant correlation was found between failure and composite type or additional etching ( p >0.05). Conclusions: Shear bond strength of methacrylate-based composite was significantly higher than silorane-based composite both in enamel and dentin surfaces and additional etching had no significant effect on shear bond strength in enamel or dentin for each of the composites. The mode of failure had no meaningful relation to the type of composite and etching factor

Structure of thermobifida fusca DyP-type peroxidase and activity towards kraft lignin and lignin model compounds

A Dyp-type peroxidase enzyme from thermophilic cellulose degrader Thermobifida fusca (TfuDyP) was investigated for catalytic ability towards lignin oxidation. TfuDyP was characterised kinetically against a range of phenolic substrates, and a compound I reaction intermediate was observed via pre-steady state kinetic analysis at max 404 nm. TfuDyP showed reactivity towards Kraft lignin, and was found to oxidise a -aryl ether lignin model compound, forming an oxidised dimer. A crystal structure of TfuDyP was determined, to 1.8Å resolution, which was found to contain a diatomic oxygen ligand bound to the heme centre, positioned close to active site residues Asp-203 and Arg-315. The structure contains two channels providing access to the heme cofactor for organic substrates and hydrogen peroxide. Site-directed mutant D203A showed no activity towards phenolic substrates, but reduced activity towards ABTS, while mutant R315Q showed no activity towards phenolic substrates, nor ABTS

Identification of an extracellular bacterial flavoenzyme that can prevent re-polymerisation of lignin fragments

A significant problem in the oxidative breakdown of lignin is the tendency of phenolic radical fragments to re-polymerise to form higher molecular weight species. In this paper we identify an extracellular flavin-dependent dehydrolipoamide dehydrogenase from Thermobifida fusca that prevents oxidative dimerization of a dimeric lignin model compound, which could be used as an accessory enzyme for lignin depolymerisation

Impossibility of obtaining a CP-violating Euler-Heisenberg effective theory from a viable modification of QED

In this paper, we examine the CP-violating term of the Euler-Heisenberg action. We focus in the aspects related with the generation of such a term from a QED-like model in terms of the effective action approach. In particular, we show that the generation of the CP-violating term is closely related with both of vector and axial fermionic bilinears. Although, these anomalous models are not a "viable" extension of QED, we argue that the CP-violating term in the photon sector is obtained only from this class of models, and not from any fundamental field theory.Comment: 6 page