Underperforming policy networks : the biopesticides network in the United Kingdom

Loosely integrated and incomplete policy networks have been neglected in the literature. They are important to consider in terms of understanding network underperformance. The effective delivery and formulation of policy requires networks that are not incomplete or underperforming. The biopesticides policy network in the United Kingdom is considered and its components identified with an emphasis on the lack of integration of retailers and environmental groups. The nature of the network constrains the actions of its agents and frustrates the achievement of policy goals. A study of this relatively immature policy network also allows for a focus on network formation. The state, via an external central government department, has been a key factor in the development of the network. Therefore, it is important to incorporate such factors more systematically into understandings of network formation. Feedback efforts from policy have increased interactions between productionist actors but the sphere of consumption remains insufficiently articulated

Development of an Anchoring System for Protein Display on the Cell Wall Surface of Lactococcus Lactis Mg1363

Lactococcus is one of the lactic acid bacteria that are widely used in various food and fermentation processes. They have been used for many centuries in food fermentation processes and are considered as GRAS organisms that can safely be used in medical and veterinarian applications. The anchoring of proteins to the cell surface of Lactococcus using recombinant DNA techniques is an exciting and emerging research area that holds great promise for a wide variety of biotechnological applications. Presently available anchoring systems are based on recombinant bacteria displaying proteins or peptides on the cell surface. The objectives of this study are to develop surface display vectors and study the display of recombinant proteins on the surface of Lactococcus lactis. Several anchor proteins have been identified in L. lactis. In this study the gene coding for the cell wall binding domain of L. lactis cell wall anchor proteins AcmA and NisP were amplified by PCR and cloned into an E. coli expression vector. Sequencing results showed 98% homology to published sequences. The plasmids designated as pSVacrn and pSVnp were then transformed into E. coli where SDS-PAGE and Western blot analyses showed that the cell wall binding domain of acmA and nisP genes were successfblly expressed at the expected sizes 15 kDa and 18 kDa respectively. After mixing of the purified recombinant AcrnA and NisP proteins with L. Iactis cells, their presence on the bacteria cell surface was observed by whole cell ELISA, ~ i ~ ~ b i n d i n g and fluorescence microscopy analysis. The stability assay indicates that the binding of AcrnA protein to the lactococcal cell surface was stable and can be retained on the cell wall surface for at least 5 days. The results form the pH study indicatedthat low pH had no significant effect on the stability of bound His-tag AcmA protein. Whilst the cell wall binding domain of AcmA was shown to be able to anchor to the cell surface of other Gram-positive bacteria tested in this study, AcrnA protein was not able to bind to the surface of E. coli (Gram-negative) cells. Studies were also carried out to enhance the binding of AcmA protein to L. lactis cells where pretreatment of L. lactis with 10% TCA was shown to improve binding of the AcmA protein. The new method developed for cell surface display of recombinant proteins on L. lactis was evaluated for expression and display of foreign proteins. The gene coding for the N-terminal epitope regions (VP11-67aaa nd VP13s-looaao) f VPl protein of Enterovirus 71 (EV71) were subcloned upstream to the cell wall binding domains sequences of plasmids pSVacm and pSVnp. SDS-PAGE and Western blot results confirmed the expression of N-terminal regions of VP1 protein as AcmA and NisP fusion proteins in E. coli. Wholecell ELISA and imrnunofluorescence microscopy assays showed the successfbl display of VPl protein of EV7 1 on the surface of L. lactis. The success of docking VP 1 1-67aa and VP 1 35-100aa epitopes of VP 1 on the surface of L. lactis cells using --- - the anchoring system developed in this study, open up the possibilities of peptide and protein display for not only Lactococcus but of other Gram-positive bacteria. Preliminary studies showed that mice immunized with L. Iactis displaying VP1147, or VP13s-looafau sion proteins were able to induce an immune response against the VP11- 6 7 o~r V P135-100a(aa ntigens). The new method developed for surface display has the potential to a variety of applications including screening of polypeptide libraries, development of live vaccines, construction of whole cell allosteric biosensors, and signal bansduction studies

Geometrical Localization Algorithm for 3-D Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, we propose an efficient range free localization scheme for large scale three dimensional wireless sensor networks. Our system environment consists of two type of sensors, randomly deployed static sensors and global positioning system equipped moving sensors. These moving anchors travels across the network field and broadcast their current locations on specified intervals. As soon as the sensors which are deployed in random fashion receives three beacon messages (known locations broadcasted by anchors), they computes their locations automatically by using our proposed algorithm. One of our significant contributions is, we use only three different beacon messages to localize one sensor, while in the best of our knowledge, all previously proposed methods use at least four different known locations. The ability of our method to localize by using only three known locations not only saves computation, time, energy, but also reduces the number of anchors needed to be deployed and more importantly reduces the communication overheads. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed scheme improves the overall efficiency of localization process significantly. Important Note: Final version of this paper is accepted and published by Journal of Wireless Personal Communication, Springer : June, 2014 The final version of publication is available at link.springer.com Link: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007\%2Fs11277-014-1852-6Comment: Journal of Wireless Personal Communication, Springer : June, 2014, The final version of publication is available at link.springer.com Link: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11277-014-1852-

People’s naiveté about how extrinsic rewards influence intrinsic motivation

Despite the voluminous empirical research on the harmful effects of extrinsic incentives (e.g., money, competition prizes, etc.) on people’s intrinsic motivation (“undermining effect”), our society is still reliant upon the use of extrinsic incentives to motivate people. To better understand the reason underlying this theory-practice gap, the current study examined people’s beliefs about how extrinsic incentives influence recipients’ intrinsic motivation. Participants were presented with a description of a previous experiment which demonstrated the undermining effect, and were asked to make a prediction about the results of the experiment. The findings showed that the majority of participants firmly, but wrongly believed in the beneficial effects of reward on intrinsic motivation and did so with greater confidence. This inaccurate belief about motivation may play a role in the current, frequent use of extrinsic incentives in our society, and the current study suggests the importance of targeting stakeholders’ beliefs in intervention research

The Illuminati Reflected In Dan Brown’s Angels And Demons (2000): A Marxist Approach

ABSTRACT This study is about The Illuminati Reflected in Dan Brown’s Angels And Demons (2000), which is analyzed by using Marxist approach.The objectives of the study are to identify the members, the power of Illuminati and the reasons of Illuminati-Catholic conflicts could happen. This research belongs to qualitative research. The primary data of this research is Angels and Demons novel by Dan Brown, while the secondary data of this research is other sources related to the study, such as: virtual sources and other printed materials that support this research. The researcher draws three conclusions in this research. First, Illuminati have members such as scientist, government, banker and the artists. Second, the power of Illuminati is from their money, brotherhood with Masonic, and their position. Third, the reasons of Illuminati-Catholic conflict could happen because their stereotypes from Church toward Science and vice versa. Keywords: Illuminati, Angels and Demons, Marxist

Inter Vehicle Distance based connectivity aware routing in vehicular adhoc networks

Connectivity in vehicular traffic environment has witnessed significant attention due to the direct impact on the performance of most of the traffic safety applications of intelligent transport system. Various parameters such as density, speed, direction, link quality and inter vehicle distance (IVD) have been utilized for measuring connectivity. IVD has greater impact on connectivity and controls the impact of other parameters. Usage of real time IVD for measuring connectivity has not received sufficient attention in VANETs. This paper proposes IVD based connectivity aware routing (Ivd-CAR) for enhancing connectivity aware data dissemination. IVD calculation is robust and can effectively handle instantaneous GPS failure. Two localization techniques; namely, cooperative localization and Geometry based Localization are developed. Standard deviation of real time IVDs of a forwarding path is derived. Distribution of IVDs of a forwarding path is employed for estimating connectivity. Segment vehicle based next hop vehicle selection is utilized for incorporating network load, link quality and direction into consideration while selecting forwarding path. Simulations are carried out in ns2 to evaluate the performance of Ivd-CAR in realistic traffic environment. Comparative analysis of simulation results attests the superiority of Ivd-CAR to the state-of-the-art techniques: CSR and A-CAR

Motor Sequence Learning in Healthy Older Adults Is Not Necessarily Facilitated by Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)

Background: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) of the primary motor cortex (M1) can modulate neuronal activity, and improve performance of basic motor tasks. The possibility that tDCS could assist in rehabilitation (e.g., for paresis post-stroke) offers hope but the evidence base is incomplete, with some behavioural studies reporting no effect of tDCS on complex motor learning. Older adults who show age-related decline in movement and learning (skills which tDCS could potentially facilitate), are also under-represented within tDCS literature. To address these issues, we examined whether tDCS would improve motor sequence learning in healthy young and older adults. Methods: In Experiment One, young participants learned 32 aiming movements using their preferred (right) hand whilst receiving: (i) 30 min Anodal Stimulation of left M1; (ii) 30 min Cathodal Stimulation of right M1; or (iii) 30 min Sham. Experiment Two used a similar task, but with older adults receiving Anodal Stimulation or Sham. Results: Whilst motor learning occurred in all participants, tDCS did not improve the rate or accuracy of motor learning for either age group. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the effects of tDCS may be limited to motor performance with no clear beneficial effects for motor learning

Reduced grapevine canopy size post-flowering via mechanical trimming alters ripening and yield of 'Pinot noir'

The degree and time of canopy trimming can alter phenology, rates of increase or decrease in berry components during grape ripening, and may influence yield and its components. The objective of this study was to investigate the extent to which reducing canopy size, by mechanical trimming post-flowering, changed Vitis vinifera L. 'Pinot noir' fruit yield and composition. Vines were mechanically trimmed to three different canopy heights at fruitset: 1000 mm (100 % canopy height), 600 mm (60 % canopy height relative to the control treatment) and 300 mm (30 % canopy height relative to the control treatment). Total soluble solids concentration and content, titratable acidity, pH and fresh berry mass were measured throughout ripening, and yield and leaf area were measured at harvest. Reduced canopy size via trimming to 30 and 60 % of the control treatment height slowed total soluble solids accumulation and in some cases increased titratable acidity and increased pH. The total soluble solids-titratable acidity ratio was therefore reduced throughout ripening by these trimming treatments relative to the full canopy height. Trimming to reduce canopy size had two effects on the source-sink ratio; it reduced the source (canopy) but increased fruit yield, an important sink. Therefore, the time of trimming is an important management consideration because it can delay and slow ripening due to reduced source leaves but could potentially accentuate the delay via increasing yield (sink). This technique may represent a way to offset the acceleration of phenology and grape ripening that has been observed to occur as a result of warmer seasons