Grid Soil Sampling for Precision and Profit

Site specific management of plant nutrients for crop production begins with an inventory of soil test levels in a field. Fertilizer recommendations are based on the expected response to addition of fertilizers as a function of soil test levels. Therefore, the accuracy of site specific fertilizer applications depends on how accurately the nutrient status of soils is mapped. Mapping accuracy usually increases as fields are divided and sampled as smaller areas

Pharmaceutical Strategy and the Evolving Role of Merger and Acquisition

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. Introduction The sections in this chapter deal with a common set of topics: horizontal consolidation, merger and acquisition (M&A), advantages of size, economies of scale and scope, diversification, and industry concentration. These topics all interrelate around the fundamental issue in industrial organization: how best to organize firms and markets in order to achieve optimal economic performance? Consolidation has been rampant in most sectors of the healthcare industry since the 1980s and 1990s. Indeed, the industry was the second most active in terms of M&A activity (behind finance) between 2008 and 2009. In the pharmaceutical sector, the prior decades had been a time of growth and consolidation, as companies leveraged both size and scale in bringing drugs to market. The current landscape, however, is one of new challenges requiring new approaches to their solution. Companies are faced with internal pressures of declining pipeline productivity and compressed timelines, external pressures of patent expiry and pricing, and the uncertain implications of healthcare reform. Accompanying this evolution of challenges has been an evolution in the strategic approaches taken by pharmaceutical companies to best position themselves for success in the upcoming years

Cross-Dehydrogenative Couplings between Indoles and β-Keto Esters : Ligand-Assisted Ligand Tautomerization and Dehydrogenation via a Proton-Assisted Electron Transfer to Pd(II)

Cross-dehydrogenative coupling reactions between -ketoesters and electron-rich arenes, such as indoles, proceed with high regiochemical fidelity with a range of -ketoesters and indoles. The mechanism of the reaction between a prototypical -ketoester, ethyl 2-oxocyclopentanonecarboxylate and N-methylindole, has been studied experimentally by monitoring the temporal course of the reaction by 1H NMR, kinetic isotope effect studies, and control experiments. DFT calculations have been carried out using a dispersion-corrected range-separated hybrid functional (B97X-D) to explore the basic elementary steps of the catalytic cycle. The experimental results indicate that the reaction proceeds via two catalytic cycles. Cycle A, the dehydrogenation cycle, produces an enone intermediate. The dehydrogenation is assisted by N-methylindole, which acts as a ligand for Pd(II). The compu-tational studies agree with this conclusion, and identify the turnover-limiting step of the dehydrogenation step, which involves a change in the coordination mode of the -keto ester ligand from an O,O’-chelate to an C-bound Pd enolate. This ligand tautom-erization event is assisted by the -bound indole ligand. Subsequent scission of the ’-C–H bond takes place via a proton-assisted electron transfer mechanism, where Pd(II) acts as an electron sink and the trifluoroacetate ligand acts as a proton acceptor, to pro-duce the Pd(0) complex of the enone intermediate. The coupling is completed in cycle B, where the enone is coupled with indole. Pd(TFA)2 and TFA-catalyzed pathways were examined experimentally and computationally for this cycle, and both were found to be viable routes for the coupling step

Grid Soil Sampling for Precision and Profit

Site specific management of plant nutrients for crop production begins with an inventory of soil test levels in a field. Fertilizer recommendations are based on the expected response to addition of fertilizers as a function of soil test levels. Therefore, the accuracy of site specific fertilizer applications depends on how accurately the nutrient status of soils is mapped. Mapping accuracy usually increases as fields are divided and sampled as smaller areas.</p

The Research Basis for Wisconsin's Legume Nitrogen Credits

The ability of legumes to supply nitrogen to succeeding crops has been recognized for many years. The amount of actual N available will depend on the amount of N in the alfalfa and its availability, and any additional soil N that may be released due to the growth of the legume. From a practical standpoint, however, it is not the amount of N added to the system that is of primary importance. Much more important is the amount of N not needed by the com when the com is grown following the legume. This approach, commonly called the nitrogen fertilizer replacement value, integrates the N directly made available from the legume with the nitrogen provided from other sources, such as the stimulation of easily-released soil N, into a single value. From the Wisconsin perspective and for this paper, although we use the term nitrogen fertilizer replacement value and legume nitrogen credit interchangeably, we actually are referring to the fertilizer replacement value.</p