Farming: From The Ground Up

With half of all current farmers expected to retire within 10 years and entry-level farmers decreasing 30% since 1987, it appears we need to encourage new, entry-level farmers. This case study tracks how a young farmer started his business and the decisions and issues he dealt with along the way. Decisions discussed include whether to rent or lease land, and possible crop-share arrangements, offering custom operations as a way generate revenue and obtain equipment, crop selection and using labor contractors versus in-house labor

Interferons and their potential in the treatment of ocular inflammation

Since their discovery in the 1950s interferons have been the scope of investigation in many diseases as therapeutic as well as pathogenetic factors. We know they have immune stimulatory and immune regulatory effects. This apparently counter-intuitive mechanism can be summarized as immunomodulatory action and seems to be very effective in a number of ocular inflammatory diseases. We review the current knowledge of interferons in immunity and autoimmunity and show their use in clinical ophthalmologic practice

Discerning the spatio-temporal disease patterns of surgically induced OA mouse models

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common cause of disability in ageing societies, with no effective therapies available to date. Two preclinical models are widely used to validate novel OA interventions (MCL-MM and DMM). Our aim is to discern disease dynamics in these models to provide a clear timeline in which various pathological changes occur. OA was surgically induced in mice by destabilisation of the medial meniscus. Analysis of OA progression revealed that the intensity and duration of chondrocyte loss and cartilage lesion formation were significantly different in MCL-MM vs DMM. Firstly, apoptosis was seen prior to week two and was narrowly restricted to the weight bearing area. Four weeks post injury the magnitude of apoptosis led to a 40–60% reduction of chondrocytes in the non-calcified zone. Secondly, the progression of cell loss preceded the structural changes of the cartilage spatio-temporally. Lastly, while proteoglycan loss was similar in both models, collagen type II degradation only occurred more prominently in MCL-MM. Dynamics of chondrocyte loss and lesion formation in preclinical models has important implications for validating new therapeutic strategies. Our work could be helpful in assessing the feasibility and expected response of the DMM- and the MCL-MM models to chondrocyte mediated therapies

Business Process Governance: Theorizing and Empirical Application

Studies by Gartner (2010) or McKinsey (2008) suggest univocally that improving business processes is the undisputednumber one priority for organizations world-wide. Hence, organizations need adequate capabilities for Business ProcessManagement (BPM). However, these capabilities do not necessarily need to be developed in the organization itself – aninclusion using other sourcing structures (e.g. cooperation/network or market instead of hierarchy) is possible as well. Thispaper builds upon an understanding of BPM as a dynamic capability and a well-known distinction of governance strategies(market, cooperation, hierarchy) to develop a business process governance framework. Using an extensive case study weinitially test this framework in a European PRODUCTION company. Therefore, we make the following contributions: 1)development of a BPM theory that integrates dynamic capability and governance theory, 2) a model for understandingsourcing strategies in BPM, and 3) empirically sound factors explaining sourcing strategies in BPM. Our results suggest thatorganizations facing a low dynamic market environment do not employ dedicated resources for business process change butrely on ad-hoc measures. Moreover, they gather these resources mostly internally (hierarchical governance). The paper endswith implications for both research and practice, limitations, and potential avenues for future research

The CGM and IGM at z∼\sim5: metal budget and physical connection

We present further results of a survey for absorption line systems in the spectra of four high redshift quasars (5.79 $\le$ z$_{\textrm{em}}$ $\le$ 6.13) obtained with the ESO Very Large Telescope X-Shooter. We identify 36 $\textrm{CIV}$ and 7 $\textrm{SiIV}$ systems with a $\ge$ 5$\sigma$ significance. The highest redshift $\textrm{CIV}$ and $\textrm{SiIV}$ absorbers identified in this work are at z = 5.80738 $\pm$ 0.00017 and z = 5.77495 $\pm$ 0.00038, respectively. We compute the comoving mass density of $\textrm{SiIV}$ ($\Omega_{\textrm{SiIV}}$) and find that it evolves from $\Omega_{\textrm{SiIV}}$ = 4.3$^{+2.1}_{-2.1}$ $\times$10$^{-9}$ at = 5.05 to $\Omega_{\textrm{SiIV}}$ = 1.4$^{+0.6}_{-0.4}$ $\times$10$^{-9}$ at = 5.66. We also measure $\Omega_{\textrm{CIV}}$ = 1.6$^{+0.4}_{-0.1}$ $\times$10$^{-8}$ at = 4.77 and $\Omega_{\textrm{CIV}}$ = 3.4$^{+1.6}_{-1.1}$ $\times$10$^{-9}$ at = 5.66. We classify our $\textrm{CIV}$ absorber population by the presence of associated $\textit{low}$ and/or $\textit{high ionisation}$ systems and compute their velocity width ($\Delta$v$_{90}$). We find that all $\textrm{CIV}$ systems with $\Delta$v$_{90}$ > 200 kms$^{-1}$ have associated $\textit{low ionisation}$ systems. We investigate two such systems, separated by 550 physical kpc along a line of sight, and find it likely that they are both tracing a multi-phase medium where hot and cold gas is mixing at the interface between the CGM and IGM. We further discuss the \textrm{MgII} systems presented in a previous work and we identify 5 $\textrm{SiII}$, 10 $\textrm{AlII}$, 12 $\textrm{FeII}$, 1 $\textrm{CII}$, 7 $\textrm{MgI}$ and 1 $\textrm{CaII}$ associated transitions. We compute the respective comoving mass densities in the redshift range 2 to 6, as allowed by the wavelength coverage.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS 22 pages, 19 figures, 6 table

Testing metallicity indicators at z~1.4 with the gravitationally lensed galaxy CASSOWARY 20

We present X-shooter observations of CASSOWARY 20 (CSWA 20), a star-forming (SFR ~6 Msol/yr) galaxy at z=1.433, magnified by a factor of 11.5 by the gravitational lensing produced by a massive foreground galaxy at z=0.741. We analysed the integrated physical properties of the HII regions of CSWA 20 using temperature- and density-sensitive emission lines. We find the abundance of oxygen to be ~1/7 of solar, while carbon is ~50 times less abundant than in the Sun. The unusually low C/O ratio may be an indication of a particularly rapid timescale of chemical enrichment. The wide wavelength coverage of X-shooter gives us access to five different methods for determining the metallicity of CSWA 20, three based on emission lines from HII regions and two on absorption features formed in the atmospheres of massive stars. All five estimates are in agreement, within the factor of ~2 uncertainty of each method. The interstellar medium of CSWA 20 only partially covers the star-forming region as viewed from our direction; in particular, absorption lines from neutrals and first ions are exceptionally weak. We find evidence for large-scale outflows of the interstellar medium (ISM) with speeds of up 750 km/s, similar to the values measured in other high-z galaxies sustaining much higher rates of star formation.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Electro-Chemo-Mechanical Model for Polymer Electrolytes

Polymer electrolytes (PEs) are promising candidates for use in next-generation high-voltage batteries, as they possess advantageous elastic and electrochemical properties. However, PEs still suffer from low ionic conductivity and need to be operated at higher temperatures. Furthermore, the wide variety of different types of PEs and the complexity of the internal interactions constitute challenging tasks for progressing towards a systematic understanding of PEs. Here, we present a continuum transport theory which enables a straight-forward and thermodynamically consistent method to couple different aspects of PEs relevant for battery performance. Our approach combines mechanics and electrochemistry in non-equilibrium thermodynamics, and is based on modeling the free energy, which comprises all relevant bulk properties. In our model, the dynamics of the polymer-based electrolyte are formulated relative to the highly elastic structure of the polymer. For validation, we discuss a benchmark polymer electrolyte. Based on our theoretical description, we perform numerical simulations and compare the results with data from the literature. In addition, we apply our theoretical framework to a novel type of single-ion conducting PE and derive a detailed understanding of the internal dynamics.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure