The Constitutional Convention and Court Merger in New York State

In November 2017, voters in New York, for the first time in twenty years, will be asked to decide whether there “[s]hall be a convention to revise the constitution and amend the same?” If it is decided by the electorate to call a convention, “delegates will be elected in November 2018, and the convention will convene in April 2019.” One of the significant goals of a convention would be the achievement of court merger in the Empire State. The purpose of this perspective is to discuss the pros and cons of a constitutional convention with an emphasis on court merger

On Examining Solvation and Dielectric Constants of Polar and Ionic Liquids using the Stockmayer Fluid Model

We develop Stockmayer fluid (SF) models to predict and analyze dielectric properties of polar solvents, ionic liquids, and polyermized ionic liquids. A Stockmayer fluid treats molecules as simple Lennard-Jones spheres with dipole moments and point charges. With this model we calculate the solvation energies of 26 ions in 7 polar solvents and compare with experiment. There is qualitative agreement and we find that the SF model can account for the effects of dielectric saturation, which the commonly used Born solvation energy equation lacks. We also calculate the dielectric constants of these 7 solvents and find quantitative agreement with experiment. We also compare the SF model with experiment in regards to temperature dependence, electric field dependence, and salt concentration dependence of the dielectric constant of water. We also model the ionic liquid Ethylammonium Nitrate and calculate its dielectric constant, and compare with a polymerized version of the same material, simply chaining the cations and allowing their dipoles to rotate freely. We then implement a novel model for the polymerized ionic liquid Poly N-vinyl Ethylimidazolium Bromide, with restricted dipolar motion. We find that polymerized ionic liquids with restricted dipoles exhibit dielectric decrement compared with their monomeric ionic liquid counterparts, but with increased degrees of freedom can experience enhancment of their dielectric constant. We also detail some drawbacks of the model as well as posit potential future research avenues

Onion storage in sterilized new plastic crates compared to storage in old wooden boxes.

The United States Food and Drug Administration?s (FDA) proposed water rules to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The FDA has proposed that plastic totes be substituted for wooden bins for the storage on onion bulbs. A preliminary study was conducted to examine the role of wooden storage containers on onion bulb contamination with E. coli. Onions from a furrow-irrigated field using water up to 866 MPN E. coli /100 ml were harvested into 12 old wooden boxes and 12 sterilized new plastic crates. Onions from a drip-irrigated field using water with 0 MPN E. coli /100 ml were harvested into 12 old wooden boxes and 12 sterilized new plastic crates. Onions packed out tended to not have E. coli on the bulb exteriors. The small amount of contamination detected did not appear to be related to the storage containers or irrigation water source

Front Matter

Includes front cover, editorial board, table of contents, and issue introduction by Patti J. Shock

AdS/QCD Phenomenological Models from a Back-Reacted Geometry

We construct a fully back-reacted holographic dual of a four-dimensional field theory which exhibits chiral symmetry breaking. Two possible models are considered by studying the effects of a five-dimensional field, dual to the $q\bar{q}$ operator. One model has smooth geometry at all radii and the other dynamically generates a cutoff at finite radius. Both of these models satisfy Einstein's field equations. The second model has only three free parameters, as in QCD, and we show that this gives phenomenologically consistent results. We also discuss the possibility that in order to obtain linear confinement from a back-reacted model it may be necessary to consider the condensate of a dimension two operator.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, Replaced with minor correction

A Note on Chiral Symmetry Breaking from Intersecting Branes

In this paper, we will consider the chiral symmetry breaking in the holographic model constructed from the intersecting brane configuration, and investigate the Nambu-Goldstone bosons associated with this symmetry breaking.Comment: 16 pp, minor changes, to appear PR

Water relations and irrigation requirements of onion (Allium Cepa L.): a review of yield and quality impacts

The results of international research on the water relations and irrigation needs of onions have been synthesized in an attempt to link fundamental studies on crop physiology to irrigation practices, and consequent impacts on crop yield, quality and storage. Following a brief introduction on its origins and centres of production, a synthesis of research on crop development including plant water relations, crop water requirements, yield response to water, irrigation systems and scheduling are presented. Most of the evidence stems from research conducted in arid and semi-arid regions notably the USA, India, Spain and Turkey. The findings confirm that onion seasonal water requirements are highly variable depending on agroclimate, location and season, as are the crop coefficients (Kc) which range from 0.4 to 0.7 (initial stage), 0.85 to 1.05 (middle development) and 0.6 to 0.75 (final stage). Seasonal irrigation needs are reported to vary from 225 to 1040 mm to produce between 10 and 77 t ha-1. The most sensitive stages for water stress are at emergence, transplanting and bulb formation. Final crop quality can also be affected by water excess. Water stress at specific stages can negatively impact on quality leading to reduced size and multi-centred bulbs. In recent years, pressure on water resources, retailer demands for quality assurance and rising production costs have meant that onion irrigation has switched from traditional low efficiency (furrow) methods to more efficient advanced (sprinkler and drip) technologies. For scheduling, optimal soil water potential thresholds for triggering irrigation were found to be between -17 kPa and -27 kPa for drip and furrow irrigation. Research is underway to maximize water use efficiency in onions, but the deficit irrigation regimes being tested under experimental conditions have yet to be adopted commercially

Canonical Coordinates and Meson Spectra for Scalar Deformed N=4 SYM from the AdS/CFT Correspondence

Five supersymmetric scalar deformations of the AdS_5xS^5 geometry are investigated. By switching on condensates for the scalars in the N=4 multiplet with a form which preserves a subgroup of the original R-symmetry, disk and sphere configurations of D3-branes are formed in the dual supergravity background. The analytic, canonical metric for each geometry is formulated and the singularity structure is studied. Quarks are introduced into two of the corresponding field theories using D7-brane probes and the pseudoscalar meson spectrum is calculated. For one of the condensate configurations, a mass gap is found and shown analytically to be present in the massless limit. It is also found that there is a stepped spectrum with eigenstate degeneracy in the limit of small quark masses. In the case of a second, similar deformation, it is necessary to understand the full D3-D7 brane interaction to study the limit of small quark masses. It is seen that simple solutions to the equations of motion for the other three geometries are unlikely to exist.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, references added, typos correcte

Survival of Escherichia coli on onion during field curing and packout.

The Food and Drug administration has expressed concern that Onions (Allium cepa) irrigated with water contaminated with high rates of Escherichia coli could harbor E. coli on their surface or interior. On the other hand, since onions contain antimicrobial compounds and field conditions may not be conducive to E. coli survival, the E. coli population on the surface of onions might become negligible through the course of field curing. Further, the relationship between the E. coli in the irrigation water to the E. coli on onion bulbs after field curing, harvest, and packout has not been studied. To determine if E. coli should be of concern in onion production, we sought to measure the die-off of E. coli on onions between the last irrigation and harvest and the presence of E. coli on onions after packout. Well water was tested and had no E. coli; ditch water intentionally run across a pasture prior to use had 218 to > 2400 MPN of E. coli/100ml. Onions were sampled from those furrow irrigated (ditch water) and those drip irrigated (well water) starting at lifting 3 September 2013 for four consecutive weeks. At 0 and 28 days after lifting, both interior and exterior of the onions were tested for E. coli. At 7, 14, and 21 days after lifting, only the exterior of the onions was tested. None of the onions contained E. coli internally at 0 or 28 days after lifting. At lifting E. coli was present on the exterior of both the drip and furrow irrigated onions and seemed to be largely unrelated to the irrigation water. The exterior E. coli contamination decreased rapidly after lifting. After harvest and packout on 14 October 2013, no E. coli was detected on the onion bulb exteriors from either irrigation treatment. E. coli introduced into the onion field through furrow irrigation was not present on or in the packed out onion bulbs

Movement of Escherichia coli in soil as applied in irrigation water.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed that If irrigation water exceeds 235 colony-forming units (CFU) of E. coli /100 ml in any one sample or 126 CFU/100 ml in the average of any five consecutive samples, growers would have to cease using that water in any way that directly contacts the surface of fresh produce (FDA 2013). The FDA has proposed that these E. coli levels are an indication of high risk of bacterial contamination of fresh onion (Allium cepa L.) bulbs regardless of the irrigation system. If onion irrigation exceeds 235 CFU, it is not known whether the contaminated water applied by furrow or drip irrigation actually reaches the onion bulb. Soil could filter E. coli and other bacteria before irrigation water reaches onion bulbs. ?Vaquero? onions were grown on Owyhee silt loam. In our preliminary studies reported here, well water free of E. coli was applied to onions through drip irrigation or through furrow irrigation. A second water source was intentionally enriched with E. coli by being run across a pasture and recaptured prior to use. Furrow and drip irrigation were used to apply this water containing 218 to >2400 MPN/100ml for 11+ hours per irrigation. E. coli was monitored in the soil water at the end of irrigation cycles through direct sampling of the soil. Soil water was also sampled using sterile soil solution capsules (SSSC) to sample E. coli in the soil water that moved into place, to differentiate the movement of soil water from the soil water already in place. Soil water measurements were made adjacent to the water source, half way to the bulbs, and immediately adjacent to the onion bulbs. For furrow irrigation with ditch water the E. coli counts in the soil next to the onion bulbs was only 0% and 21% of the counts in the irrigation water following the first and second irrigations, respectively. During subsequent furrow irrigations, the E. coli counts in the soil water next to the onion bulbs exceeded the counts in the irrigation water. For drip irrigation with ditch water, the E. coli counts in the soil solution next to the onion bulbs remained very low. The soil water sampled by the SSSC adjacent to the onion bulbs drip-irrigated with ditch water also had very low E. coli counts