Developing Policy through Legislation: A Description and Analysis of Agricultural Laws in the United States

Legislation is the primary vehicle for the realization and execution of policy objectives. An awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the existing framework of laws facilitates the implementation of new policies. This paper examines the fundamental agricultural legislation in the United States to determine implicit or explicit legislative methods which have been enlisted in pursuing policy goals. The analysis reveals legislative conflicts and contradictions which are counterproductive to efficient policy implementation and suggests that effect agricultural regulation has been hampered by the tendency of legislators to rely too heavily on out-moded laws to solve current problems. Each major piece of legislation administered by the United States Department of Agriculture is discussed in terms of its stated policy objectives, its potential ancillary uses, its formal structure and legislative mechanisms, and its impact in achieving policy goals. For reasons of convenience, the classification of Acts into policy groups corresponds generally to those headings used in the Compilation of Statutes published by the United States Department of Agriculture. However, it is recognized that the multiple purposes of each Act makes these categories inaccurate. This paper considers only those Acts which are directly relevant to the agricultural process and does not encompass environmental and commercial legislation which may indirectly affect agricultural activities

A Note On Quadrangular Embedding Of Abelian Cayley Graphs

The genus graphs have been studied by many authors, but just a few results concerning in special cases: Planar, Toroidal, Complete, Bipartite and Cartesian Product of Bipartite. We present here a general lower bound for the genus of a abelian Cayley graph and construct a family of circulant graphs which reach this bound.17333134

Constructions of algebraic lattices

In this work we present constructions of algebraic lattices in Euclidean space with optimal center density in dimensions 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 12, which are rotated versions of the lattices Λn, for n = 2,3,4,6,8 and K12. These algebraic lattices are constructed through twisted canonical homomorphism via ideals of a ring of algebraic integers. Mathematical subject classification: 18B35, 94A15, 20H10.49350

Spreading of trisiloxanes over thin aqueous layers

Surfactants are widely spread in nature and are increasingly used in industry as wetting, cleaning and disinfecting agents. Recently, there are newly discovered trisiloxane and other silicone based surfactants which show very unusual spreading behaviour. Although a number of experimental and theoretical investigations have been carried out, the underlying spreading mechanism remains unclear. Experiments using trisiloxanes and comparison with 3 different ethylene glycol monododecyl ethers (C12E4, C12E5, and C12E6) surfactants were performed to understand the influence of Marangoni force as the driving force for the spreading. We then compared our experimental results to available theoretical prediction in the literature. The obtained experimental data showed the opposite trend as compared with the theoretical predictions developed for a regular surfactants. The latter is assumed to be a special feature of “suprspreaders”

Constructions of algebraic lattices

In this work we present constructions of algebraic lattices in Euclidean space with optimal center density in dimensions 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 12, which are rotated versions of the lattices Λn, for n = 2,3,4,6,8 and K12. These algebraic lattices are constructed through twisted canonical homomorphism via ideals of a ring of algebraic integers. Mathematical subject classification: 18B35, 94A15, 20H10

Elucidating the Ramularia eucalypti species complex

The genus Ramularia includes numerous phytopathogenic species, several of which are economically important. Ramularia eucalypti is currently the only species of this genus known to infect Eucalyptus by causing severe leaf-spotting symptoms on this host. However, several isolates identified as R. eucalypti based on morphology and on nrDNA sequence data of the ITS region have recently been isolated from other plant hosts, from environmental samples and also from human clinical specimens. Identification of closely related species based on morphology is often difficult and the ITS region has previously been shown to be unreliable for species level identification in several genera. In this study we aimed to resolve this species-complex by applying a polyphasic approach involving morphology, multi-gene phylogeny and matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Six partial genes (ITS, ACT, TEF1-α, HIS3, GAPDH and RPB2) were amplified and sequenced for a total of 44 isolates representing R. eucalypti s.lat. and closely related species. A multi-gene Bayesian phylogenetic analysis and parsimony analysis were performed, and both the resulting trees showed significant support for separation of seven species in R. eucalypti s.lat., including two previously described (R. eucalypti and R. miae), four novel species here described (R. haroldporteri, R. glennii, R. mali and R. plurivora) and one undescribed Ramularia species (sterile). Additionally, Mycosphaerella nyssicola is newly combined in Ramularia as R. nyssicola. Main mass spectra (MSPs) of several R. eucalypti s.lat. strains were generated using MALDI-TOF MS and were compared through a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) dendogram. The PCA dendrogram supported three clades containing R. plurivora, R. glenni /R. mali and R. eucalypti /R. miae. Although the dendrogram separation of species differed from the phylogenetic analysis, the clinically relevant strains were successfully identified by MALDI-TOF MS.The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science through an endowment of the FES programme ‘Making the tree of life work’. This publication was also made possible by NPRP grant 5-298-3-086 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of the Qatar Foundation) to Teun Boekhout and Anna Kolecka.http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/nhn/pimjam201

Phylogenetic reassessment of the Chaetomium globosum species complex

Chaetomium globosum, the type species of the genus, is ubiquitous, occurring on a wide variety of substrates, in air and in marine environments. This species is recognised as a cellulolytic and/or endophytic fungus. It is also known as a source of secondary metabolites with various biological activities, having great potential in the agricultural, medicinal and industrial fields. On the negative side, C. globosum has been reported as an air contaminant causing adverse health effects and as causal agent of human fungal infections. However, the taxonomic status of C. globosum is still poorly understood. The contemporary species concept for this fungus includes a broadly defined morphological diversity as well as a large number of synonymies with limited phylogenetic evidence. The aim of this study is, therefore, to resolve the phylogenetic limits of C. globosum s.str. and related species. Screening of isolates in the collections of the CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre (The Netherlands) and the China General Microbiological Culture Collection Centre (China) resulted in recognising 80 representative isolates of the C. globosum species complex. Thirty-six species are identified based on phylogenetic inference of six loci, supported by typical morphological characters, mainly ascospore shape. Of these, 12 species are newly described here. Additionally, C. cruentum, C. mollipilium, C. rectum, C. subterraneum and two varieties of C. globosum are synonymised under C. globosum s.str., and six species are resurrected, i.e. C. angustispirale, C. coarctatum, C. cochliodes, C. olivaceum, C. spiculipilium and C. subglobosum. Chaetomium ascotrichoides is segregated from C. madrasense and the genus name Chaetomidium is rejected. Five species, including C. globosum s.str., are typified here to stabilise their taxonomic status. A further evaluation of the six loci used in this study as potential barcodes indicated that the 28S large subunit (LSU) nrDNA and the internal transcribed spacer regions and intervening 5.8S nrRNA (ITS) gene regions were unreliable to resolve species, whereas β-tubulin (tub2) and RNA polymerase II second largest subunit (rpb2) showed the greatest promise as DNA barcodes for differentiating Chaetomium species. This study provides a starting point to establish a more robust classification system for Chaetomium and for the Chaetomiaceae.The National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 30570007) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of P.R. China (No. 2006FY120100).http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/nhn/pimjhttp://www.persoonia.orgam2017Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)Microbiology and Plant Patholog

Dual dean entrainment with volume ratio modulation for efficient droplet co-encapsulation: Extreme single-cell indexing

The future of single cell diversity screens involves ever-larger sample sizes, dictating the need for higher throughput methods with low analytical noise to accurately describe the nature of the cellular system. Current approaches are limited by the Poisson statistic, requiring dilute cell suspensions and associated losses in throughput. In this contribution, we apply Dean entrainment to both cell and bead inputs, defining different volume packets to effect efficient co-encapsulation. Volume ratio scaling was explored to identify optimal conditions. This enabled the co-encapsulation of single cells with reporter beads at rates of ∼1 million cells per hour, while increasing assay signal-to-noise with cell multiplet rates of ∼2.5% and capturing ∼70% of cells. The method, called Pirouette coupling, extends our capacity to investigate biological systems.Jack Harrington, Luis Blay Esteban, Jonathan Butement, Andres F. Vallejo, Simon I. R. Lane, Bhavwanti Sheth, Maaike S. A. Jongen, Rachel Parker, Patrick S. Stumpf, Rosanna C. G. Smith, Ben D. MacArthur, Matthew J. J. Rose-Zerilli, Marta E. Polak, Tim Underwood and Jonathan Wes

Towards optimal use of antithrombotic therapy of people with cancer at the end of life: a research protocol for the development and implementation of the SERENITY shared decision support tool Thrombosis Research

Background: Even though antithrombotic therapy has probably little or even negative effects on the well-being of people with cancer during their last year of life, deprescribing antithrombotic therapy at the end of life is rare in practice. It is often continued until death, possibly resulting in excess bleeding, an increased disease burden and higher healthcare costs. Methods: The SERENITY consortium comprises researchers and clinicians from eight European countries with specialties in different clinical fields, epidemiology and psychology. SERENITY will use a comprehensive approach combining a realist review, flash mob research, epidemiological studies, and qualitative interviews. The results of these studies will be used in a Delphi process to reach a consensus on the optimal design of the shared decision support tool. Next, the shared decision support tool will be tested in a randomised controlled trial. A targeted implementation and dissemination plan will be developed to enable the use of the SERENITY tool across Europe, as well as its incorporation in clinical guidelines and policies. The entire project is funded by Horizon Europe.Results: SERENITY will develop an information-driven shared decision support tool that will facilitate treatment decisions regarding the appropriate use of antithrombotic therapy in people with cancer at the end of life. Conclusions: We aim to develop an intervention that guides the appropriate use of antithrombotic therapy, prevents bleeding complications, and saves healthcare costs. Hopefully, usage of the tool leads to enhanced empowerment and improved quality of life and treatment satisfaction of people with advanced cancer and their care givers

Cubic colloids : Synthesis, functionalization and applications

This thesis is a study on cubic colloids: micron-sized cubic particles with rounded corners (cubic superballs). Owing to their shape, particle packing for cubes is more efficient than for spheres and results in fascinating phase and packing behavior. For our cubes, the particle volume fraction when randomly packed is ~0.74, whereas it is only ~0.64 for spheres. Here, we show that cubic colloids are not only relevant for fundamental research, but also for potential applications in materials science, such as separation membranes and coatings. The research has two focus points: synthesis of cubic colloids cubes, and the functionalization and applications of cubes for materials science. Cubic colloids can be prepared from different inorganic materials using iron oxide (hematite, α-Fe2O3­­) cubes as shape template. The size of the hematite cubes is tunable between 500 nm and 1500 nm. We established synthesis procedures to coat the hematite templates with either silica (SiO­2) or titania (TiO2) to obtain core-shell cubes. Subsequent dissolution of the hematite core with acid results in hollow silica and titania cubes. Moreover, two methods to increase the porosity of the silica cubes have been developed: surface-protected silica etching and surfactant pore templating. With the first method, pores in a wide diameter range were created by enlargement of the micropores (pore diameter < 2 nm) intrinsically present in the silica coating, while preserving the cubic shape. In the second method, cylindrical micelles of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) molecules are incorporated into the silica coating. Removal of the micelles yields well-defined mesopores with an average diameter of 2.5 nm. In view of cubic colloids as functional materials, we have investigated two methods to add functionality to hollow silica cubes. As a first example, we used core-shell hematite/silica cubes and exploited the catalytic properties of the core. In the presence of hydrogen peroxide, the hematite core enhances the degradation of organic dyes (modified Fenton reaction), while the silica shell preserves the cubic shape. Further enhancement was achieved by illumination with visible or UV light. We demonstrated that enhanced degradation is neither hampered by the silica shell nor by densely packing the cubes on a substrate. For our second example, we employed hollow mesoporous silica cubes. These hollow cubes are filled with silver, gold or polypyrrole by in situ synthesis. Reactants are inserted inside the cubes in separate steps. There they react and the resulting product remains confined in the cubes. In this way, aggregation of the functional substances is prevented. Finally, we delivered proof-of-principle of Cubicle Membranes by employing cubic colloids as building blocks of inorganic separation membranes. To this end, we investigated the formation and liquid permeability of dense random cube packings. Our experiments with solid hematite cubes and hollow microporous silica cubes showed that liquid flows through inter-cube pores rather than through the micropores of the silica cubes. Moreover, by relating our measurements to the Kozeny-Carman relation, we conclude that the relation is applicable to any dense particle packing and is independent of particle shape