Opportunities for Conservation Agriculture in the EU Common Agricultural Policy 2014-2020

In the past, many relevant European Union (EU) documents made reference to the environmental problems caused by agriculture. In those papers, the concept of Conservation Agriculture (CA) as a possible solution was either omitted or timidly named, although sustainable agriculture was proclaimed as an objective of the EU in the Amsterdam treaty in 1999. EU’s position regarding several worldwide environmental problems, i.e. climate change, water and soil threats, is well known. However, to which extent these positions will be reflected in EU agricultural and environmental policies and concrete and binding measures in all member states for the period of 2014-2020 is still an open question. Through its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) EU claims to address the main concerns of its agriculture and rural development. In this context, EU launched a Communication (COM (2010) 672 final) named “The CAP towards 2020. Meeting the food, natural resources and territorial challenges of the future”. Based on this paper we analyse the deliverables that CA could provide to achieve the overall objectives established for the CAP in the horizon 2014-2020

Orbital Interaction Mechanisms of Conductance Enhancement and Rectification by Dithiocarboxylate Anchoring Group

We study computationally the electron transport properties of dithiocarboxylate terminated molecular junctions. Transport properties are computed self-consistently within density functional theory and nonequilibrium Green's functions formalism. A microscopic origin of the experimentally observed current amplification by dithiocarboxylate anchoring groups is established. For the 4,4'-biphenyl bis(dithiocarboxylate) junction, we find that the interaction of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the dithiocarboxylate anchoring group with LUMO and highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of the biphenyl part results in bonding and antibonding resonances in the transmission spectrum in the vicinity of the electrode Fermi energy. A new microscopic mechanism of rectification is predicted based on the electronic structure of asymmetrical anchoring groups. We show that the peaks in the transmission spectra of 4'-thiolato-biphenyl-4-dithiocarboxylate junction respond differently to the applied voltage. Depending upon the origin of a transmission resonance in the orbital interaction picture, its energy can be shifted along with the chemical potential of the electrode to which the molecule is more strongly or more weakly coupled

First-principles calculation on the transport properties of molecular wires between Au clusters under equilibrium

Based on the matrix Green's function method combined with hybrid tight-binding / density functional theory, we calculate the conductances of a series of gold-dithiol molecule-gold junctions including benzenedithiol (BDT), benzenedimethanethiol (BDMT), hexanedithiol (HDT), octanedithiol (ODT) and decanedithiol (DDT). An atomically-contacted extended molecule model is used in our calculation. As an important procedure, we determine the position of the Fermi level by the energy reference according to the results from ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) experiments. After considering the experimental uncertainty in UPS measurement, the calculated results of molecular conductances near the Fermi level qualitatively agree with the experimental values measured by Tao et. al. [{\it Science} 301, 1221 (2003); {\it J. Am. Chem. Soc.} 125, 16164 (2003); {\it Nano. Lett.} 4, 267 (2004).]Comment: 12 pages,8 figure

Evaluation of Phage Display Discovered Peptides as Ligands for Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA)

The aim of this study was to identify potential ligands of PSMA suitable for further development as novel PSMA-targeted peptides using phage display technology. The human PSMA protein was immobilized as a target followed by incubation with a 15-mer phage display random peptide library. After one round of prescreening and two rounds of screening, high-stringency screening at the third round of panning was performed to identify the highest affinity binders. Phages which had a specific binding activity to PSMA in human prostate cancer cells were isolated and the DNA corresponding to the 15-mers were sequenced to provide three consensus sequences: GDHSPFT, SHFSVGS and EVPRLSLLAVFL as well as other sequences that did not display consensus. Two of the peptide sequences deduced from DNA sequencing of binding phages, SHSFSVGSGDHSPFT and GRFLTGGTGRLLRIS were labeled with 5-carboxyfluorescein and shown to bind and co-internalize with PSMA on human prostate cancer cells by fluorescence microscopy. The high stringency requirements yielded peptides with affinities KD∼1 μM or greater which are suitable starting points for affinity maturation. While these values were less than anticipated, the high stringency did yield peptide sequences that apparently bound to different surfaces on PSMA. These peptide sequences could be the basis for further development of peptides for prostate cancer tumor imaging and therapy. © 2013 Shen et al

Amine-Gold Linked Single-Molecule Junctions: Experiment and Theory

The measured conductance distribution for single molecule benzenediamine-gold junctions, based on 59,000 individual conductance traces recorded while breaking a gold point contact in solution, has a clear peak at 0.0064 G$_{0}$ with a width of $\pm$ 40%. Conductance calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) for 15 distinct junction geometries show a similar spread. Differences in local structure have a limited influence on conductance because the amine-Au bonding motif is well-defined and flexible. The average calculated conductance (0.046 G$_{0}$) is seven times larger than experiment, suggesting the importance of many-electron corrections beyond DFT

Descriptive Analysis of Articles and Advertisements Pertaining to Skin Cancer Prevention in 2 Popular US Parenting Magazines, 2000–2010

Magazines focused on parenting are popular in the United States, and parents may use them to guide decisions about the health of their children. We analyzed issues of 2 popular parenting magazines published in the past 11 years during the months of peak ultraviolet radiation exposure for content related to sun protection and for advertisements for skin products that did and did not contain sun protection factor. Only 24 of 2,594 articles addressed the topic of sun protection for skin cancer prevention. Although advertising is pervasive in these magazines, the extent to which such advertising focuses on products with sun protection factor was low. These findings suggest that parenting magazines can do more to assist parents in making informed decisions about preventing skin cancer risk among youth

Differential spatial repositioning of activated genes in Biomphalaria glabrata snails infected with Schistosoma mansoni

Copyright @ 2014 Arican-Goktas et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Schistosomiasis is an infectious disease infecting mammals as the definitive host and fresh water snails as the intermediate host. Understanding the molecular and biochemical relationship between the causative schistosome parasite and its hosts will be key to understanding and ultimately treating and/or eradicating the disease. There is increasing evidence that pathogens that have co-evolved with their hosts can manipulate their hosts' behaviour at various levels to augment an infection. Bacteria, for example, can induce beneficial chromatin remodelling of the host genome. We have previously shown in vitro that Biomphalaria glabrata embryonic cells co-cultured with schistosome miracidia display genes changing their nuclear location and becoming up-regulated. This also happens in vivo in live intact snails, where early exposure to miracidia also elicits non-random repositioning of genes. We reveal differences in the nuclear repositioning between the response of parasite susceptible snails as compared to resistant snails and with normal or live, attenuated parasites. Interestingly, the stress response gene heat shock protein (Hsp) 70 is only repositioned and then up-regulated in susceptible snails with the normal parasite. This movement and change in gene expression seems to be controlled by the parasite. Other differences in the behaviour of genes support the view that some genes are responding to tissue damage, for example the ferritin genes move and are up-regulated whether the snails are either susceptible or resistant and upon exposure to either normal or attenuated parasite. This is the first time host genome reorganisation has been seen in a parasitic host and only the second time for any pathogen. We believe that the parasite elicits a spatio-epigenetic reorganisation of the host genome to induce favourable gene expression for itself and this might represent a fundamental mechanism present in the human host infected with schistosome cercariae as well as in other host-pathogen relationships.NIH and Sandler Borroughs Wellcome Travel Fellowshi

Zika virus on youtube: An analysis of english-language video content by source

Objectives The purpose of this study was to describe the source, length, number of views, and content of the most widely viewed Zika virus (ZIKV)-related YouTube videos. We hypothesized that ZIKV-related videos uploaded by different sources contained different content. Methods The 100 most viewed English ZIKV-related videos were manually coded and analyzed statistically. Results Among the 100 videos, there were 43 consumer-generated videos, 38 Internet-based news videos, 15 TV-based news videos, and 4 professional videos. Internet news sources captured over two-thirds of the total of 8 894 505 views. Compared with consumer-generated videos, Internet-based news videos were more likely to mention the impact of ZIKV on babies (odds ratio [OR], 6.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.64 to 23.76), the number of cases in Latin America (OR, 5.63; 95% CI, 1.47 to 21.52); and ZIKV in Africa (OR, 2.56; 95% CI, 1.04 to 6.31). Compared with consumer-generated videos, TV-based news videos were more likely to express anxiety or fear of catching ZIKV (OR, 6.67; 95% CI, 1.36 to 32.70); to highlight fear of ZIKV among members of the public (OR, 7.45; 95% CI, 1.20 to 46.16); and to discuss avoiding pregnancy (OR, 3.88; 95% CI, 1.13 to 13.25). Conclusions Public health agencies should establish a larger presence on YouTube to reach more people with evidence-based information about ZIKV