Influence of Cost Share and EQIP Incentive Payments on Adoptions of Best Management Practices by Louisiana Dairy Farmers

Adoption of best management practices (BMPs) minimizes the negative externalities created by the manure by-product of milk production. Logistic regression procedure was used to understand the impact of socioeconomic attributes of Louisiana dairy farmers on BMP adoption decision relative to the cost share and incentive payment.Farm Management,

Factors Influencing and Steps Leading to the Adoption of Best Management Practices by Louisiana Dairy Farmers

A logistic regression procedure was used to assess the impact of socioeconomic attributes on the best management practices (BMPs) adoption decision by Louisiana dairy farmers relative to cost-share and fixed incentive payments. Analysis of the steps in the BMP adoption decision process indicated visits between producers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture–Natural Resource Conservation Service significantly increase likelihood of BMP adoption. Producer willingness-to-pay results indicate that marginal increases in dairy BMP adoption and associated improvement in environmental quality require increased technical and financial assistance.best management practices, bootstrap, cost-share, manure, steps in BMP adoption, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Q16, Q25, Q53,

Genetic diversity and identification of symbiotic community of Q Bemisia tabaci from Mediterranean countries

Introduction: We investigated a) the genetic diversity and population structure, b) the secondary symbiotic bacterial community and c) the frequencies of target site mutations conferring resistance to pyrethroids and organophospates in Q Bemisia tabaci collected from 5 Mediterranean countries. Material and Methods: Polymorphism at seven microsatellite loci and a 676-bp fragment of the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene were investigated for the genetic analysis of B. tabaci populations. Simple PCR based detection assays were used for the discrimination of B. tabaci subgroups and the detection of mutations associated with target site insecticide resistance (iAChE, kdr). Secondary symbionts were detected using specific primers. Wolbachia strains were characterized by Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) analysis. Results: Analyses of the 676-bp COI fragment distinguished seventeen haplotypes which delineated two groups (Q1 and Q2), within the Q B. tabaci. Both Q1 and Q2 were found in Spain and France, whereas only Q1 was observed in Greece, Morocco and Tunisia. The analyses of the microsatellite loci polymorphism revealed a high level of genetic differentiation even between some neighbouring samples belonging to the same sub-group within a country. In B. tabaci from Greece, Bayesian analysis revealed two main genetic groups within Q1, the first with populations from South Crete, and the second with populations from continental Greece and North Crete. Genetic differentiation was not correlated with host plant species or habitat. The secondary symbionts Wolbachia and Hamiltonella were present at high frequency while Arsenophonus, Cardinium and Rickettsia were absent. MLST analysis identified two Wolbachia strains which were found together in most of the Greek populations but never in the same host individual. The frequency of pyrethroid resistance mutations L925I and T929V in the para sodium channel gene and the organophosphate resistant mutation F331W in the ace1 gene was determined. The higher frequencies of the resistance mutations were found in France, Spain, and Greece, where in some samples the resistant alleles were fixed. In Morocco and Tunisia, the resistant alleles were less frequent and in some localities even undetected. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the Mediterranean Q B. tabaci is more diverse and structured than reported so far and suggest that human activities play a major role in the genetic structure and as well as in the dynamics of resistance genes. The role of the symbionts, and in particular of Wolbachia W1 and W2 strains in the shaping of the population genetic structure, is currently under investigation. (Résumé d'auteur

Are Electrons Oscillating Photons, Oscillating “Vacuum," or Something Else? The 2015 Panel Discussion: An Unprecedented Engineering Opportunity: A Dynamical Linear Theory of Energy as Light and Matter

Platform: What physical attributes separate EM waves, of the enormous band of radio to visible to x-ray, from the high energy narrow band of gamma-ray? From radio to visible to x-ray, telescopes are designed based upon the optical imaging theory; which is an extension of the Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral. Do we understand the physical properties of gamma rays that defy us to manipulate them similarly? One demonstrated unique property of gamma rays is that they can be converted to elementary particles (electron and positron pair); or a particle-antiparticle pair can be converted into gamma rays. Thus, EM waves and elementary particles, being inter-convertible; we cannot expect to understand the deeper nature of light without succeeding to find structural inter-relationship between photons and particles. This topic is directly relevant to develop a deeper understanding of the nature of light; which will, in turn, help our engineers to invent better optical instruments

Substructure around M31 : Evolution and Effects

We investigate the evolution of a population of 100 dark matter satellites orbiting in the gravitational potential of a realistic model of M31. We find that after 10 Gyr, seven subhalos are completely disrupted by the tidal field of the host galaxy. The remaining satellites suffer heavy mass loss and overall, 75% of the mass initially in the subhalo system is tidally stripped. Not surprisingly, satellites with pericentric radius less than 30 kpc suffer the greatest stripping and leave a complex structure of tails and streams of debris around the host galaxy. Assuming that the most bound particles in each subhalo are kinematic tracers of stars, we find that the halo stellar population resulting from the tidal debris follows an r^{-3.5} density profile at large radii. We construct B-band photometric maps of stars coming from disrupted satellites and find conspicuous features similar both in morphology and brightness to the observed Giant Stream around Andromeda. An assumed star formation efficiency of 5-10% in the simulated satellite galaxies results in good agreement with the number of M31 satellites, the V-band surface brightness distribution, and the brightness of the Giant Stream. During the first 5 Gyr, the bombardment of the satellites heats and thickens the disk by a small amount. At about 5 Gyr, satellite interations induce the formation of a strong bar which, in turn, leads to a significant increase in the velocity dispersion of the disk.Comment: 45 pages, 18 figures. To be submitted to the Astrophysical Journal, version 2.0 : scale height value corrected, references added, and some figures have been modifie

On-chip cell lysis by antibacterial non-leaching reusable quaternary ammonium monolithic column

Reusable antibacterial non-leaching monolithic columns polymerized in microfluidic channels designed for on-chip cell lysis applications were obtained by the photoinitiated free radical copolymerization of diallyldimethylammonium chloride (DADMAC) and ethylene glycol diacrylate (EGDA) in the presence of a porogenic solvent. The microfluidic channels were fabricated in cross-linked poly(methyl methacrylate) (X-PMMA) substrates by laser micromachining. The monolithic columns have the ability to inhibit the growth of, kill and efficiently lyse gram-positive Micrococcus luteus (Schroeter) (ATCC 4698) and Kocuria rosea (ATCC 186), and gram-negative bacteria Pseudomonas putida (ATCC 12633) and Escherichia coli (ATCC 35218) by mechanically shearing the bacterial membrane when forcing the cells to pass through the narrow pores of the monolithic column, and simultaneously disintegrating the cell membrane by physical contact with the antibacterial surface of the column. Cell lysis was confirmed by off-chip PCR without the need for further purification. The influence of the cross-linking monomer on bacterial growth inhibition, leaching, lysis efficiency of the monolithic column and its mechanical stability within the microfluidic channel were investigated and analyzed for three different cross-linking monomers: ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDA), ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) and 1,6-hexanediol dimethacrylate (1,6-HDDMA). Furthermore, the bonding efficiency of two X-PMMA substrates with different cross-linking levels was studied. The monolithic columns were shown to be stable, non-leaching, and reusable for over 30 lysis cycles without significant performance degradation or DNA carryover when they were back-flushed between lysis cycles