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Proposition 12 and a Patchwork Problem: The Need for Uniformity in Farm Animal Husbandry Laws
Get PDFProposition 12 and a Patchwork Problem: The Need for Uniformity in Farm Animal Husbandry Laws examines the regulatory effects of California’s Proposition 12 on agricultural practices beyond the state’s borders. The article explores how differing state animal welfare standards create a fragmented regulatory landscape for producers and distributors. It analyzes constitutional, economic, and practical challenges arising from compliance with inconsistent husbandry requirements. The discussion situates Proposition 12 within broader debates over state police powers, interstate commerce, and federalism. The article concludes by assessing pathways toward greater uniformity in farm animal husbandry laws and their implications for agriculture and animal welfare
AdapTor: Adaptive Topological Regression for quantitative structure–activity relationship modeling
Get PDFQuantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) modeling has become a critical tool in drug design. Recently proposed Topological Regression (TR), a computationally efficient and highly interpretable QSAR model that maps distances in the chemical domain to distances in the activity domain, has shown predictive performance comparable to state-of-the-art deep learning-based models. However, TR’s dependence on simple random sampling-based anchor selection and utilization of radial basis function for response reconstruction constrain its interpretability and predictive capacity. To address these limitations, we propose Adaptive Topological Regression (AdapToR) with adaptive anchor selection and optimization-based reconstruction. We evaluated AdapToR on the NCI60 GI50 dataset, which consists of over 50,000 drug responses across 60 human cancer cell lines, and compared its performance to Transformer CNN, Graph Transformer, TR, and other baseline models. The results demonstrate that AdapToR outperforms competing QSAR models for drug response prediction with significantly lower computational cost and greater interpretability as compared to deep learning-based models.This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grants Nos. 2007903 (received by R.P.) and 2007418 (Received by S.G) , Leidos Biomed/NCI under contract 22X049 and NIH R01 AG073826. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, Leidos Biomed/NCI or NIH
Environmental factors have a greater influence on photosynthetic capacity in C4 plants than biochemical subtypes or growth forms
Get PDFSummary:
• Our understanding of how photosynthetic capacity varies among C4 species and across growth and measurement conditions remains limited.
• We collated 1696 CO2 response curves of net CO2 assimilation rate (A/Ci curves) from C4 species grown and measured at various environmental conditions and used these data to estimate the apparent maximum carboxylation activity of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (VpmaxA) and CO2-saturated net photosynthetic rate (Amax), two key parameters describing photosynthetic capacity. We examined how VpmaxA and Amax vary with species-specific traits, growth and measurement conditions.
• We found little systematic variation of VpmaxA and Amax across the classical C4 biochemical subtypes or growth forms, but showed that growth temperature and measurement conditions are major factors determining C4 photosynthetic capacity. We found no evidence that common C4 model species (e.g. maize, sorghum and Setaria viridis) differ in photosynthetic capacity from other C4 species when grown in controlled environments. However, C4 model species showed up to twice the photosynthetic capacity of other C4 species when grown in the field.
• Our multivariate model accounts for 47–51% of the variation reported in VpmaxA and Amax, and we argue that environmental conditions have a greater influence on C4 photosynthetic capacity than biochemical subtypes or growth forms.U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research Program. Grant Number: DE-SC0018420
The Australian National University Futures Scheme. Grant Number: D.A.W
Carnegie Venture Grant. Grant Number: 10908
National Science Foundation. Grant Numbers: DBI-2213983, IOS-1546838, IOS-2312181, IOS-2406533, MCB-1617020, OISE-2434687
Natural Environment Research Council. Grant Number: NE/W00674X/1
John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, U.S. Geological Survey. Grant Number: 20-07-0232
U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Genomic Science Program. Grant Numbers: DE-SC0008769, DE-SC0018277, DE-SC0020366, DE-SC0021286, DE-SC0023160
Australian Research Council. Grant Numbers: DP180102747, DP230103122, FL190100003, FT220100276
Open access publishing facilitated by Australian National University, as part of the Wiley - Australian National University agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians
Proportionality: Can't Live with It but Can't Live without It
Get PDFThis essay examines the rule of proportionality in international humanitarian law, a principle that remains both central and controversial due to its deeply indeterminate character. The article explores how key elements of the rule—such as assessing military advantage, defining “concrete and direct” benefits, and determining what constitutes “excessive” civilian harm—lack clear consensus, allowing interpretations to vary widely. Despite these challenges, the author argues that proportionality continues to be an essential legal and ethical constraint on the conduct of hostilities, reflecting a core humanitarian value in military operations. At the same time, this article contends that the rule has limited operational utility as a practical tool for mitigating civilian risk on the battlefield. To enhance civilian protection, the article suggests shifting focus toward the related obligations of constant care and feasible precautions in attack planning and execution, which may be more actionable in real-time decision-making
CardioResp Device: Hardware and Firmware of an Embedded Wearable for Real-Time ECG and Respiration in Dynamic Settings
Get PDFMonitoring electrocardiogram (ECG) and respiration continuously and non-invasively is essential for managing cardiopulmonary health. An effective wearable device can be used to regularly monitor key vitals, reducing the need for clinical visits. In this work, we propose a custom device for real-time continuous ECG by inkjet printed (IJP) dry electrodes and respiration monitoring by using a novel single 6-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU). The proposed system can extract the heart rate (HR) and respiration rate (RR) during static and dynamic postures. The respiration process implements a quaternion-based update and multiple filtering stages to estimate the signal. The custom device uses Bluetooth protocol to send the raw and processed data to a mobile application. The RR is investigated in stationary, i.e., sitting and standing, and dynamic, i.e., walking, running, and cycling, postures. The proposed device is evaluated with commercial Go Direct® respiration belt from Vernier® for RR and offers an overall accuracy of 99.3% and 98.6% for static and dynamic conditions, respectively. The wearable also offers 98.9% and 97.9% accuracy for HR measurements, respectively, in static and active postures when compared with the Kardia® device. Furthermore, the device is assessed in an ambulatory monitoring setup in both indoor and outdoor environments. The low-power wearable consumes an average of only 7.4 mA of current during data processing. The device performs effectively and efficiently in both stationary and active states, offering a low complexity, portable solution for real-time monitoring. The proposed system can benefit from the continuous monitoring and early detection of pulmonary and cardio-respiratory health issues.This research was funded by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2105766
Pre-clinical studies show anti-diabetic effect of INSPARIN, a protein derived from the E4orf1 gene of a human adenovirus
Get PDFBackground: Human adenovirus Ad36-derived protein, termed INSPARIN, up-regulates cellular glucose uptake through insulin-independent cell signaling. Transgenic or viral vector mediated delivery of INSPARIN exhibits significant anti-diabetic potential in mice. To translate these findings for clinical use, this preclinical study determined the short- and long-term effectiveness of nano-liposome-mediated delivery of INSPARIN to improve glucose metabolism in cell and animal models.
Methods: Void or INSPARIN Nanoparticles (NP) composed of soy-phosphatidylcholine were prepared freshly before use. Glucose uptake was measured in 3T3-L1, C2C12, and HepG2 cells following 72 h treatment with void or INSPARIN NP using a [³H]-2-deoxyglucose uptake assay. Male C57BL/6J mice fed a 45% high-fat diet received single or repeated subcutaneous injections of INSPARIN NP, followed by oral glucose tolerance tests, serum insulin, and HbA1c measurements. Biodistribution was assessed by DiD-labeled nanoparticle imaging, and long-term safety was evaluated by histopathology of major organs.
Results: INSPARIN NP upregulated glucose uptake in preadipocytes, hepatocytes, and myoblasts. In mice, INSPARIN NP delivered the drug to the liver when administered intravenously and to inguinal adipose tissue when administered subcutaneously. Single subcutaneous administration of INSPARIN NP promoted faster blood glucose clearance in a dose-dependent manner, but without leading to hypoglycemia. Daily subcutaneous administration of INSPARIN NP for seven weeks significantly reduced HbA1c levels despite continued high fat diet, and without any adverse effects on major organs studied.
Conclusions: These findings support suitability of nano-liposome mediated subcutaneous delivery of INSPARIN in clinical trials for treating diabetes.Funded partly by a grant from Insparin Therapeutics and Helen Devitt Jones Endowed Chair
SWCPC 438 #41 John W. Snyder, undated.
No full textThe collection features portraits of sixty-one prominent cattle ranchers, both male and female, who were considered to be the “Cattle Kings of Texas.
SWCPC 438 #45 Captain Charles Schreiner, undated.
No full textThe collection features portraits of sixty-one prominent cattle ranchers, both male and female, who were considered to be the “Cattle Kings of Texas.
Identifying Premium-Quality Beef in the United States—A Comparison of Beef Palatability from Grain-Finished Young and Mature Beef Cattle with Varying Marbling Scores
No full textThe study objective was to compare the palatability of beef strip loin steaks from young and mature grain-finished cattle across a range of marbling scores. Grain-finished beef carcasses were selected from two maturity groups: old maturity (O; >30 months of age) and young maturity (Y; <30 months of age). Within maturity groups, carcasses were selected to represent five marbling degrees—slightly abundant or greater (SLAB), moderate (MD), modest (MT), small (SM), and slight (SL)—resulting in ten treatment groups. Longissimus dorsi samples were removed on day 2 postmortem and cut into 2.5 cm thick steaks for slice shear force measurement, consumer palatability analysis, and proximate analysis. Tenderness, juiciness, flavor liking and intensity, overall liking, acceptability, and willingness to pay were all affected (p < 0.01) by treatment group. Palatability ratings generally decreased as marbling score decreased, but adjacent marbling scores often produced similar eating quality. Maturity had the most apparent impact on tenderness, as Y vs. O maturity samples scored greater (p < 0.05) for tenderness within four of the marbling scores (SLAB, MD, MT, and SL). Maturity had limited to no impact on juiciness, flavor intensity, and flavor liking. SLAB-Y and MD-Y were more liked overall compared to their O counterparts, but no other maturity differences were noted for overall liking within marbling scores. Grain-finished mature cull cows generated a similar or slightly reduced eating experience to young beef, but greater marbling is required to offset tenderness differences in mature beef
SWCPC 438 #64 Oliver Loving (duplicate), undated.
No full textThe collection features portraits of sixty-one prominent cattle ranchers, both male and female, who were considered to be the “Cattle Kings of Texas.