Delaware Secretary of Agriculture Michael T. Scuse recognized long-time Delaware State University Department Chair Dr. Richard Barczewski with the Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service to Delaware Agriculture. With thirty-five years of dedicated service, Barczewski was recognized for developing Delaware’s agricultural industry though educating generations of agriculturalists, promoting animal agriculture, and service to agricultural organizations, including 4-H and FFA.

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DOVER, Del. – The Delaware Department of Agriculture continues to provide services to the public and industry to ensure that our food supply remains safe and plentiful for consumers during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. “As Delaware’s number one industry, family farms are crucial to supplying a variety of food from poultry and meats, […]

DOVER (March 18, 2020) – Maintaining the supply of food and fiber for our citizens, especially during times of an emergency, is of paramount importance. Our poultry industry plays a critical role in feeding our citizens and supplying an abundant, healthy source of protein. “It is extremely important that the entire vertically integrated chain of […]

The pile-up of harvested or un-harvested perishables may have caused farmers a loss of around Rs 15,000 crore. Market arrivals of fruits and vegetables have sharply fallen since the imposition of the lockdown.

Defence, water issues and agriculture will top the agenda of talks when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Israel next month.

In the light of recent regulations, many artists and cultural organisations have taken to the internet to continue with their events.

Clint Lewis, Executive Vice President and President, International Operations at Zoetis, shares his insights on the critical role that animal health plays in creating a safe and abundant food supply for a growing global population.

Online AgroCulture Farm Management System version 1.0 suffers from a remote SQL injection vulnerability.

Jonathan Davidson, Executive Director of Supervision, Retail and Authorisations at the FCA, has written to CEOs of insurers concerning non-financial misconduct in wholesale general insurance firms. Davidson reminds firms of the FCA’s clear exp...

The FCA recently published a discussion paper on transforming culture in financial services. The paper is a collection of short essays by industry leaders, professional bodies and culture experts and is aimed at helping firms to develop and emb...

As the government searches for alternative sources of revenue, experts say the agricultural sector remains a promising area.

The post How Nigeria can use agriculture to mitigate COVID-19 impact — Expert appeared first on Premium Times Nigeria.

Introduction Financial services firms’ corporate governance and risk cultures is a ‘hot’ topic with financial regulators globally. Regulators have noted that serious corporate governance and conduct failings of financial services f...

Key points: • In a judgment supportive of the rescue culture in English insolvency, the court has reaffirmed its flexible approach to the application of insolvency provisions and willingness to look at the practical effect of transactions in re...

80 young African scholars are tackling the business of agriculture through the innovativeness and freshness that comes with youth — while obtaining their masters or doctoral degrees in the process.

The post Africa’s Youth Scholars Harvest Ideas on the Business of Agriculture appeared first on Inter Press Service.

With the West now taking another look at widespread use of face masks to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, it's worth noting another ...

Over 6,000 farmers have already planted the new varieties. The factory will need over eight tonnes of banana produce daily.

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Safeguards due diligence reports are prepared as part of safeguard due diligence and review to ensure compliance with ADB safeguard policy due diligence requirements. This document dated May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 51039-002 in Afghanistan.

Safeguards due diligence reports are prepared as part of safeguard due diligence and review to ensure compliance with ADB safeguard policy due diligence requirements. This document dated May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 2020-05-07 in Afghanistan.

In December 2006, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $900.0 million equivalent multitranche financing facility (MFF) for the Punjab Irrigated Agriculture Investment Program (PIAIP) to finance improvements to Punjab’s irrigation sector. At the same time, two loans for tranche 1 totaling $227.8 million equivalent were approved using the MFF for $217.8 million equivalent from ADB’s ordinary capital resources and $10.0 million equivalent from ADB’s Asian Development Fund (ADF).

Approved project 51423-002 in Mongolia.

The remote Fijian island of Cicia has launched a novel business in organic produce that could prove to be a template for other developing communities around the world. The island declared itself chemical free and fully organic eight years ago and is now producing food that's attracting the interest of foreign buyers. Tara Cleary reports.

Making butter at home the traditional way is easy and the result is far more flavourful than the shop-bought version, says Sam Wong

Making butter at home the traditional way is easy and the result is far more flavourful than the shop-bought version, says Sam Wong

ABSTRACT

Interactions between microorganisms in mixed communities are highly complex, being either syntrophic, neutral, predatory, or competitive. Evolutionary changes can occur in the interaction dynamics between community members as they adapt to coexistence. Here, we report that the syntrophic interaction between Geobacter sulfurreducens and Pseudomonas aeruginosa coculture change in their dynamics over evolutionary time. Specifically, Geobacter sp. dominance increases with adaptation within the cocultures, as determined through quantitative PCR and fluorescence in situ hybridization. This suggests a transition from syntrophy to competition and demonstrates the rapid adaptive capacity of Geobacter spp. to dominate in cocultures with P. aeruginosa. Early in coculture establishment, two single-nucleotide variants in the G. sulfurreducens fabI and tetR genes emerged that were strongly selected for throughout coculture evolution with P. aeruginosa phenazine wild-type and phenazine-deficient mutants. Sequential window acquisition of all theoretical spectra-mass spectrometry (SWATH-MS) proteomics revealed that the tetR variant cooccurred with the upregulation of an adenylate cyclase transporter, CyaE, and a resistance-nodulation-division (RND) efflux pump notably known for antibiotic efflux. To determine whether antibiotic production was driving the increased expression of the multidrug efflux pump, we tested Pseudomonas-derived phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PHZ-1-CA) for its potential to inhibit Geobacter growth and drive selection of the tetR and fabI genetic variants. Despite its inhibitory properties, PHZ-1-CA did not drive variant selection, indicating that other antibiotics may drive overexpression of the efflux pump and CyaE or that a novel role exists for these proteins in the context of this interaction.

IMPORTANCE Geobacter and Pseudomonas spp. cohabit many of the same environments, where Geobacter spp. often dominate. Both bacteria are capable of extracellular electron transfer (EET) and play important roles in biogeochemical cycling. Although they recently in 2017 were demonstrated to undergo direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) with one another, the genetic evolution of this syntrophic interaction has not been examined. Here, we use whole-genome sequencing of the cocultures before and after adaptive evolution to determine whether genetic selection is occurring. We also probe their interaction on a temporal level and determine whether their interaction dynamics change over the course of adaptive evolution. This study brings to light the multifaceted nature of interactions between just two microorganisms within a controlled environment and will aid in improving metabolic models of microbial communities comprising these two bacteria.

Routine identification of fungal pathogens from positive blood cultures by culture-based methods can be time-consuming, delaying treatment with appropriate antifungal agents. The GenMark Dx ePlex investigational use only blood culture identification fungal pathogen panel (BCID-FP) rapidly detects 15 fungal targets simultaneously in blood culture samples positive for fungi by Gram staining. We aimed to determine the performance of the BCID-FP in a multicenter clinical study. Blood culture samples collected at 10 United States sites and tested with BCID-FP at 4 sites were compared to the standard-of-care microbiological and biochemical techniques, fluorescence in situ hybridization using peptide nucleic acid probes (PNA-FISH) and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Discrepant results were analyzed by bi-directional PCR/sequencing of residual blood culture samples. A total of 866 clinical samples, 120 retrospectively and 21 prospectively collected, along with 725 contrived samples were evaluated. Sensitivity and specificity of detection of Candida species (C. albicans, C. auris, C. dubliniensis, C. famata, C. glabrata, C. guilliermondii, C. kefyr, C. krusei, C. lusitaniae, C. parapsilosis, and C. tropicalis) ranged from 97.1 to 100% and 99.8 to 100%, respectively. For the other organism targets, sensitivity and specificity were as follows: 100% each for Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii, 98.6% and 100% for Fusarium spp., and 96.2% and 99.9% for Rhodotorula spp., respectively. In 4 of the 141 clinical samples, the BCID-FP panel correctly identified an additional Candida species, undetected by standard-of-care methods. The BCID-FP panel offers a faster turnaround time for identification of fungal pathogens in positive blood cultures that may allow for earlier antifungal interventions and includes C. auris, a highly multidrug-resistant fungus.

Quantitative bacterial culture of bronchoalveolar lavage fluids (BALF) is labor-intensive, and the delay involved in performing culture, definitive identification, and susceptibility testing often results in prolonged use of broad-spectrum antibiotics. The Unyvero lower respiratory tract (LRT) panel (Curetis, Holzgerlingen, Germany) allows the multiplexed rapid detection and identification of 20 potential etiologic agents of pneumonia within 5 h of collection. In addition, the assay includes detection of gene sequences that confer antimicrobial resistance. We retrospectively compared the performance of the molecular panel to routine quantitative bacterial culture methods on remnant BALF. Upon testing 175 BALF, we were able to analyze positive agreement of 181 targets from 129 samples, and 46 samples were negative. The positive percent agreement (PPA) among the microbial targets was 96.5%, and the negative percent agreement (NPA) was 99.6%. The targets with a PPA of <100% were Staphylococcus aureus (34/37 [91.9%]), Streptococcus pneumoniae (10/11 [90.9%]), and Enterobacter cloacae complex (2/4 [50%]). For the analyzable resistance targets, concordance with phenotypic susceptibility testing was 79% (14/18). This study found the Unyvero LRT panel largely concordant with culture results; however, no outcome or clinical impact studies were performed.

Pyrazinamide (PZA) is considered the pivot drug in all tuberculosis treatment regimens due to its particular action on the persistent forms of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, no drug susceptibility test (DST) is considered sufficiently reliable for routine application. Although molecular tests are endorsed, their application is limited to known PZA resistance associated mutations. Microbiological DSTs for PZA have been restricted by technical limitations, especially the necessity for an acidic pH. Here, for the first time, MODS culture at neutral pH was evaluated using high PZA concentrations (400 and 800 μg/ml) to determine PZA susceptibility directly from sputum samples. Sputum samples were cultured with PZA for up to 21 days at 37°C. Plate reading was performed at two time points: R1 (mean, 10 days) and R2 (mean, 13 days) for each PZA concentration. A consensus reference test, composed of MGIT-PZA, pncA sequencing, and the classic Wayne test, was used. A total of 182 samples were evaluated. The sensitivity and specificity for 400 μg/ml ranged from 76.9 to 89.7 and from 93.0 to 97.9%, respectively, and for 800 μg/ml ranged from 71.8 to 82.1 and from 95.8 to 98.6%, respectively. Compared to MGIT-PZA, our test showed a similar turnaround time (medians of 10 and 12 days for PZA-sensitive and -resistant isolates, respectively). In conclusion, MODS-PZA is presented as a fast, simple, and low-cost DST that could complement the MODS assay to evaluate resistance to the principal first-line antituberculosis drugs. Further optimization of test conditions would be useful in order to increase its performance.

In vitro approaches for predicting drug-drug interactions (DDIs) caused by alterations in transporter protein regulation are not well established. However, reports of transporter regulation via nuclear receptor (NR) modulation by drugs are increasing. This study examined alterations in transporter protein levels in sandwich-cultured human hepatocytes (SCHH; n = 3 donors) measured by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry–based proteomic analysis after treatment with N-[4-(1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-hydroxypropan-2-yl)phenyl]-N-(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)benzenesulfonamide (T0901317), the first described synthetic liver X receptor agonist. T0901317 treatment (10 μM, 48 hours) decreased the levels of organic cation transporter (OCT) 1 (0.22-, 0.43-, and 0.71-fold of control) and organic anion transporter (OAT) 2 (0.38-, 0.38-, and 0.53-fold of control) and increased multidrug resistance protein (MDR) 1 (1.37-, 1.48-, and 1.59-fold of control). The induction of NR downstream gene expression supports the hypothesis that T0901317 off-target effects on farnesoid X receptor and pregnane X receptor activation are responsible for the unexpected changes in OCT1, OAT2, and MDR1. Uptake of the OCT1 substrate metformin in SCHH was decreased by T0901317 treatment. Effects of decreased OCT1 levels on metformin were simulated using a physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model. Simulations showed a clear decrease in metformin hepatic exposure resulting in a decreased pharmacodynamic effect. This DDI would not be predicted by the modest changes in simulated metformin plasma concentrations. Altogether, the current study demonstrated that an approach combining SCHH, proteomic analysis, and PBPK modeling is useful for revealing tissue concentration–based DDIs caused by unexpected regulation of hepatic transporters by NR modulators.

John Deere, the nearly 200-year-old tractor manufacturer, now considers itself a software company

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While all eyes were on grime in the early 2000s, Ty was charting a journey to a frontier that had yet to be fully explored. In 2001, he released his debut album, Awkward, on Big Dada, one of the few labels that would give a home to UK hip-hop acts such as Roots Manuva, Juice Aleem and Speech Debelle. It was the year of era-defining US albums such as Jay-Z’s The Blueprint and Nas’s Stillmatic, when the mainstream had gone the way of the shiny suit. But across the Atlantic, Ty ushered in the UK’s own hip-hop golden age, leaning towards the genre’s soul, jazz and funk origins.

The morality brigade loathed the hit teen horror on release but hockey mask-wearing villain Jason Voorhees has been with us ever since

Before production on the teen slasher A Long Night at Camp Blood had even started, before a final draft of the screenplay had even been submitted, thirtysomething writer-producer-director Sean S Cunningham decided to make an audacious statement. Not only would he use an advert in the industry paper Variety to confirm an inarguably ingenious title change but he would also use it to declare that his next film would be the most terrifying ever made, after a decade that saw The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Last House on the Left (which he also produced), The Exorcist and Halloween.

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When the coronavirus crisis hit, Yolngu elders moved back to east Arnhem Land homelands where they found freedom, peace, and power

• This is part two of a four-part series about Indigenous caretakers of culture in the time of coronavirus
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Adapting to change is something Yolngu are good at, senior Rirratjingu songman Witiyana Marika says.

When the coronavirus first started making news, community leadership met to plan how they would manage if Covid-19 arrived in eastern Arnhem land. Senior men and women met with the emergency taskforce, the local Miwatj health service and the Laynhapuy homelands organisation to take the most vulnerable people further away from risk.

Inside the darker side of Instagram

Former Liverpool midfielder Gary McAllister has hailed the leadership qualities of 'proper men' Jordan Henderson and James Milner.

Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Oliver Dowden has confirmed personal talks with the Premier League over resuming top-flight football "as soon as possible".

Carneiro: "It only takes one case for this to blow up and to put a lot of individuals at risk"

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden remains "really hopeful" over the resumption of the Premier League season, though insists the go ahead has not been given yet.