South Korea-based company Jier Shin Korea Co. Ltd., and its president, Sang Joo Lee, have agreed to pay $2 million to the United States for civil antitrust and False Claims Act violations for their involvement in a bid-rigging conspiracy that targeted contracts to supply fuel to U.S. military bases in South Korea, the Department of Justice announced today.

Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute LLC (FCS), an oncology group headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida, was charged with conspiring to allocate medical and radiation oncology treatments for cancer patients in Southwest Florida, the Department of Justice announced.  This charge is the first in the department’s ongoing investigation into market allocation in the oncology industry.

Cengage Learning Holdings II Inc. and McGraw-Hill Education Inc. mutually agreed to abandon their plans to merge after the Department of Justice informed the companies it had serious concerns that the proposed transaction, as structured, would harm competition.

Being forced to work from home now, I launched into cleaning out stuff on my hard disk and dug into long unvisited folders.

There are many Sankey diagrams still sitting there. So, you might eventually see a higher posting frequency again over the next couple of weeks. At least something good…
[See image gallery at www.sankey-diagrams.com]

Another sample Sankey diagram in German from the building sector. Swiss architectural firm Moosmann Bitterli has this on their website to showcase their services. Not sure what the unit of flow is, but definitely energy related.
[See image gallery at www.sankey-diagrams.com]

Just a quick Friday afternoon post in order not to let this week slip past without a post. This is a sample from the latest e!Sankey demo version,

The Sankey diagram represents energy flows in a canning plant with heat being distributed to the various steps of the process. Recovery of energy (red-brown arrow) from two of the steps.
[See image gallery at www.sankey-diagrams.com]

Following is a statement from Rusty Ford, equine operations consultant for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture's Office of State Veterinarian, laying out guidelines for summer yearling inspections in regards to COVID-19. The public health threat presented by COVID-19, otherwise known as coronavirus, is impacting all, and the equine industry has not been immune to it. […]

The post Kentucky Department Of Agriculture Issues COVID-19 Guidelines For Yearling Inspections appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

National Park Service Enters Agreement with State of Arizona to Re-open Grand Canyon National Park Park Service is in the process of negotiating similar agreements with other states https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/national-park-service-enters-agreement-with-state-of-arizona-to-re-open-grand-canyon-national-park.htm

Grand Canyon National Park and Yuntaishan Geopark from the Henan province of China renewed their five-year Sister Park Agreement on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/sister-park-agreement.htm

Forest managers are seeking practical guidance on how to adapt their current practices and, if necessary, their management goals, in response to climate change. Science-management collaboration was initiated on national forests in eastern Washington where resource managers showed a keen interest in science-based options for adapting to climate change at a 2-day workshop. Scientists and managers reviewed current climate change science and identified resources vulnerable to expected climate change. Vulnerabilities related to vegetation and habitat management included potential reductions in forest biodiversity and low forest resilience to changing disturbance regimes. The vulnerabilities related to aquatic and infrastructure resources included changing water quality and quantity, the risk to roads and other facilities from changes to hydrologic regimes, and the potential loss of at-risk aquatic species and habitats. Managers then worked in facilitated groups to identify adaptations that could be implemented through management and planning to reduce the vulnerability of key resources to climate change. The identified adaptations were grouped under two major headings: Increasing Ecological Resiliency to Climate Change, and Increasing Social and Economic Resiliency to Climate Change. The information generated from the science-management collaborative represents an initial and important step in identifying and prioritizing tangible steps to address climate change in forest management. Next would be the development of detailed implementation strategies that address the identified management adaptations..

Instagram has become the rising star of social media marketing platforms. It is a very attractive option to marketers that are growing frustrated with Facebook’s algorithm changes. Instagram also has a very large user base. Over 116 million Americans are on this popular image sharing site. Marketers can also reach millions of users in India, […] More

Dear pigeons, Self-isolation does not mean you can SHIT on my BALCONY!!! ハトへ 外出自粛だからこそ勝手に俺のベランダでウンコするってゆるさん！🤬

Found the culprit! (犯人発見！)

Wow, you really do have a ball…🤦🏻‍♂️ (あんたやるね！🤦🏻‍♂️)

Quote of the day… Reporter: How do you achieve the 80% decrease in spreading of the virus? Respondent: A good time to dump my bf…

Instagram Stories are an integral part of the platform. Though Instagram copied Snapchat’s concept a few years ago, over 500 million accounts use the Stories feature on a daily basis. Some users...

Some of the problems we work on as UX researchers are simple and are easily solved by getting users in front of our product. But other problems can be complex and it's hard to know how to start solving them. In situations like that, a simple 2x2 diagram can cut through the 'what ifs', the 'how abouts' and the edge cases and provide a simple way of looking at the problem. Here are 10 examples of 2x2 diagrams to simplify UX research discussions.

Instagram is one of the most efficient and fastest growing social networks. Brands and businesses love it and leverage it to promote and market their products and services to billions of users worldwide. More and more brands are competing for declining customer attention whose span is now no more than a Goldfish’s at 8s. Hence, […]

Original post: 7 Simple Ways to Get Even More Engaged Instagram Followers

The post 7 Simple Ways to Get Even More Engaged Instagram Followers appeared first on Daily Blog Tips.

Have you noticed extra-long and weirdly stretched images on your Instagram feed? It looks like some kind of a glitch has appeared, allowing users to post images like this to their followers. Of course, some Instagrammers have made the use of it to draw attention, and if you want to have some fun (or annoy […]

The post Weird glitch lets you post insanely long photos to Instagram appeared first on DIY Photography.

We introduce the conormal fan of a matroid M, which is a Lagrangian analog of the Bergman fan of M. We use the conormal fan to give a Lagrangian interpretation of the Chern-Schwartz-MacPherson cycle of M. This allows us to express the h-vector of the broken circuit complex of M in terms of the intersection theory of the conormal fan of M. We also develop general tools for tropical Hodge theory to prove that the conormal fan satisfies Poincar'e duality, the hard Lefschetz theorem, and the Hodge-Riemann relations. The Lagrangian interpretation of the Chern-Schwartz-MacPherson cycle of M, when combined with the Hodge-Riemann relations for the conormal fan of M, implies Brylawski's and Dawson's conjectures that the h-vectors of the broken circuit complex and the independence complex of M are log-concave sequences.

In this work we study the dynamical behavior Tonelli Lagrangian systems defined on the tangent bundle of the torus $mathbb{T}^2=mathbb{R}^2 / mathbb{Z}^2$. We prove that the Lagrangian flow restricted to a high energy level $ E_L^{-1}(c)$ (i.e $ c> c_0(L)$) has positive topological entropy if the flow satisfies the Kupka-Smale propriety in $ E_L^{-1}(c)$ (i.e, all closed orbit with energy $c$ are hyperbolic or elliptic and all heteroclinic intersections are transverse on $E_L^{-1}(c)$). The proof requires the use of well-known results in Aubry-Mather's Theory.

We propose an augmented Lagrangian preconditioner for a three-field stress-velocity-pressure discretization of stationary non-Newtonian incompressible flow with an implicit constitutive relation of power-law type. The discretization employed makes use of the divergence-free Scott-Vogelius pair for the velocity and pressure. The preconditioner builds on the work [P. E. Farrell, L. Mitchell, and F. Wechsung, SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 41 (2019), pp. A3073-A3096], where a Reynolds-robust preconditioner for the three-dimensional Newtonian system was introduced. The preconditioner employs a specialized multigrid method for the stress-velocity block that involves a divergence-capturing space decomposition and a custom prolongation operator. The solver exhibits excellent robustness with respect to the parameters arising in the constitutive relation, allowing for the simulation of a wide range of materials.

A surfactant composition for agricultural chemicals, containing fatty acid polyoxyalkylene alkyl ether expressed by the following general formula (I), R1CO(EO)m(PO)nOR2 (I) wherein the fatty acid polyoxyalkylene alkyl ether has a narrow ratio of 55% by mass or more, where the narrow ratio is expressed by the following formula (A): Narrow ratio=Σi=nMAX−2i=nMAX+2Yi (A).

A rose-like fragrance composition including methyl epijasmonate, provided that a natural jasmine fragrance containing methyl epijasmonate is excluded. The rose-like fragrance composition can also include 2-isopropyl-4-methyl thiazole.

A substrate such as a fabric may be provided with a fragrance during washing or rinsing process by the addition to the wash water of a free-flowing solid fragrance-providing composition that comprises a fragrance deposited on a particulate carrier along with a water soluble salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal.

Long-lasting fragrance delivery systems and uses of the systems to provide fragrance-emitting articles with a long-lasting fragrance are disclosed herein. The long-lasting fragrance delivery systems include an emulsion of silicone-based polyurethane, fragrance, and a carrier.

(3S,5R)-3,8-dimethyl-5-(prop-1-en-2-yl)-octahydroazulen-1-ols, their use as flavor or fragrance ingredient, and a process of their production by oxidation in the presence of laccase.

The present invention relates to a class of fragrance precursor compounds comprising one or more of the compounds derived from the reaction of X—OH and an aldehyde or ketone, the fragrance precursor compounds being of the formula X—O—C(R)(R*)(OR**) wherein R is a C6-24 alkyl group, a C6-24 aralkyl group or a C6-24 alkaryl group; R* is H or a C6-24 alkyl group, a C6-24 aralkyl group or a C6-24 alkaryl group; R** is H or X; X—O representing a moiety derived from X—OH, and wherein X—OH is a compound selected from the group consisting of surfactants, fabric softeners, softener precursor ester amines, softener precursor amido amines, hair conditioners, skin conditions, saccharides and polymers. In a second aspect it relates to a method of preparing such precusors. Further the invention relates to compositions, comprising the precursor of the invention.

The present invention relates to a class of fragrance precursor compounds comprising one or more of the compounds derived from the reaction of X—OH and an aldehyde or ketone, the fragrance precursor compounds being of the formula X—O—C(R)(R*)(OR**) wherein R is a C6-24 alkyl group, a C6-24 aralkyl group or a C6-24 alkaryl group; R* is H or a C6-24 alkyl group, a C6-24 aralkyl group or a C6-24 alkaryl group; R** is H or X; X—O representing a moiety derived from X—OH, and wherein X—OH is a compound selected from the group consisting of surfactants, fabric softeners, softener precursor ester amines, softener precursor amido amines, hair conditioners, skin conditions, saccharides and polymers. In a second aspect it relates to a method of preparing such precusors. Further the invention relates to compositions, comprising the precursor of the invention.

A topical salve to mask unpleasant smells is disclosed that consists of a composition having beeswax, eucalyptus oil, and menthol. The composition is placed under the nose of a user. The salve masks unpleasant strong odors, thereby allowing the user to perform the task at hand.

The present invention relates to a class of fragrance precursor compounds comprising one or more of the compounds derived from the reaction of X—OH and an aldehyde or ketone, the fragrance precursor compounds being of the formula X—O—C(R)(R*)(OR**) wherein R is a C6-24 alkyl group, a C6-24 aralkyl group or a C6-24 alkaryl group; R* is H or a C6-24 alkyl group, a C6-24 aralkyl group or a C6-24 alkaryl group; R** is H or X; X—O representing a moiety derived from X—OH, and wherein X—OH is a compound selected from the group consisting of surfactants, fabric softeners, softener precursor ester amines, softener precursor amido amines, hair conditioners, skin conditions, saccharides and polymers. In a second aspect it relates to a method of preparing such precusors. Further the invention relates to compositions, comprising the precursor of the invention.

The present invention relates to a class of fragrance precursor compounds comprising one or more of the compounds derived from the reaction of X—OH and an aldehyde or ketone, the fragrance precursor compounds being of the formula X—O—C(R)(R*)(OR**) wherein R is a C6-24 alkyl group, a C6-24 aralkyl group or a C6-24 alkaryl group; R* is H or a C6-24 alkyl group, a C6-24 aralkyl group or a C6-24 alkaryl group; R** is H or X; X—O representing a moiety derived from X—OH, and wherein X—OH is a compound selected from the group consisting of surfactants, fabric softeners, softener precursor ester amines, softener precursor amido amines, hair conditioners, skin conditions, saccharides and polymers. In a second aspect it relates to a method of preparing such precursors. Further the invention relates to compositions, comprising the precursor of the invention.

Compositions are provided that provide release of fragrance over an extended period of time. The compositions comprise a hydrophilically-modified cross-linked silicone elastomer and an acrylic rheology modifier.

A film formed from a water-soluble polymer matrix within which is contained at least one fragrance is provided. The film is water-sensitive (e.g., water-soluble, water-dispersible, etc.) so that upon contact with a sufficient amount of water, the polymer matrix loses its integrity over time to increasingly expose the fragrance to the ambient environment for releasing its odor. The ability to incorporate a fragrance into the polymer matrix is achieved in the present invention by controlling a variety of aspects of the film construction, including the nature of the fragrance, the nature of the water-soluble polymer, the manner in which the polymer matrix and fragrance are melt processed, etc. For example, the fragrance may be injected directly into the extruder and melt blended with the water-soluble polymer. In this manner, the costly and time-consuming steps of pre-encapsulation or pre-compounding of the fragrance into a masterbatch are not required. Furthermore, to obtain a balance between the ability of the fragrance to release the desired odor during use and likewise to minimize the premature exhaustion of the odor during melt processing, the fragrance is selected to have a boiling point (at atmospheric pressure) within a certain range, such as from about 125° C. to about 350° C.

A fragrance mixture, preferably perfume oil, is described, comprising the constituents (a) (cyclopent-2-enyl ethyl acetate) and additionally (b) one or a plurality of fragrances, preferably with a floral odor note, from the group consisting of alcohols and aldehydes with a molecular weight of 210 g/mol or less and/or (c) one or a plurality of fragrances from the group consisting of ketones, ethers and esters with a molecular weight in the range from 190 g/mol through 250 g/mol.

1-(3/4-isobutyl-1/6-methylcyclohex-3-enyl)methanols and derivatives thereof having appreciable floral and hesperidic odor notes, their use as fragrance ingredient and perfumed products comprising them.

The present invention comprises formulations comprising at least one pesticide and at least one co-polymer comprising a) 1-vinyl-2-pyrrolidinone as comonomer a); and b) 60-99 wt % at least one comonomer b) chosen from the group of laurylacrylate and vinyl ester of neodecanoic acid in polymerized form, methods of combating harmful insects and/or phytopathogenic fungi, a method of controlling undesired vegetation and methods of improving the health of plants based on the afore-mentioned formulations.

The present invention is directed towards microcapsules, uses and methods of microencapsulation with improved properties regarding agglomeration, bleeding and control of the reaction. The invention is especially suitable for chemical compounds with at least one carboxamide group, preferably for microencapsulation of those compounds wherein the carbonyl group is attached to a nitrogen atom or nitrogenated heterocycle and wherein the microencapsulation reaction may be too vigorous. The microcapsules are characterized by a mixed glycoluril-polyurea polymer wall, wherein the polyurea groups come from a urea-formaldehyde resin and not from isocyanate monomers or prepolymers. The process of making such microcapsules a dispersant in the oil phase of the type of block copolymer of vinylpyrrolidone/vinylalkene and/or vinylpyrrolidone/vinyl acetate and the microencapsulation reaction may be carried out without the presence of any polyamine/polyol acting as a catalyst.

The present invention relates to an pesticidal composition comprising an effective amount of a sulphur; an effective amount of at least one insecticide selected from the group consisting of cartap fipronil, pirimicarb, buprofezine, thiachloprid, acetamiprid, clothianidin, diafenthiuron, novaluron, flubendiamide, spirotetramat, thiamethoxam, imidacloprid or salts thereof, and at least one agrochemically acceptable excipient.

Disclosed herein are mesocapsules that include agriculturally active ingredients. These mesocapsules are comprised of a polyurea shell and include hydrophilic groups on their surfaces and have a volume-average diameter of about 500 nm or less and some of them have a volume-average diameter on the order of about 300 nm or less. These mesocapsules are suited for delivering active ingredients that are not very soluble in water. Methods for making these mesocapsules include interfacial polycondensation reactions carried out in the presence of surfactants and other methods in which all or most of the surfactant is replaced by adding amino acids to the aqueous phase of the interfacial reaction mixture before forming the final emulsion.

Bioactive agrichemical concentrates and compositions having improved bioactivity comprising combinations of acid solutions and conventional bioactive agrichemical actives or formulations.

A grain cleaning system of an agricultural combine directs a flow of high velocity air in a first direction about an inlet end of a cleaning shoe. The system further monitors the cleaning shoe in order to detect a change in an operational parameter of the cleaning shoe, wherein the operational parameter is one of a transient effect of a sieve of the cleaning shoe, a flow rate about and exit end of the cleaning shoe and a flow velocity about an exit end of the cleaning shoe. Further, the flow of high velocity air about the inlet end of the cleaning shoe can be redirected in a second direction in response to a detected change in the operational parameter.

A support assembly for supporting a moveable member of an agricultural combine is provided. The support assembly includes a moveable member, such as a foldable chaff pan assembly for spreading chaff and other crop residue from the rear of an agricultural combine, a support member and a resilient member connected to the support member for supporting the moveable member. The resilient member can be configured as an arched shaped or cylindrically shaped member.

An agricultural combine having an adjustable spreader assembly is provided that includes a spreader with one or a pair of regulators. The spreader includes a discharge opening about its lateral side. The regulator is pivotably connected to the lateral side of the spreader such that the regulator is in fluid communication with the discharge opening. The regulator can be configured to move from a retracted position to an extended position or to vary the direction of discharge of crop residue. The spreader can be a vertical spreader, a horizontal spreader, or a spread board.