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Statistical methods used for delineation of field management zones and yield stability are frequently only applied to relatively small areas, with few studies performing rotational, whole-farm economic spatiotemporal appraisals. To enable accurate economic analysis, yield map datasets must contain minimal errors while cleaning procedures are often used to remove errors, it is rare that cleaned data is validated before its application. The objective of this study was to process, validate and combine spatial statistical approaches for a rotational yield map dataset from a whole-farm across 7 crops in a winter wheat based rotation. Developing a framework for using validated yield map datasets to support precision agriculture techniques that are applicable for farm-level decision making. The rotational completeness of a 10 year combine yield map dataset for a 435 ha farm in Eastern England was assessed. The dataset was cleaned statistically, and its accuracy assessed by comparison with recorded yields from trailer weigh cells. The cleaned, validated, and corrected yield map dataset was used to identify management zones across the whole farm using fuzzy clustering. The temporal stability of management zones and economic performance across the rotation was also assessed. Data cleaning methods removed 16% of data points, improving the degree of spatial correlation within the individual yield maps. Independent validation demonstrated varied accuracy of yield maps from combine harvester data and errors in wheat ranged from 0.53 to 1.53 t/ha RMSE. These errors have implications for researchers using combine yield data to develop and validate precision agriculture technologies. This data set required correction before yield data can be applied with confidence for on-farm decision making. Compared to the zones with the highest margin in each field, 34% of zones had an average annual margin loss of >£100 ha. The temporal stability of the resulting management zones also varied. Areas with the lowest economic performance and greatest yield stability across years will potentially see the greatest economic and environmental benefits from precision agriculture techniques. The accuracy of combine yield map data should not be assumed. The application of these datasets, including for the identification of management zones or in developing precision agriculture techniques should attempt to address this through data cleaning and validation procedures. Only then should it be used for on farm decision making, such as identifying areas with the most economic benefit by applying precision agriculture tools such as variable rate nutrient applications. [Display omitted] • Whole-farm spatial appraisals are rare and often without yield data validation. • We processed, validated and analysed a ten year whole-farm yield map data set. • Wheat yield map data had a RMSE of 1.0 t/ha with a mean error of 8.1%. • 33% of the farm was losing >£100/ha compared to the best performing zone per field. • Yield data validation is required when developing precision agriculture techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The remarkable success of SARS CoV-2 mRNA-based vaccines and the ensuing interest in mRNA vaccines and therapeutics have highlighted the need for a scalable clinical-enabling manufacturing process to produce such products, and robust analytical methods to demonstrate safety, potency, and purity. To date, production processes have either not been disclosed or are bench-scale in nature and cannot be readily adapted to clinical and commercial scale production. To address these needs, we have advanced an aqueous-based scalable process that is readily adaptable to GMP-compliant manufacturing, and developed the required analytical methods for product characterization, quality control release, and stability testing. We also have demonstrated the products produced at manufacturing scale under such approaches display good potency and protection in relevant animal models with mRNA products encoding both vaccine immunogens and antibodies. Finally, we discuss continued challenges in raw material identification, sourcing and supply, and the cold chain requirements for mRNA therapeutic and vaccine products. While ultimate solutions have yet to be elucidated, we discuss approaches that can be taken that are aligned with regulatory guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationally-engineered functional biomaterials offer the opportunity to interface with complex biology in a predictive, precise, yet dynamic way to reprogram their behaviour and correct shortcomings. Success here may lead to a desired therapeutic effect against life-threatening diseases, such as cancer. Here, we engineered "Crab"-like artificial ribonucleases through coupling of peptide and nucleic acid building blocks, capable of operating alongside and synergistically with intracellular enzymes (RNase H and AGO2) for potent destruction of oncogenic microRNAs. "Crab"-like configuration of two catalytic peptides ("pincers") flanking the recognition oligonucleotide was instrumental here in providing increased catalytic turnover, leading to ≈30-fold decrease in miRNA half-life as compared with that for " single-pincer" conjugates. Dynamic modeling of miRNA cleavage illustrated how such design enabled "Crabs" to drive catalytic turnover through simultaneous attacks at different locations of the RNA-DNA heteroduplex, presumably by producing smaller cleavage products and by providing toeholds for competitive displacement by intact miRNA strands. miRNA cleavage at the 5′-site, spreading further into double-stranded region, likely provided a synergy for RNase H1 through demolition of its loading region, thus facilitating enzyme turnover. Such synergy was critical for sustaining persistent disposal of continually-emerging oncogenic miRNAs. A single exposure to the best structural variant (Crab-p-21) prior to transplantation into mice suppressed their malignant properties and reduced primary tumor volume (by 85 %) in MCF-7 murine xenograft models. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2005.12.009 Byline: Stephen H. Jones (a), David B. Clarke (b) Abstract: Against the background of the broad intellectual response to the events of 9/11, the paper examines the complicity of the media in the West's so-called War on Terror. Rejecting erroneous conceptions of a conspiratorial state control of the media (and consequent distortion of the picture of a given reality), the paper focuses primarily on the form of the media: its role in distorting the nature of reality itself. By elucidating problems with the kind of media analysis that portrays the media as a propaganda machine, the significance of the mediasphere itself is highlighted. The paper considers the media's role in promulgating the myth of antagonistic collective identities ('Us'vs. 'Them'); in promoting a desire that subjugates the individual to the social formations that feed off it; in sustaining a range of fundamentalisms; and in characterizing terrorism as Evil incarnate. The paper thus offers a sympathetic reassessment of Baudrillard's consistent attempt to engage with the geopolitics of the real, measured against a contrasting range of responses from Badiou, Latour, A1/2iA3/4ek, and others. Author Affiliation: (a) Sociology Department, Goldsmiths College, University of London, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, UK (b) Department of Geography, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2003.08.022 Byline: David B. Clarke (a), Marcus A. Doel (b) Abstract: The paper investigates the 'motionless trips' enabled by 19th-century visual technologies such as the magic lantern, phantasmagoria, panorama, and diorama. Although these technologies are often held to have culminated with the appearance of animated photography (film) in the 1890s, we argue that they possessed their own autotelic significance. Paralleling the transformations wrought upon reality by cultures of transport such as the railway, the visual attractions referred to here also reconfigured reality. For whilst they were frequently employed to simulate the transportation of the spectator not only to distant locations but also through time, the most profound journey these developments accomplished was a voyage into the abstract fabric of space and time itself. The abstraction of space and time as a material independent of actuality, and its re-engineering into new configurations, was eventually perfected in the cinema: a space-and-time machine that spliced together the 'mobility' of the magic lantern, Phenakistiscope, and Praxinoscope; the 'space-lapse' of the panorama; the 'time-lapse' of the diorama and chrono-photography; the realism of photography; and the haptical obscenity of the stereoscope. Author Affiliation: (a) School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK (b) Department of Geography, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea, Wales SA2 8PP, UK

The recent COVID-19 pandemic shows the critical need for novel broad spectrum antiviral agents. Scorpion venoms are known to contain highly bioactive peptides, several of which have demonstrated strong antiviral activity against a range of viruses. We have generated the first annotated reference transcriptome for the Androctonus amoreuxi venom gland and used high performance liquid chromatography, transcriptome mining, circular dichroism and mass spectrometric analysis to purify and characterize twelve previously undescribed venom peptides. Selected peptides were tested for binding to the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and inhibition of the spike RBD – human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) interaction using surface plasmon resonance-based assays. Seven peptides showed dose-dependent inhibitory effects, albeit with IC 50 in the high micromolar range (117–1202 µM). The most active peptide was synthesized using solid phase peptide synthesis and tested for its antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 (Lineage B.1.1.7). On exposure to the synthetic peptide of a human lung cell line infected with replication-competent SARS-CoV-2, we observed an IC 50 of 200 nM, which was nearly 600-fold lower than that observed in the RBD – hACE2 binding inhibition assay. Our results show that scorpion venom peptides can inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 replication although unlikely through inhibition of spike RBD – hACE2 interaction as the primary mode of action. Scorpion venom peptides represent excellent scaffolds for design of novel anti-SARS-CoV-2 constrained peptides. Future studies should fully explore their antiviral mode of action as well as the structural dynamics of inhibition of target virus-host interactions. [Display omitted] • The first annotated reference transcriptome for the scorpion Androctonus amoreuxi venomous gland has been reported. • Twelve venom peptides were identified using mass spectrometric fragmentation analysis and transcriptomic analysis. • Inhibition of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein - human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 interaction was tested. • A synthetic venom peptide has showed an anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity at nanomolar concentrations in cell-based assay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structure and morphological properties of polymers produced photochemically from the UV irradiation of cyanoacetylene and cyanoacetylene mixtures have been examined to evaluate their possible contribution to the haze layers found on Titan. A structural analysis of these polymers may contribute to our understanding of the data returned from the Huygens probe of the Cassini mission that will pass through the atmosphere of Titan in the year 2004. Infrared analysis, elemental analysis, and thermal methods (thermogravimetric analysis, thermolysis, pyrolysis) were used to examine structures of polycyanoacetylenes produced by irradiation of the gas phase H[C.sub.3]N at 185 and 254 nm. The resulting brown to black polymer, which exists as small particles, is believed to be a branched chain of conjugated carbon-carbon double bonds, which, on exposure to heat, cyclizes to form a graphitic structure. Similar methods of analysis were used to show that when H[C.sub.3]N is photolyzed in the presence of Titan's other atmospheric constituents (C[H.sub.4], [C.sub.2][H.sub.6], [C.sub.2][H.sub.2], and CO), a copolymer is formed in which the added gases are incorporated as substituents on the polymer chain. Of special significance is the copolymer of H[C.sub.3]N and acetylene ([C.sub.2][H.sub.2]). Even in experiments where [C.sub.2][H.sub.2] was absorbing nearly all of the incident photons, the ratio of [C.sub.2][H.sub.2] to H[C.sub.3]N found in the resulting polymer was only 2:1. Scanning electron microscopy was used to visually examine the polymer particles. While pure polyacetylene particles are amorphous spheres roughly 1 [[micro]meter] in diameter, polycyanoacetylenes appear to be strands of rough, solid particles slightly smaller in size. The copolymer of H[C.sub.3]N and [C.sub.2][H.sub.2] exhibits characteristics of both pure polymers. This is particularly important as pure polyacetylenes do not match the optical constants measured for Titan's atmospheric hazes. The copolymers produced by the incorporation of other minor atmospheric constituents, like H[C.sub.3]N, into the polyacetylenes are expected to have optical constants more comparable to those of the Titan haze.

Previous research has failed to adequately explain the primary and secondary processes resulting from the cyanoacetylene's ultraviolet irradiation. However, combining the quantum yield and reaction threshold when cyanoacetylene is photochemically dissociated into a hydrogen atom and the cyanoethynyl radical shows the major primary process from irradiation to be the production of excited-state cyanoacetylene. The impact of these findings on methane's conversion into ethane and the protection of unsaturated compounds from photoconsumption in Titan's atmosphere is analyzed.