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RATING: 2 / 5 stars
By Chris Moore:
I had read many reviews of this album long before I ever listened to it, and they were all good. They weren’t simply good reviews. Rather, Rolling Stone among others made this out to be the most incredible Springsteen album in years, if ever. Thus, my expectations were high when I bought Devils and Dust late one night and eagerly cranked it up for my half hour drive home.
The first track—the title track—is a nice start to a dark album, but I found myself disappointed quickly. Perhaps it was because I expected more upbeat songs, a la The Rising. Or perhaps it was because I was driving home with the windows open, cool breeze in my face, and I was having trouble hearing what Springsteen was singing. Whatever the reason, I quickly became disappointed with the release and told my friends why I thought it was overrated.
While I have not decided to declare this a veritable masterpiece that I initially overlooked, I must admit that my opinion of the album has softened with time. What helped to change my mind was viewing the DVD side of this DualDisc release. While the stripped-down nature of the studio recordings initially turned me off—and I usually have nothing against bare bones recordings—his live, solo acoustic performances allowed me to hear the songs for themselves, independent of my initial expectations. Springsteen appeared Dylan-esque, complete with acoustic guitar and harmonica rack. I loved “Devils and Dust” all the more here for its directness, for its simplicity. Suddenly, it was as though he was singing an old folk song—a well-written, dark yet catchy number. “Long Time Comin’” stood out to me again, having been one of my favorite album tracks.
There was something in Springsteen’s commentary in between songs that captured my interest and sparked my respect for the man. He seemed to be legitimately interested in writing minimalist songs as personal narratives both autobiographical and fictional. “Reno” is the perfect example of this captivating and revolting blend between the real and the conjured, the noble and the pitiful that he is able to weave together so well. In the best songs on this album, Springsteen exposes a subtle poetic sensibility that lends credibility and interest to his work. In subsequent listenings, I have found myself most taken in by these occasionally vivid and descriptive turns of phrase.
Still, I don’t quite understand some of the choices he made for the songs on this album. For instance, why did he sing the penultimate track, “All I’m Thinkin’ About,” in the odd, cracked voice manner that he did? Furthermore, why did he choose some of the subject matter that he did? What are the Matamoros Banks and would it make a difference if we knew? After all, I wonder why he would sing such a pretty song about a place that I have difficulty relating to, even after he has described it through his song. These are the moments — hearing him sing in unusual manners for no apparent reason and memorializing specific places that I have difficulty understanding the importance of — that I wonder what is so masterful about this album. It is a decent album, to be sure, and contains some good songs, but it is more of a return to roots than a step forward.
For all that I am impressed with the earthiness of the songs, the fervent attention to immortalizing the devils and the dust, I am still most in awe of a song like “Jesus Was An Only Son.” For its interesting depiction of an oft-discussed historical figure/son of God/son of man, for its flowing tune, and for its haunting organ riffing in the background, I wonder what the album would have been like if as much attention had been paid to the other tracks.
While its slow, gritty ballads pay homage to its namesake, I can’t help but note that if the album had been comprised of “Devils and Dust”’s and “Jesus Was An Only Son”’s, I may have called it masterful.


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Feeding a growing world population amidst climate change requires optimizing the reliability, resource use, and environmental impacts of food production. One way to assist in achieving these goals is to integrate beneficial plant microbiomes—i.e., those enhancing plant growth, nutrient use efficiency, abiotic stress tolerance, and disease resistance—into agricultural production. This integration will require a large-scale effort among academic researchers, industry researchers, and farmers to understand and manage plant-microbiome interactions in the context of modern agricultural systems. Here, we identify priorities for research in this area: (1) develop model host–microbiome systems for crop plants and non-crop plants with associated microbial culture collections and reference genomes, (2) define core microbiomes and metagenomes in these model systems, (3) elucidate the rules of synthetic, functionally programmable microbiome assembly, (4) determine functional mechanisms of plant-microbiome interactions, and (5) characterize and refine plant genotype-by-environment-by-microbiome-by-management interactions. Meeting these goals should accelerate our ability to design and implement effective agricultural microbiome manipulations and management strategies, which, in turn, will pay dividends for both the consumers and producers of the world food supply.
Citation: Busby PE, Soman C, Wagner MR, Friesen ML, Kremer J, Bennett A, et al. (2017) Research priorities for harnessing plant microbiomes in sustainable agriculture. PLoS Biol 15(3): e2001793. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2001793
Published: March 28, 2017
Copyright: © 2017 Busby et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: National Science Foundation www.nsf.org (grant number 1519383).Received by PEB and CS. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. National Science Foundation www.nsf.org (grant number 1314095).Received by PEB. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Provenance: Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
A growing appreciation of microbial diversity and function in combination with advances in omics (i.e., the study of large-scale biological datasets, including genes, transcripts, proteins and metabolites) and data analytics technologies are fueling rapid advances in microbiome research. One driving motivation—harnessing beneficial microbes and reducing impacts of detrimental microbes—is common to both humans and crop plants. The National Institutes of Health-funded Human Microbiome Project  and the parallel European Union effort  helped develop resources and define research goals for long-term directed growth in the field. A coordinated research effort for plant microbiomes, analogous to the Human Microbiome Project, is needed to accelerate the integration of beneficial plant microbiomes into modern agricultural practices that are under strain from human population growth and a changing global climate.
Studies to date have explored plant microbiome structure and function under natural and agricultural environments in both model and crop plant species, including Arabidopsis thaliana [3–6], barley (Hordeum vulgare) , soybean (Glycine max) [6,8,9], corn (Zea mays) , wheat (Triticum aestivum) [11,12], rice (Oryza sativa) [13–15], and cottonwood trees (Populus trichocarpa) ; however, there has been no coordinated effort to consolidate and translate new ideas into practical solutions for farmers. This stems both from a lack of coordination among academic and industry researchers and from a disconnect between researchers and farmers. Here, we outline a core set of research priorities (Box 1) and discuss how they will contribute to microbiome management strategies designed to enhance the sustainability of food production.
Box 1. Agricultural microbiome research priorities
- Develop model host–microbiome systems for crop plants and non-crop plants with associated microbial culture collections and reference genomes
- Define core microbiomes and metagenomes in model host–microbiome systems
- Elucidate the rules of synthetic, functionally programmable microbiome assembly
- Determine functional mechanisms of plant–microbiome interactions
- Characterize and refine plant genotype-by-environment-by-microbiome-by-management interactions
Ever since their origin hundreds of millions of years ago, plants have lived in association with microbes. Among the multitude of host functions that microbes influence are nutrient uptake [17–19], defense [20–23], and phenology . Moreover, the metagenomic potential of the plant-associated microbiome could conceivably dwarf the genomic abilities of plants and, thus, represents a vast, largely untapped reservoir for improved host function. For these reasons, integrating beneficial microbiomes into agricultural systems offers the potential to greatly improve the efficiency of crop plant production [25–28].
While beneficial microbial communities in modern agriculture have been underutilized, efforts to integrate individual microbes into agriculture date back to the 1800s, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommended inoculations for legume crops, following experiments demonstrating that rhizobium bacteria colonize nodules and fix nitrogen for their plant hosts . In the past few decades, individual microbes have been inoculated onto crop plants to promote growth, nitrogen and phosphorus uptake , and disease resistance . However, these efforts have focused almost exclusively on individual microbial strains  and have met with variable success that is typically attributed to the complexity of microbial communities and their interactions with the environment in field settings. Here, we argue that the focus should be on understanding and managing the range from single strains, through synthetic consortia, to whole microbiomes for plant benefit.
A crucial step in coordinating the study of whole plant microbiomes in an agricultural context is the development and implementation of protocol standards. The American Academy of Microbiology , Unified Microbiome Initiative , Report on the Fast-Track Action Committee on Mapping the Microbiome , American Phytopathological Society , Earth Microbiome Project , Genomic Standards Consortium , and National Microbiome Initiative  have each called for the standardization of data collection, processing, and analysis. This effort is underway with guidance from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. Many of the same initiatives listed above have also defined knowledge gaps and research priorities in plant microbiome research. The earlier efforts called for the discovery and description of taxonomic diversity, while more recent emphasis has been placed on elucidating the functional roles of microbiomes. The goal of this paper is not to review these efforts; rather, our objective is to communicate a set of research priorities that should specifically accelerate the integration of plant-associated microbiomes into sustainable agriculture. These priorities reflect both basic and applied goals that can be achieved over the next 5–10 years.
In addition to outlining research priorities, we strongly urge that new research in agricultural microbiomes involve farmers at the onset. Farmers are local experts on crops and land, and are, thus, valuable research partners. For example, farmers played an important role in the discovery of disease-suppressive soils that later became the subject of intensive study and interest to managers [21,40]. In addition to incorporating local knowledge into research, establishing open lines of communication with famers will lead to a greater appreciation of farmers’ objectives and, ultimately, to the translation of research to the field.
1. Model plant-microbiome systems
A model organism is a platform for discovery and hypothesis generation. Systems-level interactions among two or more model organisms, such as host-pathogen or host-symbiont relationships, can likewise shed light on broadly applicable mechanisms of disease and/or symbiosis. In addition to tractability, the power of model systems resides in community-accessible resources, including genome annotation projects, curated mutant collections, standardized protocols, central data repositories, and large-scale field experiments. Establishing these resources will enable research on agricultural microbiomes spanning the full spectrum from the petri dish to the greenhouse to the field.
As an emerging community, plant microbiome researchers must both develop new model systems and build upon established systems to incorporate communities of microorganisms. Large-scale microbial isolation efforts and genome sequencing projects will be necessary to establish culture collections, and coordinated community efforts are necessary to develop a set of standardized protocols and growth platforms to maximize the interoperability of experimental data. One example of a successful, yet non-agricultural, model for plant microbiome research is a small flowering angiosperm in the mustard family, A. thaliana. However, the Arabidopsis system has limitations, such as the lack of symbiotic relationships with nodulating nitrogen-fixers and mycorrhizal fungi, as well as genomic and phenotypic differences from important crops, many of which are monocots. Thus, numerous model systems are needed.
A suite of model plant species is required to understand which processes will translate to crops at varying evolutionary distances . Progress has been made towards the establishment of model host–microbiome systems for the legume Medicago , Populus , rice [13,15,44–46], Sorghum , Miscanthus , maize [49,50], and tomato . All of these model organisms have fully sequenced genomes and growing communities of researchers to extend their utility for microbiome research. Coordinated efforts to establish public resources, such as repositories and curated databases for sequenced culture collections of associated microbiota, are necessary for full maturation of model systems. Collectively, a multidisciplinary community comprising academic and commercial plant microbiome scientists, with support from funding agencies, is necessary to establish effective model systems to elucidate plant-microbiome interactions with maximum interoperability—a critical step towards establishing a knowledge base for sustainable high-yielding agriculture innovation.
2. Defining the core plant microbiome and core plant metagenome
In addition to model systems and culture collections, targeted studies of agricultural microbiomes in the field provide key foundational knowledge that can lead to innovation in several ways. First, identification of the “core” microbiome—the set of microbial taxa that are found in most samples of a particular set of plants [3,4,52,53]—will help to identify plant-associated microbes that should be prioritized for further research, inclusion in culture collections, and manipulative experiments. Plant microbiota are highly diverse, yet not all of these microbes play functionally important roles in their host’s biology. Defining the core microbiome enables researchers to filter out transient associations and refine focus on stable taxa with a greater likelihood of influencing host phenotype. Culture-independent surveys (such as sequencing ITS and 16S rRNA amplicons) of large numbers of microbiomes of the same plant species from a variety of environments—as opposed to very deep sequencing of a few plant microbiomes—would improve progress towards this goal and could be followed up by selective culturing of candidate core microbiota.
Second, in addition to a taxonomically defined core microbiome based on phylogenetic differences, identifying a functional core is important because constituent microbes are likely to be adaptive. The functional core can be identified by using metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approaches to discover shared predicted functions that are likely important for the given set of plants studied . Extrapolation from phylogenetic marker genes such as ITS provides only limited functional information. In contrast, targeted metagenomics of functional genes and shotgun metagenomics give us a better insight into community functional potential , while metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics, and metabolomics reveal the functional community phenotype. By combining multi-omic approaches among large sample sizes of plants, we can identify core community functionality and identify the extent of taxonomic functional redundancy.
Third, comparing the core microbiomes or metagenomes among key groups of plants or among genotypes of the same plant species could reveal host-driven differences in microbiome assembly. Soil is the major source of microbes that comprise the plant microbiome , though some cases of seed-borne vertical transmission have been noted , and the atmosphere also contributes to above-ground plant microbiota . Plants of different species or genotypes form largely common core microbiota, at taxonomic ranks of family and higher from the same environmental “inoculum” (Fig 1A, Fig 2A) [4,5,13,24,50,58,59]. Two related questions are: to what extent does the host influence microbiome assembly, and is within-species host genetic variation sufficient for breeding improved microbiome associations? Studies typically find broad-sense heritability of only approximately 5%–7% [24,50], so the ability of microbiome-related traits to respond to classic artificial selection may be limited. However, microbiomes could be engineered to increase heritability , and targeted breeding approaches may succeed once we have the foundational knowledge of the host molecular basis of microbiome assembly.
(A) Plant genotype and environmental properties (both biotic and abiotic) synergistically determine plant phenotypes. (B) Plant phenotypic traits influence the subset of microbes from the ambient community—which itself may partly reflect deterministic evolutionary processes like local adaptation to abiotic stresses—that colonize organs to form the crop microbiome. (C) The definition of a “healthy” or “beneficial” microbiome—one that improves yield—likely depends on the particular environmental challenges (both biotic and abiotic) experienced by a plant and the degree to which the plant’s phenotype is already adapted to those challenges. (D, E) Management methods primarily influence yield by altering the dynamics of genotype x environment x microbiome interactions, but can also modify the crop microbiome directly (e.g., microbial seed coating or other microbiome applications that may result from the stated research priorities).
(A) Illustration of varying outcomes of inoculating with a five-member consortium (colored non-rod shapes) in the presence of a diverse environmental microbial pool (gray rod shapes). Three cultivars are depicted growing in three different regimes: a normal year, a drought year, and low-input management. Genotype effects: In a normal year, Cultivar A is colonized by all five members of the inoculant consortium, while cultivar B is colonized only by yellow spheres and cultivar C is colonized only by teal stars. Environment/management effects: Compared to the normal year, the drought year shows higher colonization by blue ovals and the environmental microbial pool, while under low-input management all cultivars show increased colonization by the green spiky ovals, e.g., a nitrogen-fixer. A genotype-by-environment interaction is depicted by cultivar B only associating with the cyan clouds under low-input management, while cultivar C does not. We note that while interactions between microbes are not shown explicitly, these could be useful in efforts to manipulate microbiomes; e.g., the yellow circles and the cyan clouds always occur together. (B) Temporal dynamics of two communities after a disturbance event (e.g., pathogen attack, high temperature). The more resilient community recovers to its initial state after perturbation, while the less resilient community does not and is displaced entirely by members of the environmental microbial pool. We note that if the growth benefits are provided early in growth by the inoculum, an ecologically fragile community may still be able to enhance crop productivity.
Fourth, comparing the core microbiota of genetically distinct plant groups could reveal plant genes and functional traits that influence microbiome assembly. The mechanisms by which hosts winnow the ambient community to form their microbiota are not fully understood, although plant functional traits such as cuticle composition , root length and exudates [44,61], and plant defenses (immunity)  have been implicated (Fig 1B). Cuticle and root traits should directly influence colonization by a wide range of microbial species, whereas host–microbe interactions influencing individual microbes (e.g., rhizobia, mycorrhizae) may have indirect effects on later-arriving microbes . In addition, crop species or cultivars that reliably assemble different microbiomes could be relying on their microbiota to fill different needs, especially if the plants are adapted to specific environmental challenges .
Finally, because the crop microbiome, plant phenotype, and environment interact to affect yield (Fig 1C), comparing the core microbiomes and metagenomes of plants grown in contrasting environments should provide key insights. Microbes that are especially common in challenging environments are more likely to protect yield under stresses such as drought, heat, salinity, heavy metals, disease, and herbivory (Fig 2A) . For instance, the core metatranscriptomes of plants grown in dry soil could differ from those of plants grown in the same soil under well-watered conditions, providing clues about which microbial genes might contribute to drought tolerance . This approach is particularly powerful when combined factorially with a comparison between stress-resistant and susceptible cultivars in challenging versus unchallenging environments. Additionally, metagenome-wide association studies, in which variants in the metagenome (such as the presence/absence of a certain microbial gene) are used to predict host phenotype , could nominate subsets of the microbiome that play key roles in host performance under the major stressors facing agriculture today and in the near future.
3. Rules of microbiome assembly and resilience
Beyond knowledge of the identity and functional attributes of microbes present in crop plant “core” microbiomes, determining the rules by which microbes assemble into those communities will be essential for any attempt to manipulate or manage the agricultural microbiome. The extraordinary complexity of plant microbial communities presents a daunting barrier to fully understanding the ecology of plant-associated microbiomes, and for this reason the links between microbiome assembly and plant performance are still poorly understood . Therefore, we recommend prioritizing research aimed at designing synthetic microbial communities that can successfully colonize plant organs and persist long enough in natural environments to confer benefits to the host.
One key question is: what properties of a synthetic microbial community make it more likely to colonize plant organs? Microbial genes that are reliably represented in core metagenomes—and are enriched in plant microbiomes compared to soil—are good candidates for essential functions that improve colonization ability. Community properties such as phylogenetic diversity or species richness might also impact colonization success; these could be systematically explored in the lab using gnotobiotic model systems and culture collections . Once a synthetic community has colonized a plant, what properties allow it to resist invasion and displacement by microbes that are abundant in the surrounding environment? What properties confer resistance to abiotic challenges, or at least the ability to rebound from such perturbations (Fig 2B)? These could be the same as, or different from, the properties that enabled the initial colonization. All of these questions could be initially addressed in gnotobiotic systems in the lab and then tested in greenhouse and field experiments.
In addition to genetic properties of the microbiome, the method of microbiome inoculation can play a major role in its success, as demonstrated by years of agronomic work optimizing delivery of single strains via seed coatings, clay particles, and peat. Development of effective microbiome inoculation strategies for agriculture may include seeding multiple characterized microbial species into resilient particles for delivery via air, water, soil, or novel delivery systems such as insect vectors. However, efforts to maximize colonization ability should also ensure that synthetic communities are not so aggressive that they invade local ecosystems and negatively affect soil health, neighboring plants, or future crops .
Finally, what external factors affect the success of a beneficial synthetic microbiome? Synthetic communities may need to be robust to variation in host phenotypic traits that influence assembly, or they may need to be tailored to colonize particular crop species (Fig 1B). Similarly, the colonization ability or resilience of a given community will depend on the environment. Understanding both abiotic (e.g., temperature, light, acidity, nutrient and water availability) and biotic factors (e.g., competition, predation, parasitism, mutualism within the microbiome) influencing microbiome assembly  will be essential for any attempt to manage agricultural microbiomes. Testing the influence of biotic factors will be particularly difficult for microbes that cannot be cultured independently. For example, microbes can be “linked” to other microbes by strong interactions (e.g., mycoparasitism). Network analysis can be particularly useful for identifying linked microbes and “hub” microbes, akin to keystone species, that interact strongly with many other microbes and thereby strongly impact both the structure and function of the community . Comparisons of microbiomes across habitats [72,73], the addition or removal of a single biotic component [71,74], dilution experiments , and pioneering work manipulating culturable bacteria [62,71] are beginning to provide insight into how biotic interactions influence microbiome assembly and persistence in plants. Ultimately, testing synthetic communities under a variety of abiotic and biotic conditions will improve our ability to predict how these inocula will perform across diverse and variable farm environments (Fig 1C, Fig 2A).
4. Functional mechanisms in agricultural microbiomes
Realization of the anticipated benefits of plant microbiomes in agriculture will require a thorough understanding of the functional and mechanistic aspects of the interactions between microbes, plants, the farm environment, and agricultural management practices. Moreover, enabling the engineering of agricultural plant–microbiome associations for improvements in productivity, tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, and nutrient efficiency [28,76] will require significant advances in experimental approaches, advanced characterization techniques, modeling, and theory that incorporate, but also move beyond, the currently dominant census-based descriptive approaches [77,78]. The molecular biology and physiology of the vast majority of microbes remains uncharacterized. Also lacking are the empirical and theoretical bases for predicting microbial community function from structure and the functional responses to environmental variation. New high-throughput techniques that enable rapid multi-omics characterization of the functional responses at multiple scales, from individual strains and operational taxonomic units to local microbial communities, across environmental variation, are essential for addressing these knowledge gaps. Bioinformatic and modeling tools capable of capturing the multi-omics manifestations of the interactions between the elements at various scales are also essential for sufficiently understanding and effectively utilizing these interactions [79,80].
Understanding the functional aspects of interactions between plants and their microbiomes is particularly essential for improving agricultural applicability, such as for tolerance to drought and other abiotic stresses as well as resistance to diseases [18,81,82]. Model experimental systems are essential for elucidating the dynamic feedbacks between plant physiology and microbial functions that drive colonization of the rhizosphere, rhizoplane, and endophytic compartments as well as the maintenance and modulation of plant–microbiome interactions. Additionally, large-scale efforts are needed to characterize the role of exudates in shaping these microbial communities and maintaining their functionality [62,83].
Finally, while functional attributes of a few plant-microbe interactions, both pathogenic and beneficial, have been studied in detail and have yielded stunning breakthroughs in our molecular definition of the plant immune system, this research has focused largely on characterizing one-on-one interactions. Studying these interactions in the context of the structure and function of microbial communities will lead to a more complete understanding of these interactions and could lead to potential mechanisms for controlling disease in a manner facilitated by the principles of microbial ecology . For example, in some cases the order of arrival into a microbial community (i.e., ecological priority effects) determines whether an endophyte inhibits or facilitates a pathogen . Discovering community-level characteristics that precede potential pathogenic or beneficial interactions in constructed synthetic communities as well as in wild soil ecosystems could also lead to diagnostic and predictive tools for farmers and regulatory agencies.
5. Plant genotype × microbiome × environment × management interactions
The previously discussed goals of defining core microbiomes, identifying functional mechanisms of beneficial symbioses, and discovering the rules of microbiome assembly share a common theme: sensitivity to host genetic and environmental context, as well as management decisions. For instance, the definition of a “healthy” or “beneficial” microbiome may depend on the specific environmental challenges faced by the plant (Fig 1C). On the other hand, microbiomes with generic growth-promoting properties may increase overall plant vigor and improve the host’s ability to cope with a wider range of challenges. Whether globally beneficial microbiomes can be engineered to provide robust benefits to crop health across diverse environments, or whether in-situ engineering of locally beneficial microbiomes should be our goal, will need to be determined. To some extent, the environment experienced by a plant can be controlled by management decisions tailored to the natural challenges presented by a given farm (Fig 1D). Humans have altered biotic and abiotic properties of soils since the start of agriculture through soil additives, tillage, and cropping systems. Thus, the interactions among microbes, the environment, and management are a crucial consideration when applying microbiome science to improve plant health and yield (Fig 1, Fig 2).
Compounding the challenges of implementing beneficial microbiomes for agriculture are genotype-by-environment interactions. Host genotype effects on the microbiome can vary in strength among environments and even between different plant tissues (Fig 1A) [50,86]. Another challenge is to design microbiome treatments that are resilient to the tremendous environmental variability among farms. A given microbial consortium might thrive in one climate or soil type but fail in a different environment to which it is poorly adapted; for instance, microbial diversity can be driven by simple factors such as soil pH (Fig 1B) . A beneficial microbiome’s resilience may also depend on its competitive ability relative to the surrounding microbial community, which can vary dramatically among farms and in response to management practices  and climate change [89,90]. Therefore, an overarching challenge is to define microbial consortia that can persist in a variety of heterogeneous ecosystems.
Well-designed, targeted experiments that can disentangle host genotype × environment × microbiome × management interactions are needed to inform management decisions. For instance, to better understand what microbiome or metagenome properties provide maximum benefit under various contexts (Fig 1C), artificial microbiome selection under host–microbiome co-propagation could be performed by manipulating individual environmental stressors (e.g., drought or pathogen presence) and then studying and propagating the microbiomes associated with the healthiest plants . To better understand context-dependence of microbiome assembly (Fig 1B), systematic manipulation of host genotype (e.g., comparing commonly grown cultivars) and abiotic factors (e.g., ambient temperature and soil nitrate) could reveal patterns that enable testable predictions of on-farm microbiome behavior. The use of several distinct ambient communities in these experiments—e.g., simplified “synthetic” or model communities—would lead to more reproducible and generalizable results. Ideally, these results should be validated in the field, across a range of farms, climates, soil types, and management methods.
Plant genotype × environment × microbiome × management interactions are practical challenges to the successful integration of beneficial microbiomes into breeding and agricultural management programs (Fig 1). However, the problem is not out of the reach of careful, systematic experimentation. The development and application of new molecular methods, model systems, and analytical tools will accelerate progress in this crucial area and enable translation of basic discoveries to farmers’ fields.
More so than ever before, the tools, technologies, and funding  are now in place to tackle fundamental questions in agricultural microbiome research. We have outlined five key research priorities in this area (Box 1). By encouraging the pursuit of these goals, we aim to accelerate the development of agricultural microbiome manipulations and management strategies that will increase the sustainability and productivity of global agriculture.
The authors are grateful to the other participants of the AgMicrobiomes Consortium (Asilomar, March 2016) for contributing to the development of research priorities discussed in this paper: Andrea Ottesen, Angela Kent, Ann Lichens-Park, Ben Wolfe, Carolyn Young, Cassie Wattenberger, Dale Pelletier, Dan Tomso, Diane Wu, Doug Cook, George Newcombe, Joyce Loper, Julia Vorholt, Larry Halverson, Laurie Drinkwater, Maria J. Pozo, Matt Ashby, Michael Mishkind, Patrick Bradley, Paul Schulze-Lefert, Penny Hirsch, Poornima Parameswaran, Ricardo Oliva, Sarah Grant, Sarah Lebeis, Sue Turner, Susannah Tringe, Tom Mitchell-Olds, Ulrich Mueller, Varghese Thomas, and Venkat Sundaresan.
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domain: agronomy


text:
St. Martins Waldorf Apartments Hotel, Auckland
12 St Martins Lane Grafton - 1010 Auckland
Located in the centre of Auckland, Waldorf St Martins Apartments Hotel offers luxurious accommodation with stunning city views. Upper Queen Street, Auckland Hospital and Universities are 10 minutes’ walk away.
These spacious apartments have fully equipped kitchens and a combined lounge/dining area. Flat-screen TV, iPod docking station and DVD player are included in each apartment.
All apartments have balconies and those on the higher floors offer stunning views of the city or Hauraki Gulf.
Guest facilities at Waldorf St Martins include an outdoor heated swimming pool, fitness centre and a shared laundry with washing machine and dryer. The hotel reception is open 24 hours a day and the Paua Room serves light breakfasts daily.
Parking, 24-hour front desk, Terrace, Non-smoking rooms, Facilities for disabled guests, Family rooms, Lift/elevator, Heating, Luggage storage, Gay friendly.
Laundry, Dry cleaning, Ironing service, Internet services, Fax/photocopying.

domain: travel


Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, B. Tech., Mechanical Engineering, 2003
Cornell University, MS, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, 2006
Cornell University, PhD, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, 2008
Computational physics, computational mechanics (fluid mechanics and heat transfer), stochastic analysis, uncertainty quantification and propagation, multiscale modeling, control and optimization of complex systems, materials-by-design, and parallel computing and inverse problems.
B. Ganapathysubramanian, N. Zabaras, Modeling multiscale diffusion processes in random heterogeneous media, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 197 (2008) 3560-3573.
N. Zabaras, B. Ganapathysubramanian, A scalable framework for the solution of stochastic inverse problems using a sparse grid collocation approach, Journal of Computational Physics, 227 (2008) 4697-4735.
B. Ganapathysubramanian, N. Zabaras, A non-linear dimension reduction methodology for generating data-driven stochastic input models, Journal of Computational Physics, 227 (2008) 6612-6637.
B. Ganapathysubramanian, N. Zabaras, A seamless approach towards stochastic modeling: Sparse grid collocation and data driven input models, Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, invited paper for the 19th Melosh Competition, 44 (2008) 298-320.
B. Ganapathysubramanian, N. Zabaras, Modeling diffusion in random heterogeneous media: Data-driven models, stochastic collocation and the variational multi-scale method, Journal of Computational Physics, 226 (2007) 326-353.
B. Ganapathysubramanian, N. Zabaras, Sparse grid collocation methods for stochastic natural convection problems, Journal of Computational Physics, 225 (2007) 652-685.
Martin Thuo an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Iowa State University and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, has led development of liquid-metal particles that can be used for heat-free soldering and other applications. Thuo has helped launch a startup company to develop and market the technology. Read More...


text:
The Yankees have handed their new ace,
Their new slugging first baseman,
Throw in third baseman
And believe it or not, the cost inefficiency is unintended good news for the Yankees. At 13-12 with the second-highest scoring offense in the league, New York is weathering what could have been its most vulnerable period: waiting for Rodriguez to return and for Sabathia and Teixeira, notorious slow starters in the best of times, to make it through their break-in period as Yankees.
Because they have no health concerns, Sabathia and Teixeira are bound to get hot, as soon as they get past their inclination to justify their combined $341 million contracts. Both have been their own worst enemies thus far. Sabathia was miserable in April 2008 (7.76 ERA), but then the Indians, after breaking down high-tech tracking information available from MLB, discovered his release point had dropped several inches, causing him to lose command. Once Sabathia corrected the mechanical flaw by adjusting his stride, he went back to being a dominating pitcher.
This year Sabathia has no such quick-fix remedy to set him straight. His fastball velocity (93.6) is right where it should be. His release point has been mostly rock solid. His mechanics are clean.
"Last year my stuff wasn't there," Sabathia said. "I couldn't get the ball in to righties. This year is completely different. I feel like I'm throwing the ball the way I want to. I'm just not getting the results."
The Yankees already have lost more games with Sabathia on the mound than the Brewers did last year in 17 outings with him (14-3). In his most recent start, Sabathia took a 1-0 lead into the sixth inning at home against the Angels and a 30-year-old rookie named
The Yankees don't yet have that bulletproof belief behind Sabathia. So what's wrong? His command, especially with his fastball, has been erratic, and given his proper velocity and mechanics, probably is due to some performance anxiety about pitching in the spotlight, which has been a problem for him in postseasons. Sabathia's strike percentage is down slightly from last year (62 percent, down from 66 percent). Most tellingly, his strikeout rate (5.54 per nine innings) and walk rate (3.46) are well off his career numbers (7.5 and 2.85).
There is not much the Yankees can do, except wait for Sabathia to reach a comfort level with his new surroundings, the expectations and the hyper-criticism that come with playing in New York. After his loss to the Angels on Saturday, for instance, Sabathia explained the defeat to a wave of reporters, left to take a shower, and when he came back his locker was surrounded by another wave of reporters.
Similarly, Teixeira appears to be playing with some tension in his swing, as if trying too hard to make something happen. "I'm wondering if his wrist is a problem," said one scout, "because he seems to be getting under everything."
Actually, Teixiera's wrist is fine now -- he said in the past week he has returned to his usual pregame hitting work without restrictions -- but the scout was right about Teixeira hitting too many balls in the air. Entering this week, Teixeira was hitting .180 on balls he puts into play (as opposed to a career mark of .309), which can be an indication of hitting in tough luck. But in this case, he is hitting too many 275-foot cans of corn.
Teixeira's rate of flyballs has jumped 50 percent from his career rate (59 percent, up from 39 percent). His rate of infield pop-ups has almost doubled (from 11 percent to 21 percent) and his line-drive rate has been cut in half (22 percent to 11 percent). Remember when
"I've really struggled every year at the beginning of the season," Teixeira said. "It's a matter of when I get out of it. Hopefully, it's soon.
"I feel great. I'm very upset I'm not getting hits. It's very upsetting that I'm not coming through for my team. It's embarrassing. I'm hitting one-something. It's embarrassing."
Not every new Yankee needs time to get up to speed in New York.
"In the beginning I was just more getting acclimated to trying to fit everything in," Giambi said. "You realize after a while there's just so many people who need so many things here -- which, people have their jobs to do, and when you're the new kid on the block you're a fresh story. It's something new. Until I kind of set some boundaries ... because before you know it you can find yourself [saying], 'Oh, I've got a game to play now?' It happened. Before I knew it, it was, 'Oh, God, I've got to get ready for the game, stretch ...'
"See the one thing about Oakland was there were so few writers and they could all have the same story, because you had your reader here and your reader there. You could do it once for 10 minutes and you were done. There are so many surrounding newspapers [in New York] and they're all trying to vie for the same reader. They all have to have something different. They have to ask you different questions. That's where you kind of learn how to fit it in. Give people what they need or change your story a little bit or give them a little bit different quote and try to take care of them, especially the beat guys, because they're with you every day."
I asked Giambi how long it took him to navigate that break-in period in New York.
"I want to say probably a month," he said. "Probably a month just to get acclimated, and then before you know it you find yourself struggling so you press a little bit, then you press a little harder because you want to do it, and then finally I hit that home run and that monkey got off my back and it was like, 'OK.' "
Sabathia and Teixeira should be nearing the end of their Yankee break-in period. And if a little less attention on them might help pull them out of their slumps, they're in for some good news very soon. Rodriguez is coming back.

domain: sports


text:
Batman: Soul Of The Dragon Putlocker
Director: Sam Liu
Cast: James Hong, Michael Jai White, Kelly Hu, Mark Dacascos, Chris Cox, Eric Bauza, David Giuntoli, Jamie Chung, Robin Atkin Downes
Released in: 2021
Running: 83 minutes
Bruce Wayne faces a deadly menace from his past, with the help of three former classmates: world-renowned martial artists Richard Dragon, Ben Turner and Lady Shiva.

domain: artistic


text:
My Gixer 750y has been laid up since 2002. The tyres fitted are Pirrelli Supercorsas, soft front and intermediate rear which wer ragged to the edges on a track day back then. They still look like they have another track day left in them but I have read somewhere that the compound hardens and they work less well. This combined with modern tyre improvements makes me desire new rubber and I am considering the latest Avons or pirreli's to make my track comeback. I have been riding road bikes all the way through but my Gixer will now be my track day bike as life is to short not to do it! Any advice or comment welcome. Alby
10 year old Supercorsas
Posts 4 | Views 395
only one piece of advice
change them feckin tyres............along with all fluids and oil's.....................other than that have fun" />
perishes over time, so I agree with ally6 - sling them tyres, and also check any rubber hoses for damage too.
Trust me - they won't get you round the first bend in one piece

domain: hobby


text:
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.
Because of the actions of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden sin entered the world and separated us from God. But God loved us so much He made a way for us to be saved. He sent His only Son, Jesus, to this world to seek and to save the lost, to offer us the free gift of salvation. He rescued us from a life of sin, from the guilt of sin and from the power of sin when He paid the ultimate price on Calvary. He did this so our relationship with God could be restored. So then, what shall we do to receive this gift? Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:28) As followers of Christ, it’s our duty to share this Good News with the world while there is still time.
You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.
It’s not easy living in a world full of hate, violence and darkness. But when you trust in the Lord with all your heart His light shines down on you because He is the light of the world. Out of His love, grace and mercy He alone will give you the strength and faith you need to keep walking in the light and you will not be overcome. Be faithful to God and you will see that He is everything He promises to be.
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
The Bible teaches us that we are all born sinners with sinful, selfish natures. “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people” (Romans 5:12) Jesus Christ came to set you free and offers freedom by being born again. He has the power to free your mind, body and soul from the bondage of sin and those that are set free by the Son are truly free. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. You will know the truth when your mind and your heart are opened to a greater understanding and clearer knowledge by studying and knowing the Word of God. If you accept and obey His teachings as truth you are true disciples.
God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
The Lord blesses those who are a blessing to others. The love you show to God’s people as He puts it in your heart to help and encourage them is evidence of your faith and your love for Him. God is not unjust that He would ever forget the work you do or the love you show by helping and ministering to His people. Let God work through you to show love to His people as you grow spiritually and walk in His wisdom and truth. Any good deed you do with a right heart for His glory will not go unnoticed or unrewarded.
To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.
Although your life may not be perfect and you may have troubles, there is so much to be thankful for. Even with everything going on in the world today, you still have a great deal to be thankful for. No matter what is currently going on in your life, there is always something to be thankful for so count your blessings and not your troubles. Thank God for waking you up this morning. Thank Him for all that you do have. Thank Him for your salvation. Thank Him for His love and mercy and for who He is. Never stop giving thanks to God, even with your last breath give thanks to the Lord for He truly is worthy of praise and thanksgiving.
Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.
With all the uncertainty in the world around us we can remain unafraid because our trust is in God our Savior. We can face anything because God is our strength and our salvation. I don’t know who needs to hear this today but I’m here to remind you that God loves you and it doesn’t matter who or what is against you because God is for you. No matter what you’re facing God can turn it around. He has been there for you in the past, He is there for you now and He will always be there for you. Trust in the Lord Jehovah not only to give you strength but to be your strength, your song, and your salvation.
You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Until we find the path of life that leads us back to God we will have a longing to be complete. The only thing that can fill the emptiness is the love of God. This world is not our home. Heaven is our final destination. We are merely on the road that leads us to our Father’s house. How wonderful to be on the path that was laid out for us by our creator for one day we will be seated at His right hand in the joyful presence of our Savior.
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Jesus was not only concerned for the souls of the multitudes who followed Him, but also for their physical needs. We are called to be Christlike – gentle, caring and compassionate. There is a homeless epidemic in this country, many people are living in poverty and people are going hungry every day. The Coronavirus pandemic is making a complex problem even worse with many people losing their jobs, their homes and ultimately their lives. Everywhere you look there are people who desperately need help and more importantly, they need Jesus. People are hurting and it’s up to us as Christians to find a way to do what we can to help them by sharing the love and compassion of God and to bring souls to the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. If not us, then who?
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
God is more pleased with us showing mercy, love and compassion towards all people rather than formalities. More than sacrifices God wants you to know Him on a personal level. He wants you to trust in Him, submit to His will and be obedient to His laws. God wants you to worship Him in spirit and in truth rather than go through the motion of ceremonies when your heart is not right with Him. Rituals and sacrifices have their place in organized religion, but God wants your heart to be truly in it for the right reasons otherwise, they are meaningless.
My flesh and my heart may fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
We are not perfect, we make mistakes and we fall to temptations and tribulations. No matter how much we want to do better we sometimes fail, we sometimes let God and ourselves down. Sometimes we question God’s reasons for why things happen and sometimes we let our faith waiver. But we serve a loving God and no matter how many times we fall, He picks us up. He continues to love us because His love never fails. He loves us not because of who we are but because of who He is. Our body and spirit may fail us, but God never will. Draw near to the Lord, put your hope in Him, for He alone is our strength and our ever present and never failing refuge now and for all eternity.

domain: literature


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Pie-making season is on the way, and this is your year to master a flaky, buttery piecrust. Pie expert Barbara Schwartz will empower you to make delicious piecrusts every time with her simple food processor method. She’ll share the science and art of making pie as you work hands-on to create a delectable Salted Caramel Apple Galette to take home. Also included will be recipes for other holiday masterpieces: Pumpkin Streusel Pie, Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie, Coconut Custard Pie and Mile-High Apple Pie. Vegetarian with dairy and eggs.
Members: $40, Non-members: $45
- Thursday, Oct 9, 6:30-9pm. Issaquah
- Sunday, Oct 12, 1-3:30pm. Greenlake Village
- Wednesday, Oct 29, 6:30-9pm. Greenlake Aurora
- Saturday, Nov 1, 3-5:30pm. Edmonds
- Wednesday, Nov 5, 6:30-9pm. West Seattle
- Saturday, Nov 15, 3-5:30pm. Redmond

domain: food


text:
Children of Daedala
The sequel to Children of Icarus is out:
Six months alone in the labyrinth has made her strong. But the search for the exit means gambling on an old ‘friend’ and going against everything she’s been taught to survive. You know the labyrinth will have yet more horrors lurking in its depths. You’ve learned few people can be trusted. But freedom is tantalizingly close. Are you ready to take the risk?
A Pest Most Fiendish
Miss Pippa Kipling and her automaton companion, the Porter, exterminate pests of the supernatural variety. What should be a typical job in your average haunted cavern soon derails in an inconveniently undead fashion. Even with the aid of her gadget collection and the Porter’s prowess, this task may prove fatal for Miss Kipling—or worse, rip her petticoat.
Short fiction available here on Tor.com

domain: library


text:
Wrote book of short stories "The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories".
13 Print Biographies |
27 Interviews |
28 Articles |
1 Pictorial |
4 Magazine Cover Photos |
5' 11" (1.8 m)
Did You Know?
I've always loved the idea of fairy tales, but somehow I never managed to completely connect with them. What interests me is taking those classic images and themes and trying to contemporize them a bit. I believe folk tales and fairy tales have some sort of psychological foundation that makes that possible.
He was thirty-one when Batman (1989) was released, making him the youngest person ever to direct a Batman film.
Extremely dark Gothic atmosphere in buildings and set design

domain: entertainment


Olympic bronze medallist Walter Dix crashed out of the world athletics championships when he injured his right hamstring in the 100 metres semi-finals at the U.S. trials in Oregon.
Dix, who won 100 and 200 metres bronze at Beijing, finished a non-qualifying sixth in 10.32 seconds in the second semi-final.
He says he won't run the 200 metres at the U.S. trials.
That means the 23-year-old will not make the U.S. world championship team since only the top three finishers in the American trials and defending world champions qualify.
Olympic decathlon gold medallist Bryan Clay and 110 metres hurdles bronze medallist David Oliver also will miss the world championships in Berlin because of injuries.


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Position: OH Ht.: 6-4 Wt.: 210
Hometown: Matamata, NEW ZEALAND
Previous School: Tauranga Boys College
Eligibility: Jr. Major: Buisness Management
Sonny Hirini enters his third season at Pfeiffer.
2014: Led the Falcons with 302 kills . . . finished the season with a .251 hitting percentage and 3.15 kills/game . . . was second on the team with 20 service aces and 132 digs . . . also second on the team with 54 total blocks . . . named to First Team All-Conference.
2013: Saw action in nine matches playing in 20 sets.
Personal: Son of John and Jane Hirini…born on 02/14/1994…majoring in business management.
Before Pfeiffer: Voted best all-around sportsman . . . also played rugby in high school.


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OpenSea is currently under fire for freezing stolen NFTs worth $1.9 Million but OpenDAO says they have a better solution. According to OpenDao core contributor, @9x9x9eth $SOS tokens are the perfect medium for asset recovery.
Todd Kramer shared on Twitter that he lost his entire NFT portfolio to a phishing attack. He clicked a link thinking it was a genuine NFT dapp. The owner of Ross+Kramer art gallery ended up losing his eight Bored Apes, seven Mutant Apes and a single Clonex NFT. Fortunately, OpenSea stepped in to assist him by freezing the NFTs. The platform’s move is being highly criticized and receiving huge community backlash.
OpenDAO will be happy to contribute our part if @opensea willing to use $SOS as a governance token to vote on a case like this. Fair + Transparency + Community https://t.co/QwvoKy5Qn0
— 9x9x9🆘 (@9x9x9eth) January 2, 2022
OpenSea and OpenDao Collaboration?
While everyone’s happy that Kramer recovered his NFTs, the move sparked calls for a decentralized marketplace. OpenSea is a centralized marketplace meaning they have full control over transactions in the platform such as asset recovery. Some users feel that this goes against crypto’s campaign for decentralization.
As Twitter user Forculus puts it, “Feels pretty anti-crypto to be asking third parties to do this and ideally they shouldn’t be able to. True decentralized ownership no one should be able to step in.”
OpenDAO made headlines when it airdropped $SOS tokens for anyone who has ever traded at OpenSea since its launch. Now it looks like they are also gunning for utility. @9x9x9eth shared that they are willing to contribute if OpenSea will use $SOS as a governance token to vote on cases like Todd Kramer’s. He described it as the perfect scenario because it would be fair, transparent and the community would have the final say.
Leading crypto and NFT thought leader @coinbureau made his stand clear on the issue. He tweeted, “Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad he recovered his NFT and in the circumstance, it was the right action. But who determines these actions going forward? Would far rather it was a DAO with community vote that determined asset recovery…”
More Utility for $SOS Tokens?
After the OpenSea airdrop, traders were able to claim a decent amount of ETH. Thanks to the bullish sentiments, the price saw a 1,270% surge at its peak. In addition, $SOS gave its holders a new reason to HODL their tokens! OpenDAO, the coin issuer, named X Marketplace as its latest partner. So users will soon be able to buy NFTs with their $SOS on X Marketplace.
Basically, X Marketplace will be giving 25% of its tokens to the $SOS community. Then, users will soon be able to stake their $SOS to claim veX tokens that give governance rights and a 100% share of the X Marketplace’s fees.
As of press time, OpenSea and OpenDao don’t have a formal partnership despite the airdrop. Given the circumstance, token holders are speculating if things will change and $SOS will have a utility on OpenSea.
All investment/financial opinions expressed by NFTevening.com are not recommendations.
This article is educational material.
As always, make your own research prior to making any kind of investment.

domain: news


Exhibiting at NIGP Forum is the best way for suppliers to form connections and explain the products and services that offer solutions to our members' procurement needs. Over 94% of Forum attendees are key purchasing decision makers for their entities. Forum attendees are contracting officers who purchase everything from office supplies, to playground equipment to power lines and technology products and services.
Be a part of the largest event solely dedicated to public procurement. Join hundreds of exhibitors who display at the largest government procurement event catering to state, local, education, utility, and special district procurement professionals.
Exhibit at Forum 2024
98% - Attend the Products Expo
89% - Likely to recommend or purchase products from exhibitors
Just the Facts:
Over 94% of Forum attendees are key purchasing decision makers for their entities.
1,600+ procurement officials attended NIGP’s 2020 Virtual Forum
245+ exhibitors for Austin’s in-person event, 70 digital booths for 2020 virtual Forum
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By DAPO OLAWUNI
Barely one week after it cuts down the import duty on vehicles from 35% to 20%, the Nigeria Customs Service has slammed a fresh levy of 15% National Automotive Council (NAC levy) on vehicles imported into Nigeria.
The policy which was effected on Saturday 9th of April 2022 has however generated negative reactions from freight forwarders and importers who have vowed not to pay the controversial levy.
The freight forwarders described the NAC levy as an attempt by customs to arm-twist importers, in order for customs to meet its yearly revenue target of N3Trillion for 2022.
The implication of this new imposition, according to them, is that Nigerians would have to pay more in buying of vehicles because clearing costs would have to be increased at the port.
DAILY TREND gathered that the NAC levy was supposed to be collected on new vehicle imports at 35% in order to encourage local vehicle manufacturers and industries in Nigeria.
The policy was later reviewed by Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service last year 2021.
The vehicle affected are HS Code 87032120,87032220, 87032400 both for Diesel and Gasoline/Fuel Vehicles.
Meanwhile, the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has urged its members not to pay the NAC 15% levy.
National Vice President of ANLCA, Dr Kayode Farinto in a post on a social media platform monitored by DAILY TREND on Saturday urged members to jettison the policy which according to him is oppressive.
“National Automotive council was a levy impose by virtue of “NATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL ACT NO6 of 2014” which was enacted to encourage Locally manufacture vehiclesin oder to encourage Nigerians to go for Nigerian assembled vehicles and to protect our locally manufacture ones.
“Sect 10 of the Act states that “the Council shall establish a fund which shall consist of two percent Cost,Insurance and Freight (CIF), value of all imported automotive Fully Built Units (FBU) and automotive components Spares and Semi -Knocked down (SKD) units.
“This simply applied to those importing new vehicles and new spare parts.
“Professional Colleagues, please do not pay any NAC levy on imported used vehicle as there is no law that compels you to do so.
“Let us collectively resist this, should you see any NAC levy whenever you want to make your declaration, do not asses this declaration. it is another attempt to swindle innocent Nigerians and force them to pay by some fifth Columnist. Please Resist from Monday” he said
In his reaction also Secretary of ANLCA Tin Can chapter, Barrister Micheal Ovien said that with the earlier reduction of duty from 35% to 20% last week, Customs was implementing the Newly approved CET (Common External Tariff) on Vehicle 8703 that was general agreed by ECOWAS, Customs and Licenced Agents in 2021 at a General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT) meeting.
He said the changes was to be interjected into the Extant Law of CET from 1st January 2022 which hold effect in Nigeria from 1st April, 2022.
“But the NCS did not find this comfortable because they “NCS” thought this would bring down the target imposed on the organization by the Federal Govt to collect a total revenue of N3Trillion, that was distributed/shared across all the various Custom Command, under the supreme supervision of the Custom HQ”
“9 Days later, the NCS at the hours of 12midnight, without a proper circulars or communications from the Ministry of Finance and Nigeria Custom Service Management Board, which we have believe has failed the entire country in the area of leadership and management style of behaviour within the Ministry of Finance & Ministry of Transportation in propelling the industry into limelight”


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The quality of my life would not be possible without Western medicine and it's funny how uncomfortable that makes me. While I'm grateful, in a way life feels so tenuous because of it, and it's an easy guess that I'm not the only one feeling that way.
The two drugs that make my life so different are Rebif (an MS medication) and the famous/infamous Prozac. Rebif helps keep my MS in remission, it helps keep my feet from dragging, my head from spinning/drifting, my thinking clear. Granted, I bring a lot to the health table by taking excellent care of myself and that makes a huge difference, but the Rebif keeps my immune system considerably better behaved.
But the Rebif doesn't make me nearly as uncomfortable as the Prozac. If I didn't have access to Rebif I probably wouldn't notice it for weeks. Prozac on the other hand I notice that day, though initially it's just a withdrawal effect and not depression, but the depression comes back fairly soon. It's amusing to think what a horrible hostage I would make if I didn't have access to Prozac. Kidnappers depend on the fact that normal hostages fear for their lives and will work to keep it. With many depressed people regard for one's own life disappears. Kidnappers if they had any sense would just shoot me out of hand.
Every so often I test the waters by not taking it and see how I feel. I do this because the circumstances that caused the onset of my depression (a breakup) happened long ago and I'm very happy right now. The reason it continues is likely due to (a) MS or (b) I'm just miswired that way. I'm trying it today and initially I just get this squeezing sensation in my forehead which is a withdrawal effect. But kidnappers beware. :)

domain: psychology


NAME: Parris Goebel
PLACE OF BIRTH: Auckland, New Zealand
KNOWN FOR: Dancer, Choreographer
VILLAGES IN SAMOA:
SHORT BIO / CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
- At 12, she discovered a love for hip hop music to express her style of dancing known as ‘Polyswagg’. At 15, she was offered a spot to be part of another dance crew but declined the offer to form her own dance crew, ReQuest, and open The Palace Dance Studio with the help of her father
- 2007 – Led ReQuest to second place at the Street Dance New Zealand (SDNZ) Nationals, which was the qualifying competition for the Hip Hop International World Championships.
- 2008 – A cast member in Monsters of Hip Hop. Also a member of the Faculty that teaches all through the U.S
- 2009 – ReQuest debuted their performance at the World Hip Hop Dance Championships. Won first place in the Varsity Crews division in Las Vegas
- 2009 – Placed first at the World Supremacy Battleground in the Varsity division in Australia
- 2010 – Competed at the World Hip Hop Dance Championships in the Adult Crews division and won
- 2011 – ReQuest was the second crew outside America to compete on MTV’s Americas Best Dance Crew in Season 6, and the first crew outside North America. The crew were eliminated in Week 4 of the competition
- 2011 – Competed at the World Hip Hop Championships as defending champions. ReQuest placed second behind U.K group Plague. Her Royal Family won four medals in total for New Zealand with Bubblegum winning gold in the Junior Crews division, Sorority winning gold in the Varsity Crews division, and Royal Family winning gold in the Mega Crews division.
- 2012 – Hired by Jennifer Lopez to choreograph her ‘Dance Again World Tour’, and also performed with Lopez on the season 11 finale of American Idol. Parris featured in Lopez’s music video for the single, ‘Goin In’, and also performed on season 15 of U.S Dancing with the Stars
- The Palace Studios one of the top studios in the world
- 2014 – Won Best Female Choreographer at the World of Dance Industry awards in L.A


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Empty Cloud: The Autobiography of the Chinese Zen Master Xu Yun
The Lowther family: Eight Hundred Years of "A Family of Ancient Gentry and Worship"
Shropshire Clock and Watchmakers
A Lifetime in Paradise. The Jimmy McGrory Story Edited by Gerald McNee
Admiral Lord Keith and the Naval War against Napoleon / Kevin D. McCranie
A Talent for Trouble by Ranulph Fiennes. Signed.
The Old Century and Seven More Years
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By Sidney Lumet not available on your favorite video service? Find something else you'll like!
Videos: Trailers, Teasers, Featurettes
An analysis of director Sidney Lumet's work (12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead) in his own words, based on a five-day interview recorded shortly before his death.
By Sidney Lumet streaming: where to watch online?
Currently you are able to watch "By Sidney Lumet" streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Hoopla, Kanopy. It is also possible to buy "By Sidney Lumet" on Apple iTunes, Vudu, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Amazon Video as download or rent it on Apple iTunes, Vudu, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Amazon Video online.


While addressing the press, Rajnish Kumar, Chairman of SBI, said that the bank currently has nearly 35,000 HNI customers under its wing, two years after the special wealth service was launched in 2016. He also said that the bank should be able to cover two lakh customers under this initiative in the next two years, which will be roughly about 35-40 percent of SBI’s total customer base in this particular category. “SBI Wealth has a presence in 20 major centres with a network of 90 ‘Wealth Hubs’ in the country. Mangaluru is the 21st centre to get ‘Wealth Hubs,’ which were opened on Saturday. SBI is targeting to take its wealth business service to 50 centres across the country by 2020,” Kumar stated.
Benefits for HNI customers
Explaining the concept of ‘Wealth Hub,’ Kumar said that HNI customers would be offered the best products across categories. They will have the flexibility to invest, transact and view their portfolio through digital channels such as internet banking, mobile and remote relationship model.
(PSU Watch- India's Business News centre that places the spotlight on PSUs, Bureaucracy, Defence and Public Policy is now on Telegram. Join PSU Watch Channel in your Telegram and stay updated)


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Are you looking for that perfect gift for the Fox Body Mustang Enthusiast in your family? Look no farther than LatemodelRestoration.com's Mustang Christmas Gift Finder! For great prices on some of our Enthusiast's Top Picks and Accessories, we have your gift ideas all wrapped up!
Testimonial: Fast, free shipping... need i say more?
This whole year (2013) i've ordered numerous parts. from the front end (core support, head lights, radiator) to a all new rear end ( gears, axles, control arms) and everything in between. very pleased with Latemodel restoration's fast, free shipping and prices. never had any issues with orders i just point,click, and two days later its at my doorstep. you can bet when it warms up, and i get some seat time, ill be back for parts reviews. GREAT JOB LMR! keep up the good work.


Having wrapped up that hopper car, I was put in mind to continue this theme. This was particularly prompted by a visit to the stack of projects upon which was perched a long-neglected, elderly scratchbuilt shell of a coal motor. Some years ago, I was rewarded with this item for services rendered and had good intentions of running home and putting it all to rights. I got distracted.
Still, I managed to identify the prototype for this car shell. It’s even pictured in the CERA Bulletin No. 129 on page 47.1 This book is really good for those interested in traction freight operations and equipment. So, now we loop back to 2015 and revisit coal motors with a restoration, rebuilding, and finishing of motor No. 653 (my choice) from Androscoggin & Kennebec Railway. That ash motor I had threatened to pursue will just have to wait its turn in the project queue of the ages.
Looking at this shell reveals that I have a lot of work to do here, and there is probably some guesswork measured into this project. The basic body is in reasonably good condition and close in appearance to the prototype. The buffer ends are not correct and what is there will have to be pried off carefully to get the nails backed out. I’ll have to fashion more appropriate ends and fabricate some sort of poling pockets to apply to the corners. The doors are missing.
While it is not a problem to make new doors, I think that the depth of the cab and hence width of the doors might be slightly compressed. This will make the doors rather narrow so the motormen operating this car will have to be placed on a strict diet. There is, however, a controller stand in each cab so that space is not devoid of detail. I’m not entirely sure if I can add more controller details in there or not; we’ll see how that works out as things progress…


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Embark on a journey of flavor with the 2019 'Nostalgia' Maturano by I Ciacca, an exquisite Italian white wine that captures the essence of the rare Maturano grape. This wine stands as a testament to I Ciacca's dedication to crafting wines of exceptional quality and character.
- 🍇 Vintage: 2019
- 🏞 Origin: Campania, Italy
- 🍇 Grape Variety: Maturano
- 🍷 Flavor Profile: The 2019 'Nostalgia' Maturano is a symphony of flavors. Delight in the wine's aromatic notes, showcasing a harmonious blend of citrus, green apple, and a touch of floral undertones. The palate is marked by a refreshing acidity, offering a lively and crisp tasting experience.
- 🌍 Campania Terroir: I Ciacca sources the Maturano grapes from the fertile soils of Campania, a region renowned for its winemaking tradition. The unique terroir imparts distinctive characteristics to the grapes, contributing to the wine's regional authenticity.
- 🍇 Rare Maturano Grape: The Maturano grape, indigenous to Campania, takes center stage in this bottling. I Ciacca's commitment to showcasing this rare varietal results in a wine that expresses both the uniqueness of the grape and the winemaker's artistry.
- 🍷 Winemaking Artistry: I Ciacca employs traditional winemaking techniques to craft the 'Nostalgia' Maturano. The grapes undergo a gentle vinification process, preserving their natural flavors and ensuring a wine that reflects the purity of the Maturano grape.
- 🍽 Food Pairing: Enhance your dining experience by pairing this Italian white wine with seafood dishes, light salads, or fresh cheeses. The wine's vibrant acidity and nuanced flavors make it a versatile companion for a variety of culinary delights.
- 🍷 Serving Recommendation: To fully appreciate the crispness and vitality of this Maturano expression, serve it chilled. Allow the wine to evolve in the glass, revealing its layers of aromas and providing a delightful journey for your senses.

domain: geography


text:
Purpose is not a Possession.
You can’t have the noun if you don’t do the verb. In modern times, purpose has almost become a possession. We’ve all heard people say, “I can’t find my purpose,” as if it’s a handbag they left in the bathroom of a roadside gas station. We feel a bit naked if we don’t have a purpose, as if we’re the only ones without the “big P.”
As a noun, purpose is something you possess—a valued asset in your grasp that you can show to others. But, as a verb, it’s a deliberate and conscious way of being: to be purposeful. In this approach, you don’t have to obtain or clutch your purpose as an object that might slip through your fingers. You show up being purposeful, and, magically, you become a magnet for the possibility that your purpose may come to you rather than having to track it down. It’s like happiness: always better when it arrives organically and on its own time, rather than as something being pursued. In fact, acting purposefully may be more important than discovering your purpose.
So, the next time you feel depressed that you haven’t found your purpose, ask yourself this instead, “How could I show up purposeful and optimistic today? Or how might I serve someone beyond myself?” Move into that action-minded, verb-focused approach to purpose, and you may soon find unexpected gifts coming your way.
In addition, our last day to take advantage of a 20% Early Bird Plus Discount for our upcoming “Designing Your Purposeful Path to Work” (an 8-week online course) is May 1. The course starts June 4 and runs through the end of July, and only requires about 3 hours per week of your attention.


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One of the essential components of Simply Southern Animal Hospital is our veterinary surgical center,
where Dr. Hayes uses his experience and advanced equipment to provide surgical services for the pets in
the Central and Greenwell Springs area.
Blood work is strongly recommended before any surgical procedure. Using our hospital’s in-house
diagnostics laboratory, we can obtain blood testing results in a matter of minutes. We can determine
liver, kidney, and pancreatic function, along with electrolyte levels. Our complete blood count (CBC)
unit provides red and white blood cell counts, along with platelet analysis. These values provide
valuable information to Dr. Hayes which could not be determined by a physical exam alone and assists
him in deciding whether an animal is a healthy candidate for surgery.
Pain prevention is highly recommended for most surgeries performer at Simply Southern Animal Hospital. Remember that our
pets feel pain in much the same way we do. Pain medication will be dispensed post-surgery to help
ensure your pet remains as comfortable as possible.
During the surgical procedure, the heart rate, temperature and respiratory rate of each pet are
monitored continuously by our experienced veterinarian and staff. If the pet experienced trauma or the
required surgery is particularly invasive, monitoring will continue in the intensive care unit (ICU) section
of our hospital.
Dr. Chris Hayes performs many types of surgery, ranging from routine procedures to more
complicated operations. Some of the many surgeries we perform include ovariohysterectomy (spay),
neuter, dewclaw removal, declawing, mass/tumor removal, enucleation (eye removal),
foreign body removal, and bladder stone removal. If your pet is in need of a procedure not listed here, please
call us for more information.

domain: pet


text:
This Photo worth at least 1,000 words, most of them unprintable
President Barack Obama attended a meeting with Texas governor Rick Perry on the nightmarish emergency situation
of Obama’s own making that has exploded on the southern border in recent weeks. A photographer was there to capture the mood and feeling of that meeting.
Texas Gov. Perry was quoted as saying “I don’t know if he heard me” when asked about what was discussed during the meeting. From the looks of the photo, Obama couldn’t care less than he already does, which is not at all.
So please tell us, Mr. Barry Soetoro, what exactly is so funny about hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens bringing disease and infestation to our country through the open, porous borders that you have created?
Maybe Obama was laughing after ingesting all that crack cocaine that he said the White House baker puts in his pies.
This is a pretend presidency with very real consequences. Hey America, had enough yet?