The birds of Southeastern Utah

journal articleSoutheastern Utah is a rugged and colorful portion of the state. As a part of the Colorado Plateau Physiographic Province it is characterized by an arid climate, multicolored but mostly red sandstones, shales and limestones, weathered sand deep box canyons, and high, isolated, lacolithic mountain ranges. Despite the general aridity of the region there are several major rivers and streams. Thw Green and Colorado rivers converge southwest of Moab. Main tn butaries below this point are the Fremont, Escalante, and San Juan rivers. The latter drains extreme southeastern Utah

Birds of the Kanab area and adjacent high plateaus of Southern Utah

journal articleThe gateway to central southern Utah is the town of Kanab, located in Kane County just a few miles north of the Utah-Arizona line. At an elevation of 4973 feet it nestles in an indenture in the Vermillion Cliffs where Kanab Canyon emerges. North of these Vermillion Cliffs, rising like two additional great steps, are the White Cliffs and the Pink Cliffs. These lead to two tablelands, the Paunsagunt Plateau of the Bryce Canyon National Park area with its highest point 9105 feet, and to the west, the Markagunt Plateau of the Zion National Park-Cedar Breaks National Monument area. The latter in its higher northern portion is referred to locally as either Cedar Mountain or the Parowan Mountains

The birds of the Raft River Mountains, Northwestern Utah

journal articleAs another facet in a long-term analysis of the birds of Utah, an avifaunal survey was made in the northwestern corner of the state. Here the principal physiographic feature is the Raft River Mountains. The main axis of this range runs in an east-west direction paralleling the Utah-Idaho border immediately to the north. To the southwest lie the lower and less prominent Grouse Creek Mountains and in the extreme northwest corner of the state there is another, smaller range, the Goose Creek Mountains. The Grouse Creek Mountains run in a north-south direction, while the main portion of the Goose Creek Range runs essentially northeast and southwest and then tails off to the south along the Utah-Nevada border. Just west of the Grouse Creek Mountains is Grouse Creek Valley, which runs north and south in Utah parallel to the Utah-Nevada border. While nearly all parts of the region were visited, the Raft River Mountains received most of the attention, especially the north slope in the vicinity of the towns of Yost, Standrod, and Nafton

Birds of pine valley mountain region, Southwestern Utah

journal articleIt has long been a practice among ornithologists to study the distribution, variation, and ecological relationships of birds in areas characterized by diverse physiographic features. Such studies are motivated usually by the desire to aid in finding solutions for the many problems concerning the distribution and variation of birds. Following this custom and with this objective in mind, the writer has attempted to make a contribution to our knowledge of the birds 0f western North America in general and those of Utah in particular by selecting the highly diversified southwestern part of the state for an avifaunistic study. The area chosen includes the Pine Valley Mountains, the Beaver Dam Mountains, the Beaver Dam Wash and the valleys of the Santa Clara and Virgin rivers. As such it corresponds essentially with the limits of Washington County, Utah

The birds of the deep Creek Mountains of Central Western Utah

journal articleIn furtherance of a long-time survey of the avifauna of Utah the Deep Creek Mountain region of the central western part of the state was chosen as an area for intensive study. It was expected that gradients would occur in the characters of geographically variable birds between populations from the isolated ranges of the Great Basin and birds from the Wasatch Mountains to the northeast, those mountains that form the abrupt eastern margin of the Great Basin or the high plateaus of central and southern Utah. The Deep Creek region seemed most propitious fo r collecting a representation of the Great Basin races. While the analysis of the geographical variation was the main objective of the study and large series o f the variable birds were desired, in accord with the general practice of making avifaunistic studies of particular regions, samples o f other birds were taken when possible, and a study was made of the ecology of the birds of the region. Although the emphasis was on collecting, attention was paid to abundance, behavior, and life history features, as opportunity was afforded. Working out the details of the variation throughout Utah must await the accumulation o f additional material from many other locations, but in the meantime the results of the Deep Creek Mountain survey may well be placed on record to reveal the nature of the avifauna of this portion of Utah

The embryonic development of the California Gull

journal articleThe California gull (Larus califomicus) is a summer resident in Utah nesting commonly on certain islands in Great Salt Lake as well as at man-made refuges on the east side of the lake. Many aspects of the biology of the species have been investigated (Beck, 1942; Behle, 1958; Behle and Goates, 1957; Behle and Woodbury, 1952; Greenhalgh, 1952; Johnston, 1956; Odin, 1957; Woodbury, Behle and Sugden, 1946) and it seemed that an opportunity was presented to study yet another feature, namely, the early embryonic development. This conviction was strengthened when it was noted in Romanoff's (1960) extensive work on the avian embryo that whereas there is mention of embryological studies on some species of gulls of the genus Larus, the California gull was not included. Furthermore, no study of the gross external anatomy of any gull seemed to have been made; rather the studies had been histological investigations of the internal anatomy

Correlative Microscopy of Morphology and Luminescence of Cu porphyrin aggregates

Transfer of energy and information through molecule aggregates requires as one important building block anisotropic, cable-like structures. Knowledge on the spatial correlation of luminescence and morphology represents a prerequisite in the understanding of internal processes and will be important for architecting suitable landscapes. In this context we study the morphology, fluorescence and phosphorescence of molecule aggregate structures on surfaces in a spatially correlative way. We consider as two morphologies, lengthy strands and isotropic islands. It turns out that phosphorescence is quite strong compared to fluorescence and the spatial variation of the observed intensities is largely in line with the amount of dye. However in proportion, the strands exhibit more fluorescence than the isotropic islands suggesting weaker non-radiative channels. The ratio fluorescence to phosphorescence appears to be correlated with the degree of aggregation or internal order. The heights at which luminescence saturates is explained in the context of attenuation and emission multireflection, inside the dye. This is supported by correlative photoemission electron microscopy which is more sensitive to the surface region. The lengthy structures exhibit a pronounced polarization dependence of the luminescence with a relative dichroism up to about 60%, revealing substantial perpendicular orientation preference of the molecules with respect to the substrate and parallel with respect to the strands

Social justice in a market order: graduate employment and social mobility in the UK

Framed within a Gramscian analytical perspective, this article contrasts the ‘transparent neoliberalism’ of one of its leading organic intellectuals, Friederich Hayek, with one of the key discourses of ‘euphemized neoliberalism’ in the UK: higher education’s promise of social justice through social mobility. The article discusses the disjunctions between ideology and discourse but also between discourse and the reality of class-based unequal graduate employment outcomes in the UK. I then consider some recent policy proposals to redress such inequalities and scrutinize these in the light of Hayek’s views on social justice within a market economy. In the final section, I return to Gramsci to re-evaluate the continuing relevance of the concept of organic intellectuals in the light of debates around the shifting position of intellectuals within contemporary society

Metarhizium brunneum Blastospore Pathogenesis in Aedes aegypti Larvae: Attack on Several Fronts Accelerates Mortality

Aedes aegypti is the vector of a wide range of diseases (e.g. yellow fever, dengue, Chikungunya and Zika) which impact on over half the world's population. Entomopathogenic fungi such as Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana have been found to be highly efficacious in killing mosquito larvae but only now are the underlying mechanisms for pathogenesis being elucidated. Recently it was shown that conidia of M. anisopliae caused stress induced mortality in Ae. aegypti larvae, a different mode of pathogenicity to that normally seen in terrestrial hosts. Blastospores constitute a different form of inoculum produced by this fungus when cultured in liquid media and although blastospores are generally considered to be more virulent than conidia no evidence has been presented to explain why. In our study, using a range of biochemical, molecular and microscopy methods, the infection process of Metarhizium brunneum (formerly M. anisopliae) ARSEF 4556 blastospores was investigated. It appears that the blastospores, unlike conidia, readily adhere to and penetrate mosquito larval cuticle. The blastospores are readily ingested by the larvae but unlike the conidia are able infect the insect through the gut and rapidly invade the haemocoel. The fact that pathogenicity related genes were upregulated in blastospores exposed to larvae prior to invasion, suggests the fungus was detecting host derived cues. Similarly, immune and defence genes were upregulated in the host prior to infection suggesting mosquitoes were also able to detect pathogen-derived cues. The hydrophilic blastospores produce copious mucilage, which probably facilitates adhesion to the host but do not appear to depend on production of Pr1, a cuticle degrading subtilisin protease, for penetration since protease inhibitors did not significantly alter blastospore virulence. The fact the blastospores have multiple routes of entry (cuticle and gut) may explain why this form of the inoculum killed Ae. aegypti larvae in a relatively short time (12-24hrs), significantly quicker than when larvae were exposed to conidia. This study shows that selecting the appropriate form of inoculum is important for efficacious control of disease vectors such as Ae. aegypti