Variation for potassium and sodium accumulation in a family from a cross between grapevine rootstocks K 51-40 and 140 Ruggeri

The variation in potassium (K+) and sodium (Na+) accumulation was investigated between 60 hybrids within a family obtained by crossing grapevine rootstocks K 51-40 (Vitis champinii 'Dogridge' × V. riparia 'Gloire', seed parent) with 140 Ruggeri (V. cinerea var. helleri 'Resseguier #2' × V. rupestris'St. George', pollen parent), which are known to result in higher and lower concentrations of K+, respectively, but similar concentrations of Na+, in grape juice and resultant wine from scions grafted to them. The hybrids, their parents and two standard rootstocks, Ramsey (V. champinii 'Ramsey') and 1103 Paulsen (V. cinerea var. helleri 'Resseguier #2' x V. rupestris'St. George') were replicated by clonal propagation and grown under glasshouse conditions either in potting mix, drip-irrigated with a nutrient solution containing 50, 1.7 and 30 mM Cl-, K+ and Na+, respectively, or in aerated nutrient solution containing 25, 1.7 and 15 mM Cl-, K+ and Na+, respectively. In both pot and solution culture trials, there were significant (P < 0.001) differences between parents for mean K+ (but not Na+) concentrations, and between hybrids for mean K+ and Na+ concentrations in laminae. This variation between the hybrids was continuous, indicating multiple rather than single gene control for K+ and Na+ accumulation within the family. Differences among the hybrids for lamina K+ accumulation were not strongly associated with plant vigour. While the ranking of some hybrids for K+ and Na+ accumulation was consistent between the trials, others responded differently, suggesting the environment of the rootzone may affect the K+ and Na+ accumulation phenotype.

The TAMORA algorithm: satellite rainfall estimates over West Africa using multi-spectral SEVIRI data

A multi-spectral rainfall estimation algorithm has been developed for the Sahel region of West Africa with the purpose of producing accumulated rainfall estimates for drought monitoring and food security. Radar data were used to calibrate multi-channel SEVIRI data from MSG, and a probability of rainfall at several different rain-rates was established for each combination of SEVIRI radiances. Radar calibrations from both Europe (the SatPrecip algorithm) and Niger (TAMORA algorithm) were used. 10 day estimates were accumulated from SatPrecip and TAMORA and compared with kriged gauge data and TAMSAT satellite rainfall estimates over West Africa. SatPrecip was found to produce large overestimates for the region, probably because of its non-local calibration. TAMORA was negatively biased for areas of West Africa with relatively high rainfall, but its skill was comparable to TAMSAT for the low-rainfall region climatologically similar to its calibration area around Niamey. These results confirm the high importance of local calibration for satellite-derived rainfall estimates. As TAMORA shows no improvement in skill over TAMSAT for dekadal estimates, the extra cloud-microphysical information provided by multi-spectral data may not be useful in determining rainfall accumulations at a ten day timescale. Work is ongoing to determine whether it shows improved accuracy at shorter timescales

The integrability of Lie-invariant geometric objects generated by ideals in the Grassmann algebra

We investigate closed ideals in the Grassmann algebra serving as bases of Lie-invariant geometric objects studied before by E. Cartan. Especially, the E. Cartan theory is enlarged for Lax integrable nonlinear dynamical systems to be treated in the frame work of the Wahlquist Estabrook prolongation structures on jet-manifolds and Cartan-Ehresmann connection theory on fibered spaces. General structure of integrable one-forms augmenting the two-forms associated with a closed ideal in the Grassmann algebra is studied in great detail. An effective Maurer-Cartan one-forms construction is suggested that is very useful for applications. As an example of application the developed Lie-invariant geometric object theory for the Burgers nonlinear dynamical system is considered having given rise to finding an explicit form of the associated Lax type representation

Contrast in chloride exclusion between two grapevine genotypes and its variation in their hybrid progeny

Potted grapevines of 140 Ruggeri (Vitis berlandieri × Vitis rupestris), a good Cl− excluder, and K 51-40 (Vitis champinii × Vitis riparia ‘Gloire’), a poor Cl− excluder, and of a family obtained by crossing the two genotypes, were used to examine the inheritance of Cl− exclusion. Rooted leaves were then used to further investigate the mechanism for Cl− exclusion in 140 Ruggeri. In both a potting mix trial (plants watered with 50 mM Cl−) and a solution culture trial (plants grown in 25 mM Cl−), the variation in Cl− accumulation was continuous, indicating multiple rather than single gene control for Cl− exclusion between hybrids within the family. Upper limits of 42% and 35% of the phenotypic variation in Cl− concentration could be attributed to heritable sources in the potting mix and solution culture trials, respectively. Chloride transport in roots of rooted leaves of both genotypes appeared to be via the symplastic pathway, since addition of 8-hydroxy-1,3,6-pyrenetrisulphonic acid (PTS), an apoplastic tracer, revealed no obvious PTS fluorescence in the laminae of either genotype, despite significant accumulation of Cl− in laminae of K 51-40 during the PTS uptake period. There was no significant difference in either unidirectional 36Cl− flux (10 min) or 36Cl− uptake (3 h) into roots of rooted leaves exposed to 5, 10, or 25 mM Cl−. However, the percentage of 36Cl− transported to the lamina (3 h) was significantly lower in 140 Ruggeri than in K 51-40, supporting reduced Cl− loading into xylem and implicating the root stele in the Cl− exclusion mechanism

Influences on academics' approaches to development: voices from below

The purpose of this qualitative case study research was to explore faculty-based academics’ views on what influences their behaviours and attitudes towards their development. Informed by critical realist ontology, the data collection was carried out through narrative interviews with academics in two contrasting English Universities. Findings, or areas for reflection, have emerged about the constraints and enablements academics perceive in respect of their professional development. In particular, themes such as the significance of professional status; misaligned initiatives and priorities; the influence of supportive networks; and emergent personal, individual concerns have surfaced. The conclusion is drawn that the significance of agency raises the importance of responding to the ‘voices from below’

Letter from R.D. Blackmore, Teddington, England : autograph manuscript signed, 1888 February 21

Note in pencil on the top of the letter regarding the location of R. D. Blackmore\u27s gravehttps://repository.wellesley.edu/autographletters/1298/thumbnail.jp

Letter from R.D. Blackmore, Teddington, London, England, to Edmund Gosse : autograph manuscript signed, 1896 June 17

Regarding reproduction of Blackmore\u27s portrait in America contrary to copyright. Written on the back of a typed manuscript letter, signed, from G.P. Putnam\u27s Sons, London, to R.D. Blackmore, June 16, 1896. Written above this typed letter is an autograph manuscript copy, signed, of a letter to from R.D. Blackman, Teddington, to G.P. Putnam\u27s Sons, June 15, 1896https://repository.wellesley.edu/autographletters/1299/thumbnail.jp

A Memetic Analysis of a Phrase by Beethoven: Calvinian Perspectives on Similarity and Lexicon-Abstraction

This article discusses some general issues arising from the study of similarity in music, both human-conducted and computer-aided, and then progresses to a consideration of similarity relationships between patterns in a phrase by Beethoven, from the first movement of the Piano Sonata in A flat major op. 110 (1821), and various potential memetic precursors. This analysis is followed by a consideration of how the kinds of similarity identified in the Beethoven phrase might be understood in psychological/conceptual and then neurobiological terms, the latter by means of William Calvin’s Hexagonal Cloning Theory. This theory offers a mechanism for the operation of David Cope’s concept of the lexicon, conceived here as a museme allele-class. I conclude by attempting to correlate and map the various spaces within which memetic replication occurs

A Tentative Modeling Study of the Effect of Wall Reactions on Oxidation Phenomena

This paper gives details of a tentative modeling study that investigates the inhibiting effect of internal reactor walls treated with acid..

Memetic Perspectives on the Evolution of Tonal Systems

Cohn (1996) and Taruskin (1985) consider the increasing prominence during the nineteenth century of harmonic progressions derived from the hexatonic and octatonic pitch collections respectively. This development is clearly evident in music of the third quarter of the century onwards and is a consequence of forces towards non-diatonic organization latent in earlier music. This article conceptualizes such forces as memetic — drawing a distinction between memetic processes in music itself and those in the realm of music theory — and interprets the gradualistic evolution of tonal systems as one of their most significant consequences. After outlining hypotheses for the mechanisms driving such evolution, it identifies a number of ‘musemes’ implicated in hexatonic and octatonic organization in a passage from Mahler’s Symphony no. 10. Pople’s (2002) Tonalities music-analysis software is used to explore the tonal organization of the passage, which is considered in relation to the musemes hypothesized to generate and underpin it