Woodland Survey of Great Britain 1971-2001

The Woodland Survey of Great Britain is a unique data set, consisting of a detailed range of ecological measurements at a national scale, covering a time span of 30 years. A set of 103 woods spread across Britain were first surveyed in 1971, which were again surveyed in 2000–2003 (for convenience referred to subsequently as the “2001 survey”). Standardised methods of describing the trees, shrubs, ground flora, soils and general habitats present were used for both sets of surveys. The sample of 1648 plots spread through 103 woodland sites located across Britain makes it probably the most extensive quantitative ecological woodland survey undertaken in Britain; it is also notable for the range of sites that have been revisited after such a long interval. The data set provides a unique opportunity to explore the effects of a range of potential drivers of woodland change that operated between 1971 and 2001. The data set is available in four discrete parts, which have been assigned the following DOIs: doi:10.5285/4d93f9ac-68e3-49cf-8a41-4d02a7ead81a (Kirby et al., 2013b), doi:10.5285/d6409d40-58fe-4fa7-b7c8-71a105b965b4 (Kirby et al., 2013d), doi:10.5285/fb1e474d-456b-42a9- 9a10-a02c35af10d2 (Kirby et al., 2013c), doi:10.5285/2d023ce9-6dbe-4b4f-a0cd-34768e1455ae (Kirby et al., 2013a)

Sodium dependent inositol transport in HL60 cells is not related to Na+/K+, ATPase activity

AbstractIn HL60 cells, inositol transport is sodium-dependent but functionally independent of Na+/K+ ATPase activity. This observation has implications for the currently proposed theory for the development of diabetic complications

The development, landscapes and habitats of the village of Allithwaite - a representative of overlooked lowlands of the English Lake District

Allithwaite consisted of only a few farms and cottages from the seventeenth until the mid-nineteenth centuries, and maps of the development through the centuries are given. In the next 40 years, a large hall, church, vicarage and school were built followed by about 20 residences. In the twentieth Century, over 170 new buildings were added, mainly in small estates but all were contained in the central area of the village because of effective planning control. Apart from the residential area in the centre of the village, the landscapes have therefore remained little changed since the nineteenth century and vary from the open tidal margins of Morecambe Bay to a patchwork of small fields, except for one area of open grassland on a low limestone hill. The landscapes are described together with the associated habitats using a standard classification. The field boundaries were mapped and are also shown and consist mainly of hedgerows but with walls on the shallow limestone soils and the habitats vary from small deciduous woodlands to limestone grassland

Changes in the frequency of common plant species across linear features in Wales from 1990 to 2016: implications for potential delivery of ecosystem services

In 2016, 21 1km squares recorded in Wales as part of the Countryside Survey of Great Britain were revisited. One hundred and thirty seven quadrats alongside linear features that had all been recorded in the same place in 1990, 1998 and 2007 were re-found and the plant species compositions recorded. Changes in individual species frequency were analysed and the results summarised by a number of ecosystem services and one disservice whose delivery are linked to functionally important species being present. Results indicated a continuation of a trend toward increased shading and woody cover seen between the first Countryside Survey in 1978 and the last in 2007. Most species showed no significant change in frequency suggesting that the significant directional trend seems only to have impacted a subset of the species present. A greater sample size would be required to capture impacts on a larger number of species including a wider range of Common Standards Monitoring (CSM) positive indicator species that may find refuge on the linear network in lowland Wales. Having grouped species by the ecosystem services they help deliver, we found that injurious weeds (an ecosystem disservice to food production) either declined or remained stable, a greater number of butterfly larval food plants decreased than increased and there was a net decline in potential nectar yield. Consistent with the successional trend, increasing species in these service-providing groups tended to be tall or shade-tolerant herbs and tree species. Decreasing species tended to be short, shade-intolerant forbs

Observation of Parity Violation in the Omega-minus -> Lambda + K-minus Decay

The alpha decay parameter in the process Omega-minus -> Lambda + K-minus has been measured from a sample of 4.50 million unpolarized Omega-minus decays recorded by the HyperCP (E871) experiment at Fermilab and found to be [1.78 +/- 0.19(stat) +/- 0.16(syst)]{\times}10^{-2}. This is the first unambiguous evidence for a nonzero alpha decay parameter, and hence parity violation, in the Omega-minus -> Lambda + K-minus decay.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

HyperCP: A high-rate spectrometer for the study of charged hyperon and kaon decays

The HyperCP experiment (Fermilab E871) was designed to search for rare phenomena in the decays of charged strange particles, in particular CP violation in $\Xi$ and $\Lambda$ hyperon decays with a sensitivity of $10^{-4}$. Intense charged secondary beams were produced by 800 GeV/c protons and momentum-selected by a magnetic channel. Decay products were detected in a large-acceptance, high-rate magnetic spectrometer using multiwire proportional chambers, trigger hodoscopes, a hadronic calorimeter, and a muon-detection system. Nearly identical acceptances and efficiencies for hyperons and antihyperons decaying within an evacuated volume were achieved by reversing the polarities of the channel and spectrometer magnets. A high-rate data-acquisition system enabled 231 billion events to be recorded in twelve months of data-taking.Comment: 107 pages, 45 Postscript figures, 14 tables, Elsevier LaTeX, submitted to Nucl. Instrum. Meth.

Extracellular Nm23H1 stimulates neurite outgrowth from dorsal root ganglia neurons in vitro independently of nerve growth factor supplementation or its nucleoside diphosphate kinase activity

The nucleoside diphosphate (NDP) kinase, Nm23H1, is a highly expressed during neuronal development, whilst induced over-expression in neuronal cells results in increased neurite outgrowth. Extracellular Nm23H1 affects the survival, proliferation and differentiation of non-neuronal cells. Therefore, this study has examined whether extracellular Nm23H1 regulates nerve growth. We have immobilised recombinant Nm23H1 proteins to defined locations of culture plates, which were then seeded with explants of embryonic chick dorsal root ganglia (DRG) or dissociated adult rat DRG neurons. The substratum-bound extracellular Nm23H1 was stimulatory for neurite outgrowth from chick DRG explants in a concentration-dependent manner. On high concentrations of Nm23H1, chick DRG neurite outgrowth was extensive and effectively limited to the location of the Nm23H1, i.e. neuronal growth cones turned away from adjacent collagen-coated substrata. Nm23H1-coated substrata also significantly enhanced rat DRG neuronal cell adhesion and neurite outgrowth in comparison to collagen-coated substrata. These effects were independent of NGF supplementation. Recombinant Nm23H1 (H118F), which does not possess NDP kinase activity, exhibited the same activity as the wild-type protein. Hence, a novel neuro-stimulatory activity for extracellular Nm23H1 has been identified in vitro, which may function in developing neuronal systems

Octupole transitions in the 208Pb region

The 208Pb region is characterised by the existence of collective octupole states. Here we populated such states in 208Pb + 208Pb deep-inelastic reactions. γ-ray angular distribution measurements were used to infer the octupole character of several E3 transitions. The octupole character of the 2318 keV 17- 14+ in 208Pb, 2485 keV 19/2- 13/2+ in 207Pb, 2419 keV 15/2- 9/2+ in 209Pb and 2465 keV 17/2+ 11/2- in 207Tl transitions was demonstrated for the first time. In addition, shell model calculations were performed using two different sets of two-body matrix elements. Their predictions were compared with emphasis on collective octupole states