Recent Advances of the Forest in Iowa

At the time of settlement Iowa was definitely a prairie state with less than 20 per cent of its area covered by timber. Such a distribution of vegetation, coupled with short time observations, has led to the general assumption that prairie is the climax vegetation of the state. The writers have recently (7) assembled evidence that the present climate of Iowa is capable of supporting a forest climax. Prairie is therefore a subclimax associes maintained by its early establishment and by the marginal nature of the climate, but particularly by a combination of soil factors favoring prairie over woodland. The establishment of our classification depends upon evidence that forest is not only able to survive in Iowa, but that it has been able to invade the prairie at an appreciable rate under undisturbed conditions. Additional evidence of the spread of forest in Iowa, both after and before settlement, is presented here

Effects of light and soil moisture on forest tree seedling establishment

The present studies were designed to aid in the solution of forest tree seedling establishment problems common to stand conversion practices in Iowa. The primary objectives were: (1) to determine the minimum treatment needed to insure successful survival and growth; (2) to study the relationships of light and soil moisture in plant competition resulting from stand conversion; and (3) to evaluate five species of conifers - European larch, Scotch pine, eastern white pine, Norway spruce and red pine - for adaptability to region, site and underplanting. Field studies were made at the Brayton Forest in northeastern Iowa and consisted of ( 1 ) practical understory treatments to increase survival and growth of five underplanted conifers and (2) controlled experiments to evaluate overstory and understory competition in such plantings. Studies at the State Forest Nursery near Ames were planned to determine the relative growth and photosynthetic characteristics of three of the underplanted conifers (European larch, eastern white pine and Norway spruce) and two shrubby hardwood species ( dogwood and hazel) which offer serious understory competition in the forest

Genetic identification of a novel NeuroD1 function in the early differentiation of islet α, PP and ε cells

AbstractNkx2.2 and NeuroD1 are vital for proper differentiation of pancreatic islet cell types. Nkx2.2-null mice fail to form β cells, have reduced numbers of α and PP cells and display an increase in ghrelin-producing ε cells. NeuroD1-null mice display a reduction of α and β cells after embryonic day (e) 17.5. To begin to determine the relative contributions of Nkx2.2 and NeuroD1 in islet development, we generated Nkx2.2−/−;NeuroD1−/− double knockout (DKO) mice. As expected, the DKO mice fail to form β cells, similar to the Nkx2.2-null mice, suggesting that the Nkx2.2 phenotype may be dominant over the NeuroD1 phenotype in the β cells. Surprisingly, however, the α, PP and ε phenotypes of the Nkx2.2-null mice are partially rescued by the simultaneous elimination of NeuroD1, even at early developmental time points when NeuroD1 null mice alone do not display a phenotype. Our results indicate that Nkx2.2 and NeuroD1 interact to regulate pancreatic islet cell fates, and this epistatic relationship is cell-type dependent. Furthermore, this study reveals a previously unappreciated early function of NeuroD1 in regulating the specification of α, PP and ε cells

Quantitative analysis of cell types during growth and morphogenesis in Hydra

Tissue maceration was used to determine the absolute number and the distribution of cell types in Hydra. It was shown that the total number of cells per animal as well as the distribution of cells vary depending on temperature, feeding conditions, and state of growth. During head and foot regeneration and during budding the first detectable change in the cell distribution is an increase in the number of nerve cells at the site of morphogenesis. These results and the finding that nerve cells are most concentrated in the head region, diminishing in density down the body column, are discussed in relation to tissue polarity

Sensory navigation device for blind people

[EN] This paper presents a new Electronic Travel Aid (ETA) 'Acoustic Prototype' which is especially suited to facilitate the navigation of visually impaired users. The device consists of a set of 3-Dimensional Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (3-D CMOS) image sensors based on the three-dimensional integration and Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) processing techniques implemented into a pair of glasses, stereo headphones as well as a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) used as processing unit. The device is intended to be used as a complementary device to navigation through both open known and unknown environments. The FPGA and the 3D-CMOS image sensor electronics control object detection. Distance measurement is achieved by using chip-integrated technology based on the Multiple Short Time Integration method. The processed information of the object distance is presented to the user via acoustic sounds through stereophonic headphones. The user interprets the information as an acoustic image of the surrounding environment. The Acoustic Prototype transforms the surface of the objects of the real environment into acoustical sounds. The method used is similar to a bat's acoustic orientation. Having good hearing ability, with few weeks training the users are able to perceive not only the presence of an object but also the object form (that is, if the object is round, if it has corners, if it is a car or a box, if it is a cardboard object or if it is an iron or cement object, a tree, a person, a static or moving object). The information is continuously delivered to the user in a few nanoseconds until the device is shut down, helping the end user to perceive the information in real time.The first author would like to acknowledge that this research was funded through the FP6 European project CASBLiP number 027063 and Project number 2062 of the Programa de Apoyo a la Investigacion y Desarrollo 2011 from the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.Dunai, L.; Peris Fajarnes, G.; Lluna Gil, E.; Defez Garcia, B. (2013). Sensory navigation device for blind people. Journal of Navigation. 66(3):346-362. doi:10.1017/S0373463312000574S34636266

Cell proliferation and differentiation kinetics during spermatogenesis in Hydra carnea

Spermatogenesis inHydra carnea was investigated. The cell proliferation and differentiation kinetics of intermediates in the spermatogenesis pathway were determined, using quantitative determinations of cell abundance, pulse and continuous labelling with3H-thymidine and nuclear DNA measurements. Testes develop in the ectoderm of male hydra as a result of interstitial cell proliferation. Gonial stem cells and proliferating spermatogonia have cell cycles of 28 h and 22 h, respectively. Stem cells undergo four, five or six cell divisions prior to meiosis which includes a premeiotic S+G2 phase of 20 h followed by a long meiotic prophase (22 h). Spermatid differentiation requires 12–29 h. When they first appear, testes contain only proliferating spermatogonia; meiotic and postmeiotic cells appear after 2 and 3 days, respectively and release of mature sperm begins after 4 days. Mature testes produce about 27,000 sperm per day over a period of 4–6 days: about 220 gonial stem cells per testis are required to support this level of sperm differentiation. Further results indicate that somatic (e.g. nematocyte) differentiation does not occur in testes although it continues normally in ectodermal tissue outside testes. Our results support the hypothesis that spermatogenesis is controlled locally in regions of the ectoderm where testes develop

Optical monitoring of the gravitationally lensed quasar Q2237+0305 from APO between June 1995 and January 1998

We present a data set of images of the gravitationally lensed quasar Q2237+0305, that was obtained at the Apache Point Observatory (APO) between June 1995 and January 1998. Although the images were taken under variable, often poor seeing conditions and with coarse pixel sampling, photometry is possible for the two brighter quasar images A and B with the help of exact quasar image positions from HST observations. We obtain a light curve with 73 data points for each of the images A and B. There is evidence for a long (>~ 100 day) brightness peak in image A in 1996 with an amplitude of about 0.4 to 0.5 mag (relative to 1995), which indicates that microlensing has been taking place in the lensing galaxy. Image B does not vary much over the course of the observation period. The long, smooth variation of the light curve is similar to the results from the OGLE monitoring of the system (Wozniak et al. 2000a).Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in A&