\u3ci\u3eDalea villosa\u3c/i\u3e ‘Sandhills Satin

Daleas (prairie-clovers) are annual or perennial, warm season legumes found from southern Canada to South America (Barneby, 1977). They are an important group of legumes in native grasslands of the Great Plains. The genus name Dalea L. is in honor of Samuel Dale, an English botanist (1659–1739). Until recently, these plants were classified in the genus Petalostemon Michx. (Weber, 1990). The prairie-clovers have potential as attractive garden ornamental plants in addition to their importance as constituents of prairies and pastures. They have uses, along with other native species, for beautification of roadsides, rest areas, parks, and recreation areas, and for soil stabilization (Salac et al., 1978). Daleas are common in the Nebraska Sandhills, an area in central Nebraska extending into South Dakota, consisting of almost 50,000 Km2. It is one of the largest grass-stabilized sand dune regions in the world. The Sandhills area has many unique or special plants, such as Penstemon haydenii S. Wats. and Lithospermum caroliniense (Walter) MacMill (Bleed and Flowerday, 1989). Dalea villosa (Nuttall) Sprengel, commonly known as silky prairie-clover, typically grows in moderately moist to dry sandy soils in disturbed sites, along right-of-ways, and in margins of sandy, wind-eroded blowouts (Farrar, 1990; Great Plains Flora Association, 1986). It has numerous, often horizontal to drooping flowering heads with pinkish-rose colored flowers. Flower spikes are solitary at ends of short branches near the top of the plant (Stubbendieck et al., 1989). Flowers are minute with five protruding yellow stamens encircling a spike up to 10 cm long (Farrar, 1990). Flowers mature acropetally and the fruit is a pod 2.5 to 3 mm long (Barneby, 1977). Plants flower from July to August, depending on location. It has one to several erect, branching stems and a reddish-orange taproot. A compact arching growth habit and an abundance of attractive, silvery, compound leaves give an appearance quite different from other species of the genus (Farrar, 1990). It has numerous alternate, odd-pinnately compound leaves, up to 2 to 4 cm long, with 11 to 25 leaflets, narrowly elliptic and 5 to 11 mm long (Great Plains Flora Association, 1986). Stems and leaves are silvery-green with short, white hairs (Farrar, 1990). Leaves are dotted with glands on the lower surface. The species is found from Manitoba to central Texas and from western Wisconsin to eastern Colorado (Barneby, 1977)

\u3ci\u3eDalea villosa\u3c/i\u3e ‘Sandhills Satin

Daleas (prairie-clovers) are annual or perennial, warm season legumes found from southern Canada to South America (Barneby, 1977). They are an important group of legumes in native grasslands of the Great Plains. The genus name Dalea L. is in honor of Samuel Dale, an English botanist (1659–1739). Until recently, these plants were classified in the genus Petalostemon Michx. (Weber, 1990). The prairie-clovers have potential as attractive garden ornamental plants in addition to their importance as constituents of prairies and pastures. They have uses, along with other native species, for beautification of roadsides, rest areas, parks, and recreation areas, and for soil stabilization (Salac et al., 1978). Daleas are common in the Nebraska Sandhills, an area in central Nebraska extending into South Dakota, consisting of almost 50,000 Km2. It is one of the largest grass-stabilized sand dune regions in the world. The Sandhills area has many unique or special plants, such as Penstemon haydenii S. Wats. and Lithospermum caroliniense (Walter) MacMill (Bleed and Flowerday, 1989). Dalea villosa (Nuttall) Sprengel, commonly known as silky prairie-clover, typically grows in moderately moist to dry sandy soils in disturbed sites, along right-of-ways, and in margins of sandy, wind-eroded blowouts (Farrar, 1990; Great Plains Flora Association, 1986). It has numerous, often horizontal to drooping flowering heads with pinkish-rose colored flowers. Flower spikes are solitary at ends of short branches near the top of the plant (Stubbendieck et al., 1989). Flowers are minute with five protruding yellow stamens encircling a spike up to 10 cm long (Farrar, 1990). Flowers mature acropetally and the fruit is a pod 2.5 to 3 mm long (Barneby, 1977). Plants flower from July to August, depending on location. It has one to several erect, branching stems and a reddish-orange taproot. A compact arching growth habit and an abundance of attractive, silvery, compound leaves give an appearance quite different from other species of the genus (Farrar, 1990). It has numerous alternate, odd-pinnately compound leaves, up to 2 to 4 cm long, with 11 to 25 leaflets, narrowly elliptic and 5 to 11 mm long (Great Plains Flora Association, 1986). Stems and leaves are silvery-green with short, white hairs (Farrar, 1990). Leaves are dotted with glands on the lower surface. The species is found from Manitoba to central Texas and from western Wisconsin to eastern Colorado (Barneby, 1977)

Estradiol alters the immune-responsiveness of cervical epithelial cells stimulated with ligands of Toll-like receptors 2 and 4.

The mucosa of the female reproductive tract plays a pivotal role in host defence. Pregnancy must alter immunological mechanisms at this interface to protect the conceptus. We sought to determine how estradiol (E2) alters the immune-responsiveness of cervical epithelial cells to ligand stimulation of Toll-like receptor (TLR)-2 and -4. Human ectocervical epithelial cells (HECECs) were cultured and co-incubated with two concentrations of E2 and peptidoglycan (PGN) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) over durations that ranged between 10 minutes and 18 hours. Cytometric Bead Array was performed to quantify eight cytokines in the supernatant fluid. In response to PGN, HECECs co-incubated with E2 released lesser quantities of IL-1ß and IFNγ, higher levels of RANTES, and variable levels of IL-6 and IL-8 than those not exposed to E2. In contrast, HECECs co-incubated with LPS and E2 secreted increased levels of IL-1ß, IL-6, IL-8, and IFNγ at 2 and 18 hours than HECECs not exposed to E2, and reduced levels of RANTES at same study time-points. Estradiol alters the immune-responsiveness of cultured HECECs to TLR2 and TLR4 ligands in a complex fashion that appears to vary with bacterial ligand, TLR subtype, and duration of exposure. Our observations are consistent with the functional complexity that this mucosal interface requires for its immunological roles

Business ethics competencies research: implications for Canadian practitioners

This paper describes a proposed framework of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that a practitioner who is competent in business ethics, compliance, or integrity should possess. These competencies may be leveraged as key input to selecting content for an institutionalized business ethics training program. The focus in this paper is on the management problem of 'What competencies are important for job performance of business ethics practitioners'. Phase I consisted of developing a provisional taxonomy of business ethics competencies and Phase II involved academic and industry practitioners implicated in business ethics to validate the conceptually developed provisional taxonomy of business ethics competencies to eventually make recommendations regarding the selection of business ethics training content. The contribution to the business ethics competency-based management knowledge that is presented in this paper is a proposed business ethics competency model and the implications of this model for Canadian practitioners are discussed

Experiential Qualities of Whispering with Voice Assistants

We present a Research through Design project that explores how whispering influences the ways people experience and interact with voice assistants. The research project includes a co-speculation workshop and the use of a design probe, which culminated in the production of a design fiction short film. Our design-led inquiry contributes with experiential qualities of whispering with voice assistants: creepiness, trust, and intimacy. Furthermore, we present how whispering opens up new dimensions of how and when voice interaction could be used. We propose that designers of whispering voice assistants should reflect on how they facilitate the experiential qualities of creepiness, trust, and intimacy, and reflect on the potential challenges whispering brings to the relation between a user and a voice assistant.QC 20200217</p