Progress Report on a Survey of the Spiders of Iowa

The senior author began a study of Iowa spiders in the fall of 1936 when a black widow (Latrodectus mactaus texanus) was collected in Linn County. This was reported in Science (Stiles, 1937) and constituted the first official record of the black widow for Iowa. This record was of special interest because Minnesota and Iowa had been listed as the only states from which this spider had not been reported officially. It was discovered at that time that the spider was one of Iowa\u27s most neglected animals. Only three papers on our spider fauna have been reported to the Iowa Academy of Science in the past fifty years ; and there are no good collections of spiders in the State at the present time. In view of the incompleteness of our knowledge concerning Iowa\u27s spiders, it was thought worthwhile to begin a systematic study of them. It is the ambition of the Coe College Biology Department to make a study of the Araneae similar to that which Jaques (1932) is making on insects, thereby rounding out, somewhat, our knowledge of Iowa animal life. This is being undertaken with a full realization of the tremendous size of the task and the improbability that it will ever be wholly finished

Visualization of microscale phase displacement proceses in retention and outflow experiments: nonuniquensess of unsaturated flow properties

Methods to determine unsaturated hydraulic properties can exhibit random and non-unique behavior. The authors assess the causes for these behaviors by visualizing micro-scale phase displacement processes during equilibrium retention and transient outflow experiments. They observe that the drainage process is composed of a fast fingering followed by a slower backfilling. The influence of each these processes is controlled by the size and the speed of the applied boundary step, the initial saturation and its structure and by small-scale heterogeneities. Because the mixture of these micro-scale processes yields macro-scale effective behavior, measured unsaturated flow properties are also a function of these controls. These results suggest limitations on the current definitions and uniqueness of unsaturated hydraulic properties

Neurosurgical considerations on highly eloquent brainstem cavernomas during pregnancy

OBJECTIVE: Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) and especially cavernous malformations (CMs) in highly eloquent brain areas such as brainstem CMs are rare but possible events during pregnancy. Due to the few published cases in literature clear recommendations regarding the management are rare. In this study we evaluate the proceeding decision in pregnant patients with highly eloquent brainstem CMs. METHODS: In our series 43 patients with CMs in highly eloquent brain areas, including 39 patients with brainstem CMs, were surgically treated by the senior author between July 2007 and July 2010. Out of these, 29 patients were female and three of them presented with a symptomatic brainstem CMs during pregnancy and were included in this study. According to our experiences and to the available literature we analyzed demographic and clinical variables to provide recommendations for the management of pregnant patients with highly eloquent brainstem CMs. RESULTS: Only one patient was operated during pregnancy the other two patients were surgically treated after delivery, respectively. A thorough review of the literature revealed 12 patients with brainstem cavernomas during pregnancy there of only two patients were operated during pregnancy. CONCLUSION: Surgical treatment during pregnancy is rarely required, but needs to be performed right away in life-threatening and rapidly progressive clinical situations. Pregnant women with CMs in highly eloquent brain areas such as brainstem CMs need to be treated in specialized centers to assess the best point of time for surgery. Our study offers a useful tool to support the proceeding decision in this rare but important situation