Early ontogenetic male cone production in Pinus radiata : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Plant Biology at Massey University

The tree breeding industry is interested in early ontogenetic male cone production in Pinus radiata in order to maximise the rate at which successive generations can be bred. The foundation of this thesis was a study of how male cone production differed in various contrasting regions around New Zealand. A study was then carried out to assess whether various morphological and anatomical characteristics of trees were correlated with the onset of male cone production. Various treatments including stress, plant growth regulator application and grafting were examined to determine whether any of these could be used to promote early ontogenetic male cone production. The regional study found that male cone production commenced at age 3 in Nelson, at age 4 in Northern and Southern Kinleith, and age 6 in Karioi and Northland. Findings suggest that high sunshine hours and low autumn and/or winter temperatures are of significance to the precocity of male cone production. A tentative logistic model was developed that may adequately describe cone production across all regions. Morphological and anatomical characteristics of trees were used to develop a model which predicts the probability that a tree will not be producing male cones. Relative cell number was found to provide the greatest ability to predict whether or not a given tree will be producing male cones, supporting the hypothesis that a certain number of cell divisions are required before male cone production commences. Grafting did not promote male cone production in the present study. It is recommended that future grafting experiments for the purposes of promoting male cone production should reconsider the position within the crown at which grafts are made. Male cone production on fascicle cuttings approximately two years old was promoted by growing them under stress in small pots, with minimal watering and no fertiliser application. It is suggested that a "stress" pathway, distinct from the "normal" male cone production pathway is probably involved. Male cone promotion in fascicle cuttings appears to be enhanced through the application of ABA, but not other plant growth regulators. Additionally, male cone production in fascicle cuttings appears to be enhanced by providing relatively high levels of light. The outcomes of this study suggest that a lack of male cone production in young trees may not be the most serious impediment to the breeding program. Instead, the onus may be on the ability to make superior selections at a younger age than occurs at present

Collision Course: How Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f) Has Silently Undermined the Prohibition on American Pipe Tolling During Appeals of Class Certification Denials

The article offers information on the court case Calderon v. Presidio Valley Farmers Association (PVFA). It mentions that court ruled in favor of the Mexican farmworkers that sued the Presidio Valley Farmers Association and its grower members for breach of their employment agreement and numerous violations of the Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act. It reports that The PVFA had hired the workers during the 1977 and 1978 harvest seasons

Validation of empirical measures of welfare change: comment

In an excellent article from a recent issue of this journal, Sellar, Stoll and Chavas (1985) make a technical error which causes them to misstate their closed-ended estimates of willingness to pay. Truncation of the estimated cummulative distribution function must we made explicit in compution of willingness to pay.nonmarket valuation; contingent valuation; stated preferences; welfare evaluation; willingness to pay

VALIDATING CONTINGENT VALUATION WITH SURVEYS OF EXPERTS

Contingent-valuation estimates for white-water boating passengers are compared with Likert ratings by river guides. The approach involves asking whether passengers and their guides ordinally rank alternative flows the same. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Contingent Valuation Panel (1993) suggested "one might want to compare its (contingent-valuation's) outcome with that provided by a panel of experts." River guides constitute a counterfactual panel of "experts." For commercial trips, optimum flows are 34,000 cfs and 31,000 cfs for passengers and guides, and the comparable figures for private trips are 28,000 cfs and 29,000 cfs. In the NOAA Panel framework, passengers can evaluate the consequences of various river flows and translate this into contingent-valuation responses.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Simultaneous real-time visible and infrared video with single-pixel detectors

Conventional cameras rely upon a pixelated sensor to provide spatial resolution. An alternative approach replaces the sensor with a pixelated transmission mask encoded with a series of binary patterns. Combining knowledge of the series of patterns and the associated filtered intensities, measured by single-pixel detectors, allows an image to be deduced through data inversion. In this work we extend the concept of a ‘single-pixel camera’ to provide continuous real-time video at 10 Hz , simultaneously in the visible and short-wave infrared, using an efficient computer algorithm. We demonstrate our camera for imaging through smoke, through a tinted screen, whilst performing compressive sampling and recovering high-resolution detail by arbitrarily controlling the pixel-binning of the masks. We anticipate real-time single-pixel video cameras to have considerable importance where pixelated sensors are limited, allowing for low-cost, non-visible imaging systems in applications such as night-vision, gas sensing and medical diagnostics

Polarized 129Xe129Xe optical pumping/spin exchange and delivery system for magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging studies

We describe the design and construction of a laser-polarized 129Xe129Xe production and delivery system that is used in our in vitro and in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) experiments. The entire apparatus including lasers and optics, rapidly actuated valves, heating and cooling, and transport tubing lies in the high magnetic field environment of a 2 T MRI magnet. With approximately 7.5% 129Xe129Xe polarization, 157 cc atm of xenon gas is produced and stored as xenon ice every 5 min. Large quantities of polarized 129Xe129Xe can be obtained by cycling this process. The xenon is subsequently delivered in a controlled fashion to a sample or subject. With this device we have established the feasibility of using laser-polarized 129Xe129Xe as a magnetic tracer in MRI. This reliable, effective, and relatively simple production method for large volumes of 129Xe129Xe can be applied to other areas of research involving the use of laser-polarized noble gases. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69879/2/RSINAK-70-2-1546-1.pd