The Development of Polyamines throughout Brassica rapa over its Lifecycle

Polyamines are naturally produced chemicals in plants involved in growth, development and stress response. The primary objective of my study is to create a profile of changes in the entire life of the plant, in every organ at all stages of development from seed germination to seed formation. We have analyzed polyamines putrescine, spermidine and spermine in all parts of Brassica rapa, a small, rapid growing plant. Parallel to the polyamines, we will also study changes in the activities of the polyamine biosynthetic enzymes and the expression of their genes in different organs at different times. In the next stage of the study, the expression of selected genes will be inhibited by RNAi constructs, allowing further analysis of their role in growth and stress response. Because polyamines play are important in development and lifecycle of plants, altering their presence may be useful in altering plant growth patterns, such as in seasonal crops

Natural and Cultural Resource Management

Two submissions by CAEPR researchers Jon Altman and Libby Larsen relating to issues of Indigenous participation in natural and cultural resource management: one to the Senate Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Committee's Inquiry into Australia's National Parks, Conservation Reserves and Marine Protected Areas, and the second to the Department of the Environment and Heritage's Indigenous Protected Areas Programme Review

The environmental significance of the Indigenous estate: Natural resource management as economic development in remote Australia

This discussion paper explores the geography of the Indigenous estate, its environmental significance, and some of the innovative approaches adopted by Indigenous landholders to protect the natural and cultural values of their land. A number of maps are used to explore the environmental significance of the Indigenous estate. These maps indicate that the Indigenous estate—making up 20 per cent of the Australian land mass—covers vast areas of relatively intact land. The Indigenous estate contains some of the highest conservation priority lands in Australia. Emerging recognition of the environmental significance of the Indigenous estate is indicated by a number of Commonwealth-funded programs that represent a form of payment for environmental services (PES). Such programs provide important employment opportunities for Indigenous people living in some of the remotest parts of Australia, areas far from mainstream labour markets. Environmental service provision might provide alternate development opportunities on the Indigenous estate beyond standard private sector industries like mining, tourism and pastoralism, or publicly-funded provision of standard municipal services

Research Note: Records of Thirteen Ground Beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) New to Iowa

A long-term ecological research initiative in northeast Iowa tallgrass prairies to evaluate the effects of prescribed burning on prairie insects was begun in 1993. During the course of this work we discovered 13 ground beetle species (Coleoptera: Carabidae) (Table 1) not previously reported from Iowa (Bousquet and Larochelle 1993)

Seismic stratigraphy and sedimentary architecture of the Chalk Group in south-west Denmark

The Chalk Group is ubiquitous in the subsurface of the Danish Basin and its upper levels are exposed locally onshore, most notably in eastern Denmark. Although many subsurface studies have been made of the group in the Danish Basin, most of these have been in the eastern part of Denmark (e.g. Esmerode et al. 2007; Surlyk & Lykke-Andersen 2007) whereas the stratigraphy and character of the Chalk Group in the western onshore region is less well-known. The work described here was undertaken as a BSc project at the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Mangement at the University of Copenhagen by the first author as part of regional seismic mapping work contributing to an evaluation of the geothermal energy potential in Denmark. The aim of this paper is to present a summary of the key results of the study. We have subdivided and mapped the distribution of the Chalk Group in the northern North German Basin and the south-western Danish Basin based on digital reflection seismic profiles. We also highlight seismic architectural features that testify to periods of active bottom currents

The shock process and light element production in supernovae envelopes

Detailed hydrodynamic modeling of the passage of supernova shocks through the hydrogen envelopes of blue and red progenitor stars was carried out to explore the sensitivity to model conditions of light element production (specifically Li-7 and B-11) which was noted by Dearborn, Schramm, Steigman and Truran (1989) (DSST). It is found that, for stellar models with M is less than or approximately 100 M solar mass, current state of the art supernova shocks do not produce significant light element yields by hydrodynamic processes alone. The dependence of this conclusion on stellar models and on shock strengths is explored. Preliminary implications for Galactic evolution of lithium are discussed, and it is suspected that intermediate mass red giant stars may be the most consistent production site for lithium

Street Life and the Built Environment in an Auto-oriented US Region

Urban planners and designers believe that the built environment at various geographic scales affects pedestrian activity, but have limited empirical evidence at the street scale, to support their claims. We are just beginning to identify and measure the qualities that generate active street life, and this paper builds on the first few studies to do so. This study measures street design qualities and surrounding urban form variables for 881 block faces in Salt Lake County, Utah, and relates them to pedestrian counts. This is the largest such study to date and includes suburbs as well as cities. At the neighborhood scale, we find that D variables – development density, accessibility to destinations, and distance to transit – are significantly associated with the pedestrian activity. At the street scale, we find significant positive relationships between three urban design qualities – imageability, human scale, and complexity – and pedestrian counts, after controlling for neighborhood-scale variables. Finally, we find that pedestrian counts are positively associated with seven of twenty streetscape features – historic buildings, outdoor dining, buildings with identifiers, less sky view, street furniture, active uses, and accent building colors. This study provides implications for streetscape projects that aim to create walkable places in typical auto-oriented, medium-sized cities