Development and Characterization of Genomic and Gene-Based Microsatellite Markers in North American Red Oak Species

Oaks (Quercus: Fagaceae) are ecological and economic keystones of many forested ecosystems but effective genetic management strategies are hindered by high levels of phenotypic plasticity within species and frequent hybridization among them. These same features, however, make oak communities suited for the study of speciation, hybridization, and genetic adaptation. Efforts to develop new and to adapt existing genomic resources to less-studied members of this genus should not only improve oak conservation and management but also aid the study of fundamental evolutionary processes. Here, we present a suite of 27 highly polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers tested in four North American red oak (Quercus section Lobatae) species: Q. rubra, Q. ellipsoidalis, Q. coccinea, and Q. velutina. Five markers are genomic SSRs (gSSRs) - four novel and one previously transferred from Q. petraea - and 22 are gene-based SSRs derived from Q. robur and Q. petraea expressed sequence tags (EST-SSRs). Overall, levels of polymorphism detected with these primer pairs were high, with gene diversity (He) averaging 0. 66 across all loci in natural populations. In addition, we show that EST-SSR markers may have the potential to detect divergent selection at stress-resistance candidate genes among closely related oak species. © 2012 Springer-Verlag

Ambiente de trabajo cooperativo en internet para la educación en valores

TesisEl presente trabajo de investigación que lleva por título "AMBIENTE DE TRABAJO COOPERATIVO EN INTERNET PARA LA EDUCACION EN VALORES" responde a la necesidad de desarrollar nuevas formas de planificar y desarrollar la educación, de manera que se promueva la participación sincrónica y asincrónica entre tos sujetos que no se encuentran físicamente en el mismo lugar, ni en las mismas coordenadas temporales. El objetivo fue desarrollar un Ambiente de Trabajo Cooperativo en Internet para la educación en valores utilizando la Metodología Orientada a objetos y la Filosofía de Software Libre propiciando básicamente la reunión síncrona y. asíncrona para los miembros de la Federación de Familias para la Paz Mundial. Se ha utilizado Moodle, el cual es un . proyecto en desarrollo diseñado para dar soporte a un marco de educación social . constructivista. Esta herramienta se ha integrado al Ambiente de Trabajo Cooperativo principalmente para diseñar diferentes cursos en diferentes niveles y a diferentes usuarios. Tambíén se ha empleado los indicadores de calidad del Estándar IS0-9126, tales como funcionalidad, fiabilidad, usabilidad, eficiencia, mantenibilidad y portabilidad en una escala de 1 a 5 puntos. Se llega a la conclusión de que los ambientes de trabajo cooperativos para la educación en valores, permite mejorar el proceso de educación básicamente en la comunicación de los miembros de la Federación de Familias para la Paz Mundial cumpliendo con aprobar el estándar de calidad de software ISO 9126 en el que se observa que un 60% de los profesionales de cada país dicen que el Ambiente de Trabajo Cooperativo es bueno y un 10% afirma que es muy bueno. Palabras Claves: Ambiente de trabajo cooperativo, valores, internet, educació

Geographically extensive hybridization between the forest trees American butternut and Japanese walnut

We investigate the question of naturally occurring interspecific hybrids between two forest trees: the native North American butternut (Juglans cinerea L.) and the introduced Japanese walnut (Juglans ailantifolia Carrière). Using nuclear and chloroplast DNA markers, we provide evidence for 29 F1 and 22 advanced generation hybrids in seven locations across the eastern and southern range of the native species. Two locations show extensive admixture (95% J. ailantifolia and hybrids) while other locations show limited admixture. Hybridization appears to be asymmetrical with 90.9 per cent of hybrids having J. ailantifolia as the maternal parent. This is, to our knowledge, the first genetic data supporting natural hybridization between these species. The long-term outcome of introgression could include loss of native diversity, but could also include transfer of useful traits from the introduced species

Hoban_J_cinerea_Mol_Ecol_2010_Microsat_Data_Dryad

This file contains the microsatellite genotypes for 11 loci and 904 individuals, in 29 natural populations (forest) of butternut (J cinerea L) across eastern North America. These are the data referred to in the first sentence of the Results. They are data AFTER removal of hybrid individuals, identical genotypes, or individuals with too much missing data. These data are therefore the data used to calculate all statistics in the paper. The data are in GENEPOP format. The names of individuals are unique identification numbers used in our lab. The names of the loci correspond to those from Robichaud et al, and Hoban et al, as described in the Materials and Methods of the paper

Hoban_EvolApps_microsat_Data_For_Dryad

The genotypes for trees used in this study for all analyses, after clones, etc. have been removed. The data are referred to in the publication as "1515 unique genotypes for analysis: 79 J. ailantifolia reference, 7 hybrid 231 reference, 66 J. cinerea reference, and 1363 naturally occurring trees." The names of the populations are as in table one, or similar abbreviation. File format is Convert, tab delimited. All 12 microsatellite loci. Missing data with a '?'. Details about collections are in the manuscript

Hoban_J_cinerea_Mol_Ecol_2010_Microsat_Data_Dryad

This file contains the microsatellite genotypes for 11 loci and 904 individuals, in 29 natural populations (forest) of butternut (J cinerea L) across eastern North America. These are the data referred to in the first sentence of the Results. They are data AFTER removal of hybrid individuals, identical genotypes, or individuals with too much missing data. These data are therefore the data used to calculate all statistics in the paper. The data are in GENEPOP format. The names of individuals are unique identification numbers used in our lab. The names of the loci correspond to those from Robichaud et al, and Hoban et al, as described in the Materials and Methods of the paper

Robust diffraction-limited near-infrared-to-near-ultraviolet wide-field imaging from stratospheric balloon-borne platforms—Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope performance

At a fraction of the total cost of an equivalent orbital mission, scientific balloon-borne platforms, operating above 99.7% of the Earth’s atmosphere, offer attractive, competitive, and effective observational capabilities—namely, space-like seeing, transmission, and backgrounds—which are well suited for modern astronomy and cosmology. The Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SUPERBIT) is a diffraction-limited, wide-field, 0.5 m telescope capable of exploiting these observing conditions in order to provide exquisite imaging throughout the near-infrared to near-ultraviolet. It utilizes a robust active stabilization system that has consistently demonstrated a 48 mas 1σ sky-fixed pointing stability over multiple 1 h observations at float. This is achieved by actively tracking compound pendulations via a three-axis gimballed platform, which provides sky-fixed telescope stability at < 500 mas and corrects for field rotation, while employing high-bandwidth tip/tilt optics to remove residual disturbances across the science imaging focal plane. SUPERBIT’s performance during the 2019 commissioning flight benefited from a customized high-fidelity science-capable telescope designed with an exceptional thermo- and opto-mechanical stability as well as a tightly constrained static and dynamic coupling between high-rate sensors and telescope optics. At the currently demonstrated level of flight performance, SUPERBIT capabilities now surpass the science requirements for a wide variety of experiments in cosmology, astrophysics, and stellar dynamics

Optical Night Sky Brightness Measurements from the Stratosphere

This paper presents optical night sky brightness measurements from the stratosphere using CCD images taken with the Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT). The data used for estimating the backgrounds were obtained during three commissioning flights in 2016, 2018, and 2019 at altitudes ranging from 28 to 34 km above sea level. For a valid comparison of the brightness measurements from the stratosphere with measurements from mountain-top ground-based observatories (taken at zenith on the darkest moonless night at high Galactic and high ecliptic latitudes), the stratospheric brightness levels were zodiacal light and diffuse Galactic light subtracted, and the airglow brightness was projected to zenith. The stratospheric brightness was measured around 5.5 hr, 3 hr, and 2 hr before the local sunrise time in 2016, 2018, and 2019, respectively. The B, V, R, and I brightness levels in 2016 were 2.7, 1.0, 1.1, and 0.6 mag arcsec−2 darker than the darkest ground-based measurements. The B, V, and R brightness levels in 2018 were 1.3, 1.0, and 1.3 mag arcsec−2 darker than the darkest ground-based measurements. The U and I brightness levels in 2019 were 0.1 mag arcsec−2 brighter than the darkest ground-based measurements, whereas the B and V brightness levels were 0.8 and 0.6 mag arcsec−2 darker than the darkest ground-based measurements. The lower sky brightness levels, stable photometry, and lower atmospheric absorption make stratospheric observations from a balloon-borne platform a unique tool for astronomy. We plan to continue this work in a future midlatitude long duration balloon flight with SuperBIT