Oral History Interview: Beulah McKeand

Beulah McKeand grew up in the Ceredo-Kenova area of West Virginia. During her interview, she focuses on her childhood experiences and family history. She discusses working at Abbotts, a store in Huntington, West Virginia. She also focuses on folk medicine, specifically uses for yellow root and ginseng. In the audio clip provided, Mrs. McKeand discusses growing ginseng and the market value for the plant.https://mds.marshall.edu/oral_history/1018/thumbnail.jp

Conception Of Existence

The sudden realization that life is cheap and is used to accomplish an end serves as an awakening force within us and causes us to change our entire conception of man\u27s existence. The world lives in a fantasy of material enjoyment until its delusion explodes in bitter experience

A comprehensive faunal analysis of Bushfield West (FhNa-10), Nipawin, Saskatchewan

Bushfield West (FhNa-l0) is a late precontact habitation site situated on a lower terrace of the Saskatchewan River valley near the town of Nipawin, in east central Saskatchewan. The site was discovered in 1976 by archaeologists from the Saskatchewan Research Council during an extensive environmental study of the Saskatchewan River valley between Nipawin and Thompson Island. The study was commissioned by the Saskatchewan Power Corporation in preparation for the construction of a 252 megawatt hydroelectric dam on the Saskatchewan River adjacent to the town of Nipawin. Construction of the facility did not begin until 1981 and in compliance with the Saskatchewan Heritage Property Act, Bill No. 88, the Saskatchewan Power Corporation funded the mitigation of heritage resources located in the dam construction site area, the reservoir area, and a 200 m wide buffer zone. Mapping, initial assessment, and salvage excavation of Bushfield West began in 1981 since the site was in immediate danger due to gravel quarrying activities on the northern edge of the flat by the Saskatchewan Department of Highways. The research potential provided by the extensive, largely undisturbed cultural deposit quickly became evident and the site was recommended for large scale mitigation in the summers of 1982 to 1984. Mitigation of the Bushfield West entailed the excavation of 624m2, uncovering numerous pieces of debitage, stone tools, ceramic sherds, bone tools, and over 100 kg of bone, as well as cultural features such as hearths, ash dumps, and rock pits. The artifact assemblage, particularly the ceramics, small side-notched projectile points, adze blades, barbed bone harpoons, bone whistles, shell beads and pendants, is characteristic of the Pehonan complex of the Selkirk Composite. Radiocarbon dates suggest that the occupation of the river terrace occurred at approximately A.D. 1600. The focus of this thesis is the description and analysis of the faunal material recovered from the three largest excavation blocks at Bushfield West, representing 529.5 m2 of the site (this does not include the fine-screen microfauna). Both are requirements for the interpretation of subsistence strategies and resource exploitation procedures carried out by the people who occupied Bushfield West. Altogether 108,135 animal bones were examined and eventually separated into unidentifiable bone fragments (93,545 pieces weighing 42.5 kg) and identifiable specimens (14,590 bones weighing 128.0 kg). A wide variety of mammal, bird, and fish resources are represented in the identifiable faunal material: bison, moose, elk, bear, canids, lynx, marten, badger, striped skunk, snowshoe hare, white-tailed jackrabbit, beaver, muskrat, red squirrel, swans, geese, teal, mallard, grouse, crane, sturgeon, northern pike, suckers, silver redhorse, shorthead redhorse, and walleye. Several factors suggest that Bushfield West was occupied in the spring of the year: most of the bird species represented at the site are spring migrants to the Nipawin region; the presence of medullary bone in some of the grouse elements; the recovery of eggshell fragments; the majority of fish species represented at the site are spring spawners; the presence of foetal and/or newborn ungulate specimens and juvenile beaver elements; and the eruption schedules and wear patterns of the bison mandibles. These are all strong indicators that the site was occupied in April, May and possibly as late as early June. The gender profile of the bison represented at the site is established using Walde's step-wise discriminant function analysis for long bone portions and Morlan's bimodiality measurements of carpals and tarsals. Economic utilization indices are used to interpret bison processing decisions. Cut marks, bone fragmentation, articulation units, and burning and calcining of large ungulate, medium-sized mammal, small-sized mammal and bird bones are described in order to identify butchering and dismemberment patterns. The results of this detailed examination of the faunal material contributes valuable information concerning the day to day activities of the occupants of Bushfield West

Aspects of the Immunobiology of Dictyocaulus viviparus Infection

The irradiated larval vaccine for the control of bovine parasitic bronchitis is the only helminth vaccine widely used commercially and the continued success of this vaccine has limited the amount of research on the immunobiology of the Dictyocaulus viviparus host/parasite relationship. By examining some of the properties of the surface or released products of D. viviparus, it was hoped that the studies reported here would provide some insight into the immune mechanisms directed against this nematode. The first experiments (Chapter 3) were designed to examine the surface of several developmental stages of D. viviparus using the IFAT. Most of the stages were found to express stage-specific surface antigens and the relevance of these in immune avoidance in the host is discussed. When adult parasites were maintained in mammalian tissue culture conditions, they were observed to shed surface-bound antibody, which was considered to be of relevance in survival of adult worms in the lungs. Another interesting finding was the apparent immunogenicity of the L3 sheath, a structure previously assumed to be lost in the rumen of the host. Further studies indicated that the L3 stage may, in fact, penetrate the host mucosa with its sheath intact and the possibilty that the sheath may act to divert immune effector mechanisms away from the immunogenic surface of migrating stages during a primary infection was proposed. In addition, a strong heterophile IgM reactivity was observed against the cuticle of the exsheathed L3 and it was suggested that this antibody may block, by steric hindrance, the binding of more effective isotypes to L3 surface epitopes whose recognition might be essential to the development of protective immunity. In Chapter 4, the results of studies on parasite surface recognition by antibodies in sera from infected and vaccinated calves are presented. It was found that L3 surface-specific antibody did not increase in calves vaccinated twice with D. viviparus larvae irradiated at 400Gy or 1000Gy. These results confirmed previous studies, using the complement fixation and indirect haemagglutination tests, and indicated that immunity induced by vaccination with 400Gy-irradiated larvae was not necessarily accompanied by a measurable rise in specific antibody. On challenge of all vaccinated calves, a typical anamnestic response was observed which indicated that the calves had been primed sufficiently against the surface of the L3 stages. Antibody responses directed against the surface of the adult stage in normal L3-infected calves followed classical antibody kinetics in that there was an increase in IgM by Day 52 of infection, followed by a higher and more sustained increase in IgG1 and IgG2 subclasses. This response to normal L3 infection perhaps reflected the longevity of the adult surface antigens presented to the host in the respiratory tract. Interestingly, the IgG isotypes appeared to increase at the presumed time of adult parasite expulsion and the relevance of these antibody increases are discussed. In Chapter 5, immunisation experiments against D. viviparus in guinea pigs are presented. The results showed that a high degree of protection (86% mean reduction in worm burden) was obtained with adult ES products in the context of Freund's Complete adjuvant. The efficacy of these in vitro released products was compared with somatic extracts of adult and L3 stages, both of which failed to stimulate significant levels of protection. In the final chapter of this thesis (Chapter 6), D. viviparus was examined for the presence of an enzyme of possible immunomodulatory activity, acetylcholinesterase. The objective of this approach was to search for molecules which may be essential to parasite survival within the host. Five isoforms of AChE were found to be present in both larval and adult stages and all isoforms were released into culture by L4/5 and adult stages, but not by L3. Evidence for in vivo release was provided by the fact that antibodies in sera from infected calves bound the AChE isoenzymes. Antibodies specific for these parasite enzymes were also found in the serum of adult ES-immunised guinea pigs and this response appeared to be under genetic control. A preliminary investigation of the protective capacity of D. viviparus AChE was performed in guinea pigs using an adult ES fraction enriched for this enzyme. This preparation, in the context of FCA, stimulated a significant degree of protective immunity when compared with the adjuvant control group, but not when compared with the challenge controls. Again, the native adult ES products failed to confer a significant degree of protective immunity when administered with either FCA or a plurionic block copolymer adjuvant and the possible reasons for this failure are discussed. The fact that the AChE enzymes were recognised by infected hosts and could confer some level of protection when administered in an enriched form argues for an important role of AChE in the immunobiology of this host/parasite relationship

Phenotypic plasticity of fine root growth increases plant productivity in pine seedlings

BACKGROUND: The plastic response of fine roots to a changing environment is suggested to affect the growth and form of a plant. Here we show that the plasticity of fine root growth may increase plant productivity based on an experiment using young seedlings (14-week old) of loblolly pine. We use two contrasting pine ecotypes, "mesic" and "xeric", to investigate the adaptive significance of such a plastic response. RESULTS: The partitioning of biomass to fine roots is observed to reduce with increased nutrient availability. For the "mesic" ecotype, increased stem biomass as a consequence of more nutrients may be primarily due to reduced fine-root biomass partitioning. For the "xeric" ecotype, the favorable influence of the plasticity of fine root growth on stem growth results from increased allocation of biomass to foliage and decreased allocation to fine roots. An evolutionary genetic analysis indicates that the plasticity of fine root growth is inducible, whereas the plasticity of foliage is constitutive. CONCLUSIONS: Results promise to enhance a fundamental understanding of evolutionary changes of tree architecture under domestication and to design sound silvicultural and breeding measures for improving plant productivity

Early Performance and Genetic Parameters for Atlantic Coastal and Piedmont Loblolly Pine and Their Hybrids in the Piedmont

Atlantic Coastal (C) and Piedmont (P) loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) sources and their hybrids were assessed at four years of age for height and survival in 15 test sites across five Piedmont regions (Piedmont, Upper Gulf, Blue Ridge, North East and Cold Area). Two intra-provenance (CxC and PxP) and two inter-provenance (CxP and PxC) populations were generated. Twenty polymix families represented each population. Main objectives of the study were to: (1) determine whether the inter-provenance hybrids can combine the growth of Atlantic Coastal and the cold hardiness of Piedmont sources when planted in Piedmont regions, (2) characterize the genetic architecture among and within populations across and within Piedmont regions, and (3) evaluate the stability of performance of families within populations across different environments. The performance of inter-provenance hybrids was intermediate to that of the parental populations. When compared to the Piedmont population, which is the commonly planted source in Piedmont regions because of its cold hardiness, CxP inter-provenance hybrids exhibited significantly better height growth, with superiority ranging among 0.16% to 5.81% for height. Survival differences among populations within Piedmont regions were not significant at this age, except in the Cold Area, where significantly higher survival was found for the Piedmont population. There were large family differences within populations for growth and survival. Genetic control for growth traits varied among populations, with stronger additive genetic control for CxP hybrids. Considerable variation was also detected for family performance for growth and stability across sites. The CxC and CxP populations were more responsive to site quality increase (measured by the test means), with a higher percentage of families having regression slopes larger than 1.0. This early evaluation showed some promise for using loblolly pine hybrids as planting stock in the Piedmont region. With additional testing for cold hardiness, there is a potential to combine the growth of Atlantic Coastal and the adaptation to cold of Piedmont sources for planting in Piedmont regions. The CxP hybrids may perform well in milder Piedmont environments, while PxC could be more suitable for more inland and north Piedmont regions. Long-term monitoring of population performance and survival is essential, as prolonged exposure to adverse climatic conditions will provide more confidence about the results.Papers and abstracts from the 27th Southern Forest Tree Improvement Conference held at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma on June 24-27, 2003

Dominance and Stand Structure Analyses of a GXE Interaction Trial

Papers and abstracts from the 27th Southern Forest Tree Improvement Conference held at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma on June 24-27, 2003