Extreme Makeover: Fern Edition

With a few exceptions, all plants have chloroplasts. Chloroplasts are the organelles responsible for photosynthesis in plants. Interestingly, chloroplasts have their own genome -- called a plastome -- which is separate from the nuclear genome. The genetic composition of ferns, gymnosperm, and angiosperm plastomes are remarkably similar, revealing very little change over evolutionary time. There are however a few notable exceptions to the apparent stability of the plastome. A few lineages of both angiosperm and gymnosperm show dramatically higher rates of mutation and genetic rearrangement than those of their relatives, suggesting major genome destabilization. Vittariods are a group of ferns that live on the trunks and in the branches of trees in forests. Vittariods are so unique among ferns in structure and life cycle that they have long been thought to be their own family, but recent genetic research has shown they reside within the genus Adiantum. Vittariods bear little resemblance to their closest relatives and appear to have quite rapidly diverged from them

Exceptionally preserved nontrilobite arthropods and Anomalocaris from the Middle Cambrian of Utah

24 p., 15 fig.http://paleo.ku.edu/contributions.htm

Religious Monopolies and the Commodification of Religion

In recent years, the number of countries in which a dominant church receives state aid and other forms of preferential treatment has increased. Dominant religions and their supporters in the former Soviet bloc and elsewhere often argue that special benefits and protection are warranted based upon the unique history and contribution of the dominant church to the identity, history, and culture of the country, and the interests of the state and its citizens. Because of the distinctive status of religion and its importance to national and cultural identity, special protection, especially against foreign and other outside influence, is deemed necessary. Although the spiritual realm is putatively treated as being a special situation requiring special protection, the arguments in favor of religious protection bear a curious resemblance to arguments in favor of protection made by monopolists and other protected industries in the economic sphere. This article compares the arguments in favor of protection made by dominant religious groups with arguments in favor of protection by monopolists and protected industries, and concludes that in their pleas for special treatment, religious monopolists make arguments that closely parallel the arguments made by their economic counterparts. Rather than resulting in religion being treated as unique and different, protectionist arguments result in religion being treated much like any other market commodity. We conclude that because religious freedom is a fundamental human right, arguments promoting state protection of dominant religions should be viewed with suspicion

CC204 Revised 1969 Weed Control in Sugar Beets

Campaign Circular 204 Revised 1969 discusses weed control in sugar beets

Synthesis and analysis of jet fuel from shale oil and coal syncrudes

Thirty-two jet fuel samples of varying properties were produced from shale oil and coal syncrudes, and analyzed to assess their suitability for use. TOSCO II shale oil and H-COAL and COED syncrudes were used as starting materials. The processes used were among those commonly in use in petroleum processing-distillation, hydrogenation and catalytic hydrocracking. The processing conditions required to meet two levels of specifications regarding aromatic, hydrogen, sulfur and nitrogen contents at two yield levels were determined and found to be more demanding than normally required in petroleum processing. Analysis of the samples produced indicated that if the more stringent specifications of 13.5% hydrogen (min.) and 0.02% nitrogen (max.) were met, products similar in properties to conventional jet fuels were obtained. In general, shale oil was easier to process (catalyst deactivation was seen when processing coal syncrudes), consumed less hydrogen and yielded superior products. Based on these considerations, shale oil appears to be preferred to coal as a petroleum substitute for jet fuel production

Immunization Milestones: A More Comprehensive Picture of Age-Appropriate Vaccination

A challenge facing immunization registries is developing measures of childhood immunization coverage that contain more information for setting policy than present vaccine series up-to-date (UTD) rates. This study combined milestone analysis with provider encounter data to determine when children either do not receive indicated immunizations during medical encounters or fail to visit providers. Milestone analysis measures immunization status at key times between birth and age 2, when recommended immunizations first become late. The immunization status of a large population of children in the Oregon ALERT immunization registry and in the Oregon Health Plan was tracked across milestone ages. Findings indicate that the majority of children went back and forth with regard to having complete age-appropriate immunizations over time. We also found that immunization UTD rates when used alone are biased towards relating non-UTD status to a lack of visits to providers, instead of to provider visits on which recommended immunizations are not given

New records of Burgess Shale-type taxa from the middle Cambrian of Utah

Cambrian strata of the Laurentian craton contain numerous examples of Burgess Shale-type faunas. Although displaying a more or less concentric distribution around the cratonal margin, most faunal occurrences are in present-day western North America, extending from the Northwest Territories to California. Nevertheless, the soft-bodied and lightly skeletalized fossils in most of these Lagerstätten are highly sporadic. Here, we extend knowledge of such Middle Cambrian occurrences in Utah with reports of four taxa. An arthropod from the Marjum Formation, Dytikosicula desmatae gen. et sp. nov., is a putative megacheiran. It is most similar to Dicranocaris guntherorum, best known from the younger Wheeler Formation, but differs primarily in the arrangement of pleurae and overall size. Along with a specimen of ?Yohoia sp, a new species of Yohoia, Y. utahana sp. nov., is described. It differs from the type and only known species, Y. tenuis, principally in its larger size and shorter exopods; it is the first description of this genus from outside the Burgess Shale. A new species of a stem-group lophotrochozoan from the Spence Shale, Wiwaxia herka sp. nov., possesses a palisade of dorso-lateral spines that are more robust and numerous than the type species of Wiwaxia, W. corrugata. Another notable taxon is Eldonia ludwigi from the Marjum Formation, which is interpreted as a primitive ambulacrarian (assigned to the cambroernids) and a new specimen of the ?cnidarian Cambrorhytium from the Wheeler Shale is illustrated

Vertebrate Natural History Notes from Arkansas, 2017

Because meaningful observations of natural history are not always part of larger studies, important pieces of information often are unreported. Small details, however, can fills gaps in understanding and also lead to interesting questions about ecological relationships or environmental change. We have compiled recent observations of foods, reproduction, record size, parasites, and distribution of 30 species of fishes, new records of distribution and parasites of 2 species of amphibians, and new records of distribution, parasites, reproduction and anomalies of 11 species of mammals