A View from the Minnesota Woods

Think about your favorite place in Minnesota. Chances are the view includes trees, and maybe even large tracts of forest. Those trees provide wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, timber, beauty, and a unique sense of place. They may seem timeless, but our forests are continually changing. This presentation discussed those changes, driven by little green bugs, warming winters, changing markets, and of course...us. Additionally, how emerging research is helping us to better understand our collective history and how we have shaped our forests and they, in turn, have shaped our culture and history. A focus will be steps we can all take to ensure the continued health, productivity, and beauty of forests of the Driftless and beyond. Eli Sagor is an Extension Specialist for the Cloquet Forestry Center at the University of Minnesota and the Program Manager for the Sustainable Forests Education Cooperative. He holds degrees from McGill University (B.S. \u2796), Yale University (M.F. 1999) and the University of Minnesota (Ph.D. 2013)

The hormonal mechanism of intestinal adaptation

The gastrointestinal tract has a large functional reserve. This is particularly true of the small intestine, and early studies by Flint in 1912, showed that dogs could withstand 50%-70% small intestinal resection, returning to normal health after an initial period of weight loss and malabsorption. No doubt, this reserve is in part due to the very high rate of epithelial proliferation in small bowel mucosa. Intestinal adaptation is the result of morphological and functional changes, and while these parameters can be accurately appreciated, the mechanisms by which these changes take place, are still under active investigation. This section summarises the changes, both structural and functional, in the adaptive process, and this is followed by a review of the background work done on the possible mechanism of adaptation. The normal anatomy of intestinal mucosa is however, considered first. Most of the work done to date in the field of intestinal adaptation, involves the small bowel, and this part of the gut will be discussed predominantly, but data available on colonic growth will be mentioned

The increasing complexities of the welfare cap

The changes to the welfare cap introduced in the July 2015 budget—which lowers it to £23,000 in London and £20,000 in all other regions—break some of the principles behind the original policy and introduce considerable complexity to the system. In this article, Christine Whitehead and Emma Sagor examine the impact of the change

Measurement of Antenna Radiation Pattern using Injection Locking Technique

This paper presents practical results using injection locking to synchronize the local oscillator on a wireless device enabling antenna measurements to be made in a modern anechoic chamber, overcoming the need to connect a cable to the device under tes

Benefits of active transmit balanced antenna fed by differential power amplifier

A differential amplifier feeding a balanced antenna is investigated experimentally. This approach would suit modern RFIC design rather than using a 50Ω unbalanced connection. As such the balun or power-combining network is eliminated resulting in a compact RF front-end design with wider bandwidth and lower losses. Experimental result shows that this technique promises higher output power compared to conventional feeding approach while using same RFIC and same power supply

Characterization of Tomato Genotypes for Important Fruit Quality Traits

An experiment was conducted using thirty-eight tomato genotypes to evaluate the performance of different morphological and biochemical traits and their genetic analysis. An analysis of variance showed a high level of variation among all genotypes. Chlorophyll content (1st leaf), number of seed/fruit, ascorbic acid content in red fruit, lycopene, and beta-carotene content in red fruit showed high heritability along with a high percentage of genetic advance, which indicates selection can improve these traits. Other traits show moderate heritability and a moderate GA%. For most characters, phenotypic coefficient variance is higher than genotypic coefficient variance, indicating the influence of the environment is greater than genetic influence. Red fruit weight shows a positive and significant correlation with yield/plant. Path coefficient analysis revealed that the soluble solid content of red fruit exocarp and endocarp had a direct positive effect on yield/plant. Principal component analysis showed six principal components contributing 77.45% of the total variability of different traits. Cluster analysis grouped 38 genotypes into five clusters, where clusters V and III had the maximum genotypes. The dendrogram showed cluster V had the highest amount of variation. Two-way cluster heat map showed five clusters for genotypes and two groups for variable. Mean performance showed genotype CL5915- 153 D4-3-6-0 has the highest yield/plant and the highest weight of red fruit; genotype TC0277 has high soluble solid content in endocarp of red fruit; and genotypes Bupribig and Homeastid were superior for ascorbic acid, lycopene and beta-carotene content, which can be considered superior genotypes having important fruit quality traits

Double-layer grid filter for control of wireless signal propagation within buildings

A simple Double–Layer Grid plane wave filter structure is proposed that can provide multiple transmission bands for cellular phone frequencies but with a reflection band for WLAN signals. The approach offers ease of construction making it applicable to building applications. A parametric study using simulation supported by simple experimental data investigates the proposed, novel design