Cover slip external cavity diode laser

The design of a 671 nm diode laser with a mode-hop-free tuning range of 40 GHz is described. This long tuning range is achieved by simultaneously ramping the external cavity length with the laser injection current. The external cavity consists of a microscope cover slip mounted on piezoelectric actuators. In such a configuration the laser output pointing remains fixed, independent of its frequency. Using a diode with an output power of 5-7 mW, the laser linewidth was found to be smaller than 30 MHz. This cover slip cavity and feedforward laser current control system is simple, economical, robust, and easy to use for spectroscopy, as we demonstrate with lithium vapor and lithium atom beam experiments.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Review of Scientific Instruments 7/29/0

IAEG - Factors Affecting the Adoption and Impact of CGIAR Innovations: A Synthesis of Findings

Summation of the findings of the IAEG-sponsored project 'Factors Affecting the Adoption and Impact of CGIAR Innovations' presented at CGIAR International Centers Week 1998. Companion documents containing a project overview and executive summaries of nine case studies are provided separately. The document reviews the characteristics of technological innovations with high rates of adoption and impact, and the practices these characteristics suggested for successful project planning

Factors Affecting the Adoption and Impact of CGIAR Innovations: A Project Overview

An initial report on a large scale project mounted by IAEG to determine whether international agricultural development research is having the intended effects. It reports on ten integrated case studies.The document gives the evolution of thinking in the IAEG since its founding, and lays out the case study strategy and methodology being employed. An appendix described the issues to be addressed in all the studies, as a basis for synthesis of results.This material was prepared for distribution at the CGIAR International Centers Week in October 1997, but in fact reached members by mail after the meeting

The Standards: A General Review

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66521/2/10.1177_109821408100200214.pd

Size and emotion or depth and emotion? Evidence, using Matryoshka (Russian) dolls, of children using physical depth as a proxy for emotional charge

Background: The size and emotion effect is the tendency for children to draw people and other objects with a positive emotional charge larger than those with a negative or neutral charge. Here we explored the novel idea that drawing size might be acting as a proxy for depth (proximity).Methods: Forty-two children (aged 3-11 years) chose, from 2 sets of Matryoshka (Russian) dolls, a doll to represent a person with positive, negative or neutral charge, which they placed in front of themselves on a sheet of A3 paper. Results: We found that the children used proximity and doll size, to indicate emotional charge. Conclusions: These findings are consistent with the notion that in drawings, children are using size as a proxy for physical closeness (proximity), as they attempt with varying success to put positive charged items closer to, or negative and neutral charge items further away from, themselves

Effectiveness of the global protected area network in representing species diversity

The Fifth World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa, announced in September 2003 that the global network of protected areas now covers 11.5% of the planet's land surface. This surpasses the 10% target proposed a decade earlier, at the Caracas Congress, for 9 out of 14 major terrestrial biomes. Such uniform targets based on percentage of area have become deeply embedded into national and international conservation planning. Although politically expedient, the scientific basis and conservation value of these targets have been questioned. In practice, however, little is known of how to set appropriate targets, or of the extent to which the current global protected area network fulfils its goal of protecting biodiversity. Here, we combine five global data sets on the distribution of species and protected areas to provide the first global gap analysis assessing the effectiveness of protected areas in representing species diversity. We show that the global network is far from complete, and demonstrate the inadequacy of uniform—that is, 'one size fits all'—conservation targets

Patterns of selectivity in introductions of mammal species worldwide

Humans have an extremely long history of transporting and introducing mammal species outside their native geographic ranges. The characteristics of the species introduced (taxonomy, life-history, ecology, environment) can all influence which traits are available (and selected) for establishment, and subsequent invasive spread. Understanding the non-randomness in species introductions is therefore key to understanding invasions by alien species. Here, we test for selectivity in the identities and traits of mammal species introduced worldwide. We compiled and analysed a comprehensive database of introduced mammal species, including information on a broad range of life history, ecological, distributional and environmental variables that we predicted to differ between introduced and non-introduced mammal species. Certain mammal taxa are much more likely to have been introduced than expected, such as Artiodactyls in the families Bovidae and Cervidae. Rodents and bats were much less likely to have been introduced than expected. Introduced mammal species have significantly larger body masses, longer lifespans and larger litter sizes than a random sample of all mammal species. They also have much larger native geographic ranges than expected, originate from significantly further north, from cooler areas, and from areas with higher human population densities, than mammal species with no recorded introductions. The traits and distributions of species help determine which have been introduced, and reflect how the evolutionary history of mammals has resulted in certain species with certain traits being located in the way of human histories of movement and demands for goods and services. The large amount of unexplained variation is likely to relate to the intrinsically stochastic nature of this human-driven process.Tim M. Blackburn, Sally L. Scrivens, Sarah Heinrich, Phillip Casse

From inner segment to outer segment: Palmitoylation of photoreceptor Na+, K+-ATPase and the importance of PRCD in photoreceptor outer segment morphogenesis

Photoreceptors are specialized neuroepithelial cells which are optimized for efficient capture of light and initiation of visual transduction. These cells have several compartments which are very important for proper visual function and segregation of cellular processes, including the outer segment (OS), inner segment (IS), nucleus, and synapse. The IS houses all of the cellular organelles and biosynthetic molecular machinery the cell requires and is the site of protein synthesis. The light-sensing OS is a highly modified, primary cilium, which contains many stacks of double membranous discs which house proteins required for formation and maintenance of OS structure, as well as phototransduction. These structural and phototransduction proteins are synthesized in the IS and subsequently trafficked to the OS through the narrow connecting cilium. Many of these proteins undergo post-translation lipid modifications for proper subcellular localization and association with the OS disc membranes. While the proteins involved in the phototransduction cascade are crucial for generating signals of vision, regulation of the photocurrent is needed for proper depolarization and hyperpolarization of the photoreceptor neuron, a process which is required for the cell to transduce electrical impulses to downstream neurons. Many ion channels, exchangers, and pumps, including the CNG channels and the NCKX in the OS, as well as the Na+, K+-ATPase and the HCN channel in the IS, are involved in this process of maintaining the photocurrent in both dark and light. One small OS disc-specific protein whose function has not yet been elucidated is progressive rod-cone degeneration, or PRCD. Previous studies in our lab have identified that PRCD is post-translationally lipid modified by S-palmitoylation on its sole cysteine, which is required for its stability and localization to the OS. Though PRCD has been shown to be important in OS disc morphogenesis and maintenance, its specific role in this process remains unclear. In this dissertation, I utilize a Prcd-KO animal our lab generated using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in order to investigate photoreceptor function, OS ultrastructure, and rhodopsin packaging into disc membranes in the absence of PRCD. Furthermore, I utilize acyl resin-assisted capture and mass spectrometry in order to identify novel proteins in the retina which undergo S-palmitoylation and validate palmitoylation profiles of several proteins using additional well-established techniques in the field. In Chapter 1 of this dissertation, I review the functional and structural needs of photoreceptor neurons, as well as the roles of both PRCD and the b2-subunit of the retinal Na+, K+-ATPase (ATP1B2) in these requirements. In Chapter 2, I characterize the functional and structural consequences of loss of PRCD in our lab-generated Prcd-KO mouse model, demonstrating through atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis the role PRCD plays in regulation of rhodopsin incorporation into OS disc membranes. In Chapter 3, I use various techniques to reveal and validate that the ATP1B2 is palmitoylated on its N-terminal cysteine at the 10th amino acid (Cys10). Finally, in Chapter 4, I discuss the results and conclusions of my dissertation work and propose experiments to further investigate the specific role of PRCD in photoreceptors and the importance of palmitoylation of ATP1B2 in the retina. Elucidation of the specific role PRCD plays in disc morphogenesis and investigation of its interaction with rhodopsin will help to further the field and provide a deeper look into how discs are formed and maintained. Further investigation of the role palmitoylation plays in ATP1B2 function will help to establish the unique requirement of expression of ATP1B2 in the retina and identify new roles for ATP1B2 in cells where it is expressed

Assessing Factors Influencing Acceptance of No-Difference Research

In this randomized study 160 members of the Evaluation Research Society acted as judges to assess the attributes of research that produce credibility. The study focused on acceptability of no-difference findings, a long ignored but important domain of research. In the context of a hypothetical study, four factors were tested to determine their influence on acceptability of both no-difference and difference findings: randomization/nonran domization, one/three outcomes, power = .80/.60, and equivalence on baseline measures of all eight/all but two of eight. Experts were asked to judge degree of acceptability and to reject or accept findings in both a no-difference and a difference study. Randomization consistently enhanced the believability of outcomes whereas other factors exerted a less consistent influence. Limitations of the study were discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66931/2/10.1177_0193841X8701100108.pd