Bulletin No. 324 - Some Physical and Chemical Responses of Agropyron Spicatum to Herbage Removal at Various Seasons

Management of arid western ranges must be based upon the physiology of the individual plants which constitute the range. Too little is known of the ability of range plants to continue normal functioning under stress of grazing. Grazing doubtless has some beneficial influences in arid climates because it reduces transpiring surface. Possibly pruning has some stimulating effect, especially upon shrubs, and also, grazing animals plant seeds through trampling action. Despite these possible benefits, both trampling and removal of herbage by grazing must be .regarded as fundamentally detrimental to the welfare of plants, especially in arid climates. Trampling, especially on wet soils during early spring months, is injurious to both mature plants and new seedlings; however, in general, removal of herbage is probably far more injurious. Ability of the individual plant to withstand herbage removal appears to be basically important in range conservation. Studying effect of grazing by artificial means, such as clipping the herbage with shears, has been criticised, yet it seems the most sound method of studying forage plant physiology, since clipping permits accurate measurement of herbage yield. The experiment reported herein was designed to test the basic response of a single grass species to herbage removal at various seasons as measured by forage production and chemical composition

Bulletin No. 305 - The Composition of Sumer Range Plants in Utah

In Utah, a vast industry of livestock grazing, which is the backbone of the state\u27s agriculture, has arisen during the past 75 years. Range land furnishes between 6 and 7 million animal unit months of forage to some 2 1/2 million sheep and 275 thousand range cattle. Income from meat, wool, and range livestock sales in Utah is about $15,801,500 annually, of which$11,700,000 is calculated to be obtained from range lands exclusive of cultivated pastures. These range lands can be used economically in no other way than by grazing livestock and, because of heavy winter snows and protracted dry periods, most of these lands are distinctly seasonal in character. Livestock, then, must be supported for Iong periods upon farm lands or upon other range lands. The animals must be driven or shipped over distances sometimes well in excess of 100 miles from one range to another. The specific seasonal nature of these lands makes important the study of seasonal variations in forage value. That animals can make the most efficient use of the range lands, it is important to understand the forage value, the balance of various chemical constituents, and the importance of deficiencies in the diet of animals existing wholly upon these native plants

Bulletin No. 364 - The Halogeton Problem in Utah

Halogeton (Halogeton glomeratus) although introduced into Utah only 20 years ago, has spread widely on the west desert and into extensive areas on the east desert. This plant has become the most feared poisonous plant in the state because people have been lead to believe that it would limit livestock production to areas kept free of the weed

Bulletin No. 372 - The Nutritive Value of Winter Range Plants in the Great Basin as Determined with Digestion Trials with Sheep

During the winter grazing seasons from 1946 to 1953, studies were carried on throughout the desert ranges of western Utah to determine nutritive content and digestibility of range forage plants. These desert areas receive about 7 inches of precipitation annually and the vegetation consists, chiefly, of saltbush and sagebrush types. The average floral composition of the desert areas studied was about 74 percent browse, 25 percent grass, and 1 percent forbs. However, on some areas there was more grass than browse and, on still others, large quantities of forbs were present, primarily Russian-thistle. Digestion trials were carried out under normal range conditions by the use of the lignin-ratio method. Desert ranges in winter were found to be from borderline to decidedly deficient in digestible protein, phosphorus, and metabolizable energy. Diets containing appreciable quantity of browse furnished more than 10 times the minimum requirement of carotene, whereas, grass ranges were decidedly deficient in this respect

T-DominO: Exploring Multiple Criteria with Quality-Diversity and the Tournament Dominance Objective

Real-world design problems are a messy combination of constraints, objectives, and features. Exploring these problem spaces can be defined as a Multi-Criteria Exploration (MCX) problem, whose goals are to produce a set of diverse solutions with high performance across many objectives, while avoiding low performance across any objectives. Quality-Diversity algorithms produce the needed design variation, but typically consider only a single objective. We present a new ranking, T-DominO, specifically designed to handle multiple objectives in MCX problems. T-DominO ranks individuals relative to other solutions in the archive, favoring individuals with balanced performance over those which excel at a few objectives at the cost of the others. Keeping only a single balanced solution in each MAP-Elites bin maintains the visual accessibility of the archive – a strong asset for design exploration. We illustrate our approach on a set of easily understood benchmarks, and showcase its potential in a many-objective real-world architecture case study

Bulletin No. 385 - Comparitive Nutritive Value and Palatability of Some Introduced and Native Forage Plants for Spring and Summer Grazing

From 1952 to 1954 studies were conducted on foothill ranges of central Utah to determine the forage production, palatability, and nutritive value of some of the more important native and introduced species used for spring and summer grazing. Plants studied were four introduced wheatgrasses (crested, tall, pubescent, and intermediate) , four native grasses (western wheatgrass, beardless wheatgrass, squirreltail grass, and Indian ricegrass), and two introduced annual forbs (Russian-thistle, and smother weed). Field digestibility trials were conducted to determine the nutrient content by the lignin-ratio technique. In addition, both sheep and cattle preferences were studied on areas where both introduced and native species were planted

A Push-Button Molecular Switch

The preparation, characterization, and switching mechanism of a unique single-station mechanically switchable hetero[2]catenane are reported. The facile synthesis utilizing a “threading-followed-by-clipping” protocol features Cu^(2+)-catalyzed Eglinton coupling as a mild and efficient route to the tetrathiafulvalene-based catenane in high yield. The resulting mechanically interlocked molecule operates as a perfect molecular switch, most readily described as a “push-button” switch, whereby two discrete and fully occupied translational states are toggled electrochemically at incredibly high rates. This mechanical switching was probed using a wide variety of experimental techniques as well as quantum-mechanical investigations. The fundamental distinctions between this single-station [2]catenane and other more traditional bi- and multistation molecular switches are significant

Validation of the SCID-hu Thy/Liv mouse model with four classes of licensed antiretrovirals.

BackgroundThe SCID-hu Thy/Liv mouse model of HIV-1 infection is a useful platform for the preclinical evaluation of antiviral efficacy in vivo. We performed this study to validate the model with representatives of all four classes of licensed antiretrovirals.Methodology/principal findingsEndpoint analyses for quantification of Thy/Liv implant viral load included ELISA for cell-associated p24, branched DNA assay for HIV-1 RNA, and detection of infected thymocytes by intracellular staining for Gag-p24. Antiviral protection from HIV-1-mediated thymocyte depletion was assessed by multicolor flow cytometric analysis of thymocyte subpopulations based on surface expression of CD3, CD4, and CD8. These mice can be productively infected with molecular clones of HIV-1 (e.g., the X4 clone NL4-3) as well as with primary R5 and R5X4 isolates. To determine whether results in this model are concordant with those found in humans, we performed direct comparisons of two drugs in the same class, each of which has known potency and dosing levels in humans. Here we show that second-generation antiretrovirals were, as expected, more potent than their first-generation predecessors: emtricitabine was more potent than lamivudine, efavirenz was more potent than nevirapine, and atazanavir was more potent than indinavir. After interspecies pharmacodynamic scaling, the dose ranges found to inhibit viral replication in the SCID-hu Thy/Liv mouse were similar to those used in humans. Moreover, HIV-1 replication in these mice was genetically stable; treatment of the mice with lamivudine did not result in the M184V substitution in reverse transcriptase, and the multidrug-resistant NY index case HIV-1 retained its drug-resistance substitutions.ConclusionGiven the fidelity of such comparisons, we conclude that this highly reproducible mouse model is likely to predict clinical antiviral efficacy in humans

Assessing the Strategic Credibility of Special Collections and Archives

Poster presented at 2012 ACRL Oregon/Washington joint conference held at Menucha.This time of often precarious funding at many colleges and universities, any case that can be made to illustrate how a department strategically fits into the overall university mission is not only worth merit, but an essential survival technique. This “strategic credibility” within the university is a vital form of currency in determining institution-wide resources prioritization, collaboration opportunities between organizational units, and overall direction of departments. This poster provides a case study of academic special collections in the Northwest and examines the methods these departments use to demonstrate value to the university. This poster considers how well do special collections align their efforts toward a university’s strategic goals or mission, as well as what efforts they undertake to maintain credibility within the larger institutional context. Outcomes of this poster include a potential methodology for all library departments to assess their “strategic credibility” and suggestions on how to communicate this value to the library and within the university as a whole.Keywords: special collections, archives, strategic credibilit

Mesoscopic Superconducting Disc with Short-Range Columnar Defects

Short-range columnar defects essentially influence the magnetic properties of a mesoscopic superconducting disc.They help the penetration of vortices into the sample, thereby decrease the sample magnetization and reduce the upper critical field. Even the presence of weak defects split a giant vortex state (usually appearing in a clean disc in the vicinity of the transition to a normal state) into a number of vortices with smaller topological charges. In a disc with a sufficient number of strong enough defects vortices are always placed onto defects. The presence of defects lead to the appearance of additional magnetization jumps related to the redistribution of vortices which are already present on the defects and not to the penetration of new vortices.Comment: 14 pgs. RevTex, typos and figures corrected. Submitted to Phys. Rev.