The North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied, volume 3, September 1833-August 1834

Review of: "The North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied, volume 3, September 1833-August 1834," edited by Stephen S. Witte and Marsha V. Gallagher and translated by Dieter Karch

The Indianization of Lewis and Clark

Review of: "The Indianization of Lewis and Clark," by William R. Swagerty

The North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied, volume 3, September 1833-August 1834

Review of: "The North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied, volume 3, September 1833-August 1834," edited by Stephen S. Witte and Marsha V. Gallagher and translated by Dieter Karch

Social pedagogy as relational attachment practice

The utility of social pedagogy as an approach to building resiliency and developing positive relationships with children and youth is currently underdeveloped in North America. However, there are signs of growth in this field. For example, one youth project in British Columbia, Canada, employs relationship building, collaboration and creativity in terms of music- or art-based community interventions as part of its programme. The findings from a recent evaluation report on this youth project will be used to explore the potential for a social pedagogical approach being deployed more widely, and possibly more effectively, than current youth-focused practice. Specifically, the importance of relational practice, underpinned by aspects of attachment theory will be used to explore the utility of social pedagogical practices and examine the possibility of its development within a number of professional contexts

Effects of ursodeoxycholic acid on synthesis of cholesterol and bile acids in healthy subjects

Background/Aims: Ursodeoxycholic acid ( UDCA) decreases biliary secretion of cholesterol and is therefore used for the dissolution of cholesterol gallstones. It remains unclear whether these changes in biliary cholesterol excretion are associated with changes in cholesterol synthesis and bile acid synthesis. We therefore studied the activities of rate-limiting enzymes of cholesterol synthesis and bile acid synthesis, 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutarylcoenzyme A reductase and cholesterol 7alpha-hydroxylase, respectively, in normal subjects during UDCA feeding. Methods: UDCA was given to 8 healthy volunteers ( 5 men, 3 women; age 24-44 years) in a single dose of 10-15 mg/kg body weight for 40 days. Before and during ( days 3, 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40) UDCA treatment, urinary excretion of mevalonic acid and serum concentrations of 7alpha-hydroxy-4-cholesten-3-one (7alpha-HCO) were determined as markers of cholesterol and bile acid synthesis, respectively. The Wilcoxon signed rank test and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient were used for statistical analysis. Results: Cholesterol synthesis and serum lipid concentrations remained unchanged during UDCA treatment for 40 days. However, synthesis of bile acids increased during long-term treatment with UDCA as reflected by an increase in 7alpha-HCO serum concentrations from 39.7 +/- 21.3 ng/ml (median 32.8 ng/ml) before treatment to 64.0 +/- 30.4 ng/ml (median 77.5 ng/ml) at days 30-40 of UDCA treatment ( p < 0.05). Conclusions: UDCA treatment does not affect cholesterol synthesis in the liver, but does increase bile acid synthesis after prolonged treatment. This may represent a compensatory change following decreased absorption of endogenous bile acids as observed with UDCA therapy

Overwintering of Erysiphe necator and Inoculum Monitoring for Decision Aids

Grape powdery mildew (Erysiphe necator) causes economic damages to grape worldwide due to the cost of management and injury to berries. Each region where European grapevine (Vitis vinifera) is grown experiences a unique epidemic, and disease prediction models that are based on empirical correlations of weather data to disease fail to predict disease accurately in regions with differing environmental conditions. Near real-time monitoring of grape powdery mildew epidemics using spore sampling and molecular detection techniques allowed grape growers to reduce fungicides applications by ~2.5 applications compared to their standard practice. Although spore sampling allowed growers to reduce fungicide applications, it is only a short-term solution to the lack of understanding of the factors surrounding initial inoculum availability. Additional factors affecting cleistothecia development and ascospore release conditions were also examined in order to improve current modeling efforts. This involved using controlled-environment studies to monitor cleistothecia initiation and development, and quantitative PCR was used to monitor ascospore release. Several established ascospore release models were tested for prediction accuracy, and an improved ascospore release prediction model was developed. The results of this work show that a portion of cleistothecia are capable of releasing ascospores before leaf drop and continue to mature and release ascospores throughout grape dormancy and into the following growing season. The results also show that an improved understanding of inoculum availability may allow grapevine growers to reduce management costs while improving disease control

Performance of Port Facilities During the Northridge Earthquake

During the January 17, 1994, Northridge earthquake, two of the Port of Los Angeles\u27 facilities called Berths 121-126 and Pier 300 sustained moderate damage. Lateral displacement of dikes up to five inches and liquefaction of hydraulic fills were observed. Several geotechnical analyses from simplified SPT -based method to sophisticated fully-coupled analyses are presented. Observed lateral displacements are predicted reasonably well by the fully-coupled analysis procedure and an intermediate analysis procedure which incorporates some results from a fully-coupled analysis in to a simplified Newmark-type deformation analysis. The potential for higher pore pressure generation underneath the dike compared to a level ground is also discussed

Food habits of imperiled Plains Topminnow and diet overlap with invasive Western Mosquitofish in the Central Great Plains

Plains Topminnow (Fundulus sciadicus) populations have experienced large declines throughout the Central Great Plains, with Western Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) introductions suggested as a contributing factor. There are limited studies identifying the food habits of Plains Topminnow and the trophic interactions with Western Mosquitofish. This study sought to determine if a diet overlap exists between the Plains Topminnow and the introduced Western Mosquitofish by identifying the feeding habits of both species. We analyzed diets from lentic and lotic populations of Plains Topminnow captured in August and found lentic topminnows employed a generalist diet while lotic topminnow selected for gastropods. Additionally, Western Mosquitofish diets from regionally proximate lotic and lentic populations also displayed a generalist diet consisting of benthic, littoral and terrestrial macroinvertebrates. The two species did not show overlapping diets based on Schoener’s Index. Therefore we suggest the introduced Western Mosquitofish do not likely impact Plains Topminnow populations through food resource competition