First-year survival and growth of bareroot and container water oak and willow oak seedlings grown at different levels of mineral nutrition

Bareroot and container water oak (Quercus nigra) and willow oak (Quercus phellos) seedlings were treated with 3 different levels of nitrogen (N) mineral fertilizer applied during the growing season in the nursery. Comparisons were made between species, N treatments, and stock-types for seedling morphology, first-year survival and height growth, and seedling water relations. Water oak seedlings were shorter, heavier, and more first-order lateral roots than the willow oak seedlings. The N fertilizer treatments did not have a statistically significant effect on seedling morphology. Bareroot seedlings were taller, had greater root-collar diameters, and were heavier than the container seedlings. The seedlings were hand-planted on an old pasture site located near Nacogdoches, TX. First-year survival was about 80 percent regardless of species, N treatment, or stocktype. Bareroot seedlings had less first-year height growth than container seedlings. Container seedlings fertilized at the highest N rate had greater stomata1 conductance and transpiration rates early in the growing season than the container seedlings fertilized at the lowest rate

Frost Heaving of Container Hardwood Seedlings Planted in an Abandoned Agriculitural Field in Sharkey County, Mississippi

The use of container hardwood seedlings is an alternative to bareroot planting stock. In January 1996, 1,485 container seedlings of Nuttall oak (Quercus nuttallii Palmer), willow oak (Q. phellos L.). overcup oak (Q. lyrata Walter), and water oak (Q. nigra L.) were planted in Sharkey clay on an abandoned agricultural field situated in the Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley. Beginning with the passage of a cold front on January 31, daily minimum temperatures dipped as low as 6 °F. For 5 days, dally high temperatures did not climb above 32 °F. This cold period caused 33.7 percent of all seedlings to frost heave and an overall survival of 0.5 percent. Our observations suggest that container seedlings should not be planted on shrink-swell clay soils until after the threat of hard freezing has passed. Seedling root morphology combined with soil conditions at the time of planting may have contributed to the frost heaving

Seedling Survival and Natural Regeneration For a Bottomland Hardwood Planting on Sites Differing in Site Preparation

In January 1998, three tracts in Hardin County, TX, were hand-planted with seven species of 1-0 bareroot bottomland hardwood seedlings. The tracts, managed by The Nature Conservancy of Texas, were previously 20-year-old pine plantations. The tracts are located within the floodplain of Village Creek. An objective for this conversion is the restoration of a bottomland hardwood wetland in order to meet Clean Water Act requirements. A pre-harvest plant inventory was conducted for each tract. The tracts were clearcut during the Winter and Spring of 1997. Following harvest, each tract was subjected to a different site preparation technique. One tract was burned. Another tract was treated with herbicide to control Chinese tallow. The third tract was sheared, piled, burned and ripped. Planted seedling survival was greatest (72 percent) on the tract that was sheared, piled, burned and ripped. Hardwood natural regeneration was proportionally higher on the tract prepared by burning only. However, this tract appeared to have a greater potential for hardwood root collar sprouting following harvest of the pine overstory. Chinese tallow was a large portion of all natural woody regeneratton on each tract

Sustainable Cooperative Robotic Technologies for Human and Robotic Outpost Infrastructure Construction and Maintenance

Robotic Construction Crew (RCC) is a heterogeneous multi-robot system for autonomous acquisition, transport, and precision mating of components in construction tasks. RCC minimizes resources constrained in a space environment such as computation, power, communication and, sensing. A behavior-based architecture provides adaptability and robustness despite low computational requirements. RCC successfully performs several construction related tasks in an emulated outdoor environment despite high levels of uncertainty in motions and sensing. Quantitative results are provided for formation keeping in component transport, precision instrument placement, and construction tasks

Protocol to improve hypertension management in a VA outpatient clinic

This 20-week quality improvement study describes implementation of a hypertension identification and management program with use of a standardized oscillometric blood pressure (BP) measurement protocol, provider education, and audit/feedback of hypertension control in a Veterans Affairs primary care clinic. A total of 692 male Veterans ages 18-85 years with treated hypertension and at least one clinic visit in the previous year were included for analysis. Mean age was 69.7 years (standard deviation 7.6) and race and ethnicity were 42.0% White, 29.1% Black and 3.0% Hispanic. Prior to program implementation, clinic BP was measured using the auscultatory method with a manual syphgmomanometer. Baseline BP measurements demonstrated bias as determined by terminal digit preference for digits 0 and 8 in 29.5% and 25.2% of systolic (SBP) and 31.6% and 21.8% of diastolic BP measurements, respectively (p < 0.001). Post-implementation of the standardized oscillometric BP measurement protocol, digit preference was eliminated. Protocol compliance was 89.1% at 5 weeks and 92.4% at 20 weeks. Overall average SBP was significantly higher in the post-implementation period compared to average SBP in the 12-month pre-implementation period (137.4 [Standard Deviation (SD) 17.4] vs. 126.3 [SD 15.3]; P < 0.001). Uncontrolled hypertension, (BP ≥ 140/90 mmHg), increased from 17.8% at baseline to 41.8% post-implementation while provider therapeutic inertia declined from 84.5% at baseline to 55.8% after 20 weeks. This study shows that terminal digit preference is reduced with implementation of standardized oscillatory BP measurement and a quality improvement program can reduce therapeutic inertia of hypertension treatment

Mars Exploration Rovers 2004-2013: Evolving Operational Tactics Driven by Aging Robotic Systems

Over the course of more than 10 years of continuous operations on the Martian surface, the operations team for the Mars Exploration Rovers has encountered and overcome many challenges. The twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, designed for a Martian surface mission of three months in duration, far outlived their life expectancy. Spirit explored for six years and Opportunity still operates and, in January 2014, celebrated the 10th anniversary of her landing. As with any machine that far outlives its design life, each rover has experienced a series of failures and degradations attributable to age, use, and environmental exposure. This paper reviews the failures and degradations experienced by the two rovers and the measures taken by the operations team to correct, mitigate, or surmount them to enable continued exploration and discovery

The DEAD-box Protein Rok1 Orchestrates 40S and 60S Ribosome Assembly by Promoting the Release of Rrp5 from Pre-40S Ribosomes to Allow for 60S Maturation

<div><p>DEAD-box proteins are ubiquitous regulators of RNA biology. While commonly dubbed “helicases,” their activities also include duplex annealing, adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-dependent RNA binding, and RNA-protein complex remodeling. Rok1, an essential DEAD-box protein, and its cofactor Rrp5 are required for ribosome assembly. Here, we use in vivo and in vitro biochemical analyses to demonstrate that ATP-bound Rok1, but not adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-bound Rok1, stabilizes Rrp5 binding to 40S ribosomes. Interconversion between these two forms by ATP hydrolysis is required for release of Rrp5 from pre-40S ribosomes in vivo, thereby allowing Rrp5 to carry out its role in 60S subunit assembly. Furthermore, our data also strongly suggest that the previously described accumulation of snR30 upon Rok1 inactivation arises because Rrp5 release is blocked and implicate a previously undescribed interaction between Rrp5 and the DEAD-box protein Has1 in mediating snR30 accumulation when Rrp5 release from pre-40S subunits is blocked.</p></div

Differences in perceptions and acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination between vaccine hesitant and non-hesitant persons.

Acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccination becomes more critical as new variants continue to evolve and the United States (US) attempts to move from pandemic response to management and control. COVID-19 stands out in the unique way it has polarized patients and generated sustained vaccine hesitancy over time. We sought to understand differences in perceptions and acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination between vaccine hesitant and non-hesitant patients, with the goal of informing communication and implementation strategies to increase uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in Veteran and non-Veteran communities. This qualitative study used interview data from focus groups conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the University of Utah; all focus groups were conducted using the same script March-July 2021. Groups included forty-six United States Veterans receiving care at 28 VA facilities across the country and 166 non-Veterans across Utah for a total of 36 one-hour focus groups. We identified perceptions and attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination through qualitative analysis of focus group participant remarks, grouping connections with identified themes within domains developed based on the questions asked in the focus group guide. Responses suggest participant attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine were shaped primarily by vaccine attitude changes over time, impacted by perceived vaccine benefits, risks, differing sources of vaccine information and political ideology. Veterans appeared more polarized, being either largely non-hesitant, or hesitant, whereas non-Veterans had a wider range of hesitancy, with more participants identifying minor doubts and concerns about receiving the vaccine, or simply being altogether unsure about receiving it. Development of COVID-19 vaccine communication strategies in Veteran and non-Veteran communities should anticipate incongruous sources of information and explicitly target community differences in perceptions of risks and benefits associated with the vaccine to generate candid discussions and repair individuals' trust. We believe this could accelerate vaccine acceptance over time

Rrp5 binds to 40S ribosomal subunits in vivo and in vitro.

<p>(A) Ultracentrifugation pelleting experiments demonstrate that recombinant full-length Rrp5 binds purified mature 40S subunits in vitro. S, supernatant; P, pellet. (B) The three C-terminal S1 domains are essential for the interaction between Rrp5 and 40S subunits in vitro. Recombinant Rrp5 fragments are used in the same pelleting experiment as 1A. (C) Gradient centrifugation demonstrates a role for the three C-terminal S1 domains and S1–S5 for binding to preribosomes in vivo. (D) Gradient sedimentation experiments of various recombinant Rrp5•Rok1•AMPPCP complexes demonstrate that S1–S5 contributes to Rrp5 binding to 40S ribosomes in vitro. Note that the more sensitive gradient sedimentation experiments are required to demonstrate the more quantitative than qualitative differences in Rrp8_C8 and Rrp5_C7 binding. Because Rrp5_N9 and Rrp5_N12 do not bind Rok1, binding of these fragments requires the pelleting assay. All experiments were repeated at least twice, and representative data are shown.</p