Nordonna: A red-skinned potato cultivar with wide adaptability

NorDonna is a mid-season, red-skinned, white-fleshed cultivar that yields a large percentage of U.S. No. 1 tubers in diverse growing areas under both dryland and irrigated conditions. It tends to have a darker red skin and a lower incidence of hollow heart when compared to other red cultivars. Intended for tablestock use, NorDonna has baking, boiling, and microwaving properties comparable to Red Pontiac or Red Norland. The North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station released NorDonna on April 28, 1995.     

Is GRO J1744-28 a strange star?

The unusual hard x-ray burster GRO J1744-28 recently discovered by the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory can be modeled as a strange star with a dipolar magnetic field of 相似文献   

In situ measurements of organics, meteoritic material, mercury, and other elements in aerosols at 5 to 19 kilometers

In situ measurements of the chemical composition of individual aerosol particles at altitudes between 5 and 19 kilometers reveal that upper tropospheric aerosols often contained more organic material than sulfate. Although stratospheric aerosols primarily consisted of sulfuric acid and water, many also contained meteoritic material. Just above the tropopause, small amounts of mercury were found in over half of the aerosol particles that were analyzed. Overall, there was tremendous variety in aerosol composition. One measure of this diversity is that at least 45 elements were detected in aerosol particles. These results have wide implications for the complexity of aerosol sources and chemistry. They also offer possibilities for understanding the transport of atmospheric aerosols.     

Presence and diversity of mixed avian Plasmodium spp. infections in introduced birds whose distribution overlapped with threatened New Zealand endemic birds

ABSTRACT

Aims: To determine the presence of infection and co-infection of Plasmodium lineages in introduced birds at translocation sites for the North Island saddleback (Philesturnus rufusater), to investigate their role as Plasmodium spp. reservoirs.

Methods: Blood samples were collected from introduced bird species, with a special focus on blackbirds (Turdus merula) and song thrushes (Turdus philomelos), at six locations in the North Island of New Zealand that were the origin, or translocation sites, for North Island saddleback. Where available, blood smears were examined, and blood samples were tested using nested PCR with subsequent sequence analysis, for the presence of Plasmodium spp.

Results: Of the 55 samples tested using PCR analysis, 39 (71%) were positive for Plasmodium spp., and 28/40 (62%) blood smears were positive for Plasmodium spp. Overall, 31 blood samples were from blackbirds with 28/31 (90%) samples positive for Plasmodium spp. Six distinct avian Plasmodium lineages were identified, including three cosmopolitan lineages; Plasmodium vaughani SYAT05 was detected in 16 samples, Plasmodium matutinum Linn1 in 10 samples and Plasmodium elongatum GRW6 in eight samples. Mixed infections with more than one lineage were detected in 12 samples. Samples from two Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) were positive for Plasmodium. sp. lineage MYNA02, previously not identified in New Zealand.

Conclusions and clinical relevance: This is the first report from New Zealand in which specific Plasmodium spp. mixed infections have been found in introduced birds. Co-infections with several cosmopolitan Plasmodium lineages were identified, as well as the first report in New Zealand of an exotic avian Plasmodium sp. lineage, in Australian magpies. Whilst the role of introduced birds in maintaining and spreading pathogenic avian malaria in New Zealand is unclear, there is a potential infection risk to native birds, especially where distributions overlap.     

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR LAND DEGRADATION MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF CONTEMPORARY THINKING

It is increasingly recognised that land degradation monitoring and assessment can benefit from incorporating multiple sources of knowledge, using a variety of methods at different scales, including the perspectives of researchers, land managers and other stakeholders. However, the knowledge and methods required to achieve this are often dispersed across individuals and organisations at different levels and locations. Appropriate knowledge management mechanisms are therefore required to more efficiently harness these different sources of knowledge and facilitate their broader dissemination and application. This paper examines what knowledge is, how it is generated and explores how it may be stored, transferred and exchanged between knowledge producers and users before it is applied to monitor and assess land degradation at the local scale. It suggests that knowledge management can also benefit from the development of mechanisms that promote changes in understanding and efficient means of accessing and/or brokering knowledge. Broadly, these processes for knowledge management can (i) help identify and share good practices and build capacity for land degradation monitoring at different scales and in different contexts and (ii) create knowledge networks to share lessons learned and monitoring data among and between different stakeholders, scales and locations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.