Genetic control of lactate dehydrogenase formation in the hagfish Eptatretus stoutii

The isozyme patterns of lactate dehydrogenases of various tissues were studied on 51 hagfish by starch-gel electrophoresis. Nine lactate dehydrogenase phenotypes were encountered, suggesting the coexistence of two alleles at each of the two separate gene loci. There apparently was no interaction between the products of these two separate loci. Even the products of two alleles at the same locus were apparently incapable of forming hybrid molecules, an indication of the possible monomeric nature of each lactate dehydrogenase molecule.     

Multiple gene loci for the monomeric hemoglobin of the hagfish (Eptatretus stoutii)

The fact that members of the subclass Cyclotomata possess monomeric hemoglobin molecules has been known for some time. Electrophoresis of hemolysates from 12 hagfish (Eptatretus stoutii) revealed five hemoglobin phenotypes with four to six distinct zones of hemoglobin. Each zone is believed to represent a monomer containing one heme group on a single polypeptide chain with a molecular weight of approximately 18,000. It is postulated that these monomers are controlled by genes at four loci.     

Establishment of the Mediterranean fruit fly in California

Principles of invasion biology are brought to bear on the question of whether the medfly is established in California. Since its first discovery in 1975, the pest has been captured in the Los Angeles Basin in nine separate years including every year from 1986 through 1990. The trend has become distinct--the intervals between captures are decreasing, the numbers captured are increasing, and the area over which they are detected is expanding. In addition, appearances are seasonal and captures in recent years have occurred in many of the same cities and neighborhoods where medflies were found several years before. Evidence suggests that the medfly may be established in the Los Angeles area and that previous eradication programs did not eradicate the medfly from California. It follows that detection, exclusion, and eradication protocols may need to be reexamined.     

California Simulation of Evapotranspiration of Applied Water and Agricultural Energy Use in California

The California Simulation of Evapotranspiration of Applied Water (Cal-SIMETAW) model is a new tool developed by the California Department of Water Resources and the University of California, Davis to perform daily soil water balance and determine crop evapotranspiration (ET c ), evapotranspiration of applied water (ET aw ), and applied water (AW) for use in California water resources planning. ET aw is a seasonal estimate of the water needed to irrigate a crop assuming 100% irrigation efficiency. The model accounts for soils, crop coefficients, rooting depths, seepage, etc. that influence crop water balance. It provides spatial soil and climate information and it uses historical crop and land-use category information to provide seasonal water balance estimates by combinations of detailed analysis unit and county (DAU/County) over California. The result is a large data base of ET c and ET aw that will be used to update information in the new California Water Plan (CWP). The application uses the daily climate data, i.e., maximum (T x ) and minimum (T n ) temperature and precipitation (P cp ), which were derived from monthly USDA-NRCS PRISM data (PRISM Group 2011) and daily US National Climate Data Center (NCDC) climate station data to cover California on a 4 km×4 km change grid spacing. The application uses daily weather data to determine reference evapotranspiration (ET o ), using the Hargreaves-Samani (HS) equation (Hargreaves and Samani 1982, 1985). Because the HS equation is based on temperature only, ET o from the HS equation were compared with CIMIS ET o at the same locations using available CIMIS data to determine correction factors to estimate CIMIS ET o from the HS ET o to account for spatial climate differences. Cal-SIMETAW also employs near real-time reference evapotranspiration (ET o ) information from Spatial CIMIS, which is a model that combines weather station data and remote sensing to provide a grid of ET o information. A second database containing the available soil water holding capacity and soil depth information for all of California was also developed from the USDA-NRCS SSURGO database. The Cal-SIMETAW program also has the ability to generate daily weather data from monthly mean values for use in studying climate change scenarios and their possible impacts on water demand in the state. The key objective of this project is to improve the accuracy of water use estimates for the California Water Plan (CWP), which provides a comprehensive report on water supply, demand, and management in California. In this paper, we will discuss the model and how it determines ET aw for use in water resources planning.     

小麦突变体返白系返白阶段叶绿体超微结构变化研究

分别采取返白系返白前期(全绿苗)、返白中期(全白苗)和复绿苗5个不同叶龄叶片,通过电镜系统观察了各叶龄叶片的叶绿体超微结构,结果表明,返白过程中,返白系幼叶中的幼龄质体发育停滞于前质体阶段,随着叶龄增加,已发育的质体体积虽有一定程度增大,但质体内部结构不能形成甚至退化;复绿过程中,幼叶中的质体恢复发育,叶龄较大的叶片中(如全卷叶)存在着发育程度不同的质体,小的质体可能恢复发育,最终导致叶片复绿,而较大的质体则空化。说明返白过程中幼龄质体发育停滞,或已发育的部分质体内部结构退化是叶片白化的原因,停滞发育的前质体恢复发育是复绿的主要细胞学特征。     

小麦突变体返白系返白机理的研究 Ⅱ、返白阶段叶绿素代谢变化研究

与对照矮变1号相比,返白过程中返白系叶片内叶绿素(Chl)和类胡萝卜素(Caro)含量降低,复绿过程中,两种色素的含量都升高,但在整个返白阶段中,返白系Chl/Caro比值始终低于对照矮变1号,说明类胡萝卜素含量的降低不是造成叶片变白的原因。对叶绿素生物合成中的两个关键中间产物δ-氨基乙酰丙酸(ALA)和原叶绿素(酸酯)[Pchl(ide)]的分析发现,在返白过程中,ALA相对积累,而Pchl(ide)含量降低,推测在返白过程中叶绿素合成受阻,这可能是返白系叶色在返白过程中褪绿变白的原因之     

Race and imprisonment decisions in California

Data were analyzed for 11,553 California offenders who in 1980 were convicted of assault, robbery, burglary, theft, forgery, or drug crimes. Whether an offender was given probation or sentenced to prison for such crimes could be predicted with about 80 percent accuracy from a combination of variables that described defendant and crime characteristics and criminal justice processing. The addition of race to the prediction equation for a given crime type did not improve the accuracy of the prediction. In addition, there was no evidence that other factors related to imprisonment (for example, number of conviction counts, going to trial) masked a relation between race and imprisonment. Race also was not related to the length of prison term imposed.     

小麦突变体返白系返白机理的研究 Ⅰ 返白阶段叶绿体超微结构观察

在返白系小麦叶色由绿变白的过程中,叶绿体结构发生退化。返白初期,出现大量的嗜饿小滴,基粒排列混乱,垛叠层数异常增多或减少,并且发现类囊体有肿大量的嗜胀现象,粒消失。返白中期,叶绿体中呈现空化现象,内部结构逐渐解体。到叶片继而,基全白时期,整个叶绿体变为低电子密度的囊泡状结构。在叶片由自复绿的过程中,叶绿体的这些变化又可逆转,内部结构又重现,基粒迅速形成,排列也较规则,整个叶绿体结构很快恢复正常。在整个返白阶段中,叶细胞中的其它内部结构如中央大液泡等也发生了一定的变化。     

Geothermal Heat Flow in the Gulfs of California and Aden

Eighteen measurements in and near the gulfs of California and Aden indicate the geothermal flux is several times the world-wide mean of 1.2 x 10(-6) cal/cm(2) sec in both regions. Both gulfs closely coincide with the intersection of oceanic rises with continents and have likely been formed under tensional forces, which suggests an association with mantle convection currents.     

Farmer-Community Connections and the Future of Ecological Agriculture in California

While questions about the environmental sustainability of contemporary farming practices and the socioeconomic viability of rural communities are attracting increasing attention throughout the US, these two issues are rarely considered together. This paper explores the current and potential connections between these two aspects of sustainability, using data on community members’ and farmers’ views of agricultural issues in California’s Central Valley. These views were collected from a series of individual and group interviews with biologically oriented and conventional farmers as well as community stakeholders. Local marketing, farmland preservation, and perceptions of sustainable agriculture comprised the primary topics of discussion. The mixed results indicate that, while many farmers and community members have a strong interest in these topics, sustainable community development and the use of sustainable farming practices are seldom explicitly linked. On the other hand, many separate efforts around the Valley to increase local marketing and agritourism, improve public education about agriculture, and organize grassroots farmland preservation initiatives were documented. We conclude that linking these efforts more explicitly to sustainable agriculture and promoting more engagement between ecologically oriented farmers and their communities could engender more economic and political support for these farmers, helping them and their communities to achieve greater sustainability in the long run. Sonja Brodt is a former program evaluation specialist with the University of California Integrated Pest Management Program. Her current research focuses on extension and adoption of integrated pest management strategies by California growers and the impacts of pesticide safety training programs on farmworkers. Gail Feenstra is a food systems analyst at the University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP). She coordinates SAREP’s Community Development and Public Policy grants program and conducts outreach and education to academic and community-based groups to build their capacity and leadership skills for developing sustainable community food systems. Robin Kozloff is a social science researcher and consultant in agricultural and land use policy. Karen Klonsky is an extension specialist at the University of California at Davis in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Her research focuses on the economic viability of organic and sustainable farming systems as well as the evolution of the organic market. Laura Tourte is county director and farm advisor at the University of California Cooperative Extension in Santa Cruz County. Her research and extension activities currently focus on farm management and marketing for small-scale growers.     

Emergence of anoxia in the California current large marine ecosystem

Eastern boundary current systems are among the world's most productive large marine ecosystems. Because upwelling currents transport nutrient-rich but oxygen-depleted water onto shallow seas, large expanses of productive continental shelves can be vulnerable to the risk of extreme low-oxygen events. Here, we report the novel rise of water-column shelf anoxia in the northern California Current system, a large marine ecosystem with no previous record of such extreme oxygen deficits. The expansion of anoxia highlights the potential for rapid and discontinuous ecosystem change in productive coastal systems that sustain a major portion of the world's fisheries.     

Lithologic Control of the Depth of Earthquakes in Southern California

The depth distribution of southern California earthquakes indicates that areas underlain by schist basement rocks have a shallower (4 to 10 kilometers) maximum depth of earthquakes than do areas with other types of basement rocks. The predominant minerals in the schists become plastic at lower temperatures, and thus at shallower depths, than the minerals in the other basement rocks. The lateral variations in lithology will control the depth extent (and thus the magnitudes) of potential future earthquakes; these depths can be determined from the depth of the current background seismicity.     

Clay Minerals in Playas of the Mojave Desert,California

A method has been proposed for deriving a characteristic determining flow in porous systems. This characteristic combines both area and path-length factors used by earlier authors. For a gas, diffusive flow is proportional to the 4/3 power of the gas-filled porosity, and this function has been derived from consideration of the planar distribution of spherical pores and the interaction of two adjacent planes.     

Rapid progression of ocean acidification in the California Current System

Nearshore waters of the California Current System (California CS) already have a low carbonate saturation state, making them particularly susceptible to ocean acidification. We used eddy-resolving model simulations to study the potential development of ocean acidification in this system up to the year 2050 under the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios A2 and B1 scenarios. In both scenarios, the saturation state of aragonite ?(arag) is projected to drop rapidly, with much of the nearshore region developing summer-long undersaturation in the top 60 meters within the next 30 years. By 2050, waters with ?(arag) above 1.5 will have largely disappeared, and more than half of the waters will be undersaturated year-round. Habitats along the sea floor will become exposed to year-round undersaturation within the next 20 to 30 years. These projected events have potentially major implications for the rich and diverse ecosystem that characterizes the California CS.     

Crustal Spreading in Southern California: The Imperial Valley and the Gulf of California formed by the rifting apart of a continental plate

The current excitement among geologists and geophysicists stemming from the "new global tectonics" has led to a widespread, speculative reinterpretation of continental geology. The Gulf of California and its continuation into the Imperial Valley provide an excellent opportunity for studying the border zone between the North American and Pacific plates, and an interface of continental and oceanic tectonics. The Salton trough, the landward extension of the gulf, is a broad structural depression, comparable in size with the deeper marine basins of the southern part of the gulf, but here partially filled with sediments deposited by the Colorado River.