The hen's egg: Shell cracking at impact on a heavy,stiff body and factors that affect it

1. Eggs from hens of three strains were dropped on to a heavy, stiff, smooth, plane body with impact at the equator of the shell; the height of drop, h_c, just sufficient to produce shell failure was measured and the corresponding impact velocity, v_c, calculated.

2. A small but commercially important percentage of the well‐formed eggs of one strain cracked when h_c was as low as 3–3 mm and v_c 250 mm/s.

3. Characteristics of the egg found to affect h_c and v_c included the overall thickness of its shell, thickness of its weak inner shell layer and average shell curvature, all measured at the point of impact, and its weight; its age also had a small effect (additional to that mediated through loss of weight); so did the degree of shell ridging.

4. No effect of shell colour was found.

5. Shell damage was typically a single hair‐crack that ran either round the equator or towards a pole.     

Estimation of Genetic Variation Among Verticillium Isolates using AFLP Analysis

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis was used to study genetic variation among 76 isolates of Verticillium. A dendrogram based on the AFLP data revealed three main groups. One group consisted of 35 European isolates derived from Brassica napus together with five Californian isolates taken from B. oleracea. This group displayed a high degree of genetic similarity and included three isolates earlier classified as Verticillium longisporum, indicating that all isolates in this group probably should be regarded as members of V. longisporum. V. dahliae isolates constituted the second group while the third group contained four V. albo-atrum isolates. In addition to these three groups, a cluster of six V. nigrescens isolates was observed. However, the genetic distances between the isolates of V. nigrescens were much higher than those between members in the other groups and the bootstrap value for the V. nigrescens cluster was subsequently low. Four isolates classified as V. tricorpus were highly diverse and did not cluster together. Analysis of molecular variance revealed that the isolates of V. longisporum were separated into four subgroups, based on geographic origin. The study furthermore shows that AFLP is a suitable method for studying population structure in Verticillium.     

膨胀素在果实完熟中的作用

 概述了细胞壁蛋白质膨胀素(Expansin)的发现、作用机制、基因家族、功能和研究现状。重点论述了膨胀素在果实完熟中的作用及其与细胞壁酶之间的相互关系，提出了利用转基因技术调节果实完熟和软化的新策略。关键词：中图分类号：     

Characterizing historical and modern fire regimes in Michigan (USA): A landscape ecosystem approach

We studied the relationships of landscape ecosystems to historical and contemporary fire regimes across 4.3 million hectares in northern lower Michigan (USA). Changes in fire regimes were documented by comparing historical fire rotations in different landscape ecosystems to those occurring between 1985 and 2000. Previously published data and a synthesis of the literature were used to identify six forest-replacement fire regime categories with fire rotations ranging from very short (<100 years) to very long (>1,000 years). We derived spatially-explicit estimates of the susceptibility of landscape ecosystems to fire disturbance using Landtype Association maps as initial units of investigation. Each Landtype Association polygon was assigned to a fire regime category based on associations of ecological factors known to influence fire regimes. Spatial statistics were used to interpolate fire points recorded by the General Land Office. Historical fire rotations were determined by calculating the area burned for each category of fire regime and dividing this area by fifteen (years) to estimate area burned per annum. Modern fire rotations were estimated using data on fire location and size obtained from federal and state agencies. Landtype Associations networked into fire regime categories exhibited differences in both historical and modern fire rotations. Historical rotations varied by 23-fold across all fire rotation categories, and modern forest fire rotations by 13-fold. Modern fire rotations were an order of magnitude longer than historical rotations. The magnitude of these changes has important implications for forest health and understanding of ecological processes in most of the fire rotation categories that we identified.This revised version was published online in May 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Preliminary study of plasma vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) during low- and high-dose radiation therapy of dogs with spontaneous tumors

High plasma vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) concentrations are associated with radiation resistance and poor prognosis. After an exposure to ionizing radiation in cell culture an early phase and a late phase of increased VEGF have been documented. The activation was dependent on the radiation dose. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to measure baseline plasma VEGF and changes in VEGF over the course of fractionated radiation therapy in dogs with spontaneous tumors. Dogs with tumors had a significantly higher pretreatment plasma VEGF than did dogs without tumors. Immediately after irradiation no increased plasma VEGF was observed. Over the course of radiation therapy there was an increased plasma VEGF in dogs treated with low doses per fraction/high total dose, whereas plasma VEGF remained stable in dogs irradiated with high doses per fraction/low total dose. The regulatory mechanisms are very complex, and therefore the value of plasma VEGF measurements as an indirect marker of angiogenesis induced by radiotherapy is limited.     

Symbiotic N<Subscript>2</Subscript> fixation and nitrate utilisation in irrigated lucerne (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Medicago sativa</Emphasis>) systems

Symbiotic N₂ fixation by lucerne (Medicago sativa) has capacity to provide significant inputs of N to agro-ecosystems, and the species has also been shown to scavenge soil mineral N and thus act as a sink for excess reactive N. The balance between these two N cycle processes was investigated in an extensive irrigated lucerne growing region where nitrate contamination of groundwater has been reported. We sampled 18 permanent pure lucerne stands under irrigation for standing dry matter, total shoot N, and N₂ fixation using ¹⁵N natural abundance along with activity of the inducible enzyme nitrate reductase as indicators of use of soil NO₃⁻ by lucerne. On average 65% of lucerne N was obtained from symbiotic N₂ fixation. Converting standing dry matter estimates to annual N₂ fixation amounts we calculated average N₂ fixation of 311 kg N/ha, including N in roots and nodules. Uptake of N from soil by lucerne was calculated to be 181 kg N/ha/year. We were not able to identify the source of this soil mineral N, although nitrate reductase activity of lucerne was higher than that of non-N₂ fixing species examined.