Habitat Preference and diurnal use among Greater Sandhill Cranes

We examined patterns of habitat use by Greater Sandhill Cranes ( Grus canadensis tabida ) in the Intermountain West, April-October 1991-92, to determine whether cranes exhibited a specific preference for crops, fields, and areas within a field. This information will help farmers and wildlife managers direct nonlethal control methods to the sites where crane damage is most likely to occur. We conducted surveys along two 37-km transects weekly in Cache Valley, Utah, and biweekly in Bear River Valley, Rich County, Utah, and Lincoln County, Wyoming. We recorded 5814 cranes in 662 separate groups. Most were located in pasture/hay (34%), small grain (39%), alfalfa (9%), plowed (9%), fallow (4%), or corn (1%) fields. An index of feeding activity for each field and habitat type suggested cranes fed at approximately the same rate in each field and habitat type. Crane diurnal activity patterns during summer and fall revealed that grainfields were used heavily throughout the day.     

Hesperomyces virescens (Fungi,Ascomycota, Laboulbeniales) attacking Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera,Coccinellidae) in its native range

This study intended to find data on obligate ectoparasitic Laboulbeniales (Fungi, Ascomycota) on Chinese Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae). After having screened over four thousand dried specimens of H. axyridis and close relatives, we present the first (historical) record of Chinese H. axyridis infected with Hesperomyces virescens. We suggest that H. virescens is a historically globally distributed species and hypothesize that (native) infection was lost when H. axyridis was introduced in North America.     

New records and species of Tetranychidae and Tenuipalpidae (Acarina) from Utah and Idaho

Twenty-three species of spider mites (Tetranychidae) are recognized for Utah and Idaho; three of these are described as new: Bryobia neoribis, Pseudobryobia knowltoni, and Schizotetranychus agropyron. Eleven species of Tenuipalpidae are recorded.     

The auroral footprint of Enceladus on Saturn

Although there are substantial differences between the magnetospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, it has been suggested that cryovolcanic activity at Enceladus could lead to electrodynamic coupling between Enceladus and Saturn like that which links Jupiter with Io, Europa and Ganymede. Powerful field-aligned electron beams associated with the Io-Jupiter coupling, for example, create an auroral footprint in Jupiter's ionosphere. Auroral ultraviolet emission associated with Enceladus-Saturn coupling is anticipated to be just a few tenths of a kilorayleigh (ref. 12), about an order of magnitude dimmer than Io's footprint and below the observable threshold, consistent with its non-detection. Here we report the detection of magnetic-field-aligned ion and electron beams (offset several moon radii downstream from Enceladus) with sufficient power to stimulate detectable aurora, and the subsequent discovery of Enceladus-associated aurora in a few per cent of the scans of the moon's footprint. The footprint varies in emission magnitude more than can plausibly be explained by changes in magnetospheric parameters--and as such is probably indicative of variable plume activity.     

Tbx6-dependent Sox2 regulation determines neural or mesodermal fate in axial stem cells

The classical view of neural plate development held that it arises from the ectoderm, after its separation from the mesodermal and endodermal lineages. However, recent cell-lineage-tracing experiments indicate that the caudal neural plate and paraxial mesoderm are generated from common bipotential axial stem cells originating from the caudal lateral epiblast. Tbx6 null mutant mouse embryos which produce ectopic neural tubes at the expense of paraxial mesoderm must provide a clue to the regulatory mechanism underlying this neural versus mesodermal fate choice. Here we demonstrate that Tbx6-dependent regulation of Sox2 determines the fate of axial stem cells. In wild-type embryos, enhancer N1 of the neural primordial gene Sox2 is activated in the caudal lateral epiblast, and the cells staying in the superficial layer sustain N1 activity and activate Sox2 expression in the neural plate. In contrast, the cells destined to become mesoderm activate Tbx6 and turn off enhancer N1 before migrating into the paraxial mesoderm compartment. In Tbx6 mutant embryos, however, enhancer N1 activity persists in the paraxial mesoderm compartment, eliciting ectopic Sox2 activation and transforming the paraxial mesoderm into neural tubes. An enhancer-N1-specific deletion mutation introduced into Tbx6 mutant embryos prevented this Sox2 activation in the mesodermal compartment and subsequent development of ectopic neural tubes, indicating that Tbx6 regulates Sox2 via enhancer N1. Tbx6-dependent repression of Wnt3a in the paraxial mesodermal compartment is implicated in this regulatory process. Paraxial mesoderm-specific misexpression of a Sox2 transgene in wild-type embryos resulted in ectopic neural tube development. Thus, Tbx6 represses Sox2 by inactivating enhancer N1 to inhibit neural development, and this is an essential step for the specification of paraxial mesoderm from the axial stem cells.     

Structure Underlies Other Organizational Determinants of Mental Health: Recent Results Confirm Early Sociotechnical Systems Research

Workplaces are implicated in the current global epidemic of mental illness. This paper presents early results from an action research project designed to investigate and prevent mental illness at work. It treats the organization as an open sociotechnical system where mental health is measured by self report and the affects experienced at work. Sick days are also measured. The study finds that the second genotypical, organizational design principle creates enabling conditions for mental health, many of which enablers such as trust and equality have previously been hypothesized as determinants of mental health. But the enablers are themselves consequent to a design principle. The results show how the second design principle creates the jointly optimized sociotechnical system that leads to enablers and positive outcomes, for people and the bottom line. This research reinforces the conclusion from the first study of sociotechnical systems that structure is a determinant of mental health.     

Doing Action Research in One's Own Organization: An Ongoing Conversation Over Time

There are many variants of action research. This article describes a socioecological action research approach done from inside an organization-in-environments. Building on past discussions of action research, an inside-outsider action research model is presented, and using the author's own experience, the paper explores some special relations inherent in such a model. The paper starts with a brief outline of the theory, then discusses some of the structural relations of inside-outsider action research, some practical issues and then reports several vignettes as examples. The paper concludes that action research is still an evolving paradigm.