A new perennial species of Gilia (Polemoniaceae) from Utah

Gilia tenuis Smith & Neese is a previously undescribed species from Emery and Sevier counties, Utah, apparently closely related to G. caespitosa Gray and G. subnuda Torr. ex Gray. It is distinguished from these species by its possession of a combination of characters including perennial, multicipital habit, lobed basal leaves, and small, pale blue flowers.     

Unfolding Incomplete Data: Guidelines for Unfolding Row-Conditional Rank Order Data with Random Missings

Unfolding creates configurations from preference information. In this paper, it is argued that not all preference information needs to be collected and that good solutions are still obtained, even when more than half of the data is missing. Simulation studies are conducted to compare missing data treatments, sources of missing data, and designs for the specification of missing data. Guidelines are provided and used in actual practice.     

Diet switching and food delivery by shrubsteppe passerines in response to an experimental reduction in food

We experimentally reduced the food base of nesting Brewer's Sparrows ( Spizella breweri ) and Sage Thrashers ( Oreoscoptes montanus ) in a shrubsteppe region of south central Idaho in 1989 and 1990. Frequency and mass of "birdfood" arthropods in pitfall, sweep net, and stickyboard samples were generally lower on sites treated with a broad-spectrum insecticide (malathion) than on untreated sites though the effect varied among taxa. In 1990 O. montanus switched nestling diets to prey taxa not affected by the treatment. Time between nestling food deliveries was greater for S. breweri on the treated than untreated site in 1989. In 1990 there were no between-site differences, but there was an increase in delivery time on the treated plot after treatment; this difference was within the range of delivery times recorded on the untreated plot. Malathion applications did reduce the food base, but plasticity in passerine behavior and emergence characteristics of some prey taxa ameliorated indirect effects of food reduction to birds.     

Ecological and evolutionary dynamics of fig communities

Summary I review the status of five topics in fig research: pollen-vector versus seed production, flowering phenology and wasp population dynamics, monoecy versus dioecy, parasite pressure, and fig wasp behavior. I raise several new questions based on recent research on two components of fig reproduction: pollen-donation (male) and seed-production (female) success. I focus on how these two components of reproductive success depend on the flowering phenology of the figs and the population dynamics of the pollinator wasps.     

Vitamins and other metabolites in various sera commonly used for cell culturing

Many cell culture media use different sera to enhance growth. We assayed vitamins and some related metabolites in different sera and identified the concentration of: thiamin, biotin, folates, riboflavin, pantothenates, nicotinates, vitamins B6, B12, A, E, C, and carotenes and some related metabolites: biopterins, free inositol, free and total choline, total carnitines in chicken, horse, rabbit, goat, pig, calf, newborn calf, fetal calf and human sera. Results indicate that vitamin and metabolite content of different sera vary. Such variations could produce fluctuant effects on cell culturings if the metabolite content of the serum is not documented.     

Stereological measurements of atrial ultrastructures in the guinea-pig

Zusammenfassung Mit morphometrischen Methoden wurde beim Meerschweinchen eine quantitative Analyse von Volumen und Oberflächenareal der Ultrastrukturkomponenten der Herzvorhof-Muskulatur durchgeführt, die mit dem Erregungs-Kontraktions-Kopplungsvorgang und der Erschlaffung verknüpft sind.