Parents of Max Rieser standing on a terrace Portraits Couples

Digital Image

Grain dormancy QTL identified in a doubled haploid barley population derived from two non-dormant parents

Grain dormancy provides protection against pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) in cereals. Composite interval mapping and association analyses were performed to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) contributing grain dormancy in a doubled haploid (DH) barley population (ND24260 x Flagship) consisting of 321 lines genotyped with DArT markers. Harvest-ripe grain collected from three field experiments was germinated over a 7-day period to determine a weighted germination index for each line. DH lines displaying moderate to high levels of grain dormancy were identified; however, both parental lines were non-dormant and displayed rapid germination within the first two days of testing. Genetic analysis identified two QTL on chromosome 5H that were expressed consistently in each of the three environments. One QTL (donated by Flagship) was located close to the centromeric region of chromosome 5H (qSDFlag), accounting for up to 15% of the phenotypic variation. A second QTL with a larger effect (from ND24260) was detected on chromosome 5HL (qSDND), accounting for up to 35% of the phenotypic variation. qSDFlag and qSDND displayed an epistatic interaction and DH lines that had the highest levels of grain dormancy carried both genes. We demonstrate that qSDND in the ND24260 9 Flagship DH population is positioned proximal and independent to the well-characterised SD2 region that is associated with both high levels of dormancy and inferior malt quality. This indicates that it should be possible to develop cultivars that combine acceptable malting quality and adequate levels of grain dormancy for protection against PHS by utilizing these alternate QTL.

Mr. and Mrs. Helft, parents of Erna Weill nee Helft, outdoors Portraits Couples

Handwritten on verso: Meine geliebten Eltern

Photo collage of Steven Lowell, his parents Fritz Loewenthal and Alice (Lizzie) nee Weissberger, in Amsterdam and on the ship that brought them to the United States.

Digital Image

Parents as co-researchers at home: Using an observational method to document young children’s use of technology

This paper discusses the use of observational video recordings to document young children’s use of technology in their homes. Although observational research practices have been used for decades, often with video-based techniques, the participant group in this study (i.e., very young children) and the setting (i.e., private homes), provide a rich space for exploring the benefits and limitations of qualitative observation. The data gathered in this study point to a number of key decisions and issues that researchers must face in designing observational research, particularly where non-researchers (in this case, parents) act as surrogates for the researcher at the data collection stage. The involvement of parents and children as research videographers in the home resulted in very rich and detailed data about children’s use of technology in their daily lives. However, limitations noted in the dataset (e.g., image quality) provide important guidance for researchers developing projects using similar methods in future. The paper provides recommendations for future observational designs in similar settings and/or with similar participant groups.

Memoirs : Heida Hermanns Holde /

The author's mother Alice Goldschmidt was a gifted piano player, who studied with Carl Maria Breithaupt and became his most talented student. Childhood recollections. Early musical awakening. Outbreak of World War One. Recollections of air raids and scarceness of food. Inflation and political instability in post-war Germany. Piano lessons by her mother from an early age. Heida made her debut at age fourteen with the Wiesbaden Symphony under the conductor Carl Schuricht, who became a close mentor and friend. Close relationship to her mother, who had a great influence on her professional career. Heida had a number of outstanding teachers, among them Artur Schnabel, Karl Leimer and Egon Petri. Heida was accepted as a student of Petri at the "Hochschule fuer Musik" in Berlin, where she studied between 1922-1925. Salon at her aunt's house with guests such as the playwright Georg Kaiser and Siegfried Wagner. Her sister Elsie received her Ph.D. in economics and moved to Berlin as well. Heida graduated from the "Hochschule" in 1925. Soon after she won an international piano competition in Berlin. Engagements with various conductors such as Max Fiedler and Otto Klemperer. Private lessons with Arthur Schnabel and Carl Friedberg, the co-founder of Juilliard. Due to occasional experiences of antisemitism during her music career Heida decided to change her name from Goldschmidt to Hermanns. Position at the "Hoch Conservatory" in Frankfurt. Encounter with the music critic Artur Holde, Heida's future-husband. Engagement and wedding in 1932. Move to Berlin.

Letter to trustees of K.K.S.I. from James Foster, regarding his desire to become a Jew

Digital image

Keeping kids sun safe: exploring parents' beliefs about their young child's sun-protective behaviours

Objectives Melanoma of the skin is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia. Given the high incidence of sunburn in children and the level of sun protection provided by parents is often infrequent and/or insufficient, this research employed qualitative methodology to examine parents' beliefs about their young child's sun safe behaviour. Methods Parents (N = 21; n = 14 mothers, n = 7 fathers) of children aged 2–5 years participated in focus groups to identify commonly held beliefs about their decision to sun protect their child. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis. Results Parents generally had knowledge of the broad sun safe recommendations; however, the specific details of the recommendations were not always known. Parents reported adopting a range of sun-protective measures for their child, which depended on the time of year. A range of advantages (e.g. reducing the risk of skin cancer, developing good habits early and parental peace of mind), disadvantages (e.g. false sense of safety and preventing vitamin D absorption), barriers (e.g. child refusal) and facilitators (e.g. routine and accessibility) to performing sun safe practices were identified. Normative pressures and expectations also affected parents' motivation to be sun safe for their child. Conclusions These identified beliefs can be used to inform interventions to improve sun safe behaviours in young children who reside in a region that has the highest skin cancer incidence in the world.

Alcohol and depression

"A large proportion of people who experience drug problems also experience a range of mental health problems. Similarly, many people who experience mental health problems engage in hazardous drug use. The experience of these co-occurring disorders increases use of treatment services, but is associated with poorer prognosis. The implementation of effective responses has been hindered by the disaggregated systems of care that have been adopted in many countries; many problems are the outcome of poorly organised systems of care that do not reflect the needs of a large proportion of clients who experience various problems. There is a dearth of quality research to guide the development of evidence-based responses to co-occurring drug and mental health problems. This book introduces the reader to the issues, guided by a series of questions. These encourage the reader to consider the evidence about the nature and prevalence of co-occurring disorders and the challenges they create for individuals, the community and service providers. The diverse range of expertise of the contributors provides the opportunity to consider the challenges of navigating the various systems of care from the perspective of consumers, parents and clinicians. Researchers and clinicians examine the available evidence about the links between the various disorders and discuss the implications for treatment through a series of case studies. The reader is guided through evidence-based clinical decision-making. The editor and contributors argue that, while our knowledge and expertise is improving, there is a need to better resource and integrate treatment services to foster the adoption of evidence-based and effective responses. Poor systems of care don’t necessarily cause co-occurring mental health and drug problems, but they can contribute to poor outcomes."--Publisher website

Multiple parents crossover operators: A new approach removes the overlapping solutions for sequencing problems

Maintaining population diversity throughout generations of Genetic Algorithms (GAs) is key to avoid premature convergence. Redundant solutions is one cause for the decreasing population diversity. To prevent the negative effect of redundant solutions, we propose a framework that is based on the multi-parents crossover (MPX) operator embedded in GAs. Because MPX generates diversified chromosomes with good solution quality, when a pair of redundant solutions is found, we would generate a new offspring by using the MPX to replace the redundant chromosome. Three schemes of MPX will be examined and will be compared against some algorithms in literature when we solve the permutation flowshop scheduling problems, which is a strong NP-Hard sequencing problem. The results indicate that our approach significantly improves the solution quality. This study is useful for researchers who are trying to avoid premature convergence of evolutionary algorithms by solving the sequencing problems.

Una aplicación de las medidas de Alkire-Foster al estudio de la pobreza y desigualdad multidimensional de los hogares urbanos argentinos entre 2004 y 2008

Resumen: Si bien el período de recuperación posterior a la crisis del fin de la convertibilidad mostró mejoras en las mediciones de pobreza y desigualdad monetarias, el análisis de medidas multidimensionales permite detectar un estancamiento en estas mejoras ya a partir del año 2007. Este documento intenta indagar en los componentes de este cambio, mediante un ejercicio de descomposición temporal y por grupos de la medida Alkire-Foster (2007) aplicada a los datos de la Encuesta de la Deuda Social Argentina.

Characterization of Navassa National Wildlife Refuge: A preliminary report for NF-06-05 (NOAA ship "Nancy Foster", April 18-30, 2006)

Navassa is a small, undeveloped island in the Windward Passage between Jamaica and Haiti. It was designated a National Wildlife Refuge under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1999, but the remote location makes management and enforcement challenging, and the area is regularly fished by artisanal fishermen from Haiti. In April 2006, the NOAA Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research conducted a research cruise to Navassa. The cruise produced the first high-resolution multibeam bathymetry for the area, which will facilitate habitat mapping and assist in refuge management. A major emphasis of the cruise was to study the impact of Haitian fishing gear on benthic habitats and fish communities; however, in 10 days on station only one small boat was observed with five fishermen and seven traps. Fifteen monitoring stations were established to characterize fish and benthic communities along the deep (28-34 m) shelf, as these areas have been largely unstudied by previous cruises. The fish communities included numerous squirrelfishes, triggerfishes, and parrotfishes. Snappers and grouper were also present but no small individuals were observed. Similarly, conch surveys indicated the population was in low abundance and was heavily skewed towards adults. Analysis of the benthic photoquadrats is currently underway. Other cruise activities included installation of a temperature logger network, sample collection for stable isotope analyses to examine trophic structure, and drop camera surveys to ground-truth habitat maps and overhead imagery. (PDF contains 58 pages)

Cruise Report: Summer 2008 Ecological Assessment of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary NOAA Ship NANCY FOSTER NF-08-09-CCEHBR (June 14-June 21, 2008)

Summary: This cruise report is a summary of a field survey conducted within the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS), located between Cape Cod and Cape Ann at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay. The survey was conducted June 14 – June 21, 2008 on NOAA Ship NANCY FOSTER Cruise NF-08-09-CCEHBR. Multiple indicators of ecological condition and human dimensions were sampled synoptically at each of 30 stations throughout SBNMS using a random probabilistic sampling design. Samples were collected for the analysis of benthic community structure and composition; concentrations of chemical contaminants (metals, pesticides, PAHs, PCBs, PBDEs) in sediments and target demersal biota; nutrient and chlorophyll levels in the water column; and other basic habitat characteristics such as depth, salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, pH, sediment grain size, and organic carbon content. In addition to the fish samples that were collected for analysis of chemical contaminants relative to human-health consumption limits, other human-dimension indicators were sampled as well including presence or absence of fishing gear, vessels, surface trash, marine mammals, and noxious sediment odors. The overall purpose of the survey was to collect data to assess the status of ecosystem condition and potential stressor impacts throughout SBNMS, based on these various indicators and corresponding management thresholds, and to provide this information as a baseline for determining how such conditions may be changing with time. While sample analysis is still ongoing a few preliminary results and observations are reported here. A final report will be completed once all data have been processed. The results are anticipated to be of value in supporting goals of the SBNMS and National Marine Sanctuary Program aimed at the characterization, protection, and management of sanctuary resources (pursuant to the National Marine Sanctuary Reauthorization Act) as well as a new priority of NCCOS and NOAA to apply Ecosystem Based approaches to the Management of coastal resources (EBM) through Integrated Ecosystem Assessments (IEAs) conducted in various coastal regions of the U.S. including the Northeast Atlantic continental shelf. This was a multi-disciplinary partnership effort made possible by scientists from the following organizations:  NOAA, National Ocean Service (NOS), National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research (CCEHBR), Charleston, SC.  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL), Atlantic Ecology Division (GED), Narragansett, RI.  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL), Gulf Ecology Division (GED), Gulf Breeze, FL.  U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), National Wetlands Research Center, Gulf Breeze Project Office, Gulf Breeze, FL.  NOAA, Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO), NOAA ship Nancy Foster. (31pp) (PDF contains 58 pages)