Pieces of Iowa’s Past, April 24, 2013

Pieces of Iowa’s Past, published by the Iowa State Capitol Tour Guides weekly during the legislative session, features historical facts about Iowa, the Capitol, and the early workings of state government. All historical publications are reproduced here with the actual spelling, punctuation, and grammar retained THIS WEEK: Iowa State Capitol and the Library of Congress Feature Artist’s Work BACKGROUND: Elmer Ellsworth Garnsey was primarily a muralist who painted on the East Coast from a studio in New York City. He was born in Holmdel, New Jersey, and took art training at the Art Students League and Cooper Union. Affiliations included the National Society of Mural Painters and the American Federation of the Arts. His work is in the Library of Congress, Boston Public Library, Memorial Hall at Yale University, City Art Museum of St. Louis, U.S. Custom House in New York City, and the State Capitol in Iowa.

Comportamento informacional de crianças e adolescentes: uma revisão da literatura estrangeira

Apresenta revisão de literatura sobre o comportamento informacional de crianças e adolescentes, enfatizando estudos estrangeiros. Introduz com descrição do campo do comportamento informacional humano, de forma mais geral. Destaca principalmente estudos norte-americanos, além de outros da literatura européia, canadense e australiana. As pesquisas analisadas estão reunidas nos seguintes tópicos ou linhas de pesquisa: o aprendizado dos estudantes através da biblioteca escolar; crianças e adolescentes; a Internet e a busca de informação no cotidiano. Os estudos foram selecionados em virtude do intercâmbio entre pesquisadores estrangeiros e a Escola de Ciência da Informação da UFMG e também do estágio doutoral realizado no Centro para Estudos Internacionais em Bibliotecas Escolares, em New Jersey, Estados Unidos. Além da descrição dos estudos, apresenta suas principais conclusões e/ou recomendações.

Liming effects on growth of native woody species from Brazilian Savannah

The liming effects on the growth of fifteen woody species of Brazil were evaluated under glasshouse conditions. The species used belong to different ecologic groups, namely: pioneer, secondary and climax trees. The soil treatments consisted in the absence of liming (-LIM) and liming sufficient to reach soil pH 6.0 (+LIM). In general, the pioneer and secondary species presented higher responses in total dry matter production (TDM) to soil liming, whereas the TDM of the climax species were not affected by the soil treatments. Thus, the ranking of species in relation to soil acidity tolerance ranged from highly sensitive to highly tolerant. The pioneer and secondary species growing in limed soil (+LIM) showed higher calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and phosphorus (P) contents, and, at the same time lower Ca, Mg utilization efficiency (CaUE and MgUE respectively), whereas the P utilization (PUE) was higher. In contrast, the Ca, Mg and P content in the climax species were only slightly affected by the soil liming. In general the climax species were less efficient in the CaUE and MgUE than the pioneer and secondary species.

Social Evolution in ants

Review of the book . Social Evolution in Ants. Bourke, A. F. G. and Franks, N. R. 1995. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, xiii + 529 pp. ISBN o-691-04427-9 (cl), O-691 -04426-o (pbk)

Traducció d'un testament: anglès-català

Un dels objectius principals d’aquest treball és assumir un encàrrec de traducció jurídica. En aquest cas, es tradueix un testament; els testaments són documents jurídics a través dels quals una persona pot disposar els seus béns per a després de la seva mort i instituir hereus. El text de sortida es regeix pels Estatuts de l’Estat de Nova Jersey, és per això que aquest treball se centra en els testaments a Nova Jersey i a Espanya, concretament a Catalunya ja que la traducció és al català. La diferència més gran entre aquests dos països és que Espanya es basa en el Dret Civil i Estats Units en el Common Law; com que tenen característiques diferents, cal documentar-se sobre com funcionen els testaments a cada lloc abans de fer la traducció. Com veurem a continuació, la traducció de documents jurídics requereix precisió i responsabilitat, ja que el lèxic i l’estructura d’aquests tipus de documents és complex; per això, és important tenir accés a manuals de redacció i diccionaris especialitzats. Seguidament, veurem tots els passos que he seguit per portar a terme la traducció d’un testament.

An Investigation of the Chemical Method of Determining the Cement Content of Hardened Concrete, MLR-71-01 and R-248, 1971

The Iowa State Highway Commission Laboratory is called upon to determine the cement content of hardened concrete when field problems relating to batch weights are encountered. The standard test for determining the cement content is ASTM C-85. An investigation of this method by the New Jersey State Highway Department involving duplicate samples and four cooperating laboratories produced very erratic results, however, the results obtained by this method have not been directly compared to known cement contents of concrete made with various cements and various aggregates used in Iowa.

Synthesis Study: Effectiveness of Safety Corridor Programs, Report on Tasks 1-3, 2008

This report synthesizes the safety corridor programs of 13 states that currently have some type of program: Alaska, California, Florida, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington. This synthesis can help Midwestern states implement their own safety corridor programs and select pilot corridors or enhance existing corridors. Survey and interview information about the states’ programs was gathered from members of each state department of transportation (DOT) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) division office. Topics discussed included definitions of a safety corridor; length and number of corridors in the program; criteria for selection of a corridor; measures of effectiveness of an implemented safety corridor; organizational structure of the program; funding and legislation issues; and engineering, education, enforcement, and emergency medical service strategies. Safety corridor programs with successful results were then examined in more detail, and field visits were made to Kansas, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington for first-hand observations. With the survey and field visit information, several characteristics of successful safety corridor programs were identified, including multidisciplinary (3E and 4E) efforts; selection, evaluation, and decommissioning strategies; organization structure, champions, and funding; task forces and Corridor Safety Action Plans; road safety audits; and legislation and other safety issues. Based on the synthesis, the report makes recommendations for establishing and maintaining a successful safety corridor program.

Yield and mineral nutrition of soybean, maize, and Congo signal grass as affected by limestone and slag

The objective of this work was to evaluate the efficiency of superficial application of limestone and slag, and their effects on soil chemical attributes and on yield and mineral nutrition of soybean, maize, and Congo signal grass (Urochloa ruziziensis). The experiment was carried out in a Rhodic Hapludox under no tillage system. The treatments consisted of the use of limestone or slag (silicates of calcium and magnesium) to correct soil acidity, and of a control treatment without the use of soil correctives. Rates were calculated in order to raise soil base saturation up to 70%. Soybean was sown in November 2006 and maize in December 2007. Congo signal grass was sown right after the harvests of soybean and maize, and it was cropped during the off-seasons. Soil chemical attributes were evaluated at 6, 12, and 18 months after the application of the corrective materials. Slag is an efficient source for soil acidity correction, being able to raise the exchangeable base levels in the soil profile faster than lime. Both limestone and slag increase dry matter yield of Congo signal grass, and grain yield of soybean and maize. Slag is more effective in improving maize grain yield.

Cross-scale analysis of the region effect on vascular plant species diversity in southern and northern European mountain ranges.

Background: The divergent glacial histories of southern and northern Europe affect present-day species diversity at coarse-grained scales in these two regions, but do these effects also penetrate to the more fine-grained scales of local communities?Methodology/Principal Findings: We carried out a cross-scale analysis to address this question for vascular plants in two mountain regions, the Alps in southern Europe and the Scandes in northern Europe, using environmentally paired vegetation plots in the two regions (n = 403 in each region) to quantify four diversity components: (i) total number of species occurring in a region (total gamma-diversity), (ii) number of species that could occur in a target plot after environmental filtering (habitat-specific gamma-diversity), (iii) pair-wise species compositional turnover between plots (plot-to-plot beta-diversity) and (iv) number of species present per plot (plot gamma-diversity). We found strong region effects on total gamma-diversity, habitat-specific gamma-diversity and plot-to-plot beta-diversity, with a greater diversity in the Alps even towards distances smaller than 50 m between plots. In contrast, there was a slightly greater plot alpha-diversity in the Scandes, but with a tendency towards contrasting region effects on high and low soil-acidity plots.Conclusions/Significance: We conclude that there are strong regional differences between coarse-grained (landscape- to regional-scale) diversity components of the flora in the Alps and the Scandes mountain ranges,but that these differences do not necessarily penetrate to the finest-grained (plot-scale) diversity component, at least not on acidic soils. Because different processes can lead to a similar pattern, we discuss the consistency of our results with Quaternary history and other divergent features between the two regions such as habitat connectivity, selection for vagility and environmental differences not accounted for in our analyses