Boise State University

About: Boise State University is a education organization based out in Boise, Idaho, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 3698 authors who have published 8664 publications receiving 210163 citations. The organization is also known as: BSU & Boise State.

Effects of Changes in Arctic Lake and River Ice

Abstract: Climatic changes to freshwater ice in the Arctic are projected to produce a variety of effects on hydrologic, ecological, and socio-economic systems. Key hydrologic impacts include changes to low flows, lake evaporation regimes and water levels, and river-ice break-up severity and timing. The latter are of particular concern because of their effect on river geomorphology, vegetation, sediment and nutrient fluxes, and sustainment of riparian aquatic habitats. Changes in ice phenology will affect a wide range of related biological aspects of seasonality. Some changes are likely to be gradual, but others could be more abrupt as systems cross critical ecological thresholds. Transportation and hydroelectric production are two of the socio-economic sectors most vulnerable to change in freshwater-ice regimes. Ice roads will require expensive on-land replacements while hydroelectric operations will both benefit and be challenged. The ability to undertake some traditional harvesting methods will also be affected.

A new appraisal of sri lankan bb zircon as a reference material for LA-ICP-MS U-Pb geochronology and Lu-Hf isotope tracing.

Abstract: A potential zircon reference material (BB zircon) for laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) U-Pb geochronology and Hf isotope geochemistry is described. A batch of twenty zircon megacrysts (0.5–1.5 cm3) from Sri Lanka was studied. Within-grain rare earth element (REE) compositions are largely homogeneous, albeit with some variation seen between fractured and homogeneous domains. Excluding fractured cathodoluminescence bright domains, the variation in U content for all analysed crystals ranged from 227 to 368 μg g−1 and the average Th/U ratios were between 0.20 and 0.47. The Hf isotope composition (0.56–0.84 g/100 g Hf) is homogeneous within and between the grains – mean 176Hf/177Hf of 0.281674 ± 0.000018 (2s). The calculated alpha dose of 0.59 × 1018 g−1 for a number of BB grains falls within the trend of previously studied, untreated zircon samples from Sri Lanka. Aliquots of the same crystal (analysed by ID-TIMS in four different laboratories) gave consistent U-Pb ages with excellent measurement reproducibility (0.1–0.4% RSD). Interlaboratory assessment (by LA-ICP-MS) from individual crystals returned results that are within uncertainty equivalent to the TIMS ages. Finally, we report on within- and between-grain homogeneity of the oxygen isotope systematic of four BB crystals (13.16‰ VSMOW).

Phylogenetic analysis of North American Elymus and the monogenomic Triticeae (Poaceae) using three chloroplast DNA data sets.

Abstract: Although the monogenomic genera of the Triticeae have been analyzed in numerous biosystematic studies, the allopolyploid genera have not been as extensively studied within a phylogenetic framework. We focus on North American species of Elymus, which, under the current genomic system of classification, are almost all allotetraploid, combining the St genome of Pseudoroegneria with the H genome of Hordeum. We analyze new and previously published chloroplast DNA data from Elymus and from most of the monogenomic genera of the Triticeae in an attempt to identify the maternal genome donor of Elymus. We also present a cpDNA phylogeny for the monogenomic genera that includes more data than, and thus builds on, those previously published. The chloroplast DNA data indicate that Pseudoroegneria is the maternal genome donor to all but one of the Elymus individuals. There is little divergence among the Elymus and Pseudoroegneria chloroplast genomes, and as a group, they show little divergence from the rest of the Triticeae. Within the monogenomic Triticeae, the problematic group Thinopyrum is resolved as monophyletic on the chloroplast DNA tree. At the intergeneric level, the data reveal several deeper-level relationships that were not resolved by previous cpDNA trees.

Protargol Synthesis: An In‐house Protocol

Abstract: The protargol staining method has proved to be indispensable for revealing the cellular structures of a variety of protozoa, especially the flagellates and ciliates. Protargol provides permanent stains of a variety of cellular structures: nuclei, extrusomes, basal bodies, and microfilamentous constituents of cells. Together with the older silver nitrate methods, protargol impregnations have provided the basis for the detailed descriptions of nearly all ciliates to date. The performance of commercially available preparations has varied widely. Recently, suppliers have stopped stocking the effective forms of protargol resulting in a worldwide shortage. Thus, it has become necessary for protistologists to explore on-site synthesis of this critically important agent. An optimum protocol for synthesis of protargol should be rapid, relatively inexpensive, simple enough to be done by non-chemists, and achievable without specialized equipment. In this article, the authors briefly review the interesting history of protargol and describe a protocol, based on the early studies of neuroanatomists, that yields a protargol producing impregnations of ciliates comparable to those obtained with previously available commercial preparations.