2,380 research outputs found
[To Flower Mission workers].
No full textCaption title. Author from last p.; Cover title: Flower Mission Department, W.W.C.T.U.; Ferguson, J.A. Australia, 18876; Electronic reproduction. Canberra, A.C.T. : National Library of Australia, 2010.Flower Mission Department, W.W.C.T.
Flowers through insect eyes: the contribution of pollinator vision to the evolution of flower colour
No full textPhDFlowers’ colours are an essential element of their ability to attract visits from
pollinators. However, the colours as they appear to human observers can differ
substantially from their appearance to insect pollinators, and so it is essential to consider
pollinator vision in any study of the ecology of flower colour.
In this thesis I describe how I have overseen the development of an online database to
provide accurate information on floral spectral reflectance measured without human
observational bias. This resource allows a more accurate consideration of flower colours
in future studies, and permits investigations of flower colours within and across
habitats. Using the records in this database, I analysed flowers from two European
habitats for spatial or temporal changes, modelling the colours according to insect visual
perception. I discovered that the insect-colour composition of the plant communities
does not change either along an altitudinal gradient or throughout the year. These novel
and ecologically-relevant analyses contradict previous observational studies, but support
the theory of a pollination “market” in which flowers compete for pollinator visitation.
I then describe my experimental investigations into the visual capabilities of two
pollinators and how this may relate to what colours of flowers they visit. Firstly I study
the foraging behaviour of bees under spatially inconsistent illumination and how this
impacts on their choice behaviour. I revealed patchy light can have measurable effects
on bee foraging behaviour: they intentionally choose familiar over unfamiliar
illumination, which may impact on the flowers they visit in complex natural
environments. Secondly, I detail the new evidence for a red-sensitive photoreceptor in
South African monkey beetles, a major pollinator in a habitat containing many longwavelength-
reflecting flowers, which are not classically “attractive” to bees.
Throughout this thesis, I explore how pollinator vision has shaped the evolution of
flower colours in different contexts.Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council.
Royal Botanical Gardens Kew (BBS/S/L-2005/12155A
Anti-Allergic Cromones Inhibit Histamine and Eicosanoid Release from Activated Human and Murine Mast Cells by Releasing Annexin A1
No full textPMCID: PMC3601088This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
"Defining best practice...? Elementary my dear researcher."
No full textIn this brief but engaging article, the author ruminates on the political nature of research and on the problems this poses for East Asian Medicine, and points to the fact that the thorny business of defining best (or at least 'good enough') practice is of central importance here. He concludes by offering a richly simple model - based on the Five Phases (wu xing) - for defining what best practice is.<br/
Growth and characterisation of titanium sulphide nanostructures by surface-assisted vapour transport methods; from trisulphide ribbons to disulphide nanosheets
No full textSurface Assisted Chemical Vapour Transport (SACVT) methods have been employed to grow nanostructures of titanium disulphide (TiS2) and titanium trisulphide (TiS3). SACVT reactions occur between titanium and sulphur powders to form TiSx species transported in the vapour phase to grow nanometric flower-like structures on titanium-coated silica substrates. The evolution of structure and composition has been followed by powder X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. At 1 : 2 Ti : S ratios, the size and shape of the hexagonal 1T-TiS2 titanium disulphide structures formed can be varied from flower-like growths with 'petals' formed from nanosheets 10 nm thick to platelets microns across. Increasing the proportion of sulphur (Ti : S 1 : 4) enables TiS3 flower-like structures composed of radiating nanoribbons to grow at elevated temperatures without decomposition to TiS2. TEM/SAED suggests that individual trisulphide ribbons grow along the [010] direction. Magnetic properties of the disulphide nanomaterials have been determined using SQUID magnetometry and Raman spectra for disulphides suggest that their crystal and electronic structures may be more complex than expected for bulk, stoichiometric, CdI2-structured TiS2
Letter from Southern California Flower Market, Inc. to Mr. S. [Sei] Hamada, November 1, 1950
No full textA letter from Southern California Flower Market, Inc. to the members. It notifies that Southern California Flower Market, Inc. is dissolved and closes the business on October 31, 1950; and the successor is the Southern California Flower Growers, Inc.The Okine Collection contains materials collected by Seiichi and Tomeyo Okine who were Issei flower growers in Whittier, California. It includes correspondence, photographs, financial documents, and a photo album. A large portion of the collection consists of family correspondence with Seiichi and Tomeyo Okine, including letters from their Nisei children, Masao and Makoto Okine, both soldiers overseas during World War II, to their Issei parents incarcerated in the Rohwer incarceration camp in McGehee, Arkansas. The correspondence also includes letters from their relatives and friends who are former incarcerees in the camps during the war and have “resettled” in Chicago, Illinois as well as letters from the Okines’ family members in Hiroshima, Japan during the Allied occupation of Japan. In addition, the collection includes a family photo album compiled by Dorothy Ai Aoki, a Nisei daughter to the Okines
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