Early ontogenetic male cone production in Pinus radiata : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Plant Biology at Massey University

The tree breeding industry is interested in early ontogenetic male cone production in Pinus radiata in order to maximise the rate at which successive generations can be bred. The foundation of this thesis was a study of how male cone production differed in various contrasting regions around New Zealand. A study was then carried out to assess whether various morphological and anatomical characteristics of trees were correlated with the onset of male cone production. Various treatments including stress, plant growth regulator application and grafting were examined to determine whether any of these could be used to promote early ontogenetic male cone production. The regional study found that male cone production commenced at age 3 in Nelson, at age 4 in Northern and Southern Kinleith, and age 6 in Karioi and Northland. Findings suggest that high sunshine hours and low autumn and/or winter temperatures are of significance to the precocity of male cone production. A tentative logistic model was developed that may adequately describe cone production across all regions. Morphological and anatomical characteristics of trees were used to develop a model which predicts the probability that a tree will not be producing male cones. Relative cell number was found to provide the greatest ability to predict whether or not a given tree will be producing male cones, supporting the hypothesis that a certain number of cell divisions are required before male cone production commences. Grafting did not promote male cone production in the present study. It is recommended that future grafting experiments for the purposes of promoting male cone production should reconsider the position within the crown at which grafts are made. Male cone production on fascicle cuttings approximately two years old was promoted by growing them under stress in small pots, with minimal watering and no fertiliser application. It is suggested that a "stress" pathway, distinct from the "normal" male cone production pathway is probably involved. Male cone promotion in fascicle cuttings appears to be enhanced through the application of ABA, but not other plant growth regulators. Additionally, male cone production in fascicle cuttings appears to be enhanced by providing relatively high levels of light. The outcomes of this study suggest that a lack of male cone production in young trees may not be the most serious impediment to the breeding program. Instead, the onus may be on the ability to make superior selections at a younger age than occurs at present

I Know What You Did Last Summer: The Ballot Initiative and Voter Turnout

“Know Thy Neighbor,” a public interest group established in 2005, has grabbed headlines in recent years for making public (or threatening to make public) the names of hundreds of thousands of registered voters who signed petitions qualifying anti-gay rights measures for state general election ballots in Massachusetts, Florida, Arkansas, Oregon, and Washington. These names, together with the mailing addresses, birthdates, and dates of signature for each signer, have long been public information in most states, but never before have they been put into a format (i.e., searchable, online databases) making them easy to access and analyze. In this pilot project, I perform multivariate analysis on a random sample of 500 registered Arkansas voters to determine the relative role of petition signing (versus vote history and age) in spurring voter turnout. This unique dataset allows an analysis, at the level of the individual voter, of the effectiveness of a relatively new tactic in American politics: using ballot measures to stimulate turnout for up-ticket candidate races. In the current study, while there was a correlation between petition signing and voter turnout, at the level of multivariate analysis, petition signing did not appear to be associated with voter turnout. However, individuals who signed petitions tended to have strong voting histories and were more likely than non-signers to cast ballots in the 2008 general election. The results of this research add to the already robust literature analyzing voter turnout in US political elections

Working Dads: Final Report on the Fathers at Work Initiative

Noncustodial fathers have an essential role to play -- both financially and emotionally -- in the lives of their children. However, of the 11 million noncustodial fathers in the US, two thirds do not pay any formal child support. Many of these fathers are poor themselves and face multiple barriers, including low education levels, limited work experience, and criminal records, which impede their success in the labor market as well as their ability to provide for their children.Working Dads: Final Report on the Fathers at Work Initiative presents findings from P/PV's evaluation of Fathers at Work, a national demonstration funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, designed to help low-income noncustodial fathers increase their employment and earnings, become more involved in their children's lives, and provide them with more consistent financial support. The Fathers at Work programs offered a unique combination of job training and placement, child support and fatherhood services at six well-established community-based organizations in Chicago, IL; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Richmond, CA; and Roanoke, VA. Our findings suggest that the programs produced important benefits for participants, including increased earnings and child support payment. The report details the specific strategies Fathers at Work programs used and explores the policy implications of this research

Through the Eye of a Needle: The Challenge of Providing Employment Services in New York's Chinatown Post September 11th

Prepared for the US Department of Labor, this P/PV report evaluates the effectiveness of the National Emergency Grant (NEG) money awarded to organizations in Chinatown in the wake of September 11th. Through interviews with program staff and key informants, P/PV examines the outcomes achieved by individual grantees, assesses the effect of the NEG on overall service provision and provides recommendations about how the Chinatown NEG could be adjusted to respond to similar situations in the future

Idle Iron: Adaptive re-use of oil rigs into reef rehabilitation machines that decompose to form coral reef - Mtwara, Tanzania.

I want to design a prototype where retired oil rigs of various types can be towed to nearby reef biodiversity areas under threat, converted into reef rehabilitators and researchers, community educators, and tourism friendly machines that will biodegrade over time to form artificial reefs. The premise is to get the communities reliant on the reef to get involved by teaching sustainable fishing methods, showing that tourism is a sustainable and growing income, spreading the word via radio and education and thus stemming the damage on reefs. During the reef’s life-span as a machine, certain parts will become obsolete, functions will be upgraded or found redundant, and these will be detached and sunk as artificial reef substrate, so the reef sinks over time, becoming more and more reef, and less and less rig. This continues until a point where the rig has served its purpose, is no longer functional and becomes another wreck off the shore of mtwara slowly biodegrading into a living reef. This prototype will be adapted and become site specific, which is where the Mtwara area will be significant. Program will be informed by the prototype, but adapted to suit climate and local requirement. Materials will also be site specific according to local practice and availability, but according to the prototype, will be of a bio-degradable nature, chosen for their rates of decomposition and will all be primarily chosen because they are good reef substrate. This in essence generates a plan, rather than a building - it becomes a process that the locals can see unfold and get involved in, and translates into a machine rather than a stagnant piece of architecture

Constructing exact symmetric informationally complete measurements from numerical solutions

Recently, several intriguing conjectures have been proposed connecting symmetric informationally complete quantum measurements (SIC POVMs, or SICs) and algebraic number theory. These conjectures relate the SICs and their minimal defining algebraic number field. Testing or sharpening these conjectures requires that the SICs are expressed exactly, rather than as numerical approximations. While many exact solutions of SICs have been constructed previously using Gr\"obner bases, this method has probably been taken as far as is possible with current computer technology (except in special cases where there are additional symmetries). Here we describe a method for converting high-precision numerical solutions into exact ones using an integer relation algorithm in conjunction with the Galois symmetries of a SIC. Using this method we have calculated 69 new exact solutions, including 9 new dimensions where previously only numerical solutions were known, which more than triples the number of known exact solutions. In some cases the solutions require number fields with degrees as high as 12,288. We use these solutions to confirm that they obey the number-theoretic conjectures and we address two questions suggested by the previous work.Comment: 22 pages + 19 page appendix with many data tables. v2: published versio

A steady-state magneto-optical trap with 100 fold improved phase-space density

We demonstrate a continuously loaded $^{88}\mathrm{Sr}$ magneto-optical trap (MOT) with a steady-state phase-space density of $1.3(2) \times 10^{-3}$. This is two orders of magnitude higher than reported in previous steady-state MOTs. Our approach is to flow atoms through a series of spatially separated laser cooling stages before capturing them in a MOT operated on the 7.4-kHz linewidth Sr intercombination line using a hybrid slower+MOT configuration. We also demonstrate producing a Bose-Einstein condensate at the MOT location, despite the presence of laser cooling light on resonance with the 30-MHz linewidth transition used to initially slow atoms in a separate chamber. Our steady-state high phase-space density MOT is an excellent starting point for a continuous atom laser and dead-time free atom interferometers or clocks.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure