Classical heart-rate conditioning and differentiation of visual CS with an appetitive UCS in pigeons

A tachycardic response was classically conditioned in thirsty pigeons using water as an unconditioned stimulus and localized lights as conditioned stimuli. This was successful in 6 out of 9 birds. In one experiment the subjects had their heads immobilized so that the positions of the stimuli within the visual field could be precisely specified. When the stimuli were shifted from the binocular to the monocular field and vice versa there was no initial transfer of a conditioned differentiation between a white and a green light.     

Affinity purification of histidine-tagged proteins

Expression of recombinant proteins is a standard technique in molecular biology and a wide variety of prokaryotic as well as eukaryotic expression systems are currently in use. A limiting step is often the purification of the expressed recombinant protein, particularly if mammalian expression systems that yield low expression levels are employed. Here, we discuss the advantages and restrictions of tagging recombinant proteins with histidines and purifying them by Ni²⁺-NTA chromatography.Abbreviations GST glutathione S-transferase - NTA nitrilotriacetic acid - His histidine - PAGE polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis     

Success in the demographic expansion of Fraxinus excelsior L.

This review examines the ecological traits and ecophysiological characteristics of the common ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) that help to explain the current spread of ash communities in Europe. As a consequence of anthropogenic disturbance, the common ash has experienced new environmental conditions and the frequency of the species has fluctuated over space and time. Owing to its ubiquity, over the last few decades the common ash has been greatly favoured in areas abandoned by agriculture and also along impounded rivers. F. excelsior is a mesophilic species that usually thrives on alluvial soils and can also survive the strong water deficit on hillslopes. Drought tolerance in ash trees is related to stomatal regulation, a decrease in osmotic potential and also an increase in the elastic modulus ). Malic acid plays a central role in drought tolerance, first as one of the major solutes involved in osmotic adjustment, and second as an effector for stomatal regulation through a drought-induced increase in its xylem concentration.