[NHC List] Brains, butterflies and grapes

Fri Mar 2 12:12:05 PST 2007

Hi, All:  Thought these might be interesting websites for some of you.

Apologies if this is a duplicate message for some of you

-- Ruth

--

                         Ruth Gustafson
                       Reference Librarian
      Biological & Agricultural Sciences Reference Department
              http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/dept/bioag/
Shields Library                         Phone: (530)752-1883
University of California, Davis         FAX:   (530)752-5251
100 North West Quad                     ragustafson at ucdavis.edu
Davis, CA  95616-5292                   bioagref at ucdavis.edu

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 10:58:22 -0800
From: newsservice at ucdavis.edu
To: newstips at ucdavis.edu, getnews at ucdavis.edu
Subject: UC Davis News: Science, Engineering and Technology Tips

University of California, Davis
March 1, 2007

Science, Engineering and Technology News Tips
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* Brain Maps Online
* California's Butterflies Online
* New Viticulture Website Offers Online Grape Information
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BRAIN MAPS ONLINE

Digital atlases of the brains of humans, monkeys, dogs, cats, mice, birds
and other animals have been created and posted online by researchers at
the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience.

BrainMaps.org features the highest resolution whole-brain atlases ever
constructed, with more than 50 terabytes of brain image data directly
accessible online. Users can explore the brains of humans and a variety of
other species at an unprecedented level of detail, from a broad view of
the brain to the fine details of nerves and connections. The Web site also
includes a suite of free, downloadable tools for navigating and analyzing
brain data.

"Many users have described it as a 'Google Maps' of the brain," said Shawn
Mikula, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis who is first author on a
paper describing the work.

The high-resolution maps will enable researchers to use "virtual
microscopy" to compare healthy brains with others, looking at structure,
gene expression and the distribution of different proteins. They will
enable better understanding of the organization of normal brains, and
could help researchers in identifying fine morphological and chemical
abnormalities underlying Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurological
diseases, Mikula said.

To make the maps, the researchers started with sections of brain mounted
on microscope slides. Those slides were scanned to create image files, or
"virtual slides," and assembled like tiles into composite images. The maps
have a resolution of better than half a micrometer per pixel, or 55,000
dots per inch, with virtual slides each approaching 30 gigabytes in size.

The paper is published in the March edition of the journal NeuroImage. The
other authors on the paper are Issac Trotts and James Stone, both
researchers at the Center for Neuroscience, and Edward (Ted) Jones,
director of the center and a professor of psychiatry at UC Davis. The work
was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Additional information:
* Brain maps <http://Brainmaps.org>

Media contact(s):
* Shawn Mikula, Center for Neuroscience, (530) 754-9209,
samikula at ucdavis.edu
* Andy Fell, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-4533, ahfell at ucdavis.edu

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CALIFORNIA'S BUTTERFLIES ONLINE

One of the two largest butterfly databases in the world will be open to
the public on March 1, 2007. The 35 years' worth of data on butterfly
populations across northern California has important implications for the
study of global climate change.

Since 1972, Professor Arthur Shapiro of the Center for Population Biology
and Section of Evolution and Ecology at UC Davis has counted butterflies
at sites across northern California from sea level to the tree line, 9,000
feet up in the Sierra Nevada. At each site, data are collected every two
weeks during butterfly season. By the end of 2006, Shapiro had logged more
than 5,000 site visits and 83,000 individual records of 159 species and
subspecies.

That data is now available through <http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/>,
together with climate data from nearby weather stations, descriptions of
study sites and habitats, and numerous photos. Much of the information is
directly available. Users interested in more detail can obtain a password
to access the entire database.

Butterflies are important indicators of changes in the environment.
Because California's Mediterranean climate is so variable, Shapiro
believes his data may be particularly useful in identifying the relative
contributions of different climatic factors to butterfly seasonality and
distribution.

"The site should be of interest to the general public and to both
professional and amateur butterfly enthusiasts, as well as ecologists,
evolutionary biologists, conservation biologists and global-change
specialists," Shapiro said. He is also developing exercises to allow
high-school teachers to use the database to teach and illustrate concepts
in biology and statistics.

The only comparable butterfly database is the United Kingdom Butterfly
Monitoring Scheme, compiled by many local volunteers across Britain who
monitor local sites. The British have fewer species of butterflies than
California and less diversity in climate and landscape.

Development of the Web site was supported by the U.S. National Science
Foundation.

Additional information:
* Art Shapiro's Buttefly World <http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/>

Media contact(s):
* Art Shapiro, Evolution and Ecology, (530) 752-2176,
amshapiro at ucdavis.edu
* Andy Fell, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-4533, ahfell at ucdavis.edu

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NEW VITICULTURE WEBSITE OFFERS ONLINE GRAPE INFORMATION

A wealth of information about grape growing is now available to the wine
and grape community, and general public, at the University of California's
new user-friendly Integrated Viticulture Online Web site.

The new site, located at <http://iv.ucdavis.edu>, is designed to increase
accessibility to the work of university researchers, including faculty and
Cooperative Extension specialists and farm advisors. Content is
continuously added and updated.

"This new site is intended to efficiently integrate the knowledge of the
many University of California and U.S. Department of Agriculture personnel
who are involved with wine-grape, table-grape and raisin production," said
Deborah Golino, director of the UC Davis-based Foundation Plant Services,
which coordinated development of the site. "Our goal is to ensure a
productive collaboration in research and extension for the benefit of our
clientele throughout California."

The heart of the site is the "viticultural information" section, which
provides information on a variety of subjects ranging from grapevine
breeding to worker health and safety. Photos and links to valuable
publications, people and online resources are included.

Instructional video modules also can be downloaded, featuring
presentations from recent workshops and seminars, and a calendar of
viticultural seminars and events rounds out the Web site's offerings.

The new site, created and maintained by the UC Division of Agricultural
and Natural Resources' Integrated Grape Production Workgroup, has been
supported by generous industry donations.

Additional information:
* Integrated Viticulture Online Web site <http://iv.ucdavis.edu>

Media contact(s):
* Deborah Golino, Foundation Plant Services, (530) 752-3590,
dagolino at ucdavis.edu
* Beverly Ferguson, Foundation Plant Services, (530) 752-7897,
bevferguson at ucdavis.edu
* Pat Bailey, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9843,
pjbailey at ucdavis.edu