Mats

Beginning in 1928, the Grenfell Mission sent out a call to socialites: When your stockings run, let them run to Labrador! The creative recycling of tattered stockings, dyed in soft hues, is just one of many innovations that made Grenfell hooked mats highly collectible folk art. In Silk Stocking Mats, Paula Laverty chronicles the development of a local craft into an art form. For generations Newfoundland women had augmented their family's unreliable fishing income with a matting season in February and March. Through the Grenfell Mission's Industrial Department, set up in 1909 to help develop cottage industries, the mat industry became an increasingly important source of income, reaching peak production in the late 1920s and early 1930s when the women's mats became renowned for their strong design, meticulous craftsmanship, and distinctive images chronicling life in the north. Reindeer, sled dog teams, polar bears, schooners, outports, and florals are but a few of the mat designs. Silk Stocking Mats is the result of over seventeen years of exhaustive research and draws on personal interviews with older women who recall their hooking days, the study of hundreds of archival documents, and careful examination of countless Grenfell hooked mats. Laverty's book is beautifully illustrated with photographs and descriptions, including rare and unusual as well as common mat designs.

This book provides information about microbial mats, from early fossils to modern mats located in marine and terrestrial environments. Microbial mats – layered biofilms containing different types of cells – are most complex systems in which representatives of various groups of organisms are found together. Among them are cyanobacteria and eukaryotic phototrophs, aerobic heterotrophic and chemoautotrophic bacteria, protozoa, anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria, and other types of microorganisms. These mats are perfect models for biogeochemical processes, such as the cycles of chemical elements, in which a variety of microorganisms cooperate and interact in complex ways. They are often found under extreme conditions and their study contributes to our understanding of extremophilic life. Moreover, microbial mats are models for Precambrian stromatolites; the study of modern microbial mats may provide information on the processes that may have occurred on Earth when prokaryotic life began to spread.

Sew quick wool appliqué gifts and home decor In the tradition of best-selling author Kim Schaefer's Calendar Quilts comes the perfect pattern pack for lovers of easy wool appliqué. Sew 12 darling candle mats to celebrate every month of the year! Finishing at just 9 inches across, these mini table mats can be used for holiday table settings to welcome each season. From Jack o' lanterns and Easter bunnies to Christmas trees and conversation hearts appliqued on scallop-edged wool felt, the calendar can't get any cuter! Start a family tradition you can enjoy year-round with quick-sew projects that are perfectly suited to block of the month classes and project kits. With fast fusible appliqué and wool embroidery, you can make one or make them all! Sew adorable! Make 12 wool appliqué candle mats for year-round enjoyment Combine fusible appliqué and wool embroidery for quick, heartfelt gifts Best-selling author Kim Schaefer's motifs are perfectly suited to classes and kits 20-page booklet and 12 patterns sheets, each sheet 10" x 10", printed on one side

Microbial mat communities consist of dense populations of microorganisms embedded in exopolymers and/or biomineralized solid phases, and are often found in mm-cm thick assemblages, which can be stratified due to environmental gradients such as light, oxygen or sulfide. Microbial mat communities are commonly observed under extreme environmental conditions, deriving energy primarily from light and/or reduced chemicals to drive autotrophic fixation of carbon dioxide. Microbial mat ecosystems are regarded as living analogues of primordial systems on Earth, and they often form perennial structures with conspicuous stratifications of microbial populations that can be studied in situ under stable conditions for many years. Consequently, microbial mat communities are ideal natural laboratories and represent excellent model systems for studying microbial community structure and function, microbial dynamics and interactions, and discovery of new microorganisms with novel metabolic pathways potentially useful in future industrial and/or medical applications. Due to their relative simplicity and organization, microbial mat communities are often excellent testing grounds for new technologies in microbiology including micro-sensor analysis, stable isotope methodology and modern genomics. Integrative studies of microbial mat communities that combine modern biogeochemical and molecular biological methods with traditional microbiology, macro-ecological approaches, and community network modeling will provide new and detailed insights regarding the systems biology of microbial mats and the complex interplay among individual populations and their physicochemical environment. These processes ultimately control the biogeochemical cycling of energy and/or nutrients in microbial systems. Similarities in microbial community function across different types of communities from highly disparate environments may provide a deeper basis for understanding microbial community dynamics and the ecological role of specific microbial populations. Approaches and concepts developed in highly-constrained, relatively stable natural communities may also provide insights useful for studying and understanding more complex microbial communities.