Brocap trap to control the coffee berry borer in Indonesia

The coffee berry borer (CBB, Hypothenemus hampei Ferr.) is the most serious insect pest on coffee in Indonesia. It causes significant yield losses in terms of coffee production, but also reduces coffee bean quality, resulting in low productivity and the poor quality of Indonesian coffee. On average, CBB infestation on Indonesian coffee is more than 20%, and it results in yield losses of more than 10%. Using traps is the new CBB control method and the Brocap trap, developed by CIRAD and PROCAFE in El Salvador, is specially designed for Hypothenemus hampei. The trap is considered as a useful addition to IPM for CBB control in Indonesia. (Résumé d'auteur

Micro-landscape context effects on the dispersal of coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) in Costa Rica

The coffee berry borer (CBB) #Hypothenemus hampei# (Ferr.) has been detected in the Costa Rican landscape since 2000 from whence it has rapidly expanded its territory, colonizing new coffee farms. Although the males of the species have atrophied wings and are flightless, females have the ability to fly, and particularly do so when seeking new coffee berries to colonize after harvest. Distances covered by CBB are known to be large enough to reach proximate pest free areas (Baker, 1984); however, the number of individuals able to fly great distances across non-coffee land uses is probably low. As a consequence, CBB dispersal is believed to be facilitated by the connectivity between coffee plantations, but may be hampered by fragmented landscapes when alternate land uses are found between coffee patches. The aim of this study was to understand the effect of landscape context on the short distance dispersal ( 140m) of CBB in the Turrialba canton. Turrialba is a low altitude coffee region of Costa Rica under Caribbean influence, favorable to CBB development. (Résumé d'auteur

Coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) removal in coffee plantations: a pest control service provided by birds

Coffee is one of the most important crops in tropical regions of the world, where areas suited for its production are usually immersed within important biodiversity conservation regions. Studies in these agricultural systems have proven its conservation value, particularly for bird species which provide us with an array of ecosystem services including seed dispersal, pollination, and pest control. Regulating ecosystem services such as pest control (MEA 2005) are especially important to quantify because their benefits can be perceived at smaller scales and directly by coffee growers. Positive effects of bird species in the removal of insects in coffee systems have already been established however fewer studies have focused specifically on the effect of bird species in the control of the coffee berry borer (cbb), one of the most damaging pests affecting coffee production worldwide. In order to assess this effect on January 2013 we set up an exclosure experiment in a Costa Rican coffee plantation where we randomly selected two coffee shrubs at ten different coffee plots, one of the coffee shrubs was then isolated from bird foraging activity by a plastic mesh preventing the entrance of birds but allowing insects to fly in and out. Brocap traps were installed at each one of the ten coffee plots to monitored cbb flights/availability, bird community was evaluated via point counts and mistnetting and direct evidence of predation was obtained through the identification of cbb DNA in fecal and emesis samples. Results show that 25% out of 117 bird species detected within our sampling units are exclusively insectivorous birds while 55% include invertebrates as part of their diet. Trapping of cbb indicated several episodes of flights/availability of the pest throughout the year. Coffee berry borer infestation rates were significantly higher in coffee shrubs excluded in comparison with coffee shrubs exposed to bird foraging activity (F=23.40, p=0.0019). Preliminary DNA analysis shows evidence of insectivorous bird species predating on the genus Hypothenemus. Our findings provide further evidence on the potential contribution of insectivorous bird species in the removal and control of the coffee berry borer in coffee systems and highlight the importance of further studies using molecular biology techniques that allow to quantify the amount of cbb consumed by birds on a given moment as well as the economic importance of this service. (Texte intégral

Coffee berry borer triple-action integrated pest management

Coffee berry borer ( Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari) control is presented in the form of triple-action integrated pest management: meticulous agronomic control of the coffee plantation, strict branch stripping and trapping. Agronomic control includes coffee tree pruning, shade tree pruning and rehabilitation of the coffee plantation (cleaning). Branch stripping is done by picking and eliminating all the fruits that remain on coffee trees after harvesting. Trapping enables the capture of CBB during their migratory flights. Triple-action IPM experiments conducted in shaded coffee plantations have shown that it is possible to reduce CBB infestation by over 90% compared to control plots. In plantations, some of the CBB females emerging from residual fruits survive by taking refuge in dry fruits remaining on the branches. They can then colonize new fruit as soon as the fruit becomes appetizing and so continue their development. The IPM strategy is therefore to capture part of the populations from residual fruit on the ground and eliminate fruit-refuges. Of the three IPM operations, only trapping requires any major investment. The advantages of this technique are numerous: efficient basis for control, no risk of contaminating the environment; it is a preventive strategy that is simple to apply, it is compatible with biological control and it does not affect biodiversity. (Résumé d'auteur

Coffee berry borer triple-action integrated pest management

In coffee plantations, some of the coffee berry borer (#Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari#) females emerging from residual fruits survive by taking refuge in dry fruits remaining on the branches. They can then colonize new fruits as soon as they become appetizing and continue their development. The control strategy is therefore to capture part of the populations from residual fruits on the ground and eliminate fruit-refuges. CBB control is presented in the form of triple-action Integrated Pest Management: meticulous agronomic control of the coffee plantation, strict branch stripping and trapping. Agronomic control comprises coffee tree pruning, shade tree pruning and rehabilitation of the coffee plantation (cleaning). Branch stripping consists in picking and eliminating all the fruits that remain on coffee trees after harvesting. Trapping enables the capture of CBB during their migratory flights. Triple-action IPM experiments conducted in shaded coffee plantations have shown that it is possible to reduce CBB infestation by over 90% compared to control plots. Of the three IPM operations, only trapping requires any major investment. The advantages of this technique are numerous: efficient basis for control, no risk of contaminating the environment; it is a preventive strategy that is simple to apply, it is compatible with biological control and it does not affect biodiversity. (Résumé d'auteur

A Cross-Cultural and Cross-Gender Analysis of Compulsive Buying Behaviour's Core Dimensions

This study seeks to address the disagreement in the literature about compulsive buying behavior's (CBB) dimensional structure and tests for cross-cultural and cross-gender invariance in young British, Chinese, Czech and Spanish consumers using structural equation modelling. The results show that CBB has two compulsive dimensions: Compulsive Purchasing (CP), and Self-control Impaired Spending (SIS). These dimensions are cross-culturally invariant, although the influence of SIS on CBB is higher in more developed countries, particularly among females. The confirmation of the SIS dimension and the external validity of the CBB construct established through the cross-cultural invariance in CBB dimensions indicate that screening tools should be revised accordingly. The SIS dimension has possibly been previously misinterpreted as impulsive and/or as spontaneous buying and may explain the higher incidence of CBB among female consumers

Singlet Model Interference Effects with High Scale UV Physics

One of the simplest extensions of the Standard Model (SM) is the addition of a scalar gauge singlet, S. If S is not forbidden by a symmetry from mixing with the Standard Model Higgs boson, the mixing will generate non-SM rates for Higgs production and decays. In general, there could also be unknown high energy physics that generates additional effective low energy interactions. We show that interference effects between the scalar resonance of the singlet model and the effective field theory (EFT) operators can have significant effects in the Higgs sector. We examine a non-$Z_2$ symmetric scalar singlet model and demonstrate that a fit to the 125 GeV Higgs boson couplings and to limits on high mass resonances, S, exhibit an interesting structure and possible large cancellations of effects between the resonance contribution and the new EFT interactions, that invalidate conclusions based on the renormalizable singlet model alone.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures; revised to emphasize the points of general interest for heavy resonance searches at the LH

CBB Words

The historical beginnings of the subject treated by Mr. Lindon in this essay may be of interest to readers. Several years ago, Ben Rogers noticed that the word LOGOLOGY possessed a certain simple property of alphabetical balance (see section twenty-nine of Dmitri Borgmann\u27s Beyond Language, published by Charles Scribner\u27s Sons), and communicated this to Dmitri Borgmann who subsequently found many more such words. Mr. Borgmann mentioned the matter to Mr. Lindon in a letter, but was vague on the subject, and Mr. Lindon, whose fertile mind was thus primed with only the shadowy notion that some words have some kind of balance, conceived and worked out a much more complex idea - that of centrally balanced beam-words

Observation of String Breaking in QCD

We numerically investigate the transition of the static quark-antiquark string into a static-light meson-antimeson system. Improving noise reduction techniques, we are able to resolve the signature of string breaking dynamics for n_f=2 lattice QCD at zero temperature. This result can be related to properties of quarkonium systems. We also study short-distance interactions between two static-light mesons.Comment: 27 pages, 22 figures, changed decimal place of errors in 3 entries of Table, corrected reference

Weak Decays of Triply Heavy Baryons

After the experimental establishment of doubly heavy baryons, baryons with three quarks are the last missing pieces of the lowest-lying baryon multiplets in quark model. In this work we study semileptonic and nonleptonic weak decays of triply heavy baryons, $\Omega_{ccc}^{++}, \Omega_{ccb}^{+}, \Omega_{cbb}^{0}, \Omega_{bbb}^{-}$. Decay amplitudes for various channels are parametrized in terms of a few SU(3) irreducible amplitudes. We point out that branching fractions for Cabibbo allowed processes, $\Omega_{ccc}\to (\Xi_{cc}^{++} \overline K^0, \Xi_{cc}^{++}K^-\pi^+, \Omega_{cc}^{+}\pi^+, \Xi_{c}^+ D^+, \Xi_{c}^{\prime} D^+, \Lambda_c D^+\overline K^0, \Xi_{c}^+ D^0 \pi^+, \Xi_{c}^0 D^+\pi^+)$ may reach a few percents. We suggest our experimental colleagues to perform a search at hadron colliders and the electron and positron collisions in future, which will presumably lead to discoveries of triply heavy baryons and complete the baryon multiplets. Using the expanded amplitudes, we derive a number of relations for the partial widths which can be examined in future.Comment: 28 pages, 2 figure