An Analysis of the Economic Consequences of Modifying the Property Tax on Motor Vehicles in Georgia: Alternative Proposals and Revenue Effects

An analysis of revenue effects and distribution consequences on eliminating tax on motor vehicles

Holarctic Insects Adventive in Michigan: New and Additional Records (Homoptera, Heteroptera, Coleoptera, Neuroptera)

Fourteen European insects in the Homoptera (4 species), Heteroptera (5), Coleoptera (4), and Neuroptera (1) are reported from Michigan. Ten are new state records (one new Ohio record is given). The point of entry for most of the species is assumed to be the northeastern United States or Maritime Provinces of Canada. Possibilities of dispersal (natural and human-assisted) from centers of introduction in the Northeast, multiple introductions from Europe, and direct entry into the Great Lakes region are discussed

Pentatomoidea (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae, Scutelleridae) Associated With the Dioecious Shrub Florida Rosemary, \u3ci\u3eCeratiola Ericoides\u3c/i\u3e (Ericaceae)

Florida rosemary (Ceratiola ericoides), an ericaceous shrub with needlelike leaves, is characteristic of Florida scrubs and certain other xeric plant communities of well-drained sands. The plant is dioecious, its inconspicuous male and female flowers borne on separate individuals. From 2003 to 2012 (mainly 2007–2012), rosemary was sampled periodically (with all months included at least once during the period) in sand ridges of peninsular Florida and two riverine dunes in southeastern Georgia. Branches of male and female plants were tapped separately into a beating net. Sampling during the final three years was female-plant-biased to facilitate work on fruit- and seed-feeding heteropterans. Nymphs and adults of three pentatomoid species were found on C. ericoides: the pentatomid Thyanta custator custator (F.) and scutellerids Diolcus chrysorrhoeus (F.) and Homaemus proteus Stål. Only T. c. custator was taken in both states, occurring at 19 sites (19 nymphs, 53 adults); D. chrysorrhoeus was found in Florida at 16 sites (9 nymphs, 165 adults). The collection of T. c. custator and D. chrysorrhoeus from female rosemary plants essentially throughout the sampling period, including nymphs, exuviae, and mating pairs, coupled with their near absence from male plants, suggests that the bugs are not incidental on rosemary but feed on its fruits. Whether either species completes its life cycle on rosemary is unknown. Three nymphs and eight adults of the little-known H. proteus were collected from female rosemary plants at four sites, but the scutellerid’s relationship to C. ericoides remains to be determined. Briefly noted is the collection of the pentatomid Euschistus obscurus (Palisot de Beauvois) and scutellerid Stethaulax marmoratus (Say), whose adults were collected infrequently on female rosemary plants in Florida

The Pentatomoidea (Hemiptera) of Northeastern North America with Emphasis on the Fauna of Illinois. J. E. McPherson. 240 pages. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, 1982. $30.00.

(excerpt) Among the most conspicuous of the true bugs are the pentatomoid Hemiptera, stink bugs and their relatives, many of which are large, or moderately so, and brightly colored. Unwary berry pickers probably can recount an unpleasant experience with fruit tainted by the noisome odor of a stink bug, and the characteristic, barrel-shaped eggs of most Pentatomidae, often ornate and arranged in neat rows, have evoked the wonderment of naturalists and prompted numerous technical descriptions from entomologists. Contributing to the importance of this group are the crop losses inflicted by certain plant-feeding species and the destruction of insect pests by predatory stink bugs (Asopinae)

Hawthorn Lace Bug (Hemiptera: Tingidae), First Record of Injury to Roses, with a Review of Host Plants

Hawthorn lace bug, Coryrhucha cydoniae (Fitch), is reported for the first time as damag- ing roses. Injury to climbing and hybrid Tea roses is described, and a list of known host plants is provided based on observations in Pennsylvania and review of literature. Preferred hosts are native and cultivated species of Amelanchier and Craraegus and ornamental Cotoneasrer and Pyracanrha. Damage to crabapple. fruit trees, mountain ash. and other rosaceous plants may occur when they are grown near more favored hosts

\u3ci\u3eUrophora Quadrifasciata\u3c/i\u3e (Diptera: Tephritidae), An Introduced Seedhead Fly New to Midwestern North America

The Old World tephritid Urophora quadrifasciata, a gall-inducing seed- head fly, was released in western and eastern North America for the biological control of knapweeds, Centaurea spp. (Asteraceae). Its establishment in the West (BC, CA, ID, MT, OR, WA) and in the East (CT, MA, MD, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA, VT, WV) has been previously reported. Collections from eastern Minnesota and western Michigan in 1995 are the first for the Northcentral region of North America

Introducing the black hole

The quasi-stellar object, the pulsar, the neutron star have all come onto the scene of physics within the space of a few years. Is the next entrant destined to be the black hole? If so, it is difficult to think of any development that could be of greater significance. A black hole, whether of “ordinary size” (approximately one solar mass, 1 M⊙) or much larger (around 10^6 M⊙ to 10^10 M⊙, as proposed in the nuclei of some galaxies), provides our “laboratory model” for the gravitational collapse, predicted by Einstein's theory, of the universe itself

On the Possibility of Quasi Small-World Nanomaterials

The possibility of materials that are governed by a fixed point related to small world networks is discussed. In particular, large-scale Monte Carlo simulations are performed on Ising ferromagnetic models on two different small-world networks generated from a one-dimensional spin chain. One has the small-world bond strengths independent of the length, and exhibits a finite-temperature phase transition. The other has small-world bonds built from atoms, and although there is no finite-temperature phase transition the system shows a slow power-law change of the effective critical temperature of a finite system as a function of the system size. An outline of a possible synthesis route for quasi small-world nanomaterials is presented.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Brazilian Journal of Physics, conference proceedings for III Brazilian Meeting on Simulational Physics (2003

Refractory coatings and method of producing the same

The adhesion, friction, and wear properties of sputtered refractory coatings on substrates of materials that form stable nitrides is improved by placing each substrate directly below a titanium carbide target of a commercial radiofrequency diode apparatus in a vacuum chamber. Nitrogen is bled into the system through a nozzle resulting in a small partial pressure of about 0.5% to 2.5% during the first two minutes of deposition. The flow of nitrogen is then stopped, and the sputtering ambient is reduced to pure argon through a nozzle without interrupting the sputtering process. When nitrogen is deliberately introduced during the crucial interface formation, some of the titanium at the interface reacts to form titanium nitride while the metal of the substrate also forms the nitride. These two nitrides atomically mixed together in the interfacial region act to more strongly bond the growing titanium carbide coating as it forms on the substrate