Effect of repeated applications of fipronil on arthropod populations in experimental plot studies

The effect of two applications of fipronil on arthropod populations were studied under experimental plot conditions using 3-month old Cuphea ignea. Eighty-one families belonging to 12 orders of Arthropoda were trapped before spraying. The four dominant orders were Hymenoptera (28.6%), Homoptera (19.1 %), Collembola (17.8 %) and Diptera (16.2 %). Other orders were present in small numbers i. e. Hemiptera, Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Thysanoptera, Araneida, Acarina, Lepidoptera and Isopoda. The abundance of arthropods was reduced to 44 and 47 families after the first and second sprayings, respectively. The percentage population of Collembola increased significantly after the first and second sprayings as compared to the number before treatment. The percentage population ofHomoptera (Aleyrodidae) increased after the first spray but declined after the second spray. The family Isotomidae (Collembola) increased significantly after the first and second sprays. Some orders such as Isopoda and Lepidoptera disappeared after the plot was treated with fipronil

Contributions in the Domain of the Contact Stresses Between Cylinders of Cold Rolling

Elasto-plastic contact stresses between working cylinder and support cylinder of cold rolling using FEM are presented in this paper. Pressure and tractions resulted from the rolling process were obtained by using a calculus program and they were used as loads on a working cylinder

Models of plastic depinning of driven disordered systems

Two classes of models of driven disordered systems that exhibit history-dependent dynamics are discussed. The first class incorporates local inertia in the dynamics via nonmonotonic stress transfer between adjacent degrees of freedom. The second class allows for proliferation of topological defects due to the interplay of strong disorder and drive. In mean field theory both models exhibit a tricritical point as a function of disorder strength. At weak disorder depinning is continuous and the sliding state is unique. At strong disorder depinning is discontinuous and hysteretic.Comment: 3 figures, invited talk at StatPhys 2

Motmot, an open-source toolkit for realtime video acquisition and analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Video cameras sense passively from a distance, offer a rich information stream, and provide intuitively meaningful raw data. Camera-based imaging has thus proven critical for many advances in neuroscience and biology, with applications ranging from cellular imaging of fluorescent dyes to tracking of whole-animal behavior at ecologically relevant spatial scales.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we present 'Motmot': an open-source software suite for acquiring, displaying, saving, and analyzing digital video in real-time. At the highest level, Motmot is written in the Python computer language. The large amounts of data produced by digital cameras are handled by low-level, optimized functions, usually written in C. This high-level/low-level partitioning and use of select external libraries allow Motmot, with only modest complexity, to perform well as a core technology for many high-performance imaging tasks. In its current form, Motmot allows for: (1) image acquisition from a variety of camera interfaces (package motmot.cam_iface), (2) the display of these images with minimal latency and computer resources using wxPython and OpenGL (package motmot.wxglvideo), (3) saving images with no compression in a single-pass, low-CPU-use format (package motmot.FlyMovieFormat), (4) a pluggable framework for custom analysis of images in realtime and (5) firmware for an inexpensive USB device to synchronize image acquisition across multiple cameras, with analog input, or with other hardware devices (package motmot.fview_ext_trig). These capabilities are brought together in a graphical user interface, called 'FView', allowing an end user to easily view and save digital video without writing any code. One plugin for FView, 'FlyTrax', which tracks the movement of fruit flies in real-time, is included with Motmot, and is described to illustrate the capabilities of FView.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Motmot enables realtime image processing and display using the Python computer language. In addition to the provided complete applications, the architecture allows the user to write relatively simple plugins, which can accomplish a variety of computer vision tasks and be integrated within larger software systems. The software is available at <url>http://code.astraw.com/projects/motmot</url></p

Depinning and plasticity of driven disordered lattices

We review in these notes the dynamics of extended condensed matter systesm, such as vortex lattices in type-II superconductors and charge density waves in anisotropic metals, driven over quenched disorder. We focus in particular on the case of strong disorder, where topological defects are generated in the driven lattice. In this case the repsonse is plastic and the depinning transition may become discontinuous and hysteretic.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures. Proceedings the XIX Sitges Conference on Jamming, Yielding, and Irreversible Deformations in Condensed Matter, Sitges, Barcelona, Spain, June 14-18, 200

Deterrence in Cyberspace: An Interdisciplinary Review of the Empirical Literature

The popularity of the deterrence perspective across multiple scientific disciplines has sparked a lively debate regarding its relevance in influencing both offenders and targets in cyberspace. Unfortunately, due to the invisible borders between academic disciplines, most of the published literature on deterrence in cyberspace is confined within unique scientific disciplines. This chapter therefore provides an interdisciplinary review of the issue of deterrence in cyberspace. It begins with a short overview of the deterrence perspective, presenting the ongoing debates concerning the relevance of deterrence pillars in influencing cybercriminals’ and cyberattackers’ operations in cyberspace. It then reviews the existing scientific evidence assessing various aspects of deterrence in the context of several disciplines: criminology, law, information systems, and political science. This chapter ends with a few policy implications and proposed directions for future interdisciplinary academic research

Relating Neuronal to Behavioral Performance: Variability of Optomotor Responses in the Blowfly

Behavioral responses of an animal vary even when they are elicited by the same stimulus. This variability is due to stochastic processes within the nervous system and to the changing internal states of the animal. To what extent does the variability of neuronal responses account for the overall variability at the behavioral level? To address this question we evaluate the neuronal variability at the output stage of the blowfly's (Calliphora vicina) visual system by recording from motion-sensitive interneurons mediating head optomotor responses. By means of a simple modelling approach representing the sensory-motor transformation, we predict head movements on the basis of the recorded responses of motion-sensitive neurons and compare the variability of the predicted head movements with that of the observed ones. Large gain changes of optomotor head movements have previously been shown to go along with changes in the animals' activity state. Our modelling approach substantiates that these gain changes are imposed downstream of the motion-sensitive neurons of the visual system. Moreover, since predicted head movements are clearly more reliable than those actually observed, we conclude that substantial variability is introduced downstream of the visual system

A demonstration of cone function plasticity after gene therapy in achromatopsia

Recent advances in regenerative therapy have placed the treatment of previously incurable eye diseases within arms’ reach. Achromatopsia is a severe monogenic heritable retinal disease that disrupts cone function from birth, leaving patients with complete colour blindness, low acuity, photosensitivity and nystagmus. While successful gene-replacement therapy in non-primate models of achromatopsia has raised widespread hopes for clinical treatment, it was yet to be determined if and how these therapies can induce new cone function in the human brain. Using a novel multimodal approach, we demonstrate for the first time that gene therapy can successfully activate dormant cone-mediated pathways in children with achromatopsia (CNGA3- and CNGB3-associated, 10–15 years). To test this, we combined functional MRI population receptive field mapping and psychophysics with stimuli that selectively measure cone photoreceptor signalling. We measured cortical and visual cone function before and after gene therapy in four paediatric patients, evaluating treatment-related change against benchmark data from untreated patients (n = 9) and normal-sighted participants (n = 28). After treatment, two of the four children displayed strong evidence for novel cone-mediated signals in visual cortex, with a retinotopic pattern that was not present in untreated achromatopsia and which is highly unlikely to emerge by chance. Importantly, this change was paired with a significant improvement in psychophysical measures of cone-mediated visual function. These improvements were specific to the treated eye, and provide strong evidence for successful read-out and use of new cone-mediated information. These data show for the first time that gene replacement therapy in achromatopsia within the plastic period of development can awaken dormant cone-signalling pathways after years of deprivation. This reveals unprecedented neural plasticity in the developing human nervous system and offers great promise for emerging regenerative therapies

Der Einfluss der Kapazitätsgröße und -auslastung auf den Kostenverlauf ausgewählter Hilfskostenstellen von Molkereien - Abteilung Dampfversorgung

Die Kostenanalyse zur Bestimmung des Einflusses der Kapazitätsgröße und -auslastung auf den Kostenverlauf von Hilfskostenstellen (Hilfsabteilungen) erfolgt mit Hilfe von Modellkalkulationen. Eine spezielle Form der Teilkostenrechnung ermöglicht die Zurechnung der Kosten nach Kostenkategorien (jahresfix, tagesfix, ggf. chargenfix und mengenproportional) auf die entsprechenden Kostenträger (z. B. Kälte, Dampf) der jeweiligen Hilfskostenstelle. Durch computergestützte Simulationen können die Auswirkungen der verschiedenen Kosteneinflußfaktoren im einzelnen quantifiziert werden