Taxonomic changes for fifteen species of North American Mordellidae

In an attempt to more consistently apply generic concepts, 13 species of Mordellidae are transferred to different genera. Mordellistena bihamata (Melsheimer) and Mordellistena discolor (Melsheimer) are transferred to Falsomordellistena Ermisch, 1941, while 11 species (Mordellistena ancilla LeConte, Mordellistena floridensis Smith, Mordellistena guttulata Helmuth, Mordellistena impatiens LeConte, Mordellistena infima LeConte, Mordellistena lecontei Ermisch, Mordellistena minutalis Liljeblad, Mordellistena nigricans Melsheimer, Mordellistena parva Liljeblad, Mordellistena semiusta LeConte, and Mordellistena testacea Blatchley) are transferred to Mordellina Schilsky, 1908. Two species, Mordellistena rufa Liljeblad and Mordellina ustulata (LeConte), are proposed as junior synonyms of Mordellina ancilla (LeConte)

Do newspaper articles on card fraud affect debit card usage?

This paper investigates the impact of newspaper publications about debit card skimming fraud on debit card usage in the Netherlands using daily information from January 1st 2005 to December 31st 2008. Time-series analyses are employed to assess the daily fluctuations in aggregate debit card usage. The results show that newspaper articles that somehow make mention of the phenomenon of skimming fraud significantly affect the number of debit card payments. The direction of the effect depends on the type of skimming fraud addressed. Newspaper articles on fraud at points-of-sale (POS) and ticket machines depress the number of debit card payments. News on ATM fraud, by contrast, has a positive effect on debit card payments. This indicates that the temporarily created fear for using the debit card at the ATM is not automatically translated into fear for using the debit card at the POS. Instead, ATMs and POS terminals are perceived as substitutes. Although significant, all media effects found are relatively small in comparison with other factors such as calendar and holiday effects and daily rainfall. Moreover, the effects only last for one day, with consumers immediately reverting back to their regular payment behaviour. This corresponds to earlier results found in other research fields and suggests that consumers’ confidence in the debit card is relatively sturdy and not easily affected. Moreover, it might be an indication of consumers having a short memory when it comes to newspaper articles. JEL Classification: C22, C23, D12, E21Debit card, fraud, media communication, payment behaviour

On a Graph-Based Semantics for UML Class and Object Diagrams

In this paper we propose a formal extension of type graphs with notions that are commonplace in the UML and have long proven their worth in that context: namely, inheritance, multiplicity, containment and the like. We believe the absence of a comprehensive and commonly agreed upon formalisation of these notions to be an important and, unfortunately, often ignored omission. Since our eventual aim (shared by many researchers) is to give unambiguous, formal semantics to the UML using the theory of graphs and graph transformation, in this paper we propose a set of definitions to repair this omission. With respect to previous work in this direction, our aim is to arrive at more comprehensive and at the same time simpler definitions.\u

First Record Of \u3ci\u3eAxymyiidae\u3c/i\u3e (Diptera: Nematocera: Axymyioidea) From Wisconsin

The nematoceran fly family, Axymyiidae, is recorded from Wisconsin for the first time. A single adult female Axymyia furcata was collected in flight near a dead log along a forested path in south central Wisconsin on 24 April 2000

Transcriptional regulation of the hepatitis B virus large surface antigen gene

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a hepatotropic virus of highly restricted host range and tissue specificity. Although the mechanisms governing this tropism are not fully understood, it is likely that restrictions occur at multiple steps in the viral life cycle. The liver-specific regulation of HBV gene expression suggests that transcription may be an important factor in the hepatotropism of the virus. An analysis of tissue- or cell- line-specific regulation of the HBV promoters may elucidate the role of transcriptional regulation in the hepatotropism of the virus. The major aim of this project was to characterize the transcriptional regulation of the large surface antigen gene of hepatitis B virus. To achieve this, the regions of the HBV genome involved in the regulation of the expression of the large surface antigen gene were identified using a transient transfection system in mammalian cell lines. The transcriptional activities of the four HBV promoters were compared in the human differentiated hepatoma cell lines Hep3B, PLC/PRF/5, HepG2 and Huh7, a human dedifferentiated hepatoma cell line HepG2.1, and the nonhepatoma cell lines HeLa S3 and NIH 3T3. To determine the relative transcriptional activities of the four HBV promoters, reporter gene plasmids were generated such that the expression of the firefly luciferase gene was under the control of each of the HBV promoters in the context of the complete genome. The nucleocapsid promoter and large surface antigen promoter displayed higher relative activities in the differentiated hepatoma cell lines, indicating that these promoters are preferentially active in these cell lines. A series of large surface antigen promoter deletion plasmids were constructed to identify the important regulatory regions of the large surface antigen promoter. The deletion analysis demonstrated that the region responsible for the high relative activity in differentiated hepatoma cell lines is located between -90 and -76 relative to the transcription initiation site (-*■!) located at map position 2809. This sequence element contains the binding site (GTTAATCATTACT) for the liver-enriched transcription factor hepatocyte nuclear factor I, HNF1. A eukaryotic expression vector containing the HNFI cDNA under the control of the mouse metallothionein I promoter was cotransfected with the HBV promoter constructs in Huh7 and HepG2.1 cells, and the relative levels of activity were determined. The Huh7 cell line was used because it is one of the cell lines in which HBV replication and particle production can occur and may represent the tissue culture system closest to the natural environment for the HBV life cycle, the liver cell. The cloned transcription factor HNFI activated transcription from the large surface antigen promoter, but not from any of the other HBV promoters. Cotransfection experiments using the HNFI cDNA expression vector and large surface antigen promoter deletion constructs demonstrated that this transactivation was mediated through the HNFI binding site located between -90 and -76 in the large surface antigen promoter. A series of deletion mutants of the cDNA in the HNFI expression vector was generated to determine the transcriptional activation domain of the HNFI polypeptide. The major domain of the HNFI polypeptide involved in transcriptional activation of the large surface antigen promoter in the human hepatoma cell line HepG2.1 was mapped to a region rich in glutamine and proline residues (9 of 18 residues). To demonstrate directly that the HNFI polypeptide produced by the expression of the HNFI cDNA could bind the large surface antigen promoter HNFI recognition sequence, and to determine whether a protein present in the differentiated hepatoma cell line Huh7 bound the HNFI element, gel mobility shift analysis was performed. This analysis demonstrated that a protein present in nuclear extracts from Huh7 cells formed a specific complex with the HNFI binding site which had similar migration properties to the complex formed between exogenously expressed HNFI and the HNFI recognition sequence. DNase I footprinting analysis demonstrated the binding of a protein present in the differentiated hepatoma cell line Huh7 to the HNFI recognition sequence in the large surface antigen promoter. DNase I footprinting also showed that purified TATA binding protein binds the TATA box element located between -31 and -23 in the large surface antigen promoter. The analysis of synthetic promoter constructs suggested that the HNFI and TATA box elements were the only elements necessary for maximal activity from the large surface antigen promoter, and analysis of clustered point mutations in the large surface antigen minimal promoter region demonstrated that sequences between the HNFI and TATA box elements were not required for the HNF1- dependent activity of the large surface antigen promoter. These studies suggested that the liver-enriched transcription factor HNFI plays a critical role in the cell-line and tissue-specific regulation of the HBV large surface antigen promoter

Varimax rotation based on gradient projection needs between 10 and more than 500 random start loading matrices for optimal performance

Gradient projection rotation (GPR) is a promising method to rotate factor or component loadings by different criteria. Since the conditions for optimal performance of GPR-Varimax are widely unknown, this simulation study investigates GPR towards the Varimax criterion in principal component analysis. The conditions of the simulation study comprise two sample sizes (n = 100, n = 300), with orthogonal simple structure population models based on four numbers of components (3, 6, 9, 12), with- and without Kaiser-normalization, and six numbers of random start loading matrices for GPR-Varimax rotation (1, 10, 50, 100, 500, 1,000). GPR-Varimax rotation always performed better when at least 10 random matrices were used for start loadings instead of the identity matrix. GPR-Varimax worked better for a small number of components, larger (n = 300) as compared to smaller (n = 100) samples, and when loadings were Kaiser-normalized before rotation. To ensure optimal (stationary) performance of GPR-Varimax in recovering orthogonal simple structure, we recommend using at least 10 iterations of start loading matrices for the rotation of up to three components and 50 iterations for up to six components. For up to nine components, rotation should be based on a sample size of at least 300 cases, Kaiser-normalization, and more than 50 different start loading matrices. For more than nine components, GPR-Varimax rotation should be based on at least 300 cases, Kaiser-normalization, and at least 500 different start loading matrices.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, 4 figures in the Supplemen

An annotated checklist of Wisconsin Mordellidae (Coleoptera)

A three-year survey of Wisconsin Mordellidae (Coleoptera) encompassing a compilation of data from literature records and local collections as well as field work including trapping, hand-collecting, and rearing yielded 68 species comprising 14 genera in three tribes. Sixty-three species (92% of Wisconsin fauna) represent new state species records, not previously recorded from the state in the literature. Plant-associations and state-specific temporal and spatial distribution data for larvae and adults are noted as available. Distributional records suggest 16 additional species and one additional genus are likely to occur in Wisconsin

Estimating yield of food crops grown by smallholder farmers: A review in the Uganda context

Precise agricultural statistics are essential for planning and evaluation of agricultural investments to improve the productivity and profitability of smallholder farming systems. However, accurately estimating crop yields is never easy and is even more of a challenge in the context of African farming systems that are characterized by smallholder farms that produce a wide range of diverse crops. With specific reference to yield estimation for food crops under smallholder farming conditions in Uganda, this paper evaluates the various methods that are available to estimate crop production and cropped area in such farming systems. A description and summary tables from a database of estimated crop yields in Uganda that was collated from a large set of field studies over past decades are also provided.agricultural statistics, crop yield, Data Collection, smallholder farming,