Study of Behavioral Change of Western Corn Rootworm Beetle by Crop and Sex in Maize and Soybean Fields in Northwestern Indiana, USA

WCR adults generally lay their eggs in maize and their larvae feed almost exclusively on maize roots (Smith,1966,Branson and Ortman,1967,1971,Branson and Krysan,1981,Levine and Oloumi- Sadeghi,1991).For this reason,farmers have accepted growing maize in rotation with soybean to manage WCR larval populations without the use of soil insecticides.Recently,in Northwest Indiana and East Central Illinois in the USA,western corn rootworm has adapted to the above management system (Gerber et al., 1997).A portion of WCR eggs is laid in soybean and in other crops like alfalfa.This behavioral change increases the potential for survival of WCR larvae the following year since most soybean fields are rotated to maize.During the summers of 1996,1997,and 1998 field studies related to this behavioral shift were conducted in northwestern Indiana.Eleven pairs of maize/soybean fields were selected for the study.During these sampling periods,WCR beetles were present in both maize and soybean.Empirical observations show that there were higher numbers of females in soybean when compared to maize

Pre-Excitation Studies for Rubidium-Plasma Generation

The key element in the Proton-Driven-Plasma-Wake-Field-Accelerator (AWAKE) project is the generation of highly uniform plasma from Rubidium vapor. The standard way to achieve full ionization is to use high power laser which can assure the over-barrier-ionization (OBI) along the 10 meters long active region. The Wigner-team in Budapest is investigating an alternative way of uniform plasma generation. The proposed Resonance Enhanced Multi Photon Ionization (REMPI) scheme probably can be realized by much less laser power. In the following the resonant pre-excitations of the Rb atoms are investigated, theoretically and the status report about the preparatory work on the experiment are presented.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Nucl. Inst. and Meth. in Phys. Res.

Middle Bronze Age humidity and temperature variations, and societal changes in East-Central Europe

Archaeological evidence points to substantial changes in Bronze Age societies in the European-Mediterranean region. Isotope geochemical proxies have been compiled to provide independent ancillary data to improve the paleoenvironmental history for the period of interest and support the interpretation of the archaeological observations. In addition to published compositions, in this study we gathered new H isotope data from fluid inclusion hosted water from a stalagmite of the Trió Cave, Southern Hungary, and compared the H isotope data with existing stable isotope and trace element compositions reported for the stalagmite. Additionally, animal bones and freshwater bivalve shells (Unio sp.) were collected from Bronze Age archaeological excavations around Lake Balaton and their stable C and O isotope compositions were measured in order to investigate climate changes and lake evolution processes during this period. The data indicate warm and humid conditions with elevated summer precipitation around 3.7 cal ka BP (Before Present, where present is 1950 CE), followed by a short-term deterioration in environmental conditions at about 3.5 cal ka BP. The environment became humid and cold with winter precipitation dominance around 3.5 to 3.4 cal ka BP, then gradually changed to drier conditions at ∼3.2 cal ka BP. Significant cultural changes have been inferred for this period on the basis of observations during archaeological excavations. The most straightforward consequences of environmental variations have been found in changes of settlement structure. The paleoclimatological picture is well in line with other East-Central European climate records, indicating that the climate fluctuations took place on a regional scale

Barriers for progress in salt reduction in the general population. An international study

Salt reduction is important for reducing hypertension and the risk of cardiovascular events, nevertheless worldwide salt intakes are above recommendations. Consequently strategies to reduce intake are required, however these require an understanding of salt intake behaviours to be effective. As limited information is available on this, an international study was conducted to derive knowledge on salt intake and associated behaviours in the general population. An online cohort was recruited consisting of a representative sample from Germany, Austria, United States of America, Hungary, India, China, South Africa, and Brazil (n=6987; aged 18-65. years; age and gender stratified). Participants completed a comprehensive web-based questionnaire on salt intake and associated behaviours. While salt reduction was seen to be healthy and important, over one third of participants were not interested in salt reduction and the majority were unaware of recommendations. Salt intake was largely underestimated and people were unaware of the main dietary sources of salt. Participants saw themselves as mainly responsible for their salt intake, but also acknowledged the roles of others. Additionally, they wanted to learn more about why salt was bad for health and what the main sources in the diet were. As such, strategies to reduce salt intake must raise interest in engaging in salt reduction through improving understanding of intake levels and dietary sources of salt. Moreover, while some aspects of salt reduction can be globally implemented, local tailoring is required to match level of interest in salt reduction. These findings provide unique insights into issues surrounding salt reduction and should be used to develop effective salt reduction strategies and/or policies. © 2013 The Authors

PHENO-AND GENOTYPIC CHARACTERIZATION OF PASTEURELLA MULTOCIDA STRAINS RECOVERED FROM HEALTHY AND DISEASED RABBITS

ABSTRACT The characterized 32 Pasteurella multocida isolates were collected through 2-years long period, taken from rabbits in the fattening and the breeding units of a commercial rabbit farm. Rabbits were manifesting of (n=18) or free from (n=14) signs of pasteurellosis. All isolates were identified with standard microbiological tests and P. multocida specific PCR. After 24 hours incubation at 37°C on TSA, 72% and 28% of isolates developed large or small colonies, respectively. Colony type was smooth (n=17), mucoid (n=13) and rough (n=2). Capsular typing was performed with PCR and presence of capA and F genes were detected for 53% and 28% of strains respectively. Occurrence of gene capD was only 9%. Based upon carbohydrate fermentation results, four distinct biochemical types could be recognized: biovars 1 (25%), 3 (6%), 6 (44%) and 9 (3%). Further 22% were non typeable isolates representing lactose positive variants of biovar 2 and 6. An association between capsular type and biovar could be supposed, as biovar 1 strains (n=8) possessed exclusively capA capsule gene. Biovar 6 (n=14) and unassigned (n=7) strains had any capsular types. The colony size, biovar and capsular type did not show association with the rabbit sanitary state. Similarity matrix was calculated from the fermentation results of all 50 carbohydrates included in the API CH50 test strip. One group containing five quite diverse isolates taken only from animals with pathological signs appeared on the dendogram and another two pathologic isolates were also separated as single member clusters, each differentiated around 40% similarity level. One further cluster included 7 of 9 capsular type F strains above 90% within group similarity, which were isolated within a very short time interval, and 5 from healthy rabbits. REP-PCR genotyping revealed most strikingly more pairs of genetically identical strains, each of both isolated from diseased or from healthy rabbits, or one from diseased and another one from healthy rabbits. Clustering otherwise did not show obvious association of the genotype with biochemical or serotyping characteristics of the isolates nor with the sanitary state of the sampled rabbit. The conclusion is that high phenotypic and genotypic diversity is characteristic to the P. multocida strains isolated from the same herd across time. Higher similarity of biochemical traits presented by isolates collected within a short period is not inevitably associated with higher pathogenecity

Post-selenization of stacked precursor layers for CIGS

In this study the possibility of the fabrication of CIGS layers from stacked precursors with selenization is examined. Different sequences of precursor layers and two different selenization methods were applied, in order to establish the optimal order of Cu, In and Ga layers in the precursor layer stack. The obtained CIGS films were studied by different micro- and surface analysis methods (TEM, SEM, EDS, XRD, SNMS, XPS). Since the evaporation of a Se layer and post-annealing does not result in a homogeneous CIGS layer, the appropriate selenization must be accomplished in Se-vapour