Farmers’ Perceptions and Willingness to Pay for Metarhizium-based Biopesticide to Control Cotton Bollworms in Benin (West Africa)

The study assesses farmers’ perceptions and willingness to pay for a biopesticide developed from Metarhizium anisopliae a fungi. A sample of 400 conventional and organic cotton producers was randomly selected in cotton producing zones in Benin and interviewed for their perceptions on the efficacy of the biopesticide and the likely prices they are willing to pay for the product to control a major pest like Helicoverpa armigera or cotton bollworm causing substantial crop losses. An econometric model (Logit) is used to identify factors highly likely to affect farmer’s willingness to purchase the product. The results show that Helicoverpa armigera or cotton bollworm is perceived by farmers as the most severe pest with losses reaching up to 100%. Farmers attribute the current pest intensity to a number of factors including ineffectiveness of chemical pesticides, delay in access to input mainly fertilizers and the development of refuge host plants for cotton pests. The results also show that most cotton producers and their households members are exposed to chemical insecticides without adequate protection devices during the pest control sprays. Both organic and conventional cotton producers have expressed a significant interest in the use of Metarhizium to control Helicoverpa on cotton. Both types of farmers willing to pay more for any pest control product that would improve cotton product quality for higher cotton price. Three variables influencing farmers’ willing to pay for biopesticides from Metarhizium were efficacy, agro-ecological zone and broad spectrum.Biopesticides, Cotton bollworms, farmers survey, Benin, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Demand and Price Analysis, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

The realization of an integrated Mach-Zehnder waveguide immunosensor in silicon technology

We describe the realization of a symmetric integrated channel waveguide Mach-Zehnder sensor which uses the evanescent field to detect small refractive-index changes (¿nmin ¿ 1 × 10¿4) near the guiding-layer surface. This guiding layer consists of ridge structures with a height of 3 nm and a width of 4 ¿m made in Si3N4. This layer has a thickness of 100 nm. The sensor device has been tested with glucose solutions of different bulk refractive indices. Results of a slab-model calculation are in good agreement with obtained experimental results. The feasibility of applying this sensor for immunosensing, detecting directly the binding of antigen to an antibody receptor surface, is shown with antibody-antigen binding experiments

Some recent radio talks.

Wastage in weaners - By L. C. SNOOK, D.Sc, Animal Nutrition Officer Ever since I can remember, the breeders of Merino sheep have been plagued with what is known as the weaner problem. During the dry summer months, unthriftiness becomes apparent, the affected animals lose condition, and unless green feed becomes available a number will die. The losses on any one property are rarely devastating but over the years the collective wastage of young sheep has been, in some cases, considerable. A puzzling feature is that weaners will be lost on pasture which appears to be adequate for the grown sheep. Also the unthriftiness is often restricted to 10% or so of the weaners in any one flock. It is not uncommon to hear sheep men complain that while the bulk of their young sheep are thriving, there is a tail which looks dreadful. The importance of weed control in the vegetable garden - By W. KOOYMAN, Vegetable Instructor I suppose every vegetable grower realises that to obtain satisfactory yields of high quality produce, control of weeds is of considerable importance. There are many reasons why weed control is important, however, as each crop has special problems and characteristics, time would be too short to give a detailed account of all aspects. An endeavour will be made in this talk to touch on some of the more important aspects of weed control. Strawberry growing - By J. CRIPPS, Horticultural Adviser Strawberries are not grown on a large scale commercially in this State, but many private growers cultivate them and indeed they are an ideal backyard fruit crop since they can be grown in a small area and are not subject to attacks by fruit fly

Some Respiratory Properties of the Blood of Four Species of Antarctic Fishes

1. Fishes in Antarctic seas live at a temperature lower than that at which most other poikilotherms remain active. 2. Hematocrit, absolute oxygen capacity and oxygen equilibrium curves were determined for whole blood from each of four related species of Antarctic fishes. These parameters were related to the habits and activity of each species. 3. Temperature increase was found to have a marked effect on the affinity of the blood for oxygen. This effect was compared with data from other fishes and found to be extreme in the Antarctic species. 4. These fishes are known to be stenothermal and geographically restricted in distribution. It seems likely that the sensitivity of their oxygen transport systems to temperature increase could provide at least some of the physiological basis for this

Functional distinctiveness of major plant lineages

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106060/1/jec12208.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106060/2/jec12208-sup-0001-Supp_Info.pd

Evolution of Fe Species During the Synthesis of Over-Exchanged Fe/ZSM5 Obtained by Chemical Vapor Deposition of FeCl3

Abstract The evolution of iron in over-exchanged Fe/ZSM5 prepared via chemical vapor deposition of FeCl 3 was studied at each stage of the synthesis. Different characterization techniques (EXAFS, HR-XANES

Effects of Hydrographic Variability on the Spatial, Seasonal and Diel Diving Patterns of Southern Elephant Seals in the Eastern Weddell Sea

Weddell Sea hydrography and circulation is driven by influx of Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) at its eastern margin. Entrainment and upwelling of this high-nutrient, oxygen-depleted water mass within the Weddell Gyre also supports the mesopelagic ecosystem within the gyre and the rich benthic community along the Antarctic shelf. We used Conductivity-Temperature-Depth Satellite Relay Data Loggers (CTD-SRDLs) to examine the importance of hydrographic variability, ice cover and season on the movements and diving behavior of southern elephant seals in the eastern Weddell Sea region during their overwinter feeding trips from Bouvetøya. We developed a model describing diving depth as a function of local time of day to account for diel variation in diving behavior. Seals feeding in pelagic ice-free waters during the summer months displayed clear diel variation, with daytime dives reaching 500-1500 m and night-time targeting of the subsurface temperature and salinity maxima characteristic of CDW around 150–300 meters. This pattern was especially clear in the Weddell Cold and Warm Regimes within the gyre, occurred in the ACC, but was absent at the Dronning Maud Land shelf region where seals fed benthically. Diel variation was almost absent in pelagic feeding areas covered by winter sea ice, where seals targeted deep layers around 500–700 meters. Thus, elephant seals appear to switch between feeding strategies when moving between oceanic regimes or in response to seasonal environmental conditions. While they are on the shelf, they exploit the locally-rich benthic ecosystem, while diel patterns in pelagic waters in summer are probably a response to strong vertical migration patterns within the copepod-based pelagic food web. Behavioral flexibility that permits such switching between different feeding strategies may have important consequences regarding the potential for southern elephant seals to adapt to variability or systematic changes in their environment resulting from climate change

Cheek Tooth Morphology and Ancient Mitochondrial DNA of Late Pleistocene Horses from the Western Interior of North America: Implications for the Taxonomy of North American Late Pleistocene Equus

Horses were a dominant component of North American Pleistocene land mammal communities and their remains are well represented in the fossil record. Despite the abundant material available for study, there is still considerable disagreement over the number of species of Equus that inhabited the different regions of the continent and on their taxonomic nomenclature. In this study, we investigated cheek tooth morphology and ancient mtDNA of late Pleistocene Equus specimens from the Western Interior of North America, with the objective of clarifying the species that lived in this region prior to the end-Pleistocene extinction. Based on the morphological and molecular data analyzed, a caballine (Equus ferus) and a non-caballine (E. conversidens) species were identified from different localities across most of the Western Interior. A second non-caballine species (E. cedralensis) was recognized from southern localities based exclusively on the morphological analyses of the cheek teeth. Notably the separation into caballine and non-caballine species was observed in the Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of ancient mtDNA as well as in the geometric morphometric analyses of the upper and lower premolars. Teeth morphologically identified as E. conversidens that yielded ancient mtDNA fall within the New World stilt-legged clade recognized in previous studies and this is the name we apply to this group. Geographic variation in morphology in the caballine species is indicated by statistically different occlusal enamel patterns in the specimens from Bluefish Caves, Yukon Territory, relative to the specimens from the other geographic regions. Whether this represents ecomorphological variation and/or a certain degree of geographic and genetic isolation of these Arctic populations requires further study