Curculionoidea (Coleoptera) from southern Turkey

A checklist of Curculionoidea is given from southern Turkey (Adana, Osmaniye and Hatay provinces). The known localities and ecological notes on each of them were reported based on literature records and on recently collected material. Lixus farinifer Reitter is newly recorded from Turkey, and 35 species (2 Rhynchitidae, 5 Apionidae and 28 Curculionidae) was indicated for the first time from the investigated area of southern Turkey; although, the synonymy Oedecnemidius varius (= Phyllerastes pictus Steven, nomen nudum; = Phyllobius pictus syn. em.) is rectified. It was also pointed out that the name Periteloneus schilsky Reitter 1913 is a nomen nudum.Key words: Curculionoidea, synonymy, southern Turkey, faunistic, Adana, Osmaniye, Hatay, provinces

Genetic and morphological studies of Trichosirocalus species introduced to North America, Australia and New Zealand for the biological control of thistles

Trichosirocalus horridus sensu lato has been used as a biological control agent of several invasive thistles (Carduus spp., Cirsium spp. and Onopordum spp.) since 1974. It has been recognized as a single species until 2002, when it was split into three species based on morphological characters: T. horridus, Trichosirocalus briesei and Trichosirocalus mortadelo, each purported to have different host plants. Because of this taxonomic change, uncertainty exists as to which species were released in various countries; furthermore, there appears to be some exceptions to the purported host plants of some of these species. To resolve these questions, we conducted an integrative taxonomic study of the T. horridus species complex using molecular genetic and morphological analyses of specimens from three continents. Both mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and nuclear elongation factor 1α markers clearly indicate that there are only two distinct species, T. horridus and T. briesei. Molecular evidence, morphological analysis and host plant associations support the synonymy of T. horridus (Panzer, 1801) and T. mortadelo Alonso-Zarazaga & Sánchez-Ruiz, 2002. We determine that T. horridus has been established in Canada, USA, New Zealand and Australia and that T. briesei is established in Australia. The former species was collected from Carduus, Cirsium and Onopordum spp. in the field, whereas the latter appears to be specific to Onopordum

Analysis of HIV quasispecies and virological outcome of an HIV D+/R+ kidney–liver transplantation

Introduction: Transplantation among HIV positive patients may be a valuable therapeutic intervention. This study involves an HIV D+/R+ kidney–liver transplantation, where PBMC-associated HIV quasispecies were analyzed in donor and transplant recipients (TR) prior to transplantation and thereafter, together with standard viral monitoring. Methods: The donor was a 54 year of age HIV infected woman: kidney and liver recipients were two HIV infected men, aged 49 and 61. HIV quasispecies in PBMC was analyzed by ultra-deep sequencing of V3 env region. During TR follow-up, plasma HIV-1 RNA, HIV-1 DNA in PBMC, analysis of proviral integration sites and drug-resistance genotyping were performed. Other virological and immunological monitoring included CMV and EBV DNA quantification in blood and CD4 T cell counts. Results: Donor and TR were all ART-HIV suppressed at transplantation. Thereafter, TR maintained a nearly suppressed HIV-1 viremia, but HIV-1 RNA blips and the increase of proviral integration sites in PBMC attested some residual HIV replication. A transient peak in HIV-1 DNA occurred in the liver recipient. No major changes of drug-resistance genotype were detected after transplantation. CMV and EBV transient reactivations were observed only in the kidney recipient, but did not require specific treatment. CD4 counts remained stable. No intermixed quasispecies between donor and TR was observed at transplantation or thereafter. Despite signs of viral evolution in TR, HIV genetic heterogeneity did not increase over the course of the months of follow up. Conclusions: No evidence of HIV superinfection was observed in the donor nor in the recipients. The immunosuppressive treatment administrated to TR did not result in clinical relevant viral reactivations

RISC-V-Based Platforms for HPC: Analyzing Non-functional Properties for Future HPC and Big-Data Clusters

High-Performance Computing (HPC) have evolved to be used to perform simulations of systems where physical experimentation is prohibitively impractical, expensive, or dangerous. This paper provides a general overview and showcases the analysis of non-functional properties in RISC-V-based platforms for HPCs. In particular, our analyses target the evaluation of power and energy control, thermal management, and reliability assessment of promising systems, structures, and technologies devised for current and future generation of HPC machines. The main set of design methodologies and technologies developed within the activities of the Future and HPC & Big Data spoke of the National Centre of HPC, Big Data and Quantum Computing project are described along with the description of the testbed for experimenting two-phase cooling approaches

Four new species of Palaearctic Ceutorhynchinae, with a key to species of Datonychus Wagner, 1944 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Four new species of Palaearctic Ceutorhynchinae are described: Thamiocolus rufitarsis sp. n. from Iran close to T. comptus Colonnelli, 1997 from Southern Turkey; Datonychus terminassianae sp. n. from Northern China and Datonychus kostali sp. n. from Iran both rather isolated among their genus, and Datonychus gultekini sp. n. from Northeastern Turkey quite close to D. scabrirostris (Hochhuth, 1847) from Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. A key to the 22 species of Datonychus Wagner, 1944 described to date is include

Revealing Corruption: Firm and Worker Level Evidence from Brazil

Replication code and description for "Revealing Corruption: Firm and Worker Level Evidence from Brazil", accepted at the Journal of Financial Economics.THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

A new genus and species of anophthalmous Otiorhynchini from Greece, with a new synonymy and new combinations (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Entiminae)

A new genus of Entiminae, an endogean weevil of the tribe Otiorhynchini, Giavarhynchus Bellò, Osella & Ruzzier, gen. n., and its type species Giavarhynchus amicorum Bellò, Osella & Ruzzier, sp. n. are described. The new taxon is readily distinguished from all other members of the tribe due to the unique combination of lack of eyes, elongate rostrum with a ventral transverse furrow and excised lateral margins located at apical third, punctation of pronotum of two distinct sizes arranged in a distinctive pattern, interval 7 of elytra protruding from base of pronotum and crenulate basally, metafemora bearing a spine-like tooth much larger than that of pro- and mesofemora, female tibiae granulate on inner margin, bisinuous mesotibiae. The following synonymy is proposed: Nematocerus Reiche, 1849 (= Cyrtozemia Pascoe, 1872, syn. n.; = Holcorhinosoma Voss, 1939, syn. n.). New combinations are: Nematocerus cognatus (Marshall, 1916), comb. n.; Nematocerus dispar (Pascoe, 1872), comb. n.; Nematocerus pilipes (Morimoto, 2015), comb. n., all from Cyrtozemia; Nematocerus subtuberculatus (Voss, 1939), comb. n. from Holcorhinosoma. New tribal placement is: Pseudocratopus Hustache, 1921 from Otiorhynchini to Peritelini. New subgeneric placement is that of Otiorhynchus deceptorius Białooki, Germann & Pelletier, 2017 and of Otiorhynchus incisirostris Białooki, Germann & Pelletier, 2017 from Otiorhynchus (Lixorrhynchus) Reitter, 1914 to Otiorhynchus (Aranihus) Reitter, 1912