Functional Morphology of the Mouthparts of the Adult Mediterranean Fruit Fly, Ceratitis capitata

Food-based attractants incorporating an insecticide are an important component of area-wide control programmes for the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae). This study was carried out to understand the feeding mechanism of adults of this species. Mouthparts of C. capitata are similar in general structure to those of another Tephritid genus, Bactrocera, and have specific structural modifications that determine what adult flies can ingest. The labellum has a series of fine tube-like structures, called pseudotracheae, on its inner surface. Each pseudotrachea leads from the outer margin of the labellum and ends at the prestomum to the oral opening. The pseudotracheae contain fine micropores about 0.5µm in size. During feeding, the oral opening is never exposed to the feeding substrate but the portions of the opposing labellar lobes proximal to the oral opening are flexed against each other and distal portions of the opposing labellar lobes are opened and pressed flat against the feeding substrate or surface. The prestomal spines at the base of each pseudotrachea interlock to form a barrier across the oral opening. Thus entry of large particles directly into the crop and gut through the oral opening is prevented by flexure of the opposing labellar lobes against each other and the interlocking prestomal spines across the oral opening. Only liquids and suspended particles less than 0.5µm in size are sucked through the micropores into the lumen of the pseudotracheae and then pass into the food canal and into the crop and gut. The pseudotracheae of adult C. capitata, particularly along the middle portion of the labellum, have prominent blade-like projections that Bactrocera do not have. These projections are probably an ancestral condition as they were not observed to use them to abrade the plant or feeding surface as has been reported for species in the Tephritid genus, Blepharoneura

Effect of the non-stationarity of rainfall events on the design of hydraulic structures for runoff management and its applications to a case study at Gordo Creek watershed in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

The 24-h maximum rainfall (P 24h-max ) observations recorded at the synoptic weather station of Rafael Núñez airport (Cartagena de Indias, Colombia) were analyzed, and a linear increasing trend over time was identified. It was also noticed that the occurrence of the rainfall value (over the years of record) for a return period of 10 years under stationary conditions (148.1 mm) increased, which evidences a change in rainfall patterns. In these cases, the typical stationary frequency analysis is unable to capture such a change. So, in order to further evaluate rainfall observations, frequency analyses of P 24h-max for stationary and non-stationary conditions were carried out (by using the generalized extreme value distribution). The goodness-of-fit test of Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), with values of 753.3721 and 747.5103 for stationary and non-stationary conditions respectively, showed that the latter best depicts the increasing rainfall pattern. Values of rainfall were later estimated for different return periods (2, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 years) to quantify the increase (non-stationary versus stationary condition), which ranged 6% to 12% for return periods from 5 years to 100 years, and 44% for a 2-year return period. The effect of these findings were tested in the Gordo creek watershed by first calculating the resulting direct surface runoff (DSR) for various return periods, and then modeling the hydraulic behavior of the downstream area (composed of a 178.5-m creek's reach and an existing box-culvert located at the watershed outlet) that undergoes flooding events every year. The resulting DSR increase oscillated between 8% and 19% for return periods from 5 to 100 years, and 77% for a 2-year return period when the non-stationary and stationary scenarios were compared. The results of this study shed light upon to the precautions that designers should take when selecting a design, based upon rainfall observed, as it may result in an underestimation of both the direct surface runoff and the size of the hydraulic structures for runoff and flood management throughout the city. © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license

Effect of microencapsulated phenolic compound extracts of Maclura tinctoria (L.) Steud on growth performance and humoral immunity markers of white leg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei, Boone, 1931) juveniles

Aim of study: The effect of microencapsulated phenolic compound extracts of Maclura tinctoria (MTBE) on growth performance and humoral immunity markers of the white leg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei juveniles (0.5 ± 0.2 g initial weight) was studied.Area of study: M. tinctoria was collected from Hampolol, Campeche, and Arroyo del Agua, Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico.Material and methods: Three MTBE inclusions (0.5, 1, and 2.5 g MTBE/kg, Purina®) were compared with a control commercial feed (Purina®) during 30 days. Nine phenolic acids, nine flavonols, four dihydro-flavonoids, four flavones, and seven unidentified phenolic compounds were determined fin the MTBE using a Perkin Elmer® HPLC chromatograph and diode array-detection.Main results: The mean concentrations of total phenolic compounds, total flavonoid compounds, and condensed tannins were 198.05 ± 5.59 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE) g-1 dw, 78.57 ± 1.80 quercetin equivalent g-1, and 28.32 ± 0.33 mg epicatechin equivalent g-1, respectively. The ferric reducing antioxidant power and the total antioxidant capacity, respectively, averaged 28.32 mg GAE mL-1 and 10.9 mg ascorbic acid equivalent mL-1. Survival, weight gain, and specific growth rate of L. vannamei were similar among the experimental diets. The dietary inclusion of MTBE at 0.5 g/kg of food showed significant higher (p < 0.05) plasma hemocyte lysate protein (1.35 ± 0.055 µg mL-1), prophenoloxidase (0.47 ± 0.15, Abs. 492 nm), and superoxide anion (O2.-) activity (0.21 ± 0.07, Abs. 630 nm).Research highlights: The supplementation of MTBE at 0.5 g/kg of food could be considered as a potential alternative additive for L. vannamei diet in the juvenile production, since it improved the response of the humoral immunity markers at post larval life stages, when cultivated shrimp are more susceptible to be infected by pathogens

Gestión del recurso hídrico para el desarrollo sostenible de la ciénaga grande de santa marta – caños burro, salado y clarín viejo

La Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta (CGSM) es un sistema lagunar estuarino léntico, cuyas principales fuentes de agua dulce provienen y la constituyen el río Magdalena (el más grande de Colombia) desde el oeste y varios ríos de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM) desde el este. La CGSM, es considerada como la más importante de todas las Ciénagas del Departamento y uno de los seis humedales de importancia mundial del País, por su extensión, su situación geográfica y por la riqueza ictiológica que contiene, cuyo valor económico es inestimable. Cuenta con un área de 4,280.00 km², de los cuales 730 km2 son espejos de agua. A partir de 1956 cuando se construyó la carretera Ciénaga – Barranquilla, se inició un proceso de degradación progresiva de la ecorregión, por la interrupción que hizo el terraplén de la vía. Esta situación fue agravada posteriormente por disminución de entrada de agua dulce al complejo proveniente del río Magdalena, bien por la excesiva sedimentación u obstrucción de canales debido a procesos naturales, aunado al incremento de acarreo de limos en suspensión por el caudal del rio Magdalena, que evidencia procesos erosivos en su cuenca. Alta sedimentación de los ríos que nacen en la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Fenómeno ENOS (El Niño - Oscilación del Sur), comúnmente conocido como el fenómeno del Niño – Fase Cálida - o de la Niña – Fase Fría y Acciones Antrópicas. Dado lo anterior hasta el momento se vienen desarrollando múltiples acciones por parte de la Autoridad Ambiental, sin embargo, no es suficiente y se ve como prioritaria la necesidad de trabajar en la construcción de un modelo conceptual que permita lograr el desarrollo sostenible de CGSM, teniendo en cuenta que el mal uso de estos cuerpos de agua por parte de la comunidad es uno de los factores principales que contribuyen a ahondar la crisis ambiental de estos humedales. Este modelo permitirá adicionalmente prevenir inundaciones en épocas de invierno en las poblaciones asentadas a lo largo de los caños Burro, Clarín Viejo y Salado (caso puntual de la investigación) y también recuperar la capacidad de transporte de flujo de agua dulce a estos cuerpos de agua que conforman el complejo lagunar de la CGSM. Lo anterior a través de identificar acciones que permita recuperar los cauces de las escorrentías principales de los canales, los cuales se encuentran altamente sedimentados, mejorar las conexiones hidráulicas existentes, mejorar la biofauna de la ecorregión en donde hacen su entrega cada uno de los caños, coadyuvar en la reducción de las temperaturas del entorno y recuperar la hidrodinámica del ecosistema de los canales objeto de la investigació

Comparación genetica de tres fuentes del cacao theobroma cacao l., mediante el uso de marcadores microsatelites

Las poblaciones nativas de cacao Theobroma cacao L., son valoradas en mercados internacionales por sus características organolépticas propias de los cacaos de alta calidad. Sin embargo, esta calidad está amenazada por híbridos más productivos provenientes de material genético foráneo que gradualmente han ido reemplazando las poblaciones nativas. La diversidad y estructura genética de 165 materiales de cacao provenientes de la región de Tumaco y los bancos de germoplasma de Corpoica y Fedecacao fue evaluada mediante el análisis de doce loci ubicados por marcadores microsatélites. Los datos se procesaron mediante los programas: Arlequín ver. 3.5 y TFPGA ver. 1.3. Los marcadores fueron altamente discriminantes, informativos y representativos para la especie. Los promedios de heterocigosidad esperada (He) y observada (Ho) fueron 0,73 y 0,72, respectivamente, indicando alta variabilidad genética y alta tasa de heterocigotos en las tres poblaciones analizadas. El valor del índice de fijación FST= 0,0355 señala mínimos niveles de diferenciación genética entre las poblaciones y el promedio Nm = 6,80 indica que existe un elevado intercambio de genes. El análisis del clúster jerárquico utilizando agrupamiento UPGMA permitió confirmar la similitud genética existente entre las poblaciones

Prevalencia de caries dental y su asociación con algunos factores del estilo de vida en los niños desescolarizados del programa, “la escuela busca el niño” sede Santa Marta, comuna 8, periodo 2009-1.

A través de esta investigación se pudo determinar la prevalencia de caries dental según criterios ICDAS y describir algunos factores del estilo de vida asociados con la misma, como lo son: nivel educativo y socio-económico, dieta, hábitos de higiene oral, preconceptos de la importancia de la salud bucal, entre otros, en los niños des-escolarizados pertenecientes al programa la Escuela Busca El Niño(a), Sede Santa Marta (EBN-S) de la comuna 8. Esta investigación es de tipo analítico-descriptivo de corte transversal, con un número de 69 niños entre las edades de 6 a 12 años en dentición mixta. El instrumento utilizado para recoger la información fue una encuesta aplicada a las madres o a la persona encargada del niño(a). La encuesta presentó 25 interrogantes, de escogencia única, la observación y revisión de los órganos dentales para determinar un diagnóstico visual de caries dental según ICDAS. Se tabuló la información recolectada y fue transferida al programa estadístico SPSS, obteniendo los siguientes resultados: Una prevalencia de caries del 29.5% de los dientes afectados (489 dientes) distribuidos en caries registro 3 en 9 %, caries registro 2b en 7%, caries registro 6 en 3%, caries registro 1w en 3%, caries registro 5 en 3%, caries registro 1b en 2%. Siendo más frecuente el registro 3 de caries dental. Se observó que los órganos dentales más afectados son los de la zona posterior; 36, 55, 75, 85,65 y 26; así mismo se encontró una mayor prevalencia de caries dental en la edad de 7 años, en el sexo masculino y el en barrio la paz. También se encontró que existe una relación inversamente proporcional entre el nivel de educación y la prevalencia de caries dental y de igual manera se consiguió describir diferentes comportamientos y actitudes en su estilo de vida que se asocian con una mayor prevalecía de caries dental

Force-free state in a superconducting single crystal and angle-dependent vortex helical instability

Superconducting 2H−NbSe2 single crystals show intrinsic low pinning values. Therefore, they are ideal materials with which to explore fundamental properties of vortices. (V, I) characteristics are the experimental data we have used to investigate the dissipation mechanisms in a rectangular-shaped 2H−NbSe2 single crystal. Particularly, we have studied dissipation behavior with magnetic fields applied in the plane of the crystal and parallel to the injected currents, i.e., in the force-free state where the vortex helical instability governs the vortex dynamics. In this regime, the data follow the elliptic critical state model and the voltage dissipation shows an exponential dependence, V∝eα(I−IC∥), IC∥ being the critical current in the force-free configuration and α a linear temperature-dependent parameter. Moreover, this exponential dependence can be observed for in-plane applied magnetic fields up to 40° off the current direction, which implies that the vortex helical instability plays a role in dissipation even out of the force-free configuration

Actigraphic sleep and dietary macronutrient intake in children aged 6–9 years old: A pilot study

The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between different sleep parameters and energy and macronutrient intake in school-aged children. A total of 203 children 6 to 9 years of age participated in this cross-sectional study. Anthropometric measurements were taken first. Diet was assessed with 3-day food logs and sleep was measured with a questionnaire on sleep quality and a wrist actigraph worn for at least 7 days. A decrease of 165.45 kcal was observed per each additional hour of sleep during the week (β (95% CI) = −165.45 (−274.01, −56.88); p = 0.003). This relationship was also observed for fat (β (95% CI) = −11.14 (−18.44, −3.84); p = 0.003) and protein (β (95% CI) = −13.27 (−22.52, −4.02); p = 0.005). An increase in weekend sleep efficiencies for those under the recommended threshold of 85% also had a similar association with energy (β (95% CI) = −847.43 (−1566.77, 128.09); p = 0.021) and carbohydrate (β (95% CI) = −83.96 (−161.76, −6.15); p = 0.035)) intake. An increase in habitual sleep variability was related with a slight increase in protein intake (β (95% CI) = 0.32 (0.031, 0.62); p = 0.031). Children who slept less had a higher energy intake, especially from fat and protein and those who presented inefficient sleep had a higher carbohydrate intake. Strategies to enhance sleep quality and quantity combined with dietary recommendations could help to improve energy and macronutrient intake levels in children

Increases of Corporal Temperature as a Risk Factor of Atherosclerotic Plaque Instability

This work explores for the first time the effects of temperature increments on the development of high shear stresses between plaque and arterial wall due to their different dilatational properties. Data from the literature report febrile reactions prior to myocardial infarction in patients with normal coronary arteries and that coronary syndromes seem to be triggered by bacterial and viral infections, being fever the common symptom. Methods The thermo-mechanical behavior of thoracic aortas of New Zealand White rabbits with different degrees of atherosclerosis was measured by means of pressure–diameter tests at different temperatures. In addition, specific measurements of the thermal dilatation coefficient of atheroma plaques and of healthy arterial walls were performed by means of tensile tests at different temperatures. Results Results show a different thermo-mechanical behavior, the dilatation coefficient of atheroma plaque being at least twice that of the arterial wall. The calculation of temperature-induced mechanical stress at the plaque–vessel interface yielded shear stress levels enough to promote plaque rupture. Conclusions Increases of corporal temperature either local—produced by the inflammatory processes associated with atherosclerosis—or systemic—by febrile reactions—can play a role in increasing the risk of acute coronary syndromes, and they deserve a more comprehensive study

Dual purpose cattle production in Mexico

Cattle production is one of the most important livestock activities in the rural areas of Mexico, with most of the national territory dedicated to it, in addition to the use of the most agricultural supplies and forages resources, as well as agricultural and agro-industrial by-products. Mexico is placed among the ten first meat and milk producer countries worldwide, being the Mexican tropical zone one of the main suppliers of such products. One of the main milk sources is the dual purpose cattle, such systems can be described as those that produce milk (daily milking) and meat (calf after weaning), on every productive cycle. They are mainly located in developing regions and characterized by using low-technology and in poor environments, consequently productive levels are considered low. Milk is destined for self-consumption or for sale at local markets and calf after weaning is sold at local feedlots or for export. Regarding to the little information available about the dual purpose systems, the present work is intended to discuss the main characteristics of cattle production in dual purpose systems in Mexico