Does Wolbachia infection affect Trichogramma atopovirilia behaviour?

Unisexual Trichogramma forms have attracted much attention due to their potential advantages as biocontrol agents. Fitness studies have been performed and understanding the cost that Wolbachia may inflict on their hosts will help in deciding if Wolbachia infected (unisexual) forms are indeed better than sexual forms when used in biological control programmes. The influence of Wolbachia on the foraging behaviour (including walking activity and speed) of T. atopovirilia is reported in this paper. Temperature strongly affected T. atopovirilia female walking activity, but Wolbachia infected and uninfected females differed in none of the behavioural components that were measured such as walking activity and walking speed. Walking activity was highest at 25 ºC and differed significantly from that at 20 and 15 ºC. Trichogramma wasps were highly affected at 15 ºC. Behaviour analysis with females showed that female wasps spend most of the time on drilling + ovipositing on host eggs followed by host drumming and walking while drumming. The parasitism rate and number of offspring did not differ significantly between infected and cured Trichogramma females. Biological control implications of these findings are discussed

5-Bromo-2'-deoxyuridine induces visible morphological alteration in the DNA puffs of the anterior salivary gland region of Bradysia hygida (Diptera, Sciaridae)

5-Bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdUrd) has long been known to interfere with cell differentiation. We found that treatment ofBradysia hygida larvae with BrdUrd during DNA puff anlage formation in the polytene chromosomes of the salivary gland S1 region noticeably affects anlage morphology. However, it does not affect subsequent metamorphosis to the adult stage. The chromatin of the chromosomal sites that would normally form DNA puffs remains very compact and DNA puff expansion does not occur with administration of 4 to 8 mM BrdUrd. Injection of BrdUrd at different ages provoked a gradient of compaction of the DNA puff chromatin, leading to the formation of very small to almost normal puffs. By immunodetection, we show that the analogue is preferentially incorporated into the DNA puff anlages. When BrdUrd is injected in a mixture with thymidine, it is not incorporated into the DNA, and normal DNA puffs form. Therefore, incorporation of this analogue into the amplified DNA seems to be the cause of this extreme compaction. Autoradiographic experiments and silver grains counting showed that this treatment decreases the efficiency of RNA synthesis at DNA puff anlages

High-temperature QCD and the classical Boltzmann equation in curved spacetime

It has been shown that the high-temperature limit of perturbative thermal QCD is easily obtained from the Boltzmann transport equation for `classical' coloured particles. We generalize this treatment to curved space-time. We are thus able to construct the effective stress-energy tensor. We give a construction for an effective action. As an example of the convenience of the Boltzmann method, we derive the high-temperature 3-graviton function. We discuss the static case.Comment: uuencoded gz-compressed .dvi fil

Constraints on spin-3/2 and excited spin-1/2 fermions coming from the leptonic Z0-partial width

We consider effective interactions among excited spin-1/2 and spin-3/2 leptons with the usual ones. Assuming that these new leptons are lighter than the Z0 we will study the constraints on their masses and compositeness scale coming from the leptonic Z0 partial width.Comment: Typeset using REVTEX 2.0, 9 pages and 3 figures (available upon request

Editorial: Building Mathematical Models for Multicriteria and Multiobjective Applications

In our daily lives or professional settings, there are many decision problems involving multiple criteria, which may be conflicting and incommensurable. The complexity of real-world decision and the plethora of factors involved necessitate the implementation of sound theoretical frameworks for structuring decision-making processes. Multicriteria Decision Making/Aid (MCDM/A) and multiobjective methods can be highly useful for decision makers (DMs) in such tasks. Multicriteria and multiobjective approaches provide a wide variety of methodological tools for supporting the DMs when facing real-world decision problems when designing and analyzing mathematical models, representing both the preferences of decision makers and the various characteristics of the decision problems at hand in a number of areas

Crystal Structure and Physical Properties of U3T3Sn4 (T = Ni, Cu) Single-Crystals

Heat capacity experiments, crystal structure determination and transmission electron microscopy have been carried out on U3Cu3Sn4 single-crystals. U3Cu3Sn4 was confirmed to be a heavy-fermion antiferromagnet (TN=13(1) K) with a low temperature electronic heat capacity coefficient gamma=390 mJ/molUK2. Low temperature heat capacity experiments on a U3Ni3Sn4 single-crystal indicate that below 0.4 K there is a crossover between the previously observed non-Fermi liquid behavior and a Fermi liquid state.Comment: 12 pages (incl. 2 tables & 4 figures), to appear in Physica

Ethyl 2-[(carbamothioyl­amino)­imino]­propano­ate

The title compound, C6H11N3O2S, consists of a roughly planar mol­ecule (r.m.s deviation from planarity = 0.077 Å for the non-H atoms) and has the S atom in an anti position to the imine N atom. This N atom is the acceptor of a strongly bent inter­nal N—H⋯N hydrogen bond donated by the amino group. In the crystal, mol­ecules are arranged in undulating layers parallel to (010). The mol­ecules are linked via inter­molecular amino–carboxyl N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming chains parallel to [001]. The chains are cross-linked by Ncarbazone—H⋯S and C—H⋯S inter­actions, forming infinite sheets