First report of anthracnose of Capsicum Chinense in Brazil caused by Colletotrichum brevisporum

Fruit of “yellow lantern” chili pepper (Capsicum chinense L.) with typical symptoms of anthracnose were observed in the city of Manaus in 2008 and Manacapuru in 2014, in Amazonas state, Brazil. The symptoms initially consisted of small dark-brown lesions, circular, depressed, with defined edges, progressing to the center and becoming gray to black, with concentric circles. Losses of up to 100% have occurred in some plantings. Isolation of the fungus was carried out from masses of spores present on the fruit lesions. Colonies were grown on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 25°C and 12-h photoperiod. Monosporic cultures were obtained and the isolates were deposited in the Microorganisms Culture Collection of the National Institute of Amazonian Research, Manaus, Brazil (INPA 1858 and INPA 2800). After 7 days on PDA, single spore colonies had a cottony appearance and the color ranged from white to brownish, with orange-colored masses of conidia. Conidia were hyaline, aseptate, cylindrical with rounded ends, and measured 10.2 to 17.7 µm in length × 3.3 to 5.6 µm in width. Appressoria formed were dark-brown in color, irregularly shaped or lobate, and measured 5.9 to 12.0 µm in length and 5.5 to 8.9 µm in width. Partial sequences of actin (ACT) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) genes were amplified and comparted to GenBank accession nos. KU315567 and KX878886 for ACT and KU315572 and KX878887 for GAPDH. Bayesian inference analyses performed with concatenated gene sequences showed that the isolate INPA 1858 and INPA 2800 clustered with the ex-type specimen of Colletotrichum brevisporum (BCC 38876) in a clade with high support (posterior probability = 1). Pathogenicity tests with isolates INPA 1858 and INPA 2800 were conducted on healthy chili peppers using the wound inoculation method by droplet (106 conidia/ml) on the fruit surface (Lin et al. 2002). Pathogenicity tests were done with 10 fruit per isolate (INPA 1858 and INPA 2800) replicated three times. The controls were inoculated with sterile water. Typical symptoms of anthracnose were observed 7 days post inoculation, while the controls did not show any symptoms. The fungus C. brevisporum was recovered from the inoculated chili peppers, thereby confirming Koch’s postulates. C. brevisporum was described in Thailand causing symptoms in Neoregalia sp. and in Pandanus pygmaeus (Noireung et al. 2012), in Korea in Lycium chinense (Paul et al. 2014), and in Brazil in Carica papaya and Sechium edule (Bezerra et al. 2016; Vieira et al. 2013). To our knowledge, this is the first report of C. brevisporum on C. chinense fruits in Brazil. © 2017, American Phytopathological Society. All rights reserved

A“Dirty” Footprint: Macroinvertebrate diversity in Amazonian Anthropic Soils

International audienceAmazonian rainforests, once thought to be pristine wilderness, are increasingly known to have been widely inhabited, modified, and managed prior to European arrival, by human populations with diverse cultural backgrounds. Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs) are fertile soils found throughout the Amazon Basin, created by pre-Columbian societies with sedentary habits. Much is known about the chemistry of these soils, yet their zoology has been neglected. Hence, we characterized soil fertility, macroinvertebrate communities, and their activity at nine archeological sites in three Amazonian regions in ADEs and adjacent reference soils under native forest (young and old) and agricultural systems. We found 673 morphospecies and, despite similar richness in ADEs (385 spp.) and reference soils (399 spp.), we identified a tenacious pre-Columbian footprint, with 49% of morphospecies found exclusively in ADEs. Termite and total macroinvertebrate abundance were higher in reference soils, while soil fertility and macroinvertebrate activity were higher in the ADEs, and associated with larger earthworm quantities and biomass. We show that ADE habitats have a unique pool of species, but that modern land use of ADEs decreases their populations, diversity, and contributions to soil functioning. These findings support the idea that humans created and sustained high-fertility ecosystems that persist today, altering biodiversity patterns in Amazonia

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass