Comparison of the virulence of some Iranian isolates of Beauveria bassiana to Eurygaster integriceps (Hem.: Scutelleridae) and production of the selected isolate

The virulence of four Iranian isolates and one exotic isolate of Beauveria bassiana on the fifth instar nymphs and also five Iranian isolates and one exotic isolate of it on the adults of Eurygaster integriceps Puton was studied using dipping and topical micro-application techniques, respectively. Nymphs were highly susceptible to the isolates. Comparison of LC50 values showed no significant difference among the isolates to nymphs. In case of the adults, LD50 values of DEBI 002, DEBI 006 and DEBI 008 were comparatively lower than those of other isolates (0.05% Tween 80® solution treatment). Coincidentally, DEBI 002 showed the lowest LD50 value among the others (odorless kerosene treatment). In addition, DEBI 002 showed the lowest LT50 value to adults. In production phase, the effects of different liquid culture media (microbiological glucose, biochemical glucose, chemistry sucrose and sugar) supplemented with yeast extract and solid media (rice, wheat and barley) were studied on blastospore and conidial production, respectively. The highest total yield was obtained 0.801 à 107 blastospores/ml media after 4 days for microbiological glucose plus yeast extract. Maximum conidial production was achieved 1.17 à 109 conidia/gr substrate using rice as medium. Viability of produced conidia on different solid media showed no significant difference among treatments

Landscaper: A Modeling System for 3D Printing Scale Models of Landscapes

Landscape models of geospatial regions provide an intuitive mechanism for exploring complex geospatial information. However, the methods currently used to create these scale models require a large amount of resources, which restricts the availability of these models to a limited number of popular public places, such as museums and airports. In this thesis, we have proposed a system for creating these physical models using an affordable 3D printer in order to make the creation of these models more widely accessible. Our system retrieves GIS data relevant to creating a physical model of a geospatial region and then addresses the two major limitations of affordable 3D printers, namely the limited number of materials and available printing volume. This is accomplished by separating features into distinct extruded layers and splitting large models into smaller pieces, allowing us to employ different methods for the visualization of different geospatial features, like vegetation and residential areas, in a 3D printing context. We confirm the functionality of our system by printing two large physical models of relatively complex landscape regions