The genus Sipha Passerini (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in North America

Five species of the aphid genus Sipha Passerini (Hemiptera: Aphididae) are reported in North America and are reviewed herein. Of these species, three are adventive species and include: Sipha elegans del Guercio, Sipha glyceriae (Kaltenbach), and Sipha maydis Passerini. Sipha maydis was discovered in California in 2007 and now has been found in Georgia. The genus also includes two native species: Sipha agropyronensis (Gillette) and Sipha flava (Forbes). Sipha maydis can be distinguished easily from all the other species in the genus that occur in North America because it is black. All the species except S. agropyronensis have been implicated in damage to crop plants. A key to the apterae and alatae of Sipha found in North America is included

Tropidosteptes forestierae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae: Mirinae): a new species of Plant Bug injuring ornamental Florida Swampprivet, Forestiera segregata (Oleaceae), in South Florida

The mirine plant bug Tropidosteptes forestierae, new species (Hemiptera: Miridae) is described from Collier County, Florida, where it was found causing serious injury to an extensive ornamental hedge of Florida swampprivet, Forestiera segregata (Jacq.) Krug and Urb. (Oleaceae). Adult male and female, fifth instar, and egg are described. Color images of the adults, nymph, egg, and injury; scanning photomicrographs of selected adult structures; and illustrations of male genitalia are provided. A key to help distinguish the 16 species of Tropidosteptes known to occur in the southeastern United States is given

A flexible Tool for Model Building: the Relevant Transformation of the Inputs Network Approach (RETINA)

A new method, called relevant transformation of the inputs network approach (RETINA) is proposed as a tool for model building and selection. It is designed to improve some of the shortcomings of neural networks. It has the flexibility of neural network models, the concavity of the likelihood in the weights of the usual likelihood models, and the ability to identify a parsimonious set of attributes that are likely to be relevant for predicting out of sample outcomes. RETINA expands the range of models by considering transformations of the original inputs; splits the sample in three disjoint subsamples, sorts the candidate regressors by a saliency feature, chooses the models in subsample 1, uses subsample 2 for parameter estimation and subsample 3 for cross-validation. It is modular, can be used as a data exploratory tool and is computationally feasible in personal computers. In tests on simulated data, it achieves high rates of successes when the sample size or the R2 are large enough. As our experiments show, it is superior to alternative procedures such as the non negative garrote and forward and backward stepwise regression.

Kako je vaša obitelj?

The author discusses how a family can become sick in more or less the same way that a person does. In this connection he analyses what relationships of the family members with each other are, what activities the family and its members occupy, what values are important to the family and its members, and to what degree the illness or wellness of a family member reflects the health status of the family as a unit.Autor raspravlja o tome, kako obitelj može postati bolesna na sličan način kao i pojedinac, pa s time u vez i analizira odnose članova obitelji među sobom, njihovu djelatnost u obitelji i izvan obitelji, stepenovanje raznih vrednota u vezi s razvojem obitelji, te utjecaj fizičkog i psihičkog zdravlja na obitelj kao cjelinu

Awareness of Meningococcal disease among travelers from the United Kingdom to the meningitis belt in Africa

Meningococcal disease causes considerable morbidity and has a high case-fatality rate. In the United Kingdom, the meningococcal quadrivalent vaccine is recommended for travelers visiting the meningitis belt of Africa. We analyzed 302 responses to a cross-sectional study conducted in 2010 of travelers who had visited the meningitis belt recently or were shortly due to travel there. Using the results of an online questionnaire, we assessed knowledge and understanding of meningococcal disease and likelihood of uptake of meningococcal immunization before travel. Meningococcal vaccine uptake was 30.1%. Although global scores in the questionnaire did not correlate with vaccine uptake, knowledge of the meningitis belt and knowledge of certain key symptoms or signs were statistically associated with high vaccine uptake. We conclude that improved education of travelers may improve vaccine uptake before travel to the meningitis belt in Africa

Revision of the taxonomic status of \u3ci\u3eAphis floridanae\u3c/i\u3e Tissot (Hemiptera: Aphididae) using morphological and molecular insight

Morphological and cytochrome oxidase 1 (Cox1) data show that Aphis floridanae Tissot (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is not synonymous with A. nasturtii Kaltenbach. Instead, A. floridanae matches the morphological characters of A. impatientis Thomas. Additionally, the range of cytochrome oxidase 1 (Cox1) pair-wise distance of the multiple collections of A. impatientis on Cornus spp., Impatiens spp. and Erechtites hieraciifolius (L.) Raf. ex DC. is 0–0.39%. Therefore, we conclude that A. floridanae Tissot, 1933 is a junior synonym of A. impatientis Thomas, 1878, new synonymy. In addition, A. impatientis is re-described, including first descriptions of the ovipara and alate male of that species

Plus Factors and Agreement in Antitrust Law

Plus factors are economic actions and outcomes, above and beyond parallel conduct by oligopolistic firms, that are largely inconsistent with unilateral conduct but largely consistent with explicitly coordinated action. Possible plus factors are typically enumerated without any attempt to distinguish them in terms of a meaningful economic categorization or in terms of their probative strength for inferring collusion. In this Article, we provide a taxonomy for plus factors as well as a methodology for ranking plus factors in terms of their strength for inferring explicit collusion, the strongest of which are referred to as super plus factors

Plus Factors and Agreement in Antitrust Law

Plus factors are economic actions and outcomes, above and beyond parallel conduct by oligopolistic firms, that are largely inconsistent with unilateral conduct but largely consistent with explicitly coordinated action. Possible plus factors are typically enumerated without any attempt to distinguish them in terms of a meaningful economic categorization or in terms of their probative strength for inferring collusion. In this Article, we provide a taxonomy for plus factors as well as a methodology for ranking plus factors in terms of their strength for inferring explicit collusion, the strongest of which are referred to as super plus factors