The Parasitoid Complex of Forest Tent Caterpillar, \u3ci\u3eMalacosoma Disstria\u3c/i\u3e (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae), in Eastern Wyoming Shelterbelts

A parasitoid complex affecting the forest tent caterpillar, Malacosoma disstria, was investigated during 1978-79 in shelterbelts in eastern Wyoming. Egg parasitoids included five species: Ablerus clisiocampae, Ooencyrtus clisiocampae, Telenomus clisiocampae, Tetrastichus sp. 1 and Telenomus sp. Thirteen hymenopterous species and five dipterous species were reared from larvae and pupae of the forest tent caterpillar. The most common 5th-instar larval parasitoids were the tachinid flies, Lespesia archippivora and Archytas lateralis. Of the pupal parasitoids reared, 640/0 were Diptera and 36% were Hymenoptera. Four previously unrecorded parasitoids of M. disstria were reared: Cotesia alalantae, Macrocentrus irridescens, Pimpla sanguinipes erythropus, and Lespesia flavifrons.

On Passion and Sports Fans:A Look at Football

The purpose of the present research was to test the applicability of the Dualistic Model of Passion (Vallerand et al., 2003) to being a sport (football) fan. The model posits that passion is a strong inclination toward an activity that individuals like (or even love), that they value, and in which they invest time and energy. Furthermore, two types of passion are proposed: harmonious and obsessive passion. While obsessive passion entails an uncontrollable urge to engage in the passionate activity, harmonious passion entails a sense of volition while engaging in the activity. Finally, the model posits that harmonious passion leads to more adaptive outcomes than obsessive passion. Three studies provided support for this dualistic conceptualization of passion. Study 1 showed that harmonious passion was positively associated with adaptive behaviours (e.g., celebrate the team’s victory), while obsessive passion was rather positively associated with maladaptive behaviours (e.g., to risk losing one’s employment to go to the team’s game). Study 2 used a short Passion Scale and showed that harmonious passion was positively related to the positive affective life of fans during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, psychological health (self-esteem and life satisfaction), and public displays of adaptive behaviours (e.g., celebrating one’s team victory in the streets), while obsessive passion was predictive of maladaptive affective life (e.g., hating opposing team’s fans) and behaviours (e.g., mocking the opposing team’s fans). Finally, Study 3 examined the role of obsessive passion as a predictor of partner’s conflict that in turn undermined partner’s relationship satisfaction. Overall, the present results provided support for the Dualistic Model of Passion. The conceptual and applied implications of the findings are discussed

Improved plutonium identification and characterization results with NaI(Tl) detector using ASEDRA

ABSTRACT The ASEDRA algorithm (Advanced Synthetically Enhanced Detector Resolution Algorithm) is a tool developed at the University of Florida to synthetically enhance the resolved photopeaks derived from a characteristically poor resolution spectra collected at room temperature from scintillator crystal-photomultiplier detector, such as a NaI(Tl) system. This work reports on analysis of a side-by-side test comparing the identification capabilities of ASEDRA applied to a NaI(Tl) detector with HPGe results for a Plutonium Beryllium (PuBe) source containing approximately 47 year old weaponsgrade plutonium (WGPu), a test case of real-world interest with a complex spectra including plutonium isotopes and 241 Am decay products. The analysis included a comparison of photopeaks identified and photopeak energies between the ASEDRA and HPGe detector systems, and the known energies of the plutonium isotopes. ASEDRA's performance in peak area accuracy, also important in isotope identification as well as plutonium quality and age determination, was evaluated for key energy lines by comparing the observed relative ratios of peak areas, adjusted for efficiency and attenuation due to source shielding, to the predicted ratios from known energy line branching and source isotopics. The results show that ASEDRA has identified over 20 lines also found by the HPGe and directly correlated to WGPu energies

Ecosystem carbon 7 dioxide fluxes after disturbance in forests of North America

Disturbances are important for renewal of North American forests. Here we summarize more than 180 site years of eddy covariance measurements of carbon dioxide flux made at forest chronosequences in North America. The disturbances included stand-replacing fire (Alaska, Arizona, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan) and harvest (British Columbia, Florida, New Brunswick, Oregon, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Wisconsin) events, insect infestations (gypsy moth, forest tent caterpillar, and mountain pine beetle), Hurricane Wilma, and silvicultural thinning (Arizona, California, and New Brunswick). Net ecosystem production (NEP) showed a carbon loss from all ecosystems following a stand-replacing disturbance, becoming a carbon sink by 20 years for all ecosystems and by 10 years for most. Maximum carbon losses following disturbance (g C m−2y−1) ranged from 1270 in Florida to 200 in boreal ecosystems. Similarly, for forests less than 100 years old, maximum uptake (g C m−2y−1) was 1180 in Florida mangroves and 210 in boreal ecosystems. More temperate forests had intermediate fluxes. Boreal ecosystems were relatively time invariant after 20 years, whereas western ecosystems tended to increase in carbon gain over time. This was driven mostly by gross photosynthetic production (GPP) because total ecosystem respiration (ER) and heterotrophic respiration were relatively invariant with age. GPP/ER was as low as 0.2 immediately following stand-replacing disturbance reaching a constant value of 1.2 after 20 years. NEP following insect defoliations and silvicultural thinning showed lesser changes than stand-replacing events, with decreases in the year of disturbance followed by rapid recovery. NEP decreased in a mangrove ecosystem following Hurricane Wilma because of a decrease in GPP and an increase in ER

Predicting promoters in phage genomes using machine learning models

The renewed interest in phages as antibacterial agents has led to the exponentially growing number of sequenced phage genomes. Therefore, the development of novel bioinformatics methods to automate and facilitate phage genome annotation is of utmost importance. The most difficult step of phage genome annotation is the identification of promoters. As the existing methods for predicting promoters are not well suited for phages, we used machine learning models for locating promoters in phage genomes. Several models were created, using different algorithms and datasets, which consisted of known phage promoter and non-promoter sequences. All models showed good performance, but the ANN model provided better results for the smaller dataset (92% of accuracy, 89% of precision and 87% of recall) and the SVM model returned better results for the larger dataset (93% of accuracy, 91% of precision and 80% of recall). Both models were applied to the genome of Pseudomonas phage phiPsa17 and were able to identify both types of promoters, host and phage, found in phage genomes.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science andTechnology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2019 unit and theProject POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029628. This work was also supported by BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fundunder the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Geochemistry of the Quaternary alkali basalts of Garrotxa (NE Volcanic Province, Spain): a case of double enrichment of the mantle lithosphere

The area of Garrotxa (also known as the Olot area) represents the most recent (700,000–11,500 y) and better preserved area of magmatic activity in the NE Volcanic Province of Spain (NEVP). This region comprises a suite of intracontinental leucite basanites, nepheline basanites and alkali olivine basalts, which in most cases represent primary or nearly primary liquids. The geochemical characteristics of these lavas are very similar to the analogous petrologic types of other Cenozoic volcanics of Europe, which are intermediate between HIMU, DM and EM1. Quantitative trace element modeling, suggests derivation from an enriched mantle source by degrees of melting that progressively increased from the leucite basanites (,4%) to the olivine basalts (,16%). However, the relatively more variable Sr–Nd–Pb isotope signature of the magmas suggests the participation of at least two distinct components in the mantle source: (1) a sublithospheric one with a geochemical signature similar to the magmas of Calatrava (Central Spain) and other basalts of Europe; and (2) an enriched lithospheric component with a K-bearing phase present. The geochemical model proposed here involves the generation of a hybrid mantle lithosphere source produced by the infiltration of the sublithospheric liquids into enriched domains of the mantle lithosphere, shortly before the melting event that generated the Garrotxa lavas. The available geological data suggest that the first enrichment event of the mantle lithosphere under the NEVP could be the result of Late Variscan mantle upwelling triggered by the extensional collapse of the Variscan orogen during the Permo-Carboniferous. By Jurassic/Cretaceous time, large-scale NNE-directed sublithospheric mantle channeling of thermally and chemically anomalous plume material was placed under the Iberian Peninsula and Central Europe. However, the geodynamic conditions in the NEVP did not favor magmatism, which could not take place until the Cenozoic after extension started. This favored the second enrichment event of the mantle lithosphere by entrainment and storage of liquids generated in the sublithospheric plume material. After a relatively short period of time, as extension progressed, it triggered melting in the enriched portions of the mantle lithosphere during the Quaternary, generating the Garrotxa volcanism.Depto. de Mineralogía y PetrologíaFac. de Ciencias GeológicasTRUEpu

Is there a protective effect of normal to high intellectual function on mental health in children with chronic illness?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>High intellectual function is considered as a protective factor for children's mental health. Few studies have investigated the effect of intellectual function on mental health in children with chronic illness (CI). The aim of the present study was twofold: First, we asked if <it>normal to high </it>intellectual function (IQ) has a protective effect on mental health in children with CI, and secondly, if this effect is more substantial than in their peers (NCI).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The participants were selected among children who participated in the Bergen Child Study (BCS): 96 children with CI (the CI-group) and 96 children without CI (the NCI-group). The groups were matched on intellectual function as measured by the WISC-III by selecting the same number of children from three levels of the Full Scale IQ Score (FSIQ): "very low" (<70),"low" (70 to 84), or "normal to high" (>84). CI was reported by parents as part of a diagnostic interview (Kiddie-SADS-PL) that also generated the mental health measures used in the present study: the presence of a DSM-IV psychiatric diagnosis and the score on the Children's Global Assessment Scale.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The risk of a psychiatric diagnosis was significantly lower for children with a normal to high FSIQ-level than for children with a very low and low FSIQ-level in the CI-group as well as in the NCI-group. The group differences were statistically non-significant for all three FSIQ-levels, and the effect of the interaction between the group-variable (CI/NCI) and the FSIQ-level was non-significant on both measures of mental health.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The present study showed a protective effect of normal to high intellectual function on children's mental health. This protective effect was not more substantial in children with CI than in children without CI.</p

Impact of culture towards disaster risk reduction

Number of natural disasters has risen sharply worldwide making the risk of disasters a global concern. These disasters have created significant losses and damages to humans, economy and society. Despite the losses and damages created by disasters, some individuals and communities do not attached much significance to natural disasters. Risk perception towards a disaster not only depends on the danger it could create but also the behaviour of the communities and individuals that is governed by their culture. Within this context, this study examines the relationship between culture and disaster risk reduction (DRR). A comprehensive literature review is used for the study to evaluate culture, its components and to analyse a series of case studies related to disaster risk. It was evident from the study that in some situations, culture has become a factor for the survival of the communities from disasters where as in some situations culture has acted as a barrier for effective DRR activities. The study suggests community based DRR activities as a mechanism to integrate with culture to effectively manage disaster risk

Spectroscopy across the brown dwarf/planetary mass boundary - I. Near-infrared JHK spectra

With a uniform VLT SINFONI data set of nine targets, we have developed an empirical grid of J,H,K spectra of the atmospheres of objects estimated to have very low substellar masses of \sim5-20 MJup and young ages of \sim1-50 Myr. Most of the targets are companions, objects which are especially valuable for comparison with atmosphere and evolutionary models, as they present rare cases in which the age is accurately known from the primary. Based on the sample youth, all objects are expected to have low surface gravity, and this study investigates the critical early phases of the evolution of substellar objects. The spectra are compared with grids of five different theoretical atmosphere models. This analysis represents the first systematic model comparison with infrared spectra of young brown dwarfs. The fits to the full JHK spectra of each object result in a range of best fit effective temperatures of +/-150-300K whether or not the full model grid or a subset restricted to lower log(g) values is used. This effective temperature range is significantly larger than the uncertainty typically assigned when using a single model grid. Fits to a single wavelength band can vary by up to 1000K using the different models. Since the overall shape of these spectra is governed more by the temperature than surface gravity, unconstrained model fits did not find matches with low surface gravity or a trend in log(g) with age. This suggests that empirical comparison with spectra of unambiguously young objects targets (such as these SINFONI data) may be the most reliable method to search for indications of low surface gravity and youth. For two targets, the SINFONI data are a second epoch and the data show no variations in morphology over time. The analysis of two other targets, AB Pic B and CT Cha B, suggests that these objects may have lower temperatures, and consequently lower masses, than previously estimated.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figure