380 research outputs found
Survival and mortality of grasshopper egg pods in semi-arid cereal cropping areas of northern Benin
Surveys of egg pods of agriculturally important grasshoppers were carried out in northern Benin between 1992 and 1995. Searches were made of oviposition sites under shrubs of the perennial legume Piliostigma thonningi along field margins. In 1993 and 1995, surveys were extended to include sorghum, Sorghum bicolor, and the perennial thatch grass Vetiveria nigritana. The four principal grasshopper species found at these oviposition sites were Hieroglyphus daganensis Krauss, Cataloipus fuscocoeruleipes Sjöstedt, Kraussaria angulifera (Krauss) and Tylotropidius gracilipes Brancsik comprising 86% of 4545 identified egg pods while 651 egg pods could not be identified to species level. Predation by meloid beetles (Epicauta, Mylabris and Psalydolytta spp.) varied between 0 and 50% for the four dominant grasshopper species. From 1993 and 1994 data, nymphal eclosion from egg pods damaged by meloids was significantly lower than emergence from undamaged egg pods. The hymenopterous parasitoids Scelio africanus Risbec and S. mauriticanus Risbec were reared from the four dominant grasshopper species and parasitism levels of 0.0-3.3% were recorded from these hosts. There were significant differences in nymphal emergences between parasitized and unparasitized egg pods of H. daganensi
Band-structure topologies of graphene: spin-orbit coupling effects from first principles
The electronic band structure of graphene in the presence of spin-orbit
coupling and transverse electric field is investigated from first principles
using the linearized augmented plane-wave method. The spin-orbit coupling opens
a gap at the -point of the magnitude of 24 eV (0.28 K). This
intrinsic splitting comes 96% from the usually neglected and higher
orbitals. The electric field induces an additional (extrinsic)
Bychkov-Rashba-type splitting of 10 eV (0.11 K) per V/nm, coming from the
- mixing. A 'mini-ripple' configuration with every other atom is
shifted out of the sheet by less than 1% differs little from the intrinsic
case.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Anhydrous polymeric zinc(II) pentanoate
The structure of the title compound, poly[di-μ-pentanoato-zinc(II)], [Zn{CH3(CH2)3COO}2]n, consists of a three-dimensional polymeric layered network with sheets parallel to the (100) plane, in which tetrahedrally coordinated zinc(II) ions are connected by pentanoate bridges in a syn–anti arrangement. The hydrocarbon chains are in the fully extended all-trans conformation and are arranged in a tail-to-tail double bilayer
Food-related quality of life is impaired in inflammatory bowel disease and associated with reduced intake of key nutrients
Microbial control of caged population of Zonocerus variegatus using Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium sp
Microbial control of caged populations of Zonocerus variegatus was carried out using indigenous fungal entomopathogens isolated from the grasshopper's cadaver. Bioassay response indicated a dose-dependent mortality coupled with drastic reduction in food consumption among spores infected grasshoppers. Lethal time (LT 50 ) of 4.6 days for 10 3 spores/ml and 3.8 days for 10 7 spores/ml of oil formulation of Beauveria bassiana were observed. While Metarhizium sp recorded LT 50 of 9.0 days and 2.8 days for 10 3 and 10 7 spores/ml, respectively. The results obtained were discussed in relation to use of the isolates in the control Z. variegatus infestation in forest agro-ecosystem of south west, Nigeria
Successful fiber sensing technologies and hot topics for the near future
Inside the Photonics field Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS) are currently being used and will still be used in the future in a wide number of applications because its properties present technical advantages over traditional techniques or, sometimes, is practically the only feasible solution. In this paper, the more successful techniques will be reviewed. Then a prospective for the near future of the market and hot topics in which invest research resources will be suggested
Iron Status and Analysis of Efficacy and Safety of Ferric Carboxymaltose Treatment in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Background and Aims:We analyzed iron deficiency and the therapeutic response following intravenous ferric carboxymaltose in a large single-center inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) cohort. Methods: 250 IBD patients were retrospectively analyzed for iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia. A subgroup was analyzed regarding efficacy and side effects of iron supplementation with ferric carboxymaltose. Results: In the cohort (n = 250), 54.4% of the patients had serum iron levels 60 mu g/dl, 61.6% had ferritin >100 ng/ml, and 90.7% reached Hb >12/13 g/dl at follow-up (p < 0.0001 for all parameters vs. pretreatment values). The most frequent adverse event was a transient increase of liver enzymes with male gender as risk factor (p = 0.008, OR 8.62, 95% CI 1.74-41.66). Conclusions: Iron deficiency and anemia are frequent in IBD patients. Treatment with ferric carboxymaltose is efficious, safe and well tolerated in iron-deficient IBD patients. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Base
A low FODMAP diet is associated with changes in the microbiota and reduction in breath hydrogen but not colonic volume in healthy subjects
Background & aims Ingestion of poorly digested, fermentable carbohydrates (fermentable oligo-, di-, mono-saccharides and polyols; FODMAPs) have been implicated in exacerbating intestinal symptoms and the reduction of intake with symptom alleviation. Restricting FODMAP intake is believed to relieve colonic distension by reducing colonic fermentation but this has not been previously directly assessed. We performed a randomised controlled trial comparing the effect of a low FODMAP diet combined with either maltodextrin or oligofructose on colonic contents, metabolites and microbiota. Methods A parallel randomised controlled trial in healthy adults (n = 37). All subjects followed a low FODMAP diet for a week and supplemented their diet with either maltodextrin (MD) or oligofructose (OF) 7g twice daily. Fasted assessments performed pre- and post-diet included MRI to assess colonic volume, breath testing for hydrogen and methane, and stool collection for microbiota analysis. Results The low FODMAP diet was associated with a reduction in Bifidobacterium and breath hydrogen, which was reversed by oligofructose supplementation. The difference in breath hydrogen between groups post-intervention was 27ppm (95% CI 7 to 50, P Conclusion A low FODMAP diet reduces total bacterial count and gas production with little effect on colonic volume.Peer reviewe
Graphite and Hexagonal Boron-Nitride Possess the Same Interlayer Distance. Why?
Graphite and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) are two prominent members of the
family of layered materials possessing a hexagonal lattice. While graphite has
non-polar homo-nuclear C-C intra-layer bonds, h-BN presents highly polar B-N
bonds resulting in different optimal stacking modes of the two materials in
bulk form. Furthermore, the static polarizabilities of the constituent atoms
considerably differ from each other suggesting large differences in the
dispersive component of the interlayer bonding. Despite these major differences
both materials present practically identical interlayer distances. To
understand this finding, a comparative study of the nature of the interlayer
bonding in both materials is presented. A full lattice sum of the interactions
between the partially charged atomic centers in h-BN results in vanishingly
small monopolar electrostatic contributions to the interlayer binding energy.
Higher order electrostatic multipoles, exchange, and short-range correlation
contributions are found to be very similar in both materials and to almost
completely cancel out by the Pauli repulsions at physically relevant interlayer
distances resulting in a marginal effective contribution to the interlayer
binding. Further analysis of the dispersive energy term reveals that despite
the large differences in the individual atomic polarizabilities the
hetero-atomic B-N C6 coefficient is very similar to the homo-atomic C-C
coefficient in the hexagonal bulk form resulting in very similar dispersive
contribution to the interlayer binding. The overall binding energy curves of
both materials are thus very similar predicting practically the same interlayer
distance and very similar binding energies.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, 2 table
The contribution of ascitic fluid to body weight in patients with liver cirrhosis, and its estimation using girth: a cross-sectional observational study
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