Predictive model for the emergence of Xylotrechus arvicola (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in La Rioja vineyards (Spain)

Xylotrechus arvicola (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) (Olivier) is a polyphagous borer which attacks different woody species in natural habitats in Spain. This coleopteran is also becoming a real impacting pest in several Spanish wine producing territories. Infested vines show adult exit holes, rachitic shoots, a higher incidence of wood fungal diseases and fragility. At the beginning of the 1990s, a heavy increase of infestation was observed in La Rioja vineyards, the only Qualified Guarantee of Origin Region (A.O.C.) in Spain. Due to the endophytic development of the larvae of X. arvicola, adults are the designated target for the integrated management. Therefore, the aim of the present paper was to study the flight period of the pest and to calculate the value of degree-days for the emergence of both sexes from data collected in the field during 2003-2008 in a Tempranillo cultivar in Tirgo (La Rioja). Adult emergences occurred from the end of May to mid-August and a certain degree of protandry was detected. The predictive models obtained for each year fit a sinusoidal curve in all cases, except for males in 2004, when the adjustment was polynomial. The obtained correlation coefficients were considerably high, as the value 0.99 was exceeded in 72 % of the cases. These results obtained in La Rioja vineyards suggest that control strategies aimed at the reduction of the adult population of X. arvicola in the view of the integrated management, should be performed between mid-June and the end of July.

Cosmological Effects of Nonlinear Electrodynamics

It will be shown that a given realization of nonlinear electrodynamics, used as source of Einstein's equations, generates a cosmological model with interesting features, namely a phase of current cosmic acceleration, and the absence of an initial singularity, thus pointing to a way to solve two important problems in cosmology

The State Equation of the Yang-Mills field Dark Energy Models

In this paper, we study the possibility of building Yang-Mills(YM) field dark energy models with equation of state (EoS) crossing -1, and find that it can not be realized by the single YM field models, no matter what kind of lagrangian or initial condition. But the states of $-1<\omega<0$ and $\omega<-1$ all can be naturally got in this kind of models. The former is like a quintessence field, and the latter is like a phantom field. This makes that one can build a model with two YM fields, in which one with the initial state of $-1<\omega<0$, and the other with $\omega<-1$. We give an example model of this kind, and find that its EoS is larger than -1 in the past and less than -1 at the present time. We also find that this change must be from $\omega>-1$ to $<-1$, and it will go to the critical state of $\omega=-1$ with the expansion of the Universe, which character is same with the single YM field models, and the Big Rip is naturally avoided.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures. minor typos correcte

Could dark energy be vector-like?

In this paper I explore whether a vector field can be the origin of the present stage of cosmic acceleration. In order to avoid violations of isotropy, the vector has be part of a ``cosmic triad'', that is, a set of three identical vectors pointing in mutually orthogonal spatial directions. A triad is indeed able to drive a stage of late accelerated expansion in the universe, and there exist tracking attractors that render cosmic evolution insensitive to initial conditions. However, as in most other models, the onset of cosmic acceleration is determined by a parameter that has to be tuned to reproduce current observations. The triad equation of state can be sufficiently close to minus one today, and for tachyonic models it might be even less than that. I briefly analyze linear cosmological perturbation theory in the presence of a triad. It turns out that the existence of non-vanishing spatial vectors invalidates the decomposition theorem, i.e. scalar, vector and tensor perturbations do not decouple from each other. In a simplified case it is possible to analytically study the stability of the triad along the different cosmological attractors. The triad is classically stable during inflation, radiation and matter domination, but it is unstable during (late-time) cosmic acceleration. I argue that this instability is not likely to have a significant impact at present.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures. Uses RevTeX4. v2: Discussion about relation to phantoms added and additional references cite

A Practical Guide to Rodent Islet Isolation and Assessment

Pancreatic islets of Langerhans secrete hormones that are vital to the regulation of blood glucose and are, therefore, a key focus of diabetes research. Purifying viable and functional islets from the pancreas for study is an intricate process. This review highlights the key elements involved with mouse and rat islet isolation, including choices of collagenase, the collagenase digestion process, purification of islets using a density gradient, and islet culture conditions. In addition, this paper reviews commonly used techniques for assessing islet viability and function, including visual assessment, fluorescent markers of cell death, glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, and intracellular calcium measurements. A detailed protocol is also included that describes a common method for rodent islet isolation that our laboratory uses to obtain viable and functional mouse islets for in vitro study of islet function, beta-cell physiology, and in vivo rodent islet transplantation. The purpose of this review is to serve as a resource and foundation for successfully procuring and purifying high-quality islets for research purposes

Investigating the Role of Islet Cytoarchitecture in Its Oscillation Using a New β-Cell Cluster Model

The oscillatory insulin release is fundamental to normal glycemic control. The basis of the oscillation is the intercellular coupling and bursting synchronization of β cells in each islet. The functional role of islet β cell mass organization with respect to its oscillatory bursting is not well understood. This is of special interest in view of the recent finding of islet cytoarchitectural differences between human and animal models. In this study we developed a new hexagonal closest packing (HCP) cell cluster model. The model captures more accurately the real islet cell organization than the simple cubic packing (SCP) cluster that is conventionally used. Using our new model we investigated the functional characteristics of β-cell clusters, including the fraction of cells able to burst fb, the synchronization index λ of the bursting β cells, the bursting period Tb, the plateau fraction pf, and the amplitude of intracellular calcium oscillation [Ca]. We determined their dependence on cluster architectural parameters including number of cells nβ, number of inter-β cell couplings of each β cell nc, and the coupling strength gc. We found that at low values of nβ, nc and gc, the oscillation regularity improves with their increasing values. This functional gain plateaus around their physiological values in real islets, at nβ∼100, nc∼6 and gc∼200 pS. In addition, normal β-cell clusters are robust against significant perturbation to their architecture, including the presence of non-β cells or dead β cells. In clusters with nβ>∼100, coordinated β-cell bursting can be maintained at up to 70% of β-cell loss, which is consistent with laboratory and clinical findings of islets. Our results suggest that the bursting characteristics of a β-cell cluster depend quantitatively on its architecture in a non-linear fashion. These findings are important to understand the islet bursting phenomenon and the regulation of insulin secretion, under both physiological and pathological conditions

Neutrinos

229 pages229 pages229 pagesThe Proceedings of the 2011 workshop on Fundamental Physics at the Intensity Frontier. Science opportunities at the intensity frontier are identified and described in the areas of heavy quarks, charged leptons, neutrinos, proton decay, new light weakly-coupled particles, and nucleons, nuclei, and atoms