Performance of Five Species of Phytoseiid Mites (Acari: Phytoseiidae) on Bactrocera zonata Eggs (Diptera: Tephritidae) as a Factitious Food

Development, survival and reproduction of the generalist predatory mites, Amblyseius largoensis (Muma), Neoseiulus barkeri (Hughes), Typhlodromips swirskii (Athias-Henriot), Proprioseiopsis kadii (El-Halawany and Abdel-Samad) and Cydnosus negevi (Swirski and Amitai) were assessed when fed on eggs of Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) (Diptera: Tephritidae) as a factitious food. For N. barkeri and P. kadii, the development was faster, while the reproduction was higher in N. barkeri and A. largoensis than for P. kadii. Survival of immatures of T. swirskii and C. negevi was low on eggs of B. zonata and all failed to develop beyond the protonymphal stage. A total of 35.4, 31.2 and 19.6 eggs per female, respectively, were obtained when N. barkeri, A. largoensis and P. kadii were fed B. zonata eggs. A diet of the peach fruit fly eggs provided the longest female longevity and highest mean total fecundity, which resulted in the highest net reproductive rate (Ro=34.61 and 32.78) and doubling time (DT=1.53 and 1.60) for N. barkeri and A. largoensis, respectively

‘Europe was a dream for me. This dream came true but remains unfulfilled at the same time’:Navigating life aspirations among forced migrants in Austria and Italy

In this article, we analyse the interplay between forced migrants’ retrospective expectations and their current experiences in the host country, and how this interaction informs their aspirations in relation to their potential life trajectories. By zooming in on the Austrian and Italian cases derived from qualitative data, this article investigates forced migrants’ retrospective perspectives on the ‘good life’ in (imagined) Europe and their experienced-informed perspectives of the host country context—reception policies—after migration by tracing individuals’ self-reported perceptions of life aspirations over the course of their migration journey. By applying the aspirations-capability framework, our analysis traces what ‘happens’ after people have submitted their asylum applications. In this way, this research sheds light on the process of adapting to a new context with gravely restricted capabilities and how this affects people’s life aspirations. By doing so, we demonstrate that aspirations are not only dynamic and flexible, but capabilities also change due to the structural confines of national asylum procedures. This study therefore brings an innovative perspective to study life aspirations and capabilities by showing the importance of reflecting not only aspirations but also the (in)capability of acting in the present which informs the process of revisiting original life aspirations for individuals seeking asylum. This process begins after the arrival, based on changes in their capabilities, specifically the national asylum structures that confine them

Information loss in local dissipation environments

The sensitivity of entanglement to the thermal and squeezed reservoirs' parameters is investigated regarding entanglement decay and what is called sudden-death of entanglement, ESD, for a system of two qubit pairs. The dynamics of information is investigated by means of the information disturbance and exchange information. We show that for squeezed reservoir, we can keep both of the entanglement and information survival for a long time. The sudden death of information is seen in the case of thermal reservoir

Oscillating Between Hope and Despair:Understanding Migrants’ Reflections on Ambivalence in ‘Transit’

This paper investigates the under-explored question of how migrants in so-called ‘transit countries’ make sense of migration aspirations. Drawing from recent scholarship on migration-related ambivalence, we focus on how people reflect on the past and present of their migration aspirations, employing a migrant-centered approach. Based on semi-structured interviews with refugees in Libya and Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as complementary expert interviews, we find that ambivalence, which (re-)shapes migration aspirations, is a necessary reaction to the structures of uncertainty installed in current European externalization measures beyond EU borders. By adopting a migrant-centered approach and taking into account the multidimensional and processual nature of ambivalence, our research contributes to a better understanding of migrants as self-critical and reflective actors facing the challenges of making decisions in situations of uncertainty; thus, ambivalence is produced in a dialectic interplay between migrants’ agency and the opportunities/limitations of changing structures that surround them which, in turn, informs the interplay between forward and backward migration aspirations

Prey suitability of Tuta absoluta larvae (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) for three predatory phytoseiid mites (Acari: Phytoseiidae) under laboratory conditions

Tomato crop in the Mediterranean Basin has been recently affected by the exotic pest Tuta absoluta (Meyrick), which is difficult to control due to its high reproduction rate and potential to develop resistance to insecticides. In this paper, the suitability and effectiveness of three predatory phytoseiid mites Cydnoseius negevi (Swirski and Amitai), Neoseiulus barkeri (Hughes) and Amblyseius largoensis (Muma), an indigenous species, were evaluated on larvae of T. absoluta under laboratory conditions. First instar larvae of T. absoluta proved to be possible food source for tested phytoseiid mites under laboratory conditions. Females of C. negevi, A. largoensis and N. barkeri were able to feed and sustain oviposition on unfed, first instar larvae of T. absoluta. A diet of insect larvae provided the shortest oviposition period and adult longevity of C. negevi and A. largoensis, while N. barkeri showed the longest corresponding periods. The total and daily number of insect larvae consumed was significantly higher in N. barkeri than in A. largoensis and C. negevi. Likewise, N. barkeri laid significantly higher number of eggs (23.6 eggs / female) than that deposited by C. negevi and A. largoensis (2.5 and 3.9 eggs / female). The sex ratio of the progeny was female biased and ranged: (females / total=0.62-0.68%) when insect larvae were provided for females of C. negevi, A. largoensis and N. barkeri

Humanized cereblon mice reveal two distinct pathways of immunomodulatory drugs

Immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs), including thalidomide derivatives such as lenalidomide and pomalidomide, offer therapeutic benefit in several hematopoietic malignancies and autoimmune/inflammatory diseases. However, it is difficult to study the IMiD mechanism of action in murine disease models because murine cereblon (CRBN), the substrate receptor for IMiD action, is resistant to some of IMiDs therapeutic effects. To overcome this difficulty, we generated humanized cereblon (CRBNI391V) mice thereby providing an animal model to unravel complex mechanisms of action in a murine physiological setup. In our current study, we investigated the degradative effect toward IKZF1 and CK-1α, a target substrate of IMiDs. Unlike WT mice which were resistant to lenalidomide and pomalidomide, T lymphocytes from CRBNI391V mice responded with a higher degree of IKZF1 and CK-1α protein degradation. Furthermore, IMiDs resulted in an increase in IL-2 among CRBNI391V mice but not in the WT group. We have also tested a thalidomide derivative, FPFT-2216, which showed an inhibitory effect toward IKZF1 protein level. As opposed to pomalidomide, FPFT-2216 and lenalidomide degrades CK-1α. Additionally, we assessed the potential therapeutic effects of IMiDs in dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis. In both WT and humanized mice, lenalidomide showed a significant therapeutic effect in the DSS model of colitis, while the effect of pomalidomide was less pronounced. Thus, while IMiDs’ degradative effect on IKZF1 and CK-1α, and up-regulation of IL-2, is dependent on CRBN, the therapeutic benefit of IMiDs in a mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease occurs through a CRBN–IMiD binding region independent pathway

Some entanglement features of three-atoms Tavis-Cummings model: Cooperative case

In this paper we consider a system of identical three two-level atoms interacting at resonance with a single-mode of the quantized field in a lossless cavity. The initial cavity field is prepared in the coherent state while the atoms are taken initially to be either in the uppermost excited state "$|eee>$" or The $\textmd{GHZ}$-state or the $\textmd{W}$-state. For this system we investigate different kinds of atomic inversion and entanglement, which arise between the different parts of the system due to the interaction. Also the relationship, between entanglement and some other nonclassical effects in the statistical properties, such as collapses and revivals in the atomic inversion where superharmonic effects appear, is discussed. The $Q$-functions for different cases are discussed. Most remarkably it is found that the $\textmd{GHZ}$-state is more robust against energy losses, showing almost coherent trapping and Schr\"odinger-cat states can not be produced from such state. Also the entanglement of $\textmd{GHZ}$-state is more robust than the $\textmd{W}$-state. Another interesting feature found is that the state which has no pairwise entanglement initially will have a much improvement of such pairwise entanglement through the evolution. Sudden death and sudden revival of atoms-pairwise entanglement are produced with the $\textmd{W}$-state.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure