Assessing Critical Thinking Skills in First-Semester Freshmen: A Case Study: A collaboration between St. John Fisher College Freshmen Seminar Faculty and Lavery Library Librarians

First-year programs assist new students in adapting to college life, developing skills for academic success and increasing retention. The Freshmen Seminar course at St. John Fisher College is such a course, taught by college faculty and staff with collaboration from departments across campus. Participants will experience a stand-alone lesson created by the college archivist with the objective of identifying a baseline assessment of critical thinking skills. Presented as a complete package from learning objectives to assessment tools, the class session is purposely designed to be easy to replicated

Parasitism of Diatraea saccharalis (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) eggs by Trichogramma exiguum (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) : influence of Zea mays leaf pubescence

The effect of maize foliar pubescence on the oviposition of D. saccharalis and egg parasitism by T. exiguum was assessed. Sixty-eight maize cultivars were classified by hair density on the upper leaf face into “high pubescent “ (HP) and “low pubescent” (LP) classes. No differences in total egg masses/plant and total eggs/plant were found between HP and LP cultivars. More egg masses/plant and eggs/plant were found in the lower face of leaves of HP cultivars, but no differences were found between leaf faces in LP cultivars. The percentages of parasitised egg masses and eggs were higher on LP cultivars, and the egg masses and eggs on the lower leaf face showed a higher level of parasitism than the ones on the upper face. The results suggest the advantage of incorporating low hair density as a trait for the development of resistant maize cultivars, since this character would increase the oviposition activity of T. exiguum

Disposición espacial de las larvas de Rachiplusia nu Gueneé (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) en el cultivo de soja

La “oruga medidora “, Rachiplusia nu, es una plaga de varios cultivos de la Argentina y se encuentra además en vegetación espontánea. El objetivo de esta investigación fue determinar la disposición espacial del estado larval de R. nu en cultivos de soja de la región pampeana y el número óptimo de muestras para estimar su densidad. El estudio se llevó a cabo en parcelas experimentales cultivadas con soja de segunda época, en dos localidades en distintos años. Mediante muestreos semanales, desde un mes después de la siembra y hasta la senescencia foliar del cultivo, se registró el número de larvas y se determinó su patrón de disposición espacial sobre la base de la relación varianza/media y de los métodos de regresión de Taylor y de Iwao. La relación varianza/media indicó que la disposición de las larvas es al azar a muy baja densidad y que existe agregación a densidades mayores. Ambos métodos de regresión detectaron agregación al considerar el rango total del promedio de larvas. El número óptimo de muestras varió ampliamente (970-10) en función del nivel de precisión y densidad promedio de larvas.Rachiplusia nu is a pest of crops and it is also found on natural vegetation in Argentina. The objective of this study was to determine the spatial pattern of R. nu larvae in soybean crops in the Pampean region and the optimal number of samples required to estimate larval density with a given precision. The study was carried out in double cropping soybean experimental plots, at two sites during different years. By means of weekly samplings, from one month after sowing through leaf senescence, we recorded the number of R. nu larvae. We determined their spatial pattern by means of the variance/mean ratio and Taylor and Iwao regression methods. Dispersion tended to become more random at lower densities and aggregation was apparent only at higher densities. Both regression methods detected clumping when the whole range of larval mean density was considered. Optimal number of sample units varied (970-10) according to precision levels and larval mean densities

Variación espacio-temporal de sírfidos depredadores (Diptera: Syrphidae) y su asociación con áfidos en cultivos hortícolas orgánicos de La Plata, Buenos Aire

Las variaciones poblacionales de sírfidos depredadores en los agroecosistemasdependen principalmente de los recursos ofrecidos por los cultivos y la vegetación silvestre,así como de la mortalidad causada por sus enemigos naturales. En este trabajoidentificamos I) las especies de sírfidos afidófagos en lechuga y brócoli, II) las variacionesestacionales de los estados inmaduros y el parasitismo larval, y III) las plantas aledañas a loscultivos más visitadas. Se registraron los estados inmaduros de los sírfidos y los áfidoscolectando quincenalmente 30 hojas al azar en cada cultivo durante 2018-2019. Los adultosde sírfidos registrados por observación directa durante 10 minutos en parches de vegetaciónsilvestre, fueron colectados manualmente y se determinaron las plantas visitadas. Lossírfidos fueron Allograpta exotica Wiedemann y Toxomerus duplicatus Wiedemann;solamente la primera especie fue registrada en los cultivos. Los áfidos más abundantesfueron Myzus persicae (Sulzer) en lechuga y Brevycorine brassicae (L.) en brócoli. Elparasitismo larval varió entre 8 y 100%, registrándose Diplazon laetatorius (Fabricius) enambos cultivos, y Pachyneuron aff. nelsoni solo en brócoli. Galinsoga parviflora Cav. yMatricaria chamomilla L. fueron las plantas silvestres más visitadas. Estos conocimientosson relevantes para el control biológico de áfidos por sírfidos en el marco del controlbiológico por conservación.Population variations of predatory hoverflies in agroecosystems depend mainly on the resources that crops and wild vegetation provides them as well as death caused by natural enemies. We identified I) aphidophagous hoverfly species in lettuce and broccoli crops in Buenos Aires, II) the seasonal variations of the immature stages and their larval parasitism, and III) the wild plants, surrounding the crops, visited by adults. Fortnightly, 30 leaves were randomly selected in both crops during 2018-2019 and immature stages of syrphids and aphids per leaf were recorded. Adults were manually collected in patches of the wild plants (during 10 min of direct observations), and plants visited by adults were determined. The hoverflies were Allograpta exotica Wiedemann and Toxomerus duplicatus Wiedemann. Only A. exotica was recorded in crops. The dominant aphids were Myzus persicae (Sulzer) in lettuce and Brevycorine brassicae (L.) in broccoli. Parasitism rates ranged between 8 and 100% and the species were Diplazon laetatorius (Fabricius), in both crops, and Pachyneuron aff. nelsoni only in broccoli. Galinsoga parviflora Cav. and Matricaria chamomilla L. were the wild plants most often visited by hoverflies. This work provides basic information for the control of aphids by hoverflies in the framework of conservation biological controlFil: Diaz Lucas, María F.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores; ArgentinaFil: Passareli, Lilián M.. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Laboratorio de Estudios de Anatomía Vegetal Evolutiva y Sistemática; ArgentinaFil: Maza, Noelia. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Agronomía y Zootecnia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán; ArgentinaFil: Aquino, Daniel A.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores; Argentina. Museo de Ciencias Naturales de La Plata.; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Cs.agrarias y Forestales. Centro de Investigacion En Sanidad Vegetal.; ArgentinaFil: Greco, Nancy M.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores; ArgentinaFil: Rocco, Margarita. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores; Argentin

Supplement: "Localization and broadband follow-up of the gravitational-wave transient GW150914" (2016, ApJL, 826, L13)

This Supplement provides supporting material for Abbott et al. (2016a). We briefly summarize past electromagnetic (EM) follow-up efforts as well as the organization and policy of the current EM follow-up program. We compare the four probability sky maps produced for the gravitational-wave transient GW150914, and provide additional details of the EM follow-up observations that were performed in the different bands

Search of the Orion spur for continuous gravitational waves using a loosely coherent algorithm on data from LIGO interferometers

We report results of a wideband search for periodic gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars within the Orion spur towards both the inner and outer regions of our Galaxy. As gravitational waves interact very weakly with matter, the search is unimpeded by dust and concentrations of stars. One search disk (A) is 6.87° in diameter and centered on 20h10m54.71s+33°33′25.29′′, and the other (B) is 7.45° in diameter and centered on 8h35m20.61s-46°49′25.151′′. We explored the frequency range of 50-1500 Hz and frequency derivative from 0 to -5×10-9 Hz/s. A multistage, loosely coherent search program allowed probing more deeply than before in these two regions, while increasing coherence length with every stage. Rigorous follow-up parameters have winnowed the initial coincidence set to only 70 candidates, to be examined manually. None of those 70 candidates proved to be consistent with an isolated gravitational-wave emitter, and 95% confidence level upper limits were placed on continuous-wave strain amplitudes. Near 169 Hz we achieve our lowest 95% C.L. upper limit on the worst-case linearly polarized strain amplitude h0 of 6.3×10-25, while at the high end of our frequency range we achieve a worst-case upper limit of 3.4×10-24 for all polarizations and sky locations. © 2016 American Physical Society