The Nomenclatural Status of Saperda Inordata Say (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)

Excerpt: Confusion as to the identity and proper name of our common Saperda on trembling aspen, Populus tremuloides Michaux, in eastern North America should be clarified. The confusion has arisen from three reasons: (1) LeConte failed to distinguish S. concolor Lec. (1852) from S. irornata Say (1824); (2) Say\u27s type material was destroyed or lost which makes verification impossible; and (3) S. inornata varies from light to dark in overall appearance. The former two points are discussed here and the latter will be covered in a separate article. Authors since LeConte\u27s time have used a variety of binominal and trinominal designations for this species. In 1924 J. 0. Martin suggested that the name inornata, which had been placed in the Genus Mecas, really belonged in the Genus Saperda and that S. inornata should be reinstated replacing LeConte\u27s concolor which Martin, followed by Breuning (1952), considered a synonym of inornata. Despite Martin\u27s suggestion, S. concolor is in common use today. However, a search of the literature produced evidence which substantiates Martin\u27s claim that inornata must stand (Nord, 1968). A summary of this search is presented here in detail and a neotype has been proposed so that the nomenclature will be stabilized (Nord and Knight, 1970)

The Geographic Variation of Saperda Inornata Say (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in Eastern North America

Excerpt: During the summers of 1962 and 1963 a study of the life history and behavior of what was thought to have been Saperda moesta LeConte in trembling aspen, Populus tremuloides Michaux, was completed in northern Michigan (Nord, 1968). After the field study, it became apparent that the original identification was doubtful. Furthermore, there was a possibility that two species were present in the study areas, thus the biological data collected may have represented not one but two species

The Distribution of Saperda Inornata and Oberea Schaumii (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) within the Crowns of Large Trembling Aspens, Populus Tremuloides

The larvae of Saperda inornata Say and Oberea schaumii LeConte inhabit the stems of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michaux) root suckers and the twigs of larger trees. Nord et al. (1972a, 1972b) reported the biologies of these species in Upper Michigan and northern Wisconsin. S. inornata has a one or two year life cycle, probably depending on how early the egg is laid. Most (77.5%) 0. schaumii develop in three years while 5.0% require only two years and 17.5% require four years to develop. Knight (1963) described the distribution of galleries made by S. inornata and 0. schaumii in the crowns of large trembling aspen, P. tremuloides, in Upper Michigan. Similar distribution data were gathered from 180 large trembling aspen felled in a survey designed to determine the relative abundance of S. inornata and 0. schaumii in stands of different site quality (Nord and Knight 1972b). The analysis of that distribution data and comparisons with that of Knight (1963) are presented here. Inter- and intra-specific competition in light of the results and other behavioral information are discussed

The Importance of Saperda Inornata and Oberea Schaumii (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) Galleries as Infection Courts of Hypoxylon Pruinatum in Trembling Aspen, Populus Tremuloides

(excerpt) Trembling aspen, Populus tremuloides Michaux, and bigtooth aspen, P. grandidentata Michaux, are hosts of numerous species of injurious insects and microorganisms (Harrison 1959). Only a few of those organisms, however, are directly responsible for mortality of healthy trees. The fungus Hypoxylon pruinatum (Klotzsche) Cke. is most important in that respect, killing 1-2%o f the standing volume annually in the Lake States (Anderson 1964). It invades and spreads in cambial tissue, killing it and eventually the branch or stem by girdling. Initially, a canker appears as a sunken, yellowish-orange area in the bark (Anderson 1956). In a later stage the outer bark raises in blister-like patches and sloughs off exposing blackened, crumbling cortex

The Relationship of the Abundance of \u3ci\u3eSaperda Inornata\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3eOberea Schaumii\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in Large Trembling Aspen, \u3ci\u3ePopulus Tremuloides\u3c/i\u3e, to Site Quality

Saperda inornata Say and Oberea schaumii LeConte are cerambycids that inhabit the stems of trembling aspen, Populus tremuloides Michaux, root suckers and the twigs of larger trees. The biologies of those species in northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan were reported by Nord et al. (1972a and 1972b). S. inornata oviposits on the cambium under horseshoe- or shield-shaped egg niches gnawed in the outer bark by the female. The term egg niche, connotes an oviposition place prepared by the female using the mandibles and ovipositor (Linsley 1959). There are usually 2 or 3 egg niches at one level on the stem or twig, and a globose gall consisting of callus tissue forms there. The larvae feed in the cambial and callus tissue around the gall and require 1 or 2 years to complete development. The 0. schaurnii female gnaws an elongate, rectangular egg niche in the outer bark and deposits an egg on the cambium beneath it. The larva bores downward from the egg niche in the wood. Most individuals require 3 years to complete the life cycle; but some take only 2 years, while others take 4 years. A survey designed to determine the importance of the egg niches and galleries of S. inornata and 0. schaumii as infection courts of Hypoxylon pruinatum (Klotzsche) Cke. in large trembling aspen was begun in 1962 in Iron and Ontonogan Counties, Michigan. The data from that survey indicated that abundance of borers might be correlated with the site quality of the stand. Therefore in 1963 the survey was redesigned to detect differences in abundance between stands of different site quality. Since the redesign concerned only the selection of stands, not the sampling procedures used within the stand, most of the trees sampled in 1962 were incorporated into the redesigned survey. The data collected in conjuction with the survey also make possible conclusions regarding the distribution of borer galleries within the crowns of large trees. Those results and a discussion of competition between S. inornata and 0. schaurnii are given in another paper (Nord and Knight, 1972a). The incidence of H. pruinatum in the galleries was reported by Nord and Knight (1972b)

Associated Insects Reared from Galls of Saperda Inornata (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) on Trembling Aspen in Michigan

The poplar gall Saperda, Saperda inornata Say, is a common pest of trembling aspen, Populus tremuloides Michx, in Michigan forests. Through its egg-laying activities and larval feeding, this insect causes wood defects and tree mortality (Graham et al., 1963). While studying natural populations of this insect (Grimble and Knight, 1970), we collected many galls and found through rearing and dissection that they harbor a large and varied insect fauna

The social value of a QALY : raising the bar or barring the raise?

Background: Since the inception of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in England, there have been questions about the empirical basis for the cost-per-QALY threshold used by NICE and whether QALYs gained by different beneficiaries of health care should be weighted equally. The Social Value of a QALY (SVQ) project, reported in this paper, was commissioned to address these two questions. The results of SVQ were released during a time of considerable debate about the NICE threshold, and authors with differing perspectives have drawn on the SVQ results to support their cases. As these discussions continue, and given the selective use of results by those involved, it is important, therefore, not only to present a summary overview of SVQ, but also for those who conducted the research to contribute to the debate as to its implications for NICE. Discussion: The issue of the threshold was addressed in two ways: first, by combining, via a set of models, the current UK Value of a Prevented Fatality (used in transport policy) with data on fatality age, life expectancy and age-related quality of life; and, second, via a survey designed to test the feasibility of combining respondents’ answers to willingness to pay and health state utility questions to arrive at values of a QALY. Modelling resulted in values of £10,000-£70,000 per QALY. Via survey research, most methods of aggregating the data resulted in values of a QALY of £18,000-£40,000, although others resulted in implausibly high values. An additional survey, addressing the issue of weighting QALYs, used two methods, one indicating that QALYs should not be weighted and the other that greater weight could be given to QALYs gained by some groups. Summary: Although we conducted only a feasibility study and a modelling exercise, neither present compelling evidence for moving the NICE threshold up or down. Some preliminary evidence would indicate it could be moved up for some types of QALY and down for others. While many members of the public appear to be open to the possibility of using somewhat different QALY weights for different groups of beneficiaries, we do not yet have any secure evidence base for introducing such a system

Materialising architecture for social care: brick walls and compromises in design for later life.

This article reports on an ethnography of architectural projects for later life social care in the UK. Informed by recent debates in material studies and ‘materialities of care’ we offer an analysis of a care home project that is sensitive to architectural materials that are not normally associated with care and wellbeing. Although the care home design project we focus on in this article was never built, we found that design discussions relating to both a curved brick wall and bricks more generally were significant to its architectural ‘making’. The curved wall and the bricks were used by the architects to encode quality and values of care into their design. This was explicit in the design narrative that was core to a successful tender submitted by a consortium comprising architects, developers, contractors, and a care provider to a local authority who commissioned the care home. However, as the project developed, initial consensus for the design features fractured. Using a materialised analysis, we document the tussles generated by the curved wall and the bricks and argue that mundane building materials can be important to, and yet marginalised within, the relations inherent within an ‘architectural care assemblage.’ During the design process we saw how decisions about materials are contentious and they act as a catalyst of negotiations that compromise ‘materialities of care.

Lessons Learned from 30 Years of Assessing U.S. Coastal Water

The 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA) established goals and regulations regarding water quality in the U.S. water resources, including coastal waters. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was charged with implementing the CWA’s goals and with helping states, and tribes meet their mandate to periodically monitor and assess water quality in their jurisdictions. In response, the EPA initiated the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) to develop and test effective methods of assessing water quality in lakes, rivers and streams, and estuaries at state and national scales. EMAP-Estuaries commenced in 1990, devising sampling designs and protocols for estuaries, testing potential indicators, establishing assessment, and reporting methods. Estuarine research and development efforts continued in a series of subsequent programs, each adapting and adopting the best practices of earlier programs, each becoming more national in scale, and each integrating state and tribal participation to a greater degree. Recent surveys have included an assessment of coastal Great Lakes waters. This chapter recounts the history of assessments in coastal waters, emphasizing the current approach while highlighting examples of lessons learned over the 30-year development period leading to the National Coastal Condition Assessment

The Kuznets Curve and the Inequality Process

Four economists, Mauro Gallegati, Steven Keen, Thomas Lux, and Paul Ormerod, published a paper after the 2005 Econophysics Colloquium criticizing conservative particle systems as models of income and wealth distribution. Their critique made science news: coverage in a feature article in Nature. A particle system model of income distribution is a hypothesized universal statistical law of income distribution. Gallegati et al. (2006) claim that the Kuznets Curve shows that a universal statistical law of income distribution is unlikely and that a conservative particle system is inadequate to account for income distribution dynamics. The Kuznets Curve is the graph of income inequality (ordinate variable) against the movement of workers from rural subsistence agriculture into more modern sectors of the economy (abscissa). The Gini concentration ratio is the preferred measure of income inequality in economics. The Kuznets Curve has an initial uptick from the Gini concentration ratio of the earned income of a poorly educated agrarian labor force. Then the curve falls in near linear fashion toward the Gini concentration ratio of the earned incomes of a modern, educated labor force as the modern labor force grows. The Kuznets Curve is concave down and skewed to the right. This paper shows that the iconic Kuznets Curve can be derived from the Inequality Process (IP), a conservative particle system, presenting a counter-example to Gallegati et al.’s claim. The IP reproduces the Kuznets Curve as the Gini ratio of a mixture of two IP stationary distributions, one characteristic of the wage income distribution of poorly educated workers in rural areas, the other of workers with an education adequate for industrial work, as the mixing weight of the latter increases and that of the former decreases. The greater purchasing power of money in rural areas is taken into account