Wirkung von Quassiaextrakt auf die Apfelsägewespe Hoplocampa testudinea Klug

The efficacy of Quassia extract with a standardized content of Quassin was proved in various field trials in different regions during three years. The amount of Quassin of 6 g/ha/m tree height will be recommended to practice. It is not important to have a contact effect on the eggs. The larvae must feed on the product before they enter the fruit. There is a very good efficacy on primaray infestation. Furthermore, there is even an effi-cacy on secondary infestation. Thus, even if due to difficult conditions during application or not optimal ter-mination of the treatment the efficacy on the primary infestation is not entirely sufficient, the secondary in-festation will be controlled better

Control of the apple sawfly Hoplocampa testudinea Klug in organic fruit growing

The best application technique and application data for the treatments with Quassia extract against the apple sawfly Hoplocampa testudinea Klug were tested. The spraying solution was distributed best on the receptacle of the blossom – the place where the sawfly larvae feed before the enter the blossom – when the treatment was effecttuated at fading blossom with a high amount of water (about 500 l/ha/mTh). The addition of T/S forte, a wetting agent, could also improve the efficacy of Quassia treatments in a lower dose. Thus, it is recommended to apply in fading blossom with addi-tion of T/S forte and high amounts of water to obtain the best effect. If the conditions for applica-tions are good and the infestation is not too high, the normally recommended dose of 6 g/ha/mTh can even be reduced

Efficacy of Quassia extract on the apple sawfly Hoplocampa testudinea Klug

The efficacy of Quassia extract with a standardized content of Quassin was proved in various field trials in different regions during three years. The amount of Quassin of 6 g/ha/m tree height will be recommended to practice. It is not important to have a contact effect on the eggs. The larvae must feed on the product before they enter the fruit. There is a very good efficacy on primaray infestation. Furthermore, there is even an efficacy on secondary infestation. Thus, even if due to difficult conditions during application or not optimal termination of the treatment the efficacy on the primary infestation is not entirely sufficient, the secondary infestation will be controlled better

Climacteric Lowers Plasma Levels of Platelet-Derived Microparticles: A Pilot Study in Pre-versus Postmenopausal Women

Background: Climacteric increases the risk of thrombotic events by alteration of plasmatic coagulation. Up to now, less is known about changes in platelet-(PMP) and endothelial cell-derived microparticles (EMP). Methods: In this prospective study, plasma levels of microparticles (MP) were compared in 21 premenopausal and 19 postmenopausal women. Results: No altered numbers of total MP or EMP were measured within the study groups. However, the plasma values of CD61-exposing MP from platelets/megakaryocytes were higher in premenopausal women (5,364 x 10(6)/l, range 4,384-17,167) as compared to postmenopausal women (3,808 x 10(6)/l, range 2,009-8,850; p = 0.020). This differentiation was also significant for the subgroup of premenopausal women without hormonal contraceptives (5,364 x 10(6)/l, range 4,223-15,916; p = 0.047; n = 15). Furthermore, in premenopausal women, higher plasma levels of PMP exposing CD62P were also present as compared to postmenopausal women (288 x 10(6)/l, range 139-462, vs. 121 x 10(6)/l, range 74-284; p = 0.024). This difference was also true for CD63+ PMP levels (281 x 10(6)/l, range 182-551, vs. 137 x 10(6)/l, range 64-432; p = 0.015). Conclusion: Climacteric lowers the level of PMP but has no impact on the number of EMP in women. These data suggest that PMP and EMP do not play a significant role in enhancing the risk of thrombotic events in healthy, postmenopausal women. Copyright (C) 2012 S. Karger AG, Base

Infrared receivers for low background astronomy: Incoherent detectors and coherent devices from one micrometer to one millimeter

The status of incoherent detectors and coherent receivers over the infrared wavelength range from one micrometer to one millimeter is described. General principles of infrared receivers are included, and photon detectors, bolometers, coherent receivers, and important supporting technologies are discussed, with emphasis on their suitability for low background astronomical applications. Broad recommendations are presented and specific opportunities are identified for development of improved devices

Refractive Index of Humid Air in the Infrared: Model Fits

The theory of summation of electromagnetic line transitions is used to tabulate the Taylor expansion of the refractive index of humid air over the basic independent parameters (temperature, pressure, humidity, wavelength) in five separate infrared regions from the H to the Q band at a fixed percentage of Carbon Dioxide. These are least-squares fits to raw, highly resolved spectra for a set of temperatures from 10 to 25 C, a set of pressures from 500 to 1023 hPa, and a set of relative humidities from 5 to 60%. These choices reflect the prospective application to characterize ambient air at mountain altitudes of astronomical telescopes.Comment: Corrected exponents of c0ref, c1ref and c1p in Table

Comparative Analysis of Tandem Repeats from Hundreds of Species Reveals Unique Insights into Centromere Evolution

Centromeres are essential for chromosome segregation, yet their DNA sequences evolve rapidly. In most animals and plants that have been studied, centromeres contain megabase-scale arrays of tandem repeats. Despite their importance, very little is known about the degree to which centromere tandem repeats share common properties between different species across different phyla. We used bioinformatic methods to identify high-copy tandem repeats from 282 species using publicly available genomic sequence and our own data. The assumption that the most abundant tandem repeat is the centromere DNA was true for most species whose centromeres have been previously characterized, suggesting this is a general property of genomes. Our methods are compatible with all current sequencing technologies. Long Pacific Biosciences sequence reads allowed us to find tandem repeat monomers up to 1,419 bp. High-copy centromere tandem repeats were found in almost all animal and plant genomes, but repeat monomers were highly variable in sequence composition and in length. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis of sequence homology showed little evidence of sequence conservation beyond ~50 million years of divergence. We find that despite an overall lack of sequence conservation, centromere tandem repeats from diverse species showed similar modes of evolution, including the appearance of higher order repeat structures in which several polymorphic monomers make up a larger repeating unit. While centromere position in most eukaryotes is epigenetically determined, our results indicate that tandem repeats are highly prevalent at centromeres of both animals and plants. This suggests a functional role for such repeats, perhaps in promoting concerted evolution of centromere DNA across chromosomes

The CMS Modular Track Finder boards, MTF6 and MTF7

To accommodate the increase in energy and luminosity of the upgraded LHC, the CMS Endcap Muon Level 1 Trigger system has to be significantly modified. To provide the best track reconstruction, the Trigger system must now import all available trigger primitives generated by Cathode Strip Chambers and by other regional subsystems, such as Resistive Plate Chambers. In addition to massive input bandwidth, this also requires a significant increase in logic and memory resources. To satisfy these requirements, a new Sector Processor unit for muon track finding is being designed. This unit follows the micro-TCA standard recently adopted by CMS. It consists of three modules. The Core Logic module houses the large FPGA that contains the processing logic and multi-gigabit serial links for data exchange. The Optical module contains optical receivers and transmitters; it communicates with the Core Logic module via a custom backplane section. The Look-Up Table module contains a large amount of low-latency memory that is used to assign the final transverse momentum of the muon candidate tracks. The name of the unit — Modular Track Finder — reflects the modular approach used in the design. Presented here are the details of the hardware design of the prototype unit based on Xilinx's Virtex-6 FPGA family, MTF6, as well as results of the conducted tests. Also presented are plans for the pre-production prototype based on the Virtex-7 FPGA family, MTF7

Analysis of the potential of cancer cell lines to release tissue factor-containing microvesicles: correlation with tissue factor and PAR2 expression

BackgroundDespite the association of cancer-derived circulating tissue factor (TF)-containing microvesicles and hypercoagulable state, correlations with the incidence of thrombosis remain unclear.MethodsIn this study the upregulation of TF release upon activation of various cancer cell lines, and the correlation with TF and PAR2 expression and/or activity was examined. Microvesicle release was induced by PAR2 activation in seventeen cell lines and released microvesicle density, microvesicle-associated TF activity, and phoshpatidylserine-mediated activity were measured. The time-course for TF release was monitored over 90 min in each cell line. In addition, TF mRNA expression, cellular TF protein and cell-surface TF activities were quantified. Moreover, the relative expression of PAR2 mRNA and cellular protein were analysed. Any correlations between the above parameters were examined by determining the Pearson’s correlation coefficients.ResultsTF release as microvesicles peaked between 30–60 min post-activation in the majority of cell lines tested. The magnitude of the maximal TF release positively correlated with TF mRNA (c = 0.717; p

Knowledge-based energy functions for computational studies of proteins

This chapter discusses theoretical framework and methods for developing knowledge-based potential functions essential for protein structure prediction, protein-protein interaction, and protein sequence design. We discuss in some details about the Miyazawa-Jernigan contact statistical potential, distance-dependent statistical potentials, as well as geometric statistical potentials. We also describe a geometric model for developing both linear and non-linear potential functions by optimization. Applications of knowledge-based potential functions in protein-decoy discrimination, in protein-protein interactions, and in protein design are then described. Several issues of knowledge-based potential functions are finally discussed.Comment: 57 pages, 6 figures. To be published in a book by Springe