First record of the bug Thaumastocoris peregrinus in Greece

Το Αυστραλιανό έντομο Thaumastocoris peregrinus Carpineto et Dellapè (Hemiptera: Thaumastocoridae) αναφέρεται πρώτη φορά στην Ελλάδα. To έντομο απομυζά τα φύλλα του ευκαλύπτου. Η προσβολή των φύλλων και οι ωομάζες βρέθηκαν σε αρκετές περιοχές της χώρας. Το εισβλητικό αυτό είδος έχει αναφερθεί επίσης από την Πορτογαλία, Ισπανία και Ιταλία. Αν και στην Ελλάδα δεν υπάρχουν πλέον φυτείες ευκαλύπτου (με εξαίρεση τις πειραματικές φυτείες), το έντομο αποτελεί σοβαρό παράσιτο αυτών των δένδρων σε παρόδια βλάστηση και σε αστικά πάρκα. Στην παρούσα εργασία παρουσιάζονται όλες οι περιοχές αναζήτησης του εντόμου και οι αναφορές παρουσίας / απουσίας. Επίσης παρουσιάζονται φωτογραφίες μερικών βιολογικών σταδίων του εντόμου.The Australian bug species Thaumastocoris peregrinus Carpineto et Dellapè (Hemiptera: Thaumastocoridae) is reported for the first time in Greece. This is a sap-sucking consumer (mesophyll feeder) of Eucalyptus spp. foliage. Feeding damage and the egg batches of the insect were found in several locations in 2016. This invasive species recently has been recorded from Portugal, Spain, and Italy. Although in Greece there are no currently forest plantations of eucalypts (experimental plantations exempted), this insect is a serious pest of these trees in roadside verges and city parks

First record of the Nearctic Zelus renardii (Heteroptera, Reduviidae, Harpactocorinae) in Europe

Το νεαρκτικό είδος εντόμου Zelus reinardii βρέθηκε για πρώτη φορά στην Αττική, Ελλάδα, Ευρώπη. Ο εγκλιματισμός και η φυσική ενσωμάτωση αυτού του εντόμου στην Ελλάδα μπορεί να έχουν ωφέλιμη επίδραση στον έλεγχο επιζήμιων εντόμων σε καλλιέργειες καθώς το έντομο αυτό συμπεριφέρεται ως ωφέλιμο αρπακτικό. Ωστόσο, η εγκατάσταση και εξάπλωσή του μπορεί δυνητικά να έχουν και αρνητικά αποτελέσματα καθώς πρόκειται για πολυφάγο αρπακτικό που μπορεί να τρέφεται με άλλα αρπακτικά έντομα που υπάρχουν στα οικοσυστήματα ή χρησιμοποιούνται σε προγράμματα βιολογικής αντιμετώπισης εχθρών των καλλιεργειών στη χώρα μας. Η εισαγωγή του εντόμου σε άλλες περιοχές (π.χ. Χαβάη) έδειξε τη δυνατότητά του να έχει όλους αυτούς τους οικολογικούς ρόλους.The Nearctic assasin bug species Zelus reinardii was found for the first time in Attica, Greece, Europe. This species is a generalist predator which can contribute to the control of insect pests. This is also a known predator of several biological control agents of pests. Therefore, its naturalization in Greece is potentially problematic in economic settings since the insect may act as both an intraguild and a beneficial predator. The risky nature of importation in other areas (e.g. Hawaii) showed the possibility of these ecological roles

United we stand: improving sentiment analysis by joining machine learning and rule based methods

In the past, we have succesfully used machine learning approaches for sentiment analysis. In the course of those experiments, we observed that our machine learning method, although able to cope well with figurative language could not always reach a certain decision about the polarity orientation of sentences, yielding erroneous evaluations. We support the conjecture that these cases bearing mild figurativeness could be better handled by a rule-based system. These two systems, acting complementarily, could bridge the gap between machine learning and rule-based approaches. Experimental results using the corpus of the Affective Text Task of SemEval ’07, provide evidence in favor of this direction. 1

Phenols in Leaves and Bark of Fagus sylvatica as Determinants of Insect Occurrences

Beech forests play an important role in temperate and north Mediterranean ecosystems in Greece since they occupy infertile montane soils. In the last glacial maximum, Fagus sylvatica (beech) was confined to Southern Europe where it was dominant and in the last thousand years has expanded its range to dominate central Europe. We sampled four different beech forest types. We found 298 insect species associated with beech trees and dead beech wood. While F. sylvatica and Quercus (oak) are confamilial, there are great differences in richness of the associated entomofauna. Insect species that inhabit beech forests are less than one fifth of those species living in oak dominated forests despite the fact that beech is the most abundant central and north European tree. There is a distinct paucity of monophagous species on beech trees and most insect species are shared between co-occurring deciduous tree species and beech. This lack of species is attributed to the vegetation history and secondary plant chemistry. Bark and leaf biophenols from beech indicate that differences in plant secondary metabolites may be responsible for the differences in the richness of entomofauna in communities dominated by beech and other deciduous trees

The Total Solar Eclipse of March 2006: overview

International audienceThis paper provides an overview of integrated, multi-disciplinary effort to study the effects of a total solar eclipse on the environment, with special focus on the atmosphere. On the occasion of the 29 March 2006 total solar eclipse, visible over the Eastern Mediterranean, several research and academic institutes organised co-ordinated experimental campaigns, at different distances from the totality and in various environments in terms of air quality. The detailed results are presented in a number of scientific papers included in a Special Issue of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. The effects of the eclipse on the meteorology and the spectral solar radiation, the chemical response of the atmosphere to the abrupt "switch off" of the sun and the induced changes in the stratosphere and the ionosphere, have been among the issues covered. The rare event of a total solar eclipse provided the opportunity to evaluate 1-D and 3-D radiative transfer models (in the atmosphere and underwater), mesoscale meteorological, regional air quality and photochemical box models, against measurements. Within the challenging topics of this effort has been the investigation of eclipse impacts on ecosystems (field crops and marine plankton) and the identification of eclipse induced gravity waves, for the first time with simultaneous measurements at three altitudes namely the troposphere, the stratosphere and the ionosphere

New MACRO results on atmospheric neutrino oscillations

The final results of the MACRO experiment on atmospheric neutrino oscillations are presented and discussed. The data concern different event topologies with average neutrino energies of ~3 and ~50 GeV. Multiple Coulomb Scattering of the high energy muons in absorbers was used to estimate the neutrino energy of each event. The angular distributions, the L/E_nu distribution, the particle ratios and the absolute fluxes all favour nu_mu --> nu_tau oscillations with maximal mixing and Delta m^2 =0.0023 eV^2. A discussion is made on the Monte Carlos used for the atmospheric neutrino flux. Some results on neutrino astrophysics are also briefly discussed.Comment: Invited Paper at the NANP03 Int. Conf., Dubna, 200

Relations between lipoprotein(a) concentrations, LPA genetic variants, and the risk of mortality in patients with established coronary heart disease: a molecular and genetic association study

Background: Lipoprotein(a) concentrations in plasma are associated with cardiovascular risk in the general population. Whether lipoprotein(a) concentrations or LPA genetic variants predict long-term mortality in patients with established coronary heart disease remains less clear. Methods: We obtained data from 3313 patients with established coronary heart disease in the Ludwigshafen Risk and Cardiovascular Health (LURIC) study. We tested associations of tertiles of lipoprotein(a) concentration in plasma and two LPA single-nucleotide polymorphisms ([SNPs] rs10455872 and rs3798220) with all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality by Cox regression analysis and with severity of disease by generalised linear modelling, with and without adjustment for age, sex, diabetes diagnosis, systolic blood pressure, BMI, smoking status, estimated glomerular filtration rate, LDL-cholesterol concentration, and use of lipid-lowering therapy. Results for plasma lipoprotein(a) concentrations were validated in five independent studies involving 10 195 patients with established coronary heart disease. Results for genetic associations were replicated through large-scale collaborative analysis in the GENIUS-CHD consortium, comprising 106 353 patients with established coronary heart disease and 19 332 deaths in 22 studies or cohorts. Findings: The median follow-up was 9·9 years. Increased severity of coronary heart disease was associated with lipoprotein(a) concentrations in plasma in the highest tertile (adjusted hazard radio [HR] 1·44, 95% CI 1·14–1·83) and the presence of either LPA SNP (1·88, 1·40–2·53). No associations were found in LURIC with all-cause mortality (highest tertile of lipoprotein(a) concentration in plasma 0·95, 0·81–1·11 and either LPA SNP 1·10, 0·92–1·31) or cardiovascular mortality (0·99, 0·81–1·2 and 1·13, 0·90–1·40, respectively) or in the validation studies. Interpretation: In patients with prevalent coronary heart disease, lipoprotein(a) concentrations and genetic variants showed no associations with mortality. We conclude that these variables are not useful risk factors to measure to predict progression to death after coronary heart disease is established. Funding: Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technical Development (AtheroRemo and RiskyCAD), INTERREG IV Oberrhein Programme, Deutsche Nierenstiftung, Else-Kroener Fresenius Foundation, Deutsche Stiftung für Herzforschung, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Saarland University, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Willy Robert Pitzer Foundation, and Waldburg-Zeil Clinics Isny