Rearing the Cotton Bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, on a Tapioca-Based Artificial Diet

The impact of a tapioca-based artificial diet on the developmental rate, life history parameters, and fertility was examined over five consecutive generations for the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera Hubner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), a highly polyphagous pest of many agricultural crops. The study showed that when fed the tapioca-based artificial diet during larval stage, larval and pupal developmental period, percent pupating, pupal weight, emergence rate of male and female, longevity, fecundity and hatching were non-significantly different than that of the control agar-based artificial diet. Moreover, the cost to rear on tapioca-based diet approached 2.13 times less than the cost of rearing on the agar-based artificial diet. These results demonstrate the effectiveness and potential cost savings of the tapioca-based artificial diet for rearing H. armigera

Intuitionistic Linear-time µ-Calculus

时序逻辑是一种便于描述并发和反应式系统性质及用于推理的逻辑。这些系统通常具有无穷（即不终止）的系统与环境的交互行为序列。有时我们需要能够同时表示系统有穷和无穷的行为，并区分这些行为。有多种尝试将线性时序逻辑LTL扩展到有穷领域，比如使用强弱两种下一时刻时序算子，使用不同的语义解释，以及有穷无穷行为的一致解释。论文研究直觉线性μ-演算(IμTL)，即μ-演算(μTL)的直觉解释。μTL的语义基础是Boolean代数。对于IμTL，语义基础为基于前缀封闭集合的Heyting代数。为给出基于Heyting的IμTL语义，论文定义了解释函数Iiρ。该定义用于刻画反应式系统的重要性质，如安全性质和活性。由于该刻画能够在直觉语义下表示有穷和无穷行为，论文对直觉语义下的安全性质和活性进行了表达。并且，由于IμTL包含不动点，论文证明了互斥问题的一种不动点表示为直觉论域意义下的安全性质。为比较ILTL和IμTL，论文建立它们之间的关系。通过ILTL和IμTL的语义函数的比较，论文论证了ILTL可以从IμTL得到（可以看成是IμTL的子集）。 论文对IμTL语义下的“假设-保证”规范进行了论述。之前的研究对这类规范通常使用不动点描述，论文应用IμTL语义来描述这样的规范。在该描述中，论文使用运行轨迹的集合，而非单个运行轨迹，不动点只是辅助性的。论文基于直觉论域下的不动点解释，建立了一种组合式推理的规则。该规则推广了对于类型为ðφ的安全性质的讨论，并且该规则具有的一般性超出LTL可表达的性质的范围。论文证明了该规则的正确性。论文在直觉论域下将这些规则应用于Moore机器的组合式循环推理。在这个意义下，论文很好地建立了安全性质的这类“假设-保证”规范的推理规则。Linear time temporal logic (LTL) is a convenient way to specify and reasoning about concurrent and reactive systems. These systems primarily possess an in¯nite behavior i.e. a non-terminating sequence of interactions between system and its environment. It is sometimes desirable to reason about infinite and finite behaviors simultaneously. Various suggestions have been proposed to extend LTL in order to express finite behavior like weak and strong next operators interpretations, semantic interpretations, and uniform treatment of finite and infinite behaviors. We propose intuitionistic linear-time μ-calculus (IμTL) as an intuitionistic variant of linear-time μ-calculus (μTL). The underlying algebra of μTL is Boolean algebra, while for specifications in IμTL we have Heyting algebra of pre¯xed closed set. We define an interpretations function Iρi in order to give the semantics of IμTL based on this algebra. This novel formulation is used to specify and characterize the most important properties of reactive systems namely safety and liveness properties. Since this characterization inherits finite and infinite behaviors simultaneously and is used to define these properties in intuitionisic domain and hence intuitionistic safety and liveness properties are formulated. Furthermore, since IμTL encompasses the fixed point, therefore, fixed point interpretation of mutual exclusion problem as an intuitionistic safety property is proved. In order to compare the relative capabilities of ILTL and IμTL the correspondence between intuitionistic linea-time logic and that of intuitionistic linear-time μ-calculus is established and we compare their expressive powers. The deducibility of ILTL from IμTL is made through their corresponding interpretation functions which are used for semantic interpretation of ILTL and IμTL, and the modalities. Besides that we give the intuitionistic linear-time μ-calculus interpretation of assumption-guarantee specifications. Previously, the fixed point treatment of assumption-guarantee paradigm these specifications is made over least and greatest fixed points, while we treat the assumption-guarantee specifications over a complete domain of intuitionistic linear-time μ-calculus. In this transformation the fixed point interpretation is taken as its subsidiary since we take a set of traces or computation in stead of single trace or computation when dealing with assumption and guarantee properties. We establish the compositional rules in intuitionistic domain with fixed points interpretation.The rules extended the discussion for safety properties of the form □φ and it is quite general such that the properties are not expressible by LTL formulas. We demonstrate the soundness of the rules established in this domain.We applied these rules over the circular composition rules for compositional verification of Moore machines in the intuitionistic domain. Therefore, the assumption-guarantee specification for safety property is well established for IμTL

Video Summarization for Sign Languages Using the Median of Entropy of Mean Frames Method

Multimedia information requires large repositories of audio-video data. Retrieval and delivery of video content is a very time-consuming process and is a great challenge for researchers. An efficient approach for faster browsing of large video collections and more efficient content indexing and access is video summarization. Compression of data through extraction of keyframes is a solution to these challenges. A keyframe is a representative frame of the salient features of the video. The output frames must represent the original video in temporal order. The proposed research presents a method of keyframe extraction using the mean of consecutive k frames of video data. A sliding window of size k / 2 is employed to select the frame that matches the median entropy value of the sliding window. This is called the Median of Entropy of Mean Frames (MME) method. MME is mean-based keyframes selection using the median of the entropy of the sliding window. The method was tested for more than 500 videos of sign language gestures and showed satisfactory results

J Insect Sci.

The impact of a tapioca-based artificial diet on the developmental rate, life history parameters, and fertility was examined over five consecutive generations for the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera Hubner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), a highly polyphagous pest of many agricultural crops. The study showed that when fed the tapioca-based artificial diet during larval stage, larval and pupal developmental period, percent pupating, pupal weight, emergence rate of male and female, longevity, fecundity and hatching were non-significantly different than that of the control agar-based artificial diet. Moreover, the cost to rear on tapioca-based diet approached 2.13 times less than the cost of rearing on the agar-based artificial diet. These results demonstrate the effectiveness and potential cost savings of the tapioca-based artificial diet for rearing H. armigera.The impact of a tapioca-based artificial diet on the developmental rate, life history parameters, and fertility was examined over five consecutive generations for the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera Hubner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), a highly polyphagous pest of many agricultural crops. The study showed that when fed the tapioca-based artificial diet during larval stage, larval and pupal developmental period, percent pupating, pupal weight, emergence rate of male and female, longevity, fecundity and hatching were non-significantly different than that of the control agar-based artificial diet. Moreover, the cost to rear on tapioca-based diet approached 2.13 times less than the cost of rearing on the agar-based artificial diet. These results demonstrate the effectiveness and potential cost savings of the tapioca-based artificial diet for rearing H. armigera