The Mosquitoes of Utah

journal articleIn the preparation of this bulletin, an effort has been made to bring together what is known about the mosquito fauna of Utah. Prior to the initiation of the present investigation, very little work had been done in the state in connection with this important problem. The available information on the mosquitoes of Utah, before 1928, consisted of a few published collection records of some of the more common species, and a description of one new species taken in the vicinity of the Great Salt Lake and described by Dyar and Knab, 1918

Origin of Mosquito producing waters in the vicinity of Salt Lake City, Utah

journal articleDuring the course of this investigation, from 1929 to 1987, of the mosquitoes in the vicinity of Salt Lake City, some interesting data have been collected on the origin of waters that produce mosquitoes. These data are now sufficient to justify certain pertinent conclusions. As all mosquito larvae and pupae are confined to an aquatic habitat, it is important in studying the origin of mosquitoes to consider the source of mosquito producing waters. This is especially true in a semi-arid region such as Salt Lake City. Most of the mosquito breeding waters in this region are of a temporary or semi permanent nature. It has been found that in permanent bodies of water the natural enemies of mosquito larvae prevent them from developing in excessive numbers

An identeification guide to the Mosquitoes of Utah

journal articleThe first detailed report on the mosquito fauna of Utah was published by pees (1943). In this bulletin Rees reported the occurrence in the state of 31 species, representing 4 genera, and discussed their biology, distribution, life history and importance. Subsequent publications by Rees (1944), Rees and Nielsen (1951, 1955), Nielsen and Rees (1959) and Richards et al. (1956) have added to the knowlgdge of the mosquito fauna of this state. A total of 45 species has been reported in the literature as occurring in Utah. Of this number five are records which the authors consider invalid or of uncertain status. These are discussed by Nielsen and Rees (1959). At present the known Utah mosquito fauna consists of 40 species, representing 6 genera. A list of the Utah species with their relative abundance is presented in Table I

An identification guide to the mosquitoes of Utah

journal articleThe first detailed report on the mosquito fauna of Utah was published by pees (1943). In this bulletin Rees reported the occurrence in the state of 31 s p e c ie s , representing 4 genera, and discussed their biology, distribution, life history and importance. Subsequent publications by Rees (1944), Rees and Nielsen (1951, 1955), Nielsen and Rees (1959) and Richards et al. (1956) have added to the knowlgdge of the mosquito fauna of this state. A total of 45 species has been reported in the literature as occurring in Utah. Of this number five are records which the authors consider invalid or of uncertain status. These are discussed by Nielsen and Rees (1959). At present the known Utah mosquito fauna consists of 40 species, representing 6 genera. A list of the Utah species with their relative abundance is presented in Table I

The termite problem in Utah

journal articleTermites or " white ants" are present in all parts of Salt Lake City and are generally found in other cities and towns throughout the state. Three different species of termites have been found in Utah: Reticulitermes tibialis Banks, Reticuliterm.es tumiceps Banks, and Kalotervies minor Hagen. Reticulitermes tibialis Banks, the common termite found in Utah, is subterranean or " ground nesting" in habit and cannot live without moisture, which it obtains from the soil. This termite feeds almost entirely on wood or wood products. In Salt Lake City it has been observed feeding on the roots of several different kinds of growing shrubs and trees, on stumps, logs, posts, boards, paper, etc., as well as in the wood structures of many different types of buildings. The number of buildings infested with termites in the larger cities of the state seems to be increasing each year and the problem of termite control is gradually confronting a greater number of property owners

A preliminary list of the ants of Utah

journal articleThe following list of the ants of Utah was prepared from specimens and data now in the Biology Department of the University of Utah. This list is by no means complete, yet it is representative of practically all parts of the state. A few specimens in the collection date back to 1902, and all of these specimens and numerous other specimens in the collection were identified by Professor W. M. Wheeler. Since 1937 the authors have made collections in all parts of the state in an effort to obtain material for this paper. In addition, Mr. Grundmann has made intensive collections and a study of the ants of Salt Lake County as thesis material for a Master's Degree

Faint High Latitude Carbon Stars Discovered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Methods and Initial Results

We report the discovery of 39 Faint High Latitude Carbon Stars (FHLCs) from Sloan Digital Sky Survey commissioning data. The objects, each selected photometrically and verified spectroscopically, range over 16.6 < r* < 20.0, and show a diversity of temperatures as judged by both colors and NaD line strengths. At the completion of the Sloan Survey, there will be many hundred homogeneously selected and observed FHLCs in this sample. We present proper motion measures for each object, indicating that the sample is a mixture of extremely distant (>100 kpc) halo giant stars, useful for constraining halo dynamics, plus members of the recently-recognized exotic class of very nearby dwarf carbon (dC) stars. Motions, and thus dC classification, are inferred for 40-50 percent of the sample, depending on the level of statistical significance invoked. The new list of dC stars presented here, although selected from only a small fraction of the final SDSS, doubles the number of such objects found by all previous methods. (Abstract abridged).Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 124, Sep. 2002, 40 pages, 7 figures, AASTeX v5.

No-Bang Quantum State of the Cosmos

A quantum state of the entire cosmos (universe or multiverse) is proposed which is the equal mixture of the Giddings-Marolf states that are asymptotically single de Sitter spacetimes in both past and future and are regular on the throat or neck of minimal three-volume. That is, states are excluded that have a big bang or big crunch or which split into multiple asymptotic de Sitter spacetimes. (For simplicity, transitions between different values of the cosmological constant are assumed not to occur, though different positive values are allowed.) The entropy of this mixed state appears to be of the order of the three-fourths power of the Bekenstein-Hawking A/4 entropy of de Sitter spacetime. Most of the component pure states do not have rapid inflation, but when an inflaton is present and the states are weighted by the volume at the end of inflation, a much smaller number of states may dominate and give a large amount of inflation and hence may agree with observations.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, updated with a few new qualifications and reference

Susskind's Challenge to the Hartle-Hawking No-Boundary Proposal and Possible Resolutions

Given the observed cosmic acceleration, Leonard Susskind has presented the following argument against the Hartle-Hawking no-boundary proposal for the quantum state of the universe: It should most likely lead to a nearly empty large de Sitter universe, rather than to early rapid inflation. Even if one adds the condition of observers, they are most likely to form by quantum fluctuations in de Sitter and therefore not see the structure that we observe. Here I present my own amplified version of this argument and consider possible resolutions, one of which seems to imply that inflation expands the universe to be larger than 10^{10^{10^{122}}} Mpc.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX, 8 references added and a distinction between Linde's and Vilenkin's tunneling proposal

DMSO and Betaine Greatly Improve Amplification of GC-Rich Constructs in De Novo Synthesis

In Synthetic Biology, de novo synthesis of GC-rich constructs poses a major challenge because of secondary structure formation and mispriming. While there are many web-based tools for codon optimizing difficult regions, no method currently exists that allows for potentially phenotypically important sequence conservation. Therefore, to overcome these limitations in researching GC-rich genes and their non-coding elements, we explored the use of DMSO and betaine in two conventional methods of assembly and amplification. For this study, we compared the polymerase (PCA) and ligase-based (LCR) methods for construction of two GC-rich gene fragments implicated in tumorigenesis, IGF2R and BRAF. Though we found no benefit in employing either DMSO or betaine during the assembly steps, both additives greatly improved target product specificity and yield during PCR amplification. Of the methods tested, LCR assembly proved far superior to PCA, generating a much more stable template to amplify from. We further report that DMSO and betaine are highly compatible with all other reaction components of gene synthesis and do not require any additional protocol modifications. Furthermore, we believe either additive will allow for the production of a wide variety of GC-rich gene constructs without the need for expensive and time-consuming sample extraction and purification prior to downstream application