Douglas-Fir Beetle (Dendroctonus pseudotsugae Hopkins, Coleoptera : Scolytidae) Brood Production on Douglas-Fir Defoliated by Western Spruce Budworm (Choristoneura occidentalis Freeman, Lepidoptera : Tortricidae) in Logan Canyon, Utah

Douglas-fir beetle brood production was studied on Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii [Mirb.] Franco) trees defoliated by the western spruce budworm between 1983 and 1985. Tallies were made of the number of attacks, total length and number of egg galleries, number of eggs deposited, number of larval tunnels, number of pupal chambers, and number of emerging beetles (per female and per unit area). Data analysis showed no significant differences among the three years studied. The number of emerging beetles per female parent was 0.59, and emergence per 90 cm2 was 2.32 beetles. Egg, larval, and pupal survivals were 47.5%, 30.0%, and 15.5%, respectively

Diamond thin film temperature and heat-flux sensors

Diamond film temperature and heat-flux sensors are developed using a technology compatible with silicon integrated circuit processing. The technology involves diamond nucleation, patterning, doping, and metallization. Multi-sensor test chips were designed and fabricated to study the thermistor behavior. The minimum feature size (device width) for 1st and 2nd generation chips are 160 and 5 micron, respectively. The p-type diamond thermistors on the 1st generation test chip show temperature and response time ranges of 80-1270 K and 0.29-25 microseconds, respectively. An array of diamond thermistors, acting as heat flux sensors, was successfully fabricated on an oxidized Si rod with a diameter of 1 cm. Some problems were encountered in the patterning of the Pt/Ti ohmic contacts on the rod, due mainly to the surface roughness of the diamond film. The use of thermistors with a minimum width of 5 micron (to improve the spatial resolution of measurement) resulted in lithographic problems related to surface roughness of diamond films. We improved the mean surface roughness from 124 nm to 30 nm by using an ultra high nucleation density of 10(exp 11)/sq cm. To deposit thermistors with such small dimensions on a curved surface, a new 3-D diamond patterning technique is currently under development. This involves writing a diamond seed pattern directly on the curved surface by a computer-controlled nozzle

Plasma wave measurements for the Mariner to Venus and Mercury Final report of the Plasma Wave Instrument Science Advisory Team for the 1973 Mercury/Venus mission design

Very low frequency electric and magnetic wave measurements for Mariner Venus Mercury 1973 missio

The impact of parent-created motivational climate on adolescent athletes' perceptions of physical self-concept

This is a preliminary version of this article. The official published version can be obtained from the link below.Grounded in expectancy-value model (Eccles, 1993) and achievement goal theory (Nicholls, 1989), this study examined the perceived parental climate and its impact on athletes' perceptions of competence and ability. Hierarchical regression analyses with a sample of 237 British adolescent athletes revealed that mothers and fathers' task- and ego-involving climate predicted their son's physical self-concept; the father in particular is the strongest influence in shaping a son's physical self-concept positively and negatively. It was also found that the self-concept of the young adolescent athlete is more strongly affected by the perceived parental-created motivational climate (both task and ego) than the older adolescent athlete's self-concept. These findings support the expectancy-value model assumptions related to the role of parents as important socializing agents, the existence of gender-stereotyping, and the heavy reliance younger children place on parents' feedback

Resource allocation by the marine cyanobacterium Synechococcus WH8102 in response to different nutrient supply ratios

Differences in relative availability of nitrate vs. phosphate may contribute to regional variations in plankton elemental stoichiometry. As a representative of the globally abundant marine Synechococcus, strain WH8102 was grown in 16 chemostats up to 52  d at a fixed growth rate with nitrogen–phosphorus ratios (N : Psupply) of 1–50. Initially, the phosphate and nitrate concentrations in the vessel decreased when the respective nutrient was limiting. Cell growth generally stabilized, although several chemostats had apparent oscillations in biomass. We observed extensive plasticity in the elemental content and ratios. N : Pcell matched the supply values between N : Psupply 5 and 20. The C : Pcell followed a similar trend. In contrast, the mean C : Ncell was 6.8 and did not vary as a function of supply ratios. We also observed that induction of alkaline phosphatase, the fraction of P allocated to nucleic acids, and the lipid sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol : phosphatidyglycerol ratio inversely correlated with P availability. Our results suggest that this extensive plasticity in the elemental content and ratios depends both on the external nutrient availability as well as past growth history. Thus, our study provides a quantitative understanding of the regulation of the elemental stoichiometry of an abundant ocean phytoplankton lineage

Data-Driven Analysis of Engagement in Gamified Learning Environments: A Methodology for Real-Time Measurement of MOOCs

Welfare and economic development is directly dependent on the availability of highly skilled and educated individuals in society. In the UK, higher education is accessed by a large percentage of high school graduates (50% in 2017). Still, in Brazil, a limited number of pupils leaving high schools continue their education (up to 20%). Initial pioneering efforts of universities and companies to support pupils from underprivileged backgrounds, to be able to succeed in being accepted by universities include personalised learning solutions. However, initial findings show that typical distance learning problems occur with the pupil population: isolation, demotivation, and lack of engagement. Thus, researchers and companies proposed gamification. However, gamification design is traditionally exclusively based on theory-driven approaches and usually ignore the data itself. This paper takes a different approach, presenting a large-scale study that analysed, statistically and via machine learning (deep and shallow), the first batch of students trained with a Brazilian gamified intelligent learning software (called CamaleOn), to establish, via a grassroots method based on learning analytics, how gamification elements impact on student engagement. The exercise results in a novel proposal for real-time measurement on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), potentially leading to iterative improvements of student support. It also specifically analyses the engagement patterns of an underserved community

Risks for Acquisition of Bacterial Vaginosis Among Women Who Report Sex with Women: A Cohort Study

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is common in women who have sex with women. While cross-sectional data support a role for sexual transmission, risks for incident BV have not been prospectively studied in this group. at enrollment conferred reduced risk for subsequent BV (HR 0.18 (0.08–0.4)). Detailed analysis of behavioral data suggested a direct dose-response relationship with increasing number of episodes of receptive oral-vulvovaginal sex (HR 1.02 (95% CI, 1.00–1.04).Vaginal detection of several BVAB in BV-negative women predicted subsequent BV, suggesting that changes in vaginal microbiota precede BV by weeks or months. BV acquisition was associated with report of new partner with BV; associations with sexual practices – specifically, receptive oral sex – require further investigation

The molecular products and biogeochemical significance of lipid photooxidation in West Antarctic surface waters

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2018. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here under a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license granted to WHOI. It is made available for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 232 (2018): 244-264, doi:10.1016/j.gca.2018.04.030.The seasonal depletion of stratospheric ozone over the Southern Hemisphere allows abnormally high doses of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) to reach surface waters of the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) in the austral spring, creating a natural laboratory for the study of lipid photooxidation in the shallow mixed layer of the marginal ice zone. The photooxidation of lipids under such conditions has been identified as a significant source of stress to microorganisms, and short-chain fatty acids altered by photochemical processes have been found in both marine aerosols and sinking marine particle material. However, the biogeochemical impact of lipid photooxidation has not been quantitatively compared at ecosystem scale to the many other biological and abiotic processes that can transform particulate organic matter in the surface ocean. We combined results from field experiments with diverse environmental data, including high-resolution, accurate-mass HPLC-ESI-MS analysis of lipid extracts and in situ measurements of ultraviolet irradiance, to address several unresolved questions about lipid photooxidation in the marine environment. In our experiments, we used liposomes — nonliving, cell-like aggregations of lipids — to examine the photolability of various moieties of the intact polar diacylglycerol (IP-DAG) phosphatidylcholine (PC), a structural component of membranes in a broad range of microorganisms. We observed significant rates of photooxidation only when the molecule contained the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). As the DHA-containing lipid was oxidized, we observed the steady ingrowth of a diversity of oxylipins and oxidized IP-DAG; our results suggest both the intact IPDAG the degradation products were amenable to heterotrophic assimilation. To complement our experiments, we used an enhanced version of a new lipidomics discovery software package to identify the lipids in water column samples and in several diatom isolates. The galactolipid digalactosyldiacylglycerol (DGDG), the sulfolipid sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol (SQDG) and the phospholipids PC and phosphatidylglycerol (PG) accounted for the majority of IP-DAG in the water column particulate (≥ 0.2 μm) size fraction; between 3.4 and 5.3 % of the IP-DAG contained fatty acids that were both highly polyunsaturated (i.e., each containing ≥ 5 double bonds). Using a broadband apparent quantum yield (AQY) that accounted for direct and Type I (i.e., radical-mediated) photooxidation of PUFA-containing IP-DAG, we estimated that 0.7 ± 0.2 μmol IP-DAG m-2 d-1 (0.5 ± 0.1 mg C m-2 d-1) were oxidized by photochemical processes in the mixed layer. This rate represented 4.4 % (range, 3-21 %) of the mean bacterial production rate measured in the same waters immediately following the retreat of the sea ice. Because our liposome experiments were not designed to account for oxidation by Type II photosensitized processes that often dominate in marine phytodetritus, our rate estimates may represent a sizeable underestimate of the true rate of lipid photooxidation in the water column. While production of such diverse oxidized lipids and oxylipins has been previously observed in terrestrial plants and mammals in response to biological stressors such as disease, we show here that a similar suite of molecules can be produced via an abiotic process in the environment and that the effect can be commensurate in magnitude with other ecosystem-scale biogeochemical processes.J.R.C. acknowledges support from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) STAR Graduate Fellowship (Fellowship Assistance agreement FP-91744301-0). This work was also supported by U.S. National Science Foundation awards OCE-1059884 and PLR-1543328 to B.A.S.V.M., NSF award PLR- 1341479 to A. M., the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through grant GBMF3301 to B.A.S.V.M., and a WHOI Ocean Ventures Fund award to J.R.C

Evolution of Koch's postulates: towards a twenty-first century understanding of microbial infection

This editorial discusses strengths and limitations of Koch's postulates reviews modifications that have been used over time, and provides a brief introductory comment to the four papers that comprise the themed section herein

The mutual interplay between calcification and coccolithovirus infection

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Johns, C. T., Grubb, A. R., Nissimov, J. I., Natale, F., Knapp, V., Mui, A., Fredricks, H. F., Van Mooy, B. A. S., & Bidle, K. D. The mutual interplay between calcification and coccolithovirus infection. Environmental Microbiology, 21(6), (2019): 1896-1915, doi:10.1111/1462-2920.14362.Two prominent characteristics of marine coccolithophores are their secretion of coccoliths and their susceptibility to infection by coccolithoviruses (EhVs), both of which display variation among cells in culture and in natural populations. We examined the impact of calcification on infection by challenging a variety of Emiliania huxleyi strains at different calcification states with EhVs of different virulence. Reduced cellular calcification was associated with increased infection and EhV production, even though calcified cells and associated coccoliths had significantly higher adsorption coefficients than non‐calcified (naked) cells. Sialic acid glycosphingolipids, molecules thought to mediate EhV infection, were generally more abundant in calcified cells and enriched in purified, sorted coccoliths, suggesting a biochemical link between calcification and adsorption rates. In turn, viable EhVs impacted cellular calcification absent of lysis by inducing dramatic shifts in optical side scatter signals and a massive release of detached coccoliths in a subpopulation of cells, which could be triggered by resuspension of healthy, calcified host cells in an EhV‐free, ‘induced media’. Our findings show that calcification is a key component of the E. huxleyi‐EhV arms race and an aspect that is critical both to the modelling of these host–virus interactions in the ocean and interpreting their impact on the global carbon cycle.We thank Liti Haramaty for her guidance and assistance in culturing and infection experiments. This research was funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF3301 to BVM and KDB and GBMF3789 to KDB) and the National Science Foundation (OCE‐1537951 and OCE‐1559179 to KDB)