Effects of Aluminum Foil Mulch on Parasitism and Fecundity of Apterous \u3ci\u3eMyzus Persicae\u3c/i\u3e (Homoptera: Aphididae)

Chinese cabbage plants grown in flats containing either aluminum foil mulch or no mulch cover were uniformly infested with a single apterous adult Myzus persicae (Sulzer) and exposed in a greenhouse to a free-flying population of the parasite Aphidius ervi (Haliday). Aphid fecundity. plant growth, and temperature were greater in reflective mulch plots. Aphid pardSitism was lower over mulched plots until foliage growth obscured the mulch. Later. parasitism was more frequent in mulched plots. The effects upon parasitism, fecundity. and microclimate may explain instances where aluminum mulches have not reduced aphid populations

Visualization of back pain data-A 3-D solution

Traditional approaches to gathering and visualizing pain data rely on two-dimensional (2-D) human body models, where different types of sensation are recorded with various monochrome symbols. We proposean alternative that uses a three-dimensional (3-D) representation of the human body, which can be marked in color to visualize and record pain data

A Survey of Metal Lines at High-redshift (I) : SDSS Absorption Line Studies - The Methodology and First Search Results for OVI

We report the results of a systematic search for signatures of metal lines in quasar spectra of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 3(DR3), focusing on finding intervening absorbers via detection of their OVI doublet. Here we present the search algorithm, and criteria for distinguishing candidates from spurious Lyman $\alpha${} forest lines. In addition, we compare our findings with simulations of the Lyman $\alpha${} forest in order to estimate the detectability of OVI doublets over various redshift intervals. We have obtained a sample of 1756 OVI doublet candidates with rest-frame equivalent width > 0.05 \AA{} in 855 AGN spectra (out of 3702 objects with redshifts in the accessible range for OVI detection). This sample is further subdivided into 3 groups according to the likelihood of being real and the potential for follow-up observation of the candidate. The group with the cleanest and most secure candidates is comprised of 145 candidates. 69 of these reside at a velocity separation > 5000 km/s from the QSO, and can therefore be classified tentatively as intervening absorbers. Most of these absorbers have not been picked up by earlier, automated QSO absorption line detection algorithms. This sample increases the number of known OVI absorbers at redshifts beyond z$_{abs} > 2.7 substantially.Comment: 41 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, accepted by AJ. This is a substantially altered version, including an appendix with details on the validity of the search algorithm on one pixel rather than binning. Also note that M. Pieri was added as autho

Pricing, Patent Loss and the Market For Pharmaceuticals

Empirical studies suggest that entry of generic competitors results in minimal decreases or even increases in brand-name drug prices as well as sharp declines in brand-name advertising. This paper examines circumstances under which this empirical pattern could be observed. The analysis focuses on models where the demand for brand-name pharmaceuticals is divided into two segments, only one of which is cross-price-sensitive. Brand-name firms are assumed to set price and advertising in a Stackelberg context; they allow for responses by generic producers but the latter take decisions by brand-name f inns as given. Brand-name price and advertising responses to entry are shown to depend upon the properties of the reduced-form brand-name demand function. Conditions for positive price responses and negative advertising responses are derived. We also examine the implications for brand-name price levels, and for the brand-name price response to entry, of health sector trends (such as increasing HMO enrollments) that may have the effect of expanding the size of the cross-price-sensitive segment of the market. The paper concludes with a review of recent empirical research and suggestions for future work on the effects of generic entry.

"Generic Entry and the Pricing of Pharmaceuticals"

During the 1980s the share of prescriptions sold by retail pharmacies that was accounted for by generic products roughly doubled. The price response to generic entry of brand-name products has been a source of controversy. In this paper we estimate models of price responses to generic entry in the market for brand-name and generic drugs. We study a sample of 32 drugs that lost patent protection during the early to mid-1980s. Our results provide strong evidence that brand-name prices increase after entry and are accompanied by large price decreases in the price of generic drugs.

Integration of tools for the Design and Assessment of High-Performance, Highly Reliable Computing Systems (DAHPHRS), phase 1

Systems for Space Defense Initiative (SDI) space applications typically require both high performance and very high reliability. These requirements present the systems engineer evaluating such systems with the extremely difficult problem of conducting performance and reliability trade-offs over large design spaces. A controlled development process supported by appropriate automated tools must be used to assure that the system will meet design objectives. This report describes an investigation of methods, tools, and techniques necessary to support performance and reliability modeling for SDI systems development. Models of the JPL Hypercubes, the Encore Multimax, and the C.S. Draper Lab Fault-Tolerant Parallel Processor (FTPP) parallel-computing architectures using candidate SDI weapons-to-target assignment algorithms as workloads were built and analyzed as a means of identifying the necessary system models, how the models interact, and what experiments and analyses should be performed. As a result of this effort, weaknesses in the existing methods and tools were revealed and capabilities that will be required for both individual tools and an integrated toolset were identified

The POOL Data Storage, Cache and Conversion Mechanism

The POOL data storage mechanism is intended to satisfy the needs of the LHC experiments to store and analyze the data from the detector response of particle collisions at the LHC proton-proton collider. Both the data rate and the data volumes will largely differ from the past experience. The POOL data storage mechanism is intended to be able to cope with the experiment's requirements applying a flexible multi technology data persistency mechanism. The developed technology independent approach is flexible enough to adopt new technologies, take advantage of existing schema evolution mechanisms and allows users to access data in a technology independent way. The framework consists of several components, which can be individually adopted and integrated into existing experiment frameworks.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003, 5 pages, PDF, 6 figures. PSN MOKT00

Correlations between the interfacial chemistry and current-voltage behavior of n-GaAs/liquid junctions

Correlations between the surface chemistry of etched, (100) oriented n-GaAs electrodes and their subsequent photoelectrochemical behavior have been probed by high-resolution x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. GaAs photoanodes were chemically treated to prepare either an oxide-free near stoichiometric surface, a surface enriched in zero-valent arsenic (As0), or a substrate-oxide terminated surface. The current-voltage (I-V) behavior of each surface type was subsequently monitored in contact with several electrolytes