The Subcolonization and Buildup of \u3ci\u3eTetrastichus Julis,\u3c/i\u3e (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) a Larval Parasitoid of the Cereal Leaf Beetle, (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan

Following initial establishment of the parasitoid, Tetrastichus julis (Walker), at a carefully managed field nursery, releases of parasitized Oulema melanopus larvae were made by Michigan county agents at preselected sites throughout the lower peninsula during 1970-74. A follow-up recovery program during 1971-75 revealed continued dispersion and population increase for T. julis. An independent census verified the increasing rates of parasitism

SUGGESTIONS FOR PRESENTING KRIGING RESULTS

Kriging maps are often part of the reported analyses in many environmental research studies including those our agency is working on in the area of precision/sustainable farming. All to often important details on the underlying variography and/or kriging procedures are omitted. Likewise the content and form of presenting kriging results vary greatly. Often features of the underlying variability are not readily seen. Instead of reviewing poor practice in current literature, we offer guidelines for reporting the methodology and presenting the results with the use of soil test phosphorus (STP) measures from a real world pasture study. Relevantly, the stationarity assumption for the variogram is argued; computational aspects for both the model and empirical variogram development are reported; and similarly, computational aspects for the kriging surface are reported. In short, enough detail is reported to understand and reproduce the analyses. Standard practice for presenting kriging results should include both the kriging estimates and the associated standard error map. Various planar and three dimensional plots are shown and discussed. Emphasis is on developing quality gray-scale planar maps for conventional publications. Ideally, for both recommended plots, patterns and unique features of the surfaces\u27 variability are revealed

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms: analysis by mass spectrometry

Matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry has evolved as a powerful method for analyzing nucleic acids. Here we provide protocols for genotyping single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) by MALDI based on PCR and primer extension to generate allele-specific products. Furthermore, we present three different approaches for sample preparation of primer-extension products before MALDI analysis and discuss their potential areas of application. The first approach, the 'GOOD' assay, is a purification-free procedure that uses DNA-modification chemistry, including alkylation of phosphorothioate linkages in the extension primers. The other two approaches use either solid-phase extraction or microarray purification for the purification of primer-extension products. Depending on the reaction steps of the various approaches, the protocols take about 6–8 hours

Elucidating Surface Structure with Action Spectroscopy

Surface Action Spectroscopy, a vibrational spectroscopy method developed in recent years at the Fritz Haber Institute is employed for structure determination of clean and H2O-dosed (111) magnetite surfaces. Surface structural information is revealed by using the microscopic surface vibrations as a fingerprint of the surface structure. Such vibrations involve just the topmost atomic layers, and therefore the structural information is truly surface related. Our results strongly support the view that regular Fe3O4(111)/Pt(111) is terminated by the so-called Fetet1 termination, that the biphase termination of Fe3O4(111)/Pt(111) consists of FeO and Fe3O4(111) terminated areas, and we show that the method can differentiate between different water structures in H2O-derived adsorbate layers on Fe3O4(111)/Pt(111). With this, we conclude that the method is a capable new member in the set of techniques providing crucial information to elucidate surface structures. The method does not rely on translational symmetry and can therefore also be applied to systems which are not well ordered. Even an application to rough surfaces is possible

Operational development of small plant growth systems

The results of a study undertaken on the first phase of an empricial effort in the development of small plant growth chambers for production of salad type vegetables on space shuttle or space station are discussed. The overall effort is visualized as providing the underpinning of practical experience in handling of plant systems in space which will provide major support for future efforts in planning, design, and construction of plant-based (phytomechanical) systems for support of human habitation in space. The assumptions underlying the effort hold that large scale phytomechanical habitability support systems for future space stations must evolve from the simple to the complex. The highly complex final systems will be developed from the accumulated experience and data gathered from repetitive tests and trials of fragments or subsystems of the whole in an operational mode. These developing system components will, meanwhile, serve a useful operational function in providing psychological support and diversion for the crews

FÖRSTER TRANSFER CALCULATIONS BASED ON CRYSTAL STRUCTURE DATA FROM Agmenellum quadruplicatum C-PHYCOCYANIN

Excitation energy transfer in C-phycocyanin is modeled using the Forster inductive resonance mechanism. Detailed calculations are carried out using coordinates and orientations of the chromophores derived from X-ray crystallographic studies of C-phycocyanin from two different species (Schirmer et al, J. Mol. Biol. 184, 257–277 (1985) and ibid., 188, 651-677 (1986)). Spectral overlap integrals are estimated from absorption and fluorescence spectra of C-phycocyanin of Mastigocladus laminosus and its separated subunits. Calculations are carried out for the β-subunit, αβ-monomer, (αβ)3-trimer and (αβ)0-hexamer species with the following chromophore assignments: β155 = 's’(sensitizer), β84 =‘f (fluorescer) and α84 =‘m’(intermediate):]:. The calculations show that excitation transfer relaxation occurs to 3=98% within 200 ps in nearly every case; however, the rates increase as much as 10-fold for the higher aggregates. Comparison with experimental data on fluorescence decay and depolarization kinetics from the literature shows qualitative agreement with these calculations. We conclude that Forster transfer is sufficient to account for all of the observed fluorescence properties of C-phycocyanin in aggregation states up to the hexamer and in the absence of linker polypeptides

Car Following by Optical Parameters

A model for car following based solely on optical parameters was developed and compared with performance of human drivers in a simulator. The model uses the optical size of the back of the car being followed and the first derivative of its optical size as inputs. The model consists of two components: one that accelerates to maintain the visual size of the leading car, and another that accelerates to minimize changes in the rate of change of the visual size of the leading car. The simulator presented drivers with a leading car that was changing its velocity according to a sum of non-harmonic sines. Comparisons of human drivers’ performance with the models’ show a high degree of similarit

Peculiar from-Edge-to-Interior Spin Freezing in a Magnetic Dipolar Cube

By molecular dynamics simulation, we have investigated classical Heisenberg spins, which are arrayed on a finite simple cubic lattice and interact with each other only by the dipole-dipole interaction, and have found its peculiar it from-Edge-to-interior freezing process. As the temperature is decreased, spins on each edge predominantly start to freeze in a ferromagnetic alignment parallel to the edge around the corresponding bulk transition temperature, then from each edges grow domains with short-range orders similar to the corresponding bulk orders, and the system ends up with a unique multi-domain ground state at the lowest temperature. We interpret this freezing characteristics is attributed to the anisotropic and long-range nature of the dipole-dipole interaction combined with a finite-size effect.Comment: 11 pages 5 figure