The influence of chitin-urea amendments applied to an organic soil on a Meloidogyne hapla population and on the growth of greenhouse tomato

Cette expérience a été réalisée en serre dans le but d'évaluer l'efficacité d'un amendement à base de chitine-urée appliqué à un sol organique dans le but de réprimer une population du nématode des nodosités (Meloidogyne hapla) provenant du Québec et de déterminer le pouvoir pathogène de ce nématode sur une culture de tomate (Lycopersicon esculentum). Les amendements de chitine-urée, aux doses de 0,2 et 0,4 % (vol:vol), n'ont pas réduit les populations du nématode présentes avant la plantation. Les populations finales d'œufs de M. hapla ont été significativement augmentées dans les sols amendés avec la chitine-urée et un effet significatif positif de la dose a été enregistré. Le feuillage de tomate a été significativement réduit en présence de M. hapla, et accru par l'amendement de chitine-urée. À la récolte, le poids des fruits n'a pas été affecté par la présence du M. hapla ni par la chitine-urée. Les populations finales d'oeufs de M. hapla étaient associées avec des teneurs réduites en N et P, mais accrues en Ca dans les tissus foliaires.This experiment was conducted under greenhouse conditions to evaluate the efficiency of chitin-urea amendments to an organic soil against a Quebec population of the northern root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne hapla) and to assess the pathogenicity of this population on tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum). Chitin-urea amendments at 0.2 and 0.4% (vol:vol) were ineffective in reducing the preplant nematode populations. The final M. hapla egg populations were significantly increased in chitin-urea amended soils, and a signifiant positive dosage effect was recorded. Shoot growth of tomato plants was significantly reduced by M. hapla but was increased by chitin-urea. At harvest, fruit weights were neither affected by M. hapla nor by chitin-urea amendments. The final M. hapla egg population was linked to lower N and P levels, and to higher Ca levels in leaf tissues

Cool White Dwarfs Found in the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey

We present the results of a search for cool white dwarfs in the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope (UKIRT) Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Large Area Survey (LAS). The UKIDSS LAS photometry was paired with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to identify cool hydrogen-rich white dwarf candidates by their neutral optical colors and blue near-infrared colors, as well as faint Reduced Proper Motion magnitudes. Optical spectroscopy was obtained at Gemini Observatory, and showed the majority of the candidates to be newly identified cool degenerates, with a small number of G- to K-type (sub)dwarf contaminants. Our initial search of 280 deg2 of sky resulted in seven new white dwarfs with effective temperature T_eff ~ 6000 K. The current followup of 1400 deg2 of sky has produced thirteen new white dwarfs. Model fits to the photometry show that seven of the newly identified white dwarfs have 4120 K <= T_eff <= 4480 K, and cooling ages between 7.3 Gyr and 8.7 Gyr; they have 40 km/s <= v_tan <= 85 km/s and are likely to be thick disk 10-11 Gyr-old objects. The other half of the sample has 4610 K <= T_eff <= 5260 K, cooling ages between 4.3 Gyr and 6.9 Gyr, and 60 km/s <= v_tan <= 100 km/s. These are either thin disk remnants with unusually high velocities, or lower-mass remnants of thick disk or halo late-F or G stars.Comment: To appear in ApJ, accepted April 18 2011. 34 pages include 11 Figures and 5 Table

Eye movements may cause motor contagion effects

When a person executes a movement, the movement is more errorful while observing another person’s actions that are incongruent rather than congruent with the executed action. This effect is known as “motor contagion”. Accounts of this effect are often grounded in simulation mechanisms: increased movement error emerges because the motor codes associated with observed actions compete with motor codes of the goal action. It is also possible, however, that the increased movement error is linked to eye movements that are executed simultaneously with the hand movement because oculomotor and manual-motor systems are highly interconnected. In the present study, participants performed a motor contagion task in which they executed horizontal arm movements while observing a model making either vertical (incongruent) or horizontal (congruent) movements under three conditions: no instruction, maintain central fixation, or track the model’s hand with the eyes. A significant motor contagion-like effect was only found in the ‘track’ condition. Thus, ‘motor contagion’ in the present task may be an artifact of simultaneously executed incongruent eye movements. These data are discussed in the context of stimulation and associative learning theories, and raise eye movements as a critical methodological consideration for future work on motor contagion

The Field White Dwarf Mass Distribution

We revisit the properties and astrophysical implications of the field white dwarf mass distribution in preparation of Gaia applications. Our study is based on the two samples with the best established completeness and most precise atmospheric parameters, the volume-complete survey within 20 pc and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) magnitude-limited sample. We explore the modelling of the observed mass distributions with Monte Carlo simulations, but find that it is difficult to constrain independently the initial mass function (IMF), the initial-to-final-mass relation (IFMR), the stellar formation history (SFH), the variation of the Galactic disk vertical scale height as a function of stellar age, and binary evolution. Each of these input ingredients has a moderate effect on the predicted mass distributions, and we must also take into account biases owing to unidentified faint objects (20 pc sample), as well as unknown masses for magnetic white dwarfs and spectroscopic calibration issues (SDSS sample). Nevertheless, we find that fixed standard assumptions for the above parameters result in predicted mean masses that are in good qualitative agreement with the observed values. It suggests that derived masses for both studied samples are consistent with our current knowledge of stellar and Galactic evolution. Our simulations overpredict by 40-50% the number of massive white dwarfs (M > 0.75 Msun) for both surveys, although we can not exclude a Salpeter IMF when we account for all biases. Furthermore, we find no evidence of a population of double white dwarf mergers in the observed mass distributions.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA