391 research outputs found

    The composition of the aphid fauna (Insecta, Hemiptera) of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

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    At least a dozen species of aphids (Insecta, Hemiptera) of non-native origin have expanded their range in Europe, however the importance of botanic gardens in this phenomenon has not been studied previously in detail. As a case study, investigations on the species composition and host range of Aphidomorpha in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, United Kingdom, were conducted over a period of twelve days, in June 2017. The inventory study was carried out in the collection of living plants, both in the gardens and the glasshouses and nurseries. In total, 94 taxa of Aphidomorpha are identified (one phylloxerid, one adelgid and 92 species of aphids). 20 species are regarded as alien to the European aphid fauna and among them nine are believed to be the first published records for Kew. 20 species are regarded as serious pests, capable of virus transmission. The list of host plants includes 155 taxa from 89 genera and 49 families. Ericolophium holsti (Takahashi), species of Asiatic origin associated with Rhododendron spp., was found for the first time in the field in the UK. Changes in the species composition of the aphid fauna in reference to the Eastop’s studies in 1960s were discussed

    Costs and benefits of wetland restoration of hydric cropland in Missouri: a preliminary assessment

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    This report presents a preliminary analysis of the benefits and costs of restoring hydric cropland sites to wetlands in Missouri. Potential social and private (landowner) benefits and costs were estimated for 25 sites in Livingston county and 23 sites in Linn county. Sites ranging in size from 36 to 68 acres were identified using a geographic information system. Social net benefits of wetland restoration for both counties were highest and positive (431,248)withhighbenefitsandlowcostsandnegativeandlowest(431,248) with high benefits and low costs and negative and lowest (-579,681) with low benefits and high costs. When wetland construction costs are fully subsidized and easement payments equal the opportunity cost of wetland restoration, private net benefits ranged from 629,905(highlandownerbenefits)to629,905 (high landowner benefits) to 9,686 (low landowner benefits). It would be economically rational for a landowner to convert hydric cropland to wetland if the easement payment provided by the government is greater than or equal to the opportunity cost of wetland restoration, the cost of wetland construction is fully subsidized, and the income earned from the wetland equals or exceeds maintenance cost of the wetland. The first condition is likely to be satisfied for landowners who bid eligible cropland into the Wetland Reserve Program. The second condition would be satisfied under current cost-sharing provisions for wetlands. The third condition may or may not be satisfied.Project # G-2029-04 Agreement # 14-08-0001-G-2029-0

    Managing land application rates of to optimize economic value and water quality

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    Annual broiler processing capacity in southwestern Missouri is expected to increase from 127 million birds in 1989 to 245 million birds in 1995, or 93 percent. Much of this growth is expected to occur in Barry county where an additional 42,400 acres, almost double current land requirements, will be needed for land disposal of broiler litter. Rapid expansion in broiler production in southwestern Missouri can increase the risk of surface and ground water contamination from land application of broiler litter because the area has karst topography and large openings in the aquifer. Contamination of water in this region could have adverse economic and health impacts because water-based recreation is a significant sector of the regional economy and groundwater is the major source of drinking water. This study: determines the amount and composition of litter removed from seven broiler houses; develops a geographic information system for determining how spatial variability in land use, soil types and hydrogeologic features, and limits on the locations and application of broiler litter to protect water quality affect the amount of litter applied and the number of broilers grown in the watershed; and develops an economic optimization model that determines the locations and rates of litter application on areas of the watershed that maximize the economic value of applied litter while protecting water quality. The study area is the Shoal Creek watershed located in Barry County.Project # G-1572-04 Agreement # 14-08-0001-G-157

    The Grizzly, September 8, 2005

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    Hurricane Katrina Devastates Louisiana • Constitution Stirs up Debate in Iraq • Music and Comedy Greet Class of 2009 • Acting Out Project • An Ursinus Freshman Excels at an Unlikely Sport • What\u27s New at the Berman? Preview of Ursinus\u27 Museum of Art • Stopping the Stork • Food Pyramid Overview • Opinions: Holloway Case Should Raise Awareness; Positives and Negatives of Freshman Orientation; My House Party Dreams; Changes Around Campus • Second Half Comeback Propels Crusaders Past Bears • Field Hockey Drops Season Openerhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1587/thumbnail.jp

    The Grizzly, September 15, 2005

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    Gas Prices Continue to Rise • Campus and Local Community Begin Relief Efforts • Students Share Study Abroad Experiences • The Deal with the Meal Deal • One of Ursinus\u27 Own Performs Professionally • Watch Out, Employers: You Could be Next! • How Much is Too Much? Your Guide to Avoiding Portion Distortion • Excitement Building in Kaleidoscope • Beyond the Condom: Guide to Safe Sex • Opinions: New Price of Driving; Ursinus, U are Worth it • Irony of Work Study • Things They Didn\u27t Teach You at Freshman Orientation • Who Says Division III Players Can\u27t Go Pro?https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1692/thumbnail.jp

    Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

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    One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

    Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

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    This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

    Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

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    Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

    Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

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    Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia

    Search for anomalous production of events with three or more leptons in pp collisions at √s = 8TeV

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    Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published articles title, journal citation, and DOI.A search for physics beyond the standard model in events with at least three leptons is presented. The data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5fb-1 of proton-proton collisions with center-of-mass energy s=8TeV, was collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC during 2012. The data are divided into exclusive categories based on the number of leptons and their flavor, the presence or absence of an opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pair (OSSF), the invariant mass of the OSSF pair, the presence or absence of a tagged bottom-quark jet, the number of identified hadronically decaying τ leptons, and the magnitude of the missing transverse energy and of the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta. The numbers of observed events are found to be consistent with the expected numbers from standard model processes, and limits are placed on new-physics scenarios that yield multilepton final states. In particular, scenarios that predict Higgs boson production in the context of supersymmetric decay chains are examined. We also place a 95% confidence level upper limit of 1.3% on the branching fraction for the decay of a top quark to a charm quark and a Higgs boson (t→cH), which translates to a bound on the left- and right-handed top-charm flavor-violating Higgs Yukawa couplings, λtcH and λctH, respectively, of |λtcH|2+|λctH|2<0.21
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