Root Weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) and Ground Beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) Immigration into Strawberry Plots Protected by Fence or Portable Trench Barriers

Physical exclusion shows some potential as a novel root weevil control strategy, but barriers to root weevil immigration may also exclude beneficial insects, such as ground beetles. A field study was undertaken in 1997 to assess the impact of two physical barriers—portable plastic trenches and aluminum fences with Teflon tape—on root weevil and ground beetle immigration into plots of strawberry, Fragaria x ananassa (Duchesne). Barypeithes pellucidus (Boheman) and Nemocestes incomptus (Horn), each comprised 43% of the root weevils caught at the site. Most (86%) of the ground beetles caught in control plots were longer than 1 cm, the width of the gap in the portable trench top. Trenches excluded 75 and 63% of B. pellucidus and N. incomptus, respectively, without significantly reducing immigration of large (<1 cm) ground beetles. Fences excluded 65, 84, and 99% of B. pellucidus, N. incomptus, and large ground beetles, respectively. Adding diatomaceous earth to trenches did not increase their efficacy, and fences without Teflon tape excluded ground beetles but not root weevils. The reduction in the population of root weevils and other strawberry pests caused by the use of barriers reduced damage to strawberry plant leaves and increased strawberry plant survival relative to unprotected control plots. Advantages and disadvantages of these physical control tools are discussed with a view to creating superior tools for root weevil exclusion, compatible with an integrated pest management approach. Portable trenches may offer a means of selectively excluding root weevils but not ground beetles

Moisture tempers impairment of adult Otiorhynchus sulcatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) climbing ability by fluoropolymer, talc dust, and lithium grease

As part of a project to develop tools for the physical exclusion of flightless root weevils, adult black vine weevils (BVW), Otiorhynchus sulcatus (F.), were placed in open enclosures with smooth walls of glass, plastic or aluminum to test their ability to escape by climbing. Enclosure walls were left untreated or were treated with substances known to reduce insect climbing ability: fluoropolymer, powdered talc and lithium grease. No BVW escapes were observed under dry conditions, but all treatments allowed some escapes under wet conditions, suggesting that moisture helps BVW adults scale treated surfaces. The results help explain the ability of root weevils to overcome physical barriers under field conditions

Optical and electrical activity of defects in rare earth implanted Si

A common technique for introducing rare earth atoms into Si and related materials for photonic applications is ion implantation. It is compatible with standard Si processing, and also allows high, non-equilibrium concentrations of rare earths to be introduced. However, the high energies often employed mean that there are collision cascades and potentially severe end-of-range damage. This paper reports on studies of this damage, and the competition it may present to the optical activity of the rare earths. Er-, Si, and Yb-implanted Si samples have been investigated, before and after anneals designed to restore the sample crystallinity. The electrical activity of defects in as-implanted Er, Si, and Yb doped Si has been studied by Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DTLS) and the related, high resolution technique, Laplace DLTS (LDLTS), as a function of annealing. Er-implanted Si, regrown by solid phase epitaxy at 600degrees C and then subject to a rapid thermal anneal, has also been studied by time-resolved photoluminescence (PL). The LDLTS studies reveal that there are clear differences in the defect population as a function of depth from the surface, and this is attributed to different defects in the vacancy-rich and interstitial-rich regions. Defects in the interstitial-rich region have electrical characteristics typical of small extended defects, and these may provide the precursors for larger structural defects in annealed layers. The time-resolved PL of the annealed layers, in combination with electron microscopy, shows that the Er emission at 1.54microns contains a fast component attributed to non-radiative recombination at deep states due to small dislocations. It is concluded that there can be measurable competition to the radiative efficiency in rare-earth implanted Si that is due to the implantation and is not specific to Er.</p

Managing Medicaid Pharmacy Benefits: Current Issues and Options

Examines issues and considerations for state reforms of Medicaid prescription drug reimbursement, pharmacy management, and cost sharing and other best practices for realizing savings

Importance of Collection Overhangs on the Efficacy of Exclusion Fences for Managing Cabbage Flies (Diptera: Anthomyiidae)

Fine nylon mesh fences (135 cm high) with varying lengths of downward-sloping collection overhangs were evaluated for efficacy in excluding the female cabbage flies Delia radicum (L.) from plots of radish, Raphanus sativus (L.). During three trials conducted in 1994 and 1995, fences without overhangs, fences with 12.5-cm overhangs, or fences with 50-cm overhangs were tested against fences with standard 25-cm overhangs and unfenced control plots. In fenced plots with standard 25-cm overhangs, the mean number of D. radicum females caught on yellow sticky traps placed within plots was 85% less than those caught in corresponding control plots. The mean numbers of D. radicum females caught in fenced enclosures with no overhangs, 12.5-cm overhangs, or 50-cm overhangs, were 61, 67, and 94% less than those caught in corresponding control plots, respectively. The mean proportion of radishes damaged by D. radicum larvae inside enclosures with 25-cm overhangs was 62% less than in corresponding control plots. The mean proportions of radishes damaged inside fences with no overhangs, 12.5-cm overhangs, or 50-cm overhangs were 33, 59, and 81% less than those caught in corresponding control plots, respectively. Results are discussed in terms of defining an appropriate fence design for commercial use

Medicaid and CHIP Strategies for Improving Child Health

Explains state programs' need for child health measures that focus on outcomes; are standardized across programs, agencies, and states; and reward performance through provider reimbursement. Points out opportunities for foundation and government support

Medicaid in a Crunch: A Mid-FY 2009 Update on State Medicaid Issues in a Recession

Based on a November 2008 survey of Medicaid directors, examines the impact of the economic downturn on state Medicaid programs midway through fiscal year 2009, including possible cutbacks; the outlook for 2010; and priorities for federal action

Moving Ahead Amid Fiscal Challenges: A Look at Medicaid Spending, Coverage and Policy Trends

Examines fiscal year 2011 trends in state efforts to control Medicaid spending, reform payment and delivery systems, and prepare for healthcare reform implementation, as well as projections in spending and enrollment growth for fiscal year 2012

Contributions to Edge Computing

Efforts related to Internet of Things (IoT), Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Machine to Machine (M2M) technologies, Industrial Internet, and Smart Cities aim to improve society through the coordination of distributed devices and analysis of resulting data. By the year 2020 there will be an estimated 50 billion network connected devices globally and 43 trillion gigabytes of electronic data. Current practices of moving data directly from end-devices to remote and potentially distant cloud computing services will not be sufficient to manage future device and data growth. Edge Computing is the migration of computational functionality to sources of data generation. The importance of edge computing increases with the size and complexity of devices and resulting data. In addition, the coordination of global edge-to-edge communications, shared resources, high-level application scheduling, monitoring, measurement, and Quality of Service (QoS) enforcement will be critical to address the rapid growth of connected devices and associated data. We present a new distributed agent-based framework designed to address the challenges of edge computing. This actor-model framework implementation is designed to manage large numbers of geographically distributed services, comprised from heterogeneous resources and communication protocols, in support of low-latency real-time streaming applications. As part of this framework, an application description language was developed and implemented. Using the application description language a number of high-order management modules were implemented including solutions for resource and workload comparison, performance observation, scheduling, and provisioning. A number of hypothetical and real-world use cases are described to support the framework implementation

Extended Maternal and Paternal Hereditary Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease Examined by Sex in a Sample of Community Dwelling Older Adults in Cache County, Utah

More than 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and this number is expected to rise and surpass 12.7million individuals by the year 2050. Currently there is no cure for the disease and prior research has focused on prevention by identifying risk factors. Known risk factors associated with AD include older age, female sex, genetics, family history of AD, genotype of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene, and vascular risk factors (e.g., cholesterol, hypertension) and conditions or events (e.g., CHF, stroke). The effects of many of the above risk factors have differed in men and women, but few studies have examined how family history of AD, direct maternal or paternal lineage of AD, parental longevity, and cardiovascular risk factors and conditions might influence risk for AD differently for men and women. This project analyzed existing data from a population-based longitudinal study, the Cache County Study on Memory in Aging (CCSMA), that included permanent residents of Cache County, Utah who were aged 65 years or older in 1995. The study’s data were enriched through additional data obtained for extended family history and Medicare claims and death certificates that were made available through data linkage with the Utah Population Database. The original study ran from 1995-2007, but with the additional Medicare claims and death certificates, identification of AD related outcomes and risk factors were extended to 2019. The aim of this current study was to examine whether the risk for AD differed between men and women with regards to family history of AD, maternal and paternal lineage of AD, longer-lived parents, and whether vascular health conditions affected these risks. Results from this dissertation showed that having a first-degree relative (parents, siblings, or offspring) with AD increased the risk for AD in men by 58%, Odds Ratio (OR)= 1.58, p= .003, and women by 66%, OR= 1.66, p=\u3c .001. Among women, direct maternal but not paternal lineage of AD was associated with a 56% increased risk for AD, OR= 1.56, p=.005, whereas in men, history of maternal or paternal lineage of AD(above age 87) did not affect their risk of developing AD. Having a longer-lived mother or longer-lived father was not associated with AD risk in women. However, men with a history of a longer-lived mother and who had an APOE Ɛ4 positive genotype had three times the risk of AD, OR= 3.15, p= .020. Men who had both a longer-lived mother and a longer-lived father compared to men without had an 11% reduction in risk for AD, OR= 0.89, p=.041. In relation to cardiovascular conditions and risk in women, those with a history of congestive heart failure (CHF) and a direct paternal lineage of AD had double the risk of AD compared to those without, though those women with no paternal lineage of AD were at an 11 times greater risk, OR= 11.15, p=\u3c 0.001. For men there were no associations between family history of AD and cardiovascular conditions. Among both men and women, several cardiovascular risk factors increased risk for AD. For instance, men and women with a history of stroke or CHF had an increased risk for AD. Men with a history of hypertension and high cholesterol/triglycerides/atherosclerosis were also at increased risk of developing AD. Notably, women with a history of myocardial infarction had a reduction in risk. Although this study is observational in nature and thus does not prove a direct causal relationship between familial history and AD, it does support previous research that found having a first-degree relative with AD regardless of sex increased the risk for AD. The study also highlighted the importance of studying risk factors like family history, separately for men and women. Thus, women with a maternal history of AD were at greater risk than those with a paternal history of AD, but no such association was found in men. Men were at slightly reduced risk for AD when having both longer-lived parents and there were slight differences by sex in cardiovascular risk factors that predicted risk for AD. The different results obtained for men and women have clinical implications in monitoring for AD risk in older adults and suggest aggressive treatment for vascular risk factors and conditions amongst women in particular, with CHF and family history. Further research is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms with how these risks vary in males and females