Grasshoppers Feeding on Red Pine Trees in Michigan (Orthoptera: Acrididae)

Very few North American grasshoppers are true feeders on conifers. The several species of the punctulatus species-group of the genus Melanoplus, as summarized and revised by Rehn (1946), have been reported as occurring on pine, juniper, and cedar, but few reports of actual feeding on conifers have appeared in the literature. Because of this paucity of information regarding the use of conifers as food for grasshoppers, we summarize here observations of several kinds of grasshoppers feeding on red pine (Pinus resinosa Aiton) in 1966 in Michigan

A Split-Stem Lesion on Young Hybrid \u3ci\u3ePopulus\u3c/i\u3e Trees Caused by the Tarnished Plant Bug, \u3ci\u3eLygus Lineolaris\u3c/i\u3e (Hemiptera: [Heteroptera]: Miridae)

The tarnished plant bug, known principally as an agricultural pest, injures young hybrid Populus by feeding on the stems and meristems. Tarnished plant bug eggs, fungi associated with some lesions, and simple mechanical stimuli alone from feeding appeared not to cause lesion formation. Of 20 Populus hybrids tested in a clonal trial, four appeared to be consistently susceptible to lesion injury, with Populus nigra var. betulifolia x trichocarpa the most susceptible. Several clones showed high resistance in the trial but a few were susceptible in other plantings and in host preference tests when caged with tarnished plant bugs. Lesions diminished tenfold on Populus where horseweed, the insect\u27s principal wild host, grew along with susceptible poplars. The tarnished plant bug can be suppressed by ultra-low volume pesticides and cultural manipulation of understory vegetation

Speckle techniques for determining stresses in moving objects

Laser speckle interferometry is a relatively new experimental technique which shows promise of alleviating many difficult problems in experimental mechanics. The method utilizes simple high-resolution photographs of the surface which is illuminated by coherent light. The result is a real-time or permanently stored whole-field record of interference fringes which yields a map of displacements in the object. In this thesis, the time-average theory using the Fourier transform is developed to present the application of this technique to measurement of in-plane displacement induced by the vibration of an object

Agro-terrorism and the Grain Handling Systems in Canada and the United States

The grain handling sector in Canada and the United States is vital to agriculture and trade. In a typical year on the Canadian prairies, about 140,000 producers deliver some 20 to 30 mmt of grain for export to primary elevators. In the United States, about 2.1 million producers deliver about 300 mmt of grain to primary elevators. Canadian grain is moved to export position using more than 400,000 hopper cars and marine containers, where about 1,200 ships per year are loaded. In the United States, about 1.08 million rail carloads of grain are originated per year, and about 23 mmt of grain are shipped on barges per year. These U.S. figures are in addition to trucks, which, more so than in Canada, are also used to deliver grain to primary processors and to terminal and export markets. The volume of grain trade gives rise to concern about risks of terrorism in the sector.(1) From a security perspective, the grain, pulse and oilseed supply chain is noteworthy because much of it is characterized by relatively long-term, insecure, bulky storage (particularly on farms) along with numerous modal and inter-modal product transfers. These factors suggest there are many places where chemical or biological contaminants could be introduced into this supply chain. From the perspective of the United States, security throughout the Canadian system as well as the U.S. system is a concern, since cross-border traffic in these products is significant, with an average of about six million tonnes of grain products alone imported into the U.S. each year (USDA-FAS, 2003). Numerous interventions to enhance food safety and mitigate the risk of terrorism have been adopted or are in the process of being developed. Some of these are private initiatives and voluntary, as a component of firm-level security processes. Others are being adopted in response to legislated initiatives. The stakes are large, and there are likely to be substantial differences in costs and effectiveness of different approaches.Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Sources of uncertainties in modelling black carbon at the global scale

Our understanding of the global black carbon (BC) cycle is essentially qualitative due to uncertainties in our knowledge of its properties. This work investigates two source of uncertainties in modelling black carbon: those due to the use of different schemes for BC ageing and its removal rate in the global Transport-Chemistry model TM5 and those due to the uncertainties in the definition and quantification of the observations, which propagate through to both the emission inventories, and the measurements used for the model evaluation. The schemes for the atmospheric processing of black carbon that have been tested with the model are (i) a simple approach considering BC as bulk aerosol and a simple treatment of the removal with fixed 70% of in-cloud black carbon concentrations scavenged by clouds and removed when rain is present and (ii) a more complete description of microphysical ageing within an aerosol dynamics model, where removal is coupled to the microphysical properties of the aerosol, which results in a global average of 40% in-cloud black carbon that is scavenged in clouds and subsequently removed by rain, thus resulting in a longer atmospheric lifetime. This difference is reflected in comparisons between both sets of modelled results and the measurements. Close to the sources, both anthropogenic and vegetation fire source regions, the model results do not differ significantly, indicating that the emissions are the prevailing mechanism determining the concentrations and the choice of the aerosol scheme does not influence the levels. In more remote areas such as oceanic and polar regions the differences can be orders of magnitude, due to the differences between the two schemes. The more complete description reproduces the seasonal trend of the black carbon observations in those areas, although not always the magnitude of the signal, while the more simplified approach underestimates black carbon concentrations by orders of magnitude. The sensitivity to wet scavenging has been tested by varying in-cloud and below-cloud removal. BC lifetime increases by 10% when large scale and convective scale precipitation removal efficiency are reduced by 30%, while the variation is very small when below-cloud scavenging is zero. Since the emission inventories are representative of elemental carbon-like substance, the model output should be compared to elemental carbon measurements and if known, the ratio of black carbon to elemental carbon mass should be taken into account when the model is compared with black carbon observation

Heavy Quark Potential from Gauge/Gravity Duality: A Large D Analysis

The heavy-quark potential is calculated in the framework of gauge/gravity duality using the large-D approximation, where D is the number of dimensions transverse to the flux tube connecting a quark and an antiquark in a flat D+2-dimensional spacetime. We find that in the large-D limit the leading correction to the ground-state energy, as given by an effective Nambu-Goto string, arises not from the heavy modes but from the behavior of the massless modes in the vicinity of the quark and the antiquark. We estimate this correction and find that it should be visible in the near-future lattice QCD calculations of the heavy-quark potential.Comment: 22 pages, 5 Figures. v2: references added, typos corrected and, Sec. 4 rewritten with an expanded non-perturbative discussion of the corrections to the Arvis potential arising from the massless modes near the boundary of the qcd strin

Study of research and development requirements of small gas-turbine combustors

A survey is presented of the major small-engine manufacturers and governmental users. A consensus was undertaken regarding small-combustor requirements. The results presented are based on an evaluation of the information obtained in the course of the study. The current status of small-combustor technology is reviewed. The principal problems lie in liner cooling, fuel injection, part-power performance, and ignition. Projections of future engine requirements and their effect on the combustor are discussed. The major changes anticipated are significant increases in operating pressure and temperature levels and greater capability of using heavier alternative fuels. All aspects of combustor design are affected, but the principal impact is on liner durability. An R&D plan which addresses the critical combustor needs is described. The plan consists of 15 recommended programs for achieving necessary advances in the areas of liner thermal design, primary-zone performance, fuel injection, dilution, analytical modeling, and alternative-fuel utilization

Patent Institutions: Shifting Interactions Between Legal Actors

This contribution to the Research Handbook on Economics of Intellectual Property Rights (Vol. 1 Theory) addresses interactions between the principal legal institutions of the U.S. patent system. It considers legal, strategic, and normative perspectives on these interactions as they have evolved over the last 35 years. Early centralization of power by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, newly created in 1982, established a regime dominated by the appellate court\u27s bright-line rules. More recently, aggressive Supreme Court and Congressional intervention have respectively reinvigorated patent law standards and led to significant devolution of power to inferior tribunals, including newly created tribunals like the USPTO\u27s Patent Trial and Appeals Board. This new era in institutional interaction creates a host of fresh empirical and normative research questions for scholars. The contribution concludes by outlining a research agenda

Dos Idiomas: Concise Recommendations for Bilingual Speech Therapy

Spanish-English dual language learners living in the United States present an incredibly diverse and heterogeneous group. Many members of this community may experience a variety of communication disorders that must be addressed by speech-language pathologists and associated professionals. Currently, these children face many barriers to receiving proper speech and language services and care, including misidentification, miscommunication with caregivers, and inappropriate intervention methods. This thesis project outlines several key differences that clinicians should be aware of in the development of bilingual children and continues to describe key clinical strategies that can be used during identification, intervention, and caregiver involvement. It is incredibly essential that speech-language pathologists are equipped with knowledge about the theories supporting bilingual language acquisition; reliable and valid assessment methods that distinguish disorders from differences for culturally and linguistically diverse populations; the benefits associated with and strategies for implementing bilingual speech therapy; and methods of encouraging and communicating with Latinx caregivers to improve intervention outcomes. Additionally, clinicians should understand that monolingual clinicians are responsible for possessing the skills and knowledge needed to deliver bilingual speech therapy. The research included in this presentation suggests that a converging evidence approach, bilingual intervention, and culturally sensitive caregiver involvement strategies are among the most effective clinical recommendations in the field for young Latinx DLLs to date. This project is designed to guide clinical decision making and can be used as a reference for educators, professionals, and students within the field of communication disorders

Analytical infrared intensities for periodic systems with local basis sets

We report a method for the efficient evaluation of analytic infrared (IR) intensities within generalized Kohn-Sham density functional theory using Gaussian orbitals and periodic boundary conditions. A discretized form of the Berry phase is used to evaluate a periodic dipole moment and its derivatives with respect to in-phase nuclear coordinate displacements. Benchmark calculations are presented for one-dimensional chains of water molecules and poly(paraphenylenevinylene).Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev.