Attraction of brown marmorated stink bugs, Halyomorpha halys, to blooming sunflower semiochemicals

I tested whether the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), Halyomorpha halys, discriminates among phenological stages of sunflower, Helianthus annuus. When BMSB females in a still-air laboratory experiment were offered a choice of potted sunflowers at distinct phenological stages (vegetative, pre-bloom, bloom, seeding), most females settled onto blooming plants. In moving air olfactometer experiments, testing each plant stage versus one another, for the attraction of BMSB females, blooming sunflowers overall were most attractive. Analyzing the headspace odorants of each plant stage revealed a marked increase of odorant abundance as plants transitioned from pre-bloom to bloom. Thirteen blooming-stage odorants elicited responses from female BMSB antennae. A synthetic blend of antennally-active odorants attracted BMSB females in laboratory olfactometer experiments, and in field settings enhanced the attractiveness of BMSB pheromone as a trap lure, particularly in spring. Sunflower semiochemicals coupled with synthetic BMSB pheromone could be developed to improve efforts to monitor and control BMSB populations

A Fireside Chat with Supreme Court Justices McMillian and Warren

The Women\u27s Law Student Association is hosting the 38th Annual Edith House Lecture featuring Georgia Supreme Court Justices Carla Wong McMillian and Sarah Hawkins Warren. Inaugurated in 1983, the Edith House Lecture Series honors one of the first female graduates of the School of Law, Edith Elizabeth House. House was co-valedictorian of the law class of 1925 and enjoyed a distinguished career in public service. In a moderated “fireside chat” format, Justices McMillian and Warren spoke about their backgrounds, experiences as women in the legal profession, and paths to Georgia’s highest court. Students and faculty had the opportunity to ask questions at the end

The Design of Early Childhood Teacher Education Programs: Australian Employer Perspectives with International Program Comparisons

Provision of quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) supports children’s learning with strong agreement that early childhood teachers (ECTs) are central to quality provision. In many countries, it is mandatory that ECEC services employ ECTs. However, Australian ECT employers report that early childhood graduates are not always well-prepared to work in ECEC settings. This may be because what constitutes optimal early childhood initial teacher education programs (EC ITE) is unclear. To investigate the design of EC ITE programs this research reports on (i) design of EC ITE programs across international contexts; and (ii) 19 Australian ECT employers’ perspectives on EC ITE program design. Findings indicate little consensus on the design of EC ITE programs, with inconsistencies across and within countries. Australian employers identified shortcomings in graduates knowledge. This research highlights recommendations to understand how programs prepare ECTs, by conducting research tracking preservice teachers from EC ITE programs into ECEC teaching

ntLink: a toolkit for de novo genome assembly scaffolding and mapping using long reads

With the increasing affordability and accessibility of genome sequencing data, de novo genome assembly is an important first step to a wide variety of downstream studies and analyses. Therefore, bioinformatics tools that enable the generation of high-quality genome assemblies in a computationally efficient manner are essential. Recent developments in long-read sequencing technologies have greatly benefited genome assembly work, including scaffolding, by providing long-range evidence that can aid in resolving the challenging repetitive regions of complex genomes. ntLink is a flexible and resource-efficient genome scaffolding tool that utilizes long-read sequencing data to improve upon draft genome assemblies built from any sequencing technologies, including the same long reads. Instead of using read alignments to identify candidate joins, ntLink utilizes minimizer-based mappings to infer how input sequences should be ordered and oriented into scaffolds. Recent improvements to ntLink have added important features such as overlap detection, gap-filling and in-code scaffolding iterations. Here, we present three basic protocols demonstrating how to use each of these new features to yield highly contiguous genome assemblies, while still maintaining ntLink's proven computational efficiency. Further, as we illustrate in the alternate protocols, the lightweight minimizer-based mappings that enable ntLink scaffolding can also be utilized for other downstream applications, such as misassembly detection. With its modularity and multiple modes of execution, ntLink has broad benefit to the genomics community, from genome scaffolding and beyond. ntLink is an open-source project and is freely available from https://github.com/bcgsc/ntLink.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figure

Effect of Reduced Stator-blade Trailing-edge Thickness on Over-all Performance of a Transonic Turbine

A transonic turbine with a stator trailing-edge thickness reduced from 0.030 to 0.010 inch has been investigated experimentally. The performance results indicated an increase in efficiency of 0.6 of a point at design operation, and as much as 2.4 points at off-design conditions, as a result of reducing the trailing-edge thickness. This improvement could only be partially accounted for by the theoretical change in mixing loss for the two stator-blade rows, and it was felt that the improvement was largely due to a reduced amount of low-velocity fluids entering the rotor and the interference effect of these fluids whth the mainstream flow

Sedimentation-consolidation of a double porosity material

This paper studies the sedimentation-consolidation of a double porosity material, such as lumpy clay. Large displacements and finite strains are accounted for in a multidimensional setting. Fundamental equations are derived using a phenomenological approach and non-equilibrium thermodynamics, as set out by Coussy [Coussy, Poromechanics, Wiley, Chichester, 2004]. These equations particularise to three non-linear partial differential equations in one dimensional context. Numerical implementation in a finite element code is currently being undertaken

Neuroanatomical Markers of Speaking Chinese

The aim of this study was to identify regional structural differences in the brains of native speakers of a tonal language (Chinese) compared to nontonal (European) language speakers. Our expectation was that there would be differences in regions implicated in pitch perception and production. We therefore compared structural brain images in three groups of participants: 31 who were native Chinese speakers; 7 who were native English speakers who had learnt Chinese in adulthood; and 21 European multilinguals who did not speak Chinese. The results identified two brain regions in the vicinity of the right anterior temporal lobe and the left insula where speakers of Chinese had significantly greater gray and white matter density compared with those who did not speak Chinese. Importantly, the effects were found in both native Chinese speakers and European subjects who learnt Chinese as a non-native language, illustrating that they were language related and not ethnicity effects. On the basis of prior studies, we suggest that the locations of these gray and white matter changes in speakers of a tonal language are consistent with a role in linking the pitch of words to their meaning. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc