Influence of plastic cover on fruit-quality and monilia laxa infestations with organically produced apricots

In the years 2005 to 2007 a plastic cover was tested in a testing area planted with apricots and operated according to the regulations for organic production. Compared to the untreated control, fruit below the plastic cover showed decreased coloration. Monilia laxa infestations below the plastic cover could not be fully prevented, but were reduced considerably also by copper applications during flowering in 2007. Yield of the variant treated with copper, however, remained below average. Losses due to rot during storage were smallest with the covered variant

Evaluation of an active mating disruption concept against codling moth (Cydia pomonella) under the aspects of different application systems and varieties

Beside standard systems of mating disruption the activity of the product Exosex CM and Exosex 2 CM under the aspect of different application systems and several varieties were tested at the research station of the Federal College and Institute for Viticulture and Pomology Klosterneuburg. Male insects were attracted into the Exosex dispenser by using the appropriate pheromone, which acts on the pheromone receptive sensors on the male so that they cannot locate calling females. Standard mating disruption techniques usually rely on the introduction of amounts of pheromone emitted by natural populations of pest species into the atmosphere. Exosex CM significantly reduces deployment time and labour costs in the orchards, additionally the flexibility to fit in with IPM programmes was tested. The assessments were done visually on windfall fruits, fruits on the tree and on all fruits at harvest followed by statistical evaluation. Among the fruits sprayed with the IPM system there was an infestation rate of the first (Cydia pomonella) generation at the variety Idared of 0,8%, the second generation treated with Exosex showed an infestation of 13%. In the biological trial however the infestation by the first generation was about 4% and the infestation of the second generation about 31%

Kinetic Analysis of Lower Body Resistance Training Exercises

This study evaluated and compared the peak vertical ground reaction force (GRF) and rate of force development (RFD) for the eccentric and concentric phases of 4 lower body resistance training exercises, including the back squat, deadlift, step-up, and forward lunge. Sixteen women performed 2 repetitions of each of the 4 exercises at a 6 repetition maximum load. Kinetic data were acquired using a force platform. A repeated measures ANOVA was used to evaluate the differences in GRF between the exercises. Results revealed significant main effects for GRF both the eccentric (p ≤ 0.001) and concentric (p ≤ 0.001) phases. Significant main effects were also found for RFD for the eccentric (p ≤ 0.001) and concentric phases (p ≤ 0.001). Force and power requirements and osteogenic potential differ between these resistance training exercises

Forum Vogelsang

Questo progetto è nato come collaborazione con Coop Himmelb(l)au, e consisteva nel riempire gli edifici preesistenti dell'Adlerhof con una colata di cemento armato, e ricavare quindi nuovi spazi abitativi all'interno di un'enorme banana che sarebbe stata costruita al di sopra di questo “Sarkophag”. Le diverse proposte fatte per il complesso di 50,000 m² di Ordernsburg, nella regione North Rhine-Westphalia in Germania, ricordano alcune tecniche pop di ingigantimento, anche se a dimensioni ambientali: basti pensare al grande hamburger o gelato di Claes Oldenburg. Wurm però non vuole certo conferire dignità estetica ad una banana, ma vuole piuttosto creare un cortocircuito di significati tra la l’oggetto e il luogo per cui è stato studiato il progetto, tra il contenuto e il contenitore. La critica in questo progetto sta proprio nella contestualizzazione e nel rapporto con il luogo stesso, difatti Vogelsang, con il nome di “Ordernsburg” è stato costruito tra il 1934 e il 1936 come istituto formativo per i giovani membri del partito Nazional Socialista dei lavoratori tedeschi (NSDAP).This project started as a cooperation with Coop Himmelb(l)au: the idea was to fill up the consisting building of the so called Adlerhof with reinforced concrete and build new rooms within the huge banana, that should be arranged above that “Sarkophag”. The different proposals for the 50.000 m² complex of Ordernsburg in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, seem to resemble to some pop “techniques of swell“, such as Claes Oldenburg’s big hamburger or ice-cream, but the intention is definitely not to give aesthetic dignity to a banana, but rather to create a short circuit of meanings between the object and the place for which the project was studied, between the contents and the container. The criticism in this project lies exactly in the relationship with the context and with the place itself: Vogelsang, indeed, once called Ordernsburg, was built from 1934 to 1936, as a former training institution for young party members of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP)

Behavioral genomics: A, bee, C, G, T

Honeybees, termites and ants occupy the 'pinnacle of social evolution' with societies of a complexity that rivals our own. The sequencing of the honeybee genome will provide a strong foundation for studying the genetic basis of complex social behavior

Changes in reproductive roles are associated with changes in gene expression in fire ant queens.

Abstract In species with social hierarchies, the death of dominant individuals typically upheaves the social hierarchy and provides an opportunity for subordinate individuals to become reproductives. Such a phenomenon occurs in the monogyne form of the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, where colonies typically contain a single wingless reproductive queen, thousands of workers and hundreds of winged nonreproductive virgin queens. Upon the death of the mother queen, many virgin queens shed their wings and initiate reproductive development instead of departing on a mating flight. Workers progressively execute almost all of them over the following weeks. To identify the molecular changes that occur in virgin queens as they perceive the loss of their mother queen and begin to compete for reproductive dominance, we collected virgin queens before the loss of their mother queen, 6 h after orphaning and 24 h after orphaning. Their RNA was extracted and hybridized against microarrays to examine the expression levels of approximately 10 000 genes. We identified 297 genes that were consistently differentially expressed after orphaning. These include genes that are putatively involved in the signalling and onset of reproductive development, as well as genes underlying major physiological changes in the young queens

Spectroscopy of electron-induced fluorescence in organic liquid scintillators

Emission spectra of several organic liquid-scintillator mixtures which are relevant for the proposed LENA detector have been measured by exciting the medium with electrons of ~10keV. The results are compared with spectra resulting from ultraviolet light excitation. Good agreement between spectra measured by both methods has been found.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

Fluorescence decay-time constants in organic liquid scintillators

The fluorescence decay-time constants have been measured for several scintillator mixtures based on phenyl-o-xylylethane (PXE) and linear alkylbenzene (LAB) solvents. The resulting values are of relevance for the physics performance of the proposed large-volume liquid scintillator detector LENA (Low Energy Neutrino Astronomy). In particular, the impact of the measured values to the search for proton decay via p -> K+ antineutrino is evaluated in this work.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Language comprehension and production

In this chapter, we survey the processes of recognizing and producing words and of understanding and creating sentences. Theory and research on these topics have been shaped by debates about how various sources of information are integrated in these processes, and about the role of language structure, as analyzed in the discipline of linguistics. In this chapter, we describe current views of fluent language users' comprehension of spoken and written language and their production of spoken language. We review what we consider to be the most important findings and theories in psycholinguistics, returning again and again to the questions of modularity and the importance of linguistic knowledge. Although we acknowledge the importance of social factors in language use, our focus is on core processes such as parsing and word retrieval that are not necessarily affected by such factors. We do not have space to say much about the important fields of developmental psycholinguistics, which deals with the acquisition of language by children, or applied psycholinguistics, which encompasses such topics as language disorders and language teaching. Although we recognize that there is burgeoning interest in the measurement of brain activity during language processing and how language is represented in the brain, space permits only occasional pointers to work in neuropsychology and the cognitive neuroscience of language. For treatment of these topics, and others, the interested reader could begin with two recent handbooks of psycholinguistics (Gaskell, 2007; Traxler & Gemsbacher, 2006) and a handbook of cognitive neuroscience (Gazzaniga, 2004)