Pitfall Trap Collections of Ground Beetle Larvae (Coleoptera: Carabidae) in Kentucky Alfalfa Fields

Pitfall traps were installed in alfalfa fields to monitor the seasonality and abundance of immature ground beetles. Head capsule widths were determined by instar for Evarthrus sodalis, Harpalus pennsylvanicus, Chlaenius tricolor, Scarites subterraneus, Amara cupreolata, and A. impuncticollis. Seasonality of larval and adult catches indicated that E. sodalis, H. pennsylvanicus and A. impuncticollis overwinter in a larval diapause while A. cupreolata and S. subterraneus overwinter in the adult stage

Two Trapping Systems to Determine Incidence and Duration of Migration of Adult Alfalfa Weevils, \u3ci\u3eHypera Postica\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Emergence and flight traps were used to study the pre- and post-diapause movements of the alfalfa weevil, Hypera postica. The emergence traps proved to be an excellent tool in determining the time of diapause termination and in providing an accurate accounting of the number of weevils per unit area in aestivation sites. The flight traps showed when diapause flights to and from alfalfa fields took place. Both trapping systems can be utilized in a pest control program to locate more closely where the alfalfa weevil aestivates and when diapause related movements occur

Fall Termination of Aestivation and Field Dispersal of the Alfalfa Weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Illinois

Emergence traps, flight traps, sweeping, and egg sampling were employed to determine fall termination of aestivation of the alfalfa weevil, Hypera postica, and patterns and timing of field reentry, and subsequent fall oviposition. Adult alfalfa weevils were found to terminate aestivation in wood edge field borders in mid-late October. Field reentry began in late October as a gradual process, starting at wooded field borders, with the field population equally dispersed by mid-November

ECONOMIC STATECRAFT, DOMESTIC POLICIES, AND A PATH TOWARD STABLE COMPETITIVE INTERDEPENDENCE BETWEEN THE U.S. AND CHINA

The United States, formerly an uncontested world power, is experiencing a churning international political and economic landscape as China’s growth challenges U.S. economic primacy, alliances, and prosperity. This paper finds that the U.S. has become overly reliant on coercion and should instead increase its focus on partnerships and cooperative international action to secure its national interests. The U.S. can achieve this by adopting domestic policies that make it a more attractive partner than China. The U.S. can further signal its attractiveness compared to China by strengthening and expanding its current alliances and economic agreements. This paper will examine the instruments of economic statecraft and domestic policy available to the U.S. that are able to affect these changes. These include greater emphasis on renewable energy, multilateral trade agreements, investments in its infrastructure and citizens, addressing its national debt, and decreasing the use of financial freezes. International relations theories and economic literature will serve as lenses to evaluate the effectiveness of economic statecraft instruments and the global repercussions of domestic policy. Only through careful use of economic statecraft and domestic policy can the U.S. simultaneously increase economic power and positively impact alliance behavior to sustain the liberal world order that the U.S. has benefited from for nearly a century.Captain, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Report for NMDGF Permit: 1733, 2016

Document from New Mexico Department of Game & Fish Scientific permit

Establishing and sustaining no-kill communities: best practices for animal services directors

The relationship between humans and non-human animals in the United States has evolved from the capturing and impounding of stray livestock found in colonial times to the billion-dollar industry supporting companion animals that exists today (Irvine, 2002; Zawistowski & Morris, 2013). As people\u27s perceptions and attitudes about the treatment of non-human animals have evolved over time, so have the expectations of the organizations that are in place to care for them. A current movement exists to end the killing of healthy and treatable pets within the United States. Known as the no-kill movement, shelter directors and community stakeholders around the country are working to ensure that their communities are supporting the lifesaving of their shelter pets. Using a qualitative methodology, this study aims to uncover the best practices of animal shelter directors that have successfully achieved no-kill in their communities. Based on the findings, an animal services leadership competency model is introduced

Effect on Constant Versus Fluctuating Temperature Regimes on \u3ci\u3eBathyplectes Curculionis\u3c/i\u3e (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) Activity

Individual female Bathyplectes curculionis parasites were exposed to either a series of constant or fluctuating temperature regimes and supplied with a new group of host Hypera postica larvae every day. The fluctuating temperatures were calculated from an average of weekly air temperatures during a period of actual field oviposition by the parasite. The rearing of adult parasites under a constant versus fluctuating temperature regime resulted in no significant difference in parasitism, longevity, or fecundity. The threshold for B. curculionis activity was estimated to be 6-8°C

Multicomposition EPSR: toward transferable potentials to model chalcogenide glass structures

The structure of xAs40Se60–(1 – x)As40S60 glasses, where x = 1.000, 0.667, 0.500, 0.333, 0.250, and 0.000, is investigated using a combination of neutron and X-ray diffraction coupled with computational modeling using multicomposition empirical potential structure refinement (MC-EPSR). Traditional EPSR (T-EPSR) produces a set of empirical potentials that drive a structural model of a particular composition to agreement with diffraction experiments. The work presented here establishes the shortcomings in generating such a model for a ternary chalcogenide glass composition. In an enhancement to T-EPSR, MC-EPSR produces a set of pair potentials that generate robust structural models across a range of glass compositions. The structures obtained vary with composition in a much more systematic way than those taken from T-EPSR. For example, the average arsenic–sulfur bonding distances vary between 2.28 and 2.46 Å in T-EPSR but are 2.29 ± 0.02 Å in MC-EPSR. Similarly, the arsenic–selenium bond lengths from T-EPSR vary between 2.28 and 2.43 Å but are consistently 2.40 ± 0.02 Å in the MC-EPSR results. Analysis of these models suggests that the average separation of the chalcogen (S or Se) atoms is the structural origin of the changes in nonlinear refractive index with glass composition

Data assimilation for the Martian atmosphere using MGS Thermal Emission Spectrometer observations

From the introduction: Given the quantity of data expected from current and forthcoming spacecraft missions to Mars, it is now possible to use data assimilation as a means of atmospheric analysis for the first time for a planet other than the Earth. Several groups have described plans to develop assimilation schemes for Mars [Banfield et al., 1995; Houben, 1999; Lewis and Read, 1995; Lewis et al., 1996, 1997; Zhang et al., 2001]. Data assimilation is a technique for the analysis of atmospheric observations which combines currently valid information with prior knowledge from previous observations and dynamical and physical constraints, via the use of a numerical model. Despite the number of new missions, observations of the atmosphere of Mars in the near future are still likely to be sparse when compared to those of the Earth, perhaps comprising one orbiter and a few surface stations at best at any one time. Data assimilation is useful as a means to extract the maximum information from such observations, both by a form of interpolation in space and time using model constraints and by the combination of information from different observations, e.g. temperature profiles and surface pressure measurements which may be irregularly distributed. The procedure can produce a dynamically consistent set of meteorological fields and can be used directly to test and to refine an atmospheric model against observations