Herpetological Collections at Pittsburg State University: Assessing Collecting Patterns and Analysis of Spatial and Temporal Origin of Specimens.

Natural History Collections are a rich source of biological data. Each specimen contains data for that species’ presence for a specific location and time, providing researchers with essential biological information. Importantly, this information can be preserved and re-evaluated for hundreds of years. To maintain specimens through time, good curation protocols are essential. The Herpetology Collection (henceforth HC) at Pittsburg State University houses 1,631 specimens, representing 181 species and subspecie collected from 23 U.S. states, Mexico and Manitoba, Canada. The majority of specimens (78.6%) were collected from the four-state area (Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma). Specimens collected exclusively in Kansas comprise 56.6% of the HC, and were collected in 37 counties, with major collecting effort on Crawford, Cherokee and Bourbon counties. Spatial analysis revealed many unique and unduplicated spatiotemporal records confirming the importance of the PSU herpetology collection as a local repository and source of herpetofaunal data. The temporal analysis showed continual collecting from 1961 to 1970 and from 1981 to 2002 during the months of March through June. Collecting peaks occurred by month in April, by year in 1964, and by decade during the 1960s. The curatorial work this project did on the long-neglected collections was crucial to reverse degradation, it demonstrated that specimens can be curated to 21st century standards with appropriate efforts. Out of 1,631 specimens, 147 were lost during past physical moves; out of 1,484 specimens left, 221 were rehydrated (14.8%); 757 required change of preservative fluids (51.0%); and 457 specimens (30.8%) did not require further curation other than new jars. Data limitations often were present due to somewhat incomplete descriptions of locality and habitat. Collecting biases in or nearby urban areas, along roads, and in areas of known higher biodiversity levels were identified for Kansas specimens

Optical Probe of Quantum Shot Noise Reduction at a Single-Atom Contact

Visible and infra-red light emitted at a Ag-Ag(111) junction has been investigated from tunneling to single atom contact conditions with a scanning tunneling microscope. The light intensity varies in a highly nonlinear fashion with the conductance of the junction and exhibits a minimum at conductances close to the conductance quantum. The data are interpreted in terms of current noise at optical frequencies, which is characteristic of partially open transport channels

Disorder-specific characteristics of borderline personality disorder with co-occurring depression and its comparison with major depression: An fMRI study with emotional interference task

AbstractBorderline personality disorder (BPD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) are both associated with abnormalities in the regulation of emotion, with BPD being highly comorbid with MDD. Disorder-specific dysfunctions in BPD, however, have hardly been addressed, hence the lack of knowledge pertaining to the specificity of emotion processing deficits and their commonality with MDD.24 healthy comparison subjects, 21 patients with MDD, and 13 patients with comorbid BPD and MDD (BPD+MDD group) were studied using functional MRI. The subjects were required to perform an emotional interference task that entailed categorizing facial affect while ignoring words that labeled the emotional contents of the external stimuli.Collapsing across emotional face types, we observed that participants with BPD+MDD uniquely displayed a greater involvement of the visual areas and the cerebellum. During emotional conflict processing, on the other hand, the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) appeared to be affected in both patient groups. In comparison to the HC, the MDD group showed differences also in the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) and the inferior parietal lobule (IPL).Thus, our data indicate dysfunctionality in the neural circuitry responsible for emotional conflict control in both disorders. The enhanced visual cortex activation in BPD+MDD suggests the visual system's hyperresponsiveness to faces at an early perceptual level. Not being associated with co-occurring depression, this effect in BPD+MDD appears to represent specific personality traits such as disturbed reactivity toward emotionally expressive facial stimuli

Visibility, framing and importance: Images of the EU in Japan and South Korea

Addressing an under-researched theme of international images and perceptions of the EU, this paper scrutinizes the framings of the Union endorsed in the news media and expressed by the general public in the two East Asian OECD countries – Japan and South Korea. Conclusions indicate that the EU’s importance and presence is often underestimated in the region, and frequently seen in terms of ‘economic muscle’ only. The empirical data comes from a trans-national comparative research project, sponsored by the Asia-Europe foundation (ASEF). The research framework is interdisciplinary, drawing resources from critical discourse analysis, media and image studies, EU scholarship and political scienc

EPIDEMIOLOGIA DA ESCALDADURA DAS FOLHAS DA AMEIXEIRA

O cultivo de ameixa no Brasil é de grande importância econômica, especialmente na região Sul. O Rio Grande do Sul possui um importante papel pela abundância de áreas de cultivo, ocupando o primeiro lugar na produção brasileira. Entretanto, essa produção nacional vem sofrendo grandes perdas de produtividade e áreas de cultivo, devido à doença chamada Escaldadura das Folhas da Ameixeira (EFA), causada pela bactéria Xylella fastidiosa. O fitopatógeno é transmitido por cigarrinhas vetoras (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae, Cicadellinae) que se alimentam no xilema das plantas. A bactéria obstrui os vasos xilemáticos, bloqueando parte do sistema vascular da planta. Os primeiros sintomas são a queima das bordas das folhas adultas, seguida do secamento de ramos, encarquilhamento das folhas, culminando com a morte da planta. Dessa forma, essa revisão teve como objetivo relatar os aspectos epidemiológicos da EFA como uma ferramenta para desenvolver estratégias que permitam reduzir a dispersão da doença no Brasil

Complete genome sequence of Planctomyces limnophilus type strain (Mü 290).

Planctomyces limnophilus Hirsch and Müller 1986 belongs to the order Planctomycetales, which differs from other bacterial taxa by several distinctive features such as internal cell compartmentalization, multiplication by forming buds directly from the spherical, ovoid or pear-shaped mother cell and a cell wall which is stabilized by a proteinaceous layer rather than a peptidoglycan layer. Besides Pirellula staleyi, this is the second completed genome sequence of the family Planctomycetaceae. P. limnophilus is of interest because it differs from Pirellula by the presence of a stalk and its structure of fibril bundles, its cell shape and size, the formation of multicellular rosettes, low salt tolerance and red pigmented colonies. The 5,460,085 bp long genome with its 4,304 protein-coding and 66 RNA genes is a part of the Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea project