Oviposition and Development of Emerald Ash Borer \u3ci\u3e(Agrilus Planipennis)\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) on Hosts and Potential Hosts in No-Choice Bioassays

Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire) (Coleoptera: Bupres- tidae) is an invasive phloem-feeding pest native to Asia. It was first identified in North America in 2002 and has killed millions of ash (Fraxinus spp.) trees in southeast Michigan and Essex County, Ontario. Since then, additional populations have been discovered across Michigan and in areas of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In Asia, A. planipennis reportedly colonizes other genera, including species of Juglans, Pterocarya and Ulmus. In North America, attacks on non-ash species have not been observed but there is concern about host switching as ash mortality progresses. From 2003 to 2005, we evaluated A. planipennis oviposition and larval development on 4 North American ash species: green ash (F. pennsylvanica Marshall), white ash (F. americana L.), black ash (F. nigra Marshall), blue ash (F. quadrangulata Michaux), and 6 potential alternate hosts including privet (Ligustrum and Forestiera spp.), Japanese tree lilac (Syringa reticulate (Blumb) Hara), American elm (Ulmus americana L.), black walnut (Juglans nigra L.), hickory (Carya ovata (Miller) K. Koch) and hackberry (Celtis occidentalis L.). In no- choice tests using cut branches in cages, female A. planipennis oviposited on all species tested. Larvae on green ash, white ash, black ash, blue ash and privet developed to the second instar before branches desiccated. Larvae attempted to feed on some black walnut, Japanese tree lilac, American elm and hackberry branches but died as first instars. There were no feeding attempts on hickory branches. We also conducted no-choice tests by placing adult A. planipennis in cages that encircled the lower 1 m of the trunk of live green ash, white ash, black walnut and Japanese tree lilac nursery trees. High densities of larvae developed on green ash and white ash nursery trees but there was no evidence of any larval survival, feeding, or development on the Japanese tree lilac or black walnut nursery trees

Measurement Based Reconfigurations in Optical Ring Metro Networks

Single-hop wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical ring networks operating in packet mode are one of themost promising architectures for the design of innovative metropolitan network (metro) architectures. They permit a cost-effective design, with a good combination of optical and electronic technologies, while supporting features like restoration and reconfiguration that are essential in any metro scenario. In this article, we address the tunability requirements that lead to an effective resource usage and permit reconfiguration in optical WDM metros.We introduce reconfiguration algorithms that, on the basis of traffic measurements, adapt the network configuration to traffic demands to optimize performance. Using a specific network architecture as a reference case, the paper aims at the broader goal of showing which are the advantages fostered by innovative network designs exploiting the features of optical technologies

Massive photons: an infrared regularization scheme for lattice QCD+QED

Standard methods for including electromagnetic interactions in lattice quantum chromodynamics calculations result in power-law finite-volume corrections to physical quantities. Removing these by extrapolation requires costly computations at multiple volumes. We introduce a photon mass to alternatively regulate the infrared, and rely on effective field theory to remove its unphysical effects. Electromagnetic modifications to the hadron spectrum are reliably estimated with a precision and cost comparable to conventional approaches that utilize multiple larger volumes. A significant overall cost advantage emerges when accounting for ensemble generation. The proposed method may benefit lattice calculations involving multiple charged hadrons, as well as quantum many-body computations with long-range Coulomb interactions.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables; significant revisions to abstract and main text; revised presentation of results for clarity (results unchanged); acknowledgements updated; matches published versio

Numerical study of metastable states in Ising spin glasses

We study numerically the structure of metastable states in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick spin glass. We find that all non-paramagnetic stationary points of the free energy are organized into pairs, consisting in a minimum and a saddle of order one, which coalesce in the thermodynamic limit. Within the annealed approximation, the entropic contribution of these states, that is the complexity, is compatible with the supersymmetry-breaking calculation performed in [A.J. Bray and M.A. Moore, J. Phys. C, 13 L469 (1980)]. This result indicates that the supersymmetry is spontaneously broken in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model

Theoretical evidence for efficient p-type doping of GaN using beryllium

Ab initio calculations predict that Be is a shallow acceptor in GaN. Its thermal ionization energy is 0.06 eV in wurtzite GaN; the level is valence resonant in the zincblende phase. Be incorporation is severely limited by the formation of Be_3N_2. We show however that co-incorporation with reactive species can enhance the solubility. H-assisted incorporation should lead to high doping levels in MOCVD growth after post-growth annealing at about 850 K. Be-O co-incorporation produces high Be and O concentrations at MBE growth temperatures.Comment: revised Feb 24 199

A very high performance stabilization system for large mass bolometerexperiments

Abstract CUORE is a large mass bolometric experiment, composed of 988 crystals, under construction in Hall A of the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratories (LNGS). Its main aim is the study of neutrinoless double beta decay of 130Te. Each bolometer is a 760 g crystal of Tellurium dioxide on which a Nuclear Transmutation Doped Ge thermistor, Ge NTD, is glued with proper thermal contact. The stability of the system is mandatory over many years of data taking. To accomplish this requirement a heating resistor is glued on each detector across which a voltage pulse can be injected at will, to develop a known calibrated heating power. We present the design solution for a pulse generator system to be used for the injection of such a small and short voltage pulse across the heaters. This system is composed by different custom PCB boards each of them having multi-channel independent outputs completely remotely programmable from the acquisition system, in pulse width and amplitude, through an on-board ARM7 microcontroller. Pulse amplitudes must be selectable, in order to handle each detector on its full dynamic range. The resolution of the output voltage is 12 bits over 10 V range. An additional 4 steps programmable voltage attenuator is added at every output. The width of any pulse can range from 100 μ s to 25.5 ms. The main features of the final system are: stability and precision in pulses generation (at the level of less than a ppm/°C), low cost (thanks to the use of commercial components) and compact implementation

No Fermionic Wigs for BPS Attractors in 5 Dimensions

We analyze the fermionic wigging of 1/2-BPS (electric) extremal black hole attractors in N=2, D=5 ungauged Maxwell-Einstein supergravity theories, by exploiting anti-Killing spinors supersymmetry transformations. Regardless of the specific data of the real special geometry of the manifold defining the scalars of the vector multiplets, and differently from the D=4 case, we find that there are no corrections for the near--horizon attractor value of the scalar fields; an analogous result also holds for 1/2-BPS (magnetic) extremal black string. Thus, the attractor mechanism receives no fermionic corrections in D=5 (at least in the BPS sector).Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX2

Pressure-induced enhancement of superconductivity and superconducting-superconducting transition in CaC_6\_6

We measured the electrical resistivity, $\varrho(T)$, of superconducting CaC$\_6$ at ambient and high pressure up to 16 GPa. For $P \leq$8 GPa, we found a large increase of $T\_c$ with pressure from 11.5 up to 15.1 K. At 8 GPa, $T\_c$ drops and levels off at 5 K above 10 GPa. Correspondingly, the residual $\varrho$ increases by $\approx$ 200 times and the $\varrho(T)$ behavior becomes flat. The recovery of the pristine behavior after depressurization is suggestive of a phase transition at 8 GPa between two superconducting phases with good and bad metallic properties, the latter with a lower $T\_c$ and more static disorder