Adaptation of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory in Arabic: A Comparison with the American STAI

The main goal of the present study was to develop an Arabic adaptation of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI, Form Y, Spielberger, 1983). In addition, cultural and linguistic influences on the experience and expression of anxiety were assessed. The American STAI and fifty initial Arabic items were administered to 286 university students at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. The American STAI was also administered to 336 university students at the University of South Florida. Item and factor analyses were conducted on responses of the calibration sample to obtain the final set of Arabic items, which was validated using the responses of the validation sample. In conducting item selection and validation of the Arabic STAI, internal consistency coefficients for subscales, corrected item-total correlations, alpha coefficients if-item-deleted, item-factor loadings, and theoretical meaningfulness were all used as criteria for selection of the best 10 Arabic items to be included in each subscale of the STAI: S-Anxiety Absent, S-Anxiety Present, T-Anxiety Absent, T-Anxiety present. The two-factor solution for the Arabic STAI yielded a simple solution with two distinct factors: Anxiety Present and Anxiety Absent for each of S-Anxiety and T-Anxiety, lending more support to the theoretical distinction of state and trait anxiety. Lebanese students reported significantly higher anxiety levels than their American peers on S-Anxiety Present, T-Anxiety Absent, and T-Anxiety Present, S-Anxiety and T-Anxiety of the American STAI. For S-Anxiety Absent, scores for the Lebanese sample were lower than American students but did not reach significance levels. S-Anxiety Absent and T-Anxiety Absent subscales assessed lower levels of anxiety rather than the higher levels of anxiety assessed by S-Anxiety Present and T-Anxiety Present. Females tend to experience and express higher levels of mild and severe anxiety symptoms as compared to males in both samples. Factor analyses of the American STAI for the American and Lebanese samples revealed similar two and three- factor solutions. For each of the State and trait subscales, three factors emerged: Anxiety Absent, Worry, and Emotionality factors, denoting the importance of cognitions and feelings in the experience and expression of anxiety

Key Education Issues in Review: Nevada Academic Content Standards

final_soap_GNV120025.fa: Assembly of Hemiargus ceraunus from Genbank SRA accession #SRR1299274, using multiple kmers (13,23,33,43,63) with SOAPdenovo-Trans v1.01. Different Kmer assemblies were combined with cd-hit-est and processed with the fastx toolkit. See Kawahara and Breinholt (2014) for more details

Conservation Note on the Status of the Rare Endemic Marquesan Snout Butterfly, Libythea collenettei

The Marquesan snout butterfly (Libythea collenettei) also known as “Papillon à museau des Marquises,” is the only endemic butterfly from the Mar- quesas Islands, French Polynesia. The butterfly is known from just five historic records. We report results from an intensive two–week survey in 2018. Our survey took place on the two islands where historic collection records exist (Nuku Hiva and Ua Pou), plus Hiva Oa and Tahiti, where the species has been thought to exist. Despite visiting multiple localities including sites where the species was previously observed, we were unsuccessful at detecting this species. The larval host plant, Celtis pacifica (Cannabaceae), can still be found on the Marquesas, indicating that the butterfly might still exist in the archipelago. Because the phenology of this species is unknown, future surveys should be conducted on the same islands but during different seasons. Given the very restricted geographic range of this species and threats to its habitat, we suggest that it be listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List

Hawkmoths Produce Anti-Bat Ultrasound

Bats and moths have been engaged in aerial warfare for nearly 65 Myr. This arms race has produced a suite of counter-adaptations in moths, including bat-detecting ears. One set of defensive strategies involves the active production of sound; tiger moths\u27 ultrasonic replies to bat attack have been shown to startle bats, warn the predators of bad taste and jam their biosonar. Here, we report that hawkmoths in the Choerocampina produce entirely ultrasonic sounds in response to tactile stimulation and the playback of biosonar attack sequences. Males do so by grating modified scraper scales on the outer surface of the genital valves against the inner margin of the last abdominal tergum. Preliminary data indicate that females also produce ultrasound to touch and playback of echolocation attack, but they do so with an entirely different mechanism. The anti-bat function of these sounds is unknown but might include startling, cross-family acoustic mimicry, warning of unprofitability or physical defence and/or jamming of echolocation. Hawkmoths present a novel and tractable system to study both the function and evolution of anti-bat defences

Quantifying Wing Shape and Size of Saturniid Moths with Geometric Morphometrics

Butterflies and moths exhibit a spectacular diversity of w in g sh ape and size. The extent of wing variation is particularly evident in wild silk moths (Saturniidae), which have large wing shape and size variation. Some species have jagged wing margins, rounded forewing apical lobes, or narrow hind wings with long tails, while others lack these traits entirely. Surprisingly, very little work has been done to formally quantify wing variation within the family. We analyzed the hind wing shape and size of 76 saturniid species representing 52 genera across five subfamilies using geometric morphometrics. We identified fifteen landmarks that we predict can be applied to families across Lepidoptera. PCA analyses grouped saturniid hind wings into six distinct morphological clusters. These groups did not appear to follow species relatedness—some phylogenetically and genetically distantly related taxa clustered in the same morphological group. We discuss ecological factors that might have led to the extraordinary wing variation within Saturniidae

The genome sequence of the buff footman, Eilema depressum (Esper, 1787)

We present a genome assembly from an individual male Eilema depressum (the Buff Footman; Arthropoda; Insecta; Lepidoptera; Erebidae). The genome sequence is 622.0 megabases in span. Most of the assembly is scaffolded into 30 chromosomal pseudomolecules, including the Z sex chromosome. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 15.46 kilobases in length. Gene annotation of this assembly on Ensembl identified 20,038 protein coding genes

The genome sequence of the straw underwing, Thalpophila matura (Hufnagel, 1766)

We present a genome assembly from an individual male Thalpophila matura (the Straw Underwing; Arthropoda; Insecta; Lepidoptera; Noctuidae). The genome sequence is 520.4 megabases in span. Most of the assembly is scaffolded into 31 chromosomal pseudomolecules, including the Z sex chromosome. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 15.52 kilobases in length. Gene annotation of this assembly on Ensembl identified 19,185 protein coding genes

Light environment drives evolution of color vision genes in butterflies and moths

Opsins, combined with a chromophore, are the primary light-sensing molecules in animals and are crucial for color vision. Throughout animal evolution, duplications and losses of opsin proteins are common, but it is unclear what is driving these gains and losses. Light availability is implicated, and dim environments are often associated with low opsin diversity and loss. Correlations between high opsin diversity and bright environments, however, are tenuous. To test if increased light availability is associated with opsin diversification, we examined diel niche and identified opsins using transcriptomes and genomes of 175 butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera). We found 14 independent opsin duplications associated with bright environments. Estimating their rates of evolution revealed that opsins from diurnal taxa evolve faster—at least 13 amino acids were identified with higher dN/dS rates, with a subset close enough to the chromophore to tune the opsin. These results demonstrate that high light availability increases opsin diversity and evolution rate in Lepidoptera

The genome sequence of the sallow kitten, Furcula furcula (Clerck, 1759)

We present a genome assembly from an individual male Furcula furcula (the sallow kitten; Arthropoda; Insecta; Lepidoptera; Notodontidae). The genome sequence is 736 megabases in span. The entire assembly (100%) is scaffolded into 29 chromosomal pseudomolecules, with the Z sex chromosome assembled. The complete mitochondrial genome was also assembled and is 17.2 kilobases in length