Report of Euseius amissibilis (Acari: Phytoseiidae) from citrus orchards of the western part of Mazandaran, Iran

During 2005-2006, a faunistic study was carried out to identify predatory mites associated with citrus trees in the western part of Mazandaran, Iran. Five species, viz. Amblyseius herbicolus Chant, Typhlodromips caspiansis Denmark & Daneshvar, Neoseiulus barkeri (Hughes), Paraseiulus triporus (Chant & Yoshida-Shaul) and Euseius amissibilis Meshkov*, belonging to the family Phytoseiidae were collected, of which the latter species marked with an asterisk is newly recorded from Iran

Sulfur metabolism in Allium cepa is hardly affected by chloride and sulfate salinity

Salinity as a major agricultural problem can affect crop growth and quality. Onion (Allium cepa L.) plant contains a wide variety of sulfur containing compounds which may be involved in plant protection against salt stress. In the current study, a similar reduction in growth caused by chloride and sulfate salts was observed when onion was exposed to equimolar concentrations of Na+. Also, no difference was observed for shoot/root ratio and dry matter content of roots and shoots. Plants accumulated Na+ and the respective anions (chloride and sulfate) which in turn caused changes in the content of other nutrients. The content of potassium and calcium was decreased more than the other elements by both sodium salts. Sulfate salinity resulted in substantial increase in total sulfur and sulfate content but chloride salinity affected neither the total sulfur nor sulfate content of the roots and shoots, only in onion exposed to 200 mM chloride salt, those of roots and shoots were reduced. Furthermore, the water-soluble nonprotein thiol content as well as the content of alliin remained rather unaffected. In conclusion, either salts affected the uptake and distribution of sulfate in onion, but had no or only a minor effect on the plant sulfur metabolism

Working memory training in post-stroke aphasia: Near and far transfer effects

Purpose: Individuals with aphasia (IWA) show various impairments in speech, language, and cognitive functions. Working memory (WM), a cognitive system that functions to hold and manipulate information in support of complex, goal-directed behaviors, is one of the impaired cognitive domains in aphasia. The present study intended to examine the effects of a WM training program on both memory and language performance in IWA. Method: This quasi-experimental study with an active control group was performed on 25 people with mild or moderate Broca's aphasia aged 29�61 years resulting from left hemisphere damage following ischemic stroke. Participants were assigned into two groups, including a training group (n = 13) and a control group (n = 12). The treatment and control groups received WM training and routine speech therapy, respectively. Two separate lists of WM tests, including one list for both pre-training assessment and training program and a second list for the post-training assessment, were used in this study. Results: The treatment group showed significant improvements in both trained and non-trained WM tasks (near transfer effect) and language performance (far transfer effect) compared to the control group. Conclusion: Given the good generalizability of the WM training program on both WM and language performance, WM training is suggested as part of the rehabilitation program in aphasia. © 2020 Elsevier Inc

Calcium ameliorates the toxicity of sulfate salinity in Brassica rapa

Salinity stress in Brassica, often only associated with osmotic effects and the toxicity of Na+, was more severe when applied as Na2SO4 than as NaCl, indicating that SO42− ions had toxic effects as well. Application of 10 mM calcium in the form of CaCl2 in the growth medium of plants only slightly ameliorated growth impairment by NaCl and KCl, but almost completely prevented negative effects of Na2SO4 and K2SO4 on plant biomass production. This effect was calcium specific, as MgCl2 ameliorated sulfate toxicity to a much lower extent. This sulfate toxicity coincided with a strong decrease in the plant content of calcium and manganese upon sulfate salinity. Application of CaCl2 largely alleviated this decrease, however, it did not prevent the higher tissue concentration of sulfate. CaCl2 prevented the increase in organic sulfur compounds presumably by reducing of relative gene expression of ATP-sulfurylase (ATPS) and adenosine 5′-phosphosulfate reductase (APR) indicating a possible regulation of sulfate assimilation by calcium. The upregulation of the genes encoding for Group 4 sulfate transporters (Sultr4;1 and 4;2) upon sulfate salinity, was absent in the presence of CaCl2. Therefore, additional calcium may facilitate an increased vacuolar capacity for sulfate accumulation

Toxicity of Three Insecticides to Lysiphlebus fabarum, a Parasitoid of the Black Bean Aphid, Aphis fabae

The toxicity of three insecticides to Lysiphlebus fabarum (Marshall) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae), a parasitoid of Aphis fabae Scopoli (Hemiptera: Aphididae), was investigated using IOBC/wprs protocols. Abamectin 1.8 EC, imidacloprid 350 SC, and pymetrozine 25 WP were tested under laboratory conditions at recommended field rates. Immature stages of the parasitoid were exposed to materials by briefly dipping mummified aphids into insecticide solutions/suspensions or water (controls). Abamectin, imidacloprid, and pymetrozine caused 44.8, 58.5, and 14.5% mortality of mummies, respectively. Insecticides were also applied to broad bean foliage until run-off using a hand sprayer and the contact toxicity of residues was investigated after 1, 5, 16 and 30 day periods of outdoor weathering by caging adult wasps on treated plants for 24 h. One day-old residues of abamectin, imidacloprid, and pymetrozine produced 52.5, 90.0 and 57.0% mortality, respectively, and 5 day-old residues produced 28.1, 77.0 and 18.6% mortality. Sixteen day-old residues produced 8.8, 22.4 and 13.6% mortality, whereas 30 day-old residues produced 0.0, 3.2 and 1.1% mortality, respectively. On the basis of these results, abamectin and pymetrozine were classified as short-lived compounds (Class A) and imidacloprid as a slightly persistent compound (Class B)

Multi-hop coherent free-space optical communications over atmospheric turbulence channels

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.In this paper, we investigate multi-hop relaying as an efficient fading mitigation tool for coherent free-space optical (FSO) systems over atmospheric turbulence channels. We consider an FSO relaying system with decode-and-forward relay nodes and multiple heterodyne receivers with modal compensation. Based on a recently introduced statistical characterization for the combined effects of log-normal turbulence fading and modal compensation, we derive the outage probability and quantify the potential performance improvements through the derivation of diversity multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) and diversity gain. Our outage analysis yields impressive power savings for multi-hop relaying even with a single-relay. In addition, the DMT analysis in practical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) ranges demonstrates that multi-hop transmission scheme improves finite-SNR diversity gain throughout the range of the multiplexing gain.European Commissio

Diversity-multiplexing trade-off in coherent free-space optical systems with multiple receivers

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.In this paper, from an information theory point of view, we investigate the performance of a coherent freespace optical (FSO) communication system with multiple receive apertures over atmospheric turbulence channels. Our study builds on a recently introduced statistical model that characterizes the combined effects of turbulence-induced wavefront distortion and amplitude fluctuation in coherent receivers with phase compensation. We investigate the link reliability as quantified by “diversity gain” and the relationship between the link reliability and the spectral efficiency as quantified by “diversity–multiplexing trade-off (DMT).” Our results provide insight into the performance mechanisms of coherent FSO systems and demonstrate significant performance gains that can be obtained through the deployment of multiple receive apertures and phase compensation techniques

Information theoretic analysis of hybrid-ARQ protocols in coherent free-space optical systems

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.Automatic retransmission request (ARQ) is a feedback-based data link layer technique which enhances the reliability of communication in fading channels. In this paper, we investigate the performance of hybrid-ARQ (H-ARQ) techniques in coherent free-space optical (FSO) communication systems over atmospheric turbulence-induced fading channels. Under the assumption of a Gamma-Gamma statistical fading channel model, we derive outage probability and throughput expressions for three H-ARQ protocols. We further characterize the outage performance at high values of signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) through diversity and coding gains. Our results provide insight into the performance mechanisms of different H-ARQ protocols in coherent FSO systems and demonstrate that significant performance gains can be achieved through the deployment of H-ARQ particularly in the strong turbulence regime.European Commission ; TUB

Performance analysis of parallel relaying in free-space optical systems

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.In this paper, we investigate the information theoretic performance of parallel relaying in free-space optical (FSO) communications over Gamma-Gamma fading channels. We consider an intensity modulation/direct-detection (IM/DD) FSO system with a single relay and a line-of-sight link between the source and the destination. Considering both amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward relaying, we develop performance characterizations of each relaying mode in terms of outage probability, diversity gain, coding gain, and diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT). Our results demonstrate that parallel relaying improves the performance of FSO systems by bringing diversity advantages. In addition, both relaying modes achieve the same DMT and diversity gain while their coding gains can be different depending on underlying channels' characteristics.Qatar Foundatio