Biosystematics and the evolution of gall formation in hackberry psyllids Pachypsylla (Insecta: Homoptera: Psylloidea: Psyllidae)

This dissertation is a study of the phylogeny and evolutionary biology of gall formation in psyllids of the subfamily Spondyliaspidinae, with particular focus on North American hackberry gallers in the genus Pachypsylla. Species in this genus produce a variety of gall types on the leaves, petioles, buds and twigs of their hosts, four species of Celtis subgen. Euceltis (Ulmaceae). The homogeneity of adult morphology in Pachypsylla, contrasted to the great variation in gall morphology and phenology, has led to much difficulty in delimiting species. Chapter I investigates species limits as related to gall type and host specificity in Pachypsylla. Strong differences in allozymes, morphology and life history confirm that leaf, petiole, bud and twig gallers belong to different species or species groups. Different leaf gall morphs probably also represent different species, as evidenced by significant allozyme frequency differences among sympatric pairs of gall morphs, consistent frequency difference between co-occurring morphs across localities, and discrete differences in gall type between progenies of individual females. Differences in allozymes, female phenology, adult and nymphal coloration, as well as laboratory rearings and field manipulations, show that side cell individuals within two nipple gall types represent an inquiline sibling species (Chapter II). Chapter III is an analysis of phylogenetic relationships within Pachypsylla, based on allozyme, morphological, life history and chromosome characters. Galler populations attacking the same plant tissue form monophyletic groups. The leaf galler morphs are little diverged, and phylogenetic relationships among them are unclear. Populations of inquilines from two different gall types appear closely related; the inquiline appears to be derived from a gall-forming ancestor. Phylogenetic relationships among gallers on different plant parts are consistent with an evolutionary sequence of gall position from leaf to petiole to bud to twig. Chapter IV is a morphological study of phylogenetic relationships within Spondyliaspidinae. The tribe Pachypsyllini, including Pachypsylla and two related Celtis feeders, is monophyletic. The tree favors the hypothesis of Burckhardt over that of White and Hodkinson. The distribution of lerp and gall formation is shown to be non-random within Spondyliaspidinae

Spatial differentiation and influencing factors of active layer thickness in the Da Hinggan Ling Prefecture

Active layer thickness (ALT) of permafrost changes significantly under the combined influence of human activities and climate warming, which has a significant impact on the ecological environment, hydrology, and engineering construction in cold regions. The spatial differentiation of Active layer thickness and its influencing factors have become one of the hot topics in the field of cryopedology in recent years, but there are few studies in the Da Hinggan Ling Prefecture (DHLP). In this study, the Stefan equation was used to simulate the Active layer thickness in the Da Hinggan Ling Prefecture, and the factor detection and interaction detection functions of geodetector were used to analyze the factors affecting the spatial differentiation of Active layer thickness from both natural and humanity aspects. The results showed that Active layer thickness in the Da Hinggan Ling Prefecture ranges from 58.82 cm to 212.55 cm, the determinant coefficient R2, MAE, RMSE between simulation results and the sampling points data were 0.86, 11.25 (cm) and 13.25 (cm), respectively. Lower Active layer thickness values are mainly distributed higher elevations in the west, which are dominated by forest (average ALT: 136.94 cm) and wetlands (average ALT: 71.88 cm), while the higher values are distributed on cultivated land (average ALT: 170.35 cm) and construction land (average ALT: 176.49 cm) in the southeast. Among the influencing factors, elevation is significantly negatively correlated with ALT. followed by summer mean LST, SLHF and snow depth. NDVI and SM has the strong explanation power for the spatial differentiation of ALT in factor detection. Regarding interactions, the explanatory power of slope ∩ snow depth is the highest of 0.83, followed by the elevation ∩ distance to settlements. The results can provide reference for the formulation of ecological environmental protection and engineering construction policies in cold regions

New dryocosmus giraud species associated with cyclobalanopsis and non-quercus host plants from the eastern palaearctic (hymenoptera, cynipidae, cynipini)

Volume: 53Start Page: 77End Page: 16

Emerging concepts about NAIP/NLIRC4 inflammasomes

Neuronal apoptosis inhibitory protein (NAIP)/NOD-like receptor (NLR) containing a caspase activating and recruitment domain (CARD) 4 (NLRC4) inflammasome complexes are activated in response to proteins from virulent bacteria that reach the cell cytosol. Specific NAIP proteins bind to the agonists and then physically associate with NLRC4 to form an inflammasome complex able to recruit and activate pro-caspase-1. NAIP5 and NAIP6 sense flagellin, component of flagella from motile bacteria, whereas NAIP1 and NAIP2 detect needle and rod components from bacterial type III secretion systems, respectively. Active caspase-1 mediates the maturation and secretion of the pro-inflammatory cytokines, 11,113 and 11,18, and is responsible for the induction of pyroptosis, a pro-inflammatory form of cell death. in addition to these well-known effector mechanisms, novel roles have been described for NAIP/NLRC4 inflammasomes, such as phagosomal maturation, activation of inducible nitric oxide synthase, regulation of autophagy, secretion of inflammatory mediators, antibody production, activation of T cells, among others. These effector mechanisms mediated by NAIP/NLRC4 inflammasomes have been extensively studied in the context of resistance of infections and the potential of their agonists has been exploited in therapeutic strategies to non-infectious pathologies, such as tumor protection. Thus, this review will discuss current knowledge about the activation of NAIP/NLRC4 inflammasomes and their effector mechanisms.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)INCTVUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Ctr Terapia Celulare & Mol CTC Mol, BR-04044010 São Paulo, SP, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Ciencias Biol, BR-04044010 São Paulo, SP, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Ctr Terapia Celulare & Mol CTC Mol, BR-04044010 São Paulo, SP, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Ciencias Biol, BR-04044010 São Paulo, SP, BrazilFAPESP: 2013/16010-5Web of Scienc

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012

Gravitational Waves From Known Pulsars: Results From The Initial Detector Era

We present the results of searches for gravitational waves from a large selection of pulsars using data from the most recent science runs (S6, VSR2 and VSR4) of the initial generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory) and Virgo. We do not see evidence for gravitational wave emission from any of the targeted sources but produce upper limits on the emission amplitude. We highlight the results from seven young pulsars with large spin-down luminosities. We reach within a factor of five of the canonical spin-down limit for all seven of these, whilst for the Crab and Vela pulsars we further surpass their spin-down limits. We present new or updated limits for 172 other pulsars (including both young and millisecond pulsars). Now that the detectors are undergoing major upgrades, and, for completeness, we bring together all of the most up-to-date results from all pulsars searched for during the operations of the first-generation LIGO, Virgo and GEO600 detectors. This gives a total of 195 pulsars including the most recent results described in this paper.United States National Science FoundationScience and Technology Facilities Council of the United KingdomMax-Planck-SocietyState of Niedersachsen/GermanyAustralian Research CouncilInternational Science Linkages program of the Commonwealth of AustraliaCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research of IndiaIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of ItalySpanish Ministerio de Economia y CompetitividadConselleria d'Economia Hisenda i Innovacio of the Govern de les Illes BalearsNetherlands Organisation for Scientific ResearchPolish Ministry of Science and Higher EducationFOCUS Programme of Foundation for Polish ScienceRoyal SocietyScottish Funding CouncilScottish Universities Physics AllianceNational Aeronautics and Space AdministrationOTKA of HungaryLyon Institute of Origins (LIO)National Research Foundation of KoreaIndustry CanadaProvince of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and InnovationNational Science and Engineering Research Council CanadaCarnegie TrustLeverhulme TrustDavid and Lucile Packard FoundationResearch CorporationAlfred P. Sloan FoundationAstronom

Search for gravitational waves associated with the InterPlanetary Network short gamma ray bursts

We outline the scientific motivation behind a search for gravitational waves associated with short gamma ray bursts detected by the InterPlanetary Network (IPN) during LIGO's fifth science run and Virgo's first science run. The IPN localisation of short gamma ray bursts is limited to extended error boxes of different shapes and sizes and a search on these error boxes poses a series of challenges for data analysis. We will discuss these challenges and outline the methods to optimise the search over these error boxes.Comment: Methods paper; Proceedings for Eduardo Amaldi 9 Conference on Gravitational Waves, July 2011, Cardiff, U

Search for Gravitational Wave Bursts from Six Magnetars

Soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are thought to be magnetars: neutron stars powered by extreme magnetic fields. These rare objects are characterized by repeated and sometimes spectacular gamma-ray bursts. The burst mechanism might involve crustal fractures and excitation of non-radial modes which would emit gravitational waves (GWs). We present the results of a search for GW bursts from six galactic magnetars that is sensitive to neutron star f-modes, thought to be the most efficient GW emitting oscillatory modes in compact stars. One of them, SGR 0501+4516, is likely similar to 1 kpc from Earth, an order of magnitude closer than magnetars targeted in previous GW searches. A second, AXP 1E 1547.0-5408, gave a burst with an estimated isotropic energy >10(44) erg which is comparable to the giant flares. We find no evidence of GWs associated with a sample of 1279 electromagnetic triggers from six magnetars occurring between 2006 November and 2009 June, in GW data from the LIGO, Virgo, and GEO600 detectors. Our lowest model-dependent GW emission energy upper limits for band-and time-limited white noise bursts in the detector sensitive band, and for f-mode ringdowns (at 1090 Hz), are 3.0 x 10(44)d(1)(2) erg and 1.4 x 10(47)d(1)(2) erg, respectively, where d(1) = d(0501)/1 kpc and d(0501) is the distance to SGR 0501+4516. These limits on GW emission from f-modes are an order of magnitude lower than any previous, and approach the range of electromagnetic energies seen in SGR giant flares for the first time.United States National Science FoundationScience and Technology Facilities Council of the United KingdomMax-Planck-SocietyState of Niedersachsen/GermanyItalian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica NucleareFrench Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueAustralian Research CouncilCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research of IndiaIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of ItalySpanish Ministerio de Educacion y CienciaConselleria d'Economia Hisenda i Innovacio of the Govern de les Illes BalearsFoundation for Fundamental Research on Matter supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific ResearchPolish Ministry of Science and Higher EducationFoundation for Polish ScienceRoyal SocietyScottish Funding CouncilScottish Universities Physics AllianceNational Aeronautics and Space Administration NNH07ZDA001-GLASTCarnegie TrustLeverhulme TrustDavid and Lucile Packard FoundationResearch CorporationAlfred P. Sloan FoundationRussian Space AgencyRFBR 09-02-00166aIPN JPL Y503559 (Odyssey), NASA NNG06GH00G, NASA NNX07AM42G, NASA NNX08AC89G (INTEGRAL), NASA NNG06GI896, NASA NNX07AJ65G, NASA NNX08AN23G (Swift), NASA NNX07AR71G (MESSENGER), NASA NNX06AI36G, NASA NNX08AB84G, NASA NNX08AZ85G (Suzaku), NASA NNX09AU03G (Fermi)Astronom