Persistence of the Exotic Mirid \u3ci\u3eNesidiocoris tenuis\u3c/i\u3e (Hemiptera: Miridae) in South Texas

The Rio Grande Valley is one of the most productive agricultural areas in the U.S and is located in the southernmost part of Texas. In October 2013, we detected an exotic plant bug, Nesidiocoris tenuis Reuter (Hemiptera: Miridae: Bryocorinae) occurring in the region. Nesidiocoris tenuis has zoophytophagous habits; however, in the absence of insect prey, it feeds on its plant hosts. After its morphological and genetic identification, this study monitored the population of N. tenuis in its introduction phase in commercial fields and corroborated its establishment in research fields for three years. Populations of N. tenuis were high during the fall and low during winter. This study found that N. tenuis populations were higher in tomato fields as compared to adjacent pepper, okra, and squash fields, indicating its host preferences during the introduction phase. Recurrent population growth patterns suggest that N. tenuis was established in Rio Grande Valley with permanent populations in tomato fields. In addition, N. tenuis populations were affected by tomato cultivar selection and by plastic mulch color. The presence of N. tenuis could establish a new trophic insect relationship for vegetable production. However, it is unknown if the presence of N. tenuis may help to control pests of economic importance, such as whiteflies in cotton, or become a pest on sesame, an emerging crop

Análise do dimorfismo e morfometria em Enhydrus sulcatus

Enhydrus sulcatus (Wiedeman, 1821) (Coleoptera: Gyrinidae) were found swimming in circles on the surface of streams shaded by forests in preserved sites. The sexual dimorphism was evaluated in that species through the quantification of differences occurring among the length of the first pair of legs, width of the mesonotum, total lengthand body mass of 112 individuals, 71 being females and 41 males. There was significant difference among the width of the mesonotum (KW-H(1.112) = 32.80; p < 0.05), total length (KW-H (1.112) = 38.00; p < 0.05), length of the first leg (KW-H(1.112) = 47.58; p <0.05) and body weight (KW-H (1.82) = 23.86; p < 0.05) of male and female E. sulcatus.The length of the first leg relates positively and significantly with the width of the mesonotum (r2 = 0.40; p < 0.05), with the total weight (r2 = 0.36; p < 0.05) and with the total body length of individuals E. sulcatus (r2 = 0.33; p < 0.05). The total length of individuals of E.sulcatus relates positively and significantly with width of the mesonotum (r2 = 0.65; p <0.05). In this study a clear sexual dimorphism was shown in Enhydrus sulcatus and was present in various other body structures besides the tarsal dilations.Key words: sexual dimorphism, Gyrinidae, Enhydrus sulcatus, measured morphometrics.Enhydrus sulcatus (Wiedeman, 1821) (Coleoptera: Gyrinidae) foram encontrados nadando em círculos na superfície de riachos sombreados por matas em locais preservados. O dimorfismo sexual foi avaliado nessa espécie através da quantificação de diferenças ocorrentes entre o comprimento do primeiro par de pernas, largura do mesonoto, comprimento total e massa corporal de 112 indivíduos sendo estes 71 fêmease 41 machos. Houve diferença significativa entre a largura do mesonoto (KW-H(1, 112)= 32,80; p < 0,05), comprimento total (KW-H (1, 112) = 38,00; p < 0,05), comprimento da primeira perna (KW-H (1, 112) = 47,58; p < 0, 05) e peso corporal (KW-H (1,82) =23,86; p < 0,05) de machos e fêmeas de E. sulcatus. O comprimento da primeira pata relaciona-se positiva e significativamente com a largura do mesonoto (r2 = 0,40; p <0,05), com o peso total (r2 = 0,36; p < 0,05) e com o comprimento total do corpo dos indivíduos de E. sulcatus (r2 = 0,33; p < 0,05). O comprimento total dos indivíduos de E.sulcatus relaciona-se positiva e significativamente com largura do mesonoto (r2 = 0,65;p < 0,05). Neste estudo, é mostrado um claro dimorfismo sexual em Enhydrus sulcatuse presente em várias outras estruturas corporais além das dilatações tarsais.Palavras-chave: Dimorfismo sexual, Gyrinidae, Enhydrus sulcatus, medidas morphometric

Nonoperative management of splenic injury grade IV is safe using rigid protocol

OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the protocol and experience of our service in the nonoperative management (NOM) of grade IV blunt splenic injuries. METHODS: This is a retrospective study based on trauma registry of a university hospital between 1990-2010. Charts of all patients with splenic injury were reviewed and patients with grade IV lesions treated nonoperatively were included in the study. RESULTS: ninety-four patients with grade IV blunt splenic injury were admitted during this period. Twenty-six (27.6%) met the inclusion criteria for NOM. The average systolic blood pressure on admission was 113.07 ± 22.22 mmHg, RTS 7.66 ± 0.49 and ISS 18.34 ± 3.90. Ten patients (38.5%) required blood transfusion, with a mean of 1.92 ± 1.77 packed red cells per patient. Associated abdominal injuries were present in two patients (7.7%). NOM failed in two patients (7.7%), operated on due to worsening of abdominal pain and hypovolemic shock. No patient developed complications related to the spleen and there were no deaths in this series. Average length of hospital stay was 7.12 ± 1.98 days. CONCLUSION: Nonoperative treatment of grade IV splenic injuries in blunt abdominal trauma is safe when a rigid protocol is followed.OBJETIVO: demonstrar o protocolo e a experiência do serviço no TNO de lesões esplênicas contusas grau IV (classificação da Associação Americana de Cirurgia do Trauma). MÉTODOS: estudo retrospectivo baseado em registro de trauma de hospital universitário no período de 1990 a 2010. Prontuários de todos os pacientes com lesão esplênica foram revisados e os doentes tratados de modo não operatório com lesão grau IV foram incluídos no estudo. RESULTADOS: noventa e quatro pacientes com lesão esplênica contusa grau IV foram admitidos neste período. Vinte e seis (27,6%) apresentaram os critérios para o TNO. A média de pressão arterial sistólica na admissão foi de 113,07 ± 22,22mmHg, RTS = 7,66 ± 0,49 e ISS = 18,34 ± 3,90. Dez pacientes (38,5%) necessitaram de transfusão sanguínea, com uma média de 1,92 ± 1,77 concentrado de hemácias por paciente. Lesões abdominais associadas estavam presentes em dois pacientes (7,7%). O TNO falhou em dois pacientes (7,7%), operados devido à piora da dor abdominal e choque hipovolêmico. Nenhum paciente desenvolveu complicações relativas ao baço e não houve óbito na presente casuística. A média de dias de internação foi 7,12 ± 1,98 dias. CONCLUSÃO: o tratamento não operatório de lesões esplênicas grau IV no trauma abdominal contuso é seguro seguindo-se rígido protocolo.32332

O trabalho comunitário sustentável: sua influência na qualidade de vida do trabalhador

Considerando-se o conceito de sustentabilidade e a aproximação do homem à natureza e ao trabalho com a terra, esta pesquisa objetivou verificar a influência do trabalho comunitário sustentável sobre a qualidade de vida do trabalhador. Foi entrevistado um grupo de vinte trabalhadores da horta comunitária da Associação Global de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (AGDS), localizada no bairro Rudge Ramos, em São Bernardo do Campo / SP. Como instrumentos foram utilizados uma entrevista de estrutura semi-aberta e o WHOQOL-BREF. Verificou-se que o grupo considera o meio ambiente não satisfatório, atingindo elevados escores de pontuação nos domínios físico, psicológico e de relações sociais. Estes resultados suscitam a necessidade de novos estudos sobre o assunto e a divulgação dos possíveis benefícios do trabalho em hortas comunitárias sustentáveis na vida dos trabalhadores

A novel linkage map of sugarcane with evidence for clustering of retrotransposon-based markers

The development of sugarcane as a sustainable crop has unlimited applications. The crop is one of the most economically viable for renewable energy production, and CO2 balance. Linkage maps are valuable tools for understanding genetic and genomic organization, particularly in sugarcane due to its complex polyploid genome of multispecific origins. The overall objective of our study was to construct a novel sugarcane linkage map, compiling AFLP and EST-SSR markers, and to generate data on the distribution of markers anchored to sequences of scIvana_1, a complete sugarcane transposable element, and member of the Copia superfamily. The mapping population parents (‘IAC66-6’ and ‘TUC71-7’) contributed equally to polymorphisms, independent of marker type, and generated markers that were distributed into nearly the same number of co-segregation groups (or CGs). Bi-parentally inherited alleles provided the integration of 19 CGs. The marker number per CG ranged from two to 39. The total map length was 4,843.19 cM, with a marker density of 8.87 cM. Markers were assembled into 92 CGs that ranged in length from 1.14 to 404.72 cM, with an estimated average length of 52.64 cM. The greatest distance between two adjacent markers was 48.25 cM. The scIvana_1-based markers (56) were positioned on 21 CGs, but were not regularly distributed. Interestingly, the distance between adjacent scIvana_1-based markers was less than 5 cM, and was observed on five CGs, suggesting a clustered organization. Results indicated the use of a NBS-profiling technique was efficient to develop retrotransposon-based markers in sugarcane. The simultaneous maximum-likelihood estimates of linkage and linkage phase based strategies confirmed the suitability of its approach to estimate linkage, and construct the linkage map. Interestingly, using our genetic data it was possible to calculate the number of retrotransposon scIvana_1 (~60) copies in the sugarcane genome, confirming previously reported molecular results. In addition, this research possibly will have indirect implications in crop economics e.g., productivity enhancement via QTL studies, as the mapping population parents differ in response to an important fungal disease13CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPnão temnão tem2010/51708-

Local Lyman Break Galaxy Analogs: The Impact of Massive Star-forming Clumps on the Interstellar Medium and the Global Structure of Young, Forming Galaxies

We present HST UV/optical imaging, Spitzer mid-IR photometry, and optical spectroscopy of a sample of 30 low-redshift (z=0.1-0.3) galaxies chosen from SDSS/GALEX to be accurate local analogs of the high-z Lyman Break Galaxies. The Lyman Break Analogs (LBAs) are similar in mass, metallicity, dust, SFR, size and gas velocity dispersion, thus enabling a detailed investigation of processes that are important at high-z. The optical emission line properties of LBAs are also similar to those of LBGs, indicating comparable conditions in their ISM. In the UV, LBAs are characterized by complexes of massive star-forming "clumps", while in the optical they most often show evidence for (post-)mergers/interactions. In 6 cases, we find an extremely massive (>10^9 Msun) compact (R~100 pc) dominant central object (DCO). The DCOs are preferentially found in LBAs with the highest mid-IR luminosities and correspondingly high SFRs (15-100 Msun/yr). We show that the massive SF clumps (including the DCOs) have masses much larger than the nuclear super star clusters seen in normal late type galaxies. However, the DCOs have masses, sizes, and densities similar to the excess-light/central-cusps seen in typical elliptical galaxies with masses similar to the LBA galaxies. We suggest that the DCOs form in present-day examples of the dissipative mergers at high redshift that are believed to have produced the central-cusps in local ellipticals. More generally, the properties of the LBAs are consistent with the idea that instabilities in a gas-rich disk lead to very massive star-forming clumps that eventually coalesce to form a spheroid. We speculate that the DCOs are too young at present to be growing a supermassive black hole because they are still in a supernova-dominated outflow phase.Comment: The Astrophysical Journal, In Press (22 pages, 16 figures). For the full version with high-resolution colour figures, see: http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~overzier/Overzier_LBApaper09.pd

Luminous Thermal Flares from Quiescent Supermassive Black Holes

A dormant supermassive black hole lurking in the center of a galaxy will be revealed when a star passes close enough to be torn apart by tidal forces, and a flare of electromagnetic radiation is emitted when the bound fraction of the stellar debris falls back onto the black hole and is accreted. Here we present the third candidate tidal disruption event discovered in the GALEX Deep Imaging Survey: a 1.6x10^{43} erg s^{-1} UV/optical flare from a star-forming galaxy at z=0.1855. The UV/optical SED during the peak of the flare measured by GALEX and Palomar LFC imaging can be modeled as a single temperature blackbody with T_{bb}=1.7x10^{5} K and a bolometric luminosity of 3x10^{45} erg s^{-1}, assuming an internal extinction with E(B-V)_{gas}=0.3. The Chandra upper limit on the X-ray luminosity during the peak of the flare, L_{X}(2-10 keV)< 10^{41} erg s^{-1}, is 2 orders of magnitude fainter than expected from the ratios of UV to X-ray flux density observed in active galaxies. We compare the light curves and broadband properties of all three tidal disruption candidates discovered by GALEX, and find that (1) the light curves are well fitted by the power-law decline expected for the fallback of debris from a tidally disrupted solar-type star, and (2) the UV/optical SEDs can be attributed to thermal emission from an envelope of debris located at roughly 10 times the tidal disruption radius of a ~10^{7} M_sun central black hole. We use the observed peak absolute optical magnitudes of the flares (-17.5 > M_{g} > -18.9) to predict the detection capabilities of upcoming optical synoptic surveys. (Abridged)Comment: Accepted for Publication in ApJ, 19 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, emulateapj, corrections from proofs adde

Functional markers for gene mapping and genetic diversity studies in sugarcane

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The database of sugarcane expressed sequence tags (EST) offers a great opportunity for developing molecular markers that are directly associated with important agronomic traits. The development of new EST-SSR markers represents an important tool for genetic analysis. In sugarcane breeding programs, functional markers can be used to accelerate the process and select important agronomic traits, especially in the mapping of quantitative traits loci (QTL) and plant resistant pathogens or qualitative resistance loci (QRL). The aim of this work was to develop new simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers in sugarcane using the sugarcane expressed sequence tag (SUCEST database).</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>A total of 365 EST-SSR molecular markers with trinucleotide motifs were developed and evaluated in a collection of 18 genotypes of sugarcane (15 varieties and 3 species). In total, 287 of the EST-SSRs markers amplified fragments of the expected size and were polymorphic in the analyzed sugarcane varieties. The number of alleles ranged from 2-18, with an average of 6 alleles per locus, while polymorphism information content values ranged from 0.21-0.92, with an average of 0.69. The discrimination power was high for the majority of the EST-SSRs, with an average value of 0.80. Among the markers characterized in this study some have particular interest, those that are related to bacterial defense responses, generation of precursor metabolites and energy and those involved in carbohydrate metabolic process.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These EST-SSR markers presented in this work can be efficiently used for genetic mapping studies of segregating sugarcane populations. The high Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) and Discriminant Power (DP) presented facilitate the QTL identification and marker-assisted selection due the association with functional regions of the genome became an important tool for the sugarcane breeding program.</p

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV