The Hymenopterous Parasites Agathis Pumila (Braconidae) and Epilampsis Laricinellae (Eulophidae) on the Larch Casebearer (Lepidoptera: Coleophoridae) in the Northern Lake States

Excerpt: The larch casebearer Coleophora laricella (Hübner) is a defoliator of larch (Larix spp.). The insect was introduced into North America from Europe at some time prior to 1886, and since has spread steadily westward. It was causing heavy defoliation by the early 1920\u27s near Ann Arbor in southern Michigan and was recorded in northeast Wisconsin in 1939, at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in 1942, and Port Arthur, Ontario in 1947. Many native parasites attack the case bearer but seem to effect little control. Parasites were imported from Europe beginning in 1928, but the first attempts to establish them were unsuccessful. In 1932, the United States Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine made releases of Agathis pumila (Ratz.) at Lynwood, Massachusetts, and Epilampsis laricinellae (Ratz.) in Lunenburg Township, Massachusetts. These two species were successfully established

Analytic solutions of the Rolie Poly model in time-dependent shear

We consider shear flows that comprise of step changes in the shear rate. For these flows, we derive analytic solutions of the Rolie-Poly constitutive equation. Our method involves piecing together solutions for constant rate shear in a variety of flow rate regimes. We obtain solutions for interrupted shear, recoverable strain and non-linear relaxation following cessation of flow. Whenever strong flow is present we neglect reptation, as other mechanisms dominate and for interrupted shear our solution is approximate as we neglect convective constraint release. Our analytic solutions provide new insight in several ways. These include revealing the mechanism of some experimental features of these flows; suggesting a method to extract the polymer contribution to the normal stress in the velocity gradient direction (σyy) from shear stress measurements alone; and a method to isolate the influence of convective constraint release (CCR) from damping function measurements. We also run complementary GLaMM model calculations to verify that insight from our analytic approach translates to this more detailed model

Pseudomorphic growth of InAs on misoriented GaAs for extending quantum cascade laser wavelength

The authors have studied the impact of epilayer strain on the deposition of InAs/GaAs on (100) and (111)B with 2 degrees offset toward 2-1-1 surfaces. Consequences of a 7% lattice mismatch between these orientations in the form of three-dimensional growth are less apparent for (111)B with 2 degrees offset toward 2-1-1 surfaces compared to (100). By exploring a range of molecular beam epitaxy process parameters for InAs/GaAs growth and utilizing scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy to evaluate the quality of these strained layers, the authors develop empirical models that describe the influence of the process conditions in regards to surface roughness with \u3e92% accuracy. The smoothest InAs/GaAs samples demonstrated average surface roughness of 0.08 nm for 10 um-squre areas, albeit at very low deposition rates. The authors have found the most important process conditions to be substrate temperature and deposition rate, leading us to believe that controlling diffusion length may be the key to reducing defects in severely strained structures. InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum cascade laser structures were also produced on (111)B with 2 degrees offset toward 2-1-1 to take advantage of the piezoelectric effect, and the modified laser transitions due to these effects were observed

Utility Cost of Formal Privacy for Releasing National Employer-Employee Statistics

National statistical agencies around the world publish tabular summaries based on combined employer-employee (ER-EE) data. The privacy of both individuals and business establishments that feature in these data are protected by law in most countries. These data are currently released using a variety of statistical disclosure limitation (SDL) techniques that do not reveal the exact characteristics of particular employers and employees, but lack provable privacy guarantees limiting inferential disclosures. In this work, we present novel algorithms for releasing tabular summaries of linked ER-EE data with formal, provable guarantees of privacy. We show that state-of-the-art differentially private algorithms add too much noise for the output to be useful. Instead, we identify the privacy requirements mandated by current interpretations of the relevant laws, and formalize them using the Pufferfish framework. We then develop new privacy definitions that are customized to ER-EE data and satisfy the statutory privacy requirements. We implement the experiments in this paper on production data gathered by the U.S. Census Bureau. An empirical evaluation of utility for these data shows that for reasonable values of the privacy-loss parameter ϵ≥1, the additive error introduced by our provably private algorithms is comparable, and in some cases better, than the error introduced by existing SDL techniques that have no provable privacy guarantees. For some complex queries currently published, however, our algorithms do not have utility comparable to the existing traditiona

Ultra-portable explosives sensor based on a CMOS fluorescence lifetime analysis micro-system

The paper published in AIP Advances (a new journal from the American Institute of Physics) had 1100 article downloads in the first 5 months after publication, and was on the journal’s “most read” list for 4 months. The work was featured by AIP in a Physics News Highlight and press release which resulted in >50 international internet articles and an article in Laser Focus World.This work explores the use of a green-light-emitting copolymer as a chemosensor to detect nitroaromatic-based explosive vapors by recording photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL decay. We show successful detection of 10 ppb 1,4-dinitrobenzene (DNB) vapor. Both a conventional time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) device and CMOS time-resolved fluorescence lifetime microsystem are used in the DNB detection. An ultra-portable on-site explosive sensor based on the micro-system has also been demonstrated. This gives rise to the potential for real-time, reliable, inexpensive organic/inorganic hybrid explosives detection.Peer reviewe

Determinants of Childhood Zoonotic Enteric Infections in a Semirural Community of Quito, Ecuador.

Domestic animals in the household environment have the potential to affect a child's carriage of zoonotic enteric pathogens and risk of diarrhea. This study examines the risk factors associated with pediatric diarrhea and carriage of zoonotic enteric pathogens among children living in communities where smallholder livestock production is prevalent. We conducted an observational study of children younger than 5 years that included the analysis of child (n = 306) and animal (n = 480) fecal samples for Campylobacter spp., atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, Salmonella spp., Yersinia spp., Cryptosporidium parvum, and Giardia lamblia. Among these seven pathogens, Giardia was the most commonly identified pathogen among children and animals in the same household, most of which was found in child-dog pairs. Campylobacter spp. was also relatively common within households, particularly among child-chicken and child-guinea pig pairs. We used multivariable Poisson regression models to assess risk factors associated with a child being positive for at least one zoonotic enteric pathogen or having diarrhea during the last week. Children who interacted with domestic animals-a behavior reported by nearly three-quarters of households owning animals-were at an increased risk of colonization with at least one zoonotic enteric pathogen (prevalence ratio [PR] = 1.56, 95% CI: 1.00-2.42). The risk of diarrhea in the last seven days was elevated but not statistically significant (PR = 2.27, CI: 0.91, 5.67). Interventions that aim to reduce pediatric exposures to enteric pathogens will likely need to be incorporated with approaches that remove animal fecal contamination from the domestic environment and encourage behavior change aimed at reducing children's contact with animal feces through diverse exposure pathways